Find the list of competitors of Becton, Dickenson and Company in the same industry. You can try online sources, such as hoovers.com, for this purpose. Select only U.S.-based competing companies for this task. Suppose after the search, you identify three competitors: Johnson & Johnson (ticker: JNJ), Medtronic Plc (ticker: MDT), and Stryker Corporation (ticker: SYK).

a) Find the beta for each of these competitors, and then calculate the industry average beta.

b) Using the industry average beta, what is the cost of equity?

c) Does it matter if you use the beta for Becton, Dickenson and Company or the beta for the industry in this case?