• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.20 no.12
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• pp.117-123
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• 2022

Purpose: This study investigates the relationship between earnings forecasts estimated from a cross-sectional earnings forecast model and firm characteristics such as firm size, sales volatility, and earnings volatility. Research design, data and methodology: The association between earnings forecasts and the aforementioned firm characteristics is examined using 214 firm-year observations with analyst following and 848 firm-year observations without analyst following for the period of 2011-2019. I estimate future earnings using a cross-sectional earnings forecast model, and then compare these model-based earnings forecasts with analysts' earnings forecasts in terms of forecast bias and forecast accuracy. The earnings forecast bias and accuracy are regressed on firm size, sales volatility, and earnings volatility. Results: For a sample with analyst following, I find that the model-based earnings forecasts are more accurate as the firm size is larger, whereas the analysts' earnings forecasts are less biased and more accurate as the firm size is larger. However, for a sample without analyst following, I find that the model-based earnings forecasts are more pessimistic and less accurate as firms' past earnings are more volatile. Conclusions: Although model-based earnings forecasts are useful for evaluating firms without analyst following, their accuracy depends on the firms' earnings volatility.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.15-21
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• 2013

Purpose - Our goal was to determine whether there is a relationship between actual profits' deviation from the profits expected in earnings per share's adjustment announcements and the degree of apparent earnings management in annual financial statements. Research design, data, and methodology - The samples consisted of 133 companies from ten industries. The companies were selected among those listed in the stock exchange, and their data were examined covering the two-year period from 2008 to 2010. Tests were conducted using a regression model and SPSS statistical software. Results - The findings indicate the following. There is no significantly positive relationship among the last earnings per share's adjustment forecast, the first earnings forecast per share, and earnings management. Moreover, the amount of the latest earnings per share's adjustment forecast relative to its first forecast is not associated with the companies' discretionary accruals items. Finally, the hypothesis that a relationship exists between companies' latest adjustments of their earnings per share and earnings management was tested the results indicate that there is no such relationship. Conclusions - The study's results suggest that the amount of earnings per share's adjustment is not a motivation for earnings management.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.91-98
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• 2019

Dividend policy is an important business decision and is considered a channel to communicate a firm's performance to shareholders. Given the empirical findings that earnings quality significantly affects financial analysts' forecasting activities, it is predicted that higher earnings quality would positively influence forecast accuracy. Specifically, it is expected that financial analysts would forecast dividends more accurately for firms with higher earning quality. Unlike the research on financial analysts' earnings forecasts was heavily conducted, there is little study about financial analysts' dividend forecasts. This paper examines the effect of earnings quality on financial analysts' dividend forecast accuracy. We use a sample of South Korean firms for the period of 2011-2015 for multivariate regression. Earnings quality is measured by accruals quality and performance-adjusted discretionary accruals followed by prior studies. We first compare the accuracy between dividend forecasts and earnings forecasts using t-test and Wilcoxon singed-rank test. It is confirmed that financial analysts' dividend forecasts are more accurate than earnings forecasts in Korea. We find that financial analysts' dividend forecasts are more accurate for firms with higher earnings quality. We also find that the result is still valid after controlling for the accuracy of financial analysts' earnings forecasts. This confirms that earnings quality positively affects financial analysts' dividend forecasts.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.8
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• pp.647-658
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• 2021

Analysts' forecasts are important for providing useful guidance to investors, especially individual or small investors, and therefore it becomes critical to identify the elements which can potentially increase errors in analysts' forecasts. This study investigates potential factors which can lead to errors in forecasting by analysts, specifically in terms of the level and attributes of corporate earnings. Utilizing a sample of firms listed on the Korean stock markets, this study provides evidence that firms with more volatile and unpredictable earnings feature less accurate analyst forecasts. This study fills a void in the literature by conducting empirical tests for earnings attributes in terms of volatility and unpredictability that could potentially undermine the forecast accuracy. The negative association between the quality of earnings and forecast accuracy is more pronounced for firms with negative net income values. Additional analysis demonstrates that forecast accuracy is significantly lower for the fourth quarter than for other fiscal quarters and that fourth quarter earnings tend to be more volatile and unpredictable. This study contributes to the literature by providing new empirical evidence regarding the comprehensive effects of earnings quality and level on analysts' forecasting accuracy and further suggests potential factors contributing to the fourth quarter anomaly in analyst forecasts in terms of earnings attributes.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.73-85
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• 2020

The study aims to provide better understanding of sustainable earnings by a comprehensive analysis of earnings persistence of business firms in Vietnam as an example of developing economies in South-East Asia. Dataset of 1,278 publicly listed firms (excluding banking and financial services firms) on Vietnam Stock Exchange for the period from 2008 to 2017 was collected. By applying fixed effect regression model, the empirical results provided the basis to measure the persistence index (Pers index) and find low level of their earnings persistence. The literature of earnings quality analysis in developed countries suggests earnings persistence as a noteworthy determinant of future earnings forecast and stock valuation. However, research of sustainable earnings in developing countries is still highly underdeveloped. For Vietnamese listed firms, the average Pers index was estimated for the period from 2008 to 2010, indicating low level of earnings persistence. We also incorporated earnings persistence level into future earnings forecast by running the quintile regression model divided the data into four equal levels and conducted each section independently to see the difference in each percentile, thence assessed the factors' influence on the specific model. The findings provide important information on the expected returns of firms, especially helping investors make sound decisions.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.81-90
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• 2020

