Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with shares

Which companies provide additional benefits/incentives for stockholders?

borkencode — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:28:22 -0800

Which companies provide additional, non dividend, benefits or incentives for stockholders? I saw someone mention in passing here on AskMe about a phone company sending phone cards as part of its annual report, a practice that had since been discontinued. What companies still do this sort of thing? Either through giving away or discounting their services, or offering some other benefit (secret stockholder's lounge?).

Can I sell worthless share certificates to collectors...?

twine42 — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 09:34:07 -0800

Can I safely / legally sell the old share certificates of companies who changed their name and issued new certificates in a new name? CunningLinguist's comment here got me thinking...

Going through my grandfather's estate I keep finding old share certificates mixed in with current ones. They're all from situations where:
* AlphaPlc merged with BetaPlc to make GammaPlc. or
* AlphaPlc demerged into GammaPlc and DeltaPlc. or
* AlphaPlc changed its name to EpsilonPlc

( In one case AlphaCo, renamed to BetaCo, demerged to form GammaCo and DeltaCo, renamed DeltaCo to EpsilonCo and then merged with someone else to make ZetaCo - for all of which he kept his old certificates... )

In other words, in each case new share certificates were issued in the new company/companies and the old ones were declared worthless.

It's these worthless ones that I'm now referring to...

My questions are:
* If a relevant collector existed on eBay (or similar) could I legally sell these bits of paper?
* Is there any risk that the purchaser could try and use the old certificates to stake a claim on the valid shares in the new company?

If it makes any difference, all the companies are UK based, but a couple of them were listed on US markets not UK ones.

Replacing a lost share certificate

anadem — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 22:27:47 -0800

How can my British friend sell Ryanair shares when the stock certificate is lost? My friend has a couple of thousand pounds worth of shares in Ryanair which she wants to sell, but she can't find the stock certificate. She bought the shares through her bank maybe seven years ago (possibly in 2002 but that's only approximate, and it might be as little as four years) but the bank says they have no record. It's probably too small a holding to interest a stockbroker, but it's a significant amount to her, and needed for university. The certificate was lost in the last three or four months, if that makes a difference; she had it in March.

What's the best way to get into a position to sell the shares? Is a replacement certificate obtainable and if so how? I'm assuming the approximate details she currently has are not enough to make a sale possible.

RyanAir have been sending annual reports to my friend, at her Cambridge, U.K, address, though she moved a few months ago. Would Ryanair have a record of the shares she owns, and if so how would she get confirmation?

(An added complication is that neither she nor I are in Europe at present; she'll be back in England mid-August but hopes/needs to get things moving before then.)

Purchasing vested shares in a company

hokie409 — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 15:53:40 -0800

Best practices for buying vested shares of private company stock? I just switched jobs. My old company is a VC backed IT company. I have 30 days to purchase my vested shares in the company. I'm looking for resources to determine if I should purchase some or all of my shares.
The company is private. And I don't even know the number of shares outstanding. I'm looking for basic information including:
Can I sell the shares to other employees, or private individuals?
Or most likely I just have to wait until they sell or IPO, correct?
And I'm also looking for basic equations or rules of thumb that might help me value the shares in some way. Which I'm sure is hard without knowing the total shares outstanding.

I am not a founder main owner of the company. You could assume the shares are not a large percentage of the business.

Does file sharing on OSX 10.5 work???

arniec — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 06:56:36 -0800

Is file sharing with Mac OS X 10.5 completely unreliable, or am I doing something wrong? Let me explain my setup:

I have a Mac Mini running OSX 10.5. Into the Mac Mini I have a Drobo with 4 1TB hard drives, which shows up on the Mini as 2 separate volumes due to Drobo's 2TB limitation.

(I had the Drobo connected directly to my Airport Extreme before this but after hearing another MeFi question about someone who lost all Drobo data due to failing to properly eject the disks using the Drobo software, I moved the Drobo to a real computer).

The Mac Mini is connected to my Airport Extreme using an ethernet cable.

I then have 2 Windows PCs and 3 other Macs that are trying to reach files on this Drobo. On the Drobo I in fact keep my entire iTuens library and thus all my iTunes installs are set to use that as the music directory.

