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The Usefulness of Accounting Estimates for Predicting Cash Flows and Earnings

The Usefulness of Accounting Estimates for Predicting Cash Flows and Earnings
Author: Siyi Li
Publisher:
Total Pages: 64
Release: 2009
Genre:
ISBN:

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Estimates and projections are embedded in most financial statement items. These estimates potentially improve the relevance of financial information by providing managers the means to convey to investors forward-looking, inside information (e.g., on future collections from customers via the bad debt provision). On the other hand, the quality of financial information is compromised by: (i) the increasing difficulty of making reliable forecasts in a fast-changing, often turbulent economy, and (ii) the frequent managerial misuse of estimates to manipulate financial data. Given the ever-increasing prevalence of estimates in accounting data, whether these opposing forces result in an improvement in the quality of financial information or not is among the most fundamental issues in accounting. We examine in this study the contribution of accounting estimates embedded in accruals to the quality of financial information, as reflected by their usefulness in the prediction of enterprise cash flows and earnings. Our extensive out-of-sample tests, reflecting both the statistical and economic significance of estimates, indicate that accounting estimates beyond those in working capital items do not improve the prediction of cash flows. Estimates do, however, improve the prediction of next year's earnings, though not of subsequent years' earnings. Our economic significance tests corroborate that accounting estimates do not improve cash flow or earnings prediction. We conclude that the usefulness of accounting estimates to investors is limited, and provide suggestions for improving their usefulness.


The usefulness of accounting measures in predicting future cash flow

The usefulness of accounting measures in predicting future cash flow
Author: Nikolay Draganov
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
Total Pages: 62
Release: 2021-08-10
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 3346463400

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Master's Thesis from the year 2021 in the subject Business economics - Accounting and Taxes, grade: 1,0, University of Cologne, language: English, abstract: The primary aim of this study is to empirically examine the relative ability of accounting earnings and cash flow to predict future cash flow. Moreover, the role of accruals in cash flow predictions is called into question. One of the major purposes of financial reporting consists in ensuring an informational basis that helps investors, creditors and other users of accounting data to overcome the uncertainty associated with the future cash flows of enterprises their financial activity relates to. At the same time, the accrual concept prevails in modern accounting, since it is theorized to mitigate the mismatching and timing problems of the unrefined cash ba-sis accounting. Hence, recognizing revenues and expenses in the period when they have occurred, and not when cash was received or paid out, should create a more relevant framework for decision making. The use of accrual accounting earnings as a summary measure of financial performance instead of the more primitive cash flows is therefore advocated by accounting standard setters. For instance, the Financial Accounting Stand-ard Board claims that: “Information about enterprise earnings and its components measured by accrual accounting generally provides a better indica-tion of enterprise performance than information about current cash receipts and pay-ments”. The FASB’s statement led to a rising discussion in the financial research on whether accounting earnings provide a more reliable picture of a company’s future operating cash flows than current operating cash flows themselves do. Hence, a major implication of the above quotation refers to the incremental power of accruals and its components in predicting future cash flows beyond the one contained into current operating cash flows. This debate represents a cornerstone in evaluating the information quality offered by the accrual accounting concept.


Accounting Estimates

Accounting Estimates
Author: Baruch Lev
Publisher:
Total Pages: 52
Release: 2009
Genre:
ISBN:

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Estimates and projections are embedded in most financial statement items. These estimates potentially improve the relevance of financial information by providing managers the means to convey to investors forward-looking, inside information (e.g., on future collections from customers via the bad debt provision, or on expected assets' cash flows reflected in impairment charges). On the other hand, the quality of financial information is compromised by: (i) the increasing difficulty of making reliable forecasts in a fast-changing, often turbulent economy, and (ii) the frequent managerial misuse of estimates to manipulate financial data. Given the prevalence of estimates in accounting data, whether these opposing forces result in an improvement in the quality of financial information or not is arguably the most fundamental issue in accounting.We examine in this study the contribution of accounting estimates embedded in accruals to the quality of financial information by focusing on the major use of this information by investors - the prediction of enterprise cash flows and earnings. Our extensive tests, reflecting both the statistical and economic significance of estimates, indicate that, by and large, accounting accruals and the estimates they embed do not improve the quality of financial information in terms of enhancing the prediction of enterprise performance. Accruals do not improve the prediction of cash flows, beyond that achieved by current cash flows, and improve only marginally the prediction of earnings. This latter improvement, however, appears to be economically insignificant. Thus, the objective difficulties of generating reliable estimates and projections in a volatile economy, and their frequent misuse by managers appear to offset the positive role of estimates in conveying forward looking information to investors.


The Consistent Estimation of Future Cash Flow and Future Earnings

The Consistent Estimation of Future Cash Flow and Future Earnings
Author: Ehsan Khansalar
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2011
Genre:
ISBN:

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In empirical financial accounting research, there continues to be a debate as to what the best predictors of future earnings and future cash flows might be. Past accruals, earnings and cash flows are the most common predictors, but there is no consensus over their relative contributions, and little attention to the underlying accounting identities that link the components of these three prominent variables. The aim of this thesis is to investigate this controversy further, and to apply an innovative method which yields consistent estimations of future earnings and cash flows, with higher precision and greater efficiency than is the case in published results to date. The estimation imposes constraints based on financial statement articulation, using a system of structural regressions and a framework of simultaneous linear equations, which allows for the most basic property of accounting - double entry book-keeping - to be incorporated as a set of constraints within the model. In predicting future cash flows, the results imply that the constrained model which observes the double entry condition is superior to the models that are not constrained in this way, producing (a) rational signs consistent with expectations, not only in the entire sample but also in each industry, (b) evidence that double entry holds, based on the Wald test that the estimated marginal responses sum to zero, and (c) confirmation of model improvement by way of a higher likelihood and greater precision attached to predictor variables. Furthermore, by then using an appropriately specified model that observes the double entry constraint in order to predict earnings, the thesis reports statistically significant results, across all industries, that cash flows are superior to accruals in explaining future earnings, indicating also that accruals with a lower level of reliability tend to be more relevant in this respect.


