Private debt, unused credit lines, and seasoned equity offerings

We study a sample of SEOs to examine the impact of private debt and unused credit lines on SEO underpricing and long-run stock and operating performance. We do not find significant effects of private debt financing on SEO underpricing and long-run stock underperformance. However, firms with more bank debt and unused lines of credit exhibit significantly better pre-issue operating performance. Changes in operating performance from the pre-issue year to the post-issue period are negatively related to the size of unused credit lines. Capital spending decreases with the size of unused credit lines in the year prior to SEOs, but increases following SEOs. Our overall evidence suggests that the post-issue operating performance we observed may be a result of overinvestment, which is enhanced by unused credit lines.     

Motives and consequences of IPOs in cold periods

We analyze the motives and long-term stock price performance of firms that pursue IPOs in cold IPO periods. We find that firms are more likely to engage in an IPO during a cold period when their earnings are relatively high and are expected to decline in the future. We also find that IPO firms during a cold period are more likely to have managed their earnings prior to the IPO. Furthermore, we find that cold IPO firms experience significantly weaker stock price performance than hot IPO firms, and results are robust to different criteria for defining hot and cold IPO periods, different measures of stock price performance, and different investment holding periods. We find that investment opportunities, the backing of a venture capitalist, and an increase in earnings in the year of the IPO lead to significantly higher long term stock price performance of IPO firms. Our multivariate models confirm the adverse cold IPO period effect on stock price performance even after controlling for the IPO motives and the firm's earnings performance. Our results also hold within the post-Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) era.     

The economic causes and consequences of corporate divestiture

This study investigates economic causes and consequences of large corporate divestitures between 1983 and 1987. Prior empirical evidence suggests that firms hold on to poorly performing operating units for many years before divestiture. An agency-cost explanation for ‘holding on to losers’ has been proposed in the literature, as managers may be unwilling to admit they invested in inappropriate asset choices in the first place. However, a puzzle still remains: why should such a manager ever sell off such a unit? We provide both a possible explanation and empirical evidence that suggests managers hold on to losers as long as they can ‘blur’ their poor performance under the cover of the remaining operating units of the firm. We find that firms do not sell off poorly performing business units until the firm's other units experience significant underperformance relative to their industry peers. Finally, although there is evidence that the stock market reacts favorably to divestitures, we find that beyond the initial improvement, the firm's performance reverts back to its mean pre-divestiture level.© 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Does CEO-chairman dialect similarity affect stock price informativeness for Chinese listed firms?

Does CEO-chairman dialect similarity (CCDS) affect stock price informativeness? Based on a sample of Chinese publicly listed firms for the period of 2012–2017, we find that CCDS significantly improves stock price informativeness. Our result implies that CCDS increases the loyalty of managers to their board, and deters them from extracting private benefits, which leads to more informative stock prices. Furthermore, our subsample analyses show that this relationship between CCDS and stock price informativeness is only found in firms that have more media coverage, higher institutional ownership and a non-busy board. Our results also suggest that mutual trust between the CEO and chairman is a possible channel through which CCDS improves stock price informativeness.     

An Investigation of Stock Price Declines Following Corporate Financing Events: Further Evidence

Prior research documents a large downward drift in stock prices following issuances of debt and equity by US firms. We conduct tests based on both stock price and trading volume to provide evidence on the reasons for this apparent market anomaly. We document evidence of earnings management through accruals prior to external financing and lower operating performance afterward that is associated with the amount of capital raised. The earnings management that precedes external financing and the amount of capital raised are associated with both the post-financing decline in stock price and trading volume around earnings announcements that follow for a period of three years. This evidence is consistent with the proposition that firms raise external capital prior to predictable declines in their operating performance and they release upward biased earnings before these events to manage investor expectations. The failure of many investors to incorporate this information into their trading decisions in a timely manner consistent with limited attention and over-confidence appears to drive stock mispricing. Our evidence does not support the conjecture that the financing anomaly is primarily a statistical artifact or that it is a manifestation of the accrual anomaly.     

Environmental policies,national culture,and stock price crash risk: Evidence from renewable energy firms

This study investigates the impact of country‐level environmental performance and national culture on the stock price crash risk of renewable energy firms. Employing a large sample of 626 renewable energy firms across 31 countries, we find a significant nonlinear relationship between country‐level environmental performance and crash risk. National culture dimensions are found to strongly predict the crash risk of renewable energy firms, particularly after the global financial crisis. On the contrary, national culture dimensions and environmental policies are observed to not exert any significance in explaining the crash risk of fossil fuel firms. Our results are robust with respect to alternative measures of stock price crash risk and the endogeneity of national culture dimensions. Overall, the findings of this paper contribute to the environmental economics literature by providing new evidence regarding the role of societal and environmental factors in explaining the stock price crash risk of energy firms.     

