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Investor attention, analyst recommendation revisions, and stock prices

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  • Welagedara, Venura
  • Deb, Saikat Sovan
  • Singh, Harminder

Abstract

We provide evidence that investors underreact after analysts' recommendation upgrades; however, price reactions are faster after downgrades. We measure individual investors' attention using Google's search volume index. Our findings indicate that, after upgrades, stocks that enjoy greater individual investors' attention underreact significantly more compared to stocks that receive high level of attention from institutional investors. On the other hand, after recommendation downgrades, stocks with higher levels of prior attention from individual investors overreact and show a significantly greater price reversal compared to stocks that received high level of attention from institutional investors. Our results suggest that attentive individual investors may not be rational; hence investor attention and investor sophistication are important for price discovery in the market.

Suggested Citation

  • Welagedara, Venura & Deb, Saikat Sovan & Singh, Harminder, 2017. "Investor attention, analyst recommendation revisions, and stock prices," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 211-223.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:pacfin:v:45:y:2017:i:c:p:211-223
    DOI: 10.1016/j.pacfin.2016.05.010
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    Cited by:

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    2. Smales, L.A., 2021. "Investor attention and global market returns during the COVID-19 crisis," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    3. Chen, Xing & Diao, Xundi & Wu, Chongfeng, 2022. "Heterogeneous investor attention and post earnings announcement drift: Evidence from China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
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    5. Anna Blajer-Gołębiewska, 2021. "Individual corporate reputation and perception of collective corporate reputation regarding stock market investments," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(9), pages 1-21, September.
    6. Han, Liyan & Xu, Yang & Yin, Libo, 2018. "Forecasting the CNY-CNH pricing differential: The role of investor attention," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 232-247.
    7. Liyan Han & Xinbei Wei & Sen Yan & Qunzi Zhang, 2022. "Analyst rating matters for index futures," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 42(11), pages 2084-2100, November.
    8. Yuan, Ying & Fan, Xiaoqian & Li, Yiou, 2022. "Do local and non-local retail investor attention impact stock returns differently?," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    9. Mišečka, Tomáš & Ciaian, Pavel & Rajčániová, Miroslava & Pokrivčák, Jan, 2019. "In search of attention in agricultural commodity markets," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    10. Wu, Ming-Hung & Tsai, Wei-Che & Lu, Chia-Chi & Zhang, Hang, 2022. "Google searches around analyst recommendation revision announcements: Evidence from the Taiwan stock market," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 75-97.

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