Decision Analysis in Financial Services Corporation Assignment

Decision Analysis in Financial Services Corporation - Assignment Example This was particularly true post-September 11, 2001, when the Patriot Act and its companion Banking Secrecy Act changed and further complicated the way financial institutions did business, by requiring them to detect and stop money laundering procedures. Like many others in the banking industry, in the decade prior to 2006 FSC had acquired and merged with many other like firms. By that year the corporation was in the process of its largest merger to date, which was still some months off. In order to make the merger smooth and efficient, it became evident that most of their divisions needed to be streamlined and HR was one those divisions that were singled out. One of those options was the balanced scorecard; an idea that had been around since the early 1990’s and had been implemented several times during the decade by the Human Resources of FSC, albeit without much success. Issues Based upon â€Å"How to Analyze a Case† from Harvard Business School’s Case Study Ha ndbook, there are four situations that occur in most cases. The first is the problem or in modern speak, the issues involved. FSC needed to develop a balanced scorecard (BSC) for is merger and had begun to identify problems with its Human Resources Division as early as 2002. ...With regard to the HR Division, the study revealed several weaknesses. Of the six flaws discovered, five of those dealt with measuring the division’s progress and using those indicators to predict the future of the department and deal with any changes that would come about. To quote the paper, â€Å"the HR Leadership Team, which consisted of the HR CFO and managers of the various HR departments, did not regularly review departmental metrics or indicators; rather, it relied on anecdotal information from colleagues and internal customers relating to how the HR Division was performing.† Still, it took another two years before the first primitive version of the BSC was first implemented. The divisio n had also been making an attempt to implement the BSC since 2004, with a lot of resistance from the employees, who for the most part considered the scorecards a waste of their valuable time and another â€Å"fad† brought about by the whims of the top leadership. As expected without enthusiastic cooperation in the HR Division, especially in senior leadership, that first BSC failed miserably as did several reincarnations thereafter. Yet Corporate Headquarters was determined to see the BSC brought about in the HR Division and bring Leadership’s thinking in line with the concept. After all, such things as Human Resources had long been considered of having no value addition and mostly referred to as overhead. The people at the top looked at exactly that, money, and if they weren’t convinced HR was a viable asset, it could be even further trimmed and the BSC was the best tool to prevent that.

International Marketing Feasibility Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 6250 words

International Marketing Feasibility - Essay Example The government’s encouragement of foreign investment would fast tract legal actions that may enhance the speed of operation. However, the country’s unstable political system may affect the implementation process. Not so much problem with to whom should accept the program since there is a remarkable number of urban elite who can afford for such academic service. However, it is a good marketing proposition to tie up with Thailand’s government when it comes to educating its people since it is clear that the government has to start maximizing its subsidy on education. Not only that, Thailand would be a good venue and strategic place for the neighboring and developing countries to access the service of ANOVA Education Center considering that the cost of leaving is definitely not that high. The company is ANOVA Education Centre. It is situated solely in Singapore since it has not expanded to anywhere else yet. All from its website ANOVA Education Centre (2009), the company has promoted itself as the one that provides preparatory courses for foreign students who have interest to study in Singapore. Among of its many objectives, the main is to give students preparation for entrance examinations to Singapore’s local schools. The company was able to promise of courses that are in line with the recent syllabus of Ministry of Education. The company also ensures that its students will have a conducive environment as well as competent and highly-trained teachers as they receive their trainings. To give much more focus to every student, each teacher has 10 to 15 students. With all of these, the ANOVA Education Center is simply trying to provide opportunity for each individual willing to enter in the international language where the medium of speech is English. A message from the principal of ANOVA Education Center, David Sum, simply states the company’s commitment to provide their students a high standard of service.

