Stock Valuation at Ragan Engines

Larissa has been talking with the companys directors about the future of East Coast Yachts. To this point, the company has used outside suppliers for various key components of the companys yachts, including engines. Larissa has decided that East Coast Yachts should consider the purchase of an engine manufacturer to allow East Coast Yachts to better integrate its supply chain and get more control over engine features. After investigating several possible companies, Larissa feels that the purchase of Ragan Engines, Inc., is a possibility. She has asked Dan Ervin to analyze Ragans value.

Ragan Engines, Inc., was founded nine years ago by a brother and sisterCarrington and Genevieve Raganand has remained a privately owned company. The company manufactures marine engines for a variety of applications. Ragan has experienced rapid growth because of a proprietary technology that increases the fuel efficiency of its engines with very little sacrifice in performance. The company is equally owned by Carrington and Genevieve. The original agreement between the siblings gave each 50,000 shares of stock.

Larissa has asked Dan to determine a value per share of Ragan stock. To accomplish this, Dan has gathered the following information about some of Ragans competitors that are publicly traded:

Nautilus Marine Enginess negative earnings per share (EPS) were the result of an accounting write-off last year. Without the write-off, EPS for the company would have been $1.60. Last year, Ragan had an EPS of $4.54 and paid a dividend to Carrington and Genevieve of $60,000 each. The company also had a return on equity of 18 percent. Larissa tells Dan that a required return for Ragan of 18 percent is appropriate.

Carrington and Genevieve are not sure if they should sell the company. If they do not sell the company outright to East Coast Yachts, they would like to try and increase the value of the companys stock. In this case, they want to retain control of the company and do not want to sell stock to outside investors. They also feel that the companys debt is at a manageable level and do not want to borrow more money. What steps can they take to tryto increase the price of the stock? Are there any conditions under which this strategy would not increase the stock price?