IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/corfin/v72y2022ics0929119922000098.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Nondisclosure and analyst behavior: Evidence from redaction of proprietary information from public filings

Author

Listed:
  • Fei, Xingyuan

Abstract

This study explores how redacting proprietary information from public filings is related to analyst following and the properties of analysts' earnings forecasts. Using hand-collected data on firms' confidential treatment orders from the Securities and Exchange Commission's Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval database, this study identifies firms that withhold information—redacting firms. Such firms are benchmarked to a matched set of firms not withholding information—non-redacting firms. The study predicts and demonstrates that compared to non-redacting firms, redacting firms have (i) a higher analyst following, (ii) more dispersed and less accurate analysts' earnings forecasts, and (iii) less precise public and private information in analysts' earnings forecasts. Further, additional analyses reveal that analysts covering redacting firms trade off accuracy for timeliness when issuing earnings forecasts, and the market reacts higher to the analyst reports of redacting firms. Moreover, for redacting firms, investors place a higher weight on the information derived from analysts than that obtained from the firm. Overall, the findings suggest that redacted disclosures are associated with greater investor demand for analyst outputs and a deterioration in the analysts' information environment. However, they are also associated with greater investor reliance on analyst outputs.

Suggested Citation

  • Fei, Xingyuan, 2022. "Nondisclosure and analyst behavior: Evidence from redaction of proprietary information from public filings," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:corfin:v:72:y:2022:i:c:s0929119922000098
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2022.102166
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0929119922000098
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2022.102166?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. James J. Heckman, 1976. "The Common Structure of Statistical Models of Truncation, Sample Selection and Limited Dependent Variables and a Simple Estimator for Such Models," NBER Chapters, in: Annals of Economic and Social Measurement, Volume 5, number 4, pages 475-492, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Hainmueller, Jens, 2012. "Entropy Balancing for Causal Effects: A Multivariate Reweighting Method to Produce Balanced Samples in Observational Studies," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(1), pages 25-46, January.
    3. Paul M. Healy & Amy P. Hutton & Krishna G. Palepu, 1999. "Stock Performance and Intermediation Changes Surrounding Sustained Increases in Disclosure," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(3), pages 485-520, September.
    4. Barth, Mary E. & Beaver, William H. & Landsman, Wayne R., 2001. "The relevance of the value relevance literature for financial accounting standard setting: another view," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1-3), pages 77-104, September.
    5. Chatalova, Natalia & How, Janice C.Y. & Verhoeven, Peter, 2016. "Analyst coverage and IPO management forecasts," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 263-277.
    6. Gerard Hoberg & Gordon Phillips, 2016. "Text-Based Network Industries and Endogenous Product Differentiation," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 124(5), pages 1423-1465.
    7. Billings, Mary Brooke & Jennings, Robert & Lev, Baruch, 2015. "On guidance and volatility," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(2), pages 161-180.
    8. Frankel, Richard & Kothari, S.P. & Weber, Joseph, 2006. "Determinants of the informativeness of analyst research," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(1-2), pages 29-54, April.
    9. Carter, ME & Soo, BS, 1999. "The relevance of Form 8-K reports," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(1), pages 119-132.
    10. Karthik Balakrishnan & Mary Brooke Billings & Bryan Kelly & Alexander Ljungqvist, 2014. "Shaping Liquidity: On the Causal Effects of Voluntary Disclosure," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 69(5), pages 2237-2278, October.
    11. Verrecchia, Robert E., 1983. "Discretionary disclosure," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 179-194, April.
    12. Lundholm, Rj, 1991. "Public Signals And The Equilibrium Allocation Of Private Information," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 322-349.
    13. Zahn Bozanic & Maya Thevenot, 2015. "Qualitative Disclosure and Changes in Sell†Side Financial Analysts' Information Environment," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 32(4), pages 1595-1616, December.
