Managerial behavior differs considerably when managers report quarterly profits versus losses. When they report profits, managers seek to just meet or slightly beat analyst estimates. When they report losses, managers do not attempt to meet or slightly beat analyst estimates. Instead, managers...

We correlate analysts' forecast errors with temporal variation in investor sentiment. We find that when sentiment is high, analysts' forecasts of one-year-ahead earnings and long-term earnings growth are relatively more optimistic for “uncertain” or “difficult to value” firms. Adding...

This paper reveals that in addition to fundamental factors, the 52-week high price and recent investor sentiment play an important role in analysts' target price formation. Analysts' forecasts of short-term earnings and long-term earnings growth are shown to be important explanatory variables...

We examine whether, and to what extent, investors focus on salient and easy-to-process features in responding to analyst forecasts. We focus on rounding as arguably the most salient forecast feature. We find that while rounding is only marginally associated with forecast accuracy, investors...

I estimate a theory-based behavioral momentum using analysts' predictable underreaction (APU) as a proxy for newswatchers underreaction. The results show that APU strongly predicts analysts' errors and, more importantly, stock returns. A long-short strategy based on APU generates a...

The SEC's emphasis on the use of plain English is designed to make disclosures more readable and more informative. Using an experiment, I find that more readable disclosures lead to stronger reactions from small investors, so that changes in valuation judgments are more positive when news is...

This paper examines how simultaneous presence of domestic accounting standards of various countries affects market reactions to firms' earnings announcements and subsequent post-earnings announcement drifts (PEAD) in U.S market. Drawing from the finance and accounting literatures on investors'...

We report the results of an experiment which shows that investors' earnings- and investment-related judgments are jointly influenced by their investment position (long versus short), the news valence of guidance issued by management, and the amount of ambiguity in the guidance. Prior research...

We report the results of an experiment which shows that investors' earnings- and investment-related judgments are jointly influenced by their investment position (long versus short), the news valence of guidance issued by management, and the amount of ambiguity in the guidance. Prior research...

Recent studies document that market participants react positively to the positive language sentiment or tone embedded in financial disclosures, and that investors' reactions to negative news are more muted with poor disclosure readability. However, while language sentiment and readability...