Instructions: Please read this case thoroughly. You will be given the same case in the final exam.

This case represents 15% of your final grade

Between May and September 2020, GLEE stock price rose rapidly, to the point where in September GLEEs market capitalization was above $600 billion, making it among the largest firms in the world. Then on Thursday, November 26th, 2020, GLEE issued a press release indicating that its revenue for the fourth quarter would grow between 3 percent and 5 percent, not 8 to 12 percent that analysts had been forecasting.

In response to this news, GLEEs stock price dropped by 30% over the next five days. GLEEs chairman, Mrs. Arquette, commented on the reaction, stating: I do not know what you call it but an overreaction and the market feeding on itself.

An academic study found that at the time, virtually none of the analysts following GLEE used discounted cash flow analysis to estimate the fundamental value of GLEEs stock. Instead, the study points out that analysts react to bad news in the same way that a bond-rating agency reacts to bad news. Just as a bond-rating agency would downgrade the firms debt, analysts downgrade their stock recommendations. After GLEEs press release, approximately one-third of the analysts following the firms downgraded their recommendations. Some of the recommendation changes were extreme. Notably, the cumulative return on GLEEs stock, relative to the S&P500, displayed a negative trend for the period November 2020 through November 2021.

In what some might see as a replay of history, consider an event that took place at the online firm ETrade during March 2005. Between the end of 2002 and the end of 2004, ETrades share increased by over 200 percent. During December 2004, ETrades stock price peaked at $118, and its forward PE ratio was 83. At the time, the firm market value was $81.7 billion. Fourth quarter earnings for ETrade grew by 44 percent to $205.4, or 30 cents a share.

Just as GLEE had announced that its earnings growth would be lower than forecast, ETrades actual earnings for the fourth quarter of 2004 fell a penny below analysts consensus forecasts. Dave Woo, ETrades CEO, stated that future earnings would be lower because if higher advertising costs and reinvestment.

In response, ETrades stock price fell from $103 to $81 per share. The firms market value fell to $56 billion. Many analysts immediately downgraded ETrades stock. Stephen Holden, ETrades CFO, issued a public statement to say that his concern was managing ETrades long term prospects, not its stock price.

On January 26, 2005, Beyonce, a Wall Street columnist, wrote that she would consider purchasing ETrade stock in the wake of its decline. While acknowledging that ETrade could not grow at a stratospheric rate forever. Beyonce noted that AliAbaba is in the process of transforming world commerce and has a natural monopoly. Where she to own just one stock, Beyonce said, ETrade would be that stock.

Case questions:

2. Discuss whether Beyonces assessment of ETrade reflects any psychological phenomena. (5 marks)

The answer should not exceed 100 words