Whenever filing season comes around, we get an influx of interesting disclosures. One thing we keep an eye on is changes in accounting estimates, something we’ve discussed more than once in the past. In this post we look at the … Continue reading
Category Archives: Changes in Accounting Estimates
2015 SEC Filing Highlights, Part 2 of 2
This is part two of our SEC filing review where we take a look back at notable disclosures and outliers from our auditor changes, out-of-period adjustments, changes in accounting estimates, and director and officer change data sets. Auditor Changes 1,007 SEC registrants … Continue reading
A Big Change in Bank of America’s Accounting Policy
Voluntary changes in accounting principle are usually disclosed in so-called preferability letters, but occasionally a significant change will be disclosed in an 8-K current report. Last Friday, Bank of America did just that, disclosing that they would be changing their method of … Continue reading
Gift Cards a Present to Bottom Line
It’s already the end of April, with Christmas just a distant memory. And if you are anything like us, you’ve probably lost track of that gift card or two you weren’t able to use right away (or add to some smartphone app). Luckily … Continue reading
What Depreciation at Intel says about Moore’s Law
For decades Intel (INTC) has been a flagship of innovation in semiconductors. Gordon E. Moore, one of Intel’s co-founders, made an observation back in 1965 that later became known as Moore’s Law. He postulated that the number of transistors in … Continue reading
The Misrepresentation of Earnings; by Dichev et al.
In a recent article in the Financial Analysts Journal, titled “The Misrepresentation of Earnings,” Ilia Dichev, John Graham, Campbell R. Harvey, and Shiva Rajgopal explore the defining characteristics of earnings quality and the misrepresentation of earnings. As part of their inquiry, … Continue reading
Adopting the Spot-Rate in Pension Accounting
A wave of change appears to be forming in the arcane area of pension accounting. About a year ago, AT&T made a change to the way it calculates the present value of future pension obligations. Typically, companies used the “weighted-average” method … Continue reading