Here are the problems I am having:

1) At times the Drobo shares will just disappear for no apparent reason. I look at the Mac Mini and they are there, I see the Mac Mini on my Mac Finder window, but the only share I see available is my "Public Folder". Rebooting the Mini usually brings back up the Drobo shares.

1a) This is exceptionally a PITA because when this happens, iTunes can't find the Drobo share and then reverts the music directory back to the default downloading my podcasts where I don't want them and basically creating a manual mess for me to reintegrate these files.

2) There seem to be strange permissions errors that happen and I can find no logical reason for them. Examples:

a) I go to my Drobo share from my laptop and find half the files missing. In going to the Mac Mini it shows that my account should have full read and write access, but Everyone has no access. I try "Connect As..." and have no further luck.
b) One time I was copying a folder from my laptop to the drobo over the network. Halfway through the copy it aborted and told me I had no permissions. I went to the Mac Mini and it had locked out EVERYONE from that folder. I had to change permissions on the parent folder and have them cascade to unlock the folder's permissions. Of course, this happened seemingly spontaneously as I had copied half the files before the permissions error happened.

In the end, I am REALLY getting frustrated with this networking experience, and I'm about to just get a cheap Windows machine to start holding my file shares if this is what it comes to. But I can't imagine Mac networking is so...BROKEN. So is it something I'm doing wrong?

UK ISA account with MENA, Japan and US access.

Mossy — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 01:39:54 -0800

I want to use up my UK ISA allowance investing in Japanese, American and Middle Eastern shares, anyone know of a good service provider? Spread betting places are also fine. I'm a fund manager professionally, just never got around investing any of my own money!

Credible returns on investment in virtual world finance?

vizsla — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 21:30:37 -0800

Anybody have experience in investing in virtual world banks/businesses/markets (such as those in SecondLife.com etc)? Do they provide a serious way of making a sensible risk/reward on five or six figure investments? I have found discussion of investing in virtual worlds in this article for example which concludes its very high risk but maybe someone has heard of a viable diversification strategy out there?

Cdn flow through shares

Penelope — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 12:57:20 -0800

Real-life examples of flow-through shares bought by a Canadian. I am considering buying flow-through shares to reduce my taxes this year, because of a capital gain. I have already decided not to invest more than $10,000, which would be less than 10% of my net worth. I have done some research and know they're very high-risk. I called one company in Toronto (Middleton's) who said theirs "averaged an increase of 9% at the end of the mandatory holding period, they'd never had one go bankrupt, and the worst they'd had decreased by 50%". A broker I called basically recommended against them, citing the high-risk. However I am still open to investing the $10,000. Any Canadians used this vehicle, and if so, how did it turn out for them?

Share scam?

jan murray — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 06:20:23 -0800

A man who says he represents a Boston company called Bayside Equity Group is offering me an astounding amount for some shares I was persuaded against better judgement (my wifes) to invest in some years ago. What's the catch? October 2004 I bought 1000 shares in a company called Anagram Plus at $5 each. They were proffered by an outfit called Witter Walwyn. I found out later they were on the the Swedish Finance Inspectors black list. (I live in Sweden)
Initially they quickly rose to $9 though I refused an offer to buy more.
Then they dwindled down to $2-3. I only have copies of the certificates.
April this year I was contacted by the swedish police (anti-fraud squad) who were conducting an inquiry into Witter Walwyn. I supplied the details of my dealings - and assumed I'd been swindled. My wife ceretainly thinks so.
Now last week I was contacted by a man (telephone) saying his company Bayside Equity Group wantd to buy all my (worthless) shares
in Anagram Plus for an incredible $25-30. An offer I cant refuse?
What is the catch here? Am I being had again. Should I refuse all dealings? The temptation to redeem my losses looms large.

I wouldn't mind voting for Al Gore again.

oaf — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 11:03:34 -0800

I own a (very) small number of shares of Apple ~~Computer~~ Inc. However, when I moved about four years ago, I forgot to update my address with them. I want to know how I go about updating my address so that I get the shareholder reports again. Someone bought me my initial share as a gift through a company that will sell you a framed stock certificate for a single share, in case that helps.

