
Long-term factors that move stock prices
- Earnings growth. A key contributor to your return is the company’s profit growth. ...
- Dividends. Dividends are a way for the company to share its profits with investors. ...
- Change in valuation. This is one of the more difficult variables to predict because it involves the market’s perception of future growth and interest rates.
What makes a stock go up in price?
Jan 02, 2022 · Stock prices are driven up and down in the short term by supply and demand, and the supply-demand balance is driven by market sentiment. But investors don't change their opinions every second.
What are the fundamental factors that affect the value of stocks?
Sep 27, 2021 · If you’ve ever seen a company’s stock price go up or down following an earnings call, it’s because of the news. “The trick is to decipher news that can have an impact on fundamental factors versus...
What happens when people want to buy or sell a stock?
What Makes a Stock Go Up and Down? Technical Factors. A whole segment of market participants utilizes market data to determine which stocks should be... Exogenous Events. Sometimes, valuation, technical analysis and other factors don’t matter as much as global events. In... Macroeconomic ...
Why do Stocks go up without any news?
May 16, 2016 · What makes a stock go up or down is determined by the recent operating results of a business and its future expectations. This means stock prices reflect both fundamentals (operating results) and...

What factors affect stock prices?
Another factor which can influence stock prices is inflation. Typically, the higher interest rates are or the higher the threat of rising inflation is, the more likely stock prices are to decrease. As many investors sell their shares in a panic, fearing an imminent stock market crash.
Where does Jenna Lofton live?
Jenna Lofton was Born in Maine and lives in Staton Island, NY . She holds an MBA in Finance from the University of Maryland and has been actively trading stocks for nearly 11 years.
Does a stock's price have a short term effect?
It's important to note that some influences on a share's stock price will only have a short term effect on its stock price. While other influences may have a long term impact on a company's stock price.
Pro Tip
Investing always carries some risk. That’s why it’s a good idea to spread out your investments among many different stocks.
Fundamental Factors
The two most fundamental factors boil down to profitability and the valuation ratio, says Juan Pablo Villamarin, CFA and senior investment analyst at Intercontinental Wealth Advisors.
Technical Factors
Technical factors are things that change the supply and demand of the stock that won’t fundamentally alter the prospects of generating cash, Plumb says.
News
If you’ve ever seen a company’s stock price go up or down following an earnings call, it’s because of the news.
Market Sentiment
Market sentiment, or investor sentiment, is the investor outlook regarding a particular stock’s performance in the market. Sentiment drives demand, which also influences supply.
Why do stock prices go up and down?
Stock prices go up and down based on supply and demand. When people want to buy a stock versus selling it, the price goes up. If people want to sell a stock versus buying it, the price goes down. Forecasting whether there will be more buyers or sellers in a stock requires additional research, however. Buyers are attracted to stocks ...
Why are buyers attracted to stocks?
Buyers are attracted to stocks for any number of reasons, from low valuation to new product lines to market hype. Learning how the stock exchange works is the first step in understanding the factors that make a stock go up and down; knowing what makes stocks valuable can help you predict which ones are more likely to rise.
What attracts buyers to a stock?
One of the factors that attracts buyers to a stock is valuation . Companies can be valued in a number of different ways, but earnings per share and P/E ratio are two common factors in the equation.
What is stock in business?
A stock is simply an ownership share in a physical company. Stock shares allow investors to buy or sell an interest in a company on an exchange through a bidding process. Sellers indicate prices at which they are asking to give up their shares, and buyers similarly post prices at which they’re bidding to buy shares.
Why do stocks go up?
Sometimes, stocks go up simply because they have been going up. In a strategy known as momentum investing, investors buy shares in rising stocks and sell shares in those that are following. This momentum builds on itself and continues to drive rising share prices higher.
What is technical analysis?
Technical analysis is an alternative way to determine supply and demand for a stock using historical and other factors. Technical analysis relies on price movements only, rather than other valuation factors.
What happens after a trade at $10.10?
After the first trade at $10.10, there are no more sellers willing to accept such a low price. The next trade occurs at $10.20, as the demand to pay a higher price exceeds the willingness of sellers to accept a lower price.
What is earnings base?
An earnings base, such as earnings per share (EPS) A valuation multiple, such as a P/E ratio. An owner of common stock has a claim on earnings, and earnings per share (EPS) is the owner's return on their investment. When you buy a stock, you are purchasing a proportional share of an entire future stream of earnings.
Why is low inflation bad for stocks?
2 Deflation, on the other hand, is generally bad for stocks because it signifies a loss in pricing power for companies.
What is valuation multiple?
The valuation multiple expresses expectations about the future. As we already explained, it is fundamentally based on the discounted present value of the future earnings stream. Therefore, the two key factors here are:
What drives stock prices?
Stock prices are driven by a variety of factors, but ultimately the price at any given moment is due to the supply and demand at that point in time in the market. Fundamental factors drive stock prices based on a company's earnings and profitability from producing and selling goods and services. Technical factors relate to a stock's price history ...
Why do you buy stock with a valuation multiple?
That's the reason for the valuation multiple: It is the price you are willing to pay for the future stream of earnings. 1:26.
What is discount rate?
