出版社:Richards College of Business, University of West Georgia
摘要:More than twenty years ago Branch and Gale (1983) explored the behavior of the priceto- book ratio (PB, the ratio of a stock's price to its book value). They developed a PB model that explained over 70 percent of their sample's variability. Since the Branch-Gale paper appeared, PB has taken on increasing significance. The PB or price-to-book ratio is a basic measure of the relative value that the market places on a share of stock. For all of its shortcomings, a stock’s book value per share remains the best easily accessible measure of the assets which lie behind each share. Accordingly, the ratio of this per share book value to the stock’s market price provides a very useful index of how much value the market places on the firm as a going concern (market price of stock) as opposed to the bundle of assets (book value per share) that the managers have to work with. The higher the PB, the more favorably the market views the company and its prospects. A PB below one suggests that the firm’s value as a going concern is actually below the value its assets. Herein we explore the factors that influence the level of PB. We then build and test a multivariate model that relates those factors to PB. Our study and the resulting model are designed to advance understanding of the determinants of PB as well as to provide a tool for those managers who wish effectively to pursue strategy designed to enhance their firm’s PB.