This thesis analyzes and evaluates the relationship between insider trading and the long-term stock performance of Initial Public Offerings (IPO) in Sweden. The study looks at firms that recently conducted an IPO and how the stock performance of the firm is impacted by insiders making transactions in their own stock. An IPO is known to generate high returns on its first day on the public stock market, but to underperform the market in the long term. The characteristics of an IPO are deviant from the rest of the stock market, and with less information available to the public compared to other firms, the IPO market is hard to navigate for investors. Transactions made by insiders in the share of their own company is usually seen as guidance in public companies. An insider purchase is usually followed by a positive stock return, and insiders selling shares have the opposite impact. The aim of this thesis is to investigate if the information provided by insider transactions can be used to create a potential trading strategy for IPOs. Through statistical analysis, a negative relationship is found between the insider trading and IPO long-term stock performance, indicating that insider buying shares are connected to lesser stock performance. This contradicts previous research regarding insider trading in seasoned firms and opens up for discussion. By implementing a theoretical framework, a deeper analysis of the proposed relationship is be made. This study concludes that the negative relationship between insider trading and long-term IPO stock performance is not directly caused by insider trading itself. Instead, it is a result of insiders making poor investment decisions due to outside pressure and behavioral factors.

Under flera år har forskare kunnat hittat stöd för en stark initial avkastning när ett företag noteras på en börslista för första gången. Samtidigt tenderar dessa bolag att underprestera marknaden och liknande noterade bolag på längre sikt. Flera mönster har också identifierats gällande i vilka perioder där noteringsaktiviteten varit som störst. Examensarbetet syftar till att utvärdera om det råder något samband mellan värderingen som föreligger på börsen och antalet bolag som noteras. I examensarbetet ska vi även analysera om det finns en skillnad i avkastning på kort och lång sikt för noteringarna beroende på vilken värdering som varit på börsen när bolaget har noterats. Genom att använda data för de börsnoteringar som har noterats under 2007 till 2021 samt börsens värdering under samma tidsperiod genomförs en regressionsanalys. Vidare delas börsnoteringarna in i två grupper, där gruppen låg värdering innehåller börsnoteringar som noterades när börsen värderades under medelvärdet för undersökningsperioden. Gruppen hög värdering inkluderade börsnoteringarna som noterades då börsen värderades över medelvärdet. Skillnaden i kursutveckling för börsnoteringarna i de två olika grupperna utvärderas sedan med ett T-test. Studien gav stöd för att det finns ett laggat samband med antalet noteringar som sker och värderingen som finns på aktiemarknaden. Studien kunde däremot inte dra några slutsatser om det finns några skillnader i den avkastningen som genererats av noteringarna baserat på värderingen på börsen vid introduktionstillfället. / Researchers have for years documented an initial return for companies listing their stock on a public exchange for the first time. However, there is also a tendency for these firms to underperform compared to the general market and similarly sized firms in the long run. Patterns have also been identified regarding which periods have the strongest activity among IPOs. This thesis tries to evaluate if a relationship exists between the number of IPOs and the valuation of the stock market. Further, the thesis also tests if there is a difference in the performance of the IPOs in both the short run and the long run based on the valuations in the stock market during their market entry. Using data over the IPOs between 2007-2021 and the stock market valuation for the same period, a regression analysis is then run. Further the IPOs are divided into two groups, where the group low valuation includes IPOs that were offered when the stock market valuation was lower than the mean valuation of the time period. The group high valuation included IPOs that were offered when the stock market valuation was higher than the mean valuation. Differences between the groups in the IPOs stock performance are then evaluated with a t-test. The results from the study showed evidence of a strong lagged relationship between the number of IPOs and the stock market valuation. However, the results did not support the existence of differences of performance based on the valuations of the stock market at the time of their entry.

