Fight Finance

Question 165  DDM, PE ratio, payout ratio

For certain shares, the forward-looking Price-Earnings Ratio (##P_0/EPS_1##) is equal to the inverse of the share's total expected return (##1/r_\text{total}##). For what shares is this true?

Use the general accounting definition of 'payout ratio' which is dividends per share (DPS) divided by earnings per share (EPS) and assume that all cash flows, earnings and rates are real rather than nominal.

A company's forward-looking PE ratio will be the inverse of its total expected return on equity when it has a:

(a) 100% payout ratio and high expected growth in earnings and dividends.

(b) 100% payout ratio and negative expected growth in earnings and dividends.

(c) 100% payout ratio and no expected growth in earnings or dividends.

(d) 0% payout ratio and no expected growth in earnings or dividends.

(e) 0% payout ratio and negative expected growth in earnings and dividends.

Question 214  rights issue

In late 2003 the listed bank ANZ announced a 2-for-11 rights issue to fund the takeover of New Zealand bank NBNZ. Below is the chronology of events:

• 23/10/2003. Share price closes at $18.30.

• 24/10/2003. 2-for-11 rights issue announced at a subscription price of $13. The proceeds of the rights issue will be used to acquire New Zealand bank NBNZ. Trading halt announced in morning before market opens.

• 28/10/2003. Trading halt lifted. Last (and only) day that shares trade cum-rights. Share price opens at $18.00 and closes at $18.14.

• 29/10/2003. Shares trade ex-rights.

All things remaining equal, what would you expect ANZ's stock price to open at on the first day that it trades ex-rights (29/10/2003)? Ignore the time value of money since time is negligibly short. Also ignore taxes.

(a) 17.3492

(b) 17.2308

(c) 14.8418

(d) 13.7908

(e) 13.7692

Question 218  NPV, IRR, profitability index, average accounting return

Which of the following statements is NOT correct?

(a) If a project has a positive NPV, its Profitability Index (PI) will be more than 1.

(b) If a project has a negative NPV and the discount rate is zero, then the payback period will be infinite so the project will never pay back its costs.

(c) If a project's NPV is zero, then the PI must be 1.

(d) If a project has a negative NPV, its IRR will be negative.

(e) If a project has a positive NPV, its Average Accounting Return (AAR) is not necessarily positive, it could be positive, negative or zero.

Question 269  time calculation, APR

A student won $1m in a lottery. Currently the money is in a bank account which pays interest at 6% pa, given as an APR compounding per month.

She plans to spend $20,000 at the beginning of every month from now on (so the first withdrawal will be at t=0). After each withdrawal, she will check how much money is left in the account. When there is less than $500,000 left, she will donate that remaining amount to charity.

In how many months will she make her last withdrawal and donate the remainder to charity?

(a) In 31 months (t=31 months).

(b) In 30 months (t=30 months).

(c) In 28 months (t=28 months).

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

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

Question 374  debt terminology

Which of the following statements is NOT equivalent to the yield on debt?

Assume that the debt being referred to is fairly priced, but do not assume that it's priced at par.

(a) Debt coupon rate.

(b) Required return on debt.

(c) Total return on debt.

(d) Opportunity cost of debt.

(e) Cost of debt capital.

Question 496  NPV, IRR, pay back period

A firm is considering a business project which costs $10m now and is expected to pay a single cash flow of $12.1m in two years.

Assume that the initial $10m cost is funded using the firm's existing cash so no new equity or debt will be raised. The cost of capital is 10% pa.

Which of the following statements about net present value (NPV), internal rate of return (IRR) and payback period is NOT correct?

(a) The NPV is zero.

(b) The IRR is 10% pa, equal to the 10% cost of capital.

(c) The payback period is two years assuming that the whole $12.1m cash flow occurs at t=2, or 1.826 years if the $12.1m cash flow is paid smoothly over the second year.

(d) The project could be accepted or rejected, the owners would be indifferent.

(e) If the project is accepted then the market value of the firm's assets will increase by $2.1m more than it would otherwise if the project was rejected.

Question 542  price gains and returns over time, IRR, NPV, income and capital returns, effective return

For an asset price to double every 10 years, what must be the expected future capital return, given as an effective annual rate?

