Question for those of you who understand stocks...

[dang]

I have a strange situation with some stock certificates and I don't know enough about it to understand what is suppose to happen. Here's the deal...

I had a stock secured line of credit from 2002 sitting out there that I never used and the the credit union it was with had some HP stock certificates. They contacted me a few months ago and asked if I still wanted the account and since I didn't need it they sent me the certs. The certs are in "Hewlett Packard" dated April, 2002, but HP split into two companies last year... HPQ and HPE (Enterprise). I deposited the certs at TD Ameritrade this week and they got put in as HPQ, although when the company split they did a one-for-one stock valuation which basically created HPQ and HPE and the two together equalled the original stock price.

It seems that I'm missing half of my shares now. The TDA guy says to give them a week or two for it to go through the process and they'll figure it out. My question is, if the credit union had a physical piece of paper (certificate) in their possession, there wouldn't be any other shares anywhere else that got generated would there? A different TDA guys says they'll be somewhere with HP Investment Services, but that doesn't make sense to me.

Anyone understand this stuff?

Dan

 

[HB Chris]

Your CU probably never had paper certificates, most are held digitally. Sounds like the split created 2:1, equal shares in each entity with same total value again in digital form.

 

[RMP]

Dan, either way, you should have a share in each company regardless of where the old HP certificate was. TD knows, maybe not the sales guy(s) you have talked with. Press on with TD.

Thanks, Roger

 

[dang]

Your CU probably never had paper certificates, most are held digitally. Sounds like the split created 2:1, equal shares in each entity with same total value again in digital form.

The certificate that they mailed be was dated April, 19 2002. Not sure why it would be that way unless they had it all this time. If it were in digital form wouldn't they have mailed me both companies certificates?

 

[dang]

Dan, either way, you should have a share in each company regardless of where the old HP certificate was. TD knows, maybe not the sales guy(s) you have talked with. Press on with TD.

Thanks, Roger

One guy seemed to know more, or was more confident, and told me to give them a week or two and their people will figure it out. Says they've done thousands and know what they're doing. This is kinda what I expected to hear and have no reason to doubt them. The second guy I talked to didn't seem as sure about things...

 

[RMP]

Certificates are like cash, really, so seldom sent physically. Anyone could intercept the physical certificate and run with it.

 

[sfdon]

Your shares were held in Street Name.
No certs

The new firm will find the ex-dividend date soon enough.