Nike Inc Cost of Capital
Introduction
Kimi Ford is a portfolio manager at NorthPoint Group, a mutual-fund management firm. She is evaluating Nike, Inc. (“Nike”) to potentially buy shares of their stock for the fund she manages, the NorthPoint Large-Cap Fund. This fund mostly invests in Fortune 500 companies, with an emphasis on value investing. This Fund has performed well over the last 18 months despite the decline in the stock market. Ford has done a significant amount of research through analysts’ reports, which had mixed reviews. She found no clear guidance from the analysts and decided to develop her own discounted cash flow forecast to come to a conclusion. Her forecast showed that Nike was overvalued at its current share price causing a discount rate of 12%; however, a quick sensitivity analysis showed that Nike was undervalued at a discount rate below 11.17%. Ford then asked her assistant, Joanna Cohen, to estimate Nike’s cost of capital, which, per Cohen’s analysis, came to 8.4%.
Background
The cost of capital is the minimum return that a company should make on an investment or the minimum return necessary for investors to cover their cost. Two main factors of the cost of capital are the cost of debt and the cost of equity. The capital used for funding a business should earn returns for the investors who risk their capital. For an investment to be worthwhile, the expected return on capital must be greater than the cost of capital – the risk-adjusted return on capital must be higher than the cost of capital. The Weighted Average Cost of Capital (“WACC”) is the rate a company will pay to finance all of their assets. Depending on the capital structure of a firm, a proportionate weighted percentage will be applied towards the financing of debt, equity, and preferred stock. Because the WACC is calculated using weighted averages for debt and equity, it is a good measurement of the cost to the company for financing its operations.
Kimi Ford is a portfolio manager at NorthPoint Group, a mutual-fund management firm. She is evaluating Nike, Inc. (“Nike”) to potentially buy shares of their stock for the fund she manages, the NorthPoint Large-Cap Fund. This fund mostly invests in Fortune 500 companies, with an emphasis on value investing. This Fund has performed well over the last 18 months despite the decline in the stock market. Ford has done a significant amount of research through analysts’ reports, which had mixed reviews. She found no clear guidance from the analysts and decided to develop her own discounted cash flow forecast to come to a conclusion. Her forecast showed that Nike was overvalued at its current share price causing a discount rate of 12%; however, a quick sensitivity analysis showed that Nike was undervalued at a discount rate below 11.17%. Ford then asked her assistant, Joanna Cohen, to estimate Nike’s cost of capital, which, per Cohen’s analysis, came to 8.4%.
Background
The cost of capital is the minimum return that a company should make on an investment or the minimum return necessary for investors to cover their cost. Two main factors of the cost of capital are the cost of debt and the cost of equity. The capital used for funding a business should earn returns for the investors who risk their capital. For an investment to be worthwhile, the expected return on capital must be greater than the cost of capital – the risk-adjusted return on capital must be higher than the cost of capital. The Weighted Average Cost of Capital (“WACC”) is the rate a company will pay to finance all of their assets. Depending on the capital structure of a firm, a proportionate weighted percentage will be applied towards the financing of debt, equity, and preferred stock. Because the WACC is calculated using weighted averages for debt and equity, it is a good measurement of the cost to the company for financing its operations.