THE WEALTH EFFECTS OF TRACKING STOCK RESTRUCTURINGS

We provide a comprehensive examination of the post‐issue wealth effects of 29 completed tracking stock restructurings. We document that for the parent stock and for the combined firm, tracking stock restructurings lead to insignificant long‐term excess returns. However, we find that shareholders of tracking stocks realize significant post‐issue wealth losses. Unlike spin‐offs and carve‐outs, announcements of tracking stock restructurings are preceded by negative one‐year excess returns, and unlike the positive post‐issue long‐term excess returns to spin‐off stocks and the insignificant long‐term excess returns to carve‐out stocks, tracking stocks experience negative long‐term excess returns.     

Institutional trading and stock returns

In this study, we explore the dynamics of the relation between institutional trading and stock returns. We find that stock returns Granger-cause institutional trading (especially purchases) on a quarterly basis. The robust and significant causality from equity returns to institutional trading can be largely explained by the time-series variation of market returns, that is, institutions buy more popular stocks after market rises. Stock returns appear to be negatively related to lagged institutional trading. A further analysis of the behavior of trading and the returns of the traded stocks reveals evidence that stocks with heavy institutional buying (selling) experience positive (negative) excess returns over the previous 12 months.     

PERFORMANCE OF STOCKS RECOMMENDED ON THE BASIS OF INSIDER TRADING ACTIVITY

The purpose of this paper is to assess whether abnormal returns could have been earned by an investor who concentrated solely on the stocks listed in the Consensus of Information (COI) monthly newsletters. Using residual-based techniques, the authors find that (1) stocks listed in the COI newsletters were characterized by excess positive returns over the four months immediately preceding listing and that (2) users of the COI's recommendations could have earned moderate excess returns by systematically acquiring shares of these companies and holding them over a twelve-month period starting in the month the newsletter is published or one month hence. Given that the recommendations yielding the largest abnormal returns to noninsiders were based on a mixture of open market purchases and exercised stock options, definitive conclusions with respect to the predictive implications of exercised stock options cannot be drawn.     

资本市场国际影响力提升效应研究——来自A股纳入明晟(MSCI)新兴市场指数的证据

2018年5月15日,首批纳入明晟(MSCI)新兴市场指数的A股股票名单正式公布。我们发现,被纳入MSCI的股票(标的股票)在公告日前后有显著为正的累计超额收益。相较于主要特征相似的匹配股票,标的股票纳入MSCI后的分析师评级有显著提升。进一步研究表明,在公告日前后融资(融券)交易量显著上升(下降),而换手率没有明显变化,并且净融资交易与公告效应显著正相关。本文的发现表明,A股纳入MSCI这一事件具有明显的信息含量,传递了有关企业前景的正面信息,并促使本地市场聪明投资者进行更活跃的交易,这对促进价格发现、促成价值投资具有一定的推动作用。     

The relation between stock returns and short-term interest rates

This study examines the relation between the expected returns on common stocks and short-term interest rates. Using a two-factor model of stock returns, we show that the expected returns on common stocks are systematically related to the market risk and the interest-rate risk, which are estimated as the sensitivity of common-stock excess returns to the excess return on the equally weighted market index and to the federal fund premium, respectively. We find that the interest-rate risk for small firms is a significant source of investors' portfolio risk, but is not properly reflected in the single-factor market risk. We also find that the interest-rate risk for large firms is “negative” in the sense that the market risk estimated from the single-factor model overstates the true risk of large firms. An application of the Fama-MacBeth methodology indicates that the interest-rate risk premium as well as the market's risk premium are significant, implying that both the market risk and the interest-rate risk are priced. We show that the interest-rate risk premium explains a significant portion of the difference in expected returns between the top quintile and the bottom quintile of the NYSE and AMEX firms. We also show that the turn-of-the-year seasonal is observed for the interest-rate risk premium; however, the risk premium for the rest of the year is still significant, although small in mangitude.     

