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Contentof Annual
The Information
EarningsAnnouncements
WILLIAM H. BEAVER*
Content
Definitionsof Information
Informationhas been definedas a changein expectationsabout the out
comeofan event.'Withinthe contextofthisstudy,a firm'searningsrepo
is said to have informationcontentif it leads to a change in investor
assessmentsof the probabilitydistributionof futurereturns(or prices
suchthat thereis a changein equilibriumvalue ofthecurrentmarketprice
GeorgeJ. Benston,"Published CorporateAccountingData and Stock Prices,
Empirical Research in Accounting: Selected Studies, 1967, Supplement to Vol. 5
Journal of Accounting Research, pp. 1-54.
I Henri Theil, Economics and Information Theory (Chicago and Amsterdam
Rand McNally and NorthHolland PublishingCompany,1967),Ch. 1.
6 A further
stipulationis oftenmadethatinformation concernschangesin expecta
tionsaboutan eventthatis a parameterofa decisionmodel.Definingearningsinform
tionin termsofits impacton futurereturns(or prices)is consistentwiththatfurth
CONTENT OF ANNUAL EARNINGS ANNOUNCEMENTS 69
Sample Design
SelectionofSample. The studyis based upon a sample of annual earning
announcementsreleasedby 143 firmsduringthe years 1961 through1965
Six criteriawereused in the selectionofthe samplefirms.
(1) The firmmust be on the Compustat tape; (2) the firmmust be a
memberof the New York Stock Exchange; (3) the fiscalyear mustend on
a date otherthan December 31; (4) no dividendswere announcedin th
same week as the earnings announcement; (5) no stock splits wer
announcedduringthe 17 week period surroundingthe announcemento
earnings;and (6) therewere less than 20 news announcementsper yea
appearingin the Wall StreetJournal.Table 1 indicatesthe extentto whic
each criterionaffectedthe sample size.
Criterion(1) was selectedbecause the Compustatpopulationrepresen
over90 per centofthe total marketvalue ofthe commonstocksofpublicl
held corporationsand henceis a relevantpopulationforstudy.A secondar
reasonis the ease withwhichfinancialstatementitemscan be obtainedfo
the Compustatfirmsrelativeto firmsnot on the tapes. Althoughno finan
cial statementdata are needed forthe earlierphases of this study,even
tuallythe scope will be extendedto relatingmarketpricesto the financi
statementitems,namelythe earningsnumbers.
Criterion(2) was used because weeklypriceand volume data on NYSE
firmsare relativelyeasy to obtain. The Center for Research in Securit
Prices (CRSP) provided tapes which contain daily price, volume, and
transactioninformationon all firmson the NYSE for the years 196
through1965.10
of announceme
Criterion(3) was selectedin orderto avoid a clustering
9Efficiencyis definedin termsof E(x6- x*)2, wherex is the forecastedvalue o
reportedearningsand x* is actual value. The closerthe expectationis to zero, th
moreefficientthe forecastis. Note that a forecastmay be unbiasedbut veryinef
cient.The distinctionbetweenefficiency and unbiasednessis moreimportantto th
interpretationof the findingspresentedlater.
10Withoutthe cooperationof CRSP, the data collectionchorewould have bee
overwhelming.
CONTENT OF ANNUAL EARNINGS ANNOUNCEMENTS 71
it= In [Dit + P]
Rmt = In (SP)~
L(SP) t-1J
Dit = cash dividend"paid" on share of firmi in week t,
Pit = closingpriceforshare offirmi at end of week t,
= closingprice at end of week t - 1, adjusted forcapital chang
(e.g., stocksplitsand stockdividends),
(SP) = closingvalue ofStandardand Poor's PriceIndex at end ofweek
(SP) t-1 = closingvalue at end of week t - 1.
Vit is a weeklyaverageof the daily percentageofsharestraded.Weekl
volumewas dividedby the numberofsharesoutstandingso that the resul
would not be dominatedby those firmswiththe largestnumberof share
outstanding.The percentageof shares traded per week were then divide
by the numberof tradingdays in orderto adjust forthe fact that not a
weekshave the same numberof tradingdays.
VMtreflectsthelevelofvolumeforall NYSE firms.The weightingschem
implicitin thisvolumeindexassignsgreaterweightto percentageof shar
traded of firmswith the largernumberof shares outstanding.While th
featureis not entirelysatisfying,its use is defendedon the groundstha
thisindexis mucheasierto obtainthan an indexthat assignsequal weigh
to all firmsand because thereis no reason to believe the use of this inde
leads to eitheran upwardor a downwardbias in the findingsregardingth
information contentof earningsreports.
