Stock Prices Explained by Book Value and Earnings Per Share
Examining a large set of US firms, Bernard (1993) found that book values explain 55
percent of the cross-sectional variation in market prices. When current return on equity
(ROE; ranks) was added to the regression, these two accounting measures explain about
64 percent of the variation in market prices. Bernard (1994) finds that return on common
equity (ROE) is mean reverting over time so that firms with the highest (lowest) current
ROEs tend to have lower (higher) ROEs in later years.
King and Langli (1998) examine the explanatory power of BVPS and earnings per
share (EPS) for three European countries: Germany, Norway, and the UK. They find
significant differences in the valuation power of accounting book value and earnings
across the three countries, and they interpret some of the differences as consistent with
diversity in accounting practices. They also find future earnings realizations as proxies for
expected earnings do not have incremental explanatory power beyond that of current
earnings and book value.
Frankel and Lee (1999) look at the relation between accounting values, earnings
forecasts and market prices across 20 countries (including Korea and Thailand) for 8 years,
1987±1994. Sample sizes for Korea and Thailand are small with 3 to 8 observations per
year (33 total firm-years) for Korea and 1 to 40 observations per year (162 total firm-years)
for Thailand. They find that estimates of value based on the residual earnings model have
incremental explanatory power beyond book value and earnings in explaining market
value in all countries. In addition, they find evidence of superior returns to trading
strategies based on an estimate of value from a residual earnings model.
Joos and Lang (1994) relate book value and earnings to stock prices for France,
Germany, and the UK. Their sample covers 1982 to 1990, and they focus on the effects of
implementing the accounting related directives of the European Union. They find the
explanatory power of book value and earnings together ranges from 20 to 38 percent for
Germany, from 48 to 78 percent for France, and from 14 to 42 percent for the UK. They do
not examine incremental explanatory power. Evidence on changes over time is ambiguous,
probably because the time periods for the sample are relatively short.
Harris et al. (1994) examine the value relevance of accounting numbers for German
firms compared to that for a matched set of US firms for 1982±1991. They find little
difference in overall value relevance (R2) between German and US firms. However,
coefficients (multiples) on book value and on earnings for German firms are greater than
for matched US firms. Further, they find that consolidation increases the value relevance
of accounting numbers, and restatements of earnings to adjust for transitory elements in
German accounting also increases explanatory power.