book value

American  

noun

1. the value of a business, property, etc., as stated in a book of accounts (distinguished from market value).

2. total assets minus all liabilities; net worth.

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book value British  

noun

1. the value of an asset of a business according to its books

2. 1. the net capital value of an enterprise as shown by the excess of book assets over book liabilities

   2. the value of a share computed by dividing the net capital value of an enterprise by its issued shares Compare par value market value

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Etymology

Origin of book value

First recorded in 1895–1900

Example Sentences

Value stocks, or shares trading at low multiples of their book value, have quietly marched toward a banner year.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 5, 2026

The stock now trades for about 1.4 times book value, down from a peak of 1.8 times when the A shares peaked at over $800,000 in early May 2025.

From Barron's • Mar. 28, 2026

The index provider scores companies in the S&P 500 by value factors, including ratios of book value, earnings and sales to price.

From MarketWatch • Mar. 23, 2026

Publicly traded loan funds trade below 80% of their book value, while nontraded funds can’t fill all the redemption requests.

From Barron's • Mar. 18, 2026

When two partners divide up the profits of a business between them they assign a notional book value to the stock in hand.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton