Exam 6: Risk, Return, and the Capital Asset Pricing Model

You have the following data on three stocks:If you are a strict risk minimizer, you would choose Stock ____ if it is to be held in isolation and Stock ____ if it is to be held as part of a well-diversified portfolio.

Managers should under no conditions take actions that increase their firm's risk relative to the market, regardless of how much those actions would increase the firm's expected rate of return.

Your portfolio consists of $50,000 invested in Stock X and $50,000 invested in Stock Y. Both stocks have an expected return of 15%, betas of 1.6, and standard deviations of 30%. The returns of the two stocks are independent, so the correlation coefficient between them, rXY, is zero. Which of the following statements best describes the characteristics of your 2-stock portfolio?

Assume that in recent years both expected inflation and the market risk premium (rM − rRF) have declined. Assume also that all stocks have positive betas. Which of the following would be most likely to have occurred as a result of these changes?

Data for Dana Industries is shown below. Now Dana acquires some risky assets that cause its beta to increase by 30%. In addition, expected inflation increases by 2.00%. What is the stock's new required rate of return?

Suppose you hold a portfolio consisting of a $10,000 investment in each of 8 different common stocks. The portfolio's beta is 1.25. Now suppose you decided to sell one of your stocks that has a beta of 1.00 and to use the proceeds to buy a replacement stock with a beta of 1.35. What would the portfolio's new beta be?

An individual stock's diversifiable risk, which is measured by its beta, can be lowered by adding more stocks to the portfolio in which the stock is held.

The CAPM is built on historic conditions, although in most cases we use expected future data in applying it. Because betas used in the CAPM are calculated using expected future data, they are not subject to changes in future volatility. This is one of the strengths of the CAPM.

The risk-free rate is 6%; Stock A has a beta of 1.0; Stock B has a beta of 2.0; and the market risk premium, rM − rRF, is positive. Which of the following statements is CORRECT?

The realized return on a stock portfolio is the weighted average of the expected returns on the stocks in the portfolio.

If investors become less averse to risk, the slope of the Security Market Line (SML) will increase.

Jim Angel holds a $200,000 portfolio consisting of the following stocks:What is the portfolio's beta?

Consider the following information for three stocks, A, B, and C. The stocks' returns are positively but not perfectly positively correlated with one another, i.e., the correlations are all between 0 and 1.Portfolio AB has half of its funds invested in Stock A and half in Stock B. Portfolio ABC has one third of its funds invested in each of the three stocks. The risk-free rate is 5%, and the market is in equilibrium, so required returns equal expected returns. Which of the following statements is CORRECT?

Which of the following is NOT a potential problem when estimating and using betas, i.e., which statement is FALSE?

Mike Flannery holds the following portfolio:What is the portfolio's beta?

Which of the following statements is CORRECT?

CCC Corp has a beta of 1.5 and is currently in equilibrium. The required rate of return on the stock is 12.00% versus a required return on an average stock of 10.00%. Now the required return on an average stock increases by 30.0% (not percentage points). Neither betas nor the risk-free rate change. What would CCC's new required return be?

Bob has a $50,000 stock portfolio with a beta of 1.2, an expected return of 10.8%, and a standard deviation of 25%. Becky also has a $50,000 portfolio, but it has a beta of 0.8, an expected return of 9.2%, and a standard deviation that is also 25%. The correlation coefficient, r, between Bob's and Becky's portfolios is zero. If Bob and Becky marry and combine their portfolios, which of the following best describes their combined $100,000 portfolio?

Assume that investors have recently become more risk averse, so the market risk premium has increased. Also, assume that the risk-free rate and expected inflation have not changed. Which of the following is most likely to occur?

You have the following data on (1) the average annual returns of the market for the past 5 years and (2) similar information on Stocks A and B. Which of the possible answers best describes the historical betas for A and B?