The Information Content of Multiple Stock Splits

We examine the relationship between the frequency of stock splits and firms' motives for splitting their stock. Compared to their peers, infrequent splitters show higher post‐split operating performance, but not so for frequent splitters. We find that split ratio and liquidity change explain the stock split announcement effect for the frequent splitters. In contrast, the change in operating performance in the split year explains the announcement effect for the infrequent splitters. Our results suggest that frequent splits are more consistent with the trading range‐improved/liquidity hypothesis and infrequent splits are more consistent with the signaling hypothesis.     

Liquidity dynamics across public and private markets

In this paper we investigate cross-asset liquidity between equity markets and REITs and between REITs and private real estate markets. While many studies have investigated REIT liquidity, and there is an emerging interest in liquidity in the private real estate markets, there appears to be little knowledge of the dynamics of cross-market liquidity. We find lower levels of liquidity for REITs compared to a set of control firms matched on size and book-to-market ratios. Commonality in liquidity is also lower for REITs than the controls and the overall market. However, we do find an important difference in share turnover for REITs, which appears to have a higher level of commonality than found in other studies. We suggest that this may be due to the financial crisis. Additionally we find evidence of similar time-series variation in liquidity for public and private real estate markets. We also find significant directional causality for most liquidity proxies from the public to private real estate markets. Finally our results show that there is strong contemporaneous correlation between both public and private real estate market liquidity and the term spread and real investment and consumption spending. REIT liquidity measures based on intraday data also appear to contain important information not found in measures constructed from daily returns.     

The Effect Of Stock Splits On Liquidity And Excess Returns: Evidence From Shareholder Ownership Composition

We examine the influence of firm ownership composition on both the abnormal returns at the announcement of a stock split and liquidity changes following a stock split. We find three results. First, the largest post‐split increase in institutional ownership occurs for firms that had low institutional ownership before the split. Second, changes in liquidity are negatively related to the level of institutional ownership before the split. Last, the abnormal return following a split is negatively related to the level of institutional ownership before the split. These findings are important as they shed new light on the source of stock split announcement returns.     

Post-split underreaction: The importance of prior split history

The magnitude of the underreaction following a stock split is different depending on the number of splits that have already occurred. The first three splits are followed by abnormal profitability and significant underreaction, which are outcomes consistent with managers using splits to signal favorable information about the firm's prospects. However, abnormal profitability fails to materialize and the underreaction gradually dissipates with each subsequent split suggesting the efficacy of a split announcement as a vehicle to convey information is not constant but steadily reduces with each successive split. The underreaction is distinct from any short-term announcement effects and indicates the market does not immediately impound the split's information content. There is no significant change in liquidity around each consecutive split confirming that the underreaction is not explained by microstructure effects. As is the case with other corporate events, the market interprets the content of announcements already made multiple times differently from announcements made less often.     

What Drives the S&P 500 Inclusion Effect? An Analytical Survey

We present an analytical survey of the explanations—price pressure, downward-sloping demand curves, improved liquidity, improved operating performance, and increased investor awareness—for the increase in stock value associated with inclusion in the S&P 500 Index. We find that increased investor awareness is the primary factor behind the cross-section of abnormal announcement returns. We also find some evidence of temporary price pressure around the inclusion date. We find no evidence that long-run downward-sloping demand curves for stocks, anticipated improvements in operating performance, or increased liquidity are related to the cross-section of announcement or inclusion returns.     

Information,uncertainty, and behavioral effects: Evidence from abnormal returns around real estate investment trust earnings announcements

In this study, we examine the influence of real estate market sentiment, market-level uncertainty, and REIT-level uncertainty on cumulative abnormal earnings announcement returns over the 1995–2009 time period. We first document the relative coverage of analysts' earnings forecasts on U.S. REITs, as well as REITs from several countries (i.e., Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Hong Kong, Japan, the Netherlands, and UK). We show that coverage outside of the U.S. is limited, and we consequently focus our analysis on U.S. REITs. We find strong evidence that earnings announcements contain pricing relevant information, with positive (negative) earnings surprises relative to analysts' forecasts resulting in significantly positive (negative) abnormal returns around the announcement date. Consistent with the findings from the broader equity market literature, we find limited evidence of a pre-announcement drift in the cumulative abnormal returns. However, in sharp contrast to the existing equity literature, we find no evidence of a post-earnings announcement drift in our aggregate sample or when the sample is restricted to the largest negative surprises. We find evidence of a post-earnings announcement drift for only the largest positive earnings surprises. These results are consistent with REIT returns more quickly impounding information relative to the broader equity market, in part because of the parallel private real estate market and because of the U.S. REIT structure and information environment. Finally, in our conditional regression analysis of cumulative abnormal returns, we find that real estate investor sentiment, market-wide uncertainty, and firm-level uncertainty significantly affect the magnitude of abnormal announcement returns and also influence the effect of unexpected earnings on abnormal returns.     