Jit is the naturallogarithmof the pricerelativeand can be viewedas
measureof price change or as the rate of returnof the securityassumin
continuouscompounding.12 RMt is a similar measure for 425 industr
VolumeAnalysis- UnadjustedforMarketInfluences
Vjt was computedforeach week t in the reportperiodforeach of the 50
earningsannouncement j. The reportperiodis definedas the 17 weekperio
surroundingthe announcementdate (8 weeks beforethe announceme
week,and 8 weeks after).Then the '[t (averagingacrossj) was compute
foreach ofthe 17 weeks,and the resultsappear in Figure1. The dottedlin
denotesthe value of Vt in the nonreportperiod (i.e., that portionof th
261 weeksnot includedin the 17 week reportperiods).
The evidenceindicatesa ratherdramaticincreasein volume in the an
nouncementweek (week 0). In fact,the mean volumein week 0 is 33 pe
cent largerthan the mean volume duringthe nonreportperiod,and it i
by far the largestvalue observedduringthe 17 weeks. Investorsdo shi
portfoliopositionsat the timeof the earningsannouncement, and thisshi
is consistentwith the contentionthat earningsreportshave informat
content.
The contentionis furthersupportedby the behaviorof investorsin th
other weeks. Eight weeks prior to the announcement,volume is belo
normal,whichsuggeststhat investorsmay postponetheirpurchasesan
sales of the securityuntil the earningsreportis released.The fourweek
after the announcement,when the annual reportsare received,exhib
slightlyabove normalvolumeand hencepermita morethoroughevaluatio
of the earningsdata.
The investorresponseappears to be very rapid, for almost all of th
above-normalactivityoccursduringweek0. This findingsupportsprevio
studies that also show investorsrespond quickly (as reflectedin pric
changes) to new pieces of information(see Fama, et al.).
Perhaps some commentis in orderregardingthe overalllevel of volum
throughoutthe year. The volumestatisticsreportedin Figure 1 are mult
Fisher's Index, see Lawren
13 For a discussionof the S & P Index vis-A-vis
VolumeAnalysis-AdjustedforMarketInfluences
The sectionwillpresentan analysiswhichattemptsto removethe effe
of market-wide eventsupon the individualsecurity'svolume.The motiv
tionforthe analysisis two-fold.(1) It is possiblethat the abnormallyhig
volumemay be caused in part by market-widepieces of information th
are released at the same time as the earningsannouncements.Since th
earningsannouncements are releasedalmostuniformly throughouttheyea
this is not a very plausible explanationof the findings.Nevertheless,r
movingthe marketwide effectsshould allay any fearsthat this unlike
situationdoes accountforthe results.(2) More importantly, the analys
will serve to reduce "noise" in the volume data. Noise is any movemen
in volume due to unspecifiedfactors,one of whichis market-wideeven
that would cause increasesin the volume.
AnalysisforNonreport Period.The followingmodelwas used to abstra
frommarket-wide factors:15
selectioncriterionimplicitly favoredhigherturnoversecurities.But it is no
obviouswhythat shouldbe truenor what implicationit has forinferenc
regardinginformation content.
The averagecorrelationcoefficient was low, implyingthat removingth
influenceof VMtshouldhave littleeffectupon the analysis.In spite of th
low association,the sign of the correlationcoefficientwas positivefor 13
firmsand negativeforonly 4. These two findingstaken togethersugge
that the marketinfluenceon an individualfirm'svolume is significan
differentfromzero but that its magnitudeis small.16
The residual,eit, is that portionof an individualsecurity'svolumetha
cannotbe explainedby market-wide eventsas reflectedin VMt. The mea
of es (averagingacross time forgiven firmi) is forcedto be zero by th
mechanicsof the regressioncomputations.However,the mean of et (aver
age acrossfirmsfora givenweek t) may be nonzero.An inspectionof it
distributionfor the 261 weeks provides some interestinginsights (se
Figure2).
The distribution is skewedto the right,as indicatedby the fact that 5
per cent of it are negativeand 42 per cent are positive.The median of e
is -.02 and its mean is zero (again this must be true because of the me
chanics of the regressioncomputations).The ei's are even more asym
metrical,with64.6 per centnegativeand 35.4 per centpositive.One inte
pretationof the asymmetryis that information is providedto investorsin
discontinuous"lumps" ratherthan smoothlyor continuouslyovertime.
