Butcher Timber Company hired your consulting firm to help them estimate the cost of equity. The yield on the firm's bonds is 12.00%, and your firm's economists believe that the cost of equity can be estimated using a risk premium of 3.85% over a firm's own cost of debt. What is an estimate of the firm's cost of equity from retained earnings?

a. 12.52%
b. 13.31%
c. 14.58%
d. 14.74%
e. 15.85%

Aplant manager is considering buying additional stamping machines to accommodate increasing demand. the alternatives are to buy 1 machine, 2 machines, or 3 machines. the profits realized under each alternative are a function of whether their bid for a recent defense contract is accepted or not. the payoff table below illustrates the profits realized (in $000's) based on the different scenarios faced by the manager. alternative bid accepted bid rejected buy 1 machine $10 $5 buy 2 machines $30 $4 buy 3 machines $40 $2 refer to the information above. assume that based on historical bids with the defense contractor, the plant manager believes that there is a 65% chance that the bid will be accepted and a 35% chance that the bid will be rejected. what is the expected value under perfect information (evpi)?