Business Finance - Lecture Notes
Lecture 1: Time Value of Money
Compounding
- $F$: Future value
- $P$: Present value
- $I$: Interest rate per period
- $N$: Total number of periods
Annuity Due
- $F$: Future value
- $P$: Present value
- $I$: Interest rate per period
- $N$: Total number of periods
- $M$: Payment that occurat the end of each period
Annuity Due
- $F$: Future value
- $P$: Present value
- $F_{ord}$: Future value of ordinary annuity given the same conditions
- $P_{ord}$: Present value of ordinary annuity given the same conditions
Perpetuity
- $M$: Payment that occurat the end of each period
- $I$: Interest rate per period
Uneven Cash Flow
- $P$: Present value
- $i$: Period number, from $0$ to $N$
- $C_{i}$: Cash flow at the end of period $i$
- $I_{i}$: Interest rate during period $i$
Interest Rate
- $I_{n}$: Nominal interest rate
- $I_{p}$: Periodic interest rate
- $I_{e}$: Effective anual rate
- $K$: Number of periods per year
Periodic Compounding
- $F$: Future value
- $P$: Present value
- $K$: Number of periods per year
- $N$: Number of years
Loan Amortization
- $A$: Amount of payment per period
- $P$: Initial principle (loan amount)
- $I$: Interest rate per period
- $N$: Total number of periods
Lecture 2: Bond Evaluation
Formula
Types of Bond
Type | Coupon Rate $?$ Yield | Bond Price $?$ Par Value |
---|---|---|
Par Bond | $=$ | $=$ |
Premium Bond | $>$ | $<$ |
Discount Bond | $<$ | $<$ |
The Total Return Identity
Risks
Investment Risk
Definition | Short Term | Long Term | |
---|---|---|---|
Interest Rate Risk | The concern that the rising interest rate cause the value of a bond to fall | Low | High |
Reinvestment Risk | The concern that the interest rate will fall, and future coupons will have to be reinvested at lower rates | High | Low |
Default Risk
- If an issuer defaults, investors receive less than the promised return.
- Affected by the issuer’s financial strength and the terms of the bond contract.
- Bond ratings reflect the probability of a bond issue going into default.
Lecture 3: Risks & Rate of Return
Risks
Single Investment
For example, given the probability distribution of expected returns for a certain investment:
Scenario | Probability ($p_{i}$) | Rate of Return ($r_{i}$) |
---|---|---|
Recession | 0.1 | -27% |
Below Average | 0.2 | -7% |
Average | 0.4 | 15% |
Above Average | 0.2 | 30% |
Boom | 0.1 | 45% |
The Expected Return ($r$) of this investment:
The Risk ($\sigma$) is defined as the standard deviation of the distribution of expected returns for a specific investment:
The Coefficient of Variation ($c$) is defined as the risk per unit return:
Investments in a Portfolio
For example, given the expected return, risk and weight of each investment in the portfolio:
Investment | Rate of Return ($r_{i}$) | Weight ($w_{i}$) |
---|---|---|
1 | $r_1$ | $w_1$ |
2 | $r_2$ | $w_2$ |
$\vdots$ | $\vdots$ | $\vdots$ |
$n$ | $r_n$ | $w_n$ |
The Expected Return ($r$) of the portfolio:
The portfolio’s Risk ($\sigma$) and Coefficient of Variation ($c$) can be calculated by using the same method as above.
Diversification
- Diversification benefits exist if stocks are not perfectly positively correlated (i.e. )
- Most stocks are positively (but not perfectly) correlated with the market
- Combining stocks in a portfolio generally lowers risk
- From about 10 stocks and more, converges to 20%
- Standalone risk = diversifiable risk + market risk
Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM)
Formula
- $r$: Actual
- $r_f$: Risk free return (typically a 10-year government bond yield)
- $r_m$: Expected market return
- $\beta$: Beta of security
- $(r_m - r_f)$: Equity market premium
Conclusions
- The return on an individual stock, or a portfolio of stocks, should equal its cost of capital.
- Equity market premium: the amount that equity investors demand to compensate them for the extra risk they accept.
Beta ($\beta$)
Definition
A stock’s relative volatility, which shows how much the price of a specific stock jumps up and down compared with how much the stock market as a whole jumps up and down.
Calculation
The slope of the regression line of the security’s past returns and the market’s past returns.
E.g.
Analysis
$\beta \ ? \ 1$ | Risk of Security $?$ Risk of Average Stock |
---|---|
$=$ | $=$ |
$>$ | $>$ |
$<$ | $<$ |
Security Market Line
Given
- $r_f$
- $r_m$
- $\beta$
, calculate Required Rate of Return ($r$) from
Graph:
Other Factors
Factor | Example | Changed | Illustration |
---|---|---|---|
Inflation | The investors raised inflation expectations by 3% | Intersection | |
Risk Aversion | The investors’ aversion to risk increased, causing the market risk premium to increase by 3% | Slope |
Lecture 4: Stocks and Their Valuation
Discounted Dividend with Constant Growth
Right side:
- $P_0$: Stock price now (or, intrinsic value)
- $D_0$: Divident that has just been announced now
- $g$: Growth rate
- $r_s$: Required rate of return
Left side:
- $P_0$: Current stock price (intrinsic value)
- $P_i$: Stock price (intrinsic value) $i$ years from now
- $y_cd$: Expected divident yield
- $y_c$: Expected capital gains yield
- $r$: Expected total return
Growth
Preferred Stock
- Preferred stockholders receive a fixed dividend that must be paid before dividends are paid to common stockholders
- Companies can omit preferred dividend payments without fear of pushing the firm into bankruptcy
Market Equilibrium
Since
and
The market is in equilibrium when $\widehat{r} = r_s$.
