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Conservatism and Cross‐Sectional Variation in the Post–Earnings Announcement Drift

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  • GANAPATHI NARAYANAMOORTHY

Abstract

Accounting conservatism allows me to identify a previously undocumented source of predictable cross‐sectional variation in Standardized Unexpected Earnings' autocorrelations viz. the sign of the most recent earnings realization and present evidence that the market ignores this variation (“loss effect”). It is possible to earn returns higher than from the Bernard and Thomas (1990) strategy by incorporating this feature. Additionally, the paper shows that the “loss effect” is different from the “cross quarter” effect shown by Rangan and Sloan (1998) and it is possible to combine the two effects to earn returns higher than either strategy alone. Thus, the paper corroborates the Bernard and Thomas finding that stock prices fail to reflect the extent to which quarterly earnings series differ from a seasonal random walk and extends it by showing that the market systematically underestimates time‐series properties resulting from accounting conservatism.

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  • Ganapathi Narayanamoorthy, 2006. "Conservatism and Cross‐Sectional Variation in the Post–Earnings Announcement Drift," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(4), pages 763-789, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:joares:v:44:y:2006:i:4:p:763-789
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-679X.2006.00218.x
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    3. Haiwei Chen & Ansley Chua & Changha Jin, 2013. "Analyst Forecasting Errors in REITs," International Real Estate Review, Asian Real Estate Society, vol. 16(1), pages 48-67.
    4. He, Shuoyuan & Narayanamoorthy, Ganapathi (Gans), 2020. "Earnings acceleration and stock returns," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(1).
    5. Truong, Cameron, 2010. "Post earnings announcement drift and the roles of drift-enhanced factors in New Zealand," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 139-157, April.
    6. Balakrishnan, Karthik & Bartov, Eli & Faurel, Lucile, 2010. "Post loss/profit announcement drift," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 20-41, May.
    7. Heejeong Shin & Hyejeong Shin & Su-In Kim, 2019. "The Market Sentiment Trend, Investor Inertia, and Post-Earnings Announcement Drift: Evidence from Korea’s Stock Market," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(18), pages 1-19, September.
    8. Richardson, Scott & Tuna, Irem & Wysocki, Peter, 2010. "Accounting anomalies and fundamental analysis: A review of recent research advances," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 410-454, December.
    9. Marek Sojka, 2021. "PEAD na polskim rynku akcji," Bank i Kredyt, Narodowy Bank Polski, vol. 52(2), pages 143-166.
    10. Jacob Thomas & Frank Zhang & Wei Zhu, 2021. "Dark Trading and Post-Earnings-Announcement Drift," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(12), pages 7785-7811, December.
    11. Reza Tajaddini & Timothy Falcon Crack & Helen Roberts, 2015. "Price and Earnings Momentum, Transaction Costs, and an Innovative Practitioner Technique," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 15(4), pages 555-597, December.
    12. Ramiah, Vikash & Xu, Xiaoming & Moosa, Imad A., 2015. "Neoclassical finance, behavioral finance and noise traders: A review and assessment of the literature," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 89-100.

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