Final answer:
The cost of equity for Judy's Boutique is 10.4%.
Step-by-step explanation:
The cost of equity is the return on investment that investors expect to earn from owning a company's stock. In this case, we can calculate the cost of equity using the Dividend Growth Model.
The formula for the cost of equity is: Cost of equity = Dividend / Stock Price + Growth Rate.
Given that the annual dividend is $2.77, the stock price is $40.12 per share, and the dividend growth rate is 3.50 percent, we can plug these values into the formula:
Cost of equity = $2.77 / $40.12 + 0.035 = 0.069 + 0.035 = 0.104 = 10.4%.
Therefore, the company's cost of equity is 10.4%.