In: Finance
5. Margaret Finance is the CFO of Dividends Rus Corp. She is
trying to decide whether she should increase the dividend payment
from $ 1.25 per share to $ 1.50 per share instead of using that
money for repaying $ 2 m of long-term debt that would take the debt
balance to $ 4 million. The Dividend Rus Corp is paying an 8%
coupon rate and the current bond yield is 10%. The debt was issued
at par.
The company latest after-tax Earnings is $ 32 m, up from after-tax
Earnings of $ 24 m the year before. The Industry-average EPS is $
3.25. The Net Income Before Taxes was $ 40 million. The company
pays a flat tax rate (marginal tax rate = average tax rate).
Required:
a. What was the change in EPS (dollar and percentage)?
b. How compare Dividends Rus Corp EPS to the industry average
EPS?
i. Why would this be important to a potential investor?
ii. Should Margaret increase dividends or repay $ 2 million of
debt? Explain thoroughly