Earnings Reports Research Articles

Effective board monitoring over earnings reports and forecasts: Evidence from CFO outside director appointments

Prior evidence that firms adjust their board structure following accounting restatements suggests that firms expect the board to effectively monitor the firm’s financial accounting system. However, little is known about signals firms use to identify monitoring weaknesses or the types of individuals firms appoint to improve the quality of monitoring. We expand on Ghannam, Bujega, Matolcsy, and Spiropolous (2019)’s evidence that firms appoint directors with accounting experience after financial fraud by investigating whether firms that file restatements or issue highly inaccurate earnings forecasts appoint individuals with CFO experience (i.e., a subset of accounting experts) to their audit committee. We find that firms are more likely to appoint an outside director with CFO experience to the audit committee when they have recently restated earnings and when they have higher prior management forecast error. We also find that the appointment of a CFO outside director to the audit committee is followed by a lower likelihood of restatement and more accurate management forecast. Together, our results suggest that firms respond to accounting failures by appointing outside directors with CFO experience. Thus, we provide insight into the signals firms use to identify weaknesses in the monitoring of the accounting function and the types of expertise firms value in addressing those weaknesses.

Price Informativeness with Equity Market Factors

Price informativeness measures how and when information is aggregated into asset prices. The authors study the price informativeness of realized earnings growth for US stocks, with a focus on exposures to factors that have historically outperformed the market index. Their study includes the largest 1,000 stocks from 1975 to 2019 and approximately 180,000 individual corporate net income observations aligned by report date. Stock returns are sensitive to concurrent and realized earnings growth reports up to 15 months into the future, but not to old earnings reports. The decomposition of value, momentum, small size, low beta, and profitability factor active returns into components that are explained and unexplained by earnings aids in understanding the anomalous nature of their positive market-relative performance. The active returns to momentum stocks are largely attributable to the growth of realized earnings over the next several quarters. Low beta, small size, and profitability stocks have little of their active returns explained by realized earnings, suggesting the anomalies are associated with other drivers, such as changes in expected long-term earnings growth and discount rates. In contrast, the active returns to value stocks explained by concurrent and future realized earnings are negative.

In name only: Information spillovers among Chinese firms with similar stock names during earnings announcements

We examine whether investors' attention on salient firm characteristics affects information spillovers during corporate earnings announcements. For market participants in China, the stock name is a salient feature of listed companies. We find that the market reaction of non-announcing firms to earnings reports of announcing firms is greater across firms with similar stock names. The incremental information spillovers among similarly named stocks are stronger for larger announcing firms and on days with fewer earnings announcements. The incremental information spillovers between similarly named stocks do not fully reverse in the post-announcement period, consistent with persistent investor behavior predicted by the salience theory. There are also significant return comovements among similarly named stocks. Our findings suggest that investors with limited attention are likely to focus on salient stock names and overestimate the economic connections between similarly name stocks. Our study extends the behavioral finance literature by showing how investors' attention on salient firm features can bias their reaction to unrelated peer disclosures.

Price Informativeness with Equity Market Factors

Price informativeness measures how and when information is aggregated into asset prices. We study the price informativeness of realized earnings growth for U.S. stocks with a focus on exposures to factors that have historically outperformed the market index. Our study includes the largest one thousand stocks from 1975 to 2019 and approximately 180 thousand individual corporate net income observations aligned by report date. Stock returns are sensitive to concurrent and realized earnings growth reports up to 15 months into the future, but not to old earnings reports. The decomposition of Value, Momentum, Small Size, Low Beta, and Profitability factor active returns into components that are explained and unexplained by earnings aids in understanding the anomalous nature of their positive market-relative performance. The active returns to Momentum stocks are largely attributable to the growth of realized earnings during the next several quarters. Low Beta, Small Size, and Profitability stocks have little of their active returns explained by realized earnings, suggesting the anomalies are associated with other drivers such as changes in expected long-term earnings growth and discount rates. In contrast, the active returns to Value stocks explained by concurrent and future realized earnings are negative.

Board Diversity and Earnings Quality of Listed Deposit Money Banks in Nigeria

Instability due to frequent threats of financial distress has been a major problem facing deposit money banks (DMBs) in Nigeria. Efforts by the Nigerian government in the past to address this problem seem to have yielded little results as recent developments of instability in the banking industry indicate. In making such efforts, not much attention has been directed to the area of deceptive earnings reporting, and how board diversity can help checkmate such practices to enhance the quality of earnings reports which is essential in detecting in time financial distress warnings and identifying the necessary steps required to arrest the distress. In view of this, the study investigated the issue of board diversity as it affects the earnings quality of 13 out of 14 listed deposit money banks in Nigeria. The board diversity variables studied include board independence, block-shareholding, gender, age, expertise in accounting and finance, and board diversity combined index (representing the joint effect of the board diversity attributes on earnings quality). Earnings quality was measured from the accruals quality perspective using loan loss provision accruals quality. The study adopted fixed effect regression, employing two models to achieve the research objectives. It was found that Board Diversity Index had negative and significant effect on the discretionary loan loss provision of listed deposit money banks in Nigeria. Hence, the study concluded that the joint effect of the board diversity attributes improves the earnings quality of listed deposit money banks in Nigeria. The study recommended that the regulatory authority for the DMBs should ensure that appointment of board members aligns with corporate governance code demands on board diversity best practices, as this holds the potential of optimizing the joint effect of the board diversity attributes on earnings quality in a typical unitary board system setting as obtains in Nigeria.

