Analysis of a Firm's Risk and Return: Campbell Soup Company

Research and development – totaled $98,280.00 in year 7, and in years 7 to 8 decreased -16.3% or $15,996.00. This is weakness in sales and performance, but a smart decision because of the cut in R&D saved -16.3% or $15,996.00 that would have been looked at as profit. They were able to use the previous year’s investment on R&D.

After levering the equity beta, the asset beta of the firms are calculated. As mentioned we think that the three discount brokerages (highlighted in green) should be used as comparables for Ameritrade. The average asset beta of the three firms is 1.386. As a comparison the investment services firms have average asset beta of 0.603 and the one internet company (Mecklermedia) for which enough historical data is

Here we choose VW NYSE, AMEX, and NASDAQ data as market returns, because it’s value weighted and more reliable. The results show CSC’s equity beta = 2.27, QRG’s equity beta = 1.79.

How did the corporation perform the past year overall in terms of return on investment, market share, and profitability?

The regression that we performed in excel for both stocks yielded a beta of .73576 for Reynolds, and a beta of 1.4198 for Hasbro. In question 2 we learned that although Reynolds stock was riskier independently, adding it to the portfolio made it more diversified compared to adding Hasbro, due to the fact that it was less correlated to the market portfolio. Beta is a measure of the volatility, or systematic risk, of a security or a portfolio in comparison to the market as a whole. Therefore, since the beta of Reynolds is lower than Hasbro, our beta calculations align with the fact that Reynolds stock makes the overall portfolio less risky. This finding is also intuitive when considering the nature of the companies; Reynolds is a Tobacco company meaning that is should be less sensitive to changes in market conditions than a toy company like Hasbro.

To find the cost of equity we used the formula rs = rRF + beta*MRP in which rRF2002 = 5.86% and the Market Risk Premium (MRP) = 5% as calculated by the Southwest Airlines finance department. We then calculated the beta for Southwest Airlines based on a regression analysis of five-year monthly returns on Southwest stock from January 1997 to January 2002, compared with the S&P 500 returns over the same period. This regression analysis indicated that Beta = .2219. Therefore,

We use the equation ri=(Pt-Pt-1+Dt)/Pt-1 to calculate the monthly return of stock of Charles Schwab Corp, Quick & Reilly Group and Waterhouse Investor Srvcs. Then we have two methods to calculate the Beta of Equity for each company.

During this period, the Return on Assets increased from 5.7% in 2012 to 34.6% in 2013. This implies the number of cents earned on each dollar of assets increased from 2012 to 2013. This shows that the business has become more profitable. Equally, the Return on Equity also increased from 12.0% in 2012 to 46.5% in 2013. This similarly implies that the company in 2013 was more efficient in generating income from new investment. This, also can be attributed to the sale of the Digital Business Brand which enabled the company appraise its strategic plan.

The historical roots on Return on Investments (ROI) have an extensive historical background which involves the Du Pont system. It is significant to illustrate the major history behind the Return on Investments (ROI) and how the Du Pont system started. The purpose of the Return on Investment (ROI) is to evaluate the efficiency of an investment or compare the efficiency of various investments. In addition to (ROI) share the common class of profitability ratios. Several examples will show how Return on Investments (ROI) and the Du Pont system has established life-long formulas to help indicate growth or decline on financial investments.

Profitability ratios are basically figures to measure if the company is doing well in the terms of profit[13]. ROCE ratio has increased in 2011 but in 2012 it deteriorates by 3%. This fall indicates that company was not successfully getting high returns as a percentage of its resources available, compared to 2011.

Another option is to use data for small companies in order to match the high return and high risk nature of Ameritrade. Although Ameritrade’s investment may make it more risky than the average large company, the beta we have chosen already reflects that higher risk. Therefore, we have chosen to use the market return for large companies because it more accurately depicts an overall picture of the stock market and Ameritrade’s status as a large firm. After subtracting the chosen risk-free rate of 5.24% from the average large company market return of 14.0%, we estimated the market risk-premium to be 8.76%.

The use of an accounting rate of return also underscores a project 's true future profitability because returns are calculated from accounting statements that list items at book or historical values and are, thus, backward-looking. According to the ARR, cash flows are positive due to the way the return has been tabulated with regard to returns on funds employed. The Payback Period technique also reflects that the project is positive and that initial expenses will be retrieved in approximately 7 years. However, the Payback method treats all cash flows as if they are received in the same period, i.e. cash flows in period 2 are treated the same as cash flows received in period 8. Clearly, it ignores the time value of money and is not the best method employed. Conversely, the IRR and NPV methods reflect that The Super Project is unattractive. IRR calculated is less then the 10% cost of capital (tax tabulated was 48%). NPV calculations were also negative. We accept the NPV method as the optimal capital budgeting technique and use its outcome to provide the overall evidence for our final decision on The Super Project. In this case IRR provided the same rejection result; therefore, it too proved its usefulness. Despite that, IRR is not the most favorable method because it can provide false results in the case where multiple negative

In fully investigating all of our calculations we are fully invested in using the Net Present Value figures we calculated as a means of ranking the eight projects. In doing so we found reasons in which why the Net Present Value was our benchmark for ranking the projects and why we did not use the Payback Method. The Payback Method ignores the time value of money, requires and arbitrary cutoff point, ignores cash flows beyond the cutoff date, and is biased against long-term projects, such as research and development and new projects. When comparing the Average Accounting Return Method to the Net Present Value method we found that the Average Accounting Return Method is a worse option than using the Payback Method. The Average Accounting Return Method is not a true rate of return and the time value of money is ignored, it uses an arbitrary benchmark cutoff rate, and is based on accounting net income and book values, not cash flows and market values. Plain and simply put, the Net Present Value method is the best criterion to use when ranking these eight

We added the market risk premium of 6% to the 4.60% because 6% is the rate that investors want above the risk free rate due to the risk of the investment. This equals 10.6% which is then multiplied by the beta of the company of 1.1. Beta is a measure of the stock’s volatility in relation to the market. A beta of 1.1 means that Worldwide Paper Company has slightly higher volatility than the market does. The total cost of equity then calculates to equal 11.2%. This tells us that given the risk taken in investing in the company, a shareholder should expect an 11.2% return.

For estimation of betas, the above equation was run for the period from Jan, 2003 to Dec, 2006. Based on the estimated betas we have divided the sample of 63 stocks into 10 portfolios each comprising of 6 stocks except portfolio no.1, 5 and 10 having seven stocks each. The first portfolio 1 has the 7 lowest beta stocks and the last portfolio 10 has the 7 highest beta stocks. The rationale for forming portfolios is to reduce measurement error in the betas.