Manager-analyst conversations in earnings conference calls
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Abstract
Prior research finds that intraday stock prices move considerably during the discussion period of earnings conference calls. In this study, we explore what features of the manager-analyst dialogue during the discussion drive these price movements. We textually analyze the tone of managers and analysts and find that intraday prices react significantly to analyst tone, but not to management tone, for the full duration of the discussion. This effect strengthens when analyst tone is relatively negative. We then present intraday visual evidence that analysts are more neutral than managers over the call and that the tones of both parties drift downward as the call progresses. Overall, our findings illustrate how manager-analyst information exchanges evolve on earnings calls and indicate that analysts are the participants on earnings calls whose comments move stock prices during the discussion.
Keywords
Conference calls Corporate disclosure Financial analystsJEL Classification
G14 G20 D83Notes
Acknowledgments
We appreciate the helpful comments and suggestions from two anonymous reviewers, Patricia Dechow (the editor), Andrei Shleifer, and seminar participants at Arizona State University, Carnegie Mellon University, HKUST, London Business School, and the University of Michigan. We also thank Justin Lahart for profiling this study in The Wall Street Journal.
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