Stock Market Reaction to Monetary Policy: An Event Study Analysis of the Brazilian Case

This article examines the relationship between the monetary policy implemented by the Central Bank of Brazil and the stock market. We implement event study analysis and analyze the effect of the anticipated and unanticipated components of monetary policy decisions on the returns of the IBOVESPA index and 53 stocks. We find that monetary policy has a significant effect on the stock market, but is only responsible for a small proportion of market variation. The analysis at the sector level with expected returns identifies that the financial sector is the most affected by this policy, whereas with excess returns only industrial goods are significantly affected. Moreover, individual assets respond in a rather heterogeneous fashion to monetary policy; however, when we look at excess returns, we identify a reduction in the intensity and in the number of companies impacted by monetary policy. Finally, the monetary shock is explained by unanticipated variations in the unemployment rate, in the Industrial Production Index, in the General Market Price Index, and in the Broad Consumer Price Index.     

On Russell index reconstitution

This paper investigates whether abnormal returns permanently exist in transparent U.S. Russell index reconstitution and provides evidence to disentangle the competing hypotheses associated with the index effect in the literature. Additions to Russell 1000 generate cumulative excess returns of 10.9% from 2 days before May 31 to June 30 while stocks deleted from Russell 2000 Growth Index suffer cumulative loss of 6.6%. The effect of index reconstitution on stocks in the style switching groups is moderate while it is much smaller for stocks in the retention groups. Based on daily trading volume, there is evidence that money managers tied to Russell style indexes tend not to rebalance their portfolios actively until the time of index reconstitution to avoid tracking error. However, for stocks generating large excess returns, money managers trade them actively prior to the reconstitution. This study is supportive of the imperfect substitutes hypothesis in explaining the index effect, given the absence of complete reversal of the event period abnormal returns and of consistent improvement in liquidity for the index additions. In the joint test, the price pressure hypothesis and the liquidity hypothesis explain the marginal index effect at most by 0.12% and 3.05%, respectively, while the imperfect substitutes hypothesis explains it at least by 9.21%. Furthermore, the index effect is not purely driven by individual stock price momentum.     

Average correlation and stock market returns

If the Roll critique is important, changes in the variance of the stock market may be only weakly related to changes in aggregate risk and subsequent stock market excess returns. However, since individual stock returns share a common sensitivity to true market return shocks, higher aggregate risk can be revealed by higher correlation between stocks. In addition, a change in stock market variance that leaves aggregate risk unchanged can have a zero or even negative effect on the stock market risk premium. We show that the average correlation between daily stock returns predicts subsequent quarterly stock market excess returns. We also show that changes in stock market risk holding average correlation constant can be interpreted as changes in the average variance of individual stocks. Such changes have a negative relation with future stock market excess returns.     

The Role of Beta and Size in the Cross-Section of European Stock Returns

This paper examines the ability of beta and size to explain cross-sectional variation in average returns in 12 European countries. We find that average stock returns are positively related to beta and negatively related to firm size. The beta premium is in part due to the fact that high beta countries outperform low beta countries. Within countries high beta stocks outperform low beta stocks only in January, not in other months. We reject the hypothesis that differences in average returns on size- and beta-sorted portfolios can be explained by market risk and exposure to the excess return of small over large stocks (SMB). Consistent with recent US evidence, we find that after controlling for size, there is no association between average returns and exposure to SMB.     

DUAL BETAS FROM BULL AND BEAR MARKETS: REVERSAL OF THE SIZE EFFECT

Significant firm-size-related differences in abnormal returns and systematic risks occur in bull and bear market months from 1926 to 1988. Potential differential return premiums between recessions and expansions appear to be captured by the varying risk model and not the constant risk model. Using a dual-beta market model to adjust for risk differences in bull and bear markets, we find that large firm stocks on average earn significant positive excess returns and small firm stocks earn significant negative excess returns. Superior performance of large firm stocks is even more pronounced outside January.     