Syfte: Det har riktats stor uppmärksamhet mot företagens sociala ansvar under senaste decennierna och CSR har därmed blivit en alltmer viktig fråga för företag och dess intressenter. Huruvida högre CSR bidrar till högre aktievärde har varit ett omstritt ämne inom tidigare studier. Covid-19-pandemin anses ha varit en kris som har kastat nytt sken på denna fråga. Många forskare ser därför ett behov av att undersöka om CSR har kunnat göra aktier immuna under börskraschen följt av Covid-19 samt om CSR bidrar till mer motståndskraftiga aktier under kriser. Det finns dock motstridiga resultat inom tidigare studier huruvida det finns ett samband mellan CSR och aktieprestation. Syftet och huvudfrågan i studien är därför att undersöka detta samband hos börsnoterade bolag inom transport- och logistiksektorn. Mer specifikt i G20-länder under börskraschen till följd av Covid-19-pandemin. Metod: Studien utgår från en positivistisk forskningsfilosofi och antar en hypotetisk-deduktiv ansats. En kvantitativ forskningsstrategi och en tvärsnittsdesign har antagits för att genomföra studien med data över 371 publika bolag inom transport- och logistiksektorn i G20-länder. Studiens data är sekundärdata inhämtad från databasen Thomson Reuters Eikon. Data har analyserats i statistikprogrammet SPSS. Resultat och slutsats: Utifrån studiens resultat finner vi inget stöd till våra hypoteser gällande ett positivt samband mellan CSR, dess separata dimensioner och aktieprestation. Det finns inget som tyder på att aktiernas prestation har påverkats av företags ESG-satsningar. Detta resultat är i linje med aktieägarteorin som syftar till att företag endast bör ha aktieägarnas vinstmaximering som sin huvuduppgift. Studien använder ESG-betyg som ett kvantitativt mått på CSR, men de problem som finns med ESG och som har diskuterats i stor omfattning kan ha påverkat studiens resultat. Examensarbetets bidrag: Studien bidrar till att fylla ett forskningsgap gällande sambandet mellan CSR och aktieprestation inom transport- och logistiksektorn i G20-länder. Studien bidrar även med en diskussion gällande ESG-betygets validitet samt även med ytterligare empirisk forskning och teoretisk information. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Eftersom studien är avgränsad till G20-länder samt transport- och logistiksektorn, går det inte att applicera resultatet på andra sektorer eller länder. Ett förslag till vidare forskning är därmed att undersöka sambandet i andra länder för att skapa större förståelse hur hållbarhetsarbete implementeras i denna sektor. Annat förslag till vidare forskning är att utgå från andra kontrollvariabler för att undersöka sambandet då det kan finnas andra faktorer än de som tagits upp i denna studie som kan påverka hur resultatet ter sig. / Aim: Great attention has been paid to Corporate Social Responsibility in recent decades and CSR has thus become an increasingly important issue for companies and their stakeholders. Whether higher CSR contributes to higher stock value has been a controversial topic in previous studies. The Covid-19 pandemic is considered to have been a crisis that has shed new light on this issue. Many researchers therefore see a need to investigate whether CSR has been able to make stocks immune during the stock market crash followed by Covid-19 and whether CSR contributes to stock resilience during crises. However, there are conflicting results in previous studies as to whether there is a relationship between CSR and stock performance. The purpose and main question in this study is therefore to investigate this relationship in public companies in the transportation- and logistics sector. More specifically in G20 countries during the stock market crash due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Method: The study is based on a positivistic research philosophy and adopts a hypothetical-deductive approach. A quantitative research strategy and a cross-sectional design have been adopted to conduct the study with data on 371 public companies in the transportation- and logistics sector in G20 countries. The data is secondary and obtained from the Thomson Reuters Eikon database. The data have been analyzed in the statistical program SPSS. Result and conclusions: Based on the result of the study, we find no support for our hypotheses regarding a positive relationship between CSR, its separate dimensions and stock performance. There is no indication that the stock performance has been affected by companies’ ESG investments. This result is in line with the shareholder theory, which aims that companies should only have the shareholders’ profit maximization as their main task. The study uses ESG scores as a quantitative measure of CSR, but the problems that exist with ESG and have been discussed to a large extent may have affected the result of the study. Contribution of this thesis: The study contributes to filling a research gap regarding the relationship between CSR and stock performance in the transportation- and logistics sector in G20 countries. The study also contributes with a discussion regarding the validity of the ESG rating as well as with further empirical research and theoretical information. Suggestions for future research: As the study is limited to G20 countries and the transportation- and logistics sector, the result cannot be applied to other sectors or countries. A proposal for further research is thus to investigate the connection in other countries in order to create a greater understanding of how sustainability work is implemented in this sector. Another proposal for further research is to assume other control variables to investigate the relationship as there may be other factors than those addressed in this study that may affect how the result appears.