Stock splits in a neutral transaction cost environment: Evidence from the Athens Stock Exchange

This paper investigates the value consequences of stock splits in a market where institutional characteristics minimize the effects of price realignment and signaling. We find that despite these market conditions, stock splits by Greek firms produce positive price reaction around the announcement day. Further, split factors are directly related to pre-split price levels and deviations from average market prices. Splitting firms also realize earnings improvement which is not reversed after the stock split. Consistent with these findings, market reaction is inversely related to the post-split target price and the size of firm. We interpret this as evidence in support, respectively, of the self-selection and “attention-gathering” hypotheses. As reported in other international studies, there is no evidence of liquidity improvement.     

REIT Stock Splits and Market Efficiency

An analysis of real estate investment trust (REIT) stock splits is presented. Evaluation of the initial reaction to split REITs supports efficient market pricing where REITs generate statistically significant positive announcement date returns, no statistically significant record date returns, and muted ex-date returns. In the long-term, split REITs do not consistently out perform benchmark portfolios over one-year, two-year, and three-year periods. REITs split subsequent to a substantial run up in stock price and to improve the position of their post split stock price relative to the stock price of the typical REIT.     

Stock splits, trading continuity, and the cost of equity capital

We hypothesize that managers use stock splits to attract more uninformed trading so that market makers can provide liquidity services at lower costs, thereby increasing investors’ trading propensity and improving liquidity. We examine a large sample of stock splits and find that, consistent with our hypothesis, the incidence of no trading decreases and liquidity risk is lower following splits, implying a decline in latent trading costs and a reduced cost of equity capital. Further, split announcement returns are correlated with the improvements in both liquidity levels and liquidity risk. Our analysis suggests nontrivial economic benefits from liquidity improvements, with less liquid firms benefiting more from stock splits.     

Corporate Governance and Performance in the Market for Corporate Control: The Case of REITs

We examine 132 mergers and acquisitions by Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) during 1997–2006 and explore the relationship between acquirer external and internal corporate governance mechanisms and announcement abnormal returns. We argue that in regulated industries with absent active takeover market, the importance of outside governance mechanisms is diminished and substituted by internal governance controls. We focus on the REIT industry. We find that bidder returns are higher for REITs with smaller boards, with more experienced CEOs, but with shorter tenure. Acquirers’ announcement returns are also significantly and positively related to higher ownership by their CEOs and board directors. We find no significant relationship between presence of staggered board and abnormal bidder returns, which supports our hypothesis that anti-takeover defense measures have reduced importance for REITs.     

资本市场国际影响力提升效应研究——来自A股纳入明晟(MSCI)新兴市场指数的证据

2018年5月15日,首批纳入明晟(MSCI)新兴市场指数的A股股票名单正式公布。我们发现,被纳入MSCI的股票(标的股票)在公告日前后有显著为正的累计超额收益。相较于主要特征相似的匹配股票,标的股票纳入MSCI后的分析师评级有显著提升。进一步研究表明,在公告日前后融资(融券)交易量显著上升(下降),而换手率没有明显变化,并且净融资交易与公告效应显著正相关。本文的发现表明,A股纳入MSCI这一事件具有明显的信息含量,传递了有关企业前景的正面信息,并促使本地市场聪明投资者进行更活跃的交易,这对促进价格发现、促成价值投资具有一定的推动作用。     

Real Earnings Management,Liquidity Risk and REITs SEO Dynamics

We analyze how REITs managers use real earnin gs management to address issues of liquidity risk and increased cost of capital they face during seasoned equity offerings. We show that REITs managers engage in real earnings management instead of accrual earnings management to attract more uninformed trading in order to provide the liquidity service at a lower cost during seasoned equity offerings. We find REITs with higher liquidity risk are more likely to manipulate earnings prior to equity offerings and uninformed trading is higher following real earnings management. Firms set the offer price at a smaller discount after engaging in real earnings management and stock returns decline in the long run. The findings are consistent with real option and liquidity risk explanations for equity offerings.     

Event study with imperfect competition and private information: earnings announcements revisited

Although prior research documents that prices respond to earnings announcements, only a little of the price variation is explained by these announcements. To further investigate the properties of the information environment around these announcements we use NYSE TAQ data and compute the maximum likelihood estimates (MLEs) of the primitive parameters of a Kyle (Econometrica 53(6):1315–1336, 1985) type model within and around earnings announcement windows. These include the precision of fundamentals given only public information, the precision of private signals, and the variance of uninformed liquidity trading (noise). We find that liquidity noise is higher while the precision of beliefs given only public information is lower within an earnings announcement window. The precision of private information is higher in an event window, consistent with greater information acquisition to try and interpret a public announcement. We also document that Kyle’s λ is higher in an event window, showing an overall increase in information asymmetry. Our overall findings suggest that the earnings announcement window is distinguished from the preceding and subsequent windows not by being a period with more public information but as a period with different public information.     

The Reaction of Closed End Funds to Stock Distribution Announcements

This study examines the impact of stock split and stock dividend announcements made by closed end mutual funds. We argue that the asymmetric information / signaling hypothesis does not apply to mutual funds. Therefore, any announcement effects must be attributed to other factors such as the optimal trading range hypothesis. We find that closed end funds react no differently than other firms to stock distribution announcements; also, trading volume and turnover remain unchanged after closed end funds' ex-stock distribution days, while liquidity declines for other firms that distribute shares.     

