Do you exactly know what you are buying when purchasing a stock?

Before entering the stock market someone has to know the answer to the question what is a stock?
Explaining it in its easiest way possible you would say that a stock represents an ownership or partnership with the company you invested your capital in. With the stocks you now own you possess a fraction of the company. You have become a shareholder of the corporation. When there are 1 million shares outstanding and you have bought 10,000 stocks 1% of the company belongs to you.
Everything which is related with this corporation is 1% yours. You always get 1% of every asset and future profit. The profit you get proportionally to the number of stocks you own is called dividend. But even when the corporation has made a profit your dividend is not definite. Only if the management concludes to distribute dividends you will get your portion.

Shareholders want to profit from the increase of higher stock prices.

The money you gave to the company is also called equity. This type of capital is also called risk capital, because the company will give you no guarantee that you will get your money back. Thus, for the company it is not borrowed money or debt. And you will not get assured interest rates. So, for the worst case possible namely when the corporation goes bankrupt you will lose your whole equity capital.
Being a shareholder contains voting rights too. One time per year you will get an invitation to the general meeting of shareholders. There the present and future condition of the company is discussed. Among other things this general meeting is also used to vote for a retention or the distribution of the dividends. You can decide if you are for or against a certain plan.
Shareholders don’t become shareholders in order to collect the dividend. Growing companies generally retain the dividend anyway in order to accelerate the growth process. Every stockholder is more interested in the stock price movements in the stock market. These are the returns everyone is after. In the stock price every present and future condition is already considered. But the fluctuations and price increases are much stronger than the annual growth rate of the stock issuing company.