Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Restatements are Like Rabbits

In this article, Bruce Meyerson from The Associated Press highlights the sometimes serial nature of earnings restaters. According to Glass Lewis & Co. during the period from 2003 through 2005, nearly 15% of the public U.S. companies that restated their financials did so at least twice, with six different companies restating their financials four times apiece in just two years.

Meyerson notes that "while most companies don't make a habit of revising their past earnings reports, one visit to the accounting confessional can lead to an encore appearance, making it best to view restatements with the suspicious eye of an exterminator: where there's one, there may be more. "

Bonus points to any reader that can identify the six companies that restated four times between 2003 and 2005.

No comments: