盈餘公告時點與盈餘品質

Abstract

過去有不少文獻在探討盈餘公告時點和市場股價反應之關聯性；然而，投資人關心的不僅是公司公告的盈餘數字是成長還是下跌，也關心財務報表上盈餘數字的品質。因此本文以探討「盈餘公告時點和盈餘品質之關聯性」為研究主旨，並將盈餘品質定義為下列三項：（1）股票報酬率和盈餘數字間的相關性；（2）實質盈餘管理程度；（3）應計品質。本文以上市櫃公司民國一百零一年至民國一百零三年的年報為研究對象。實證結果發現：當公司越早公告其盈餘金額，則盈餘金額越高；且越早公告盈餘金額的公司，其股票報酬率和盈餘金額間越呈現正相關。除此之外，越晚公告盈餘金額的公司，其實質盈餘管理程度越大。然而，本研究並沒有發現，越晚公告盈餘金額的公司，其應計品質越差。本研究實證結果可以補充國內文獻之不足，並作為實務界參考之用。

Many previous studies in the literature explore the relation between the timing of earnings announcements and the reaction of stock prices. However, investors are concerned not only about whether a company's announced earnings are increasing or decreasing, but also about the quality of such earnings. This article therefore aims to explore the relation between the timing of earnings announcements and the quality of earnings and defines the quality of earnings by the following three items: (1) the relation between stock returns and earnings figures; (2) the level of real earnings management; and (3) accruals quality. This paper employs annual reports of listed companies from 2012 to 2014 as research samples. The empirical results show that when the company announces its earnings figure sooner, the amount of a company's earnings is higher, and for companies that announced earnings earlier, the positive correlation between their stock returns and the figure of earnings is more pronounced. In addition, for companies that announced earnings later, their level of real earnings management is larger. However, this study does not present evidence that the accruals quality is worse for companies that announced earnings later. The results of this paper serve as a supplement to the literature as well as a reference for the listed companies with regard to the timing of earnings announcement.