Information Content of PE Ratio, Price-to-book Ratio and Firm Size in Predicting Equity Returns

Abstract

The concept of market efficiency is central to finance. Various anomalies have been documented in the last two decades that contradicts to the efficient market hypothesis. Despite the extensive evidence of market anomalous from the U.S market, empirical studies on the Australian equity market are limited. This study investigates a number of anomalous including PE ratios, Price-to-book ratios and the firm size effect in an Australia context. The preliminary results suggest that PE ratios and firm size do not have power in predicting stock returns. However, significant returns are found to be associated with low Price-to-book ratios.