Aktieåterköpen har haft en stor utveckling globalt sett den senaste tiden och sedan det blev rättsligt tillåtet i Sverige år 2000 använder allt fler företag aktieåterköp som metod för att distribuera pengar till sina aktieägare. Tidigare forskning visar att företagsledningar innehar en stor handlingsfrihet när det gäller publicering av nyheter och de kan till stor del styra hur företagets interna nyhetsflöde utges till marknaden. Tidigare studier åskådliggör att företagsledningar utnyttjar denna handlingsfrihet och strategiskt publicerar information för att gynna sig själva. Manipulation av nyhetsflödet vid aktieåterköp är dock ett mycket outforskat område där de få studier som förekommer har genomförts i USA. Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att undersöka och klargöra om och i vilken omfattning svenska företagsledningar manipulerar nyhetsflödet vid aktieåterköp med avsikten att gynna sig själva. Studien ska förklara om svenska företagsledningar medvetet ändrar innehållet och tidpunkten för deras nyheter i samband med aktieåterköp.  Tidigare amerikansk forskning påvisar att företagsledningar publicerar fler negativa nyheter innan ett aktieåterköp med intentionen att få en nedåtdrivande aktiekurs där aktierna återköps till ett lägre pris. Efter aktieåterköpet publiceras fler positiva nyheter för att driva upp aktiekursen igen. Uppsatsens studie visade att svenska företagsledningar publicerade fler negativa nyheter innan ett aktieåterköp och till viss del fler positiva nyheter efter ett aktieåterköp. Resultatet i uppsatsen innehöll en för hög signifikansnivå och därför var inte resultatet tillräckligt tillförlitligt för att vara statistiskt signifikant. Resultatet tolkas som att svenska företagsledningar inte manipulerar nyhetsflödet i samband med aktieåterköp i lika stor omfattning relativt företagsledningar i USA. Anledningarna till det är främst på grund av de påtagliga skillnaderna i ägarstruktur mellan Sverige och USA. Avslutningsvis diskuteras förslag till framtida forskning där det vetenskapliga arbetet om ämnesområdet skulle kunna utvecklas genom att utöka undersökningen till fler delar av Europa. På så sätt skapas en bredare bild över hur vanligt förekommande manipulation i samband med aktieåterköp är i olika delar av världen. / Share repurchases has increased a lot globally recently and since it was legally permitted in Sweden 2000, more companies use share repurchases as a method of distributing cash to their shareholders. Previous research implicates that corporate managers have a lot of control when it comes to publishing news and they can largely control the company's internal newsfeed that is published to the market. Previous studies illustrate that corporate managers trade on this control and strategic publishes information to benefit themselves. Manipulation of news feed when it comes to share repurchases is a largely unexplored area. The few studies that exist have been conducted in the United States. The purpose of this paper is to investigate and clarify if and to what extent Swedish corporate managers manipulate the news feed related to share repurchases with the intent to benefit themselves. The study will explain how the Swedish corporate managers consciously change the content and timing of their news related to share repurchases. Previous American research shows that corporate managers publish more negative news before a share repurchase with the intention of repurchase shares at a lower price. Following the share repurchase corporate managers published more positive news to push up the stock price again. This paper showed that Swedish company managers published more negative news before a share repurchase and some more positive news after a share repurchase. The result in this paper was not within the significance level and therefore was not the result reliable enough to be statistically significant. The result is interpreted as the Swedish corporate managers do not manipulate their newsfeed related to share repurchase as much as corporate managers in the United States. The reason for this is mainly due to the considerable differences in ownership structure between Sweden and the United States. Finally, we discuss suggestions for research in the future where the scientific work in the subject could be developed by extending the survey region to more parts of Europe. This would create a broader picture of how common manipulation related to share repurchase is in different parts of the world.

