IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbfina/v35y2011i3p670-680.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The relationship between asset growth and the cross-section of stock returns

Author

Listed:
  • Gray, Philip
  • Johnson, Jessica

Abstract

There is a large body of literature examining the association between stock characteristics and the cross-section of stock returns in international markets. Recently, Cooper et al. (2008) reported a strong association between total asset growth and stock returns in the US. In this paper, we show that an asset-growth effect also exists in the Australian equity market. Of particular interest, it is present amongst the largest Australian stocks. Over the 1983-2007 period, an equally-weighted portfolio of low-growth Big stocks outperforms a portfolio of high-growth Big stocks by an average 1% per month, equating to nearly 13% per annum. At an individual stock level of analysis, the asset-growth effect remains even after controlling for other variables whose association with the cross-section of returns is well known. Finally, we explicitly test whether asset growth is a priced risk factor using the common two-stage cross-sectional regression methodology. We find no evidence to support a risk-based explanation, thereby lending credence to Cooper et al.'s (2008) suggestion that the asset-growth effect is attributable to mispricing.

Suggested Citation

  • Gray, Philip & Johnson, Jessica, 2011. "The relationship between asset growth and the cross-section of stock returns," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 670-680, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbfina:v:35:y:2011:i:3:p:670-680
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378-4266(10)00241-4
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. repec:bla:jfinan:v:59:y:2004:i:4:p:1743-1776 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. repec:uts:ppaper:v:21:y:2005:i:1:p:93-105 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Philip Gray & Ping-Sheng Koh & Yen H Tong, 2009. "Accruals Quality, Information Risk and Cost of Capital: Evidence from Australia," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(1-2), pages 51-72.
    4. Eugene F. Fama & Kenneth R. French, 2008. "Dissecting Anomalies," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(4), pages 1653-1678, August.
    5. Hirshleifer, David & Kewei Hou & Teoh, Siew Hong & Yinglei Zhang, 2004. "Do investors overvalue firms with bloated balance sheets?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 297-331, December.
    6. Brown, Philip & Keim, Donald B. & Kleidon, Allan W. & Marsh, Terry A., 1983. "Stock return seasonalities and the tax-loss selling hypothesis : Analysis of the arguments and Australian evidence," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 105-127, June.
    7. Michael J. Cooper & Huseyin Gulen & Michael J. Schill, 2008. "Asset Growth and the Cross‐Section of Stock Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(4), pages 1609-1651, August.
    8. John Y. Campbell & Tuomo Vuolteenaho, 2004. "Bad Beta, Good Beta," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(5), pages 1249-1275, December.
    9. repec:bla:jfinan:v:59:y:2004:i:6:p:2577-2603 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Banz, Rolf W., 1981. "The relationship between return and market value of common stocks," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 3-18, March.
    11. Lakonishok, Josef & Lee, Inmoo, 2001. "Are Insider Trades Informative?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 14(1), pages 79-111.
    12. De Bondt, Werner F M & Thaler, Richard, 1985. "Does the Stock Market Overreact?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 40(3), pages 793-805, July.
    13. Gibbons, Michael R & Ross, Stephen A & Shanken, Jay, 1989. "A Test of the Efficiency of a Given Portfolio," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 57(5), pages 1121-1152, September.
    14. Clive Gaunt & Philip Gray, 2003. "Short-Term Autocorrelation in Australian Equities," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 28(1), pages 97-117, June.
    15. Fama, Eugene F & MacBeth, James D, 1973. "Risk, Return, and Equilibrium: Empirical Tests," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 81(3), pages 607-636, May-June.
    16. Narasimhan Jegadeesh & Sheridan Titman, 2001. "Profitability of Momentum Strategies: An Evaluation of Alternative Explanations," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(2), pages 699-720, April.
    17. Lakonishok, Josef & Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W, 1994. "Contrarian Investment, Extrapolation, and Risk," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 49(5), pages 1541-1578, December.
    18. Grauer, Robert R. & Janmaat, Johannus A., 2009. "On the power of cross-sectional and multivariate tests of the CAPM," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 775-787, May.
    19. Jegadeesh, Narasimhan & Titman, Sheridan, 1993. "Returns to Buying Winners and Selling Losers: Implications for Stock Market Efficiency," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 48(1), pages 65-91, March.
    20. Philip Gharghori & Sebastian Stryjkowski & Madhu Veeraraghavan, 2013. "Value versus growth: Australian evidence," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 53(2), pages 393-417, June.
    21. Fama, Eugene F & French, Kenneth R, 1992. "The Cross-Section of Expected Stock Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(2), pages 427-465, June.
    22. William L. Beedles & Peter Dodd & R. R. Officer, 1988. "Regularities in Australian Share Returns," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 13(1), pages 1-29, June.
    23. John Paul Broussard & David Michayluk & Walter P. Neely, 2005. "The Role of Growth in Long Term Investment Returns," Published Paper Series 2005-3, Finance Discipline Group, UTS Business School, University of Technology, Sydney.
