Reported earnings, or GAAP earnings, found in many investment applications can hinder analysis mainly due to the inclusion of non-operating items such as restructuring charges, gains and losses from asset sales, effects of accounting changes, discontinued operations and other non-recurring, non-predictive events. For most companies, a long term chart of reported earnings, P/E or other earnings based metric conveys little true earnings or valuation trend information. “Noise” from one-time events can lead to a distorted, misleading or meaningless picture.

In order to overcome the obstacles created by reported data, StockVal analysts have carefully scoured reported financial statements and compiled a respected database of clean, consistent and meaningful fundamental data. Emphasis has been placed on supplying adjusted earnings based on a thoughtful, consistent conventions and maintaining and restating historical data based on current company operations. Reconciliation to reported numbers can be easily achieved as both ‘as reported data’ and analyst adjustment notes are available within the database.

StockVal analysts restate historical data when a company restates prior period data due to discontinued operations, accounting changes or corrections. Most other data providers simply add the current year’s data or, at best, only change the most recent periods’ data to reflect restatements. StockVal analysts modify the values from prior years, often up to ten years back, to reflect the present company presentation. This process results in meaningful year-to-year comparisons and can help you avoid irrelevant, inaccurate conclusions.

To view a PDF document related to StockVal’s adjusted earnings and accounting conventions, click here.

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