This dissertation examines the financial statement effects of firm attributes on the components of equity, the market reaction effects on key events in the adoption of IFRS, and the cumulative earnings response coefficient effect in the context of IFRS adoption in Canada. Firm attributes were tested for association with the adjustment to retained earnings at the transition date when first adopting International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS.) Evidence from the analyses of the adjustment to retained earnings model revealed a statistically significant association between the adjustment to retained earnings and the firm attributes of volatility of income, internationality, and firm industry. Market reaction was measured for two key events of IFRS adoption: early adoption announcement and the release of first quarter financial results under IFRS. A negative mean for Cumulative Average Return (CAR) resulted from tests of both events. However, only the negative mean CAR from market’s reaction to the release of first quarter financial results under IFRS demonstrated statistical significance. The adjustment to retained earnings model used in this study developed a benchmark for tests of value relevance. In the test of value relevance, the benchmark or unexpected adjustment to retained earnings was tested against the actual adjustment to retained earnings for market reaction. The results from the tests of value relevance were not statistically significant. This study contributes to the literature by identifying firm factors: volatility of income, internationality, and industry as firm factors associated with the adjustment to retained earnings upon adoption of IFRS. Further, evidence from the event study demonstrates that the market reacts negatively to the adoption of IFRS and suggests that the Canadian market may not perceive IFRS as an improvement in financial reporting or a reduction in information asymmetry.

Experiencing malevolent acts is a common feature when conducting business in parts of the developing world, but the effects that these acts have on a firm’s stock price have not received sufficient attention by the literature. Filling the gap, this thesis looks at the oil industry in Nigeria and the effects of multiple malevolent acts over a five year period (ranging from 2006 to 2010) on the stock prices of the four major international oil firms operating therein: Shell, Chevron, Exxon, and Total. The stock price data was presented in the form of abnormal returns, the difference in stock price from the expected price. Ordinary least squares regression as well as Wilcoxian sign-rank techniques were used to test the abnormal returns data for our firms. This data was segregated by firm name as well as by event types to isolate the effects that each has on the returns of the firms under study. This thesis raises several hypotheses, such as that a negative event in general will lead to negative returns and that negative events affecting one firm will lead to positive returns for that firm’s competitors. We managed to determine that the only event types that had a significant impact on any firm’s returns were kidnappings and government policies (either political or economic) targeted to harm the firms. We discovered that kidnapping events affected Shell’s returns negatively, whereas they have positive impact on the returns of Chevron and Exxon. We postulate that the latter results are a reaction to the relatively strong negative effect on Shell’s returns. In response to negative government actions, Shell and Total experienced positive returns , we postulate that this is due to the market’s perception that these policies will lead to less supply and consequently to higher prices for Nigerian oil. Our results indicate that violent events have no impact, at least on the four major firms, whereas kidnappings and government policies do.

