On December 20, 2010, you presented Rockwell's executive team with an early estimate of expected annual EPS for 2010. The executives begin to panic because the early estimates are a few cents below Rockwell's earnings targets for the year. The CEO proposes that the company spend the holidays repurchasing as many shares as they can before the December 31st year end in order to increase the EPS numbers and meet the earnings goals. 1. Briefly explain to the CEO why their plan is unlikely to be effective at significantly increasing EPS. 2. Can you think of any legitimate (i.e. legal) actions that the company could take this late in the year that could actually increase EPS and help achieve its target benchmarks? 3. Identify at least three (3) sources of benchmarks that the executives might be using to establish their earnings targets. On December 20, 2010, you presented Rockwell's executive team with an early estimate of expected annual EPS for 2010. The executives begin to panic because the early estimates are a few cents below Rockwell's earnings targets for the year. The CEO proposes that the company spend the holidays repurchasing as many shares as they can before the December 31st year end in order to increase the EPS numbers and meet the earnings goals. 1. Briefly explain to the CEO why their plan is unlikely to be effective at significantly increasing EPS. 2. Can you think of any legitimate (i.e. legal) actions that the company could take this late in the year that could actually increase EPS and help achieve its target benchmarks? 3. Identify at least three (3) sources of benchmarks that the executives might be using to establish their earnings targets