WHY DO COMPANIES NEED PEOPLE TO INVEST WHEN THEY ARE ALREADY MAKING A PROFIT?

Why would I give income to McDonald’s (or any of the indexes) when I know damn good they have enough? Do they NEED investors? Cannot these companies enhance upon their own money?
Also, do banks loan income to index companies? Do all large companies have shareholders?

{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }

Steve D January 19, 2011 at 5:14 pm

When you buy stocks, you are not lending money to companies, unless it is an Initial Public Offering. Once the IPO has been completed, you buy stocks from other investors and the company (i.e., McDonalds) sees none of that money.

When companies want to raise additional money, they issue bonds, which are basically IOUs. Even larger companies do not always have the necessary cash reserves to carry out all the investments they would like to make. While technically all companies (large and small) have shareholders (at a one-man shop, that one person would hold all the shares, even if they were informal), only certain companies have public shares – these are the companies that trade on the NYSE, AMEX and NASDAQ (as well as the smaller regional exchanges). Other corporations are private and their shares are divided among a limited number of people and are not tradeable.

jeff410 January 19, 2011 at 5:44 pm

Companies need investors, in an IPO, so they can expand, operate the business, and pay off previous debts. Investors invest in a company so that they can participate in the profits and price appreciation in the stock.

John W January 19, 2011 at 6:01 pm

The shares that you buy on the stock exchange are what’s called the secondary market, you’re not buying it from the company you’re buying it from other investors so it’s not as if the companies are soliciting additional investors. When the companies issue the shares, they solicit investors, that’s the only time there’s actually any investment in the company however as the investors trade those shares amongst themselves, the value of the shares changes and the amount of credit that banks are willing to extend to the company is based on the valuation of the company which changes with the share prices so although a company doesn’t get any additional investment from the changing stock prices, they do benefit from more credit if the shares rises in value.

So all this investment activity that you see on the stock market isn’t going to the companies at all. The companies for the most part do expand on their own money. If they wish to raise additional capital, they can issue more shares but that dilutes the stock. All incorporated companies whether private or public have shareholders and banks do lend money to companies that are part of a stock index.

Common Sense January 19, 2011 at 6:02 pm

Except for IPO’s & the rare additional offerings…. you are buying stock from other people or institutions, not McDonald’s (or what ever stock you may be buying).

I don’t even quite get the rest of your question. Your premises are based on totally erroneous assumptions about trading stock. Read some good books on investing and trading…… hopefully you’re not in the market with this misunderstanding of the basics.

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