Forbes Magazine's America's Best Banks: Are they best for investors?

This paper investigates announcement effects and longer-term performance associated with the Forbes' America's Best Banks survey release. Although the market reacted positively to the announcement, the overall event window effects were insignificant. Raw and risk-adjusted returns are statistically insignificant over longer-time horizons. Investors cannot just use the Best Banks list to earn positive announcement window returns. However, a direct relation exists between movement in survey rank and subsequent accounting profitability measures, suggesting investors may benefit from monitoring movements on the Best Banks list. We also find support for a size effect as smaller, matched sample banks have higher Jensen's alphas than the Forbes larger Best Banks.