Abstract   Purpose The purpose of this thesis is; “To find out whether a strategy based on accumulated stock recommendations are able to outperform mutual funds and/or index funds with similar holdings over time”. Background During the past 30 years the interest for the financial market has been ever increasing. With the increased interest for the financial market, also an increased interest for the different investment alternatives have developed, thus also the amount of various financial products. Further there has been a discussion whether the different investment products actually add value to the investors. Method To be able to reach our purpose we have constructed a portfolio containing stocks based on recommendations. We have also come up with a method in order to decide the weights of the individual stocks in our portfolio. Further, we have used existing theories in order to estimate the return and the standard deviation. We have also benchmarked our portfolio against popular funds on the market. Conclusion We have seen that our portfolio during the six years running have performed better than the existing funds and also resulted in a lower standard deviation i.e. risk. Thus the results are applicable on our specific data, more research is needed in order to make any statements of statistical significance.

Financial markets have many different key actors, but one of the most important ones are the financial analysts. They are considered as experts in gathering and disseminating the information that firms produce, to those that seek it, such as stock recommendations and reports on firms. Related to this is a growing interest in society toward disclosures in regards of CSR as well as ESG. There has been considerable discussion in academia of whether or not CSR can be considered to be value relevant. This is a question which relate to both institutional and legitimacy perspectives in terms of theory, but also discussions in regards to agency and stakeholder theory as well:   Has value relevance of CSR disclosures increased in stock recommendations for the Nordic markets?   Thereby, the main purpose of this thesis is to find out whether or not there has been a shifting view of CSR over time, which would be evidenced in an increasing legitimization of CSR in terms of an increasing value-relevance to financial analysts. This would also be related to a shifting institutional logic, whereby it would be possible to relate to a shift in the view of the firm and its role in society. This is both looked at purely from the starting point of the dataset to the end point, but also for two different periods of time, so as to test if there is a different view of the issue after the financial crisis. In addition to this main purpose, this thesis furthermore sets out to answer whether CSR is value-relevant or not in different subsegments, such as nations, industries and the different types of recommendations that exist.   To answer the research question, an objectivist and positivist stance is taken, which subsequently leads the authors to utilize quantitative methods and statistical analysis to the data. Here, different panel models are fitted to the data to account effects that exist within it. To explain the findings, a theoretical framework is built upon three different levels: societal, firm and individual level. Here, on the societal level theories such as institutional theory as well as legitimacy theory are dealt with. On the firm level, agency theory and stakeholder theory as well as theoretical views of CSR forms the basis, and the individual level deals with theory related to the financial analyst.   In looking at the results and the analysis, one cannot draw the conclusion that there has been a shifting view of the value-relevance of CSR. Financial analysts appear to not find it value-relevant in issuing their stock recommendations, except for two cases: namely in terms of the industrial sector Basic Materials and the Buy recommendations. In terms of Basic Materials, it appears to be value-relevant in a positive manner. In regards to the Buy recommendation, it appears to have a negative effect on the value-relevance. All in all, this thesis cannot find evidence for a value-relevance of CSR to financial analysts in the Nordic markets. Essentially, the view of it appears to be pessimistic.

Cette thèse de doctorat comprend trois essais relatifs au genre des analystes financiers. Les résultats empiriques de la première étude attestent d'une sous-représentation des femmes analystes et confirment que la culture nationale exerce un impact important sur la représentation des femmes chez les analystes financiers dans les pays européens étudiés. La deuxième étude montre que les analystes hommes sont plus susceptibles de formuler des recommandations innovantes que les analystes femmes, du fait d'une plus forte confiance en leur jugement. Enfin, les conclusions de la troisième étude montrent que les recommandations innovantes déclenchent des réactions plus fortes de la part des investisseurs, mais on ne note aucune différence de genre dans les réactions du marché à ces recommandations innovantes. Les conclusions empiriques de cette thèse complètent la littérature sur les analystes financiers, et plus particulièrement sur l'impact du genre dans la prise de décisions financières. / This PhD dissertation consists of three essays relating to gender concerns among financial analysts. The empirical results of the first study provide evidence for under-representation of female analysts and confirm that national culture exerts a material impact on female representation among financial analysts across European countries under study. In the second study, I document evidence that male analysts are more likely to issue innovative recommendations than female analysts, due to their relative overconfidence. Finally, the findings of third study suggest that innovative recommendations trigger larger market reactions but there is no gender difference in market reactions to innovative recommendations. The empirical findings of my dissertation complement prior literature on financial analysts, more specifically, gender-based difference in financial market decision making.

