An Analysis of Contrarian Investment Strategies in the UK

The performance of contrarian, or value strategies – those that invest in stocks that have low market value relative to a measure of their fundamentals – continues to attract attention from researchers and practitioners alike. While there is much extant evidence on the profitability of value strategies, however, most of this evidence pertains to the US. In this paper, we provide a detailed characterisation of value strategies using data on UK stocks for the period 1975 to 1998. We first undertake simple one-way and two-way classifications of stocks in which value is defined using both past performance and expected future performance. Using sales growth as a proxy for past performance and book-to-market, earnings yield and cash flow yield as measures of expected future performance, we find that that stocks that have both poor past performance and low expected future performance have significantly higher returns than those that have either good past performance or good expected future performance. Allowing for size effects in returns reduces the value premium but it nevertheless remains significant. We go on to explore whether the profitability of value strategies in the UK can be explained using the three factor model of Fama and French (1996). Broadly consistent with the results for the US, we find that using the one-way classification the excess returns to almost all value strategies can be explained by their loading on the market, book-to-market and size factors. However, in contrast with the US, using the two-way classification there are excess returns to value strategies based on book-to-market and sales growth, even after controlling for their loading on the market, book-to-market and size factors.     

Contrarian Investment Strategies in a European Context

In this paper we study value strategies for four European countries (France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom). We find an outperformance for all four value variables which are investigated: the earnings-to-price (E/P) ratio, the cash-flow-to-price (CF/P) ratio, the book-to-market (B/M) ratio and the dividend yield. This outperformance is especially remarkable for the CF/P ratio, which amounts to 20.8% between the top and bottom quintiles in a univariate model. In a regression analysis, in which all four value variables as well as a correction for the size effect are taken into account, we find a difference of 11.8% for the CF/P ratio. We demonstrate that this result cannot be explained by risk differences alone. Our findings confirm the outperformance of value strategies as found earlier by Chan, Hamao and Lakonishok (1991) and Lakonishok, Shleifer and Vishny (1994) for Japan and the United States respectively.     

Contrarian Investing in a Small Capitalization Market: Evidence from New Zealand

This paper investigates the performance of accounting–based contrarian investment strategies in the New Zealand market. The return patterns of these strategies are then related to risk–based and behavioral–based explanations of the contrarian anomaly. Based on our analysis of the risk–return characteristics of the various strategies, we attribute the first year underperformance and second year outperformance of the value portfolios to expectational errors caused by noise trading in the relatively illiquid New Zealand market. The longer two–year correction process is in contrast to the much larger and more developed U.S. and Japanese markets, where value stock price corrections have been found to occur more rapidly. This provides support for the conjecture that longer horizons are required for value strategies to pay off in imperfectly competitive markets than in competitive markets.     

Economic Risk Factors and Commercial Real Estate Returns

A great deal of research has focused on the links between stock and bond market returns and macroeconomic events such as fluctuations in interest rates, inflation rates, and industrial production. Although the comovements of real estate and other asset prices suggests that these same systematic risk factors are likely to be priced in real estate markets, no study has formally addressed this issue. This study identifies the growth rate in real per capita consumption, the real T-bill rate, the term structure of interest rates, and unexpected inflation as fundamental drivers or state variables that systematically affect real estate returns. The finding of a consistently significant risk premium on consumption has important ramifications for the vast literature that has examined the (risk-adjusted) performance of real estate, for it suggests that prior findings of significant abnormal returns (either positive or negative) that have ignored consumption are potentially biased by an omitted variables problem. The results also have important implications for dynamic asset allocation strategies that involve the predictability of real estate returns using economic data.     

Downside beta and the cross section of equity returns: A decade later

This study reexamines the relation between downside beta and equity returns in the United States. First, we replicate the 2006 work of Ang, Chen, and Xing who find a positive relation between downside beta and future equity returns for equal‐weighted portfolios of NYSE stocks. We show that this relation doesn't hold after using value‐weighted returns or controlling for various return determinants. We also extend the original sample, add AMEX/NASDAQ stocks or utilize alternative downside beta measures and still find no downside risk premium. We focus on factor analysis results, persistence of downside beta, and various subsamples to understand the economic reasons behind the findings.     

