Cost of equity of Safeway's shareholders

In this section you'll estimate the cost of equity or the rate of return that Safeway's shareholders 'require'. This is an important piece of information that every top manager must be able to estimate because it will be an important input in any effort to determine whether any particular course of action by Safeway will or will not add value to the shareholders.
We are going to use the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) in order to estimate the rate of return that our shareholders require on their investment. This is the minimum rate of return that these shareholders require. As stated above - we call this rate 'the cost of equity' and it is expressed in percentages or in a decimal format.
The CAPM states the following equilibrium relationship between the (excess) rate of return that shareholders of a particular company "j" require (or actually in some sense 'deserve' if they fully diversify their investments) and the (excess) expected rate of return on the market portfolio:
Rj - RF = βj [RM - RF]
It follows that the rate of return that shareholders require or expect to earn on their investment in the shares of Safeway, or 'the cost of equity' is:
Rj = RF + βj [RM - RF]
In order to estimate the cost of equity for Safeway you need to obtain an estimate of Safeway's 'beta' or systematic risk coefficient, on the annual rate of return on a risk-free investment, and on the expected rate of return on the 'market portfolio'. You can easily find that information by going to the following web site: http://finance.yahoo.com and insert the name of Safeway. The beta of Safeway is reported on that web site. Click on the "key statistics" link on the left hand side of the screen to find the beta and other information.
First out what is the present Yield to Maturity (YTM) on a US Government bond that matures in one year. That rate is the 'risk-free rate'.
Next, tt is customary to assume that the difference between the expected rate of return on the 'market portfolio' and the risk-free rate rate of return is about 7.0%. This is the expression [RM - RF] . So if for example the risk-free rate of interest is, say, 3% per year, than the expected rate of return on the 'market portfolio', RM, is 10%. So, multiply the 'beta' of your Safeway by 7.0%. That will be the equivalent of Safeway's βj [RM - RF] . Then add to that number the current yield to maturity on a US Government bond [see step (1) above].
The above procedure provides you with an estimate of the rate of return that the shareholders of your Safeway require on their investment. This rate is called the cost of equity of Safeway.
After going through these calculations, write a two to three page paper with the following information:
1. Show your work to used to obtain the cost of equity for your Safeway.
2. Is this cost of equity higher or lower than you expected? The average cost of capital for a firm in the S&P 500 is 10.2 percent. Would you think your firm should have a lower or a higher cost of capital than the average firm?
3. Look up the betas for some of the other companies that you compared Safeway to for Sam's Club and Costco. These are the companies that you had to explain had a higher or lower discount rate than your Safeway. Using these betas, compute the cost of equity for these firms. How do they compare to your Safeway? Are you surprised that some firms have a higher or lower cost of equity than your Safeway?
4. How would you go about finding the cost of equity using the dividend growth model or the arbitrage pricing theory for your Safeway? Don't worry, you don't actually have to do any calculations - just explain how you would go about doing these calculations and explain what kind of additional information you might need.