supervoting stock

Supervoting Stock

Common stock designated by the publicly-traded company issuing it as having more voting rights than other common stock. This gives a shareholder of supervoting stock a greater amount of control over the company. For example, a company can designate its supervoting stock as having three votes and its regular common stock as having one vote. It is also called control stock. See also: Limited-voting stock, Golden share.

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supervoting stock

A class of stock that provides its holders with larger than proportionate voting rights compared with another class of stock issued by the same company. For example, Dow Jones & Company has two classes of common stock: supervoting Class B has ten votes per share compared to the firm's regular common stock with one vote per share. At the end of 2001 Class B shares composed only about 20% of outstanding common stock but enjoyed nearly three quarters of the total voting power. Supervoting stock permits a limited number of stockholders to retain or gain control of a company without having to own more than 50% of all common stock outstanding. Also called control stock. Compare limited-voting stock.

Wall Street Words: An A to Z Guide to Investment Terms for Today's Investor by David L. Scott. Copyright © 2003 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. All rights reserved.