Question

Sweet Company’s outstanding stock consists of 1,000 shares of cumulative 5% preferred stock with a $100 par value and 10,000 shares of common stock with a $10 par value. During the first three years of operation, the corporation declared and paid the following total cash dividends. Dividend Declared year 1 $ 2,000 year 2 $ 6,000 year 3 $ 32,000 The amount of dividends paid to preferred and common shareholders in year 3 is:

Answer 1

Answer: In year three the preferred stockholders would receive $7,000 and the common stockholders would receive $25,000.

Explanation: Preferred stockholders are always paid before common stockholders. Since this stock in cumulative it means that when there is not enough income in one year to pay the preferred stock then the company needs to pay them when they have the money in the future.

In this case the preferred stock is 5% of $100 par value and is cumulative. This means that every year the company needs to pay 5% times $100 par value on each stock, and there is 1,000 shares, so the total is $5,000 in preferred stock dividends.

In year one and two they did not declare enough dividends to pay this full amount. In year one they declared $2,000 and year two they declared $6,000. At the end of year two they should have received $10,000, but only received $8,000. In year three they need to pay the preferred stockholders the $2,000 that are in arrears, plus the $5,000 for year three, for a total of $7,000. Since there was $32,000 in dividends declared and $7,000 is going to the preferred stockholders, it means that there is $25,000 left for the common stockholders. $25,000/10,000 shares equals $2.50 dividend per share.