Download or read book Voluntary Disclosures and Insider Transactions written by Christopher F. Noe and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 42 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper investigates the association between voluntary disclosures and insider transactions (i.e. transactions made by managers in their own firms' shares). Specifically, insider transaction patterns are analyzed around 949 management earnings forecasts issued by 85 firms between July 1, 1979 and December 31, 1987. The findings show that the incidence of insider transactions decreases prior to management earnings forecasts and increases afterwords. Moreover, the findings show that the likelihood of an insider transaction occurring in the period following a management earnings forecast is related to empirical proxies for the possibility of a manager being privately informed. Overall, these findings are consistent with managers utilizing voluntary disclosures to bond themselves against exploiting private information for insider transaction purposes. Keywords: Information asymmetry; Managerial opportunism; Insider transactions; Management earnings forecasts.

Download or read book Insider Trading and Voluntary Disclosures written by Qiang Cheng and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 51 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We hypothesize that insiders strategically choose disclosure policies and the timing of their equity trades to maximize trading profits, subject to the litigation costs associated with disclosure and insider trading. Accounting for endogeneity between disclosures and trading, we find that when managers plan to purchase shares, they increase the number of bad news forecasts to reduce the purchase price. In addition, this relation is stronger for trades initiated by chief executive officers than those initiated by other executives. Confirming this strategic behavior, we find that managers successfully time their trades around bad news forecasts, buying fewer shares beforehand and more afterwards. We do not find that managers adjust their forecasting activity when they are selling shares, consistent with higher litigation concerns associated with insider sales. Overall, our evidence suggests that insiders do exploit voluntary disclosure opportunities for personal gain, but only selectively, when litigation risk is sufficiently low.

Download or read book Hiding in Plain Sight written by M. Todd Henderson and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 33 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Can voluntary disclosure be used to enhance insiders' strategic trade while providing legal cover? We investigate this question in the context of 10b5-1 trading plans. Prior literature suggests that insiders lose strategic trade value if their planned trades are disclosed. But disclosure might enhance strategic trade because courts can only consider publicly available evidence from defendants at the motion to dismiss phase of trial. This practice can enhance legal protection for firms that disclose planned trades, especially those disclosing detailed information. Consistent with increased legal protection, we find that voluntary disclosure of planned trades increases with firm litigation risk and potential gains to insiders' trades. We also find that insider sales and abnormal returns are higher for disclosed plans, especially those that articulate specific plan details. This suggests that voluntary disclosure, which is conventionally thought to reduce information asymmetries, can create legal cover for opportunistic insider trading.

Download or read book Insider Trading and Disclosure written by Eli Amir and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 37 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We examine the relation between insider trading and corporate disclosure of cyberattacks. We distinguish between companies that voluntarily disclosed cyberattacks and those that withheld information on the incidents, and parties outside the attacked company later discovered the incident. We find insiders sell stocks in cases their firm withholds information on the cyberattack from investors. However, in firms that voluntarily disclosed information about the attack, we find insiders are less likely to sell shares when information is still private. We also find that managers are less likely to withhold and sell stocks in states that require companies to disclose data breaches to the state attorney general. The requirement to disclose a breach to the state attorney marks the breach as a significant event, on which insiders are less likely to trade before disclosure because of higher litigation risk. When disclosure requirements are less strict and disclosure is virtually voluntary, insiders trade after withholding information on the cyberattack. The results demonstrate the relation between disclosure and insider trading, and in particular show managers are more (less) likely to trade on private information that they know the company will withhold (disclose).

