ChForecastAccrual · Earnings forecast · Barth and Hutton (2004)

Change in Forecast and Accrual

Long minus short portfolio using the original paper's sort and weighting, market-adjusted. Quarterly, 1976Q3 to 2024Q4.

Expected return · posterior mean, % per quarter
Next quarter
0.57%
95% interval 0.24% to 0.92%
Next year
0.57%
95% interval 0.22% to 0.93%
Next five years
0.60%
95% interval 0.19% to 0.96%

OAP publishes no uniform quintile or decile portfolios for this signal, so only the paper's original portfolio convention is shown.

Cumulative market-adjusted return

+306% since 1976Q3 · log scale

Past performance, annualized

Window Mean Vol. Sharpe t
1976Q3–2024Q4 3.01% 4.66% 0.65 4.50
2020Q1–2024Q4 2.11% 5.13% 0.41 0.92
2024Q1–2024Q4 2.57% 2.81% 0.91 0.91

Forecast Sharpe ratio, per quarter

Horizon Mean 95% interval P(neg)
Next quarter 0.244 0.102 – 0.395 0.00
Next year 0.247 0.096 – 0.397 0.00
Next five years 0.257 0.081 – 0.413 0.00
Category
Earnings forecast
Form
Discrete
Data
Analyst
Predicted sign
Positive
Original sample
1981–1996