This study examined the impact of open-market stock repurchases by Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) on the share price of the featured company. Two aspects of investment finance are rational behaviour and efficient markets. Both of these concepts were explored to understand why a share repurchase would have an impact on a company share price.Causal research was conducted to analyse the correlation between a share repurchase event and the share price of the featured company. The share buyback announcements were collected from the Bloomberg database. The holding period returns were calculated and compared to zero to analyse whether there was any momentum or contrarian signals. The holding period returns were also adjusted for the average of the all REIT index to ascertain whether the returns were abnormal or not.The results have shown share repurchase transactions to be contrarian indicators of share price performance. Even when the results were adjusted for the REIT index, the negative returns continued. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Many Swedish video game companies have in recent years been very successful in terms of share price development. Why is it like that? With the purpose to gain an increased understanding of the investor's choice, we here examine which business models are used in the Swedish video game industry. More specifically, we try to identify what similarities do the business models in the successful companies share and what similarities do the non-performing companies share. The analytical framework used is based on Business Model Canvas adapted to the video game industry. We use a qualitative approach with case studies of 10 listed Swedish video gaming companies, five successful and five non-performing, in terms of share price development. The data collected is from secondary sources, mainly the companies' annual reports, fitting the investors narrative with the assumption that secondary data is generally what influences the stock price.In general, the results suggest that similarities between business models among the successful companies largely coincide with similarities between the non-performing companies, which makes the information less valuable for understanding investors' choices. Nevertheless, one unique similarity among successful companies applies to that they in general have broad gaming portfolios that target several unrelated customer segments, i.e. a diversified market. The non-performing companies instead mainly target a niche market. Another unique similarity among successful companies’ business models concerns their use of acquisition strategies. In the non-performing companies' business models, acquisition strategies are largely lacking.

Whether mergers and acquisitions create or destroy shareholder value for acquiring companies has been widely researched and remains fairly inconclusive. The purpose of this research was to study the short term and long term impacts of large acquisitions on the share price performance of acquiring companies using the event study methodology.From a population of 11 062 acquisitions made by JSE listed companies between 1999 and 2008, 39 acquisitions met the relevant criteria of non-occurrence of confounding events and the availability of information. The Cumulative Abnormal Returns of acquiring companies over a short term period surrounding the announcement date and the longer term post-announcement date period were tested to observe whether they were significantly different to zero.Whilst statistically significant Cumulative Abnormal Returns were observed over the short term 3-day event window [-1;+1], no statistically significant Cumulative Abnormal Returns were observed around the remaining five event windows. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

In spite of the well-accepted belief of the relationship between cash flow and stock price, there are some controversies about whether cash flow is a good value driver in terms of explaining the volatility of stock prices, when compared with other value drivers, such as earnings or dividends. Most of the previous studies that have focused on the relationship between stock price and cash flow have used cross-industries data, primarily S&P 500 index. These studies do not distinguish service industry from manufacturing industry. However, the service industry is different from manufacturing in many ways. These differences make cash play different roles in the daily operation between the service industry and the manufacturing industry. Given these factors, whether the relationship between stock price and cash flow identified in previous studies will hold in the casual theme restaurant industry is the question this study tries to answer. Therefore, a set of 20 casual theme restaurant companies are selected through the COMPUSTAT database as the sample of this study. In this study, the performance of cash flow, earnings and dividends helping to explain the stock price move will be compared and ranked under the setting of casual theme restaurants. This result will provide the management of casual theme restaurants a guideline, which explains how to maintain the stock price increase and minimize the volatility by monitoring the most important value driver of the industry. The methodology of this study will follow the traditional multiple valuation model. The logic of this model is to compare the pricing error of different value drivers and determine which one is the best. The results of this study show that operating cash flow outperformed earnings and dividends in the multiple valuation tests. This is different from the results of previous studies that earnings has the strongest explanatory power in the variance of share price. / Master of Science

