Q: Do "activist shareholders" hurt more than they help?
A: It's been a busy year for activist shareholders. These investors buy stakes in companies and hope to use their bought clout to push for change.
Companies ranging from J.C. Penney to Apple and Microsoft have all been reportedly pushed by activists to make changes to their business models or the way they return cash to shareholders.
The pressure being applied can get so public that these activists often seem to have a bigger influence than they really do. And judging from the results at J.C. Penney, as the retailer continues to struggle, some might question if activists do more harm than good.
TRACK YOUR STOCKS: Get real-time quotes with our free Portfolio Tracker
Activists at large, however, still generally aid companies, according to a recent study from Duke University, Harvard Law School and Columbia Business School. After examining more than 2,000 motions by activist shareholders between 1994 and 2007, these researchers found that the companies targeted generally start showing better performance.
The companies showed higher return on assets five years after the time they were targeted by the activists. Additionally, there' s a roughly 6% positive stock price reaction around the period the activists disclose that they're getting involved.
Some suspect that activist shareholders may squeeze out better performance from the targeted companies in the short run, only to hurt future results. But the researchers didn't see any abnormal decreases in the targeted firm's future performance.
No comments:
Post a Comment