Intangible Assets and Stock Returns

         
Author Name TAKIZAWA Miho (Toyo University) / TONOGI Konomi (Rissho University) / MIYAGAWA Tsutomu (Faculty Fellow, RIETI)
Creation Date/NO. March 2017 17-J-025
Research Project The Role of Intangibles on Productivity Improvement
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Abstract

Using Japanese listed companies' research and development (R&D) investment and stock prices, we empirically examine how R&D capital stock held by firms are related to their stock returns. Our empirical result based on the sorted portfolio, which is constructed by using the ratio of firms' R&D capital stock to total assets (R&D intensity), shows that such R&D intensity has a positive correlation with excess return on the stock price. This result suggests that short-sighted investors tend to underestimate the stock prices of firms that actively invest in intangible assets because they neglect future benefits arising from intangibles.