Do companies hold earnings for future quarters?

Kruser6 · Jul 22, 2007

Or are they forced to post their earnings every quarter as they are?

I am pretty sure of this being done, but my question is why?

sunnyblue100 · Jul 24, 2007

I believe they have a lot of accounting weapons to achieve this. One reason could be management incentive related. (options,etc).

quantumleap · Jul 24, 2007

Kruser6 said:
Or are they forced to post their earnings every quarter as they are?

I am pretty sure of this being done, but my question is why?

The company I work for knows that the 4th quarter of every year will be slow for consulting so they hold payments over from the previous quarter to even things out. We weren't publically held though so it may be different for those companies.

8ate · Jul 24, 2007

most companies regulate to some degree which quarter revenues will be given and expenses charged off..>> yes; many corps are notorious for accounting legerdermain so "earnings" will always be positive and/or increasing; some employees even get key bonuses and/or options secondary to earnings gain critera..

gl