History 7a Mid- Term Essay Example for Free

History 7a Mid- Term Essay The Era of Exploration witnessed the rapid political, economic, and social intrusion of Europe into the New World. Between the 15th and 17th Centuries several countries influenced the developement of the Americas. Select the most successful and infleuntial colony and compare it with another European Colonial structure. Be sure to include historical themes in your written argument. 3. The key to the colonial, structure of the United States in firmly established in 17th Century England. In reality, the foudation of the United States is a reflection of this country. Trace the economic/political/cultural influences of Britain on our colonial structure. In your a nswer include important individuals, governmental structures, events, social policies and historical themes. 4. Analzye and contrast the historical development of the Southern Colonies 1603- 1783. In your answer, include historical themes, reasons for colonial impementation, regional development, economic structure, religious importance or lack of it, the instittution of Slavery and the ramifications of these colnies on the development of the United States. 5. New England is the mother culture of Modern United States. Analyze thsis statement by describing the Colonial Foudation of, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and New Hampshire 1620-1783. How have their histories infleunced the development of contemporary United States? How have these areas impacted our societys

Omissions In A Ticket Issuing System

Omissions In A Ticket Issuing System The ticket issuing system does not offer many of the services to facilitate the purchase of tickets. A number of ambiguities and omissions have been found from the given scenario. The scenario given is not clear enough and looks like quite uncertain about the instructions to purchase a ticket. Even the payment procedures do not offer the user to choose the type of payment. The ambiguities and omissions found in the scenario are as follows: The system does not allow customers buy more than one ticket for the same destination at a time. It must prompt the user if the ticket can be purchased one at a time. Customer is more likely to input incorrect destinations and the system should allow user to cancel a request and purchase another ticket. After having input the destination the system will ask the customer to pay and would ask about which type of payment the user prefers. In this case, the system does not indicate as to how to respond if an invalid card is input. It must be able to respond and prompt the user if they try to put their card before selecting a destination. Do the customer need to press the start button if they wish to buy another ticket to a different destination. Or it allows customers with the choice of selecting other destinations between the stations where the machine is located. Ticket system is going to allow customers to input their destination through a touch screen or keyboard. The existing system does not allow the user to view the ticket prices. It is vital to publish the ticket prices accordingly, as customers need to know the amount that they will be charged. It does not show the train departure and arrival times, and whether the customer wishes to buy ticket for a specific train. It must allow customers to choose their seats. Finally, the system should prompt customer to print the receipt which includes the destination details and payment type. A receipt should have been issued to state whether the purchase has been made successfully. In the first paragraph, the system does not check for validation, such as when the user inserts their card, and the validity needs to be checked as to whether the payment could be made form that particular card. According to the second paragraph, when the user clicks on the start button, a menu of potential destinations pop up on the screen, along with a message asking the user to select a destination. Once a destination has been selected, users are prompted to input their credit card. However, the credit cards validity is checked and if the card is good, then user has ed to input a personal identifier as requested by the machine. The ticket is issued when the credit cards transaction has been validated successfully. In the second paragraph, the ticket system prompts the user with potential destinations whereas it could have provided with popular destinations. In such terminals popular destinations are normally displayed to help the user to select his destination quickly. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Usually an Underground or an Over ground cover any destinations which can be reached by interchanging and taking number of trains therefore the user should be able to purchase ticket in order to reach any destination. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ It could have also provided the user with a choice to search from a list of A-Z of stations. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ As mentioned before that there should be two types of payment methods à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ The validation procedure involves both: validating the card as to whether the card is still valid in terms of not cancelled by the issuer due to fraud lost/stolen reasons. The second type of validity is the PIN validity. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ If both validations are successful then the issuer must authorise the payment in order to purchase the ticket. 2. Solutions identified To gain a clear and better understanding of the scenario, a more structured approach has been written as follows: User walks to a ticket machine and presses any button to activate a menu which displays a list of popular destinations accompanied by a message to select a destination. User can select their destination if listed in the popular destination; otherwise they can choose to search for their destination from a list of stations in the A-Z of stations. As user finds their desired destination they then can choose to have their preferred type of ticket, this can be such as: first/standard class ticket and/or return/single ticket. Once the destination and the type of ticket is selected the ticket machine prompts the user to make payment. There are two types of payments can be made, likely by card or cash. If the customer chooses to pay by cash, and it can be inserted into the machine in the form of notes or coins. If the exact amount is paid the ticket will be issued, if more than required is paid then the change will be given along with the ticket. If the customer chooses to pay by card as requested by the system, user can insert the card into the terminal. As the card is being inserted the validity of that card is checked with the issuer. Once the card is validated the user is then required to check the amount and enter the PIN in the terminal. The PIN is validated locally and upon correct entry of the PIN the ticket is issued along with the receipt and the cardholders account is charged accordingly with the correct amount. The aim of writing a structured approach gives a more clear understanding of the scenario and shows the events happen as a sequence. 3. User requirements definitions The User Requirement Specification specifies the requirements of the user taking the individual aspects into consideration in terms of ; the facility, equipment, and systems in terms of function, throughput, operability, and applicable standards, which are the functions to be carried out, the data on which the system will operate, and the operating environment. The user requirements for a system should describe the functional and non functional requirements so that they are understandable by system users without any technical knowledge. When we write the user requirement we should not write with technical forms, table or diagrams. We should write in simple language with simple table, forms and diagrams. 