Chapter 14 Payout Policy Learning Goals LG1 Understand cash payout procedures, their tax treatment, and the role of dividend reinvestment plans. LG2 Describe the residual theory of.
Download ReportTranscript Chapter 14 Payout Policy Learning Goals LG1 Understand cash payout procedures, their tax treatment, and the role of dividend reinvestment plans. LG2 Describe the residual theory of.
Slide 1
Chapter 14
Payout Policy
Slide 2
Learning Goals
LG1
Understand cash payout procedures, their tax
treatment, and the role of dividend
reinvestment plans.
LG2
Describe the residual theory of dividends and
the key arguments with regard to dividend
irrelevance and relevance.
LG3
Discuss the key factors involved in establishing
a dividend policy.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
14-2
Slide 3
Learning Goals (cont.)
LG4
Review and evaluate the three basic types of
dividend policies.
LG5
Evaluate stock dividends from accounting,
shareholder, and company points of view.
LG6
Explain stock splits and the firm’s motivation
for undertaking them.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 4
The Basics of Payout Policy:
Elements of Payout Policy
• The term payout policy refers to the decisions that
a firm makes regarding whether to distribute cash
to shareholders, how much cash to distribute, and
the means by which cash should be distributed.
• Cash can be distributed as a dividend or through
stock repurchase plans.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 5
The Basics of Payout Policy:
General Lessons
1. Rapidly growing firms generally do not pay out
cash to shareholders.
2. Slowing growth, positive cash flow generation, and
favorable tax conditions can prompt firms to
initiate cash payouts to investors.
3. Cash payouts can be made through dividends or
share repurchases.
4. When business conditions are weak, firms are
more willing to reduce share buybacks than to cut
dividends.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 6
Figure 14.1 Per Share Earnings and
Dividends of the S&P 500 Index
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 7
Matter of Fact
P&G’s Dividend History
Few companies have
replicated the
dividend
achievements of the
consumer products
giant, Procter &
Gamble (P&G). P&G
has paid dividends
every year for more
than a century, and it
increased its dividend
in every year from
1956–2010.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
14-7
Slide 8
Figure 14.2 Aggregate Dividends and
Repurchases for All U.S.-Listed
Companies
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
14-8
Slide 9
Matter of Fact
Share Repurchases Gain Worldwide Popularity
– In most of the world’s largest economies, repurchases have
been on the rise in recent years, eclipsing dividend
payments at least some of the time in countries as diverse
as Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Japan,
Netherlands, South Korea, and Switzerland.
– A recent study of payout policy at firms from 25 different
countries found that share repurchases rose at an annual
rate of 19% from 1999–2008.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 10
Focus on Ethics
Are Buybacks Really a Bargain?
– In addition to simply returning cash to shareholders,
companies also typically say they repurchase stock
because they believe their stock is undervalued.
– Yet new research shows that companies often use creative
financial reporting to push earnings downward before
buybacks, making the stock seem undervalued and causing
its price to bounce higher after the buyback.
Do you agree that corporate managers would manipulate
their stock’s value prior to a buyback, or do you believe
that corporations are more likely to initiate a buyback to
enhance shareholder value?
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 11
The Mechanics of Payout Policy:
Cash Dividend Payment Procedures
• At quarterly or semiannual meetings, a firm’s
board of directors decides whether and in what
amount to pay cash dividends.
• If the firm has already established a precedent of
paying dividends, the decision facing the board is
usually whether to maintain or increase the
dividend, and that decision is based primarily on
the firm’s recent performance and its ability to
generate cash flow in the future.
• Boards rarely cut dividends unless they believe that
the firm’s ability to generate cash is in serious
jeopardy.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 12
Figure 14.3 U.S. Public Industrial
Firms Increasing, Decreasing, or
Maintaining Dividends
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 13
The Mechanics of Payout Policy: Cash
Dividend Payment Procedures (cont.)
• The date of record (dividends) is set by the
firm’s directors, the date on which all persons
whose names are recorded as stockholders receive
a declared dividend at a specified future time.
• A stock is ex dividend for a period, beginning 2
business days prior to the date of record, during
which a stock is sold without the right to receive
the current dividend.
• The payment date is set by the firm’s directors,
the actual date on which the firm mails the dividend
payment to the holders of record.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 14
Figure 14.4
Dividend Payment Time Line
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 15
The Mechanics of Payout Policy: Cash
Dividend Payment Procedures (cont.)
On August 21, 2013, the board of directors of Best
Buy announced that the firm’s next quarterly cash
dividend would be $0.17 per share, payable October 1,
2013 to shareholders of record on Tuesday,
September 10, 2013.The stock would begin trading
ex-dividend on Friday, September 6, 2013. At the
time, Best Buy had 340,967,179 shares of common
stock outstanding, so the total dividend would be
$57,964,420. Before the dividend was declared, the
key accounts of the firm were as follows (dollar
values quoted in thousands):
– Cash: $680,000
– Dividends payable: $0
– Retained earnings: $3,395,000
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 16
The Mechanics of Payout Policy: Cash
Dividend Payment Procedures (cont.)
When the dividend was announced by the directors,
almost $58 million of the retained earnings ($0.17 per
share 341 million shares) was transferred to the
dividends payable account. The key accounts thus
became:
– Cash: $680,000
– Dividends payable: $57,964
– Retained earnings: $3,337,036
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 17
The Mechanics of Payout Policy: Cash
Dividend Payment Procedures (cont.)
When Best Buy actually paid the dividend on October
26, this produced the following balances in the key
accounts of the firm:
– Cash: $622,036
– Dividends payable: $0
– Retained earnings: $3,337,036
The net effect of declaring and paying the dividend
was to reduce the firm’s total assets (and
stockholders’ equity) by almost $58 million.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 18
The Mechanics of Payout Policy: Share
Repurchase Procedures
• Common methods for repurchasing shares include:
– An open-market share repurchase is a share repurchase
program in which firms simply buy back some of their
outstanding shares on the open market.
– A tender offer repurchase is a repurchase program in which a
firm offers to repurchase a fixed number of shares, usually at a
premium relative to the market value, and shareholders decide
whether or not they want to sell back their shares at that price.
– A Dutch Auction repurchase is a repurchase method in which
the firm specifies how many shares it wants to buy back and a
range of prices at which it is willing to repurchase shares.
Investors specify how many shares they will sell at each price in
the range, and the firm determines the minimum price required
to repurchase its target number of shares. All investors who
tender receive the same price.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 19
The Mechanics of Payout Policy:
Share Repurchase Procedures (cont.)
In July 2013, Fidelity National Information Services announced a
Dutch auction repurchase for 86 million common shares at prices
ranging from $29 to $31.50 per share.
At a price of $31.25, shareholders are willing to tender a total of
86 million shares, exactly the amount that Fidelity wants to
repurchase.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 20
The Mechanics of Payout Policy: Tax
Treatment of Dividends and Repurchases
For many years, dividends and share repurchases had
very different tax consequences.
– The dividends that investors received were generally taxed
at ordinary income tax rates.
– On the other hand, when firms repurchased shares, the
taxes triggered by that type of payout were generally
much lower.
• Shareholders who did not participate did not owe any taxes.
• Shareholders who did participate in the repurchase program
might not owe any taxes on the funds they received if they
were tax-exempt institutions, or if they sold their shares at a
loss.
• Shareholders who participated in the repurchase program and
sold their shares for a profit only paid taxes at the (usually
lower) capital gains tax rate, and even that tax only applied to
the gain, not to the entire value of the shares repurchased.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 21
The Mechanics of Payout Policy: Tax
Treatment of Dividends and Repurchases
The Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003 significantly
changed the tax treatment of corporate dividends for most taxpayers.
– The act reduced the tax rate on corporate dividends for most
taxpayers to the tax rate applicable to capital gains, which is a
maximum rate of 5 percent to 15 percent, depending on the
taxpayer’s tax bracket.
