Reference no: EM13244150

Question 1

Which of the following statements is CORRECT?
Answer
If the underlying stock does not pay a dividend, it does not make good economic sense to exercise a call option prior to its expiration date, even if this would yield an immediate profit.

Call options generally sell at a price greater than their exercise value, and the greater the exercise value, the higher the premium on the option is likely to be.

Call options generally sell at a price below their exercise value, and the greater the exercise value, the lower the premium on the option is likely to be.

Call options generally sell at a price below their exercise value, and the lower the exercise value, the lower the premium on the option is likely to be.

Because of the put-call parity relationship, under equilibrium conditions a put option on a stock must sell at exactly the same price as a call option on the stock.

2 points
Question 2

Call options on XYZ Corporation's common stock trade in the market. Which of the following statements is most correct, holding other things constant?
Answer
The price of these call options is likely to rise if XYZ's stock price rises.
The higher the strike price on XYZ's options, the higher the option's price will be.
Assuming the same strike price, an XYZ call option that expires in one month will sell at a higher price than one that expires in three months.
If XYZ's stock price stabilizes (becomes less volatile), then the price of its options will increase.
If XYZ pays a dividend, then its option holders will not receive a cash payment, but the strike price of the option will be reduced by the amount of the dividend.

2 points
Question 3

Which of the following statements is CORRECT?
Answer
If the underlying stock does not pay a dividend, it does not make good economic sense to exercise a call option prior to its expiration date, even if this would yield an immediate profit.
Call options generally sell at a price greater than their exercise value, and the greater the exercise value, the higher the premium on the option is likely to be.
Call options generally sell at a price below their exercise value, and the greater the exercise value, the lower the premium on the option is likely to be.
Call options generally sell at a price below their exercise value, and the lower the exercise value, the lower the premium on the option is likely to be.
Because of the put-call parity relationship, under equilibrium conditions a put option on a stock must sell at exactly the same price as a call option on the stock.

2 points
Question 4

Which of the following statements is CORRECT?
Answer
An option's value is determined by its exercise value, which is the market price of the stock less its striking price. Thus, an option can't sell for more than its exercise value.
As the stock's price rises, the time value portion of an option on a stock increases because the difference between the price of the stock and the fixed strike price increases.
Issuing options provides companies with a low cost method of raising capital.
The market value of an option depends in part on the option's time to maturity and also on the variability of the underlying stock's price.
The potential loss on an option decreases as the option sells at higher and higher prices because the profit margin gets bigger.

2 points

Question 5

An option that gives the holder the right to sell a stock at a specified price at some future time is
Answer
a call option.
a put option.
an out-of-the-money option.
a naked option.
a covered option.

2 points
Question 6

Other things held constant, the value of an option depends on the stock's price, the risk-free rate, and the
Answer
Strike price.
Variability of the stock price.
Option's time to maturity.
All of the above.
None of the above.

2 points
Question 7

Suppose you believe that Delva Corporation's stock price is going to decline from its current level of $82.50 sometime during the next 5 months. For $510.25 you could buy a 5-month put option giving you the right to sell 100 shares at a price of $85 per share. If you bought this option for $510.25 and Delva's stock price actually dropped to $60, what would your pre-tax net profit be?
Answer
-$510.25
$1,989.75
$2,089.24
$2,193.70
$2,303.38
2 points
Question 8

Which of the following statements is CORRECT?
Answer
Put options give investors the right to buy a stock at a certain strike price before a specified date.
Call options give investors the right to sell a stock at a certain strike price before a specified date.
Options typically sell for less than their exercise value.
LEAPS are very short-term options that were created relatively recently and now trade in the market.
An option holder is not entitled to receive dividends unless he or she exercises their option before the stock goes ex dividend.
2 points

Question 9
Deeble Construction Co.'s stock is trading at $30 a share. Call options on the company's stock are also available, some with a strike price of $25 and some with a strike price of $35. Both options expire in three months. Which of the following best describes the value of these options?
Answer
The options with the $25 strike price will sell for $5.
The options with the $25 strike price will sell for less than the options with the $35 strike price.
The options with the $25 strike price have an exercise value greater than $5.
The options with the $35 strike price have an exercise value greater than $0.
If Deeble's stock price rose by $5, the exercise value of the options with the $25 strike price would also increase by $5.
2 points

