19) Which of the following statements is correct?
a. Capital gains earned in a share repurchase are taxed less favorably than dividends;
this explains why companies typically pay dividends and avoid share repurchases
b. Very often, a company’s stock price will rise when it announces that it plans to
commence a share repurchase program. Such an announcement could lead to a stock
price decline, but this does not normally happen
c. Stock repurchases increase the number of outstanding shares
d. The clientele effect is the best explanation for why companies tend to vary their
dividend payments from quarter to quarter
e. If a company has a 2-for-1 stock split, its stock price should roughly double
20) LeCompte Learning Solutions is considering making a change to its capital
structure in hopes of increasing its value. The company’s capital structure consists of
debt and common stock. In order to estimate the cost of debt, the company has
produced the following table:
Percent financedPercent financedDebt-to-equityBondBefore-tax
with debt (wd)with equity (wc)ratio (D/S)Ratingcost of debt
0.100.900.10/0.90 = 0.11AAA 7.0%
0.200.800.20/0.80 = 0.25AA7.2
0.300.700.30/0.70 = 0.43A8.0
0.400.600.40/0.60 = 0.67BBB8.8
0.500.500.50/0.50 = 1.00BB9.6
The company uses the CAPM to estimate its cost of common equity, rs. The risk-free
rate is 5% and the market risk premium is 6%. LeCompte estimates that if it had no
debt its beta would be 1.0. (Its “unlevered beta,” bU, equals 1.0.) The company’s tax
rate, T, is 40%.
On the basis of this information, what is LeCompte’s optimal capital structure, and what
is the firm’s cost of capital at this optimal capital structure?
a.wc = 0.9; wd = 0.1; WACC = 14.96%
b.wc = 0.8; wd = 0.2; WACC = 10.96%
c.wc = 0.7; wd = 0.3; WACC = 7.83%
d.wc = 0.6; wd = 0.4; WACC = 10.15%
e.wc = 0.5; wd = 0.5; WACC = 10.18%