– This change significantly diminishes the degree of “double
taxation” of dividends, which results when the corporation is first
taxed on its income and then when the investor who receives the
dividend is also taxed on it.
– After-tax cash flow to dividend recipients is much greater at the
lower applicable tax rate; the result is noticeably higher dividend
payouts by corporations today than prior to passage of the 2003
legislation.
– The American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, extended the 15%
rate on capital gains and dividends for taxpayers in all but the
highest tax bracket.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 22
Focus on Practice
Capital Gains and Dividend Tax Treatment Extended to
2012 and Beyond for Some
– Prior to 2003, dividends were taxed once as part of corporate
earnings, and again as the personal income of the investor, in
both cases with a potential top rate of 35%. The result was an
effective tax rate of 57.75% on some dividends.
– Though the 2003 tax law did not completely eliminate the double
taxation of dividends, it reduced the maximum possible effect of
the double taxation of dividends to 44.75%. For taxpayers in the
lower tax brackets, the combined effect was a maximum of
38.25%.
– The American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 extended the 15% rate
for taxpayers in the 25, 28, 33, and 35% income tax brackets.
However, individuals making more than $400,000 and couples
earning more than $450,000 will now pay 20% on capital gain
and dividends.
How might the expected future reappearance of higher tax rates on
individuals receiving dividends affect corporate dividend payout
policies?
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 23
Personal Finance Example
The board of directors of Espinoza Industries, Inc., on
October 4 of the current year, declared a quarterly
dividend of $0.46 per share payable to all holders of
record on Friday, October 30. They set a payment
date of November 19. Rob and Kate Heckman, who
purchased 500 shares of Espinoza’s common stock on
Thursday, October 15, wish to determine whether
they will receive the recently declared dividend and, if
so, when and how much they would net after taxes
from the dividend given that the dividends would be
subject to a 15% federal income tax.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 24
Personal Finance Example (cont.)
Given the Friday, October 30 date of record, the stock would
begin selling ex dividend 2 business days earlier on Wednesday,
October 28. Purchasers of the stock on or before Tuesday,
October 27, would receive the right to the dividend. Because the
Heckmans purchased the stock on October 15, they would be
eligible to receive the dividend of $0.46 per share.
Thus, the Heckmans will receive $230 in dividends
($0.46 per share 500 shares), which will be mailed to them
on the November 19 payment date.
Because they are subject to a 15% federal income tax on the
dividends, the Heckmans will net $195.50 [(1 – 0.15) $230]
after taxes from the Espinoza Industries dividend.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 25
The Mechanics of Payout Policy: Dividend
Reinvestment Plans
Dividend reinvestment plans (DRIPs) are plans
that enable stockholders to use dividends received on
the firm’s stock to acquire additional shares—even
fractional shares—at little or no transaction cost.
– Some companies even allow investors to make their initial
purchases of the firm’s stock directly from the company
without going through a broker.
– With DRIPs, plan participants typically can acquire shares
at about 5 percent below the prevailing market price.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 26
The Mechanics of Payout Policy: Stock
Price Reactions to Corporate Payouts
What happens to the stock price when a firm pays a
dividend or repurchases shares?
– In theory, when a stock begins trading ex dividend, the
stock price should fall by exactly the amount of the
dividend.
– In theory, when a firm buys back shares at the going
market price, the market price of the stock should remain
the same.
– In practice, taxes and a variety of other market
imperfections may cause the actual change in share price
in response to a dividend payment or share repurchase to
deviate from what we expect in theory.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 27
Relevance of Payout Policy
• The financial literature has reported numerous
theories and empirical findings concerning payout
policy.
• Although this research provides some interesting
insights about payout policy, capital budgeting and
capital structure decisions are generally considered
far more important than payout decisions.
• In other words, firms should not sacrifice good
investment and financing decisions for a payout
policy of questionable importance.
• The most important question about payout policy is
this: Does payout policy have a significant effect on
the value of a firm?
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 28
Relevance of Payout Policy:
Residual Theory of Dividends
The residual theory of dividends is a school of
thought that suggests that the dividend paid by a firm
should be viewed as a residual—the amount left over
after all acceptable investment opportunities have
been undertaken.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 29
Relevance of Payout Policy: Residual
Theory of Dividends (cont.)
Using the residual theory of dividends, the firm would
treat the dividend decision in three steps, as follows:
– Determine its optimal level of capital expenditures, which
would be the level that exploits all of a firm’s positive NPV
projects.
– Using the optimal capital structure proportions, estimate
the total amount of equity financing needed to support the
expenditures generated in Step 1.
– Because the cost of retained earnings, rr, is less than the
cost of new common stock, rn, use retained earnings to
meet the equity requirement determined in Step 2. If
retained earnings are inadequate to meet this need, sell
new common stock. If the available retained earnings are
in excess of this need, distribute the surplus amount—the
residual—as dividends.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 30
Relevance of Payout Policy:
The Dividend Irrelevance Theory
The dividend irrelevance theory is Miller and
Modigliani’s theory that in a perfect world, the firm’s
value is determined solely by the earning power and
risk of its assets (investments) and that the manner
in which it splits its earnings stream between
dividends and internally retained (and reinvested)
funds does not affect this value.
– In a perfect world (certainty, no taxes, no transactions
costs, and no other market imperfections), the value of the
firm is unaffected by the distribution of dividends.
– Of course, real markets do not satisfy the “perfect
assumptions of Modigliani and Miller’s original theory.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 31
Relevance of Payout Policy:
The Dividend Irrelevance Theory (cont.)
The clientele effect is the argument that different
payout policies attract different types of investors but
still do not change the value of the firm.
– Tax-exempt investors may invest more heavily in firms
that pay dividends because they are not affected by the
typically higher tax rates on dividends.
– Investors who would have to pay higher taxes on dividends
may prefer to invest in firms that retain more earnings
rather than paying dividends.
– If a firm changes its payout policy, the value of the firm
will not change—what will change is the type of investor
who holds the firm’s shares.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 32
Relevance of Payout Policy:
Arguments for Dividend Relevance
• Dividend relevance theory is the theory,
advanced by Gordon and Lintner, that there is a
direct relationship between a firm’s dividend policy
and its market value.
• The bird-in-the-hand argument is the belief, in
support of dividend relevance theory, that investors
see current dividends as less risky than future
dividends or capital gains.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 33
Relevance of Payout Policy: Arguments
for Dividend Relevance (cont.)
Studies have shown that large changes in dividends
do affect share price.
– Informational content is the information provided by the
dividends of a firm with respect to future earnings, which
causes owners to bid up or down the price of the firm’s
stock.
– The agency cost theory says that a firm that commits to
paying dividends is reassuring shareholders that managers
will not waste their money.
– Although many other arguments related to dividend
relevance have been put forward, empirical studies have
not provided evidence that conclusively settles the debate
about whether and how payout policy affects firm value.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 34
Factors Affecting Dividend Policy
Dividend policy represents the firm’s plan of action
to be followed whenever it makes a dividend decision.
First consider five factors in establishing a dividend
policy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
legal constraints
contractual constraints
the firm’s growth prospects
owner considerations
market considerations
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 35
Factors Affecting Dividend Policy: Legal
Constraints
• Most states prohibit corporations from paying out
as cash dividends any portion of the firm’s “legal
capital,” which is typically measured by the par
value of common stock.
• Other states define legal capital to include not only
the par value of the common stock, but also any
paid-in capital in excess of par.
• These capital impairment restrictions are generally
established to provide a sufficient equity base to
protect creditors’ claims.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 36
Factors Affecting Dividend Policy:
Legal Constraints (cont.)
