Granite Works maintains a debt-equity ratio of .58 and has a tax rate of 21 percent. The pretax cost of debt is 8.9 percent. There are 18,000 shares of stock outstanding with a beta of 1.42 and a market price of $23 a share. The current market risk premium is 7.8 percent and the current risk-free rate is 3.1 percent. This year, the firm paid an annual dividend of $1.68 a share and expects to increase that amount by 2 percent each year. Using an average expected cost of equity, what is the weighted average cost of capital?

Multiple Choice

• 8.44 percent
• 9.78 percent
• 8.96 percent
• 9.13 percent
• 10.06 percent