125740 Advanced Investment Analysis

Write out your answer directly below the question, inserting space as required, but each answer must not exceed 500 words (about 2 pages). Any words beyond that we will ignore.

In each of your answers, you must cite at least one paper presented in class, and as relevant: the supplementary paper, the associated pilot study, and /or other papers discussed in lectures.

QA1. A certain Board of Directors is trying to decide what dividend payout policy to implement, and they have asked you for advice. What insight can you provide? In what way do agency costs, mean reversion, and free-cash flow theory impact your answer?

QA2.The active managers at our investment firm use PE to build their portfolios, and our quantitative research team has been tasked to help them forecast PE.  What advice can you give the quant team?

QA3.Discuss whether any particular investment style adds value and relate this work to fund manager career concerns.

QA4.Explain the strengths and weaknesses of the explanations given for the value premium.

QA5.A friend of yours (not a finance professional) is wanting to build a portfolio of stocks, and has asked for your advice, in particular about how many stocks they should hold.  What can you tell them?

In file QB1_Data emailed to you, there is returns information on 3 managed funds and 3 benchmarks. All three managed funds are defined as Large Cap Growth, and are managed as Enhanced Index.

b. If the bonus pool is $100,000 (total dollars that might be used for bonuses), how should it be divided up between these managers? (Some or all of the bonus pool can remain unallocated to managers.)  You must stipulate exactly why you give that allocation.