In states where the firm’s legal capital is defined as the par
value of its common stock, Miller Flour Company could pay out
$340,000 ($200,000 + $140,000) in cash dividends without
impairing its capital. In states where the firm’s legal capital
includes all paid-in capital, the firm could pay out only
$140,000 in dividends.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 37
Factors Affecting Dividend Policy: Legal
Constraints (cont.)
• If a firm has overdue liabilities or is legally
insolvent or bankrupt, most states prohibit its
payment of cash dividends.
• In addition, the Internal Revenue Service prohibits
firms from accumulating earnings to reduce the
owners’ taxes.
– The excess earnings accumulation tax is the tax the
IRS levies on retained earnings above $250,000 for most
businesses when it determines that the firm has
accumulated an excess of earnings to allow owners to
delay paying ordinary income taxes on dividends received.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 38
Factors Affecting Dividend Policy:
Contractual Constraints
• Often the firm’s ability to pay cash dividends is
constrained by restrictive provisions in a loan
agreement.
• Generally, these constraints prohibit the payment
of cash dividends until the firm achieves a certain
level of earnings, or they may limit dividends to a
certain dollar amount or percentage of earnings.
• Constraints on dividends help to protect creditors
from losses due to the firm’s insolvency.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 39
Factors Affecting Dividend Policy: Growth
Prospects
• A growth firm is likely to have to depend heavily on
internal financing through retained earnings, so it is
likely to pay out only a very small percentage of its
earnings as dividends.
• A more established firm is in a better position to
pay out a large proportion of its earnings,
particularly if it has ready sources of financing.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 40
Factors Affecting Dividend Policy: Owner
Considerations
Tax status of a firm’s owners:
– If a firm has a large percentage of wealthy stockholders
who have sizable incomes, it may decide to pay out a lower
percentage of its earnings to allow the owners to delay the
payment of taxes until they sell the stock.
Owners’ investment opportunities:
– If it appears that the owners have better opportunities
externally, the firm should pay out a higher percentage of
its earnings.
Potential dilution of ownership:
– If a firm pays out a high percentage of earnings, new
equity capital will have to be raised with common stock.
The result of a new stock issue may be dilution of both
control and earnings for the existing owners.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 41
Factors Affecting Dividend Policy: Market
Considerations
Catering theory is a theory that says firms cater to
the preferences of investors, initiating or increasing
dividend payments during periods in which highdividend stocks are particularly appealing to
investors.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 42
Types of Dividend Policies: ConstantPayout-Ratio Dividend Policy
• A firm’s dividend payout ratio indicates the
percentage of each dollar earned that a firm
distributes to the owners in the form of cash. It is
calculated by dividing the firm’s cash dividend per
share by its earnings per share.
• A constant-payout-ratio dividend policy is a
dividend policy based on the payment of a certain
percentage of earnings to owners in each dividend
period.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 43
Types of Dividend Policies: ConstantPayout-Ratio Dividend Policy (cont.)
Peachtree Industries, a miner of potassium, has a
policy of paying out 40% of earnings in cash
dividends. In periods when a loss occurs, the firm’s
policy is to pay no cash dividends.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 44
Types of Dividend Policies:
Regular Dividend Policy
• Regular dividend policy is a dividend policy
based on the payment of a fixed-dollar dividend in
each period.
• A regular dividend policy is often build around a
target dividend-payout ratio, which is a dividend
policy under which the firm attempts to pay out a
certain percentage of earnings as a stated dollar
dividend and adjusts that dividend toward a target
payout as proven earnings increases occur.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 45
Types of Dividend Policies:
Regular Dividend Policy (cont.)
The dividend policy
of Woodward
Laboratories, a
producer of a popular
artificial sweetener,
is to pay dividends of
$1.00 per share until
per-share earnings
have exceeded $4.00
for 3 consecutive
years. At that point,
the annual dividend
is raised to $1.50 per
share, and a new
earnings plateau is
established.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 46
Types of Dividend Policies:
Low-Regular-and-Extra Dividend Policy
• A low-regular-and-extra dividend policy is a
dividend policy based on paying a low regular
dividend, supplemented by an additional (“extra”)
dividend when earnings are higher than normal in a
given period.
• An extra dividend is an additional dividend
optionally paid by the firm when earnings are
higher than normal in a given period.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 47
Other Forms of Dividends
A stock dividend is the payment, to existing owners,
of a dividend in the form of stock.
– In a stock dividend, investors simply receive additional
shares in proportion to the shares they already own.
– No cash is distributed, and no real value is transferred from
the firm to investors.
– Instead, because the number of outstanding shares
increases, the stock price declines roughly in line with the
amount of the stock dividend.
– In an accounting sense, the payment of a stock dividend is
a shifting of funds between stockholders’ equity accounts
rather than an outflow of funds.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 48
Other Forms of Dividends (cont.)
The current stockholders’ equity on the balance sheet
of Garrison Corporation, a distributor of prefabricated
cabinets, is as shown in the following accounts.
Preferred stock
$300,000
Common stock (100,000 shares @ $4 par) 400,000
Paid-in capital in excess of par
600,000
Retained earnings
700,000
Total stockholders’ equity
$2,000,000
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 49
Other Forms of Dividends (cont.)
Garrison declares a 10% stock dividend when the
market price of its stock is $15 per share. The
resulting account balances are as follows:
Preferred stock
$300,000
Common stock (110,000 shares @ $4 par) 440,000
Paid-in capital in excess of par
710,000
Retained earnings
550,000
Total stockholders’ equity
$2,000,000
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 50
Other Forms of Dividends (cont.)
Ms. X owned 10,000 shares of Garrison Corporation’s
stock.
– The company’s most recent earnings were $220,000, and
earnings are not expected to change in the near future.
– Before the stock dividend, Ms. X owned 10% of the firm’s
stock, which was selling for $15 per share.
– Because Ms. X owned 10,000 shares, her earnings were
$22,000
($2.20 per share 10,000 shares).
– After receiving the 10% stock dividend, Ms. X has 11,000
shares, which again is 10% of the ownership (11,000
shares ÷ 110,000 shares).
– The market price of the stock can be expected to drop to
$13.64 per share [$15 (1.00 ÷ 1.10)], which means that
the market value of Ms. X’s holdings is $150,000 (11,000
shares $13.64 per share).
– The future earnings per share drops to $2.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 51
Other Forms of Dividends (cont.)
A stock split is a method commonly used to lower
the market price of a firm’s stock by increasing the
number of shares belonging to each shareholder.
– Stock splits are often made prior to issuing additional stock
to enhance that stock’s marketability and stimulate market
activity.
– It is not unusual for a stock split to cause a slight increase
in the market value of the stock, attributable to its
informational content and to the fact that total dividends
paid commonly increases slightly after a split.
– A reverse stock split is a method used to raise the
market price of a firm’s stock by exchanging a certain
number of outstanding shares for one new share.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 52
Other Forms of Dividends (cont.)
Delphi Company, a forest products concern, had
200,000 shares of $2-par-value common stock and
no preferred stock outstanding. Because the stock is
selling for a high market price, the firm declared a 2for-1 stock split.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 53
Personal Finance Example
Shakira Washington, a single investor in the 25%
federal income tax bracket, owns 260 shares of
Advanced Technology, Inc., common stock. She
originally bought the stock 2 years ago at its initial
public offering (IPO) price of $9 per share. The stock
of this fast-growing technology company is currently
trading for $60 per share, so the current value of her
Advanced Technology stock is $15,600
(260 shares $60 per share). Because the firm’s
board believes that the stock would trade more
actively in the $20 to $30 price range, it just
announced a 3-for-1 stock split. Shakira wishes to
determine the impact of the stock split on her
holdings and taxes.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 54
Personal Finance Example (cont.)
• Because the stock will split 3 for 1, after the split
Shakira will own 780 shares (3 260 shares).
