what is capital structure 
capital structure is the particular combination of debt and equity used by a company to finance its overall operations and growth equity capital arises from ownership shares in a company and claims to its future cash flows and profits debt comes in the form of bond issues or loans while equity may come in the form of common stock preferred stock or retained earnings short term debt is also considered to be part of the capital structure investopedia matthew collinsdynamics of debt and equityboth debt and equity can be found on the balance sheet company assets also listed on the balance sheet are purchased with debt or equity capital structure can be a mixture of a company s long term debt short term debt common stock and preferred stock a company s proportion of short term debt versus long term debt is considered when analyzing its capital structure 