Musings on Markets

MARCH 15, 2025

Thus, my estimates of equity risk premiums, updated every month, are not designed to make big statements about markets but more to get inputs I need to value companies. In the table below, I show my estimates of the implied equity risk premium for the S&P 500 at the start of every month, since January 2024, and on March 14, 2025.

Start-ups

Musings on Markets

AUGUST 5, 2025

The first is that, as I noted in my post on country equity risk premiums last week , there much of what I know or write about is pedestrian, and holding it in secret seems silly. Books : I have written eleven books and co-edited one, spread out across corporate finance, valuation and investing, and you can find them all listed here.

Start-ups

Musings on Markets

JANUARY 21, 2023

That said, when investors buy equities, it would be both irrational and illogical to settle for expected returns that are less than what you can earn on risk free or guaranteed investments, though behavioral finance suggests that both irrationality and illogic are persistent human traits.

Equity

Musings on Markets

AUGUST 15, 2023

In every introductory finance class, you begin with the notion of a risk-free investment, and the rate on that investment becomes the base on which you build, to get to expected returns on risky assets and investments. What is a risk free investment? Why does the risk-free rate matter?

Risk-free Rate

Musings on Markets

JANUARY 30, 2023

Just as rising equity risk premiums push up the cost of equity, rising default spreads push up the cost of debt of companies, with the added complication of higher default risk for those companies that had pushed to the limits of their borrowing capacity in a low interest-rate environment.

Treasury

Valutico

FEBRUARY 27, 2024

For central banks like the Federal Reserve, it helps control the economy. They set this rate to affect how much money moves through banks and influences short-term interest rates. We are going to focus on how discount rates are used in the context of investment, rather than in the context of central banks.

Discounted Cash Flow

ThomsonReuters

MAY 6, 2021

The cash flows from an entire business include inflows and outflows from investing, financing, and operating activities (such as sales, collections on receivables, expenditures, and settling accounts payable). For instance, assume a bank is performing a discounted cash flow analysis for a mortgage.

Discounted Cash Flow

Simply Treasury

AUGUST 2, 2022

The idea is not new to encourage companies to increase their capitalization and reduce their bank debt (partly through more recourse to the capital market - CMU project). The rate would be calculated based on a 10-year "risk-free interest" rate depending on the currency, increased by a 1% risk premium (1.5%

Equity

Musings on Markets

JANUARY 31, 2024

In my last three posts, I looked at the macro (equity risk premiums, default spreads, risk free rates) and micro (company risk measures) that feed into the expected returns we demand on investments, and argued that these expected returns become hurdle rates for businesses, in the form of costs of equity and capital.

Equity

Musings on Markets

JANUARY 9, 2021

The first is that I do not have a macro focus, and my interests in macro variables occur only in the context of corporate finance or valuation issues. In the same dataset where I compute historical equity risk premiums, I report historical returns on corporate bonds in two ratings classes (Moody’s Aaa and Baa ratings).

Risk Premium

Equilest

MARCH 17, 2022

They give a vision of the company, which must be supplemented by other approaches to address the "true" price, which will result from the negotiation, i.e., the amount accepted by the assignor and financed by the buyer. . . Thus two companies with the same level of results but different future performance risks will have different values.

Business Valuation

Appraiser Newsroom

JUNE 4, 2024

Kevin holds an MBA in finance from Georgia State University and a Bachelors in Chemical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Finance Professor | Pepperdine Graziadio Business School Craig R. Everett is a finance professor at the Pepperdine Graziadio Business School. a Software as a Service company.

Business Valuation

Musings on Markets

JANUARY 27, 2021

In my last post , I described the wild ride that the price of risk took in 2020, with equity risk premiums and default spreads initially sky rocketing, as the virus led to global economic shutdowns, and then just as abruptly dropping back to pre-crisis levels over the course of the year. against developed market currencies.

Start-ups

Musings on Markets

JANUARY 19, 2022

In computing this implied equity risk premium for the S&P 500, I start with the dividends and buybacks on the stocks in the index in the most recent year (which is known) and assume that they grow at the rate that analysts who follow the index are projecting for the next five years.

Risk Premium

Musings on Markets

JULY 1, 2022

And Consequences If you are wondering why you should care about risk capital's ebbs and flows, it is because you will feel its effects in almost everything you do in investing and business. The 2008 banking and market crisis caused a drop of almost 50% in 2009, and it took the market almost five years to return to pre-crisis levels.

Marketability

Musings on Markets

FEBRUARY 27, 2023

Note that this framework applies for all businesses, from the smallest, privately owned businesses, where debt takes the form of bank loans and even credit card borrowing and equity is owner savings, the largest publicly traded companies, where debt can be in the form of corporate bonds and equity is shares held by public market investors.

Equity

Musings on Markets

JULY 24, 2024

After the 2008 market crisis, I resolved that I would be far more organized in my assessments and updating of equity risk premiums, in the United States and abroad, as I looked at the damage that can be inflicted on intrinsic value by significant shifts in risk premiums, i.e., my definition of a crisis.

Risk Premium

Musings on Markets

APRIL 20, 2025

There are strands of research in both behavioral finance and empirical studies that back up contrarian strategies, but as with everything to do with investing, it comes with caveats and constraints. Contrarian Investing: The Psychological Tests! In the abstract, it is easy to understand the appeal of contrarian investing.

Start-ups

Reynolds Holding

MARCH 25, 2025

Healy before the Subcommittee on Banking and Currency on Wagner-Lea Act, S. Healy before the Subcommittee on Banking and Currency on Wagner-Lea Act, S. Investment companies have been compelled to finance banking clients of the insiders and companies in which they were personally interested. internal citations omitted). [4]

Corporate Finance

Equidam

APRIL 22, 2025

2] Startups typically lack significant historical financial data, often operate with negative profits initially, rely heavily on private equity or venture capital rather than traditional bank loans, and face a much higher risk of failure. [1] This premium rises when perceived market risk increases. [27] 2] [15] [17].

Discounted Cash Flow

Equidam

APRIL 22, 2025

Venture Capital (VC) Financing: This is perhaps the most common context. 3] , [7] , [6] It sets a benchmark against which future fundraising rounds will be measured and helps investors assess whether the potential upside justifies the significant risks associated with early-stage ventures. [8]

Discounted Cash Flow