Why does Manulife want me to sell my shares?

climalene — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 06:21:11 -0800

Why does Manulife want me to sell my shares? A few years ago I was given 15 shares of Manulife stock. Nothing much happened with it until this year, when they started sending me "voluntary small shareholder sales program" announcements. If I participate, they will sell all my shares along with a bunch of others and pay me the average selling price per share from the week in which my stocks were sold.

Is this kind of program common? Are they just doing it because dealing with small shareholders isn't worth it, or does it indicate something about the state of the company? And is there any compelling reason to participate or not participate? I would feel equally okay about keeping these shares or selling them; I have other investments, and I don't need the cash right now.

Which type of ETF to go for

Jimmeh — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 08:12:40 -0800

I have $2000AUD to spend on Exchage-Traded Funds and I can't decide what to go for. My initial idea was to put $1k in something blue chip/stable and the other $1k in something high-growth/risky.

I am based in Australia.

For the blue chip/stable investment, I was thinking:

SPDR S&P/ASX 50 Fund (ticker: SFY)
or
SPDR S&P/ASX 200 Fund (ticker: STW)

more info here: www.streettracks.com.au

Out of those two, what should I go for? Would a top 200 fund be considered more reliable?

For the other $1k, I'm thinking something available from iShares. I'm not sure if going for any U.S. flavoured ETF's are a good idea right now, so I thought either something based in Asia or the iShares MSCI EAFE (ticker: IVE).

It's quite confusing trying to determine which world market is going to provide future growth and returns.

What do you think?
I know, it's probably a big ask, but I'd appreciate any opinions.
Thanks all

How big a carrot?

dentata — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 13:39:14 -0800

What's an appropriate share percentage to give to someone on a Board of Advisors? Our dream evangelist has been hinting that he'd like to be a part of the (not-yet-formed) Board of Advisors of our baby web-startup. He's already quite successful, and could be a huge benefit to our company. What's an appropriate percentage of shares to give him?

Math makes my head hurt.

Optamystic — Fri, 18 May 2007 03:52:16 -0800

Maths Question. Company has 100 shares. Company needs to issue additional shares to Person A so that Person A holds 20.83% of all shares in Company (taking into account his original shares held, and his new share allocation). How many new shares should be issued? (Rounded to the thousandth of a share).

How can a UK citizen by US shares?

caek — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 03:30:56 -0800

How would a private UK citizen, living and working in the UK, with no financial connection to the US, go about buying a few thousand dollars of shares in a NASDAQ-listed company? Talk to my broker, right? Where should my broker be? In the US or the UK? Any specific broker recommendations? Any tax/duty issues of which I need to be aware? Any other advice?

Good online portfolio to practise stock/share trading?

you're only jung once — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 10:11:53 -0800

Does anyone know of a good real-time online stocks/shares portfolio tool I can use to practise becoming a Warren Buffet style gazillionaire? I am poor and wish to become rich beyond my wildest dreams...virtually. Thanks in advance.

Investing in low cost medical clinics

toreo — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 05:29:35 -0800

How can I invest in low-cost medical clinics like RediClinic, CheckUps and Take Care? These are clinics that are inside drugstores and Wal-Mart and Target. I've visited their websites and searched in Google but they do not seem to be listed on any stock exchanges.

Share your share knowledge, please!

timpollard — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 00:30:14 -0800

UKSharesFilter: Some of my relatives have had a small selection of the shares in an inherited portfolio disappear over time from their online tracker, so my question is what has happened to the following stocks: CHB.L; GAA.L; MFBUEUGI.L and MFBUTRU.L, and should they have received any notification, documents or even cheques, (and what can be done about finding out more)? (I should clarify that they still have the certificates and haven't sold, traded or otherwise physically disposed of them, it's the listing themselves that now come up as 'No Such Symbol' on the internet listing of the portfolio).

does 51% sharehold mean control?

toocan — Wed, 17 May 2006 14:02:50 -0800

In a UK company with 3 shareholders, with percentages 51%, 24.5%, 24.5%. Can the person with the majority force the other 2 holders to sell-out ? Myself and my Brother had an idea for setting up a new business venture but we needed investment, a third person offered investment on the condition we signed a contract saying that he was a 51% shareholder, with me and my brother having 24.5% each.

The reason he stated was that without him having 51% that me and my brother could gang up on him in regards to business decisions. The contract does state that "profit shares" will be split equally into 33.3% each.