中国上市公司送转行为动因研究——基于高送转样本的检验

关于中国上市公司大量进行股票送转的动机,学术界尚存争论。本文将不同送转理论纳入同一个计量模型,利用2006～2010年进行高送转公司的样本对不同送转理论进行了验证,为解决关于股票送转动机的争论提供了经验证据。实证结果支持了"最适价格假说"与"股本扩张假说",而拒绝"信号传递假说"、"价格幻觉假说"与"股利迎合假说"。此外,本文模型对高送转公司的预测准确度达90%,基于模型预测建立高送转公司的投资组合可以获取较稳定的超额收益。     

The effect of non-convertible preferred stock retirement on shareholder wealth

In this paper the authors examine the common stock price behavior of firms that call their non-convertible preferred stock. The findings for the entire sample of preferred stock calls are consistent with the Modigliani and Miller (MM) leverage hypothesis that preferred stock financing adds no value to the firm. However, for those firms whose preferred stock was completely eliminated from the capital structure, a significant, positive announcement effect is observed. This finding is consistent with an information signaling effect related to the earnings prospects and tax status of the calling firms and also is suggestive of a burdensome covenant effect. No evidence is found to support the free cash flow theory of common stock price reactions to preferred stock calls.     

我国上市公司定向增发的长期业绩实证研究

考察公司定向增发后的长期回报率业绩和长期经营业绩后发现,经市场调整、行业调整和规模调整的定向增发公司长期经营业绩和长期回报率均呈现下滑态势;长期回报率下滑并不是市场对定向增发公告时市场过度反应的修正,而是投资者对成长机会不确定的投资项目过分乐观,定向增发后公司并没有实现良好的经营业绩,投资者对公司预期盈利能力失望的结果。     

The impact of inventory dynamics on long-term stock returns – An empirical investigation of U.S. manufacturing companies

This paper investigates the relationship between the inventory dynamics and long-term stock returns of a large panel of U.S. manufacturing firms over the time period from 1991 to 2010. We propose two measures of inventory dynamics: one metric to assess the fluctuations of quarterly inventories within the year and a second metric to quantify relative year-over-year inventory growth. Our results indicate that within-year inventory volatility (IV) and abnormal year-over-year inventory growth (ABI) are associated with abnormal stock returns. Both metrics cannot be entirely explained by common risk factors. We find that firms with high IV and low ABI have the best long-term stock returns, and that stock performance decreases monotonically with higher ABI values. Our results are robust to various control variables including size, book-to-market value, industry and prior performance. We therefore conclude that changes in inventory levels provide valuable insights into the risks and opportunities faced by a company.     

Sarbanes-Oxley wealth effects: focus on technology firms

We evaluate the shareholder wealth effects surrounding the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX). While other studies have also measured wealth effects, none has separately examined technology firms. We discuss the unique characteristics of technology firms and assess whether technology firms are differentially affected. Our results show the portfolio of 218 technology firms experienced significantly more favorable wealth effects than the portfolio of 940 non-technology firms in response to events indicating stringent reform legislation. The cross-sectional analyses suggest that board independence, growth expectations, and R&D expenditures are influential factors in the differential stock price response of technology firms. Across our full sample of 1,158 firms, we find that wealth effects are less favorable for firms that likely will incur high compliance costs and more favorable for firms that are expected to benefit from improved governance and improved transparency.     

Neighborhood effect on stock price comovement

We investigate how the geographic distance between firms’ headquarters affects their stock price comovement. Our results show that a firm's stock return has stronger comovement with the returns of nearby firms than with those of distant firms. Being in the same state and/or in the same industry strengthens the return comovement, but does not substitute for the negative effect of geographic distance on price comovement. Firms of similar share price and size also show stronger return comovement, but these factors do not mitigate the negative distance impact. Consistent with investor home bias and neighborhood effect literature, our results suggest that investors’ preference for local stocks and their interactions lead to correlated trading in local stocks and therefore stronger local price comovement.     

股价崩盘风险、信息环境与企业现金调整

以我国2009—2016年沪深上市公司数据为样本，探究了股价崩盘风险、信息环境对企业现金调整的影响。研究发现：股价崩盘风险越大，企业现金调整速度越快，且这种正相关关系对于分析师跟踪数量较少、机构投资者持股比例少的企业而言更为显著。进一步考察股权性质在企业现金调整速度中的影响，发现国有企业与民营企业面对股价崩盘风险的现金调整速度并不具有显著差异，但是对于民营企业而言，更多的分析师跟踪和机构投资者持股将显著降低企业应对股价崩盘风险的现金调整速度，信息环境对于国有企业的作用并不显著。     

Are government-linked IPOs underpriced? A three country privatization effort comparison

Underpricing in the case of the initial public offerings of private (non-government) firms has been well documented. However, there does not appear to be any systematic study of the price performance of “government-linked” companies or GLCs, which have been “privatized” through public offerings in the stock market. This study examines the hypothesis that the initial public offerings (IPOs) of such companies in the United Kingdom, Singapore, and Malaysia will not only be underpriced, but their degree of underpricing will be relatively greater when compared to firms with no governmental links. The results provide strong support for this hypothesis.     

