Analyzing Earnings Quality

When To Use

• Evaluating a company's reported earnings before making buy/sell/hold recommendations
• Screening for accounting anomalies or aggressive revenue recognition in a portfolio or watchlist
• Conducting due diligence on an acquisition target's financial statements
• Comparing earnings quality across peer companies in an industry sector
• Investigating divergences between reported net income and operating cash flow

Inputs To Gather

• Income statement (3-5 years minimum): Revenue, COGS, operating expenses, non-recurring items, net income
• Cash flow statement (matching period): CFO, capex, working capital changes, stock-based compensation
• Balance sheet (matching period): Total assets, receivables, inventory, payables, accrued liabilities, deferred revenue
• Notes to financials: Revenue recognition policies, changes in accounting estimates, related-party transactions
• Audit opinion and any restatements: Qualified opinions, material weaknesses, prior-period adjustments
• Sector context: Industry-typical accrual levels, seasonal patterns, capital intensity

Workflow

1. Compute accruals metrics

   • Calculate total accruals: Net Income minus CFO
   • Derive accrual ratio: Total Accruals / Average Total Assets
   • Compute the Sloan accrual measure: (ΔCA - ΔCash) - (ΔCL - ΔSTD - ΔTP) - D&A, scaled by average total assets
   • Flag if accrual ratio exceeds ±5% of average total assets or deviates significantly from sector median

2. Assess cash conversion quality

   • Cash conversion ratio: CFO / Net Income (healthy benchmark: consistently >1.0)
   • Free cash flow yield vs. earnings yield — persistent gaps signal accrual-driven earnings
   • Track CFO-to-EBITDA over time; declining trend indicates deteriorating cash backing
   • Examine capex classification: operating vs. growth capex, and whether maintenance capex is being deferred

3. Analyze revenue quality

   • Revenue growth vs. receivables growth — receivables growing faster than revenue suggests channel stuffing or aggressive recognition
   • Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) trend: rising DSO relative to peers is a red flag
   • Deferred revenue trend: declining deferred revenue alongside rising reported revenue may indicate pull-forward
   • Bill-and-hold arrangements, percentage-of-completion changes, or contract modification patterns [VERIFY against ASC 606 / IFRS 15 applicability]

4. Screen for expense manipulation

   • Capitalization rates: rising proportion of capitalized vs. expensed costs (especially software development, exploration costs)
   • Reserve and accrual reversals boosting income (warranty reserves, bad debt provisions, restructuring reserves)
   • Pension and post-retirement assumption changes — discount rate, expected return on plan assets [VERIFY plan-specific assumptions]
   • Stock-based compensation: exclude SBC from "adjusted" earnings and assess magnitude relative to operating income

5. Evaluate non-recurring and below-the-line items

   • Frequency of "one-time" charges — truly one-time items should not recur in 3+ of the last 5 years
   • Gains on asset sales, debt extinguishment, or insurance recoveries inflating headline numbers
   • Classify each adjustment as sustainable or transient; compute a "clean" earnings figure

6. Construct an earnings quality scorecard

   • Assign ratings (Strong / Adequate / Weak) across dimensions: accrual level, cash conversion, revenue quality, expense integrity, non-recurring reliance
   • Weight each dimension by materiality to the specific company and sector
   • Summarize an overall earnings quality assessment with a composite score or rating

Output

Deliver a structured earnings quality report containing:

• Executive summary: One-paragraph overall assessment with composite rating
• Accruals analysis table: Accrual ratios by year, trend direction, and sector comparison
• Cash conversion dashboard: CFO/NI ratio, FCF yield vs. earnings yield, trend charts
• Red flag inventory: Each flag with metric value, threshold, severity (High/Medium/Low), and supporting evidence
• Clean earnings reconciliation: Reported EPS to adjusted EPS bridge, with each adjustment categorized and explained
• Earnings quality scorecard: Dimension-level ratings and composite assessment
• Limitations and caveats: Data gaps, periods not covered, estimates used

Quality Checks

• Confirm all financial data ties back to audited filings or authoritative sources — no analyst estimates without labeling
• Verify accrual calculations foot to the balance sheet and cash flow statement (total accruals = NI - CFO should reconcile)
• Cross-check DSO, DIO, and DPO calculations against stated revenue, COGS, and payables figures
• Ensure peer comparisons use consistent accounting standards (GAAP vs. IFRS) [VERIFY standard used by each peer]
• Flag any company with a recent auditor change, restatement, or material weakness as elevated risk regardless of metric results
• Confirm that "non-recurring" items are truly excluded from the clean earnings figure and not double-counted
• Mark any metric derived from estimated or incomplete data with [VERIFY]