Cette thèse étudie l’impact des stress tests bancaires sur les différents acteurs du marché. Le premier chapitre analyse comment les actionnaires et les détenteurs d’obligations bancaires réagissent à l’information transmise par les stress tests durant une période de crise. Il s’appuie sur le test de résistance conduit en 2011 par l’Autorité Bancaire Européenne (ABE) au moment de la crise de la dette souveraine. Une étude économétrique de nature événementielle révèle que les actionnaires réagissent davantage aux informations spécifiques à chaque banque alors que les détenteurs d’obligations ont en général des réactions de nature plus macroéconomique et sont plus influencés par l’impact global de la crise financière. Cependant, si on va plus loin dans l’analyse, en prenant en compte différentes catégories d’obligations, on montre que le comportement des détenteurs de dette subordonnée tend à rejoindre celui des actionnaires. Cette réaction spécifique des actionnaires et des créanciers qui en sont les plus proches démontre que ce sont les acteurs les plus à même d’exercer une discipline de marché en période de crise financière. Le second chapitre prend en compte les stress tests bancaires menés en Europe et aux Etats-Unis et analyse leur contenu informationnel à partir de leur impact sur le cours des actions bancaires. L’objectif est de déterminer si cet impact est fonction du degré d’opacité des banques. On montre tout d’abord que le marché réagit significativement à l’annonce des résultats des stress tests à la fois pour les banques testées et les banques non testées. On met ensuite en évidence une relation non linéaire entre le degré d’opacité des banques et l’impact des stress tests, indiquant que les tests ont un contenu informatif pour les banques moyennement opaques mais pas pour celles qui sont déjà très transparentes ou au contraire très opaques. Le troisième chapitre étudie l’impact de la publication des résultats des stress tests sur les divergences de notations à l’émission des obligations bancaires. On met l’accent sur les notations de Moody’s et de Standard & Poor’s concernant les obligations émises par les banques ayant participé aux différents stress tests européens et américains. L’analyse de l’évolution des divergences de rating sur les périodes avant et après chaque stress test montre que la publication des résultats peut globalement accroître ou réduire ces divergences selon le test considéré. Les agences de notation peuvent donc interpréter les résultats détaillés des stress tests différemment et leur impact n’est donc pas univoque, pouvant même provoquer plus de divergences. Cependant, dans des périodes fortement troublées, telles que celle de la crise de la dette souveraine européenne, où le marché est confronté à beaucoup d’incertitudes et à un fort besoin d’information, les résultats des stress tests conduisent à une plus grande convergence des agences sur leurs notations des obligations bancaires. / This dissertation studies the impact of banks’ stress tests on the different market players. The first chapter analyzes how stockholders and bondholders react to the information disclosed in the financial market during crisis periods. We consider the 2011 EBA stress test as it discloses detailed information about banks and it is conducted during the European sovereign debt crisis. We use an event study methodology and find that stockholders’ reaction is more specific to the information disclosed, while bondholders have generally macro reaction and are more sensible to the financial crisis. However, when we go further in our analysis by considering the different categories of bonds, we find that the behavior of subordinated bondholders tends to be closer to the behavior of stockholders. This specific reaction of stockholders during financial distress may make them more susceptible to impose market discipline when there is a financial crisis. In a second chapter, we consider European and US banks’ stress tests to analyze the information value of the stress tests using stock market prices. We investigate if the stock market reactions to the stress test results are different according tothe degree of opacity of banks. We find that the stock market reacts significantly to the disclosure of the stress tests’ results on the whole banks (tested and non-tested) meaning that the stress test transparency has an impact not only on tested banks but also on banks that do not participated to the stress test. By separating the sample of banks in less opaque and highly opaque banks, we find a non-linear relation between opacity and market reaction. The third chapter of this thesis investigates the impact of the disclosure of the stress tests results on the credit rating agencies’ split ratings on bonds issued by banks. To calculate the split rating variable, we consider bonds jointly rated by Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s and issued by banks that participated to the European and US banks’ stress tests. The analysis of the split ratings on the period before and after each stress test results disclosure in Europe and in the US shows that the stress tests have mixed effect on credit rating agencies. Market participants could interpret the detailed data disclosed by the stress tests differently and these different interpretations may create more disagreements. However, we remark that in periods of distress i.e. during the European sovereign debt crisis, because of the high information need and the greater uncertainty, the stress tests results disclosure tends to decrease the split ratings.

The aim of this study is to investigate if individuals reacts rational to the announcement of negative profit warnings in the Swedish stock market. This is done by using an event study approach, investigating the corresponding abnormal returns and cumulative abnormal returns before, during, and after the announcement. Tests is also made to see whether qualitative and quantitative profit warnings and firm size has any impact on the cumulative abnormal returns. The sample consists of 176 profit warnings from 2008 to 2018. On the announcement day, the average abnormal return at day zero was -6.99 % and the average cumulative abnormal returns at day zero and one was -9.06 %. The results found also that smaller firms generate lower abnormal returns on the announcement date, but that there is no difference between qualitative and quantitative profit warnings. With small and insignificant cumulative abnormal returns before and after the announcement, the reached conclusion is that the market is efficient on aggregate level during the event of negative profit warnings.

