How to Calculate Preferred Stock Outstanding | The Motley Fool (2024)

Preferred stock is a special type of equity financing that shares some features of common stock, as well as debt. Luckily, finding the amount of preferred stock outstanding for any given company has more to do with looking in the right place than making a calculation.

A slice of shareholders' equity
Preferred stock is reported in the shareholders' equity section of a company's balance sheet. Below, I've reproduced a snippet of Bank of America's (NYSE: BAC) annual report to show you what this section of the balance sheet looks like.

How to Calculate Preferred Stock Outstanding | The Motley Fool (1)

Reproduced from page 133 of Bank of America's 2015 Annual Report.

Preferred stock is always listed first in shareholders' equity because it has a "preference" in receiving payouts in the form of dividends or distributions in liquidation. Preferred stock shareholders have to be paid in full before common stock shareholders can enjoy the benefit from a company's earnings or assets.

Next to the label "preferred stock" is a short description. Bank of America has authorized 100 million shares of preferred stock, meaning it could theoretically have 100 million shares of preferred stock outstanding. Next, it reports that there are roughly 3.76 million and 3.65 million shares outstanding at the end of 2015 and 2014, respectively.

The number of shares outstanding doesn't really tell you all that much because a preferred share can be issued in any amount, though $25 and $100 par values are common. You need to look to the next column in the balance sheet, where you can see there is about $22.3 billion of preferred stock outstanding at the end of 2015 vs. $19.3 billion at the end of 2014. This is the number that really matters.

If for some reason the amount of preferred stock outstanding was not immediately available, some simple math could save the day.

Note that if you start with shareholders' equity of $256.2 billion, and subtract the amount of accumulated other comprehensive income (if applicable), retained earnings, and common stock, you'd arrive at the amount (about $22.3 billion) of preferred stock outstanding.

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The Motley Fool has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Bank of America. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

How to Calculate Preferred Stock Outstanding | The Motley Fool (2024)

FAQs

How do you calculate preferred shares outstanding? ›

The formula for calculating the shares outstanding consists of subtracting the shares repurchased from the total shares issued to date.

What is preferred stock outstanding? ›

Outstanding Preferred Stock means the average number of shares of Preferred Stock issued and outstanding during the relevant period.

How do you calculate preferred stock level? ›

Preferred stock level is calculated as daily demand multiplied by preferred stock level in days. Enter an ATP Lead Time to use in Available to Promise calculations. ATP lead time is used as a planning horizon for supply and demand in the ship date recommendation calculations.

How do you calculate preferred stock in annual report? ›

Accounting for Preferred Stock. All preferred stock is reported on the balance sheet in the stockholders' equity section and it appears first before any other stock.

What does 8% preferred stock mean? ›

So 8% preferred stock means the investor will get a yearly dividend of 8% of the face value. Preferred stock is equity and not a debt instrument. The company may have the flexibility to decide to withhold dividends sometimes and can pay later.

How is preferred stock shown on balance sheet? ›

Preferred stock is listed first in the shareholders' equity section of the balance sheet, because its owners receive dividends before the owners of common stock, and have preference during liquidation.

Is preferred stock outstanding a liability? ›

If the issuer determines that the monetary value of the obligation to issue common shares is based predominantly on a fixed monetary amount known at issuance, the preferred stock should be classified as a liability under the guidance in ASC 480-10-25-14a.

What does 7% preferred stock mean? ›

What Is an Example of a Preferred Stock? Consider a company is issuing a 7% preferred stock at a $1,000 par value. In turn, the investor would receive a $70 annual dividend, or $17.50 quarterly. Typically, this preferred stock will trade around its par value, behaving more similarly to a bond.

How do you calculate preferred stock dividends? ›

You can calculate your preferred stock's annual dividend distribution per share by multiplying the dividend rate and the par value. If you want to determine how much your dividend will be on a quarterly basis (assuming your preferred stock pays quarterly), simply divide this result by four.

How to calculate preferred dividends? ›

How to Calculate Preferred Dividend. All issuances of preferred stock contain the equity's dividend rate and par value in the preferred stock prospectus. The dividend rate multiplied by the par value equates to the total annual preferred dividend.

Is preferred stock paid annually? ›

Preferred stocks typically pay cash dividends on a semi-annual basis (twice per year), but you could encounter preferred shares paying annual or quarterly dividends. Similar to common stock, the Board of Directors (BOD) must approve the dividend payment when the time comes for a dividend payment to be made.

What is 6% preferred stock? ›

For example, 6% preferred stock means that the dividend equals 6% of the total par value of the outstanding shares. Except in unusual instances, no voting rights exist. Types include cumulative preferred stockand participating preferred stock.

What does 9% preferred stock mean? ›

Par Value of Preferred Stock

For example, if a corporation issues 9% preferred stock with a par value of $100, the preferred stockholder will receive a dividend of $9 (9% times $100) per share per year.

