A share of stock represents a partial ownership interest in a company and also a claim on the company’s earnings and assets. The value of a company’s shares rises or falls as the company’s fortunes improve or deteriorate. The value of a company is also affected by the performance of the wider market and by outside events that may affect a particular industry. Stocks can be part of a long-term investment strategy because they often provide higher rates of return than other investment products, such as bonds.

The financial benefits of stocks include both dividends and price appreciation. Some stocks also offer voting rights. Most public companies issue a minimum of one share of stock, which is called common stock. The number of shares in a company is recorded on its corporate records, and each shareholder owns a fraction of the corporation. Companies can issue additional shares in order to raise capital or sell existing shares on a secondary stock market.

Investing in stocks can be challenging because the prices of a company’s stock fluctuate up and down, and the returns are not always consistent. Buying low-cost stocks can help reduce the risk of losses. The volatility of the market can be unnerving for many investors, but some people are willing to take this risk in hopes of earning high returns over a longer period of time.

Stocks are an important part of a well-diversified portfolio, and there are several different ways to evaluate their potential. Most investors use a combination of valuation techniques to determine the intrinsic value of a stock. A few common methods of determining value include the price-to-earnings ratio, price-to-book ratio and free cash flow. However, these ratios should not be used alone, because each company creates value in a unique way and is not comparable to other companies.

In addition to analyzing a company’s financial statements, some investors use historical stock prices to compare the value of a stock to its price-to-earnings ratio and other measures of value. A stock’s intrinsic value can change over time, depending on a variety of factors, including strength of competition, management changes, economic conditions, advances in technology and changing consumer demand.

Companies are also grouped into industries based on their product offerings and business model. These sectors can be useful in evaluating investments, as stocks within a sector tend to react in predictable ways to economic changes. For example, when the economy is sluggish, companies in sectors like information technology and consumer discretionary are likely to experience a slowdown in sales. This may impact their share prices, while companies in consumer staples and utilities are more likely to benefit from a healthy economy.

In the United States, stocks are traded on two major stock exchanges, the New York Stock Exchange and National Association of Securities Dealers (NASDAQ). Investors can buy or sell stocks through a brokerage firm, such as Schwab. Some private companies also issue their own shares, but most choose to sell them on the secondary market.