Under what circumstances might you be protected by the equal credit opportunity act?

Assume today is december 31, 2013. barrington industries expects that its 2014 after-tax operating income [ebit(1 – t)] will be $400 million and its 2014 depreciation expense will be $70 million. barrington's 2014 gross capital expenditures are expected to be $120 million and the change in its net operating working capital for 2014 will be $25 million. the firm's free cash flow is expected to grow at a constant rate of 4.5% annually. assume that its free cash flow occurs at the end of each year. the firm's weighted average cost of capital is 8.6%; the market value of the company's debt is $2.15 billion; and the company has 180 million shares of common stock outstanding. the firm has no preferred stock on its balance sheet and has no plans to use it for future capital budgeting projects. using the corporate valuation model, what should be the company's stock price today (december 31, 2013)? round your answer to the nearest cent. do not round intermediate calculations.

The gomez company, a merchandising firm, has budgeted its activity for december according to the following information: • sales at $500,000, all for cash. • merchandise inventory on november 30 was $250,000. • the cash balance at december 1 was $20,000. • selling and administrative expenses are budgeted at $50,000 for december and are paid for in cash. • budgeted depreciation for december is $30,000. • the planned merchandise inventory on december 31 is $260,000. • the cost of goods sold represents 75% of the selling price. • all purchases are paid for in cash. the budgeted cash disbursements for december are:

Happy foods and general grains both produce similar puffed rice breakfast cereals. for both companies, thecost of producing a box of cereal is 45 cents, and it is not possible for either company to lower their productioncosts any further. how can one company achieve a competitive advantage over the other?