Market (In) Attention and The Strategic Scheduling and Timing of Earnings Announcements

Ed deHaan, Stanford University
Terry Shevlin, University of California at Irvine
Jacob Thornock, University of Washington

October 2014, updated September 2015

Wall Street Horizon Abstract

Do managers attempt to hide bad news by announcing earnings during periods of low market attention? The authors believe so. Unfortunately, managers do not always know the best time to report. Thinking there is less attention on Fridays, managers report more bad news on Fridays than expected.  The data shows that there is the same investor attention on a Friday as any other weekday.

The authors find that there is lower attention after market hours than either before or during market hours. In addition, market attention is lower on busy reporting days, as well as when earning announcements are scheduled with less lead-time. Consistent with the theory that managers try to hide bad news, earnings announcements released during these periods tend to be worse.

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Note:  While the academics listed made extensive use of Wall Street Horizon corporate events data, please note Wall Street Horizon does not sponsor academic research; all papers are conducted independently by the researchers and their teams at their respective organizations.