Background A common goal for many investors is to beat the market. However, only a few are able to do so consistently over a long time. The random walk theory and the efficient market hypothesis are two widely accepted theories that state that it should not be possible to consistently generate abnormal returns in an efficient market. There are though some contradicting results that argue against market efficiency and a lot of those studies have value investment in common. Joseph Piotroski was in 2000 able to generate a value investment model that consistently beat the market between the years 1976-1996. Purpose The purpose of this paper is to test Piotroski’s model on stock markets with different size and maturity to evaluate if the model, as an investment strategy, can generate a better risk adjusted rate of return than a comparable market index. Unlike recent studies done on Piotroski’s value investing model, we will add a number of additional comparison portfolios and use two different valuation models to determine the source of return variation. Method This thesis employed a quantitative research method with a deductive approach. With data from four markets with different characteristics regarding efficiency and development, we performed an ex-ante test from 1995 to 2009. By employing Piotroski’s model, each stock on the four markets was given a score from 0-9; a portfolio for each market was created by the stocks that received a score of 8-9. They were then compared with portfolios from the same market based on the small firm- and book-to-market anomaly. We also performed a test between the markets to see if Piotroski’s model worked better in low efficiency or developed countries. All portfolios in this thesis were risk-adjusted with two different models, CAPM and the Fama & French three-factor model. Since these models use various factors to risk-adjust we have tested if they generate a different valuation of the same portfolio. Results Our study has shown that Piotroski’s model is not able to generate significant abnormal returns compared to our portfolios based on anomalies, our results also give an indication that by removing the anomaly premium the model might be destroying value instead of creating it. An explanation to why the model works in Piotroski’s study and not in ours could be the different method of risk adjustment. Piotroski uses a simple method by deducting the market return while we use two models that are taking additional factors into account. Our results are also able to show that choice of the valuation model does have a significant effect on the risk-adjusted return and could therefore affect the end-results of a study. Last of all our results do not give any support for the hypothesis that Piotroski’s model works better in countries with low efficiency compared to high efficiency or in countries that are developed compared to emerging.

Bakgrund: Allt mer kapital allokeras mot hållbara företag som satsar på CSR, samtidigt som transparensen ökar när företag redovisar om deras hållbarhetsarbete. Det finns tidigare forskning som antyder en koppling mellan CSR och finansiell prestation. Piotroskis (2000) investeringsstrategi baseras på redovisningsbaserade mått och har genererat positiv avkastning på olika marknader och under olika tidsperioder. Därav är det av intresse att undersöka ifall information om företags CSR kan adderas till Piotroskis (2000) investeringssignaler för att generera överavkastning. Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att utveckla Piotroskis investeringsstrategi med förändring i det icke-finansiella måttet CSR för att analysera ifall informationen om CSR förbättrar möjligheten att generera överavkastning. Metod: Studien har en kvantitativ och deduktiv utformning då den utgår från befintliga teorier. Det är en tidsserieundersökning av portföljer som genomförts under tidsperioden 2006-04-01 till 2017-03-31 på OMXS30. Vidare analyseras avkastningen med vedertagna portföljutvärderingsmått samt statistiska tester. Slutsats: Den utvecklade portföljens avkastning blev inte signifikant skild från avkastningen för den portfölj som inte tog hänsyn till företagens CSR-bedömning. Trots detta kan det utläsas att avkastningen från den utvecklade portföljen inte blev bättre än marknadsavkastningen, vilket pekar på att CSR-information inte bidrog till förbättrad överavkastning. Resultatet stärker och indikerar svårigheten att prestera bättre än marknaden och därmed förespråkas snarare en buy-and-hold strategi. / Background: More investments are being allocated towards sustainable companies and companies that focus on CSR. Transparency also increases when companies report about sustainability. There are many studies that show a connection between CSR and financial performance. Piotroski's (2000) investment strategy is based on accounting measures and has generated positive returns in different markets and different periods. It is therefore interesting to investigate whether CSR information can be added to the investment strategy to improve returns. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to develop Piotroski's investment strategy with the change in the non-financial measure CSR, to analyze if information about CSR improves the ability to generate excess return. Methodology: The study has a deductive design with a quantitative strategy and it is a time series analysis. The study is conducted based on existing theories. Accepted portfolio evaluation measures and statistical tests are used to analyze the returns. The study is conducted on the OMXS30 from 2006-04-01 to 2017-03-31. Conclusion: There was no statistical significance that the return from the portfolio using CSR-performance differed from the return of the portfolio that did not take CSR- performance into account. As a result from this we could not see that CSR-information contributed to an improved performance for an investor looking for excess return using the signals used by Piotroski (2000). Furthermore the difficulty of performing better than the market rather advocates a buy-and-hold strategy.

