102 Introduction
In this case, we were given information about Merck & Co., an American pharmaceutical company. We were given their statement of income, balance sheet, statement of cash flows, and notes to the financial statements and answered questions about shareholder’s equity. We focused on authorized, issued, outstanding, and treasury stock; market capitalization; effects of dividends; and ratio analysis.
I learned many new things throughout working on this case. I learned how to calculate the value of common stock issued, how to calculate market
capitalization, how to record dividends declared and paid, and why companies buy back stock. All of these new skills have proven to be useful throughout my academic career here at Ole Miss, and also in my professional life.
Understanding the inner workings of stock issuance and valuation is not only important in the accounting world, but also in the business world in general. You do not have to be an accountant to benefit from comprehending shareholder’s equity, because anyone can invest in the stock market, and knowing how your investment affects the company is always a smart idea.
Analysis
a-i. Consider Merck’s common shares. How many common shares is Merck authorized to issue?
Merck is authorized to issue 5.4 billion shares of common stock, as found on their balance sheet in the stockholder’s equity section.
a-ii. How many common shares has Merck actually issued at December 31, 2007?
Merck actually issued 2,983,508,675 shares as of December 31, 2007, which is also found on their balance sheet.
a-iii. Reconcile the number of shares issued at December 31, 2007, to the dollar value of common stock reported on the balance sheet.
The dollar value of common stock for 2007 is $29.8 million, which is the number of shares issued multiplied by the par value of one cent.
a-iv. How many common shares are held in treasury at December 31, 2007?
There are 811,005,791 shares held in treasury as of December 31, 2007, found at the bottom of the balance sheet.
a-v. How many common shares are outstanding at December 31, 2007?
Shares outstanding is the difference between shares issued and shares held in treasury. Based on this assumption, 2,983,508,675 less 811,005,791 equals 2,172,502,884 which is the number of common shares outstanding.
a-vi. At December 31, 2007, Merck’s stock price closed at $57.61 per share.
Calculate the total market capitalization of Merck on that day.
Market capitalization is defined as the number of shares outstanding times the market price. 2,172,502,884 shares multiplied by $57.61 equals
$125,157,891,147.24, which is Merck’s market capitalization as of December 31, 2007.
c. Why do companies pay dividends on their common or ordinary shares?
What normally happens to a company’s share price when dividends are
104 paid?
Companies pay dividends to attract more investors. Because dividends decrease retained earnings, paying dividends shows that the company is confident that they will receive higher net income in the future to maintain or increase their retained earnings. Usually when dividends are paid, stock price decreases by the amount per share that is paid in dividends. This is because after a dividend payout, the amount of the dividends paid is deducted from the retained earnings, reducing the “value” of the company to investors. New
investors who will not receive that dividend would not be willing to pay the same price that current stockholders who received the dividend paid.
d. In general, why do companies repurchase their own shares?
Because each share of stock represents ownership in the company, a company might repurchase their own stock to regain their own ownership and voting rights of their company. Treasury stock also decreases the number of shares outstanding, which automatically increases the earnings per share ratio, making them more attractive to investors.
e. Consider Merck’s statement of cash flow and statement of retained earnings. Prepare a single journal entry that summarizes Merck’s common dividend activity for 2007. (in millions)
Retained Earnings 3,310.7 (dividends declared)
Cash 3,307.3 (dividends paid)
Dividends Payable 3.4 (plug)
g-i. During 2007, Merck repurchased a number of its own common shares on the open market. Describe the method Merck uses to account for its treasury stock transactions.
Merck uses the cost method, as opposed to the par value method, to account for its treasury stock transactions. This can be seen at the bottom of their balance sheet: “less treasury stock, at cost.” This means that they do not credit or debit a paid-in capital account when they purchase the treasury stock, only when they resell that stock, if the reselling price is higher or lower than the cost they originally paid for those shares. Basically, the cost method uses the cost at which the shares are acquired as the benchmark going forward, and the par value method uses par value as the benchmark.
g-ii. Refer to note 11 to Merck’s financial statements. How many shares did Merck repurchase on the open market during 2007?
Merck repurchased 26.5 million shares in 2007.
g-iii. How much did Merck pay, in total and per share, on average, to buy back its stock during 2007? What type of cash flow does this represent?
Merck paid $1,429.7 million in total for treasury stock in 2007, as seen on the statement of cash flows and note 11. By dividing that amount by the number of shares purchased, we can see that they paid $53.95 per share on average. This represents a financing cash outflow and can be seen on the statement of cash flows in the financing activities section.
g-iv. Why doesn’t Merck disclose its treasury stock as an asset?
An asset is defined as a resource with economic value that a company
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owns with the expectation that it will provide future benefit. Treasury stock is a contra-equity account, meaning it decreases equity. It is not an asset because it does not provide any future benefit to the company; they are basically reclaiming ownership in themselves.
i. Determine the missing amounts and calculate the ratios in the tables below. For comparability, use dividends paid for both companies rather than dividends declared. Use the number of shares outstanding at year end for per-share calculations. What differences do you observe in Merck’s dividend-related ratios across the two years?
All of Merck’s dividend ratios decreased except for their dividend payout.
This is mainly because they paid less dividends in 2007 than in 2006. Their net income decreased, but their shares outstanding, total assets, operating cash flows, and stock price increased from 2006.
(in millions) 2007 2006
Dividends paid $3,307.3 $3,322.6
Shares outstanding 2,172.5 2,167.8
Net income $3,275.4 $4,433.8
Total assets $48,350.7 $44,569.8
Operating cash flows $6,999.2 $6,765.2
Year-end stock price $57.61 $41.94
Dividends per share $1.52 $1.53 Dividend yield (dividends per share to stock price) 2.64% 3.66%
Dividend payout (dividends to net income) 100.97% 74.94%
Dividends to total assets 6.84% 7.45%
Dividends to operating cash flows 47.25% 49.11%
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APPENDICES
Appendix A: Statement of Income
110 Appendix B: Balance Sheet
Appendix C: Statement of Cash Flows
112 Appendix D: Note 11