During the last few years, Walter Company has been too constrained by the high cost of capital to make many capital investments. Recently, though, capital costs have been declining, and the company has decided to look seriously at a major expansion program that has been proposed by the marketing department. Assume that you are an assistant to Alex Jones, the financial vice president. Your first task is to estimate Walters cost of capital. Jones has provided you with the following data, which she believes may be relevant to your task: (1) The firm's tax rate is 30%. (2) The current price of Walters 12% coupon, semiannual payment, noncallable bonds with 15 years remaining to maturity is $1,153.72. Walter Company does not use short-term interest-bearing debt on a permanent basis. New bonds would be privately placed with no flotation cost. (3) The current price of the firms 10%, $100 par value, quarterly dividend, perpetual preferred stock is $116.95. Walter would incur flotation costs equal to 5% of the proceeds on a new issue. (4) Walter's common stock is currently selling at $50 per share. Its last dividend (D0) was $3.12, and dividends are expected to grow at a constant rate of 5.8% in the foreseeable future. Walter's beta is 1.2, the yield on T-bonds is 5.6%, and the market risk premium is estimated to be 6%. (5) Walter's target capital structure is 30% long-term debt, 10% preferred stock, and 60% common equity.

QUESTIONS BELOW

1. Walter doesnt plan to issue new shares of common stock. Using the CAPM approach, what is Walter's estimated cost of equity?

A. What is the estimated cost of equity using the discounted cash flow (DCF) approach?

2. Suppose the firm has historically earned 15% on equity (ROE) and retained 35% of earnings, and investors expect this situation to continue in the future. How could you use this information to estimate the future dividend growth rate, and what growth rate would you get? Is this consistent with the 5.8% growth rate given earlier

A. Could the DCF method be applied if the growth rate was not consistent? How?

B. What factors influence a companys WACC?

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