4. System Requirements Specifications System requirements specification assist potential users to determine if the system specified meets their needs or how the system must be modified to meet their needs. The system requirements help to consider all of the requirements before design begin. Careful reviews of the requirements reveal omissions, misunderstanding and inconsistencies. System requirements specification should be correct, unambiguous, complete, consistent, verifiable, modifiable, and traceable, specify performance, and define detailed functionality of the system. A specification can be in form of a written document, a set of graphical model, a formal mathematical model, and a collection of usage scenarios, prototype, or any combination of these. However, a standard template should be developed and use for a specification, arguing that this leads to requirements that are presented in a consistent and therefore more understandable manner. The requirement engineer gives final work product produced which is known as specification. It acts as the foundation for subsequent software engineering activities. It describes all the related functions and the performance of a computer based system and the constrains that will govern its development. In the given scenario, we would consider all the omissions and ambiguities. First of all, the system did not provide all the functionality which usually a ticket issuing system should contain. It does not function as it should and does not provide the user with any choice such as to cancel a ticket and buy another one. At times, there are new users who wish to purchase rail ticket from the machine and this system does not guide and provide any kind of help. Function: Issuing Ticket Description: Issuing the ticket when the user select their desired tickets and make the correct money Inputs: Destination, child or Adult, Pay by card or cash Output: Their desired ticket to be issued with their payment receipt Require: Money, form of payment Pre- Condition: Ticket will be validating between the user current place and the selected destination, otherwise user will have to pay the penalty fare. 5. Actions performed in the ticket-issuing system 6. Non-functional requirements The non functional requirements define system properties and constrains for an example reliability, response time and storage requirement. Constraints are I/O device capability, system representation, extra. Process requirement may also be specified mandating a particular CASE system, programming language. This non functional requirement may be more critical than function requirements. If these are not met the system is useless and the non functional requirement can be classified as three type of requirement 6.1 Product requirement these requirement specify that the delivered product must behave in a particular way for example execution speed, and reliability The user interface for Library system shall be implemented as simple HTML without frames or Java applets 6.2. Organisational requirements which are a consequence of organisational policies and procedures example for these, process standard used, implementation requirements The system development process and deliverables defined in XYZCo-SP-Stan-95 6.3. External requirements these could be from factors which are external to the system and its development process example interoperability requirements, legislative requirements. The system shall not disclose any personal information about customer apart from their name and reference number to the operator of the system After we discussed with all above mentioned Non-functional requirements, therefore we considered the product requirements should be determined for especially this scenario which include reliability and response time and should be contrasted with functional requirements that specify specific behavior or functions. And the product requirements have some additional attributes which are Efficiency Enable the system to perform under different situation or circumstance Reliability This could be very useful for ATM or ticket issuing system Usability This would help the user to access the system without any trouble or inconvenience Performance This is almost relevant to reliability and check the system is able to work or not in the different environment Space Requirement This part of product requirement is very useful for the ticket issuing system when the system is busy or full occupied with user needs. So there it is need to be expanded or stabilized number of machine at the station 8. Requirements Validation Process requirements validation is an integral part of software engineering. The main activity is to check requirements needed and available to start any particular project. As a consequence of requirements engineering however, the work products produced need to undergo an assessement for quality during a validation sequence. The purpose of requirements validation is to examine the specification to ensure that all software requirements have been stated unambiguously, such as consistencies, omissions, and error detected and corrected and that work products conform to the standards established for the process, the project and the product The primary requirements validation mechanism is the formal technical review. The review team that validates requirements includes software engineers, customers, user and others stakeholders who examine the specification looking for errors in content or interception, area may be clarification required. The process of requirements needs to check for consistency and completeness. During this process errors and inconsistencies will be identified and reduces future error. Basically the system should have requirement validation checklist which would help to the system to identify the accurate information which Are requirement started clearly and Can they be misinterpreted? Is the source of the requirement identified e.g. a person, a regulation, or a document and the final stamen been examined by the primary source? Is the requirement bounded by any quantities terms? What other requirements match to this requirement? Does the requirement violate any system domain? Properties of requirements validation are as follows: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Validity à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Consistency à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Completeness In order to validate the ticket issuing system requirements all the above properties of the requirements validation must be met. And when the user pay by card the system should validate whether it is valid for making the particular payment and validate the pin no which has accepted or not therefore the validation must work out with final product it could be ticket or receipt 10. The impact on cash payment After having input the payment type which is cash, in this instance the customer may not have the exact amount to make the payment. If the user is making payment with a note, the machine should prompt the customer to take his change. However, the machine could also have displayed the amount to be charged and change to be given to the customer.

The Bluest Eye :: essays research papers

THE BLUEST EYE The Bluest Eye is a complex book. Substance wise it is a disturbing yet relatively easy read, but Toni Morrison plays with the narrative structure in a way so that complexity is added to the hidden depth of the text. From the beginning to the end of the book, the author takes the reader through a series of point of views that take turns in narrating the story. But by the end of the book, the author leaves the reader unclear on who the actual main character of the book is. Pecola Breedlove, although never the narrator, seems to be the constant victim and equally the main character of the story. Many readers can see the book as a story about Claudia MacTeer, who is the main narrator of the book, but most everything she narrates has a direct tie to Pecola’s life. From the very start, Claudia describes the home environment in which she lives in. That home environment is linked to how Pecola comes to live with them and what affect the two had on each other. Pecola’s presence slightly foreshadows her future longing for blue eyes by showing the great interest she had in Shirley Temple, who was known for being a pretty white girl. Claudia then goes into a series of stories and descriptions of what type of environment Pecola must live in at her own home. She describes the abandoned store in which the Breedlove family lives in and the terrible condition of the furniture, which reflects the type of family the Breedloves are. Whether it was Claudia or another unknown third person narrator, a specific situation is described in a brutal manner of exactly what type of envir onment exists in Pecola’s home. The situation was where Cholly and Polly fight each other with little hesitation or thought, and the brief narration ends with how Pecola is affected by such actions. Claudia’s experiences are even more tied to Pecola’s life through the events that occurred with Maureen Peal. Claudia begins describing Maureen as her own enemy but soon enough Maureen is introduced into Pecola’s life along with the point of view she had upon the ugly child. Maureen was fascinated by Pecola, which represents one of the many characters who looked down upon her. Along with the narration of Claudia and the third person, Cholly and Polly have a significant representation in the story.

