Do Analysts' Notes Provide New Information?

Abstract

This paper systematically studies analysts' notes, an important form of analyst disclosure not previously studied in the literature. Analyst notes are written disclosures that represent a product of sell-side analysts' daily effort and provide a vehicle for analysts to communicate their information and analysis in far more detail than a summary forecast or recommendation. We provide strong evidence that analyst notes are informative for capital market participants. Specifically, we find both statistically significant and economically meaningful stock market reactions to analyst notes. This result holds after controlling for numerous major firm disclosures (earnings announcements, quantitative and qualitative management forecasts, conference calls, and press releases) and previously documented analyst disclosures (forecasts, recommendations, and reports).