Investor Target Prices

We argue that investors have target prices as anchors for the stocks that they own; once a stock exceeds target prices, investors are satisfied and more likely to sell the stock. This increased selling can generate a price drift after good news. Consistent with our argument, using analyst-target-price forecasts as a proxy, we provide evidence that the fraction of satisfied investors generates the post-earnings-announcement drift, and stocks with a high fraction of satisfied investors experience stronger selling around announcements. This pattern is stronger for stocks with low institutional ownership and high uncertainty.