Earnings Management and the Long-Term Market Performance of Initial Public Offerings

Abstract:     
We examine empirically whether earnings management as measured by discretionary accounting accruals explain post-issue stock return underperformance for IPO firms. We find that high discretionary accounting accruals are related to negative abnormal stock returns with high statistical significance. For example, a trading strategy of a short position in IPO firms with high discretionary accruals and a long position in IPOs with low discretionary accruals result in a mean (median) excess return of 102% (83.5%) in the 36-month period beginning after the first fiscal year end of the IPO. The evidence is consistent with Ritter's [1991] conjecture that investors are systematically overoptimistic about the growth prospects of IPO firms. The high discretionary accounting accruals seem to be associated with initial overoptimism of investors with subsequent revelations about the appropriateness of the accruals causing a subsequent downward revision in stock prices.

JEL Classifications: G14, M41

Working Paper Series