← Search

Review of Financial Studies Vol. 31 No. 11 2018

Strategic News Releases in Equity Vesting Months

Alex Edmans1; Luis Goncalves-Pinto2; Moqi Groen-Xu3; Yanbo Wang4

1 London Business School, CEPR, and ECGI · 2 Chinese University of Hong Kong · 3 London School of Economics · 4 Sungkyunkwan University

open access

Abstract

We find that CEOs release 20% more discretionary news items in months in which they are expected to sell equity, predicted using scheduled vesting months. These vesting months are determined by equity grants made several years prior and thus unlikely to be driven by the current information environment. The increase arises for positive news, but not neutral or negative news, nor nondiscretionary news. News releases fall in the month before and month after the vesting month. News in vesting months generates a temporary increase in stock prices and market liquidity, which the CEO exploits by cashing out shortly afterwards.

DOI
10.1093/rfs/hhy070
Volume
31
Issue
11
Pages
4099-4141
Language
en
Sources
openalex crossref bibtex:phds-export.bib

Cite