Stock Analysts Research Articles

基于K-Prototypes聚类算法的股票分析师行为划分

基于K-Prototypes聚类算法的股票分析师行为划分

AkzoNobel, Axalta in talks

AkzoNobel says it is in talks to merge with its smaller U.S. paint rival Axalta Coating Systems, which is DuPont’s former coatings business. Discussions are at an early phase, according to the Dutch company. AkzoNobel has annual paint and coating sales of about $10 billion, compared with $4 billion for Axalta. Jefferies stock analyst Laurence Alexander describes the prospective deal as “a bold move with a good strategic fit.” Combining the two firms could generate savings by addressing overlaps in business lines and geography and by leveraging economies of scale in raw material purchasing, Alexander tells clients. A merger with Axalta could also protect AkzoNobel from being acquired. The Dutch firm rebuffed three attempts by PPG Industries to acquire it earlier this year. Under Dutch regulations, PPG can make another bid in December. The prospective merger follows a turbulent year for AkzoNobel, whose CEO stepped down in the summer because

Evaluations on the Earning Quality of Listed Firms in Jordan

Earnings Quality is a crucial indicator of companies which may have negative earnings surprises and underperform due to high amounts of accruals. Earnings quality is a relative measure and as thus is interpreted relative to some benchmark. Numerous stakeholders including company’s managers, stock analysts, investor and other participants in capital market focus on the main figure of financial statements. To measure the earnings quality in context of Jordan this study adopted the methodology of IASB framework and based on five proxies we measured the earnings quality of listed firms in Jordan. The study has been divided into two phases, in the first phase of study we have determined the five proxies of earning quality based on the secondary data collected from Amman stock exchange while in the second phase of study we have measured the earning quality index to rank the firms based upon their earning quality. Results have revealed that in year 2012 Al-Kindi Pharmaceutical Industries Plc is ranked as best performed with the highest earning quality index score of 10.99. In year 2013 Jordan Cement Factories has highest earning quality index score which is 40.09, in 2014 National Steel Industry has highest earning quality index score which is 9.01. Finally, in year 2015 National Steel Industry has highest earning quality index score with value of 48.04. These analysis has indicated that overall earning quality of firms vary over the years. The study concludes with managerial implications and some suggestions for the future research.

Lilly mulls animal health sale

Eli Lilly & Co. is mulling the future of its Elanco animal health unit, which is on track to have sales this year of roughly $3 billion. Stock analysts think the unit, which could be spun off, sold, or kept by Lilly, is worth between $12 billion and $15 billion. Lilly will decide the unit’s fate by mid-2018. The animal health business played a critical role in buttressing Lilly’s bottom line during a rocky few years of patent losses on many of its best-selling pharmaceutical products. But the unit has recently faced challenges at a time when the human health business is improving. In the third quarter, new medicines accounted for nearly all Lilly’s revenue growth. In a call with analysts to discuss Lilly’s third-quarter earnings, Lilly’s CEO, David Ricks, acknowledged that investors have for years questioned whether the animal health unit should stand alone. He said the timing is

Pfizer mulls sale of consumer business

Pfizer is considering selling or spinning off its consumer health care division, one of the world’s biggest makers of over-the-counter drugs. Stock analysts expect the unit, which had sales last year of $3.4 billion, to fetch up to $15 billion. Industry watchers say the potential move comes as Pfizer considers a sizable acquisition to bolster its research-driven drug arm. Merck KGaA put its consumer products business up for sale last month.

Earnings Announcements as Wake-Up Calls

This paper finds that low-price stocks' earnings announcement returns are significantly lower than those of high-price stocks. In contrast, we do not find such underperformance outside announcement periods. This evidence suggests that the cognitive bias induced by low share prices are corrected when and only when investors are confronted with hard evidence. Interestingly, we find that stock analysts are subject to the same bias when they forecast earnings. Regarding options, although the underperformance of OTM calls written on low-price stocks is more pronounced around earnings announcements, it remains significant outside announcement windows, suggesting different behaviors of stock and options traders.

Fund Portfolio Holdings and Affiliated Analyst's Objectivity: Do Equity and Employment Relationship Matter?