Since recent years, the use of non-traditional data sources by hedge funds in order to support investment decisions has increased. One of the data sources which has increased most is social media and it has become popular to analyze the public opinion with help of sentiment analysis in order to predict the performance of a company. In order to evaluate the public opinion one need big sets of Twitter data. The Twitter data was collected by streaming the Twitter feed and the stock data was collected from a Bloomberg Terminal. The aim of this study was to examine if there is a correlation between the public opinion of a stock and the stock price, and also what affects this relationship. While such a relationship cannot be established in general, we are able to show that if the data quality is good, there is a high correlation between the public opinion and stock price, and that significant events surrounding the company results in a higher correlation during that period. / De senaste åren har användandet av icke-traditionella datakällor ökat av hedgefonder för att ta investeringsbeslut. En av datakällorna som blivit populära är sociala medier och det har blivit vanligt att analysera folkopinionen med hjälp av sentimentanalys för att kunna förutspå ett företags resultat. För att analysera folkopinionen krävdes stora mängder Twitterdata. Twitter-datan hämtades genom att strömma Twitter-flödet och aktiedatan hämtades från en Bloomberg Terminal. Målet med studien var att undersöka ifall det finns en korrelation mellan folkopinionen av en aktie och aktiens prisutveckling, och även vad som påverkar denna relationen. Även om en sådan relation inte kan fastställas i allmänhet så kan vi visa att om datakvaliten är god, så finns det en hög korrelation mellan folkopinionen och aktiepriset, samt att vid betydande händelser som rör företaget, så resultar det i en hög korrelation under den perioden.

Global warming is becoming an increasingly pressured problem for the climate and worldeconomy. The trend and importance of sustainability is growing and is a heavily researchedarea. Real estate accounts for approximately 40% of global energy consumption and 33% ofcarbon emissions. Naturally, the potential and significance of sustainability is an increasinglyimportant topic within the sector.On the foundation of global climate change, this thesis aims to uncover the financial benefitsof active sustainability work for listed real estate companies on the Stockholm StockExchange. Previous research within the field has focused heavily on tangible sustainabilitywork and the effects on the property level rather than the company level by primarily usingquantitative research methods. This paper combines a quantitative and qualitative researchmethod to dig deeper into the market's view of financial effects given to real estate companiesworking actively with sustainability.The study commenced with a panel data regression model analysis where a dummy for activesustainability work in the form of membership in the organisation GRESB was used todetermine the financial effects of active sustainability work on the daily total return index.GRESB guides members in their work with sustainability where membership indicates a willto improve. Results landed in a random effects model which showed that GRESB is positiveand significant for daily total return index, explaining 3% of development. Results from thequantitative study were used in the qualitative research method when designing an interviewguide for semi-structured interviews.It can be concluded that active sustainability work has positive effects on the total return oflisted real estate companies in Sweden. Sustainability work differs in its effectiveness andsuitability depending on the real estate companies size and core business area. GRESB islikely to be an umbrella for other sustainability-related factors and future research shouldexpand the number of sustainability variables used for analysis. There is no universal workmodel for sustainability and every organisation needs to design their sustainability strategywith regards to their business. Organisations seeking sustainability rewards should aim to domore than the minimum needed; real