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More U.S. Tech Companies are Adopting Unequal Dual-Class Voting Structures

by Marcus Lu
This post is by Marcus Lu from Visual Capitalist

Dual-class voting

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The Briefing

  • Dual-class structures give executives greater voting rights over public shareholders
  • U.S. tech companies have increasingly adopted this structure since the mid 2010s

 

More U.S. Tech Companies are Adopting Unequal Voting Structures

Shareholders of public companies often receive the right to vote on corporate policies like issuing dividends or initiating mergers.

Some companies opt for a dual-class share structure, where one class is offered to the public, and another is reserved for founders and executives. Many argue that this weakens accountability, as executives can simply overrule the wishes of outside investors.

The following table lists the number of U.S. companies that have IPO’d with a dual-class share structure. This data was compiled by Jay R. Ritter, Cordell Professor of Finance at the University of Florida.

YearNon-tech IPOs% of Dual Class
(non-tech)		Tech IPOs% of Dual Class
(tech)
1980492%220%
19811203%723%
1982350%420%
19832781%1732%
19841214%504%
19851494%373%
19863167% (Read more...)

Retail Investors’ Most Popular Stocks of 2023 So Far

by Marcus Lu
This post is by Marcus Lu from Visual Capitalist

Most Popular Stocks of 2023 With Retail Investors

Retail Investors’ Most Popular Stocks of 2023 (YTD)

According to VandaTrack, retail investors are still a force to be reckoned with, adding an average of $1.5 billion each day into U.S. markets.

This is a record-breaking level of inflows, which raises the question: what are investors buying? To find out, we’ve visualized the 10 most popular picks of 2023, as of February 15.

The Top 10 List

Most of the names in this list won’t come as a surprise. They represent eight of the world’s largest and most well-known tech companies, as well as two highly popular U.S. equity ETFs.

RankNameTickerRetail net flows
(USD millions)
1TeslaTSLA$9,751
2SPDR S&P 500 ETFSPY$3,572
3AmazonAMZN$1,786
4AppleAAPL$1,674
5NVIDIANVDA$1,367
6Invesco QQQ ETFQQQ$1,353
7AlphabetGOOG/L$1,218
8AMDAMD$941
9MetaMETA$780
10MicrosoftMSFT$768

Looking closer at the numbers, we can see that Tesla’s net retail flows of $9.75 billion are greater than all of the other individual stocks combined ($8.5 billion). This is a sign that investors still have plenty of faith in Tesla, even as its market share is beginning to shrink.

We recently covered Tesla’s profit margins (net profits per vehicle) in a separate infographic.

Perhaps the least common name on a top 10 ranking such as this is AMD. The chipmaker has made for a compelling underdog story in recent years, gaining significant market share (Read more...)

The Best Months for Stock Market Gains

by Marcus Lu
This post is by Marcus Lu from Visual Capitalist

best months for stock market gains

The Best Months for Stock Market Gains

Many investors believe that equity markets perform better during certain times of the year.

Is there any truth to these claims, or is it superstitious nonsense? This infographic uses data gathered by Schroders, a British asset management firm, to investigate.

What the Data Says

This analysis is based on 31 years of performance across four major stock indexes:

  • FTSE 100: An index of the top 100 companies on the London Stock Exchange (LSE)
  • MSCI World: An index of over 1,000 large and mid-cap companies within developed markets
  • S&P 500: An index of the 500 largest companies that trade on U.S. stock exchanges
  • Eurostoxx 50: An index of the top 50 blue-chip stocks within the Eurozone region

The percentages in the following table represent the historical frequency of these indexes rising in a given month, between the years 1987 and 2018. Months are ordered from best to worst, in descending order.