• She should expect the market price of the stock to
drop to $20 (1/3 $60) immediately after the split;
the value of her after-split holding will be $15,600
(780 shares $20 per share).
• Because the $15,600 value of her after-split
holdings in Advanced Technology stock exactly
equals the before-split value of $15,600, Shakira
has experienced neither a gain nor a loss on the
stock as a result of the 3-for-1 split.
• Shakira has experienced neither a gain nor a loss
on the stock as a result of the 3-for-1 split.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 55
Review of Learning Goals
LG1
Understand cash payout procedures, their tax
treatment, and the role of dividend
reinvestment plans.
The board of directors makes the cash payout decision
and, for dividends, establishes the record and
payment dates. As a result of a tax-law change in
2003, most taxpayers pay taxes on corporate
dividends at a maximum rate of 5 percent to 15
percent, depending on the taxpayer’s tax bracket.
Some firms offer dividend reinvestment plans that
allow stockholders to acquire shares in lieu of cash
dividends.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 56
Review of Learning Goals (cont.)
LG2
Describe the residual theory of dividends and
the key arguments with regard to dividend
irrelevance and relevance.
The residual theory suggests that dividends should be
viewed as the earnings left after all acceptable
investment opportunities have been undertaken. Miller
and Modigliani argue in favor of dividend irrelevance,
using a perfect world wherein information content and
clientele effects exist. Gordon and Lintner advance the
theory of dividend relevance, basing their argument
on the uncertainty-reducing effect of dividends,
supported by their bird-in-the-hand argument.
Empirical studies fail to provide clear support of
dividend relevance. Even so, the actions of financial
managers and stockholders tend to support the belief
that dividend policy does affect stock value.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 57
Review of Learning Goals (cont.)
LG3
Discuss the key factors involved in establishing
a dividend policy.
A firm’s dividend policy should provide for sufficient
financing and maximize stockholders’ wealth. Dividend
policy is affected by legal and contractual constraints,
by growth prospects, and by owner and market
considerations. Growth prospects affect the relative
importance of retaining earnings rather than paying
them out in dividends. The tax status of owners, the
owners’ investment opportunities, and the potential
dilution of ownership are important owner
considerations. Finally, market considerations are
related to the stockholders’ preference for the
continuous payment of fixed or increasing streams of
dividends.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 58
Review of Learning Goals (cont.)
LG4
Review and evaluate the three basic types of
dividend policies.
With a constant-payout-ratio dividend policy, the firm
pays a fixed percentage of earnings to the owners
each period; dividends move up and down with
earnings, and no dividend is paid when a loss occurs.
Under a regular dividend policy, the firm pays a fixeddollar dividend each period; it increases the amount of
dividends only after a proven increase in earnings.
The low-regular-and-extra dividend policy is similar to
the regular dividend policy, except that it pays an
extra dividend when the firm’s earnings are higher
than normal.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 59
Review of Learning Goals (cont.)
LG5
Evaluate stock dividends from accounting,
shareholder, and company points of view.
Firms may pay stock dividends as a replacement for
or supplement to cash dividends. The payment of
stock dividends involves a shifting of funds between
capital accounts rather than an outflow of funds. Stock
dividends do not change the market value of
stockholders’ holdings, proportion of ownership, or
share of total earnings. Therefore stock dividends are
usually nontaxable. However, stock dividends may
satisfy owners and enable the firm to preserve its
market value without having to use cash.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 60
Review of Learning Goals (cont.)
LG6
Explain stock splits and the firm’s motivation
for undertaking them.
Stock splits are used to enhance trading activity of a
firm’s shares by lowering or raising their market price.
A stock split merely involves accounting adjustments;
it has no effect on the firm’s cash or on its capital
structure and is usually nontaxable.
To retire outstanding shares, firms can repurchase
stock in lieu of paying a cash dividend. Reducing the
number of outstanding shares increases earnings per
share and the market price per share. Stock
repurchases also defer the tax payments of
stockholders.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 61
Chapter Resources on MyFinanceLab
• Chapter Cases
• Group Exercises
• Critical Thinking Problems
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 62
Integrative Case:
O’Grady Apparel Company
O’Grady Apparel Company is a small manufacturer of fabrics and
clothing. In 2015, the LA based company experienced sharp
increases in domestic and European sales. European sales
represented 3% in 2010 and increased to 29% in 2015.
Management expects sales and earnings per share to continue to
increase in 2016.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
14-62
Slide 63
Integrative Case:
O’Grady Apparel Company (cont.)
The corporate
treasurer, Margaret
Jennings, has been
presented with
several competing
investment
opportunities by
division and product
managers. However,
funds are limited
and Jennings must
choose among the
investments.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 64
Integrative Case:
O’Grady Apparel Company (cont.)
Management has set a policy of maintaining the current capital
structure proportions of 25% long-term debt, 10% preferred
stock, and 65% common stock equity for at least the next 3
years. In addition, it plans to keep paying out 40% of its
earnings as dividends.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 65
Integrative Case:
O’Grady Apparel Company (cont.)
a.
Over the relevant ranges noted in the following
table, calculate the after-tax cost of each source
of financing needed to complete the table.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 66
Integrative Case:
O’Grady Apparel Company (cont.)
b.
(1) Determine the break point associated with common equity. A
break point represents the total amount of financing that a firm
can raise before it triggers an increase in the cost of a particular
financing source. For example, O’Grady plans to use 25% longterm debt in its capital structure. So, for every $1 in debt that the
firm uses, it will use $3 from other financing sources (total
financing is then $4, and because $1 comes from long-term debt,
its share in the total is the desired 25%). From Table 3, we can
see that after the firm raises $700,000 in long-term debt, the cost
of this financing source begins to rise. Therefore, the firm can
raise total capital of $2,8 million before the cost of debt will rise
($700,000 in debt plus $2.1 million in other sources to maintain
the 25% proportion for the debt), and $2.8 is the break point for
debt. If the firm wants to maintain a capital structure with 25%
long-term debt and it also wants to raise more than $2.8 million in
total financing, it will require more than $700,000 in long-term
debt, and it will trigger the higher cost of the additional debt
beyond $700,000.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 67
Integrative Case:
O’Grady Apparel Company (cont.)
b.
(2) Using the break points developed in part (1), determine
each of the ranges of total new financing over which the
firm’s weighted average cost of capital (WACC) remains
constant.
(3) Calculate the weighted average cost of capital for each
range of total new financing. Draw a graph with the WACC
on the vertical axis and total money raised on the horizontal
axis, and show how the firm’s WACC increases in “steps” as
the amount of money raised increases.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 68
Integrative Case:
O’Grady Apparel Company (cont.)
c.
(1) Sort the investment opportunities described in Table 2
from highest to lowest return, and plot a line on the graph
you drew in part (3) above showing how much money is
required to fund the investments, starting with the highest
return and going to the lowest. In the words, this line will
plot the relationship between the IRR on the firm’s
investments and the total financing required to undertake
those investments.
(2) Which, if any, of the available investments would you
recommend that the firm accept? Explain your answer.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 69
Integrative Case:
O’Grady Apparel Company (cont.)
d.
(1) Assuming that the specific financing costs do not
change, what effect would a shift to a more highly leveraged
capital structure consisting of 50% long-term debt, 10%
preferred stock, and 40% common stock have on your
previous findings? (Note: Rework parts b and c using these
capital structure weights.)
(2) Which capital structure—the original one or this one—
seems better? Why?
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 70
Integrative Case:
O’Grady Apparel Company (cont.)
e. (1) What type of dividend policy does the firm appear to
employ? Does it seem appropriate given the firm’s recent
growth in sales and profits and given its current investment
opportunities?
(2) Would you recommend an alternative dividend policy? Explain.
How would this policy affect the investments recommended in part
c(2)?