estate companies at the top of sustainability brackets arethe ones receiving the highest portion of the rewards. / Den globala uppvärmningen är ett alltmer pressande problem för klimatet ochvärldsekonomin. Trenden och vikten av hållbarhet växer och är ett stort forskningsområde.Fastigheter står för cirka 40% av den globala energiförbrukningen och 33% avkoldioxidutsläppen. Potentiallen och betydelsen av hållbarhet är ett fortsatt viktigt ämne inombranschen.På grunden av globala klimatförändringar syftar denna uppsats till att utvärdera deekonomiska belöningarna av aktivt hållbarhetsarbete för börsnoterade fastighetsbolag påstockholmsbörsen. Tidigare forskning inom området har fokuserat på reellt hållbarhetsarbeteoch dess effekter på fastighetsnivå snarare än företagsnivå genom att främst utnyttjakvantitativa forskningsmetoder. I denna studie kombineras en kvantitativ och kvalitativforskningsmetod för att gå djupare in i marknadens syn på de finansiella belöningar som gestill fastighetsbolag som arbetar aktivt med hållbarhet.Studien inleddes med en panel data regressionsanalys där en dummy för aktiv hållbarhet iform av medlemskap i organisationen GRESB användes för att bestämma de ekonomiskaeffekterna av aktivt hållbarhetsarbete på dagligt avkastningsindex. GRESB guidarmedlemmar i sitt arbete med hållbarhet där medlemskap i organisationen indikerar en vilja attförbättras. Resultaten landade i en random effects model som visade att GRESB är positivtoch signifikant för dagligt avkastningsindex med en förklaringsgrad om 3% av utvecklingen.Resultatet från den kvantitativa forskningsmetoden användes i den kvalitativaforskningsmetoden för att utforma intervjuguiden som användes vid semistruktureradeintervjuer.Slutsatsen kan dras att aktivt hållbarhetsarbete har positiva effekter på dagligtavkastningsindex för börsnoterade fastighetsbolag i Sverige. Hållbarhetsarbete skiljer sig åt isin effektivitet och lämplighet beroende på fastighetsbolags storlek och affärsområden.GRESB är sannolikt ett paraply för andra hållbarhetsrelaterade faktorer och framtidaforskning bör utöka antalet hållbarhetsvariabler som används vid analys. Det finns ingenuniversell arbetsmodell för hållbarhet, varje organisation bör utforma sina hållbarhetstrategimed hänsyn till sin verksamhet. Organisationer som söker hållbarhetspremier bör syfta till attgöra mer än minimumkraven, fastighetsbolag på toppen av hållbarhetssfären är de som fården största delen av premierna.

Essay one investigates registered insider sales as stated in the final prospectus filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to test managerial market timing ability during the Seasoned Equity Offering (SEO) process. Using a comprehensive sample of 1,051 SEOs between 1997 and 2005, the findings suggest that the initial market reaction and the long-run post-issue performance of issuers are negatively related to C-level executive insider sales, but unrelated to sales by non-executive insiders. Overall, the findings are consistent with the notion that executive insiders are aware of the mispricing in their firm’s securities and successfully time their sales by participating in the secondary components of SEOs. The implication is that SEOs with C-level executive sales are overvalued relative to both SEOs without insider sales and SEOs with only non-executive insider sales. In the second essay, we compare shareholder wealth effects of dual-class and single-class Seasoned Equity Offerings (SEOs) between 1997 and 2005. While there is no difference in pre-issue stock performance or the initial market reaction to the SEO announcements, dual-class issuers significantly underperform single-class issuers in the post-issue years. The mean three-year underperformance of dual-class firms relative to single-class is a significant 28.93% (30.45%) in buy-and-hold raw (abnormal) stock returns, and robust to alternative model specifications. We document that this relative long-run stock underperformance is related to differences in the impacts of post-issue capital expenditures and acquisitions for dual and single-class issuers. Similarly, post-issue corporate cash holdings also contribute less to the shareholder wealth for dual-class firms.

