This study examines the relation between accruals components of earnings and stock return. Earnings are decomposed into four components: discretionary accruals, nondiscretionary accruals, nondiscretionary income and cash flow from operations. Because ...
This study examines the relation between accruals components of earnings and stock return. Earnings are decomposed into four components: discretionary accruals, nondiscretionary accruals, nondiscretionary income and cash flow from operations. Because reported earnings in financial statement consist of cash flow from operations plus total accruals. We decompose total accruals into a discretionary accruals and a nondiscretionary accruals separately. This paper examines the incremental informational content of discretionary accruals and nondiscretionary accruals components of net income by regressing return on earnings' components in multivariate models. The empirical analysis is conducted on a sample of 1,580 firm-years comprising 158 firms during 1991-2003. discretionary accruals are obtained by decomposing total accruals into discretionary and nondiscretionary accruals conponents, using a pooled variation of the Jones model(1991). These findings suggest that the discretionary accruals(measured using a variation the Jones model) is priced by the stock market. Specifically, the discretionary accruals and cash flow from operations are positively associated with the stock return, and also nondiscretionary income, discretionary accruals are positively associated with the stock return. While this result is consistent with the market prices the discretionary accruals because it captures value-relevant information. Additional test report evidence consistent with nondiscretionary accruals conveying information about the stock return.