Question

Martin and Sons (M and S) currently is an all equity firm with 64,000 shares of stock outstanding at a market price of $25 a share. The company's earnings before interest and taxes are $86,000. M and S has decided to add leverage to their financial operations by issuing $480,000 of debt with a 7% percent interest rate. This $480,000 will be used to repurchase shares of stock. You own 2,700 shares of M and S stock. You also loan out funds at a 7% percent rate of interest. How many of your shares of stock in M and S must you sell to offset the leverage that the firm is assuming

Answer 1

810 stocks

Step-by-step explanation:

M and S can repurchase $480,000 / $25 = 19,200 stocks

the number of shares that you need to sell to offset the firm's leverage = total amount of stocks that you own x (total stocks repurchased / total stocks outstanding before buyback) = 2,700 x (19,200 / 64,000) = 2,700 x 0.3 = 810 stocks

Since your goal is to offset the firm's new leverage, you have to sell a proportional amount of your stocks compared to the whole repurchase transaction.