Table 2.
Target firm characteristics
| Long | Short | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | # firms | Year | # firms |
| Panel A: Number of unique firms | |||
| 2012 | 69 | 2012 | 24 |
| 2013 | 106 | 2013 | 29 |
| 2014 | 214 | 2014 | 50 |
| 2015 | 603 | 2015 | 162 |
| 2016 | 1050 | 2016 | 306 |
| 2017 | 998 | 2017 | 258 |
| 2018 | 1069 | 2018 | 465 |
| 2019 | 1292 | 2019 | 454 |
| 2020 | 2283 | 2020 | 1007 |
| 2021 | 2319 | 2021 | 527 |
| Long | Short | S&P500 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Panel B: Firm characteristics (means) | |||
| Total assets (in $ million) | 44,231 | 71,823 | 147,765 |
| Market value of equity t−1 | 21,203 | 34,586 | 81,815 |
| Market to Book t−1 | 24.14 | 2.71 | 3.88 |
| Last month return | 0.02 | 0.01 | 0.01 |
| Short interest (% of float) | 0.09 | 0.10 | 0.03 |
Panel A reports the number of unique firms per year in the sample. Panel B depicts firm characteristics broken down across long and short positions