This paper examines the initiation of analyst coverage of IPO firms in the presence of management forecasts. For a sample of 763 Australian IPOs from 1992 to 2004, we find firms that provide a management forecast in the prospectus are more likely to receive analyst coverage, after correcting for...

Prior research finds that sell-side analysts are generally willing partners with company management in facilitating the consistent meeting or beating of earnings expectations. We examine analysts who demonstrate the opposite behavior: issuing an unusually optimistic earnings forecast at the end...

We use machine learning techniques to conduct out-of-sample predictions of the underpricing of U.S. initial public offerings (IPOs) from 1990 to 2019. Using predicted underpricing based on ex ante information to sort the IPOs into 10 groups, we find that the underpricing averages for the top and...

We examine how brokerage firm IPOs influence the research quality of sell-side analysts employed by the brokerage. Our main results focus on earnings forecast bias and absolute forecast errors as proxies for research quality. Using a staggered difference-in-differences analysis, we document...

This paper provides global evidence supporting the hypothesis that expected return models are enhanced by the inclusion of variables that describe the evolution of book-to-market-changes in book value, changes in price, and net share issues. This conclusion is supported using data representing...

We assess investment value of sell-side analyst recommendations from the standpoint of portfolio risk. We match I/B/E/S consensus recommendations issued for U.S.-listed equities during January 2015 with realized volatility of daily security returns up to one year following recommendation issue....

In this paper we reconcile widely diverging recent estimates of broker misconduct. Qureshi and Sokobin report that 1.3% of current and past brokers are associated with awards or settlements in excess of a threshold amount. Egan, Matvos, and Seru find that 7.8% of current and former brokers have...

This paper investigates the informativeness and value relevance of analyst target prices in the context of mergers and acquisitions (M&A). Our results indicate that firms with high 12-month ahead target prices relative to current stock prices are more likely to become a takeover target and offer...