    14. Botosan, CA & Harris, MS, 2000. "Motivations for a change in disclosure frequency and its consequences: An examination of voluntary quarterly segment disclosures," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(2), pages 329-353.
    15. Stephan Hollander & Maarten Pronk & Erik Roelofsen, 2010. "Does Silence Speak? An Empirical Analysis of Disclosure Choices During Conference Calls," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(3), pages 531-563, June.
    16. Larcker, David F. & Rusticus, Tjomme O., 2010. "On the use of instrumental variables in accounting research," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 186-205, April.
    17. Pervin K. Shroff & Ramgopal Venkataraman & Baohua Xin, 2014. "Timeliness of Analysts' Forecasts: The Information Content of Delayed Forecasts," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(1), pages 202-229, March.
    18. Mitchell A. Petersen, 2009. "Estimating Standard Errors in Finance Panel Data Sets: Comparing Approaches," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(1), pages 435-480, January.
    19. Boone, Audra L. & Floros, Ioannis V. & Johnson, Shane A., 2016. "Redacting proprietary information at the initial public offering," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(1), pages 102-123.
    20. Diamond, Douglas W, 1985. "Optimal Release of Information by Firms," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 40(4), pages 1071-1094, September.
    21. Marco Maria Mattei & Petya Platikanova, 2017. "Do product market threats affect analyst forecast precision?," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 1628-1665, December.
    22. Bhushan, Ravi, 1989. "Firm characteristics and analyst following," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(2-3), pages 255-274, July.
    23. Amy P. Hutton & Lian Fen Lee & Susan Z. Shu, 2012. "Do Managers Always Know Better? The Relative Accuracy of Management and Analyst Forecasts," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(5), pages 1217-1244, December.
    24. He, Jie (Jack) & Tian, Xuan, 2013. "The dark side of analyst coverage: The case of innovation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(3), pages 856-878.
    25. Guay, Wayne & Samuels, Delphine & Taylor, Daniel, 2016. "Guiding through the Fog: Financial statement complexity and voluntary disclosure," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(2), pages 234-269.
    26. Mark H. Lang & Karl V. Lins & Darius P. Miller, 2004. "Concentrated Control, Analyst Following, and Valuation: Do Analysts Matter Most When Investors Are Protected Least?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(3), pages 589-623, June.
    27. Glaeser, Stephen, 2018. "The effects of proprietary information on corporate disclosure and transparency: Evidence from trade secrets," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 163-193.
    28. Ali, Ashiq & Klasa, Sandy & Yeung, Eric, 2014. "Industry concentration and corporate disclosure policy," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 240-264.
    29. Lang, M & Lundholm, R, 1993. "Cross-Sectional Determinants Of Analyst Ratings Of Corporate Disclosures," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(2), pages 246-271.
    30. Gerard Hoberg & Gordon Phillips & Nagpurnanand Prabhala, 2014. "Product Market Threats, Payouts, and Financial Flexibility," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 69(1), pages 293-324, February.
    31. Freeman, Robert N., 1987. "The association between accounting earnings and security returns for large and small firms," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 195-228, July.
    32. Robert E. Verrecchia & Joseph Weber, 2006. "Redacted Disclosure," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(4), pages 791-814, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zhang, Yuan-Yuan & Zhang, Yue-Jun, 2022. "The impact of institutional analyst forecast divergence on crude oil market: Evidence from the mixed frequency models," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    2. Wang, Jiaxin & Liu, Jiemei & Wang, Jiawei & Huang, Xiang & Liu, Yu, 2023. "The puzzle of household wealth preservation and corporate innovation," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    3. Khalil Nimer & Muath Abdelqader & Cemil Kuzey & Ali Uyar, 2024. "Emission targeting and carbon emissions: The moderating effect of female directors," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(4), pages 3480-3504, May.
    4. Cui, Huijie & Liang, Shangkun & Xu, Canyu & Junli, Yu, 2024. "Robots and analyst forecast precision: Evidence from Chinese manufacturing," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    5. Jiang, Fuxiu & Shen, Yanyan & Xia, Xiaoxue, 2024. "The spillover effect of advertising on the capital market: Evidence from financial constraints111 Fuxiu Jiang acknowledges the financial support from the China National Natural Science Foundation (Nos," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    6. Meftah Gerged, Ali & Kuzey, Cemil & Uyar, Ali & Karaman, Abdullah S., 2023. "Does investment stimulate or inhibit CSR transparency? The moderating role of CSR committee, board monitoring and CEO duality," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Glaeser, Stephen, 2018. "The effects of proprietary information on corporate disclosure and transparency: Evidence from trade secrets," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 163-193.
