FEPS · Profitability · Cen, Wei, and Zhang (2006)

Analyst earnings per share

Long minus short quintile portfolio, value-weighted, market-adjusted. Quarterly, 1976Q2 to 2024Q4.

Expected return · posterior mean, % per quarter
Next quarter
2.93%
95% interval 1.84% to 3.95%
Next year
2.84%
95% interval 1.79% to 3.90%
Next five years
2.60%
95% interval 1.29% to 3.77%

Cumulative market-adjusted return

+21,192% since 1976Q2 · log scale

Past performance, annualized

Window Mean Vol. Sharpe t
1976Q2–2024Q4 12.28% 15.50% 0.79 5.53
2020Q1–2024Q4 18.98% 21.36% 0.89 1.99
2024Q1–2024Q4 25.02% 15.80% 1.58 1.58

Forecast Sharpe ratio, per quarter

Horizon Mean 95% interval P(neg)
Next quarter 0.379 0.236 – 0.514 0.00
Next year 0.367 0.231 – 0.503 0.00
Next five years 0.335 0.167 – 0.487 0.00
Category
Profitability
Form
Continuous
Data
Analyst
Predicted sign
Positive
Original sample
1983–2002