The primary question addressed in this study is whether firm-specific ERCs - i.e., slope coefficients obtained from time-series regressions of abnormal returns on earnings surprises - are helpful in predicting price responses to future earnings surprises. Fundamental analysis involves both...

We examine the relation between analyst forecast characteristics and the cost of debt financing. Consistent with the view that the information contained in analysts' forecasts is economically significant across asset classes, we find that analyst activity reduces bond yield spreads. We also find...

Several theories of reputation and herding (see, e.g., Scharfstein and Stein (1990)) suggest that herding among agents should vary with career concerns. Our goal in this paper is to document whether such a link exists in the labor market for security analysts. Specifically, we look at the...

Although tax values of corporate assets and liabilities can be relevant for economic decisions, they are typically unknown to financial statement users. Tax values permit to conduct empirical studies about exercise of IFRS and tax options. Furthermore, the level of tax loss carryforwards and tax...

DuPont analysis, a common form of financial statement analysis, decomposes return on net operating assets into two multiplicative components: profit margin and asset turnover. These two accounting ratios measure different constructs and, accordingly, have different properties. Prior research has...

In this paper we conjecture that the weak association between disclosure and cost of equity capital found in the literature (Botosan, 1997) can be caused by the high level corporate disclosure environment found in the US. We hypothesize that in low level corporate disclosure environments the...

Optimisation in the context of portfolios of stocks and bonds have been researched in detail in extant literature. To cater to the evergrowing world of hedge funds, we develop a alternative method for optimisation of Fund of Hedge Fund portfolios, by replicating payoffs of a basket option. This...

This paper examines the consequences of expectations management for the usefulness of analyst forecasts in firm valuation. Specifically, I compare the performances of valuation models estimated using manipulated versus non-manipulated forecasts to predict firms' intrinsic values. The results...

This paper investigates whether the pattern of quarterly earnings changes provides a signal of earnings management. We identify firms for which the sign of (seasonal) earnings changes observed in interim quarters reverses in the fourth quarter. We hypothesize that a firm performing poorly in...

We investigate the stock returns subsequent to quarterly earnings surprises, where the benchmark for an earnings surprise is the consensus analyst forecast. By defining the surprise relative to an analyst forecast rather than a time-series model of expected earnings, we document returns...