On Nasdaq OMX Nordic Stockholm there has been a large increase in issues of preferred stocks since the financial crisis 2008. Aiming to explain whether preferred stocks have most of their characteristics relating to debt or equity, we answer four sub questions. Do all preferred stocks share the same features, or do they differ from each other? Our population is similar in characteristics, except for the preferred stock of Swedbank which is convertible and deviates when it comes to participation in dividends - instead of convertible the others are limited and redeemable. Further, the second sub question treats preferred stock in relation to the common stock quantitatively, in market data.

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate whether abnormal stock returns could be identified as a result of a layoff announcement during weak economy.Method: An event study methodology.Theory: Efficient market hypothesis, signal theory.Empirical results: Quantitative data from observations of stock prices in thirty two companies listed on the Nasdaq OMX Stockholm, in the period 2008 -2012.Conclusion: The results indicate that the market reaction was negative because there were negative abnormal returns on the Stockholm Stock exchange during the period 2008-2012 in connection with the layoff announcements. The market reaction was milder when staff reductions were carried out as a result of a restructuring and stronger when staff reductions were carried out as part of a cost reduction program.The layoff announcements elicited different market reactions depending on the company's industry affiliation. The most negative reaction was in the Healthcare industry. Negative abnormal returns were lower in industries Industrials, Consumer Services and Consumer Goods. There were no abnormal returns for shares of companies in the industry Financials.

The purpose of this Bachelor thesis is to analyze if there is a correlation between stock prices and the amount of searches of the companies names on Google. The theories used in the study were Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) and Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH). Regressions analysis is used as the statistical method to see if there is a significant correlation between the stock prices and the amout of searches of the company name on Google. The data used were the rate of return of three companies (ABB, Oriflame and Sandvik) on the Nasdaq OMX Nordic stock market, the rate of return of the Nasdaq OMX Nordic stock market index (OMX Stockholm_PI) and the Google search frequency from Google Trends on each company. The result showed no significance and the conclusion of the thesis is that there is no significant correlation between the three studied companies and their search frequency on the search engine Google..

Följande uppsats undersöker hur svensk utbetalningspolitik har utvecklats under åren 1992-2012. Urvalet består av de företag som under våren 2014 var noterade på Stockholmsbörsens ?Large?, ?Mid? eller ?Small Cap? lista. Återköpens andel av den totala utbetalningsandelen visar sig inte vara lika hög som andra internationella studier har visat. Det är istället utdelningarna som utgör merparten av de totala utbetalningarna.

Forest as an investment alternative has become more and more popular over the last few years. Between the years 2004 and 2007 increased the price level on forest land with 70 percent in Jämtland. In this thesis a comparison has been conducted between forest in Jämtland and an investment in the stock market. The risk in the two investment alternatives has been included in the comparison. The thesis includes two different studies between the two alternatives.

The purpose of this essay is to investigate how large Swedish corporations within the same industry protect themselves against foreign exchange risks and to determine if there is a general practice for how the protection is done. What is the responsibility structure at these corporations regarding the handling of exposure to foreign exchange?.

This thesis concerns agreements for the exchange of information relating to tax matters between Sweden and the previous tax havens Monaco and Liechtenstein. Monaco does not apply any tax on income or capital for individuals and Liechtenstein has strict bank secrecy, both aspects are supposed to be counteracted by similar agreements. The purpose is to investigate whether the entered agreements increases transparency and effective exchange of information in accordance with the OECD´s objectives in the area. Furthermore, is there any regulation in the agreements that can be seen as potentially loopholes to avoid the exchange of information and if so; may these loopholes be justified in any way?OECD believe that the tax havens favorable tax regulation is resulting in harmful tax competition and they identify lack of transparency and lack of effective exchange of information as the main reasons.

