Marriott Case Study

General speaking, WACC is the rate that a company’s shareholders expect to be paid on average to finance its assets, and it is the overall required return on the firm as a whole. Therefore, company directors often use WACC to determine whether a financial decision is feasible or not. In this case, I will choose 9.38% as discount rate. The reason why I choose 9.38% as discount rate is because the estimated Debt/Equity is 26% under the assumptions by CFO Sheila Dowling, which is most close to 25% of Debt/Equity from the projected WACC schedule. There might be some flaws existing by using WACC as discount rate. As we know, the cost of debt would be raised significantly as the leverage increased. The investment will definitely increase the firm’s current debt. So, the cost of debt would not keep at 7.75%.

Manage rather than own hotel assets In 1987, Marriott developed more than $1 billion worth of hotel properties, making it one of the 10 largest commercial real estate developers in the United States. With a fully integrated development process, Marriott identified markets, created development plans, designed projects, and evaluated potential profitability. After development, the company sold the hotel assets to limited partners while retaining operating control as the general partner under a long-term management contract. Management fees typically equaled 3% of revenues plus 20% of the profits before

10. What is the correct capital structure and weighted average cost of capital for discounting the investment’s free cash flow. Assume a 35% tax rate. A correct response requires that you define capital structure and Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) with a formula. When defining a term with a formula be sure that all the variables are also defined.

The purpose of this memo is to provide Target Corp. senior management with an evaluation of the company’s weighted average cost of capital (WACC). Since the 2010 financial information is not yet to be finalized, the analysis will use the most currently published financial data to evaluate each component of the WACC, including the company financial structure, cost of debt, and cost of equity.

Marriott is renowned for its elegant and comfortable hotels and resorts. The company caters to a targeted customer base, ranging from the frequent corporate business traveler to the family enjoying their occasional weekend get-away. Marriott has continued its rise in the lodging, contract services, and restaurant industries. The company continuously strives to meet the needs and wants of its customers while strategically maneuvering the rigors of today’s competitive and ever-evolving market of glamorous destinations and convenient services. In order to remain relevant in a highly-competitive environment, Marriott must strike that successful balance of minimizing costs, and gaining and effectively

The idea of repurchasing shares was no stranger to Bill Marriott by January 1980. Almost five million shares of common stock had been repurchased on the open market by Marriott Corporation during 1979 at a total cost of $74 million and an average price of $15.16 in the belief that they were undervalued—a belief that still was not fully reflected in the market price. At $19 5/8, the stock was selling at only six times cash flow per share; and its price/earnings ratio of nine was a far cry from historical multiples as high as fifty times as recently as 1973. Its low price seemed to offer once again an obvious opportunity to benefit shareholders. However,

The mixture of debt-equity mix is important so as to maximize the stock price of the Costco. However, it will be significant to consider the Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) as well so that it can evaluate the company targeted capital structure. Cost of capital (OC) may be used by the companies as for long term decision making, so industries that faced to take the important of Cost of capital seriously may not make the right choice by choosing the right project(Gitman’s, ).

2. How does Marriott use its estimate of its cost of capital? Does this make sense?

Since its foundation in 1927 Marriott Corporation grew into one of the leading lodging and food services in the US. With three major business lines: lodging, contract services and related business, Marriott has the intention to remain a premier growth company. To achieve this goal the corporation’s strategy is to develop aggressively appropriate opportunities within their business lines. Marriott would like to be the preferred employer, the preferred provider and the most profitable company in each of the operating areas. The financial strategy includes four key elements:

Moreover, let’s calculate the Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC). And in order to calculate it we need to know the capital structure of the company. Knowing the capital structure of the

• What is the cost of capital for Marriott’s as a whole at the prevailing capital structure vs. at the target capital structure.

The following case analysis portraits the use of capital asset pricing model to compute the weighted average cost of capital for Marriott and each of its divisions. The flow of events below is following a string of different evaluations, each of which is assessed separately.

company’s securities, both debt and equity. The WACC is important to calculate because it is a necessary

WACC calculations entailed several different steps prior to using the actual WACC formula. First, by using CPP’s balance sheet we identified its D/E, by dividing Debt portion by the Equity portion arriving at 2.07, than we calculated D/V – 0.67 and E/V – 0.33. Afterwards, we used comparable firm Wackenhut’s capital structure for our analysis and applied it to our calculations. Wackenhut’s capital structure consisted of 92% equity and 8% debt. Subsequently, we went through the Beta unlevering and then levering process using above capital structure. To unlever, we multiplied given beta of 0.89 by the debt portion of capital structure 0.92, than we relevered the Beta_e=(1+D/E 2.07) * unlevered Beta 0.82 = 2.51. Next step consisted of calculating R_e=R_f+beta_e*MRP= 8.6%(given)+2.51*7.5% (given)=27.41%.

WACC (Weighted Average Cost of Capital) is a market weighted average, at target leverage, of the cost of after tax debt and equity.