Key Financial Terms....

Key Financial Terms

The following are a few financial terms to educate you on what are mostly used within the stock market, banks and investment companies. You will also see these terms through out the blog when financial reports and news are posted.

• Capital Gains: The profit resulting from the difference between the sale price of a share and its purchase or subscription price. If this difference is negative, the loss is called a "capital loss."
• Bond: A negotiable debt security listed on a stock exchange that is redeemable upon maturity and earns interest over a specific period. The price of the bond varies with changes in interest rates.
• Dividend: Portion of the company’s net earnings distributed to shareholders. The amount is voted on by shareholders at the Shareholders’ Meeting after the annual accounts are approved and the allocation of earnings is proposed by the Board of Directors.
• Company Net Income: Net income earned by all Veolia’s companies after deducting minority interests’ profit or loss.
• Earnings per share: Net EPS is the company’s net profit divided by the number of outstanding shares.
• Face Value (Par Value): The face value of a share, also referred to as the par value or nominal value, is the portion of share capital represented by the share. The company’s capital shown on the balance sheet is the face value of the share multiplied by the total number of shares issued.
• Share: A certificate representing ownership of a percentage of a company’s capital. A share may earn a dividend and gives its owner voting rights. Shares may be listed on a stock exchange, but this is not a requirement. Veolia Environnement’s shares are listed on the Euronext Paris and New York stock exchanges
• Growth Stock: The stock of a company whose earnings are growing rapidly and steadily and which therefore has strong potential to increase in value.
• Investment Club: A group of people who collectively manage a securities portfolio into which regular payments are made. Income and capital gains are shared among the members.
• Payout Ratio: The percentage of net income distributed to shareholders in the form of dividends. Veolia calculates this ratio on the basis of the Company’s recurring net income.
• Quorum: Minimum percentage of shares with voting rights that must be present or represented for the Shareholders’ Meeting to take decisions validly.
• Subscription Warrant: A subscription warrant, also simply called a warrant, entitles its holder to purchase a share at a pre-determined price and up to a given date.
• Dow Jones: an indicator of stock market prices; based on the share values of 30 blue-chip stocks listed on the New York Stock Exchange; "the Dow Jones Industrial Average is the most widely cited indicator of how the stock market is doing."
• S&P 500: is a free-float capitalization-weighted index published since 1957 of the prices of 500 large-cap common stocks actively traded in the United States. The stocks included in the S&P 500 are those of large publicly held companies that trade on either of the two largest American stock market exchanges: the New York Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ.