IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/rqfnac/v60y2023i4d10.1007_s11156-023-01142-7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Open-market stock repurchases, insider trading, and price informativeness

Author

Listed:
  • Gow-Cheng Huang

    (Tuskegee University)

  • Kartono Liano

    (Mississippi State University)

  • Ming-Shiun Pan

    (Shippensburg University)

Abstract

This study examines insider buying before stock repurchase announcements as an undervaluation signal. We find that firms are more likely to announce a repurchase program when insiders purchase shares, particularly when purchases are made by top executives. Moreover, the effect of insider purchases on announcing a stock repurchase program is more pronounced when stock prices convey more information that is new to managers. We find that insider purchases, particularly purchases by CEOs and CFOs, are positively associated with the market reaction to the share repurchase announcements. Furthermore, investors pay more attention to purchases by CEOs and CFOs when stock prices are less informative. Finally, we find similar results for the relation between insider purchases and post-announcement stock returns.

Suggested Citation

  • Gow-Cheng Huang & Kartono Liano & Ming-Shiun Pan, 2023. "Open-market stock repurchases, insider trading, and price informativeness," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 60(4), pages 1495-1513, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:kap:rqfnac:v:60:y:2023:i:4:d:10.1007_s11156-023-01142-7
    DOI: 10.1007/s11156-023-01142-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11156-023-01142-7
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11156-023-01142-7?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dow, James & Gorton, Gary, 1997. "Stock Market Efficiency and Economic Efficiency: Is There a Connection?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(3), pages 1087-1129, July.
    2. Ikenberry, David & Lakonishok, Josef & Vermaelen, Theo, 1995. "Market underreaction to open market share repurchases," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(2-3), pages 181-208.
    3. Michael Brennan & Sahn-Wook Huh & Avanidhar Subrahmanyam, 2013. "An Analysis of the Amihud Illiquidity Premium," The Review of Asset Pricing Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 3(1), pages 133-176.
    4. Kandel, Eugene & Pearson, Neil D, 1995. "Differential Interpretation of Public Signals and Trade in Speculative Markets," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 103(4), pages 831-872, August.
    5. Jagannathan, Murali & Stephens, Clifford P. & Weisbach, Michael S., 2000. "Financial flexibility and the choice between dividends and stock repurchases," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(3), pages 355-384, September.
    6. David Ikenberry & Josef Lakonishok & Theo Vermaelen, 2000. "Stock Repurchases in Canada: Performance and Strategic Trading," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(5), pages 2373-2397, October.
    7. Louis, Henock & White, Hal, 2007. "Do managers intentionally use repurchase tender offers to signal private information? Evidence from firm financial reporting behavior," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(1), pages 205-233, July.
    8. Urs Peyer, 2009. "The Nature and Persistence of Buyback Anomalies," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(4), pages 1693-1745, April.
    9. repec:bla:jfinan:v:59:y:2004:i:1:p:65-105 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Qi Chen & Itay Goldstein & Wei Jiang, 2007. "Price Informativeness and Investment Sensitivity to Stock Price," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 20(3), pages 619-650.
    11. Sheng Huang & Anjan V. Thakor, 2013. "Investor Heterogeneity, Investor-Management Disagreement and Share Repurchases," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 26(10), pages 2453-2491.
    12. (Xuefeng) Jiang, John & Petroni, Kathy R. & Yanyan Wang, Isabel, 2010. "CFOs and CEOs: Who have the most influence on earnings management?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(3), pages 513-526, June.
    13. Pascal Busch & Stefan Obernberger, 2017. "Actual Share Repurchases, Price Efficiency, and the Information Content of Stock Prices," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 30(1), pages 324-362.
    14. Coën, Alain & de La Bruslerie, Hubert, 2019. "The informational dimensions of the Amihud (2002) illiquidity measure: Evidence from the M&A market," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 23-29.
    15. Suk, Inho & Wang, Mengmeng, 2021. "Does target firm insider trading signal the target's synergy potential in mergers and acquisitions?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(3), pages 1155-1185.
    16. Azi Ben-Rephael & Jacob Oded & Avi Wohl, 2014. "Do Firms Buy Their Stock at Bargain Prices? Evidence from Actual Stock Repurchase Disclosures," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 18(4), pages 1299-1340.
    17. Lakonishok, Josef & Lee, Inmoo, 2001. "Are Insider Trades Informative?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 14(1), pages 79-111.
    18. Lauren Cohen & Christopher Malloy & Lukasz Pomorski, 2012. "Decoding Inside Information," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 67(3), pages 1009-1043, June.
    19. Ke, Bin & Huddart, Steven & Petroni, Kathy, 2003. "What insiders know about future earnings and how they use it: Evidence from insider trades," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 315-346, August.
    20. Ferreira, Daniel & Ferreira, Miguel A. & Raposo, Clara C., 2011. "Board structure and price informativeness," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(3), pages 523-545, March.
    21. Amihud, Yakov, 2002. "Illiquidity and stock returns: cross-section and time-series effects," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 31-56, January.
    22. Cziraki, Peter & Lyandres, Evgeny & Michaely, Roni, 2021. "What do insiders know? Evidence from insider trading around share repurchases and SEOs," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    23. De Cesari, Amedeo & Huang-Meier, Winifred, 2015. "Dividend changes and stock price informativeness," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 1-17.
