The company's external equity comes from those funds raised from public issuance of shares or rights. The cost of external equity is the minimum rate of return which the shareholders supply new funds by purchasing new shares to prevent the decline of the market value of the shares. To compute the cost of external equity, we should use this formula:
Ke = (DIV 1 / Po) + g
Ke = cost of external equity
DIV 1 = dividend to be paid next year
Po = market price of share
g = growth rate
In the problem, the estimated dividend to be paid next year is $1.50. The market price is $18.50 and the growth rate is 4%.
Substituting the given to the formulas, we need to divide $1.50 by $18.50 giving us the result of 8.11% plus the growth rate; this would yield to the result of 12.11% cost of external equity.