Question

You bought Sumsung stock for $50 on April 1. The stock paid a dividend of $5 on July 1, and had a price of $53. It is now Oct. 1, and the stock price is $52. Treasury bills yield 1%.
Required:
a. What was the arithmetic average quarterly return?
b. What was the standard deviation of quarterly returns?

Answer 1

Answer:

a. 7.05%

b. 12.7%

Explanation:

a. The returns are:

First return July 1 = (Current price - Previous price + Dividend) / Cost price

= (53 - 50 + 5) / 50

= 16%

Second return Oct 1 = (52 - 53) / 53

= -1.9%

Arithmetic mean = (16 + (-1.9%)) / 2

= 7.05%

b. Variance = ((16% - 7.05%)² + (-1.9% - 7.05%)²)

= 160.205%

Standard deviation = √160.205

= 12.7%