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Home > Investing > How To Calculate > Preferred Stock Outstanding

How to Calculate Preferred Stock Outstanding

By Motley Fool Staff – Updated Apr 29, 2025 at 10:44PM

Key Points

  • Calculate preferred stock by checking the shares issued and deducting any repurchases.
  • Review the company's balance sheet in the shareholders' equity section for details.
  • Assess the dividend rates on preferred stocks to gauge potential investment returns.

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. 

paper stock certificates
Image source: Getty Images.

A slice of shareholders' equity

A slice of shareholders' equity

Preferred stock is reported in the shareholders' equity section of a company's balance sheet. 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.

Related investing articles

How to Calculate Dividend Distribution of Preferred Stocks

Preferred stock can be a good income investment. Here's how to calculate your preferred stocks' dividend distribution.

Is Common Stock an Asset or a Liability?

Assets or liabilities? We explain accounting for common stock.

How to Calculate the Number of Shares a Company Has

Explore how corporations authorize and calculate issued shares through market cap and balance sheet methods.

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.

The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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