What we do
The Centre for Financial Analysis and Reporting Research (CeFARR) works in collaboration with practitioners to develop cutting-edge research, tailored consulting and specialised training in the areas of corporate communication, corporate disclosure, audit, financial reporting, security valuation, and financial intermediation. The type of research, consulting and training we address and offer include
Corporate disclosure
- Which communication channels are most valuable and cost-efficient to firms and investors?
- Are current disclosure practices meeting the needs of outside stakeholders, such as equity investors and creditors?
- Are there benefits to more frequent corporate disclosure?
Audit
- How to optimise working with your auditor?
- Can an audit firm act as a superior corporate adviser to an acquisition compared to an investment bank?
Financial Intermediation
- How and what to communicate to sell-side financial analysts?
- How to read and get the most of financial analyst reports?
- Which investment strategies based on analyst reports are profitable?
Security Valuation
- How accounting rules distort the way financial performance is presented in annual statements? Can this explain the poor performance of China?
- Can you beat the market? Profitable investment strategies that investors ignore.
Joint Project with FTI Consulting
Dr Pawel Bilinski joined FTI Consulting in evaluating the impact firm communication on social media has on investors and analysts. Using data from FTI’s Social Divided reports, which look at FTSE100 firms use of Twitter, YouTube and Instagram to communicate half- and full-year results, he finds that:
- Posts on Twitter increase price reaction to earnings news.
- Twitter is particularly useful to boost the impact of small positive earnings news and reduce negative price reaction to small negative earnings news
- Firms can increase impact of social media posts by posting a number of times during the results period and stimulating engagement
- Where a company has a significant number of retail investors, just being present on social media increases price reaction to results announcements, with an average gain of 4.1% irrespective of the news content.
- Retail investors are more likely to increase holdings in firms that communicate on social media after earnings announcements. These results are consistent with retail investors perceiving social communication as a signal of commitment to transparency
- Positive news is more likely to be communicated on social media than negative news and therefore can say that companies use social media in a strategic way to communicate with investors
- Analysts are more likely to upgrade a firm that communicates earnings results on Twitter in a 30-day period after earnings announcement.
- Read more about CeFARR's joint project with FTI consulting.
Global Quantitative Strategy Conference
Our team is at the forefront of modern accounting and capital markets research and we actively engage with the practitioner community via conference presentations, research and consulting work, and bespoke training.
To illustrate, in October 2014, Dr Pawel Bilinski presented his research on "The Usefulness of Analyst Forecasts to Investors" at the 2nd Annual Global Quantitative Strategy Conference.
Watch our Bayes talk below in which Dr Pawel Bilinski offers advice based on his research into how to distinguish between good and bad secondary share issues.
In a video hosted on Faculti.net, Dr Pawel Bilinski discusses why analysts cater to short term investors by issuing optimistic target prices:
Distortions in analyst forecasts in the presence of short-term investors
Accountancy in the Digital Age - online event
Wednesday, September 22nd 2022, 12.00 – 1.00pm (BST)
CeFARR director Dr Pawel Bilinski will be on the panel for this online discussion alongside David Brightman, Anders Liu-Lindberg, Shamus Rae and Rhymer Rigby. They'll be discussing what modern accounting means for business', looking at best practice and asking what the future holds.
