Investor Sentiment and Management Earnings Forecast Bias

Investor Sentiment and Management Earnings Forecast Bias PDF Author: Helen Hurwitz
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 35

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Book Description
This study investigates whether investor sentiment is associated with behavioral bias in managers' annual earnings forecasts that are generally issued early in the year when uncertainty is relatively high. I provide evidence that management earnings forecast optimism increases with investor sentiment. Furthermore, I find that managers' annual earnings forecasts are more pessimistic during low-sentiment periods than during normal-sentiment periods. Since managers lack incentives to further deflate stock prices during a low-sentiment period, this evidence indicates that sentiment-related management earnings forecast bias is likely to be unintentional. In addition, I find that the relation between management earnings forecast bias and investor sentiment is stronger for firms with higher uncertainty, consistent with investor sentiment having a greater influence on management earnings forecasts when uncertainty is higher.

Does Investor Sentiment Affect Sell-Side Analysts' Forecast Bias and Forecast Accuracy

Does Investor Sentiment Affect Sell-Side Analysts' Forecast Bias and Forecast Accuracy PDF Author: Beverly R. Walther
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
We examine the association between investor expectations and its components and sell-side analysts' short-run quarterly earnings forecast bias and forecast accuracy. To measure investor expectations, we use the Index of Consumer Expectations (ICE) survey and decompose it into the “fundamental” component related to underlying economic factors (FUND) and the “sentiment” component unrelated to underlying economic factors (SENT). We find that analysts are the most optimistic and the least accurate when SENT is higher. Management long-horizon earnings forecasts attenuate the effects of SENT on forecast optimism and forecast accuracy. Analysts are also the most accurate when FUND is higher. Last, the market places more weight on unexpected earnings when SENT is high. These findings suggest that analysts are affected by investor sentiment and the market reacts more strongly to unexpected earnings when analyst forecasts are the least accurate. The last result potentially explains why prior research (for example, Baker and Wurgler 2006) finds an association between investor sentiment and cross-sectional stock returns.

Investor Sentiment and Corporate Disclosure

Investor Sentiment and Corporate Disclosure PDF Author: Nittai Bergman
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 37

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Book Description
This paper investigates how firms react strategically to investor sentiment via their disclosure policies in an attempt to influence the sentiment-induced biases in expectations. Proxying for sentiment using the Michigan Consumer Confidence Index, we show that during low-sentiment periods, managers increase forecasts to quot;walk upquot; current estimates of future earnings over long horizons. In contrast, during periods of high sentiment, managers reduce their long-horizon forecasting activity. Further, while there is an association between sentiment and the biases in analysts' estimates of future earnings, management disclosures vary with sentiment even after controlling for analyst pessimism, indicating that managers attempt to communicate with investors at large, and not just analysts. Our study provides evidence that firms' long-horizon disclosure choices reflect managers' desire to maintain optimistic earnings valuations.

Investor Sentiment Effect in European Stock Markets

Investor Sentiment Effect in European Stock Markets PDF Author: Elena Ferrer
Publisher: Ed. Universidad de Cantabria
ISBN: 8481028010
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 86

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Book Description
La presente obra se adentra en el estudio del potencial efecto del sentimiento del inversor sobre la valoración de activos, su efecto en los pronósticos de beneficios y recomendaciones de los analistas y su impacto sobre los activos derivados. Abarca el efecto del sentimiento del inversor en cuatro de los mercados europeos más importantes, Alemania, España, Francia y Reino Unido, mercados con características diferentes, en cuanto a tamaño, tipología del inversor y funcionamiento, lo que permite extraer importantes conclusiones adicionales.

Dispersion in Analysts' Earnings Forecasts and Investor Sentiment

Dispersion in Analysts' Earnings Forecasts and Investor Sentiment PDF Author: Ismaël Renggli
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 36

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Do Managers Bias Their Forecasts of Future Earnings in Response to Their Firm's Current Earnings Announcement Surprises?

