Case Study, Encore International

In the world of trendsetting fashion, instinct and marketing savvy are prerequisites to success. Jordan Ellis had both. During 2012, his international casual-wear company, Encore, rocketed to $300 million in sales after 10 years in business. His fashion line covered the young woman from head to toe with hats, sweaters, dresses, blouses, skirts, pants, sweatshirts, socks, and shoes. In Manhattan, there was an Encore shop every five or six blocks, each featuring a different color. Some shops showed the entire line in mauve, and others featured it in canary yellow.

Encore had made it. The company's historical growth was so spectacular that no one could have predicted it. However, securities analysts speculated that Encore could not keep up the pace. They warned that competition is fierce in the fashion industry and that the firm might encounter little or no growth in the future. They estimated that stockholders also should expect no growth in future dividends.

Contrary to the conservative securities analysts, Jordan Ellis felt that the company could maintain a constant annual growth rate in dividends per share of 6% in the future, or possibly 8% for the next 2 years and 6% thereafter. Ellis based his estimates on an established long-term expansion plan into European and Latin American markets. Venturing into these markets was expected to cause the risk of the firm, as measured by the risk premium on its stock, to increase immediately from 8.8% to 10%. Currently, the risk-free rate is 6%.

In preparing the long-term financial plan, Encore's chief financial officer has assigned a junior financial analyst, Marc Scott, to evaluate the firm's current stock price. He has asked Marc to consider the conservative predictions of the securities analysts and the aggressive predictions of the company founder, Jordan Ellis.

Marc has compiled these 2012 financial data to aid his analysis:

Data item 2012 value

Earnings per share (EPS) $6.25

Price per share of common stock $40.00

Book value of common stock equity $60,000,000

Total common shares outstanding 2,500,000

Common stock dividend per share $4.00

TO DO

I have the calculations completed. I need help with the last three questions:

%u2022 What is the firm%u2019s current book value per share?
%u2022 What is the firm%u2019s current P/E ratio?
%u2022 What is the current required return for Encore stock?
%u2022 What will be the new required return for Encore stock assuming that they expand into European and Latin American markets as planned?
%u2022 If the securities analysts are correct and there is no growth in future dividends, what will be the value per share of the Encore stock? (Note: use the new required return on the company%u2019s stock here.)
%u2022 Which valuation method do you believe most clearly represents the true value of the Encore stock?

%u2022 Identify the critical issues or problems in the case and analyze the key facts related to the issues or problems.
%u2022 Discuss a tentative solution that addresses the issues or problems and how you would implement your solution.

Question I
In the senior year of a high school graduating class of 100 students, 42 studied mathematics, 68 studied psychology, 54 studied history, 22 studied both mathematics and history, 25 studied both mathematics and psychology, 7 studied history but neither mathematics nor psychology, 10 studied all three subjects, and 8 did not take any of the three. Randomly select a student from the class and find the probabilities of the following events.
(a) A person enrolled in psychology takes all three subjects.
(b) A person not taking psychology is taking both history and mathematics

A
The probability that an automobile being filled with gasoline also needs an oil change is 0.25; the probability that it needs a new oil filter is 0.40; and the probability that both the oil and the filter need changing is 0.14.
(a) If the oil has to be changed, what is the probability that a new oil filter is needed?
(b) If a new oil filter is needed, what is the probability that the oil has to be changed?

Does it pay to stay in school? A report looked at the median hourly wage gain per additional year of schooling in 2007. The report states that workers with a high school diploma had a median hourly wage that was 9% higher than those who had only completed 11 years of school. Workers who had completed 1 year of college (13 years of education) had a median hourly wage that was 10% higher than that of the workers who had completed only 12 years of school. The added gain in median hourly wage for each additional year of school is shown in the accompanying table.

(a) Use the given data to predict the median hourly wage gain for the 15th year of schooling. %

(b) The actual wage gain for 15th year of schooling was 14%. How close was the actual value to the predicted wage gain percent from part (a)? (Use as predicted − actual.) %

Use CRC to design information system for a school. Use following classes: Professor, Class, School, Department, and Student, Identify the main responsibilities and collaborators for each class. Then draw a UML class diagram showing the relationships (and multiplicities) between the classes.

Which form of investment is most appropriate for a first-time real estate investor that is concerned about liquidity and diversification? (a) Direct ownership of an out-of-town office building (b) Shares of a real estate investment trust (c) Buy-to-let property in a residential area for young professionals (d) Buy-to-let property for students

Assume that the class consists of 40 percent freshmen, 20 percent sophomores, 20 percent juniors, and 20 percent seniors. Assume further that 40 percent of the freshmen, 45 percent of the sophomores, 40 percent of the juniors, and 20 percent of the seniors plan to go to medical school. One student is selected at random from the class. (1) What is the probability that the student plans to go to medical school? equation editorEquation Editor (2) If the student plans to go to medical school, what is the probability that she is a freshman?

For each example, state whether the one-sample, two-independent-sample, or related-samples t-test is most appropriate. If it is a related-samples t-test, indicate whether the test is a repeated-measures design or a matched-pairs design:

A principal at a local school wants to know how much students gain from being in an honors class. He gives students in an honors English class a test prior to the school year and again at the end of the school year to measure how much students learned during the year.   

A nonprofit company concerned with the school dropout rates has designed a tutoring program aimed at students between 16 to 18 years old. A national center for educational statistics reported that the high school dropout rate for the year 2000 was 10.9​%. One school​ district, who adopted the use of the​ nonprofit's tutoring program and whose dropout rate has always been very close to the national​ average, reported in 2004 that 183 of their 1772 students dropped out. Is their experience evidence that the tutoring program has been​ effective?

A research is interested in whether the mean score on a particular aptitude test for students who attend rural elementary schools is higher than the score of elementary school students in general (ux=50), ox=10). She tests a random sample of 28 rural elementary school students and finds the sample mean to be 56.

Using alpha=.05, conduct the 8 steps hypothesis testing to determine whether the rural elementary school students have a significantly higher aptitude score than elementary students in general.

1. Identify and describe the following topics and persons:
A. Systems theory and the systems metaphor in organization theory,and it's relation to contingency theory.
B. Scientific management and Frederick Taylor and Max Weber
C. The administrative Management School ( POSDCORB,"principles")
D. Hawthorne studies
E. Chester Barnard and Herbert Simon
F. Group dynamics movement
G. Human Relations School/ Abraham Maslow/ Douglas McGregor
H. Sociotechnical School ( Trust and Bamforth)
I. General idea or meaning of contingency theory