IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/eufman/v19y2013i3p579-598.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Tiny Prices in a Tiny Market: Evidence from Portugal on Optimal Share Prices

Author

Listed:
  • João Pedro Pereira
  • Teresa Cutelo

Abstract

The Portuguese stock market provides a natural experimental area to analyse theories of optimal price per share. Its characteristics suggest that prices should be very low. Using a sample of 20 stocks from the main Portuguese Stock Index from 1999 to 2010, we observe that Portuguese corporations indeed seek extremely low prices per share through stock splits and similar actions. However, we find that low†price stocks are actually less liquid than high†price stocks. Furthermore, low†price stocks trade at lower valuation ratios. Our results do not support any of the existing theories on optimal price per share and therefore add to the nominal share price puzzle.

Suggested Citation

  • João Pedro Pereira & Teresa Cutelo, 2013. "Tiny Prices in a Tiny Market: Evidence from Portugal on Optimal Share Prices," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 19(3), pages 579-598, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:eufman:v:19:y:2013:i:3:p:579-598
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-036X.2010.00602.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-036X.2010.00602.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1468-036X.2010.00602.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. 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.
    2. Stoll, Hans R. & Whaley, Robert E., 1983. "Transaction costs and the small firm effect," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 57-79, June.
    3. Cristina Vespro, 2006. "Stock Price and Volume Effects Associated with Compositional Changes in European Stock Indices," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 12(1), pages 103-127, January.
    4. Lo, Andrew W & Wang, Jiang, 2000. "Trading Volume: Definitions, Data Analysis, and Implications of Portfolio Theory," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 13(2), pages 257-300.
    5. Amihud, Yakov, 2002. "Illiquidity and stock returns: cross-section and time-series effects," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 31-56, January.
    6. Robert Neumann, 2003. "Price Differentials between Dual‐class Stocks: Voting Premium or Liquidity Discount?," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 9(3), pages 315-332, September.
    7. Keim, Donald B. & Madhavan, Ananth, 1995. "Anatomy of the trading process Empirical evidence on the behavior of institutional traders," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 371-398, March.
    8. Brennan, Michael J. & Copeland, Thomas E., 1988. "Stock splits, stock prices, and transaction costs," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 83-101, October.
    9. Penman, SH, 1996. "The articulation of price-earnings ratios and market-to-book ratios and the evaluation of growth," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(2), pages 235-259.
    10. Brennan, Michael J & Hughes, Patricia J, 1991. "Stock Prices and the Supply of Information," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 46(5), pages 1665-1691, December.
    11. Merton, Robert C, 1987. "A Simple Model of Capital Market Equilibrium with Incomplete Information," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 42(3), pages 483-510, July.
    12. J. F. Bacmann & M. Dubois & C. Ertur, 2002. "Valuation Effects of Listing on a More Prominent Segment of the Stock Market: Evidence from France," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 8(4), pages 479-493, December.
    13. Angel, James J, 1997. "Tick Size, Share Prices, and Stock Splits," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(2), pages 655-681, June.
    14. Edward A. Dyl, 2006. "The Share Price Puzzle," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 79(4), pages 2045-2066, July.
    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. Amihud, Yakov & Mendelson, Haim, 1986. "Asset pricing and the bid-ask spread," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 223-249, December.
    17. Jorge Farinha & Nuno Filipe Basílio, 2006. "Stock Splits: Real Effects or Just a Question of Maths? An Empirical Analysis of the Portuguese Case," CEF.UP Working Papers 0608, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.
    18. Harris, Lawrence, 1991. "Stock Price Clustering and Discreteness," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 4(3), pages 389-415.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. María Gutiérrez & Nino Papiashvili & Josep A. Tribó & Antonio B. Vazquez, 2020. "Managerial incentives for attracting attention," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 26(4), pages 896-937, September.

    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. Lin, Ji-Chai & Singh, Ajai K. & Yu, Wen, 2009. "Stock splits, trading continuity, and the cost of equity capital," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(3), pages 474-489, September.
    2. Guo, Fang & Zhou, Kaiguo & Cai, Jinghan, 2008. "Stock splits, liquidity, and information asymmetry--An empirical study on Tokyo Stock Exchange," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 417-438, September.
    3. Birru, Justin & Wang, Baolian, 2016. "Nominal price illusion," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(3), pages 578-598.
    4. Gregory Connor & Lisa R. Goldberg & Robert A. Korajczyk, 2010. "Portfolio Risk Analysis," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 9224.
    5. 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.
    6. Amini, Shima & Buchner, Axel & Cai, Charlie X. & Mohamed, Abdulkadir, 2020. "Why do firms manage their stock price levels?," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    7. van Dijk, Mathijs A., 2011. "Is size dead? A review of the size effect in equity returns," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(12), pages 3263-3274.
    8. Turan G. Bali & Robert F. Engle & Yi Tang, 2017. "Dynamic Conditional Beta Is Alive and Well in the Cross Section of Daily Stock Returns," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(11), pages 3760-3779, November.
    9. De Moor, Lieven & Sercu, Piet, 2013. "The smallest firm effect: An international study," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 129-155.
    10. Guo, Hui & Qiu, Buhui, 2014. "Options-implied variance and future stock returns," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 93-113.
    11. repec:fau:fauart:v:65:y:2015:i:1:p:84-104 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Wang, Jinan & Chen, Langnan, 2012. "Liquidity-adjusted conditional capital asset pricing model," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 361-368.
    13. Iwanaga, Yasuhiro & Hirose, Takehide, 2023. "Liquidity changes and decomposition in the Japanese equity market," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    14. Choong Tze Chua & Jeremy Goh & Zhe Zhang, 2010. "Expected Volatility, Unexpected Volatility, And The Cross‐Section Of Stock Returns," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 33(2), pages 103-123, June.
    15. Fu, Fangjian, 2009. "Idiosyncratic risk and the cross-section of expected stock returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(1), pages 24-37, January.
    16. Bo Li & Qian Sun & Changyun Wang, 2014. "Liquidity, Liquidity Risk and Stock Returns: Evidence from Japan," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 20(1), pages 126-151, January.
    17. Javier Vidal-García & Marta Vidal & Duc Khuong Nguyen, 2016. "Do liquidity and idiosyncratic risk matter? Evidence from the European mutual fund market," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 47(2), pages 213-247, August.
    18. Mark Iarovyi & sasson Bar Yosef & Itzhak Venezia, 2017. "Implied Maturity Mismatches and Investor Disagreement," Proceedings of Economics and Finance Conferences 4507072, International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences.
    19. Nhut H. Nguyen & David Y. Wang, 2013. "Stock dividends in China: signalling or liquidity explanations?," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 53(2), pages 513-535, June.
    20. Zhong, Angel & Chai, Daniel & Li, Bob & Chiah, Mardy, 2018. "Volume shocks and stock returns: An alternative test," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 1-16.
    21. Harrison Hong & Terence Lim & Jeremy C. Stein, 2000. "Bad News Travels Slowly: Size, Analyst Coverage, and the Profitability of Momentum Strategies," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(1), pages 265-295, February.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:bla:eufman:v:19:y:2013:i:3:p:579-598. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/efmaaea.html .

    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.