attached is 4 short answer questions with example of answers, can you review and let me know what you think? you have 3-4 days to complete them. let me know if you can help.i will provide you with all the datas you need to complete this assignment.
Microsoft Word - FIN HW2.docx Iwillprovideyouwithallthedatasyouneedtocompletethisasisgment,both companiesarepubliclytradedcompany. SAMPLEANDEXAMPLEOFANSWERSTARTSONPAGE2,YOUDON’THAVETOBE EXACTLYSAMEASTHESAMPLE,JUSTCLOSETOIT. A.EstimatetheEconomicValueAdded(EVA)foryourcompanyoverthelast3years, anddothesameforatleastoneofthecompetitors.Note:Whilethisisnotentirely accurate,feelfreetoassumethattheWACCdidnotchangeinthelast3yearsto simplifythecalculations(thatis,usethecurrentWACCforthesecalculations).You stillneedthehistoricalbalancesheetandincomestatementstocomputeEVA. B.Discusstheimplicationsofyourresultsinthelastquestion. C.Describeyourcompany’scapitalstructureoverthelast3years.2)Describeyour competitor(s)’capitalstructureoverthelast3years.3)Comparethecapital structuresofyourcompany’sandyourcompetitor(s)’. Note:Youshouldanalyzemostlyleverageratiosinthisquestion(youmayalready havedonesomeofthisanalysisforACR1).Remembertousethemarketvalueof equitytocalculateleverageratios.Iwouldfocusmostlyontheleverageratiodefined astotaldebt/(totaldebt+marketvalueofequity).Forthisquestion,youwillneed historicaldataonthemarketvalueofequityforyourcompanies.Thevideo describingtheassignmentgivessomeguidelinesonhowtodothis. D.Istheamountofdebtthatyourcompanyhascompatiblewiththetrade-offtheory ofcapitalstructure?2)Explainwhyorwhynot.Inyourexplanation,a)considerthe medianleverageratioof30%thatwediscussedinthelecture,andalsothespecific characteristicsofyourcompanyandcompetitors;andb)thinkaboutrisk, profitability,collateral,thebenefitsofreducingtaxesusinginteresttaxshields,and growthopportunities. SAMPLE ANSWERS A. Estimate the Economic Value Added (EVA) for your company over the last 3 years, and for at least one of the competitors. While this is not entirely accurate, feel free to assume that the WACC did not change in the last 3 years to simplify the calculations (that is, use the current WACC for these calculations). You still need the historical balance sheet and income statements to compute EVA. Fastenal Beta Required Return on Equity WACC EVA - 14 EVA - 15 EVA - 16 1.20 8.70% 8.4% $ 304.75 $ 315.71 $ 290.28 1.10 8.20% 7.9% $ 315.98 $ 327.72 $ 303.06 0.99 7.60% 7.4% $ 327.20 $ 339.74 $ 315.84 0.90 7.20% 7.0% $ 336.18 $ 349.36 $ 326.07 0.80 6.70% 6.5% $ 347.40 $ 361.37 $ 338.85 WW Grainger Beta Required Return on Equity WACC EVA - 14 EVA - 15 EVA - 16 0.93 7.30% 6.3% $ 571.44 $ 522.04 $ 479.13 0.83 6.80% 5.9% $ 591.67 $ 544.31 $ 500.81 0.73 6.30% 5.5% $ 611.90 $ 566.58 $ 522.49 0.63 5.80% 5.1% $ 632.12 $ 588.85 $ 544.17 0.53 5.30% 4.7% $ 652.35 $ 611.12 $ 565.85 MSC Industrial Beta Required Return on Equity WACC EVA - 14 EVA - 15 EVA - 16 0.72 6.30% 5.7% $ 142.33 $ 124.67 $ 120.81 0.62 5.80% 5.3% $ 150.38 $ 132.92 $ 128.86 0.52 5.30% 4.9% $ 158.44 $ 141.17 $ 136.91 0.42 4.80% 4.4% $ 168.50 $ 151.48 $ 146.97 0.32 4.30% 4.0% $ 176.56 $ 159.72 $ 155.02 B. Discuss the implications of your results. EVA represents Economic Value Added, or the value created beyond the shareholders required return. It varies with beta, so we get a range of EVA for the three companies. In this case, we have calculated that Fastenal had a range of 304-347 million of EVA in 2014, but only a range of 290-338 million in 2016. So, there was a drop in pure profit over this time. That seems to be consistent, however, with the competition, as Grainger fell from a range of 571-652 to a range of 479-566, and MSC fell from a range of 142-177 to a range of 121-155. This drop could be attributed to a drop in the return on invested capital, and it could also be attributed to an increase in the weighted cost of capital that was previously calculated as WACC. C. Describe your company’s capital structure over the last 3 years, and compare to competitors. You should analyze mostly leverage ratios in this question (you may already have done some of this analysis for ACR 1). Remember to use the market value of equity to calculate leverage ratios. I would focus mostly on the leverage ratio defined as total debt / (total debt + market value of equity). For this question, you will need historical data on the market value of equity for your companies. The video describing the assignment gives some