Why would preferred stocks have safer dividends? They are non-voting shares. Do companies ever pay dividends to preferred shares but not common? The difference is that if a company liquidates, you'd get a portion of the leftovers (although less than the value of your investment) Preferred gets paid before common and preferred usually has a fixed dividend and is usually higher a lot higher than common stock. Some other differences below. A company must pay out dividends to preferred shareholders before common shareholders receive any dividends. If a company fails and its assets get distributed to investors, preferred shareholders must receive a fixed amount of money before common shareholders can get any of their investment back.