Download or read book Scienter Disclosure written by M. Todd Henderson and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 42 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study examines implications of 'scienter disclosure' through an analysis of voluntary disclosures regarding insiders' Rule 10b5-1 trading plans. Prior theory suggests that disclosing informed traders' intent to trade is not strategically advantageous, but this theory does not account for litigation risk reduction resulting from disclosure. Legal precedent regarding Rule 10b5-1 affords legal risk reduction to disclosure, therefore voluntary disclosure offers an interesting theoretical test. Evidence indicates that Rule 10b5-1 disclosure increases with firm litigation risk and insider strategic trade potential. Evidence also indicates that Rule 10b5-1 disclosure is associated with greater abnormal returns to insiders' trades, especially for firms disclosing specific plan details. This evidence suggests that legal risk can compel firms to depart from a non-disclosure strategy and that disclosure might enhance strategic trade. Evidence also suggests that non-disclosing firms are least associated with strategic trade; therefore proposed mandatory Rule 10b5-1 disclosure might not mitigate strategic behavior.

Download or read book Insider Regulation and Timely Disclosure written by Klaus J. Hopt and published by Springer. This book was released on 1996-02-27 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The general problems regarding the timely topic of regulation of insider dealing and timely disclosure of new facts are discussed in a comparative fashion in this lecture in the light of the EC Directive of 13 November 1989 And The German Securities Exchange Act. In particular, attention is given to efforts to harmonize German law with the EC Directive.

Download or read book Voluntary Disclosure Information Asymmetry and Insider Selling Through Secondary Equity Offerings written by Christine I. Wiedman and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper examines the relation of voluntary disclosure of management earnings forecasts and information asymmetry to insider selling through secondary equity offerings. We hypothesize that the pattern of voluntary disclosure and level of information asymmetry prior to secondary equity offerings differs systematically based on the identity of the seller. Specifically, we predict a greater frequency of voluntary disclosure and decreased level of information asymmetry when managers sell their stock through a secondary offering. We examine this hypothesis in a cross-sectional analysis of 210 secondary equity offerings from 1984-91, using a two-stage conditional maximum likelihood simultaneous equations estimation procedure, which allows for possible endogeneity in the manger?s decision to sell stock. Consistent with our predictions, we document a significantly positive association between managerial participation and voluntary disclosure of earnings forecasts in the nine-month period prior to registration of the offering. We also document a significantly negative association between managerial participation and two proxies for information asymmetry. The findings provide evidence that managers act as if reduced information asymmetry correlates with a reduced cost of capital.

Download or read book Insider Trading and Response to Earnings Announcements written by Semih Tartaroglu and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 29 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper contributes to the debate on the consequences of increased disclosure regulation by investigating the effects of expedited reporting requirements of Form 4 filings, mandated by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), on the market response to earnings announcements. We first confirm that SOX reduces opportunistic insider trading without deterring insider trading due to diversification needs, and that post-SOX, opportunistic insider trades more strongly reveal upcoming earnings surprises. We then document that, at the earnings announcement date, earnings response coefficients (ERCs) are lower when earnings are preceded by opportunistic insider trades. We conclude that accelerated disclosures of insider transactions mandated by SOX lend to more informationally efficient prices prior to earnings announcements. Our findings stand as one piece of evidence suggesting positive externalities from recent Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) disclosure regulation and add to the scarce evidence on the consequences of changes in Form 4 filing requirements.

Download or read book Are All Insider Sales Created Equal First Evidence from Supplementary Disclosures in SEC Filings written by Amir Amel-Zadeh and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 58 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study is the first to analyse managers' voluntary supplementary disclosures on insider trade filings with the SEC. Based on the content of the disclosures, we are able to distinguish between discretionary and nondiscretionary sales. We document significantly negative abnormal filing returns to discretionary sales while abnormal returns to nondiscretionary sales are essentially zero. Examining the motivations for supplementary disclosures with discretionary sales, we find evidence consistent with insiders strategically disclosing liquidity needs to disguise informed trading. Disclosures to discretionary sales are more likely when the legal risk of trading is high and when insiders offload a large amount of stock. Although investors react negatively to these disclosures, we also find significantly negative long-term abnormal returns over the subsequent months suggesting that investors under-react to the negative information in these sales. A long-short portfolio investment strategy that exploits this under-reaction earns an economically significant 16% risk-adjusted return per year. Consistent with insiders selling ahead of bad news, discretionary sales for which insider provide disclosures are more likely to precede analyst downgrades and negative earnings surprises.

