(Related to Checkpoint 16.1)(Dividend irrelevance of the timing of cash dividends)The Caraway Seed Company sells specialty gardening seeds and products primarily to mail-order and Internet customers. The firm has $ 218,000 available for distribution as a cash dividend immediately and plans to shut down its business at the end of one year, at which time it will be prepared to pay a liquidating dividend of $1.21 million to the firm's stockholders. The firm's shareholders require a 10.1 percent rate of return for investing in the all-equity-financed firm.

a.What do you estimate the value of Caraway's equity to be today if it pays out a $218,000 cash dividend today and plans to pay a $1.21 million liquidating dividend at the end of the year? (round to the nearest dollar)

b.If Caraway's board of directors decides to pay a $616,000 dividend today to its existing shareholders using an equity offering selling new shares of common stock to raise the additional $398,000 it needs to make the cash dividend, what will be the value of the existing shares of stock? The new shares?