General Mills Preferred Stock

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General Mills Preferred Stock Calculation

Preferred Stock is a special equity security that has properties of both equity and debt. It is generally considered a hybrid instrument. Preferred stock is senior to common stock, but is subordinate to bonds in terms of claim or rights to their share of the assets of the company.

Preferred stock has priority over common stock in the payment of dividends and any payments received when a company liquidates.

Preferred stock comes in many forms. It can be:

Convertible or Non-Convertible
Cumulative or Non-Cumulative
Voting or Non-Voting
Callable or Non-Callable
Maturity Date or No Maturity Date

A preferred stock without a maturity date is called a perpetual preferred stock. These are relatively rare. A good example of perpetual preferred stock is the many series of Public Storage (PSA) preferred shares that trade on the New York Stock Exchange.

Before investing in preferred stock, it is important to know which of the above groups the stock belongs to. Is it convertible or non-convertible? Are dividends cumulative or non-cumulative?

It is also critical that an investor knows what bonds the company has in front of the preferred stock. Bondholders get paid first. So the decision to buy a preferred stock can be similar to the decision to buy a bond. But, remember, the preferred stock of a company with bonds is junior to those bonds.

Unless a preferred stock is convertible, the upside in a preferred stock investment is more limited than in a common stock investment. If a company doubles its earnings, it is usually under no more obligation to double the dividends paid to preferred shareholders than it is to double the interest paid to its bankers and bondholders.So preferred stock is very different from common stock.

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General Mills  (NYSE:GIS) Preferred Stock Explanation

When a company needs capital but does not wish to issue debt, they may sell preferred stocks to investors.

For instance, during the financial crisis of 2008, Goldman Sachs (GS) issued a combination of preferred stock and common stock options for $5 billion of capital to Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A)(BRK.B). In this deal, Berkshire Hathaway paid $5 billion for 10% cumulative perpetual preferred stock and warrants to buy 43.5 million shares of Goldman Sachs at $115 a share. Goldman Sachs bought back the preferred in 2010. Guess how much money Warren Buffett made in this deal in two years? Read How Much Did Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) Make on Its Goldman Sachs (GS) Preferred Stock?

1. The market value of Preferred Stocks needs to be added to the market value of common stocks in the calculation of enterprise value.

General Mills's Enterprise Value for the quarter that ended in May. 2020 is calculated as

	Enterprise Value
=	Market Cap	+	Preferred Stock	+	Long-Term Debt & Capital Lease Obligation	+	Short-Term Debt & Capital Lease Obligation	+	Minority Interest
=	38441.792	+	0	+	11206	+	2610.5	+	291
-	Cash, Cash Equivalents, Marketable Securities
-	1677.8
=	50,871

2. In the calculation of Book Value, the par value of Preferred Stocks needs to subtracted from total equity.

General Mills's Book Value per Share for the quarter that ended in May. 2020 is calculated as

Book Value per Share	=	(Total Stockholders Equity	-	Preferred Stock)	/	Shares Outstanding (Diluted Average)
	=	(8058.5	-	0)	/	609.8
	=	13.21

3. Dividends paid to Preferred Stocks need to be subtracted from net income in the calculation of earnings per share.

General Mills's Earnings per Share (Diluted) (EPS) for the three months ended in May. 2020 is calculated as

Earnings per Share (Diluted)	=	(Net Income	-	Preferred Dividends)	/	Shares Outstanding (Diluted Average)
	=	(625.7	-	0)	/	616.900
	=	1.01

* All numbers are in millions except for per share data and ratio. All numbers are in their local exchange's currency.

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General Mills Preferred Stock Related Terms

Market Cap Long-Term Debt & Capital Lease Obligation Short-Term Debt & Capital Lease Obligation Cash, Cash Equivalents, Marketable Securities Book Value per Share Total Stockholders Equity Shares Outstanding (Diluted Average)