guidelines on how to do this. *Source: As Reported from NASDAQ.com The leverage of a company is generated by borrowing capital to fund expansion and assets to grow a business. The expansion is to help generate returns and is an investment strategy utilized by companies. The leverage ratio is calculated using the total debt divided by the sum of the total debt and the market value of equity. It is common for utility companies to have higher debt due to the requirements of their infrastructure that involve large capital expenditures to continue operations. They are also classified as solid stocks to include in a portfolio, so they have large investment equity. A leverage ratio of around 0.50 or lower is considered excellent for the utility industry. Both of the companies our team chose to analyze are in the utility industry. NextEra and Exelon have large but varying assets in power generation, delivery and transmission. As shown in the table above NextEra has had leverage ratios of 0.38/0.36/0.32 from 2015 to 2017, respectively. Their leverage ratio has had a slight decrease over those years even though their debt has increased. This decline is mostly due to the large increase in stock price over the same time period. This has caused a large jump in market equity, thereby causing a steady decline in NextEra’s leverage ratio. Exelon has had a steady leverage ratio of 0.51/0.52/0.48 during this same time frame. They have been within $5,000 million of debt throughout the period but their stock price is 25% that of NextEra which is why Exelon’s leverage ratio is consistently 30% higher than NextEra’s. Both ratios are within reasonable values for a utility company. Exelon added debt when they acquired Fitzpatrick Nuclear station but added another revenue source. NextEra continues to invest in renewable energy projects adding large scale wind and solar facilities to their portfolio. This does result in a large increase in debt to finance these projects but the power generated costs less thereby generating large revenue with low COGS and O&M costs. The continued growth of NextEra’s portfolio in renewables has benefited investors and the market continues to respond favorably as seen by the large growth in price per share over the past three years. The last two years NextEra has seen an increase in stock price of 15% and 30% which has significantly increased their market equity. The continued growth in renewable energy has shown that adding debt to grow the business has been done responsibly and has consistently generated profits for its investors. ________________________ Source: http://www.investopedia.com D. Is the amount of debt that your company has compatible with the trade-off theory of capital structure? Consider the median leverage ratio of 30% that we discussed in the lecture, and also the specific characteristics of your company and competitors. Think about risk, profitability, collateral, the benefits of reducing taxes using interest tax shields, and growth opportunities. NextEra vs. Overall Market and Large-Cap Firms Table 1 contains data useful for evaluating the trade-off theory with regards to NextEra’s capital structure. Compared to the overall market, NextEra is a large company that has a healthy profit margin, a high degree of tangible assets and a low market-to-book ratio. These trends hold true while comparing NextEra to the S&P 500 as well. Their low Beta (0.26) means a low level of systematic risk. All of these factors would suggest that NextEra can take on more debt than the average company, however, NextEra’s leverage ratio is about equal to the market average. Many of these trends may have more to do with NextEra’s industry than the company per se. Energy and utility companies tend to have a low systematic risk, low cash flow volatility, low market-to-book ratios, and high collateral, with high tangible assets such as PPE. Therefore, it is helpful to compare NextEra’s metrics against a company of similar size in the same industry. The next section compares NextEra against Exelon. NextEra vs. Exelon Similar to the previous comparisons, NextEra shows higher market equity, a higher profit margin and a lower Beta, this time when compared to Exelon. One difference here is that NextEra’s market-to-book ratio is higher in this case. Except for market-to-book, these trends would suggest that NextEra can take on more debt than Exelon, however, that is again not the