Which of the following statements is most correct? Group of answer choices The optimal capital structure maximizes the WACC. None of these. Increasing the amount of debt in a firm's capital structure is likely to increase the cost of both debt and equity financing. If the after-tax cost of equity financing exceeds the after-tax cost of debt financing, firms are always able to reduce their WACC by increasing the amount of debt in their capital structure.
Cost of Capital
Shareholders and investors who invest into the capital of the firm desire to have a suitable return on their investment funding. The cost of capital reflects what shareholders expect. It is a discount rate for converting expected cash flow into present cash flow.
Capital Structure
Capital structure is the combination of debt and equity employed by an organization in order to take care of its operations. It is an important concept in corporate finance and is expressed in the form of a debt-equity ratio.
Weighted Average Cost of Capital
The Weighted Average Cost of Capital is a tool used for calculating the cost of capital for a firm wherein proportional weightage is assigned to each category of capital. It can also be defined as the average amount that a firm needs to pay its stakeholders and for its security to finance the assets. The most commonly used sources of capital include common stocks, bonds, long-term debts, etc. The increase in weighted average cost of capital is an indicator of a decrease in the valuation of a firm and an increase in its risk.
The capital structure is said to be optimum capital structure when the firm has selected such a combination of equity and debt s that the wealth of firm is maximum. At this capital structure cost of capital is minimum and market price per share is maximum.
Step by step
Solved in 2 steps