It was generally accepted that the weighted average cost of capital (WACC) for a company reflected an appropriate hurdle rate (minimum return or benchmark) for that company’s investments. But a WACC for Langtry Falls could not be calculated because the company did not have publicly traded stock, a critical source of one input to the calculation. However, the benchmark for publicly traded competing companies would be meaningful to Langtry—these companies were facing the same underlying risks and competing under the same economic conditions. An average of the industry WACCs would be a defensible and informative benchmark for Langtry.