Stage width differs everytime

programming flash
1

Hello below is the code I am using for a project. My problem is when I trace the stageRef.width in the constructor and in the function both of them output different values. My stage is 980 x 700 pixels but whenever I trace something related to dimension such as x,y,width or height I got corrupt results.

Thanks



package com.gh {
	import flash.display.MovieClip;
	import flash.display.Stage;
	import flash.events.Event;
		

	import com.greensock.*;
	import com.greensock.loading.*;
	import com.greensock.events.LoaderEvent;
	import com.greensock.loading.display.*;


	public class index extends MovieClip {
		
		private var thepreloader:contentpreloader;
		public var stageRef:MovieClip = new MovieClip();

		public function index() {
			setStage(980,700);
			
			
			thepreloader = new contentpreloader(this.loaderInfo);
			stageRef.addChild(thepreloader);
						
			trace(stageRef.width); // This outputs 1019.8

		
			thepreloader.addEventListener("loadComplete", loadAssets);
			thepreloader.addEventListener("preloaderFinished", showSponsors);
			
			

			trace("Index init");



		}
		
		private function loadAssets(e:Event) : void
		{
			this.play();
		}
 
		private function showSponsors(e:Event) : void
		{
			stageRef.removeChild(thepreloader);
			trace("show sponsors");
		}
		
		
		private function setStage(stageWidth:uint , stageHeight:uint)
		{

			stageRef.graphics.beginFill(0x0567f1, 1);
			stageRef.graphics.drawRect(0,0,stageWidth, stageHeight);
			stage.addChild(stageRef);
			trace(stageRef.width); // This outputs normal
			trace("Stage Set 980 x 700 pixels");
		}
		
		


	}

}

Is this something code related ?
thanks