Shares of stock represent
how much of a company a person owns? Puff Incorporated is owned
by Peter, Paul, and Mary. Peter owns 4,050 shares,
Paul owns 2,510 shares, And Mary owns 42
hundred or 4,200 shares. Suppose the company made a
profit this year of $1,500,000. If each shareholder gets a
proportion of the total profit that is equal to the proportion
of the share they own, how much money
does Mary receive? So first, let's think about
what fraction or what percentage or what proportion of the total
profit should Mary receive? So Mary owns 4,200 shares. And how many total shares
are there in the company? Well, the only owners
of this company are Peter, Paul, and Mary. So the total number
of shares are the sum of Peter, Paul,
and Mary's shares. So we know that Peter
owns 4,050 shares. We know that Paul owns 2,510. And of course, we know
that Mary owns 4,200. So let's figure it. This is the fraction
of the profit that Mary should be getting. So let's figure out
this with a calculator. So this is going
to be 4,200 divided by 4,050 plus 2,510 plus 4,200. And so Mary should get
0.39 of the profit. Or if we talk about it
in terms of percentage, it would be 39% of the profit. So this right over
here is 0.390. Actually, let me just
leave it like that. So this is approximately
equal to 0.39. And so if we want to figure
out how much profit she gets, she gets this much
times the total profit. So Mary gets 0.39, and
this is the exact quantity right over here. 0.39 is the approximation,
so approximately 0.39. This little squiggly equal sign
is how I say approximately. She's going to get 0.39
times the total profit, which is $1,500,000. And so let's go back
to our calculator. And so we said
approximately 0.39. This is the exact value. I can get that
exact value again, at least on this calculator,
by saying Second Answer. This literally means
the previous answer. So this is literally this number
right over here-- 0.390334 whatever. So this is the exact
quantity times $1,500,000. One, two, three, there we go. There's $1,500,000. I've got to make sure I have
the right number zeroes there. And that gets us
$585,50- and we need to round to the nearest
penny-- and $0.86. So let me put that someplace
where I can see it. So this is going to be equal
to $585,501 and, if we round, $0.86. So not bad for
one year for Mary. She should be able to live
quite well just on her dividends from Puff Incorporated.