The Donora Death Fog :: Air Pollution Environmental Issues Essays

The Donora Death Fog â€Å"D-Town!† Back home in Canonsburg, a small suburb outside of Pittsburgh, this is how we refer to Donora. We joke that the only thing in Donora is the roller skating rink, but even this is inaccessible to anyone who’s not a D-town native because when you are at the age to want to go roller skating you aren’t brave enough to enter into the Donora city limits. Only dedicated roller-skaters are brave enough to dare the elements of Donora. Of course, one, particularly a girl, would never think of going to Donora alone. But for me, I was never really that scared of Donora because my grandparents live nearby and we used to have dinner at the Ponderosa that has since closed. But, I never missed the opportunity to poke fun at that â€Å"rough† territory. Recently, I drove through D-town. The shops are boarded up. There’s graffiti everywhere. In addition to the roller rink there are a few bars and decrepit restaurants. I always assumed that it was the gi gantic Wal-mart that had caused this once thriving town to fall to shambles. But, this town, as I recently learned, was the site of the â€Å"worst recorded industrial air pollution accident in US history† (The Donora Fluoride Fog). This disaster intrigued me, so I decided to do some research regarding what happened. My investigation first led me to find that twenty people died from October 26-31, 1948 (Pennsylvania DEP). According to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation website, the town population was about 14,000 at the time of the disaster. Devastatingly, about half-7,000-of those people became ill or hospitalized. My investigation led me to discover that this disaster was â€Å"created by unchecked industrial emissions and stagnant air conditions† (Donora’s Killer Smog Noted at 50). These conditions led to a smog fog hanging around the area. The American Steel & Wire Co., a subsidiary of the US Steel Group, was the local plant responsible for producing these emissions and conditions. It is also widely accepted that the weather conditions were prominent in producing the disaster. In October of 1998, spokespeople for the industry agreed that the disaster was unfortunate and tragic, but did not fail to note that, at the time of the disaster, clean air acts did not exist. If any good could come from this disaster it was the funding for research about clean air and the eventual passing of clean air acts and legislation.

Financial Ratios and Stock Return: Evidence on selected Plantation Companies in Malaysia Essay

UNIVERSITI MALAYSIA SARAWAK (UNIMAS) SEMESTER 2 2012/2013 FACULTY OF ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS (FEB) EBF 3183 FINANCE SEMINAR (Group ASSIGNMENT) Financial Ratios and Stock Return: Evidence on selected Plantation Companies in Malaysia NAME:VICTORIA AK JUTI 28578 VENOSHNI A/P MANOGARAN 28577 PHUA WEE WEE 27952 TEOH CHIEN NI 28513 LING LING26752 GROUP:1 PROGRAMME:FINANCE Financial Ratio and Stock Return: Evidence on selected Plantation Companies in Malaysia Abstract This paper is to investigate the predictive ability of several financial ratios for stock return in Malaysia specifically in plantation industry. 23 listed plantation companies were analysed for the period from 2008 to 2012. Four of the common financial ratios were take into consideration in this study. These financial ratios include dividend yield (DY), book to market ratio (B/M), earning per share (EPS), and firm size. Pool ordinary least squares regression (OLS) method is adopted to estimate the predictive regression. The descriptive statistics indicate that there is a negative relationship between the dependent variable and the two independent variables include B/M and EPS. In contrast, the firm size and DY is positive correlated with the stock return. In addition, the empirical results indicate that dividend yield is the best predictor on stock return in the context of Malaysia’s plantation sector. Section 1 Introduction Introduction Research on predicting stock returns using various variables such as inflation, accuracy of disclosure of public information, discount rates are widely discussed in past studies. Return is something that investor expects to receive on their original investment in the future. Alternatively, financial ratios have provided investors another method in predicting the stock return. Previously, financial ratios are used to evaluate performance of a company. So far, numerous studies on stock return and financial ratios have conducted based on different sectors over the countries. However, the research on plantation sector is limited. Therefore, our main focus of this research is to determine the connection between financial ratio and stock return in the Malaysia stock market especially in the plantation industry. The reason plantation sector is chosen as our focus in this research is due to the growing of global demand in plantation. Presently, plantation is one of the major contributors in the economy of Malaysia amongst the sectors. In Malaysia, oil palm industry is currently the second largest export revenue earner for Malaysia after the electrical and electronics (E&E) sector. Meanwhile, Malaysia is also known as the world’s top exporter of palm oil which exported to several countries such as China, India, the European Union (EU) and Pakistan. Essentially, plantation sector is expected to rise in the future. In this study, we examine how the stock return can be predicted by using the financial ratio. 