Equity (finance)

In accounting, equity (or owner's equity) is the difference between the value of the assets and the value of the liabilities of
something owned. It is governed by the following equation:

For example, if someone owns a car worth $15,000 (an asset), but owes $5,000 on a loan against that car (a liability), the car
represents $10,000 of equity. Equity can be negative if liabilities exceed assets. Shareholders' equity (or stockholders' equity,
shareholders' funds, shareholders' capital or similar terms) represents the equity of a company as divided among shareholders of
common or preferred stock. Negative shareholders' equity is often referred to as a shareholders' deficit.

Alternatively, equity can also refer to the capital stock of a corporation. The value of the stock depends on the corporation's future
economic prospects. For a company inliquidation proceedings, the equity is that which remains after all liabilities have been paid.

Contents
Owner's equity
Accounting
Book value
Shareholders' equity
Equity stock
Equity investments
Market value of equity stock
Merton model
Equity in real estate
See also
References

Owner's equity
When starting a business, the owners fund the business to finance various operations. Under the model of a private limited company,
the business and its owners are separate entities, so the business is considered to owe these funds to its owners as a liability in the
form of share capital. Throughout the business's existence, the equity of the business will be the difference between its assets and
debt liabilities; this is theaccounting equation.

When a business liquidates during bankruptcy, the proceeds from the assets are used to reimburse creditors. The creditors are ranked
by priority, with secured creditors being paid first, other creditors being paid next, and owners being paid last. Owner's equity (also
known as risk capital or liable capital) is this remaining orresidual claim against assets, which is paid only after all other creditors are
paid. In such cases where even creditors could not get enough money to pay their bills, the owner's equity is reduced to zero because
nothing is left to reimburse it.

Accounting
In financial accounting, owner's equity consists of the net assets of an entity. Net assets is the difference between the total assets and
total liabilities.[1] Equity appears on the balance sheet (also known as the statement of financial position), one of the four primary
financial statements.
The assets of an entity can be both tangible and intangible items. Intangible assets include items such as brand names, copyrights or
goodwill. Tangible assets include land, equipment, and cash. The types of accounts and their description that comprise the owner's
equity depend on the nature of the entity and may include:

Share capital (common stock)

Preferred stock
Capital surplus
Retained earnings
Treasury stock
Stock options
Reserve[2]

Book value
The book value of equity will change in the case of the following events:

Changes in assets relative to liabilities. For example, a profitable firm receives more cash for its products than the
cost at which it produced these goods, and so in the act of making a profit, increases its retained earnings, therefore
its shareholders' equity.
Issue of new equity in which the firm obtains new capital increases the total shareholders' equity .
Share repurchases, in which a firm returns money to investors, reducing on the asset side its financial assets, and
on the liability side the shareholders' equity
. For practical purposes (except for its tax consequences), share
repurchasing is similar to a dividend payment. Rather than giving money to all shareholders immediately in the form
of a dividend payment, a share repurchase reduces the number of shares outstanding.
Dividends paid out to preferred stock owners are considered an expense to be subtracted fromnet income(from the
point of view of the common share owners).
Other reasons - Assets and liabilities can change without any ef fect being measured in the Income Statement under
certain circumstances; for example, changes in accounting rules may be applied retroactively . Sometimes assets
bought and held in other countries get translated back into the reporting currency at dif ferent exchange rates,
resulting in a changed value.

Shareholders' equity
When the owners are shareholders, the interest can be called shareholders' equity; the accounting remains the same, and it is
ownership equity spread out among shareholders. If all shareholders are in one and the same class, they share equally in ownership
equity from all perspectives. However, shareholders may allow different priority ranking among themselves by the use of share
classes and options. This complicates analysis for bothstock valuation and accounting.

Shareholders' equity is obtained by subtracting total liabilities from the total assets of the shareholders.[3] These assets and liabilities
can be:

Equity (beginning of year)

+ net income
− dividends
+/− gain/loss from changes to the number ofshares outstanding.
= Equity (end of year) if one gets more money during the year or less or not anything

Equity stock

Equity investments
An equity investment generally refers to the buying and holding of shares of stock on a stock market by individuals and firms in
anticipation of income from dividends and capital gains. Typically, equity holders receive voting rights, meaning that they can vote
on candidates for the board of directors (shown on a diversification of the fund(s) and to obtain the skill of the professional fund
managers in charge of the fund(s). An alternative, which is usually employed by large private investors and pension funds, is to hold
shares directly; in the institutional environment many clients who own portfolios have what are called segregated funds, as opposed
to or in addition to the pooled mutual fund alternatives.

A calculation can be made to assess whether an equity is over or underpriced, compared with a long-term government bond. This is
called the yield gap or Yield Ratio. It is the ratio of thedividend yield of an equity and that of the long-term bond.

Market value of equity stock

In the stock market, market price per share does not correspond to the equity per share calculated in the accounting statements.
Equity stock valuations, which are often much higher, are based on other considerations related to the business' operating cash flow,
profits and future prospects; some factors are derived from the accounting statement. While accounting equity can potentially be
negative, market price per share is never negative since equity shares represent ownership in limited liability companies. The
principle of limited liability guarantees that a shareholder's losses may never exceed her investment.

Merton model
In the Merton model, the value of stock equity is modeled as a call option on the value of the whole company (including the
liabilities), struck at the nominal value of the liabilities.[4]

In this model, the equity market value depends on the volatility of the market value of the company assets.

Equity in real estate

The notion of equity as it relates to real estate derives from the concept called equity of redemption. This equity is a property right
valued at the difference between the market valueof the property and the amount of any mortgage or other encumbrance.

See also
Art equity
Private equity

References
1. IFRS Framework quotation:International Accounting Standards BoardF.49(c)
2. Example of Balance Sheet(https://finance.yahoo.com/q/bs?s=C&annual)
3. Hervé Stolowy; Michel Lebas (January 2006).Financial Accounting and Reporting: A Global Perspective(https://boo
ks.google.com/books?id=rRGF7iSaxc8C&pg=P A139). Cengage Learning EMEA. p. 42.ISBN 1-84480-250-7.
4. Merton, Robert C. (1974). "On the Pricing of Corporate Debt: The Risk Structure of Interest Rates".
Journal of
Finance. 29 (2): 449–470. doi:10.1111/j.1540-6261.1974.tb03058.x(https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6261.1974.tb030
58.x).

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