preferred stock

American  

noun

1. stock that has a superior claim to that of common stock with respect to dividends and often to assets in the event of liquidation.

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preferred stock British  

noun

1. Also called (in eg Britain, Australia): preference shares. shares representing part of the capital issued by a company and entitling their holders to priority with respect to both net profit and net assets. Preferred stock usually carries a definite rate of dividend that is generally lower than that declared on common stock

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Etymology

Origin of preferred stock

An Americanism dating back to 1840–50

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

preferred stock

The so-called mandatory convertible preferred stock is expected to carry a dividend yield of 6% to 6.5%.

From Barron's ● Oct. 26, 2026

A key moment arrived in November 2007, when Freddie Mac slashed its dividend and sold $6 billion of preferred stock in a desperate bid to bolster its regulatory capital amid mounting mortgage losses.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 27, 2026

Akamai issued Anthropic a warrant to purchase around 7.7 million shares of its non-voting convertible Series B preferred stock on an as-converted basis.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026

The company said it used the money raised to fund payment of distributions on preferred stock, and to replenish the money used from its U.S. dollar reserves for the distributions.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 6, 2026

Treasury didn’t ask for a piece of the action, or management changes, or for that matter anything at all except for a teaspoon of out-of-the-money warrants and preferred stock.

From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis

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