B

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B

Fifth letter of a Nasdaq stock descriptor specifying that issue is the Class B shares of the company.

B

1. On the NASDAQ stock exchange, a symbol on the ticker board indicating that the issue being traded is class B stock. That is, B represents common stock designated by the publicly-traded company issuing it as having fewer rights than class A stock, especially fewer voting rights.

2. A low bond rating used by the S&P and Fitch credit agencies. B-rated bonds are highly speculative and are thought to contain high risk and a relatively high chance of default. Banks are not permitted to invest in B-rated bonds. See also: Junk.

B

A low, speculative grade assigned to a debt obligation by a rating agency. Such a rating indicates there is considerable uncertainty as to the ability to pay interest and repay principal over a long period.

b

Used in the dividend column of stock transaction tables in newspapers to indicate payment of a stock dividend in addition to the indicated cash dividend: 1.50b.

References in classic literature ?

Captain Purnall presses a switch and our signal beam begins to swing through the night, twizzling spokes of light across infinity.

I've turned in a General Call, so even if they don't see our beam some one's bound to help--or else we must.

We shut off our beam as she adjusts herself--steering to a hair--over the tramp's conning-tower.

Keep our beam on her and send out a General Warning," says Captain Purnall, following her down.

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It gave great sound of tearing, and Strickland put his head through the opening into the dark of the angle of the roof beams.

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Strongly attached to the same beam was what appeared to be an end of a rope of braided horsehair, which had been cut by the bullet in its passage to the knot.

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The glimmer of the lantern, as a trap opened, shone in like the heaven's sunlight; and though it only showed me the strong, dark beams of the ship that was my prison, I could have cried aloud for gladness.

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They were soon left alone; nothing more important happening, in the meantime, than the boy looking round his old beam, and saying, 'Everybody at eleven to-morrow, ladies

At last they came into a maze of dust, where a quantity of people were tumbling over one another, and where there was such a confusion of unaccountable shapes of beams, bulkheads, brick walls, ropes, and rollers, and such a mixing of gaslight and daylight, that they seemed to have got on the wrong side of the pattern of the universe.

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We all went together, she before us: and a glorious old room it was, with more oak beams, and diamond panes; and the broad balustrade going all the way up to it.

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The captain used to remark frequently: "Ah, yes; I dare say one-third weight above beams would have been quite enough for most ships.

The captain in his armchair, holding on grimly at the head of the table, with the soup-tureen rolling on one side of the cabin and the steward sprawling on the other, would observe, looking at me: "That's your one-third above the beams.