23 of plantation listing firms in Bursa Malaysia are selected as our research data. Meanwhile, the period we take into consideration is over the period from 2008 to 2012. The purpose of this research is to determine the predictability of financial ratio to the stock returns specifically in the plantation sector. By this research, we intend to provide an analysis of forecasting stock return using financial ratio. Financial ratios that commonly used to forecast the stock return are the dividend yield (DY), book to market ratio (B/M), and firm size. However, we extend the study by adding another financial ratio in predicting the stock return which is the earning per share. The empirical findings of this study indicate that financial ratios do have the predicting power on stock return in Malaysia’s plantation industry. Meanwhile, the results also show that firm size has the strongest forecasting power amongst the four variables. Therefore, we can conclude that our findings are somehow in line with past studies conducted by Fama and French (1988) which revealed that dividend yield was a good forecasting tool in predicting stock return in China, Canada and U.S stock market. The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. In section 2, we discussed the previous studies and provide a review of existing literature regarding on predictive ability of financial ratios for stock return. Data and methodology for constructing stock return predictors is discussed in the third section. Section four reveals the empirical findings and lastly followed by conclusion. Objective of study Main: To predict stock return using financial ratios General: To reveal more information regarding financial ratio acts as the predictor of stock return. To investigate how significant is the selected variables in forecasting the stock return. To determine which independent variables has greater predictive power. Significance of study Investing in stock market is risky. Therefore, a predicting tool is important for a wise investor to estimate the appropriate return of an investment. This research is significance in revealing the use of financial ratio as a forecasting tool of stock return. Previously, studies on the determinant of stock return are widely discussed by many of the researchers from all over the world. This study also tends to test whether our empirical results are parallel with previous research. Financial ratio is one of the most common tools that act as a financial analysis to compare the performance between companies or between industries. Currently, financial ratio analysis is not only can be used to evaluate the performance of company but also a predictor tool of the stock return. Financial ratio is computed through the items presented in financial statement of the company. For instance, financial ratio can be divided into several categories such as market debt ratio, liquidity ratio, profitability ratio, investment ratio and others. In addition, this study also acts as guidance and reference for further  research on similar topic. By referring this study, interested investor and researcher can apply different indicator, and other relevant factors to do further research. Theoretical Framework Section 2 Literature Review In this section is described the results of some of the most important researches which conducted in the context of financial ratios and the stock return. The financial ratios as empirical predictors of stock returns in the selected 23 plantations companies listed on the Malaysian Stock Exchange during the period 2008 to 2012. For this research, we used stock price as a dependent variable while dividend yields, book market, earning per share and asset size as independent variables. Stock returns, dividend yield (DY), asset size, earning yield (EY) and book-to-market ratio (B/M) have a strong theoretical background based on the predictive models. Some of the studies such as Fama and French (1988), Stattman (1980), Kothari and Shanken (1997) has done research on predictive variables, including, dividend yield, book to market, earning per share and asset size forecast stock return. Hodrick (1992), Fama and French (1988) has been study that DY has the predictive power on stock returns, a s the relationship between DY and return are developed by the appealing patterns. Moreover, DY track variation in return and can predict future return in 36 international markets. To illustrate the predictive power of DY, they introduced an explosive new test to improve the predictive ability of financial ratios especially DY during 55 years. Therefore, DY is regarded as a good predictor of stock returns in China, Canada and U.S stock market. Consequently, the DY as a strong predictor can contribute to stock return predictability. Banze (1981) and Reinganum (1981) found out that relationship between sizes (market value) has a significant effect on stock return. Smaller companies have more return than bigger companies. It is because first, intentional or unintentional errors are less likely to happen because of installing strong internal controlling systems in big companies, consequently audits can rely more on the company internal controlling systems and decrease increasingly the amount of content test. Second, big companies can recruit more accountants with more expertise and  higher education, and more advanced informational systems. According to study done by Fama and French (1988), they presented a firm background for the relationship between market size and stock return. Fama and French using Running single and mul tiple tests, they found a positive relationship between markets size and stock return. In fact, they doubt on beta sensitivity in capital assets pricing model, and generally stock return. Stattman (1980) has done study on indicated the positive relationship between return and the book-to-market ratio (B/M). Considerable evidence they suggested that BM ratios are related to future returns, and denoted the predictive power of B/M ratio on stock returns caused by the relationship between book value and future earnings, and provided evidence that the B/M ratios predict negative expected returns and track variation in return. The results of recent survey confirmed previous results that the BM ratio is positively related to stock returns. According to Hakkio and Rush (1991) have study on the relationship between stock return and earnings per share. They found that the subdivision do not improve the test power. Besides, there exists a non-stationary problem for stock prices and EPS, the non-stationary may lead to the problem of spurious regression for previous studies. Auret and Sinclaire (2006) has been studied the relationship between the ratio of book value to market value (BTM) and stock return in the years 1990 to 2000 in the companies listed in the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). In this study is used from the ratio of book value to market value (BTM), price to Earnings (P/E), dividend yield (DY), and firm size as independent and control variables. The results indicate that there is a positive and significant relationship between the ratio of book value to market value and stock return. But there is no significant relationship between the ratio of price to earnings and stock returns. According to Kheradyar, Ibrahim and Mat (2011) has been study on investigated the role of financial ratios as empirical predictors of stock returns in the 100 companies listed on the Malaysian Stock Exchange during the period 2000 to 2009. In their study is used from the variables of dividend yield (DY), earnings yield (EY) and Book-to-market ratio (BTM) as financial ratios to predict stock returns. To estimate the regression model used from panel data and generalized least squares (GLS) methods. Research findings indicate that there is a significant and positive relationship between financial ratios  and stock return of next year. Also, the results showed that the ratio of book value to market value is superior against dividend yield and earning s yield in explaining stock return of next year. Lau, Lee and Mclnish (2002) has been study on the relationship between stock returns and systematic risk with firm size, the ratio of book value to market value of equity, price to earnings ratio, the ratio of cash flow to price and sale growth in both Malaysia and Singapore. Their studied sample is 82 companies listed in the Singapore Stock Exchange and 163 companies listed in the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange during the period 1988-1996. Results for Singaporean companies are indicating that there is no significant relationship between the ratio of book value to market value (BTM) and earnings to price ratio (E/P) with stock returns. The results for Malaysian companies show that there is significant and positive relationship between the ratio of earnings to price (E/P) and stock returns. But the relationship between the ratio of book value to market value (BTM) and stock returns is not significant. Kothari and Shanken (1997) has been study on the relationship between the ratio of book value to market value and dividend yield with the expected market return. Results have shown that there is a significant and positive relationship between the ratio of book value to market value (BTM) and the dividend yield with market returns of future year. Also, the results indicate the superiority of book value to market value ratio against dividend yield in explaining future market returns. According to study done by Fama and French (1988), Hodrick (1992) and Stambaugh (1999) have shown that the variables of earnings to price ratio, the ratio of dividends to the price and short-term interest rates can better predict stock returns. As a conclusion, financial theories lay great emphasis on the role of risk in stock returns so the relationship between stock returns and financial ratios is because the ratios captured information about the risk. Therefore, these three financial ratios are supported by financial theoretical basis. Section 3 Data and Methodology Data Collection Methods The data collected are mainly from secondary data. The secondary data that used in this paper are included the closing price, dividend yield, book to market, earning per share and asset size of each plantation company from  year 2008 to 2012. These closing prices will be collected from yahoo finance but for the dividend yield, book to market, earning per share and asset size will be collected from data stream. Target Population The secondary data will be used in this paper to test whether dividend yield, book to market, earning per share and asset size forecast stock return or not. Therefore, the 23 stocks listed on Bursa Malaysia will be obtained. They are included: 1ï ¼Å½ UNITED MALACCA 2ï ¼Å½ NPC RESOURCES 3ï ¼Å½ KWANTAS 4ï ¼Å½ SARAWAK OIL PALMS 5ï ¼Å½ TH PLANTATIONS 6ï ¼Å½ TSH RESOURCES 7ï ¼Å½ CEPATWAWASAN GROU 8ï ¼Å½ CHIN TECK PLANTATIONS 9ï ¼Å½ KIM LOONG RESOURCES 10ï ¼Å½ FAR EAST HOLDINGS 11ï ¼Å½ KLUANG RUBBER 12ï ¼Å½ NEGRI SEMBILAN OIL PALMS 13ï ¼Å½ SUNGEI BAGAN RUBBER 14ï ¼Å½ UNICO-DESA PLANTATIONS 15ï ¼Å½ GOLDEN LAND 16ï ¼Å½ RIVERVIEW RUBBER ESTS. 17ï ¼Å½ UNITED PLANTATIONS 18ï ¼Å½ TRADEWINDS PLANTATION 19ï ¼Å½ MHC PLANTATIONS 20ï ¼Å½ IJM PLANTATIONS 21ï ¼Å½ HAP SENG PLTNS.HDG 22ï ¼Å½ CHIN TECK PLANTATIONS 23ï ¼Å½ GENTING PLANTATIONS Data Analysis The collected data were analyzed by using Microsoft Excel and Eview. Microsoft Excel will be used to calculate the stock returns for each stock for a period of around 5 years which are the year from 2008 to 