Takeover threats,antitakeover amendments and stock price reaction

We examine the influence of takeover threats on the stock price of firms proposing antitakeover amendments. Stock prices of the majority of firms, which are not takeover targets during the four years surrounding the amendments, are unaffected, while prices of firms that become takeover targets within two years increase significantly. We document weak evidence of wealth losses only for a sample of prior targets. Our findings suggest that shareholders of the average firm are not harmed by antitakeover amendments because they provide either a better bargaining position or an information signal to the market.     

Multinationals' Offshore Operations,Tax Avoidance,and Firm‐Specific Information Flows: International Evidence

Using a large sample of multinational enterprises (MNEs) over the period 1999–2009, this study investigates whether and how offshore operations via offshore financial centers (OFCs) impact the extent to which firm‐specific information is incorporated into stock price, relative to common information. Our analyses show that, irrespective of whether a firm is a Type I offshore firm (directly having headquarters registered in OFCs) or a Type II offshore firm (indirectly setting up subsidiaries in OFCs), the amount of firm‐specific information flowing into stock price is lower for offshore firms than for non‐offshore firms. We also find that as offshore firms become more aggressive in their tax avoidance strategies, their stock prices impound a lower amount of firm‐specific information relative to common information. Finally, we find that a strong offshore proclivity also deters firm‐specific information flows, thereby driving up stock price synchronicity. Our results suggest that the opaque and complex nature of business and financial transactions in OFCs, coupled with their institutional characteristics, that is, weak and flexible legal enforcement, zero or extremely low taxation, and low litigation risk, provide offshore firms with not only stronger incentives but also the opportunities and means to adopt opaque disclosure policies and aggressive earnings management.     

Early internet IPOs versus subsequent entrants

This paper examines whether investors in early Internet IPOs earned superior returns to those who invested in later entrants. We document three differences between early public firms in a new Internet technology and their followers: underpricing, operating characteristics at the IPO, and stock price performance after the IPO. We find that there is value in going public relatively early in a new Internet technology. Specifically, long-term returns are significantly higher for the early entrants. We also find evidence, consistent with previous studies that examine hot IPO markets, that the early public firms have better operating characteristics at the IPO than later entrants.     

The Effect of CEO Stock-Based Compensation on the Pricing of Future Earnings

This paper examines whether CEO stock-based compensation has an effect on the market’s ability to predict future earnings. When stock-based compensation motivates managers to share their private information with shareholders, it will expedite the pricing of future earnings in current stock prices. In contrast, when equity-compensated managers attempt to temporarily manipulate the stock price to maximize their own benefit rather than that of shareholders, the market may not fully anticipate future performance. We find that a CEO’s stock-based compensation strengthens the association between current returns and future earnings, indicating that more information about future earnings is reflected in current stock prices. In addition, we find that the positive effect is weaker for firms that have a high level of signed discretionary accruals or a low management forecast frequency. Overall, our study suggests that on average, equity-based compensation improves the informativeness of stock prices about future earnings, while opportunistic discretionary accruals or lowered earnings guidance hamper this improvement.     

The long-term performance following dividend initiations and resumptions revisited

Previous studies have documented that an announcement of dividend initiation and resumption is associated with an increase in stock price, while Boehme and Sorescu (J Finance 47:871–900, 2002) argue that the dividend anomaly only occurs by chance. However, their sample contains firms listed within 3 and/or 5 years of their respective initial public offering (IPO) dates, as well as regulated firms. We conjecture that the confounding effects of IPOs and regulated firms may interfere with the increase in stock prices due to dividend initiations and resumptions and bias their results. We thus reexamine the long-term stock performance following dividend initiations and resumptions by excluding newly IPO firms and regulated firms. We find no evidence that the non-robust positive price drifts for firms, which initiate or resume cash dividends, is due to the confounding effects of IPOs and regulated firms. Therefore the price drifts after dividend initiation and resumption announcements may be a sample-specific result of chance, even after controlling for possible sample selection biases.     

Determinants of the medium of payment used to acquire privately-held targets

Since private firms have a unique ownership structure, the method of payment decision when acquiring private firms is influenced by a different set of factors than the method of payment decision when acquiring public firms. We find that bidders are more likely to pay for private targets with stock when the capital gain tax rate is relatively high. This relationship is attributed to greater tax benefits to private owners who receive stock in periods when the capital gains tax is high. Bidders are more likely to use stock in takeovers when the targets are high-tech firms, which we attribute to protection against overpayment by using a contingent pricing method. Bidders are more likely to use cash in takeovers since the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which we attribute to the higher level of due diligence by bidder managers and board members, and therefore a reduced need for contingent pricing methods like stock. Overall, the results suggest the likelihood of using stock to acquire private targets is positively related to the information asymmetry between the parties, while the likelihood of using cash is greater when conditions (such as SOX) reduce the information asymmetry.