By owning stocks, you can potentially benefit from the growth and success of the company. There are several ways that stocks can make you money: dividend payments (some stocks pay dividends, which are payments made to shareholders out of the company's profits), capital appreciation (when the price of a stock you own increases, you can sell the stock for a profit), stock splits (when a company splits its stock, it issues more shares to existing shareholders, increasing the number of shares you own. This can also lead to an increase in the value of your investment).