ABSTRACTThe author investigates how the equity relationship between fund company and brokerage firm as well as employment relationship between analyst and brokerage firm affect affiliated fund stock portfolio holding and the affiliated analyst's objectivity. By using the specific data of such equity and employment relationship, the author finds that equity and employment relationship do matter in fund portfolio holdings and analyst objectivity. Specifically, analysts tend to release more optimal ratings on stocks that have been hold by the funds, and the funds tend to significantly reduce the stocks in their portfolio once the analysts have announced high ratings on the stocks. Moreover, the analysts in employment relationships with majority shareholders of funds and with a low reputation reveal worse objectivity. In addition, from the point of abnormal return, analysts in employment relationships with majority shareholders of funds and with a low reputation damage the interests of common investors.

Another hybrid? Family businesses as venture capitalists

PurposeThis paper addresses the phenomenon of venture capital firms which are also family businesses (VCFBs). The purpose of this paper is to explore and understand the phenomenon of VCFB by answering the following questions: What are the features of professionalization in VCFBs? And, how do professionalization and types of family businesses explain the strategies and governance of VCFBs?Design/methodology/approachAs an explorative case study, it maps the Swedish venture capital (VC) industry and compares two VCFBs and their business investments with regard to strategy and governance.FindingsBy suggesting two major configurations, the study explains how family business development and levels of professionalization relate to differences in VCFBs’ strategies, which in turn, affect their governance. The personal VCFB features active owners who personally take responsibility roles and strongly focus on customers and relationships. The administrative VCFB strongly focuses on predetermined financial metrics, high ethical awareness among board members, and ongoing interplay between the active family board members and minority shareholders.Research limitations/implicationsThe study was conducted in Sweden and concerns Swedish VCFBs. The paper contributes to the literature by combining the two currently separate research streams, i.e. family business and VC, highlighting the importance and consequences of family ownership in VC businesses.Practical implicationsThe present study provides stock market investors and stock analysts with a deeper understanding of VCFBs’ strategy incentives. By identifying the kind of VCFB and its relation to strategy, more reasonable assessments and analyses of the VCFBs’ actions will be possible. Family firms willing to accept VC-finance should consider the type of VC and the potential consequences of family ownership.Originality/valueThis study is the first to classify VC firms as family businesses. Moreover, it shows the features of professionalization in VCFBs by suggesting a set of configurations.

Analyst Coverage and Stock Returns

This study investigates the association between risk-adjusted returns and analyst coverage. We find that stocks with better risk-adjusted returns attract more analysts to provide research reports for investors. By following companies with better risk-adjusted returns, an analyst may be able to save time and effort in collecting and processing information. The empirical results indicate that earnings forecasts are more accurate for firms with better risk-adjusted stock returns. Moreover, we found that an analyst is more likely to pay more attention for stocks with better risk-adjusted returns and revise earnings forecasts more frequently for them. The results suggest that risk-adjusted returns of stocks have impacts on analysts’ performance.

Home Alone: The Effects of Lone‐Insider Boards on CEO Pay, Financial Misconduct, and Firm Performance

Research summary: Corporate scandals of the previous decade have heightened attention on board independence. Indeed, boards at many large firms are now so independent that the CEO is “home alone” as the lone inside member. We build upon “pro‐insider” research within agency theory to explain how the growing trend toward lone‐insider boards affects key outcomes and how external governance forces constrain their impact. We find evidence among S&P 1500 firms that having a lone‐insider board is associated with (a) excess CEO pay and a larger CEO‐top management team pay gap, (b) increased likelihood of financial misconduct, and (c) decreased firm performance, but that stock analysts and institutional investors reduce these negative effects. The findings raise important questions about the efficacy of leaving the CEO “home alone.”Managerial summary: Following concerns that insider‐dominated boards failed to protect shareholders, there has been a push for greater board independence. This push has been so successful that the CEO is now the only insider on the boards of more than half of S&P 1500 firms. We examine whether lone‐insider boards do in fact offer strong governance or whether they enable CEOs to benefit personally. We find that lone‐insider boards pay CEOs excessively, pay CEOs a disproportionately large amount relative to other top managers, have more instances of financial misconduct, and have lower performance than boards with more than one insider. Thus, it appears that lone‐insider boards do not function as intended and firms should reconsider whether the push towards lone‐insider boards is actually in shareholders' best interests. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Analyst Coverage Network and Stock Return Comovement in Emerging Markets

