Voluntary Corporate Action a pending corporate event that shareholders may elect to participate in by sending their instruction(s). Shareholders may choose to take no action which in many cases leaves their securities unaffected. Voluntary reorganization fee(s) may apply
- Tender Offer: an offer (friendly or unfriendly) to purchase some or all shares of a corporation. In many instances the price is usually at a premium to the current market value of the stock.
- Exchange Offer: an offer for shareholders to exchange their current shares into: stock of another company, from one class of stock to another, into cash, or any combination of these.
- Odd-Lot Offer: an odd lot tender is an offer to shareholders with odd lots (less than 100 shares) to sell the odd lot shares at a given price. Some odd lot offers also give odd lot shareholders a choice to buy up to 100 shares
Rights and Warrants: Many companies choose to issue rights or warrants which gives shareholders the right to purchase more shares of stock directly from the company and usually at a discounted price. Rights are issued to shareholders of the underlying stock who are entitled to receive them. Warrants entitle the shareholder to buy/sell the underlying security at given price within a given time period.
Optional Dividends: A company may declare a dividend and make it payable in cash, stock, or cash and stock. The shareholder would then have the opportunity to elect which option they want to be paid in.
Mandatory Corporate Action a transaction taken by a publicly traded company alerting shareholders of a pending event that brings material change to the organization. The shareholder has no choice to participate when the issuer calls for one.
- Mergers and Acquisitions: the consolidation of two or more companies into one company. This results in the distribution of new shares and/or cash in exchange for the old shares.
- Name Change: straight name changes usually have no effect on the capital and shareholders of the company. Stock symbol changes may also accompany a name change.
- Forward Stock Split: the number of outstanding shares of the company gets increased by x number of new shares with a value of 1/x of the original share. For example, xyz stock is trading at a price of $100 per share and has a 10:1 stock split. For every 1 share of old xyz that is owned; the result will be 10 new shares priced at $10 per share.
- Reverse Stock Split: the number of outstanding shares of the company gets reduced by x number while the value of shares increases by x. For example, xyz stock is trading at 10 per share and goes through a 1:10 reverse split. For every 10 shares of old xyz that is owned, the result will be 1 new share priced at $100 per share.
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This is not a complete list of all possible corporate actions. Each corporate action is unique and terms may be changed at a later date. Because of the complicated individualized terms of each corporate action, please contact the investor relations department of the publicly traded company for complete details.