The Links of Ownership
There are 3 main ways to hold electronically recorded shares, AKA book-entry shares:
DRS holdings, Issuer plan holdings, and brokerage holdings.
Each of them have 2 main ownership classes. The diagram below starts with total investor ownership, and moves downward
Tap on each section of the diagram to read more.
Further Reading
https://www.sec.gov/about/reports-publications/investor-publications/holding-your-securities-get-the-facts
"Purchases made through the issuer (or its transfer agent) of securities you intend to hold in DRS are usually executed under the guidelines of an issuer’s stock purchase plan, which uses a broker-dealer to execute the orders. Thus, to hold in DRS once the securities are acquired, you would need to instruct the transfer agent to move the securities from the issuer plan to DRS."
https://www.finra.org/investors/insights/know-the-facts-direct-registered-shares
“Purchases made through the issuer (or its transfer agent) of securities you intend to hold in direct registration are usually executed under the guidelines of the issuer’s stock purchase plan. You’ll need to instruct the transfer agent to move the securities to the DRS.”
https://www.computershare.com/us/becoming-a-registered-shareholder-in-us-listed-companies#dspp
"An investor can, at any time, withdraw all or part of their shares in DSPP book-entry form and have them added to their DRS holding (for example after a DSPP purchase settles) without a fee"