Preferred Stock vs. Common Stock

The primary advantage to an investor of holding preferred stock compared with common stock is that the preferred stock return is somewhat more predictable (more certain). The issuing company will generally make a real effort to try to avoid defaulting on the preferred stock dividend. Since the return to preferred stock is reasonably well defined and since the preferred stockholders precede the common stockholders (the preferred dividends are paid before the common dividends), preferred stock is a popular type of security for executing mergers and acquisitions.