The impact of regulation FD on the information environment: evidence from the stock market response to stock split announcements

This paper examines the information environment effects of regulation fair disclosure (Reg FD). We investigate the stock market response to stock splits in the pre- and post-regulation periods. We find that abnormal returns around split announcement are positive in both periods, but the magnitude of the returns is smaller in the post-FD period relative to the pre-FD period. The difference between the pre- and post-FD period abnormal returns persists even after we control for factors that may affect split announcement returns. We also find that the magnitude of the association between announcement returns and the unexpected portion of the split factor has increased post-regulation. Our analysis of performance trends for split firms reveals that patterns of profitability and changes in profitability in the years around stock splits are similar in the pre- and post-FD periods. However, we find that announcement returns are associated with lagged profitability changes in the pre-FD period, but with future profitability changes in the post-FD period. Collectively, our results imply that Reg FD has reduced information asymmetry and improved price efficiency.     

Strategic trading by index funds and liquidity provision around S&P 500 index additions

We examine the trades of index funds and other institutions around S&P 500 index additions. We find index funds begin rebalancing their portfolios with the announcement of composition changes and do not fully establish their positions until weeks after the effective date. Trading away from the effective date is more prevalent for stocks with lower levels of liquidity and among large index funds, which is consistent with index funds accepting higher tracking error in order to reduce the price impact of their trades. Small and mid-cap funds provide liquidity to index funds around additions, and added stocks with a greater proportion of these natural liquidity providers experience lower inclusion returns.     

The liquidity and trading activity effects of acquisition payment methods: Evidence from the announcements of private firms' acquisitions

We investigate how the liquidity and trading activity effects of the announcement of the acquisition of private targets vary by payment method. We find significant increases in trading activity around acquisition announcement dates irrespective of the payment method used; however, fluctuations are lower for acquisitions financed by earnouts and cash. Similarly, the stocks of acquirers using cash and earnouts are also less affected by a general loss of liquidity that accompanies announcements. We show that these effects are explained by the interpretation of cash acquisition by the market as an option used when acquirers perceive no risk of being adversely selected, and the potential of earnout as an adverse selection risk reduction tool.     

Changes in REIT Liquidity 1988?C2007: Evidence from Daily Data

In this study, we present panel-data evidence on REIT liquidity and its determinants over the 1988?C2007 period. We focus upon liquidity measures that do not require micro-structure data (1) to facilitate use of our results as benchmarks for comparisons with results from international markets for which micro-structure data may be unavailable, (2) to provide benchmarks that do not require access to costly (and voluminous) micro-structure data. We find that REIT liquidity improved during the early and mid-1990s, deteriorated during the late 1990s, and then improved dramatically during 2000?C2006, with the notable exception of 2007. Liquidity improved the most for REITs traded on the NYSE, and was an order of magnitude better than liquidity of REITs traded on the AMEX or NASDAQ. We link the deterioration in liquidity observed in 2007 to the investment portfolio of a REIT. We find that the percentage bid-ask spread is highly correlated with the measure of price impact proposed by Amihud (2002). We provide panel-data evidence on the key determinants of the percentage bid-ask spread that largely confirms the results reported by Bhasin et al. (1997) for 1990 and 1994: the percentage spread is a positive function of the volatility of stock returns, and a negative function of dollar volume turnover, share price and market capitalization. Finally, we provide evidence that these results obtained using daily closing bid- and ask-prices are not qualitatively different from those obtained using market micro-structure data. This suggests that we can use liquidity measures based upon readily available daily return data rather than being forced to rely upon market micro-structure data.     

Volatilities and Momentum Returns in Real Estate Investment Trusts

We examine the relation of time-varying idiosyncratic risk and momentum returns in REITs using a GARCH-in-mean model and incorporate liquidity risk in the asset pricing model. This is important because illiquidity may be more severe for REITs due to the nature of their underlying assets. We find that momentum returns display asymmetric volatility, i.e., momentum returns are higher when volatility is higher. Additionally, we find evidence that REITs with lowest past returns (losers) have higher idiosyncratic risks than those with highest past returns (winners) and that investors require a lower risk premium for holding losers’ idiosyncratic risks. Therefore, although losers have higher levels of idiosyncratic risks, their low risk premia cause low returns, which contribute to momentum. Lastly, we find a positive relation between REITs’ momentum return and turnover.     

Institutional Ownership and the Dynamics of Trading Volume around FFO Announcements

We examine the effect of institutional ownership on abnormal trading volume around the announcement of funds from operations (FFO) by real estate investment trusts (REITs). Our central thesis is that abnormal trading volume is lower for the more informed institutions vis a vis non-sophisticated retail investors/institutions. We find a negative relationship between ownership by pension funds and abnormal trading volume around quarterly FFO announcements. However, ownership by the other types of institutions is unrelated to abnormal trading volume. Consistent with the view that some institutional investors are more informed than individual investors and therefore respond less to end of year announcements, we find that higher ownership by investment advisors is associated with lower levels of trading volume around end of year FFO announcements. Lastly, we find no evidence of institutional sell-offs associated with announcements of less than expected FFO.