Corporate Governance and Expected Stock Returns: Evidence from Germany

Recent empirical work shows evidence for higher valuation of firms in countries with a better legal environment. We investigate whether differences in the quality of firm‐level corporate governance also help to explain firm performance in a cross‐section of companies within a single jurisdiction. Constructing a broad corporate governance rating (CGR) for German public firms, we document a positive relationship between governance practices and firm valuation. There is also evidence that expected stock returns are negatively correlated with firm‐level corporate governance, if dividend yields are used as proxies for the cost of capital. An investment strategy that bought high‐CGR firms and shorted low‐CGR firms earned abnormal returns of around 12% on an annual basis during the sample period.     

Contrarian and Momentum Strategies in the Spanish Stock Market

There is extensive international evidence that the momentum strategy yields positive abnormal returns when short–term periods are considered, whereas the contrarian strategy is effective for long–term periods. However, this topic has received scarce attention in the Spanish stock market. We show that these two phenomena seem to be present in this market, and in particular that the 12–month momentum strategy and the 60–month contrarian strategy yield positive abnormal returns, although the effectiveness of the contrarian strategy is under suspicion when non–overlapping test periods are used. Our study therefore provides additional evidence that the results obtained in the literature on this topic are not from data snooping.     

股票的权益比、账面市值比及其公司规模与股票投资风险——以上海证券市场的10只上市公司股票投资风险为例

最近20年来一些学者对CAPM理论模型检验的结果大都表明,股票的投资风险(或其收益)并非像该模型描述的那样由β系数唯一决定,还存在其他因素在股票投资风险中起影响作用。国内学者借助于横截面法的回归模型研究指出,股票的权益比率(D/E)、账面/市值价值比(BV/MV)与公司规模是决定股票投资风险除β系数外的三个主要经济变量。为了验证他们理论的正确性与精确性,该文率先运用模糊数学的聚类分析法,对上证市场随机选取10只样本股票的D/E、BV/MV、公司规模与股票投资风险相关性进行实证分析,并与用回归分析方法得到的β指数与风险关系进行比较研究。经研究进一步证实,股票投资风险并非唯一由β系数决定,股票的D/E、BV/MV及其公司规模应当成为β系数以外影响股票投资风险不可忽视的重要因素。本文研究的意义在于建议股票投资者,衡量股票投资风险不仅要考察股票的β系数,还应进一步考察股票的D/E、BV/MV和公司规模等。     

Equity Fund Performance Persistence with Investment Style: Evidence from Korea

Using a comprehensive database on equity funds in Korea, we investigate the performance and performance persistence with investment style employing the Fama and French three-factor model and the Carhart four-factor model. The paper finds that most investment styles in Korea noticeably outperform the passive benchmarks. In addition, positive performance persistence is observed among funds investing in large-cap stocks and stocks of high past performance. Finally, outperformance and positive performance persistence of equity funds are still present in various ranking and postranking horizons. These empirical findings are in sharp contrast with results from earlier studies on markets in developed countries, such as the United States.     

Default Risk, Asset Pricing, and Debt Control

The pricing and control of firms’ debt has become a majorissue since Merton’s (1974) seminal article. Yet Mertonas well as other recent theories presume that the asset valueof the firm is independent of the debt of the firm. However,when using debt finance, firms may have to pay a premium foran idiosyncratic default risk and may face debt constraints.We demonstrate that firm-specific debt constraints and endogenousrisk premia, based on collateralized borrowing, affect the assetvalue of the firm and, in turn, the collateral value of thefirm. In order to explore the interdependence of debt financeand asset pricing of firms, we endogenize default premia andborrowing constraints in a production-based asset pricing model.In this context then the dynamic decision problem of maximizingthe present value of the firm faces an additional constraintgiving rise to the debt-dependent firm value. We solve for theasset value of the firm with debt finance by the use of numericaldynamic programming. This allows us to solve the debt controlproblem and to compute sustainable debt as well as the firm’sdebt value.     

Profitability,Value, and Stock Returns in Production‐Based Asset Pricing without Frictions

In a production‐based asset pricing model without adjustment costs and with decreasing returns to scale following Brock (1982), stock returns at the firm level are determined by profitability, the book‐to‐market ratio, and the change in future profitability prospects. Although firms with low book‐to‐market ratios are normally more profitable and profitable firms are predicted to have higher returns, the stylized fact that book‐to‐market ratios positively forecast returns still holds theoretically, but with specific predicted exceptions. These implications are confirmed empirically.     

