Fight Finance

Courses  Tags  Random  All  Recent  Scores

Question 406  leverage, WACC, margin loan, portfolio return

One year ago you bought $100,000 of shares partly funded using a margin loan. The margin loan size was $70,000 and the other $30,000 was your own wealth or 'equity' in the share assets.

The interest rate on the margin loan was 7.84% pa.

Over the year, the shares produced a dividend yield of 4% pa and a capital gain of 5% pa.

What was the total return on your wealth? Ignore taxes, assume that all cash flows (interest payments and dividends) were paid and received at the end of the year, and all rates above are effective annual rates.

Hint: Remember that wealth in this context is your equity (E) in the house asset (V = D+E) which is funded by the loan (D) and your deposit or equity (E).


Question 407  income and capital returns, inflation, real and nominal returns and cash flows

A stock has a real expected total return of 7% pa and a real expected capital return of 2% pa.

Inflation is expected to be 2% pa. All rates are given as effective annual rates.

What is the nominal expected total return, capital return and dividend yield? The answers below are given in the same order.



Question 459  interest only loan, inflation

In Australia in the 1980's, inflation was around 8% pa, and residential mortgage loan interest rates were around 14%.

In 2013, inflation was around 2.5% pa, and residential mortgage loan interest rates were around 4.5%.

If a person can afford constant mortgage loan payments of $2,000 per month, how much more can they borrow when interest rates are 4.5% pa compared with 14.0% pa?

Give your answer as a proportional increase over the amount you could borrow when interest rates were high ##(V_\text{high rates})##, so:

###\text{Proportional increase} = \dfrac{V_\text{low rates}-V_\text{high rates}}{V_\text{high rates}} ###

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 (APR's) compounding per month.



Question 483  PE ratio

The below screenshot of Microsoft's (MSFT) details were taken from the Google Finance website on 28 Nov 2014. Some information has been deliberately blanked out.

Image of MSFT on Google finance on 28 Nov 2014

What was MSFT's backwards-looking price-earnings ratio?



Question 484  payout ratio, dividend, no explanation

The below screenshot of Microsoft's (MSFT) details were taken from the Google Finance website on 28 Nov 2014. Some information has been deliberately blanked out.

Image of MSFT on Google finance on 28 Nov 2014

What was MSFT's approximate payout ratio over the last year?

Note that MSFT's past four quarterly dividends were $0.31, $0.28, $0.28 and $0.28.



Question 495  risk, accounting ratio, no explanation

High risk firms in danger of bankruptcy tend to have:



Question 586  option

Which one of the following statements about option contracts is NOT correct?



Question 739  real and nominal returns and cash flows, inflation

There are a number of different formulas involving real and nominal returns and cash flows. Which one of the following formulas is NOT correct? All returns are effective annual rates. Note that the symbol ##\approx## means 'approximately equal to'.



Question 910  money market

Which of the following is NOT a money market security?



Question 930  arbitrage table, future, no explanation

A non-dividend paying stock has a current price of $20.

The risk free rate is 5% pa given as a continuously compounded rate.

A 2 year futures contract on the stock has a futures price of $24.

You suspect that the futures contract is mis-priced and would like to conduct a risk-free arbitrage that requires zero capital. Which of the following steps about arbitraging the situation is NOT correct?