Start by reading and following these instructions:
WEEK 6
DC8
Start by reading and following these instructions:
1. Quickly skim the questions or assignment below and the assignment rubric to help you focus.
2. Read the required chapter(s) of the textbook and any additional recommended resources. Some answers may require you to do additional research on the Internet or in other reference sources. Choose your sources carefully.
3. Consider the discussion and the any insights you gained from it.
4. Create your Assignment submission and be sure to cite your sources, use APA style as required, check your spelling.
Assignment:
Answer these essay questions:
1. Using Probability Distributions. Suppose the returns on long-term corporate bonds and T-bills are normally distributed. Based on the historical record, use the NORMDIST function in Excel° to answer the following questions:
a. What is the probability that in any given year, the return on long-term corporate bonds will be greater than 10 percent? Less than 0 percent?
b. What is the probability that in any given year, the return on T-bills will be greater than 10 percent? Less than 0 percent?
c. In 1979, the return on long-term corporate bonds was —4.18 percent. How likely is it that such a low return will recur at some point in the future? T-bills had a return of 10.56 percent in this same year. How likely is it that such a high return on T-bills will recur at some point in the future?
2. You recently graduated from college, and your job search led you to S&S Air. Since you felt the company’s business was headed skyward, you accepted the job offer. As you are finishing your employment paperwork, Chris Guthrie, who works in the finance department, stops by to inform you about the company’s new 401(k) plan. A 401(k) is a type of retirement plan offered by many companies. A 401(k) is tax deferred, which means that any deposits you make into the plan are deducted from your current income, so no current taxes are paid on the money. For example, assume your salary will be $30,000 per year. If you contribute $1,500 to the 401(k) plan, you will pay taxes only on $28,500 in income. No taxes will be due on any capital gains or plan income while you are invested in the plan, but you will pay taxes when you withdraw the money at retirement. You can contribute up to 15 per-cent of your salary to the plan. As is common, S&S Air also has a five percent match program. This means that the company will match your contribution dollar-for-dollar up to five percent of your salary, but you must contribute to get the match. The 401(k) plan has several options for investments, most of which are mutual funds. As you know, a mutual fund is a portfolio of assets. When you purchase shares in a mutual fund, you are actually purchasing partial ownership of the fund’s assets, similar to purchasing shares of stock in a company. The return of the fund is the weighted average of the return of the assets owned by the fund, minus any expenses. The largest expense is typically the management fee paid to the fund manager, who makes all of the investment decisions for the fund. S&S Air uses Arias Financial Services as its 401(k) plan administrator. Chris Guthrie then explains that the retirement investment options offered for employees are as follows:
a. Company Stock. One option is stock in S&S Air. The company is currently privately held. The price you would pay for the stock is based on an annual appraisal, less a 20 percent discount. When you interviewed with the owners, Mark Sexton and Todd Story, they informed you that the company stock was expected to be publicly sold in three to five years. If you needed to sell the stock before it became publicly traded, the company would buy it back at the then-current appraised value.
b. Arias S&P 500 Index Fund. This mutual fund tracks the S&P 500. Stocks in the fund are weighted exactly the same as they are in the S&P 500. This means that the fund’s return is approximately the return of the S&P 500, minus expenses. With an index fund, the manager is not required to research stocks and make investment decisions, so fund expenses are usually low. The Arias S&P 500 Index Fund charges expenses of 0.20 percent of assets per year.
c. Arias Small-Cap Fund. This fund primarily in-vests in small capitalization stocks. As such, the returns of the fund are more volatile. The fund can also invest 10 percent of its assets in companies based outside the United States. This fund charges 1.70 percent of assets in expenses per year.
d. Arias Large-Company Stock Fund. This fund invests primarily in large capitalization stocks of companies based in the United States. The fund is managed by Melissa Arias and has outperformed the market in six of the last eight years. The fund charges 1.50 percent in expenses.
e. Arias Bond Fund. This fund invests in long-term corporate bonds issued by U.S. domiciled companies. The fund is restricted to investments in bonds with an investment grade credit rating. This fund charges 1.40 percent in expenses.
f. Arias Money Market Fund. This fund invests in short-term, high credit quality debt instruments, which include Treasury bills. As such, the return on money market funds is only slightly higher than the return on Treasury bills. Because of the credit quality and short-term nature of the investments, there is only a very slight risk of negative return. The fund charges 0.60 percent in expenses.
