The individual shareholder gains a fraction of ownership of the company. And if it delivers a dividend they win a percentage of the revenue destined to be distributed to the shareholders.
Explanation:
All right this is a very open question that has a lot of angles to be taken so put a lot of attention. A stock is a fraction of the ownership of any company I the company is designed as a stock organized ownership one. There are different types of stock. Many companies have two types, the open to the public "retail" shareholder and the "preferred" stock for the corporate or influential shareholder. Both of them show a percentage o ownership and in many cases, the preferred ones have more percentage than the "retail" ones. Even though they could be less preferred than "retail" they have different prices and also privileges. They could have different voting ratios of nd benefits. If the companies deliver a dividend the shareholders will receive a fraction of the total percentage of the revenue destined to be delivered to the investors in many companies the preferred stock has a stronger and better dividend while the retail stocks have a smaller one. Also, preferred stocks have a different and bigger price. So retail is a good strategy for investing. As an investor, you will have the right to visit the earnings calls, request information from the company and also receive all the data you want from the company. If you are interested in finance, I suggest you to read, Peter lynch, or George Soros. Their books helped me a lot in finance school.
