Fight Finance

Question 282  expected and historical returns, income and capital returns

You're the boss of an investment bank's equities research team. Your five analysts are each trying to find the expected total return over the next year of shares in a mining company. The mining firm:

• Is regarded as a mature company since it's quite stable in size and was floated around 30 years ago. It is not a high-growth company;
• Share price is very sensitive to changes in the price of the market portfolio, economic growth, the exchange rate and commodities prices. Due to this, its standard deviation of total returns is much higher than that of the market index;
• Experienced tough times in the last 10 years due to unexpected falls in commodity prices.
• Shares are traded in an active liquid market.

Your team of analysts present their findings, and everyone has different views. While there's no definitive true answer, whose calculation of the expected total return is the most plausible? Assume that:

• The analysts' source data is correct and true, but their inferences might be wrong;
• All returns and yields are given as effective annual nominal rates.

(a) Alice says 5% pa since she calculated that this was the average total yield on government bonds over the last 10 years. She says that this is also the expected total yield implied by current prices on one year government bonds.

(b) Bob says 4% pa since he calculated that this was the average total return on the mining stock over the last 10 years.

(c) Cate says 3% pa since she calculated that this was the average growth rate of the share price over the last 10 years.

(d) Dave says 6% pa since he calculated that this was the average growth rate of the share market price index (not the accumulation index) over the last 10 years.

(e) Eve says 15% pa since she calculated that this was the discount rate implied by the dividend discount model using the current share price, forecast dividend in one year and a 3% growth rate in dividends thereafter, which is the expected long term inflation rate.

Question 624  franking credit, personal tax on dividends, imputation tax system, no explanation

Which of the following statements about Australian franking credits is NOT correct? Franking credits:

(a) Refund the corporate tax paid by companies to their individual shareholders. Therefore they prevent the double-taxation of dividends at the corporate and personal level.

(b) Are distributed to shareholders together with cash dividends.

(c) Are also called imputation credits.

(d) Are worthless to individuals who earn less than the tax-free threshold because they have a zero marginal personal tax rate.

(e) Are worthless to individual shareholders who are foreigners for tax purposes.

Question 768  accounting terminology, book and market values, no explanation

Accountants and finance professionals have lots of names for the same things which can be quite confusing.

Which of the following groups of items are NOT synonyms?

(a) Revenue, sales, turn over.

(b) Paid up capital, contributed equity.

(c) Shares, stock, equity.

(d) Net income, earnings, net profit after tax, the bottom line.

(e) Market capitalisation of equity, book value of equity.

Question 531  bankruptcy or insolvency, capital structure, risk, limited liability

Who is most in danger of being personally bankrupt? Assume that all of their businesses' assets are highly liquid and can therefore be sold immediately.

(a) Alice has $6,000 cash, owes $10,000 credit card debt due immediately and 100% owns a sole tradership business with assets worth $10,000 and liabilities of $3,000.

(b) Billy has $10,000 cash, owes $6,000 credit card debt due immediately and 100% owns a corporate business with assets worth $3,000 and liabilities of $10,000.

(c) Carla has $6,000 cash, owes $10,000 credit card debt due immediately and 100% owns a corporate business with assets worth $10,000 and liabilities of $3,000.

(d) Darren has $10,000 cash, owes $6,000 credit card debt due immediately and 100% owns a sole tradership business with assets worth $3,000 and liabilities of $10,000.

(e) Ernie has $1,000 cash, lent $3,000 to his friend, and doesn't have any personal debt or own any businesses.

Question 373  debt terminology

Which of the following statements is NOT correct? Lenders:

(a) Are long debt.

(b) Invest in debt.

(c) Are owed money.

(d) Provide debt funding.

(e) Have debt liabilities.

Question 911  money market

Which of the following is also known as 'commercial paper'?

(a) Bank accepted bill (BAB).

(b) Certificate of deposit (CD).

(c) Fixed coupon bond.

(d) Promissory note (PN)

(e) Treasury note or bill.

Question 912  money market

Which of the following statements is NOT correct? Money market securities are:

(a) Coupon-paying, with regular coupon payments prior to maturity.

(b) Discount securities, so price is less than face value if interest rate is positive.

(c) Unsecured.

(d) Short term, their original maturity is usually less than one year.

(e) Priced using simple interest rates.

