Walmart, America’s largest retailer had the market’s second largest debt issuance in the U.S. in 2019, selling $16 billion in 30 year bonds. The funds were to help finance the purchase of Flipkart, India’s largest online seller. Thanks to Walmart’s high credit rating, the bonds were classified by Moody’s (one of the top bond rating agencies) as Aa2, or very highly rated. The bond sale was managed by a syndicate of investment banks, including Barclays Plc, Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp., HSBC Holdings Plc and Wells Fargo & Co.

Data for Walmart as of April 2019

Basic “starting point” data:

You are to calculate each of the following based on the data provided above.

Need help with the questions below based on the information above:

  5. What is the 3 year growth rate (2020-2023) of expected dividends?

6. What is the 4 year growth rate (2015-2019) of actual dividends?

7. DISCUSS: Do either of these values seem appropriate? If so, which one and why?

8. What are the difficulties in estimating the "constant" growth rate for Walmart using the firm's ROE and payout ratio? [g = ROE*(1-payout ratio]

9. Using the CAPM equation for the required cost of capital, r = rf + β(market risk premium), what is the required cost of equity (r_e)?

10. What is the adjusted pre-tax cost of debt (r_d)?

Target Costing

The president of Houston Electronics was pleased with the company’s newest product, the HE Versatile CVD. The product is portable and can be attached to a computer to play or record computer programs or sound, attached to an amplifier to play or record music, or attached to a television to play or record TV programs. It can even be attached to a camcorder to record videos directly on compact disks rather than on tape. It also can be used with a headset to play or record sound. The proud president announced that this unique and innovative product would be an important factor in reestablishing the North American consumer electronics industry.

Based on development costs and predictions of sales volume, manufacturing costs, and distribution costs, the cost-based price of the HE Versatile CVD was determined to be $425. Following a market-skimming strategy, management set the initial selling price at $525. The marketing plan was to reduce the selling price by $50 during each of the first two years of the product’s life to obtain the highest contribution possible from each market segment.

The initial sales of the HE Versatile CVD were strong, and Houston Electronics found itself

adding second and third production shifts. Although these shifts were expensive, at a selling price of $525, the product had ample contribution margin to remain highly profitable. The president was talking with the company’s major investors about the desirability of obtaining financing for a major plant expansion when the bad news arrived. A foreign company had announced that it would shortly introduce a similar product that would incorporate new design features and sell for only $350. The president was shocked. “Why,” she remarked, “it costs us $375 to put a complete unit in the hands of customers.”

Required

How could the foreign competitor profitably sell a similar product for less than the manufacturing costs to Houston Electronics? What advice do you have for the president concerning the HE Versatile CVD? What advice would you have to help the company avoid similar problems in the future?

Mr. Alex is the head of operations at TractParts Pvt. Ltd., a well known Indian manufacturer of pumps, engines, electric motors and transformers. The company is one of India’s earliest industrial groups established in the 1980 which has grown to be a big player in the Indian manufacturing industry. TractParts under the supervision of Mr. Alex has been supplying modern tractor engines to the leading tractor manufacturing firms like Sonalika and John Dear. The bulk of demand for tractors comes during the months from October to March. As a result of this seasonality in demand, the demand for the tractor engines also keeps fluctuating throughout the year as shown in Exhibit 1. Exhibit 1 shows the orders placed with TractParts by the firms Sonalika and John Dear in advance based on their own forecasting models.

Exhibit 1:

To meet the demands, the company can follow chase strategy or level strategy In the chase strategy, the monthly production takes place as per the total demand in that month and to follow this strategy, the company can hire new employees during higher demand and fire the employees during lower demand. This strategy basically saves on the inventory carrying cost and hence the total cost. In the level strategy, the company produces the average demand in a month and the excess units are stored as inventory and all stock outs are backlogged and supplied from the following month’s production. This strategy particularly saves on the employee hiring and firing cost. Moreover, the backorder quantity is also directly proportion to the demand placed by the tractor manufacturing firms in order to give equal treatments to them.

