Investors know that buying a company’s stock leads to getting dividends. Moreover, buying the stock of a promising company can lead to an increase in the stock price in the future. As a result, the investor may get a good profit.
However, there is a different term, noncumulative preferred stock. Some investors know that noncumulative preferred stock means investors may experience not getting their dividends during a specific year. But why do people still buy this stock type? Check out the article to learn more about noncumulative preferred stock and why it’s important to businesses.
What Is Noncumulative?
The concept of noncumulative is about a preferred stock type that doesn’t pay stockholders any omitted or unpaid dividends. Typically, companies issue preferred stock shares with pre-established dividend rates. These rates may either be stated as a dollar amount or, in other cases, as a percentage of the par value.
If the company prefers not to pay dividends during a specific year, investors preserve the right to receive any of these unpaid dividends in the later years. Here are a few things to keep in mind:
- Noncumulative stock means the investor won’t get unpaid or omitted dividends.
- The cumulative stock enables investors to get omitted or not paid dividends.
- Cumulative stock is preferred among investors, given they get their dividends.
Now let’s get into the details of noncumulative stock.
Understanding Noncumulative
Non cumulative stock means it’s a type of preferred stock that doesn’t entitle investors to harvest any missed dividends. They do not accumulate. An alternative concept called cumulative stock refers to a preferred stock type that enables an investor to claim dividends that they missed.
How Does Noncumulative Stock Work?
In simple words, the idea is that noncumulative preferred stock is when dividends have no potential to accumulate in arrears. If at any year the company decides not to offer dividends in payments, then holders of noncumulative stock won’t get these dividends next year.
For example, Mark is an owner of noncumulative preferred stock. Mark had to get around $3,000 in dividends during the current year. But it turned out that the company didn’t gain enough profit, so they must prioritize the holders of preferred stock. As a result, Mark didn’t get $3,000.
Next year Mark has to get $2,500 in dividends, and he gets his money this time. However, he is a noncumulative preferred stock owner, so he will not get $3,000 from the previous year, plus $2,500. If he were the owner of cumulative preferred stock, he would have gained $2,500 + $3,000, so $5,500.
The company might skip dividend payments if the issuing business didn’t achieve its planned financial benchmarks. In that case, the rules state that the business must pay dividends to preferred shareholders since they are the company’s priority. The next in line of preference is common stock owners, then noncumulative shareholders.
Common vs. Preferred Stock
Typically, businesses prefer to issue common, preferred stock, or both of these options. Preferred stock is ranked ahead of common shares in getting something back if the business announces bankruptcy and ends up selling off its assets.
It’s also crucial to note that preferred stocks are issued with clearly noted dividend rates. If a company generates profit, the first ones to collect dividends are preferred shareholders. The next in line is common stockholders.
The downside of preferred stocks is that companies trade them more like bonds. As a result, if the business grows significantly and generates a lot of profit, the shareholders won’t benefit a lot because of the stated dividend rate.
That’s when common shareholders get all the financial perks. Moreover, common shareholders also receive voting rights. Preferred shareowners don’t get these rights.
The Importance Of Noncumulative Preferred Stock
Even though most investors tend to buy cumulative stock since it guarantees dividends, the noncumulative stock has critical value to businesses. Here are a few reasons why the noncumulative preferred stock is preferential and important to businesses:
- cash flow management optimization;
- lowered payment obligations;
- preference rights during liquidation.
Let’s dive into the details.
Cash Flow Management Optimization
Cash flow is the key to a healthy business. That’s why it’s more beneficial for companies to issue noncumulative preferred shares. If, at any time, the business faces cash flow problems, it may choose not to pay dividends. Moreover, skipping dividend payments enables the company to avoid penalties.
Lowered Payment Obligations
The business doesn’t have obligations to produce dividends to the noncumulative preferred stockholders. The business may freely skip these payments without accumulating arrears and without penalties.
Given that this preferred stock type does not accumulate payments, its owners won’t claim dividend payments in the future. This gives businesses more freedom to choose whether they can pay dividends during a given year. If the year wasn’t good for the company, the business owners might choose not to pay.
Preference Rights During Liquidation
If the company isn’t successful and not generating profit, and its owners launch the liquidation process, the noncumulative preferred shares owners have preferential rights. Yes, preferred shareholders get their money first, but the next in line are noncumulative preferred stock owners.
