Premium
Stock‐Split Post‐Announcement Returns: Underreaction or Market Friction?
Author(s) -
Boehme Rodney D.,
Danielsen Bartley R.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
financial review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.621
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1540-6288
pISSN - 0732-8516
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-6288.2007.00180.x
Subject(s) - stock (firearms) , economics , monetary economics , stock market , stock price , financial economics , econometrics , biology , mechanical engineering , paleontology , horse , series (stratigraphy) , engineering
We explore the relationship between stock splits and subsequent long‐term returns during the period from 1950 to 2000. We find that, contrary to much previous research, firms do not exhibit positive long‐term post‐split returns. Instead, we find that significant positive returns after the announcement date do not persist after the actual date of the stock split. We also observe that abnormal returns are correlated with the price‐delay or market friction. We conclude that the stock‐split post‐announcement “drift” is only of short duration, and it is attributable to trading frictions rather than behavioral biases.