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The Market Reaction to Stock Splits
Author(s) -
LAMOUREUX CHRISTOPHER G.,
POON PERCY
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
the journal of finance
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 18.151
H-Index - 299
eISSN - 1540-6261
pISSN - 0022-1082
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-6261.1987.tb04370.x
Subject(s) - market liquidity , stock market , stock (firearms) , shareholder , extant taxon , financial economics , empirical evidence , monetary economics , economics , business , econometrics , finance , corporate governance , mechanical engineering , paleontology , philosophy , horse , epistemology , evolutionary biology , biology , engineering
In this paper, a model of market reaction to stock splits is presented and tested. We argue that the announcement of a split sets off the following chain of events. The market recognizes that, subsequent to the (reverse) split ex‐day, the daily number of transactions along with the raw volume of shares traded will increase (decrease). This increase in volume results in an increase in the noisiness of the security's return process. The increase in noise raises the tax‐option value of the stock, and it is this value that generates the announcement effect of stock splits. Empirical evidence using security returns, daily trading volume, and shareholder data strongly supports this theory. The evidence, in conjunction with this theory, also agrees with extant literature that splits result in decreased liquidity, but there is no evidence that this reduction in liquidity is priced.