Conservative Accounting, Audit Quality, and Litigation

Investors are much more likely to sue corporations and their auditors for overstated earnings reports than for understated reports. This asymmetry in litigation exposure is viewed as an important driver for conservative accounting practices in corporations because conservatism reduces the probability of overstatements and hence, investor litigation. This argument is incomplete, however, because it ignores that litigation concerns also affect the incentives of the auditor, which, in turn, affect the firm’s optimal reporting system. We find that the threat of litigation encourages firms to report more conservatively only when the auditor’s cost of detecting misstatements is relatively high but promotes less conservative reporting when the auditor’s cost of auditing is low. This paper was accepted by Brian Bushee, accounting

Do Verified Earnings Reports Increase Investment?*

ABSTRACTA common view is that verified earnings reports encourage investment through improved transparency. We lack direct evidence on this foundational proposition because researchers cannot observe counterfactuals in which a manager either (i) must remain silent about performance or (ii) can make any statement about performance they desire, even a bald‐faced lie. We experimentally manipulate whether a manager can provide information to an investor by voluntarily disclosing a verified earnings report, communicating freely via unverifiable cheap talk, or both. Our experiment involves repeated interactions between an uninformed investor with funds that, if invested, generate uncertain gains, and a trustee‐manager who observes and then divides gains after they are realized. We hypothesize and find that (i) the provision of a verified earnings report leads to higher investment compared with a world in which reporting is not possible and (ii) the provision of a verified earnings report leads to more accurate cheap talk communication than when earnings reports are unavailable. Contrary to our prediction, we find that investment when both earnings reports and cheap talk are possible is statistically indistinguishable from investment when only cheap talk communication is available. Further tests reveal that a lack of verified earnings reports leads managers to sustain a partner's investment by providing high returns to the investor while also limiting (but not completely eliminating) deceptive communication and profit‐taking. Our main conclusion is that verified earnings reports promote investment on a stand‐alone basis by improving transparency, but the effect of greater transparency from earnings reports on investment is more nuanced when earnings reports can influence the disclosure of unverifiable information. The main implication of our evidence is that the greater transparency of management behavior with verified earnings reports is not unambiguously positive because making behavior more transparent can lead managers to change their behavior.

Foreign macroeconomic and industry-related information transfers around earnings announcements: Evidence from U.S.-listed non-U.S. firms

This study examines information transfer regarding how investors react to new foreign macroeconomic and industry-related information embedded in foreign firms' earnings releases. Using non-U.S. firms listed in the U.S. as our main setting, we find that U.S. investors react significantly to foreign macroeconomic information and to information generated by the interaction between macroeconomic and industry-related information. We also find that the benefits (costs) of processing earnings reports increase (decrease) both types of information transfers. In addition, we find macroeconomic information transfers in an international cross-listing setting and both types of information transfers in an international non-cross-listing setting.

External Auditors and Earnings Management: Palestinian Evidence

Managers in large companies may manipulate earnings reports to suit their desire at the detriment of shareholders and other stakeholders. This may obstruct the companies and their sustainability. The objective of this study is to examine a relationship between external audit characteristics and Earnings Management (EM) in Palestine. Secondary data is collected for a sample of 480 observations of companies listed in the PSE for the period of 2010-2019. Earnings management is measured by the level of discretionary accruals using the modified Jones model (1995). The results show that external auditors’ type is negative and significantly related to discretionary accruals and may reduce EM. However, external auditors’ independence is positive and significantly related to discretionary accruals and may increase EM. Studying the impact of external auditors’ characteristics on EMhave not been well researched in the past literature, especially in the Palestinian context.

The Effects of IFRS Compliance on Earnings Reporting Quality of Financial Firms in Ghana

We investigate whether compliance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) is associated with earnings reporting quality of financial firms operating in Ghana. We modelled earnings reporting quality as a function of IFRS compliance and relevant control variables. Contrary to our hypothesis, IFRS compliance has a positive coefficient with our earnings management proxy for reporting quality. Our result suggests that IFRS does not necessarily improve the quality of financial reporting among Ghanaian financial firms. The result contradicts the idea that IFRS adoption eliminates accounting alternatives. Our results demonstrate that the compulsory adoption of IFRS by financial firms in Ghana has not improved reporting quality.

