A research and education initiative at the MIT Sloan School of Management The Effect of Disclosures by Management, Analysts, and Financial Press on the Equity Cost of Capital Paper 195 SP Kothari Jim Short October 2003 For more information, please visit our website at http://ebusiness.mit.edu or contact the Center directly at ebusiness@mit.edu or 617-253-7054 The Effect of Disclosures by Management, Analysts, and Financial Press On the Equity Cost of Capital S.P. Kothari kothari@mit.edu, (617) 253-0994 Sloan School of Management Massachusetts Institute of Technology 50 Memorial Drive, E52-325 Cambridge, MA 02142 and J.E. Short jshort@mit.edu, (617) 452-3228 Sloan School of Management Massachusetts Institute of Technology 50 Memorial Drive Cambridge, MA 02142 October 2003 We are grateful to Xu Li, Kalani Oshiro, Stanley Woods, Mitul Mehta and Tanis Fidelholtz for their research assistance. We have benefited from discussions and comments from Philip Wright, Joel Kurtzman, Alison Thomas, Gabrielle Wong, Sunil Misser and Mark Lutchen. We acknowledge financial support from Pricewaterhouse Coopers and the MIT Center for eBusiness. The Effect of Disclosures by Management, Analysts, and Financial Press On the Equity Cost of Capital 1. Introduction and Problem Statement Demand for financial reporting and disclosure arises from information asymmetry and agency conflicts between managers, outside investors and intermediaries. Disclosure regulation and institutions facilitating credible disclosure between managers and investors play important roles in mitigating these problems (Healy and Palepu, 2001). Corporate disclosures, reports in the financial press, and analysts’ reports and discussion of corporate performance all enhance the information reflected in stock prices. That is, they reduce information asymmetry between the average investor and informed market participants, e.g., company management. The consensus among financial economists is that a rich information environment and low information asymmetry have many desirable consequences. These include the efficient allocation of resources in an economy, capital market development, liquidity in the market, and decreased cost of capital.1 Evidence of the effect of disclosure on the cost of capital is sparse (see Healy and Palepu, 2001, for a review of the literature). Evidence is weak in the few studies that examine the issue, e.g., Botosan (1997). Conclusions from previous research on the effect of disclosures on the cost of capital are tenuous because disclosures analyzed in previous research are far from comprehensive and the measurement of disclosure proxies is generally subjective, not objective. Our study is the first to document systematic evidence of the cost of capital effects of disclosures culled from a virtually exhaustive set of sources from the print medium. Our analysis of 1 See Diamond and Verrecchia (1991), Healy and Palepu (2001), Bushman and Smith (2001), and Core (2001). 3 disclosure is not only comprehensive, but the construction of disclosure proxies is quantitative and amenable to replication in future. In addition to analyzing the impact of all disclosures, we study the impact of disclosures segregated by source – management, analysts, and news stories in financial press. There are economic reasons to study how the source of disclosures affects the firm’s cost of capital. Disclosures by management, analysts, and news reporters differ on at least two salient dimensions. First, incentives facing management, analysts, and news reporters might differentially taint the contents of their disclosures or reports. In particular, management and investment analysts are alleged to have strong incentives to optimistically skew disclosures, whereas news reporters’ incentives to be optimistic in their reports are muted. An efficient capital market weights disclosures according to the credibility of the source of the disclosure. That is, on average, in pricing stocks we expect the market to filter out the bias and deemphasize noisy disclosures by the management, analysts, and news reporters. Second, news stories in the financial press are likely to be timelier than analysts’ reports. Analysts frequently repackage and re-transmit available information from corporate disclosures and financial press news stories in presenting in-depth analysis in their own report (see Lang and Lundholm, 1996). While such reports might be valuable to the market participants in their (investment) decisions, they may also have limited price impact (i.e., the reports might lack new information affecting the stock price) or limited implications for the cost of capital. Summary of results. Our empirical analysis tests for the impact of disclosure on cost of capital. Our findings are based on a very large, content database of disclosure text constructed from disclosure content published on four electronically-available information sources, Dow Jones Industrial, Investex, Factiva and SEC Edgar. We downloaded all disclosures made by 4 companies, analysts, and business articles available from over 400 content sources, for a sample of 887 companies in four industry sectors (Technology, Telecommunications, Pharmaceutical and Financial) for the time period 1996-2001. We used large-sample content analysis methods to analyze 326,357 texts. Results from our information analysis were then used in financial models to test for the effects of disclosure on cost of capital. We find that when content analysis indicates favorable disclosures (that might include references to management credibility and reduced uncertainty about the firm’s products and markets etc.), we observed a reduction in the firm’s cost of capital and stock return volatility. In contrast, unfavorable disclosures were accompanied by increases in the cost of capital and stock return volatility. We next analyzed disclosures by source – corporations, analysts, and the financial press. When we examined the impact of positive and negative news disclosure by companies, we found that the market discounts the impact of the strength of the positive statements. Positive and strongly positive news statements do not materially affect cost of capital. However, when management makes negative and strongly negative news disclosure, the market responds and the cost of capital goes up. Negative news, therefore, is strongly weighted. Our second set of results considers the impact of positive and negative news disclosure by analysts. We found that both positive and negative news disclosures from analysts appear to be heavily discounted. Analysts on the whole were slightly less positive in their disclosures on firms, and similarly less negative (more favorable) in negative disclosure. The strength of impact of their disclosure on cost of capital is insignificant compared to that for companies. Intuitively the results suggest that analysts have source credibility problems. They are seen as responding to market changes after they have taken place, discounting their impact. 5 Our third set of results considers the impact of positive and negative news disclosure by the business press. Here the evidence is more consistent. We find that when the business press makes both positive and negative news disclosures there are impacts on cost of capital. Positive news disclosure decreases cost of capital, negative news disclosure increases it. Intuitively the strength of this finding suggests that the credibility of news disclosure by the press is higher than that for companies or for analysts, and in the case of analysts, press disclosure is seen as more timely. The press is less affected by incentive concerns (agency), and this is reflected in the consistency of evidence. Outline of the paper. We have organized our paper in five sections. Section 2 presents the background for our main hypothesis that the credibility and timeliness of the source of disclosures affects the firm’s cost of equity capital. We present the key arguments and background literature. Section 3 discusses our data and content analysis methodology. We detail our building of the disclosure text dataset, our content analysis methodology, and our financial risk measures and firm characteristics. In Section 4 we present our results. Section 4.1 provides background descriptive statistics, and Section 4.2 covers regression results. Our concluding section discusses the management implications of our findings and opportunities for future research. Further detail on our content analysis methods and dataset are included in five Appendices. 2. Background and Hypothesis Development Here we provide the background for our main hypothesis that the credibility and timeliness of the source of disclosures affect their impact on firm’s cost of equity capital. Economic rationale leading up to the hypotheses with respect to the cost of capital effects of disclosures by corporations, analysts, and financial press is developed in this section. 6 Credibility and timeliness of management disclosures. We analyze SEC-mandated corporate disclosures, i.e., 10-K and 10-Q filings. These disclosures contain a combination of the following two types of disclosures: disclosures through the Management’s Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) of the firm’s performance that are designed to bring the market’s expectations in line with the management’s superior information; and mandated other disclosures such as financial footnotes that are largely an affirmation of the information already available to the market participants, but could occasionally include qualitative and forward-looking information, e.g., discussion of loss contingencies and litigation risk. In utilizing corporate disclosures, market participants are likely to recognize that management has an incentive to portray a self-serving assessment of past corporate performance and future outlook. Therefore, management’s favorable disclosures may not be credible to market participants. Of course, in making any favorable, optimistic disclosures, the management runs the risk of being accused of making misleading and fraudulent disclosures, i.e., face litigation risk. Litigation risk thus serves to discipline managers from making overly optimistic disclosures. However, the disciplining forces might be less operative when disclosures are qualitative and long-term in nature (e.g., discussion in the MD&A section on the 10-K filings) rather than quantitative (e.g., point estimate for an EPS forecast) and short-term (e.g., next quarter’s sales). In contrast to good news disclosures, management has an aversion to disclose bad news. So, when it volunteers such information, it is believable. That is, unfavorable voluntary disclosures by the management are more credible regardless of whether they are qualitative or quantitative in nature. In addition to being credible, management’s unfavorable disclosures are likely to be more timely because of litigation risk facing the firm under the Securities and Exchange Commission’s 7 Rule 10b-5 (Skinner, 1994). The Rule together with other securities laws state that management has a duty to disclose material information as and when it becomes known to the management. The rationale is that new information might render the management’s previous disclosures misleading. Alternatively, in light of the new information, the stock would be mis-valued in the absence of disclosures to correct the mispricing of the stock. However, the securities laws are likely to have an asymmetric impact on corporate disclosure practices with respect to good and bad news disclosures. Litigation against a firm is more successful if the management is accused of withholding bad news such that the stock price remained above its fundamental value. Consistent