Post Earnings Announcement Drift in the Stockholm Stock Exchange : How pronounced is PEAD on beta, traded volume and sector allocation?

Abstract: Post Earnings Announcement Drift (PEAD) is a market anomaly that challenge the “Efficient Market Hypothesis” (EMH). It was first discovered in 1968 by Ball and Brown. When firms on the stock market have their earnings announcement the stock price will be affected and tend to drift up or down in price for days, weeks or months. Based on the limited research studies available there is acceptance that PEAD exists in the Stockholm stock exchange but depending on how measured the effect can strongly differ. In this master thesis we will study PEAD anomaly in the Swedish stock market and how pronounced it is on the stock’s sector, beta and trading volume. This study is an event and quantitative study which analyses firms on the Stockholm exchange market during the period between January 2007 to December 2022. A price measurement methodology has been used where the benchmark for abnormal (or excess) returns is the index of the list. Evidence shows that PEAD is present in the Stockholm Stock Exchange but that the effect is limited. The fact that the event abnormal returns are significant regarding of the returns up to after 60 trading days (although on a very small effect) provides insight and understanding of the effect. This study has also provided insight that beta and sector is a relevant PEAD parameter, maybe as important as the abnormal returns in the event itself. Trading volume have not provided any insight on PEAD in this study.