The new millennium is the time for entrepreneurship both nationally and internationally because the new millennium has many opportunities, afforded by technology and global communications, as it is filled with challenges and uncertainty. The South African government has identified the important role small- and medium-sized enterprises have to play in employment creation. The first step towards economic development is creating new businesses; the second step is ensuring sustainability through value creation. Value-based management can be defined as a management approach that maximises long-term shareholder value, which is incorporated in the business’ strategy and goals, through the identification and management of key value drivers, whereby all employees think and act like shareholders. To ensure value creation takes place, some form of control mechanism is required. Managerial decisions and actions to create shareholder value, therefore, are measured through a metric, and employee performance is linked to the value created. Value-based management is not a staff-driven exercise but focusses on better decision making at all levels. Value-based management metrics are based on the idea of comparing cash flows generated by a company against the cost of capital in generating these flows, and thereby measuring shareholder value. Understanding what drives value in a company is essential for creating shareholder value, as well as how these drivers affect one another. This will enable all stakeholders, from senior management right down to the shop floor, to make the right informed decision that will result in creating and increasing shareholder value. Entrepreneurship can be defined as a dynamic goal-oriented process whereby an individual combines creative thinking to identify marketplace needs and new opportunities with the ability to manage secure resources, and adapt to the environment to achieve desired results, while assuming some portion of risk for the venture. Entrepreneurship is about the exploitation of perceived opportunities by individuals, based solely on personal judgement and visions. These are either not seen by other individuals, or they are unable to bear the risks of acting upon them. Without effective and efficient management by objectives, and management of projects, a small business cannot function. The decision to invest in an entrepreneurial business can be viewed as a hard evidence-oriented, substance-based process and investors discount the figures in a business plan, as these figures are wildly optimistic as well as padded by entrepreneurs. A venture capitalist sometimes chooses to invest in a new venture, even if the discounted cash flow (DCF) analysis results shows that the net present value is a negative reason, being that the DCF approach does not take into account the flexibility obtained by active management. The environment faced by the venture-backed firm is highly uncertain, making overlooking this flexibility a particularly serious problem. Private equity is potentially one of the most expensive forms of capital financing. New and emerging firms are usually the issuers of private equity, as these firms cannot raise money in the public markets, or they are public firms going private that require massive amounts of private financing. Smaller unlisted companies regard the Johannesburg Securities Exchange’s Alternative Exchange (AltX) as a stepping-stone to bigger things, including graduating to the main bourse of the JSE. Capital structure is arguably at the core of modern corporate finance, and a simple capital structure as a form of competitive strategy, as fewer physical assets contribute to organisational flexibility, and as a result, small firm owners often weigh the benefits of expansion against the benefits of remaining small. Performance evaluation is an important tool in continuously improving performance in order to stay competitive. Performance evaluation and benchmarking positively forces any business to constantly improve and evolve. Benchmarking a firm’s financial results against its own peers or industry averages enables management to identify the relative strength and weaknesses of the firms and as a result, ensure better future planning. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is a non-parametric linear programming technique that computes a comparative ratio of outputs or inputs for each unit, which is reported as the relative efficiency score. DEA assists in identifying areas in which a firm has strengths and weaknesses (relative to competition) and when improvements are needed (relative to peers). DEA can indicate the level of improvement required, and provides a consistent and reliable measure of managerial or operational efficiency. A two-stage DEA model was developed to benchmark performance in terms of value creation in the first stage, and in the second stage, share price performance. The study was designed to evaluate companies at operating level (day-to-day activity) as well as company level. In addition to the two-stage model, a single stage model was developed as a separate analysis in terms of output maximisation regarding share prices. As far as could be determined, it was the first time this type of research was done on South African companies listed on the AltX. Furthermore, the study is the first to apply a benchmarking technique to determine the relative efficiency of companies to convert resources into value-based performance measures and to convert the same measures into share-value. The majority of companies listed on the AltX are not efficient in reflecting company performance in share prices by means of value-based management principles. A very limited number of companies were able to be efficient simultaneously in creating value and reflecting the value created in the share price. Based on the efficiency frontier in terms of value creation, a very limited number of companies listed on the AltX are deemed efficient. The majority of the companies are not able to create value at the levels of the efficient companies. A small fraction of the companies listed on the AltX is deemed efficient based on the efficiency frontier for reflecting value creation in share prices. AltX companies’ share prices have the potential to increase significantly in value, if all companies were efficient in reflecting