Earnings Guidance after Regulation FD

Abstract

This study investigates market reactions to voluntary earnings guidance provided by managers after the enactment of Regulation FD, which requires companies to disseminate material news to all investors simultaneously. More managers now issue their guidance to the public instead of disclosure to a selective group of analysts, in conformity with Regulation FD. We examine a very large set of earnings guidance disclosures based on identification of these announcements using text mining techniques. Our results indicate that guidance provided with the disclosure of earnings is not associated with significant market reactions, but guidance provided between earnings releases is associated with significant negative reactions. We further show that market reactions are consistent with the trend implied by management even when it is in the form of qualitative disclosure. Finally, we show that market reactions are stronger (more negative, typically) for NASDAQ firms than NYSE or AMEX firms, larger firms, and when the disclosure involves revenues and not earnings.