[clarification needed] Shareholders may have acquired their shares in the primary market by subscribing to the IPOs and thus provided capital to the corporation.
However, most shareholders acquire shares in the secondary market and provided no capital directly to the corporation.
Shareholders are considered by some to be a subset of stakeholders, which may include anyone who has a direct or indirect interest in the business entity.
For example, employees, suppliers, customers, the community, etc., are typically considered stakeholders because they contribute value or are impacted by the corporation.
The value of shareholders' cash-flow rights can be computed by discounting future free cash flows.