with this rationale, Kellogg (1984) finds that buyers’ claims of losses are 13 times as likely as sellers’ claims of foregone profits, i.e., an opportunity loss. Therefore, management has an incentive to volunteer bad news on a more timely basis than good news. Credibility and timeliness of analyst reports. Analysts are important information intermediaries in capital markets. They expend real resources on gathering information and producing research reports. These activities are typically assumed to enhance the ability of prices to reflect available information. However, several forces influence the credibility and timeliness of analyst research, which shape its price impact and effect on the firm’s cost of capital. Many argue that the strong economic incentives stemming from brokerage commissions and investment-banking revenues taint the quality of analyst research. United States Senator Joseph Lieberman claims that the millions of dollars analysts earn from investment-banking services “compromise analysts’ objectivity” and therefore “the average investor should take their bottom line recommendations with at least a grain of salt…” (The Wall Street Journal, February 28, 2002, p. A3). Consistent with the senator’s claim, a large body of academic research 8 suggests analysts compromise their objectivity and issue optimistic forecasts and stock recommendations as a result of their economic incentives arising from brokerage revenues and investment-banking relationships (e.g., Lin and McNichols, 1998, Michaely and Womack, 1999, Dechow, Hutton, and Sloan, 2000, Bradshaw, Richardson, and Sloan, 2003, and Lin, McNichols, and O’Brien, 2003). The lack of objectivity and bias in research together weaken the credibility of analyst research, which, in turn, would diminish its influence on the pricing or on the cost of capital of stocks With respect to the timeliness of information in analyst reports, previous research offers compelling evidence that analyst reports do convey new information that affects security prices. However, the magnitude of price impact is typically small. This might be because considerable analyst research might be simply a retrospective analysis of past events that repackages and retransmits publicly available information, i.e., corporate disclosures and news stories (see Lang and Lundholm, 1996, Beaver, 1998, p. 10, and Frankel, Kothari, and Weber, 2003). If this activity dominates the contents of analyst research, it might not be particularly timely in providing much new information to the market. Worse yet, evidence in Lys and Sohn (1990) and Guay, Kothari, and Shu (2003) suggests that analyst forecasts are sluggish in that they fail to fully incorporate the information available and reflected in stock prices at the time of their forecasts. In summary, lack of credibility and the absence of timely forecasts and research all make it less likely that analysts research reports would contain much information that would affect stock prices and/or the cost of capital. Financial press news stories. We expect news stories in financial press to be quite timely with an emphasis on factual reporting. News reporters and the financial press typically do 9 not have strong economic ties and relationships with individual firms. Moreover, each reporter reports on a large number of corporations as new developments take place with individual corporations. Therefore, we expect news stories to have both credibility and timeliness and hence the contents of news stories are likely to be informative about the cost of capital. 3. Data and content analysis methodology In this section we present summary information about the data used in this study. First, we discuss disclosure data obtained from electronic information sources, which we used in performing content analysis. We then describe the data on financial risk measures and firm characteristics. 3.1 Disclosure text data The most widely available source of corporate disclosure is financial statements. These are SEC mandated disclosures for all U.S. publicly-traded corporations. These statements are prepared using accrual rather than cash accounting to allow managers to reflect their better knowledge of the firm’s financials through accrual estimates. In addition to financial statements, managers also provide other information to investors. Some, such as footnotes and management discussion and analysis, are disclosed within the financial report. Other disclosures are provided voluntarily through other information channels, including analyst presentations and conference calls, press releases and Internet sites. Through these disclosures, managers provide information that facilitates external users of financial reports to better understand the true economic picture of the business. Disclosures are accompanied by third party certification to help assure credibility. That is, in the absence of third party certification, there would be questions in investors’ minds about the credibility of the information contained in the disclosures. For disclosure in financial 10 statements, credibility is typically enhanced in two ways: first, statements are prepared using generally accepted accounting standards and conventions. Standards can potentially reduce processing costs for outsiders and curb opportunistic reporting by managers. Second, independent audit firms certify whether managers’ financial reporting decisions are consistent with accounting standards and conventions. Importantly, management disclosures made outside financial statements are not directly certified by independent parties. Rather, their source credibility is enhanced through their use and evaluation by outside parties, including financial analysts and business journalists. These “information intermediaries” provide a measure of implicit certification of management’s financial statements and non-financial disclosures. However, this certification is not in any way formal nor can it be argued to be necessary complete. Our analysis is designed to empirically assess whether the credibility issues with respect to disclosures from various sources, as discussed above, are manifested in the intensity of their impact on the firms’ cost of capital. We obtained data for our study from four electronic data information sources, Dow Jones Interactive (Dow Jones, Inc.), Investex Plus (Infotrac), Factiva (Dow Jones & Reuters), and Edgar (Securities and Exchange Commission, US Government). Text retrieval software was developed and implemented to efficiently download disclosure texts in their entirety for a company research sample frame of 887 firms over the time period 1996-2001 (Riloff and Hollaar, 1996). We downloaded all disclosure texts available, by company by year, for three sources: (1) corporate reports (Edgar), (2) analyst disclosure and briefings (Investex and Factiva), and (3) disclosures made by the general business press (over 400 content sources available in Dow Jones Interactive and Factiva). All disclosure texts were coded by company ID, date and source of 11 publication, and when available, by author. The resulting content dataset is very large. For the 887 companies over the six-year period, 326,357 texts were downloaded, representing over a million pages of source material. The 887-company sample was drawn from four industry sectors, Financial Services (225 companies), Technology (197 companies), Pharmaceutical (72 companies), and Telecommunications (395 companies), and the data coded to enable industry sector analysis. Finally source material was organized into business quarters, corresponding to the quarterly financial reporting cycle. Each company in the dataset therefore had 72 observations: disclosure content aggregated into 24 time periods (6 years by 4 quarters per year), by three sources of disclosure (corporate, analyst, business press). The list of companies in the dataset is presented in Appendix I. 3.2 Classification of text into content categories Our first step in preparing the data for content analysis was to filter each disclosure text through a classification scheme that we developed. Words associated with six-categories of business meaning were defined and used to test a categorization scheme using Riloff (1993) as a guide. The six categories identified words and word phrases associated with: i. market risk, industry structure and competitive forces, the external market and/or external environment of the firm; ii. the development and execution of firm strategy and strategic intent; iii. the building of organizational capital and human resource management; iv. the image, brand and reputation of the company; v. the investment and financial performance of the firm; vi. the announcement and impacts of governmental regulation on the company. Appendix II presents the classification scheme and the words and word phrases making up each category. 12 All disclosure text was passed through the classification scheme, producing six subsample datasets containing words and word phrases matching the words and word phrases defined. Our subsequent analysis focused on content analyzing within and across the sub-sample datasets. 3.3 Content analysis The underlying principle in content analysis is that the many words of a text can be classified into many fewer content categories, where each category consists of one or many similar words or word phrases, and that each word or phrase occurrence can be counted and the counts compared analytically. Word and phrase similarities are based on the precise meanings of the words themselves (for example, grouping synonyms together), or may be based on word groupings sharing similar connotations (for example, grouping together several words associated with a concept such as market share, revenue growth, or forecasted earnings). Content analysis therefore, can be useful in analyzing different types or "levels" of communication, as defined by the meaning of the words themselves. A flowchart of the typical process of content analysis research is presented in Figure 1. The study is first specified theoretically and then conceptually in terms of an information model, content (data samples) and the hypotheses to be addressed. The study is then operationalized with respect to the variables (content categories) and coding schema to be used for classification of words and word groups for analysis. Third, the content texts are analyzed using content analysis procedures and the results interpreted. 