Abstract
Purpose – Although the academic research on the quality of earnings has been improved by
presenting different approaches of measurement, there is no agreed-upon generally accepted approach
to measure the earning quality. Aims to present results of an empirical study measuring the quality of
earnings on companies listed in NYSE.
Design/methodology/approach – Uses a sample of 90 companies listed in the NYSE. The analysis
is directed to reach a general assessment of the quality of earnings if there is a complete consistency
among the three approaches, and if not, the quality of earnings is questionable and needs further
analysis and investigations.
Findings – The results show that different approaches of measuring the quality of earning lead to
different assessment, and one industry or one company can not be labeled as having low or high
quality of earning based on the result of one approach only. The results also suggest that the
stakeholders before making any financing, investing decision or taking any corrective action, have to
use more than one approach to assess the quality of earnings.
Originality/value – Indicates that financial analysts and governmental agencies dealing with
companies should apply more than one measure for the quality of earning in order to have strong
evidence about the level of quality before taking any corrective action or making any decision related
to those companies.
Keywords Earnings, Financial analysis, Measurement
Paper type Research paper