Preferred stock is often called a hybrid security because it has some characteristics that are typical of debt and others that are typical of common equity. The following table lists several characteristics of preferred stock. Determine which of these characteristics are consistent with debt securities and which are consistent with common stock.

Characteristic	Debt	Common stock
Its dividends are fixed in amount.
It has a par, or face, value.

Consider the case of Blue Hamster Manufacturing:

Blue Hamster Manufacturing pays an annual dividend rate of 13.20% on its preferred stock that currently returns 17.69% and has a par value of $100.00 per share. The preferred stock issue does not mature, and computes its annual dividend as the product of its dividend rate and its par value. What is the current market value of Blue Hamsters preferred stock?

$102.98 per share

$74.62 per share

$80.59 per share

$65.67 per share

Suppose that there is high unemployment, which causes interest rates to fall, which in turn pulls the preferred dividend yield to 15.21%. Then the value of Blue Hamsters preferred stock will_________ to_________ . This is because interest rates (and security returns) and security values are________ related.