3.4 Unit of analysis and measurement in content analysis Our unit of analysis was the disclosure text. That is, the content of each disclosure text was analyzed using content analysis procedures. The analysis software used, the General 13 Inquirer, has in its analysis approach a range of categories where word and word phrases are mapped for each input text submitted, and word frequencies counted on dictionary-supplied categories. In this research we were especially concerned with the degree and strength of positive and negative statements in disclosure texts. We hypothesize that the pattern and strength of favorable or unfavorable statements represent beliefs and judgments about the relative strength of the firm, and assessments of risks the firm faces in its marketplace, strategy and operations. We expected that highly favorable (positive) statements, or conversely, highly negative statements would be made based on tangible factors viewed as important in the minds of disclosure author(s). Accurately gauging the strength of positives and negatives in an extensive sample of disclosure text would therefore tell us much about the consistency of views about the firm and its promise in the market. To illustrate how our content analysis procedures work in practice, we analyze two example disclosure texts published in the Wall Street Journal on Amgen Corporation. The two texts (news stories), published in February and April of 1996, report positive and negative news on Amgen. On February 1, 1996, the Journal published a story reporting that clinical research undertaken on the effects of Leptin, the company’s experimental obesity drug, showed that the drug did not have the hoped-for benefits in a controlled patient study. The second story, published on April 18, 1996, reported the company’s 32% increase in net quarterly income and the filing of an application for testing a new drug designed to combat Hepatitis C. The text of both stories is reproduced in Appendix III. We submitted the two texts to the General Inquirer (GI) content analysis package. Developed and written by Professor Philip Stone and colleagues at Harvard University, and later extended by Vanja Buvac and colleagues, the General Inquirer (GI) is essentially a content 14 mapping tool.2 The GI software maps each text file with word counts on dictionary supplied categories. That is, the software algorithm identifies and counts word frequencies in the submitted text files, matching them against words and/or word meanings present in one or more dictionary of categories. The currently distributed version of GI combines the “Harvard IV-4” dictionary content-analysis categories, the dictionary content analysis categories defined by Lasswell, and five categories based on the social cognition work of Semin and Fiedler.3 Each category contains a list of words and word senses. For example, the category “negative” is the largest, with 2,291 entries of words or word phrases denoting “negative.” To provide the reader background on this procedure, example entries for the positive and negative categories are presented in Appendix IV. When text is submitted for processing, the General Inquirer matches words and word phrases with those in its dictionaries, and separates inflected word forms. For example, the root word “sell” would match “selling” if selling was not a separate category entry, and the word sense “sell cycle”, for example, would be correctly identified by software routines designed to disambiguate word senses. That is, “cycle” would be correctly identified as specifying the time periodicity of selling, and not a word short for bicycle or motorcycle. These English stemming procedures, integrated with English dictionaries and routines for separating English word senses, comprise the software’s extensive dictionaries and disambiguation routines. The complexity of the dictionary and disambiguation routines limits the current GI software to English text applications. The results of our simple, two-disclosure text submission to the software appear in Appendix V. Interpreting the output, note that for each text, there are two rows of data, the first 2 3 P.J. Stone in C. Roberts (1997). The General Inquirer’s Home page is at www.wjh.harvard.edu/~inquirer/ See Semin and Fiedler www.wjh.harvard.edu/~inquirer/ (1992, 1996). Categories are described on the GI home page, 15 corresponding to the raw frequency count of matched words (“r”), and the second giving the percentage of matched words over the total number of words in the text. The February 2, 1996 Wall Street Journal Article, for example, contained 635 words, of which 20 are positive and 21 negative. Positives comprised 3.14 percent of the total number of words in the text, and negatives slightly higher, 3.30 percent. 116 words were not matched against any of the words supplied in the GI dictionary categories, or 18.26%. In the case of the April 18th Wall Street Journal article, the corresponding numbers are the text contained 423 words, 19 positives and 8 negatives, or 4.4% of the words in the disclosure were positive and 1.8% were negative. Seventy-seven words, or 18.2%, were leftovers (unmatched with dictionary categories). Interpreting results in content analysis is always a question of comparing word counts and frequencies across texts and categories. In this example, we can say that the first article much more negative than the second article, and, as well, less positive. Conversely, the second article was much more strongly positive and significantly less negative in its frequency and word sense. In analyzing the large number of disclosure texts in the database, our procedure was to calculate the number of positives and negatives in each disclosure text, for each of the six business categories defined (market, firm strategy, etc., see Appendix II). The resulting matrix of counts and percentages calculated for each disclosure text was then subjected to one column and one row operation. To organize the results matrix for input into financial models, row data was summed and averaged by business quarter. That is, Positive and Negative frequencies calculated for each disclosure text were summed across all texts and the average taken for each quarter. In similar fashion, Positive and Negative frequencies calculated for each of the six business categories (columns) defined were summed and the average taken. The resulting matrix of 16 positive and negative word frequencies represented an average score for all disclosure texts in the quarter, by company by disclosure source, averaged across the six business categories (columns). The resulting matrix was then used as input into our econometric analysis. One final note concerns the computer processing time required to content analyze the very large disclosure database. Our procedure was to calculate positive and negative frequencies by company sequentially. A typical firm with the large number of disclosures over the sample time frame required several hours of processing time. 3.5 Financial risk measures and firm characteristics We used three measures of risk to assess the impact of disclosures on firm risk: cost of equity capital, standard deviation of stock returns, and standard deviation of the analyst forecast errors. We describe each measure below. Cost of capital. We estimate the equity cost of capital using the Fama and French (1993) three-factor model, where the size factor is defined as small minus large firm returns (SML), the book-to-market factor is defined as high minus low book-to-market firm returns (HML), and the market factor is defined as the excess return on the CRSP value weight portfolio (Rm - Rf). We obtain monthly time-series returns on the three factors, SML, HML, Rm - Rf, from Kenneth French’s website. The loadings on the factors, b, s, and h, are slope coefficients estimated from the following regression model for firm i: Ri - Rf = ai + bi [Rm - Rf] + si SML + hi HML+ ei. (1) We re-estimate the three-factor model each quarter for each firm using a rolling window of five years of monthly returns ending in the quarter under examination. Firm i’s estimated loadings, i.e., estimated b, s, and h coefficients, multiplied by the average returns for the three 17 factors from 1963-2000 gives the cost of capital for firm i (see Fama and French, 1997). We then annualize the number, which is our cost-of-capital measure. Standard deviation of stock returns. Standard deviation of stock returns is a commonly used risk measure. The greater the uncertainty of cash flows generated by a firm, i.e., the risk of equity, the greater is the standard deviation of returns. This measure is also an indication of the infrequency of information reaching the market and the degree of information asymmetry among market participants. If some individuals are informed and others are less informed, then the trading in the stock is less frequent and stock prices do not reflect a rich body of information. Under these circumstances, disclosures by a corporation or analysts or disclosures in financial press can all influence the degree of uncertainty. Favorable disclosures can inform the market of higher levels of cash flows than previously expected and/or reduce the uncertainty in the market. We measure the standard deviation of returns using daily return data for each firm every quarter. Standard deviation of analysts’ forecast errors. Standard deviation of analyst forecast errors indicates the extent to which the market is surprised by earnings announcements. Favorable disclosures are expected to reduce uncertainty and enable analysts to better forecast earnings, which would in turn reduce the magnitude of their forecast errors, i.e., the standard deviation of forecast errors. Firm characteristics. While our goal in the paper is to test for the effect of disclosures on the firm’s cost of capital, it’s important to control for the effect of other determinants of the cost of capital to avoid drawing erroneous inferences. We consider three firm characteristics that previous research shows as significant determinants of the cost of capital, standard deviation of returns, and analyst forecast errors: firm size, book-to-market ratio, and leverage. Small firms are more risky than large firms in part because small firms typically are a single-project firm, i.e., 18 a firm with undiversified portfolio of assets and projects. We measure firm size as the market capitalization of a firm’s equity capital, i.e., number of shares outstanding times the share price, at the beginning of each quarter. Book-to-market ratio increases in risk in part because the market valuation of equity is in the denominator of the ratio. Successful firms with expectations of a steady stream of high levels of future cash flows are highly valued in the market, which drives their book-to-market ratio down. These are typically considered to be low risk firms. In contrast, if the market has little confidence in a firm and thus perceives the cash flow stream to be uncertain and not too high, then the market capitalization of such a firm would be low. This drives up the book-tomarket ratio, so high book-to-market ratio proxies for high risk firms. Book-to-market ratio is calculated as a ratio of the book equity of a firm divided by its firm size, i.e., the market capitalization of equity. Finally, risk increases in the firm’s financial leverage, i.e., the amount of debt relative to the equity capital invested in the firm. We measure leverage as the ratio of long-term dent to the total assets of the firm. 4. Results This section presents the results of empirical analysis of the effects of disclosure on the cost of capital. We begin with descriptive statistics and correlations among the variables used in the analysis. The main set of results are based on regressions of various risk measures on content-analysis-based measures of disclosure by source and firm characteristics as control determinants of the different risk measures. 4.1 Descriptive statistics 19 Tables 1 and 2 provide univariate descriptive statistics and simple bi-variate correlations for our dependent and independent variables, by industry sector and by all sectors. The number of observations reported in each Panel represent the number of firms times the number of years / quarters that had sufficient data to compute the variables. Some firms were excluded from analysis based on insufficient data. In Table 2, note the two columns corresponding to index variables “Favorable” and “Unfavorable”, constructed as the mean of the content-analysis based Positive and Negative measure for disclosures across all six business categories and disclosure source. With the exception of the lack of a significant correlation between Cost of Capital and “Unfavorable”, all correlations are significant at the .01 or .05 level for all variables – that is, Favorable and Unfavorable assessments are strongly correlated with all financial measures studied, cost of capital, standard deviation of daily stock return, the firm’s market capitalization of equity at the beginning of the quarter (natural logarithm), book equity divided by market equity at the beginning of the quarter, and leverage (long-term debt divided by the total asset). That all crosscorrelations (minus one) are significant between content measures and financial measures suggests a strong and persistent effect between the two is indicated. 