Homework 3

Homework 3, FINC-UB.
0002
Prof. Itamar Drechsler
Due at the start of class 23
Topic 6: Arbitrage
1. The stock PolarBear.com trades on both the South Pole Stock Exchange and the North Pole
Stock Exchange.
(a) Suppose the price on the North Pole is $18. What does the No-Arbitrage Condition say
about the price on the South Pole? (Assume no trading costs.)
(b) Suppose the price on the North Pole is $18 and the price on the the South Pole is $17?
How can you make an arbitrage profit? (Assume no trading costs.)
(c) Suppose that the price on the North Pole is $18, that buying or selling on the North
Pole costs $2, and that buying or selling on the South Pole is free. What does the
No-Arbitrage Condition say about the price on the South Pole?
2. Suppose that there are two securities RAIN and SUN. RAIN pays $100 in there is any rain
during the next world cup soccer final. SUN pays $100 in there is no rain. Suppose that
the world cup soccer final is 1 year from today (although this is not true), and suppose that
RAIN is trading at a price of $23 and SUN is trading at a price of $70.
(a) If you buy 1 share of RAIN and 1 share of SUN, what is your payoff after 1 year,
depending on the weather?
(b) What does the No-Arbitrage Condition imply about the price of a 1-year zero-coupon
bond? (Assume no trading costs.)
(c) Suppose that a 1-year zero-coupon bond is trading at $90. Show how you would set up
a transaction to earn a riskless arbitrage profit. (Assume no trading costs.)
(d) Suppose that trading zero-coupon bonds is costless, but trading RAIN and SUN each
cost $2 per $100 face value. Can you still make an arbitrage profit?
1
Topic 7: Equity Valuation

3. Suppose that the consensus forecast of security analysts of your favorite company is that
earnings next year will be E1 = $5.00 per share. Suppose that the company tends to plow
back 50% of its earnings and pay the rest as dividends. If the Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
estimates that the companys growth rate will be 8% from now onwards, answer the following
questions.
(a) If your estimate of the companys required rate of return on its stock is 10%, what is
the equilibrium price of the stock?
(b) Suppose you observe that the stock is selling for $50.00 per share, and that this is
the best estimate of its equilibrium price. What would you conclude about either (i)
your estimate of the stocks required rate of return; or (ii) the CFOs estimate of the
companys future growth rate?
(c) Suppose your own 10% estimate of the stocks required rate of return is shared by the
rest of the market. What does the market price of $50.00 per share imply about the
markets estimate of the companys growth rate?
4. This question requires data collection. You can find all numbers on finance.yahoo.com.
The questions concern Microsoft (ticker: MSFT).
(a) What is the current price and the current price-earnings ratio?
(b) What is the current plowback ratio?
(c) What is the growth rate of earnings for the next 5 years according to the analysts? Hint:
look for annual growth rates under analyst estimates
(d) What is the beta of MSFT? Hint: look for key statistics. If the risk-free rate (Rf ) is
4% and the market risk premium E[RM Rf ] is 8%, what is the required rate of return
on MSF according to the CAPM?
(e) Assume that Microsoft will have earnings and dividends that will grow at the analysts
forecasted rate forever after; i.e., the Gordon growth model (GGM) applies. What is
the price-earnings ratio that the GGM predicts for Microsoft?
(f) What growth rate does the market price-earnings ratio price in/imply?
Topic 8: Fixed Income Securities

5. Suppose you buy a five-year zero-coupon Treasury bond for $800 per $1000 face value. Answer
the following questions:
2
(a) What is the yield to maturity (annual compounding) on the bond?

(b) Assume the yield to maturity on comparable zeros increases to 7% immediately after
purchasing the bond and remains there. Calculate your annual return (holding period
yield) if you sell the bond after one year.
(c) Assume yields to maturity on comparable bonds remain at 7%, calculate your annual
return if you sell the bond after two years.
(d) Suppose after 3 years, the yield to maturity on similar zeros declines to 3%. Calculate
the annual return if you sell the bond at that time.
(e) If yield remains at 3%, calculate your annual return after four years.
(f) After five years.
(g) What explains the relationship between annual returns calculated in (b) through (f)
and the yield to maturity in (a)?
6. Assume the government issues a semi-annual pay bond that matures in 5 years with a face
value of $1,000 and a coupon yield of 10 percent.
(a) What price would you be willing to pay for such a bond if the yield to maturity (semiannual compounding) on similar 5-year governments were 8%?
(b) What would be the price if the yield to maturity (semi-annual compounding) on similar
governments were 12%?
(c) If the price of the bond is 103 19/32 per $100 of face value, what is the yield to maturity?
(d) Suppose you held the bond in (c) for 6 months, at which time you received a coupon
payment and then sold the bond for a price of 102 (per $100 of face value). What would
be the annualized holding period return?
7. Suppose the yield to maturity on a one-year zero-coupon bond is 8%. The yield to maturity on a two-year zero-coupon bond is 10%. Answer the following questions (use annual
compounding):
(a) According to the Expectations Hypothesis, what is the expected one-year rate in the
marketplace for year 2?
(b) Consider a one-year investor who expects the yield to maturity on a one-year bond to
equal 6% next year. How should this investor arrange his or her portfolio today?
(c) If all investors behave like the investor in (b), what will happen to the equilibrium term
structure according to the Expectations Hypothesis?

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Homework 3, FINC-UB.

Topic 7: Equity Valuation

Topic 8: Fixed Income Securities

(a) What is the yield to maturity (annual compounding) on the bond?

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