Question

Aluminum maker Alcoa has a beta of about 1.85​, whereas Hormel Foods has a beta of 0.39. If the expected excess return of the market portfolio is 3​%, which of these firms has a higher equity cost of​ capital, and how much higher is​ it? g

Answer 1

Answer and Explanation:

The computation is shown below:

As we know that

According to the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) formula

Expected rate of return = Risk-free rate of return + Beta × (Market rate of return - Risk-free rate of return)

And, the market rate of return - Risk-free rate of return is also known as the market risk premium

As we can see that the Alcoa contains high beta as compared to Hormel Foods so the Alcoa has a higher equity cost of capital

And, the higher rate is

= (Excess return of the market) × (Alcoa beta - Hormel foods beta)

= (3%) × (1.85 - 0.39)

= 3% × 1.46

= 4.38%