Question 10
Warner Motors' stock is trading at $20 a share. Call options that expire in three months with a strike price of $20 sell for $1.50. Which of the following will occur if the stock price increases 10%, to $22 a share?
Answer
The price of the call option will increase by $2.
The price of the call option will increase by more than $2.
The price of the call option will increase by less than $2, and the percentage increase in price will be less than 10%.
The price of the call option will increase by less than $2, but the percentage increase in price will be more than 10%.
The price of the call option will increase by more than $2, but the percentage increase in price will be less than 10%.
2 points

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Question 19
Which of the following statements is CORRECT?
Answer
The WACC as used in capital budgeting is an estimate of a company's before-tax cost of capital.
The percentage flotation cost associated with issuing new common equity is typically smaller than the flotation cost for new debt.
The WACC as used in capital budgeting is an estimate of the cost of all the capital a company has raised to acquire its assets.
There is an "opportunity cost" associated with using retained earnings, hence they are not "free."
The WACC as used in capital budgeting would
be simply the after-tax cost of debt if the firm plans to use only debt to finance its capital budget during the coming year.
2 points

Question 20
The MacMillen Company has equal amounts of low-risk, average-risk, and high-risk projects. The firm's overall WACC is 12%. The CFO believes that this is the correct WACC for the company's average-risk projects, but that a lower rate should be used for lower-risk projects and a higher rate for higher-risk projects. The CEO disagrees, on the grounds that even though projects have different risks, the WACC used to evaluate each project should be the same because the company obtains capital for all projects from the same sources. If the CEO's position is accepted, what is likely to happen over time?
Answer
The company will take on too many high-risk projects and reject too many low-risk projects.
The company will take on too many low-risk projects and reject too many high-risk projects.
Things will generally even out over time, and, therefore, the firm's risk should remain constant over time.
The company's overall WACC should decrease
over time because its stock price should be increasing.
The CEO's recommendation would maximize the
firm's intrinsic value.
2 points

Question 21
Which of the following statements is CORRECT?
Answer
Since the costs of internal and external
equity are related, an increase in the flotation cost required to sell a new issue of stock will increase the cost of retained earnings.
Since its stockholders are not directly
responsible for paying a corporation's income taxes, corporations should focus on before-tax cash flows when calculating the WACC.
An increase in a firm's tax rate will increase the component cost of debt, provided the YTM on the firm's bonds is not affected by the change in the tax rate.
When the WACC is calculated, it should reflect the costs of new common stock, retained earnings, preferred stock, long-term debt, short-term bank loans if the firm normally finances with bank debt, and accounts payable if the firm normally has accounts payable on its balance sheet.
If a firm has been suffering accounting losses that are expected to continue into the foreseeable future, and therefore its tax rate is zero, then it is possible for the after-tax cost of preferred stock to be less than the after-tax cost of debt.
2 points

Question 22
Which of the following statements is CORRECT? Assume that the firm is a publicly-owned corporation and is seeking to maximize shareholder wealth.
Answer
If a firm has a beta that is less than 1.0, say 0.9, this would suggest that the expected returns on its assets are negatively
correlated with the returns on most other firms' assets.
If a firm's managers want to maximize the value of their firm's stock, they should, in theory, concentrate on project risk as measured by the standard deviation of the project's expected future cash flows.
If a firm evaluates all projects using the same cost
of capital, and the CAPM is used to help determine that cost, then its risk as measured by beta will probably decline over time.
Projects with above-average risk typically have higher
than average expected returns. Therefore, to maximize a firm's intrinsic value, its managers should favor high-beta projects over those with lower betas.
Project A has a standard deviation of expected returns
of 20%, while Project B's standard deviation is only 10%. A's returns are negatively correlated with both the firm's other assets and the returns on most stocks in the economy, while B's returns are positively correlated. Therefore, Project A is less risky to a firm and should be evaluated with a lower cost of capital.
2 points

Question 23
Which of the following statements is CORRECT?
Answer
A change in a company's target capital
structure cannot affect its WACC.
WACC calculations should be based on the before-tax costs of all the individual capital components.
Flotation costs associated with issuing new common stock normally reduce the WACC.
If a company's tax rate increases, then, all else equal, its weighted average cost of capital will decline.
An increase in the risk-free rate will normally lower the marginal costs of both debt and equity financing.
2 points

Question 24
Which of the following statements is CORRECT?
Answer
In the WACC calculation, we must adjust the cost of preferred stock (the market yield) to reflect the fact that 70% of the dividends received by corporate investors are excluded from their taxable income.
We should use historical measures of the component costs from prior financings that are still outstanding when estimating a company's WACC for capital budgeting purposes.
The cost of new equity (re) could possibly be lower than the cost of retained earnings (rs) if the market risk premium, risk-free rate, and the company's beta all decline by a sufficiently large amount.
A firm's cost of retained earnings is the rate of return stockholders require on a firm's common stock.
The component cost of preferred stock is expressed as rp(1 - T), because preferred stock dividends are treated as
fixed charges, similar to the treatment of interest on debt.
2 points

