The Valuation Effects of Equity Issues and the Level of Institutional Ownership: Evidence from Analysts' Earnings Forecasts

This paper investigates whether the level of institutional ownership has any effect on the market reaction to announcements of a firm-level "event", namely the issuance of equity. Previous studies that have examined the association between some proxy for firm value (either Tobin's q or a measure of accounting profitability) and ownership structure have a problem with the direction of causality. For instance, a positive association between firm value and institutional ownership can either be interpreted as evidence of monitoring by institutions or that institutions tend to invest systematically in high-value firms. If we find any relation between the announcement effects of equity issues, and therefore firm value, and institutional ownership, the direction of causality has to run from institutional ownership to firm values not the other way around.