Financial Leverage and Capital Structure Policy

Earnings per share (EPS) is defined as net income divided by the number of shares of stock issued to stockholders. Higher EPS values indicate the company is earning more net income per share of stock outstanding. Because EPS is one of the five performance measures on which your company is graded (see p. 2 of the GSR) and because your company has a higher EPS target each year, you should monitor EPS regularly and take actions to boost EPS. One way to boost EPS is to pursue actions that will raise net income (the numerator in the formula for calculating EPS). A second means of boosting EPS is to repurchase shares of

2. EPS $1.02 – If EPS goes up it Speedster is generating more profit on behalf of its owners, making the common shares more valuable. If this number is going down, it means the company has probably taken on additional debt which in effect is diluting share value. This indicates the company's

• Bottom of screen are two lines = projected revenues, net earnings, earnings per share, return on equity investment, credit rating, image rating and change in cash position from the prior year.

SUMMARY OF STUDY OBJECTIVES 1Identify the sections of a classified balance sheet. In a classified balance sheet, companies classify assets as current assets; long-term investments; property, plant, and equipment; and intangibles. They classify liabilities as either current or long-term. A stockholders' equity section shows common stock and retained earnings. 2Identify and compute ratios for analyzing a company's profitability. Profitability ratios, such as earnings per share (EPS), measure aspects of the operating success of a company for a given period of time. 3Explain the relationship between a retained earnings statement

replacing some of the existing equity by issuing more debt will increase the value of the firm. If

b) If Olin issues $40 mm in debt to repurchase 2 million shares of equity (i.e. they replace $40 mm of equity with $40 mm of debt in their capital structure), and the interest rate on the debt is 10%, what will be the expected EPS next year?

Earnings Per Share: measures net income per common share by dividing net income by number of shares outstanding.

VIII. Earnings per Share (EPS) is used by analysts and potential investors to evaluate the profitability of a company.

The return on equity (ROE) has also shown an increase in 2009 over the previous year suggesting a successful investment by shareholders. This increase, coupled with the fact that the basic earnings per share (EPS) has increased significantly from 61.78 cents in 2008 to 88.26 cents in 2009 (143%) shows great improvement in the profit per share. Please note that the basic EPS has been used in this analysis as the diluted EPS includes employee options (JBH Annual Report, 2009), skewing and reducing the value of the EPS.

However, two known authors in this field of study believe that companies with low business risk obtains factors of production at a lower cost which may also pave to the ability of the firm to operate more efficiently (Amit & Wernerfet, 1990). Therefore, many stockholders faced a high of uncertainty; this is because some companies do not have the financial strengths to cover its debts that even may result to bankruptcy.

A graph below represents Earning per Share ratio. EPS ratio is used when the company wants to know how are they doing in their businesses from year to year. EPS is shown in pence. (Dyson, 2010) A year 2009 was not so profitable for company as EPS was -2,79p. This means that business was making little money, which was not good for shareholders. However, in 2010 the EPS was quite high, 14,76p, what means the company is making profit and shareholders want to invest in business.

A combination of business risk and financial risk shows the risk of an organization’s future return on equity. Business risk is related to make a firm’s operation without any debt whereas financial risk requires that the firm’s common stockholders make a decision to finance it with debt. Business risk can be evaluated volatility in earnings and profits (coefficient of variation of returns on assets and of operating profits). A measure of business risk is also asset beta or unlevered beta. In case of AHP, it is 1.2 (βa) which is very low signifying low business risk for the firm.

From this set of problems, we can see that leverage is good for the firm. Leverage has increased the value of the firm as a whole and increased the price per share. Although the cost of debt increases the firm's risk because it increases the probability of default and bankruptcy, therefore shareholders will require higher rates of return on the equity they provide, debt also provides tax savings. And we can see that in table 4, where we calculated the total value of the firm as the pure business cash flows plus the tax savings. Another reason why debt increases firm value is the fact that it reduces WACC, because the cost of debt is generally lower than the cost of equity. Another option that shareholders can do is using homemade leverage. Shareholders should pay a premium for the shares of a levered firm when the addition of debt increases value.

Already in 1958, Modigliani and Miller have pointed the discussion of capital structure towards the cost of debt and equity. According to their first proposition, in a world of no corporate taxes and with perfect markets, financial leverage has no effect on a firm’s value. In their second proposition, they state that the cost of equity equals a linear function defined by the required return on assets and the cost of debt (Modigliani and Miller, 1958).

The current EPS of the company is now $14-$15. Historically, the dividend payout ratio mounts to an average 50%. So, the company expects payout the payout in 1959 to be $7/share. In the previous year the dividend rate was cut from $1.3 to $1.2 per share. But after the new deal, the CEO proposed a hike in the quarterly payout to $1.6 per share from the $1.2 given at present. The CEO even suggested the dividend rate to be propped up to $1.80 in 1960.