4.2 Regression results Tables 3 and 4 report the results from multivariate regression models on composite news measures and source of news. The panels report regression results separately on three dependent variables: cost of capital, the standard deviation of daily stock return over the contemporaneous quarter, and the standard deviation of all available quarterly analyst forecast errors from 19962001. We use five independent variables: Favorable, Unfavorable, Size (natural logarithm of a firm’s market capitalization of equity at the beginning of the quarter), B/M (book equity divided 20 by market equity at the beginning of the quarter), and Leverage (long-term debt divided by total asset). Across all of the panels reported the adjusted R2, that is, the adjusted measure of fit of the individual regression models analyzed, is significant for all of the models at the one-percent level. The pattern of results intuitively suggests that the regression models are analyzing a systematic effect. Our first set of results considers the impact of positive and negative news disclosure by company and by industry sector (Table 3, Panels A-E). In interpreting the coefficients for Favorable and Unfavorable for all and individual industries, we find that when management makes positive and strongly positive statements in company disclosure, the market anticipates this and discounts the impact of the strength of these statements. Positive and strongly positive news statements do not materially affect cost of capital (coefficients are weakly positive or not significant). However, when management makes negative and strongly negative news disclosures, the market responds and the cost of capital goes up. Intuitively, the market may be stating that when negative news is disclosed, these are made in the context of a positive disclosure bias by the company. Negative news, therefore, is strongly weighted. Our second set of results considers the impact of positive and negative news disclosure by analysts (Table 4, Panel B). We found that for both positive and negative news disclosure, information from analysts appears to be discounted. Analysts on the whole are slightly less positive in their disclosures on firms, and similarly less negative (more favorable) in negative disclosure. The strength of impact of their disclosure on cost of capital is less significant than for companies – the coefficients reported are not significant for cost of capital, but the coefficients are significant for stock returns and analyst forecast errors. Intuitively the results suggest that 21 analysts have source credibility problems. Our interpretation is that they are seen as responding to market changes after they have taken place, this discounting their impact. Our third set of results considers the impact of positive and negative news disclosure by the business press. Here is the evidence is quite consistent (Table 4, Panel C). We found that when the business press makes both positive and negative news disclosures there are impacts on cost of capital. Positive news disclosure decreases cost of capital, negative news disclosure increases it. Intuitively the strength of this finding suggests that the credibility of news disclosure by the press is higher than that for companies or for analysts, and in the case of analysts, press disclosure is seen as more timely. The press is seen as less affected by incentive concerns (agency), and this is reflected in the consistency of evidence. 5. Implications for Management and Future Research Regulation of disclosure and the materiality of information that a reasonable investor would want to consider in making an investment decision are subjects of intense scrutiny in the post-Enron and Worldcom business climate. The materiality of information relates to the importance and impact that corporate information and development have on the earnings of the company, and how disclosure should reach the market and investors (Brown, 1998). As the disclosure system has grown in size with the importance of evaluation of disclosure by other information intermediaries, analysts, business press, and the investors themselves, information asymmetries and agency conflicts between participants creates greater demand for reporting and assurance of disclosure. The research reported here is the first to document systematic evidence of the cost of capital effects of disclosure. Our analysis of disclosure was based on a virtually exhaustive set of sources from the print medium, segregated by disclosure source - corporate, analysts, and news 22 stories published in the financial press. We found support that the market weighs disclosures according to the credibility of source, and that on average the market filters out and deemphasizes noisy disclosures by all participants. Our results found that negative news disclosure is strongly weighted by the market, and positive news is discounted as firms and investment analysts have incentives to skew disclosure. We found in the data evidence that companies and analysts have credibility problems affecting cost of capital. Specifically, disclosure from investment analysts is heavily discounted, suggesting they are seen as responding to market changes after they have taken place, discounting their impact. Problems of agency and the incentives for the business press to skew disclosure are more diffuse for journalists than for companies or analysts, and our results reflect this more independent intermediary role - positive news disclosure decreases cost of capital, and negative news disclosure increases it. Intuitively this finding suggests the credibility of news disclosure by the press is higher than that for companies or analysts. The strength and pattern of our results suggests that there are important economic reasons for companies to understand more precisely how disclosure affects the firm’s cost of capital. Pursuant to securities regulation and business norms, companies have a duty to disclose corporate information and developments through timely and accurate disclosure. That we have found evidence showing that the market discounts disclosure by source credibility suggests that companies should give high priority to developing appropriate and complete communications policies. Skewing disclosure of critical corporate information or development has economic risks. Asking whether consistent, accurate and complete disclosure is best accomplished through centralizing the corporate communication process, or decentralizing it with strong behavioral norms and safeguards, is a key senior management question. An implication of our results is that 23 companies cannot depend on analysts to enhance source credibility or timeliness of disclosure. Analysts have their own credibility and timeliness problems, and are subjects of increased scrutiny in disclosure reform. We conclude by noting that financial reporting and disclosure will continue to be an important field of empirical inquiry. There are numerous factors with the potential to alter disclosure practices and financial reporting – technological innovation, changes in the business economics of audit firms and analysts, globalization of capital markets, and changes in disclosure channels and the number and type of information intermediaries – which continue to reshape disclosure and financial reporting practices. They create new and exciting opportunities for research. 24 References Beaver, W., 1998, Financial Reporting: An Accounting Revolution, Third Edition, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. Botosan, C., 1997, Disclosure level and the cost of capital, The Accounting Review 72, 323-350. Bradshaw, M., Richardson, S., Sloan, R., 2003, Pump and dump: An empirical analysis of the relation between corporate financing activities and sell-side analyst research, working paper, University of Michigan Business School. Brown, J. Robert, Jr., 1998, The Regulation of Corporate Disclosure, 3rd Edition. Aspen Publishers, Inc., New York, NY. Bushman, R., Smith, A., 2001, Financial accounting research and corporate governance, Journal of Accounting & Economics 31, 237-333. Core, J., 2001, A review of the empirical disclosure literature: discussion, Journal of Accounting & Economics 31, 441-456. Dechow, P., Hutton, A., Sloan, R., 2000, The relation between analysts’ long-term earnings forecasts and stock price performance following equity offerings, Contemporary Accounting Research 17, 1-32. Diamond, D., Verrecchia, R., 1991, Disclosure, liquidity, and the cost of capital, Journal of Finance 66, 1325-1355. Frankel, R., Kothari, S., Weber, J., 2003, Determinants of the informativeness of analyst research, working paper, MIT Sloan School of Management. Guay, W., Kothari, S., Shu, S., 2003, Properties of implied cost of capital using analysts’ forecasts, working paper, MIT Sloan School of Management. Healy, P., Palepu, K., 2001, Information asymmetry, corporate disclosure, and the capital markets: A review of the empirical literature, Journal of Accounting & Economics 31, 405-441. Kellogg, R., 1984, Accounting activities, security prices, and class action lawsuits, Journal of Accounting & Economics 6, 185-204. Kelly, Edward Francis, 1975, Computer recognition of English word senses /Edward F. Kelly, Philip J. Stone. Amsterdam : North Holland Pub. Co. ; New York : American Elsevier Pub. Co., 1975. Lang, M., Lundholm, R., 1996, Corporate disclosure policy and analyst behavior, The Accounting Review 71, 467-492. Lin, H., McNichols, M., 1998, Underwriting relationships, analysts’ earnings forecasts and investment recommendations, Journal of Accounting & Economics 25, 101-127. 25 Lin, H., McNichols, M., O’Brien, P., 2003, Analyst impartiality and investment banking relationships, working paper, Stanford University. Lys, T., Sohn, S., 1990, The association between revisions of financial analysts’ earnings forecasts and security price changes, Journal of Accounting & Economics 13, 341-363. Michaely, R., Womack, K., 1999, Conflict of interest and the credibility of underwriter analyst recommendations, Review of Financial Studies 12, 573-608. Riloff, E. 1993. Automatically Constructing a Dictionary for Information Extraction Tasks. In Proceedings of the Eleventh National Conference on Artificial Intelligence. AAAI Press/The MIT Press. 811-816. Riloff, E., Hollaar, L., 1996, Text Databases and Information Retrieval, ACM Computing Surveys, Volume 28 Number 1, pp. 133-135. Semin, G.R., Fiedler, K. (eds.), 1992, Language, Interaction and Social Cognition, Sage Publications, 1992. Semin, G.R., Fiedler, K. (eds.), 1996, Applied Social Psychology, Sage Publications, 1996. Skinner, D., 1994, Why firms voluntarily disclose bad news, Journal of Accounting Research 32, 38-60. 