Eventos puramente cosméticos como o desdobramento ou grupamento de ações não deveriam gerar modificações no preço de mercado das empresas que realizaram tais operações. Porém, inúmeros estudos realizados nos mercados internacionais indicam que existem retornos anormais no preço das ações para tais eventos. Foi verificada a reação do mercado brasileiro aos grupamentos de ações que ocorreram entre 1986 e 2007 através do método de estudo de eventos. Os resultados indicam que não há retorno anormal nos preços das ações e que o evento possui efeitos puramente cosméticos no mercado acionário brasileiro, divergindo dos estudos realizados ao redor do mundo, predominantemente no mercado americano. Tal fato pode ocorrer pelas diferenças institucionais entre os dois países. / Purely cosmetic events such as the split or inplits should not generate changes in market prices of companies that performed such operations. However, numerous studies in international markets indicate that there are abnormal returns in the stock price for such events. It was found that the reaction of the Brazilian market to groups of actions that occurred between 1986 and 2007 by the method of study events. The results indicate that there are no abnormal returns in stock prices for these events in the national market. These results indicate that the event is purely cosmetic in the Brazilian equity market which differs from studies conducted in other markets, but predominantly in the U.S. market, and this fact can occur by the difference in institutional settings between the two countries.

Este trabalho tem por objetivo verificar se há diferença quanto ao nível de significância estatística no cálculo do retorno anormal realizado através de quatro modelos estatísticos utilizados em estudos de eventos, tendo como objeto de estudo empresas no mercado de ações no Brasil durante o período de março de 2003 até julho de 2010 na Bovespa. Considerando a importância do cálculo do retorno anormal nos estudos de eventos, bem como possíveis variações de resultados decorrentes da escolha do modelo de cálculo, este estudo utiliza um tema bastante conhecido, qual seja, o anúncio de recompra de ações feito pela própria companhia emissora dos títulos. A metodologia utilizada nesta pesquisa foi quantitativa, utilizando o estudo de corte transversal. Os resultados apontam que há diferença entre os níveis de significância encontrados. Ao analisar o gráfico dos modelos calculados no período da janela do evento, verificou-se que as empresas que recompraram ações a fizeram quando os papéis estavam com retorno anormal acumulado negativo e, após a recompra, os papéis tiveram retornos anormais acumulados positivos. Recalculou-se os dois modelos que utilizam o Ibovespa em sua fórmula de cálculo, através de um Ibovespa sem ponderação e conclui-se que os resultados apontam na direção de se evitar o uso de índices ponderados de mercado, preferindo a utilização de carteiras compostas apenas com uma ação para cada empresa componente da carteira de controle. Após este recálculo, verificou-se que o modelo que era menos próximo dos demais graficamente era o modelo de retorno ajustado ao mercado ponderado. Por fim, as evidências empíricas indicam que o mercado de capitais brasileiro ajusta tempestivamente os papéis das empresas que realizaram recompra de ações, em linha com o que prescreve a hipótese do mercado eficiente na sua forma semiforte. / The objetive of this study is to verify if there is any difference regarding the statistical significance level on the abnormal return calculation done through four statistical models used in event studies, having as the study object companies negotiated on the Bovespa Stock Exchange from March 2003 to July 2010. Considering the abnormal return calculation relevance in event studies, as well as the possible variations of results due to the calculation model of choice, this study uses an overly known theme, the stock repurchase announcement done by the own company. The methodology used in this research was quantitative, using the transversal cut study. The results demonstrated that there is difference among the significance levels found. When analyzing the graphs of the calculated models on the event window period, it was verified that the companies that repurchased the stocks done so when their shares were with abnormal accumulated negative returns and, after repurchasing, the shares had abnormal accumulated positive returns. The two models that uses the Ibovespa in its calculation formulae were recalculated, through an non-weighted Ibovespa and the conclusion pointed by the results is that the use of weighted market indexes must be avoided, giving preference to the use of portfolios composed by one share for each company that is comprised in the control portfolio. After this recalculation, it was verified that the models using the weighted market return models were graphically distant from all the other models. Lastly, the empirical evidences have demonstrated that the Brazilian capital market adjusts in a timely manner the shares of the companies that undergone the repurchase of their stocks, in line with what is expected by the efficient market hypothesis on its semi-strong form.

