Flattering or Really Understanding? Research on Stock Recommendations by Sell-Side Analysts in China

Abstract

This article investigates whether the business relationships between brokerage firms and listed companies influence sell-side analysts’ stock recommendation ratings. Using the recommendation data of A-share listed companies disclosed by China’s domestic brokerage firms from 2004 to 2019, this article finds that sell-side analysts of brokerage firms that have securities underwriting relationships with listed companies are inclined to give those companies investment evaluations that are more-positive than evaluations from non-affiliated analysts. After a series of robustness tests and alleviating endogenous problems, such as the self-selection of underwriting relationships and of the sell-side analysts’ coverage samples, the empirical result remains unchanged. Using an event study method to compare differences in the cumulative abnormal returns of stocks during the event window of the recommendation releases, the authors find that it is information advantage rather than collusion of interests that leads affiliated sell-side analysts to issue more aggressive investment recommendations. Further research shows that “client pressure” will enhance the investment rating enthusiasm of analysts of related brokerage firms, whereas “peer pressure” will not weaken the investment rating enthusiasm of them, thus verifying the robustness of causality. The findings in this article enlighten the regulatory authorities and the capital market about the characteristics of stock recommendations of related brokerage firms’ analysts and the motives behind these recommendations, which is of great significance in protecting the interests of investors.