S - Acounting Glossary
Accounting definitions.
Source: Wikipedia.org
Security
Securities are tradeable interests representing
financial value. They are often represented by
a certificate. They include shares of corporate
stock or mutual funds, bonds issued by corporations
or governmental agencies, stock options or other
options, other derivative securities, limited
partnership units, and various other formal "investment
instruments." Banknotes, checks, and some
bills of exchange do not fall into this category.
Spreadsheet
A spreadsheet is a rectangular table (or grid)
of information, often financial information. (It
is, therefore, a kind of matrix.) The word came
from "spread" in its sense of a newspaper
or magazine item (text and/or graphics) that covers
two facing pages, extending across the center
fold and treating the two pages as one large one.
Stock option
A stock option is a specific type of option with
a stock as the underlying instrument, (the security
that the value of the option is based on). Thus
it is a contract to buy (known as a "call"
contract) or sell (known as a "put"
contract) shares of stock, at a predetermined
or calculable (from a formula in the contract)
price.
Stock split
A stock split is a type of corporate action that
replaces shares in a public company with more
shares in the same company at a lower price. Although
this leaves the market capitalization of the company
the same, an increase in the number of shares
leads to greater liquidity, and therefore a greater
volume of trades. This often leads to a higher
stock price in the short term. The lower price
per share also makes the company more accessible
to some smaller investors.
Stock
A stock, also referred to as a share, is commonly
a share of ownership in a joint stock company.
The owners and financial backers of a company
may desire additional capital to invest in new
projects within the company. If they were to sell
the company it would represent a loss of control
over the company.
Shareholder
A shareholder or stockholder is an individual
or company (including a corporation), that legally
owns one or more shares of stock in a joint stock
company. Companies listed at the stock market
strive to enhance shareholder value. Stockholders
are granted special privileges depending on the
class of stock, including the right to vote (usually
one vote per share owned) on matters such as elections
to the board of directors, the right to share
in distributions of the company's income, the
right to purchase new shares issued by the company,
and the right to a company's assets during a liquidation
of the company.
Shareholders' equity
In business and accounting, shareholder equity
is everything of the company that is owned by
the shareholders.
Sunk cost
In economics and in business decision-making,
sunk costs are costs that have already been incurred
and which cannot be recovered to any significant
degree. Sunk costs are sometimes contrasted with
incremental costs, which are the costs that will
change due to the proposed course of action. In
microeconomic theory, only incremental cost are
relevant to a decision. If we let sunk costs influence
our decisions, we will not be assessing a proposal
exclusively on its own merits.