Bakgrund: Det har i tidigare forskningar bevisats att privatpersoner har en tendens att vilja få hög avkastning på kort tid och därför väljer de ofta att investera i aktier. Detta leder till att aktierekommendationer har en stor påverkan på de privatpersoner som vill investera i aktier utan att ha en god kunskap inom ämnet. Det har även visats i olika undersökningar att privatpersoner i majoritet har lägre tillit för affärstidningar än för banker. Syfte: Syftet med denna undersökning är att undersöka banker och affärstidningarnas utfall av aktierekommendationer på den svenska aktiemarknaden. Genomförande: En kvantitativ undersökning genomfördes, där vi valde fyra olika banker och fyra olika affärstidningar. Tidsperioden var tre år, mellan 2010-01-01 och 2012-12-31. Totalt undersöktes 617 köp- och säljrekommendationer under fyra olika perioder; en dag, fem dagar, tio dagar och 30 dagar efter publiceringsdatumet. Resultat: Resultatet av undersökningen antyder på att det finns en skillnad mellan banker och affärstidningar gällande träffsäkerheten på dess publicerade aktierekommendationer. Affärstidningarna har högre antal träffar än bankerna, både när det gäller säljrekommendationer och köprekommendationer. / Background: It has been shown in previous researches that individuals have a tendency to want to get high returns in a short time and therefore often choose to invest in stocks. Stock recommendations have therefore a large impact on the individuals who want to invest in stocks without having good knowledge of the subject. It has also been shown in various studies that the majority of individuals have lower trust in business magazines than for banks. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the banks and the business magazines outcome of the stock recommendations of the Swedish stock market. Method: A quantitative study was conducted, in which we chose four different banks and four different business magazines. The time period was three years, between 2010-01-01 and 2012-12-31. A total of 617 stock recommendations were investigated during four different periods; one day, five days, ten days and 30 days after the date of publication. Conclusion: The study results indicate that there is a difference between banks and business magazines regarding the accuracy of the published stock recommendations. Business magazines have a higher number of hits than the banks, both in terms of sales recommendations and purchase recommendations.

