The following financial information is available on Rawls Manufacturing Company: Current per share market price $48.00 Current per share dividend $3.50 Current per share earnings $6.00 Beta 1.1 Expected rate of return on market 12.0% Risk-free rate 6.0% Expected long-term growth rate 5.0% Rawls can issue new common stock to net the company $44 per share. Determine the cost of external equity capital using the dividend capitalization model approach. (Compute answer to the nearest 0.1%.)

a.12.6%

b.14.4%

c.13.4%

d.12.7%