2012. Besides, pool ordinary least squares regression, descriptive statistic, correlation and Hausman test from Eview will be used to run the result of our research. Dependent variable a. Stock return The total stock return can be gain through the appreciation in the price plus any dividends paid and then divided by the original price of the stock. The dividends can include any of the income sources from a stock. Commonly, it is increase in value. Thus, the first portion of the numerator of the total stock return formula is looks at how much the value has increased (P1 – P0). Then, it needs to remind that the denominator of the formula which is use to calculate a stock’s total return is considered as the original price of the stock which is used due to being the original amount invested. Total stock return calculated as follow: Total stock return = where = Ending stock price (period 1) = Initial stock price D = Dividends Independent variable b. Dividend yield Usually, a financial ratio can be used to show how much a company pays out in dividends each year which is relative to its share price. Therefore, it can be said that the dividend yield is the return on investment for a stock in the absence of any capital gains. Dividend yield is calculated as follows: Dividend yield = Annual dividends per share / Price per share c. Book to market Sometimes, we also use a financial ratio to find the value of a company. It can be found by comparing the book value of a firm to its market value. Book  value can be calculated by looking at the firm’s historical cost or accounting value. On the other hand, market value is determined in the stock market through its market capitalization. Book value is calculated as follows: Book to market = Book value of firm / Market value of firm d. Earnings per share The earnings per share (EPS) can be defined as the portion of a company’s earnings, net of taxes and preferred stock dividends. Usually, all of them are allocated to each share of common stock. EPS is calculated as follows: EPS = Net earnings / Outstanding shares e. Asset size Asset size is defined as the total of the current assets and the non-current assets which is holding by a company. Asset size is calculated as follows: Asset size = total asset Pool OLS regression Stock return = + (dividend yield) + (book to market) + (earning per share) + (asset size) + Pool OLS is to measure whether there is positive or negative relationship between dependent variable (stock return) and independent variable (dividend yield, book to market, earning per share and asset size). R-squared is the total variation dependent Y is explained by the total variation of independent X. F-statistic is to test whether the overall goodness of fit is good or not. The significant level is set at 1%, 5% or 10%. Descriptive Statistic Descriptive statistic is to provide simple summarizes about the sample and the observation that have been made like mean and median. Correlation The correlation is called the correlation coefficient (or â€Å"r†). It ranges from -1.0 to +1.0. If r is close to 0, it means there is no relationship between the variables. If r is positive, it means that as one variable gets larger the other gets larger. If r is negative it means that as one gets larger, the other gets smaller (often called an â€Å"inverse† correlation). Hausman test Hausman test is usually applied to test for fixed versus random effects models. Ho: Cov (ÃŽ »i, xit) = 0 (Random Effect) H1: Cov (ÃŽ »i, xit) ≠  0 (Fixed Effect) If the p-value is lower than 0.01, we reject Ho. This indicated that the fixed effects model is preferred. If p-value greater than 0.01. We do not reject Ho. This means that the random effect is preferred. Random effect model is to utilize in meta-analysis. It is using both study sampling error and variances. The variations between studies are included in the assessment of the uncertainty or confidence interval of the results of a meta-analysis. In addition, random effects model is apply when there is no correlation between the regresses and the individual effects. On the other hand, fixed effect model stipulates the units under analysis such as people in a trial or study in a meta-analysis are the ones of interest. Thus, this model constitutes the entire population of units. The variation between the estimates of effect from each study name as heterogeneity. It does not affect the confidence interval. Besides, this model is applied when there is allow for arbitrary correlation between the regresses and the individual effects. Section 4 Data and Empirical Results Research Findings: Descriptive statistics Variables N Mean Maximum Minimum Standard Deviation Stock Return 115 0.069304 1.170000 -0.600000 0.308345 Dividend yield 115 3.356435 10.31000 0.370000 2.220661 Earnings per share 115 0.345304 1.800000 0.040000 0.300544 Book to market value 115 1.193478 2.950000 0.340000 0.542936 Firm Assets 115 13.64433 15.36144 12.01738 0.816106 From the table above, on average or the mean stock return level for firms is 0.07% with a maximum value of 1.17% from 2008 to 2012. As we can see, average dividend yield for the plantation firms in Malaysia is the highest which mean 3.36% return of plantation firms in Malaysia are generated by dividend yield. Looking for the earnings per share, it shows low earnings  per common share. On average Malaysian plantation firms only make earnings about 0.04% and the highest is 1.8%. This amount of earnings per share is very low compared to the dividend yield. Average book to market value is 1.19% with a maximum value of 2.95%. Firm asset is one of the most important bank specific variables that will affect stock return. Total assets value for Malaysian plantation firms