Correct grubstake, The 178 number is ddls BS from
Post# of 7725
There are two classes of Shareholders:
Registered Owners/Record holders who purchase their shares direct from the company
Beneficial Owners who purchase their shares through Brokerage firms like Fidelity, TD Ameritrade, ect.
The last time BIEL was required to count all of the 'Beneficial Owners' was 2009 when they were still Fully SEC Reporting. The results were over 16,000 Shareholders with 1.4 billion shares in circulation.
https://www.investor.gov/what-registered-owne...r%2Ddealer