Question 298  interest only loan

A prospective home buyer can afford to pay $2,000 per month in mortgage loan repayments. The central bank recently lowered its policy rate by 0.25%, and residential home lenders cut their mortgage loan rates from 4.74% to 4.49%.

How much more can the prospective home buyer borrow now that interest rates are 4.49% rather than 4.74%? Give your answer as a proportional increase over the original amount he could borrow (##V_\text{before}##), so:

###\text{Proportional increase} = \frac{V_\text{after}-V_\text{before}}{V_\text{before}} ###

Assume that:

• Interest rates are expected to be constant over the life of the loan.

• Loans are interest-only and have a life of 30 years.

• Mortgage loan payments are made every month in arrears and all interest rates are given as annualised percentage rates compounding per month.

(a) 0.055679

(b) 0.029631

(c) 0.029547

(d) 0.006245

(e) 0.0025

Question 481  Annuity

This annuity formula ##\dfrac{C_1}{r}\left(1-\dfrac{1}{(1+r)^3} \right)## is equivalent to which of the following formulas? Note the 3.

In the below formulas, ##C_t## is a cash flow at time t. All of the cash flows are equal, but paid at different times.

(a) ##C_0+C_1+C_2+C_3##

(b) ##\dfrac{C_0+C_1+C_2+C_3}{(1+r)^3} ##

(c) ##C_0+\dfrac{C_1}{(1+r)^1} +\dfrac{C_2}{(1+r)^2} + \dfrac{C_3}{(1+r)^3} ##

(d) ##\dfrac{C_1}{(1+r)^1} +\dfrac{C_2}{(1+r)^2} + \dfrac{C_3}{(1+r)^3} ##

(e) ##\dfrac{C_1}{(1+r)^1} + \dfrac{C_2}{(1+r)^2} ##

Question 265  APR, Annuity

On his 20th birthday, a man makes a resolution. He will deposit $30 into a bank account at the end of every month starting from now, which is the start of the month. So the first payment will be in one month. He will write in his will that when he dies the money in the account should be given to charity.

The bank account pays interest at 6% pa compounding monthly, which is not expected to change.

If the man lives for another 60 years, how much money will be in the bank account if he dies just after making his last (720th) payment?

(a) $712,534.12

(b) $211,628.47

(c) $21,600.00

(d) $15,993.85

(e) $5,834.58

Question 499  NPV, Annuity

Some countries' interest rates are so low that they're zero.

If interest rates are 0% pa and are expected to stay at that level for the foreseeable future, what is the most that you would be prepared to pay a bank now if it offered to pay you $10 at the end of every year for the next 5 years?

In other words, what is the present value of five $10 payments at time 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 if interest rates are 0% pa?

(a) $0

(b) $10

(c) $50

(d) Positive infinity

(e) Priceless

Question 530  Annuity, annuity due, no explanation

You are promised 20 payments of $100, where the first payment is immediate (t=0) and the last is at the end of the 19th year (t=19). The effective annual discount rate is ##r##.

Which of the following equations does NOT give the correct present value of these 20 payments?

(a) ##V_0=\dfrac{\dfrac{100}{r} \left( 1- \dfrac{1}{(1+r)^{20}} \right) }{(1+r)^1} ##

(b) ##V_0=\dfrac{100}{r} \left( 1- \dfrac{1}{(1+r)^{20}} \right) (1+r)^1##

(c) ##V_0=\dfrac{100}{r} \left( 1- \dfrac{1}{(1+r)^{19}} \right) +100##

(d) ##V_0=\dfrac{100(1+r)^1}{r} \left( 1- \dfrac{1}{(1+r)^{20}} \right) ##

(e) ##V_0=100 \left( 1-(1+r)^{-19} \right) r^{-1}+100##

Question 509  bond pricing

Calculate the price of a newly issued ten year bond with a face value of $100, a yield of 8% pa and a fixed coupon rate of 6% pa, paid annually. So there's only one coupon per year, paid in arrears every year.

(a) $114.8775

(b) $114.7202

(c) $86.5798

(d) $86.4097

(e) $40.2605

Question 552  bond pricing, income and capital returns

An investor bought a 10 year 2.5% pa fixed coupon government bond priced at par. The face value is $100. Coupons are paid semi-annually and the next one is in 6 months.

Six months later, just after the coupon at that time was paid, yields suddenly and unexpectedly fell to 2% pa. Note that all yields above are given as APR's compounding semi-annually.

