Sustainability is a common term in media and aims to take care of your own needs without compromising for future generations. ESG (environmental, social and governance) origins from CSR and SRI and is an important term in capital markets because of a new EU-directive was introduced in 2017.   The aim of this event study is to determine if the release of ESG-news have a significant impact on stock returns on companies listed on OMX30. This study includes news that were released from the year 2010 to April 2019 on the Swedish market OMX30. To test the hypothesis of this study, 199 news were selected, and the abnormal return was calculated on the event day.   The result of the hypothesis testing shows that only the environmental pillar shows a significant positive connection with return, while the social- and governance pillar does not. This study concludes that investors react strongly to negative ESG-news, and less positive to positive ESG-news. It can also be concluded that environmental news are what investors care most about.   Limitations of this study is that the selection of news was considered relatively small compared to earlier studies. If companies want to satisfy their stakeholders, extra focus should be addressed to these areas. The implication of this study is that investor care more about the environmental pillar then the other two pillars. / Hållbarhet är ett vanligt förekommande ord som syftar till att ta vara på egna behov utan att kompromissa för framtida generationer. ESG är ett viktigt begrepp inom hållbarhet och står för miljö, socialt ansvar och bolagsstyrning. Begreppet har sin uppkomst ur CSR och SRI och är väldigt aktuell på kapitalmarknaden för att ett nytt EU-direktiv trädde i kraft 2017.   Syftet med denna studie var att genom en eventstudie studera om offentliggörandet av ESG-nyheter har en signifikant påverkan på avkastningen hos företag listade på OMX30, samt om reaktioner vid offentliggörandet av ESG-nyheter skapar en över- eller underavkastning för företagen. För undersökningen användes 199 nyheter som offentliggjordes mellan år 2010 till april 2019 på den svenska marknaden (OMX30) och den abnormala avkastningen vid eventdagen.   Resultatet av hypotesprövningen visar att det enbart är miljöpelaren som har ett signifikant positivt samband på avkastningen då investerare reagerar mer på miljönyheter än vad de gör för den andra typen av nyheter. Slutsatsen av analysen visar att investerare reagerar stark negativt till negativa ESG-nyheter och svagt positivt till positiva. För företag innebär detta att ett extra fokus bör ligga på att implementera ESG i verksamheten, framförallt miljöarbete, för att belåtna sina intressenter.   Begränsningar av studien är urvalet av nyheter som anses vara relativt litet mot tidigare studier och för fortsätta studier rekommenderar vi att göra undersökningen på ett större urval för att få ett mer precist resultat.

An investor wants to maximize return at the cost of as little risk as possible and theBlack-Litterman model can help see that this condition is met. This thesis willinvestigate whether a portfolio created by using modern portfolio theory can beat thebenchmark index in terms of risk-adjusted return during a five year backtest period(2013-2017). Harry Markowitz provides the mean variance optimization frameworkwhile the practical Black-Litterman model adds the opportunity to tweak performancewith views on stock returns. The method for producing views for the Black-Littermanmodel can vary a lot and is what makes this thesis, for all that we know, unique. Theviews in our model stem from regression on the summed up earnings per share forthe last four quarters multiplied by the corresponding historical price earnings ratioand the historical stock price. The regressions provide data on how over orundervalued the stocks are. Backtesting our modified Black-Litterman model yieldsimpressive results in terms of risk-adjusted return and we encourage other studentsof the financial market to further investigate the performance of our modified portfolio.However most of the results are not statistically significant on a 5% significance leveldue to the need for more data points. This method is purely quantitative and can befully replicated to yield the same results for any interested investor.

Many investors use different types of data methods before making a decision, regardless of whether it is long or short term. The choice of which analysis method is generally determined by risk, removal of bias and the cost. One method that has been investigated is the use of machine lerning in data analysis. The advantage of machine lernig is that the method successfully handles comples, non-linear and non-stationary problems. In this essay, it will be investigated whether unattended machine learning, which uses the K-meaning method, which is a method that has not been investigated to any great extent either in practice or in theory to create a beneficial portfolio. The data used for the k-meaning method was historical data from the Swedish stock market between 1 January 2018 and 2 November 2020. The k-meaning analysis consists of the return of all shares included within OMX30 and the average deviation, which created a cluster of 11 shares that could generate a relatively high return compared to the remaining shares. To analyze whether the generated cluster were acceptable, an analysis of the sharpe-ratio and downward risk was preformed, which showed that the portfolio had a good risk-adjusted returnbut a worse result on downward risk.

