--%>

Effect of illegal obligations on cost of equity

If dividends paid to common stockholders are not legal obligations of a corporation, is the cost of equity zero?  Describe your answer.

Even though common stockholders do not contain a contractual claim on dividends the funds supplied by stockholders definitely contain a cost.  Equity investors are paid last and therefore they are taking the greatest risk among all of the suppliers of capital.  If the company does not get a higher rate of return onto equity funds to compensate for the higher risk taken through equity investors, the price of the stock will fall and thus the value of the firm. 

   Related Questions in Managerial Accounting

  • Q : Fixed capital of partners Explain the

    Explain the term fixed capital of partners? Answer: Partners' capital is state to be fixed if the capital of Partners remains unchanged except in the situation where

  • Q : Capital account on credit and debit side

    List the items that might appear on the debit side and credit side of a partner's fluctuating capital account. Answer: On debit side: Drawing, interest on drawing, c

  • Q : Define Employee Stock Ownership

    Employee Stock Ownership: It is a qualified, defined contribution, employee benefit (that is, ERISA) plan designed to invest mainly in the stock of sponsoring employer. ESOPs are "qualified" in the logic that the ESOP's sponsoring company, the selling

  • Q : Illustrations of unethical and

    Write down a brief note on the illustrations of unethical and unacceptable actions?

  • Q : Define Inter-Entity Inter-Entity : A

    Inter-Entity: A term meaning between or among distinct federal reporting entities. It generally refers to the activities or costs among two or more agencies, bureaus or departments.

  • Q : Number of Partners in Partnership What

    What is the maximum and minimum number of partners in each and every type of partnership? Answer: There must be at least two persons to build a Partnership. The maxi

  • Q : Main users of the accounting information

    Briefly list out the main users of the accounting information which are related to the business?

  • Q : Explain Responsibility Segment

    Responsibility Segment: A noteworthy organizational, functional, operational, or process component that has the characteristics as: (i) Its manager reports to the entity's top management;

  • Q : What is Direct Cost Direct Cost : The

    Direct Cost: The cost of resources directly used by an activity. The direct costs are assigned to actions by direct drawing of units of resources used by individual actions. A cost which is particularly recognized with a single cost o