The company's cost of equity is 9.45%
Given that
Annual dividend paid, D0 = $2.35
Dividend growth rate, g = 3.15% = 0.0315
Current stock price per share = $38.44
Now,
Current price of share = D1 ÷ (r - g) -(1)
Here,
r is the required rate of return
D1 = dividend at year 1 = D0 × (1 + g)
= $2.35 × (1 + 0.0315)
= $2.424045
Therefore, from (1) we get
$38.44 = $2.424045 ÷ (r - 0.022)
(r - 0.0315) = 0.063060
r = 0.063060 + 0.0315
r = 0.09456
r = 0.0945 × 100% = 9.45%
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