Analyst Coverage Network and Stock Return Comovement in Emerging Markets

Roche and Tamiflu®: Doing Business in the Shadow of Pandemic

The spread of bird flu outside of Asia, particularly in Africa and Europe, topped headlines in 2006. The migration of wild birds brought the virus to Europe, where for the first time it spread to productive livestock, bringing it closer to the Western world. Due to today's globalized and highly interconnected world, the consequences of a potential bird flu pandemic are expected to be much more severe than those of the Spanish flu, which killed 50-100 million people between 1918 and 1921. A vaccine for the bird virus is currently not available. As of July 2006, 232 cases of human infection had been documented, mostly through direct contact with poultry. Of those, 134 people died. The best medication available to treat bird flu was Roche's antiviral drug Tamiflu. However, Tamiflu was not widely available; current orders of government bodies would not be fulfilled until the end of 2008. Well aware that today's avian flu might become a global pandemic comparable to the Spanish flu, Roche CEO Franz Humer had to decide how Roche should respond. While the pharmaceutical industry continued its research efforts on vaccines and medications, Tamiflu could play an important role by protecting healthcare workers and helping to contain the virus---or at least slow down its spread. Due to patent protection and a complicated production process with scarce raw ingredients, Roche had been the only producer of the drug. Partly in response to U.S. political pressure, in November 2005 Roche allowed Gilead to produce Tamiflu as well. Even so, it would take at least until late 2007 for Roche and Gilead to meet the orders of governments worldwide. The issue was a difficult one for Roche: What were the risks; what were the opportunities? If a pandemic occurred before sufficient stockpiles of Tamiflu had been built up, would Roche be held responsible? What steps, if any, should Roche take with respect to patent protection and production licensing in the shadow of a potential pandemic?Students will weigh the benefits of short-term profit maximization against the risks that a highly uncertain event could pose to a business and consider nonstandard approaches to mitigate these risks. Students will discuss the challenges of addressing low-probability, high-impact events; potential conflicts with the short-term view of the stock market and analyst community; and challenges of the patent protection model for drugs for life-threatening diseases.

World chemical outlook

World chemical outlook

Internet financial reporting: user perception in Indonesia

The objective of this research is to conduct a survey of the users of financial information through the company's website related to the kind of information the user needs from the information website company (include: investors, stock analysts, public accountant). The study explores the user perception in terms of the company's website. The results of this study show that: 1) users of financial information companies very rarely visit the company's website and more frequently visit and trust the stock exchange website; 2) a company's financial report key information sought by users of the company's website; 3) financial statements users can obtain the necessary financial information on the company website; 4) the company is not optimally utilising the company's website as a media to disseminate information to the user company information; 5) the required financial reporting by the user is printed financial information.

Internet financial reporting: user perception in Indonesia

The objective of this research is to conduct a survey of the users of financial information through the company's website related to the kind of information the user needs from the information website company (include: investors, stock analysts, public accountant). The study explores the user perception in terms of the company's website. The results of this study show that: 1) users of financial information companies very rarely visit the company's website and more frequently visit and trust the stock exchange website; 2) a company's financial report key information sought by users of the company's website; 3) financial statements users can obtain the necessary financial information on the company website; 4) the company is not optimally utilising the company's website as a media to disseminate information to the user company information; 5) the required financial reporting by the user is printed financial information.

Periodic pattern mining in weighted dynamic networks

Graph is one of the media to represent and summarise interactions in a time varying network. Often, interactions repeat after a fixed interval of time and exhibit temporal periodicity. Existing algorithms focus either on the structure or on the weight of periodic interactions individually. But, for instance, a stock analyst requires evidence of both structure and weight (here, price) of the stock pairs to make prediction and discovers information about the profit producing stocks and the actual profit. On performing experiments using existing algorithms explicitly, it is observed that the efficiency is lost in such applications. Hence, in this paper, we provide an efficient framework based on available algorithms to mine periodic patterns both on structure and weight in a weighted dynamic network. The proposed framework consists of a mapping between interactions that are periodic on structure and weight. We have performed experiments on synthetic and real world datasets. The results validate the scalability and practical feasibility of the proposed framework.