本文以三篇論文討論三個與財務報表向下重編盈餘公司有關的議題：（1）宣告財務報表重編後的長期股票績效；（2）重編公司內部人交易行為；（3）重編公司如何操弄盈餘以及操弄動機為何？ 本文樣本是從1984年1月至2000年12月，557家因為財務報表違法、舞弊或錯誤而宣告需要重編以前財務報表的公司。 第一篇論文討論公司宣告重編後三年長期股票績效。在不同配對組合下，實證結果顯示，三年長期持有異常報酬（buy-and-hold abnormal return）達-34％。文中也討論公司宣告重編時以及後續分析師預測行為。結果發現，分析師對於重編資訊有反應不足的現象，而且三年的盈餘預測修正與長期異常報酬有顯著正相關。 第二篇論文探討盈餘品質與內部人交易行為。本文假設內部人擁有重編公司盈餘品質不良的私有資訊，內部人會利用此私有資訊從事異常交易。實證結果顯示，內部人早在重編前兩年就已經開始異常出售持股，但是為了避免被發現，愈接近重編期間則交易量愈少，而且內部人異常交易與重編金額成正相關。 第三篇論文採取應計項目分項的方法（disaggregate approach）探討重編項目與特定應計項目的關連性以及重編公司違反一般公認會計原則的動機。實證結果顯示，特定重編項目公司的總應計項目比特定應計項目更顯著。很可能是管理當局為了避免操弄特定項目以致於被發現，所以操弄各種應計項目以達到總金額的目標。尤其在不同盈餘管理動機的成本效益的考量下，如果操弄主要應計項目的效益大於成本，管理當局還是會操弄特定應計項目以達到操弄的目的。因此，應計項目分項的方法可以作為進一步探討盈餘管理的方法。 / This dissertation examines three different aspects of downward earnings restatements in three essays: (1) the long-run stock performance of restatement firms following the announcements of restatements; (2) insider trading activities of earnings restatement firms; and (3) how earnings manipulations of restatement firms are effected and what are the incentives for earnings manipulations? Using extensive keyword (i.e., “restatements,” “restate,” “restated,” “restates,” and “restating”) searches over the period from January 1, 1984 through December 31, 2000, 557 firms are identified as having restated their previously published or filed financial statements due to accounting irregularities, fraud, or errors. The first essay examines the post earnings restatement announcement of long-term stock performance. Using various benchmark portfolio formulation strategies, I document an average buy-and-hold abnormal return of -34% over the 36-month horizon. I then investigate analysts’ forecast behavior around and after the restatement announcements. I find that market underreactions are associated with a sluggish forecast revisions by financial analysts. This study sheds light on how restatement information is transmitted to the capital markets and provides evidence that the market under reacts to externally initiated corporate events. The second essay examines the relationship between earnings quality and insider trading. Using downward earnings restatement firms to identify low-quality earnings, I find that insiders outsell non-earnings restatement firms of their holdings over the period from two years before to one year before the beginning of the restatement period. In addition, the amounts of restatement are positively associated with the excess insider selling. I also provide evidence that excess insider selling predicts excessive earnings manipulations that eventually lead to GAAP violation. In the third essay, I take advantage of the disclosed manipulation of items and approach the earnings manipulation issue by a disaggregate approach. Given that management considers cost/benefits of specific accruals to be manipulated, I examine whether management chooses different items to manipulate under different goals. Overall, the empirical results support the equity offering hypothesis and weakly support the meeting earnings threshold hypothesis. However, the results fail to support the avoidance of debt covenant violation hypothesis, indicating that manipulation under certain monitoring conditions can be conducted in a very subtle manner.

This thesis emphasizes the role of political risk in international business by analyzing the impact of political events on the valuation of firms. The guiding question is how governments interfere with the business interests of firms located in their own country as well as with the business interests of firms from other nations, as a consequence of the application of international sanctions. Therefore, the focus is on multi-country and multi-sector effects due to the occurrence of specific sanction events. The empirical methodology is the event-study approach, which analyzes stock market reactions to new information. The research objective is to detect abnormal stock returns across multiple markets and sectors, as a consequence of events related to the imposition of or threat of international sanctions. The empirical model of this thesis differentiates between risk-effects for firms located in the sender country (i.e., the origin of sanctions), for firms located in or specifically related to target countries (i.e., the receiver of sanctions) and firms located in third countries (i.e., countries not directly involved). There are three different cases analyzed: E.U. Economic Sanctions against African countries (2002-2005), the U.S. Steel Tariff (2002) and the Iran Sanctions Act (2007). The cases represent sanctions applied on the nationwide, sector- and firm-specific level. The event studies provide empirical evidence for the existence of political risk-effects due to sector-specific sanctions. Risk-effects are detected for firms in target countries and for firms in the sender country itself. The applied political risk framework describes how political risk affects multinational firm value and explains that it varies among firms. The impact of political risk on a firm's value depends on the risk exposure of a firm's individual business interests to it. This contributes a new perspective on political risk that emphasizes multinational and multi-sectoral effects and underlines that a specific political risk can be relevant for a variety of different international business interests. (author's abstract)