Ameritrade Harvard Case Study

Ross, S. A., Westerfield, R. W., & Jordan, B. D. (Eds.). (2011). Essentials of corporate finance (7th ed., Rev.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

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

We use Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) approach to calculate the cost of equity. The formula of CAPM is re = rf + β × (E[RMkt] – rf).

As a deep-discount brokerage, Ameritrade planned to improve its competitive position by price cutting, technology enhancements, and increased advertising in mid-1997. Before initiating the plan, Ameritrade needed know whether the investment returned more than it cost. We were hired to estimate the cost of capital correctly. The key question is to find suitable comparable firms to estimate Ameritrade’s asset beta, since it was a recently-listed firm. We thought discount brokerage companies were best due to same revenue resources. Proper risk-free rate and market risk premium should also be chosen carefully, and we used 30-year bonds YTM and the annual return difference

The cost of equity was found using CAPM, with the given market risk premium of 5%, a beta of .88, and risk-free rate of 4.03%. The beta was found by running a regression of Southwest’s percent change in stock price versus the S&P 500’s percent change in stock price for two years (June 28, 2000 to June 28, 2002). The risk-free rate was the return on a ten-year treasury note issued on June 28, 2002, according to the U.S. Treasury’s website. The tax rate of 39% was used to account for tax savings from leverage. In order to calculate the firm’s leverage, the market value of equity was found from the price per share on July 24, 2002 (Yahoo Finance) and the shares outstanding on the balance sheet of the July 10-Q report, as shown in Exhibit X. The debt value was approximated at the book value since data could not be found regarding its market value. This analysis resulted in a debt weight of 11.74% and equity weight of 88.26%. The final approximation for the weighted average cost of capital was 8.64%.

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,

Online financial service companies such as TDAmeritrade and Fidelity allow their account holders to purchase shares of Apple stock, according to their official websites. Fidelity requires a minimum opening balance of $2,500 in order to trade Apple or any other stock, and TD Ameritrade has no minimum opening balance requirements.

Utilizing the fundamental concepts of the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), the expected return for Wal-Mart stock is 7.01% [E(R)]. This is a result of a risk-free rate (Rf) of 3.68%, which was the provided 10-year government bond yield to use as a proxy for the risk-free rate. The beta (β ) of Wal-Mart was 0.66 according to the provided Bloomberg beta estimate. Additional data was provided on the U.S. market risk premium [E(RM) – Rf] of 5.05%. In following the general concepts of CAPM, there are some general assumptions: no transaction costs, all assets are publicly traded,

This document is authorized for use only by Yen Ting Chen in FInancial Markets and Institutions taught by Nawal Ahmed Boston University from September 2014 to December 2014.

In mid-1997, Joe Ricketts, Chairman and CEO of Ameritrade Holding Corporation, wanted to improve his company’s competitive position in deep-discount brokerage1 by taking advantage of emerging economies of scale. The success of the strategy required Ameritrade grow its customer base. The growth would require substantial investments in technology to improve service and capacity, and in advertising, to increase customer awareness. The strategy would require large expenditures relative to Ameritrade’s existing capital. In order to evaluate whether the strategy would generate sufficient future cash flows to merit the investment, Ricketts needed an estimate of the project’s risk.

Using the same market risk premium and risk free rate (5.5% & 4.62% respectively) given in the case, the averaged beta of 1.40, the pretax cost of debt of 7.65%, and the weighted average of debt & equity, the products & systems

According to the CAPM model:R_i=α+βR_m+ε, α represent the abnormal return gained by the portfolio. If the market is efficiency, the α has to be zero.

As indicated by the case study S&P 500 index was use as a measure of the total return for the stock market. Our standard deviation of the total return was used as a one measure of the risk of an individual stock. Also betas for individual stocks are determined by simple linear regression. The variables were: total return for the stock as the dependent variable and independent variable is the total return for the stock. Since the descriptive statistics were a lot, only the necessary data was selected (below table.)

The economic forecasting staff for Merrill Finch developed probability estimates for the state of the economy, and the security analysts have developed software to estimate the rate of return on each of these alternatives under each state of the economy. A chart showing the results of the analysis is in Appendix A of this report.

We use the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) to determine the cost of equity. As