Fight Finance

Question 150  DDM, effective rate

A share just paid its semi-annual dividend of $10. The dividend is expected to grow at 2% every 6 months forever. This 2% growth rate is an effective 6 month rate. Therefore the next dividend will be $10.20 in six months. The required return of the stock is 10% pa, given as an effective annual rate.

What is the price of the share now?

(a) $127.50

(b) $171.14

(c) $173.33

(d) $174.56

(e) $354.06

Question 179  bond pricing, capital raising

A firm wishes to raise $20 million now. They will issue 8% pa semi-annual coupon bonds that will mature in 5 years and have a face value of $100 each. Bond yields are 6% pa, given as an APR compounding every 6 months, and the yield curve is flat.

How many bonds should the firm issue?

(a) 140,202

(b) 184,280

(c) 184,460

(d) 186,881

(e) 200,000

Question 254  time calculation, APR

Your main expense is fuel for your car which costs $100 per month. You just refueled, so you won't need any more fuel for another month (first payment at t=1 month).

You have $2,500 in a bank account which pays interest at a rate of 6% pa, payable monthly. Interest rates are not expected to change.

Assuming that you have no income, in how many months time will you not have enough money to fully refuel your car?

(a) In 23 months (t=23 months).

(b) In 24 months (t=24 months).

(c) In 25 months (t=25 months).

(d) In 26 months (t=26 months).

(e) In 27 months (t=27 months).

Question 305  option, short selling, speculation

You believe that the price of a share will fall significantly very soon, but the rest of the market does not. The market thinks that the share price will remain the same. Assuming that your prediction will soon be true, which of the following trades is a bad idea? In other words, which trade will NOT make money or prevent losses?

(a) Sell all existing stock that you own.

(b) Short sell the stock.

(c) Buy put options on the stock.

(d) Sell put options on the stock.

(e) Sell call options on the stock.

Question 389  real option, option

You're thinking of starting a new cafe business, but you're not sure if it will be profitable.

You have to decide what type of cups, mugs and glasses you wish to buy. You can pay to have your cafe's name printed on them, or just buy the plain un-marked ones. For marketing reasons it's better to have the cafe name printed. But the plain un-marked cups, mugs and glasses maximise your:

(a) Expansion option.

(b) Abandonment option.

(c) Timing (or delaying) option.

(d) Production (or switching) option.

(e) Underlying asset.

Question 525  income and capital returns, real and nominal returns and cash flows, inflation

Which of the following statements about cash in the form of notes and coins is NOT correct? Assume that inflation is positive.

Notes and coins:

(a) Pay no income cash flow.

(b) Have a nominal total return of zero.

(c) Have a nominal capital return of zero.

(d) Have a nominal income return of zero.

(e) Have a real total return of zero.

Question 660  fully amortising loan, interest only loan, APR

How much more can you borrow using an interest-only loan compared to a 25-year fully amortising loan if interest rates are 6% pa compounding per month and are not expected to change? If it makes it easier, assume that you can afford to pay $2,000 per month on either loan. Express your answer as a proportional increase using the following formula:

###\text{Proportional Increase} = \dfrac{V_\text{0,interest only}}{V_\text{0,fully amortising}} - 1###

(a) 77.6034%

(b) 30.3779%

(c) 28.8603%

(d) 22.3966%

(e) 7.5304%

Question 779  mean and median returns, return distribution, arithmetic and geometric averages, continuously compounding rate

Fred owns some BHP shares. He has calculated BHP’s monthly returns for each month in the past 30 years using this formula:

###r_\text{t monthly}=\ln⁡ \left( \dfrac{P_t}{P_{t-1}} \right)###

He then took the arithmetic average and found it to be 0.8% per month using this formula:

###\bar{r}_\text{monthly}= \dfrac{ \displaystyle\sum\limits_{t=1}^T{\left( r_\text{t monthly} \right)} }{T} =0.008=0.8\% \text{ per month}###

He also found the standard deviation of these monthly returns which was 15% per month:

###\sigma_\text{monthly} = \dfrac{ \displaystyle\sum\limits_{t=1}^T{\left( \left( r_\text{t monthly} - \bar{r}_\text{monthly} \right)^2 \right)} }{T} =0.15=15\%\text{ per month}###

Assume that the past historical average return is the true population average of future expected returns and the stock's returns calculated above ##(r_\text{t monthly})## are normally distributed. Which of the below statements about Fred’s BHP shares is NOT correct?

(a) The returns ##r_\text{t monthly}## are continuously compounded monthly returns.

(b) The mean, median and mode of the continuously compounded annual return is expected to equal 0.8% per month.

(c) The annualised average continuously compounded return is ##\bar{r}_\text{cc annual}=12×0.008=0.096=9.6\%\text{ pa}##. The annualised standard deviation is ##\sigma_\text{annual} = \sqrt{12}×0.15=0.519615242 = 52\%\text{ pa}##.

(d) If the current price of the BHP shares is $20, they're expected to have a median value of $52.2339 ##(= 20×e^{0.008×12×10})## in 10 years.

(e) If the current price of the BHP shares is $20, they're expected to have a mean value of $13.5411 ##(= 20×e^{(0.008 - 0.15^2/2)×12×10})## in 10 years.

Question 859  money supply, no explanation

The below table shows Australian monetary aggregates. Note that ‘M3’ is the sum of all the figures in the table and ‘ADI’ stands for Authorised Deposit-taking Institution such as a bank, building society or credit union.

Australian Monetary Aggregates
March 2017, AUD billions
Currency	Current deposits with banks	Certificates of deposit issued by banks	Term deposits with banks	Other deposits with banks	Deposits with non-bank ADIs	M3
69.3	271.6	207.2	562.3	838.7	36.9	1986.0

 

Source: RBA Statistical Table D3 Monetary Aggregates.

Which of the following statements is NOT correct?

(a) Current deposits are the notes and coins that banks keep in their physical vaults and Automatic Teller Machines (ATM’s).

(b) Current deposits with banks pay little interest to depositors but are highly liquid since they can be withdrawn using ATM’s.

(c) The government directly controls the amount of notes and coins.

(d) The central bank indirectly controls the amount of deposits by changing the cash rate.

(e) When a commercial bank lends money to a borrower to buy a house, that money is likely to be deposited by the house seller into another bank.

Question 960  DDM, stock pricing

You are an equities analyst trying to value the equity of the Australian supermarket conglomerate Woolworths, with ticker WOW. In Australia, listed companies like Woolworths tend to pay dividends every 6 months. The payment around September is the final dividend and the payment around March is called the interim dividend. Both occur annually.

• Today is mid-November 2018.
• WOW's last final dividend of $0.50 was two months ago in mid-September 2018.
• WOW's last interim dividend of $0.43 was eight months ago in mid-March 2018.
• Judging by the dividend history and WOW's prospects, you judge that the growth rate in the dividends will be 3% pa forever.
• Assume that WOW's total cost of equity is 6.5% pa. All rates are quoted as nominal effective rates.
• The dividends are nominal cash flows and the inflation rate is 2.5% pa.

What should be the current share price of WOW?

(a) $28.511766

(b) $28.066400

(c) $27.839257

(d) $27.655693

(e) $27.368571