As of today (2024-05-25), Piedmont Natural Gas Co's weighted average cost of capital is 8.51%%. Piedmont Natural Gas Co's ROIC % is 0.00% (calculated using TTM income statement data).
Piedmont Natural Gas Co earns returns that do not match up to its cost of capital. It will destroy value as it grows.
*Note: The beta of this company cannot be obtained because it has a price history shorter than 3 years. It will thus be set to 1 as default to calculate WACC.
For a comprehensive WACC calculation, please access the WACC Calculator.
* For Operating Data section: All numbers are indicated by the unit behind each term and all currency related amount are in USD. * For other sections: All numbers are in millions except for per share data, ratio, and percentage. All currency related amount are indicated in the company's associated stock exchange currency.
Competitive Comparison of Piedmont Natural Gas Co's WACC %
For the Utilities - Regulated Gas subindustry, Piedmont Natural Gas Co's WACC %, along with its competitors' market caps and WACC % data, can be viewed below:
* Competitive companies are chosen from companies within the same industry, with headquarter located in same country, with closest market capitalization; x-axis shows the market cap, and y-axis shows the term value; the bigger the dot, the larger the market cap. Note that "N/A" values will not show up in the chart.
Piedmont Natural Gas Co's WACC % Distribution in the Utilities - Regulated Industry
For the Utilities - Regulated industry and Utilities sector, Piedmont Natural Gas Co's WACC % distribution charts can be found below:
* The bar in red indicates where Piedmont Natural Gas Co's WACC % falls into.
Piedmont Natural Gas Co WACC % Calculation
The weighted average cost of capital (WACC) is the rate that a company is expected to pay on average to all its security holders to finance its assets. The WACC is commonly referred to as the firm's cost of capital. Generally speaking, a company's assets are financed by debt and equity. WACC is the average of the costs of these sources of financing, each of which is weighted by its respective use in the given situation. By taking a weighted average, we can see how much interest the company has to pay for every dollar it finances.
WACC
=
E
/
(E + D)
*
Cost of Equity
+
D
/
(E + D)
*
Cost of Debt
*
(1 - Tax Rate)
1. Weights:
Generally speaking, a company's assets are financed by debt and equity. We need to calculate the weight of equity and the weight of debt.
The market value of equity (E) is also called "Market Cap". As of today, Piedmont Natural Gas Co's market capitalization (E) is $4988.780 Mil.
The market value of debt is typically difficult to calculate, therefore, GuruFocus uses book value of debt (D) to do the calculation. It is simplified by adding the latest one-year quarterly average Short-Term Debt & Capital Lease Obligation and Long-Term Debt & Capital Lease Obligation together. As of Jul. 2016, Piedmont Natural Gas Co's latest one-year quarterly average Book Value of Debt (D) is $1954.464 Mil.
a) weight of equity = E / (E + D) = 4988.780 / (4988.780 + 1954.464) = 0.7185
b) weight of debt = D / (E + D) = 1954.464 / (4988.780 + 1954.464) = 0.2815
2. Cost of Equity:
GuruFocus uses Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) to calculate the required rate of return. The formula is:
Cost of Equity = Risk-Free Rate of Return + Beta of Asset * (Expected Return of the Market - Risk-Free Rate of Return)
a) GuruFocus uses 10-Year Treasury Constant Maturity Rate as the risk-free rate. It is updated daily. The current risk-free rate is 4.467%. Please go to Economic Indicators page for more information. Please note that we use the 10-Year Treasury Constant Maturity Rate of the country/region where the company is headquartered. If the data for that country/region is not available, then we will use the 10-Year Treasury Constant Maturity Rate of the United States as default.
b) Beta is the sensitivity of the expected excess asset returns to the expected excess market returns. Piedmont Natural Gas Co's beta cannot be obtained because it has a price history shorter than 3 years. It will thus be set to 1 as default to calculate WACC.
c) (Expected Return of the Market - Risk-Free Rate of Return) is also called market premium. GuruFocus requires market premium to be 6%.
Cost of Equity = 4.467% + 1 * 6% = 10.467%
3. Cost of Debt:
GuruFocus uses latest TTM Interest Expense divided by the latest one-year quarterly average debt to get the simplified cost of debt.
As of Jul. 2016, Piedmont Natural Gas Co's interest expense (positive number) was $70.601 Mil. Its total Book Value of Debt (D) is $1954.464 Mil.
Cost of Debt = 70.601 / 1954.464 = 3.6123%.