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
14-70
Chapter 14
Payout Policy
Slide 2
Learning Goals
LG1
Understand cash payout procedures, their tax
treatment, and the role of dividend
reinvestment plans.
LG2
Describe the residual theory of dividends and
the key arguments with regard to dividend
irrelevance and relevance.
LG3
Discuss the key factors involved in establishing
a dividend policy.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
14-2
Slide 3
Learning Goals (cont.)
LG4
Review and evaluate the three basic types of
dividend policies.
LG5
Evaluate stock dividends from accounting,
shareholder, and company points of view.
LG6
Explain stock splits and the firm’s motivation
for undertaking them.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 4
The Basics of Payout Policy:
Elements of Payout Policy
• The term payout policy refers to the decisions that
a firm makes regarding whether to distribute cash
to shareholders, how much cash to distribute, and
the means by which cash should be distributed.
• Cash can be distributed as a dividend or through
stock repurchase plans.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
14-4
Slide 5
The Basics of Payout Policy:
General Lessons
1. Rapidly growing firms generally do not pay out
cash to shareholders.
2. Slowing growth, positive cash flow generation, and
favorable tax conditions can prompt firms to
initiate cash payouts to investors.
3. Cash payouts can be made through dividends or
share repurchases.
4. When business conditions are weak, firms are
more willing to reduce share buybacks than to cut
dividends.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 6
Figure 14.1 Per Share Earnings and
Dividends of the S&P 500 Index
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
14-6
Slide 7
Matter of Fact
P&G’s Dividend History
Few companies have
replicated the
dividend
achievements of the
consumer products
giant, Procter &
Gamble (P&G). P&G
has paid dividends
every year for more
than a century, and it
increased its dividend
in every year from
1956–2010.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
14-7
Slide 8
Figure 14.2 Aggregate Dividends and
Repurchases for All U.S.-Listed
Companies
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
14-8
Slide 9
Matter of Fact
Share Repurchases Gain Worldwide Popularity
– In most of the world’s largest economies, repurchases have
been on the rise in recent years, eclipsing dividend
payments at least some of the time in countries as diverse
as Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Japan,
Netherlands, South Korea, and Switzerland.
– A recent study of payout policy at firms from 25 different
countries found that share repurchases rose at an annual
rate of 19% from 1999–2008.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
14-9
Slide 10
Focus on Ethics
Are Buybacks Really a Bargain?
– In addition to simply returning cash to shareholders,
companies also typically say they repurchase stock
because they believe their stock is undervalued.
– Yet new research shows that companies often use creative
financial reporting to push earnings downward before
buybacks, making the stock seem undervalued and causing
its price to bounce higher after the buyback.
Do you agree that corporate managers would manipulate
their stock’s value prior to a buyback, or do you believe
that corporations are more likely to initiate a buyback to
enhance shareholder value?
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 11
The Mechanics of Payout Policy:
Cash Dividend Payment Procedures
• At quarterly or semiannual meetings, a firm’s
board of directors decides whether and in what
amount to pay cash dividends.
• If the firm has already established a precedent of
paying dividends, the decision facing the board is
usually whether to maintain or increase the
dividend, and that decision is based primarily on
the firm’s recent performance and its ability to
generate cash flow in the future.
• Boards rarely cut dividends unless they believe that
the firm’s ability to generate cash is in serious
jeopardy.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
14-11
Slide 12
Figure 14.3 U.S. Public Industrial
Firms Increasing, Decreasing, or
Maintaining Dividends
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
14-12
Slide 13
The Mechanics of Payout Policy: Cash
Dividend Payment Procedures (cont.)
• The date of record (dividends) is set by the
firm’s directors, the date on which all persons
whose names are recorded as stockholders receive
a declared dividend at a specified future time.
• A stock is ex dividend for a period, beginning 2
business days prior to the date of record, during
which a stock is sold without the right to receive
the current dividend.
• The payment date is set by the firm’s directors,
the actual date on which the firm mails the dividend
payment to the holders of record.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
14-13
Slide 14
Figure 14.4
Dividend Payment Time Line
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
14-14
Slide 15
The Mechanics of Payout Policy: Cash
Dividend Payment Procedures (cont.)
On August 21, 2013, the board of directors of Best
Buy announced that the firm’s next quarterly cash
dividend would be $0.17 per share, payable October 1,
2013 to shareholders of record on Tuesday,
September 10, 2013.The stock would begin trading
ex-dividend on Friday, September 6, 2013. At the
time, Best Buy had 340,967,179 shares of common
stock outstanding, so the total dividend would be
$57,964,420. Before the dividend was declared, the
key accounts of the firm were as follows (dollar
values quoted in thousands):
– Cash: $680,000
– Dividends payable: $0
– Retained earnings: $3,395,000
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
14-15
Slide 16
The Mechanics of Payout Policy: Cash
Dividend Payment Procedures (cont.)
When the dividend was announced by the directors,
almost $58 million of the retained earnings ($0.17 per
share 341 million shares) was transferred to the
dividends payable account. The key accounts thus
became:
– Cash: $680,000
– Dividends payable: $57,964
– Retained earnings: $3,337,036
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 17
The Mechanics of Payout Policy: Cash
Dividend Payment Procedures (cont.)
When Best Buy actually paid the dividend on October
26, this produced the following balances in the key
accounts of the firm:
– Cash: $622,036
– Dividends payable: $0
– Retained earnings: $3,337,036
The net effect of declaring and paying the dividend
was to reduce the firm’s total assets (and
stockholders’ equity) by almost $58 million.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
14-17
Slide 18
The Mechanics of Payout Policy: Share
Repurchase Procedures
• Common methods for repurchasing shares include:
– An open-market share repurchase is a share repurchase
program in which firms simply buy back some of their
outstanding shares on the open market.
– A tender offer repurchase is a repurchase program in which a
firm offers to repurchase a fixed number of shares, usually at a
premium relative to the market value, and shareholders decide
whether or not they want to sell back their shares at that price.
– A Dutch Auction repurchase is a repurchase method in which
the firm specifies how many shares it wants to buy back and a
range of prices at which it is willing to repurchase shares.
Investors specify how many shares they will sell at each price in
the range, and the firm determines the minimum price required
to repurchase its target number of shares. All investors who
tender receive the same price.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
14-18
Slide 19
The Mechanics of Payout Policy:
Share Repurchase Procedures (cont.)
In July 2013, Fidelity National Information Services announced a
Dutch auction repurchase for 86 million common shares at prices
ranging from $29 to $31.50 per share.
At a price of $31.25, shareholders are willing to tender a total of
86 million shares, exactly the amount that Fidelity wants to
repurchase.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
14-19
Slide 20
The Mechanics of Payout Policy: Tax
Treatment of Dividends and Repurchases
For many years, dividends and share repurchases had
very different tax consequences.
– The dividends that investors received were generally taxed
at ordinary income tax rates.
– On the other hand, when firms repurchased shares, the
taxes triggered by that type of payout were generally
much lower.
• Shareholders who did not participate did not owe any taxes.
• Shareholders who did participate in the repurchase program
might not owe any taxes on the funds they received if they
were tax-exempt institutions, or if they sold their shares at a
loss.
• Shareholders who participated in the repurchase program and
sold their shares for a profit only paid taxes at the (usually
lower) capital gains tax rate, and even that tax only applied to
the gain, not to the entire value of the shares repurchased.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
14-20
Slide 21
The Mechanics of Payout Policy: Tax
Treatment of Dividends and Repurchases
The Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003 significantly
changed the tax treatment of corporate dividends for most taxpayers.
– The act reduced the tax rate on corporate dividends for most
taxpayers to the tax rate applicable to capital gains, which is a
maximum rate of 5 percent to 15 percent, depending on the
taxpayer’s tax bracket.
– This change significantly diminishes the degree of “double
taxation” of dividends, which results when the corporation is first
taxed on its income and then when the investor who receives the
dividend is also taxed on it.
