How important are semi‐annual earnings announcements? An information event perspective

Stephen Taylor and Alex Tong

Accounting and Finance, 2023, vol. 63, issue 3, 3585-3607

Abstract: Using a method that avoids the need to specify earnings expectations, we demonstrate that the period surrounding the semi‐annual announcement of Australian firms' earnings is, on average, an important source of information. Although there is substantial year‐to‐year variation, we observe no evidence of any significant time trend, and also conclude that a shift from Australian domestic generally accepted accounting principle to International Financial Reporting Standards did not impact the association between earnings announcement windows and stock returns. We also find no evidence that the informativeness of earnings announcements varies systematically with firm size, analyst following or economic news (i.e., positive vs. negative stock returns, profits vs. losses), although we do observe significant variation across industries. Our conclusion is further supported by contrasting the earnings release date with the days immediately prior to release, or high information days other than earnings announcement windows. Using a more precise event window relative to prior studies (i.e., 3 h vs. 3 days), we confirm that earnings announcements contain significant new information about fundamentals.

Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/acfi.13050

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:acctfi:v:63:y:2023:i:3:p:3585-3607

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=0810-5391

Access Statistics for this article

Accounting and Finance is currently edited by Robert Faff

More articles in Accounting and Finance from Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().