United Healthcare, a health maintenance organization, is expected to have earnings growth of 30% for the next five years and 6% after that. The dividend payout ratio will be only 10% during the high growth phase, but will increase to 60% in steady state. The stock has a beta of 1.65 currently, but the beta is expected to drop to 1.10 in steady state. (The Treasury bond rate is 7.25%.)

a. Estimate the pricebook value ratio for United Healthcare, given the inputs as given.

b. How sensitive is the pricebook value ratio to estimates of growth during the high growth period?

c. United Healthcare trades at a pricebook value ratio of 7.00. How long would extraordinary growth have to last (at a 30% annual rate) to justify this PBV ratio?