Do Firms Time Seasoned Equity Offerings? Evidence from SEOs Issued Shortly after IPOs

Abstract

We examine whether firms take advantage of brief windows of opportunity to time seasoned equity offerings (SEOs) when their equity is substantially overvalued given managers’ private information. We find that firms experiencing larger IPO underpricing, larger stock price run-ups after the IPO, and larger IPO offer size tend to return to the market with an SEO earlier than the others. Firms which issue SEOs quickly after an IPO underperform in comparison to their peers. The mean three-day abnormal return of firms issuing SEOs within six months of IPOs is 2.69% lower than that of firms issuing SEOs six months or more following their IPOs. Firms issuing SEOs shortly after their IPOs also exhibit worse long-run stock returns and operating performance. The results are most consistent with the hypothesis that managers with private information time SEOs in ways that benefit existing shareholders.

Keywords: Seasoned equity offering, Initial public offering, Market timing,Market feedback

JEL Classification: G14, G34, G32