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Pierpont and the Capital Market

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  • PHILIP BROWN
  • ANDREW FERGUSON
  • ANDREW B. JACKSON

Abstract

For almost forty years Trevor Sykes was one of the most recognizable business journalists in Australia. Sykes created his Pierpont character in February 1972 while writing for Australia's leading financial paper, the Australian Financial Review. Pierpont was a take on J. Pierpont Morgan, founder of the J. P. Morgan banking house. Sykes used his Pierpont column to research and reflect on the curious world of Australian business. Articles were mostly in narrative form, comprising an in‐depth critique of one or more companies and written with more than a touch of humour. Over the years Pierpont garnered a large following, and it is therefore quite possible his musings influenced investors' beliefs about company fundamentals. We assess this possibility by examining the share price movements of companies around the time they found themselves featured in a Pierpont column. We extend previous work in this area by examining the market reaction to a popular columnist's writings published regularly over a lengthy period, and by implementing an extensive double‐coding procedure that allows us to more finely and reliably partition trading recommendations based on the content of each column. In brief, we find evidence that stocks with positive coverage by Pierpont enjoyed abnormal returns averaging 6.4 per cent over thirty days around the publication date, while stocks with negative coverage suffered abnormal losses of 5.5 per cent. Trading volume was also affected.

Suggested Citation

  • Philip Brown & Andrew Ferguson & Andrew B. Jackson, 2009. "Pierpont and the Capital Market," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 45(2), pages 147-170, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:abacus:v:45:y:2009:i:2:p:147-170
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-6281.2009.00281.x
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    Cited by:

    1. Alexey Feigin & Andrew Ferguson & Matthew Grosse & Tom Scott, 2016. "Evidence on why firms use different disclosure outlets," Accounting Research Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 29(3), pages 274-291, September.
    2. Andrew Ferguson & Tom Scott & Neil Fargher, 2016. "The determinants and market reaction to Open Briefings: an investor relations option and evidence on the effectiveness of disclosure," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 56(3), pages 803-843, September.
    3. Philip Brown & Alexey Feigin & Andrew Ferguson, 2014. "Market reactions to the reports of a star resource analyst," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 39(1), pages 137-158, February.
    4. Ferguson, Andrew & Scott, Tom, 2011. "Market reactions to Australian boutique resource investor presentations," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 330-338.
    5. Miriam Koning & Gerard Mertens & Peter Roosenboom, 2010. "The Impact of Media Attention on the Use of Alternative Earnings Measures," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 46(3), pages 258-288, September.

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