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Question 50  DDM, stock pricing, inflation, real and nominal returns and cash flows

Most listed Australian companies pay dividends twice per year, the 'interim' and 'final' dividends, which are roughly 6 months apart.

You are an equities analyst trying to value the company BHP. You decide to use the Dividend Discount Model (DDM) as a starting point, so you study BHP's dividend history and you find that BHP tends to pay the same interim and final dividend each year, and that both grow by the same rate.

You expect BHP will pay a $0.55 interim dividend in six months and a $0.55 final dividend in one year. You expect each to grow by 4% next year and forever, so the interim and final dividends next year will be $0.572 each, and so on in perpetuity.

Assume BHP's cost of equity is 8% pa. All rates are quoted as nominal effective rates. The dividends are nominal cash flows and the inflation rate is 2.5% pa.

What is the current price of a BHP share?



Question 284  covariance, correlation

The following table shows a sample of historical total returns of shares in two different companies A and B.

Stock Returns
Total effective annual returns
Year ##r_A## ##r_B##
2007 0.2 0.4
2008 0.04 -0.2
2009 -0.1 -0.3
2010 0.18 0.5
 

What is the historical sample covariance (##\hat{\sigma}_{A,B}##) and correlation (##\rho_{A,B}##) of stock A and B's total effective annual returns?



Question 338  market efficiency, CAPM, opportunity cost, technical analysis

A man inherits $500,000 worth of shares.

He believes that by learning the secrets of trading, keeping up with the financial news and doing complex trend analysis with charts that he can quit his job and become a self-employed day trader in the equities markets.

What is the expected gain from doing this over the first year? Measure the net gain in wealth received at the end of this first year due to the decision to become a day trader. Assume the following:

  • He earns $60,000 pa in his current job, paid in a lump sum at the end of each year.
  • He enjoys examining share price graphs and day trading just as much as he enjoys his current job.
  • Stock markets are weak form and semi-strong form efficient.
  • He has no inside information.
  • He makes 1 trade every day and there are 250 trading days in the year. Trading costs are $20 per trade. His broker invoices him for the trading costs at the end of the year.
  • The shares that he currently owns and the shares that he intends to trade have the same level of systematic risk as the market portfolio.
  • The market portfolio's expected return is 10% pa.

Measure the net gain over the first year as an expected wealth increase at the end of the year.



Question 400  option, no explanation

A European put option will mature in ##T## years with a strike price of ##K## dollars. The underlying asset has a price of ##S## dollars.

What is an expression for the payoff at maturity ##(f_T)## in dollars from owning (being long) the put option?



Question 404  income and capital returns, real estate

One and a half years ago Frank bought a house for $600,000. Now it's worth only $500,000, based on recent similar sales in the area.

The expected total return on Frank's residential property is 7% pa.

He rents his house out for $1,600 per month, paid in advance. Every 12 months he plans to increase the rental payments.

The present value of 12 months of rental payments is $18,617.27.

The future value of 12 months of rental payments one year in the future is $19,920.48.

What is the expected annual rental yield of the property? Ignore the costs of renting such as maintenance, real estate agent fees and so on.



Question 440  option, no explanation

Two put options are exactly the same, but one has a low and the other has a high exercise price. Which option would you expect to have the higher price, the option with the or exercise price, or should they have the price?


Question 640  option, future, no explanation

Which one of the below option and futures contracts gives the possibility of potentially unlimited gains?



Question 655  capital budgeting, opportunity cost, sunk cost

The 'time value of money' is most closely related to which of the following concepts?



Question 664  real and nominal returns and cash flows, inflation, no explanation

What is the present value of real payments of $100 every year forever, with the first payment in one year? The nominal discount rate is 7% pa and the inflation rate is 4% pa.



Question 883  monetary policy, impossible trinity, foreign exchange rate

It’s often thought that the ideal currency or exchange rate regime would:

1. Be fixed against the USD;

2. Be convertible to and from USD for traders and investors so there are open goods, services and capital markets, and;

3. Allow independent monetary policy set by the country’s central bank, independent of the US central bank. So the country can set its own interest rate independent of the US Federal Reserve’s USD interest rate.

However, not all of these characteristics can be achieved. One must be sacrificed. This is the 'impossible trinity'.

Which of the following exchange rate regimes sacrifices convertibility?