and it faces the problem of setting an appropriate price for the stock. The company and its investment banks believe that the proper procedure is to conduct a valuation and select several similar firms with publicly traded common stock and to make relevant comparisons.

Several jewelly manufacturers are reasonably similar to B&C with respect to product mix, asset composition, and debt$/$equity proportions. Of these companies, Abercrombe Jewelers and Gunter Fashions are most similar. When analyzing the following data, assume that the most recent year has been reasonably "normal" in the sense that it was neither especially good nor especially bad in terms of sales, earnings, and free cash flows. Abercrombe is listed on the AMEX and Gunter on the NYSE, while B&C will be traded in the NASDAQ market.

$\backslash$table$[[$Company data,Abercrombe,Gunter,B&C$],[$Shares outstanding,$4$ million,$10$ million,$500,000],[$Price per share,$$30\mathrm{.}00,$$$50\mathrm{.}00,$NA$],[$Earnings per share,$$2\mathrm{.}20,$$$3\mathrm{.}13,$$$2\mathrm{.}60$