26 FIGURE 1 Flow of Content Analysis 27 Table 1 Descriptive Statistics for Variables: Quarterly data for 887 firms from 1996 to 2001 This table provides descriptive statistics for variables used in subsequent tests. To be included in the sample, each firm has sufficient data to compute the variables below. The time period is from 1996 to 2001. Panel A: All industries, 5,350 observations Cost of Cap. σ(R) σ(FE) Favorable Unfavorable Size B/M Leverage Cost of Cap. σ(R) σ(FE) Favorable Unfavorable Size B/M Leverage Cost of Cap. σ(R) σ(FE) Favorable Unfavorable Size B/M Leverage Std. Dev. Mean Min. Q1 Median Q3 0.148 0.076 0.001 0.097 0.138 0.183 0.027 0.016 0.001 0.016 0.023 0.033 0.948 1.938 0.000 0.065 0.206 0.780 4.676 1.748 0.000 3.434 4.970 5.991 1.674 0.712 0.000 1.188 1.629 2.146 6.762 2.524 0.189 4.835 6.489 8.533 0.742 0.958 0.001 0.256 0.510 0.850 0.163 0.176 0.000 0.017 0.101 0.256 Panel B: Pharmaceutical firms, 962 observations Max. 0.499 0.218 12.943 10.159 5.139 13.230 9.893 0.837 Std. Dev. Mean Min. Q1 Median 0.146 0.110 0.002 0.064 0.116 0.036 0.021 0.009 0.021 0.030 0.842 1.369 0.029 0.049 0.169 4.634 1.515 0.000 3.816 4.763 1.907 0.746 0.000 1.421 1.953 7.100 2.678 2.046 4.800 7.055 0.371 0.778 0.001 0.098 0.196 0.107 0.142 0.000 0.000 0.049 Panel C: Telecom firms, 987 observations Q3 0.204 0.045 1.212 5.823 2.456 8.949 0.345 0.172 Max. 0.499 0.218 6.130 8.444 4.322 12.578 9.416 0.729 Q3 0.169 0.038 4.107 4.763 2.039 9.875 1.422 0.300 Max. 0.472 0.086 12.943 7.409 3.633 13.134 9.893 0.837 Mean 0.140 0.031 2.364 3.643 1.544 8.211 1.203 0.216 Std. Dev. 0.073 0.014 3.299 1.541 0.720 2.146 1.702 0.183 Min. 0.012 0.005 0.000 0.000 0.000 2.263 0.007 0.000 Q1 0.091 0.020 0.206 2.270 0.933 6.923 0.238 0.071 Median 0.129 0.028 0.911 3.744 1.540 8.224 0.505 0.200 28 Panel D: Financial firms, 3,007 observations Cost of Cap. σ(R) σ(FE) Favorable Unfavorable Size B/M Leverage Cost of Cap. σ(R) σ(FE) Favorable Unfavorable Size B/M Leverage Std. Dev. Mean Min. Q1 Median 0.152 0.063 0.001 0.109 0.144 0.022 0.012 0.001 0.014 0.020 0.371 0.804 0.000 0.048 0.119 4.983 1.800 0.000 3.696 5.356 1.589 0.658 0.000 1.154 1.553 6.135 2.300 1.683 4.429 5.906 0.716 0.567 0.045 0.411 0.608 0.169 0.182 0.000 0.022 0.103 Panel E: Tech firms, 394 observations Mean 0.141 0.032 1.560 5.021 2.077 7.090 0.689 0.121 Std. Dev. 0.077 0.018 1.819 1.303 0.727 2.905 0.642 0.136 Min. 0.003 0.004 0.110 0.000 0.000 0.189 0.030 0.000 Q1 0.085 0.019 0.164 4.139 1.530 5.065 0.174 0.002 Median 0.130 0.027 0.970 5.381 2.077 7.099 0.492 0.084 Q3 0.183 0.027 0.340 6.320 1.961 7.281 0.873 0.265 Max. 0.426 0.175 5.589 10.159 3.881 12.467 8.673 0.776 Q3 0.187 0.042 1.654 6.035 2.583 9.555 1.008 0.203 Max. 0.370 0.099 6.233 7.915 5.139 13.230 3.980 0.723 Variable definitions: Cost of Cap.: Expected annual cost of capital calculated based on Fama-French three-factor model over the past five-year’s return data σ(R): Standard deviation of daily stock return over the contemporaneous quarter σ(FE): Standard deviation of all available quarterly analyst forecast errors from 1996 to 2001 Favorable: Favorable assessment index, constructed as mean of the content-analysis-based scaled favorable content measures for six categories of disclosures across three sources, i.e., corporations, analysts, and financial press. Unfavorable: Unfavorable assessment index, constructed as mean of the content-analysis-based scaled unfavorable content measures for six categories of disclosures across three sources, i.e., corporations, analysts, and financial press. Size: natural logarithm of a firm’s market capitalization of equity at the beginning of the quarter B/M: book equity divided by market equity at the beginning of the quarter Leverage: long-term debt divided by the total asset 29 Table 2 Cross Correlation Matrix This table provides correlations among the variables used in subsequent tests. Spearman (Pearson) correlations are above (below) the diagonal. To be included in the sample, each firm has sufficient data to compute the variables below. The time period is from 1996 to 2001. Cost of Cap. σ(R) σ(FE) Favorable Unfavorable Size B/M Leverage 1.000 0.161*** 0.178*** 0.031** 0.006 -0.122*** 0.138*** 0.050*** σ(R) 0.178*** 1.000 0.284*** -0.058*** 0.077*** -0.069*** -0.152*** -0.184*** σ(FE) 0.122*** 0.228*** 1.000 -0.079*** 0.094** 0.021 -0.056*** -0.089*** Favorable -0.012 -0.044*** -0.103*** 1.000 0.710*** 0.061*** -0.076*** 0.021 Unfavorable -0.012 0.068*** 0.042** 0.720*** 1.000 0.226*** -0.167*** -0.005 Size -0.149*** -0.127*** 0.099*** 0.047*** 0.203*** 1.000 -0.499*** 0.137*** B/M 0.038*** -0.019 -0.050*** -0.180*** -0.144*** -0.242*** 1.000 0.174*** 0.022 -0.167*** -0.091*** 0.032** -0.028** 0.035** 0.087*** 1.000 Cost of Cap. Leverage Variable definitions: Cost of Cap.: Expected annual cost of capital calculated based on Fama-French three-factor model over the past five-year’s return data σ(R): Standard deviation of daily stock return over the contemporaneous quarter 30 σ(FE): Standard deviation of all available quarterly analyst forecast errors from 1996 to 2001 Favorable: Favorable assessment index, constructed as mean of the content-analysis-based scaled favorable content measures for six categories of disclosures across three sources, i.e., corporations, analysts, and financial press. Unfavorable: Unfavorable assessment index, constructed as mean of the content-analysis-based scaled unfavorable content measures for six categories of disclosures across three sources, i.e., corporations, analysts, and financial press. Size: natural logarithm of a firm’s market capitalization of equity at the beginning of the quarter B/M: book equity divided by market equity at the beginning of the quarter Leverage: long-term debt divided by the total asset Table 3 Fama-MacBeth regressions on the composite news measures This table provides summary statistics for the coefficients from quarterly cross-sectional FamaMacBeth regressions using the composite Favorable and Unfavorable content measures across the six categories and three sources of disclosures, i.e., corporations, analysts, and financial press. The time period is from 1996 to 2001. Panel A: All industries, 5,350 observations Independent Variables Intercept Favorable Unfavorable Size B/M Leverage Adjusted R2 Dependent Variable Cost of Cap. Coefficient T-stat 0.1768*** 43.35 -0.0012* -1.82 0.0031 1.33 -0.0047*** -10.81 0.0007 0.73 0.0181*** 2.76 0.0159*** 4.21 σ(R) Coefficient 0.0410*** -0.0027*** 0.0061*** -0.0015*** -0.0030*** 0.1161*** T-stat 27.18 -12.4 8.5 -9.15 -4.92 9.75 σ(FE) Coefficient T-stat 1.4121*** 13.72 -0.3319*** -11.19 0.6514*** 8.89 0.0164** 1.8 -0.1658*** -7.66 0.0224*** 3.91 Panel B: Pharmaceutical firms, 962 observations Intercept Favorable Unfavorable Size B/M Leverage Adjusted R2 0.3102*** -0.0064** 0.0114* -0.0221*** -0.0390*** 0.0724*** 0.2220*** 34.71 -2.64 1.65 -30.25 -2.74 3.64 13.48 0.0724*** -0.0005 0.0022* -0.0051*** -0.0106*** 19.28 -0.98 1.92 -15.22 -3.55 3.6188*** -0.0145 0.3875** -0.3809*** -0.6167*** 8.02 -0.14 1.98 -11.51 -2.81 0.4668*** 18.13 0.3461*** 11.09 Panel C: Telecom firms, 987 observations Independent Variables Intercept Favorable Unfavorable Size B/M Leverage Adjusted R2 Dependent Variable 0.2010*** 0.0035 -0.0221*** -0.0059*** 0.0061*** 0.0147 0.1094*** 7.75 0.86 -3.85 -3.23 2.90 0.72 4.62 0.0383*** 0.0008 0.0001 -0.0013*** -0.0021*** 14.81 1.31 0.08 -4.24 -4.46 2.0324*** -0.1732 -0.1599 0.2095*** -0.5358*** 3.46 -1.07 -0.54 4.98 -6.6 0.1316*** 5.48 -0.0885*** -5.35 32 Panel D: Financial firms, 3,007 observations Intercept Favorable Unfavorable Size B/M Leverage Adjusted R2 Cost of Cap. Coefficient T-stat 0.1011*** 14.75 -0.0024** -2.18 0.0093*** 2.66 0.0064*** 12.17 0.0158*** 2.75 -0.0083 -1.16 0.0489*** 6.25 σ(R) Coefficient 0.0259*** -0.0005*** 0.0004 -0.0006*** 0.0029*** 0.0618*** T-stat 20.29 -3.05 0.79 -3.37 3.55 4.43 σ(FE) Coefficient T-stat 0.2671*** 6.56 -0.0685*** -6.58 0.2944*** 8.22 -0.0113*** -2.65 0.0674 1.52 -0.0290*** -3.92 Panel E: Tech firms, 394 observations Intercept Favorable Unfavorable Size B/M Leverage Adjusted R2 0.1203*** 0.0006 0.0324*** -0.0091*** 0.0186 0.0753*** 0.1386** 3.33 0.13 4.00 -4.15 1.26 2.89 2.13 0.0469*** -0.0004 0.0073*** -0.0027*** -0.0150*** 6.97 -0.31 5.09 -6.14 -6.76 6.5686*** -0.2533 1.4355*** -0.6057*** -3.5801*** 4.94 -1.12 4.53 -8.41 -7.24 0.1097*** 2.74 0.2031*** 3.37 Variable definitions: Cost of Cap.: Expected annual cost of capital calculated based on Fama-French three-factor model over the past five-year’s return data σ(R): Standard deviation of daily stock return over the contemporaneous quarter σ(FE): Standard deviation of all available quarterly analyst forecast errors from 1996 to 2001 Favorable: Favorable assessment index, constructed as mean of the content-analysis-based scaled favorable content measures for six categories of disclosures across three sources, i.e., corporations, analysts, and financial press. Unfavorable: Unfavorable assessment index, constructed as mean of the content-analysis-based scaled unfavorable content measures for six categories of disclosures across three sources, i.e., corporations, analysts, and financial press. Size: natural logarithm of a firm’s market capitalization of equity at the beginning of the quarter B/M: book equity divided by market equity at the beginning of the quarter Leverage: long-term debt divided by the total asset 33 Table 4 Fama-MacBeth regressions by the source of news This table provides summary statistics for the coefficients from quarterly cross-sectional FamaMacBeth regressions using the Favorable and Unfavorable content measures for each source of disclosure, i.e., corporations, analysts, and financial press. The content measures are summed across the six categories of disclosures. The time period is from 1996 to 2001. Panel A: Disclosure source is Corporate Disclosures Independent Variables Intercept Favorable Unfavorable Size B/M Leverage Adjusted R2 Dependent Variable Cost of Cap. Coefficient T-stat 0.1825*** 31.94 0.0003 0.50 -0.0036*** -2.68 -0.0047*** -10.78 0.0017 0.70 0.0113** 2.03 0.0161*** 3.78 σ(R) Coefficient 0.0422*** -0.0015*** 0.0025*** -0.0014*** -0.0033*** 0.1008*** T-stat 28.70 -10.09 5.16 -7.69 -5.06 8.38 σ(FE) Coefficient T-stat 1.6587*** 10.7 -0.2123*** -9.28 0.3429*** 6.69 0.0010 0.07 -0.2583*** -4.77 0.0391*** 3.12 Panel B: Disclosure source is Analyst Reports from Investext Intercept Favorable Unfavorable Size B/M Leverage Adjusted R2 0.1771*** 0.0000 0.0022 -0.0051*** 0.0003 0.0159*** 0.0234*** 46.75 0.00 0.32 -12.96 0.30 2.93 5.15 0.0398*** -0.0017*** 0.0051*** -0.0015*** -0.0029*** 27.18 -5.74 4.97 -7.53 -5.01 0.9812*** -0.0758*** 0.0175 0.0548*** -0.1128*** 9.28 -3.01 0.20 6.42 -4.61 0.0965*** 7.83 -0.0029 -0.95 Panel C: Disclosure source is Financial Press Intercept Favorable Unfavorable Size B/M Leverage Adjusted R2 0.1757*** -0.0013*** 0.0026** -0.0045*** 0.0011 0.0167** 0.0166*** 54.98 -2.80 2.10 -8.79 1.02 2.50 4.66 0.0367*** -0.0004*** 0.0017*** -0.0014*** -0.0026*** 28.3 -2.89 6.84 -7.62 -4.77 0.5192*** -0.0823*** 0.2635*** 0.0448*** -0.0766*** 10.16 -4.18 7.71 4.20 -3.99 0.0779*** 6.72 -0.0018 -0.59 Variable definitions: Cost of Cap.: Expected annual cost of capital calculated based on Fama-French three-factor model over the past five-year’s return data 34 σ(R): Standard deviation of daily stock return over the contemporaneous quarter σ(FE): Standard deviation of all available quarterly analyst forecast errors from 1996 to 2001 Favorable: Favorable assessment index, constructed as mean of the content-analysis-based scaled favorable content measures for six categories of disclosures across three sources, i.e., corporations, analysts, and financial press. Unfavorable: Unfavorable assessment index, constructed as mean of the content-analysis-based scaled unfavorable content measures for six categories of disclosures across three sources, i.e., corporations, analysts, and financial press. Size: natural logarithm of a firm’s market capitalization of equity at the beginning of the quarter B/M: book equity divided by market equity at the beginning of the quarter Leverage: long-term debt divided by the total asset 35 Appendix I List of Companies FINANCIAL (225 FIRMS) 3COWP 3DLTA 3FACOQ 3FHRI 3HOOB 3NRGD 3NSLB 3RATE 3STFA AACE ABBK ABN AEG AIG AJG ALL ALLE AMFH AML AMTD ARE ARI AROW ASFC ASFI AUTH AXM AXP BAC BBV BCS BED BFSB BK BKCT BLM BPOP BRK