Volatility Adjustments for Industry, Size and Leverage
How well do you understand the theory and application of industry, size, and leverage adjustments for estimating equity volatility? Do you feel confident explaining it to a new analyst? A client? A judge? It may be time to get more confident. Join James Herr for a discussion of the basic concepts around applying volatility estimates in valuation, covering common pitfalls when calculating the basic volatility measure. Learn the differences between equity and asset volatilities, and ...
The Impact of Size and Leverage on Equity Volatility
Many valuation practitioners rely on equity volatilities when performing equity allocations, derivative valuations, discounts for lack of marketability, or contingent consideration analyses. Yet in contrast to other commonly accepted valuation adjustments, practitioners still appear hesitant to adjust historical or implied volatilities from publicly traded comparables for differences in size when performing these types of analyses, despite theory that these factors should impact equity volatility. Instead, preference is usually made in the industry to adjust equity ...
Size-adjusting Volatility
Since the valuation of corporate securities with option-like features issued by the private companies requires an estimate of volatility based upon comparable public companies and the comparable companies are often larger, the use of unadjusted volatilities may understate the volatility of the subject private company. This article provides an up-to-date research review on the need for size-adjusting volatility. We also present a simple methodology to size adjust comparable companies that is easily updated with data ...