Do analysts provide information about other comprehensive income in book value forecasts for financial firms?

Abstract

Analysts' earnings forecasts exclude other comprehensive income (OCI). However, OCI affects firm value on a dollar-for-dollar basis and can enhance investors' assessments of the riskiness of firms' equity capital. Focusing on financial firms and using analysts' book value per share (BVPS) forecasts as a proxy for forward-looking information about OCI, we examine whether analysts provide information about future OCI via BVPS forecasts, whether investors respond to BVPS innovations (which should include OCI innovations), and whether such innovations are more useful to investors in financial firms with difficult-to-value financial assets. We find evidence consistent with: 1) Analysts' BVPS forecasts generally conveying at least some information about future OCI; and, 2) The market responding to whether firms miss analysts' consensus BVPS expectations (which should include OCI expectations), with stronger evidence for firms with larger holdings of difficult-to-value financial assets. The evidence supports the intuition that analysts provide at least some information about future OCI in their BVPS forecasts.