Nonprofessional Investors Framework For Understanding Earnings Quality

The central goal of this article is to provide nonprofessional investors with a deeper understanding of the impact of accrual accounting on earnings quality. Improving nonprofessional investors' understanding of earnings quality is essential to the capital market, as they have been found to own nearly one-third of all outstanding stock (Bogle 2005), a number which anecdotally has increased due to employer-directed compensation plans and online stock trading platforms. Following a presentation of the importance of accruals in the earnings process, the framework discusses various earnings management practices that nonprofessional investors should consider when evaluating earnings quality.

This book provides an overview of earnings quality (EQ) in the context of financial reporting and offers suggestions for defining and measuring it. Although EQ has received increasing attention from investors, creditors, regulators, and researchers in different areas, there are various definitions of it and different approaches for its measurement. The book describes the relationship between EQ and earnings management (EM) since they can be considered related challenges, especially in the context of international financial reporting standards (IAS/IFRSs). EM occurs when managers make discretionary accounting choices that are regarded as either an efficient communication of private information to improve the informativeness of a firm’s current and future performance, or a distorting disclosure to mislead the firm’s true performance. The intentional manipulation of earnings by managers, within the limits allowed by the accounting standards, may alter the usefulness of financial reporting and lead to lower quality of earnings. The use of fair value in financial reporting has created a current debate about the impact it might have on EQ. At times, the high subjectivity in estimating fair value can allow opportunities for the exercise of management judgments and intentional bias, which can reduce the quality of financial reporting. Management discretion can result in high EM and hence in a reduction of EQ. Particularly during difficult financial periods, managers engage in EM to mask the negative effects of the turmoil, and in such circumstances accruals and earnings smoothing are attempts to reduce abnormal variations of earnings in such circumstances. This book is a valuable resource for those interested in wider perspectives on EQ and it adds to the research studies on this topic in the context of financial reporting.

Beyond Earnings is targeted at investors, financial professionals, and students who want to improve their ability to analyze financial statements, forecast cash flows, and ultimately value a company. The authors demonstrate that reported earnings are easily gamed by accounting shenanigans and reveal how commonly used profitability measures such as return on equity can be misleading. Because earnings and P/E ratios are too unreliable for valuation, this book takes you beyond earnings and shows you how to apply the HOLT CFROI and Economic Profit framework in a step-by-step manner. A better measure of profitability results in improved capital allocation decisions and fundamental valuations. This ground-breaking book offers the first practical in-depth discussion of how profitability and growth fade, and shows how to put this information to work right away. The authors introduce their trailblazing Fundamental Pricing Model which includes fade as an adjustable value driver and can be used to value the impact of business model disruption. As the authors explain, the key to superior stock picking is understanding the expectations embedded in a stock’s price and having a clear view of whether the company can beat those expectations. The HOLT framework has been rigorously field tested for over 40 years by global investment professionals to help them make better stock picks and by corporate managers to understand the expectations embedded in their stock price. Beyond Earnings is an indispensable guide for investors who want to improve their odds of outperforming the competition.

Researchers have used various measures as indications of "earnings quality" including persistence, accruals, smoothness, timeliness, loss avoidance, investor responsiveness, and external indicators such as restatements and SEC enforcement releases. For each measure, we discuss causes of variation in the measure as well as consequences. We reach no single conclusion on what earnings quality is because "quality" is contingent on the decision context. We also point out that the "quality" of earnings is a function of the firm's fundamental performance. The contribution of a firm's fundamental performance to its earnings quality is suggested as one area for future work.

This book is a study of earnings management, aimed at scholars and professionals in accounting, finance, economics, and law. The authors address research questions including: Why are earnings so important that firms feel compelled to manipulate them? What set of circumstances will induce earnings management? How will the interaction among management, boards of directors, investors, employees, suppliers, customers and regulators affect earnings management? How to design empirical research addressing earnings management? What are the limitations and strengths of current empirical models?

In The Smart Money Method, the stock-picking techniques used by top industry professionals are laid bare for investors. This is the inside track on how top hedge funds pick stocks and build portfolios to make outsize returns. Stephen Clapham is a retired hedge fund partner who now trains stock analysts at some of the world’s largest and most successful institutional investors. He explains step-by-step his research process for picking stocks and testing their market-beating potential. His methodology provides the tools and techniques to research new stock ideas, as well as maintain and eventually sell an investment. From testing your thesis and making investment decisions, to managing your portfolio and deciding when to buy and sell, The Smart Money Method covers everything you need to know to avoid common pitfalls and invest with confidence. Unique insight is presented in several specific areas, including how to: • Find stock ideas • Assess the quality of any business • Judge management’s ability • Identify shady accounting and avoid dying companies • Value any business to find bargain shares • Navigate the consequences of COVID-19 And throughout, there are real-life investing examples and war stories from a 25-year career in stock markets. The message is clear – you can beat the market. To do so, you need to learn and apply the insider secrets contained within this book.

The Model Rules of Professional Conduct provides an up-to-date resource for information on legal ethics. Federal, state and local courts in all jurisdictions look to the Rules for guidance in solving lawyer malpractice cases, disciplinary actions, disqualification issues, sanctions questions and much more. In this volume, black-letter Rules of Professional Conduct are followed by numbered Comments that explain each Rule's purpose and provide suggestions for its practical application. The Rules will help you identify proper conduct in a variety of given situations, review those instances where discretionary action is possible, and define the nature of the relationship between you and your clients, colleagues and the courts.

The concept of "fair value" marked a major departure from traditional cost accounting. In theory, under this approach a balance sheet that better reflects the current value of assets and liabilities. Critics of fair value argue that it is less useful over longer time frames and prone to distortion by market inefficiencies resulting in procyclicality in the financial system by exacerbating market swings. Comprising contributions from a unique mixture of academics, standard setters and practitioners, and edited by internationally recognized experts, this book, on a controversial and intensely debated topic, is a comprehensive reference source which: examines the use of fair value in international financial reporting standards and the US standard SFAS 157 Fair Value Measurement, setting out the case for and against looks at fair value from a number of different theoretical and practical perspectives, including a critical review of the merits and arguments against the use of fair value accounting explores fair value accounting in practice, involvement in the Great Financial Crisis, implications for managerial reporting discretion, compensation and investment This volume is an indispensable reference that is deserving of a place on the bookshelves of both libraries and all those working in, studying, or researching the areas of international accounting, financial accounting and reporting.