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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?



Question 441  DDM, income and capital returns

A fairly valued share's current price is $4 and it has a total required return of 30%. Dividends are paid annually and next year's dividend is expected to be $1. After that, dividends are expected to grow by 5% pa in perpetuity. All rates are effective annual returns.

What is the expected dividend income paid at the end of the second year (t=2) and what is the expected capital gain from just after the first dividend (t=1) to just after the second dividend (t=2)? The answers are given in the same order, the dividend and then the capital gain.



Question 37  IRR

If a project's net present value (NPV) is zero, then its internal rate of return (IRR) will be:



Question 57  interest only loan

You just borrowed $400,000 in the form of a 25 year interest-only mortgage with monthly payments of $3,000 per month. The interest rate is 9% pa which is not expected to change.

You actually plan to pay more than the required interest payment. You plan to pay $3,300 in mortgage payments every month, which your mortgage lender allows. These extra payments will reduce the principal and the minimum interest payment required each month.

At the maturity of the mortgage, what will be the principal? That is, after the last (300th) interest payment of $3,300 in 25 years, how much will be owing on the mortgage?



Question 56  income and capital returns, bond pricing, premium par and discount bonds

Which of the following statements about risk free government bonds is NOT correct?

Hint: Total return can be broken into income and capital returns as follows:

###\begin{aligned} r_\text{total} &= \frac{c_1}{p_0} + \frac{p_1-p_0}{p_0} \\ &= r_\text{income} + r_\text{capital} \end{aligned} ###

The capital return is the growth rate of the price.
The income return is the periodic cash flow. For a bond this is the coupon payment.


Question 213  income and capital returns, bond pricing, premium par and discount bonds

The coupon rate of a fixed annual-coupon bond is constant (always the same).

What can you say about the income return (##r_\text{income}##) of a fixed annual coupon bond? Remember that:

###r_\text{total} = r_\text{income} + r_\text{capital}###

###r_\text{total, 0 to 1} = \frac{c_1}{p_0} + \frac{p_1-p_0}{p_0}###

Assume that there is no change in the bond's total annual yield to maturity from when it is issued to when it matures.

Select the most correct statement.

From its date of issue until maturity, the income return of a fixed annual coupon:



Question 299  equivalent annual cash flow

Carlos and Edwin are brothers and they both love Holden Commodore cars.

Carlos likes to buy the latest Holden Commodore car for $40,000 every 4 years as soon as the new model is released. As soon as he buys the new car, he sells the old one on the second hand car market for $20,000. Carlos never has to bother with paying for repairs since his cars are brand new.

Edwin also likes Commodores, but prefers to buy 4-year old cars for $20,000 and keep them for 11 years until the end of their life (new ones last for 15 years in total but the 4-year old ones only last for another 11 years). Then he sells the old car for $2,000 and buys another 4-year old second hand car, and so on.

Every time Edwin buys a second hand 4 year old car he immediately has to spend $1,000 on repairs, and then $1,000 every year after that for the next 10 years. So there are 11 payments in total from when the second hand car is bought at t=0 to the last payment at t=10. One year later (t=11) the old car is at the end of its total 15 year life and can be scrapped for $2,000.

Assuming that Carlos and Edwin maintain their love of Commodores and keep up their habits of buying new ones and second hand ones respectively, how much larger is Carlos' equivalent annual cost of car ownership compared with Edwin's?

The real discount rate is 10% pa. All cash flows are real and are expected to remain constant. Inflation is forecast to be 3% pa. All rates are effective annual. Ignore capital gains tax and tax savings from depreciation since cars are tax-exempt for individuals.



Question 215  equivalent annual cash flow, effective rate conversion

You're about to buy a car. These are the cash flows of the two different cars that you can buy:

  • You can buy an old car for $5,000 now, for which you will have to buy $90 of fuel at the end of each week from the date of purchase. The old car will last for 3 years, at which point you will sell the old car for $500.
  • Or you can buy a new car for $14,000 now for which you will have to buy $50 of fuel at the end of each week from the date of purchase. The new car will last for 4 years, at which point you will sell the new car for $1,000.

Bank interest rates are 10% pa, given as an effective annual rate. Assume that there are exactly 52 weeks in a year. Ignore taxes and environmental and pollution factors.

Should you buy the or the ?


Question 249  equivalent annual cash flow, effective rate conversion

Details of two different types of desserts or edible treats are given below:

  • High-sugar treats like candy, chocolate and ice cream make a person very happy. High sugar treats are cheap at only $2 per day.
  • Low-sugar treats like nuts, cheese and fruit make a person equally happy if these foods are of high quality. Low sugar treats are more expensive at $4 per day.

The advantage of low-sugar treats is that a person only needs to pay the dentist $2,000 for fillings and root canal therapy once every 15 years. Whereas with high-sugar treats, that treatment needs to be done every 5 years.

The real discount rate is 10%, given as an effective annual rate. Assume that there are 365 days in every year and that all cash flows are real. The inflation rate is 3% given as an effective annual rate.

Find the equivalent annual cash flow (EAC) of the high-sugar treats and low-sugar treats, including dental costs. The below choices are listed in that order.

Ignore the pain of dental therapy, personal preferences and other factors.



Question 280  equivalent annual cash flow

You own a nice suit which you wear once per week on nights out. You bought it one year ago for $600. In your experience, suits used once per week last for 6 years. So you expect yours to last for another 5 years.

Your younger brother said that retro is back in style so he wants to wants to borrow your suit once a week when he goes out. With the increased use, your suit will only last for another 4 years rather than 5.

What is the present value of the cost of letting your brother use your current suit for the next 4 years?