RankMonth of Year Frequency of Growth (%)Difference from Mean (p.p.)
#1December79.0%+19.9
#2April74.3%+15.2
#3October68.6%+9.5
#4July61.7%+2.6
#5May58.6%-0.5
#6November58.4%-0.7
#7January57.8%-1.3
#8February57.0%-2.1
#9March56.3%-2.8
#10September51.6%-7.5
#11August49.3%-9.8
#12June36.7%-22.4
Average59.1%n/a

There are some outliers in this dataset that we’ll focus on below.

The Strong Months

In terms of frequency of growth, December has historically (Read more...)

The World’s Largest Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs)

by Marcus Lu
This post is by Marcus Lu from Visual Capitalist

World's largest real estate investment trusts

The World’s Largest Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs)

Real estate is widely regarded as an attractive asset class for investors.

This is because it offers several benefits like diversification (due to less correlation with stocks), monthly income, and protection from inflation. The latter is known as “inflation hedging”, and stems from real estate’s tendency to appreciate during periods of rising prices.

Affordability, of course, is a major barrier to investing in most real estate. Property markets around the world have reached bubble territory, making it incredibly difficult for people to get their foot in the door.

Thankfully, there are easier ways of gaining exposure. One of these is purchasing shares in a real estate investment trust (REIT), a type of company that owns and operates income-producing real estate, and is most often publicly-traded.

What Qualifies as REIT?

To qualify as a REIT in the U.S., a company must meet several criteria:

  • Invest at least 75% of assets in real estate, cash , or U.S. Treasuries
  • Derive at least 75% of gross income from rents, interest on mortgages, or real estate sales
  • Pay at least 90% of taxable income in the form of shareholder dividends
  • Be a taxable corporation
  • Be managed by a board of directors or trustees
  • Have at least 100 shareholders after one year of operations
  • Have no more than half its shares held by five or fewer people

Investing in a REIT is similar to purchasing shares of any other publicly-traded company. There are also exchange-traded (Read more...)

How Every Asset Class, Currency, and S&P 500 Sector Performed in 2021

by Niccolo Conte
This post is by Niccolo Conte from Visual Capitalist

2021 asset performance

How Every Market Performed in 2021

After the roller coaster of volatility in 2020, the majority of asset classes in 2021 saw positive returns as the world reopened for business.

The Federal Reserve’s accommodative monetary policy, supply chain struggles, and high demand for fuels and raw materials for the clean energy transition largely shaped the markets.

Alongside the rise in inflation, commodities and cryptocurrency outperformed as broad equity indices saw double-digit returns, with the S&P 500 rising by 26.9% in 2021.

Markets Roundup for 2021

Speculation and the energy fuels for the world’s reopening were two of the main themes for markets in 2021, reflected in Bitcoin (59.8%) and crude oil (56.4%) being the top two performing assets in that time frame.

The S&P GSCI commodity index (37.1%) was another top performer, as agricultural and livestock food prices rose alongside the Dow Jones Real Estate Index (35.1%).

Asset Class2021 ReturnAsset Type
Bitcoin59.8%Cryptocurrency
WTI Crude Oil56.4%Commodity
S&P GSCI37.1%Commodity
Dow Jones Real Estate Index35.1%Real Estate
S&P 50026.9%Equities
S&P/TSX Composite21.7%Equities
Russell 200013.7%Equities
MSCI EAFE7.8%Equities
U.S. Dollar6.4%Currency
Bloomberg Barclays Corporate Bonds Index-1.2%Bonds
Bloomberg U.S. Treasury Index-2.5%Bonds
Gold-3.6%Commodity
MSCI Emerging Markets-5.5%Equities
Silver-11.7%Commodity

Source: TradingView

Despite most physical and digital commodities seeing price gains, precious metals such as gold (-3.6%) and silver (-11.7%) struggled to hold onto their value, while industrial and battery metals like lithium (Read more...)

Four Reasons to Watch UK Equities

by Sponsored Content

The following content is sponsored by BlackRock.

Over the past several years, UK equities have traded at a relative discount compared to other developed markets. This was largely due to ongoing Brexit negotiations, where uncertainty around trade deals and other legislation created significant headwinds.