    2. Seo, Hojun, 2021. "Peer effects in corporate disclosure decisions," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(1).
    3. Park, Jihwon & Sani, Jalal & Shroff, Nemit & White, Hal, 2019. "Disclosure incentives when competing firms have common ownership," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 387-415.
    4. Liang, Chuchu, 2024. "Advertising rivalry and discretionary disclosure," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(1).
    5. Beyer, Anne & Cohen, Daniel A. & Lys, Thomas Z. & Walther, Beverly R., 2010. "The financial reporting environment: Review of the recent literature," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 296-343, December.
    6. Boone, Audra L. & White, Joshua T., 2015. "The effect of institutional ownership on firm transparency and information production," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(3), pages 508-533.
    7. Rahman, Dewan & Kabir, Muhammad & Oliver, Barry, 2021. "Does exposure to product market competition influence insider trading profitability?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    8. Moumen, Néjia & Ben Othman, Hakim & Hussainey, Khaled, 2015. "The value relevance of risk disclosure in annual reports: Evidence from MENA emerging markets," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 177-204.
    9. Fu, Renhui & Kraft, Arthur & Zhang, Huai, 2012. "Financial reporting frequency, information asymmetry, and the cost of equity," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(2), pages 132-149.
    10. Belnap, Andrew, 2023. "The effect of intermediary coverage on disclosure: Evidence from a randomized field experiment," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(1).
    11. Allee, Kristian D. & Do, Chuong & Sterin, Mikhail, 2021. "Product market competition, disclosure framing, and casting in earnings conference calls," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(1).
    12. Haw, In-Mu & Hu, Bingbing & Lee, Jay Junghun, 2015. "Product market competition and analyst forecasting activity: International evidence," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 48-60.
    13. Li, Tianpei (Constance) & Walton, Stephanie, 2023. "Is there a dark side of competition? Product market competition and auditor-client contracting," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    14. Chen, Gary & Tian, Xiaoli (Shaolee) & Yu, Miaomiao, 2022. "Redact to protect? Customers' incentive to protect information and suppliers’ disclosure strategies," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(1).
    15. Joost Impink & Mari Paananen & Annelies Renders, 2022. "Regulation‐induced Disclosures: Evidence of Information Overload?," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 58(3), pages 432-478, September.
    16. Orhun, Eda, 2019. "Voluntary disclosure and market competition: Theory and evidence from the U.S. services sector," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 354-370.
    17. Van Geyt, Debby & Van Cauwenberge, Philippe & Vander Bauwhede, Heidi, 2014. "Does high-quality corporate communication reduce insider trading profitability?," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 1-14.
    18. Pornsit Jiraporn & Yixin Liu & Young S. Kim, 2014. "How Do Powerful CEOs Affect Analyst Coverage?," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 20(3), pages 652-676, June.
    19. Adrian, Christofer & Garg, Mukesh & Viet Pham, Anh & Phang, Soon-Yeow & Truong, Cameron, 2022. "Policy and oversight of corporate political activities and the cost of equity capital," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(2).
    20. Blankespoor, Elizabeth & deHaan, Ed & Marinovic, Iván, 2020. "Disclosure processing costs, investors’ information choice, and equity market outcomes: A review," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(2).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Redaction; Proprietary information; Confidential treatment; Analysts' earnings forecast;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D8 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty
    • G2 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services
    • M41 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Accounting
    • M48 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Government Policy and Regulation

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:corfin:v:72:y:2022:i:c:s0929119922000098. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jcorpfin .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.