Face Value is important to investors because it is the price they can expect to receive if they sell their security back to the issuer. The face value of a bond, for example, will be repaid at maturity, regardless of how much the bond has been worth on the secondary market. This makes face value an important consideration when investing in a security.While face value is an important measure for investors, it's not always indicative of a security's actual worth.For example, a stock may have a face value of $10 per share but be trading at $15 on the open market. In this case, the stock would have a market capitalization (or "market cap") of $150 million ($15 x 10 million shares). This means that while investors may receive $10 per share if they sold their shares back to the company, they could also sell them for more than that on the open market.Face value is also used in bankruptcy proceedings and other legal matters as shorthand for total liabilities or debt obligations incurred by a company.
