Marriott Cost of Capital

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Marriott Cost of Capital Case Study Company Profile The Marriott Corporation is a global real estate conglomerate with more than 3,400 properties in 70 countries and territories. It successfully manages three major business divisions: lodging, restaurants, and contract services. The overall objective of the company is to remain the leading provider in the hospitality industry by having a competitive advantage over its competitors through innovation and state of the art customer service. To successfully achieve its business objectives and reach significant financial growth, the company’s corporate initiative focuses on four components of its financial strategy: (1) manage rather than own assets, (2) invest in projects that increase shareholder value, (3) optimize the use of debt in the capital structure, and (4) repurchase undervalued shares. Cost of Capital The objective of this case study is to demonstrate the use of the economic theory of asset pricing (CAPM) and the cost of financial capital (WACC) to determine how it can be used in the firm to estimate the required return for real investments based off of company specific data. Marriott uses the weighted average cost of capital (i.e. “hurdle rates”) to determine its cost of capital on investments and to effectively run business operations. By calculating the weighted average cost of capital and the cost of capital for the lodging and restaurant division, the company will be able to analyze the different equity and debt positions of each division and provide recommendations on how to reduce the company’s WACC. Understanding the company’s WACC is essential to the success of the business because it is a key component in determining the company’s stock valuation and is also a tool used to help the company with capital budgeting analysis as well as several other applications. Marriott
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