EarningsConsistency · Earnings growth · Alwathainani (2009)

Earnings consistency

Long minus short decile portfolio, value-weighted, market-adjusted. Quarterly, 1953Q3 to 2024Q4.

Expected return · posterior mean, % per year, averaged over the window
Next quarter
2026Q4
1.60%
95% interval −2.02% to 5.19%
Next year
2026Q4–2027Q3
1.60%
95% interval −2.06% to 5.22%
Next five years
2026Q4–2031Q3
1.59%
95% interval −2.19% to 5.35%

Forecast made 16 Sep 2026, conditioning on this portfolio's OAP returns, which end 2024Q4. The 7 quarters between then and 2026Q4 are unobserved and are integrated out under the model.

Cumulative market-adjusted return

+31% since 1953Q3 · log scale

Past performance, annualized

Window Mean Vol. Sharpe t
1953Q3–2024Q4 1.68% 16.04% 0.10 0.89
2020Q1–2024Q4 −0.87% 27.34% −0.03 −0.07
2024Q1–2024Q4 −1.43% 22.53% −0.06 −0.06

Forecast Sharpe ratio, annualized

Window Mean 95% interval P(neg)
2026Q4 0.10 −0.13 – 0.32 0.19
2026Q4–2027Q3 0.10 −0.13 – 0.32 0.19
2026Q4–2031Q3 0.09 −0.13 – 0.31 0.20
Category
Earnings growth
Form
Continuous
Data
Accounting
Sorted on
High minus low
Names per leg
159 long / 150 short median · 18 at the 10th pctile
Original sample
1971–2002