Analyst Following of Initial Public Offerings.

The authors examine data on analyst following for a sample of initial public offerings completed between 1975 and 1987 to see how they related to three well-documented initial public offering (IPO) anomalies. They find that higher underpricing leads to increased analyst following. Analysts are overoptimistic about the earnings potential and long-term growth prospects of recent IPOs. More firms complete IPOs when analysts are particularly optimistic about the growth prospects of recent IPOs. In the long run, IPOs have better stock performance when analysts ascribe low growth potential rather than high growth potential. These results suggest that the anomalies may be partially driven by overoptimism. Copyright 1997 by American Finance Association.