ON the TIMING of INITIAL STOCK REPURCHASES

In this paper, we study the timing of initial stock repurchases for a sample of firms from their IPO onwards, using panel adjusted logistic regressions and hazard models to examine which variables may predict and theoretical hypotheses may explain these transactions. First, we find that initial repurchases (in comparison with non-repurchase firms) seem to have similar financial characteristics of dividend initiators (relative to matched dividend postpone firms), as reported by Kale et al., (2006) and Bulan et al., (2006). Second, our empirical findings in the two multivariate empirical approaches used are particularly consistent with the timing and undervaluation signaling hypotheses in explaining the timing of stock repurchases, consistent with the results of Jagannathan and Stephens (2003) for the likelihood of less frequent stock repurchases. We also offer some support for the risk reduction signaling, free cash flow and maturity hypotheses for initial repurchase firms which are also dividend payers.