This study examined the profitability of a trading strategy that exploits the manipulation of stock prices around the grant date of executive stock options. The strategy generates annualized abnormal returns of 1.4–5.2 percent net of transaction costs and is relatively unaffected by the...

Jensen and Meckling (1976) claim that by facilitating monitoring of firms’ activities, security analysis by financial analysts can reduce agency costs between management and external capital providers, and thereby increase shareholder value. Additionally, boards are required to design...