Assume that temp force has a beta coefficient of 1.2, that the risk-free rate (the yield on T-bonds) is 7 percent, and that the market risk premium is 5 percent. What is the required rate of return on the firm’s stock?

MINI CASE 

Sam Struthers and Shawna Tibbs are senior vice presidents of the Mutual of Seattle. They are co-directors of the company’s pension fund management division, with Struthers having responsibility for fixed income securities (primarily bonds) and Tibbs being responsible for equity investments. A major new client, the Northwestern Municipal League, has requested that Mutual of Seattle present an investment seminar to the mayors of the represented cities, and Stretcher and Tibbs, who will make the actual presentation, have asked you to help them. To illustrate the common stock valuation process, Struthers and Tibbs have asked you to analyze the Temp Force Company, an employment agency that supplies word processor operators and computer programmers to businesses with temporarily heavy workloads. You are to answer the following questions.