Preferred Equity is the net number of preferred shares multiplied by the par or stated value per share as presented in the company's balance sheet.

There are several things worth considering before using this in a model:

First, as a practical matter for a company preferred equity functions more as debt without an expiration date than it does like common equity. The line is further muddied by the presence of convertible options attached to many preferred shares. The requirement to pay preferred dividends is almost as serious as it is to repay debt.

Second, because of its similarity in practical effect to other obligations like accounts payable and debt, this line should probably be removed from total equity when using shareholders equity. In fact, in order to avoid this and other adjustments (particularly non-redeemable non-controlling interest) we advise that users consider simply using common equity in lieu of shareholders equity.

Line Item Functions and Derived Factors

The data points come from SEC filings or company earnings announcements. Because our data provider standardizes financial information to make it comparable across different companies, the specific figures may not always match the original source. For a list of all our line items please refer to our Line-Item Reference Spreadsheet. 

Access Methods

There are two access methods: prebuilt factors and using a function.

Function

ItemName(offset, type[, NAHandling])

offset: 0-24 (for interim) 0-19 (for annual)
type: QTR (for interim), ANN (for annual), TTM (for trailing twelve months)
NAHandling: [FALLBACK], KEEPNA, ZERONA

For types QTR & ANN the value is taken straight out of the filing with the corresponding offset, ex: 0 is most recent, 1 is previous, etc. TTM types are computed in two ways: for income and cash flow statement values are calculated by adding four quarterly values. For balance sheet items, TTM is the average of the trailing four quarters.

Example

To screen for stocks whose trailing 12 months revenue is higher than the previous 12 months enter: Sales(0,TTM) > Sales(4,TTM) The above can also be done using prebuilt ratios: SalesTTM < SalesPTM

NA Handling

The NAHandling parameter is optional and is used to control what happens in preliminary reports where many items could be missing. Preliminary reports are press releases by the company and only affect the most recent ("0") offset period. They can last several weeks and can cause false signals due to incomplete data (see "CompleteStmt" for a way to identify companies with preliminary data).

Three options are available when an NA is found in a preliminary report: 

FALLBACK	The default setting. When an NA is encountered the value is pulled from the offset "1" period.
KEEPNA	NAs will be preserved, which can cause the entire expression to fail.
ZERONA	NAs are converted to 0

Pre-built factors

Below are the available pre-built factors for convenience with the corresponding formula parameters. Please note that availability varies by factor.

Period	Description	Corresponding Parameters
Q	Recent Quarter	(0, QTR)
PQ	Prior Quarter	(1, QTR)
PYQ	Prior Year quarter	(4, QTR)
TTM	Trailing Twelve Months	(0, TTM)
PTM	Prior Trailing Twelve Months	(4, TTM)
A	Recent Annual	(0, ANN)
PY	Prior Year	(1, ANN)
Gr%PQ	Growth % PQ	(0, QTR) / (1, QTR)
Gr%PYQ	Growth % PYQ	(0, QTR) / (4, QTR)
Gr%TTM	Growth % TTM	(0, TTM) / (4, TTM)
Gr%PQTTM	Growth % TTM 1Q Ago	(0, TTM) / (1, TTM)
Gr%A	Growth % Annual	(0, ANN) / (1, ANN)
Gr%3Y	Growth % 3 year	(0, ANN) / (3, ANN) annualized
Gr%5Y	Growth % 5 year	(0, ANN) / (5, ANN) annualized
Gr%10Y	Growth % 10 year	(0, ANN) / (10, ANN) annualized
RSD%ANN	RSD % 10Y of annuals	LoopRelStdDev ("function(CTR,ANN)",10,0,1,1))
RSD%TTM	RSD % 5Y of TTM	LoopRelStdDev ("function(CTR*2,TTM)",10,0,1,1))
RegEstTTM	Regression Est 5Y	Eval(LinReg("function(CTR * 2, TTM)", 10) , EstimateY(0), NA)
RegGr%TTM	Regression Gr% 5Y	Eval(LinReg("function(CTR * 2, TTM)", 10) , RegGr%(2), NA)
RegEstANN	Regression Est 10Y	Eval(LinReg("function(CTR, ANN)", 10) , EstimateY(0), NA)
RegGr%ANN	Regression Gr% 10Y	Eval(LinReg("function(CTR, ANN)", 10) , RegGr%(1), NA)
Period	Description	Corresponding Parameters
%SalesQ	% of Q Sales	function(0, QTR) / Sales(0, QRT)
%SalesA	% of A Sales	function(0, ANN) / Sales(0, ANN)
%AssetQ	% of Q Assets	function(0, QTR) / AstTot(0, QRT)
%AssetA	% of A Assets	function(0, ANN) / AstTot(0, ANN)
PSQ	Per Share Q	function(0, QTR) / Shares(0, QRT)
PSA	Per Share A	function(0, ANN) / Shares(0, ANN)
3YAvg	3 Year Average	LoopAvg("function(CTR, ANN)", 3)
5YAvg	5 Year Average	LoopAvg("function(CTR, ANN)", 5)

NOTES: 

• Availability varies by factor.
• PTM uses interim periods, so the offset is 4, not 1.

Click here for the Line-Item Reference Spreadsheet.