Analysis on company financials prior to listing in relation to stock return: : Evidence from Stockholm Stock Exchange

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this study is to identify what company specific parameters prior to an IPO have significant impact on share price performance one year after listing. This is done by analysing listings on the Stockholm Stock Exchange in the period 2014-2019.  The method which has been used is a multiple linear regression with adjusted share price as response variable and 7 specific company data points as independent variables. The share price development of companies is adjusted to the SIX Return Index and the 7 company variables cover size, growth, profitability and ownership. The results from the study imply that the independent variables covering size and profitability have the highest impact on share price performance after listing and that ownership had the least impact. The final model with the independent variables that had the highest relevance still only display a small significant correlation with an adjusted R2 = 0.09, which is understandable due to the nature of share prices not being able to be predicted one year into the future. Furthermore, the stock market is a large and complex system of many unknowns, which aggravates the process of simplifying and quantifying data of only one source into a regression model with high predictability.