Shareholder Proposal

shareholder proposal

A proposal that is submitted by a shareholder for action at a forthcoming annual meeting. If the holder gives timely notice of his or her intentions, the firm's management must include the proposal in the proxy statement and must give the other shareholders a chance to vote for or against the proposal. Typical shareholder proposals involve voting rights, management compensation, and corporate charitable contributions.

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Shareholder Proposal

A proposal for a publicly-traded company to take a certain course of action, submitted by a shareholder. Any shareholder who owns more than $2,000 in stock or 1% of the company is permitted to initiate a shareholder proposal. It must be placed on the agenda and put to a vote at the next available annual shareholders meeting, unless the SEC gives the company special permission to exempt it. Generally speaking, a shareholder makes a shareholder proposal to force the company to do something that the management does not want it to do. As a result, management tends to urge shareholders to vote against shareholder proposals, though they may seek a compromise with the shareholders if the proposal is popular.

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Shareholder proposal. A shareholder proposal is a resolution that's put forward for consideration at a corporation's annual meeting by an individual shareholder or a group of shareholders rather than by the corporation's board of directors.

A shareholder who has owned at least $2,000 worth of stock or 1% of a company's outstanding shares for at least a year is entitled to offer a proposal.

In most cases, management opposes these proposals and urges shareholders to vote against them. However, management may negotiate with activist investors to make changes in corporate policy to avoid the threat of a shareholder proposal.

A shareholder proposal must be included in proxy materials unless the corporation receives authorization from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to omit it.