The End of Accounting and the Path Forward for Investors and Managers

The End of Accounting and the Path Forward for Investors and Managers
Author: Baruch Lev
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 268
Release: 2016-06-14
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1119191084

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An innovative new valuation framework with truly useful economic indicators The End of Accounting and the Path Forward for Investors and Managers shows how the ubiquitous financial reports have become useless in capital market decisions and lays out an actionable alternative. Based on a comprehensive, large-sample empirical analysis, this book reports financial documents' continuous deterioration in relevance to investors' decisions. An enlightening discussion details the reasons why accounting is losing relevance in today's market, backed by numerous examples with real-world impact. Beyond simply identifying the problem, this report offers a solution—the Value Creation Report—and demonstrates its utility in key industries. New indicators focus on strategy and execution to identify and evaluate a company's true value-creating resources for a more up-to-date approach to critical investment decision-making. While entire industries have come to rely on financial reports for vital information, these documents are flawed and insufficient when it comes to the way investors and lenders work in the current economic climate. This book demonstrates an alternative, giving you a new framework for more informed decision making. Discover a new, comprehensive system of economic indicators Focus on strategic, value-creating resources in company valuation Learn how traditional financial documents are quickly losing their utility Find a path forward with actionable, up-to-date information Major corporate decisions, such as restructuring and M&A, are predicated on financial indicators of profitability and asset/liabilities values. These documents move mountains, so what happens if they're based on faulty indicators that fail to show the true value of the company? The End of Accounting and the Path Forward for Investors and Managers shows you the reality and offers a new blueprint for more accurate valuation.


Financial Analytics Toolkit

Financial Analytics Toolkit
Author: Marc L. Lipson
Publisher:
Total Pages: 7
Release: 2020
Genre:
ISBN:

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This note reviews the basics of projecting cash flows for a typical operating decision. To find the economic consequences of any decision, one needs to project the cash flow effects of that decision and discount those at the appropriate hurdle rate. The focus on cash flows arises because any evaluation of economic impact must recognize opportunity costs--the other uses to which one might allocate resources available to a firm. This note discusses two typical ways to organize operating information to calculate cash flow, typically referred to as free cash flow in this context. The first estimates the cash consequences related to various elements of a decision. The second starts with a typical accounting estimate of operating income before taxes and then makes adjustments. The concepts in this note are applied to the firm Morgan Industries, a setting that has been integrated across all the Financial Analytics Toolkit series of technical notes.ExcerptUVA-F-1896Rev. Dec. 6, 2019Financial Analytics Toolkit: Cash Flow ProjectionsTo find the economic consequences of any decision, one needs to project the cash flow effects of that decision and discount those at the appropriate hurdle rate. This note reviews the basics of projecting cash flows for a typical operating decision.The focus on cash flows arises because any evaluation of economic impact must recognize opportunity costs--the other uses to which one might allocate resources available to a firm. Since a cash flow received today can be invested, it matters whether a decision generates a cash flow today versus a cash flow in the future. The central challenge with cash flow projections, therefore, is to adjust correctly for items that affect the timing of cash flows: accrual accounting impacts on reported results and tax effects associated with depreciation and amortization.There are two typical ways to organize operating information to calculate cash flow. The first estimates the cash consequences related to various elements of a decision. We will refer to this approach as a calculation of cash flow by parts. The second starts with a typical accounting estimate of operating income before taxes and then makes adjustments. We will refer to this approach as a calculation of free cash flow. In either situation, the resulting cash flow can be referred to as "free cash flow," though this name is more commonly associated with the second approach.


Analysts' Use of Accruals and Cash Flows in Forecasting Earnings

Analysts' Use of Accruals and Cash Flows in Forecasting Earnings
Author: Ramesh Narayana Chari
Publisher:
Total Pages: 140
Release: 1998
Genre:
ISBN:

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This research investigates whether financial analysts fully incorporate the information contained in accrual and cash flow components of current earnings when forecasting future earnings. I present evidence that analysts fail to fully incorporate the implications of these components for earnings persistence in their forecasts. Analysts' appear to ignore information in past earnings to a greater extent when the magnitude of accruals in prior year earnings is large relative to cash flows. I find that information in these components can be used to improve analysts' forecasts. This improvement is most evident for firms which have a high incidence of accruals in prior year earnings. I demonstrate the economic significance of improving analysts' forecasts by implementing a trading strategy that predicts stock price changes. This trading strategy yields significantly positive risk-adjusted abnormal returns. These results suggest that analysts' forecasting inefficiency (see Mendenhall, 1991) is potentially rooted in their misperceptions about the implications of accruals and cash flows for earnings persistence. These findings are useful to accounting standard-setters and to capital markets research that uses analysts' forecasts to proxy for earnings expectations.


Cash-Flow Forecasting

Cash-Flow Forecasting
Author: William A. Loscalzo
Publisher: Prentice Hall
Total Pages: 200
Release: 1982
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780131160132

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