A Simple Explanation for the Dispersion Anomaly

Abstract

We show that understanding the role of analysts' forecast bias is central to discovering the behavior that causes some stocks to have high analyst forecast dispersion. This finding is important because stocks with high analyst forecast dispersion contribute significantly to many important anomalies. We first explain how forecast bias produces significant negative future returns in the high dispersion portfolio. Next we examine the effect of these stocks on momentum returns, the profitability anomaly, and post-earnings announcement drift. Finally, we examine the performance of four asset pricing models focusing on the model's ability to explain the returns to these high dispersion stocks.