    24. Philip Gray & Ping‐Sheng Koh & Yen H Tong, 2009. "Accruals Quality, Information Risk and Cost of Capital: Evidence from Australia," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(1‐2), pages 51-72, January.
    25. Shanken, Jay, 1992. "On the Estimation of Beta-Pricing Models," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 5(1), pages 1-33.
    26. Officer, R. R., 1975. "Seasonality in Australian capital markets : Market efficiency and empirical issues," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 2(1), pages 29-51, March.
    27. Ralitsa Petkova, 2006. "Do the Fama–French Factors Proxy for Innovations in Predictive Variables?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(2), pages 581-612, April.
    28. Carhart, Mark M, 1997. "On Persistence in Mutual Fund Performance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(1), pages 57-82, March.
    29. Clive Gaunt, 2004. "Size and book to market effects and the Fama French three factor asset pricing model: evidence from the Australian stockmarket," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 44(1), pages 27-44, March.
    30. Keim, Donald B., 1983. "Size-related anomalies and stock return seasonality : Further empirical evidence," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 13-32, June.
    31. Demir, Isabelle & Muthuswamy, Jay & Walter, Terry, 2004. "Momentum returns in Australian equities: The influences of size, risk, liquidity and return computation," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 12(2), pages 143-158, April.
    32. Fama, Eugene F. & French, Kenneth R., 1993. "Common risk factors in the returns on stocks and bonds," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 3-56, February.
    33. Core, John E. & Guay, Wayne R. & Verdi, Rodrigo, 2008. "Is accruals quality a priced risk factor?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 2-22, September.
    34. Fama, Eugene F. & French, Kenneth R., 2006. "Profitability, investment and average returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(3), pages 491-518, December.
    35. Huang, Dayong & Wang, Fang, 2009. "Cash, investments and asset returns," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(12), pages 2301-2311, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Xuan Vinh Vo & Hong Thu Bui, 2016. "Asset growth and the cross section of stock returns - evidence from Vietnam," Afro-Asian Journal of Finance and Accounting, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 6(4), pages 289-304.
    2. Clarke, Charles, 2022. "The level, slope, and curve factor model for stocks," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(1), pages 159-187.
    3. Paul Y Dou & David R Gallagher & David H Schneider, 2013. "Dissecting anomalies in the Australian stock market," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 38(2), pages 353-373, August.
    4. Kewei Hou & Chen Xue & Lu Zhang, 2017. "Replicating Anomalies," NBER Working Papers 23394, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Christian Walkshäusl & Sebastian Lobe, 2014. "The Alternative Three†Factor Model: An Alternative beyond US Markets?," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 20(1), pages 33-70, January.
    6. Adam Zaremba & Jacob Koby Shemer, 2018. "Price-Based Investment Strategies," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-3-319-91530-2, January.
    7. Stefan Nagel, 2013. "Empirical Cross-Sectional Asset Pricing," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 5(1), pages 167-199, November.
    8. Lin, Qi, 2017. "Noisy prices and the Fama–French five-factor asset pricing model in China," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 141-163.
    9. Artmann, Sabine & Finter, Philipp & Kempf, Alexander, 2010. "Determinants of expected stock returns: Large sample evidence from the German market," CFR Working Papers 10-01, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    10. Amit Goyal, 2012. "Empirical cross-sectional asset pricing: a survey," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 26(1), pages 3-38, March.
    11. Michael J. Cooper & Huseyin Gulen & Michael J. Schill, 2008. "Asset Growth and the Cross‐Section of Stock Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(4), pages 1609-1651, August.
    12. David Hirshleifer & Kewei Hou & Siew Hong Teoh, 2012. "The Accrual Anomaly: Risk or Mispricing?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 58(2), pages 320-335, February.
    13. Lu Zhang, 2017. "The Investment CAPM," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 23(4), pages 545-603, September.
    14. Kewei Hou & Haitao Mo & Chen Xue & Lu Zhang, 2019. "Which Factors?," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 23(1), pages 1-35.
    15. Skočir, Matevž & Lončarski, Igor, 2018. "Multi-factor asset pricing models: Factor construction choices and the revisit of pricing factors," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 65-80.
    16. Joachim Freyberger & Andreas Neuhierl & Michael Weber, 2020. "Dissecting Characteristics Nonparametrically," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 33(5), pages 2326-2377.
    17. Michael Dempsey, 2015. "Stock Markets, Investments and Corporate Behavior:A Conceptual Framework of Understanding," World Scientific Books, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., number p1007, August.
    18. Committee, Nobel Prize, 2013. "Understanding Asset Prices," Nobel Prize in Economics documents 2013-1, Nobel Prize Committee.
    19. Richardson, Scott & Tuna, Irem & Wysocki, Peter, 2010. "Accounting anomalies and fundamental analysis: A review of recent research advances," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 410-454, December.
    20. Waszczuk, Antonina, 2013. "A risk-based explanation of return patterns—Evidence from the Polish stock market," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 15(C), pages 186-210.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbfina:v:35:y:2011:i:3:p:670-680. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbf .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.