We document that firms' financing decisions are affected by historical high prices. The ratio of the monthly high price to the 12-month historical high positively affects the probability of an SEO. Furthermore, the announcement market reaction is muted and the offering discount is smaller if the...

Pecking order and market timing theories assume that corporate financing decisions are made in the interests of existing shareholders. We find that existing institutional investors, on average, significantly increase their share ownership at the time of the SEO, including SEOs that would be...