QUESTIONS
a. What advantages/disadvantages do the mutual funds offer compared to company stock for your retirement investing?
b. Notice that, for every dollar you invest, S&S Air also invests a dollar. What return on your investment does this represent? What does your answer suggest about matching programs?
c. Assume you decide you should invest at least part of your money in large capitalization stocks of companies based in the United States. What are the advantages and disadvantages of choosing the Arias Large-Company Stock Fund com-pared to the Arias S&P 500 Index Fund?
d. The returns of the Arias Small-Cap Fund are the most volatile of all the mutual funds offered in the 401 (k) plan. Why would you ever want to invest in this fund? When you examine the expenses of the mutual funds, you will notice that this fund also has the highest expenses. Will this affect your decision to invest in this fund?
e. A measure of risk-adjusted performance that is often used in practice is the Sharpe ratio. The Sharpe ratio is calculated as the risk premium of an asset divided by its standard deviation. The standard deviations and returns for the funds over the past 10 years are listed below. Assuming a risk-free rate of 4 percent, calculate the Sharpe ratio for each of these. In broad terms, what do you suppose the Sharpe ratio is intended to measure?
10-Year Annual Return
Standard Deviation
Arias S&P 500 Index Fund
9.15%
19.35%
Arias Small-Cap Fund
14.05%
26.82%
Arias Large-Company Stock Fund
9.53%
23.82%
Arias Bond Fund
8.73%
11.45%
3. Work out this exercise on risk and return. Suppose you observe the following situation as depicted in the table below. If the risk-free rate is 8%, are these securities correctly priced? What would the risk-free rate have to be if they are correctly priced?
SECURITY
BETA
EXPECTED RETURN
Cooley, Inc.
1.6
19%
Moyer Co.
1.2
16%
4. You have $10,000 to invest in a stock portfolio. Your choices are Stock X with an expected return of 14 percent and Stock Y with an expected return of 11 percent. If your goal is to create a portfolio with an expected return of 12.4 percent, how much money will you invest in Stock X? In Stock Y?
WEEK 7
DC8
Start by reading and following these instructions:
1. Quickly skim the questions or assignment below and the assignment rubric to help you focus.
2. Read the required chapter(s) of the textbook and any additional recommended resources. Some answers may require you to do additional research on the Internet or in other reference sources. Choose your sources carefully.
3. Consider the discussion and the any insights you gained from it.
4. Create your Assignment submission and be sure to cite your sources, use APA style as required, check your spelling.
Assignment:
Answer these essay questions:
1. The DRK Corporation recently developed a dividend reinvestment plan (DRIP). The plan allows investors to reinvest cash dividends automatically in DRK in exchange for new shares of stock. Over time, investors in DRK will be able to build their holdings by reinvesting dividends to purchase additional shares of the company. Over 1,000 companies offer dividend reinvestment plans. Most companies with DRIPs charge no brokerage or service fees. In fact, the shares of DRK will be purchased at a 10 percent discount from the market price. A consultant for DRK estimates that about 75 percent of DRK’s shareholders will take part in this plan. This is somewhat higher than the average. Evaluate DRK’s dividend reinvestment plan. Will it increase shareholder wealth? Discuss the advantages and disadvantages involved here.
2. STEPHENSON REAL ESTATE RECAPITALIZATION
Robert Stephenson founded Stephenson Real Estate Company years ago and is its current CEO. The company purchases real estate, including land and buildings, and rents the property to tenants. The company has shown a profit every year for the past 18 years, and the shareholders are satisfied with the company’s management. Prior to founding Stephenson Real Estate, Robert was the founder and CEO of a failed alpaca farming operation. The resulting bankruptcy made him extremely averse to debt financing. As a result, the company is entirely equity financed, with 9 million shares of common stock outstanding. The stock currently trades at $42.50 per share. Stephenson is evaluating a plan to purchase a huge tract of land in the southeastern United States for $50 million. The land will subsequently be leased to tenant farmers. This purchase is expected to increase Stephenson’s annual pretax earnings by $12 million in perpetuity. Kim Weyand, the company’s new CFO, has been put in charge of the project. Kim has determined that the company’s current cost of capital is 12.5 percent. She feels that the company would be more valuable if it included debt in its capital structure, so she is evaluating whether the company should issue debt to entirely finance the project. Based on some conversations with investment banks, she thinks that the company can issue bonds at par value with an 8 percent coupon rate. From her analysis, she also believes that a capital structure in the range of 70 percent equity/30 percent debt would be optimal. If the company goes beyond 30 percent debt, its bonds would carry a lower rating and a much higher coupon because the possibility of financial distress and the associated costs would rise sharply. Stephenson has a 40 percent corporate tax rate (state and federal).
a. If Stephenson wishes to maximize its total market value, would you recommend that it issue debt or equity to finance the land purchase? Explain.
