IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijfss/v9y2021i3p50-d635744.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Predictive Ability of Quarterly Financial Statements

Author

Listed:
  • Hui Zhou

    (Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Auckland Business School, Auckland 1142, New Zealand)

  • Worapree Ole Maneesoonthorn

    (Melbourne Business School, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC 3053, Australia)

  • Xiangjin Bruce Chen

    (Independent Researcher, Melbourne, VIC 3000, Australia)

Abstract

A fundamental role of financial reporting is to provide information useful in forecasting future cash flows. Applying up-to-date time series modelling techniques, this study provides direct evidence on the usefulness of quarterly data in predicting future operating cash flows. Moreover, we show that the predictive gain from using quarterly data is larger for asset-heavy industries and industries with higher levels of earnings smoothness. This study contributes to the accounting literature by examining the usefulness of quarterly financial statements in predicting the realization of future cash flows. Our results help fill the gap in knowledge on quarterly financial statements and provide new insights on why the frequency of financial reporting matters. In addition, our findings have important policy implications for the ongoing debate over interim reporting requirements in multiple jurisdictions around the world.

Suggested Citation

  • Hui Zhou & Worapree Ole Maneesoonthorn & Xiangjin Bruce Chen, 2021. "The Predictive Ability of Quarterly Financial Statements," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 9(3), pages 1-18, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijfss:v:9:y:2021:i:3:p:50-:d:635744
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7072/9/3/50/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7072/9/3/50/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Myungsun Kim & William Kross, 2005. "The Ability of Earnings to Predict Future Operating Cash Flows Has Been Increasing—Not Decreasing," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(5), pages 753-780, December.
    2. Costas Siriopoulos & Athanasios Tsagkanos & Argyro Svingou & Evangelos Daskalopoulos, 2021. "Foreign Direct Investment in GCC Countries: The Essential Influence of Governance and the Adoption of IFRS," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-13, June.
    3. Carlos Alves & F. Teixeira Dos Santos, 2008. "Do First and Third Quarter Unaudited Financial Reports Matter? The Portuguese Case," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(2), pages 361-392.
    4. Fu, Renhui & Kraft, Arthur & Zhang, Huai, 2012. "Financial reporting frequency, information asymmetry, and the cost of equity," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(2), pages 132-149.
    5. Coates, R, 1972. "Predictive Content Of Interim Reports - Time Series Analysis," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10, pages 132-144.
    6. Dechow, Patricia M., 1994. "Accounting earnings and cash flows as measures of firm performance : The role of accounting accruals," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 3-42, July.
    7. Hui, Kai Wai & Nelson, Karen K. & Yeung, P. Eric, 2016. "On the persistence and pricing of industry-wide and firm-specific earnings, cash flows, and accruals," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 185-202.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Li Yu (Colly) He & Sue Wright & Elaine Evans, 2018. "Is fair value information relevant to investment decision-making: Evidence from the Australian agricultural sector?," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 43(4), pages 555-574, November.
    2. Akbar Jelodari & Fatemeh Asadi Kordshouli, 2016. "A Survey of the Role of Earnings Quality in Accurately Forecasting of Operational and Cash Circulation of Companies Listed on Tehran Stock Exchange," International Journal of Academic Research in Accounting, Finance and Management Sciences, Human Resource Management Academic Research Society, International Journal of Academic Research in Accounting, Finance and Management Sciences, vol. 6(4), pages 82-89, October.
    3. Ball, Ray & Nikolaev, Valeri V., 2022. "On earnings and cash flows as predictors of future cash flows," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(1).
    4. Kim Mear & Michael Bradbury & Jill Hooks, 2021. "The ability of deferred tax to predict future tax," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(1), pages 241-264, March.
    5. Edith Leung & David Veenman, 2018. "Non‐GAAP Earnings Disclosure in Loss Firms," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(4), pages 1083-1137, September.
    6. Bandyopadhyay, Sati P. & Chen, Changling & Wolfe, Mindy, 2017. "The predictive ability of investment property fair value adjustments under IFRS and the role of accounting conservatism," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 1-14.
    7. MiloÅŸ Laura Raisa & MiloÅŸ Marius Cristian, 2018. "Accounting Disclosure and Stock Market Reaction. Empirical Analysis on Bucharest Stock Exchange," Ovidius University Annals, Economic Sciences Series, Ovidius University of Constantza, Faculty of Economic Sciences, vol. 0(2), pages 643-648, December.
    8. Nallareddy, Suresh & Sethuraman, Mani & Venkatachalam, Mohan, 2020. "Changes in accrual properties and operating environment: Implications for cash flow predictability," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(2).
    9. Hsu, Audrey Wen-hsin & Liu, Sophia Hsin-Tsai, 2016. "Organizational structure, agency costs, and accrual quality," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 35-60.
    10. Farshadfar, Shadi & Samarbakhsh, Laleh & Jiang, Yige, 2023. "Financial statement comparability and the usefulness of earnings: Some Canadian evidence," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    11. Oz, Ibrahim Onur & Yelkenci, Tezer & Meral, Gorkem, 2021. "The role of earnings components and machine learning on the revelation of deteriorating firm performance," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    12. Ryan J. Casey & George W. Ruch, 2024. "Are earnings better than cash flows at predicting future cash flows? Evidence from apples-to-apples comparisons," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 29(4), pages 3218-3257, December.
    13. Palea, Vera & Scagnelli, Simone Domenico, 2014. "Do Earnings Reported under IFRS Improve the Prediction of Future Cash Flows? Evidence From European Banks," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis. Working Papers 201443, University of Turin.
    14. Josep Ma. Argiles (UB) & Josep Garcia Bladon (IQS) & Teresa Monllau (UPF), 2009. "Fair value versus historic cost Valuation for Biological assets: Implications for the quality of financial information," Working Papers in Economics 215, Universitat de Barcelona. Espai de Recerca en Economia.
    15. Elizabeth A. Gordon & Bjorn N. Jorgensen & Cheryl L. Linthicum, 2011. "Could IFRS Replace US GAAP? A Comparison of Earnings Attributes and Informativeness in the US Market," Working Papers 0028, College of Business, University of Texas at San Antonio.
    16. Thomas Schleicher & Martin Walker, 2015. "Are interim management statements redundant?," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(2), pages 229-255, February.
    17. Chaouki Mouelhi, 2021. "Does Cash Flows Useful in Predicting the Company’s Financial Health? Empirical Validation by Panel Cointegration Tests," Journal of Finance and Investment Analysis, SCIENPRESS Ltd, vol. 10(3), pages 1-1.
    18. Niclas Andrén & Håkan Jankensgård, 2020. "Disappearing investment‐cash flow sensitivities: Earnings have not become a worse proxy for cash flow," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(5-6), pages 760-785, May.
    19. Farshadfar, Shadi & Monem, Reza, 2013. "Further Evidence on the Usefulness of Direct Method Cash Flow Components for Forecasting Future Cash Flows," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 111-133.
    20. Dechow, Patricia & Ge, Weili & Schrand, Catherine, 2010. "Understanding earnings quality: A review of the proxies, their determinants and their consequences," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 344-401, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijfss:v:9:y:2021:i:3:p:50-:d:635744. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.