I det här arbetet har jag undersökt möjligheten att synkronisera lagrad kalenderdata mellan två olika system.Mitt arbete beskriver ett API, som i ena änden kommunicerar med Xcerion Baxide-Web Services, och i den andra änden med en mobil enhet med implementerat stöd för Exchange ActiveSync (t.ex. en iPhone eller Android).Med hjälp av Exchange ActiveSync-protokollet kan man synkronisera bland annat kalender, kontakter, e-post, anteckningar och påminnelser mellan flera klienter genom en Exchange Server. Dock hamnade all implementation utöver kalendersynkronisationen av Exchange ActiveSync redan från början utanför examensarbetets ramar.Microsoft tillhandahåller en mycket detaljerad dokumentation över Exchange ActiveSyncprotokollet. Dessutom, bland annat med hjälp av Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 och programmetWireShark kunde trafiken från en redan fungerande implementation av protokollet avlyssnas.Kommunikationen mellan en klient och en Exchange Server kan antingen ske över HTTP eller HTTPS där data transporteras kodat i WBXML. Av säkerhetsskäl är det dock rekommenderat att en Exchange Server inte tillåter trafik över HTTP.Innan själva implementationen analyserades protokollets struktur samt vilka nödvändiga metoder som behövdes för kalendersynkronisationen.

The implementation of IFRS 2 led to significant changes in the accounting practices for corporations regarding stock related compensation. The new regulations required firms to account for the stock based compensation as an expense in the financial statements, rather than merely disclosing the information in the notes section to the statements. Following prior research on the area; specifically studies made in the U.S., where researchers find that companies change their use of stock based compensation due to the increased accounted expenses, this study hypothesizes that the same pattern may be found among companies listed on the Swedish stock market. The results of this study show that the use of option incentives has decreased during the studied period 2001-2008 and that the decrease in part can be derived from IFRS 2 and in part from other factors. The results are useful to future research, as they provide an overview of the effects that IFRS 2 had on companies, and various factors that influence the behavior of corporations, as well as in a larger perspective be a factor to take into account for future modifications of the IFRS..

This thesis aims to evaluate the concept of Uncovered Interest Parity. The parity states that the logarithmic difference between domestic and foreign interest rate equals the logarithmic difference between expected future spot exchange rate and the spot exchange rate, . In defining the exchange rate it is often presumed that the parity relation prevails even though several studies suggest the opposite. Numerous economists maintain that the theory?s shortcomings can be explained through the existence of a Risk Premium.

The problem area was identified due to the fact that research within internal audit is fragmented and insufficient, simultaneously to internal audit becoming more common in the public debate. Crises and scandals in companies such as Enron in the US and Skandia in Sweden have resulted in new regulations regarding how companies should be governed. These regulations have been established in Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX) in the US, and in Sweden the Swedish code for corporate governance will be implemented in 2005. The regulations imply that companies must provide sound internal control and to accomplish that, companies should have an auditing and consulting internal audit function. The Swedish code for corporate governance denotes that companies can decide to comply or explain why the code is not complied.

To understand the glass electrode needs knowledge from more than one level. The construction ofthe glass electrode is one part, an other is the composition and structure of glass. The Nernstequation have an important role, but also the sources of errors in the analysis and the calibration ofthe glass electrode. Focus for this article is how the glass electrode really works and how Gibbs freeenergy made the potential dependent of the concentration of H+and gives the logarithm to thefunction. Nikolskii's ion exchange theory starts to explain the question about how the potentialcreates and Baucke's dissociation mechanism made it more explicit.

VBG Produkter AB is a process-orientated company that develops, manufactures and markets trailer couplings with belonging coupling equipment, protection equipment against skidding and stands for wagon-bridge for heavy vehicles. The company feels that their set-up time in production for couplings is not at an acceptable level. Due to high demands of customer oriented production the intermediate stock level of included products within the assembly of couplings has gradually increased which has resulted in high inventory holding costs. VBG Produkter applies Kanban in their production, therefore it is important to produce exactly the necessary amount and avoid overproduction. The objective of this project is to suggest appropriate solutions so that VBG Produkter is able to reduce their set-up time in assembly of couplings, by identifying internal and external set-up time for the chosen process bushing cell.

The pension audit has been a hot topic for the listed companies for the last years. New rules have been applied which have caused discussions and difficulties for the companies. EU?s ministry of council accepted the so called IAS 2005 Regulation on the 7th June 2002. This means that all companies listed on the stock market must follow IAS regulations in their consolidated accounts latest 2005.

The purpose of this study is to find out the viability in performing final felling in stands with high timber volume or if it´s more profitable to leave these stands to the next owner. Will he or she pay more for the standing stock then the industry? The prices of forest-land have increased significantly over the last couple of years in Sweden and some properties seem to go higher than others. Is this because of higher standing stock volume or can a certain volume/hectare bring a higher price? Maybe a combination of both? This study is based on the the sale-statistics for 2012 from real-estate agency Areal.