At the beginning of the period, there are 100 workers in the TractParts manufacturing facility and a total of 200 working hours (8 hours/day * 25 days/month) are available per worker per month. Due to the strict government policies, the company canny allow overtime.

Mr. Alex is concerned about the fluctuating demand and understands that these companies can change their demand pattern based on the promotion and discount offered to them. In order to enhance the total profit, Mr. Alex wanted to optimize costs while meeting the demand pattern. He had therefore asked to one of his associates to find out the associated costs and the cost structure. The associate presented cost structure for the engine manufacturing line as is shown in Exhibit 2.

Exhibit 2:

Mr. Alex had asked the associate to find out the possibility of discount that could be offered to the tractor manufacturers. Mr Alex was informed that at max 10% discount could be given to them and as per company policy, discount would be offered for only one month. The associate also pointed out that whenever such kinds of discounts are offered, the tractor manufacturers have a tendency to order more in that month. However, the order size for following months is significantly reduced compared to the previous month.

After going through some previous data, Mr. Alex has made some observations. For Sonalika, 10% decrease in price for a particular month results in 45 % increase in the demand for the same month followed by 15% decrease in demand for the next two months. And in the case of John Dear, 10% decrease in price for a particular month results in 80% increase in the demand for the same month followed by 25% decrease in demand for the next two months. However, Mr. Alex also observed that if the TractPart offers a discount in the last 2 months of the financial year, there is no change in the demand pattern since there is a very fixed demand of tractors in the end of season.

Mr. Alex faced a unique problem as the TractParts had proven itself over the years and was considered a symbol of quality, reliability and accountability. Being a part of this value system, Mr. Alex knew that any unfair treatment with the tractor manufacturers would not be tolerated. Mr. Alex has a meeting with the company’s Sr. VP the next morning. He is concerned about the production policy to be adapted and discount to be given offered to increase the total profit. Please help Mr. Alex to take the decision focusing on the following questions.

Questions:

1. Estimate the profit made by TractParts when it follows the level strategy and no discount is offered to the tractor manufacturing firms.

2. Estimate the profit made by TractParts when it follows the chase strategy and no discount is offered to the tractor manufacturing firms

3. Estimate the profit made by TractParts when it follows the level strategy and a 10% discount is offered to the tractor manufacturing firms in October.

4. Find out the month having the peak demand in which 10% discount can be offered to the tractor manufacturing firms, when TractParts follows the level strategy. (Hint: Estimate the profit made by TractParts when it follows the level strategy and a 10% discount has been offered to the tractor manufacturing firms in various months.)

5. Estimate the profit made by TractParts when it follows the chase strategy and a 10% discount is offered to the tractor manufacturing firms in October.

6. Find out the month having the peak demand in which 10% discount can be offered to the tractor manufacturing firms, when TractParts follows the chase strategy. (Hint: Estimate the profit made by TractParts when it follows the chase strategy and a 10% discount has been offered to the tractor manufacturing firms in various months.)

I REALLY NEED HELP WITH 4 AND 6. PLEASE INCLUDE EXCEL SHEET. THANK YOU IN ADVANCE.

An advertising company wants to know whether the size of an advertisement and the color of the advertisement make a difference in the response of magazine readers. A random sample of readers shown ads of 4 different colors and 3 different sizes. Assume that the ratings follow the normal distribution. The rating is shown in the following table:

a. Using the Excel spreadsheet, construct an ANOVA table.

b. Is there a difference in the effectiveness of an advertisement by color at α =.05? (in your answer, you need to indicate F-static and critical value of F)

c.  Is there a difference in the effectiveness of an advertisement by size at α =.05 ? (in your answer, you need to indicate F-static and critical value of F)

1. The amounts of money requested in home loan applications at Down River Federal Savings, are approximately normally distributed with a mean of $ 700,000 and a standard deviation of $ 200,000. A loan application is received this morning. What is the probability that:
a. The amount requested is $ 800,000 or more?
b. The amount requested is between $ 650,000 and $ 800,000?
c. The amount requested is $ 650,000 or more?
d. Twenty percent of the loans are larger than what amount?

