Overview Flashcards
According to FINRA, an institutional investor is defined as
- A bank and/or a savings and loan association
- An insurance company or registered investment company
- An investment adviser that’s registered with the SEC under Section 203 of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 or that’s registered with a state securities commission
- A government agency or a subdivision of one
- A 403(b) employee benefit plan or a plan that meet the guidelines of Section 457 of the Internal Revenue Code (excluding the individual plan participants)
- A member firm or an associated person of a member firm, or any person who’s acting on behalf of an institutional investor
- Any other entity (including a natural person, corporation, partnership, or trust) that has total assets of at least $50 million
Schedules 13D and 13G
Any person or group that acquires more than 5% of an issuer’s equity securities, notification must be made to the issuer, the exchange on which the security is traded, and to the SEC within 10 days after the acquisition.
13D - Persons who agree to act together for the purpose of acquiring, holding, voting, or selling the equity securities. Must be made within 10 days after the acquisition.
13G - Filed by institutional investors that have no intention of influencing or controlling the issue (i.e., passive investors). Must be made within 45 days of the end of the year in which the beneficial owner acquired 5%, as well as within 10 days of the end of the month in which an investor’s ownership first exceeds 10%.
Form 13F
Required quarterly filings of institutional investment managers if they exercise investment discretional over at least $100M in securities. Must be filed with the SEC within 45 days of the quarter’s end. The form includes information concerning the equity securities that are owned by the filer.
Forms 3, 4, & 5
Form 3 - Once a person becomes an insider, they are required to report to the SEC the amount of securities they own within 10 days of becoming an insider
Form 4 - The person is also required to report any changes in their position no later than the second business day following the change in position.
Form 5 - An insider is required to make an annual filing that relates to certain transactions, such as gifts.
Form 14A
Used to file preliminary and definitive proxy statements
SEC Rule 14c-2
An issuer is generally required to provide a proxy statement or an annual report to its shareholders at least 20 calendar days prior to its annual meeting date.
Form S-1
Used for most initial public offerings
Form S-3
Often referred to as a short form registration. Can be used by issuers that have at least $75M of public float.
Form S-4
For situations in which securities are being offered as a result of business combinations, such as mergers, acquisitions, consolidations, reclassifications or securities, or transfer of corporate assets
Form S-8
Filed with the SEC in order to register securities that are made available through employee benefit plans.
Form S-11
Filed with the SEC in order to register securities that are being issued by a real estate investment trust (REIT)
Define Quid Pro Quo Allocations / Kickbacks
Firms using their allocation of new issues (especially those oversubscribed) as a means of obtaining compensation that’s excessive in relation to the services they provide in return.
Define Spinning
A member firm allocating shares of a new issue to certain corporate decision makers
Define Flipping
The initial sale of a new issue that occurs within 30 days following its offering date as an IPO. Creates downward pressure on the price of the security in the secondary market.
An underwriter that’s stabilizing an issue, effecting a syndicate short covering transaction, or implementing a penalty bid, must maintain a record of the following information:
- The % participation or commitment of each syndicate member
- The names & addresses of the syndicate members
- The dates for when the penalty bid was in effect
- The names and class of any security stabilized or any security in which a syndicate short covering transaction was executed
- The price, date, and time at which each stabilizing purchase or syndicate short covering transaction was executed
Rule 101 of Regulation M
Purpose is to prevent the interested participants in a distribution from manipulating the secondary market trading of the stock for their own benefit. Interested participants include syndicate members, selling group members, and other broker-dealers that assist in selling the security being offered to the public. These participants are not permitted to bid for the subject security within a critical time frame (restricted period).
Length of restricted periods according to the SEC for Rule 101 of Regulation M
- 5 days prior to pricing: Public float < $25M and ADTV (average daily trading volume) < $100K
- 1 day prior to pricing: Public float > $25M and < $150M and ADTV > $100K
- No restriction period:
- – Municipal securities, government securities, and non-convertible investment-grade debt
- – Actively traded securities - Public float > $150M and ADTV of $1M
The following securities are not subject to selling restrictions under the New Issue Rule
- Secondary offerings
- All debt offerings, including convertible and non-investment grade debt
- Private offerings
- Preferred stock and rights offerings
- Investment company offerings
- Exempt securities that are identified by the Securities Act of 1933
- Direct participation programs (DPPs) and REITs
Rule 147 and 147A
Allows companies to raise capital from their in-state investors and be exempt from registering security with SEC.
Regulation A
Contains rules which provide exemptions from the registration requirements and allows some companies to use equity crowdfunding in order to offer and sell their securities without having to register the securities with the SEC.
Under the original Regulation A, the maximum amount of securities that are able to be sold within a 12-month period are:
$5M. Of that amount, no more than $1.5M were able to be offered on behalf of selling shareholders.
The two tiers which comprise Regulation A and their i) Maximum offering size, ii) timer period, iii) maximum amount that may be offered by existing shareholders, iv) and required audited financial statements / ongoing reporting
Tier 1 / Tier 2
i) $20M / $75M
ii) 12 months / 12 months
iii) $6M (30% of max offering) / $22.5M (30% of max offering)
iv) No / Yes
Regulation D
Requires the filing of a uniform notice of sale (Form D) with the SEC by no later than 15 days after the first sale of the securities in a private placement.
Rule 144A
Provision which permits the sales of restricted securities (except for sales executed by the issuer) to qualified institutional buyer (QIBs) without the limitations which relate to the amount being sold and the frequency of sales that are imposed by Rule 144.
Regulation S
A company can quickly issue an unlimited amount of securities outside of the country without filing any documentation with the SEC.
FINRA Rule 5122
Relates to the private placement of securities in which a member firm is issuing the securities on its own behalf