Fight Finance

Question 97  WACC, no explanation

A company has:

• 10 million common shares outstanding, each trading at a price of $90.
• 1 million preferred shares which have a face (or par) value of $100 and pay a constant dividend of 9% of par. They currently trade at a price of $120 each.
• Debentures that have a total face value of $60,000,000 and a yield to maturity of 6% per annum. They are publicly traded and their market price is equal to 90% of their face value.
• The risk-free rate is 5% and the market return is 10%.
• Market analysts estimate that the company's common stock has a beta of 1.2. The corporate tax rate is 30%.

What is the company's after-tax Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC)? Assume a classical tax system.

(a) 10.27%

(b) 10.39%

(c) 10.43%

(d) 11.47%

(e) 17.22%

Question 190  pay back period

A project has the following cash flows:

Project Cash Flows
Time (yrs)	Cash flow ($)
0	-400
1	0
2	500

What is the payback period of the project in years?

Normally cash flows are assumed to happen at the given time. But here, assume that the cash flows are received smoothly over the year. So the $500 at time 2 is actually earned smoothly from t=1 to t=2.

(a) -0.80

(b) 0.80

(c) 1.20

(d) 1.80

(e) 2.20

Question 285  covariance, portfolio risk

Two risky stocks A and B comprise an equal-weighted portfolio. The correlation between the stocks' returns is 70%.

If the variance of stock A's returns increases but the:

• Prices and expected returns of each stock stays the same,
• Variance of stock B's returns stays the same,
• Correlation of returns between the stocks stays the same.

Which of the following statements is NOT correct?

(a) The variance of the portfolio returns will increase.

(b) The standard deviation of the portfolio returns will increase.

(c) The covariance of returns between stocks A and B will stay the same.

(d) The portfolio expected return will stay the same.

(e) The portfolio value will stay the same.

Question 349  CFFA, depreciation tax shield

Which one of the following will decrease net income (NI) but increase cash flow from assets (CFFA) in this year for a tax-paying firm, all else remaining constant?

Remember:

###NI = (Rev-COGS-FC-Depr-IntExp).(1-t_c )### ###CFFA=NI+Depr-CapEx - \Delta NWC+IntExp###

(a) An increase in revenue (Rev).

(b) An increase in rent expense (part of fixed costs, FC).

(c) An increase in depreciation expense (Depr).

(d) An decrease in net working capital (ΔNWC).

(e) An increase in dividends.

Question 608  debt terminology

You deposit cash into your bank account. Have you or debt?

Question 712  effective rate conversion

An effective monthly return of 1% ##(r_\text{eff monthly})## is equivalent to an effective annual return ##(r_\text{eff annual})## of:

(a) 12.682503% pa

(b) 12.060201% pa

(c) 12% pa

(d) 11.940397% pa

(e) 3.464102% pa

Question 732  real and nominal returns and cash flows, inflation, income and capital returns

An investor bought a bond for $100 (at t=0) and one year later it paid its annual coupon of $1 (at t=1). Just after the coupon was paid, the bond price was $100.50 (at t=1). Inflation over the past year (from t=0 to t=1) was 3% pa, given as an effective annual rate.

Which of the following statements is NOT correct? The bond investment produced a:

(a) Nominal income return of 1% pa ##\left( =\dfrac{1}{100} \right)##.

(b) Nominal capital return of 0.5% pa ##\left( =\dfrac{100.5-100}{100} \right)##.

(c) Nominal total return of 1.5% pa ##\left( =\dfrac{100.5-100+1}{100} \right)##.

(d) Real income return of 0.9708738% pa##\left( =\dfrac{ 1/(1+0.03)^1}{100} \right)##.

(e) Real capital return of 0.4854369% pa ##\left( =\dfrac{ (100.5-100)/(1+0.03)^1}{100} \right) ##.

Question 791  mean and median returns, return distribution, arithmetic and geometric averages, continuously compounding rate, log-normal distribution, VaR, confidence interval

A risk manager has identified that their pension fund’s continuously compounded portfolio returns are normally distributed with a mean of 5% pa and a standard deviation of 20% pa. The fund’s portfolio is currently valued at $1 million. Assume that there is no estimation error in the above figures. To simplify your calculations, all answers below use 2.33 as an approximation for the normal inverse cumulative density function at 99%. All answers are rounded to the nearest dollar. Which of the following statements is NOT correct?

(a) The mean (expected or arithmetic average) portfolio value in one year is $1,072,508. The median (50th percentile) portfolio value in one year is $1,051,271.

(b) The annual 99% relative VaR is $391,591.

(c) The annual 99% absolute VaR is $340,320.

(d) The 98% confidence interval of portfolio values in one year ##(V_1)## is ##\$659,680 < V_1 < \$1,675,312,977##.

(e) The 98% confidence interval of continuously compounded portfolio returns over the next year ##(r_{0 \rightarrow 1})## is ##-41.6\% < r_{0 \rightarrow 1} < 51.6\%##.

Question 796  option, Black-Scholes-Merton option pricing, option delta, no explanation

Which of the following quantities from the Black-Scholes-Merton option pricing formula gives the risk-neutral probability that a European call option will be exercised?

(a) ##N[d_1]##

(b) ##N[d_2]##

(c) ##−N[−d_1]##

(d) ##−N[−d_2]##

(e) ##N[−d_2]##

Question 903  option, Black-Scholes-Merton option pricing, option on stock index

A six month European-style call option on the S&P500 stock index has a strike price of 2800 points.

The underlying S&P500 stock index currently trades at 2700 points, has a continuously compounded dividend yield of 2% pa and a standard deviation of continuously compounded returns of 25% pa.

The risk-free interest rate is 5% pa continuously compounded.

Use the Black-Scholes-Merton formula to calculate the option price. The call option price now is:

(a) 162.83 points

(b) 220.56 points

(c) 226.43 points

(d) 230.91 points

(e) 317.45 points