We explore a large sample of analysts' estimates of cost of equity capital (CoE) revealed in analysts' reports to evaluate their determinants and ability to capture expected stock returns. We first document that CoE estimates are more likely to be provided by less experienced and less busy...

We explore a large sample of analysts’ estimates of the cost of equity capital (CoE) to evaluate their usefulness as expected return proxies (ERP). We find that the CoE estimates are significantly related to a firm’s beta, size, book-to-market ratio, leverage, and idiosyncratic volatility...

Book value of equity consists of two economically different components: retained earnings and contributed capital. We predict that book-to-market strategies work because the retained earnings component of the book value of equity includes the accumulation and, hence, the averaging of past...