The Effect of SFAS No. 141 and SFAS No. 142 on the Accuracy of Financial Analysts' Earnings Forecasts after Mergers Metadata

Title

• Main Title The Effect of SFAS No. 141 and SFAS No. 142 on the Accuracy of Financial Analysts' Earnings Forecasts after Mergers

Creator

• Author: Mintchik, Natalia Maksimovna
  Creator Type: Personal

Contributor

• Chair: Plummer, Elizabeth
  Contributor Type: Personal
  Contributor Info: Co-Major Professor
• Chair: Coe, Teddy L.
  Contributor Type: Personal
  Contributor Info: Co-Major Professor
• Committee Member: Pavur, Robert J.
  Contributor Type: Personal
• Committee Member: Tieslau, Margie A.
  Contributor Type: Personal

Publisher

• Name: University of North Texas
  Place of Publication: Denton, Texas

Date

• Creation: 2005-05
• Digitized: 2008-02-08

Language

• English

Description

• Content Description: This study examines the impact of Statements of Financial Accounting Standards No. 141 and No. 142 (hereafter SFAS 141, 142) on the characteristics of financial analysts' earnings forecasts after mergers. Specifically, I predict lower forecast errors for firms that experienced mergers after the enactment of SFAS 141, 142 than for firms that went through business combinations before those accounting changes. Study results present strong evidence that earnings forecast errors for companies involved in merging and acquisition activity decreased after the adoption of SFAS 141, 142. Test results also suggest that lower earnings forecast errors are attributable to factors specific to merging companies such as SFAS 141, 142 but not common to merging and non-merging companies. In addition, evidence implies that information in corporate annual reports of merging companies plays the critical role in this decrease of earnings forecast error. Summarily, I report that SFAS 141, 142 were effective in achieving greater transparency of financial reporting after mergers. In my complementary analysis, I also document the structure of corporate analysts' coverage in "leaders/followers" terms and conduct tests for differences in this structure: (1) across post-SFAS 141,142/pre-SFAS 141, 142 environments, and (2) between merging and non-merging firms. Although I do not identify any significant differences in coverage structure across environments, my findings suggest that lead analysts are not as accurate as followers when predicting earnings for firms actively involved in mergers. I also detect a significant interaction between the SFAS-environment code and leader/follower classification, which indicates greater improvement of lead analyst forecast accuracy in the post-SFAS 141, 142 environment relative to their followers. This interesting discovery demands future investigation and confirms the importance of financial reporting transparency for the accounting treatment of business combinations.

Subject

• Library of Congress Subject Headings: Statement of financial accounting standards ; no. 141.
• Library of Congress Subject Headings: Goodwill and other intangible assets (Financial Accounting Standards Board)
• Library of Congress Subject Headings: Business forecasting.
• Library of Congress Subject Headings: Consolidation and merger of corporations.
• Keyword: analysts
• Keyword: forecasts
• Keyword: earnings
• Keyword: SFAS 141
• Keyword: SFAS 142

Collection

• Name: UNT Theses and Dissertations
  Code: UNTETD

Institution

• Name: UNT Libraries
  Code: UNT

Rights

• Rights Access: public
• Rights License: copyright
• Rights Holder: Mintchik, Natalia Maksimovna
• Rights Statement: Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.

Resource Type

• Thesis or Dissertation

Format

• Text

Identifier

• OCLC: 61896468
• Archival Resource Key: ark:/67531/metadc4731

Degree

• Degree Name: Doctor of Philosophy
• Degree Level: Doctoral
• Degree Discipline: Accounting
• Academic Department: Department of Accounting
• Degree Grantor: University of North Texas

Note