Equity Markets, Valuation, and Analysis. H. Kent Baker
issues such as common stock with no maturity or corporate bonds with a maturity greater than one year.
Another way to categorize capital markets is by debt or equity markets. Debt markets include long-term notes payables, bonds, and debentures, a debt instrument that is not secured by collateral and usually has a term greater than 10 years. Debt, such as bonds and debentures, are obligations of the issuer and provide a claim of liability for the investor. Equity markets include common stocks and preferred stocks. The equity market is one of the most important segments of the financial market, providing evidence of equity ownership claims for investors.
TABLE 3.1 Issuance Volume of Equity Securities in Billions of Dollars
Source: Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) (2019).
This table shows the yearly issuance volume of various types of equity in billions of dollars between 2014 and 2018.
| Security | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 |
| Common stock | 204.4 | 213.4 | 193.2 | 234.9 | 273.3 |
| Preferred stock | 16.8 | 26.1 | 24.8 | 32.1 | 38.5 |
| Secondaries | 164.8 | 173.7 | 172.5 | 202.5 | 179.3 |
| Initial public offerings | 50.6 | 39.8 | 20.8 | 32.4 | 93.9 |
| Total equity issuance | 221.2 | 239.5 | 218.1 | 267.1 | 311.8 |
Note: Securities firms, banks, and asset managers provide this information to SIFMA. Volume is defined as the volume traded on each exchange or by the listing exchange regardless of where traded.
TABLE 3.2 Issuance Volume of Corporate Bonds in Billions of Dollars
Source: Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) (2019).
This table shows the yearly issuance volume of various corporate bonds in billions of dollars between 2014 and 2018.
| Security | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 |
| Investment grade | 1165.1 | 1368.2 | 1290.3 | 1232.9 | 1124.3 |
| High yield | 173.0 | 284.2 | 237.3 | 261.9 | 314.1 |
| Callable – fixed rate | 816.8 | 989.7 | 1020.6 | 997.2 | 863.8 |
| Callable – floating rate | 146.9 | 147.6 | 32.7 | 30.7 | 21.5 |
| Non-callable – fixed rate | 265.0 | 391.0 | 389.9 | 383.9 | 425.9 |
| Non-callable – floating rate | 109.5 | 124.2 | 84.3 | 83.0 | 127.2 |
| Convertible | 38.6 | 27.2 | 22.4 | 20.7 | 37.2 |
| Total corporate bond issuance | 1376.7 | 1679.6 | 1550.0 | 1515.5 | 1475.6 |
Note: SIFMA collects information from Bloomberg, Dealogic, Thomson Reuters Eikon SDC, the U.S. Treasury, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Ginnie Mae, Farmer Mac, Farm Credit, and the FHLB in determining the volume of bonds issued over a stated period.
As Tables 3.1 and 3.2 show, the volume of corporate bonds issued is much greater than the issuance of corporate equity. The majority of equity issues are common stocks, with 92.4 percent of the equity issued in 2018. Secondary or follow-on offerings of previously issued shares totaled 74.5 percent of the equity issued in 2018.
As Table 3.2 shows, the largest volume of bond issuance involves investment-grade bonds, accounting for 84.6 percent of the corporate bonds issued in 2018. Convertible bonds, which can be exchanged for the issuing firm's stock, amounted to only 2.8 percent of the total bond issuance in 2018. The differing maturity characteristics for equity and debt issues are substantial. Unlike debt issues such as bonds, equity investments have no maturity date, and thus the issuing firms have no obligation to repurchase them from investors. Therefore, for investors who want to sell shares of stocks, having an actively traded secondary market is crucial.
Except in the case of a firm choosing to repurchase shares or retire debt issues before maturity, neither buyers nor sellers of an issue are issuing firms. In the primary market, however, the seller is the issuing firm. Investors who want to buy a firm's securities when a primary offering is not extended must go to the secondary market to purchase the securities from another investor. Only a small number of investors participate in the primary market; most stock transactions occur in the secondary market. Trading in the secondary market