Question 25
Firm M's earnings and stock price tend to move up and down with other firms in the S&P 500, while Firm W's earnings and stock price move counter cyclically with M and other S&P companies. Both M and W estimate their costs of equity using the CAPM, they have identical market values, their standard deviations of returns are identical, and they both finance only with common equity. Which of the following statements is CORRECT?
Answer
M should have the lower WACC because it is like most other companies, and investors like that fact.
M and W should have identical WACCs because their risks as measured by the standard deviation of returns are identical.
If M and W merge, then the merged firm MW should have a WACC that is a simple average of M's and W's WACCs.
Without additional information, it is impossible to predict what the merged firm's WACC would be if M and W merged.
Since M and W move counter cyclically to one another, if they merged, the merged firm's WACC would be less than the simple average of the two firms' WACCs.
2 points

Question 26
Duval Inc. uses only equity capital, and it has two equally-sized divisions. Division A's cost of capital is 10.0%, Division B's cost is 14.0%, and the corporate (composite) WACC is 12.0%. All of Division A's projects are equally risky, as are all of Division B's projects. However, the projects of Division A are less risky than those of Division B. Which of the following projects should the firm accept?
Answer
A Division B project with a 13% return.
A Division B project with a 12% return.
A Division A project with an 11% return.
A Division A project with a 9% return.
A Division B project with an 11% return.
2 points

Question 27
Schalheim Sisters Inc. has always paid out all of its earnings as dividends; hence, the firm has no retained earnings. This same situation is expected to persist in the future. The company uses the CAPM to calculate its cost of equity, and its target capital structure consists of common stock, preferred stock, and debt. Which of the following events would REDUCE its WACC?
Answer
The market risk premium declines.
The flotation costs associated with issuing new common stock increase.
The company's beta increases.
Expected inflation increases.
The flotation costs associated with issuing preferred stock increase.
2 points

Question 28
Norris Enterprises, an all-equity firm, has a beta of 2.0. The chief financial officer is evaluating a project with an expected
return of 14%, before any risk adjustment. The risk-free rate is 5%, and the market risk premium is 4%. The project being evaluated is riskier than an average project, in terms of both its beta risk and its total risk. Which of the following statements is CORRECT?
Answer
The project should definitely be accepted because its expected return (before any risk adjustments) is greater than its required return.
The project should definitely be rejected because its expected return (before risk adjustment) is less than its required return.
Riskier-than-average projects should have their expected returns increased to reflect their higher risk. Clearly, this would make the project acceptable regardless of the amount of the adjustment.
The accept/reject decision depends on the firm's risk-adjustment policy. If Norris' policy is to increase the required return on a riskier-than-average project to 3% over rS, then it should reject the project.
Capital budgeting projects should be evaluated solely on the basis of their total risk. Thus, insufficient information has been provided to make the accept/reject decision.
2 points

Question 29
For a company whose target capital structure calls for 50% debt and 50% common equity, which of the following statements is CORRECT?
Answer
The interest rate used to calculate the WACC is the average after-tax cost of all the company's outstanding debt as shown on its balance sheet.
The WACC is calculated on a before-tax basis.
The WACC exceeds the cost of equity.
The cost of equity is always equal to or greater than the cost of debt.
The cost of retained earnings typically exceeds the cost of new common stock.
2 points

Question 30
Which of the following statements is CORRECT?
Answer
The discounted cash flow method of estimating the cost
of equity cannot be used unless the growth rate, g, is expected to be constant forever.
If the calculated beta underestimates the firm's true investment risk--i.e., if the forward-looking beta that investors think exists exceeds the historical beta--then the CAPM method based on the historical beta will produce an estimate of rs and thus WACC that is too high.
Beta measures market risk, which is, theoretically, the most relevant risk measure for a publicly-owned firm that seeks to maximize its intrinsic value. This is true even if not all of the firm's stockholders are well diversified.
An advantage shared by both the DCF and CAPM methods when they are used to estimate the cost of equity is that they
are both "objective" as opposed to "subjective," hence little or no judgment is required.
The specific risk premium used in the CAPM is the same as the risk premium used in the bond-yield-plus-risk-premium approach.