What Is the Adjusted Closing Price?

The adjusted closing price amends a stock’s closing price to reflect that stock’s value after accounting for any corporate actions. It is often used when examining historical returns or doing a detailed analysis of past performance.

Understanding the Adjusted Closing Price

Stock values are stated in terms of the closing price and the adjusted closing price. The closing price is the raw price, which is just the cash value of the last transacted price before the market closes. The adjusted closing price factors in anything that might affect the stock price after the market closes.

A stock’s price is typically affected by supply and demand of market participants. However, some corporate actions, such as stock splits, dividends, and rights offerings, affect a stock’s price. Adjustments allow investors to obtain an accurate record of the stock’s performance. Investors should understand how corporate actions are accounted for in a stock’s adjusted closing price. It is especially useful when examining historical returns because it gives analysts an accurate representation of the firm’s equity value.

Types of Adjustments

Adjusting Prices for Stock Splits

A stock split is a corporate action intended to make the firm’s shares more affordable for average investors. A stock split does not change a company’s total market capitalization, but it does affect the company’s stock price.

For example, a company’s board of directors may decide to split the company’s stock 3-for-1. Therefore, the company’s shares outstanding increase by a multiple of three, while its share price is divided by three. Suppose a stock closed at $300 the day before its stock split. In this case, the closing price is adjusted to $100 ($300 divided by 3) per share to maintain a consistent standard of comparison. Similarly, all other previous closing prices for that company would be divided by three to obtain the adjusted closing prices.

Adjusting for Dividends

Common distributions that affect a stock’s price include cash dividends and stock dividends. The difference between cash dividends and stock dividends is that shareholders are entitled to a predetermined price per share and additional shares, respectively.

For example, assume a company declared a $1 cash dividend and was trading at $51 per share before then. All other things being equal, the stock price would fall to $50 because that $1 per share is no longer part of the company’s assets. However, the dividends are still part of the investor’s returns. By subtracting dividends from previous stock prices, we obtain the adjusted closing prices and a better picture of returns.

Adjusting for Rights Offerings

A stock’s adjusted closing price also reflects rights offerings that may occur. A rights offering is an issue of rights given to existing shareholders, which entitles the shareholders to subscribe to the rights issue in proportion to their shares. That will lower the value of existing shares because supply increases have a dilutive effect on the existing shares.

For example, assume a company declares a rights offering, in which existing shareholders are entitled to one additional share for every two shares owned. Assume the stock is trading at $50, and existing shareholders can purchase additional shares at a subscription price of $45. After the rights offering, the adjusted closing price is calculated based on the adjusting factor and the closing price.

Benefits of the Adjusted Closing Price

The main advantage of adjusted closing prices is that they make it easier to evaluate stock performance. Firstly, the adjusted closing price helps investors understand how much they would have made by investing in a given asset. Most obviously, a 2-for-1 stock split does not cause investors to lose half their money. Since successful stocks often split repeatedly, graphs of their performance would be hard to interpret without adjusted closing prices.

Secondly, the adjusted closing price allows investors to compare the performance of two or more assets. Aside from the clear issues with stock splits, failing to account for dividends tends to understate the profitability of value stocks and dividend growth stocks. Using the adjusted closing price is also essential when comparing the returns of different asset classes over the long term. For example, the prices of high-yield bonds tend to fall in the long run. That does not mean these bonds are necessarily poor investments. Their high yields offset the losses and more, which can be seen by looking at the adjusted closing prices of high-yield bond funds.

Criticism of the Adjusted Closing Price

The nominal closing price of a stock or other asset can convey useful information. This information is destroyed by converting that price into an adjusted closing price. In actual practice, many speculators place buy and sell orders at certain prices, such as $100. As a result, a sort of tug of war can take place between bulls and bears at these key prices. If the bulls win, a breakout may occur and send the asset price soaring. Similarly, a win for the bears can lead to a breakdown and further losses. The adjusted close stock price obscures these events.

By looking at the actual closing price at the time, investors can get a better idea of what was going on and understand contemporary accounts. If investors look at historical records, they will find many examples of tremendous public interest in nominal levels. Perhaps the most famous is the role that Dow 1,000 played in the 1966 to 1982 secular bear market. During that period, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) repeatedly hit 1,000, only to fall back shortly after that. The breakout finally took place in 1982, and the Dow never dropped below 1,000 again. This phenomenon is covered up somewhat by adding dividends to obtain the adjusted closing prices.

