an investment strategy that buys expected winners and shorts expected losers
generates a 23% annual return between 1976 and 1996, and the strategy
appears to be robust across time and to controls for alternative investment
strategies. Within the portfolio of high BM firms, the benefits to financial
statement analysis are concentrated in small and medium-sized firms, companies
with low share turnover, and firms with no analyst following, yet this
superior performance is not dependent on purchasing firms with low share
prices. A positive relationship between the sign of the initial historical information
and both future firm performance and subsequent quarterly earnings
announcement reactions suggests that the market initially underreacts to the
historical information. In particular, ⁄/^ of the annual return difference between
ex ante strong and weak firms is earned over the four three-day periods
surrounding these quarterly earnings announcements. Overall, the evidence
suggests that the market does not fully incorporate historical financial
information into prices in a timely manner.