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Glossary
Income

Dilution

Your slice shrinking because the company issued more shares.

New shares, whether issued to raise money or to pay staff, mean the same profit is now split more ways. Your ownership percentage, and your claim on future earnings, fall.

Share-based compensation is the most common source, and the most quietly corrosive, because it does not appear as a cash cost and companies frequently ask you to ignore it in 'adjusted' earnings.

Figure

What you actually own

Founders50%
Institutions30%
Other investors15%
You5%

A share is a slice of the whole company: its profits, its assets and its votes. Your slice is small, and it is a real claim, not a bet on a ticker.

Why it matters

Persistent dilution can consume most of a company's growth before it ever reaches you.

The mistake everyone makes

Watching total profit grow while your share count grows faster. You are getting a bigger slice of nothing.

Related terms

Share buyback
The company buying its own shares and cancelling them.
EPS
Net profit divided by the number of shares, which is your slice of it.

See Dilution on a real company

SteadyShares pulls this straight from the filings for 1,100+ companies, alongside moat scores, DCF fair value and peer comparison. Free to look around.

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