Cash flows, accruals, and future returns

Deskripsi

The study of the "accrual anomaly" reported here is unique because it analyzed originally reported--unrestated--quarterly data for 1991 through the first quarter of 2004 to calculate accruals and used U.S. SEC filing dates to identify the day on which investors first obtained information about accruals. The study found that the accrual anomaly exists for quarterly accruals as has been found for annual accruals. Future quarterly earnings were found to be more highly associated with current net operating cash flows than with accruals because accruals have less persistence. Companies with extremely high (low) current quarterly accruals have significant and negative (positive) abnormal returns through the subsequent four quarters.