Question Completion:
Given the following four projects' cash flows, and using a discount rate of 10%, ...
project 1 project 2 project 3 project 4
Cost $10,000 $15,000 $8,000 $18,000
Cash Flow Year 1 4,000 7,000 3,000 10,000
Cash Flow Year 2 4,000 5,500 3,500 11,000
Cash Flow Year 3 4,000 4,000 4,000 0
Answer:
<h2>Nielsen, Inc.</h2>
Determination of Projects Acceptance under Payback Period and NPV:
Payback Period NPV
Project 1 Accepted Rejected
Project 2 Accepted Rejected
Project 3 Accepted Accepted
Project 4 Accepted Accepted
Explanation:
1. Data and Calculations:
project 1 project 2 project 3 project 4
Cost $10,000 $15,000 $8,000 $18,000
Cash Flow Year 1 4,000 7,000 3,000 10,000
Cash Flow Year 2 4,000 5,500 3,500 11,000
Cash Flow Year 3 4,000 4,000 4,000 0
Total inflows $12,000 $16,500 $10,500 $21,000
Discount rate = 10%
Payback period Year 3 Year 3 Year 3 Year 2
2. Discount factors: Year 1 = 0.909; Year 2 = 0.826; and Year 3 = 0.751
3. PV of Cash Flows:
project 1 project 2 project 3 project 4
Cost $10,000 $15,000 $8,000 $18,000
Cash Flow Year 1 3,636 6,363 2,727 9,090
Cash Flow Year 2 3,304 4,543 2,891 9,086
Cash Flow Year 3 3,004 3,004 3,004 0
Total PV inflow $9,944 $13,910 $8,622 $18,176
4. NPV ($56) ($1,090) $622 $176
5. Nielsen, Inc.'s payback period is the number of years (or length of time) it takes an investment to reach its break-even point (the point where there is no gain or loss). Nielsen's NPV is the difference between total cash inflows and cash outflows over some periods. A positive NPV for Nielsen shows that the projects should be accepted, while a negative NPV points to some underlying problems with the projects, especially with respect to cash inflows and outflows.
