Journal of Finance

October 2013, lead article, with B. Kelly

SSRN

Returns and cash flow growth for the aggregate U.S. stock market are highly and robustly predictable. Using a single factor extracted from the cross section of book- to-market ratios, we find an out-of-sample return forecasting R-squared as high as 13% at the annual frequency (0.9% monthly). We document similar out-of-sample predictability for returns on value, size, momentum and industry-sorted portfolios. We present a model linking aggregate market expectations to disaggregated valuation ratios in a dynamic latent factor system. We find that spreads in growth and value portfolios’ exposures to economic shocks are key to identifying predictability and are consistent with duration-based theories of the value premium. Our findings suggest that discount rates are far less persistent, and their shocks far more volatile, than implied by leading asset pricing models.

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Winner of the 2012 AQR Insight Award First Prize      Press Release

Awarded 2011 Q Group Research Grant  (per law, Pruitt did not accept grant money)

• asset pricing
• equity
• factor models
• published