Investor Sentiment, Market Timing and Seasoned Equity Offering

Abstract

This paper studies the impact of investor sentiment on the probability of firms conducting seasoned equity offerings (SEOs) and on stock performance around and subsequent to SEOs. We first show that investor sentiment is positively related to SEO probability, and that small, high volatility, high R&D intensity, and non-dividend-paying firms are more likely to issue SEOs. The interaction effects between investor sentiment and firms’ mispricing-related characteristics further suggest that the impact of investor sentiment on SEO probability is stronger for small and young firms. Moreover, we find that firms conducting SEOs during high sentiment periods experience less severe short-run price drops around the issuances, yet more severe post-issue long-run underperformance, compared to firms conducting SEOs during low sentiment periods. The effect of investor sentiment on stock performance is stronger for small, young, and high market-to-book ratio firms.