Impact of Financial Performance and Economic Value Added (EVA) On Stock Returns before and after Covid-19 Pandemic: A Case Study of Telecommunications Companies Listed on IDX

This research aims to investigate the impact of financial performance and Economic Value Added (EVA) on stock returns of telecommunication companies listed in the Indonesia Stock Exchange before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Financial performance in this research is proxied by Return on Assets (ROA), Return on Equity (ROE), Price-Earnings Ratio (PER), Debt-to-Equity Ratio (DER), Net Profit Margin (NPM), and Earnings per Share (EPS). The study employs a purposive sampling method and selects 10 companies in the telecommunication sub-sector for analysis. The type of research used is a quantitative research design, including Panel Data regression analysis and the Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test. The findings of this study show that ROA, ROE, and PER significantly impacted stock returns before COVID-19, however, this impact did not exist after the pandemic; DER, NPM, and EPS consistently affect stock returns both before and after the pandemic; and EVA only becomes significant after the pandemic. Simultaneously, ROA, ROE, PER, DER, NPM, EPS, and EVA influenced stock returns before COVID-19, but they did not have any impact after the pandemic. Despite these individual shifts, there are no significant differences in overall financial performance metrics and stock returns between the before and after COVID-19 periods. Future research should consider additional financial metrics or external factors such as market volatility, inflation rates, or industry-specific variables to provide a more comprehensive understanding of stock return determinants.