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Review of Accounting Studies Vol. 10 No. 2-3 2005

Separating Winners from Losers among LowBook-to-Market Stocks using Financial Statement Analysis

Partha S. Mohanram

Columbia Business School, 605-A Uris Hall, 3022 Broadway, New York, NY, 10027

open access

Abstract

This paper combines traditional fundamentals, such as earnings and cash flows, with measures tailored for growth firms, such as earnings stability, growth stability and intensity of R&D, capital expenditure and advertising, to create an index – GSCORE. A long–short strategy based on GSCORE earns significant excess returns, though most of the returns come from the short side. Results are robust in partitions of size, analyst following and liquidity and persist after controlling for momentum, book-to-market, accruals and size. High GSCORE firms have greater market reaction and analyst forecast surprises with respect to future earnings announcements. Further, the results are inconsistent with a risk-based explanation as returns are positive in most years, and firms with lower risk earn higher returns. Finally, a contextual approach towards fundamental analysis works best, with traditional analysis appropriate for high BM stocks and growth oriented fundamental analysis appropriate for low BM stocks.

DOI
10.1007/s11142-005-1526-4
Volume
10
Issue
2-3
Pages
133-170
Language
en
Sources
semanticscholar openalex crossref

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