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What are Equity Securities?

Gerelyn Terzo
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Updated: May 16, 2024
Views: 33,776
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Equity securities are shares of stock held by investors as reported on a company's balance sheet. A company issues equity securities as a means to raise capital in the financial markets for a major event, such as an expansion or merger or for product development. By purchasing equity, shareholders are obtaining a partial ownership stake in that company. Equity issuance is an alternative to issuing bonds, which are a form of debt, in the public markets.

The first time that a company issues equity securities into the financial markets is known as its initial public offering (IPO). A company typically will raise large sums of money in this transaction, because investors often flock to new issues to obtain a piece of a promising opportunity. The number of equity securities issued in an IPO depends on financial documents filed by the company with the regulatory body in a region. A company is permitted to sell a certain number of shares within a particular price range on the day of its IPO. Once shares are issued in the public markets, the equity price will rise and fall depending on investor demand.

Typically, a company will not issue the whole of its available shares in one offering. Instead, a number of shares usually are reserved for a subsequent offering at a future date, known as a secondary or follow-on offering. A company's management team does this because they anticipate needing to raise capital again to fund future growth plans.

A downside to issuing equity securities in the financial markets is that the more shares that become available for investors to purchase, the more that existing shareholders see the percentage of their equity ownership diluted. For example, a large holder of equity securities might own a number of shares that represents 10 percent of a company's total shares available to trade. If the company decides to increase the number of total shares available for trading, that shareholder's equity ownership instantly decreases as a percentage of total outstanding shares.

If a company decides not to issue equity, debt securities are the other primary option. Debt securities are bonds issued into the public marketplace by a corporation or a government. By purchasing a debt instrument, investors become instant creditors to an issuer. The primary downside for issuing debt is even though selling bonds does not give shareholders part ownership of the entity, the issuer must make ongoing interest payments to those shareholders over the life of a contract.

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Gerelyn Terzo
By Gerelyn Terzo
Gerelyn Terzo, a journalist with over 20 years of experience, brings her expertise to her writing. With a background in Mass Communication/Media Studies, she crafts compelling content for multiple publications, showcasing her deep understanding of various industries and her ability to effectively communicate complex topics to target audiences.
Discussion Comments
By anon938842 — On Mar 11, 2014

What kind of marketable securities are traded on the stock exchange?

By parkthekarma — On Jun 29, 2011

You know who really makes money on stocks? It's the people who are able to get in on the IPO. Usually that means big commercial funds and the VIP clients of big trading houses. These guys get to buy the stock at the introductory price, and it usually goes up quite a bit, at least in the beginning.

By Viktor13 — On Jun 28, 2011

@BigManCar - I see what you mean, but you have to be careful with that too. If you stay totally away from stocks you limit yourself to a pretty low rate of return on your investments, so it may be pretty hard to retire even if you have money in your portfolio.

I tried switching to mutual funds. Let the experts pick your stock. The market is actually coming back pretty well compared to where it was a couple of years ago. A moderate rate of return from your 401k is better than relying on a fixed income from Social Security alone.

By BigManCar — On Jun 28, 2011

I think you're gong to see less and less people owning this kind of an investment, at least for a long time. People are cautious about buying stocks after so many people lost money in the big crash a few years back, especially people who were about to retire or were retired and had to get back in the workplace.

I have gotten rid of the stocks in my 401k for the most part and switched to bonds and other debt investments.

Gerelyn Terzo
Gerelyn Terzo
Gerelyn Terzo, a journalist with over 20 years of experience, brings her expertise to her writing. With a background in...
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