IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/aaeatr/320048.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Why No Debt? A FRICTO Analysis of the Capital Structure of Cal-Maine Foods Inc

Author

Listed:
  • Trejo-Pech, Carlos J.O.
  • White, Susan

Abstract

Cal-Maine Foods Inc., the largest egg producer in the world, has historically operated with low debt. Cal-Maine reported in its 2021 third fiscal quarter no debt on its balance sheet, making this company one of the few debt-free publicly traded agribusinesses in the United States. This case analyzes Cal-Maine’s capital structure, which represents a rare case for exploring and challenging the notion of optimal capital structure in theory and practice. Understanding the rationale behind a debt-free firm’s policy is puzzling because financial theory predicts that adding debt up to a certain level—the optimal capital structure—creates economic value for equity holders. According to surveyed chief financial officers, there is also evidence that practitioners use an optimal capital structure framework for financial management decisions. By applying a framework allowing for both qualitative and quantitative analysis, this case reviews the benefits and costs of debt in the capital structure, as applied to Cal-Maine. The case asks students to evaluate potential recapitalization policies in which Cal-Maine adds debt to its capital structure and uses debt proceeds plus excess cash to repurchase shares at the prevailing price as of the end of May 2021. The target audience is graduate business and agribusiness students, although the case could be used in an elective advanced undergraduate finance course.

Suggested Citation

  • Trejo-Pech, Carlos J.O. & White, Susan, 2022. "Why No Debt? A FRICTO Analysis of the Capital Structure of Cal-Maine Foods Inc," Applied Economics Teaching Resources (AETR), Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 4(1), February.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:aaeatr:320048
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.320048
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/320048/files/AETR_2021_012RRV4I1.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.320048?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Trejo-Pech, Carlos J.O. & White, Susan, 2020. "Capital Budgeting Analysis of a Vertically Integrated Egg Firm: Conventional and Cage-Free Egg Production," Applied Economics Teaching Resources (AETR), Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 2(4), October.
    2. Graham, John R. & Harvey, Campbell R., 2001. "The theory and practice of corporate finance: evidence from the field," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(2-3), pages 187-243, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Brown, Lawrence D. & Call, Andrew C. & Clement, Michael B. & Sharp, Nathan Y., 2016. "The activities of buy-side analysts and the determinants of their stock recommendations," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 139-156.
    2. Frank D. Hodge & Roger D. Martin & Jamie H. Pratt, 2006. "Audit Qualifications of Income†Decreasing Accounting Choices," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 23(2), pages 369-394, June.
    3. Frank, Murray Z. & Shen, Tao, 2019. "Corporate capital structure actions," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 384-402.
    4. Frank, Murray Z. & Nezafat, Mahdi, 2019. "Testing the credit-market-timing hypothesis using counterfactual issuing dates," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 187-207.
    5. Loncarski, I. & Ter Horst, J.R. & Veld, C.H., 2006. "Why do Companies issue Convertible Bond Loans? An Empirical Analysis for the Canadian Market," Discussion Paper 2006-65, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    6. Fogel, Kathy & Jandik, Tomas & McCumber, William R., 2018. "CFO social capital and private debt," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 28-52.
    7. Huang, Yong & Uchida, Konari & Zha, Daolin, 2016. "Market timing of seasoned equity offerings with long regulative process," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 278-294.
    8. Ingolf Dittmann & Christian Weiner, 2005. "Selecting Comparables for the Valuation of European Firms," SFB 649 Discussion Papers SFB649DP2005-002, Sonderforschungsbereich 649, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany.
    9. Wei-Chuan Kao, 2018. "Innovation quality of firms with the research and development tax credit," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 51(1), pages 43-78, July.
    10. Melvin Jameson & Tao‐Hsien Dolly King & Andrew Prevost, 2021. "Top management incentives and financial flexibility: The case of make‐whole call provisions," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(1-2), pages 374-404, January.
    11. Jan Hendrik Fisch & Bjoern Schmeisser, 2020. "Phasing the operation mode of foreign subsidiaries: Reaping the benefits of multinationality through internal capital markets," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 51(8), pages 1223-1255, October.
    12. Felipe Filgueiras, Elias Cavalcante-Filho, Rodrigo de Losso, José Roberto Savoia, 2019. "Law Change in a Regulated Sector Impacts Other Regulated Sectors: Evidence from Brazil," Working Papers, Department of Economics 2019_27, University of São Paulo (FEA-USP).
    13. YV Reddy, 2012. "Summary of the discussion," BIS Papers chapters, in: Bank for International Settlements (ed.), Financial sector regulation for growth, equity and stability, volume 62, pages 39-40, Bank for International Settlements.
    14. Stephen Terry & Anastasia Zakolyukina & Toni Whited, 2018. "Information Distortion, R&D, and Growth," 2018 Meeting Papers 217, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    15. Francis, Bill B. & Hasan, Iftekhar & Hunter, Delroy M. & Zhu, Yun, 2017. "Do managerial risk-taking incentives influence firms' exchange rate exposure?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 154-169.
    16. ManYing Kang & Marcel Ausloos, 2017. "An Inverse Problem Study: Credit Risk Ratings as a Determinant of Corporate Governance and Capital Structure in Emerging Markets: Evidence from Chinese Listed Companies," Economies, MDPI, vol. 5(4), pages 1-23, November.
    17. Ulrike Malmendier & Vincenzo Pezone & Hui Zheng, 2023. "Managerial Duties and Managerial Biases," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(6), pages 3174-3201, June.
    18. Zabolotnyy, Serihiy & Wasilewski, Mirosław, 2018. "Operating and financial leverage as risk measures in agricultural companies," Problems of Agricultural Economics / Zagadnienia Ekonomiki Rolnej 276377, Institute of Agricultural and Food Economics - National Research Institute (IAFE-NRI).
    19. Alexandridis, George & Kavussanos, Manolis G. & Kim, Chi Y. & Tsouknidis, Dimitris A. & Visvikis, Ilias D., 2018. "A survey of shipping finance research: Setting the future research agenda," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 164-212.
    20. Ayyagari, Meghana & Demirguc-Kunt, Asli & Maksimovic, Vojislav, 2014. "Does local financial development matter for firm lifecycle in India ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7008, The World Bank.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:aaeatr:320048. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aaeaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.