We use earnings forecasts from a cross-sectional model to proxy for cash flow expectations and estimate the implied cost of capital (ICC) for a large sample of firms over 1968-2008. The earnings forecasts generated by the cross-sectional model are superior to analysts' forecasts in terms of...

We use the Campbell (1991) return decomposition framework to reexamine the variation in the information content of earnings between profit firms and loss firms and over time. We show that current earnings surprises are more strongly correlated with the discount rate news component of returns for...

Because stock price generally deviates from the intrinsic value, stock price is a noisy indicator of the intrinsic value. As an expected return proxy, the implied cost of capital (ICC)—the internal rate of return that equates the noisy stock price to discounted expected future dividends—thus...