Relationen mellan publik media och kapitalmarknader är ett område som studerats under en lång period. Åsikter har väckts om att massmedia är en viktig faktor vid förståelsen av finansiella marknader då media har förmågan att ge upphov till irrationella reaktioner. Utifrån detta har en kritik mot massmedia växt fram som menar att media inte förmedlar viktig information. En del studier visar emellertid att en lättare åtkomst till ny information leder till att priser på finansiella marknader kan justeras mer effektivt.Syftet med denna studie är att förklara hur den historiska mediabevakningen som föregår en aktierekommendation påverkar hela aktiemarknadens aktörer genom att studera den överavkastning som föregår och efterföljer rekommendationen ifråga. Undersökningen har baserats på rekommendationer gällande svenska aktier som är börsnoterade på Large-, Mid- och Small-Cap listorna på Nasdaq OMX Nordic Stockholm under en period som sträcker sig över två år. Underlaget för mediabevakning utgår ifrån artiklar ur stora svenska tidsskrifter och rekommendationerna är hämtade ifrån större analytikerhus.Tidigare forskning har gjorts på aktiemarknadens reaktion vid publicerandet av nya rekommendationer men denna studie tar hänsyn till ytterligare en variabel, antalet historiska publikationer i media, för att försöka skapa ytterligare förståelse på området.Resultatet antyder att den grad av mediabevakning som föregår publicerandet av en aktierekommendation inte har en påverkan på marknadens mottagning av den nya informationen. Den tydligaste skillnaden som kunde ses mellan rekommendationer som föregicks av en hög respektive låg mediabevakning var att rekommendationen som föregicks av en låg mediabevakning visade ett marginellt större utslag vid publikationsdagen. Då denna observation emellertid inte kunde säkerställas statistiskt går det inte att dra några slutsatser utifrån detta resultat och studien kan således inte påvisa att mer lättillgänglig information leder till en mer informerad marknad. / The relationship between public media and capital markets is a subject that has been studied for a long time. Some argue that mass media is an important factor in understanding the financial markets because the media has the ability to generate irrational reactions. On this basis a critique against the media has emerged which believe that the mass media does not publish valuable information. Some studies, however, have concluded that an easier access to new information leads to more efficient price adjustments within the financial markets.The purpose of this study is to explain how the historical media coverage preceding stock recommendations affects the entire stock market by studying the abnormal return that precede and follow the studied recommendations. The study is based on recommendations on Swedish shares listed on the Large-, Mid- and Small-Cap lists on the Nasdaq OMX Stockholm during a period of two years. Media coverage is based on articles from major Swedish magazines while stock recommendations are obtained from major analysts.Previous research has been done on the stock market's reaction to the publication of new recommendations, but this study takes an additional variable into account, the number of historical publications in the media, in an attempt to create further understanding in the field of subject.The results suggest that the degree of media coverage preceding the publication of a stock recommendation do not have an impact on the market's reception of the new information. The most noticeable difference between the recommendations that were preceded by high and low media coverage respectively was that the recommendation which was preceded by low media coverage showed a marginally larger abnormal return at the publication date. Since this observation, however, could not be confirmed statistically the study cannot draw any conclusions from this result and thus the study cannot prove that a larger amount of easily accessible information leads to a more informed market.

The primary purpose of this paper is to analyse the effect of the market reaction to stock recommendations published by Swedish banks. The market price reactions will also be compared to the OMXSPI index to analyse if it is possible to earn higher returns by following the recommendations. Previous studies suggest that the effect of stock recommendations leads to higher trading volumes and returns. While previous studies suggest that there is an effect, the effect from stock recommendation is not long lasting. The data collected consist of 659 stock recommendations from the biggest banks in Sweden. The results of the paper are in line with previous studies on the subject. The results suggest that buy recommendations lead to increased trading volumes and returns on the publication day. We also find that the cumulative average return from the recommendations is slightly higher than the index on the publication date. / Huvudsakliga syftet med denna studie är att undersöka marknadsreaktioner på aktierekommendationer utgivna av svenska banker. Syftet är även att jämföra marknadens prisreaktioner med OMXSPI index för att undersöka huruvida avkastningen från rekommendationerna överträffar index. Tidigare forskning har visat att aktierekommendationer leder till högre avkastning och högre handelsvolym. Effekten är däremot inte bestående på längre sikt. Datainsamlingen innehåller 659 aktierekommendationer från storbankerna i Sverige. Resultatet av studien ligger i linje med tidigare forskning. Resultatet visar att köprekommendationer leder till att avkastningen och handelsvolymen ökar i genomsnitt på kort sikt. Studien finner även att den kumulativa avkastningen från rekommendationerna är något högre än index på publiceringsdagen.

The purpose of our thesis is to examine the relationship between option implied volatility and analyst consensus recommendation revisions. We offer a Swedish perspective on the growing popularity of equity options and its relationship with different stock market participants and returns. We chose the Swedish options market since it is substantially smaller in relation to the stock market than in countries such as the US, it is also not as studied. First, we conduct an event study using a fixed effects OLS model to determine the effect of analysts’ consensus recommendation revision. Second, we use a probit regression model to determine the probability of a revision given the option implied volatility. We find that there is generally a statistically significant relationship between option implied volatility and analyst consensus recommendation revisions as well as with abnormal returns, providing further discussion on the information sharing between the two markets and its participants.