    24. Piotroski, Joseph D. & Roulstone, Darren T., 2005. "Do insider trades reflect both contrarian beliefs and superior knowledge about future cash flow realizations?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 55-81, February.
    25. Harris, Milton & Raviv, Artur, 1993. "Differences of Opinion Make a Horse Race," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 6(3), pages 473-506.
    26. Comment, Robert & Jarrell, Gregg A, 1991. "The Relative Signalling Power of Dutch-Auction and Fixed-Price Self-Tender Offers and Open-Market Share Repurchases," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 46(4), pages 1243-1271, September.
    27. Dittmar, Amy & Field, Laura Casares, 2015. "Can managers time the market? Evidence using repurchase price data," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(2), pages 261-282.
    28. Vermaelen, Theo, 1981. "Common stock repurchases and market signalling : An empirical study," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 139-183, June.
    29. Gider, Jasmin & Westheide, Christian, 2016. "Relative idiosyncratic volatility and the timing of corporate insider trading," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 312-334.
    30. Moore, David, 2023. "Strategic repurchases and equity sales: Evidence from equity vesting schedules," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    31. Liu, Mark H., 2011. "Analysts’ Incentives to Produce Industry-Level versus Firm-Specific Information," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 46(3), pages 757-784, June.
    32. Dittmar, Amy K, 2000. "Why Do Firms Repurchase Stock?," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 73(3), pages 331-355, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bong Soo Lee & Nathan Mauck, 2018. "Informed Repurchases, Information Asymmetry and the Market Response to Open Market Share Repurchases," Review of Pacific Basin Financial Markets and Policies (RPBFMP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 21(03), pages 1-32, September.
    2. Andriosopoulos, Dimitris & Lasfer, Meziane, 2015. "The market valuation of share repurchases in Europe," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 327-339.
    3. Fei Leng & Kevin Zhao, 2014. "Insider trading around open-market share repurchases," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 38(3), pages 461-491, July.
    4. Nyborg, Kjell & Wang, Zexi, 2019. "Corporate cash holdings: Stock liquidity and the repurchase motive," CEPR Discussion Papers 13791, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    5. Ota, Koji & Lau, David & Kawase, Hironori, 2022. "Signal strength adjustment behavior: Evidence from share repurchases," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    6. De Cesari, Amedeo & Espenlaub, Susanne & Khurshed, Arif & Simkovic, Michael, 2012. "The effects of ownership and stock liquidity on the timing of repurchase transactions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 18(5), pages 1023-1050.
    7. Huang, Chia-Wei, 2015. "Takeover vulnerability and the credibility of signaling: The case of open-market share repurchases," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 405-417.
    8. Drousia, Angeliki & Episcopos, Athanasios & Leledakis, George N., 2019. "Market reaction to actual daily share repurchases in Greece," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 267-277.
    9. Nyborg, Kjell G. & Wang, Zexi, 2021. "The effect of stock liquidity on cash holdings: The repurchase motive," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 905-927.
    10. Golbe, Devra L. & Nyman, Ingmar, 2013. "How do share repurchases affect ownership concentration?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 22-40.
    11. Bonaimé, Alice A. & Hankins, Kristine W. & Jordan, Bradford D., 2016. "The cost of financial flexibility: Evidence from share repurchases," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 345-362.
    12. Bonaimé, Alice Adams & Öztekin, Özde & Warr, Richard S., 2014. "Capital structure, equity mispricing, and stock repurchases," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 182-200.
    13. Angeliki Drousia & Athanasios Episcopos & George N. Leledakis & Emmanouil G. Pyrgiotakis, 2023. "EU Regulation and open market share repurchases: new evidence," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(9), pages 1022-1042, June.
    14. Cziraki, Peter & Lyandres, Evgeny & Michaely, Roni, 2021. "What do insiders know? Evidence from insider trading around share repurchases and SEOs," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    15. Chen, Ni-Yun & Liu, Chi-Chun, 2019. "Open-market block share repurchases probability, frequency and timing," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 278-296.
    16. Liang, Woan-lih, 2016. "Sensitivity to investor sentiment and stock performance of open market share repurchases," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 75-94.
    17. Lee, Inmoo & Park, Yuen Jung & Pearson, Neil D., 2020. "Repurchases after being well known as good news," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    18. Gould, Graeme P., 2019. "Repurchases and intended program length," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 234-247.
    19. Ingolf Dittmann & Amy Yazhu Li & Stefan Obernberger & Jiaqi Zheng, 2022. "The corporate calendar and the timing of share repurchases and equity compensation," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 21-101/IV, Tinbergen Institute.
    20. Nicholas Clarke & Dylan Norris & Andrew Schrowang, 2024. "Share repurchases and managerial reference points," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 59(1), pages 57-87, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Stock repurchase; Insider trading; Stock price informativeness; Undervaluation signal;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • G35 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Payout Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:rqfnac:v:60:y:2023:i:4:d:10.1007_s11156-023-01142-7. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.