A growing number of studies have been conducted in the sphere of portfolio analysis concerning different approaches for analyzing stocks and outperforming the market. Pioneers in the sphere of portfolio theory like William Sharpe and Harry Markowitz have developed strategies and ratios for portfolio analysis that could generate positive risk-adjusted returns. Thus, this paper will solicit a number of these strategies to endeavor and generate a return that is higher than the market index while considering the expenses that come with buying and selling stocks (transaction costs). Therefore, the purpose of this study is to assess how active investing measures up to passive investing in the sphere of the Swedish stock market. The roadmap to achieve the desired goals set by the authors is to create numerous portfolios on a weekly basis with securities present in the Swedish OMX30 index using the Maximum Sharpe, Maximum M2, Minimum Variance, and Equally Weighted optimizations. Then the significance of the transaction costs will be tested and a comparison with the market index will be made. The results suggest that in the realm of the Swedish stock market, investing in dynamically optimized portfolios based on the maximization of Sharpe Ratio and M2 will generate higher returns in comparison to passively investing in the market index, and the significance of transaction costs varies upon the amount of capital invested in the portfolios.

There has been an increased attention to sustainability in the society which has affected bothconsumers’ and investors’ behaviour. Consequently, companies are pressured to include CSR intheir businesses. Further, the media is quick to report when companies are acting sociallyirresponsible. For this reason it is of interest to investigate whether these news reports affectinvestors. One way to examine this is to study the stock price during such events. In addition, ithas been shown that women tend to value sustainability higher than men when consuming goodsand services. Hence, it is relevant to study if this trend is shown in their investment attitudes aswell. The method in this study consists of an event study which has been used to investigate theimpact of CSR events on stock prices of Swedish listed companies. In addition, a survey wasconducted to examine the attitudes towards CSR among Swedish private investors.The average two-day CAR for negative events was -0.18 percent, which suggests an existingeffect of negative CSR events on stock prices of listed Swedish companies belonging to OMX30.The findings in the survey showed that there is a great interest in CSR among Swedish investors.Further, a larger proportion include CSR in their investment decision compared to those who donot. Our findings showed that there exist differences in attitudes towards CSR within differentcategories of investors such as gender, age and trading habits. A larger proportion of femalerespondents have a greater interest in CSR and include CSR aspects in their investmentdecisions compared to males. A greater amount of female participants believe that a company'sCSR performance is at least as important as its financial one compared to males. Further, asignificant smaller proportion of investors between 18-24 years include CSR aspects when theymake investment decisions compared to those between 55-64 years. Our results suggest that themain underlying reason for respondents to include CSR was risk mitigation for the ones who trademore often and moral concerns for those who trade less often. Lastly, a larger proportion of thosewho trade less frequently believe that a company's CSR performance is at least as important asits financial one, compared to those who trade more frequently.

