A company was organized in January 2010 and has 2,000 shares of $100 par value, 10%, nonparticipating preferred stock outstanding and 30,000 shares of $10 par value common stock outstanding. It has declared and paid cash dividends each year as shown below. Calculate the total dividends distributed to each class of stockholder under each of the assumptions given.

First you need to calculate the amount of dividends paid to preferred stockholders. Simply take the number of shares outstanding which is 2,000 shares times the par value of $100 times the percentage of 10%. This amount is your dividends issued to preferred stockholders.

If you know the total amount of dividends simply subtract the preferred dividends to get the amount of dividends to common stockholders.

Now take the amount of dividends to common stockholders and divide it by the number of common shares outstanding which is 30,000 shares to get your dividends per share for commons stockholders.

This was very helpful... thank you. I did forget to post the rest of the question...

I need to calculate the total dividends distributed to each class of stockholder under each:

2010 - 15000
2011 - 36000
2012 - 60000

And I need it for Cummulative and non cummulative

Thank you for that explanation... however I realized that I didn't put the rest of the question...

I need to calculate the total dividends distributed to each class of stockholder under the following assumptions:

2010 - 15000
2011 - 36000
2012 - 60000

For cummulative and non cummulative

Thanks for any help you can provide