Assume: that bank interest rates are 10% pa, given as an effective annual rate; you will buy a new suit when your current one wears out and your brother will not use the new one; your brother will only use your current suit so he will only use it for the next four years; and the price of a new suit never changes.



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 370  capital budgeting, NPV, interest tax shield, WACC, CFFA

Project Data
Project life 2 yrs
Initial investment in equipment $600k
Depreciation of equipment per year $250k
Expected sale price of equipment at end of project $200k
Revenue per job $12k
Variable cost per job $4k
Quantity of jobs per year 120
Fixed costs per year, paid at the end of each year $100k
Interest expense in first year (at t=1) $16.091k
Interest expense in second year (at t=2) $9.711k
Tax rate 30%
Government treasury bond yield 5%
Bank loan debt yield 6%
Levered cost of equity 12.5%
Market portfolio return 10%
Beta of assets 1.24
Beta of levered equity 1.5
Firm's and project's debt-to-equity ratio 25%
 

Notes

  1. The project will require an immediate purchase of $50k of inventory, which will all be sold at cost when the project ends. Current liabilities are negligible so they can be ignored.

Assumptions

  • The debt-to-equity ratio will be kept constant throughout the life of the project. The amount of interest expense at the end of each period has been correctly calculated to maintain this constant debt-to-equity ratio. Note that interest expense is different in each year.
  • Thousands are represented by 'k' (kilo).
  • All cash flows occur at the start or end of the year as appropriate, not in the middle or throughout the year.
  • All rates and cash flows are nominal. The inflation rate is 2% pa.
  • All rates are given as effective annual rates.
  • The 50% capital gains tax discount is not available since the project is undertaken by a firm, not an individual.

What is the net present value (NPV) of the project?



Question 99  capital structure, interest tax shield, Miller and Modigliani, trade off theory of capital structure

A firm changes its capital structure by issuing a large amount of debt and using the funds to repurchase shares. Its assets are unchanged.

Assume that:

  • The firm and individual investors can borrow at the same rate and have the same tax rates.
  • The firm's debt and shares are fairly priced and the shares are repurchased at the market price, not at a premium.
  • There are no market frictions relating to debt such as asymmetric information or transaction costs.
  • Shareholders wealth is measured in terms of utiliity. Shareholders are wealth-maximising and risk-averse. They have a preferred level of overall leverage. Before the firm's capital restructure all shareholders were optimally levered.

According to Miller and Modigliani's theory, which statement is correct?



Question 337  capital structure, interest tax shield, leverage, real and nominal returns and cash flows, multi stage growth model

A fast-growing firm is suitable for valuation using a multi-stage growth model.

It's nominal unlevered cash flow from assets (##CFFA_U##) at the end of this year (t=1) is expected to be $1 million. After that it is expected to grow at a rate of:

  • 12% pa for the next two years (from t=1 to 3),
  • 5% over the fourth year (from t=3 to 4), and
  • -1% forever after that (from t=4 onwards). Note that this is a negative one percent growth rate.

Assume that:

  • The nominal WACC after tax is 9.5% pa and is not expected to change.
  • The nominal WACC before tax is 10% pa and is not expected to change.
  • The firm has a target debt-to-equity ratio that it plans to maintain.
  • The inflation rate is 3% pa.
  • All rates are given as nominal effective annual rates.

What is the levered value of this fast growing firm's assets?



Question 73  portfolio risk, standard deviation

Portfolio Details
Stock Expected
return
Standard
deviation
Covariance ##(\sigma_{A,B})## Beta Dollars
invested
A 0.2 0.4 0.12 0.5 40
B 0.3 0.8 1.5 80
 

What is the standard deviation (not variance) of the above portfolio? Note that the stocks' covariance is given, not correlation.



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.



Question 556  portfolio risk, portfolio return, standard deviation

An investor wants to make a portfolio of two stocks A and B with a target expected portfolio return of 12% pa.

  • Stock A has an expected return of 10% pa and a standard deviation of 20% pa.
  • Stock B has an expected return of 15% pa and a standard deviation of 30% pa.

The correlation coefficient between stock A and B's expected returns is 70%.

What will be the annual standard deviation of the portfolio with this 12% pa target return?



Question 560  standard deviation, variance, needs refinement

The standard deviation and variance of a stock's annual returns are calculated over a number of years. The units of the returns are percent per annum ##(\% pa)##.

What are the units of the standard deviation ##(\sigma)## and variance ##(\sigma^2)## of returns respectively?

Hint: Visit Wikipedia to understand the difference between percentage points ##(\text{pp})## and percent ##(\%)##.


Question 561  covariance, correlation

The covariance and correlation of two stocks X and Y's annual returns are calculated over a number of years. The units of the returns are in percent per annum ##(\% pa)##.

What are the units of the covariance ##(\sigma_{X,Y})## and correlation ##(\rho_{X,Y})## of returns respectively?

Hint: Visit Wikipedia to understand the difference between percentage points ##(\text{pp})## and percent ##(\%)##.


Question 307  risk, variance

Let the variance of returns for a share per month be ##\sigma_\text{monthly}^2##.

What is the formula for the variance of the share's returns per year ##(\sigma_\text{yearly}^2)##?

Assume that returns are independently and identically distributed (iid) so they have zero auto correlation, meaning that if the return was higher than average today, it does not indicate that the return tomorrow will be higher or lower than average.



Question 306  risk, standard deviation

Let the standard deviation of returns for a share per month be ##\sigma_\text{monthly}##.

What is the formula for the standard deviation of the share's returns per year ##(\sigma_\text{yearly})##?

Assume that returns are independently and identically distributed (iid) so they have zero auto correlation, meaning that if the return was higher than average today, it does not indicate that the return tomorrow will be higher or lower than average.