FEPS · Profitability · Cen, Wei, and Zhang (2006)

Analyst earnings per share

Long minus short decile portfolio, value-weighted, market-adjusted. Quarterly, 1976Q2 to 2024Q4.

Expected return · posterior mean, % per year, averaged over the window
Next quarter
2026Q4
13.56%
95% interval 8.21% to 19.03%
Next year
2026Q4–2027Q3
13.44%
95% interval 8.06% to 18.89%
Next five years
2026Q4–2031Q3
12.96%
95% interval 7.54% to 18.35%

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

+45,910% since 1976Q2 · log scale

Past performance, annualized

Window Mean Vol. Sharpe t
1976Q2–2024Q4 14.35% 18.29% 0.78 5.48
2020Q1–2024Q4 23.77% 24.61% 0.97 2.16
2024Q1–2024Q4 44.12% 20.28% 2.18 2.18

Forecast Sharpe ratio, annualized

Window Mean 95% interval P(neg)
2026Q4 0.74 0.45 – 1.05 <0.01
2026Q4–2027Q3 0.71 0.42 – 0.98 <0.01
2026Q4–2031Q3 0.63 0.34 – 0.92 <0.01
Category
Profitability
Form
Continuous
Data
Analyst
Sorted on
High minus low
Names per leg
283 long / 284 short median · 174 at the 10th pctile
Original sample
1983–2002