During the last few years, David Harris Industries has been too constrained by the high cost of capital to make many capital investments. Recently, though, capital costs have been declining, and the company has decided to look seriously at a major expansion program that has been proposed by the marketing department. Assume that you are an assistant to Leigh Jones, the financial vice-president. Your first task is to estimate David Harris’s cost of capital. Jones has provided you with the following data, which she believes may be relevant to your task:
1. The firm's tax rate is 35%.
2. The current price of David Harris’s 8% coupon, semiannual payment, noncallable bonds with 15 years remaining to maturity is $1,085.27. David Harris does not use short-term interest-bearing debt on a permanent basis. New bonds would be privately placed with no flotation cost.
3. David Harris’s common stock is currently selling at $60 per share. Its last dividend (D0) was $2.50, and dividends are expected to grow at a constant rate of 5.2% in the foreseeable future. David Harris’s beta is 1.25; the yield on T-bonds is 3.5%; and the market risk premium is estimated to be 7%. For the over-own-bond-yield-plus-judgmental-risk-premium approach, the firm uses a 2.4% judgmental risk premium.
4. David Harris’s target capital structure is 40% long-term debt and 60% common equity.
5. Suppose the firm has historically earned 15% on equity (ROE) and retained 8 0% of earnings, and investors expect this situation to continue in the future. How could you use this information to estimate the future dividend growth rate, and what growth rate would you get? Is this consistent with the 5.2% growth rate given earlier?
6. What is the cost of equity based on the bond-yield-plus-judgmental-risk-premium method?
7. What is your final estimate for the cost of equity, rs?
8. What is David Harris’s weighted average cost of capital (WACC)?