Fast forward to today, and much of the uncertainty has passed. Does this mean it’s time to invest in the UK?

Looking Ahead

This infographic from BlackRock covers four reasons for why investors should consider an allocation to UK equities.

UK Equities infographic

So, why should investors consider an allocation to UK equities?

#1: The UK Market Is Not the UK Economy

The UK equity market is represented by many leading multinational companies from a variety of sectors.

For example, consider the FTSE All-Share Index, which contains over 600 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange. As of March 31, 2021, 72.5% of these companies’ total revenue was derived from outside of the UK.

A large share of overseas revenue provides investors with exposure to a range of global themes, where outcomes are not dictated by the UK economy itself.

#2: Business Activity is Ramping Up

The confirmation of a Brexit trade deal has provided UK companies with clarity around the rules of engagement, as well as the confidence to look ahead.

As a result, the UK has been ranked as the most attractive place in Europe for future investment.

CountryWhich country do you believe will be
the most attractive for foreign investment in 2021?
(% (Read more...)

Bringing the World Into Focus: A Guide to MSCI Indexes

by Sponsored Content

The following content is sponsored by MSCI

MSCI Indexes

MSCI

Bringing the World Into Focus: A Guide to MSCI Indexes

Economic development around the world has led investors to consider broadening their investment exposures.

But with nearly 30,000 equity securities available globally, the universe is far too large for an investor to filter by themselves.

In this sponsored infographic from MSCI, we explain their index creation process that allows them to map and categorize the stock market.

Defining the Global Universe

Although a majority of global market capitalization is located in the U.S., overseas markets (both developed and emerging) are home to thousands of publicly-listed companies.

Thus, the first step that MSCI takes is identifying eligible securities from public stock markets. Mutual funds, ETFs, and equity derivatives are screened out. This leaves ordinary and preferred shares, share equivalents, and real estate investment trusts (REITs).

Share equivalents are securities that can be converted into company shares. This includes securities such as American depository receipts (ADRs), which are certificates issued by U.S. banks that represent a specified number of a foreign company’s shares. Meanwhile, REITs are companies that own and operate income-producing real estate such as office buildings.

Applying Investability Screens

A stock index is not useful if its underlying securities are not widely accessible.

To create an investable representation of the global market, MSCI screens its universe of eligible securities according to three requirements.

1. Shares must be investable

MSCI analyzes two different size metrics—free-float market cap and full market cap—to make (Read more...)

RiskGrade: A More Intuitive Way to Calculate Investment Risk

by Sponsored Content

The following content is sponsored by MSCI.

A More Intuitive Way to Calculate Investment Risk

What crucial factors come into play when choosing investments?

At a high level, there’s two sides to the equation: return and risk. While potential profit is important, the volatility or risk of those profits also plays a critical role. In this graphic from MSCI we introduce the RiskGrade™ metric, a more intuitive way of calculating investment risk.

What is RiskGrade™?

One way of measuring investment risk is through volatility. Low risk investments have a smaller range of price movements relative to their historical average, meaning they have less volatility. On the flip side, high risk investments have a larger range of price movements. This means their returns—both gains and losses—can differ substantially from the historical average.

Traditionally, this volatility is measured through standard deviation. However, standard deviation can be difficult for investors to interpret as it has no intuitive reference point. Enter RiskGrade: a score-based measure of volatility that uses a transparent methodology.

  1. Volatility is calculated by measuring the change in investment price over time.
  2. A scaling factor is applied to standardize scores.

In the second step, 100 is equivalent to a 20% standard deviation, which is the average long-term volatility of global equities. Cash would have a RiskGrade of 0, whereas a technology IPO may have a RiskGrade that exceeds 1,000. It should be noted that RiskGrade only captures risk from a market price perspective, and does not consider inflation risk.

(Read more...)