投资项目风险、外部性与投资资本内部定价

从业绩评价角度,以委托代理理论作为分析工具,研究投资项目风险、外部性对投资资本内部定价的影响。研究结论表明:投资资本的最优内部"价格"与用于决策的企业资本成本一般不同,投资项目风险、外部性对其有重要影响;当平均投资收益率等于边际投资收益率时,只有投资项目风险对投资资本内部定价有影响;投资失败的赔偿制相比有限责任制,会减弱投资项目风险和外部性对投资资本"定价"的影响。这一研究为正确地制定投资资本的内部价格和合理地评价投资业绩提供了理论基础。     

人力资本投资:风险与风险规避

自美国经济学家发现人力资本对经济发展的巨大贡献以来,人们的注意力主要集中于阐述人力资本投资的高收益性,而人力资本投资的风险性却很少被论及。实现有效的人力资本投资,必须建立在充分认识人力资本投资特点的基础上,而规避人力资本投资风险的根本途径是明晰人力资本产权和建立人力资本市场。     

波动率风险及风险价格——来自中国A股市场的证据

本文应用Fama-Macbeth估计方法,以1997年2月至2009年6月中国A股股票为样本,考察股票市场波动率风险及其风险价格的特征。研究表明:波动率风险是一个显著的横截面定价因子,其风险价格为负,该结论不受流动性及市场偏度因子、待检资产改变、波动率模型设定的影响;在资产定价模型中引入波动率风险因子有利于解释规模效应和账面市值比效应异象。波动率的风险因子可以涵盖部分宏观经济变量的定价信息,规模因子是波动率风险因子的代理变量。     

股权激励对上市公司的影响及投资策略分析

本文探讨了我国上市公司实施股权激励的环境条件，分析了股权激励对管理层、股东影响的内在机制，分析了实施股权激励对上市公司价值和业绩的影响。对股权激励类上市公司上涨因素的定量化分析显示，其上涨与公司现有的各项财务指标没有必然联系，而与公司的市场地位、行业发展趋势和关联交易之间存在明显的关系。本文认为，我国上市公司已基本具备实施股权激励的环境条件，实施股权激励有利于解决管理层和股东利益一致性问题，通过价值转移和价值创造，持续、有效地促进上市公司价值和业绩的提高，从而有效推动上市公司股价的上升，给投资者以强有力的信心和巨大的投资机会。     

Contrarian Investment,Extrapolation, and Risk

For many years, scholars and investment professionals have argued that value strategies outperform the market. These value strategies call for buying stocks that have low prices relative to earnings, dividends, book assets, or other measures of fundamental value. While there is some agreement that value strategies produce higher returns, the interpretation of why they do so is more controversial. This article provides evidence that value strategies yield higher returns because these strategies exploit the suboptimal behavior of the typical investor and not because these strategies are fundamentally riskier.     

Conditional Equity Premium and Aggregate Corporate Investment

We document a strong negative relation between aggregate corporate investment and conditional equity premium estimated from direct stock market risk measures. Consistent with the investment-based asset pricing model, the comovement with conditional equity premium fully accounts for aggregate investment's market return predictive power. Similarly, conditional equity premium is a significant determinant of classic Tobin's q measure, although q has much weaker explanatory power for aggregate investment possibly because of its measurement errors. Moreover, the positive relation between aggregate investment and investor sentiment documented in previous studies reflects the fact that both variables correlate closely with conditional equity premium.     

An International Asset Pricing Model with Time-Varying Hedging Risk

This paper employs a two-factor international equilibrium asset pricing model to examine the pricing relationships among the world's five largest equity markets. In addition to the traditional market factor premium, a hedging factor premium is included as the second factor to explain the relationship between risks and returns in the international stock markets. Moreover, a GARCH parameterization is adopted to characterize the general dynamics of the conditional second moments. The results suggest that the additional hedging risk premium is needed to explain rates of return on international equities. Furthermore, the restriction that the coefficient on the hedge-portfolio covariance is one smaller than the coefficient on the market-portfolio covariance can not be rejected. This suggests that the intertemporal asset pricing model proposed by Campbell (1993) can be used to explain the returns on the five largest stock market indices.