We examine whether, and to what extent, investors focus on salient and easy-to-process features in responding to analyst forecasts. We focus on rounding as arguably the most salient forecast feature. We find that while rounding is only marginally associated with forecast accuracy, investors...

This paper reveals that in addition to fundamental factors, the 52-week high price and recent investor sentiment play an important role in analysts' target price formation. Analysts' forecasts of short-term earnings and long-term earnings growth are shown to be important explanatory variables...

We examine the association between goodwill impairment charges and analysts' forecast accuracy and dispersion. We compare firm-quarters that report periodic goodwill impairment charges during 2003-2007, and two control samples (matched on propensity scores and performance) of firm-quarters that...

This paper extends the study of Herrmann and Thomas (2005) on granularity in analyst forecasts at multiples of nickels and finds that forecasts at multiples of nickels are more optimistic, and induce weaker market responses. Granularity in analyst forecasts combined with managers’ incentive to...

This paper examines whether and how coverage from a unique crowdsourced financial estimates platform, Estimize, affects firms. Employing a difference-in-difference design comparing firms that gain coverage from Estimize with firms that do not, I find that covered firms experience decreased...

Sell-side fundamental analyst reports are highly valued in the financial industry and include three main quantitative components: earnings forecasts, target prices, and buy/sell recommendations. An important question for investment managers is then, how accurate are the forecasts of fundamental...

We separate analyst forecast revisions into components representing industry-wide and firm-specific news. Using the relation between analyst forecast revisions and upcoming news to estimate how completely analysts incorporate their private information in their forecasts, we show that analysts...

Over the past 12 years, financial analysts across the world have been optimistically wrong with their 12-month earnings forecasts by 25.3%. This study may be the first of its kind to assess analyst earnings forecast accuracy at all listed companies across the globe, covering 70 countries. A...

Overconfident CEOs are known to overestimate their ability to generate returns, overpay for target firms, and take excessive risks. We find a CEO's overconfidence can also indirectly affect other market participants, specifically analysts who issue earnings forecasts. First, firms with...

Using an international sample, I investigate whether the extent of firms' disclosure of their accounting policies in the annual report is associated with properties of analysts' earnings forecasts. Controlling for firm - and country - level variables, I find that the level of accounting policy...