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Abstract
I examine whether analysts influence the decision-usefulness of managers’ voluntary disclosures. Specifically, I examine whether managers respond to analysts’ questions about adjusted performance information by providing decision-useful information to market participants, and offer two main findings. First, I find that analysts’ questions addressing adjusted performance are positively associated with managers’ future non-GAAP disclosure decisions, suggesting that market demand plays a role in motivating the proliferation of adjusted metrics. Second, I find the number of questions that analysts ask about adjusted performance information is associated with improvements in future consensus analyst forecast accuracy and increases in the market response to managers’ adjusted earnings metrics. These results suggest that market participants obtain decision-useful information from managers’ responses. Overall, my results suggest that analysts play an influential role in managers’ reporting practices and that market participants benefit from analysts’ influence on managers’ voluntary disclosures.