Pengaruh Omzet Penjualan Terhadap Laba Sebelum Pajak UMKM Pada Kios Rista Cell Periode 2017-2019

This study aims to determine the effect of sales revenue on MSME profit before tax on Rista Cell Kiosk, Jampang Kulon District. The population and sample in this study are financial statements namely sales revenue reports and earnings reports before taxes for the period of 2017 to 2019. This research technique uses the classic assumption test, multiple linear regression analysis and hypothesis testing. Data collection techniques using interviews, documentation, data realization (financial statements) and literature studies. After the data is collected, the test analysis in this study was carried out with the help of IBM SPSS 26 for Windows. The test results of multiple linear regression analysis show the equation Y = 89480865,970 + 9,493 which means that if the sales revenue is zero then there is an increase in profits by 89480865, whilst the positive revenue coefficient of sales is 9,493 means that every increase in sales revenue will increase profit by 9,493. While the partial test results (t) show the t(count) of the sales revenue variable (X) that is equal to 4.009 and the t(table) is 2.032245 then the t(count) is 4.099 > t(table) 2.032245 and the significant value is 0.000 < 0.05. As for the level of sales revenue effect on earnings before tax is categorized as weak, this is shown from the results of the coefficient of determination test with an R Square value of 0.331 or 33.1%. It can be concluded that sales revenue affects earnings before tax or the hypothesis is accepted

DETERMINASI PERPUTARAN MODAL KERJA TERHADAP PROFITABILITAS

This research was conducted at various industry companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange 2014-2018. The phenomenon that occurs is an increase in company working capital turnover, but the company's profitability decreases. The purpose of this study is to learn more about working capital turnover towards profitability in various industry companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange 2014-2018. This research uses descriptive analysis method and verification method using quantitative analysis. The population used in this study is the financial position financial statements and earnings reports of various industrial companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange 2014-2018. Sampling with purposive sampling technique with data of 5 years. The statistical method used is multiple linear regression analysis using the SPSS 21.0 application assistance program. The results of the study showed that the working capital turnover had a significant effect on profitability in various industry companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange 2014-2018.

Forecasting with Alternative Data

We consider the problem of forecasting fine-grained company financials, such as daily revenue, from two input types: noisy proxy signals a la alternative data (e.g. credit card transactions) and sparse ground-truth observations (e.g. quarterly earnings reports). We utilize a classical linear systems model to capture both the evolution of the hidden or latent state (e.g. daily revenue), as well as the proxy signal (e.g. credit cards transactions). The linear system model is particularly well suited here as data is extremely sparse (4 quarterly reports per year). In classical system identification, where the central theme is to learn parameters for such linear systems, unbiased and consistent estimation of parameters is not feasible: the likelihood is non-convex; and worse, the global optimum for maximum likelihood estimation is often non-unique.

SISTEM MONITORING AGEN PADA XAVIER MARKS REALTY SURABAYA

Xavier Marks Realty is a company engaged in property marketing. The company runs, several obstacles prevent the leadership to make decisions. The availability of information needed by the leadership is very slow because each agent still has to enter sales closing data manually through the admin not directly. The purpose of this research is to create an effective monitoring system, as well as to accelerate the availability of information for leaders. The results of this study can be in the form of an agent monitoring system that can update property sales data directly through an agent without filling in manually and inputted through the admin. Earnings reports from agents and companies will be directly received by the leadership, thus cutting down the admin's performance. The system can display sales developments so that each agent can improve its performance and the leader can monitor directly the agent.

PENERAPAN AKUNTANSI PADA DESA WISATA NGLINGGO KABUPATEN KULON PROGO

The program for the development and utilization of resources and the potential of regional tourism are expected to contribute to economic development. In order for tourism development to run optimally, good fund management is needed by applying accounting that is in accordance with the standards, namely the Financial Accounting Standards of Entities Without Public Accountability (SAK ETAP). This study aims to determine the application of accounting and help the preparation of financial statements in Nglinggo Tourism Village Kulon Progo Regency based on Financial Accounting Standards of Entities Without Public Accountability (SAK ETAP). This study uses qualitative research with a case study method. The data source used is secondary data. The data collection technique used is documentation and literature study. The data analysis technique uses descriptive analysis. The results of this study indicate that Nglinggo Tourism Village is a Tourism Village Management Agency engaged in services. Recording conducted by Nglinggo Tourism Village is manual and not computerized, which is used to determine the amount of profit and loss and the amount of salary costs and profit sharing costs so that it is still far from SAK ETAP. Based on this, the researchers sought to assist in the preparation of the financial report of Nglinggo Tourism Village in accordance with SAK ETAP, namely by preparing a system and accounting procedures based on the accounting cycle consisting of identifying stages, recording stages, classification stages, summarizing stages and reporting stages in the form of earnings reports loss and balance sheet. Based on the results of the financial statements that have been prepared, it shows that the income of Nglinggo Tourism Village is relatively large, where in 2017 the total income earned was Rp 281,819,000 with net income of Rp 65,608,792.