What is the preferred stock rule? ›

Stock that confers the holder a right to be paid first, before common (non-preferred) stockholders in the event of a dividend or liquidation payout. Unlike common stock, though, preferred stock confers no voting rights.

Does preferred stock go on income statement? ›

Preferred stock dividends are deducted on the income statement. The reason is that preferred stockholders have a higher claim to dividends than common stockholders do.

Is preferred stock retained earnings? ›

Preferred shares are issued to business owners and other investors as proof of the money they have paid into a company. They make up one part of a company's shareholder equity, the other two being common shares and retained earnings.

Is preferred stock recorded at fair value? ›

Preferred stock should be recognized on its settlement date (i.e., the date the proceeds are received and the shares are issued) and is generally recorded at fair value.

Do you include preferred stock in shares outstanding? ›

Add together the numbers of preferred and common shares outstanding, and subtract the number of treasury shares. The result is the total number of shares outstanding.

What happens to preferred stock in a buyout? ›

As preferred shares are generally not voting shares, it is not necessary that the purchaser redeem or buy them out when taking over a company. The buyer has the same options as the original owner in dealing with the preferred shares.

Is preferred stock a debt or equity? ›

Preferred stock is similar to common stock mostly in name only. For legal purposes it's considered equity, like common stock, rather than debt, though it functions much like debt. Like the payments on common stock, the company is not able to deduct payments to its preferred stock from its taxable income.

What is a major disadvantage of preferred stock? ›

Disadvantages of Preference Shares

The main disadvantage of owning preference shares is that the investors in these vehicles don't enjoy the same voting rights as common shareholders. 1 This means that the company is not beholden to preferred shareholders the way it is to traditional equity shareholders.

What are the three types of preferred stock? ›

The four main types of preference shares are callable shares, convertible shares, cumulative shares, and participatory shares.

What happens to preferred stock when interest rates rise? ›

Just like bonds, which also make fixed payments, the market value of preferred shares is sensitive to changes in interest rates. If interest rates rise, the value of the preferred shares falls. If rates decline, the opposite would hold true.

What is the formula for yield on preferred stock? ›

Current yield is a commonly used yield calculation for traditional preferred securities. It can be calculated by dividing the annual interest or dividend payment amount by the current market price of the security and multiplying the result by 100.

Does preferred stock always pay dividends? ›

Like many common stocks, preferred shares pay dividends. Unlike common stocks, though, preferred shares always pay dividends and these dividends are more secure. The yield on a preferred stock is determined at issuance based on the par value of the preferred.

What is the value of the preferred stock when the dividend rate is 14% and the par value is $100 the discount rate is 12%? ›

Answer and Explanation:

The value of the preferred stock is $116.67.

What is the average yield on preferred stock? ›

For investors who are willing to take additional risks to earn higher yields, we suggest preferred securities rather than high-yield corporate bonds. The average yield-to-maturity of the ICE BofA Fixed Rate Preferred Securities Index is roughly 6.9%.

Do preferred stocks pay dividends monthly? ›

Preferred stock dividends are often paid monthly or quarterly, and can be a fixed amount per share, or set against a benchmark interest rate such as the LIBOR.

Who gets paid first common or preferred stock? ›

Preferred shareholders have priority over a company's income, meaning they are paid dividends before common shareholders. Common stockholders are last in line when it comes to company assets, which means they will be paid out after creditors, bondholders, and preferred shareholders.

How many shares of preferred stock are outstanding? ›

You can also calculate the number of outstanding shares by adding the total number of preferred stock shares to the total number of common stock shares, and then subtracting the total number of treasury shares.

How do you calculate how many shares have been issued? ›

The market capitalization method

If you know the market cap of a company and you know its share price, then figuring out the number of outstanding shares is easy. Just take the market capitalization figure and divide it by the share price.

What is the difference between outstanding shares and issued shares? ›

Issued vs Outstanding Shares

Shares issued, whether through a grant or purchase, and not held by the company are then known as outstanding shares. Unissued shares factor into the total number of authorized shares and are often reserved by the company for issuance to employees or sale to investors.

What is the dividend on an 8 percent preferred stock? ›

For example, say that a preferred stock had a par value of $100 per share and paid an 8% dividend. To calculate the dividend, you would need to multiply 8% by $100 (the par value), which comes out to an annual dividend of $8 per share. If dividend payments are made quarterly, each payment will be $2 per share.

How do you calculate authorized issued and outstanding shares? ›

To determine this percentage, divide the number of issued shares you own by the total number of shares issued and outstanding. So, for example, if you own 500,000 shares of capital stock and the company has 5,000,000 shares issued and outstanding, you currently own 10% of the company.

What is the formula to be used to calculate the number of shares to be issued to the vendor? ›

Thus, to find the number of shares to be issued to the vendor will be calculated as follows: No. of shares to be issued = Amount Payable/Issue Price.

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