Reference no: EM132596852

Integrated Waveguide Technologies (IWT) is a 6-year-old company founded by Hunt Jackson and David Smithfield to exploit metamaterial plasmonic technology to develop and manufacture miniature microwave frequency directional transmitters and receivers for use in mobile Internet and communications applications. IWT's technology, although highly advanced, is relatively inexpensive to implement, and its patented manufacturing techniques require little capital as compared to many electronics fabrication ventures. Because of the low capital requirement, Jackson and Smithfield have been able to avoid issuing new stock and thus own all of the shares. Because of the explosion in demand for its mobile Internet applications, IWT must now access outside equity capital to fund its growth, and Jackson and Smithfield have decided to take the company public. Until now, Jackson and Smithfield have paid themselves reasonable salaries but routinely reinvested all after-tax earnings in the firm, so dividend policy has not been an issue. However, before talking with potential outside investors, they must decide on a dividend policy. Your new boss at the consulting firm Flick and Associates, which has been retained to help IWT prepare for its public offering, has asked you to make a presentation to Jackson and Smithfield in which you review the theory of dividend policy and discuss the following issues.

Suppose IWT has decided to distribute $50 million, which it presently is holding in liquid short-term investments. IWT's value of operations is estimated to be about $1,937.5 million; it has $387.5 million in debt and zero preferred stock. As mentioned previously, IWT has 100 million shares of stock outstanding.

Question 1: Assume that IWT has not yet made the distribution. What is IWT's intrinsic value of equity? What is its intrinsic stock price per share?

Question 2: Now suppose that IWT has just made the $50 million distribution in the form of dividends. What is IWT's intrinsic value of equity? What is its intrinsic stock price per share?

Question 3:  Suppose instead that IWT has just made the $50 million distribution in the form of a stock repurchase. Now what is IWT's intrinsic value of equity? How many shares did IWT repurchase? How many shares remained outstanding after the repurchase? What is its intrinsic stock price per share after the repurchase?

Question 4: Describe the series of steps that most firms take when setting dividend policy.

Question 5: What are stock splits and stock dividends? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?

Question 6: What is a dividend reinvestment plan (DRIP), and how does it work?