In general, adjusted closing prices are less useful for more speculative stocks. Jesse Livermore provided an excellent account of the impact of key nominal prices, such as $100 and $300, on Anaconda Copper in the early 20th century. In the early 21st century, similar patterns occurred with Netflix (NFLX) and Tesla (TSLA). William J. O’Neil gave examples where stock splits, far from being irrelevant, marked the beginnings of real declines in the stock price. While arguably irrational, the impact of nominal prices on stocks could be an example of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

What Is an Alternative Trading System (ATS)?

An alternative trading system (ATS) is a trading venue that is more loosely regulated than an exchange. ATS platforms are often used to match large buy and sell orders among its subscribers. The most widely used type of ATS in the United States are electronic communication networks (ECNs)—computerized systems that automatically match buy and sell orders for securities in the market.

Understanding an Alternative Trading System (ATS)

ATS account for much of the liquidity found in publicly traded issues worldwide. They are known as multilateral trading facilities in Europe, ECNs, cross networks, and call networks. Most ATS are registered as broker-dealers rather than exchanges and focus on finding counterparties for transactions.

Unlike some national exchanges, ATS do not set rules governing the conduct of subscribers or discipline subscribers, other than by excluding them from trading. They are important in providing alternative means to access liquidity.

Institutional investors may use an ATS to find counterparties for transactions, instead of trading large blocks of shares on national stock exchanges. These actions may be designed to conceal trading from public view since ATS transactions do not appear on national exchange order books. The benefit of using an ATS to execute such orders is that it reduces the domino effect that large trades might have on the price of an equity.

Criticisms of Alternative Trading Systems (ATS)

These trading venues must be approved by the SEC. In recent years, regulators have stepped up enforcement actions against ATS for infractions such as trading against customer order flow or making use of confidential customer trading information. These violations may be more common in ATS than national exchanges because ATS face fewer regulations.

Dark Pools

A hedge fund interested in building a large position in an equity may use an ATS to prevent other investors from buying in advance. ATS used for these purposes may be referred to as dark pools.

Dark pools entail trading on ATS by institutional orders executed on private exchanges. Information about these transactions is mostly unavailable to the public, which is why they are called “dark.” The bulk of dark pool liquidity is created by block trades facilitated away from the central stock market exchanges and conducted by institutional investors (primarily investment banks).

Although they are legal, dark pools operate with little transparency. As a result, dark pools, along with high-frequency trading (HFT), are oft-criticized by those in the finance industry; some traders believe that these elements convey an unfair advantage to certain players in the stock market.

Regulation of Alternative Trading Systems (ATS)

SEC Regulation ATS established a regulatory framework for ATS. An ATS meets the definition of an exchange under federal securities laws but is not required to register as a national securities exchange if the ATS operates under the exemption provided under Exchange Act Rule 3a1-1(a). To operate under this exemption, an ATS must comply with the requirements in Rules 300-303 of Regulation ATS.

To comply with Regulation ATS, an ATS must register as a broker-dealer and file an initial operation report with the Commission on Form ATS before beginning operations. An ATS must file amendments to Form ATS to provide notice of any changes to its operations, and must file a cessation of operation report on Form ATS if it closes. The requirements for filing reports using Form ATS is in Rule 301(b)(2) of Regulation ATS. These requirements include mandated reporting of books and records.

In recent times, there have been moves to make ATS more transparent. For example, the SEC amended Regulation ATS to enhance “operational transparency” for such systems in 2018. Among other things, this entails filing detailed public disclosures to inform the general public about potential conflicts of interest and risks of information leakage. ATS are also required to have written safeguards and procedures to protect subscribers’ trading information.

The SEC formally defines an alternative trading system as “any organization, association, person, group of persons, or systems (1) that constitutes, maintains, or provides a market place or facilities for bringing together purchasers and sellers of securities or for otherwise performing with respect to securities the functions commonly performed by a stock exchange within the meaning of Rule 3b-16 under the Exchange Act; and (2) that does not (i) set rules governing the conduct of subscribers other than the conduct of such subscribers’ trading on such organization, association, person, group of persons, or system, or (ii) discipline subscribers other than by exclusion from trading.”

What Is an After-Tax Contribution?

An after-tax contribution is money paid into a retirement or investment account after income taxes on those earnings have already been deducted. When opening a tax-advantaged retirement account, an individual may choose to defer the income taxes owed until after retiring, if it is a traditional retirement account, or pay the income taxes in the year in which the payment is made, if it is a Roth retirement account.

