Reconsidering Equity Issue Performance: A Focused Criticism of the Fama-French Factor Models

Abstract

The Fama and French (2015) 5-factor model is commonly used to measure the performance of stock return portfolios. Importantly, we find that three of the Fama and French (2015) firm-level characteristics (i.e., size, BV/MV, and profitability) have no significant explanatory power in the cross-section of returns for companies above the median NYSE capitalization during 1963-2020. Small firms comprising less than 8% of the total market capitalization drive the patterns of the 5-factor model. This paper also reexamines equity issuer performance in the context of the 5-factor firm level characteristics and finds that small and large issuers have similar underperformance.