Fight Finance

Question 524  risk, expected and historical returns, bankruptcy or insolvency, capital structure, corporate financial decision theory, limited liability

Which of the following statements is NOT correct?

(a) Stocks are higher risk investments than debt.

(b) Stocks have higher expected returns than debt.

(c) Firms' past realised stock returns are always higher than their past realised debt returns.

(d) In the event of bankruptcy, stock holders are paid after debt holders are fully paid.

(e) Stock holders have a residual claim on the firm's assets.

Question 608  debt terminology

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

Question 330  APR, effective rate, debt terminology

Which of the following statements about effective rates and annualised percentage rates (APR's) is NOT correct?

(a) Effective rates compound once over their time period. So an effective monthly rate compounds once per month.

(b) APR's compound more than once per year. So an APR compounding monthly compounds 12 times per year. The exception is an APR that compounds annually (once per year) which is the same thing as an effective annual rate.

(c) To convert an effective rate to an APR, multiply the effective rate by the number of time periods in one year. So an effective monthly rate multiplied by 12 is equal to an APR compounding monthly.

(d) To convert an APR compounding monthly to an effective monthly rate, divide the APR by the number of months in one year (12).

(e) To convert an APR compounding monthly to an effective weekly rate, divide the APR by the number of weeks in one year (approximately 52).

Question 509  bond pricing

Calculate the price of a newly issued ten year bond with a face value of $100, a yield of 8% pa and a fixed coupon rate of 6% pa, paid annually. So there's only one coupon per year, paid in arrears every year.

(a) $114.8775

(b) $114.7202

(c) $86.5798

(d) $86.4097

(e) $40.2605

Question 990  Multiples valuation, EV to EBITDA ratio, enterprise value

A firm has:

2 million shares;

$200 million EBITDA expected over the next year;

$100 million in cash (not included in EV);

1/3 market debt-to-assets ratio is (market assets = EV + cash);

4% pa expected dividend yield over the next year, paid annually with the next dividend expected in one year;

2% pa expected dividend growth rate;

40% expected payout ratio over the next year;

10 times EV/EBITDA ratio.

30% corporate tax rate.

The stock can be valued using the EV/EBITDA multiple, dividend discount model, Gordon growth model or PE multiple. Which of the below statements is NOT correct based on an EV/EBITDA multiple valuation?

(a) The Enterprise Value (EV) is $2 billion and the asset value is $2.1 billion.

(b) The market capitalisation of equity is $1.4 billion and the stock price is $700.

(c) Gross debt is $0.7 billion and net debt is $0.6 billion (net of cash).

(d) Next year’s expected dividend per share is $28.

(e) The forward looking PE ratio is 15.

Question 1010  lemons problem, asymmetric information, adverse selection, fungible

The ‘Lemons Problem’ is likely to more adversely affect the desirability of which type of investment?

(a) Residential real estate.

(b) Listed shares.

(c) Bank bills.

(d) Government bonds.

(e) Futures on the stock index.

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.

(a) Alice says 5% pa since she calculated that this was the average total yield on government bonds over the last 10 years. She says that this is also the expected total yield implied by current prices on one year government bonds.

(b) Bob says 4% pa since he calculated that this was the average total return on the mining stock over the last 10 years.

(c) Cate says 3% pa since she calculated that this was the average growth rate of the share price over the last 10 years.

(d) Dave says 6% pa since he calculated that this was the average growth rate of the share market price index (not the accumulation index) over the last 10 years.

(e) Eve says 15% pa since she calculated that this was the discount rate implied by the dividend discount model using the current share price, forecast dividend in one year and a 3% growth rate in dividends thereafter, which is the expected long term inflation rate.

Question 248  CAPM, DDM, income and capital returns

The total return of any asset can be broken down in different ways. One possible way is to use the dividend discount model (or Gordon growth model):

###p_0 = \frac{c_1}{r_\text{total}-r_\text{capital}}###

Which, since ##c_1/p_0## is the income return (##r_\text{income}##), can be expressed as:

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

So the total return of an asset is the income component plus the capital or price growth component.

Another way to break up total return is to use the Capital Asset Pricing Model:

###r_\text{total}=r_\text{f}+β(r_\text{m}- r_\text{f})###

###r_\text{total}=r_\text{time value}+r_\text{risk premium}###

So the risk free rate is the time value of money and the term ##β(r_\text{m}- r_\text{f})## is the compensation for taking on systematic risk.

Using the above theory and your general knowledge, which of the below equations, if any, are correct?

(I) ##r_\text{income}=r_\text{time value}##

(II) ##r_\text{income}=r_\text{risk premium}##

(III) ##r_\text{capital}=r_\text{time value}##

(IV) ##r_\text{capital}=r_\text{risk premium}##

(V) ##r_\text{income}+r_\text{capital}=r_\text{time value}+r_\text{risk premium}##

Which of the equations are correct?

(a) I, IV and V only.

(b) II, III and V only.

(c) V only.

(d) All are true.

(e) None are true.

Question 605  cross currency interest rate parity, foreign exchange rate

If the Reserve Bank of Australia is expected to keep its interbank overnight cash rate at 2% pa while the US Federal Reserve is expected to keep its federal funds rate at 0% pa over the next year, is the AUD is expected to , , or remain against the USD over the next year?