The Value of Growth: Changes in Profitability and Future Stock Returns
56 Pages
Posted: 10 Aug 2016
Last revised: 2 Sep 2017
University of Melbourne - Department of Finance
Manchester Business School; New York University - Stern School of Business
Lancaster University - Management School; New York University (NYU) - Leonard N. Stern School of Business
Date Written: August 30, 2017
Abstract
The dividend-discount model predicts a positive relation between expected changes in a firm’s profitability, or profitability growth, and stock returns. We find this prediction to be borne out in the data. Across U.S. stocks, firms with strong past profitability growth outperform firms with weak past profitability growth. A long-short strategy based on profitability growth yields significant risk-adjusted returns, both in the overall sample and across firm-size levels. The predictive power of profitability growth is economically strong and statistically significant when compared with well-documented, cross-sectional determinants such as profitability levels, earnings momentum, profit trend, size, book-to-market, or price momentum.
Keywords: Profitability; Growth; Return Predictability; Stock Returns
JEL Classification: G11; G12
Suggested Citation:
Suggested Citation
Sotes-Paladino, Juan M. and Wang, George Jiaguo and Yao, Yaqiong (Chelsea), The Value of Growth: Changes in Profitability and Future Stock Returns (August 30, 2017). 29th Australasian Finance and Banking Conference 2016. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2819183