Através de estudo de evento este trabalho analisa o impacto provocado pelo anúncio de recompra de ações sobre os seus próprios preços, utilizando como referência, as empresas que anunciaram aquisição de ações de sua emissão, através de publicação de fato relevante na Comissão de Valores Mobiliário (CVM), nos exercícios de 2003 a 2009. O estudo pressupõe eficiência de mercado na sua forma semi-forte e identifica retorno anormal, estatisticamente significativo na data um do evento, ou seja, um dia após o anúncio. Os retornos acumulados de três dias são regredidos contra dados da recompra e os resultados reforçam a hipótese de sinalização, já sugerida pela análise do gráfico do retorno anormal acumulado, com os retornos indicando alta decorrente de pressão de preços. Os modelos de regressão utilizados, incluindo variáveis contábeis associadas a outras hipóteses explicativas, não encontram resultados significativos que dêem suporte a outras possíveis motivações propostas na literatura acadêmica. / Through event study this study examines the impact caused by the announcement of share repurchases on its own prices, using as reference, the companies announced the acquisition of shares issued through the publication of material fact in the Securities Exchanges Commission (CVM) in the years 2003 to 2009. The study assumes market efficiency in its semi-strong and identifies abnormal return is statistically significant at the time of an event, one day after the announcement. The cumulative returns for three days are regressed against the repurchase data and findings support the signaling hypothesis, already suggested by the analysis of the graph of cumulative abnormal return, with returns showing high due to price pressure. The regression models used, including accounting variables associated with other hypothes s, there are significant results that support other possible motives proposed in academic literature.

Eventos puramente cosméticos como o desdobramento ou grupamento de ações não deveriam gerar modificações no preço de mercado das empresas que realizaram tais operações. Porém, inúmeros estudos realizados nos mercados internacionais indicam que existem retornos anormais no preço das ações para tais eventos. Foi verificada a reação do mercado brasileiro aos grupamentos de ações que ocorreram entre 1986 e 2007 através do método de estudo de eventos. Os resultados indicam que não há retorno anormal nos preços das ações e que o evento possui efeitos puramente cosméticos no mercado acionário brasileiro, divergindo dos estudos realizados ao redor do mundo, predominantemente no mercado americano. Tal fato pode ocorrer pelas diferenças institucionais entre os dois países. / Purely cosmetic events such as the split or inplits should not generate changes in market prices of companies that performed such operations. However, numerous studies in international markets indicate that there are abnormal returns in the stock price for such events. It was found that the reaction of the Brazilian market to groups of actions that occurred between 1986 and 2007 by the method of study events. The results indicate that there are no abnormal returns in stock prices for these events in the national market. These results indicate that the event is purely cosmetic in the Brazilian equity market which differs from studies conducted in other markets, but predominantly in the U.S. market, and this fact can occur by the difference in institutional settings between the two countries.

Uppsatsens syfte är att studera värderingseffekten av aktievärdet vid godkännandet av ett nytt läkemedel från ”US Food and Drug Administration”. USA spenderar 17,4% av sin bruttonationalprodukt på hälsovård och en stor del av kostnaden för hälsovård är farmaceutisk försäljning. Uppsatsen undersöker amerikanska läkemedelsföretag som har fått ett läkemedel av typ 1 eller typ 5-klassifikationen godkänt under tidsperioden 2000–2017. Farmaceutiska företag får ett godkännande eller ett avslag och detta event kan påverka både positivt och negativt beroende på utfallet vilket uppsatsen mäter med hjälp av en eventstudie enligt marknadsmodellen.  Resultatet för studien visar en statistiskt signifikant positiv avvikelseavkastning för dag 0 för samtliga bolag tillsammans. Studien visar även en signifikant positiv kumulativ avvikelseavkastning för tre utav fyra eventfönster. / The purpose of the thesis is to study the valuation change when a new drug is approved by the US Food and Drug Administration and if there is any difference during the event period. When pharmaceutical companies receive an approval or a refusal this event may both impact the companies positively and negatively depending on the outcome. The results of this study show that there is a significant positive abnormal return for day 0 for all the companies together.