Stock company

“ They guarantee that their clients will get by raffle the funds of the joint stock company. Several people join in a company when they want to get a larger sum together than they could otherwise do at one time, but by paying in monthly instalments they can manage it. ”

“ STOCKHOLDERS Or it may be that the manufacturing company does not ask the capitalist to assist, but itself goes to the small investor with a prospectus of the enterprise, and offers to sell stock in the concern at $50 or $100 a share, as the case may be. ”

“ What a Stock Company Is.—A company is a number of persons who band themselves together for business purposes. A stock company, or stock corporation to call it by its proper name, is a company whose capital is represented by shares and which is held either in the treasury of the company, or by persons who buy the shares. ”

“ A holding company represents the greatest concentration of power in a body of directors and the extreme of helplessness on the part of shareholders. A corporation may be so organized that its bonds and preferred stock represent the greater part of its capital, while the common stock represents the actual control. Then, if a second company acquires a majority of the common stock, or a majority of the shares that are likely to be voted at elections, it may control the former company, and as many other companies as it can secure. ”

“ That a joint stock company should be able to carry on successfully any branch of foreign trade, when private adventurers can come into any sort of open and fair competition with them, seems contrary to all experience. ”

“ Stock represents capital,-principal. Stock has absolute and ultimate force and value between the corporation and the holder. Each share of stock is the title to an aliquot part of the assets and property of the corporation. Whenever the corporation is wound up the assets belong absolutely and wholly to the stockholders; and while the corporation continues the stockholders govern and own it. Not so with the certificates and their holders. While the corporation lives the holders of certificates do not vote, or govern, or own it. ”

“ The organization of a stock company, especially of a great trust, [pg 162] is made relatively easy from this fact, and in this way the general credit of a people is indefinitely extended. A prosperous corporation is likely to distribute the results of its prosperity by increased issues of stock, and the readiness with which the public accepts such issues makes natural, though vicious, the so-called watering of stock, familiar to all. ”

“ A company is formed; that company puts out a prospectus; the promoters expect to raise a certain fund as capital stock. Well, how are they going to raise it? They are going to raise it from the public in general, some of whom will buy their stock. The moment that begins, there is formed—what? A joint stock corporation. Men begin to pool their earnings, little piles, big piles. A certain number of men are elected by the stockholders to be directors, and these directors elect a president. This president is the head of the undertaking, and the directors are its managers. ”

“ The consolidation of capital, under the form of stock companies, issuing shares and bonds that everybody can obtain, encompasses on all sides the civilized nations of the world.
“We may say, with Paul Leroy-Beaulieu, that now, owing to capital being accumulated in the shape of negotiable instruments, it is the stock company which takes us on a journey; often it provides us with food and lodging, sells us coal and light, makes up our clothing, and even sells it to us; it procures news for us and inspires our newspapers. Further, it insures our lives and our dwellings ”

“ Taken in a general sense the stock of an incorporated company may be defined to mean the capital of the company in the form of transferable shares of a specified amount, but the word is frequently employed in a much more restricted sense. Stock, when it means anything else than the capital of a corporation, usually refers to the interests of the respective shareholders, and the aggregate of those interests may with propriety in many cases be denominated the stock of the corporation. ”

“ When a Part of the Stock is Paid for in Property and the Balance in Money. A corporation known as The National Manufacturing Company is formed to take over a manufacturing business owned by John Doe. The capital stock is $100,000 of which Mr. Doe is to receive $50,000 for the assets and goodwill of his business, the company agreeing to assume his liabilities. ”

“ A financially embarrassed company may announce an assessment of its stockholders, upon which there is a rush to sell the stock; a little further explanation shows that the proceeds of the assessment will so improve the facilities of the company, or so enable it to reduce its fixed charges, as to make the stock intrinsically far more valuable than it was before; this discovery causes a sharp advance in the shares, and the “short” sellers have to cover their sales at a loss. ”

“ The stock of express companies is owned largely by a comparatively few people—a thousand, possibly five hundred, persons own 90 per cent of this stock. No one at all familiar with express company tangibles, unless he is exercising a loose-screwed veracity, will estimate their aggregate tangible values above twenty or twenty-five millions. ”

“ The portion of the cost or other basis of the old shares of stock to be attributed to the shares of new stock shall in no case exceed the fair market value of such shares as of the time of their distribution.' (Italics added.) ”

“ If you can't sell on the shop floor, you should not be able to sell on the top floor.
Third, workers should be able to sell their company stock after holding it for three years so that no one's nest egg is tied up in the stock of a single company. ”

“ The value placed on the shares shortly after I assumed the management was indicated by a sale of some of them at ten cents on the dollar. So in this way I acquired the control, the majority stock of the New York Times Company (5,001 shares) as the result of my work and the investment of $75,000 in its bonds. And this majority and controlling interest, somewhat increased, I now own and possess, free, clear, and unencumbered in any shape, form, or fashion. Adding to my interest the shares held by others, there is nearly ninety per cent. ”

“ In the company which I propose each employe will be required to agree that not less than fifteen per cent of his wages shall be withheld from him and annually invested in the stock of the company, which stock shall be non-transferable. ”

