Category: Stock Market

If You Own a Slice of a Share, Can You Vote on Shareholder Proposals?

by Fred Fuld III

Many beginning investors, and many investors with a moderate amount of money to invest, choose to buy a slice of a share of stock instead of a whole share or several shares. This is especially true with high priced shares, such as Autozone (AZO) which sells for over $3500 per share, Netflix (NFLX) which trades at about $950 a share, and Costco (COST) which is selling at almost $900 per share. Even the tax software company Intuit (INTU) currently trades at $600 a share.

For someone that only has $500 to $5,000 to invest, this is a big chunk of money to allocate to one stock even if they purchase only one share.

Fortunately, most stock brokerage firms, such as Schwab (SCHW), Fidelity, SoFi (SOFI), and Robinhood (HOOD) allow investors to buy slices of shares. So what is a slice?

A “slice of a share,” also known as a fractional share, is a portion of a whole share of stock, allowing investors to own a piece of a company without having to invest the full price of a single share.
Here’s a more detailed explanation:
What it is:
A fractional share represents a percentage of a whole share, enabling investors to invest smaller amounts of money in companies they’re interested in.
How it works:
If a stock costs $500 per share, an investor could buy a fractional share for, say, $10, representing 2% of a whole share.
Why it’s useful:
Fractional shares can make investing more accessible, especially for beginners or those with smaller budgets, as they allow investors to put their money to work even if they don’t have enough to buy a full share.
Brokerage offerings:
Many brokerages now offer fractional shares, allowing investors to purchase portions of stocks or ETFs.
Charles Schwab:
For example, Charles Schwab refers to fractional shares as “Schwab Stock Slices” and allows investors to buy slices of 30 stocks in companies on the S&P 500 in one transaction.
Fidelity:
Fidelity also offers fractional shares, allowing investors to invest in stocks and ETFs in fractions or dollars.
Dividends and corporate actions:
When you own fractional shares, you’ll still receive dividends and participate in other corporate actions (like stock splits) based on the percentage of a whole share you own.
Shareholder Proposal Voting Rights:
Your ability to exercise voting rights will depend on how your brokerage firm’s fractional share investing program works. However, based on my experience, I was offered the ability to vote on corporate actions and proposals.

My Personal Experience:

I decided to try this out with a popular stock that sells for over $500 per share. I invested an extremely small amount, which gave me ownership of 0.05442 of a share. That’s slightly over 5% of a share, or in other words, about one twentieth of a share.

Just yesterday, I received the request to vote my shares, or should I say, my portion of a share, which I did. There was voting for the board of directors and voting on various shareholder proposals.

This company also offers a couple of benefits to shareholders which I am also entitled to. Such a deal.

This particular stock doesn’t pay a dividend, but if it did, I would be entitled to my share.

So in answer to the question asked in the title of this article, the answer is YES.

Disclosure: Author didn’t own any of the above mentioned stocks at the time the article was written.

Latest on the Getty Images and Shutterstock Merger

March 20,2025

Getty Images (GETY) and Shutterstock (SSTK) announced their intent to merge on January 7, 2025, in a $3.7 billion “merger of equals” transaction aimed at creating a premier visual content company. Recent updates as of March 20, 2025, indicate that the merger is progressing amid Getty Images’ latest financial performance reports. On March 17, 2025, Getty Images released its Q4 2024 results, showing a 9.5% year-over-year revenue increase to $247.3 million, surpassing Wall Street expectations. However, its full-year 2025 revenue guidance of $936.5 million fell 2.3% short of analysts’ estimates, reflecting some caution as the company prepares for merger-related activities.

The merger remains subject to regulatory approval and other customary closing conditions, with no definitive public announcement of delays or cancellations as of now. However, there are hints of potential hurdles: a March 18, 2025, report from TipRanks noted “significant business risks linked to the potential failure or delay” in completing the merger, citing regulatory challenges as a key concern. Despite this, the companies are pushing forward, expecting annual cost synergies of $150 million to $200 million within three years post-closure, with most savings anticipated within 12 to 24 months after the deal closes.

As for the scheduled closing date, no exact date has been publicly confirmed in the latest updates. The original announcement on January 7, 2025, described it as pending regulatory approval, and subsequent reports, including Getty’s Q4 earnings coverage on March 17-18, 2025, suggest the focus is now on preparing for integration, with no specific timeline beyond “expected in 2025” if approvals proceed smoothly. Given the regulatory scrutiny hinted at in recent analyses, the closing could extend into late 2025 if complications arise, but as of now, it’s on track pending those conditions.

For the latest developments, keep an eye on official statements from Getty Images or Shutterstock, as the situation could evolve with regulatory or financial updates.

Statistics: Gold versus the Stock Market This Century

by Fred Fuld III

It may look like gold hasn’t been doing much of anything recently. Even for the last twelve months, gold has been relatively flat.

So what about long term. Can gold outperform the stock market over a long period of time?