Effects of accounting conservatism on investment efficiency and innovation

We study how biases in financial reporting affect managers' incentives to develop innovative projects and to make appropriate investment decisions. Conservative reporting practices impose stricter verification standards for recognizing good news, and reduce the chance that risky innovations will lead to favorable future earnings reports. Holding all else constant, more conservative reporting therefore weakens the manager's incentive to work on innovative ideas, consistent with informal arguments in the extant literature. However, all else does not stay constant because the manager's pay plan will change in response to changes in the accounting system. We show that under optimal contracting, more conservative accounting does not stifle innovation in organizations, but rather increases incentives for innovation, as long as conservatism reduces the risk of an overstatement.

European chemical firms face industry slowdown

For European chemical companies, 2019 was a year marred by political instability, trade tariffs, and slowing growth. In earnings reports, CEOs stress their companies’ ability to stand up to economi...

Board Directors under CEO's Social Pressure: Misreporting, Misreading, and Dissent Risk

Using a parsimonious setup, we shed light on two channels through which a small amount of social pressure exerted by a CEO on board directors may increase the company value even in the absence of the classic tradeoff between the board's monitoring and advising tasks. First, the pressure reduces reporting bias that arises when the CEO's proposals submitted to the board are constrained by previously released public company reports (e.g., earnings reports). Second, the CEO's pressure increases the riskiness of directors' dissent, which motivates their information acquisition. If the pressure is sufficiently small, positive effects on reporting bias and information acquisition offset negative effects of having directors' decisions that are more biased. This setup provides novel implications regarding tolerance for a CEO's social ties especially in firms with high outsider monitoring costs, CEO-chairman duality, and differences between insiders and connected outsiders. We also propose testable empirical implications for links between board characteristics, executives' social networks, and earnings management.

Signaling Entrepreneurial Vision via Information System Design

Earnings reports are informative about a firm’s current performance but convey little information about the prospects of the firm’s long-term vision. We show that entrepreneurs can signal favorable private information about their long-term prospects by choosing an accounting system that upward biases current earnings. An upward biased accounting system causes investors to overinvest in the firm’s projects, which increases the cost of capital, all else equal. But the mere fact that the entrepreneur is willing to adopt such a system signals a booming long-term prospect, which ultimately allows the entrepreneur to raise capital at a lower cost. We also study the effects of regulation that restricts the maximum allowable accounting bias and find that stricter regulation first decreases and then increases investment efficiency. Regulation that maximizes investment efficiency is not necessarily socially optimal when entrepreneurs must take costly actions to develop a long-term vision in the first place, because such regulation can reduce incentives to take these actions.

Forecasting with Alternative Data

We consider the problem of forecasting fine-grained company financials, such as daily revenue, from two input types: noisy proxy signals a la alternative data (e.g. credit card transactions) and sparse ground-truth observations (e.g. quarterly earnings reports). We utilize a classical linear systems model to capture both the evolution of the hidden or latent state (e.g. daily revenue), as well as the proxy signal (e.g. credit cards transactions). The linear system model is particularly well suited here as data is extremely sparse (4 quarterly reports per year). In classical system identification, where the central theme is to learn parameters for such linear systems, unbiased and consistent estimation of parameters is not feasible: the likelihood is non-convex; and worse, the global optimum for maximum likelihood estimation is often non-unique. As the main contribution of this work, we provide a simple, consistent estimator of all parameters for the linear system model of interest; in addition the estimation is unbiased for some of the parameters. In effect, the additional sparse observations of aggregate hidden state (e.g. quarterly reports) enable system identification in our setup that is not feasible in general. For estimating and forecasting hidden state (actual earnings) using the noisy observations (daily credit card transactions), we utilize the learned linear model along with a natural adaptation of classical Kalman filtering (or Belief Propagation). This leads to optimal inference with respect to mean-squared error. Analytically, we argue that even though the underlying linear system may be "unstable," "uncontrollable," or "undetectable" in the classical setting, our setup and inference algorithm allow for estimation of hidden state with bounded error. Further, the estimation error of the algorithm monotonically decreases as the frequency of the sparse observations increases. This, seemingly intuitive insight contradicts the word on the Street. Finally, we utilize our framework to estimate quarterly earnings of 34 public companies using credit card transaction data. Our data-driven method convincingly outperforms the Wall Street consensus (analyst) estimates even though our method uses only credit card data as input, while the Wall Street consensus is based on various data sources including experts' input.