Panel A corresponds to the regression results for cost efficiency changes and Panel B for profit
efficiency changes. If improvements in cost and profit efficiency are reflected in stock returns, a
positive association is expected between these changes and stock returns. The results indicate that
profit efficiency changes have a positive and statistically significant impact on stock returns. However,
the striking result is that cost efficiency changes have a negative and statistically significant impact on
stock returns. The positive impact of profit efficiency on stock return could be explained by the
argument that rational shareholders and potential investors are very concerned about the profits as they
provide an indication about the future dividend payments and capital gains 19 (Board and Day, 1989).
Also, the profit efficiency naturally includes the revenue side of the profit function. If banks are more
profitable, this will be directly reflected in the future expectations of the banks’ stock returns. On the
other hand, this is not the case for the cost efficiency changes. Cost efficiency scores, which offer an
indication for the capability of managers, will not be reflected positively in the bank stock returns.
This finding suggests that stocks of cost efficient banks do not tend to outperform their inefficient
counterparts. Even though both better profit management and better cost management are directly
observed by the public and reflected in the stock prices, rational shareholders or potential investors in
transition countries do not perceive the cost efficiency changes positively. These results are not
consistent with the results of earlier studies (Sufian and Majid, 2006; Liadaki and Gaganis, 2010).
Among the explanatory variables to account for the impact of efficiency change on the stock
returns, only size of banks, which corresponds to the annual percentage change in total assets, is
statistically significant at 5% for cost and profit efficiency scores. Moreover, the explanatory power of
the profit changes and cost changes in the variability of stock returns is approximately 30% (Adjusted
R-squared is equal to 0.300 for profit changes, 0.299 for cost changes).