BXG BXS C CAA CBC CBL CBNY CBSS CCFH CCRT CFBC CFCP CFSB CIT CNFL CANAL CAPITAL CORP DELTONA CORP FIRST ALLIANCE CORP/DE FULL HOUSE RESORTS INC HOLOBEAM INC NRG INC NS & L BANCORP INC BANKRATE INC STRATFORD AMERICAN CORP ACE CASH EXPRESS INC ABINGTON BANCORP INC ABN AMRO HLDG N V -SPON ADR AEGON NV AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL GROUP GALLAGHER (ARTHUR J.) & CO ALLSTATE CORP ALLEGIANT BANCORP INC AMERICAN FINL HLDGS INC AMLI RESIDENTIAL PPTYS TR AMERITRADE HLDG CORP -CL A ALEXANDRIA R E EQUITIES INC ARDEN REALTY INC ARROW FINL CORP ASTORIA FINL CORP ASTA FUNDING INC AUTHORISZOR INC APEX MORTGAGE CAPITAL INC AMERICAN EXPRESS BANK OF AMERICA CORP BANCO BILBAO VIZCAYA -ADR BARCLAYS PLC/ENGLAND -ADR BEDFORD PPTY INVS INC BEDFORD BANCSHARES INC BANK OF NEW YORK CO INC BANCORP CONN INC BLIMPIE INTL INC POPULAR INC BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY -CL A BLUEGREEN CORP BANCORPSOUTH INC CITIGROUP INC CAPITAL ALLIANCE INCM TRUST CENTURA BANKS INC CBL & ASSOCIATES PPTYS INC COMMERCIAL BANK/NY COMPASS BANCSHARES INC CCF HOLDING CO COMPUCREDIT CORP COMMUNITY FIRST BKG CO/GA COASTAL FINANCIAL CORP/DE CITIZENS FIRST FINL CORP CIT GROUP INC CITIZENS FINL CORP KY COHB COLB CORS CPT CRLTS CRRB CTGI CYL DOM DORL DSL DWYR ECMN EQR FBF FCH FED FFA FFDB FFFD FFHH FFIN FFP FFWC FHCC FIF FII FKFS FKKY FLAG FLBC FLPB FNCM FNF FNIN FNM FR FRE FRGB FRME GBE GBP GFR GGP GL GPT GS HARB HBC HGT HRBT HRP HRZB COHOES BANCORP INC COLUMBIA BKG SYS INC CORUS BANKSHARES INC CAMDEN PROPERTY TRUST CENTURY REALTY TRUST CARROLLTON BANCORP/MD CAPITAL TITLE GROUP INC COMMUNITY CAP CORP/SC DOMINION RES BLACK WARRIOR DORAL FINANCIAL CORP DOWNEY FINANCIAL CORP DWYER GROUP INC ECHAPMAN.COM INC EQUITY RESIDENTIAL PPTYS TR FLEETBOSTON FINANCIAL CORP FELCOR LODGING TR INC FIRSTFED FINANCIAL CORP/CA FRANCHISE FINL CORP AMERICA FIRSTFED BANCORP INC NORTH CENTRAL BANCSHARES INC FSF FINANCIAL CORP FIRST FINL BANCSHARES INC FFP PARTNERS -LP-CL A FFW CORP FIRST HEALTH GROUP CORP FINANCIAL FEDERAL CORP FEDERATED INVESTORS INC FIRST KEYSTONE FINL INC FRANKFORT FIRST BANCORP INC FLAG FINL CORP FINGER LAKES BANCORP INC FIRST LEESPORT BANCORP INC FINET.COM INC FIDELITY NATIONAL FINL INC FINANCIAL INDS CORP FANNIE MAE FIRST INDL REALTY TRUST INC FEDERAL HOME LOAN MORTG CORP FIRST REGIONAL BANCORP FIRST MERCHANTS CORP GRUBB & ELLIS CO GABLES RESIDENTIAL TRUST GREAT AMERN FINL RESOURCES GENERAL GROWTH PPTYS INC GREAT LAKES REIT INC GREENPOINT FINANCIAL CORP GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP INC HARBOR FLORIDA BANCSHARES HSBC HLDGS PLC -SPON ADR HUGOTON ROYALTY TRUST HUDSON RIVER BANCORP INC HRPT PPTYS TRUST HORIZON FINANCIAL CORP/WA 36 HT HTL HUMP ICBC ICII IDH IFCJ IGC INBI IRWN ISTN IUBC JDN JPR KILN KIM KRB LM LNC LTC LTFD LXBK MADB MAFB MBHI MBI MBWM MER MET METB MGP MHC MHX MI MLAN MM MMC MTR MWD NEIB NFB NFS NHI NHL NLY NSDB NTRS NYM OAKF ONE OSBC OSKY OWWI PEBK PEDE PEI PFCO PHC PMI PRSP PUK PVFC PVSA HERSHA HOSPITALITY TRUST HEARTLAND PARTNERS -LP-CL A HUMPHREY HOSPITALITY TR INC INDEPENDENCE CMNTY BK CORP IMPERIAL CREDIT INDS INC IPI INC INTERCHANGE FINL SVCS CP/NJ INTERSTATE GENERAL CO -LP INDUSTRIAL BANCORP INC IRWIN FINL CORP INTERSTATE NATL DEALER SVCS INDIANA UTD BANCORP JDN REALTY CORP JP REALTY INC KIRLIN HOLDING CORP KIMCO REALTY CORP MBNA CORP LEGG MASON INC LINCOLN NATIONAL CORP LTC PROPERTIES INC LITTLEFIELD CORP LSB BANCSHARES INC/NC MADISON BANCSHARES GROUP LTD MAF BANCORP INC MIDWEST BANC HLDGS INC MBIA INC MERCANTILE BANK CORP MERRILL LYNCH & CO METLIFE INC METROBANCORP MERCHANTS GROUP INC MANUFACTURED HOME CMNTYS INC MERISTAR HOSPITALITY CORP MARSHALL & ILSLEY CORP MIDLAND CO MUTUAL RISK MANAGEMENT LTD MARSH & MCLENNAN COS MESA ROYALTY TRUST MORGAN STANLEY DEAN WITTER NORTHEAST INDIANA BANCORP NORTH FORK BANCORPORATION NATIONWIDE FINL SVCS -CL A NATIONAL HEALTH INVS INC NEWHALL LAND &FARM -LP ANNALY MORTAGE MGMT INC NSD BANCORP INC NORTHERN TRUST CORP NYMAGIC INC OAK HILL FINANCIAL INC BANK ONE CORP OLD SECOND BANCORP INC/IL MAHASKA INVESTMENT CO OMEGA WORLDWIDE INC PEOPLES BK N C GREAT PEE DEE BANCORP INC PENNSYLVANIA RE INVS TRUST PAULA FINANCIAL/DE PEOPLES HLDG CO PMI GROUP INC PROSPERITY BANCSHARES INC PRUDENTIAL PLC -ADR PVF CAPITAL CORP PARKVALE FINL CORP PXT QUIZ RA RBNC RFS RIGS RPP RVSB SAL SASR SBAN SBCO SCH SFEF SIGI SIVB SJT SMBC SMT SNH SPN SSLI STBA STD STRS STSA STT SUBK SUSQ SV SWS TRMK UBH UBSC UFHI UHCO UHT UIRT UMBF UNBJ UNBO UPFC UPK VLY VSTN WABC WAYN WES WFC WFI WLP WOFC WSB WSFS WTU XL PXRE GROUP LTD QUIZNOS CORP RECKSON ASSOCS RLTY CORP REPUBLIC BANCORP INC RFS HOTEL INVESTORS INC RIGGS NATL CORP WASH D C STONEHAVEN REALTY TRUST RIVERVIEW BANCORP INC SALISBURY BANCORP INC SANDY SPRING BANCORP INC SOUTHBANC SHARES INC SOUTHSIDE BANCSHARES CORP SCHWAB (CHARLES) CORP SANTA FE FINANCIAL CORP SELECTIVE INS GROUP INC SILICON VY BANCSHARES SAN JUAN BASIN ROYALTY TR SOUTHERN MISSOURI BANCP INC SUMMIT PROPERTIES INC SENIOR HOUSING PPTYS TRUST SECURITY PA FINL CORP SOUTHERN SEC LIFE INS S & T BANCORP INC BANCO SANTANDER CENT -ADR STRATUS PROPERTIES INC STERLING FINL CORP/WA STATE STREET CORP SUFFOLK BANCORP SUSQUEHANNA BANCSHARES INC STILWELL FINL INC SOUTHWEST SECURITIES GROUP TRUSTMARK CORP U S B HOLDING INC UNION BANKSHARES LTD/CO UNITED FINANCIAL HOLDINGS UNIVERSAL AMERICAN FINL CP UNIVERSAL HEALTH RLTY INCOME UTD INVESTORS REALTY TRUST UMB FINANCIAL CORP UNITED NATIONAL BANCORP/NJ UNB CORP/OH UNITED PANAM FINANCIAL CORP UNITED PARK CITY MINES VALLEY NATIONAL BANCORP VESTIN GROUP INC WESTAMERICA BANCORPORATION WAYNE SAVINGS BANCSHARES INC WESTCORP WELLS FARGO & CO WINTON FINANCIAL CORP WELLPOINT HLTH NETWRK -CL A WESTERN OHIO FINL CORP WASHINGTON SVGS BANK F S B WSFS FINL CORP WILLIAMS COAL SEAM RYL TRUST XL CAPITAL LTD 37 PHARMACEUTICAL (72 FIRMS) ABT AGN AHP AKC ALO ALT AMGN ANX AVM AVN AZN BGEN BMY BNT BOL BRL BTX BVF CBM CHIR CLL COB COR CVM DMI DNA DOR DP ELI ELN EZM.A FRX GNT GSK HEB ICN IG ABBOTT LABORATORIES ALLERGAN INC AMERICAN HOME PRODUCTS CORP ACCESS PHARMACEUTICALS INC ALPHARMA INC -CL A ALTEON INC AMGEN INC ANTEX BIOLOGICS INC ADVANCED MAGNETICS INC AVANIR PHARMACEUTCLS -CL A ASTRAZENECA PLC -SPON ADR BIOGEN INC BRISTOL MYERS SQUIBB BENTLEY PHARMACEUTICALS BAUSCH & LOMB INC BARR LABORATORIES INC BIOTIME INC BIOVAIL CORP CAMBREX CORP CHIRON CORP CELLTECH GROUP PLC -SP ADR COLUMBIA LABORATORIES INC CORTEX PHARMACEUTICALS INC CEL-SCI CORP DEPOMED INC GENENTECH INC ENDOREX CORP DIAGNOSTIC PRODUCTS CORP ELITE PHARMACEUTICALS INC ELAN CORP PLC -ADR E-Z-EM-INC -CL A FOREST LABORATORIES -CL A GENSTAR THERAPEUTICS CORP GLAXOSMITHKLINE PLC -SP ADR HEMISPHERX BIOPHARMA INC ICN PHARMACEUTICALS INC IGI INC IMA ISV IVX JNJ KG KV.A LBC LLY MEDI MEW MRK MRX MYL NVAX NVO NVS NYE ORG PFE PHA PRX PTN QSC RDY SGP SHM SHR SIAL SRA TGX TTP UG VRA WNI WPI INVERNESS MEDICAL TECHNOLGY INSITE VISION INC IVAX CORP JOHNSON & JOHNSON KING PHARMACEUTICALS INC K V PHARMACEUTICAL -CL A LABORATORIO CHILE -SPON ADR LILLY (ELI) & CO MEDIMMUNE INC VASOGEN INC MERCK & CO MEDICIS PHARMACEUT CP -CL A MYLAN LABORATORIES NOVAVAX INC NOVO-NORDISK A/S -ADR NOVARTIS AG -SPON ADR AMERSHAM PLC -ADR ORGANOGENESIS INC PFIZER INC PHARMACIA CORP PHARMACEUTICAL RES INC PALATIN TECHNOLOGIES INC QUESTCOR PHARMACEUTICALS INC DR REDDYS LABS LTD -ADR SCHERING-PLOUGH SHEFFIELD PHARMACEUTICALS SCHERING AG -ADR SIGMA-ALDRICH SERONO S A -ADR THERAGENICS CORP TITAN PHARMACEUTICALS INC UNITED GUARDIAN INC VIRAGEN INC WEIDER NUTRITION INTL -CL A WATSON PHARMACEUTICALS INC TECHNOLOGY (197 FIRMS) 3128B 3ALLN 3BMLS 3CNDR 3CVTL 3DGLH 3FRTL 3INFO 3ISOL 3MEDY 3MGXI 3MSOF 3SHPI 3SYCM 3TISVE 3TSSW 3USCM 3WCIIQ ACRU NOVADIGM INC ALLIN CORP BURKE MILLS INC CONDOR TECH SOLUTIONS INC CONVERSION TECHNLGS INTL INC DIGITAL LIGHTHOUSE CORP FORTEL INC/CA INFONAUTICS CORP -CL A IMAGE SOFTWARE INC MEDICAL DYNAMICS INC MICROGRAFX INC MULTI SOFT INC SPECIALIZED HEALTH PDS INTL SYSCOMM INTERNATIONAL CORP TENET INFORMATION SVCS INC TOUCHSTONE SOFTWARE CORP USCI INC WINSTAR COMMUNICATIONS ACCRUE SOFTWARE INC ADP ALPH AMEN AMZN AOLA ARBA ASIA ASKJ AVRT BARZ BEAS BFLY BFRE BRCM BTGI CAMZ CBR CENI CERO AUTOMATIC DATA PROCESSING ALPHANET SOLUTIONS INC CROSSWALK.COM INC AMAZON.COM INC AMERICA ONLNE LTN AMR -CL A ARIBA INC ASIAINFO HLDGS INC ASK JEEVES INC AVERT INC BARRA INC BEA SYSTEMS INC BLUEFLY INC BE FREE INC BROADCOM CORP -CL A BTG INC CAMINUS CORP CIBER INC CONESTOGA ENTERPRISES CONCERO INC 38 CFA CGZ CKC CLRN CLRS COE CONE CPTH CSCC CSGS CSPI CTB CTRA DIGX DOCX DRCO DSET DTAB10 DTLK EDS EGOV EGPT ELNK ELOTC EPAY EPRS ESAFE ESTM EXAP EXDS FCGI FCOM FDC FILE FIRE FIT FIVE FLH FMXI FSST FUTR GBIX GENU GFD GIB.A GLC GNL GNSM GRIC GSPT HAXS HNCS HTEI IACT IATV IBM IFGM ILND INAI INGR ININ INSW INTD CHEMFAB CORPORATION COTELLIGENT INC COLLINS & AIKMAN CORP CLARENT CORP CLARUS CORP CONE MILLS CORP CARRIER1 INTL S A -ADR CRITICAL PATH INC CENTERSPAN COMMUN CORP CSG SYSTEMS INTL INC CSP INC COOPER TIRE & RUBBER CENTRA SOFTWARE INC DIGEX INC DOCUMENT SCIENCES CORP DYNAMICS RESEARCH CORP DSET CORP DATATAB INC DATALINK CORP ELECTRONIC DATA SYSTEMS CORP NATIONAL INFO CONSORTIUM INC EAGLE POINT SOFTWARE CORP EARTHLINK INC ELOT INC BOTTOMLINE TECHNOLOGIES INC EPRISE CORP SAFELINK CORPORATION E-STAMP CORP EXCHANGE APPLICATIONS EXODUS COMMUNICATIONS INC FIRST CONSULTING GROUP INC FOCAL COMMUNICATIONS CORP FIRST DATA CORP FILENET CORP FIREPOND INC FAB INDUSTRIES INC 5B TECHNOLOGIES CORP FILA HLDGS S P A -SPON ADR FOAMEX INTERNATIONAL INC FASTNET CORP IFX CORP GLOBIX CORP GENUITY INC GUILFORD MILLS INC GROUPE CGI INC -CL A GALILEO INTERNATIONAL INC GALEY & LORD INC GENSYM CORP GRIC COMMUNICATIONS INC GLOBAL SPORTS INC HEALTHAXIS INC HNC SOFTWARE INC H T E INC INTERACT COMMERCE CORP ACTV INC INTL BUSINESS MACHINES CORP INFOGRAMES INC INTERLAND INC INTELLICORP INC INTERGRAPH CORP INTERACTIVE INTELLIGENCE INC INSWEB CORP INTELIDATA TECHNOLOGIES CORP IPLY ISMT ITIG ITWO IWOV IXX LGTO LIOX LNTY LNUX LOAX LOOK LQID LUMT LVEL MAPS MMTM MRGE MSFT MYE NATI NEOM NETP NLI NOVL NQLI NTIQ NTRT NTWK NUAN NWSS OAOT OGNC OPTK OSII PCD PECS PEGS PLR.A PMIX PNS PPOD PPRO PRSF PTEC PWEI QMDC QRSI RAZF RHAT RMI RNWK ROSS RWAV SEBL SFTY SIDE SMI SNHK SNOW SSNC STRM SUNQ INTERPLAY ENTERTAINMENT CORP CHINAB2BSOURCING.COM INC INTELLIGROUP INC I2 TECHNOLOGIES INC INTERWOVEN INC IVEX PACKAGING CORP LEGATO SYSTEMS INC LIONBRIDGE TECHNOLOGIES INC L90 INC VA LINUX SYSTEMS INC LOG ON AMERICA INC LOOKSMART LTD LIQUID AUDIO INC LUMINANT WORLDWIDE CORP LEVEL 8 SYS INC MAPINFO CORP MOMENTUM BUSINESS APPS INC MERGE TECHNOLOGIES INC MICROSOFT CORP MYERS INDUSTRIES INC NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS CORP NEOMEDIA TECHNOLOGIES INC NET PERCEPTIONS INC NTL INC NOVELL INC NQL INC NETIQ CORP NETRATINGS INC NETSOL INTERNATIONAL INC NUANCE COMMUNICATIONS INC NETWORK SIX INC OAO TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS INC ORGANIC INC OPTIKA INC OBJECTIVE SYS INTEGRATRS INC PLANETCAD INC PEC SOLUTIONS INC PEGASUS SOLUTIONS INC PLYMOUTH RUBBER -CL A PRIMIX SOLUTIONS INC PINNACLE DATA SYSTEMS INC PEAPOD INC PURCHASEPRO.COM PORTAL SOFTWARE INC PHOENIX TECHNOLOGIES LTD PW EAGLE INC QUADRAMED CORP QRS CORP RAZORFISH INC RED HAT INC ROTONICS MANUFACTURING INC REALNETWORKS INC ROSS SYSTEMS INC ROGUE WAVE SOFTWARE INC SIEBEL SYSTEMS INC ESAFETYWORLD INC ASSOCIATED MATERIALS INC SPRINGS INDUSTRIES -CL A SUNHAWK.COM CORP SNOWBALL.COM INC SS&C TECHNOLOGIES INC STARMEDIA NETWORK INC SUNQUEST INFORMATION SYS INC 39 SWTX SYMC TACX THQI THV TIR TSCN TTWO TWNE TWSTY TZIX UBIX UGS UIS UPRO USI USIX VAST VCLK VIZY VLCT VRSO VRTL VRTS VSTR VUL WCG WEBT WITS WKGP XOXO SOUTHWALL TECHNOLOGY SYMANTEC CORP A CONSULTING TEAM INC THQ INC THERMOVIEW INDS INC CHINA TIRE ECOMMERCE.COM LTD TELESCAN INC TAKE-TWO INTERACTIVE SFTWR TOWNE SERVICES INC TELEWEST COMMUNICATION -ADR TRIZETTO GROUP INC UBICS INC UNIGRAPHICS SOLUTIONS INC UNISYS CORP UPROAR INC U S INDUSTRIES INC USINTERNETWORKING INC VASTERA INC VALUECLICK INC VIZACOM INC VALICERT INC VERSO TECHNOLOGIES INC VERTEL CORP VERITAS SOFTWARE CO VOICESTREAM WIRELESS CORP VULCAN INTL CORP WILLIAMS COMMUNICATIONS GRP WEBTRENDS CORP WITNESS SYSTEMS INC WORKGROUP TECHNOLOGY CORP XO COMMUNICATIONS INC -CL A TELECOM (395 FIRMS) AATK ABIZQ ACTG ACTT ADCT ADPT ADTN AETH AFCI AINN AIRN ALA ALGXQ ALMO ALSK ALVR AMT AMX ANCC ANDW ANK APSG ARDI ARDTQ ARRS ASAT American Access Technologies Inc Adelphia Business Solutions Acacia Technologies Act Teleconferencing Inc ADC Telecommunications Inc Adaptec Inc Adtran Inc Aether Sys Inc Advanced Fibre Communications Applied Innovation Inc Airspan Networks Alcatel Allegiance Telecom Inc Alamosa Hldgs Inc Alaska Communications Sys Grp Alvarion Ltd American Tower Corp America Movil S A De C V Airnet Communications Andrew Corp Atlantic Tele Network Inc Applied Signal Technology Inc @Road Inc. Ardent Communications Inc Arris Group Inc Esat Inc ASPT AT ATEL ATGN ATNG ATS ATSC ATTL AVCI AWE BBOX BCE BCGI BCICF BFH BIZZ BKET BLB BLS BMKS BOGN BRCD BRKT BRP BSY BTM BTY CACS CAMP CAPA CATS CCI CCMS CEL CFW CHA CHL CHNL CHTR CHU CIC CLEC CMCSK CMNT CMTL CMTN CNEZF CNOW COLT COMM COMS CORV COVD COX CRDS CRNT CSA CSCO Aspect Communications Corp Alltel Corporation Accesstel Inc AltiGen Communications Inc Atng Inc APT Satellite ATSI Communications Inc. AT&T Latin America Corp. Avici Systems Inc AT&T Wireless Services Inc. Black Box Corp BCE Inc. Boston Communications Group Bell Cda Intl Inc Cabco Tr For Bellsouth Debs Biznessonline Com Inc Bankengine Technologies Inc Bellsouth Cap Fdg Corp BellSouth Corporation Brandmakers Inc Bogen Communications International Inc Brocade Communcations Systems Inc Brooktrout Inc Brasil Telecom Participacoes British Sky Broadcasting Group ADS Brasil Telecom Sa Bt Group Plc Carrier Access Corp California Amplifier Inc Captaris Inc Catalyst Semi Crown Castle International Corp Champion Communications Svcs Grupo Iusacell S A De C V New CyberGuard Corp China Telecom Corp Ltd China Mobile Hong Kong Ltd Chanell Commercial Corp Charter Communications China Unicom Ltd A T & T Cap Corp US Lec Corp Comcast Computer network Technology Comtech Telecommunications Corp Copper Mountain Networks Inc Call-Net Enterprises Inc Call Now Inc Colt Telecom Group Plc Atx Communications Inc 3Com Corp Corvis Corp Covad Communications Group Inc Cox Communications Crossroads Systems Inc Ceragon Network Chilesat Corp S A Cisco Systems Inc 40 CSOL CSTL CTC CTCI CTCO CTEL CTL CTLM CTV CVC CVST CWLC CWON CWP CYAD CYCL CYTP CZN CZNPR DAVL DCEL DCM DDDC DECC DGII DIGL DISH DITC DSPG DT DTIX DTVN DVID ECTX ELEC ELMG EMT ENCW ENG ENWV EPHO ERICY ERS ETLK ETS FCSE FGWC FIBR FNSR FON FRNS FTE FULO GHGI GIGM GLDN GLW GMH GNCMA GNSY GTCC GTTIF Call Solutions Inc Castelle Inc Compañia de Telecomunicaciones de Chile S.A. Ct Communications Inc Commonwealth Tel Enterprises City Telecom H K Ltd Centurytel Inc Centillium Communications Inc Commscope Inc Cablevision Systems Covista Communications Inc China Wireless Communications Choice One Communication Inc Cable and Wireless Plc Cyberads Inc Centennial Communctns Corp New Cybertel Communications Corp Citizens Communications Co Citizens Utils Tr Davel Communications Inc Dobson Communications Corp Ntt Docomo Inc Deltathree Inc D&E Communications Inc Digi International Inc Digital Lightwave Inc EchoStar Communications Ditech Communcations Corp DSP Group Inc Deutsche Telekom Ag Dial Thru International Corp Dtvn Hldgs Inc Digital Video Systems Inc ECtel Ltd Elec Communications Corp EMS Technologies Inc Empratel Participacoes Encore Wireless Inc ENGlobal Corp Endwave Corp Ephone Telecom Inc Ericsson LM Telephones Empire Resources Inc Elephant Talk Comm Inc Enterasys Networks Focus Enhancements Inc 5G Wireless Communications Inc Sorrento Networks Corporation Finisar Corp Sprint Corporation First Ave Networks Inc France Telecom Fullnet Communications Inc Greenhold Group Inc Gigamedia Ltd Golden Telecom Inc Corning Inc Hughes Electronics Corp General Communications Inc Genesys S A Gtc Telecom Corp Grandetel Technologies Inc GTTLQ HANA HCT HLIT HRCT HRS HSVI HTC HTCO IBAS ICGC IDCC IDSY IDTC IGTT IIIM IIT ILNK INPH INTA INTI ITCD ITSN ITXC JCOM JNIC JNPR KPN KQIPQ KTB KTC KVHI KVZ LCCI LCST LIC LLL LOR LQ LTBG LU LWINQ LXNT MANW MBT MBYTF MC MCDT MCKC MCLD MCWEQ MDLK MFNXQ MNCP MNPL MOORZ MOT MPOW MRCY MTA Gt Group Telecom Inc Hanaro Telecom Inc Hector Communications Corp Harmonic Inc Hartcourt Cos Inc Harris Corp Home Svcs Intl Inc Hungarian Telephone and Cable Corp. Hickory Tech Corporation Ibasis Inc Icg Communications Inc Interdigital Communications I.D. Systems Inc IDT Corporation Indiginet Inc I3 Mobile Inc Perusahaan Perseroan (Persero) P.T. Ind. Sat. Corp. I-Link Corp Interphase Corp Intasys Corp Inet Technologies Inc Itc Deltacom Inc Its Networks Inc Itxc Corp J2 Global Communications Inc JNI Corp Juniper Networks Royal PTT Nederland NV Kpnqwest N V Corts Tr Bellsouth Kt Corp KVH Industries Inc Verizon New Eng Inc LCC International Lecstar Corp Lynch Interactive Corp L-3 Communications Holdings, Inc Loral Space & Communications Quinenco SA Lightbridge Inc Lucent Technologies Leap Wireless Intl Inc Lexent Inc (USA) Mobile Area Networks Inc Mobile Telesystems Ojsc Moving Bytes Inc Matsushita Electronics McDATA Corp MCK Communications Inc Mcleodusa Inc Worldcom Inc Worldcom Group Medialink Worldwide Inc Metromedia Fiber Network Inc Motient Corp Minorplanet Sys Usa Inc Chadmoore Wireless Group Inc Motorola Inc Mpower Holding Corp Mercury Computer Systems, Inc Magyar Tavkozlesi Rt 41 MTE MTOH MTON MTPPRA MTRM MTSL MWVT NASC NETX NIHD NIPNY NMDV NMRX NOK NPLSQ NPSI NSK NT NTIAQ NTKKQ NTL NTLOQ NTOP NTRO NTT NUEP NULM NVNW NVTL NWK NWRE NXTL NXTP NZT OBAS OCCF OECI OOM OPTC OTE PACW PCSA PCTI PCW PDYN PHGW PHI PNTA PR PRMC PROX PRTL PSEM PT PTEK PTNR Mahanagar Tel Nigam Ltd Metrocall Hldgs Inc Metro One Telecommunications Inc Montana Power Cap I Metromedia International Group, Inc MER Telemanagement Solutions Microwave Transmission Sys Inc Network Access Solutions Cor Netlojix Communications Inc Nii Hldgs Inc NEC Corporation New Millennium Dev Group Numerex Corp Nokia Corp Network Plus Corp North Pittsburgh Systems Inc New Skies Satellites N.V. Nortel Networks Netia Hldgs S A Net2000 Communications Inc Nortel Inversora S A Ntelos Inc Net2Phone Netro Corp Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation Net 1 Ueps Technologies Inc New Ulm Telecom Inc Novo Networks Inc Novatel Wireless Network Equipment Technologies Inc Neoware Systems Inc Nextel Communications Inc Cl A Nextel Partners Inc Telecom Corporation of New Zealand Limited Optibase Ltd Optical Cable Corp Orbit E-Commerce Inc Mmo2 Plc Optelecom Inc Hellenic Telecom Organizatn Sa Pac-West Telecom Inc Airgate Pcs Inc PC-Tel Inc Pccw Ltd Paradyne Networks Inc Phone 1Globalwide Inc Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company Pentastar Communications Inc Price Communications Corporation Prime Cos Inc Proxim Corp Primus Telecommunications Grp Pericom Semiconductor Corp Portugal Telecom, S.A. Ptek Hldgs Inc Partner Communications Co Ltd PVSS PWAV Q QCOM RADN RCCC RCN RCNC REMC RFMI RG RIMM RNDC ROS RSTN RSTRC SAT SBAC SBC SBEI SCKT SCM SCMR SDAY SFA SHEN SI SILCF SKM SLNK SMSC SONT SPAL SPM SPOT SRTI SSPI STGC STHLY STXN SURW SVVS SWIR SYMM T TALK TAR TBE TBH TCN TCOM TCP TDA TDP TDR TDS TDSPRB Pivotal Self Service Tech Inc Powerwave Technologies Inc Qwest Communications Intl Inc Qualcomm Inc Radyne Comstream Inc Rural Cellular Corporation Rogers Wireless Communications RCN Corp Remec Inc RF Monolithics Inc Rogers Communications Inc Research In Motnion Ltd Raindance Communications Inc Rostelecom Open Jt Stock Lng Dst Riverstone Networks Inc Rstar Corp Asia Satellite Telecommunications Holdings Ltd SBA Communications Corp SBC Communications Inc. SBE Inc Socket Communications Inc Swisscom Ag Sycamore Networks Inc Sunday Communication Ltd Scientific-Atlanta Inc Shenandoah Telecommunications Siemens AG Silicom Ltd Korea Mobile Telecommunications Corp. Spectralink Corp Standard Microsystems Corp Sontra Medical Corp Spantel Communications Inc Spirent PLC Panamsat Corp Sunrise Telecom Inc Spectrum Signal Processing Inc Startec Global Communication Stet Hellas Communications S A Stratex Networks Inc Surewest Communications Savvis Communications Corp Sierra Wireless Inc Symmetricom Inc AT&T Corp. Talk America Hldgs Inc Telefonica De Argentina S A Tele Leste Celular Participacoes S.A. Telebras HOLDRS Tele Norte Celular Part S A Telecom Communications Inc Telesp Celular Part S A Telephone & Data Sys Inc Telefonica Del Peru S A Tricom Sa Telephone And Data Systems, Inc. Tds Cap Ii 42 TEF TELN TEM TEO TFONY TI TKA TKC TLAB TLD TLL TLMD TLS TLTOB TMB TMX TND TNE TNTX TPC TRO TROY TSD TSP TSTN TSU TSYS TU TUTS TWTC UAX UCSY ULCM UMGPRC UNWR UPCS USM USPO USRT UTSI UVCL VEDO VICM VIP VNT VNWI VNWK VOD VRLK VSAT VSL VYYO VZ VZC WEBX WFII WGNR WJCI WONE Telefonica de España, S.A. Telenor Asa Telefonica Moviles S A TELECOM ARGENTINA STET France Telecom S.A. Telefonos De Mexico S A Telecom Italia Spa Telekom Austria Ag Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri Tellabs Inc Tdc A/S Teletouch Communications Inc Telemonde Inc Telstra Corp Ltd Tele2 Ab Telemig Celular Part S A Telefonos de Mexico, S.A. de C.V. Tele Nordeste Celular Part S A Tele Norte Leste Part S A T-NETIX Inc Triton Pcs Hldgs Inc Tele Centro Oeste Celular S A Troy Group Inc Tele Sudeste Celular Part S A Telecomunicacoes De Sao Paulo Turnstone Systems Tele Celular Sul Part S A TeleCommunication Systems Telus Corp Tut Systems Inc Time Warner Telecom Inc Usurf America Inc Universal Comm Sys Inc Nev Ulticom Inc Mediaone Fin Tr Iii US Unwired Inc Ubiquitel Inc United States Cellular Corporation Usip Com Inc U S Realtel Inc UTStarcom Inc Univercell Hldgs Inc Villageedocs Inc Vicom Inc Open Jt Stock Co-Vimpel Communic Compania Anonima Nacionl Tel Via Net Wrks Inc Visual Networks Inc Vodafone Group Plc New Verilink Corp ViaSat Inc Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd Vyyo Inc Verizon Communications Verizon South Inc Webex Communications Inc Wireless Facilities Inc Wegener Corp WJ Communications Inc Wire One Technologies WQNI WRDP WRLS WSTL WTEQ WVCM WWCA WWCO WWVY WWWNQ XETA XING ZENX ZICA ZNTH ZOOM ZTEL WorldQuest Networks Inc Worldport Communications Inc Telular Corp Westell Technologies Inc Worldteq Group Intl Inc Wavecom S.A. ads Western Wireless Corp Cl A Wireless Webconnect Inc Warwick Valley Tel Co Worldwide Wireless Networks Xeta Technologies Inc Qiao Xing Universal Telephone Inc Zenex Intl Inc ZI Corporation Zenith Technology Inc Zoom Technologies Inc Z Tel Technologies Inc Appendix II Business Category Dictionary We defined six categories of business words and word meanings to classify disclosure texts. Below are the categories and words comprising each category. 