What was the bond investors' historical total return over that first 6 month period, given as an effective semi-annual rate?

(a) 0.067872

(b) 0.055565

(c) 0.043065

(d) 0.030565

(e) 0.0075

Question 518  DDM

A stock just paid a dividend of $1. Future annual dividends are expected to grow by 2% pa. The next dividend of $1.02 (=1*(1+0.02)^1) will be in one year, and the year after that the dividend will be $1.0404 (=1*(1+0.02)^2), and so on forever.

Its required total return is 10% pa. The total required return and growth rate of dividends are given as effective annual rates.

Calculate the current stock price.

(a) $10

(b) $12.254902

(c) $12.5

(d) $12.75

(e) $13.75

Question 264  DDM

The following equation is the Dividend Discount Model, also known as the 'Gordon Growth Model' or the 'Perpetuity with growth' equation.

###P_0=\frac{d_1}{r-g}###

A stock pays dividends annually. It just paid a dividend, but the next dividend (##d_1##) will be paid in one year.

According to the DDM, what is the correct formula for the expected price of the stock in 2.5 years?

(a) ##P_{2.5}=P_0 (1+g)^{2.5} ##

(b) ##P_{2.5}=P_0 (1+r)^{2.5} ##

(c) ##P_{2.5}=P_0 (1+g)^2 (1+r)^{0.5} ##

(d) ##P_{2.5}=P_0 (1+r)^2 (1+g)^{0.5} ##

(e) ##P_{2.5}=P_0 (1+r)^3 (1+g)^{-0.5} ##

Question 497  income and capital returns, DDM, ex dividend date

A stock will pay you a dividend of $10 tonight if you buy it today. Thereafter the annual dividend is expected to grow by 5% pa, so the next dividend after the $10 one tonight will be $10.50 in one year, then in two years it will be $11.025 and so on. The stock's required return is 10% pa.

What is the stock price today and what do you expect the stock price to be tomorrow, approximately?

(a) $200 today and $210 tomorrow.

(b) $210 today and $220 tomorrow.

(c) $220 today and $230 tomorrow.

(d) $210 today and $200 tomorrow.

(e) $220 today and $210 tomorrow.

Question 488  income and capital returns, payout policy, payout ratio, DDM

Two companies BigDiv and ZeroDiv are exactly the same except for their dividend payouts.

BigDiv pays large dividends and ZeroDiv doesn't pay any dividends.

Currently the two firms have the same earnings, assets, number of shares, share price, expected total return and risk.

Assume a perfect world with no taxes, no transaction costs, no asymmetric information and that all assets including business projects are fairly priced and therefore zero-NPV.

All things remaining equal, which of the following statements is NOT correct?

(a) BigDiv is expected to have a lower capital return than ZeroDiv in the future.

(b) BigDiv is expected to have a lower total return than ZeroDiv in the future.

(c) ZeroDiv's assets are likely to grow faster than BigDiv's.

(d) ZeroDiv's share price will increase faster than BigDiv's.

(e) BigDiv currently has a higher payout ratio than ZeroDiv.

Question 463  PE ratio, Multiples valuation

Private equity firms are known to buy medium sized private companies operating in the same industry, merge them together into a larger company, and then sell it off in a public float (initial public offering, IPO).

If medium-sized private companies trade at PE ratios of 5 and larger listed companies trade at PE ratios of 15, what return can be achieved from this strategy?

Assume that:

• The medium-sized companies can be bought, merged and sold in an IPO instantaneously.
• There are no costs of finding, valuing, merging and restructuring the medium sized companies. Also, there is no competition to buy the medium-sized companies from other private equity firms.
• The large merged firm's earnings are the sum of the medium firms' earnings.
• The only reason for the difference in medium and large firm's PE ratios is due to the illiquidity of the medium firms' shares.
• Return is defined as: ##r_{0→1} = (p_1-p_0+c_1)/p_0## , where time zero is just before the merger and time one is just after.

(a) 300%.

(b) 200%

(c) 33.33%

(d) 30%

(e) 20%

Question 309  stock pricing, ex dividend date

A company announces that it will pay a dividend, as the market expected. The company's shares trade on the stock exchange which is open from 10am in the morning to 4pm in the afternoon each weekday. When would the share price be expected to fall by the amount of the dividend? Ignore taxes.

The share price is expected to fall during the:

(a) Day of the payment date, between the payment date's morning opening price and afternoon closing price.