This paper uses a fundamental investment strategy model developed by Piotroski (2000), called F_SCORE. The model uses accounting-based ratios applied for portfolios of high book-to-market firms. The aim of the study is to test the model for the US stock market during the years 1998-2015, as well as to develop it. The first test uses the original model during the specified time period. The next step is to develop the model by using correlations between each of the signals and future returns that Piotroski (2000) has proven to exist. The test showed that the F_SCORE outperforms the market during the time period. In the developed model the return can be increased even further. The result shows that the market adjusted return can be increased by an average of 24.7 % annually. The developed model thereby generates a better market adjusted return than Piotroski's original model. / Följande examensarbete använder en fundamental investeringsstrategi framtagen av Piotroski (2000) som benämns F_SCORE. Strategin har sin utgångspunkt i finansiella rapporter gällande företag med höga book-to-market. Syftet med studien är att testa modellen för den amerikanska marknaden under åren 1998–2015, samt utveckla den. Det första testet använder ursprungsmodellen under den angivna tidsperioden. I nästa steg utvecklas modellen genom att hänsyn tas till respektive nyckeltals korrelation med avkastning som Piotroski (2000) visat existerar. Testet visade att F_SCORE överträffar marknaden under den valda tidsperioden. I den utvecklade modellen gick det att öka avkastningen ytterligare. Resultatet visar att det går att öka den marknadsjusterade avkastningen med i genomsnitt 24,7 % per år. Den utvecklade modellen genererar därmed en bättre marknadsjusterad avkastning än Piotroskis originalmodell.

<p>This study aims to evaluate the value relevance of Piotroski’s (2000) nine fundamental signals. In order to do this, the signals are tested on the OMX Nordic Exchange Stockholm between the years 2003 and 2009. The hypotheses of the study are whether the signals are value relevant and if the value relevance has changed. To test this, a Chi-square test and a regression are used. The tests show that some signals are value relevant, and that some are not. We also find evidence for a change in the value relevance during the years of the observation. Some explanations to why the value relevance has changed is also discussed.<em></em></p>

This study aims to evaluate the value relevance of Piotroski’s (2000) nine fundamental signals. In order to do this, the signals are tested on the OMX Nordic Exchange Stockholm between the years 2003 and 2009. The hypotheses of the study are whether the signals are value relevant and if the value relevance has changed. To test this, a Chi-square test and a regression are used. The tests show that some signals are value relevant, and that some are not. We also find evidence for a change in the value relevance during the years of the observation. Some explanations to why the value relevance has changed is also discussed.

När man väljer att analysera företag, finns det flera olika värderingsmodeller att använda.En av dessa är Piotroskis F-score. Denna modell har mestadels tidigare använts för att analysera företag på den amerikanska marknaden. Nu vill författarna undersöka hur tillämpbar modellen är på den svenska aktiemarknaden och dessutom kombinera denna modell med en Magic Sixes värdering för att öka dess precision. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka om F-score i samarbete med Magic Sixes kan generera överavkastning och överträffa den svenska aktiemarknaden. Författarna har genomfört en kvantitativ studie med en deduktiv ansats. Data har samlats in med hjälp av databasen Orbis och Dagens Industri. Författarna har upprättat identiska listor för att beräkna företagens F-score och Magic Sixes. Därefter har en beräkning av portföljernas lönsamhet genomförts. Författarnas studie har visat att F-score i kombination med Magic Sixes lyckas slå marknaden under 3 av de 6 studerade åren. F-score har en träffsäkerhet på 65,15% och Magic Sixes har en träffsäkerhet på 58,82%. Modellerna bör inte användas självständigt eller i kombination med varandra som enda grund för ett beslut, men bör ses mer som ett komplement till andra analysmetoder. Slutsatsen är att modellerna kan ge en god indikation på huruvida investerare bör undersöka investeringsobjektet närmare.

