We also conduct a cross-sectional analysis of the relation between the stock
price effects at the announcement of security offerings and determinants of the
price response suggested by Miller and Rock (1985) and Myers and Majluf
(1984). We investigate whether the stock price effects at the announcement are
related to (1) the net amount of new financing provided by the offering, (2) the
size of the offering, (3) the quality rating of straight debt and convertible debt
offerings, and (4) the stated reason for the offering. In general, we do not find
that the stock price effects are related to our measures of the amount of net
new financing or to the dollar amount of the offering. Nor is there a
statistically significant difference between the price effects of debt offerings
grouped by quality rating. We find a greater decrease in share price in response
to common stock offerings that refinance debt than those that finance capital
expenditures. None of these results supports the notion that negative stock
price effects represent a reassessment of the firm’s earnings prospects, assets in
place or investment opportunities.
Cross-sectional regressions on the stock price reactions to the offering
announcements indicate that the type of security is the most important
determinant. Offerings of common stock and convertible debt are met with a
less favorable price response when controlling for other characteristics of
offerings. This finding is consistent with Myers and Majluf (1984) and the
argument that announcements of common stock and convertible security
offerings convey that share price is too high.
The paper is organized as follows: Section 2 describes our sample firms and
the financing events undertaken by these firms. In section 3 we discuss our
methods of measuring and testing valuation effects. Section 4 presents the
average common stock prediction errors associated with announcements of
various types of financing events. Section 5 compares the stock price effects of
completed and cancelled offerings of do&on stock and convertible debt.