When you buy shares of stock, you’re buying a piece of a company’s future earnings. These earnings will help your share prices rise, which will allow the company to pay dividends to shareholders and reinvest profits back into the business.
Unlike a bond, which acts like a loan to the company by paying periodic payments, stocks have the potential for both appreciation and depreciation in value as they are traded on the open market. As a result, prudent investors generally avoid establishing concentrated positions in a few stocks. Rather, they build portfolios that are comprised of a variety of companies that span different industries and geographic regions.
A Stock is a Share in a Company
A stock is a share in a company that’s issued through an initial public offering (IPO). In addition to common shares, a company may also issue preferred shares. Preferred shares do not give you voting rights, but they entitle you to receive dividend payments before common shares holders and often have a priority claim on assets in the event of bankruptcy or liquidation.
The Price of a Stock is Determined by Supply and Demand
When a company’s shares are available for sale on the stock market, they are bought and sold among a number of other investors. As prospective buyers outnumber sellers, the price rises. Eventually, the sellers will be outnumbered again and the price will fall to an equilibrium between buyers and sellers.
The valuation of a stock depends on several factors, including its price-to-earnings ratio and the P/S ratio. These are key ratios that can provide a clearer picture of a company’s financial health and growth potential.
Earnings Per Share, or EPS, is a common measure used to evaluate the performance of a company’s shares over time. This metric is based on the total profit a company makes divided by the number of shares it has outstanding.
Using this measure, you can compare a company’s earnings to its peers and to the industry it serves. Stalwart companies with consistent earnings will usually outperform less successful ones over the long run.
Other key metrics include the price-to-free-cash-flow ratio, which measures a company’s free cash flow, or operating cash flow, before interest, taxes and other expenses are taken into account. This metric helps you assess the health of a stock and determine whether it’s worth the purchase price.
If you’re evaluating the performance of a stock, you’ll need to know more about its management and its business model. Moreover, you’ll want to look at the company’s recent decisions and how they have affected the company’s revenue and profits.
Investors also look at several other financial metrics and ratios to determine the overall health of a company. For example, investors will sometimes choose to buy or sell a stock based on its ratio to other stocks in the same industry and to the average stock in the same sector.
Choosing a company is a complex and difficult decision, and the best investors take their time to research the company and its management. Ideally, they’ll find one that has a strong track record of consistent profits and growth, and is well-positioned to keep generating those profits in the future.
