本文着重研究上市公司盈余过程(fundament,alearningsprocess)如何影响证券分析师的盈余预测行为。盈余过程产生基础盈余(fundamentalearnings),后者是由公司生产经营函数所决定的真实产出,亦是计算公司价值时可以被年金化的收益部分。证券分析师通过各种渠道分析各类信息就是为了能够挖掘出公司潜藏在表象之下的盈余过程。然而真实的盈余过程不可观测。在本文中我们按照盈余过程的性质将其分为现金赚取活动与赊销预付活动,更进一步,又将赊销预付活动分为正常性与操纵性两部分,我们发现:①当期赊销预付活动的比重越高,同期分析师预测误差越大;当期现金赚取活动比重越高同期预测误差越小。②将当期赊销预付活动分解为正常性与操纵性两部分后,只有后者对当期预测误差有影响。③当期赊销预付活动的比重越高,同期跟踪相应公司的分析师人数越少;当期赚取现金活动的比重越高,跟踪的分析师人数越多。④将当期赊销预付活动分解后,操纵性赊销预付活动比重越高,同期跟踪人数越少;正常性赊销预付活动比重越高,跟踪人数越多。但这个影响不及赚取现金活动比重对分析师跟踪人数的影响大。综上,证据表明上市公司的盈余过程确实会影响到分析师的预测行为。
In this paper, we focus on the issue how does a firm's fundamental earnings process influence analysts' forecast decisions: their forecast accuracy and whether they will follow the company. We divide the earnings into three kinds of activities: cash-related activi- ties, ordinary operating accrual related activities and discretionary accrual related aetivities. We find that more proportion of cash related activities will lead to more accurate forecast and more analysts following while the reverse are true for discretionary accrual related activities. All in all, the evidence shows that the fundamental earnings process will actually affect ana- lysts forecast decisions.