Background and purpose In Sweden private savings in stocks has experienced a large increase and in year 2006 there were 6.7 million people, or 77 per cent of the population owning stocks. A recent study shows that more than every other Swede has deficient knowledge in trading with stocks. Since small private investors often do not know how to gather and interpret information they must utilize investment advices. The large increase in private savings in stocks, the lack of investment knowledge together with the large increase in Internet usage has resulted in investment advice seeking on the Internet. One of the largest sources of investment advices on the Internet in Sweden today is Avanza.se. The purpose with our thesis is to describe and analyze if, after a buy recommendation issued at Avanza’s website, the effects with respect to abnormal return and market efficiency differ significantly depending on a company’s capitalization value. Method We have used a quantitative approach to fulfill our purpose. The secondary data required to do so was gathered from the OMX-Group’s website, where historical prices and Index information was collected, and from the online broker Avanza’s website where the buy recommendations were compiled. In order to conduct statistical tests and calculations we have used the statistical software SPSS. Frame of Reference The theories we made use of mainly treated market efficiency and abnormal return. Conclusions We have seen that the recommendations’ effect concerning abnormal return differ signifi-cantly depending on capitalization value, where the effect on companies with smaller capitalization values are larger. We have also found tendencies of market inefficiency at the semi strong level for stocks with smaller capitalization value.

Bakgrund: Börsen ger en möjlighet för företag att erhålla kapital och för placerare atttillgodogöra sig avkastning. Personer med insyn i det egna företaget, så kalladeinsiders, kan dock i egenskap av sin position inneha kurspåverkande information somövriga aktörer på marknaden inte har möjlighet att ta del av. Tidigare forskning harpåvisat att insiders utnyttjar denna informationsasymmetri för att på så sätt tillgodogörasig överavkastning. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att undersöka om insiders kan tillgodogöra sigöveravkastning genom handel med aktier på Nasdaq OMX. Vidare ämnar studienutröna eventuella skillnader i överavkastning beroende på företagsstorlek,transaktionsstorlek samt tidsperiod. Metod: I denna studie har en kvantitativ forskningsstrategi i form av en eventstudietillämpats. Studien har en deduktiv ansats och undersöker insidertransaktioner från 90företag på stockholmsbörsen under tidsperioden 2006-01-01 till 2011-12-31. Förberäkning av överavkastning har den justerade marknadsmodellen använts. Kursdata förrespektive företag har hämtats från databasen Thomson Reuters EcoWin Pro.Information om insidertransaktioner har hämtats från finansinspektionensinsynsregister. Resultat: Resultatet visar att insiders tillgodogör sig överavkastning genom handel medaktier i det egna företaget, främst i samband med säljtransaktioner. / People with insight into their own company, also known as insiders, can have access toprice-sensitive information which other investors are not able to access. Previousresearch has shown that insiders exploit this asymmetric information to thereby obtainabnormal returns. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether insiders can obtain abnormal returnsby trading shares on Nasdaq OMX. Furthermore, the study aims to investigate if thereare any differences in the abnormal return depending on company size, transaction size,and time period. This study investigates insider transactions of 90 companies on the Stockholm StockExchange during the time period 2006-01-01 to 2011-12-31. The results show that insiders obtain abnormal returns by trading shares in their owncompany. The abnormal returns occur primarily related to sales transactions.

Relationen mellan publik media och kapitalmarknader är ett område som studerats under en lång period. Åsikter har väckts om att massmedia är en viktig faktor vid förståelsen av finansiella marknader då media har förmågan att ge upphov till irrationella reaktioner. Utifrån detta har en kritik mot massmedia växt fram som menar att media inte förmedlar viktig information. En del studier visar emellertid att en lättare åtkomst till ny information leder till att priser på finansiella marknader kan justeras mer effektivt.Syftet med denna studie är att förklara hur den historiska mediabevakningen som föregår en aktierekommendation påverkar hela aktiemarknadens aktörer genom att studera den överavkastning som föregår och efterföljer rekommendationen ifråga. Undersökningen har baserats på rekommendationer gällande svenska aktier som är börsnoterade på Large-, Mid- och Small-Cap listorna på Nasdaq OMX Nordic Stockholm under en period som sträcker sig över två år. Underlaget för mediabevakning utgår ifrån artiklar ur stora svenska tidsskrifter och rekommendationerna är hämtade ifrån större analytikerhus.Tidigare forskning har gjorts på aktiemarknadens reaktion vid publicerandet av nya rekommendationer men denna studie tar hänsyn till ytterligare en variabel, antalet historiska publikationer i media, för att försöka skapa ytterligare förståelse på området.Resultatet antyder att den grad av mediabevakning som föregår publicerandet av en aktierekommendation inte har en påverkan på marknadens mottagning av den nya informationen. Den tydligaste skillnaden som kunde ses mellan rekommendationer som föregicks av en hög respektive låg mediabevakning var att rekommendationen som föregicks av en låg mediabevakning visade ett marginellt större utslag vid publikationsdagen. Då denna observation emellertid inte kunde säkerställas statistiskt går det inte att dra några slutsatser utifrån detta resultat och studien kan således inte påvisa att mer lättillgänglig information leder till en mer informerad marknad. / The relationship between public media and capital markets is a subject that has been studied for a long time. Some argue that mass media is an important factor in understanding the financial markets because the media has the ability to generate irrational reactions. On this basis a critique against the media has emerged which believe that the mass media does not publish valuable information. Some studies, however, have concluded that an easier access to new information leads to more efficient price adjustments within the financial markets.The purpose of this study is to explain how the historical media coverage preceding stock recommendations affects the entire stock market by studying the abnormal return that precede and follow the studied recommendations. The study is based on recommendations on Swedish shares listed on the Large-, Mid- and Small-Cap lists on the Nasdaq OMX Stockholm during a period of two years. Media coverage is based on articles from major Swedish magazines while stock recommendations are obtained from major analysts.Previous research has been done on the stock market's reaction to the publication of new recommendations, but this study takes an additional variable into account, the number of historical publications in the media, in an attempt to create further understanding in the field of subject.The results suggest that the degree of media coverage preceding the publication of a stock recommendation do not have an impact on the market's reception of the new information. The most noticeable difference between the recommendations that were preceded by high and low media coverage respectively was that the recommendation which was preceded by low media coverage showed a marginally larger abnormal return at the publication date. Since this observation, however, could not be confirmed statistically the study cannot draw any conclusions from this result and thus the study cannot prove that a larger amount of easily accessible information leads to a more informed market.

