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Single Period Dividend Discount Model
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The dividend discount model also has its fair share of criticism. While some have hailed it as being indisputable and being not subjective, recent academicians and practitioners have come up with arguments that make you believe the exact opposite. Recent studies have unearthed some glaring flaws in what was considered to be a perfect valuation […]
We have seen that a perpetuity represents an infinite stream of future cash flows. However, we have also seen that as time passes the value of these cash flows constantly diminishes. $100 may be able to buy us quite a few goods today, but in 50 years time $100 will not be nearly as valuable as it is today. It is for this reason that receiving infinite payments is not enough. The payments must also keep growing at a certain rate. This will ensure that they are not considerable behind inflation. This is the idea behind a growing perpetuity. The same has been explained in detail in this article:
As already stated, a growing perpetuity involves payments that do not remain fixed. Instead these payments keep on growing at the same constant rate of growth. So, if the rate of growth of the payments is 7%, each payment will be 7% more than the payment received before it.
The present value of a growing perpetuity can be derived from a complex mathematical calculation. This is because a growing perpetuity is also an infinite series which has a finite sum. For our purposes, we can just remember the formula required for our calculation.
Present Value (Growing Perpetuity) = D / (R - G)
Where:
D = Expected cash flow in period 1
R = Expected rate of return
G = Rate of growth of perpetuity payments
However, we need to understand that for this formula to hold true, G must always be greater than R. If G is less than R or equal to R, the formula does not hold true. This is because, the stream of payments will cease to be an infinitely decreasing series of numbers that have a finite sum.
Examples:
Growing perpetuities are found in a variety of places in our daily lives. Some of them have been mentioned below:
The growing perpetuity, thus assumes that we will lose a small amount of the real value of money every year. Just like the perpetuity, a growing perpetuity can only be summed up because the series is infinitely decreasing. The growing perpetuity assumes that we will lose the real value of money at a slower rate as compared to an ordinary perpetuity.
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