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Journal of Accounting and Economics Vol. 10 No. 1 1988

Analysts' forecasts as earnings expectations

Patricia C. O'Brien

open access

Abstract

I examine three composite analyst forecast of earnings per share as proxies for expected earnings. The most current forecast weakly dominates the mean and median forecasts in accuracy. This is evidence that forecast dates are more relevant for determining accuracy than individual error. Consistent with previous research, I find analysts more accurate than time-series models. However prior knowledge of forecast errors from a quarterly autoregressive model predicts excess stock returns better than prior knowledge of analysts' errors. This is inconsistent with previous research, and is anomalous given analysts' greater accuracy.

DOI
10.1016/0165-4101(88)90023-7
Volume
10
Issue
1
Pages
53-83
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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