Suhteellinen arvostus ja markkinoiden tehokkuus

The focus of the thesis was to study and examine if the stock markets are efficient of not based on relative valuation multiples. Thesis presented previous study (O ́Shaughnessy, 2005) for relative valuation data from 1951 to 2003 that showed that there seems to exist persistent anomalies in the relation between low multiple strategies and higher portfolio returns. The investor has had opportunities to out-perform the market indexes over a very long time period by strictly choosing investment strategies based on low multiples (i.e. “value” strategies). I extended the previous study in the thesis by performing relative valuations from years 2008-2025 and studied whether the low multiple relative valuation portfolios outperform the market indexes. The results were mostly similar than previous study’s results, supporting the fact that there seems to exist persistent anomalies in the stock markets, and for disciplined investor this could provide opportunities to outperform the market indexes by wide margin. Most evidence in the thesis supported the fact that stock markets are not entirely efficient. The main reasons for these inefficiencies are probably mainly because investors are not totally rational but instead have many behavioural biases that distort their optimal rational decision making. Also limits to arbitrage are probably factors causing these anomalies to exist. Limits for using relative valuation methods were also presented. Main reser- vation was the fact that about 50% US companies report negative net incomes mainly because of intangible expensing rules based on US GAAP.