This study examines the stock price effects of security offerings and investigates the nature of
information inferred by investors from offering announcements. Changes in share price are
unrelated to characteristics of offerings such as the net amount of new financing, relative offering
size, and the quality rating of debt issues. The type of security is the only significant determinant of
the price response. The opposite patterns of abnormal stock returns following the announcement
of completed versus cancelled offerings suggest that managers i