Determinantes do momento de divulgação das demonstrações contábeis de empresas que Compõem o índice da bolsa de valores de São Paulo (IBOVESPA)

Abstract

The usefulness of accounting information for decision-making of its stakeholders is not only about the kind and content of information, but, also, about the moment in which the information is communicated. This study sought to measure if it is possible to detect some kind of pattern on the moment of disclosure of financial statements in Brazilian market. More specifically, it measured the hypothesis of which the “good news” are anticipated and the “bad news” are postponed. The reason is because the literature indicates that managers face some incentives to postpone the disclosure of unfavorable news that allow them, for example, have time to accomplish negotiations on more favorable terms, to rebut criticism or even to revert the past performance before the announcement go public (Begley & Fischer, 1998). The second measured hypothesis was that companies that report timely their accounting information presented high-accrued abnormal returns, based on the assumption that companies that disclose their results faster provide more timely information to investors, becoming the information more useful for decision-making. Contradicting the results from accounting literature used by reference, when adopting a 5% significance level were not found statistical evidences to support the hypothesis of average divergence of accrued abnormal returns and lag on the disclose of “good” and “bad” news. Otherwise, adopting a 10% significance level, it was possible to conclude there is statistically difference between the lag on the disclose of “good” and “bad” news. About the second hypothesis, it was found, in the sample, there is not statistically difference between the average of accrued abnormal returns of the companies with disclose more timely, compared to the average of accrued abnormal returns of the companies with disclosure less timely.