Question

Adamson Corporation is considering four average-risk projects with the following costs and rates of return:

Project Cost Expected Rate of Return
1 $2,000 16.00%
2 3,000 15.00
3 5,000 13.75
4 2,000 12.50

The company estimates that it can issue debt at a rate of rd = 10%, and its tax rate is 30%. It can issue preferred stock that pays a constant dividend of $5 per year at $48 per share. Also, its common stock currently sells for $33 per share; the next expected dividend, D1, is $4.00; and the dividend is expected to grow at a constant rate of 5% per year. The target capital structure consists of 75% common stock, 15% debt, and 10% preferred stock.

Required:
a. What is the cost of each of the capital components?
b. What is Adamson's WACC?

Answer 1

Answer:

a. Cost of debt = Interest * (1 - Tax rate)

= 10%*(1 - 0.30)

= 7%

Cost of preferred stock = Dividend/ Issue price

= 5/48

= 10.42%

Cost of common stock (Cost of retained earnings) = (D1/P0) + g

= (4/33) + 0.07

= 0.12 + 0.07

= 0.19

= 19%

b. Fund                         Cost        Weight       Cost * Weight

Debt                           7%          0.15                 1.05%

Preferred stock        10.42%     0.10                1.042%

Retained earnings     19%         0.75               14.25%

WACC                                                               16.342%