Question 69 interest tax shield, capital structure, leverage, WACC
Which statement about risk, required return and capital structure is the most correct?
| Portfolio Details | ||||||
| Stock | Expected return |
Standard deviation |
Correlation | Dollars invested |
||
| A | 0.1 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 60 | ||
| B | 0.2 | 0.6 | 140 | |||
What is the expected return of the above portfolio?
The security market line (SML) shows the relationship between beta and expected return.
Buying investment projects that plot above the SML would lead to:
A newly floated farming company is financed with senior bonds, junior bonds, cumulative non-voting preferred stock and common stock. The new company has no retained profits and due to floods it was unable to record any revenues this year, leading to a loss. The firm is not bankrupt yet since it still has substantial contributed equity (same as paid-up capital).
On which securities must it pay interest or dividend payments in this terrible financial year?
A wholesale store offers credit to its customers. Customers are given 60 days to pay for their goods, but if they pay immediately they will get a 1.5% discount.
What is the effective interest rate implicit in the discount being offered? Assume 365 days in a year and that all customers pay either immediately or the 60th day. All of the below answer choices are given as effective annual interest rates.
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?
Estimate Microsoft's (MSFT) share price using a price earnings (PE) multiples approach with the following assumptions and figures only:
- Apple, Google and Microsoft are comparable companies,
- Apple's (AAPL) share price is $526.24 and historical EPS is $40.32.
- Google's (GOOG) share price is $1,215.65 and historical EPS is $36.23.
- Micrsoft's (MSFT) historical earnings per share (EPS) is $2.71.
Source: Google Finance 28 Feb 2014.
Alice, Bob, Chris and Delta are traders in the futures market. The following trades occur over a single day in a newly-opened equity index future that matures in one year which the exchange just made available.
1. Alice buys a future from Bob.
2. Chris buys a future from Delta.
3. Alice buys a future from Chris.
These were the only trades made in this equity index future. What was the trading volume and what is the open interest?
Question 895 comparative advantage in trade, production possibilities curve
Adam and Bella are the only people on a remote island.
Luckily there are Coconut and Date palm trees on the island that grow delicious fruit. The problem is that harvesting the fruit takes a lot of work.
Adam can pick 7 coconuts per hour, 6 dates per hour or any linear combination of coconuts and dates. For example, he could pick 3.5 coconuts and 3 dates per hour.
Bella can pick 3 coconuts per hour, 5 dates per hour or any linear combination. For example, she could pick 1.5 coconuts and 2.5 dates per hour.
This information is summarised in the table and graph:
| Harvest Rates Per Hour | ||
| Coconuts | Dates | |
| Adam | 7 | 6 |
| Bella | 3 | 5 |
Which of the following statements is NOT correct?
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?