– After-tax cash flow to dividend recipients is much greater at the
lower applicable tax rate; the result is noticeably higher dividend
payouts by corporations today than prior to passage of the 2003
legislation.
– The American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, extended the 15%
rate on capital gains and dividends for taxpayers in all but the
highest tax bracket.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
14-21
Slide 22
Focus on Practice
Capital Gains and Dividend Tax Treatment Extended to
2012 and Beyond for Some
– Prior to 2003, dividends were taxed once as part of corporate
earnings, and again as the personal income of the investor, in
both cases with a potential top rate of 35%. The result was an
effective tax rate of 57.75% on some dividends.
– Though the 2003 tax law did not completely eliminate the double
taxation of dividends, it reduced the maximum possible effect of
the double taxation of dividends to 44.75%. For taxpayers in the
lower tax brackets, the combined effect was a maximum of
38.25%.
– The American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 extended the 15% rate
for taxpayers in the 25, 28, 33, and 35% income tax brackets.
However, individuals making more than $400,000 and couples
earning more than $450,000 will now pay 20% on capital gain
and dividends.
How might the expected future reappearance of higher tax rates on
individuals receiving dividends affect corporate dividend payout
policies?
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
14-22
Slide 23
Personal Finance Example
The board of directors of Espinoza Industries, Inc., on
October 4 of the current year, declared a quarterly
dividend of $0.46 per share payable to all holders of
record on Friday, October 30. They set a payment
date of November 19. Rob and Kate Heckman, who
purchased 500 shares of Espinoza’s common stock on
Thursday, October 15, wish to determine whether
they will receive the recently declared dividend and, if
so, when and how much they would net after taxes
from the dividend given that the dividends would be
subject to a 15% federal income tax.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
14-23
Slide 24
Personal Finance Example (cont.)
Given the Friday, October 30 date of record, the stock would
begin selling ex dividend 2 business days earlier on Wednesday,
October 28. Purchasers of the stock on or before Tuesday,
October 27, would receive the right to the dividend. Because the
Heckmans purchased the stock on October 15, they would be
eligible to receive the dividend of $0.46 per share.
Thus, the Heckmans will receive $230 in dividends
($0.46 per share 500 shares), which will be mailed to them
on the November 19 payment date.
Because they are subject to a 15% federal income tax on the
dividends, the Heckmans will net $195.50 [(1 – 0.15) $230]
after taxes from the Espinoza Industries dividend.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
14-24
Slide 25
The Mechanics of Payout Policy: Dividend
Reinvestment Plans
Dividend reinvestment plans (DRIPs) are plans
that enable stockholders to use dividends received on
the firm’s stock to acquire additional shares—even
fractional shares—at little or no transaction cost.
– Some companies even allow investors to make their initial
purchases of the firm’s stock directly from the company
without going through a broker.
– With DRIPs, plan participants typically can acquire shares
at about 5 percent below the prevailing market price.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 26
The Mechanics of Payout Policy: Stock
Price Reactions to Corporate Payouts
What happens to the stock price when a firm pays a
dividend or repurchases shares?
– In theory, when a stock begins trading ex dividend, the
stock price should fall by exactly the amount of the
dividend.
– In theory, when a firm buys back shares at the going
market price, the market price of the stock should remain
the same.
– In practice, taxes and a variety of other market
imperfections may cause the actual change in share price
in response to a dividend payment or share repurchase to
deviate from what we expect in theory.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
14-26
Slide 27
Relevance of Payout Policy
• The financial literature has reported numerous
theories and empirical findings concerning payout
policy.
• Although this research provides some interesting
insights about payout policy, capital budgeting and
capital structure decisions are generally considered
far more important than payout decisions.
• In other words, firms should not sacrifice good
investment and financing decisions for a payout
policy of questionable importance.
• The most important question about payout policy is
this: Does payout policy have a significant effect on
the value of a firm?
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
14-27
Slide 28
Relevance of Payout Policy:
Residual Theory of Dividends
The residual theory of dividends is a school of
thought that suggests that the dividend paid by a firm
should be viewed as a residual—the amount left over
after all acceptable investment opportunities have
been undertaken.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
14-28
Slide 29
Relevance of Payout Policy: Residual
Theory of Dividends (cont.)
Using the residual theory of dividends, the firm would
treat the dividend decision in three steps, as follows:
– Determine its optimal level of capital expenditures, which
would be the level that exploits all of a firm’s positive NPV
projects.
– Using the optimal capital structure proportions, estimate
the total amount of equity financing needed to support the
expenditures generated in Step 1.
– Because the cost of retained earnings, rr, is less than the
cost of new common stock, rn, use retained earnings to
meet the equity requirement determined in Step 2. If
retained earnings are inadequate to meet this need, sell
new common stock. If the available retained earnings are
in excess of this need, distribute the surplus amount—the
residual—as dividends.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
14-29
Slide 30
Relevance of Payout Policy:
The Dividend Irrelevance Theory
The dividend irrelevance theory is Miller and
Modigliani’s theory that in a perfect world, the firm’s
value is determined solely by the earning power and
risk of its assets (investments) and that the manner
in which it splits its earnings stream between
dividends and internally retained (and reinvested)
funds does not affect this value.
– In a perfect world (certainty, no taxes, no transactions
costs, and no other market imperfections), the value of the
firm is unaffected by the distribution of dividends.
– Of course, real markets do not satisfy the “perfect
assumptions of Modigliani and Miller’s original theory.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
14-30
Slide 31
Relevance of Payout Policy:
The Dividend Irrelevance Theory (cont.)
The clientele effect is the argument that different
payout policies attract different types of investors but
still do not change the value of the firm.
– Tax-exempt investors may invest more heavily in firms
that pay dividends because they are not affected by the
typically higher tax rates on dividends.
– Investors who would have to pay higher taxes on dividends
may prefer to invest in firms that retain more earnings
rather than paying dividends.
– If a firm changes its payout policy, the value of the firm
will not change—what will change is the type of investor
who holds the firm’s shares.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
14-31
Slide 32
Relevance of Payout Policy:
Arguments for Dividend Relevance
• Dividend relevance theory is the theory,
advanced by Gordon and Lintner, that there is a
direct relationship between a firm’s dividend policy
and its market value.
• The bird-in-the-hand argument is the belief, in
support of dividend relevance theory, that investors
see current dividends as less risky than future
dividends or capital gains.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 33
Relevance of Payout Policy: Arguments
for Dividend Relevance (cont.)
Studies have shown that large changes in dividends
do affect share price.
– Informational content is the information provided by the
dividends of a firm with respect to future earnings, which
causes owners to bid up or down the price of the firm’s
stock.
– The agency cost theory says that a firm that commits to
paying dividends is reassuring shareholders that managers
will not waste their money.
– Although many other arguments related to dividend
relevance have been put forward, empirical studies have
not provided evidence that conclusively settles the debate
about whether and how payout policy affects firm value.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 34
Factors Affecting Dividend Policy
Dividend policy represents the firm’s plan of action
to be followed whenever it makes a dividend decision.
First consider five factors in establishing a dividend
policy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
legal constraints
contractual constraints
the firm’s growth prospects
owner considerations
market considerations
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 35
Factors Affecting Dividend Policy: Legal
Constraints
• Most states prohibit corporations from paying out
as cash dividends any portion of the firm’s “legal
capital,” which is typically measured by the par
value of common stock.
• Other states define legal capital to include not only
the par value of the common stock, but also any
paid-in capital in excess of par.
• These capital impairment restrictions are generally
established to provide a sufficient equity base to
protect creditors’ claims.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
14-35
Slide 36
Factors Affecting Dividend Policy:
Legal Constraints (cont.)
