상대적 주가배수, 앵커링 편의, 그리고 재무제표 비교가능성

This study investigates whether comparability, one of the qualitative characteristics of accounting information, affects the magnitude of a firm's valuation error. Specifically, it examines whether the anchoring bias for relative stock price multiple was different depending on the level of comparability in the financial statements. The prior studies referred to the higher the multiplier the stock price of the focal firm than the industrial mean, the greater the stock price drifts after the earnings announcement (hereafter PEAD), which was called anchoring bias. This study analyzed whether the informational efficiency in the stock market relies on the level of comparability in the financial statements. It was expected that high comparability facilitates a firm’s valuation to mitigate PEAD, while the high quality of accounting information also deepens the extent to which the market underreacts earnings persistence, responsible for PEAD phenomenon. The results showed that the higher the relative stock price multiple, as in the prior study, the greater the magnitude of PEAD. The positive relationship between this relative price multiple and the magnitude of PEAD was shown to decrease with higher levels of comparability. These results were consistent even when the measures of comparability and the methods of analysis were run in different ways, which is interpreted as the comparability mitigates the anchoring bias of relative stock price multiple. Although this study reported that comparability in financial statements plays a positive role in information efficiency, it is different from prior researches in that it considers the possibility for the high quality of accounting information to function negatively. Also, this study provides a practical suggestion that a universal investment strategy in the market, i.e., the use of relative stock price multiple, may result in better performance when considering the quality of accounting information.