b. Construct Stephenson’s market value balance sheet before it announces the purchase.
c. Suppose Stephenson decides to issue equity to finance the purchase.
i. What is the net present value of the project?
ii. Construct Stephenson’s market value balance sheet after it announces that the firm will finance the purchase using equity. What would be the new price per share of the firm’s stock? How many shares will Stephenson need to issue to finance the purchase?
iii. Construct Stephenson’s market value balance sheet after the equity issue but before the purchase has been made. How many shares of common stock does Stephenson have outstanding? What is the price per share of the firm’s stock?
d. Construct Stephenson’s market value balance sheet after the purchase has been made.
e. Suppose Stephenson decides to issue debt to finance the purchase.
i. What will the market value of the Stephenson Company be if the purchase is financed with debt?
ii. Construct Stephenson’s market value balance sheet after both the debt issue and the land purchase. What is the price per share of the firm’s stock?
f. Which method of financing maximizes the per-share stock price of Stephenson’s equity?
3. COST OF CAPITAL FOR HUBBARD COMPUTER, INC.
Hubbard Computer, Inc. (HCI) has recently hired you in its relatively new treasury management department. HCI was founded eight years ago by Bob Hubbard and currently operates 74 stores in the Southeast. HCI is privately owned by Bob and his family, and had sales of $97 million last year. HCI primarily sells to in-store customers who come to the store and talk with a sales representative. The sales representative assists the customer in determining the type of computer and peripherals that are necessary for the individual customer’s computing needs. After the order is taken, the customer pays for the order immediately, and the computer is made to fill the order. Delivery of the computer averages 15 days, and it is guaranteed in 30 days.
QUESTIONS
HCI’s growth to date has been financed by its profits. When the company had sufficient capital, it would open a new store. Other than scouting locations, relatively little formal analysis has been used in its capital budgeting process. Bob has just read about capital budgeting techniques and has come to you for help. For starters, the company has never attempted to determine its cost of capital, and Bob would like you to perform the analysis. Since the company is privately owned, it is difficult to determine the cost of equity for the company. Bob wants you to use the pure play approach to estimating the cost of capital for HCI, and he has chosen Dell as a representative company. The following steps will allow you to calculate this estimate.
a. Most publicly traded corporations are required to submit quarterly (10Q) and annual reports (10K) to the SEC detailing the financial operations of the company over the past quarter or year, respectively. These corporate filings are available on the SEC website at www.sec.gov. Go to the SEC website and search for SEC filings made by Dell. Find the most recent 10Q or 10K and download the form. Look on the balance sheet to find the book value of debt and the book value of equity. If you look further down the report, you should find a section titled “Long-term Debt and Interest Rate Risk Management” that will provide a breakdown of Dell’s long-term debt.
b. To estimate the cost of equity for Dell, go to finance.yahoo.com and enter the ticker symbol DELL. Follow the various links to answer the following questions: What is the most recent stock price listed for Dell? What is the market value of equity, or market capitalization? How many shares of stock does Dell have outstanding? What is the most recent annual dividend? Can you use the dividend discount model in this case? What is the beta for Dell? Now go back to finance.yahoo.com and find the “Bonds” link. What is the yield on 3-month Treasury bills? Using the historical market risk premium, what is the cost of equity for Dell using the CAPM?
c. You now need to calculate the cost of debt for Dell. The following table provides the yield to maturity for each of Dell’s bonds. What is the weighted aver-age cost of debt for Dell using the book value weights and the market value weights? Does it make a difference in this case if you use book value weights or market value weights?
dell
d. You now have all the necessary information to calculate the weighted average cost of capital for Dell. Calculate the weighted average cost of cap-ital for Dell using book value weights and market value weights. Assume Dell has a 35 percent marginal tax rate. Which cost of capital number is more relevant?
e. You used Dell as a pure play company to estimate the cost of capital for HCI. Are there any potential problems with this approach in this situation?
4. What was the largest IPO? Go to www.hoovers.com and find out. In what country was the company located? What was the largest IPO in the United States?
WEEK 8
DC8
Start by reading and following these instructions:
1. Quickly skim the questions or assignment below and the assignment rubric to help you focus.
2. Read the required chapter(s) of the textbook and any additional recommended resources. Some answers may require you to do additional research on the Internet or in other reference sources. Choose your sources carefully.
