You are preparing pro forma financial statements for 2021 using the percent-of-sales method. Sales were $100,000 in 2020 and are projected to be $120,000 in 2021. Net income was $5,000 in 2020 and is projected to be $6,000 in 2021. Equity was $45,000 at year-end 2019 and $50,000 at year-end 2020. Assuming that this company never issues new equity, never repurchases equity, and never changes its dividend payout ratio, what would be projected for equity at year-end 2021?

a) $55,000

b) $56,000

c) $60,000

d) Insufficient information is provided to answer the question.