In states where the firm’s legal capital is defined as the par
value of its common stock, Miller Flour Company could pay out
$340,000 ($200,000 + $140,000) in cash dividends without
impairing its capital. In states where the firm’s legal capital
includes all paid-in capital, the firm could pay out only
$140,000 in dividends.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 37
Factors Affecting Dividend Policy: Legal
Constraints (cont.)
• If a firm has overdue liabilities or is legally
insolvent or bankrupt, most states prohibit its
payment of cash dividends.
• In addition, the Internal Revenue Service prohibits
firms from accumulating earnings to reduce the
owners’ taxes.
– The excess earnings accumulation tax is the tax the
IRS levies on retained earnings above $250,000 for most
businesses when it determines that the firm has
accumulated an excess of earnings to allow owners to
delay paying ordinary income taxes on dividends received.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 38
Factors Affecting Dividend Policy:
Contractual Constraints
• Often the firm’s ability to pay cash dividends is
constrained by restrictive provisions in a loan
agreement.
• Generally, these constraints prohibit the payment
of cash dividends until the firm achieves a certain
level of earnings, or they may limit dividends to a
certain dollar amount or percentage of earnings.
• Constraints on dividends help to protect creditors
from losses due to the firm’s insolvency.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
14-38
Slide 39
Factors Affecting Dividend Policy: Growth
Prospects
• A growth firm is likely to have to depend heavily on
internal financing through retained earnings, so it is
likely to pay out only a very small percentage of its
earnings as dividends.
• A more established firm is in a better position to
pay out a large proportion of its earnings,
particularly if it has ready sources of financing.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
14-39
Slide 40
Factors Affecting Dividend Policy: Owner
Considerations
Tax status of a firm’s owners:
– If a firm has a large percentage of wealthy stockholders
who have sizable incomes, it may decide to pay out a lower
percentage of its earnings to allow the owners to delay the
payment of taxes until they sell the stock.
Owners’ investment opportunities:
– If it appears that the owners have better opportunities
externally, the firm should pay out a higher percentage of
its earnings.
Potential dilution of ownership:
– If a firm pays out a high percentage of earnings, new
equity capital will have to be raised with common stock.
The result of a new stock issue may be dilution of both
control and earnings for the existing owners.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 41
Factors Affecting Dividend Policy: Market
Considerations
Catering theory is a theory that says firms cater to
the preferences of investors, initiating or increasing
dividend payments during periods in which highdividend stocks are particularly appealing to
investors.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 42
Types of Dividend Policies: ConstantPayout-Ratio Dividend Policy
• A firm’s dividend payout ratio indicates the
percentage of each dollar earned that a firm
distributes to the owners in the form of cash. It is
calculated by dividing the firm’s cash dividend per
share by its earnings per share.
• A constant-payout-ratio dividend policy is a
dividend policy based on the payment of a certain
percentage of earnings to owners in each dividend
period.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 43
Types of Dividend Policies: ConstantPayout-Ratio Dividend Policy (cont.)
Peachtree Industries, a miner of potassium, has a
policy of paying out 40% of earnings in cash
dividends. In periods when a loss occurs, the firm’s
policy is to pay no cash dividends.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 44
Types of Dividend Policies:
Regular Dividend Policy
• Regular dividend policy is a dividend policy
based on the payment of a fixed-dollar dividend in
each period.
• A regular dividend policy is often build around a
target dividend-payout ratio, which is a dividend
policy under which the firm attempts to pay out a
certain percentage of earnings as a stated dollar
dividend and adjusts that dividend toward a target
payout as proven earnings increases occur.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 45
Types of Dividend Policies:
Regular Dividend Policy (cont.)
The dividend policy
of Woodward
Laboratories, a
producer of a popular
artificial sweetener,
is to pay dividends of
$1.00 per share until
per-share earnings
have exceeded $4.00
for 3 consecutive
years. At that point,
the annual dividend
is raised to $1.50 per
share, and a new
earnings plateau is
established.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 46
Types of Dividend Policies:
Low-Regular-and-Extra Dividend Policy
• A low-regular-and-extra dividend policy is a
dividend policy based on paying a low regular
dividend, supplemented by an additional (“extra”)
dividend when earnings are higher than normal in a
given period.
• An extra dividend is an additional dividend
optionally paid by the firm when earnings are
higher than normal in a given period.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 47
Other Forms of Dividends
A stock dividend is the payment, to existing owners,
of a dividend in the form of stock.
– In a stock dividend, investors simply receive additional
shares in proportion to the shares they already own.
– No cash is distributed, and no real value is transferred from
the firm to investors.
– Instead, because the number of outstanding shares
increases, the stock price declines roughly in line with the
amount of the stock dividend.
– In an accounting sense, the payment of a stock dividend is
a shifting of funds between stockholders’ equity accounts
rather than an outflow of funds.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 48
Other Forms of Dividends (cont.)
The current stockholders’ equity on the balance sheet
of Garrison Corporation, a distributor of prefabricated
cabinets, is as shown in the following accounts.
Preferred stock
$300,000
Common stock (100,000 shares @ $4 par) 400,000
Paid-in capital in excess of par
600,000
Retained earnings
700,000
Total stockholders’ equity
$2,000,000
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 49
Other Forms of Dividends (cont.)
Garrison declares a 10% stock dividend when the
market price of its stock is $15 per share. The
resulting account balances are as follows:
Preferred stock
$300,000
Common stock (110,000 shares @ $4 par) 440,000
Paid-in capital in excess of par
710,000
Retained earnings
550,000
Total stockholders’ equity
$2,000,000
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 50
Other Forms of Dividends (cont.)
Ms. X owned 10,000 shares of Garrison Corporation’s
stock.
– The company’s most recent earnings were $220,000, and
earnings are not expected to change in the near future.
– Before the stock dividend, Ms. X owned 10% of the firm’s
stock, which was selling for $15 per share.
– Because Ms. X owned 10,000 shares, her earnings were
$22,000
($2.20 per share 10,000 shares).
– After receiving the 10% stock dividend, Ms. X has 11,000
shares, which again is 10% of the ownership (11,000
shares ÷ 110,000 shares).
– The market price of the stock can be expected to drop to
$13.64 per share [$15 (1.00 ÷ 1.10)], which means that
the market value of Ms. X’s holdings is $150,000 (11,000
shares $13.64 per share).
– The future earnings per share drops to $2.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 51
Other Forms of Dividends (cont.)
A stock split is a method commonly used to lower
the market price of a firm’s stock by increasing the
number of shares belonging to each shareholder.
– Stock splits are often made prior to issuing additional stock
to enhance that stock’s marketability and stimulate market
activity.
– It is not unusual for a stock split to cause a slight increase
in the market value of the stock, attributable to its
informational content and to the fact that total dividends
paid commonly increases slightly after a split.
– A reverse stock split is a method used to raise the
market price of a firm’s stock by exchanging a certain
number of outstanding shares for one new share.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 52
Other Forms of Dividends (cont.)
Delphi Company, a forest products concern, had
200,000 shares of $2-par-value common stock and
no preferred stock outstanding. Because the stock is
selling for a high market price, the firm declared a 2for-1 stock split.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 53
Personal Finance Example
Shakira Washington, a single investor in the 25%
federal income tax bracket, owns 260 shares of
Advanced Technology, Inc., common stock. She
originally bought the stock 2 years ago at its initial
public offering (IPO) price of $9 per share. The stock
of this fast-growing technology company is currently
trading for $60 per share, so the current value of her
Advanced Technology stock is $15,600
(260 shares $60 per share). Because the firm’s
board believes that the stock would trade more
actively in the $20 to $30 price range, it just
announced a 3-for-1 stock split. Shakira wishes to
determine the impact of the stock split on her
holdings and taxes.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 54
Personal Finance Example (cont.)
• Because the stock will split 3 for 1, after the split
Shakira will own 780 shares (3 260 shares).