“ By the certificates and resolutions the stockholders are entitled severally to 80 per cent more of the stock than they had before, 'at the option of the company.' In other words, each stockholder shall have additional stock to that amount if the company shall, in its discretion and at its pleasure, see fit to assign it to him. ”

“ They sell to the new company all of their real estate, buildings, machinery, tools, fixtures, merchandise, and supplies, in consideration of $1,500,000, and agree to accept in payment $750,000 of preferred and $750,000 of common stock of the United States Manufacturing Corporation at par. The vendors donate to the treasury of the company $150,000 of preferred stock and $150,000 of common stock to provide for working capital. The company sells $100,000 of its preferred stock in the treasury for 80% cash, giving a bonus to the purchaser of 20% in common stock. ”

“ The values of railway securities, for example, depend upon the management of the companies issuing them, the directors of which may use their power to increase, diminish, or even extinguish them, while they make gains for themselves by operations on the Exchange. They may advance the price of a stock by an unexpected dividend, or depress it by passing an expected one. They may water a stock by issuing new shares, with no proportionate addition to the productive assets of the company, or load it with indebtedness, putting an unexpected lien on the shareholders’ property. ”

“ We very frequently see that great trading companies become the means of establishing public credit; on which occasions, it is proper to distinguish between the trading stock of the company, which remains in their possession, and the actions, bonds, annuities, contracts, &c. ”

“ Holders of preferred stock, as there provided, are entitled to receive all the net earnings of the company which may be divided pursuant to the indenture in each year up to $7 per share, and to share in any surplus beyond $7 per share which may be divided upon the common stock, which in substance and legal effect is the same regulation as that contained in the circular or plan, and all the other writings upon the subject which were given in evidence at the final hearing. ”

“ It took but a little over a month to organize this new company, which bought out the old company for the consideration of two hundred thousand dollars, payable in stock of the new company. With great glee the new stockholders [Pg 77] bought from themselves, as old stockholders, the old company at this valuation, each man receiving two shares of one hundred dollars face value for each one hundred dollars' worth of stock that he had held before. ”

“ Suppose an express company is incorporated to transact business within the limits of a state, and does business only within such limits, and, for the purpose of transacting that business, purchases and holds a few thousands of dollars' worth of horses and wagons, and yet it so meets the wants of the people dwelling in that state, so uses the tangible property which it possesses, so transacts business therein, that its stock becomes in the markets of the state of the actual cash value of hundreds of thousands of dollars. ”

“ The master and wardens of the company are always in the direction of the stock, to whom are joined six other members annually elected; who adjust all accounts relating to it, and at Christmas report the state thereof to the board, who regulate the dividends accordingly. ”

“ Anderson has given us a curious table of the crowd of new projects that jostled one another in the money-market, and also an interesting description of the general scene of competition and clamour among the dealers and purchasers of the various stocks, which seems to be taken from personal observation. Of the great legal corporations whose stock was raised for the time to extravagant prices he enumerates, besides the South Sea Company, whose original 100l. shares came at last to sell for 1000l. each, the East India Company, whose 100l. ”

“ When this corporation was first organized I subscribed for some stock and was in its first board of directors and its vice-president. If there was to be a new source of supply of the commodity I dealt in so largely, it was important I should know of it. As soon as I became satisfied that it was nothing but a scheme to make money by the sale of stock, I resigned and disposed of my holdings to one of the promoters at a profit of eight dollars per share. ”

“ There came a night, as dead as the eternity of days and nights that had preceded it, when Amery woke from a fevered sleep and lay staring at the beams above his bunk. His throat ached abominably, his tongue felt like dry flannel in his mouth, but there was nothing new in this. The ship's company was long since down to half a point of water a day, and all that remained was a bare three gallons in a beaker carefully guarded in the saloon. ”

“ The stock of a corporation, if limited to a reasonable number of shares and issued only to a few expert investors of high standing, and for tangible considerations, will obviously be considered a safer and more attractive investment than if it be scattered indiscriminately among a class of professional manipulators for stock-jobbing purposes. ”

“ Every corporation whose securities are listed on the stock exchange is obliged to make a full and comprehensive report to the exchange at least once a year, and these reports can be found in any brokerage office; they are always open to public inspection, and no one need buy any stock or [91] bond without first satisfying himself regarding the nature of the industry, capitalization, earnings, management and other details. ”

“ That was not the first time that the marketable value of a name that is known had been used to exploit a corporation. Any man of standing has many such offers.
The shares of stock that had been purchased for four cents each were peddled on the curb at fifty cents. Then they were advanced to sixty cents. Soon a "market"—so called—was made and the stock found a ready sale. Point by point it was advanced until it actually was eagerly sought by investors, who were not only willing but eager to pay four dollars a share for it. ”

“ In this way has the Stock Market been established and forced from its original situation by a set of jobbers and brokers, who are all, it will be seen, interested in keeping their transactions from the eye of the public. These men being always ready either to buy or sell, renders it easy for the brokers to get their business done, having no trouble but merely stepping into the Stock Exchange. ”

“ The issue of capital stock is the putting of the incomes of wealth into marketable form. Stock companies, or corporations, are business enterprises which issue stock, or certificates of a share in their wealth and income. Doubtless the convenience of the sale and transfer of invested capital [Pg 128] by the use of stock, has been one of several reasons for the large increase of this form of organization during the past century. ”