Sundaresh Ramnath

Value Line and I/B/E/S Earnings Forecasts

This paper compares Value Line and Institutional Brokers Estimate System (I/B/E/S) analysts’ earnings forecasts. Comparing the accuracy of forecasts of a single forecaster (Value Line) to consensus forecasts (I/B/E/S) offers a powerful test of the aggregation principle. Philbrick and Ricks [J. Acc. Res. 29 (1991) 397] conducted a similar study, but found no evidence that aggregation matters. Using more recent data, we reach different conclusions, finding that I/B/E/S earnings forecasts outperform Value Line significantly in terms of accuracy and as proxies for market expectations. I/B/E/S forecasting superiority is largely explained by its timing advantage and the aggregation principle. However, when we build an I/B/E/S consensus using forecasts from the I/B/E/S detail files of individual analyst forecasts, we find that some of its forecasting superiority remains after controlling for these advantages. D 2004 International Institute of Forecasters. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Financial Analysts’ Forecasts and Stock Recommendations: A Review of the Research

This surveys reviews research regarding the role of financial analysts in capital markets. The survey builds on the perspectives provided by Schipper (1991) and Brown (1993). We categorize papers published mainly since 1992 and selectively discuss aspects of these papers that address or suggest key research topics of ongoing interest in seven broad areas: analysts’ decision processes, the determinants of analyst expertise and distributions of individual analysts’ forecasts, the informativeness of analysts’ research outputs, analyst and market efficiency with respect to information, effects of analysts’ economic incentives on their research outputs, effects of the institutional and regulatory environment (including cross-country comparisons), and the limitations of databases and various research paradigms.