Download or read book Trading Prior to the Disclosure of Material Information written by John L. Campbell and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Regulation Fair Disclosure (Reg FD) Form 8-K filings provide a venue where managers release information to the market as a whole that they designate as being material. Using this setting, we study trading patterns immediately prior to the public disclosure of material information. We offer three main results. First, using both intra-day and daily trading data, we find abnormal trading volume of 21 percent (13 percent) in the hour (day) prior to the public disclosure, respectively. Second, we find that this pre-disclosure abnormal trading volume is concentrated in firms that are smaller, have more growth opportunities, issue fewer voluntary disclosures, and have weaker external monitoring. Finally, we find that this pre-disclosure volume is concentrated in subsamples in which the information relates to a firm's material contracts, a firm holds investor/analyst conferences, and there is insider trading activity in a firm's shares. Our results do not concentrate in a small number of firms or industries, and do not appear to be explained by the form through which managers first release the material information (e.g., Form 8-K, press release, website posting, or social media). Our results are also robust to controlling for the firm's other filings and peer filings that occur around the disclosure. Overall, the trading patterns we document may show that, inconsistent with the spirit of Reg FD, a subset of investors trade on information managers deem material prior to its broad, public release.

Download or read book Essays in Audit Market Enforcement Actions and Voluntary Disclosures written by Seong Jin Ahn (Accounting professor) and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This dissertation is comprised of three empirical essays relating to audit market, SEC enforcement actions, and voluntary disclosure. The first essay investigates the effects of auditor office location on client and auditor surplus. Using a two-sided matching market model, I find that, while both clients and auditors bear the costs of geographic distance, auditors disproportionately bear costs. Although distance exerts costs on clients, clients incur distance costs to gain auditor expertise. Next, I examine how the stickiness of audit office locations affects equilibrium audit market matches. The immobility of audit office locations results in a market-wide surplus loss of 1.6%, and leaves 8% of clients worse off. In addition, by aggregating individual client-auditor surplus at the MSA and state level, I find that in underserved regions, clients are more likely to choose their second-best auditors, and auditors are more likely to extract rents from clients. Finally, relocating audit offices in overserved regions, such as Detroit and Cincinnati, to underserved regions, such as Austin and Houston, improves market-wide surplus, and therefore, leaves clients and auditors in both regions better off. Overall, this paper contributes to the literature by highlighting how an audit market friction (stickiness in audit office location) affects surplus and auditor matches. The second essay examines whether SEC insider trading charges deter illegal insider trading activity among non-targeted insider employed by firms in the same industry. The second essay is co-authored with Jared Jennings. Using a hand-collected sample of SEC insider trading charges, we find that non-targeted insiders at peer firms execute less profitable non-routine purchases following the disclosure of the SEC insider trading charges. We find that the insider non-routine purchase results are concentrated among non-targeted insiders at peer firms that are geographically closer to the targeted firm. We find no consistent evidence that non-targeted insiders at peer firms execute less profitable non-routine sales after SEC insider trading charges are filed. These results provide evidence on the effectiveness of SEC enforcement actions on deterring questionable insider trading activities. Lastly, the third essay examines the implications of unbundled management forecast news for future earnings and returns. This third essay is co-authored with Zachary Kaplan and Salman Arif. We find that positive (negative) management forecast news predicts higher (lower) unexpected earnings over the upcoming year, but this positive predictive relation flips to negative over the following year. Further, while stock returns initially drift in the same direction as the news in the management forecast, returns begin to reverse beginning six months after the forecast and this reversal continues over the following two years. We conduct several analyses which suggest that return reversals occur because investors over-extrapolate the news from management forecasts. First, we find that positive (negative) management forecast news leads to analyst earnings forecasts that are excessively optimistic (pessimistic). Second, we find that management forecasts which are less persistent (e.g. forecasts by firms with higher earnings volatility and forecasts that convey negative news) are associated with larger return reversals. Third, we find that increasing the frequency or providing forecasts for a number of horizons mitigates the return reversals. Overall, our findings contribute to our understanding of the information conveyed by management forecasts and suggest that market participants overreact to unbundled management forecasts.