1. Statements of Market Risk, Industry Structure and Competitive Forces Market search terms: market, marketplace, environment, segment, sector Competition search terms: competitor, competition, dominant Industry structure search terms: industry, entrant, supplier, buyer, substitute, scale, product, brand, switching, capital, access, cost, rivalry, capacity, concentration, exit, barrier, price, profit, quality, input, volume, purchase, integration, power Competitive analysis search terms: customer, channel, value, first-mover, technology, alliance, partnership, venture, regulation, litigation 2. Statements of Firm-Level Strategy Intent, Product Market Performance, Performance of Business Strategy Model in Use Strategic intent: search terms: strategy, strategic, value, sales, revenue, share, profit, profitability, product, service, lead, leader, quality, customer, buyer, growth, opportunity, risk, resource Innovation and research and development search terms: research and development, r&d, patent, discovery, license, licensing, regulation, regulatory, trial, monitor, innovate, innovation, competence Mode of entry search terms: entry, cost, business, complementary, green-field, venture, investment, capital, solution, price Business model 44 search terms: model, best, lowest, low, highest, high, supplier, distribution Partnerships search terms: partner, alliance, merger, acquisition, joint, venture, relationship, equity, asset 3. Statements of Human and Organizational Capital, Quality of Management Performance, Corporate Governance and Leadership Leadership search terms: leader, leadership, record, value, culture, responsibility, goal, objective Management quality search terms: management, quality, best, proven, experience, teamwork Governance search terms: governance, corporate, board, incentive, owner, ownership, compensation, recruitment, development Disclosure search terms: disclosure, transparent, transparency, information, audit, auditing, oversight, assurance, regulation, mandate, mandated Measures search terms: up, down, better, worse, recover, advance, advancing, progress, progressing, expand, expanding, improve, improving, reduce, reducing, reduction, decline, declining, retain, retention, profit, profitability, feedback, scorecard, growth, growing, performance, projected, projections. 4. Statements of market recognition, power and consistency of branded image, measures of consumer confidence and trust in branded image Customer search terms: customer, satisfaction, feedback, trust Brand search terms: brand, image, name, trademark, recognition, stretch, quality, awareness 45 Media search terms: media, radio, television, newspaper, internet, promotion, media spend, media budget, announcements, release, media spend, media budget Advertising search terms: advertising, ad, direct, channel, advertising spend, ad spend, advertising allocation, advertising budget, ad budget Corporate image search terms: corporate image, reputation, integrity, community, trust, trusted name, confidence, durability, strength, character 5. Statements of corporate and business unit financial performance Financial performance search terms: gross, net, return on investment, return on sales, return on assets, return on equity, ROI, ROA, ROE, profit, earnings, margin, capital, debt, sales, EBITDA, ratings, leverage, valuation, cost of capital Forecasting search terms: forecast, forecasting, cash flow, prospectus, quarterly Insider stock transactions search terms: insider buy, insider sell 6. Statements and/or References to Federal Government Regulation Enacted or Pending Influential to firm Competitiveness, Product Market Performance, and/or Disclosure Practices Regulation search terms: regulation, federal, state, securities and exchange commission, commerce, legislation, congress, law, legal, hearings, enacted, pending, sec, medicare, medicaid, FDA Special interest groups search terms: lobby, lobbyists, special, interest, expert, testimony, industry, watchdog, consumer rights, patient rights Appendix III Examples of Disclosure Texts, Amgen Corporation Technology & Health Study on Amgen's Obesity Drug, Leptin, Raises Questions About Its Effectiveness By Robert Langreth and Rhonda L. Rundle Staff Reporters of The Wall Street Journal 02/01/1996 The Wall Street Journal B5 New research raises questions over whether Amgen Inc.'s experimental obesity drug will work on most overweight patients. Amgen has gambled millions of dollars on the new drug, leptin, which will be tested in humans later this year. Leptin, a hormone produced by fat cells, is believed to regulate weight by signaling the brain when enough fat has been stored and ordering it to slash food intake and speed metabolism. But the new study, published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that obese people have no problem producing leptin, as some researchers had suspected; in fact, they have an average of four times more leptin in their bloodstream than lean people. "The idea that leptin will be a magic bullet for everyone with obesity, this study puts that idea aside," said lead researcher Jose Caro from the Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. Amgen shares fell 1.9% in Nasdaq Stock Market trading yesterday, closing at $60.125, down $1.1875, when word of the study began to leak out. After the market closed, Amgen reported fourth-quarter net income of $145.6 million, or 52 cents a share, on a 16% increase in revenue, in line with analysts' forecasts. Amgen said its profit in the quarter jumped 20%, excluding a large charge in the year-earlier quarter. The latest research may hint that, instead of a deficiency of leptin in an overweight person, the problem could lie in an inability of the brain and its "receptors" to receive leptin's signals. That would put Amgen at odds with a small rival. Last year Amgen paid Rockefeller University a record $20 million for rights to the newly discovered gene that produces leptin. But a rival, Millennium Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge, Mass., is betting the receptor, a protein in the brain, is the key. Backed by Roche Holding Ltd.'s Hoffman-LaRoche Inc., Millennium said last month it had discovered the gene that makes the receptor. It is attempting to design a drug that would boost the leptin receptor's sensitivity to signals from the hormone. Amgen disputed the study's significance. "This doesn't really answer the question whether giving leptin to people will cause them to lose weight or not. That can only be answered in a human clinical trial, which we will conduct in a few months," said Gordon Binder, chief executive of Amgen, Thousand Oaks, Calif. Millennium countered that the new finding bolsters its own 47 approach. "This is very important research and confirms our own internal studies," said Louis Tartaglia, a Millennium researcher who helped discover the receptor gene. Last year, scientists at Amgen and Rockefeller University showed that grossly obese mice lost 22% to 40% of their weight after getting shots of the leptin hormone. The results raised hopes that the same hormone might work in humans. But in the New England Journal study, Dr. Caro and his colleagues measured leptin levels in 139 obese people and 136 lean people. On average, the overweight subjects had four times as much leptin as lean ones. Some obese subjects had levels of the hormone elevated 20 or 30 times normal. About 5% of the overweight subjects, however, had lower leptin levels, and might be more likely to react to leptin therapy, Dr. Caro noted. Eli Lilly & Co. researchers also participated in the New England Journal study. Amgen's fourth-quarter earnings included a charge of $10 million, or two cents a share, in license fees to NPS Pharmaceuticals Inc., a Salt Lake City drug-development company. In the year-earlier quarter, Amgen had earnings of $4.8 million, or two cents a share, after a $116 million charge related to the acquisition of Synergen. Revenue in the latest quarter rose to $513.5 million from $442.9 million. 48 Technology & Health Amgen Says Profit Increased by 32%, Plans New Product By Rhonda L. Rundle Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal 04/18/1996 The Wall Street Journal B6 Biotechnology leader Amgen Inc. reported a 32% increase in first-quarter net income and disclosed for the first time a new product candidate and the filing of an application for an experimental Hepatitis C drug. Net income climbed to $143.6 million, or 51 cents a share, from $108.6 million, or 39 cents a share, a year earlier, a penny ahead of analysts' expectations. Last year's first-quarter results were reduced by a $20 million technology payment. Revenue rose 16% to $507.9 million from $439.4 million, reflecting continued strong growth of Amgen's two drugs. Epogen sales rose 23% to $244 million, while Neupogen sales rose 10% to $233 million. "It was a good, solid quarter," said Joyce Lonergan, an analyst at Cowen & Co. First-quarter domestic Neupogen sales were weak because of a lag effect after the holidays when there aren't as many cancer chemotherapy treatments, she said. Neupogen bolsters white blood cells that are destroyed by anticancer drugs. The results were announced after the stock market had closed. Amgen shares fell $1.375 to $53.125 in Nasdaq trading. Amgen, Thousand Oaks, Calif., said it is developing a new protein that stimulates the growth of red blood cells, and "we believe we may have some superior properties to Epogen," said Gordon Binder, chairman and chief executive officer. Human tests are expected to start next year. Epogen, widely used by kidney dialysis patients, was Amgen's first product and remains one of biotech's best-selling drugs. Amgen said it filed with the Food and Drug Administration April 10 for a new drug application for Infergen, a consensus interferon developed as a treatment against Hepatitis C. Amgen said it will probably sell Infergen in the U.S. and either license or co-promote it in other countries. Mr. Binder said it's unlikely the drug will be approved before next year. Analysts have been skeptical of the potential for Infergen, whose human test results haven't demonstrated clear superiority over other interferons. Infergen's approval could trigger a patent battle with Schering-Plough Corp., which markets alpha interferon, analysts say. A ScheringPlough spokesman declined to comment on that speculation, but said the company is monitoring Amgen's activities. Ms. Lonergan, like many analysts, isn't counting on significant Infergen profits in her earnings models. She estimates the potential U.S. market at $100 million. She said the new red blood cell protein under development, if successful, could extend Amgen's Epogen "patent position" and "support their franchise" for a long time. Appendix IV General Inquirer Word Category Examples Examples of Words and Word Meanings Included in GI Categories Positive and Negative (entries are shown with assigned tags and sense meanings) POSITIVE Category includes 1,915 words of positive outlook. For example: ABILITY H4Lvd Positiv Strong Virtue EVAL Abs@ ABS MeansLw Noun ABLE H4Lvd Positiv Pstv Strong Virtue EVAL MeansLw Modif adjective: Having necessary power, skill, resources, etc. ACCENTUATE H4 Positiv Active Ovrst IAV SUPV ACCEPT H4Lvd Positiv Pstv Submit Passive SocRel IAV PosAff SUPV verb: To take, receive or accede to something ACCEPTABLE H4Lvd Positiv Pstv Virtue EVAL PosAff Modif ACCEPTANCE H4Lvd Positiv Pstv Affil Passive SocRel PosAff Noun ACCOMPLISH H4Lvd Positiv Pstv Strong Power Active Complet IAV EndsLw SUPV verb: To bring to its goal or conclusion ACCOMPLISHMENT H4Lvd Positiv Pstv Strong Power Active Goal EndsLw Noun -------------------NEGATIVE Category includes 2,291 words of negative outlook ADVERSARY H4Lvd Negativ Hostile Polit@ Role SocRel HU PowCon PowTot Noun ADVERSE H4Lvd Negativ Ngtv Vice NegAff Modif 50 ADVERSITY H4 Negativ Vice Noun ALLEGATION H4Lvd Negativ Ngtv Hostile Legal ComForm COM PowCon PowTot FormLw Noun ALLEGE H4 Negativ Weak Undrst ComForm IAV SUPV AMBIGUITY H4Lvd Negativ Ngtv Undrst Perceiv If Noun AMBIGUOUS H4Lvd Negativ Ngtv Undrst Perceiv If Modif AMISS H4Lvd Negativ Ngtv Vice NegAff LY ANOMALY H4Lvd Negativ Undrst Rel Noun Appendix V Example General Inquirer Output Matrix AMGEN Corporation Disclosure Text Input File AMGN 02-02-1996.txt AMGN 02-02-1996.txt AMGN 04-18-1996.txt AMGN 04-18-1996.txt Format Wordcount Leftovers Positive Negative r 635 116 20 21 s 635 18.26772 3.149606 3.307087 r 423 77 19 8 s 423 18.20331 4.491726 1.891253