Boehm Corporation has had stable earnings growth of 8% a year for the past 10 years and in 2018 Boehm paid dividends of $2.6 million on net income of $9.8 million. However, in 2019 earnings are expected to jump to $12.6 million, and Boehm plans to invest $7.3 million in a plant expansion. This one-time unusual earnings growth won't be maintained, though, and after 2019 Boehm will return to its previous 8% earnings growth rate. Its target debt ratio is 35%. a. Calculate Boehm's total dividends for 2019 under each of the following policies: (1) Its 2019 dividend payment is set to force dividends to grow at the long-run growth rate in earnings. (2) It continues the 2018 dividend payout ratio. (3) It uses a pure residual policy with all distributions in the form of dividends (35% of the $7.3 million investment is financed with debt). (4) It employs a regular-dividend-plus-extras policy, with the regular dividend being based on the long-run growth rate and the extra dividend being set according to the residual policy. A (5). In addition to the dividend policies in questions A(1) - A(4), evaluate a regular dividend plus stock repurchase policy. B. Which of the preceding policies A(1) through A(5) would you recommend. Justify your answer. C. Your answer for the prior questions should have assumed that Boehm sold a product that has stable demand across the business cycle. How might the optimal policy change if Boehm is a cyclical firm with high (low) sales demand during economic expansions (contractions)? Boehm Corporation has had stable earnings growth of 8% a year for the past 10 years and in 2018 Boehm paid dividends of $2.6 million on net income of $9.8 million. However, in 2019 earnings are expected to jump to $12.6 million, and Boehm plans to invest $7.3 million in a plant expansion. This one-time unusual earnings growth won't be maintained, though, and after 2019 Boehm will return to its previous 8% earnings growth rate. Its target debt ratio is 35%. a. Calculate Boehm's total dividends for 2019 under each of the following policies: (1) Its 2019 dividend payment is set to force dividends to grow at the long-run growth rate in earnings. (2) It continues the 2018 dividend payout ratio. (3) It uses a pure residual policy with all distributions in the form of dividends (35% of the $7.3 million investment is financed with debt). (4) It employs a regular-dividend-plus-extras policy, with the regular dividend being based on the long-run growth rate and the extra dividend being set according to the residual policy. A (5). In addition to the dividend policies in questions A(1) - A(4), evaluate a regular dividend plus stock repurchase policy. B. Which of the preceding policies A(1) through A(5) would you recommend. Justify your answer. C. Your answer for the prior questions should have assumed that Boehm sold a product that has stable demand across the business cycle. How might the optimal policy change if Boehm is a cyclical firm with high (low) sales demand during economic expansions (contractions)