Lecture 5: The Cost of Capital
Capital Structure
Weighted Average Cost of Capital
- $w_i$: The weight of each component
- $r_i$: Cost of each component
Basic Concepts
- Use the target capital structure (desired optimal mix of equity and debt financing that most firms attempt to maintain) instead of actual financing
- Use weights calculated according to market value instead of book values
- WACC is calculated at a point of time, reflects the marginal cost of raising additional money; the historical cost of existing financing is irrelevant
- Use after-tax capital cost (only $r_d$ needs adjustment)
Components
Long-Term Debt
- $r_d$: Yield-to-maturity on outstanding long-term debt
- $T$: Tax rate
Preferred Stock
and
- $D$: Divident
- $P$: Price of stock
Common Equity
Average of the following methods:
Method | Formula |
---|---|
Capital Asset Pricing Model | $r_s = r_f + (r_m - r_f) \beta$ |
Discounted Cash Flow | $r_s = \frac{D_0 (1+g)}{P} + g$ |
Bond Yield + Risk Premium | $r_s = r_d + (r_m - r_f)$ |
Hurdle Rate
- Firms with risker projects generally have a higher WACC
- Projects should be accepted only if their estimated returns exceed their cost of capital
- WACC only represents the hurdle rate for a typical project whose risk is similar to the firm’s average risk
Lecture 6: The Basics of Capital Budgeting
Problem Definition
- Given the cost of capital
- Given projects’ cash flows
- Select one or more projects that are worth doing
Example
Discounted Payback Period
Net Present Value
Internal Rate of Return
Force $NPV = 0$, and solve the equation for $IRR$:
Modified Internal Rate of Return
- Calculate the future value of all income using cost of capital
- MIRR is the discount between the future value to the current outflow (present value)
Comments
- IRR method assumes intermediate cash flows are reinvested at IRR
- MIRR method assumes intermediate cash flows are reinvested at cost of capital (more realistic than IRR method)
- NPV is superior to MIRR when evaluating mutually exclusive projects
Lecture 7: Distribution to Shareholders
Dividend Preference Theories
Dividend Irrelevance
- Investors are indifferent between dividends and retention-generated capital gains.
- Investors can create their own dividend policy
- If they want cash, they can sell stock.
- If they do not want cash, they can use dividends to buy stock.
- Any payout is OK
Bird-in-Hand Theory
- Investors may think dividends obtained today are less risky than potential future capital gains, hence investors prefer dividends.
- Set a high payout
Tax Issues
- To the extent that dividends have a tax disadvantage relative to capital gains, shareholders prefer capital gains.
- Set a low payout
Signalling Hypothesis
Clientele Effect
- Certain types of investors are attracted to companies with specific dividend policies
- Changing dividend policy $\rightarrow$ taxes and brokerage costs $\rightarrow$ hurts investors who have to switch companies
Dividend Reinvestment Plan
Overview
Open Market Purchase
- Brokerage costs are reduced by volume purchases.
- Convenient, easy way to invest thus useful for investors.
New Stock Plan
- Helps conserve cash.
- Companies that need capital use new stock plans.
Stock Repurchase
Overview
- When companies decide to pay out cash instead of retaining it, they can choose to pay cash dividends or buy back their own stock from stockholders.
- Shares outstanding is reduced. The shares bought back are held as treasury stock and can be resold in the future to raise capital.
Advantages
- May be viewed as a positive signal that the management thinks stock is undervalued.
- Shareholders can choose to sell or hold.
- Repurchases can be used to dispose off temporary excess cash flows and avoid setting high dividend payout.
- Can be used to make large capital changes.
Disadvantages
- May be viewed as a negative signal that the firm has poor investment opportunities.
- Cash dividends are dependable but repurchases are not.
- Firm may have to bid up price to complete purchase, thus paying too much for its own stock.
Stock Dividends/Splits
Examples
- Stock dividends: If a 10% stock dividend is announced, shareholders get 10 shares for each 100 shares owned.
- Stock splits: Assume a company has 100 shares outstanding and each share is trading at 10 dollars dollars. The company announces a 2-for-1 stock split. After the split, the company would have 200 shares outstanding and each share should be worth 5 dollars.
Effects on Stock Price
- Increase the number of shares outstanding
- The stock price falls and keeps each investor’s wealth unchanged
- May get us to an “optimal price range” (e.g. 20 - 80 dollars)
Effects on Firm’s Value
- Stock splits and stock dividends are viewed as positive signals that the management is confident about future earnings $\rightarrow$ Stock price increases
- By creating more shares and lowering the stock price, stock splits may increase the stock’s liquidity $\rightarrow$ Firm’s value increases