As you can tell from my previous reply, this is what I finally figured out myself. Since I don't personally have a broker or own any stocks, this was foreign territory. (I know, legally I did own those stocks but to the best of my recollection, I didn't initiate the purchase myself, nor manage them in any way, so this was all new to me.)
Thanks for taking the time to post the explanation, which would have been immensely helpful before I figured out what was going on.
