Fundamental Valuation

We occasionally select for retrospective review an all-time “best selling” research paper of the past few years from the General Financial Markets category of the Social Science Research Network (SSRN). In his January 2002 paper entitled “Value Investing: The Use of Historical Financial Statement Information to Separate Winners from Losers”, Joseph Piotroski applies a simple accounting-based fundamental analysis strategy to a broad portfolio of high (top 20%) book-to-market firms to enhance returns. His stock scoring system (FSCORE) consists of nine binary signals based on profitability and value-specific financial measures (see the list below). Using stock returns and fundamentals for a broad sample of U.S. stocks during 1976 through 1996, he finds that: Keep Reading

Many investors monitor the Fed Model, based on the relationship between the earnings yield of stocks and the bond yield, for long-term stock market timing signals. Does this model really work? Notable contrary arguments are found in the December 2002 paper entitled “Fight the Fed Model: The Relationship Between Stock Market Yields, Bond Market Yields, and Future Returns” by Clifford S. Asness and the 2004 paper entitled “A Tactical Implication of Predictability: Fighting the Fed Model” by Roelof Salomons. These two papers present similar analyses and conclusions, as follows: Keep Reading

In the early 2001 update of their 1998 paper entitled “Valuation Ratios and the Long-Run Stock Market Outlook: An Update”, John Campbell and Robert Shiller focus on mean reversion of two valuation ratios, price-earnings and dividend-price, as key predictors of future stock market performance. The authors determine that mean reversions of these ratios occurs through stock price changes, not earnings or dividend changes. At the time of the update, they note that “these ratios imply a stronger case for a poor stock market outlook than has ever been seen before.” Keep Reading