Some savers, mostly those with higher incomes, may contribute after-tax income to a traditional account in addition to the maximum allowable pre-tax amount. They don’t get any immediate tax benefit. This commingling of pre-tax and post-tax money takes some careful accounting for tax purposes.

Understanding After-Tax Contributions

In order to encourage Americans to save toward their retirement years, the government offers several tax-advantaged retirement plans such as the 401(k) plan, offered by many companies to their employees, and the IRA, which anyone with earned income can open through a bank or a brokerage.

Most, but not all, people who open a retirement account can choose either of two main options:

• The traditional retirement account allows its owner to put “pre-tax” money in an investment account. That is, the money is not subject to income tax in the year it is paid in. The saver’s gross taxable income for that year is reduced by the amount of the contribution. The IRS will get its due when the account holder withdraws the money, presumably after retiring.
• The Roth account is the “after-tax” option. It allows the saver to pay in money after it is taxed. That is more of a hit to the person’s immediate take-home income. But after retirement, no further taxes are owed on the entire balance in the account. The Roth 401(k) option (referred to as a designated Roth option) is newer, and not all companies offer them to their employees. Earners above a set limit are not eligible to contribute to a Roth IRA account.

Post-Tax or Pre-Tax?

The post-tax Roth option offers the attraction of a retirement nest egg that is not subject to further taxes. It makes the most sense for those who believe they may be paying a higher tax rate in the future, either because of their expected retirement income or because they think taxes will go up.

In addition, money contributed post-tax can be withdrawn at any time without a fat IRS penalty being imposed. (The profits in the account are untouchable until the account holder is 59½.)

On the downside, the post-tax option means a smaller paycheck with every contribution into the account. The pre-tax or traditional option reduces the saver’s taxes owed for the year the contributions are made, and it is a smaller hit to current income.

The downside is, withdrawals from this type of retirement fund will be taxable income, whether it’s money that was paid in or profits the money earned.

After-Tax Contributions and Roth IRAs

A Roth IRA, by definition, is a retirement account in which the earnings grow tax-free as long as the money is held in the Roth IRA for at least five years. Contributions to a Roth are made with after-tax dollars, and as a result, they are not tax-deductible. However, you can withdraw the contributions in retirement tax-free.

Both post-tax and pre-tax retirement accounts have limits on how much can be contributed each year:

• The annual contribution limit for both Roth and traditional IRAs is $6,000 for tax year 2022 (increasing to $6,500 in 2023). Those aged 50 and over can deposit an additional catch-up contribution of $1,000.
• The contribution limit for Roth and traditional 401(k) plans is $20,500 for 2022 (increasing to $22,500 in 2023), plus $6,500 for those age 50 and above.

Early Withdrawal Tax Penalty

As noted, the money deposited in a post-tax or Roth account, but not any profits it earns, can be withdrawn at any time without penalty. The taxes have already been paid, and the IRS doesn’t care.

But if it’s a pre-tax or traditional account, any money withdrawn before age 59½ is fully taxable and subject to a hefty early withdrawal penalty.

An account holder who changes jobs can roll over the money into a similar account available at the new job without paying any taxes. The term “roll over” is meaningful. It means that the money goes straight from account to account and never gets paid into your hands. Otherwise, it can count as taxable income for that year.

Special Considerations

As noted above, there are limits to the amount of money that a saver can contribute each year to a retirement account. (Actually, you can have more than one account, or a post-tax and a pre-tax account, but the total contribution limits are the same.)

Withdrawals of after-tax contributions to a traditional IRA should not be taxed. However, the only way to make sure this does not happen is to file IRS Form 8606. Form 8606 must be filed for every year you make after-tax (non-deductible) contributions to a traditional IRA and for every subsequent year until you have used up all of your after-tax balance.

Since the funds in the account are separated into taxable and non-taxable components, figuring the tax due on the required distributions is more complicated than if the account holder had made only pre-tax contributions.

What Is an Asset Management Company (AMC)?

An asset management company (AMC) is a firm that invests pooled funds from clients, putting the capital to work through different investments including stocks, bonds, real estate, master limited partnerships, and more. Along with high-net-worth individual (HNWI) portfolios, AMCs manage hedge funds and pension plans, and—to better serve smaller investors—create pooled structures such as mutual funds, index funds, or exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which they can manage in a single centralized portfolio.

