public corporation

A public corporation is a company whose shares are listed to be traded on a public market , such as the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) . When a company goes public, it will undertake its initial public offering (IPO) after submitting Form S-1 (which is a registration statement ) to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) . When a corporation finally goes public, it will be required to file annual reports, quarterly reports, and current reports using Form 10-K , Form 10-Q , and Form 8-K , among others with the SEC, according to the Securities Act .

The opposite term is private corporation , which has private placements .

[Last reviewed in March of 2022 by the Wex Definitions Team ]

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