ResidualAnalysisfortheReportPeriod.The residual,ejt, was compute
foreach week t of the reportperiodforeach of the 506 earningsannounc
mentsj in the followingmanner:
Events
PriceAnalysis-AdjustedforInfluenceofMarket-Wide
If earningsreportsconveyinformation in the sense ofleadingto chang
in the equilibriumvalue of the currentmarketprice,the magnitudeof t
price change (withoutrespectto sign) should be largerin week 0 th
duringthe nonreportperiod.The firststep in makingthispredictionoper
tional is to removethe effectof market-wideevents upon the individ
security'sprice change. The reasons for wishingto abstract fromth
events are similarto those cited in the volume analysis.20The model us
herewas firstsuggestedby Sharpe,and it providedthemotivationforusi
an analogousmodelforvolume.2'The Sharpe modelstates:
Rit = at + biRMt+ uit.
Rit is a measureof the pricechangeof securityi duringtimeperiodt, an
RMt is a measureof averageprice change duringtime periodt for425 i
dustrialNYSE firms.Both variables were definedearlier.The residu
20See p. 75.
21WilliamF. Sharpe, "A SimplifiedModel forPortfolioAnalysis,"Managem
Science,IX (January,1963),277-93.
CONTENT OF ANNUAL EARNINGS ANNOUNCEMENTS 7
duringReportPeriod
Frequencyof OtherNews Announcements
The purposeof this analysiswas to discoverif therewas any clusterin
of othernews announcementsaroundweek 0 that mightpossiblyaccoun
forthe volumeand pricereactions.As indicatedearlier,the sample desig
excludedany firmsthat announceddividendsin the same week as earning
or any firmsthat splittheirstockduringthe reportperiod.However,it is
conceivablethat dividendsannouncements mightclusterin weeksimmed
atelypriorto and afterweek 0 or that othertypesof announcements(e.g.
managementearningsforecasts)mightclusterin week 0. To examinethi
possibility,the occurrenceof othernews announcements in the Wall Stre
Journalduringthe 506 reportperiodswas examined(see Table 7).
By far the most frequenttype of announcementwas dividends,whic
exceededthefrequencyof all othertypes of announcementsby a factoro
84 WILLIAM H. BEAVER
forFutureResearch
Suggestions
The dramaticpriceand volumereactionindicatesthat investorsdo look
directlyat reportedearningsand do not use othervariablesto the exclusio
of reportedearnings.The evidencealso indicatesthat news announcemen
occurringpriorto the earningsreportdo not entirelypreemptthe inform
tion contentof reportedearnings.Given these findings,one of the fir
extensionsof the study will be to explorethe possibilityof constructi
expectationsmodels that will permita predictionof the directionand
magnitudeof the priceresidual.
The resultsof a recentstudy by Ball and Brown in this area are ver
encouraging.33 They used an earningsmodel similarin formto the pric
and volumemodelsdescribedin thisstudy (e.g., changesin the earningso
an individualsecuritywereviewedas a linearfunctionofmarket-wide inde
of earningschanges). The sample was dividedinto two groups:instance
wherethe earningsresidualwas positive(actual earningswerehigherthan
"expected") and instanceswherethe earningsresidualwas negative(actua
earningslower than "expected"). The behaviorof the price residualsfo
thesetwo groupswas examined,and the findingswere: (1) The signof th
cumulativeprice residual (summedover a 12 monthperiodincludingth
announcementmonth)was highlyassociatedwiththe sign of the earning
residual. (2) There was a persistentupward driftin the cumulativemean
priceresidualsforthe positiveearningsresidualgroup.This driftstarted1
monthspriorto the earningsannouncement,and over 90 per cent of th
drifthad taken place by the beginningof the announcementmonth.The
negativeearningsgroupexhibitedan analogousbehaviorpattern.
The findings indicatethat reportedearningsare associatedwithunderly
ing events that are perceivedby investorsto affectthe marketprice.Be
cause earliernews announcements conveysome of the same information as
the earningsreports,investorsare able to use this information to revis
theirforecastsof earningsand to adjust the price accordingly.In fact,by
the beginningof the announcement month,investorsformlargelyunbias
forecastsofreportedearnings,even thoughthe reportedearningsare abov
32 As measuredin termsof numberof news announcements per week,the flowo
informationduringtheweekspriorto theannouncement does not appearto be below
normaland hencewouldnotaccountforthebelownormalpriceactivityduringweek
-2 through-8.