ranges from 12.02% to 15.36%. The range is big and this may due to the sample firms having operated for different lengths of time. Correlation SR DY EPS LSIZE MVB SR 1.000000 DY 0.188256 1.000000 EPS -0.048140 0.084159 1.000000 LSIZE 0.055228 -0.150209 0.239308 1.000000 MVB -0.313238 -0.014558 0.383026 0.509393 1.000000 The stock returns for two variable that is earning per share and market to book value are moving in totally opposite direction linearly. These are because the correlation between stock return and earning per share and also the correlation between stock return and market to book value are negative relationships which are -0.05 and -0.3. On the other hand, the correlation between stock return and total asset and also the correlation between stock return and dividend yield are positively correlated which are 0.05 and 0.19. As a conclusion, based on the result above the dividend yield recorded the strongest correlated to stock return. Pooled Ordinary Least Square Dependent Variable: Stock Return Variables Coefficient Std.Error t-Statistic Probability C -1.424024 0.492529 -2.891247 0.0046 DY 0.031544 0.011973 2.634631 0.0096 EPS 0.044259 0.094578 0.467969 0.6407 LSIZE 0.125167 0.037734 3.317073 0.0012 MVB -0.281240 0.058763 -4.786012 0.0000 R-squared 0.214105 Adjusted R-squared 0.185527 F-statistic 7.491945 Prob(F-statistic) 0.000022 SR= -1.4240 + 0.0315 DY + 0.0443 EPS + 0.1252 LSIZE – 0.2812 MVB where SR = Stock Return DY = Dividend Yield EPS = Earnings Per Share LSIZE =Log Firm Size MVB = Book to Market Value The intercept value of -1.4240 means that if the all independent variable are zero, the stock returns will expected to be -1.4240. the R-squared is 0.2141 means that about 21.4% of the total variation dependent Y is explained by the total variation of independent X. the F-statistic is 0.000022 means that  this regression model is statistically significant at 5% level of significant. Therefore, the overall goodness of fit is good. From this regression, dividend yield and firm size showed positive relationship to stock return as shown by the positive coefficient. Both variables of p-value are significant at 1% of significant level. There is negative relationship between book to market value as shown by negative coefficients and the p-value is significant at 1% of significant level. The relationship between stock return and earning per share is negative and the p-value is not significant at 10% of significant level. Fixed effect model Dependent Variable: Stock return Variable Coefficient Std. Error t-Statistic Probability C -4.296162 2.324473 -1.848231 0.0679 DY 0.040577 0.020388 1.990207 0.0497 EPS -0.153195 0.222027 -0.689983 0.4920 LSIZE 0.361256 0.168448 2.144618 0.0347 MVB -0.542055 0.096166 -5.636630 0.0000 The table shows the dividend yield, earning per share, firm size and book to market value. The dividend yield, size and book to market value were found be significant, the p-value are 0.0497, 0.0347 and 0.0000 respectively which are significant at 5% of significant level. The earnings per share was found not be significant, since p-value is 0.4920 which is greater than 0.05. Thus, dividend yield, size and book to market value were impact on the stock return of Malaysian plantation sector. Random effect model Dependent Variable: Stock return Variable Coefficient Std. Error t-Statistic Probability C -1.424024 0.450854 -3.158502 0.0020 DY 0.031544 0.010960 2.878165 0.0048 EPS 0.044259 0.086575 0.511226 0.6102 LSIZE 0.125167 0.034541 3.623689 0.0004 MVB -0.281240 0.053791 -5.228410 0.0000 The table shows the dividend yield, earning per share, firm size and book to market value. The dividend yield, firm size and book to market value were found be significant, the p-value are 0.0048, 0.0004 and 0.0000 respectively which are significant at 5% of significant level. The earnings per share was found not be significant, since p-value is 0.6102 which is greater than 0.05. Hausman test Test Summary Chi-Sq. Statistic Chi-Sq. d.f. Prob. Cross-section random 35.021193 4 0.0000 Hausman test is used to test hypotheses in terms of bias or inconsistency of an estimator. For this specification test, H0 and H1 are: H0: Cov(ÃŽ » , x ) = 0 H1: Cov(ÃŽ » , x ) ≠  0 The result of Hausman Test illustrated the p-value is 0.0000 which is smaller than 0.01. Therefore, it is statistically significant at 1% of significant level. Therefore, the null hypothesis is rejected and concludes that the fixed effect is preferred. Section 5 Summary and Conclusion The purpose of this study is to investigate the predictive ability of the selected financial ratios on stock return in Malaysia specifically in plantation sector over the period from 2008 to 2012. Among the financial ratios, three commonly used financial ratios are included which is the dividend yield, firm size, earning per share (EPS) and book to market ratio. As a result, this study has provided evidence that financial ratios played a significant role in predicting stock return. In addition, the empirical findings also revealed that dividend yield, book to market ratio and firm size have significant relationship on stock return of Malaysia plantation sector among the financial ratios. However, the research finding indicate that the dividend yield has the strongest forecasting ability on stock return and it is in line with the past studies by Fama and French (1988) who found out that there is a strong predictive power of dividend yield on stock return. In summary, this study might not applicable to other region or other industry. Nevertheless, it has provided better information regarding the forecasting power of financial ratio on stock return. 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