2. Suppose there was a recent article in Newswatch Magazine which stated that the mean amount of leisure time per week for men is 50 hours. You believe this figure is too large and decide to conduct your own test. In a random sample of 58 men, you find out that  
the mean is 48.2 hours of leisure per week and that the standard deviation of the sample is 10 hours. At 0.05 level of significance, can you conclude that the information in the article is untrue?

In an effort to cut costs and improve profits, any US companies have been turning to outsourcing. In fact, according to "Purchasing" magazine, 54% of companies surveyed outsourced some part of their manufacturing process in the past two to three years. Suppose 555 of these companies are contacted.

a) What is the probability that 338 or more companies outsourced some part of their manufacturing process in the past two or three years? Write your answer as a percentage rounded to two decimal places.

b) What is the probability that 285 or more companies outsourced some part of their manufacturing process in the past two or three years? Write your answer as a percentage rounded to two decimal places.

c) What is the probability that 48% or less of these companies outsourced some part of their manufacturing process in the past two or three years? Write your answer as a percentage rounded to two decimal places.

A subtle form of racial discrimination in housing is "racial steering." Racial steering occurs when real estate agents show prospective buyers homes only in neighborhoods already dominated by that family's race. This violates the Fair Housing Act of 1968. According to an article in Chance magazine (Vol. 14, no. 2 [2001]), tenants at a large apartment complex recently filed a lawsuit alleging racial steering. The complex is divided into two parts, Section A and Section B. The plaintiffs claimed that white potential renters were steered to Section A, while African Americans were steered to Section B. The table below shows the data that was presented in court to show the locations of recently rented apartments.
New Renters
White Black
Section A 87 8
Section B 83 34
Is there evidence of racial steering?

Compute a p-value and confidence interval.

Write an essay on:

"Assessing jobs at risk and impact of pandemic (covid 19) on the employment situation in U.S"

To get full credit substantiate your essay with current figures and numbers, data and charts and use specific examples of industries and business impacted by the Covid. This is a researched based project and you should research internet, journals, or magazine to assess how the current employment situation is impacted or going to be impacted by the ongoing pandemic.

The length of the essay should be at least two pages but not more than 5 pages. The essay should be in the following format:

A beginning ( introducing statement) , followed by the main content ( body of the essay) and ended by proper conclusion. The body of the essay should include some chart or current data and numbers or projections on unemployment situation in U.S.

Remember to cite references if you take any data from internet or printed journals.

Please Double Check answers I've recived 3 wrong answers on three diffrent questions today thank you

A leading magazine (like Barron's) reported at one time that the average number of weeks an individual is unemployed is 17 weeks. Assume that for the population of all unemployed individuals the population mean length of unemployment is 17 weeks and that the population standard deviation is 2 weeks. Suppose you would like to select a random sample of 98 unemployed individuals for a follow-up study.

Find the probability that a single randomly selected value is greater than 16.8. P(X > 16.8) = (Enter your answers as numbers accurate to 4 decimal places.)

Find the probability that a sample of size n = 98 is randomly selected with a mean greater than 16.8. P(M > 16.8) = (Enter your answers as numbers accurate to 4 decimal places.)

Find the mean and standard deviation for the following, where possible,if not.explain why it is not.

a. x P(x) b. x P(x) c. x P(x)

0 0.1 -9 0.15 0 0.34

1 0.2 10 0.45 1 0.23

2 0.3 11 0.38 2 0.17

3 0.4   12 -0.21 3 0.26

-4 0.3

d. In a poll of 12 to 18yr. old females, conducted by theNokTerNoh!Magazine editor,Carolyn(Zleep D’Pri’D), found that 27%of them said that they expected to see a female soccer player on a team in the Men’s World Cup within 10 years. A random sample of 12 females from this age group was selected, by use of the formula;findi.P(Exactly 8 females share this view) (4pts)ii.P(Between 5-7 share this view) (6pts)