Homemade Leverage [LO1] The Day Company and the Knight Company are identical in every respect except that Day is not levered. Financial information for the two firms appears in the following table....

Homemade Leverage [LO1] The Day Company and the Knight
Company are identical in every respect except that Day is not
levered. Financial information for the two firms appears in the
following table. All earnings streams are perpetuities, and neither
firm pays taxes. Both firms distribute all earnings available to
common stockholders immediately.
Day Knight
Projected operating income $ 375,000 $ 375,000
Year-end interest on debt — $ 54,000
Market value of stock $2,300,000 $1,650,000
Market value of debt — $ 900,000
An investor who can borrow at 6 percent per year wishes to
purchase 5 percent of Knight’s equity. Can he increase his
dollar return by purchasing 5 percent of Day’s equity if he
borrows so that the initial net costs of the strategies are the
same?
Given the two investment strategies in (a), which will
investors choose? When will this process cease?