• She should expect the market price of the stock to
drop to $20 (1/3 $60) immediately after the split;
the value of her after-split holding will be $15,600
(780 shares $20 per share).
• Because the $15,600 value of her after-split
holdings in Advanced Technology stock exactly
equals the before-split value of $15,600, Shakira
has experienced neither a gain nor a loss on the
stock as a result of the 3-for-1 split.
• Shakira has experienced neither a gain nor a loss
on the stock as a result of the 3-for-1 split.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 55
Review of Learning Goals
LG1
Understand cash payout procedures, their tax
treatment, and the role of dividend
reinvestment plans.
The board of directors makes the cash payout decision
and, for dividends, establishes the record and
payment dates. As a result of a tax-law change in
2003, most taxpayers pay taxes on corporate
dividends at a maximum rate of 5 percent to 15
percent, depending on the taxpayer’s tax bracket.
Some firms offer dividend reinvestment plans that
allow stockholders to acquire shares in lieu of cash
dividends.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 56
Review of Learning Goals (cont.)
LG2
Describe the residual theory of dividends and
the key arguments with regard to dividend
irrelevance and relevance.
The residual theory suggests that dividends should be
viewed as the earnings left after all acceptable
investment opportunities have been undertaken. Miller
and Modigliani argue in favor of dividend irrelevance,
using a perfect world wherein information content and
clientele effects exist. Gordon and Lintner advance the
theory of dividend relevance, basing their argument
on the uncertainty-reducing effect of dividends,
supported by their bird-in-the-hand argument.
Empirical studies fail to provide clear support of
dividend relevance. Even so, the actions of financial
managers and stockholders tend to support the belief
that dividend policy does affect stock value.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 57
Review of Learning Goals (cont.)
LG3
Discuss the key factors involved in establishing
a dividend policy.
A firm’s dividend policy should provide for sufficient
financing and maximize stockholders’ wealth. Dividend
policy is affected by legal and contractual constraints,
by growth prospects, and by owner and market
considerations. Growth prospects affect the relative
importance of retaining earnings rather than paying
them out in dividends. The tax status of owners, the
owners’ investment opportunities, and the potential
dilution of ownership are important owner
considerations. Finally, market considerations are
related to the stockholders’ preference for the
continuous payment of fixed or increasing streams of
dividends.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 58
Review of Learning Goals (cont.)
LG4
Review and evaluate the three basic types of
dividend policies.
With a constant-payout-ratio dividend policy, the firm
pays a fixed percentage of earnings to the owners
each period; dividends move up and down with
earnings, and no dividend is paid when a loss occurs.
Under a regular dividend policy, the firm pays a fixeddollar dividend each period; it increases the amount of
dividends only after a proven increase in earnings.
The low-regular-and-extra dividend policy is similar to
the regular dividend policy, except that it pays an
extra dividend when the firm’s earnings are higher
than normal.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 59
Review of Learning Goals (cont.)
LG5
Evaluate stock dividends from accounting,
shareholder, and company points of view.
Firms may pay stock dividends as a replacement for
or supplement to cash dividends. The payment of
stock dividends involves a shifting of funds between
capital accounts rather than an outflow of funds. Stock
dividends do not change the market value of
stockholders’ holdings, proportion of ownership, or
share of total earnings. Therefore stock dividends are
usually nontaxable. However, stock dividends may
satisfy owners and enable the firm to preserve its
market value without having to use cash.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 60
Review of Learning Goals (cont.)
LG6
Explain stock splits and the firm’s motivation
for undertaking them.
Stock splits are used to enhance trading activity of a
firm’s shares by lowering or raising their market price.
A stock split merely involves accounting adjustments;
it has no effect on the firm’s cash or on its capital
structure and is usually nontaxable.
To retire outstanding shares, firms can repurchase
stock in lieu of paying a cash dividend. Reducing the
number of outstanding shares increases earnings per
share and the market price per share. Stock
repurchases also defer the tax payments of
stockholders.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 61
Chapter Resources on MyFinanceLab
• Chapter Cases
• Group Exercises
• Critical Thinking Problems
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 62
Integrative Case:
O’Grady Apparel Company
O’Grady Apparel Company is a small manufacturer of fabrics and
clothing. In 2015, the LA based company experienced sharp
increases in domestic and European sales. European sales
represented 3% in 2010 and increased to 29% in 2015.
Management expects sales and earnings per share to continue to
increase in 2016.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 63
Integrative Case:
O’Grady Apparel Company (cont.)
The corporate
treasurer, Margaret
Jennings, has been
presented with
several competing
investment
opportunities by
division and product
managers. However,
funds are limited
and Jennings must
choose among the
investments.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 64
Integrative Case:
O’Grady Apparel Company (cont.)
Management has set a policy of maintaining the current capital
structure proportions of 25% long-term debt, 10% preferred
stock, and 65% common stock equity for at least the next 3
years. In addition, it plans to keep paying out 40% of its
earnings as dividends.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 65
Integrative Case:
O’Grady Apparel Company (cont.)
a.
Over the relevant ranges noted in the following
table, calculate the after-tax cost of each source
of financing needed to complete the table.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 66
Integrative Case:
O’Grady Apparel Company (cont.)
b.
(1) Determine the break point associated with common equity. A
break point represents the total amount of financing that a firm
can raise before it triggers an increase in the cost of a particular
financing source. For example, O’Grady plans to use 25% longterm debt in its capital structure. So, for every $1 in debt that the
firm uses, it will use $3 from other financing sources (total
financing is then $4, and because $1 comes from long-term debt,
its share in the total is the desired 25%). From Table 3, we can
see that after the firm raises $700,000 in long-term debt, the cost
of this financing source begins to rise. Therefore, the firm can
raise total capital of $2,8 million before the cost of debt will rise
($700,000 in debt plus $2.1 million in other sources to maintain
the 25% proportion for the debt), and $2.8 is the break point for
debt. If the firm wants to maintain a capital structure with 25%
long-term debt and it also wants to raise more than $2.8 million in
total financing, it will require more than $700,000 in long-term
debt, and it will trigger the higher cost of the additional debt
beyond $700,000.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 67
Integrative Case:
O’Grady Apparel Company (cont.)
b.
(2) Using the break points developed in part (1), determine
each of the ranges of total new financing over which the
firm’s weighted average cost of capital (WACC) remains
constant.
(3) Calculate the weighted average cost of capital for each
range of total new financing. Draw a graph with the WACC
on the vertical axis and total money raised on the horizontal
axis, and show how the firm’s WACC increases in “steps” as
the amount of money raised increases.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 68
Integrative Case:
O’Grady Apparel Company (cont.)
c.
(1) Sort the investment opportunities described in Table 2
from highest to lowest return, and plot a line on the graph
you drew in part (3) above showing how much money is
required to fund the investments, starting with the highest
return and going to the lowest. In the words, this line will
plot the relationship between the IRR on the firm’s
investments and the total financing required to undertake
those investments.
(2) Which, if any, of the available investments would you
recommend that the firm accept? Explain your answer.
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 69
Integrative Case:
O’Grady Apparel Company (cont.)
d.
(1) Assuming that the specific financing costs do not
change, what effect would a shift to a more highly leveraged
capital structure consisting of 50% long-term debt, 10%
preferred stock, and 40% common stock have on your
previous findings? (Note: Rework parts b and c using these
capital structure weights.)
(2) Which capital structure—the original one or this one—
seems better? Why?
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
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Slide 70
Integrative Case:
O’Grady Apparel Company (cont.)
e. (1) What type of dividend policy does the firm appear to
employ? Does it seem appropriate given the firm’s recent
growth in sales and profits and given its current investment
opportunities?
(2) Would you recommend an alternative dividend policy? Explain.
How would this policy affect the investments recommended in part
c(2)?
© Pearson Education Limited, 2015.
14-70