The extent to which financial analysts provide ‘herd' rather than ‘bold' (or anti-herd) earnings forecasts has important implications for market efficiency. Identifying any contributing factor(s) for financial analyst herding behavior can lead to policies to help reduce such harmful conduct....

Market analysts typically present their views on firms through publicly released recommendation reports and revisions, in which they ‘upgrade’ or ‘downgrade’ their stock picks. Traders can earn substantial profits if they have access to the information in these reports in advance of...