4. Multiply by one minus TTM Tax Rate:
GuruFocus uses the most recent TTM Tax Expense divided by the most recent TTM Pre-Tax Income to calculate the tax rate. The calculated TTM tax rate is limited to between 0% and 100%. If the calculated tax rate is higher than 100%, it is set to 100%. If the calculated tax rate is less than 0%, it is set to 0%.
The latest calculated TTM Tax Rate = 3.887 / 144.27 = 2.69%.
Piedmont Natural Gas Co's Weighted Average Cost Of Capital (WACC) for Today is calculated as:
WACC
=
E / (E + D)
*
Cost of Equity
+
D / (E + D)
*
Cost of Debt
*
(1 - Tax Rate)
=
0.7185
*
10.467%
+
0.2815
*
3.6123%
*
(1 - 2.69%)
=
8.51%
* For Operating Data section: All numbers are indicated by the unit behind each term and all currency related amount are in USD. * For other sections: All numbers are in millions except for per share data, ratio, and percentage. All currency related amount are indicated in the company's associated stock exchange currency.
Piedmont Natural Gas Co (NYSE:PNY) WACC % Explanation
Because it costs money to raise capital. A firm that generates higher ROIC % than it costs the company to raise the capital needed for that investment is earning excess returns. A firm that expects to continue generating positive excess returns on new investments in the future will see its value increase as growth increases, whereas a firm that earns returns that do not match up to its cost of capital will destroy value as it grows.
As of today, Piedmont Natural Gas Co's weighted average cost of capital is 8.51%%. Piedmont Natural Gas Co's ROIC % is 0.00% (calculated using TTM income statement data).
Piedmont Natural Gas Co earns returns that do not match up to its cost of capital. It will destroy value as it grows.
*Note: The beta of this company cannot be obtained because it has a price history shorter than 3 years. It will thus be set to 1 as default to calculate WACC.
Be Aware
1. GuruFocus uses book value of debt (D) to do the calculation. It is simplified by adding latest one-year quarterly average Short-Term Debt & Capital Lease Obligation and Long-Term Debt & Capital Lease Obligation together.
For companies that report quarterly, GuruFocus combines all of the most recent year's quarterly debt data from the beginning of the year to the year-end and calculates the average.
For companies that report semi-annually, GuruFocus combines all of the most recent year's semi-annual debt data from the start of the year to the year-end and calculates the average.
For companies that report annually, GuruFocus combines the beginning and ending annual debt data from the most recent year and then calculates the average.
2. The WACC formula discussed above does not include Preferred Stock. Please adjust if preferred stock is considered.
3. (Expected Return of the Market - Risk-Free Rate of Return) is also called market premium. GuruFocus requires market premium to be 6%.
4. GuruFocus uses the latest TTM Interest Expense divided by the latest one-year quarterly average debt to get the simplified cost of debt.
Related Terms
Piedmont Natural Gas Co (Piedmont Natural Gas Co) Business Description
Piedmont Natural Gas Co Inc was incorporated in New York in 1950 and began operations in 1951. In 1994, it merged into a newly formed North Carolina corporation with the same name for the purpose of changing its state of incorporation to North Carolina. The Company is an energy services company whose business is distribution of natural gas to residential, commercial, industrial and power generation clients in portions of North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, including customers served by municipalities who are its wholesale customers. The Company is invested in joint venture, energy-related businesses, including unregulated retail natural gas marketing, regulated interstate natural gas transportation and storage and regulated intrastate natural gas transportation. It provides service from resource centers in Anderson, Greenville and Spartanburg in South Carolina and Charlotte, Salisbury, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, High Point, Burlington, Hickory, Indian Trail, Spruce Pine, Reidsville, Fayetteville, New Bern, Wilmington, Tarboro, Elizabeth City, Rockingham and Goldsboro in North Carolina. In North Carolina, it also provides natural gas service to Greenville, Rocky Mount and Wilson. In Tennessee, its service area is the metropolitan area of Nashville, including wholesale natural gas service to Gallatin and Smyrna. The Company has three reportable business segments, regulated utility, regulated non-utility activities and unregulated non-utility activities. The regulated utility segment includes operating a safe and reliable natural gas distribution system and the ability to recover the costs and expenses of the business in the rates charged to customers. The regulated non-utility activities segment consists of equity method investments in regulated energy-related joint ventures that are held by the Company's wholly-owned subsidiaries. The unregulated non-utility activities segment consists of its equity method investment in an unregulated energy-related joint venture that is held by a wholly-owned subsidiary. The regulated utility competes with other energy products, such as electricity and propane, in the residential and commercial customer markets. Natural gas for power generation competes with other fuel sources for the generation of electricity, including coal, nuclear and renewable resources. Additionally, as with industrial customers, the Company competes with other pipeline providers to serve the power generation plants.
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