Option Listing, Information Production and the Stock Price Response to Earnings Announcements

This paper addresses the issue of whether investors produce more information on firms that have listed stock options than on similar firms that do not have options and, if so, whether this additional information translates into a smaller stock-price reaction to releases of public information such as earnings announcements. After correcting for factors previously found to explain changes in two indicators of investor interest, analyst attention and institutional ownership, we find that firms with listed options exhibit significantly higher average levels of each of these variables than firms without listed options. Prior results regarding this issue are limited and contradictory. We also find, contrary to previous research, that this additional information production does not lead to a smaller price reaction to earnings announcements. The remainder of the introduction discusses prior research as well as the motivation for this study

Earnings Surprises and the Options Market

Numerous articles over the past few decades have documented a consistent relationship between earnings surprises and subsequent stock price performance. [See, for example, Ball and Brown (1968), Rendleman, Jones, and Latane (1982), Foster, Olsen, and Shevlin (1984), and Bernard and Thomas (1989).] Specifically when firms announce quarterly earnings figures that are higher (lower) than market expectations, as proxied by either mechanical time-series models or commercially available analysts’ forecasts, the stock price performance following the announcement tends to be abnormally good (bad). This phenomenon is referred to as post-earnings-announcement drift or the standardized unexpected earnings effect, SUE for short

Earnings Surprises and the Options Market

Numerous articles over the past few decades have documented a consistent relationship between earnings surprises and subsequent stock price performance. [See, for example, Ball and Brown (1968), Rendleman, Jones, and Latane (1982), Foster, Olsen, and Shevlin (1984), and Bernard and Thomas (1989).] Specifically when firms announce quarterly earnings figures that are higher (lower) than market expectations, as proxied by either mechanical time-series models or commercially available analysts’ forecasts, the stock price performance following the announcement tends to be abnormally good (bad). This phenomenon is referred to as post-earnings-announcement drift or the standardized unexpected earnings effect, SUE for short