Uncertain tone and SEO underpricing: Do financial constraints matter?

Abstract

In this study, we conduct several empirical tests to explore the role of financial constraints in predicting the underpricing of seasoned equity offerings (SEO underpricing) through the uncertain tone in issuing firms' filings. We show that investors can infer the firm quality or fundamental value when facing information uncertainty or value ambiguity for only firms in financially distressed groups. Our findings are consistent with prior studies using textual analysis that postulate the varying predictive power of different textual tones for the value of new seasoned equity offerings and, thus, SEO underpricing.