Suppose stark ltd. just issued a dividend of $1.91 per share on its common stock. the company paid dividends of $1.60, $1.66, $1.73, and $1.84 per share in the last four years. a. if the stock currently sells for $45, what is your best estimate of the company’s cost of equity capital using the arithmetic average growth rate in dividends? (do not round intermediate calculations and enter your answer as a percent rounded to 2 decimal places, e. g., 32.16.) a. what if you use the geometric average growth rate? (do not round intermediate calculations and enter your answer as a percent rounded to 2 decimal places, e. g., 32.16.)

Costco wholesale corporation operates membership warehouses selling food, appliances, consumer electronics, apparel and other household goods at 471 locations across the u.s. as well as in canada, mexico and puerto rico. as of its fiscal year-end 2005, costco had approximately 21.2 million members. selected fiscal-year information from the company's balance sheets follows. ($ millions). selected balance sheet data 2005 2004 merchandise inventories $4,015 $3,644 deferred membership income (liability) 501 454 (a) during fiscal 2005, costco collected $1,120 cash for membership fees. use the financial statement effectstemplate to record the cash collected for membership fees. (b) in 2005, costco recorded $46,347 million in merchandise costs (that is, cost of goods sold). record thistransaction in the financial statement effects template. (c) determine the value of merchandise that costco purchased during fiscal-year 2005. use the financial statementeffects template to record these merchandise purchases. assume all of costco's purchases are on credit.