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(6) For shareholders with well-diversified portfolios, "maximising shareholder value" entails maximising the (suitably weighted) share values of the corporations in their portfolios.
For any portfolio the return is a (suitably) weighted average of the returns of the constituent assets, irrespective of diversification.
Now, diversified portfolios arise precisely because maximizing return is not the only criterion by which investors make their investment decisions. So, in the specific case of investors with diversified portfolios, it is not only maximising the portfolio return that they're interested in.
The focus on share value (and return) comes from
(2) Running a corporation in the interests of its shareholders, commonly described as "maximising shareholder value", and this is generally taken to mean maximising the value of the shares.
So it would appear that the identification of shareholder value with stock price is the weak link of the whole argument, and indeed I would say it's just a specious argument by ideologues bent on justifying notorious excesses by pseudoscientific use of economic arguments.
Where does this argument actually come from? Thomas Friedman? Those whom the Gods wish to destroy They first make mad. -- Euripides
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