Earnings Announcement Timing and Analyst Following

Abstract

Using a large sample of firms in the post–Regulation Fair Disclosure (Reg FD) era, we examine the cross-sectional association between earnings announcement timing and analyst following that precedes it—that is, potential competing information. We fail to find a positive association between earnings announcement delay and preceding analyst following, as would be expected if the two were substitutes. Our findings of a negative association suggest that firms with large analyst following tend to announce annual earnings earlier than others. Furthermore, when we investigate the tendency of analysts to follow firms, a negative association exists in the regression of analyst following on prior earnings announcement delay, suggesting that analysts are more likely to follow firms that report earnings early. Collectively, managers’ earnings announcement timing and analyst following are not a substitutive relation, but rather a complementary one.