Of course, it depends on the time frame, but let’s look at this century, beginning January 3, 2000 (the first business day of the year).

Based on that time frame, gold has far outperformed the various stock indices, including the S&P 500, the NASDAQ, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

As a matter of fact, gold has increased by 558% over that time, versus 329% for the S&P 500 as measured by the SPDR SPY ETF (SPY), which was only up 329%. This includes dividends for the SPY.

The statistics for the returns are below, which also include the Dow and the NASDAQ.

Gold versus Stocks This Century
Percentage increase in price from January 3, 2000 to the present
Dow Jones Industrial Average 190%
S&P 500 as measured by SPY 329%
NASDAQ as measured by QQQ 276%
Gold price per ounce 558%
* Adjusted for splits and dividend and/or capital gain distributions
Sources: Yahoo!Finance historical data, sdbullion.com

Is gold in your portfolio?

The Largest Company Right Now: Not Tesla or Apple or Amazon

by Fred Fuld III

At the time this is being written, 1:09 am PT on October 29, 2021, the largest US publicly traded company by market cap is Microsoft (MSFT) at $2.478 trillion.

In second position is Apple at $2.462 trillion.

Surprisingly, Google, I mean Alphabet (GOOGL) is ahead of Amazon (AMZN), Tesla (TSLA), and Facebook (FB), I mean Meta. Alphabet has a market cap of $1.956 trillion.

Check out the list below. Market cap values are in trillion dollars.

MSFT 2.478
AAPL 2.462
GOOGL 1.956
AMZN 1.698
TSLA 1.104
FB 0.902

Do you think we will ever see quadrillion dollar companies?

Have We Seen the Top of the Stock Market? Probably

by Fred Fuld III

A week ago, on Monday, May 10, 2021, the SPY was trading at the 422 level. Also on the same day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average 35,091.56. Since then,   we haven’t traded even close to those levels.

SPY

The SPY has dropped about 2.7% since that time and may have further to go.

Dow Jones Industrial Average

The Dow has dropped about 2.9% since then and it looks like we could see lower levels.

There are all kinds of fundamental and technical reasons why the stock market may continue to drop, and we may never see the highs of las Monday for a long, long time. However, in this case, this is only a hunch, not a recommendation to sell or short (or even buy). It is just my opinion that we are headed into a bear market.

No recommendations are expressed or implied.

Dr. Mark Skousen Exclusive Interview: the Stock Market, Bitcoin, GameStop, Gold, & Bear Markets

by Fred Fuld III

The following informative interview was provided by Dr. Mark Skousen, a financial economist, editor of the Forecasts & Strategies financial newsletter since 1980, and Presidential Fellow at Chapman University, where he recently received the “Most Favorite Professor” Award.  He is also the producer of FreedomFest, “the world’s largest gathering of free minds.”  He is the author of several books, including The Maxims of Wall Street, now in its 10th edition.

We cover a lot in this interview, including:

  • The Future of the Stock Market
  • Bear Markets
  • Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency, & Blockchain
  • GameStop
  • Young Traders
  • Gold Bullion vs. Gold Stocks
  • Silver
  • Inflation
  • Interest Rates
  • The Technology Sector
  • And much, much more

He even gives the name of a gold mining stock that he likes, which trades for less than $5 a share and pays a yield of over 3%! 

The Dr. Mark Skousen Interview
Enjoy listening to the great insights and information that Dr. Skousen provides:

To stream the interview, click:

HERE

It is a long interview, so it may take a few seconds to load. You can also download the interview as an mp3 by right-clicking (or Control clicking) HERE and choosing “save as.”

Books by Dr. Mark Skousen

Please note that all of Dr. Skousen’s books can be ordered directly from SkousenBooks.com, and they will be autographed and delivered with free shipping.

The Maxims of Wall Street – New 10th Anniversary Edition

A Viennese Waltz Down Wall Street

The Making of Modern Economics

EconoPower: How a New Generation of Economists is Transforming the World

His other books can be found at SkousenBooks.com.

Forecasts and Strategies

Information about the Forecasts and Strategies Newsletter and the trading services can be found at MarkSkousen.com.

Enjoy the interview and Happy Investing!

 

All opinions are those of Dr. Mark Skousen, and do not represent the opinions of this site or the interviewer. Neither this site, nor the interviewer, nor the interviewee are rendering tax, legal, or investment advice in this interview.

 

 

 

 

The Day the Markets Roared: How a 1982 Forecast Sparked a Global Bull Market

by Fred Fuld III

The book, The Day the Markets Roared: How a 1982 Forecast Sparked a Global Bull Market, by Dr. Henry Kaufman, provides the reader with the background of how the author predicted and sparked one of the biggest bull markets in history, and how the past can give insight into the future. The book was released this week.

If you are not familiar with Kaufman, he was a former economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York who later became a senior partner, managing director, chief economist, and director of research at Salomon Brothers, the most profitable investment bank in the world at the time.

