A firm is considering its only investment opportunity, where it can invest some excess cash right now into a project that is expected to earn $9\mathrm{.}5\%$ return in perpetuity. The opportunity cost $($discount rate$)$ for this project is estimated at $8\%.$ Assuming management works on behalf of the shareholders and has eliminated agency costs, it should:

Group of answer choices

Invest in the project because the proposed return exceeds the cost of debt.

Reject the project and return the excess cash as dividends because the NPV of this project is negative.

Invest in the project because the discount rate is more than the expected return on invested capital

Reject the project and return the cash as dividends because management could never know up$-$front the cash flows for sure over such a long time period

Invest in the project because the expected return on invested capital on this project exceeds the discount rate.