Investor Base Size and Underreaction-Consistent Stock Return Anomalies

Abstract

We find that several well-documented underreaction-consistent stock return anomalies, such as those based on stocks’ earnings-to-price ratios, returns on assets and past returns, arise and persist only among stocks with smaller (institutional) investor bases, which are presumably stocks that are neglected by investors. These results are driven by the short side of our long-short trading strategies (i.e., by the seemingly overpriced stocks from the bottom quantiles of the anomaly variables), they appear even after controlling for several stock characteristics (e.g., market capitalization and institutional ownership) and potential risk factors, and they are considerably more pronounced during periods with more information and/or less technology. Overall, these findings suggest that the incomplete dissemination of (negative) information across investors helps in explaining the occurrence and the persistence of the anomalies.