The Journal of Finance

The Journal of Finance publishes leading research across all the major fields of finance. It is one of the most widely cited journals in academic finance, and in all of economics. Each of the six issues per year reaches over 8,000 academics, finance professionals, libraries, and government and financial institutions around the world. The journal is the official publication of The American Finance Association, the premier academic organization devoted to the study and promotion of knowledge about financial economics.

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A Note on the Behavior of Stock Returns around Ex‐Dates of Stock Distributions

Published: 3/1987,  Volume: 42,  Issue: 1  |  DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-6261.1987.tb02558.x  |  Cited by: 45

AJAY R. DRAVID


Stock Dividends, Stock Splits, and Signaling

Published: 7/1990,  Volume: 45,  Issue: 3  |  DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-6261.1990.tb05109.x  |  Cited by: 239

MAUREEN MCNICHOLS, AJAY DRAVID

This paper provides evidence that firms signal their private information about future earnings by their choice of split factor. Split factors are increasing in earnings forecast errors, after controlling for differences in pre‐split price and firm size. Furthermore, price changes at stock dividend and split announcements are significantly correlated with split factors, holding other factors constant, and with earnings forecast errors. These correlations suggest that management's choice of split factor signals private information about future earnings and that investors revise their beliefs about firm value accordingly. The analysis also suggests, however, that announcement returns are significantly correlated with split factors after controlling for earnings forecast errors. This suggests that earnings forecast errors measure management's private information about future earnings with error, that split factors signal other valuation‐relevant attributes, or that a signaling explanation is incomplete.


Option Pricing on Stocks in Mergers and Acquisitions

Published: 3/25/2004,  Volume: 59,  Issue: 2  |  DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-6261.2004.00649.x  |  Cited by: 36

Ajay Subramanian

We develop an arbitrage‐free and complete framework to price options on the stocks of firms involved in a merger or acquisition deal allowing for the possibility that the deal might be called off at an intermediate time, creating discontinuous impacts on the stock prices. Our model can be a normative tool for market makers to quote prices for options on stocks involved in such deals and also for traders to control risks associated with such deals using traded options. The results of tests indicate that the model performs significantly better than the Black–Scholes model in explaining observed option prices.


An Analysis of the Determinants and Shareholder Wealth Effects of Mutual Fund Mergers

Published: 6/2002,  Volume: 57,  Issue: 3  |  DOI: 10.1111/1540-6261.00468  |  Cited by: 111

Narayanan Jayaraman, Ajay Khorana, Edward Nelling

This study examines the determinants of mutual fund mergers and their subsequent wealth impact on shareholders of target and acquiring funds. Results indicate significant improvements in postmerger performance and a reduction in expense ratios for target fund shareholders. In contrast, acquiring fund shareholders experience a significant deterioration in postmerger performance. The net asset flows continue to remain negative for the combined fund in the year following the merger. The likelihood of a fund merger is inversely related to fund size for both within‐and across‐family mutual fund mergers. However, poor past performance is a significant determinant for only within‐family mergers.


The Pricing of Initial Public Offers of Corporate Straight Debt

Published: 3/1997,  Volume: 52,  Issue: 1  |  DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-6261.1997.tb03821.x  |  Cited by: 66

SUDIP DATTA, MAI ISKANDAR-DATTA, AJAY PATEL

This study examines the initial‐day and aftermarket price performance of corporate straight debt IPOs. We find that IPOs of speculative grade debt are underpriced like equity IPOs, while those rated investment grade are overpriced. IPOs of investment grade debt are typically issued by firms listed on the major exchanges and underwritten by prestigious underwriters. In contrast, junk bond IPOs are more likely to be handled by less prestigious underwriters and are typically issued by OTC firms. Our analysis also reveals that bond rating, market listing of the firm, and investment banker quality are significant determinants of bond IPO returns.


Some Evidence on the Uniqueness of Initial Public Debt Offerings

Published: 4/2000,  Volume: 55,  Issue: 2  |  DOI: 10.1111/0022-1082.00224  |  Cited by: 74

Sudip Datta, Mai Iskandar‐Datta, Ajay Patel

Debt initial public offerings (IPOs) represent a major shift in a firm's financing policy by both extending debt maturity and altering the public‐private debt mix. In contrast to findings for seasoned debt offerings, we document a significantly negative stock price response to debt IPO announcements. This result is consistent with debt maturity and debt ownership structure theories. The equity wealth effect is negatively related to the offer's maturity, and positively related to the degree of bank monitoring. We find that firms with less information asymmetry and firms with higher growth opportunities experience a less adverse stock price response.