Download or read book Voluntary Disclosure in Bilateral Transactions written by Vincent Glode and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We characterize optimal voluntary disclosures by a privately informed agent facing a counterparty endowed with market power in a bilateral transaction. Although disclosures reveal some of the agent's private information, they may increase his information rents by mitigating the counterparty's incentives to resort to inefficient screening. We show that when disclosures are restricted to be ex post verifiable, the informed agent optimally designs a disclosure plan that is partial and that implements socially efficient trade in equilibrium. Our results shed light on the conditions necessary for asymmetric information to impede trade and the determinants of disclosures' coarseness.

Download or read book The Characteristics of a Firm s Information Environment and the Predictive Ability of Insider Trades written by Richard M. Frankel and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study examines the relation between the ability of insider trades to predict future returns and the availability of firm information. It investigates the marginal effect of three information sources: financial statements, analyst following, and firm information provided by voluntary disclosures or general news coverage. Timely disclosure of value relevant information reduces insiders' ability to trade profitably on private information. Investors acquire timely information from a variety of sources, and information provided by one source can affect the production of information by other sources. Thus, we examine these major sources simultaneously to understand the marginal effects of each. We find that the ability of insider trades to predict future returns diminishes in situations of increased analyst following and financial statement informativeness. However, we are unable to find a significant relation between the availability of company news and the predictive ability of insider trades.

Download or read book Talking Up Liquidity written by Ming Huang and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 45 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Managements (quot;insidersquot;) of many corporations, especially small or newly public firms, invest considerable resources in investor relations such as voluntary disclosures and courting analyst coverage. We develop a model to explore the role of such costly investments and the incentives of insiders to undertake them. In contrast to existing theories, we point out that insiders may undertake such investments not necessarily to improve the share price, but to enhance the liquidity of their block of shares in case they have to sell their equity stakes for liquidity reasons. This leads to a divergence of interest between insiders and dispersed outside shareholders regarding investor relations. The costs of investor relations are paid by all shareholders, though dispersed shareholders care little about market liquidity because of their small holdings. Our model predicts that the demographics of insiders (e.g. liquidity needs, size of equity stakes) are determinants of the extent of investor relations across firms.

Download or read book Insider Trading and the Stock Market written by Henry G. Manne and published by . This book was released on 1966 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Other People s Money written by Louis Dembitz Brandeis and published by Binker North. This book was released on 1914 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The great monopoly in this country is money. So long as that exists, our old variety and individual energy of development are out of the question. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit.

Download or read book Investment Intelligence from Insider Trading written by H. Nejat Seyhun and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2000-02-28 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Learn how to profit from information about insider trading. The term insider trading refers to the stock transactions of the officers, directors, and large shareholders of a firm. Many investors believe that corporate insiders, informed about their firms' prospects, buy and sell their own firm's stock at favorable times, reaping significant profits. Given the extra costs and risks of an active trading strategy, the key question for stock market investors is whether the publicly available insider-trading information can help them to outperform a simple passive index fund. Basing his insights on an exhaustive data set that captures information on all reported insider trading in all publicly held firms over the past twenty-one years—over one million transactions!—H. Nejat Seyhun shows how investors can use insider information to their advantage. He documents the magnitude and duration of the stock price movements following insider trading, determinants of insiders' profits, and the risks associated with imitating insider trading. He looks at the likely performance of individual firms and of the overall stock market, and compares the value of what one can learn from insider trading with commonly used measures of value such as price-earnings ratio, book-to-market ratio, and dividend yield.