Cost Of Capital At Ameritrade

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Cost of Capital at Ameritrade Dilemma: Should Joe Ricketts invest in the new marketing and technology strategy? Alternatives: 1. Invest in the new marketing and technology strategy based on the cost of capital 2. Don’t invest in the new marketing and technology strategy based on the cost of capital Criteria: 1. Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) 2. Weighted Average Cost of Capital 3. NPV Analysis of Alternatives: 1. Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) The CAPM consists of multiple variables such as: risk free interest rate, Beta and risk premium. The risk free interest rate calculation was determined by using the 10 year Treasury rate. This rate was used because large firms report using the yields of long-term (10 to 30 year) bonds to determine the risk free rate. Since the strategy requires an investment in technology it made sense to utilize the 10 year bond (6.34%) due to the short life span of new technology. The Beta calculation was determined by using multiple factors. First, the return for each comparable company (Charles Schwab, Quick & Reilly, & Waterhouse Investor Services) was calculated per month: . The (3) comparable companies were chosen because they are all brokerage companies. E*TRADE wasn’t included because E*TRADE’s management doesn’t consider it to be a brokerage firm. Therefore, E*TRADE’s identity is uncertain. Next, the beta of each firm was calculated for each month (see equation below). The RMKT was determined by taking the data in Exhibit 6 related to Value Weighted NYSE, AMEX, & NASDAQ stock return data. The years that were chosen were from January 31st 1992 – September 30th 1996. The reason for this choice was because Exhibit 4 uses the debt to value average from 1992 – 1996. Also, we are comparing the expected returns for each of the (3) comparable companies during the

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