Earnings Announcements and Investor Focus in the Hospitality Industry

Abstract

This study examines how the release of multiple firms’ earnings announcements on the same day combines with human attention constraints to affect the trading of hospitality stocks. We document two opposing effects. We find that a rush of earnings announcements from nonhospitality firms leads to investor distraction and reduces the reaction of hospitality stocks to earnings news. Conversely, we find that multiple announcements by firms within the hospitality sector lead to increased investor focus and larger hospitality stock reactions to news. Our results show that multiple announcements can either diminish or enhance investors’ reactions to company news, which directly affects the incorporation of new information into hospitality stock prices.