Jenny Cochran, a graduate of the University of Tennessee with 4 years of experience as an equities analyst, was recently brought in as assistant to the chairman of the board of Computron Industries, a manufacturer of computer components.

During the previous year, Computron had doubled its plant capacity, opened new sales offices outside its home territory, and launched an expensive advertising campaign. Cochran was assigned to evaluate the impact of the changes. She began by gathering financial statements and other data.

Assume that you are Cochrans assistant and that you must help her answer the following questions:

1. What effect did the expansion have on sales and net income? What effect did the expansion have on the asset side of the balance sheet? What effect did it have on liabilities and equity?

2. What do you conclude from the statement of cash flows?

3. What is free cash flow? Why is it important? What are FCFs five uses?

4. What is Computrons net operating profit after taxes (NOPAT)? What are operating current assets? What are operating current liabilities? How much net operating working capital and total net operating capital does Computron have?

5. What is Computrons free cash flow? What are Computrons net uses of its FCF?

6. Calculate Computrons return on invested capital (ROIC). Computron has a 10% cost of capital (WACC). What caused the decline in the ROIC? Was it due to operating profitability or capital utilization? Do you think Computrons growth added value?

7. Cochran also has asked you to estimate Computrons Economic Value Added (EVA). She estimates that the after-tax cost of capital was 10% in both years.

8. What happened to Computrons Market Value Added (MVA)?

9. The Tax Cut and Jobs Act (TCJA) was signed into law in 2017. Briefly describe its key provisions for corporate taxes.

10. Assume that a corporation has $87 million of taxable income from operations. It also received interest income of $8 million and dividend income of $10 million. The federal tax rate is 21%, and the dividend exclusion rate is 50%. What is its taxable income and federal tax liability?

11. Briefly describe the TCJAs key provisions for personal taxes.

12. Assume that you are in the 25% marginal tax bracket and that you have $20,000 to invest. You have narrowed your investment choices down to municipal bonds yielding 7% or equally risky corporate bonds with a yield of 10%. Which one should you choose and why? At what marginal tax rate would you be indifferent?