(a) 0.2

(b) 0.116123

(c) 0.082037

(d) 0.071773

(e) 0.06054

Question 907  continuously compounding rate, return types, return distribution, price gains and returns over time

For an asset's price to double from say $1 to $2 in one year, what must its continuously compounded return ##(r_{CC})## be? If the price now is ##P_0## and the price in one year is ##P_1## then the continuously compounded return over the next year is:

###r_\text{CC annual} = \ln{\left[ \dfrac{P_1}{P_0} \right]} = \text{LGDR}_\text{annual}###

(a) 0%

(b) 30.102999566%

(c) 69.314718056%

(d) 100%

(e) 200%

Question 948  VaR, expected shortfall

Below is a historical sample of returns on the S&P500 capital index.

S&P500 Capital Index Daily Returns Ranked from Best to Worst
10,000 trading days from 4th August 1977 to 24 March 2017 based on closing prices.
Rank	Date (DD-MM-YY)	Continuously compounded daily return (% per day)
1	21-10-87	9.23
2	08-03-83	8.97
3	13-11-08	8.3
4	30-09-08	8.09
5	28-10-08	8.01
6	29-10-87	7.28
…	…	…
9980	11-12-08	-5.51
9981	22-10-08	-5.51
9982	08-08-11	-5.54
9983	22-09-08	-5.64
9984	11-09-86	-5.69
9985	30-11-87	-5.88
9986	14-04-00	-5.99
9987	07-10-98	-6.06
9988	08-01-88	-6.51
9989	27-10-97	-6.55
9990	13-10-89	-6.62
9991	15-10-08	-6.71
9992	29-09-08	-6.85
9993	07-10-08	-6.91
9994	14-11-08	-7.64
9995	01-12-08	-7.79
9996	29-10-08	-8.05
9997	26-10-87	-8.4
9998	31-08-98	-8.45
9999	09-10-08	-12.9
10000	19-10-87	-23.36
Mean of all 10,000:		0.0354
Sample standard deviation of all 10,000:		1.2062
Sources: Bloomberg and S&P.

 

Assume that the one-tail Z-statistic corresponding to a probability of 99.9% is exactly 3.09. Which of the following statements is NOT correct? Based on the historical data, the 99.9% daily:

(a) Absolute non-parametric VaR is 6.62% per day.

(b) Relative non-parametric VaR is 6.6554% per day.

(c) Absolute parametric VaR is 6.173521% per day.

(d) Relative parametric VaR is 3.727158% per day.

(e) Non-parametric expected shortfall is 9.706% per day.

Question 969  foreign exchange rate, no explanation

RBA analyst Adam Hamilton wrote in the December 2018 Bulletin article ‘Understanding Exchange Rates and Why They Are Important’ the following passage about bilateral exchange rates:

A bilateral exchange rate refers to the value of one currency relative to another. It is the most commonly referenced type of exchange rate. Most bilateral exchange rates are quoted against the US dollar (USD), as it is the most traded currency globally. Looking at the Australian dollar (AUD), the AUD/USD exchange rate gives you the amount of US dollars that you will receive for each Australian dollar that you convert (or sell). For example, an AUD/USD exchange rate of 0.75 means that you will get US75 cents for every 1 AUD.

An appreciation of the Australian dollar is an increase in its value compared with a foreign currency. This means that each Australian dollar buys you more foreign currency than before. Equivalently, if you are buying an item that is priced in foreign currency it will now cost you less in Australian dollars than before. If there is a depreciation of the Australian dollar, the opposite is true.

Based on this information, which of the following statements is NOT correct?

(a) 'US75 cents for every 1 AUD’ is an American terms quote of the AUD.

(b) 'US75 cents for every 1 AUD’ is equivalent to 0.75AUD per USD.

(c) The AUD would have appreciated against the USD if the quote moved from US75 to US80 cents for every 1 AUD.

(d) Importers of US goods into Australia would pay less in AUD and be happy if the exchange rate moved from US75 to US80 cents for every 1 AUD, all other things remaining equal.

(e) Exporters of Australian goods into the USA would receive less in AUD and be unhappy if the exchange rate moved from US75 to US80 cents for every 1 AUD, all other things remaining equal.