Which of the Following Statements Is CORRECT

question 1

Multiple Choice

Which of the following statements is CORRECT?

• A) Electric utilities generally have very high common equity ratios because their revenues are more volatile than those of firms in most other industries.
• B) Drug companies (prescription, not illegal!)generally have high debt-to-equity ratios because their earnings are very stable and, thus, they can cover the high interest costs associated with high debt levels.
• C) Wide variations in capital structures exist both between industries and among individual firms within given industries.These differences are caused by differing business risks and also managerial attitudes.
• D) Since most stocks sell at or very close to their book values, book value capital structures are almost always adequate for use in estimating firms' costs of capital.
• E) Generally, debt-to-total-assets ratios do not vary much among different industries, although they do vary among firms within a given industry.

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Definitions:

Annual Returns

The yearly profit or loss generated by an investment, expressed as a percentage of the investment's initial value.

Aggregate Market Value

The total market capitalization of a company, calculated by multiplying the current stock price by the total number of outstanding shares.

Compound Annual Rate

The rate of return that would be required for an investment to grow from its beginning balance to its ending one with the compounding effect considered over a period of one year.

Compound Annual Returns

Measures the geometric average amount of money earned over a specified time period per year, taking into account the effect of compounding.