The Effect of Analyst Forecasts During Earnings Announcements on Investor Responses to Reported Earnings
The Accounting Review Volume 92, Issue 3, pp. 239–263, 2017
59 Pages Posted: 31 May 2014 Last revised: 3 Mar 2021
Date Written: March 10, 2015
Abstract
Despite the increased frequency of analyst forecasts during earnings announcements, empirical evidence on the interaction between the information in the earnings announcement and these forecasts is limited. We examine the implications of reinforcing and contradicting analyst forecast revisions issued during earnings announcements (days 0 and 1) on the market response to unexpected earnings. We classify forecast revisions as reinforcing (contradicting) when the sign of analyst forecast revisions agrees (disagrees) with the sign of unexpected earnings. We document larger (smaller) earnings response coefficients for announcements accompanied by reinforcing (contradicting) analyst forecast revisions. Analyses of management forecasts suggest that analyst revisions and management forecasts convey complementary information. Cross-sectional tests show that investors react more to earnings announcements accompanied by analyst forecast revisions when there is greater consensus among analysts (lower dispersion) and that better earnings quality (higher persistence) mitigates the negative impact of contradictory analyst forecast revisions.
Keywords: earnings response coefficient; reinforcing analyst forecast revisions; contradicting analyst forecast revisions; piggyback hypothesis
JEL Classification: D82, G29, M41
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation