Merrilittle, Inc., is preparing to pay their quarterly dividend which will be $.60 a share this quarter. The stock closed at $54.80 a share today. If you ignore the 15 percent tax on dividend income, then you should expect the stock to open at a price of ____ per share when it goes ex-dividend tomorrow, if all else remains constant.

a. $54.00

b. $54.20

c. $54.40

d. $54.80

e. $55.40