Financial Reporting Quality: Aggregate Accruals
Difficulty: Advanced
Earnings can be decomposed into cash and accrual components. The accrual component (aggregate accruals) has been found to have less persistence than the cash component, and therefore (1) earnings with higher accrual component are less persistent than earnings with smaller accrual component, all else equal; and (2) the cash component of earnings should receive a higher weighting evaluating company performance.
Balance-Sheet-Based Accruals Ratio
eBay Inc., balance sheet computation of aggregate accruals
USD $ in millions
| Dec 31, 2017 | Dec 31, 2016 | Dec 31, 2015 | Dec 31, 2014 | Dec 31, 2013 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operating Assets | ||||||
| | Total assets | 25,981 | 23,847 | 17,785 | 45,132 | 41,488 |
| | Less: Cash and cash equivalents | 2,120 | 1,816 | 1,832 | 6,328 | 4,494 |
| | Less: Short-term investments | 3,743 | 5,333 | 4,299 | 3,770 | 4,531 |
| | Operating assets | 20,118 | 16,698 | 11,654 | 35,034 | 32,463 |
| Operating Liabilities | ||||||
| | Total liabilities | 17,918 | 13,308 | 11,209 | 25,226 | 17,841 |
| | Less: Short-term debt | 781 | 1,451 | – | 850 | 6 |
| | Less: Long-term debt | 9,234 | 7,509 | 6,779 | 6,777 | 4,117 |
| | Operating liabilities | 7,903 | 4,348 | 4,430 | 17,599 | 13,718 |
| | Net operating assets1 | 12,215 | 12,350 | 7,224 | 17,435 | 18,745 |
| | Balance-sheet-based aggregate accruals2 | (135) | 5,126 | (10,211) | (1,310) | – |
| Ratio | ||||||
| | Balance-sheet-based accruals ratio3 | -1.10% | 52.38% | -82.82% | -7.24% | –% |
| Benchmarks | ||||||
| Balance-Sheet-Based Accruals Ratio, Competitors | ||||||
| Amazon.com Inc. | 99.50% | 20.86% | 16.64% | 76.27% | –% | |
| Costco Wholesale Corp. | -6.51% | 18.80% | 2.66% | 3.67% | 9.24% | |
| Home Depot Inc. | -0.07% | 2.47% | -2.08% | -2.97% | –% | |
| Lowe's Cos. Inc. | 9.18% | -5.72% | -4.96% | -2.13% | –% | |
| Netflix Inc. | 50.97% | 61.45% | 66.11% | 57.91% | –% | |
| Target Corp. | -2.24% | -12.59% | -17.57% | -13.08% | –% | |
| TJX Cos. Inc. | -6.47% | 11.27% | 1.69% | 24.47% | –% | |
| Walmart Inc. | -4.36% | -1.78% | -3.86% | 2.74% | –% | |
| Balance-Sheet-Based Accruals Ratio, Sector | ||||||
| General Retailers | 9.97% | 2.82% | -7.62% | 1.48% | –% | |
| Balance-Sheet-Based Accruals Ratio, Industry | ||||||
| Consumer Services | 7.41% | 14.42% | 5.66% | 2.78% | –% | |
2017 Calculations
1 Net operating assets = Operating assets – Operating liabilities
= 20,118 – 7,903 = 12,215
2 Balance-sheet-based aggregate accruals = Net operating assets 2017 – Net operating assets 2016
= 12,215 – 12,350 = -135
3 Balance-sheet-based accruals ratio = 100 × Balance-sheet-based aggregate accruals ÷ Avg. net operating assets
= 100 × -135 ÷ [(12,215 + 12,350) ÷ 2] = -1.10%
| Ratio | Description | The company |
|---|---|---|
| Balance-sheet-based accruals ratio | Ratio is found by dividing balance-sheet-based aggregate accruals by average net operating assets. | Using the balance-sheet-based accruals ratio, eBay Inc. improved earnings quality from 2016 to 2017. |
Cash-Flow-Statement-Based Accruals Ratio
eBay Inc., cash flow statement computation of aggregate accruals
USD $ in millions
| Dec 31, 2017 | Dec 31, 2016 | Dec 31, 2015 | Dec 31, 2014 | Dec 31, 2013 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | Net income (loss) | (1,016) | 7,266 | 1,725 | 46 | 2,856 |
| | Less: Net cash provided by operating activities | 3,146 | 2,827 | 2,877 | 5,677 | 4,995 |
| | Less: Net cash used in investing activities | (1,296) | (2,008) | (673) | (2,673) | (6,012) |
| | Cash-flow-statement-based aggregate accruals | (2,866) | 6,447 | (479) | (2,958) | 3,873 |
| Ratio | ||||||
| | Cash-flow-statement-based accruals ratio1 | -23.33% | 65.87% | -3.88% | -16.35% | –% |
| Benchmarks | ||||||
| Cash-Flow-Statement-Based Accruals Ratio, Competitors | ||||||
| Amazon.com Inc. | 45.50% | -33.79% | -47.47% | -29.61% | –% | |
| Costco Wholesale Corp. | -13.60% | 12.02% | 5.48% | 1.65% | 8.99% | |
| Home Depot Inc. | -0.96% | 2.46% | -2.50% | -2.86% | –% | |
| Lowe's Cos. Inc. | 4.08% | -4.44% | -5.37% | -2.45% | –% | |
| Netflix Inc. | 39.94% | 48.86% | 61.24% | 32.90% | –% | |
| Target Corp. | -5.22% | -9.80% | -19.15% | -13.64% | –% | |
| TJX Cos. Inc. | -2.63% | 12.23% | 5.23% | 21.37% | –% | |
| Walmart Inc. | -3.19% | -1.60% | -0.83% | 3.88% | –% | |
| Cash-Flow-Statement-Based Accruals Ratio, Sector | ||||||
| General Retailers | 2.26% | 0.47% | -4.81% | -1.78% | –% | |
| Cash-Flow-Statement-Based Accruals Ratio, Industry | ||||||
| Consumer Services | 3.72% | 2.72% | 3.18% | 1.22% | –% | |
2017 Calculations
1 Cash-flow-statement-based accruals ratio = 100 × Cash-flow-statement-based aggregate accruals ÷ Avg. net operating assets
= 100 × -2,866 ÷ [(12,215 + 12,350) ÷ 2] = -23.33%
| Ratio | Description | The company |
|---|---|---|
| Cash-flow-statement-based accruals ratio | Ratio is found by dividing cash-flow-statement-based aggregate accruals by average net operating assets. | Using the cash-flow-statement-based accruals ratio, eBay Inc. improved earnings quality from 2016 to 2017. |