Class of shares

1.Different classes of common stock that hold different voting rights for their shareholders. For example, a company may have class A shares that are entitled to 1 vote per share and class B shares that are entitled to 10 votes per share.

Owners of companies that have been privately owned and go public often create class A and B share structures with different voting rights in order to maintain control and/or to make the company a more difficult target for a takeover. The original owners usually end up with the preferential voting class of stock.

2.With load mutual funds, there are three classes of shares Class A, Class B and Class C, which carry different sales charge, 12b-1 fees and operating expense structures.