Weighted Average Cost of Capital

加权平均资本成本

 

By MARSHALL HARGRAVE 

Updated October 31, 2023

Reviewed by DAVID KINDNESS

Fact checked by SUZANNE KVILHAUG

作者：MARSHALL HARGRAVE

更新时间：2023年10月31日

审阅人：DAVID KINDNESS

事实核查人：SUZANNE KVILHAUG

 

What Is Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC)?

什么是加权平均资本成本（WACC）？

 

Weighted average cost of capital (WACC) represents a company's average after-tax cost of capital from all sources, including common stock, preferred stock, bonds, and other forms of debt. As such, WACC is the average rate that a company expects to pay to finance its business.

加权平均资本成本（WACC）指公司所有来源（包括普通股、优先股、债券和其他形式的债务）的资本的平均税后成本。因此，加权平均资本成本为公司预计为业务融资支付的平均利率。

 

WACC is a common way to determine required rate of return (RRR) because it expresses, in a single number, the return that bondholders and shareholders demand to provide the company with capital. A company's WACC is likely to be higher if its stock is relatively volatile or if its debt is seen as risky, because investors will want greater returns to compensate them. 

加权平均资本成本是确定必要收益率的常用方法，因为它通过一个数字体现了债券持有人和股东向公司提供资本时所要求的回报。如果一家公司的股价相对容易波动或如果其债务被视为存在风险，则这家公司的加权平均资本成本可能会更高，因为投资者会希望获得更多的回报作为补偿。

 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

文章要点

Weighted average cost of capital (WACC) represents a company's cost of capital, with each category of capital (debt and equity) proportionately weighted.

加权平均资本成本（WACC）指公司的资本成本（每类资本（债务和股本）按比例加权）。

WACC can be calculated by multiplying the cost of each capital source by its relevant weight in terms of market value, then adding the results together to determine the total.

加权平均资本成本的计算方法为将每一资本来源的成本乘以其就市值而言的相对权重，然后加总。

WACC is commonly used as a hurdle rate against which companies and investors can gauge the desirability of a given project or acquisition.

加权平均资本成本通常被用作最低预期回报率，公司和投资者可以根据它来衡量特定项目或收购的可取性。

WACC is also used as the discount rate for future cash flows in discounted cash flow analysis.

在贴现现金流量分析中，加权平均资本成本也可以被用作未来现金流量的贴现率。

 

Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC)

加权平均资本成本（WACC）

 

Understanding WACC

了解加权平均资本成本

 

Calculating a company's WACC is useful for investors and stock analysts, as well company management, although they may use it for different purposes.

计算一家公司的加权平均资本对投资者、股票分析师以及公司管理层来说都很有用，尽管他们的使用目的各不相同。

 

In corporate finance, determining a company's cost of capital can be important for a couple of reasons. For instance, WACC can be used as the discount rate for estimating the net present value of a project or acquisition.

在公司融资中，确定公司的资本成本很重要，原因诸多，例如，加权平均资本可以用作贴现率，以估计项目或收购的净现值。

 

If the company believes that a merger, for example, will generate a return higher than its cost of capital, then it's likely a good choice for the company. However, if it anticipates a return lower than its investors are expecting, then it might want to put its capital to better use.

例如，如果公司认为并购将产生高于其资本成本的回报，那么并购对于公司来说就是一个好的选择。然而，如果它预计回报将低于投资者的预期，那么它可能希望更好地利用资本。

 

To investors, WACC is an important tool in assessing a company's potential for profitability. In most cases, a lower WACC indicates a healthy business that's able to attract money from investors at a lower cost. By contrast, a higher WACC usually coincides with businesses that are seen as riskier and need to compensate investors with higher returns. 

对投资者来说，加权平均资本是评估公司盈利潜力的重要工具。在大多数情况下，较低的加权平均资本表明一个健康的企业能够以较低的成本吸引投资者的资金。相比之下，较高的加权平均资本通常与被视为风险更高、需要以更高回报补偿投资者的业务相吻合。

 

If a company only obtains financing through one source—say, common stock—then calculating its cost of capital would be relatively simple. If investors expected a rate of return (RoR) of 10% on their shares, the company's cost of capital would be the same as its cost of equity: 10%. 