33Ray Ball and Philip Brown,"An EmpiricalEvaluation of AccountingIncom
Numbers," Journal of Accounting Research, 6 (Autumn, 1968), pp. 159-78.
CONTENT OF ANNUAL EARNINGS ANNOUNCEMENTS
TABLE 1
ofSelectionCriteriauponSampleSize
Effect
Criteria No. offirms
Compustatfirms(step 1)a.896
.599
Less: 12/31firms
Non-12/31firms(step 2).297
Less: Non-NYSE firms . .55
Journal.
TABLE 2
Dates
and Announcement
Distributionof FinancialStatement
Pecntageof timeseari
Month Percentageoffirmswhosefiscal Percents wre arnings
yearendedin each month in each month
Total............................100.0 100.0
TABLE 3
Fiscal Year-Endand Date of Announcement
Numberof Weeksbetween
No. ofweeks Percentageof announcements Cumulativepercentage
Totala 100.0
TABLE 4
SummaryofRegressionStatisticsVolumeAnalysis
No. ofobser- Mean ofdepend- Mean of inde- Autocorrelat
Item
Item fvationsper
in non-
~~firm ent variable pendentvariable Correlation coefficient
-coefficient of
coefficientl
reportperiod (Vi) x lo0 (Vi) X 10lrsdul
Fractile
.10 165 .33 .577 .06 .21
.25 176 .53 .583 .16 .29
.50 193 .88 .588 .28 .39
.75 210 1.56 .595 .39 .50
.90 227 2.36 .608 .46 .62
TABLE 5
StatisticsPrice Analysis
SummaryofRegression
No. ofobser- Mean ofdepend- Mean of inde- Regressioncoef- Correlatio
Item per
~~vations - variable pendetvral
ent coefficien
in non-
~~firm etaibeficient ofRmt
reportperiod (Ri) X 108 (Rm) X 10'
Fractile
.10 165 -2.13 .96 .42 .13
.25 176 -.26 1.25 .62 .22
.50 193 1.51 1.51 .87 .27
.75 210 2.88 2.04 1.13 .32
.90 227 3.98 2.96 1.44 .37
88 WILLIAM H. BEAVER
TABLE 6
Analysisof Mean Price Residual
-8 .00183
-7 - .00105
-6 - .00029
-5 - .00064
-4 - .00096
-3 .00019
-2 - .00047
-1 .00229
0 .00500
1 .00204
2 .00163
3 .00120
4 .00109
5 .00354
6 - .00040
7 .00257
8 .00343
TABLE 7
Occurrence
ofOtherNews Announcements
-4 43 3
-3 39 2
-2 42 4
-1 16 5
0 0 4
1 16 4
2 33 4
3 32 3
4 41 2
Total 262 31
CONTENT OF ANNUAL EARNINGS ANNOUNCEMENTS 8
VtX 1O
L5
, =2;6 ( /506,wheret =-8,**., +8. ---Average Ft X 103 during
non-
g i~~~~l
X ~~~~~report
a I I period= 1.12.
L4
1.2
1.0-
0.9'
-8 -6 -4 -2 0 +2 +4 +6 +9
Weeksafterannouncement
FIG. 1. Volume Analysis
Relative
frequency
et1 C /143,
t =1,, 261
.14
.10
.06
1 observation I
.02
et X l03
.40
/06
.30 e, j62j e26)/506,wheret -8,, +8 -Mean j, X 10' duringnon -
reportperiod= 0.
=, i -
.20
.10
-.10
-.20
-8 -6 -4 -2 0 +2 +4 +6 +8
Week afterannouncement
FIG. 3. Residual VolumeAnalysis
No. of
Vejts
260
-Expected no.of positive epys
based on relative frequencyin
240 nonreportperiod.
220
200
180 s _
160
-8 -6 -4 -2 0 +2 +4 +6 +8
Weeks
FIG. 4. Frequencyof Positive eit's-Residual VolumeAnalysis
CONTENT OF ANNUAL EARNINGS ANNOUNCEMENTS
Relative
frequency
12
.10X
.08:
.06
.04
.02 .5observatio
Ut
1.2
1.1
1.0----? B
.90
.80
-8 -6 -4 -2 0 +2 +4 +6 +8
Weekafterannouncement
FIG. 6. Price Residual Analysis
92 WILLIAM H. BEAVER
180
140
120
100 -8 -6 -4 -2 0 +2 +4 +6 +8