What Is a Publicly Held Company?

Publicly Held Company

A publicly held company, also called a publicly traded company or public company, is a corporation whose ownership is distributed among general public shareholders through the trading of its shares on stock exchanges or over-the-counter markets. A public company is required to disclose its results of operations, financial condition, and other mandated business information regularly to the public. It must also report its securities trading on stock exchanges.

Public companies have numerous advantages over private companies, including access to the public financial markets enabling them to raise money by selling stocks or bonds.

Visit our Public Company Gateway for the latest legal and regulatory developments as well as key checklists, guides, and other pragmatic desktop tools.