如果一家公司只通过一个来源获得融资——比如普通股——那么计算其资本成本就相对简单了。如果投资者预期他们股票的回报率（RoR）为10%，那么公司的资本成本将与其权益成本相同：10%。

 

The same would be true if the company only used debt financing. For example, if the company paid an average yield of 5% on its bonds, its cost of debt would be 5%. This is also its cost of capital.

如果该公司只使用债务融资，情况也是如此。例如，如果公司为其债券支付5%的平均收益率，其债务成本将为5%。这也是它的资本成本。

 

 

However many companies use both debt and equity financing in various proportions, which is where WACC comes in.

然而，许多公司会同时以不同的比例使用债务和股本融资，这时就需要计算加权平均资本成本了。

 

WACC Formula and Calculation

加权平均资本成本计算公式

 

where:

其中：

E=Market value of the firm’s equity

E=公司股本市值

D=Market value of the firm’s debt

D=公司债务市值

V=E+D

Re=Cost of equity

Re=股本成本

Rd=Cost of debt

Rd=债务成本

Tc=Corporate tax rate

Tc=公司税率

​

WACC is calculated by multiplying the cost of each capital source (debt and equity) by its relevant weight and then adding those results together. In the above formula, E/V represents the proportion of equity-based financing, while D/V represents the proportion of debt-based financing.

加权平均资本成本的计算方法是将每个资本来源（债务和股本）的成本乘以其相关权重，然后将这些结果相加。在上面的公式中，E/V代表股本融资的比例，而D/V代表债务融资的比例。

The WACC formula thus involves the summation of two terms:

因此，WACC公式涉及两项之和：

 

The former represents the weighted value of equity capital, while the latter represents the weighted value of debt capital.

前者代表股本资本的加权值，后者代表债务资本的加权值。

 

Suppose that a company obtained $1 million in debt financing and $4 million in equity financing by selling common shares. E/V would equal 0.8 ($4,000,000 ÷ $5,000,000 of total capital) and D/V would equal 0.2 ($1,000,000 ÷ $5,000,000 of total capital). 

假设一家公司通过出售普通股获得了100万美元的债务融资和400万美元的股本融资。E/V等于0.8（400万美元÷ 500万美元总资本），D/V等于0.2（100万美元÷ 500万美元总资本）。

 

Note

注

WACC can be calculated using Excel. The biggest challenge is sourcing the correct data to plug into the model. See Investopedia's explanation of how to calculate WACC in Excel.

加权平均资本成本可以使用Excel计算。最大的挑战在于获得准确的数据应用于模型。请看投资百科有关如何使用Excel计算加权平均资本成本的解释。

 

Explaining the Formula Elements

解释公式的组成部分

 

Cost of equity (Re in the formula) can be a bit tricky to calculate because share capital does not technically have an explicit value. When companies reimburse bondholders, the amount they pay has a predetermined interest rate. On the other hand, equity has no concrete price that the company must pay. As a result, companies have to estimate the cost of equity—in other words, the rate of return that investors demand based on the expected volatility of the stock.

股本成本（公式中的Re）的计算可能有点棘手，因为股本在技术上并没有明确的价值。当公司偿还债券持有人时，他们支付的金额有一个预定的利率。另一方面，股本没有公司必须支付的具体价格。因此，公司必须估计股本成本——换句话说，即投资者根据股票的预期波动性要求的回报率。

 

Because shareholders will expect to receive a certain return on their investment in a company, the equity holders' required rate of return is a cost from the company's perspective; if the company fails to deliver this expected return, shareholders may simply sell their shares, which can lead to a decrease in both share price and the company's value. The cost of equity, then, is essentially the total return that a company must generate to maintain a share price that will satisfy its investors.

