$1.$You have been assigned to conduct a Percent$-$of$-$Sales Planning exercise for Clark, Inc. for the next three years. The $2023$ accounting data for the firm is

given below.

You feel it is reasonable to assume that sales will grow by $6\%$ annually over the next three years. Treat the cost and assets accounts as percents$-$of$-$sales.

These are costs $(70\%),$ depreciation $(5\%),$ current assets $(15\%),$ capital assets $(90\%),$ and non$-$debt current liabilities $(10\%).$ The tax rate is $21\%.$ As is usual in

Percent$-$of$-$Sales Planning, hold long$-$term debt and non$-$debt liabilities, and annual interest expenses at their current levels. The firm currently has

$200,000$ shares outstanding, and the dividends per share are $$4\mathrm{.}50.$ Again, assume that shares and DPS are held constant over the planning horizon.

Based on these assumptions, what will EPS be in $2026?($Show your answer in dollars and cents, e$.$g$.7\mathrm{.}64)$

$2.$ Based on the assumptions above, what will be the External Funding Required $($shown as a positive number$)$ of excess cash generated $($shown as a negative number$)$ by $2026?($Show your answer in dollars, e$.$g$.106983$ or $-106983)$

$3.$ Now, consider a sensitivity analysis where all of the assumptions are as above except that sales will grow at only $5\%$ per year. Under these conditions, what will be the External Funding Required $($shown as a positive number$)$ of excess cash generated $($shown as a negative number$)$ by $2026?($Show your answer in dollars, e$.$g$.106983$ or $-106983)$

$4.$ Consider a second a sensitivity analysis where all of the assumptions are as in the original problem $($including that the annual growth in sales is $6\%),$ except that the firm lowers DPS to $$4\mathrm{.}00$ for $2024$ through $2026.$ Under these conditions, what will be the External Funding Required $($shown as a positive number$)$ of excess cash generated $($shown as a negative number$)$ by $2026?($Show your answer in dollars, e$.$g$.106983$ or $-106983)$