How Does the Market Interpret Analysts’ Long-term Growth Forecasts? Steven A. Sharpe Division of Research and Statistics Federal Reserve Board Washington, D.C. 20551 (202)452-2875
[email protected] April, 2004 Forthcoming in the Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Finance. The views expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Board nor the staff of the Federal Reserve System. I am grateful for comments and suggestions from Jason Cummins, Steve Oliner, and an anonymous referee, and members of the Capital Markets Section at the Board. Excellent research assistance was provided by Eric Richards and Dimitri Paliouras. How Does the Market Interpret Analysts’ Long-term Growth Forecasts? Abstract The long-term growth forecasts of equity analysts do not have well-defined horizons, an ambiguity of substantial import for many applications. I propose an empirical valuation model, derived from the Campbell-Shiller dividend-price ratio model, in which the forecast horizon used by the “market” can be deduced from linear regressions. Specifically, in this model, the horizon can be inferred from the elasticity of the price-earnings ratio with respect to the long- term growth forecast. The model is estimated on industry- and sector-level portfolios of S&P 500 firms over 1983-2001. The estimated coefficients on consensus long-term growth forecasts suggest that the market applies these forecasts to an average horizon somewhere in the range of five to ten years. -1- 1. Introduction Long-term earnings growth forecasts by equity analysts have garnered increasing attention over the last several years, both in academic and practitioner circles.