(b) Night before the payment date, between the previous day's afternoon closing price and the payment date's morning opening price.

(c) Day of the ex-dividend date, between the ex-dividend date's morning opening price and afternoon closing price.

(d) Night before the ex-dividend date, between the last with-dividend date's afternoon closing price and the ex-dividend date's morning opening price.

(e) Day of the last with-dividend date, between the with-dividend date's morning opening price and afternoon closing price.

Question 944  stock split, bonus issue, stock dividend

A 2-for-1 stock split is equivalent to a 1-for-1 bonus issue or a 100% stock dividend. or ?

Question 414  PE ratio, pay back period, no explanation

A mature firm has constant expected future earnings and dividends. Both amounts are equal. So earnings and dividends are expected to be equal and unchanging.

Which of the following statements is NOT correct?

(a) This firm's expected capital return equals zero.

(b) This firm's expected total return and income return are equal.

(c) This firm's forward looking PE ratio will equal the inverse of the firm's expected income return.

(d) This firm's forward looking PE ratio will equal the inverse of the firm's expected capital return.

(e) This firm's forward looking PE ratio is equal to the expected payback period, which is the time it will take for the sum of the cash flows to equal the share price.

Question 364  PE ratio, Multiples valuation

Which firms tend to have high forward-looking price-earnings (PE) ratios?

(a) Illiquid small private companies.

(b) Exchange-listed companies operating in stagnant industries with negative growth prospects.

(c) Exchange-listed companies expected to have temporarily high earnings over the next year, but with lower earnings later.

(d) Exchange-listed companies operating in high-risk industries with very high required returns on equity.

(e) Exchange-listed companies whose assets include a very large proportion of cash.

Question 455  income and capital returns, payout policy, DDM, market efficiency

A fairly priced unlevered firm plans to pay a dividend of $1 next year (t=1) which is expected to grow by 3% pa every year after that. The firm's required return on equity is 8% pa.

The firm is thinking about reducing its future dividend payments by 10% so that it can use the extra cash to invest in more projects which are expected to return 8% pa, and have the same risk as the existing projects. Therefore, next year's dividend will be $0.90. No new equity or debt will be issued to fund the new projects, they'll all be funded by the cut in dividends.

What will be the stock's new annual capital return (proportional increase in price per year) if the change in payout policy goes ahead?

Assume that payout policy is irrelevant to firm value (so there's no signalling effects) and that all rates are effective annual rates.

(a) 2.7% pa.

(b) 3.0% pa.

(c) 3.5% pa.

(d) 3.3% pa.

(e) 3.8% pa.

Question 90  CAPM, risk

According to the theory of the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), total variance can be broken into two components, systematic variance and idiosyncratic variance. Which of the following events would be considered the most diversifiable according to the theory of the CAPM?

(a) Global economic recession.

(b) A major terrorist attack, grounding all commercial aircraft in the US and Europe.

(c) An increase in corporate tax rates.

(d) The outbreak of world war.

(e) A company's poor earnings announcement.

Question 80  CAPM, risk, diversification

Diversification is achieved by investing in a large amount of stocks. What type of risk is reduced by diversification?

(a) Idiosyncratic risk.

(b) Systematic risk.

(c) Both idiosyncratic and systematic risk.

(d) Market risk.

(e) Beta risk.

Question 778  CML, systematic and idiosyncratic risk, portfolio risk, CAPM

The capital market line (CML) is shown in the graph below. The total standard deviation is denoted by σ and the expected return is μ. Assume that markets are efficient so all assets are fairly priced.

Which of the below statements is NOT correct?

(a) The risk free security has zero systematic variance and zero idiosyncratic variance.

(b) The market portfolio has zero idiosyncratic variance.

(c) Any portfolio comprised of the market portfolio and risk free security has zero idiosyncratic variance.

(d) Portfolios that plot on the CML must only be comprised of the risk free security and the market portfolio.

(e) Portfolios that plot on the CML have some idiosyncratic variance and some systematic variance.

Question 809  Markowitz portfolio theory, CAPM, Jensens alpha, CML, systematic and idiosyncratic risk

A graph of assets’ expected returns ##(\mu)## versus standard deviations ##(\sigma)## is given in the graph below. The CML is the capital market line.

Which of the following statements about this graph, Markowitz portfolio theory and the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) theory is NOT correct?

