Who audits public companies? This question is continuously of interest to investors, audit firms and academics alike. Firm-level information is, and always has been, available from the audit opinions included in the annual reports. However, until recently, information regarding engagement … Continue reading
Author Archives: Olga Usvyatsky
Kingsway Financial Services, Inc. [KFS]: Extensive SEC Comment Letter Conversation Identifies Accounting Errors
Kingsway Financial Services, Inc. [KFS] was forced to restate financial statements to correct revenue recognition errors related to adoption of ASC 606 and its effect on warranty subscriptions and commissions The restatement was triggered by a 15-letter comment letter conversation … Continue reading
PayPal: SEC Requests Clarification about TIO Intangibles
In August 2018, the SEC issued comments to PayPal Holdings Inc. [PYPL] requesting clarification about the value of intangible assets recorded during the acquisition of TIO Networks. In July 2017, PayPal acquired Canadian payment-processing company TIO Networks for $238 million. … Continue reading
A Look at Top SEC Comment Letter Issues in 2018
The number of SEC comment letters has been declining for nine consecutive years. During the first nine months of 2018, 2,174 letters were filed1 (831 CORRESPs and 1,343 UPLOADs) – a decrease of 40% from the 3,629 letters that were … Continue reading
Insurance Industry Sees Rise in Negative Events
There have been several negative events within the insurance industry over the past few years. In 2017, there were 18 restatements among registrants in the insurance industry, versus 10 in both 2016 and 2015. This uptick has continued into 2018, … Continue reading
Trends in SEC Non-GAAP Comment Letters 2016-2018
Key Findings The overall number of comment letters issued by the SEC has decreased since 2010 The percentage of comment letters referencing a non-GAAP metric increased through 2017, but has been trending downward in the first 6 months of 2018 … Continue reading
How to Predict Which Acquisitions Will Fail and Generate Negative Stock Returns
Summary of Key Findings It can be difficult to predict which acquisitions are going to fail An academic article using Audit Analytics’ data identified statistically significant negative abnormal returns of 12% for a subset of acquisitions that were excluded from … Continue reading