Stockholders' equity
Stockholders' equity is the amount of the company that is "owned" by investors. A good way to think of stockholders' equity is the amount of money that stockholders would theoretically get if the company decided to close its doors, sell its assets, and pay all of its debts. This includes preferred equity as well as common stockholders' equity.
By definition, a company's assets minus its liabilities equals its stockholders' equity (also known as "net equity"). In other words, the liabilities and stockholders' equity "balance out" the assets -- which is why it's called a balance sheet.
So, as long as you know all of a company's assets and liabilities, its stockholders' equity is relatively easy to calculate. All three metrics are readily found on the balance sheet of any publicly traded company. However, for privately held businesses, assets and liabilities should be relatively straightforward to calculate (or at least estimate), and therefore, stockholders' equity can be found.
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