The discount rate, which is used to calculate the present value of the future stream of earnings. A higher growth rate will earn the stock a higher multiple, but a higher discount rate will earn a lower multiple. What determines the discount rate? First, it is a function of perceived risk.
Why do stocks move up?
Often a stock simply moves according to a short-term trend. On the one hand, a stock that is moving up can gather momentum, as "success breeds success" and popularity buoys the stock higher. On the other hand, a stock sometimes behaves the opposite way in a trend and does what is called reverting to the mean. Unfortunately, because trends cut both ways and are more obvious in hindsight, knowing that stocks are "trendy" does not help us predict the future.
What is the effect of higher discount rates on valuation?
Higher discount rates lower the valuation investors are willing to pay. An investor who demands a 12 percent return is willing to pay less for the same asset as an investor who requires only an 8 percent return. The change in valuation can have a big impact on investors' returns over time.
What is discount rate?
A discount rate is the rate investors use to calculate the present value of future cash flows. The discount rate can be influenced by an investment's risk, interest rates and the return available from other investments. Higher discount rates lower the valuation investors are willing to pay.
Why is overly strong growth bad?
But overly strong growth can lead to too much inflation and too-high rates, spooking investors who are worried about how rates may affect financial assets. That's because investors discount the future profit streams of companies, factoring in inflation and interest rates.
Why do companies share their earnings with shareholders?
Mature companies tend to share more of their earnings with shareholders in the form of dividends or share repurchases because they aren't able to deploy it themselves at attractive rates of return. Some companies don't pay dividends at all and that isn't necessarily a bad thing.
Why are stocks going down?
Political issues, economic concerns, earnings disappointments and countless other reasons can send stocks lower or higher. But over the long term, stock prices will be driven by just a handful of fundamental factors such as earnings growth and changes in valuation.
Why are stocks volatile?
Stocks were volatile around the 2016 and 2020 U.S. presidential elections as investors waited to see which administration would be in charge for the next four years. But often, the reaction of markets isn't obvious and traders can quickly shift their attention to a new topic of concern or excitement.
How to calculate dividend yield?
A company's dividend yield can be calculated by taking the annual dividend per share and dividing by the current stock price.
What are the ups and downs of the economy?
The ups and downs in the economy called ‘trade cycles’ are also responsible for causing price movements in a particular fashion. Accordingly, in times of prosperity where there is a high consumer and industrial activism, the market looks up. This shores up heightened activity on the stock exchange leading to higher market prices. The investors will take part in stock market activities in a large number and with a lot of enthusiasm. The converse happens in times of depression, with share prices plummeting.
What is the natural force that affects the price level of security?
A natural force that affects the price level of security is the interplay of its demand and supply. Under the conditions of a perfect market, supply and demand details interact to determine security price. Accordingly, where the supply of security is abundant and slimming demand, its price goes down and vice versa. The demand and supply position of industrial securities depends on various factors such as the yield and the general expectation about the outcome, etc.
What is shareholder value?
Shareholder value is the worth of a business’s financial owners received for owning shares in the company. An increase in shareholder value is created when a company earns more returns higher than the capital invested; to be well-defined, the shareholder value is created for shareholders of that business benefited from profits. Increasing shareholder value by creating a positive profile about the corporation among the investors in the stock market facilitates the stock price to go up.
What is supply and demand law?
The usual macroeconomic theory of supply and demand law can also be applied to market stock pricing. Concerning the factors contributing for stocks’ price to go up, under the theory of demand and supply, the decrease in the supply of goods and services while the demand remains the same or demand gets higher, then the prices of stock tend to rise to a higher equilibrium price. The factor of higher demand may be contributed by various aspects such as;
What are the different trading sessions?
The three different market trading sessions are pre-market, stock market, and after-hour trading; these trading sessions act as the stock market’s primary trading hours. Concerning the price fluctuations, each session has a significant influence on it. The after-hour trading session will comparatively cause the stock prices to go up; this session occurs after the market closes. An investor can buy and sell securities outside of regular trading hours. It has a significant effect causing prices to go up.
How do bears and bulls affect stock prices?
The activities of speculators such as the bulls and bears cause upward and downward movement in share prices. They cause fluctuations in security prices. For instance, bull speculators who buy in the expectation of a profit from the upward trend of prices cause the price to move upward naturally. Similarly, the bear speculators’ actions will lead to selling pressure, with share prices coming down. On the other hand, when bulls liquidate their holdings, they lower the stock exchange costs. Similarly, large- scale buying by bears to meet their short sales will force the security prices upwards. Thus, speculative pressures engineer price volatility.
What is trend in stock market?
A trend refers to the overall direction of a market or a stock or asset price in the capital market; it is designated through trendlines reflecting the security market price. One of the stock market’s primary duties is to price the stocks for profit earning and sharing. This price movement facilitates liquidity in the market and supports the economic building. There are two types uptrend and downtrend; it defines the price action by highlighting the swings in prices when the price makes higher swing highs and higher swing lows for an uptrend, or lower swing lows and lower swing highs for a downtrend. Stock market traders and investors usually opt to trade in the direction of the trend. Uptrends and downtrends occur in all markets representing the market performances of the securities.