Do Managers Bias Their Forecasts of Future Earnings in Response to Their Firm's Current Earnings Announcement Surprises? PDF Author: Stephen P. Baginski
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 56

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Book Description
Approximately 90 percent of managers' earnings forecasts are issued simultaneously with their firm's current earnings announcement - a practice referred to as the “bundling” of earnings information. We examine whether managers bias these forecasts conditional on the news conveyed in current earnings, and offer three findings. First, managers appear to release optimistically biased earnings forecasts with simultaneously released negative current earnings news. Second, managers appear to release pessimistically biased earnings forecasts with simultaneously released large positive current earnings news. Third, these results (especially for optimistic bias when current earnings news is negative) are stronger when managers: (1) face less analyst monitoring and lower litigation risk, which constrain the ability to bias their forecasts, and (2) face greater career concerns, which create incentives to alter investor perceptions about current earnings. Additional analysis suggests that investors are unable to identify the management forecast bias, but that they unravel the bias subsequently as it is revealed. While no archival study can ascertain management intent, we provide several results that cast doubt on the idea that this management forecast bias behavior is purely unintentional. Overall, our evidence suggests that managers issue biased forecasts with the earnings announcement to influence perceptions of their firm's current earnings news.

Exploring Managers' Accrual-Related Forecast Bias

Exploring Managers' Accrual-Related Forecast Bias PDF Author: Sami Keskek
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 53

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Book Description
In this study, we examine the effect of accrual-based earnings management on the association between managers' earnings forecast errors and accruals, which we label “managers' accrual-related forecast bias.” We build on extensive research which finds that managers engage in accrual-based earnings management to meet or beat earnings benchmarks and report smooth earnings series. We hypothesize that managers bias their subsequent-year forecasts in the direction of accruals management to increase market confidence in the managed earnings numbers. Consistent with our expectations, we find a positive association between managers' earnings forecast errors and discretionary accruals, but no association between managers' earnings forecast errors and nondiscretionary accruals. Furthermore, the association between managers' earnings forecast errors and discretionary accruals is stronger when managers have limited ability to continue managing subsequent-year accruals to support the bias in their forecasts. We also find a substantial decline in managers' accrual-related forecast bias following the enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX), which restricted managers' use of accrual-based earnings management. More importantly, we find that the effect of forecasting difficulty on managers' accrual-related forecast bias occurs only in the pre-SOX period. Overall, our results suggest that, contrary to claims in prior research, managers' accrual-related forecast bias is not simply a product of forecasting difficulty related to accruals. Rather, at least in some cases, it appears to be intentional.

Is Cognitive Bias Really Present in Analyst Forecasts? The Role of Investor Sentiment

Is Cognitive Bias Really Present in Analyst Forecasts? The Role of Investor Sentiment PDF Author: Pilar Corredor
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
This paper analyses four key markets within the European context. In this context, where the level of analyst coverage is lower than in the US setting, we aim to ascertain whether the origin of optimism in analyst forecasts in these markets is mainly strategic or whether it also contains an element of cognitive bias. Despite the fact that forecast errors lack the explanatory power to account for a significant percentage of the relationship between market sentiment and future stock returns, our new tests based on selection bias (SB1 and SB2), in conjunction with an analysis of abnormal trading volume, confirm the presence of both cognitive bias and strategic behaviour in analyst forecasts. This shows that, although regulation can reduce analyst optimism bias, the benefits are constrained by the fact that optimism bias is partly associated with cognitive bias.

Biased Forecasts or Biased Earnings? The Role of Reported Earnings in Explaining Apparent Bias and Over/Underreaction in Analysts' Earnings Forecasts

Biased Forecasts or Biased Earnings? The Role of Reported Earnings in Explaining Apparent Bias and Over/Underreaction in Analysts' Earnings Forecasts PDF Author: Jeffery S. Abarbanell
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 52

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Book Description
We demonstrate the role of three empirical properties of cross-sectional distributions of analysts' forecast errors in generating evidence pertinent to three important and heretofore separately analyzed phenomena studied in the analyst earnings forecast literature: purported bias (intentional or unintentional) in analysts' earnings forecasts, forecaster over/underreaction to information in prior realizations of economic variables, and positive serial correlation in analysts' forecast errors. The empirical properties of interest include: the existence of two statistically influential asymmetries found in the tail and the middle of typical forecast error distributions, the fact that a relatively small number of observations comprise these asymmetries and, the unusual character of the reported earnings benchmark used in the calculation of the forecast errors that fall into the two asymmetries that is associated with firm recognition of unexpected accruals. We discuss competing explanations for the presence of these properties of forecast error distributions and their implications for conclusions about analyst forecast rationality that are pertinent to researchers, regulators, and investors concerned with the incentives and judgments of analysts.Previously titled quot;Biased Forecasts or Biased Earnings? The Role of Earnings Management in Explaining Apparent Optimism and Inefficiency in Analysts' Earnings Forecastsquot.

A Reexamination of Bias in Management Earnings Forecasts

A Reexamination of Bias in Management Earnings Forecasts PDF Author: Jong-Hag Choi
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 286

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Book Description