To gauge further the significance of the explanatory power of accounting numbers, consider what would be obtained if the price were expressed as a function of forecasted dividends over the next four years, rather than in terms of forecasted earnings and book value. Table 1 pre sents the results, again based on Value Line forecasts. The R squared is now only 29 percent. This result underscores the severity of the dividend conundrum; even though it must be dividends that ultimately drive firm value, dividends over a finite horizon are not very useful indicators of value. Earnings are much more useful