In: Finance
Weighted average cost of capital (WACC) is the average after-tax cost of a company’s various capital sources, including common stock, preferred stock, bonds and any other long-term debt.
WACC = Cost of Equity * (Equity/ (Debt +equity + Preferred shares)) +
Cost of Debt * (Debt/ (Debt +equity + Preferred shares))* (1 -Tax Rate) +
Cost of Preferred shares * (Preferred shares / (Debt +equity + Preferred shares))
As interest rates effects the risk-free rate which is used by investors to calculate cost of equity (Expected rate of return for an investment) using CAPM ((Rf + (Rm – Rf) * β).
This can affect a firm's WACC because the risk-free rate is an
important factor in calculating the cost of capital. Interest rate
are inversely proportional to bond price. As the interest rate on
debt price fluctuates, making difficult for a company to predict
the future costs of capital. This may result in company ending up
with greater or lesser capital costs than expected. A firm's cost
of debt must be updated frequently as the cost of debt reacts to
fluctuations in interest rates.
For investors it become difficult to value company as cost of
equity i.e. required return is also used as discount factors in
valuation methods, GGM, Free cash flow etc.