Purpose: The main objective of this study is to research whether an announcement of an acquisition generates positive/negative abnormal short-term return towards the buying company’s shareholders. The secondary purpose is to research whether any differences could be due to selected factors: firm size and industry. Method: The study is quantitative in nature where the research aims at the stock price movement around the announcement of an acquisition. The sample size includes 30 companies between the years 2000-2010. The abnormal return is investigated by an Event Study. Conclusion: Our study shows that the publication gives a positive abnormal return in comparison to the respective sector indexes. The result is statistically significant, so we can conclude that an announcement of an acquisition is a positive investment on average. We also found that our selected factors have a significant impact on price performance. Medium-sized industrial companies show positive abnormal returns while smaller IT companies shows a very low abnormal return and large finance companies fluctuates slightly more than other variables, but the value changes are minimal. We also found that the market does not work effectively because of the strange movements before and after the event date.

This study tires to find out how a firm¡¦s advertising and customer satisfaction influence firms¡¦ abnormal return and we uses the abnormal return (i.e. Jensne¡¦s £\) as the proxy of firm¡¦s shareholder value. We expect firms¡¦ advertising and customer satisfaction will have a positive impact on abnormal return while having a negative impact on firms¡¦ risk. In addition, we also consider under different market state whether advertising and customer satisfaction have an asymmetric effect. Compare with Carhart (1997) four factor model, this paper also takes the factor of VIX into account, and we use Markov regime switching model to recognize bull market and bear market because it can help us get a more accurate estimation. We choose the Generalized method of moments (GMM) to estimate the impact of advertising and customer satisfaction on shareholder value and discuss that whether advertising and customer satisfaction are able to lift up shareholder value or not. The outcome shows that advertising doesn¡¦t have significantly positive impact on firms¡¦ abnormal return under bull market and bear market. However, customer satisfaction has a significantly positive relationship with firms¡¦ abnormal return under bull market and bear market. And we find that if firms maintain the level of customer satisfaction under bear market, it will be more efficiently to lift up firms¡¦ abnormal return rather than spending more money on advertising.

TSEC and OTC listed companies conduct capital increase by retained earnings and stock dividend distribution numerously and that weakens performance of return on equity (ROE), return on asset (ROA) and earnings per share (EPS) and increases stress on managements. Since Formosa International Hotels Corporation pioneered in reducing capital and returning cash to shareholders, this topic has commonly discussed in capital market. Has a company been unable to utilize cash efficiently, reducing capital followed by returning cash to shareholders is a practical option to elevate financial ratio. This study discusses the effect on stock price subsequent to announcement of reducing capital followed by returning cash to shareholders. This study adopts event study to discuss the effect on stock price after declaring reducing capital and returning cash to shareholders and the sample size covers 27 TSEC and OTC listed companies which conducted capital reduction followed by returning cash to shareholders. The results are as follows: 1.The stock price shows positive effect when a company announces reducing capital followed by returning cash to shareholders for the first time. On the date of announcement and the first date after announcement, the average abnormal returns are generated evidently. Accumulated abnormal returns reach the highest level on the date of announcement and the first two days after announcement. Therefore, announcement effect of reducing capital followed by returning cash to shareholders is effective in short term. 2.Based on regression model analysis, return on asset, ratio of reducing capital and P/E ratio are positively correlated with announcement of reducing capital followed by returning cash to shareholders.

