Su Han Chan, George W. Gau, Ko Wang, Stock Market Reaction to Capital Investment Decisions: Evidence from Business Relocations, The Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Vol. 30, No. 1 (Mar., 1995), pp. 81-100

In contrast with numerous studies that find significant underpricing for initial public offerings of industrial firms, we document a statistically significant average return of −2.82% on the first trading day for a sample of 87 initial public offerings of real estate investment trusts during the 1971–1988 period. Our overpricing result is invariant to offer price, issue size, distribution method, offer period, and underwriter reputation. Newly issued REITs, on average, substantially underperform a matching sample of seasoned REITs during the first 190 trading days. Interestingly, buyers of overpriced REITs are predominantly individual or non-13(f) institutional investors.

Share-price responses to 95 announcements of increased research and development (R & D) spending are significantly positive on average, even when the announcement occurs in the face of an earnings decline. High-technology firms that announce increases in R & D spending experience positive abnormal returns on average, whereas announcements by low-technology firms are associated with negative abnormal returns. Further, in our cross-sectional analyses we find that higher R & D intensity than the industry average leads to larger stock-price increases only for firms in high-technology industries.

We investigate share price responses to the formation of 345 strategic alliances spanning 1983–1992. The average stock price response is positive, with no evidence of wealth transfers. This is true for horizontal alliances (involving partner firms in industries with the same three-digit SIC codes) as well as non-horizontal alliances. For horizontal alliances, more value accrues when the alliance involves the transfer or pooling of technical knowledge than with nontechnical alliances. Finally, partnering firms tend to display better operating performance than their industry peers over the five-year period surrounding the year in which an alliance is formed.