DETERMINANTS OF DISSEMINATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION: AN EMPIRICAL SURVEY

The major objective of the present paper is to identify the factors that influence the dissemination of environmental information. In particular, analyst stock recommendation, country level risk, corporate value and environmental performance are surveyed as determinants of the environmental dissemination level. The survey was based on a sample of 92 multinational firms for the period 2009–2013, longer than that used in most past works. The methodology employed on our data is the panel data analysis with fixed effects. As proxies, for the dissemination level of environmental information, two different environmental disclosure indexes are used the Environmental Disclosure Score and Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index. According to our findings, the environmental performance in terms of Emission Reduction Initiatives and the country’s risk premium affects in a positive way the dissemination of environmental disclosures while the results regarding the stock analyst recommendation are controversial. Another important finding is that the firm’s value is validated as an insignificant factor for the dissemination level of environmental information. The aforementioned results provide the corporate managers with a tool to attract environmental friendly investors. The novelty on the present manuscript stands on the use of proxies for the environmental performance; namely the first one is based on outcome – objective while the second one refers to the corporate intention, elements that enrich the existing literature in the field of environmental behavior and dissemination of the environmental information of a firm.

Impact of Number of Security Analysts in Liquidity of Brazilian Stocks

<p>This study investigates impacts of sell-side analysts in the liquidity of firm’s shares of Brazilian Capital Markets. Liquidity hypothesis studied by Brennan and Subrahmanyan (1995), Brennan and Tamarowski (2000), Amihud and Mendelson (1986, 2000) and Amihud <em>et al. (</em>1997) defines that an increase in the number of analysts covering a particular stock increases its liquidity causing a positive impact on the stocks prices. This work investigates empirically whether increasing number of securities analysts impacts stock market liquidity, as observed in the American market by Brennan and Tamarowski (2000), using a sample of 179 listed stocks in the Brazilian stock exchange, BM&FBovespa. This work determines liquidity-measuring firm’s Lambda dollar derived by Kyle (1985) and then applying cross section regression of Lambda dollar as dependent variable and number of analysts as independent variable. Results indicate that stock market liquidity increased with number of securities stock analysts in favor of liquidity hypothesis.</p>

On the value relevance of analyst opinions and institutional shareholdings in China

Purpose This paper aims to examine the relevance of stock analysts’ opinions and institutional investors’ shareholding to the value of Chinese firms. Design/methodology/approach The authors use both internal and external corporate governance mechanism to investigate value relevance of analyst opinion and institutional shareholding to Chinese firms. Findings The authors find that Tobin’s Q is positively related to analysts’ consensus forecast optimism and institutional investors’ shareholding but negatively related to analyst forecast dispersions. Further analysis using subsamples of partially state-owned enterprises and non-state-owned firms indicate that institutional investors have significant impact on firm value for all firms irrespective of the ownership type, whereas analyst forecasts opinions appear to have significant effects on partially state-owned firms but insignificant effects on non-state-owned firms. The results also show that internal governance appears to be an important pre-requisite that affects analysts’ forecast opinions and that good internal governance reinforces external governance mechanism to create firm value. Originality/value Studies analysing the effects of both internal and external mechanisms on firm value in emerging economies are scant. This study attempts to extend and contribute to this line of research by investigating the relevance of institutional investors and stock analysts’ opinion to firm valuation.

Chemours’s stock rebounds

Chemours’s stock rose 16% on July 8 following an Ohio jury’s decision to award punitive damages of $500,000, lower than investors expected, in a testicular cancer case. Two days earlier, the firm’s stock had plummeted 22% when the jury awarded $5.1 million in compensatory damages to the cancer victim, who claimed drinking water contaminated with perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) from Chemours’s Parkersburg, W.Va., plant caused his illness. DuPont, which spun off Chemours a year ago, is named as the defendant in the cancer case and in 3,500 other cases claiming injury because of the contaminated water. The spin-off agreement called for Chemours to indemnify DuPont for legal costs. But in statements following the trial, Chemours pointed out that DuPont is directly liable for judgments and that Chemours may not have to pay in some unspecified instances. In a note to clients, Jefferies stock analyst Laurence Alexander says he expects Chemours will