In this paper, we investigate the informational content of retained and distributed earnings for future profitability and market mispricing. We find that investors act as if the components of retained earnings (current operating accruals, non current operating accruals and retained cash flows)...

In this paper, we extend the work of Hirshleifer, Hou, Teoh and Zhang (2004) on the “sustainability effect” by directly linking the implications of NOA (net operating assets) and NOA components for the sustainability of current earnings performance with future stock returns. After...