2015AbstractA sample of recommendation reports by equity analysts covering Mexican publicly traded firms in Mexicois studied. We propose a set of “most preferred” financial ratios from this sample. It is found that the mostpreferred ratios by equity analysts, a group of sophisticated users, are not those ratios typically covered infinancial textbooks. Moreover, by using panel regression analysis, we test the relationship between financialratios and leading stock returns during the 1995–2011 period. Overall, consistent with the efficient markethypothesis, the results show that estimates of financial ratios most preferred by equity analysts have predictivepower on 1-year future stock returns. We find no evidence of predictive power on 2-year stock returns.All Rights Reserved © 2015 Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Facultad de Contaduría y Admin-istración. This is an open access item distributed under the Creative Commons CC License BY-NC-ND4.0.