Answer: The market rate of return is 7.45%
We follow these steps to find the answer.
Here we can interpret the term 'market rate of return' as the required rate of return on the stock. We represent this as [tex]k_{e}[/tex]
The current market price of stock (P₀), whose dividends are expected to grow for a constant rate is given by:
[tex]P_{0} = \frac{D_{1}}{k_{e}-g}[/tex]
where
D = Upcoming dividend
k_{e} = required rate of return on the stock
g = constant growth rate of dividends.
Plugging in the values from the question in the formula above we get,
[tex]12.20 = \frac{0.36}{k_{e} - 0.045 }[/tex]
[tex]k_{e} - 0.045 = \frac{0.36}{12.20}[/tex]
[tex]k_{e} = 0.029508197 + 0.045[/tex]
[tex]k_{e}= 0.074508197[/tex]