However my concern is that with him owning 51% of the company he could force me and my brother out. Is this possible ?

is there anything else i should be looking out for in the contract ?

OTCBB stock: broker/issuance/tax advice

lalochezia — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 20:08:31 -0800

I'm about to be eligible to exercise stock options on a stock traded on the Over The Counter Bulletin Board (OTC). Advice on getting my university to issue them to me, exercising (tax) and brokers (sale) please. I was given options almost 3 years ago, but because I'm an 'inventor' in the company, I wasn't allowed to sell for 3 years. They are about to 'become liquid', and I'd like to exercise and sell immediately. Some advice please:

Basic questions:

1) My organization (a major private university) is being tardy about instructing the company to issue me the stock. How can I firmly remind them to do so (in best legalese) as soon as they become liquid.

2) I'd need a broker that trades these stocks. I only want to make this one trade (sell) - advice on particular brokers?

3) Do I need to watch out for anything when I exercise them tax-wise -apart from the fact that as soon as they are issued, I'm liable for the tax on their net worth as capital gains, yes?

Other, more detailed question

The quantity of shares I'm being issued is about 90,000. The otcbb info says the 'volume' is 50k. I presume this means 50,000 shares traded in today's time period. There have been days when none are traded - the average seems at about 25,000 shares per day, and apart from a couple of days where 0.5-1m were traded, this occurs all the way back to the stocks inception.
How do I set up buyers for this quantity of shares (since I presume there is no 'exchange' for stock like this) - or is this stuff a broker will do? What kind of fees should I expect for this service?

Many thanks....

Sex, Drugs, Stock and Rolls and rolls of cash

verisimilitude — Tue, 13 Dec 2005 15:15:32 -0800

Medical professionals can buy shares in pharmaceutical companies. Is this good for my health? (Both my medical and economic health) A doctor friend of mine has just purchased £52G of Merck shares. It seems to me that there is an obvious conflict of interest which could be to the detriment of his patients. But his investment seems to be entirely legal.

Given that free lunches and branded pens from pharma comps are considered to be dangerously influential, how are the private investments of medical professional reconciled with their obligations to give the very best health care to their patients? What proportion of pharma shares are owned by drs? Who regulates this? Where can I read more about this type of thing? (UK only. Not very interested in hearing about other systems, unless its for a usefull comparrison)

How much for that stock in the window?

symphonik — Mon, 17 Oct 2005 16:14:22 -0800

I have a single share of AT&T from 1982. How much is it worth? I'm not sure what month it was from, as I don't have it in my hand at the moment, but it was certainly from some time in 1982. How do I determine its current worth, after all the splits and mergers and other associated transactions with AT&T?

Earning income from stocks

daksya — Mon, 09 May 2005 19:44:16 -0800

How do shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway earn income? It seems that dividends haven't been issued since 1967. Short of selling the stock, isn't the investment "tied up"? On a broader note, how does one earn money from stocks?

I can think of 2 ways:

1)Dividends.
2)Sell it off for a profit.

..and maybe, earn interest off it (if so, how?).

Understanding Stock Investing

Ironwolf — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 14:16:17 -0800

As a fledgling investor, I'm confused about a fundamental idea behind stock investing: When I buy a stock, unless I buy it during a company's Initial Public Offering (IPO), I'm actually buying it from another investor who's willing to part with it for some price. So although I'm paying good money for those shares of company ownership, none of it ends up providing working capital for the company itself-- the money they got in the IPO is all they'll ever get from the stock market. So my questions are: What are the market forces that are supposed to keep the company's market capitalization (current share price X number of outstanding shares) in line with a company's actual value (assets - liabilities)? Why are high (or low) stock prices important to companies? Why do companies care so much about "creating shareholder value?"

Tax and Stock Options

scarabic — Thu, 13 Jan 2005 15:49:22 -0800

I have exercised stock options and taken possession of a small number of shares. I have not sold anything, but am wondering how screwed I am, tax-wise. First, do I have to declare the value of the stock as "income" for the year that I acquired it? Second, if I should sell it, do I add the money I receive from that sale to my regular taxable income? Do I deduct the amount I paid in? Is the net difference subject to other taxes? Is this handle-able by an average person or do I need an accountant?