Seasoned equity issuers’ prospectus filings: How informative is their tone?
研究发现成熟股票发行人的招股说明书中谨慎语气与发行折扣正相关、与发行日股票收益负相关，且从初稿到终稿语气谨慎程度增加会伴随更低的异常收益，表明谨慎语气包含负面信息。
Abstract Seasoned equity issuers file Forms S and 424B with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We find that 424B filings’ weak‐modal tone is positively related to offer price discounts and negatively related to offer‐day stock returns. Increases in cautionary (weak‐modal, uncertain, and negative) tone from the initial to final filing are followed by lower abnormal stock returns. Preliminary evidence indicates that cautionary tone relates positively to litigation risk and increased after the passage of the Sarbanes‐Oxley Act. Our findings suggest that the cautionary tone of seasoned equity issuers’ prospectuses has negative information content, which is gradually incorporated into the stock prices.