We examine the effects of the complexity of tax-related information on the issuance of analyst's pre-tax income forecast and its value relevance. If analysts respond adequately to the needs of investors, they are more likely to provide a pre-tax income forecast. The provision of a pre-tax income forecast may indicate analysts' confidence in assessing the quality of earnings. Thus, investors, in turn, would be more confident in the analysts' pre-tax income forecasts if analysts provide both pre-tax and earnings forecasts than only the latter. Using a sample of Korean listed companies for 2005-2014, we find that analysts are likely to provide an implicit tax forecast when the volatility of the effective tax rate is low and the book-tax differences are small. We also find that when analysts provide pre-tax and after tax income forecasts, the value relevance for unexpected earnings increases. These results indicate that analysts are likely to be interested in corporate tax information and the complexity of tax-related information affects the availability of implicit tax forecasts. Furthermore, this study provides empirical evidence that when analysts provide both pre-tax and after tax income forecasts, investors have more confidence in analysts' earnings forecasts, which results in greater investors' responses.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.213-227
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• 2016

This study examines the effects of managerial ability on information asymmetry. We use analyst forecast errors as a proxy for information asymmetry, because analysts are referred to as efficient users using firm-level data. The sample consists of 2,246 non-banking firm-years listed in Korea Stock Exchange(KOSPI) during the period 2000 to 2013. We measure managerial ability using DEA(Data Envelopment Analysis) following Demerjian et al.(2012). Using those measures, we examines the effects of managerial ability on analysts' earnings forecast errors and analysts' earnings forecast bias. The results of this study are as follows. First, we find that managerial ability are positively associated with analysts' earnings forecast accuracy. Second, we show that the firms with higher managerial ability tend to have lower the optimistic errors in analysts' earnings forecasts. This study could be useful for outside stakeholders to understand the importance of managerial ability.

• The Korean Journal of Financial Management
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.31-62
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• 2010

This paper analyzes empirically how analysts' forecasts affected by ownership structure. This study examine a sample of 1,037~1,629 the analysts' forecasts of firms registered in Korean Stock Exchange in the period from 2000 to 2006. The empirical results are summarized as follows. First, from the analysis, companies which have higher major shareholder's holdings tend to increase earnings forecast errors and earnings forecast accuracy. Meanwhile, companies which have higher institution shareholder's holdings tend to decrease earnings forecast errors and earnings forecast accuracy. This result is in line with the view of previous works that companies with higher major shareholder's holdings look towards more of analysts' optimistic forecasts in order to maintain friendly relations with major shareholders. Because of analysts' private information use from major shareholders, earnings forecast accuracy is higher in high major shareholder's holdings firm than in high institution shareholder's holdings it. Second, this analysis is whether the minimal required selection condition of outside directors, audit committee adoption and audit quality affect the relation between ownership structure and analysts' forecasts. This result is that variables related corporate governance do not affect statically the relation between ownership structure and analysts' forecasts. The meanings of this paper is to suggest the positive relations between ownership structure and analysts' forecasts. After this, if analysts will notice forecasts of more many firms, capital market will be more efficient and this field works are plentiful. Also it will need monitoring systems not to distort market efficiency by analysts' dishonest forecasts.

• Journal of Convergence for Information Technology
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.105-109
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• 2017

This paper examines the effect of the analysts' earnings forecast revisions on stock price after the dividend announcement of the firms has been released. We show that the analysts' upward revisions on earnings forecasts are followed by the positive cumulative abnormal return. We also investigate the signalling effect and the confirmation effect with respect to the effect of the dividend announcement and the earnings forecast revisions on stock price. The test results show that the confirmation effect is stronger than the signalling effect. That is, the investors react only when the analysts' forecasts coincide with the preceding dividend announcement.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.207-215
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• 2018

In this study, targeting KOSPI and KOSDAQ listed companies, the relationship between the abnormal investment of companies and analyst earnings forecasts was empirically analyzed. The analysis period of this study spanned from 2003 to 2015 (with that of dependent variables spanning from 2004 to 2016) based on the variables of interest, and among the companies whose earnings per share forecasts were announced by financial analysts, the final sample of 4,917 companies/year that meets the research condition was selected as the target analysis. The results of the empirical analysis are as follows. First, it turned out that the more total abnormal investment, abnormal R&D and abnormal CAPEX investment, the more accurate were analyst earnings forecasts. Second, the more total abnormal investment, abnormal R&D, abnormal CAPEX investment, the more pessimistic analyst earnings forecasts tended to be. Further analysis has shown that these results came more from over investment groups than under investment groups. The results of this study are expected to make additional contributions to the existing studies in that the abnormal investment is considered as a determinant of analyst earnings forecasts.