Gadfly
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Gadfly
A nickname for a "professional" securityholder who owns stock in various companies, attends annual meetings and asks senior management hard and often embarrassing questions.
Gadfly
A slightly derogatory term for a shareholder who attends annual meetings of shareholders and asks the executives difficult questions. That is, the gadfly may question executive pay, ask why a dividend was not larger when it could have been, and may also generally point out issues about which other shareholders may not be aware. Obviously, many executives do not like the presence of gadflies, though shareholders may find them useful.