Real Earnings Management and Subsequent Stock Returns
57 Pages Posted: 21 Sep 2010 Last revised: 18 Jun 2012
Date Written: February 4, 2010
Abstract
Real earnings management (REM) practices are related to subsequent stock returns. Specifically, stocks of firms with abnormally low (high) levels of operating cash flows underperform (outperform) in the subsequent year, whereas stocks of firms with abnormally low (high) levels of production costs outperform (underperform) in the subsequent three years. This relation is stronger among firms with greater likelihood of earnings management and does not exist for the normal levels of operating cash flows and production costs. Quintile spread portfolios based on either REM measures yield factor-adjusted annual abnormal returns of about 6%, with more than 40% of which being realized over the subsequent four earnings announcements. Further tests show that the return predicting power of the REM measures is likely due to mispricing rather than systematic risks.
Keywords: Real Earnings Management, Stock Returns, Abnormal Production Costs
JEL Classification: G12, G14, M41, M48
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?
Recommended Papers
-
Detecting Earnings Management: A New Approach
By Patricia Dechow, Amy P. Hutton, ...
-
A Review of the Earnings Management Literature and its Implications for Standard Setting
-
Errors in Estimating Accruals: Implications for Empirical Research
By Daniel W. Collins and Paul Hribar
-
The Economic Implications of Corporate Financial Reporting
By John R. Graham, Campbell R. Harvey, ...
-
The Economic Implications of Corporate Financial Reporting
By John R. Graham, Campbell R. Harvey, ...
-
On the Association between Voluntary Disclosure and Earnings Management
By Ron Kasznik
-
Performance Matched Discretionary Accrual Measures
By S.p. Kothari, Andrew J. Leone, ...
-
The Quality of Accruals and Earnings: The Role of Accrual Estimation Errors
By Ilia D. Dichev and Patricia Dechow