En eventstudie gjordes på aktierekommendationer publicerade på Privata Affärers hemsida mellan 2009-2010. Publiceringsdagen för rekommendationen utgjorde eventdagen och ett eventfönster på fem dagar innan och fem dagar efter. Rekommendationerna delades upp i olika kategorier för att kunna se skillnader mellan köp, avvakta och säljrekommendationer samt för Mid Cap och Small Cap. Uppsatsen kunde inte påvisa någon generell statistisk signifikant överavkastning i någon av de undersökta kategorierna.

Genom att använda ett stort urval av riktkurser utgivna på företag inom OMXS30 under åren 2010–2019, undersöker vi huruvida riktkursförändringar ger upphov till en marknadseffekt eller inte. Med hjälp av en eventstudie visar vi på en signifikant riskjusterad avkastning dagarna omkring förändringen i riktkursen. Genom att dela in riktkursförändringarna i kvintiler, visar studien att graden av riskjusteradavkastning dessutom är hänförbart till dels hur pass stor riktkursförändringen är, dels om den är att beakta som positiv eller negativ. Dessa resultat är särskilt starka när förändringen i riktkursen är ställd mot den tidigare riktkursen av samma analyshus, snarare än när den är ställd mot rådande aktiekurs. Därtill genomförs en regressionsanalys vars resultat stödjer ett positivt samband mellan riktkursförändring och riskjusterad avkastning. Slutligen medför studien ny relevant information om kvartalsrapporters effekt när det kommer till studier om riktkursförändringar. Till skillnad från den tidigare forskningen, eliminerar vi riktkurser som sammanfaller med kvartalsrapporter och visar på skillnader i den riskjusterade avkastningen som följer. / By using a large dataset of target prices issued on companies included in the OMXS30 index during the years 2010-2019, we examine whether target prices cause a short-term market reaction. By doing this, we take an event-study approach and find a significant abnormal return around the days the target price is published. By categorizing the change in target prices into different quintiles, we also show that the size of the abnormal return is due to the change in the target price and whether it’s considered positive or negative. These results are especially salient when the change in target price is based on the earlier target price from the same firm rather than the current stock price. In addition to the event-study a regression analysis is performed, which supports the positive association between the target price change and the abnormal return. This paper also provides useful information about the effects from quarterly reports in prior studies. Unlike previous research, we exclude all target prices that coincide with quarterly reports and find differences in the abnormal return that follows.

本研究欲探討分析師推薦對管理當局所釋出資訊量之關聯性，當分析師越強力推薦公司時，公司的管理當局將願意提供較多的資訊給分析師做為預測的依據，則分析師對公司盈餘的預測也越準確。研究結果發現給予公司較佳推薦的分析師，預測準確性確實比給予公司較差推薦的分析師高。 之後再利用台灣證券暨期貨市場發展基金會設立的資訊揭露評鑑系統，探討資訊較為透明的公司，因為管理當局自願提供較多的資訊，即便分析師強力推薦，可能也無法得到額外的資訊，所以分析師推薦的效果應比資訊揭露較不透明的受評公司差。實證結果發現資訊揭露較透明的受評公司，分析師的推薦效果確實比資訊訊揭露較不透明的受評公司差。 / This thesis examines directly whether that managers provide more (less) information to analysts with more (less) favorable stock recommendations, based on the Barron et al. model (1998). Prior study documents the relative forecast accuracy of analysts before and after a recommendation issuance under the assumption that increases (decreases) in management-provided information will increase (decrease) analysts’ relative forecast accuracy. In contrast, this paper directly measure amount of information based on Barron et al. model (1998), and examine whether amount of information varies between pre- and post- a recommendation. Contrary to our prediction, the results show no significant difference in amount of information after and before recommendation issuance. However, we do find that analysts issuing more favorable recommendations experience a greater increase in their relative forecast accuracy compared with analysts with less favorable recommendations. In addition, we also find that the association is smaller for firms with higher information transparency than those with lower information transparency. The information transparency is measure by whether firms are listed in Taiwan Securities & Futures Information Center’s Information Disclosure and Transparence Ranking System (therefore TSFIC).