Publicly held companies
A publicly held company is a business organization, usually a corporation, in which ownership is held by the public at large and transfers of ownership are largely unrestricted. There is no minimum number or shareholders required to be considered a publicly held company, but these entities are often traded on the security exchanges, or at least have published price quotations. Corporations with more than $5 million of assets and at least one outstanding class of securities that is held by more than 500 shareholders of record are subject to special regulation under the Federal Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Among these rules are the requirement that the corporation register that class of shares with the SEC and make public disclosure of periodic financial information.
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