Förmågan att kunna anpassa sig efter rådande omständigheter har aldrig varit mer påtagligt än idag. När Coronapandemin lamslog hela världen 2020 var det mycket i det vardagliga livet som förändrades. Det gick inte att gå ut och äta, träffa sina nära och kära eller planera nästa semester på samma sätt som tidigare. Men det va inte bara enskilda individer som drabbades, många företag fick stänga igen och gick i konkurs. Majoriteten av företagen idag använder sig ett traditionellt sätt för att budgetera och planera för framtiden, man gör budgetar för kommande period och förhåller sig sedan till dessa. Detta sätt att planera och budgetera lyfts fram som kostsamt, tidskrävande och att det försvårar möjligheterna att anpassa sig efter ändrade omständigheter. Men på senare tid har ett alternativ planerings- och budgeteringssätt vuxit fram. Beyond Budgeting är ett alternativ till det traditionella sättet och innebär att man avskaffar dessa traditionella budgetar och använder sig istället av rullande prognoser, benchmarking och balanced scorecard för att bara nämna några styrmedel. Förespråkarna för Beyond Budgeting menar att detta nya sätt att planera och budgetera skulle eliminera de negativa delar som de traditionella metoderna för med sig och att det skulle leda till ökad lönsamhet. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur företag på OMXS30 Nasdaq Stockholm som använder Beyond Budgeting och företag som inte använder Beyond Budgeting skiljer sig åt i lönsamhet, genom att undersöka fem nyckeltal. Nyckeltalen som undersöks är vinstmarginal, likviditet, soliditet, kapitalomsättningshastighet och räntabilitet på totalt kapital. I denna studie har en kvantitativ metod tillämpats där sekundärdata i form av årsredovisningar för åren 2017, 2018 och 2019 hämtats för företagen listade på OMXS30 Nasdaq Stockholm. Nyckeltalen vinstmarginal, likviditet, soliditet, kapitalomsättningshastighet och räntabilitet på totalt kapital har sedan valts ut som representativt för lönsamhet. Resultatet för denna studien påvisar att det inte finns någon statistiskt signifikant skillnad i lönsamhet mellan de företag som använder Beyond Budgeting och de företag som inte använder Beyond Budgeting. Studien visar således att det inte finns något samband mellan Beyond Budgeting och lönsamhet. / The ability to adapt to prevailing circumstances has never been more evident than today. When the Corona Pandemic paralyzed the whole world in 2020, much of everyday life changed. It was no longer possible to go out to eat, meet loved ones or plan the next vacation in the same way as before. But it was not just individuals who were affected, many companies had to close and went bankrupt. The majority of companies today use a traditional way of budgeting and planning for the future, they make budgets for the up coming period and then relate to these. This way of planning and budget is often highlighted as costly, time consuming and that it makes it more difficult to adapt to changing circumstances. But recently, an alternative planning and budgeting method has emerged. Beyond Budgeting is an alternative to the traditional way and means that you abolish these traditional budgets and instead use rolling forecasts, benchmarking and balanced scorecard to name just a few instruments. Proponents of Beyond Budgeting believe that this new way of planning and budgeting would eliminate the negative elements that traditional methods bring with them and that it would lead to increased profitability. The purpose of this study is to investigate how companies on OMXS30 Nasdaq Stockholm that use Beyond Budgeting and companies that do not use Beyond Budgeting differ in profitability, by examining five key figures. The key figures examined are profit margin, liquidity, equity / assets ratio, capital turnover rate and return on total capital. In this study, a quantitative method has been applied where secondary data in the form of annual reports for the years 2017, 2018 and 2019 have been retrieved for the companies listed on the OMXS30 Nasdaq Stockholm. The key ratios of profit margin, liquidity, equity ratio, capital turnover rate and return on total capital have then been selected as representative of profitability. The results of this study show that there is no statistically significant difference in profitability between the companies that use Beyond Budgeting and the companies that do not use Beyond Budgeting. The study thus shows that there is no connection between Beyond Budgeting and profitability.