The aim of this paper is to test and further improve fundamental analysis models developed by Piotroski (2000) and Rados and Lovric (2009). The improvement seeks to reverse the information in the previous models by taking relative importance and strength of both positive and negative fundamental signals into consideration. The theoretical framework used includes the efficient market hypothesis, fundamental analysis and investing in high book-to-market companies. The Piotroski model, two Rados’s and Lovric’s models and two variations of our model were tested on a portfolio consisting of high book-to-market companies from the Stockholm Stock Exchange during the period 1999-2008. The results show that our EDA Model was the most successful at identifying short selling candidates, as EDA Low portfolio rendered market adjusted returns of -19% on average. Moreover, our EDC model was the best performing at identifying buy-and-hold candidates, with an average annual market adjusted return of 31,5%. The success of our models implies that the market is not using the information captured by them fully and in a timely manner.

This research project investigated the effectiveness of the Piotroski screen to select financially sound stocks from the upper quintile of high book-to-market value (growth) stocks on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). The period chosen for this study was all the years since the publication of the Piotroski screen in 2000 until the most recent financial year, 2011.Although no conclusive evidence was found that the mean returns from the portfolio of financially strong firms that were selected by means of the Piotroski screen were significantly better than the portfolio of value stocks, it was strongly suspected that the small group of firms that were signified as financially the strongest by the Piotroski screen had a decreased probability of containing firms with negative one year buy-and-hold returns compared to the other portfolios. Although the outcome was inconclusive due to small sample sizes, it was also strongly suspected that the one year buy-and-hold strategy yielded returns that were in the order of almost four times better than the five year buy-and-hold strategy.It was recommended that, in order to minimise suboptimal investor behaviour caused by psychological biases on the JSE, investors should adopt a mechanical investment method based on objective financial statement analysis, using the Piotroski screen to select financially strong firms from the pool of value firms. It was further recommended that an annual portfolio balancing strategy should be used. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

In a world facing environmental destruction and social injustices, corporations are called upon to act more sustainably. There has been an upswing in demand for green investments in the last decades, a trend further facilitated by the covid-19 pandemic. The increased demand has prompted scholars to investigate the relation between ESG-ratings and corporate financial performance. Despite a multitude of research being conducted in the field, it is difficult for firms and investors alike to get a grasp of the relation between the two as results are not coherent. The inconsistency in previous research implies further research in the field is necessary to improve the understanding of the relationship between ESG-ratings and corporate financial performance. A myriad of scholars has investigated the relation between ESG-ratings and corporate financial performance, research has found positive, insignificant, and even negative relationships between the variables. To further explore this relation, this thesis aims to answer the research question “Is there a relationship between ESG-scores and financial strength in publicly traded Swedish companies?”. By answering this research question, this thesis aims to provide additional insights on the relationship between ESG-scores and corporate financial performance. This thesis uses an unconventional proxy, the Piotroski F-score, to measurefinancial performance. The results of this study are analysed through the lens of economic theories such as the Efficient Market Hypothesis, Agency Theory, and Stakeholder theory. This is a panel data analysis based on 622 observations of Swedish firms through the years 2020-2022. Under a positivist paradigm with a deductive approach, this thesis seeks to contribute to the academic discourse on ESG-ratings and their relation to financial performance. The results were obtained through a pooled regression analysis with robust standard errors. The results of the regression showed that within Swedish publicly traded firms, the social pillar of the ESG-score has a significant relation to financial strength.

The aim of this paper is to test whether an investment strategy originally created by Piotroski (2000), can be refined by combining it with the price-to-earnings-anomaly. In detail, we accomplish this by implementing Piotroskis F_SCORE-model to identify and consequently separate financially weak- and strong firms. Furthermore, we create an investment portfolio based on a combination of the highest rated companies according to the F_SCORE-model, and the most undervalued companies from the price-to-earnings-anomaly, to create a joint investment strategy (M_STRAT). This is carried out during the time-period 1999-2009, while reconstructing the portfolio annually. The results of our study show that, by combining the two models, we are able to achieve a market-adjusted return of 44,1%, hence amplifying the original F_SCORE-model by 17%.