Ambiguity and asset pricing: An empirical investigation for an emerging market

This study explores the impact of ambiguity on returns of both individual stocks and stock portfolios in an emerging market setting. First, an ambiguity index is derived and then the sensitivity of stock returns to ambiguity is analyzed while controlling for the other risk factors commonly cited in the literature. Results show that stocks with a high (low) sensitivity to ambiguity generate higher (lower) excess returns. These results are intuitive in the sense that investors seem to ask for lower returns from those stocks that serve as a natural hedge against ambiguity. Our findings are also in line with the earlier studies that provide similar evidence from the US stock markets.     

Style‐Related Comovement: Fundamentals or Labels?

I find that economically meaningless index labels cause stock returns to covary in excess of fundamentals. S&P/Barra follow a simple mechanical procedure to define their Value and Growth indices. In doing so, they reclassify some stocks from Value to Growth even after their book‐to‐market ratios have risen, and vice versa. Such stocks begin to covary more with the index they join and less with the index they leave. Backdated constituent data from Barra reveal no such label‐related shifts in comovement during the 10 years prior to the actual introduction of the indices in 1992.     

THE EFFECT OF TRADING IN EIGHTHS ON SECURITY RETURN BEHAVIOR

Currently the equity securities of most British, Canadian and US firms trade in eighths. However, this pricing system may soon be abandoned in the US. Specifically, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is currently studying the feasibility of changing the pricing of US securities to dollars and cents from dollars and eighths. 'SEC officials contend that moving to a system that quotes stock prices in dollars and cents would create efficiency in the stock market that eighths and sometimes sixteenths can't permit' (Torres and Salwen, 1991). This paper demonstrates the inefficiencies that result from constraining stocks to trade in eighths of a dollar. It describes the effects on returns and betas; then, it presents empirical evidence consistent with the effects. Systematic differences in the distributions of returns of low and high-priced stocks are documented. The covariance of returns with a market index is shown to vary systematically across stocks of different prices and to depend on the return interval used to estimate market model parameters. The variations are explainable by an observed lag between the returns of low-priced stocks relative to those of high-priced stocks. The lag is partially attributable to trading in eighths. A systematic relationship that varies with share price is observed between market model residual returns and unadjusted returns. This relationship is not eliminated by using longer return intervals alone. The extent of the relationship is reduced when longer return intervals are combined with the use of a market index composed of stocks that are priced similarly to those of the securities being tested. The implications of these results for capital market studies are discussed.     

Investor sentiment and stock returns: Some international evidence

We examine whether consumer confidence – as a proxy for individual investor sentiment – affects expected stock returns internationally in 18 industrialized countries. In line with recent evidence for the U.S., we find that sentiment negatively forecasts aggregate stock market returns on average across countries. When sentiment is high, future stock returns tend to be lower and vice versa. This relation also holds for returns of value stocks, growth stocks, small stocks, and for different forecasting horizons. Finally, we employ a cross-sectional perspective and provide evidence that the impact of sentiment on stock returns is higher for countries which have less market integrity and which are culturally more prone to herd-like behavior and overreaction.     

On the Stability of the Cross‐Section of Expected Stock Returns in the Cross‐Section: Understanding the Curious Role of Share Turnover

In this paper, we shed further light on cross‐sectional predictors of stock return performance. Specifically, we explore whether the cross‐section of expected stock returns is robust within stock groups sorted by past monthly return. We find that the book/market and momentum effects are remarkably robust to sorting on past returns. However, share turnover is negatively related to future returns for stocks with abnormally low stock price performance in the recent past, but postively related to returns for well‐performing stocks. This casts doubt on the use of turnover as a liquidity proxy, but is consistent with turnover being a proxy for momentum trading which pushes prices in the direction of past price movements. Our results are robust to both NYSE/AMEX and Nasdaq stocks, and also robust to stratifying the sample by time period.     

