Fight Finance

Question 17  bond pricing

A three year bond has a face value of $100, a yield of 10% and a fixed coupon rate of 5%, paid semi-annually. What is its price?

(a) 87.31

(b) 86.92

(c) 76.37

(d) 74.62

(e) 58.63

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 241  Miller and Modigliani, leverage, payout policy, diversification, NPV

One of Miller and Modigliani's (M&M's) important insights is that a firm's managers should not try to achieve a particular level of leverage in a world with zero taxes and perfect information since investors can make their own leverage. Therefore corporate capital structure policy is irrelevant since investors can achieve their own desired leverage at the personal level by borrowing or lending on their own.

This principal of 'home-made' or 'do-it-yourself' leverage can also be applied to other topics. Read the following statements to decide which are true:

(I) Payout policy: a firm's managers should not try to achieve a particular pattern of equity payout.

(II) Agency costs: a firm's managers should not try to minimise agency costs.

(III) Diversification: a firm's managers should not try to diversify across industries.

(IV) Shareholder wealth: a firm's managers should not try to maximise shareholders' wealth.

Which of the above statement(s) are true?

(a) I only.

(b) I and II only.

(c) I and III only.

(d) III only.

(e) All are true.

Question 385  Merton model of corporate debt, real option, option

A risky firm will last for one period only (t=0 to 1), then it will be liquidated. So it's assets will be sold and the debt holders and equity holders will be paid out in that order. The firm has the following quantities:

##V## = Market value of assets.

##E## = Market value of (levered) equity.

##D## = Market value of zero coupon bonds.

##F_1## = Total face value of zero coupon bonds which is promised to be paid in one year.

The levered equity graph above contains bold labels a to e. Which of the following statements about those labels is NOT correct?

(a) Label a represents the market value of equity ##(E)## at t=0 on the red curved line or t=1 on the blue crooked line.

(b) Label b represents the market value of equity now ##(E_0)##.

(c) Label c represents the market value of equity if the assets were liquidated right now.

(d) Label d represents the face value of debt at maturity ##(F_1)##.

(e) Label e represents the market value of debt ##(D)## at t=0 on the red curved line or t=1 on the blue crooked line.

Question 535  DDM, real and nominal returns and cash flows, stock pricing

You are an equities analyst trying to value the equity of the Australian telecoms company Telstra, with ticker TLS. In Australia, listed companies like Telstra tend to pay dividends every 6 months. The payment around August is called the final dividend and the payment around February is called the interim dividend. Both occur annually.

• Today is mid-March 2015.
• TLS's last interim dividend of $0.15 was one month ago in mid-February 2015.
• TLS's last final dividend of $0.15 was seven months ago in mid-August 2014.

Judging by TLS's dividend history and prospects, you estimate that the nominal dividend growth rate will be 1% pa. Assume that TLS's total nominal cost of equity is 6% pa. The dividends are nominal cash flows and the inflation rate is 2.5% pa. All rates are quoted as nominal effective annual rates. Assume that each month is exactly one twelfth (1/12) of a year, so you can ignore the number of days in each month.

Calculate the current TLS share price.

(a) $6.06

(b) $6.080152

(c) $6.149576

(d) $6.179509

(e) $6.300707

Question 584  option, option payoff at maturity, option profit

Which of the following statements about European call options on non-dividend paying stocks is NOT correct?

(a) A long call option's payoff at maturity is equal to the maximum of zero or the underlying asset price at maturity minus the exercise price. ##f_\text{T,LC} = max(S_T - K, 0)##

(b) A long call option's profit is equal to the payoff at maturity less the initial option price. ##\pi_\text{LC} = max(S_T - K, 0) - c_0##

(c) The breakeven price is the underlying asset price at which a long option contract gives zero profit. When ##max(S_T - K, 0) - c_0 = 0##, then ##S_T = K+c_0##.

(d) A call option's break-even price is always more than its strike price.

(e) Call options should only be exercised at maturity if the underlying asset price is above the break-even price.

Question 776  market efficiency, systematic and idiosyncratic risk, beta, income and capital returns

Which of the following statements about returns is NOT correct? A stock's:

(a) Expected total return will equal its required total return if the stock is fairly priced.

(b) Expected total return will be less than its required total return if the stock is over-priced.

(c) Required total return should be higher than the risk free government bond yield if the stock has a positive beta.

(d) Required total return depends on its total variance, required capital return depends on systematic variance and the dividend yield depends on idiosyncratic variance.

(e) Expected capital return equals the expected total return less whatever the management decide that they will pay as an income return (which is the dividend yield).

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 933  confidence interval, normal distribution

A stock has an expected return of 10% pa and you're 90% sure that over the next year, the return will be between -15% and 35%. The stock's returns are normally distributed. Note that the Z-statistic corresponding to a one-tail:

• 90% normal probability density function is 1.282.
• 95% normal probability density function is 1.645.
• 97.5% normal probability density function is 1.960.

What is the stock’s standard deviation of returns in percentage points per annum (pp pa)?

(a) 6.08 pp pa

(b) 15.2 pp pa

(c) 21.28 pp pa

(d) 27.36 pp pa

(e) 41.13 pp pa

Question 934  standard deviation, risk

Which of the following statements about an asset’s standard deviation of returns is NOT correct? All other things remaining equal, the higher the asset’s standard deviation of returns:

(a) The more risky the asset is from a financial analyst’s perspective.

(b) The higher the chance of a large loss.

(c) The higher the chance of a large gain.

(d) The more predictable the asset’s future price is.

(e) The higher the variance of returns.