由于股东期望从他们对一家公司的投资中获得一定的回报，所以从公司的角度来看，股权持有人要求的回报率是一种成本；如果公司未能实现这一预期回报，股东可能会直接出售他们的股票，这可能会导致股价和公司价值的下降。因此，股本成本实质上是一家公司为了维持一个令投资者满意的股价而必须创造的总回报。

 

Companies typically use the capital asset pricing model (CAPM) to arrive at the cost of equity (in CAPM, it's called the expected return of investment). Again, this is not an exact calculation because companies have to lean on historical data, which can never accurately predict future growth.

公司一般使用资本资产定价模型（CAPM）来计算权益成本（在CAPM中，它被称为预期投资回报率）。同样，这并非精确的计算，因为公司不得不依赖历史数据，而历史数据永远都无法准确预测未来的发展。

 

Determining cost of debt (Rd in the formula), on the other hand, is a more straightforward process. This is often done by averaging the yield to maturity for a company's outstanding debts. This method is easier if you're looking at a publicly traded company that has to report its debt obligations.

另一方面，确定债务成本（公式中的Rd）则是一个更简单的过程。通常可以通过计算公司未偿债务的到期收益率的平均值来实现。如果公司为必须报告其债务的上市公司，那么这一方法将更为简单。

 

For privately owned companies, one can look at the company's credit rating from firms such as Moody's and S&P Global and then add a relevant spread over risk-free assets (for example, Treasury bonds of the same maturity) to approximate the return that investors would demand.

对于私有公司，人们可以查看穆迪（Moody’s）和标普全球（S&P Global）等公司对该公司的信用评级，然后加上无风险资产（例如，相同期限的国债）的相关利差，以得出投资者要求的大概回报。

 

Businesses are able to deduct interest expenses from their taxes.

企业可以从其税费中扣除利息支出。

 

Because of this, the net cost of a company's debt is the amount of interest it is paying minus the amount it was able to deduct on its taxes. This is why Rd x (1 - the corporate tax rate) is used to calculate the after-tax cost of debt.

有鉴于此，公司债务的净成本为其支付的利息金额减去其能够从税费中扣除的金额。这就是为什么Rd x（1-公司税率）被用于计算债务的税后成本。

 

Limitations of WACC

加权平均资本成本的局限性

 

The WACC formula seems easier to calculate than it really is. Because certain elements of the formula, such as the cost of equity, are not consistent values, various parties may report them differently for different reasons. As such, although WACC can often offer valuable insight into a company, one should always use it along with other metrics in deciding whether to invest.

加权平均资本成本公式看起来简单，但实际并非如此。因为这一公式的部分组成部分，如权益成本，并非一致的值，各方可能出于不同的原因报告不同的值。因此，尽管加权平均资本成本通常可以提供对一家公司富有洞察力的见解，但在决定是否对一家公司进行投资时，投资者还应结合其他指标。

 

 

What Is a Good Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC)?

加权平均资本成本的值在多少算好

 

What represents a "good" weighted average cost of capital will vary from company to company, depending on such factors as whether it is an established business or a startup, its capital structure, and the industry in which it operates. One way to judge a company's WACC is to compare it to the average for its industry or sector. For example, according to Kroll research, the WACC for companies in the consumer staples sector was 8.4%, on average, in June 2023, while it was 11.4% in the information technology sector.

“好的”加权平均资本成本值因公司而异，取决于公司是一家成熟的企业还是初创企业、公司的资本结构以及公司所在行业。判断一家公司的加权平均资本成本的一种方法是将其与行业或部门的平均值进行比较。例如，根据Kroll research，消费品行业公司的加权平均资本成本为8.4%，而信息科技行业的加权平均资本成本则为11.4%。

 

The Bottom Line

关键信息

 

Weighted average cost of capital (WACC) is a useful measure for both investors and company executives. However, it can be difficult to compute with accuracy and usually should not be relied on all by itself.

加权平均资本成本对于投资者和公司高管而言都是一个有用的衡量标准。但是，它很难准确计算，且并不能作为唯一的衡量标准。