{"id":27629,"date":"2026-04-16T06:02:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T06:02:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.samco.in\/help-support\/?post_type=ht_kb&#038;p=27629"},"modified":"2026-04-16T06:02:42","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T06:02:42","slug":"what-is-the-difference-between-equity-and-preference-shares","status":"publish","type":"ht_kb","link":"https:\/\/www.samco.in\/help-support\/article\/what-is-the-difference-between-equity-and-preference-shares\/","title":{"rendered":"What is the difference between equity and preference shares?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>When a company issues shares, it can issue two types, equity shares and preference shares. Both represent ownership in the company, but they work very differently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Equity Shares<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Equity shares are the most common type traded on the stock market. When you buy a stock on NSE or BSE, you are almost always buying equity shares.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Equity shareholders:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Have voting rights in the company<\/li><li>Receive dividends only if the company declares them and the amount can vary<\/li><li>Are the last to be paid if the company winds up<\/li><li>Benefit the most when the company grows<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Preference Shares<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Preference shares come with a fixed dividend that is paid before equity shareholders receive anything. They also have priority over equity shareholders in a liquidation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Preference shareholders:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Receive a fixed dividend (similar to interest on a bond)<\/li><li>Generally do not have voting rights<\/li><li>Get paid before equity holders if the company winds up<\/li><li>Have limited upside they do not benefit from the company&#8217;s growth beyond the fixed dividend<\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"ht_kb_category":[2969],"ht_kb_tag":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samco.in\/help-support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ht_kb\/27629"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samco.in\/help-support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ht_kb"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samco.in\/help-support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/ht_kb"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samco.in\/help-support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samco.in\/help-support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27629"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.samco.in\/help-support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ht_kb\/27629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27631,"href":"https:\/\/www.samco.in\/help-support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ht_kb\/27629\/revisions\/27631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samco.in\/help-support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"ht_kb_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samco.in\/help-support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ht_kb_category?post=27629"},{"taxonomy":"ht_kb_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samco.in\/help-support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ht_kb_tag?post=27629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}