Long-term capital may be raised either through borrowing or by the issuance of stock. Long-term borrowing is done by selling bonds, which are promissory notes that obligate the firm to pay interest at specific times. Secured bondholders have prior claim on the firm’s assets. If the company goes out of business, the bondholders are entitled to be paid the face value of their holdings plus interest. Stockholders, on the other hand, have no more than a residual claim on the company; they are entitled to a share of the profits, if there are any, but it is the prerogative of the board of directors to decide whether a dividend will be paid and how large it will be.

Long-term financing involves the choice between debt (bonds) and equity (stocks). Each firm chooses its own capital structure, seeking the combination of debt and equity that will minimize the costs of raising capital. As conditions in the capital market vary (for instance, changes in interest rates, the availability of funds, and the relative costs of alternative methods of financing), the firm’s desired capital structure will change correspondingly.

The larger the proportion of debt in the capital structure (leverage), the higher will be the returns to equity. This is because bondholders do not share in the profits. The difficulty with this, of course, is that a high proportion of debt increases a firm’s fixed costs and increases the degree of fluctuation in the returns to equity for any given degree of fluctuation in the level of sales. If used successfully, leverage increases the returns to owners, but it decreases the returns to owners when it is used unsuccessfully. Indeed, if leverage is unsuccessful, the result may be the bankruptcy of the firm.

There are various forms of long-term debt. A mortgage bond is one secured by a lien on fixed assets such as plant and equipment. A debenture is a bond not secured by specific assets but accepted by investors because the firm has a high credit standing or obligates itself to follow policies that ensure a high rate of earnings. A still more junior lien is the subordinated debenture, which is secondary (in terms of ability to reclaim capital in the event of a business liquidation) to all other debentures and specifically to short-term bank loans.

Periods of relatively stable sales and earnings encourage the use of long-term debt. Other conditions that favour the use of long-term debt include large profit margins (they make additional leverage advantageous to the stockholders), an expected increase in profits or price levels, a low debt ratio, a price–earnings ratio that is low in relation to interest rates, and bond indentures that do not impose heavy restrictions on management.

Equity financing is done with common and preferred stock. While both forms of stock represent shares of ownership in a company, preferred stock usually has priority over common stock with respect to earnings and claims on assets in the event of liquidation. Preferred stock is usually cumulative—that is, the omission of dividends in one or more years creates an accumulated claim that must be paid to holders of preferred shares. The dividends on preferred stock are usually fixed at a specific percentage of face value. A company issuing preferred stock gains the advantages of limited dividends and no maturity—that is, the advantages of selling bonds but without the restrictions of bonds. Companies sell preferred stock when they seek more leverage but wish to avoid the fixed charges of debt. The advantages of preferred stock will be reinforced if a company’s debt ratio is already high and if common stock financing is relatively expensive.

If a bond or preferred stock issue was sold when interest rates were higher than at present, it may be profitable to call the old issue and refund it with a new, lower-cost issue. This depends on how the immediate costs and premiums that must be paid compare with the annual savings that can be obtained.

The size and frequency of dividend payments are critical issues in company policy. Dividend policy affects the financial structure, the flow of funds, corporate liquidity, stock prices, and the morale of stockholders. Some stockholders prefer receiving maximum current returns on their investment, while others prefer reinvestment of earnings so that the company’s capital will increase. If earnings are paid out as dividends, however, they cannot be used for company expansion (which thereby diminishes the company’s long-term prospects). Many companies have opted to pay no regular dividend to shareholders, choosing instead to pursue strategies that increase the value of the stock.

Companies tend to reinvest their earnings more when there are chances for profitable expansion. Thus, at times when profits are high, the amounts reinvested are greater and dividends are smaller. For similar reasons, reinvestment is likely to decrease when profits decline, and dividends are likely to increase.

Companies having relatively stable earnings over a period of years tend to pay high dividends. Well-established large firms are likely to pay higher-than-average dividends because they have better access to capital markets and are not as likely to depend on internal financing. A firm with a strong cash or liquidity position is also likely to pay higher dividends. A firm with heavy indebtedness, however, has implicitly committed itself to paying relatively low dividends; earnings must be retained to service the debt. There can be advantages to this approach. If, for example, the directors of a company are concerned with maintaining control of it, they may retain earnings so that they can finance expansion without having to issue stock to outside investors. Some companies favour a stable dividend policy rather than allowing dividends to fluctuate with earnings; the dividend rate will then be lower when profits are high and higher when profits are temporarily in decline. Companies whose stock is closely held by a few high-income stockholders are likely to pay lower dividends in order to lower the stockholders’ individual income taxes.

In Europe, until recently, company financing tended to rely heavily on internal sources. This was because many companies were owned by families and also because a highly developed capital market was lacking. In the less-developed countries today, firms rely heavily on internal financing, but they also tend to make more use of short-term bank loans, microcredit, and other forms of short-term financing than is typical in other countries.