We analyze the earnings information and stock prices of S&P500 firms and find that investors following S&P500 stocks (i) respond more to pro forma earnings than to GAAP earnings, (ii) respond to an emphasis on pro forma earnings, and (iii) are fixated on pro forma earnings. We provide the first...

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine how accounting conservatism affects the relation between current stock returns, current earnings, and future earnings. Design/methodology/approach: To achieve the purpose of this paper, we divide accounting conservatism into conditional and...

Since short sellers are considered sophisticated traders and respond to corporate news and public information in a timely manner, corporate earnings announcements containing new information can be used to update the beliefs of short sellers and affect their investment strategies. Abnormal market...

We propose that extrapolative beliefs about earnings announcement (EA) returns may contribute to our understanding of EA return patterns. We construct a theoretically-motivated measure of extrapolative investors' expectations based on a stock's recent history of EA returns. We then show that...

This paper shows investors' lottery preference can attenuate price underreaction to extreme good earnings news. Such news reaffirms investors' preference for stocks with strong ex ante lottery-like features, thereby accelerating price adjustments. We find that PEAD attenuates for stocks with...