The informed options trading hypothesis posits that option prices lead stock prices. In this paper, we extended the research on this hypothesis to open-market share repurchases. Empirical tests showed that the implied volatility spread was not significantly related to buy-and-hold abnormal stock...

In inefficient stock markets payout policy may be directly relevant for stock prices, not only by way of announcement effects considered in signaling games. We show that paying out free cash flow, either as a dividend or via repurchasing shares, has in general a positive price impact and...