created value in share prices. Small and medium enterprises should give more attention to value-based management principles in the process to create shareholders’ wealth. In light of the evidence that the value creation process must start with educating the management of small and medium enterprises on the concepts and principles of value-based management, it would also be highly recommended that small and medium enterprises should make value-based management part of the business’ strategies and goals. Small and medium enterprises must identify and manage key value drivers. This process is not a generic process, as each business is unique in its own way. It is important for management to understand the key value drivers in order to get employees to understand them. The management of small and medium enterprises are warned against a short-term value maximisation focus at the expense of long-term shareholder value creation. Any reward and recognition system should not reward short-term benefits, but rather should focus on long-term, sustainable initiatives, that will create value in the long run to the benefit of all stakeholders involved. / PhD (Business Administration), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

The new millennium is the time for entrepreneurship both nationally and internationally because the new millennium has many opportunities, afforded by technology and global communications, as it is filled with challenges and uncertainty. The South African government has identified the important role small- and medium-sized enterprises have to play in employment creation. The first step towards economic development is creating new businesses; the second step is ensuring sustainability through value creation. Value-based management can be defined as a management approach that maximises long-term shareholder value, which is incorporated in the business’ strategy and goals, through the identification and management of key value drivers, whereby all employees think and act like shareholders. To ensure value creation takes place, some form of control mechanism is required. Managerial decisions and actions to create shareholder value, therefore, are measured through a metric, and employee performance is linked to the value created. Value-based management is not a staff-driven exercise but focusses on better decision making at all levels. Value-based management metrics are based on the idea of comparing cash flows generated by a company against the cost of capital in generating these flows, and thereby measuring shareholder value. Understanding what drives value in a company is essential for creating shareholder value, as well as how these drivers affect one another. This will enable all stakeholders, from senior management right down to the shop floor, to make the right informed decision that will result in creating and increasing shareholder value. Entrepreneurship can be defined as a dynamic goal-oriented process whereby an individual combines creative thinking to identify marketplace needs and new opportunities with the ability to manage secure resources, and adapt to the environment to achieve desired results, while assuming some portion of risk for the venture. Entrepreneurship is about the exploitation of perceived opportunities by individuals, based solely on personal judgement and visions. These are either not seen by other individuals, or they are unable to bear the risks of acting upon them. Without effective and efficient management by objectives, and management of projects, a small business cannot function. The decision to invest in an entrepreneurial business can be viewed as a hard evidence-oriented, substance-based process and investors discount the figures in a business plan, as these figures are wildly optimistic as well as padded by entrepreneurs. A venture capitalist sometimes chooses to invest in a new venture, even if the discounted cash flow (DCF) analysis results shows that the net present value is a negative reason, being that the DCF approach does not take into account the flexibility obtained by active management. The environment faced by the venture-backed firm is highly uncertain, making overlooking this flexibility a particularly serious problem. Private equity is potentially one of the most expensive forms of capital financing. New and emerging firms are usually the issuers of private equity, as these firms cannot raise money in the public markets, or they are public firms going private that require massive amounts of private financing. Smaller unlisted companies regard the Johannesburg Securities Exchange’s Alternative Exchange (AltX) as a stepping-stone to bigger things, including graduating to the main bourse of the JSE. Capital structure is arguably at the core of modern corporate finance, and a simple capital structure as a form of competitive strategy, as fewer physical assets contribute to organisational flexibility, and as a result, small firm owners often weigh the benefits of expansion against the benefits of remaining small. Performance evaluation is an important tool in continuously improving performance in order to stay competitive. Performance evaluation and benchmarking positively forces any business to constantly improve and evolve. Benchmarking a firm’s financial results against its own peers or industry averages enables management to identify the relative strength and weaknesses of the firms and as a result, ensure better future planning. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is a non-parametric linear programming technique that computes a comparative ratio of outputs or inputs for each unit, which is reported as the relative efficiency score. DEA assists in identifying areas in which a firm has strengths and weaknesses (relative to competition) and when improvements are needed (relative to peers). DEA can indicate the level of improvement required, and provides a consistent and reliable measure of managerial or operational efficiency. A two-stage DEA model was developed to benchmark performance in terms of value creation in the first stage, and in the second stage, share price performance. The study was designed to evaluate companies at operating level (day-to-day activity) as well as company level. In addition to the two-stage model, a single stage model was developed as a separate analysis in terms of output maximisation regarding share prices. As far as could be determined, it was the first time this type of research was done on South African companies listed on the AltX. Furthermore, the study is the first to apply a benchmarking technique to determine the relative efficiency of companies to convert resources into value-based performance measures and to convert the same measures into share-value. The majority of companies listed on the AltX are not efficient in reflecting company performance in share prices by means of value-based management principles. A very limited number of companies were able to be efficient simultaneously in creating value and reflecting the value created in the share price. Based on the efficiency frontier in terms of value creation, a very limited number of companies listed on the AltX are deemed efficient. The majority of the companies are not able to create value at the levels of the efficient companies. A small fraction of the companies listed on the AltX is deemed efficient based on the efficiency frontier for reflecting value creation in share prices. AltX companies’ share prices have the potential to increase significantly in value, if all companies were efficient in reflecting created value in share prices. Small and medium enterprises should give more attention to value-based management principles in the process to create shareholders’ wealth. In light of the evidence that the value creation process must start with educating the management of small and medium enterprises on the concepts and principles of value-based management, it would also be highly recommended that small and medium enterprises should make value-based management part of the business’ strategies and goals. Small and medium enterprises must identify and manage key value drivers. This process is not a generic process, as each business is unique in its own way. It is important for management to understand the key value drivers in order to get employees to understand them. The management of small and medium enterprises are warned against a short-term value maximisation focus at the expense of long-term shareholder value creation. Any reward and recognition system should not reward short-term benefits, but rather should focus on long-term, sustainable initiatives, that will create value in the long run to the benefit of all stakeholders involved. / PhD (Business Administration), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Studien har sitt fokus på börsnoterade fotbollsklubbar i Europa. I studien tillämpas en kvantitativ metod med ett deduktivt angreppsätt vilket ansågs vara lämpligt för denna studie. Hypoteserna är formulerade med stöd från tidigare forskning med teoretiskt förhållningssätt. En panel-dataanalys formades genom ett urval av tio börsnoterade fotbollsklubbar.Vidare valdes sportsliga variabler ut för analysering gentemot den beroende variabeln aktiepris. Dessa oberoende variabler är inköp och försäljning av fotbollsspelare, publiksnitt och sportsliga resultat. En regressions- samt korrelationsanlys utfördes för att analysera potentiella samband mellan de befintliga variablerna. Matrisen av de sportsliga interna dimensionerna resulterade i att klubbarnas aktiepris till viss del inte påverkas av sportsliga prestationer på och utanför fotbollsplanen. / The study has its focus on listed football clubs in Europe. The study applied a quantitative method with a deductive approach which was considered appropriate for this study. The hypotheses are formulated on the basis of previous research with a theoretical framework. A panel data analysis was formed by a selection of ten listed football clubs. Sporting variables were selected for further analysis in relation to the dependent variable share price. The independent variables are sales and purchases of football players, average spectators and sporting results. A regression- and correlations analyses were used to analyze the potential correlation between the existing variables. The matrix of sporting internal dimensions proved that the share price is in part influenced by the sporting achievements on and off the football field.

Syfte: Uppsatsen syfte är att klargöra och analysera reporäntans ränteförändringars påverkan på aktiekurserna för samtliga svenska banker i large cap på Stockholmsbörsen. Metod: Kvantitativa händelsestudier har gjorts med deduktiv forskningsansats på fyra företag, samtliga noterade på Stockholmsbörsen. Den onormala avkastningen för de undersökta aktiekurserna har beräknats en dag före till en dag efter samtliga realiseringar av reporänteförändringar som skett mellan åren 2004 till 2015.  Teori: Den teoretiska referensramen för studien består av den effektiva marknadshypotesen och överreaktionshypotesen. Slutsatser: Studien har påvisat att det råder signifikant samband mellan ränteförändringar och de studerade aktiernas avkastning vid realisering av ränteförändringarna. / Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to clarify and analyze the changes in the discount rate and its impact on stock prices of all Swedish listed banks in large cap on the Stockholm stock exchange. Methodology: Quantitative event studies has been done with deductive research approach on four companies, all listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. The abnormal returns for the examined stock prices have been calculated one day before to one day after all the realizations of the changes in the discount rate that occurred between year 2004 to 2015. Theory: The theoretical framework in this study consists of The Effective Market Hypothesis and The Overreaction Hypothesis. Conclusions: The study has shown that there is a significant correlation between the changes in the discount rate and the equity returns of the studied stocks.

