the firm were a partnership
c. Corporate shareholders escape liability for the firm’s debts, but this factor may be
offset by the tax disadvantages of the corporate form of organization
d. Corporate investors are exposed to unlimited liability
e. Corporations generally face relatively few regulations
17) Which of the following statements is CORRECT?
a.If a firm lowered its fixed costs while increasing its variable costs, holding total costs
at the present level of sales constant, this would decrease its operating leverage
b.The debt ratio that maximizes EPS generally exceeds the debt ratio that maximizes
share price
c.If a company were to issue debt and use the money to repurchase common stock, this
action would have no impact on its basic earning power ratio. (Assume that the
repurchase has no impact on the company’s operating income.)
d.If changes in the bankruptcy code made bankruptcy less costly to corporations, this
would likely reduce the average corporation’s debt ratio
e.Increasing financial leverage is one way to increase a firm’s basic earning power
(BEP)
18) Which of the following statements is CORRECT?
a. Back before the SEC was created in the 1930s, companies would declare reverse
splits in order to boost their stock prices. However, this was determined to be a
deceptive practice, and it is illegal today
b. Stock splits create more administrative problems for investors than stock dividends,
especially determining the tax basis of their shares when they decide to sell them, so
today stock dividends are used far more often than stock splits
c. When a company declares a stock split, the price of the stock typically declinesby
about 50% after a 2-for-1 splitand this necessarily reduces the total market value of the
equity
d. If a firm’s stock price is quite high relative to most stockssay $500 per sharethen it
can declare a stock split of say 10-for-1 so as to bring the price down to something
close to $50. Moreover, if the price is relatively lowsay $2 per sharethen it can declare a
“reverse split” of say 1-for-25 so as to bring the price up to somewhere around $50 per
share
e. When firms are deciding on the size of stock splitssay whether to declare a 2-for-1
split or a 3-for-1 split, it is best to declare the smaller one, in this case the 2-for-1 split,
because then the after-split price will be higher than if the 3-for-1 split had been used