AMCs are colloquially referred to as money managers or money management firms. Those that offer public mutual funds or ETFs are also known as investment companies or mutual fund companies. Such businesses include Vanguard Group, Fidelity Investments, T. Rowe Price, and many others.

AMCs are generally distinguished by their assets under management (AUM)—the amount of assets that they manage.

Understanding Asset Management Companies (AMCs)

Because they have a larger pool of resources than the individual investor could access on their own, AMCs provide investors with more diversification and investing options. Buying for so many clients allows AMCs to practice economies of scale, often getting a price discount on their purchases.

Pooling assets and paying out proportional returns also allows investors to avoid the minimum investment requirements often required when purchasing securities on their own, as well as the ability to invest in a larger assortment of securities with a smaller amount of investment funds.

AMC Fees

In most cases, AMCs charge a fee that is calculated as a percentage of the client’s total AUM. This asset management fee is a defined annual percentage that is calculated and paid monthly. For example, if an AMC charges a 1% annual fee, it would charge $100,000 in annual fees to manage a portfolio worth $10 million. However, since portfolio values fluctuate on a daily and monthly basis, the management fee calculated and paid every month will fluctuate monthly as well.

Continuing with the above example, if the $10 million portfolio increases to $12 million in the next year, the AMC will stand to make an additional $20,000 in management fees. Conversely, if the $10 million portfolio declines to $8 million due to a market correction, the AMC’s fee would be reduced by $20,000. Thus, charging fees as a percentage of AUM serves to align the AMC’s interests with that of the client; if the AMC’s clients prosper, so does the AMC, but if the clients’ portfolios make losses, the AMC’s revenues will decline as well.

Most AMCs set a minimum annual fee such as $5,000 or $10,000 in order to focus on clients that have a portfolio size of at least $500,000 or $1 million. In addition, some specialized AMCs such as hedge funds may charge performance fees for generating returns above a set level or that beat a benchmark. The “two and twenty” fee model is standard in the hedge fund industry.

Buy Side

Typically, AMCs are considered buy-side firms. This status means they help their clients make investment decisions based on proprietary in-house research and data analytics, while also using security recommendations from sell-side firms.

Sell-side firms such as investment banks and stockbrokers, in contrast, sell investment services to AMCs and other investors. They perform a great deal of market analysis, looking at trends and creating projections. Their objective is to generate trade orders on which they can charge transaction fees or commissions.

Asset Management Companies (AMCs) vs. Brokerage Houses

Brokerage houses and AMCs overlap in many ways. Along with trading securities and doing analysis, many brokers advise and manage client portfolios, often through a special “private investment” or “wealth management” division or subsidiary. Many also offer proprietary mutual funds. Their brokers may also act as advisors to clients, discussing financial goals, recommending products, and assisting clients in other ways.

In general, though, brokerage houses accept nearly any client, regardless of the amount they have to invest, and these companies have a legal standard to provide “suitable” services. Suitable essentially means that as long as they make their best effort to manage the funds wisely, and in line with their clients’ stated goals, they are not responsible if their clients lose money.

In contrast, most asset management firms are fiduciary firms, held to a higher legal standard. Essentially, fiduciaries must act in the best interest of their clients, avoiding conflicts of interest at all times. If they fail to do so, they face criminal liability. They’re held to this higher standard in large part because money managers usually have discretionary trading powers over accounts. That is, they can buy, sell, and make investment decisions on their authority, without consulting the client first. In contrast, brokers must ask permission before executing trades.

AMCs usually execute their trades through a designated broker. That brokerage also acts as the designated custodian that holds or houses an investor’s account. AMCs also tend to have higher minimum investment thresholds than brokerages do, and they charge fees rather than commissions.

Example of an Asset Management Company (AMC)

As mentioned earlier, purveyors of popular mutual fund families are technically AMCs. Also, many high-profile banks and brokerages have asset management divisions, usually for HNWI or institutions.

There are also private AMCs that are not household names but are quite established in the investment field. One such example is RMB Capital, an independent investment and advisory firm with approximately $10 billion in AUM. Headquartered in Chicago, with 10 other offices around the U.S., and roughly 142 employees, RMB has different divisions, including:

1. RMB Wealth Management for wealthy retail investors
2. RMB Asset Management for institutional investors
3. RMB Retirement Solutions, which handles retirement plans for employers

The firm also has a subsidiary, RMB Funds, that manages six mutual funds.