Weighted Average Cost of Capital

Weighted average cost of capital (WACC)

Expected return on a portfolio of all a firm's securities. Used as a hurdle rate for capital investment. Often the weighted average of the cost of equity and the cost of debt The weights are determined by the relative proportions of equity and debt in a firm's capital structure.

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Weighted Average Cost of Capital

A calculation of a company's cost of capital in which every source of capital is weighted in proportion to how much capital it contributes to the company. For example, if 75% of a company's capital comes from stock and 25% comes from debt, measuring the cost of capital weights these accordingly. A high WACC indicates that a company is spending a comparatively large amount of money in order to raise capital, which means that the company may be risky. On the other hand, a low WACC indicates that the company acquires capital cheaply.