By that logic, nobody is a shareholder at all, thanks to the magic of Cede and Co. [1] The only real owners are the holders of the physical stock certificates -

By that logic, nobody is a shareholder at all, thanks to the magic of Cede and Co. [1] The only real owners are the holders of the physical stock certificates - and almost nobody does this in real life for numerous reasons. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cede_and_Company https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cede_and_Company