Measuring the information environment of firms using analyst (price) forecast bias and forecast dispersion before listing, we empirically examine the interactive influence of the information environment and market-wide sentiment on the initial returns of initial public offerings (IPOs). We find...

Using content analysis we measure the impact of soft information, derived from words in IPO registration documents, on IPO pricing efficiency. First, using 2,298 U.S. IPOs from 1996 to 2008, we find that an IPO document's strategic tone correlates positively with the stock's first-day return;...

This paper examines post-revision return drift, or PRD, following analysts' revisions of their stock recommendations. PRD refers to the finding that the analysts' recommendation changes predict future long-term returns in the same direction as the change (i.e., upgrades are followed by positive...

We document frequent occurrences of negative conversion premium (NCP) events in the Chinese convertible bond market, when the bond is convertible and the underlying stock can be freely sold. This implies that when an NCP event occurs, existing stock holders can earn a riskless profit through a...

Based on prospect theory, we posit that security analysts' target prices function as a reference point for takeover bids and affect deal completion. Using a sample of US takeovers from 1999 to 2014, we find a negative relation between target prices for a takeover target and the chances for...

Mood-induced optimism, cognitive inaccuracy, and distraction can affect analyst forecasts. This study compares and contrasts these influences. The novelty of our approach is that we first show that these behavioural biases have different implications for analysts' forecast errors conditioned on...

This paper studies how security analysts use industry-level and firm-specific information in issuing firms' earnings forecasts. Analysts who use more (less) industry-level (firm-specific) information have less available resources and incentives to allocate effort towards costly firm-specific...

Most existing studies conclude that the accuracy of analysts' target prices is questionable. In forecasting target prices, analysts estimate a future stock price under the constraint of a time frame of usually 12 months. We exclude this source of uncertainty by focusing on valuations in takeover...

This paper shows that productivity shocks to the 100 largest U.S. firms (by revenue) contain systematic information. Specifically, shocks to the top-100 firms predict future shocks to geographically close firms. Intra-sector trade links are an important economic channel for spillover effects....

This paper shows that equity analysts exhibit in-group favoritism and have less-favorable views about firms headed by out-of-group CEOs. Using gender to identify group, we find that, compared with female analysts, male analysts have lower earnings forecasts and worse stock recommendations for...