(a) The market portfolio M has systematic risk only. It’s a fully diversified portfolio comprised of all individual risky assets. The market portfolio is usually assumed to be the equity index, such as the ASX200 in Australia or the S&P500 in the US.

(b) The risk free security has no risk at all. Government bonds are usually assumed to be the risk-free security.

(c) Portfolio combinations of the market portfolio and risk free security will plot on the CML and will have systematic risk only. They will have no diversifiable risk.

(d) The portfolios on the CML with a return above ##r_f## have maximum return for any given level of risk.

(e) The individual assets and portfolios with returns less than the risk free rate are over-priced, have a negative Jensen’s alpha and should be sold.

Question 810  CAPM, systematic and idiosyncratic risk, market efficiency

Examine the graphs below. Assume that asset A is a single stock. Which of the following statements is NOT correct? Asset A:

(a) Has a beta of 0.5.

(b) Is fairly priced.

(c) Has systematic standard deviation equal to 10% pa.

(d) Has diversifiable standard deviation equal to 20% pa.

(e) Has total standard deviation equal to 40% pa.

Question 244  CAPM, SML, NPV, risk

Examine the following graph which shows stocks' betas ##(\beta)## and expected returns ##(\mu)##:

Assume that the CAPM holds and that future expectations of stocks' returns and betas are correctly measured. Which statement is NOT correct?

(a) Asset A is underpriced.

(b) Asset B has a negative alpha (a negative excess return or abnormal return).

(c) Buying asset C would be a positive NPV investment.

(d) Asset D has less systematic variance than the market portfolio (M).

(e) Asset E is fairly priced.

Question 628  CAPM, SML, risk

Assets A, B, M and ##r_f## are shown on the graphs above. Asset M is the market portfolio and ##r_f## is the risk free yield on government bonds. Assume that investors can borrow and lend at the risk free rate. Which of the below statements is NOT correct?

(a) Asset A has the same systematic risk as asset B.

(b) Asset A has more total variance than asset B.

(c) Asset B has zero idiosyncratic risk. Asset B must be a portfolio of half the market portfolio and half government bonds.

(d) If risk-averse investors were forced to invest all of their wealth in a single risky asset, so they could not diversify, every investor would logically choose asset A over the other three assets.

(e) Assets M and B have the highest Sharpe ratios, which is defined as the gradient of the capital allocation line (CAL) from the government bonds through the asset on the graph of expected return versus total standard deviation.

Question 486  capital budgeting, opportunity cost, sunk cost

A young lady is trying to decide if she should attend university. Her friends say that she should go to university because she is more likely to meet a clever young man than if she begins full time work straight away.

What's the correct way to classify this item from a capital budgeting perspective when trying to find the Net Present Value of going to university rather than working?

The opportunity to meet a desirable future spouse should be classified as:

(a) A sunk cost.

(b) An opportunity cost.

(c) A negative side effect.

(d) A positive side effect.

(e) A depreciation expense.

Question 781  NPV, IRR, pay back period

You're considering a business project which costs $11m now and is expected to pay a single cash flow of $11m in one year. So you pay $11m now, then one year later you receive $11m.

Assume that the initial $11m cost is funded using the your 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 the net present value (NPV), internal rate of return (IRR) and payback period is NOT correct?

(a) The NPV is negative $1m.

(b) The IRR is 0% pa, less than the 10% cost of capital.

(c) The payback period is one year.

(d) The project should be rejected.

(e) If the project is accepted now then the market value of the firm's assets will fall by $11m.

Question 250  NPV, Loan, arbitrage table

Your neighbour asks you for a loan of $100 and offers to pay you back $120 in one year.

You don't actually have any money right now, but you can borrow and lend from the bank at a rate of 10% pa. Rates are given as effective annual rates.

Assume that your neighbour will definitely pay you back. Ignore interest tax shields and transaction costs.

The Net Present Value (NPV) of lending to your neighbour is $9.09. Describe what you would do to actually receive a $9.09 cash flow right now with zero net cash flows in the future.

(a) Borrow $109.09 from the bank and lend $100 of it to your neighbour now.

(b) Borrow $100 from the bank and lend it to your neighbour now.

(c) Borrow $209.09 from the bank and lend $100 to your neighbour now.

(d) Borrow $120 from the bank and lend $100 of it to your neighbour now.

(e) Borrow $90.91 from the bank and lend it to your neighbour now.