Burnham Brothers, Inc. has no retained earnings since it has always paid out all of its earnings as dividends This same situation is expected to persist in the future. The company uses CAPM to calculate its cost of equity and its target capital structure consists of common stock, preferred stock, and debt. Which of the following events would reduce its WACC?
a. The flotation costs associated with issuing new common stock increase.
b. The company's beta increases.
c. Expected inflation increases.
d. The market risk premium declines.

Respuesta :

Answer: d. The market risk premium declines.

Explanation:

The Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) takes into account the cost of equity and debt which means that if either of these costs increase, the WACC will increase as well and if any decrease, WACC will follow suit.

Market risk premium is used in the calculation of the cost of equity when using CAPM in the following manner:

= Risk free rate + Beta * Market risk premium

As can be inferred from the above formula, if the market risk premium declines, a lower cost of equity will result which would then reduce the WACC as well.