Do Analysts' Cash Flow Forecasts Mitigate the Accrual Anomaly? International Evidence

We investigate the role of analysts’ cash flow forecasts in mitigating the accrual anomaly in an international setting. Based on a sample from 20 world market economies, we find less market overestimation of the accrual component of earnings for firms where analysts issue both cash flow forecasts and earnings forecasts, compared with firms where analysts only issue earnings forecasts. Further tests show that analysts’ provisions of cash flow forecasts are more likely to be a mechanism that attenuates investors’ fixations on earnings in common law countries as opposed to code law countries. This finding is consistent with cash flow predictions by analysts being useful in countries where public disclosures are the primary communication channels in the capital markets. We also find the accrual anomaly to be less severe when analysts provide more accurate cash flow forecasts in common law countries. Our results are robust to additional sensitivity tests, including controlling for potential sample selection bias and an endogeneity bias