synonymous with stockholders. When referring to aggregates for a number of issues, however, it is necessary to distinguish between the terms "shareholding" and "stockholder" because any one stockholder may own shares in more than one equity issue of a single corporation and an even larger number undoubtedly own shares in more than one corporation. The number of separate stockholders who owned the 14,000,000 shareholdings reported by the 1,710 corporations is actually not known. Here again, however, estimates were made in connection with the comparable analysis of stock ownership of the 200 largest nonfinancial companies. 10 Assuming the duplication ratio found there to be applicable to the 1,710 corporations, the 14,000,000 record shareholdings (or 16,000,000 beneficial shareholdings) may be estimated to have represented only about 5,000,000 stockholders.

10 See "The Distribution of Ownership in the 200 Largest Non financial Corporations", ch. II, sec. le and appendix I.

CHAPTER II

NUMBER AND VALUE OF SHAREHOLDINGS

1. AGGREGATE NUMBER AND VALUE OF SHAREHOLDINGS

The 14,000,000 record shareholdings reported by the 1,710 corporations, around the end of 1937, consisted of 11,500,000 holdings in 1,584 common stock issues with an aggregate value, at the prices of December 31, 1937, of slightly over $35,000,000,000 and 2,500,000 holdings in 797 preferred stock issues valued at about $7,000,000,000. Compared to all domestic corporations, these 1,710 companies only 2 percent of the total number-accounted for more than half of the total shareholdings and somewhat over 40 percent of the estimated value of all outstanding stocks.

Less than 1 percent of all common shareholdings and less than 2 percent of their aggregate value were accounted for by the 30 common stock issues which were either not listed on any exchange or admitted to unlisted trading privileges only (table 6). Among the 1,554 fully listed common stocks, issues listed on the New York Stock Exchange dominated the picture with 78 percent of all common shareholdings and almost 89 percent of their aggregate value. Issues listed on the New York Curb Exchange accounted for only a little over 7 percent of total shareholdings and slightly under 4 percent of their aggregate value. Stocks listed only on exchanges outside of New York represented 14 percent of total common shareholdings and around 6 percent of their aggregate value.

Among the preferred stocks (table 14), highest proportions of shareholdings and aggregate value were once again accounted for by issues listed on the New York Stock Exchange but the concentration was less striking. Almost 86 percent of total preferred shareholdings and about 92 percent of their aggregate value were represented by the 671 fully listed issues; corresponding proportions for the 365 issues. fully listed on the New York Stock Exchange were only 58 and 74 percent, respectively.

The distribution of the 14,000,000 shareholdings by the industry of the issuer is pictured in charts I and II. (For statistical details see table 1 for common stocks and table 9 for preferred stocks.) About 50 percent of all common shareholdings was accounted for by the manufacturing group alone, which comprised 55 percent of the total number of common stock issues. The electric, gas, and water utilities with less than 4 percent of all common stock issues ranked second in proportion of shareholdings with over 14 percent of the total. The financial and investment group with almost 10 percent of total common shareholdings ranked third and the railroads, with a little over 7 percent of aggregate holdings, fourth. The extractive group on the other hand, with the second largest number of issues, 14 percent of the total, accounted for less than 4 percent of all common

7

CHART I

NUMBER AND VALUE OF SHAREHOLDINGS IN 1710 CORPORATIONS WITH
SECURITIES LISTED ON A NATIONAL SECURITIES EXCHANGE

CLASSIFIED BY MAJOR INDUSTRIES

CHART II

DISTRIBUTION OF NUMBER AND VALUE OF SHAREHOLDINGS
IN 1710 CORPORATIONS WITH SECURITIES LISTED

ON A NATIONAL SECURITIES EXCHANGE
CLASSIFIED BY MAJOR INDUSTRIES

PERCENT 100

shareholdings. An even more extreme contrast appears in the communication group which, with less than 1 percent of all common stock issues, took precedence in number of shareholdings over the merchandising group which ranked third in number of issues. About 7 percent of all common shareholdings was concentrated in the relatively few issues of the communication group as compared with a little over 4 percent in the much more numerous merchandising issues. In proportion of aggregate market value, the communication issues ranked second only to the manufacturing group. This exceptional showing was accounted for by the relatively high priced shares of the American Telephone & Telegraph Co., which alone reported almost 6 percent of all common shareholdings.

Disparities in the proportions of total common shareholdings and estimated value of the shares held, in relation to the number of issues covered, were even more marked among the various industrial subgroups, most noticeably among the manufacturing issues. Almost 75 percent of both total shareholdings and aggregate value for the group were accounted for by petroleum refining, automobiles and parts, food products, electrical machinery and equipment, chemicals, iron and steel, and nonferrous metals, all of which together represented less than half the number of all manufacturing issues.

Among the preferred stocks, the manufacturing group accounted for almost 43 percent of the total 797 issues and 49 percent of their aggregate value but for only 33 percent of all preferred shareholdings. The electric, gas, and water utilities, on the other hand, with only about half as many issues led with almost 44 percent of total preferred shareholdings but ranked second with about 32 percent of the total estimated value. The only other conspicuous divergence of proportions among the major industries was in the merchandising group which, with 9 percent of the total issues, accounted for only 3 percent of all preferred shareholdings and about the same proportion of total calculated value. Among the industrial subgroups, iron and steel, with only 6 percent of the total manufacturing issues, took the lead in proportions of shareholdings and aggregate value, accounting for about 20 percent of the respective totals for the entire manufacturing group. Once again, this marked disparity in the three ratios is traceable to the influence of a single issue, United States Steel Corporation preferred, which occupied only a moderately less dominant relative position among the preferred stocks than did the stock of the American Telephone & Telegraph Co. among the commons.

Contrasts revealed in the classification of number and value of shareholdings by the size of issuer (table 2 for common stocks, table 10 for preferred stocks) are equally significant and even more striking. Around 35 percent of aggregate common shareholdings and about the same proportion of total estimated value were accounted for by the 47 largest corporations (each with assets of $500,000,000 or more), only 3 percent of the total. The largest 7 percent of the 1,710 corporations, each with assets of $200,000,000 or more, embraced half of all shareholdings. The largest 12 percent, ranging in asset size from $100,000,000 to $5,000,000,000, accounted for over 60 percent of all common shareholdings with a combined value in excess of 70 percent of the total. Among preferred stocks, the top size group of $500,000,000 and over included 5 percent of the corporations covered but they accounted together for only 27 percent of aggregate