The older generation should remember him as a frequent guest on Wall Street Week with Louis Rukeyser.

The book goes into great detail about the events leading up to the beginning of the 1982 bull market and what happened afterwards. The Day the Markets Roared discusses the background of how Kaufman went from bearish to bullish.

At times, he received much criticism and threats for his opinions. These included physical threats, which even involved the FBI. My favorite chapter was Chapter 6 – Critics, Threats, and Humor, where he covers the extensive criticism he received from the press and even a death threat.

Probably the most important chapter is Chapter 10 – New Realities, which is a fascinating and unique analysis of the present day economy. Kaufman goes into detail about how COVID-19 has affected businesses, individuals, and state and local governments in the United States.

He also emphasizes how overall credit quality has been affected. Did you know that today, only two business corporations have a triple-A rating versus 61 in the 1980s?

Plus, there is extensive information on the past and present moves by the Federal Reserve Board.

Kaufman has a strong track record, and he has intriguing opinions about where the American economy stands now and where it is headed.

Therefore, I highly recommend that you get  The Day the Markets Roared as it was released this week. It just might save your portfolio.

 

 

 

 

This page includes Amazon Associate links

The Stock market will be Closed on Labor Day and These Other Days

In case you were wondering, the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ will be closed on Labor Day, Monday, September 7, 2020.

These markets will also be closed these following days:

  • Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 26, 2020
  • Christmas Day, Friday, December 25, 2020
  • New Years Day, Friday, January 1, 2021

In addition:

The stock market will close early at 1:00 p.m. ET (1:15 p.m. for eligible options) 10:00 a.m PT on Friday, November 27, 2020.

The stock market will close early at 1:00 p.m.  ET (1:15 p.m. for eligible options) 10:00 a.m PT on Thursday, December 24, 2020.

What’s the biggest mistake that stock market investors make?

by Fred Fuld III

The biggest mistake that investors make is selling too soon. If you have invested in a great company, and you have a decent profit, there is no reason to sell just because you have made money on it. Let me give you a couple examples of mistakes I have made so that you can learn from them.

Many years ago, when I was in the financial services industry, I was selling a lot of the Franklin Municipal Bond Funds and Franklin GNMA Funds. I went to visit the Franklin Mutual Funds headquarters (the company was in its old building at the time) to do some due diligence, and meet with the broker liaison at the company. When I was given a tour of the place, I noticed that walls were being knocked down, four people were sharing a small office designed for one person, and cables were literally being run down the hallways by installers right in front of me.

My first thought was “Wow,” this company is growing like crazy. I should check and see if Franklin Resources (BEN) is publicly traded. It was, on the Pink Sheets. (This was way before it was traded on the New York Stock Exchange.) I bought a couple hundred shares at about $7 per share, and it shortly rose to $8.

Also, at that time, I just bought a rental property. I thought at the time that I should probably sell the Franklin stock in case I needed the funds for the property, plus I had just made a 14% profit in a short period of time. I actually didn’t need the funds for the property down payment since I bought the property for nothing down (another story).

Since that time, the stock has had nine stock splits based on my calculation. If I had just kept the stock and forgot about it, my $1500 original investment would now be worth over $451,285, by my estimation, even after the stock dropped from $58 per share down to $21 per share over the last six years.

By the way, this extremely high return does not even include the dividends that I would have received over the years, which would obviously have boosted my return even higher. The stock currently yields over 5% right now.

I have another example. I had 100 shares of Boston Beer Company (SAM) that I held in multiple certificates. I had paid about $30 a share for the stock back in 2009. The next year, it rose to $90 a share. I thought that tripling my money in such a short period was a pretty good return, actually a fantastic return, so I thought, why not take all these certificates in to my broker and liquidate them.

While I was in the brokerage firm and one of the representatives was preparing a receipt for me including making copies of every certificate, another representative came over and said “What the hell is with all these certificates?” When he was making these rude comments, I seriously considered picking up my certificates, and leaving, but I didn’t, unfortunately. I wanted to take my profit. The stock is now trading over $643 a share. My original $3,000 would now be worth $64,300 in just one decade.

I could tell you one more story about Apple (AAPL) stock, but it would make you sick. It makes me sick whenever I think about it.

Anyway, the point that I am making is that the dollar amount of profit and the percentage amount of profit you have in a stock is irrelevant. If you believe in the company, there is no reason to sell it, unless you are very desperate for money. And if you are that desperate, see if you can get by with selling half.

Yes, you may read about the mistakes of holding on to losers, and not bailing out early. Maybe you lose $5,000 or $10,000 on a stock that goes to zero. But it is the big long term winners that pay for all those losses, and still provide huge returns.

Here is the best way to tell if you should sell a stock. Imagine that you didn’t own the stock but you have the money to invest in it. Would you buy it today? If the answer is yes, hold on to the stock. If the answer is no, sell it.

Disclosure: Author owns AAPL and SAM.