Exam 11: Determining the Cost of Capital

For capital budgeting and cost of capital purposes, the firm should always consider reinvested earnings as the first source of capital-i.e., use these funds firstσbecause reinvested earnings have no cost to the firm.

To help estimate its cost of common equity, Maxwell and Associates recently hired you. You have obtained the following data: D0 = $0.90; P0 = $27.50; and gL = 7.00% (constant). Based on the dividend growth model, what is the cost of common from reinvested earnings?

Assume that you are an intern with the Brayton Company, and you have collected the following data: The yield on the company's outstanding bonds is 7.75%; its tax rate is 40%; the next expected dividend is $0.65 a share; the dividend is expected to grow at a constant rate of 6.00% a year; the price of the stock is $15.00 per share; the flotation cost for selling new shares is F = 10%; and the target capital structure is 45% debt and 55% common equity. What is the firm's WACC, assuming it must issue new stock to finance its capital budget?

The text identifies three methods for estimating the cost of common stock from reinvested earnings (not newly issued stock): the CAPM method, the dividend growth method, and the bond-yield-plus-risk-premium method. Since we cannot be sure that the estimate obtained with any of these methods is correct, it is often appropriate to use all three methods, then consider all three estimates, and end up using a judgmental estimate when calculating the WACC.

If investors' aversion to risk rose, causing the slope of the SML to increase, this would have a greater impact on the required rate of return on equity, rs, than on the interest rate on long-term debt, rd, for most firms. Other things held constant, this would lead to an increase in the use of debt and a decrease in the use of equity. However, other things would not stay constant if firms used a lot more debt, as that would increase the riskiness of both debt and equity and thus limit the shift toward debt.

The Anderson Company has equal amounts of low-risk, average-risk, and high-risk projects. The firm's overall WACC is 12%. The CFO believes that this is the correct WACC for the company's average-risk projects, but that a lower rate should be used for lower-risk projects and a higher rate for higher-risk projects. The CEO disagrees, on the grounds that even though projects have different risks, the WACC used to evaluate each project should be the same because the company obtains capital for all projects from the same sources. If the CEO's position is accepted, what is likely to happen over time?

Firm J's earnings and stock price tend to move up and down with other firms in the S&P 500, while Firm F's earnings and stock price move counter cyclically with J and other S&P companies. Both J and F estimate their costs of equity using the CAPM, they have identical market values, their standard deviations of returns are identical, and they both finance only with common equity. Which of the following statements is CORRECT?

Which of the following statements is CORRECT?

Which of the following statements is CORRECT?

Avery Corporation's target capital structure is 35% debt, 10% preferred, and 55% common equity. The interest rate on new debt is 6.50%, the yield on the preferred is 6.00%, the cost of common from reinvested earnings is 11.25%, and the tax rate is 40%. The firm will not be issuing any new common stock. What is Avery's WACC?

Which of the following statements is CORRECT?

Adams Inc. has the following data: rRF = 5.00%; RPM = 6.00%; and b = 1.05. What is the firm's cost of common from reinvested earnings based on the CAPM?