Do analysts distribute negative opinions earlier?

Abstract

We examine analysts’ forecast timing when issuing negative opinions. When management withholds bad news, good news become more abundant but relatively uninformative. We theoretically predict and empirically document that analysts treat observed bad news as having higher precision and respond to it by issuing forecasts more quickly and accurately than for good news forecasts. These results hold to various robustness checks. This study improves our understanding of negative information dissemination in capital markets.