We study put option sales on company stock by large firms. An often cited motivation for these transactions is market timing, and managers' decision to issue puts should be sensitive to whether the stock is undervalued. We provide new evidence that large firms successfully time security sales....

We study the connection between momentum portfolio returns and shifts in factor loadings on the growth rate of industrial production. Winners have temporarily higher loadings than losers. The loading spread derives mostly from the high, positive loadings of winners. Small stocks have higher...

We study empirically the changes in economic fundamentals for firms with recent stock price momentum. We find that: (i) winners have temporarily higher dividend, investment, and sales growth rates, and losers have temporarily lower dividend, investment, and sales growth rates; (ii) the duration...

We study the stock market reaction to aggregate earnings news. Previous research shows that, for individual firms, stock prices react positively to earnings news but require several quarters to fully reflect the information in earnings. We find that the relation between returns and earnings is...

We study innovation and product differentiation using a uniqueness measure based on textual analysis of prospectuses. We find that small and startup families have higher start rates than larger families and their products are more unique. Unique strategies attract more inflows in the first three...

We examine changes in equity mutual funds' investment advisory contracts. There are substantial advisory compensation rate changes in both directions, with typical percentage rate shifts exceeding one-fourth. We find that rate increases are associated with superior past market-adjusted...