Analyst/Investor Days and Firms’ Information Environments

SYNOPSIS

This paper investigates the impact of analyst/investor days on hosting firms’ information environments. The event allows for human interaction and information exchange among participants. Using hand-collected data, I document the impact of analyst/investor days on the hosting firms’ information environments in two different periods: an immediate effect around the time of the event and a persisting effect around future earnings announcements. First, I show that the inaccuracy of analysts’ forecasts for various forecast horizons significantly decreases around the event. Second, I find evidence that analyst/investor days decrease information asymmetry and improve analyst forecast quality around future earnings announcements. This result suggests that the information effects persist into the future and help investors and analysts better interpret future earnings releases. Overall, this study documents the forward-looking and multidimensional nature of information disclosed at analyst/investor days in the context of sequential disclosures.

JEL Classifications: M41; G14; G24; G32.