credit, including © notice, is given to the source. Fundamentals, Market Timing, and Seasoned Equity Offerings

JEL No. G31,G32,G35 Firms conduct SEOs to resolve a near-term liquidity squeeze, and not primarily to exploit market timing opportunities. Without the SEO proceeds, 62.6 % of issuers would have insufficient cash to implement their chosen operating and non-SEO financing decisions the year after the SEO. Although the SEO decision is positively related to a firm's market-to-book (M/B) ratio and prior excess stock return and negatively related to its future excess return, these relations are economically immaterial. For example, a 150 % swing in future net of market stock returns (from a 75 % gain to a 75 % loss over three years) increases by only 1 % the probability of an SEO in the immediately prior year. Strikingly, most firms with quintessential "market timer " characteristics fail to issue stock and a non-trivial number of matur