Stocks - Research Paper Example

Stocks Investors are interested in the performance of the shares that form part of the fund. These investors will therefore consider the return on the shares in order to make informed decisions and to ensure that the funds generate good returns. In the above given case, the best performed or worst performing shares will be determined from the changes in the shares prices (Goetzmann & Ibbotson, 2006). Shares that record the highest price increases are ranked best while those that record the highest decline in prices are ranked worst performed.

The shares of the western refinery Inc. performed best recording an increase in the share prices over the period. The stock simultaneously experienced stable prices. Cabot oil and gas corp. performed second best followed by coco Philips that is ranked third best performed. The shares of COG had better prices within the weeks. The shares of cocophilips in also experienced this trend as much as the prices fell in the last week. Royal Dutch shell plc stock performed the worst recording huge decline in the stock prices.

This is followed by the shares of Petro china and then chevron corporations, which also had significant fall in the stock prices. The worst performed shares had constant reduction in the stock prices resulting into losses for the investors in the fund (Elleuch, 2009). Several factors could be responsible for the good performance in the share prices. These include strong financial performance, expected increase in return from the expansion program and increase in the demand for such stock (Goetzmann & Ibbotson, 2006).

The good stock performance could also be attributed to the possible increase in the demand for the goods and services provided by the companies (Elleuch, 2009). RDSB, petro china and Chevron Corporation might have recorded the poor performance because of speculation in the performance of stock prices, poor financial performance and expected future decline in the marketability of the company’s products. The poor performance could also be because of the fierce competition in the industry. The performance of the stock had significant impact as can be observed from the changes in the number of stock held.

For the best-performed stocks, the number of stocks bought increased with the stock of WNR increasing from 15000 to 50000. Those of poorly performed firms declined significantly with those whose prices were low reaching the lowest of zero e.g. the shares of RDSB, chevron and Exxon Mobile Corporation because of the huge fall in prices. Even the shares of the relatively performed companies declined to zero in instances where their prices significantly fell. The company of my choice is Chevron Corporation, a company that was incorporated in 1926 and which deals with the administration, financial management, and technology support to petroleum operations, mining operations, power generation and chemicals operations.

The news in the New York Times is about the failure of Chevron Corporation to achieve their quarterly targets despite the high prices of fuel (BLOOMBERG, 2012). The trend influenced the prices of shares that failed to increase by the expected margin. For the performance, the shares of chevron fell by 2% to $106.2 a share. This thus shows that the performance of the firm affects the prices of the stock and this may impair the general performance of the company. In conclusion, fund managers have the responsibility of monitoring the performance of their portfolios stock in order to maximize the returns on their investors.

Failure by the fund managers to assiduously determine the impact of events and other economic indicators on the performance of stock is therefore jeopardy. References BLOOMBERG. (2012). NY Times Advertisement. The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. Retrieved June 2, 2012, from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/28/business/energy-environment/chevron-misses- forecasts-despite-higher-oil-prices.html?_r=1&ref=chevroncorporation Elleuch, J. (2009). Fundamental Analysis Strategy and the Prediction of Stock Returns.

International Research Journal of Finance and Economics, 6(30), 15-19. Goetzmann, W. N., & Ibbotson, R. G. (2006). The equity risk premium: essays and explorations. Oxford: Oxford University Press.