18. A firm is considering two mutually exclusive projects with equal lives: Project A has an NPV of $100,000, an IRR of 12%, and a payback period of 3.1 years. Project B has an NPV of $120,000, an IRR of 14%, and a payback period of 2.8 years. The firm should choose_ a. Project A because its NPV is higher than Project Bs b. Project A because its payback period is longer than Project Bs c. Project B because its IRR is higher than Project A's d. Project B because its payback period is shorter than Project A's e. Both projects a. 19. According to the capital asset pricing model (i.e., CAPM), if the risk-free rate of return is 2.5%, the expected return on the market portfolio is 11.5%, and the beta of the stock of ABC, Inc. is 1.75, what is the expected rate of return for the company's stock (rounded to 2 decimal places)? 18.25% b. 20.13% 22.63% d. 17.63% e. None of the answers listed above is correct. C