Bakgrund: Aktierekommendationer är vanligt förekommande i finansiell media samtidigt som teorier säger att man inte systematiskt kan över- eller undervärdera en aktie. Trots detta visar studier att finansmarknaden influeras av aktierekommendationer då handeln ökar efter en annonsering, vilket innebär att de finansiella kunskaperna en student har lärt sig under sin utbildning inte påverkar lika starkt när den sedan väljer att följa en aktierekommendation. Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka vilka faktorer som påverkar ekonomistudenters uppfattning av aktierekommendationer och hur stor påverkan valet av utbildningslinje har för hur studenten bedömer aktierekommendationer. Referensram: Referensramen kommer ge en förförståelse samt behandla de teorier som är väsentliga för att utreda studien. Referensramen innefattar prisbildning, EMH, behavioural finance, risk, kulturella influenser, utbildningens influenser och skolornas bakgrund. Metod: För att bäst kunna besvara och undersöka syftet genomförs studien som en förklarande surveyundersökning med en kvantitativ ansats. Undersökningen utförs genom en elektronisk enkät som skickas ut till studenter. Empiri: Det empiriska materialet består av enkätsvar från studenter från fyra olika ekonomiska utbildningslinjer som bearbetats med stistiska metoder. Slutsats: Valet av utbildningslinje påverkar studentens uppfattning om aktierekommendationer. De faktorer som påverkar är tron på den effektiva marknadshypotesen, studentens finansiella intresse, kön, riskbenägenhet, teoretisk kunskap samt kultur. Dessa faktorer påverkar utbildningslinjerna olika starkt. / Background: Share price recommendations are a common feature in the financial media. At the same time the financial theories argue that an asset can't systematically be over- or under valued. In spite of this, former studies show that share price recommendations do influence the financial market since the trade increases after an announcement. This means that the financial knowledge the student obtain during its education won’t matter when he or she chooses to follow a share price recommendation. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate which factors influence students’ opinions about share price recommendations, and how big effect the students’ business education has on that opinion. Theory: The frame of reference will give the reader a deeper knowledge beyond the theory and also theoretical perspectives essential for analysing the study. The frame of reference will consist of asset pricing, the effective market hypothesis, behavioural finance, cultural influences, educational influences as well as the schools backgrounds. Methodology: For best being able to answer to the purpose of this study, an explanatory survey investigation with a quantitative method is being made. The study will be investigated through an electronic questionnaire that will be sent to students. Empirical findings: The empirical material consits of the answers of students from four different business educations. Conclusions: The business educations affect the students’ opinion about share price recommendations in differing ways. The influencing factors are whether the student believes in effective market hypothesis, the students’ personal interest in finance, gender, risk appetite, theoretical knowledge, and culture.

This paper analyses options/warrants price behavior around an ex-dividend day of underlying shares. Both equity options as financial instruments traded on options exchanges, and warrants/certificates as OTC financial instruments are analyzed. First, the paper analyzes the ex-dividend day share price drop. Findings of this part are further used to analyze the impact of unexpected share price decline on options prices. Further, the paper focuses on volumes of traded options contracts and changes in options prices around the ex-dividend day. The paper focuses on European shares and related options and warrants. The options data was collected from the options exchange EUREX and also from several OTC sources -- Vontobel, Lang & Schwarz, Erste, and xMarkets by Deutsche Börse. The main aim of the paper is to identify market inefficiencies in trading in and valuation of equity options. There are two main conclusions that around the ex-dividend day there is a significantly increased trading activity and the call options depreciate whereas put options appreciate between the cum-dividend and the ex-dividend day. This shows insufficient implementation of the share price drops into options valuation models of options dealers or investors / speculators. Further an impact of unexpected share price behavior was analyzed but no particular pattern has been identified. The impact of the unexpected share price drop (either too high or too low) has ambiguous implications on the options prices. Finally, ways how to utilize on knowledge of inefficient trading in options around the ex-dividend day were suggested. The suggestions were done both from the perspective of an investor / speculator and of an options dealer.