A company can borrow funds at an after-tax cost of 4.5%. The company’s stock price is \($40\) per share, earnings per share is \($2.00\), and the company has 15 million shares outstanding. If the company borrows just enough to repurchase 2 million shares of stock at the prevailing market price, that company’s earnings per share is most likely to:

A. increase.

B. decrease.

C. remain the same.