How to calcualte the dividends paid during a year

A company will declare a certain amount to be paid as dividends or they will say a certain amount per share to be paid as dividends.

If you know the total amount paid to common shareholders you simply take the amount and divide it by the number of shares issued and outstanding.

If there are preferred sahres involved you simply take the number of preferred shares issued and outstanding times the par value times the percentage rate of the shares. Then simply subtract this amount from the total dividends paid to get the amount of dividends available to common shareholders.