Quentin operates an ice cream franchise that has shops throughout the United States. CoolCream Co., the franchisor, supplies the ingredients and formula so that Quentin can create the ice cream in his store and sell it fresh to customers.
This relationship is known as a:

a) chain-style business operation.
b) joint development enterprise.
c) distributorship.
d) manufacturing or processing-plant arrangement.

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.

Which of the following statements is correct? a. two firms with identical sales and operating costs but with different amounts of debt and tax rates will have different operating incomes by definition. b. free cash flow (fcf) is, essentially, the cash flow that is available for interest and dividends after the company has made the investments in current and fixed assets that are necessary to sustain ongoing operations. c. retained earnings as reported on the balance sheet represent cash and, therefore, are available to distribute to stockholders as dividends or any other required cash payments to creditors and suppliers. d. if a firm is reporting its income in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, then its net income as reported on the income statement should be equal to its free cash flow. e. after-tax operating income is calculated as ebit(1 - t) + depreciation.

Oceanside marine company manufactures special metallic materials and decorative fittings for luxury yachts that require highly skilled labor. oceanside uses standard costs to prepare its flexible budget. for the first quarter of the year, direct materials and direct labor standards for one of their popular products were as follows: direct materials: 2 pound per unit; $ 11 per pound direct labor: 2 hours per unit; $ 19 per hour oceanside produced 2 comma 000 units during the quarter. at the end of the quarter, an examination of the direct materials records showed that the company used 7 comma 500 pounds of direct materials and actual total materials costs were $ 98 comma 100. what is the direct materials cost variance? (round any intermediate calculations to the nearest cent, and your final answer to the nearest dollar.)