Robert Houmes

Highly Valued Equity and Discretionary Accruals

Overvalued equity provides a strong incentive for managers to report earnings that do not disappoint the market ( Jensen, 2005 ). We find that this can be extended to highly valued equity more generally. In the year following the classification as highly valued and compared to firms with less extreme valuations, highly valued firms have significantly higher discretionary accruals and exhibit a more pronounced positive association between discretionary accruals and proxies for the likelihood of failing to meet earnings targets. These findings are consistent with the use of discretionary accruals to manage earnings in support of extreme valuation. Because highly valued equity will likely result in CEOs with valuable stock and stock option portfolios, we test whether and show that the overvalued equity incentive is incremental to a CEOs equity portfolio incentive. One implication is that directors and audit committees should be especially on guard for possible earnings management when a firm has extremely high valuation multiples and when the CEO has a lot of equity at risk. Copyright (c) 2010 The Authors Journal compilation (c) 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Financial statement risk assessment following the COSO framework: An instructional case study

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to teach students the fundamental and most critical aspects of performing a financial statement risk assessment, a skill vital to help ensure both auditor and public-company compliance with guidance found in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX), the SECs Interpretative Guidance regarding Managements Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting, the control deficiency evaluation framework found in Auditing Standard No. 5 (AS5) of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), and the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO). Design/methodology/approach - This instructional case study helps students assess the impact of a set of hypothetical internal control deficiency risks in various industries, including inherent and residual financial statement risk assessment, and concludes with determining which identified internal control weaknesses are significant deficiencies and material weaknesses in internal control. Included in the financial statement residual risk assessment process are example entity-level and process-level controls described in COSO. Learning objectives, implementation guidance, and the efficacy of using the case study in the undergraduate or graduate auditing or accounting information systems courses are also provided. Findings - The results of classroom testing of the case study at two universities provides evidence the case study increases student understanding of the implications of internal controls and their impact on the reliability of the financial statements significantly. Students also found the case to be challenging, interesting, relevant, clear, understandable, and a realistic approximation of what they might expect to encounter in the real-world when performing a financial statement risk assessment. Originality/value - The case study includes the development of skills important to students in performing financial statement risk assessments, either as an auditor or when working in a private industry environment, including making professional judgments related to risk assessment.

The valuation effect of LIFO’s repeal on high pricing power firms

Purpose - – The aim of the study is to provides a timely examination of the valuation effect of current initiatives to repeal LIFO by analyzing the valuation impact of the potential repeal of LIFO conditional on the pricing power of the firm. Design/methodology/approach - – Using the methodology from prior research for all LIFO companies, we use price levels regressions to empirically test the potential tax effect of LIFO’s repeal on the value of the firm. To evaluate the robustness of these results, we also use event study methodology to estimate abnormal returns around the House Bill H. R. 3970. Findings - – Results show a favorable (unfavorable) valuation effect for high (low) pricing power firms that are able (unable) to recover tax payments by reducing costs and/or charging higher prices. These findings are robust to alternative measures of valuation (price and returns), as well as long and short event windows and suggest that certain firms may be able to offset post-LIFO repeal increased tax payments by increasing sales-output prices and or decreasing cost-input prices. Originality/value - – The primary contribution of this paper is to provide relevant and new empirical evidence regarding the potential valuation effects of the currently proposed political and regulatory initiatives to abolish LIFO.

Property Tax Capitalization within a National Historic District versus Property Tax Capitalization outside that National Historic District: Another Application of the Tiebout Hypothesis

This study has two objectives. First, it seeks to apply a hedonic pricing model to determine whether property taxes have been capitalized into the prices of single family homes located within in the Savannah Historic Landmark District in Savannah, Georgia. A total of 593 home sales over the 2000-2005 period are considered, with the housing prices and the property tax expressed in 2005 dollars. Second, this study seeks to apply that very same model to prices of some 1908 single family homes within the metropolitan Savannah area but outside the Savannah Historic Landmark District. Estimating the model in semi-log form, after allowing for a variety of housing characteristics, reveals that the natural log of the real sales price of single-family houses within the Savannah Historic Landmark District as well as those outside the Savannah Historic Landmark District were in fact negatively affected by the city and county property tax level.

Evaluating the Long-Term Valuation Effect of Efficient Asset Utilization and Profit Margin on Stock Returns: Additional Evidence from the DuPont Identity

This study aims to investigate the relations between long-window stock returns and prior years’ increases in DuPont identity components: profit margin and asset turnover. In particular, the authors examine the relative effectiveness of profit margin and asset turnover to predict years ahead stock returns.,To test the assertions, the authors regress raw, Capital Asset Pricing Model and Fama-French returns on controls and variables of interest, profit margin and asset turnover, lagged years t − 1, t − 2 and t − 3. To control for factors that could affect returns over the long windows, they also include returns lagged over years t − 1, t − 2 and t − 3 to coincide with the lagged profit margin and asset turnover variables of interest.,Results show a negative (positive) relation between returns and increases in lagged profit margin (asset turnover). However, the negative returns-profit margin relation is mitigated when increases in profit margin and asset turnover occur in the same lagged year.,This study adds to the existing body of research on the DuPont identity by temporally evaluating the relative long-run contributions of profit margin and asset turnover to firm value.