There are several stocks in the market that have more than one stock symbol, including Zillow (Z 1.11%)(ZG 0.88%), Alphabet (GOOG +1.24%)(GOOGL +1.36%), and Under Armour (UA +2.88%)(UAA +3.13%). These represent dual-class share structures, and in this Fool Live video clip recorded on June 16, Fool.com contributor Matt Frankel, CFP, discusses what this means and why it's important to investors.
Matt Frankel: Can you explain the difference between Zillow Z, Class C shares, and ZG, ticker symbol, Class A shares?" I'm going to answer this from a broader perspective. You'll see a lot of stocks that have two different share classes that are publicly traded. Alphabet or Google is one. GOOG and GOOGL. You'll see Under Armour's one, UA and UAA. There are quite a few that have this dual class structure. Usually, the difference is voting rights. One share class will trade for a slightly higher amount. I'm not sure which one it is with the Zillow off top of my head. I think that the ZG is the one that has voting rights and Z does not, but don't quote me on that. But one has voting rights, one doesn't. The one with voting rights will always trade for a slight premium. If you care about being able to vote on your company's annual meetings, then buy the one with voting rights. If not, both share classes represents the exact same economic interest in the company. If they declare a dividend on one, we usually declare a dividend on another. If the company announces $0.30 in earnings per share, that will apply to both of their share classes. The only exceptions are where a company has share classes that represent a completely different size of ownership like Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A 0.40%)(BRK.B 0.60%). Berkshire Hathaway A shares and B shares if you check their prices, do not represent anything close to the same amount of ownership in the company. For the most part, when you see two classes of shares listed on an exchange, it's because one has voting rights in company matters, like electing the board of directors and approving things like director compensation, things like that. One does not have the right to vote on those type of matters. Hopefully that helped with that question.
