Concentration of Wealth Creation for U.S. Stocks

Does success in the U.S. equity market depend on an ever- shrinking percentage of outperforming stocks? In his February 2020 paper entitled “Wealth Creation in the U.S. Public Stock Markets 1926 to 2019”, Hendrik Bessembinder updates his analysis of wealth creation in excess of 1-month U.S. Treasury bills (T-bills) across U.S. stocks since 1926 by adding 2017-2019. Wealth creation differs from market capitalization by accounting for all cash flows to and from shareholders via new share issuances, share repurchases and dividends not reinvested in stocks. Using price, share issuance/repurchase and dividend data for 26,168 U.S. stocks and the T-bill yield during 1926 through 2019, he finds that:

(more…)