Treasury Stock
Shares a corporation has issued and then repurchased; treasury stock carries no voting rights, pays no dividends, and reduces the count of outstanding shares.
The classic item gives you authorized, issued, and outstanding numbers and asks you to back out treasury shares: outstanding = issued − treasury, and only outstanding shares vote, draw dividends, and count in the EPS denominator. The “tell” is any prompt about why a company repurchases (boost EPS, return cash, fund employee plans, defend the price) or about what treasury stock can and cannot do — the trap answer credits it with a vote or a dividend. Remember treasury shares are issued but not outstanding, so they sit in a limbo that pays nothing and says nothing.
Don’t confuse a buyback with a stock split or stock dividend: those leave each holder’s percentage ownership unchanged, while a repurchase actually shrinks the pool and lifts remaining owners’ stakes. Versus common stock, the point is that the corporation as buyer gets no shareholder rights on its own shares. And watch the resale trap — when the issuer resells treasury stock it is a new issuer sale requiring registration or an exemption, not an exempt secondary trade.
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