<p>Background and purpose</p><p>In Sweden private savings in stocks has experienced a large increase and in year 2006 there were 6.7 million people, or 77 per cent of the population owning stocks. A recent study shows that more than every other Swede has deficient knowledge in trading with stocks. Since small private investors often do not know how to gather and interpret information they must utilize investment advices. The large increase in private savings in stocks, the lack of investment knowledge together with the large increase in Internet usage has resulted in investment advice seeking on the Internet. One of the largest sources of investment advices on the Internet in Sweden today is Avanza.se. The purpose with our thesis is to describe and analyze if, after a buy recommendation issued at Avanza’s website, the effects with respect to abnormal return and market efficiency differ significantly depending on a company’s capitalization value.</p><p>Method</p><p>We have used a quantitative approach to fulfill our purpose. The secondary data required to do so was gathered from the OMX-Group’s website, where historical prices and Index information was collected, and from the online broker Avanza’s website where the buy recommendations were compiled. In order to conduct statistical tests and calculations we have used the statistical software SPSS.</p><p>Frame of Reference</p><p>The theories we made use of mainly treated market efficiency and abnormal return.</p><p>Conclusions</p><p>We have seen that the recommendations’ effect concerning abnormal return differ signifi-cantly depending on capitalization value, where the effect on companies with smaller capitalization values are larger. We have also found tendencies of market inefficiency at the semi strong level for stocks with smaller capitalization value.</p>

In order to boost the exit value, it is not uncommon that issuers report earnings in excess of cash flow generated by its operations at the initial public offering (IPO). The discretionary activity of performing earnings management can mislead investors about the intrinsic value of the newly public firm. Within this study, I examine how earnings management will affect the stock market reaction upon the lockup expiration date, the IPO adjustable offering size, and how the backing of private equity or venture capital (PEVC) affects earnings management tendencies within IPO firms. Using a unique, hand-collected dataset of 56 Swedish newly public firms from 2007 - 2014, I show that IPO firms (i) manage their earnings at the full fiscal year prior to the IPO and that earnings management will result in a negative stock market reaction upon the lockup expiration date. More importantly, I show that (ii) high adjustable offerings do not affect this relationship indicating that earnings management has no impact on the adjustable part of the offering size within IPOs. I also find that (iii) IPO firms backed by PEVC firms are more eager to manipulate their earnings, and (iv) highly reputable PEVC firms do not mitigate the manipulation of earnings within IPO firms. The results taken together suggest that studying the stock market reaction on the lockup expiration date is important for manipulative IPO firm detection, and that a participation in IPOs backed by PEVC firms must be done with caution.

In this paper, the popular fundamental analysis model Economic Value Added is tested for any ability to generate returns above that explained by book-to-market effects on American large cap stocks. A zero net-investment hedge portfolio-test was undertaken where the Economic Value Added® fundamental analysis was applied on a sample of large cap stocks, sorted into quintiles after book to market valuation. The portfolio investing in the extreme quintiles gained positive returns between the years 1999 – 2010 equal to an average yearly total return of 7,32 %. During the test-period, the benchmark portfolio constituent of stocks sorted in the same way but without the Economic Value Added® analysis only managed to score returns equaling 2,3 %, adding evidence in favor of the Economic Value Added® analysis. The Economic Value Added also showed a better risk-profile than the benchmark portfolio, measured as the Modigliani Risk-Adjusted Performance over the entire period, further acknowledging the abnormal returns. However, the Economic Value Added® sample portfolios where unevenly distributed regarding number of stocks, foremost in the short-sold part for some years, mitigating the test as strong evidence in favor of the Economic Value Added® analysis. An independent samples t-test also did not reject the null hypothesis. Despite the mixed results of the test, the strength in the specification of sample and choice of method leads us to conclude that that the Economic Value Added® seems like a moderately effective tool for identifying mispriced stocks.

Huvudsyftet med uppsatsen är att se hur ett företags annonsering om återköp av aktier påverkar dess börskurs i Sverige. Som delsyfte kommer även en undersökning göras om huruvida reaktionen skiljer sig mellan olika branscher samt om Sveriges reaktion skiljer sig från den tidigare forskningen i USA och i Storbritannien. Undersökningen har genomförts med hjälp av en eventstudie där den abnormala avkastningen beräknas. En intervju utförs för att bekräfta resultatet. Resultatet gav en sammanlagd kumulativ avkastning på 0,57 %. Det visade även att det finns en skillnad mellan olika branschers reaktion på en annonsering av ett återköp. Sveriges reaktion jämförs bäst med Storbritanniens som har en abnormal avkastning på 1,14 % än med USA som har en abnormal avkastning på 3,5 %. / The purpose with this study is to examine how a company’s announcement of a repurchase of stocks affect the stock price in Sweden. There will also be an investigation about how the reaction differ between branches and if the reaction found here in Sweden is different than the ones that has been found in USA and the United Kingdom. The examination has been carried out with an event study where the abnormal return has been calculated. An interview has been performed to confirm the result. The result showed a cumulative abnormal return with 0,57 %. It also showed that there is a difference in reaction between branches. Sweden is more comparable with the United Kingdom who has an abnormal return with 1,14 % than it is with USA which has an abnormal return with 3,5 %.