Using proprietary data from a major fund data provider, we analyze the screening activity of investment consultants (ICs) who advise institutional investors with trillions of dollars in assets. We find that ICs frequently shortlist funds using threshold screens clustered at round, base 5 or base...

During quarters when analysts are working on IPOs, the accuracy, quantity, and timeliness of their research declines for the non-IPO firms that they cover at the same time. Consistent with increased workload reducing analyst information production, analyst forecasts during these periods deviate...

This study presents direct evidence on the question whether investors recognize the widely documented biases in securities analysts' earnings forecasts. The internal rate of return implied by current stock price and consensus earnings forecasts is found to be correlated with indicators of bias...

Using machine learning-based algorithms, we measure key impressions about sell-side analysts using their LinkedIn profile photos. We find that analysts’ trustworthiness (TRUST) and dominance (DOM) are positively associated with forecast accuracy, especially after recent in-person meetings...

We examine article, author and firm characteristics of investment articles published by non-professional analysts on the social media investment platform Seeking Alpha from 2006 to 2020 leading to visible market value changes. We show that there are differences between articles followed by stock...

We construct a measure of analyst-level distraction based on analysts' exposure to exogenous attention-grabbing events affecting firms under coverage. We find that temporarily distracted analysts achieve lower forecast accuracy, revise forecasts less frequently, and publish less informative...

We document a strong positive initial market reaction to merger announcements from bidders with either large earnings growth or significant earnings decline, relative to those with neutral earnings change, reflecting a U-shaped pattern between bidders’ earnings growth and announcement returns....

Using a proprietary data set on the undisclosed voting records of analysts and professional investors on listed firms for Investor Relation (IR) Awards in Hong Kong, we show that the valuation effect of IR award announcements is positively significant. More importantly, awardees receiving...

An important determinant of belief polarization is the different interpretations of the same information. We examine whether discourse uncertainty in corporate disclosures, an important driver of differential interpretations, leads to polarization in financial markets. Using a novel measure of...

Target prices are an estimation of the future value of a company’s stock price. Although there is a general consensus about the importance of firm’s fundamentals when forecasting, there are also other determinants. This article sheds light on the effects of uncertainty, financial stress and...