In this essay, we have chosen to focus on a wonder regarding where Swedish company management is headed. With that said, we are interested in seeing some form of future prospect, which we can never really take for granted since the future has not yet occurred. With that said, we have chosen to relate to the future in a specific way. Mainly through Johan Asplund and his tankefigursmodell. Through this work, we answer various wounderings, such as "What does Swedish business management mean?", "What does Swedish business management look like?" and "What is said in relation to future Swedish company management, and what does it mean?". We have chosen to approach our main wonder through an Asplundisk approach with focus on aspect vision, meaning statements, fixation images and tankefigurer. We address our wonder in the theoretical field by looking at Swedish business management from three aspects in time; the past, the present and the future. We address the empirical field by looking at two aspects. First, we look to Swedish recruitment companies to form an idea of what type of people they are looking for in leading positions for the future. Secondly, by looking at OMX30's annual reports, we listen to “the CEO: have the floor”, to interpret how they view future Swedish company management. We come to the conclusion that there is a movement happening regarding Swedish company management that takes place over time. The movement takes us from the tankefigur of the past “Tänkare eller Görare” to the tankefigur of the future “Tänkande Görare”. We note that it seems like the present constructs the idea of the future man in a rather tricky way and that there are tensions between what is said and what is done, in relation to the future. Wonders that we acknowledge in our conclusion are for example; Are sustainability aspects a facade and are the conversations about complexity and uncertainty perhaps not as new and future as we seem to think? Has it become a convention in relation to Swedish company management to speak in certain terms? What is typically Swedish and does this differ from the outside world? Through this work our contribution is, in our opinion, twofold. On the one hand, we have a contribution that lies in the fact that through our wondering approach we interpret the tankefigur of the future, its overarching discourses and corresponding basis and look at the meaning of what we can see. Secondly, the contribution lies in the approach itself. The way we choose to write this essay might differ from the convergence and can thus create wonders and revelations for someone else, which might be enlightening or eye opening. / I denna uppsats har vi valt att fokusera på en undran om vart svensk företagsledning är på väg. Med det sagt är vi intresserade av att se någon form av framtidsutsikt. Vi är dock medvetna om att vi inte kan ta framtiden för givet eller konstatera den som självklar, eftersom den ännu inte har inträffat. Med det sagt har vi valt att förhålla oss till framtiden på ett specifikt sätt. Främst genom Johan Asplund och hans tankefigursmodell. Genom detta arbete svarar vi på olika undringar, såsom "Vad betyder svensk företagsledning?", "Hur ser svensk företagsledning ut?" och "Vad talas det om i förhållande till framtida svensk företagsledning och vad betyder det?". Vi har valt att närma oss vår huvudsakliga undran genom ett Asplundiskt synsätt med fokus på aspektseende, betydelseangivelse, fixeringsbilder och tankefigurer. Vi tar upp vår undran inom det teoretiska området genom att undersöka svensk företagsledning ur tre aspekter; dåtiden, nuet och framtiden. Vi tar upp svensk företagsledning i relation till vår empiriska undersökning genom att se till två aspekter. Först vänder vi oss till svenska rekryteringsföretag för att bilda oss en uppfattning om vilken typ av personer de söker till ledande positioner inför framtiden. För det andra, genom att titta på OMX30:s årsredovisningar, lyssnar vi på ”VD:n: har ordet”, för att tolka hur de ser på framtida svensk företagsledning. Vi kommer fram till att det sker en rörelse kring svensk företagsledning som sker över tid. Rörelsen tar oss från dåtidens tankfigur "Tänkare eller Görare" till framtidens tankfigur "Tänkande Görare". Vi noterar att det verkar som om nutiden konstruerar idén om den framtida människan på ett ganska knepigt sätt och att det finns spänningar mellan det som sägs och det som görs, i förhållande till framtiden. Undringar som vi uppmärksammar i vår reflektion och slutsats är bland annat; Är hållbarhetsaspekter en fasad och är samtalen om komplexitet och osäkerhet kanske inte så nya och framtida som vi verkar tro? Har det blivit en norm, förhållande till svensk företagsledning, att tala i vissa termer? Vad är typiskt svenskt och skiljer sig detta typiska från omvärlden? Genom detta arbete är vårt bidrag, enligt vår mening, tvåsidigt. För det första har vi ett bidrag i tolkandet av framtidens tankefigur, dess övergripande diskurser och motsvarande bas samt vårt undrande förhållningssätt när det kommer till innebörden av det vi kan se. För det andra ligger bidraget i själva tillvägagångssättet. Vi väljer att skriva den här uppsatsen på ett sätt som kan skilja sig från normen gällande uppsatsskrivande. Detta hoppas vi kan skapa undringar och nyfikenhet hos någon annan, vilket kan vara upplysande eller ögonöppnande.

This project aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the Auto Regressive Exogenous(ARX) model in forecasting stock prices and contribute to research on statisticalmodels in predicting stock prices. An ARX model is a type of linear regression modelused in time series analysis to forecast future values based on past values and externalinput signals. In this study, the ARX model was used to forecast the closing pricesof stocks listed on the OMX Stockholm 30 (OMXS30*) excluding Essity, Evolution,and Sinch, using historical data from 2016-01-01 to 2020-01-01 obtained from YahooFinance. The model was trained using the least squares approach with a control signal that filtersoutliers in the data. This was done by modeling the ARX model using optimizationtheory and then solving that optimization problem using Gurobi OptimizationSoftware. Subsequently, the accuracy of the model was tested by predicting prices in aperiod based on past values and the exogenous input variable. The results indicated that the ARX model was not suitable for predicting stock priceswhile considering short time periods.

This study will be investigating the relationship between short-term and long-term interest rates with the OMX30 stock return expressed in percentage, as well as the effect that the interest rates have on the stock return. The data used in this study has been collected from the dataprogram Datastream with monthly observations from January 2003 until December 2022 resulting in 240 different variables within all three factors over a period of 20 years. While performing OLS estimation, the result estimated by using R-studio shows a negative correlation between the interest rates and the percentage return of OMX30. Furthermore, the Granger causality test shows that the short-term interest rate does have an impact on the market whilst the long-term interest rate does not have any direct effect on the stock market in Sweden.