3. Consider the discussion and the any insights you gained from it.
4. Create your Assignment submission and be sure to cite your sources, use APA style as required, check your spelling.
Assignment:
Answer these essay questions:
1. PIEPKORN MANUFACTURING WORKING CAPITAL MANAGEMENT, PART 1
You have recently been hired by Piepkorn Manufacturing to work in its newly established treasury department. Piepkorn Manufacturing is a small company that produces cardboard boxes in a variety of sizes. Gary Piepkorn, the owner of the company, works primarily in the sales and production areas. Currently, the company puts all receivables in one shoe box and all payables in another. Because of the disorganized system, the finance area needs work, and that’s what you’ve been brought in to do. The company currently has a cash balance of $154,000 and plans to purchase new box folding machinery in the fourth quarter at a cost of $325,000. The purchase of the machinery will be made with cash because of the discount offered. The company’s policy is to maintain a target cash balance of $100,000. All sales are in cash and all purchases are made on credit. Gary Piepkorn has projected the following gross sales for each of the next four quarters:
Quarters
01
02
03
04
Gross Sales
$863,500
$918,500
$996,000
$924,000
Gross sales for the first quarter of next year are projected at $908,000. Piepkorn typically orders 50 percent of next quarter’s projected gross sales in the current quarter, and suppliers are typically paid in 53 days. Wages, taxes, and other costs run about 30 percent of gross sales. The company has a quarterly interest payment of $115,000 on its long-term debt. The company uses a local bank for its short-term financial needs. It pays 1.5 percent per quarter on all short-term borrowing and maintains a money market account that pays 1 percent per quarter on all short-term deposits. Gary has asked you to prepare a cash budget and short-term financial plan for the company under the current policies. He has also asked you to prepare additional plans based on changes in several inputs.
QUESTIONS
a. Use the numbers given to complete the cash budget and short-term financial plan.
b. Rework the cash budget and short-term financial plan assuming Piepkorn changes to a target balance of $80,000.
PIEPKORN MANUFACTURING
Short-Term Financial Plan
Q1
Q2
Q3
Q4
Beginning cash balance
Net cash inflow
Ending cash balance
Minimum cash balance
Cumulative surplus (deficit)
PIEPKORN MANUFACTURING
Short-Term Financial Plan
Q1
Q2
Q3
Q4
Target cash balance
Net cash inflow
New short-term investments
Income from short-term investments
Short-term investments sold
New short-term borrowing
Interest on short-term borrowing
Short-term borrowing repaid
Ending cash balance
Minimum cash balance
Cumulative surplus (deficit)
Beginning short-term investments
Ending short-term investments
Beginning short-term debt
Ending short-term debt
2. PIEPKORN MANUFACTURING WORKING CAPITAL MANAGEMENT, PART 2
After completing the short-term financial plan for next year (above part 1), Gary Piepkorn approaches you and asks about the company’s credit policy. In looking at the competition, most companies in the industry offer credit to customers, so Piepkorn Manufacturing appears to be one of the few companies that does not. Several customers have expressed the possibility of changing to a different supplier because of the lack of credit. Gary is interested in knowing how implementing a credit policy will affect the short-term financial plan for next year.
Additionally, he would like you to inquire as to the possibility of getting improved credit terms for the company’s purchases. To analyze the possible switch to the new credit terms, Gary has asked you to investigate industry standard credit terms and rework the short-term financial plan assuming Piepkorn Manufacturing offers credit to its customers. He would also like to investigate how better credit terms from the company’s suppliers would affect the short-term financial plan.
a. You have looked at the credit policy offered by your competitors and have determined that the industry standard credit policy is 1/10, net 45. The discount will begin to be offered on the first day of the year. You want to examine how this credit policy would affect the cash budget and short-term financial plan. If this credit policy is implemented, you believe that 60 percent of customers will take advantage of the credit offer and the accounts receivable period will be 24 days. Rework the cash budget and short-term financial plan under the new credit policy and a target cash balance of $80,000. What interest rate are you effectively offering customers?
b. You have talked to the company’s suppliers about the credit terms Piepkorn receives. Currently, the company receives terms of net 45. Your suppliers have stated that they would offer new credit terms of 2/25, net 40. The discount would begin to be offered on the first day of the year. What interest rate are the suppliers offering the company? Rework your cash budget and short-term financial plan from the previous question assuming you take advantage of the discount offered.
3. Suppose the rate of inflation in Russia will run about 3% higher than the U.S. inflation rate over the next several years. All other things being the same, what will happen to the ruble versus dollar exchange rate? What relationship are you relying on in answering?
4. This question has to do with the Cash Account. Indicate the impact of the following corporate actions on cash, using the terms Increase, Decrease, or no change. For each, explain your conclusion.
– A dividend is paid with funds received from a sale of debt
– Real estate is purchased and paid for with short-term debt
– Inventory is bought on credit
– A short-term bank loan is repaid
– Next years’ taxes are prepaid.
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