6. The payback period The payback method helps firms establish and identify a maximum acceptable payback period that helps in their capital budgeting decisions. Consider the case of Cute Camel Woodcraft Company: Cute Camel Woodcraft Company is a small firm, and several of its managers are worried about how soon the firm will be able to recover its initial investment from Project Alpha's expected future cash flows. To answer this question, Cute Camel's CFO has asked that you compute the project's payback period using the following expected net cash flows and assuming that the cash flows are received evenly throughout each year. Complete the following table and compute the project's conventional payback period. For full credit, complete the entire table. (Note: Round the conventional payback period to two decimal places. If your answer is negative, be sure to use a minus sign in your answer.) Year o -$4,500,000 Year 1 $1,800,000 Year 2 $3,825,000 Year 3 $1,575,000 $ $ Expected cash flow Cumulative cash flow Conventional payback period: years The conventional payback period ignores the time value of money, and this concerns Cute Camel's CFO. He has now asked you to compute Alpha's discounted payback period, assuming the company has a 8% cost of capital. Complete the following table and perform any necessary calculations. Round the discounted cash flow values to the nearest whole dollar, and the discounted payback period to two decimal places. For full credit, complete the entire table. (Note: If your answer is negative, be sure to use a minus sign in your answer.) The conventional payback period ignores the time value of money, and this concerns Cute Camel's CFO. He has now asked you to compute Alpha's discounted payback period, assuming the company has a 8% cost of capital. Complete the following table and perform any necessary calculations. Round the discounted cash flow values to the nearest whole dollar, and the discounted payback period to two decimal places. For full credit, complete the entire table. (Note: If your answer is negative, be sure to use a minus sign in your answer.) Year o -$4,500,000 Year 1 $1,800,000 Year 2 $3,825,000 Year 3 $1,575,000 $ $ $ $ Cash flow Discounted cash flow Cumulative discounted cash flow Discounted payback period: years Which version of a project's payback period should the CFO use when evaluating Project Alpha, given its theoretical superiority? The discounted payback period The regular payback period One theoretical disadvantage of both payback methods-compared to the net present value method-is that they fail to consider the value of the cash flows beyond the point in time equal to the payback period. How much value in this example does the discounted payback period method fail to recognize due to this theoretical deficiency? $2,916,953 $1,696,274 $1,250,286 $4,529,607 7. The NPV and payback period What information does the payback period provide? Suppose you are evaluating a project with the expected future cash inflows shown in the following table. Your boss has asked you to calculate the project's net present value (NPV). You don't know the project's initial cost, but you do know the project's regular, or conventional, payback period is 2.50 years. Year Cash Flow Year 1 $350,000 Year 2 $500,000 Year 3 $400,000 Year 4 $425,000 If the project's weighted average cost of capital (WACC) is 7%, the project's NPV (rounded to the nearest dollar) is: $437,486 $382,801 $328,115 $364,572 Which of the following statements indicate a disadvantage of using the regular payback period (not the discounted payback period) for capital budgeting decisions? Check all that apply. The payback period does not take the project's entire life into account. The payback period does not take the time value of money into account. The payback period is calculated using net income instead of cash flows. 8. Conclusions about capital budgeting The decision process Before making capital budgeting decisions, finance professionals often generate, review, analyze, select, and implement long-term investment proposals that meet firm-specific criteria and are consistent with the firm's strategic goals. Companies often use several methods to evaluate the project's cash flows and each of them has its benefits and disadvantages. Based on your understanding of the capital budgeting evaluation methods, which of the following conclusions about capital budgeting are valid? Check all that apply. For most firms, the reinvestment rate assumption in the NPV is more realistic than the assumption in the IRR. The NPV shows how much value the company is creating for its shareholders. Because the MIRR and NPV use the same reinvestment rate assumption, they always lead to the same accept/reject decision for mutually exclusive projects. is the single best method to use when making capital budgeting decisions