Market Underreaction and Predictability in the Cross-Section of Japanese Stock Returns

Abstract:     
In this paper, I analyze the relationship between financial statements information and stock returns for firms listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Firm-specific information is captured by way of score indicative of the firm's cash flow generating potential. The results show that score-based portfolio strategies can produce significant abnormal returns over a 10-year sample period. The excess return of high-score portfolios does not appear to result from a higher exposure to risk factors. The predictability of cross-section returns does not derive either from price momentum. I find that large stocks offer little profits to score-based portfolio strategies. Most of the abnormal returns are concentrated on small firms. The evidence is strongly supportive of a market underreaction to the financial information released by smaller lightly researched firms.

Keywords: return predictability, market underreaction, stock returns, Japanese stocks

JEL Classifications: G14

Working Paper Series