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Why do firms manage their stock price levels?

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  • Amini, Shima
  • Buchner, Axel
  • Cai, Charlie X.
  • Mohamed, Abdulkadir

Abstract

Building on the catering hypothesis and institutional investor preference literature, we propose a generalized catering hypothesis that managers cater their share price level to different types of investor (individual vs institutional) in order to attract them, conditional on the firm’s preferences as to ownership mix. We show that an institutional ownership premium provides strong explanatory power to the change in share price norm. This evidence supports our hypothesis that managers cater their share price level to the preference of institutional investors, but only when there is substantial benefit in doing so. Further tests reveal that the premium is higher for long term than for short term investors.

Suggested Citation

  • Amini, Shima & Buchner, Axel & Cai, Charlie X. & Mohamed, Abdulkadir, 2020. "Why do firms manage their stock price levels?," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:intfin:v:67:y:2020:i:c:s1042443120301049
    DOI: 10.1016/j.intfin.2020.101220
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Institutional ownership; Share price puzzle; IPO; Stock split; Norm hypothesis; Catering hypothesis;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G02 - Financial Economics - - General - - - Behavioral Finance: Underlying Principles
    • G10 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - General (includes Measurement and Data)
    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates

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