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

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

preferred stock

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 recently raised $216 million from offloading 3,588 bitcoin to fund dividends on its preferred stock.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 16, 2026

Strategy had previously been issuing preferred stock and selling common stock to raise money to buy and hold bitcoin.

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