Short Sales Constraints and Momentum in Stock Returns

Abstract:   We show that stock characteristics identified by D'Avolio (2002) provide a reliable index of the mostly unobservable short sales constraints. Specifically, we find that this index is positively related to the level of short interest and to short selling costs implied by the disparity in prices in the options and stock markets, and is negatively related to future returns. Using this index, we show that the magnitude of momentum returns for the period 1984 to 2001 is positively related to short sales constraints, and loser stocks rather than winner stocks drive this result. We conclude that short sales constraints are important in preventing arbitrage of momentum in stock returns.     

Is U.S. economic policy uncertainty priced in China's A-shares market? Evidence from market,industry, and individual stocks

This paper is motivated by Bali, Brown, and Tang (2017) who find U.S. economic policy uncertainty (EPU) is priced in the cross-section of U.S. stock returns, and uses weekly data from March 2006 to April 2016 to study whether shocks in U.S. EPU also influence prices of China's A-shares from a market, industry, and individual stock perspective. Our methodology relies on an ARMA (1,1) model to extract shocks in the U.S. EPU series and a GARCH (1,1) model to examine how returns of China's A-shares respond to these shocks after controlling for business conditions proxied by term and credit spread in China. Generally, we find that shocks in U.S. EPU significantly and negatively explain returns of Chinese A-shares with a lag of one week. In addition, the market index containing small and growth stocks is more sensitive to shocks in U.S. EPU than the index containing big and value stocks. Furthermore, we find that firms in manufacturing, information technology, and media industries in China are more sensitive to shocks in U.S. EPU, while firms in agriculture and real estate industries respond less to shocks in U.S. EPU. Finally, China's A-shares which decline more in response to shocks in U.S. EPU have higher returns, smaller market capitalization, weaker operating profitability, higher asset growth, and better past year's cumulative returns. Overall, our findings show that investors in the Chinese A-shares market require a premium to hold stocks that are sensitive to shocks in U.S. economic policy uncertainty.     

The Variation of Economic Risk Premiums in Real Estate Returns

We examine the predictable components of returns on stocks, bonds, and real estate investment trusts (REITs). We employ a multiple-beta asset pricing model and find that there are varying degrees of predictability among stocks, bonds, and REITs. Furthermore, we find that most of the predictability of returns is associated with the economic variables employed in the asset pricing model. The stock market risk premium is highly important in capturing the predictable variation in stock portfolios, and the bond market risk premiums (term and risk structure of interest rates) are important in capturing the predictable variation in bond portfolios. For REITs, however, both the stock and bond market risk premiums capture the predictable variation in returns. REITs have comparable return predictability to stock portfolios. We conclude that there is an important economic risk premium for REITs that are not captured by traditional multiple-beta asset pricing models.     

Short term persistence in mutual fund market timing and stock selection abilities

Using daily return data from 448 actively managed mutual funds over a recent 9-year period, we look for persistence, over two consecutive quarters, in the ability of funds to select individual stocks and time the market. That is, we decompose overall fund performance into excess returns resulting from stock selection and timing abilities and we separately test for persistence in each ability. We find persistence in the ability to time the market only among well performing funds and in the ability to select stocks only among the very best and worst performers. The existing literature patterns appear only when funds are ranked by their overall performance, which includes stock selection, market timing and fees. With respect to overall performance, there is persistence among most poorly performing and only the top well performing funds. Furthermore, the profitability of a winner-picking strategy depends on the rebalancing frequency and potentially the size of the investment. Small investors cannot profit, whereas large investors can take advantage of the class-A share fee structure and realize positive abnormal returns by annually rebalancing their portfolios.     

The Chinese Stock Dividend Puzzle

In this paper, we examine the announcement effects of dividends with an emphasis on stock dividends in China's capital market. We find that dividend-paying stocks exhibit significantly positive abnormal returns while non-dividend-paying stocks show a negative announcement effect. Further, we document that the cumulative abnormal returns for pure stock dividends and combined dividends are the main drivers of this announcement effect. In contrast, pure cash dividend stocks experience no significant price run-up before announcement. The significant announcement effect of stock dividends is robust to controlling the earnings surprise effect. We offer some discussion of the possible explanations.