"Reported Earnings vs Operating Earnings"

I´ll repeat what i have said in my post But Still Better Than Expected....

Thank god that real earnings don´t matter...until they matter..Some still call the market "cheap"...... No problem with the right pro forma ( What are pro forma earnings? ) model/formular.... Havn´t heard the word GAAP for a long time..;-)

Ich wiederhole einfach das was ich in meinem Posting But Still Better Than Expected........ gesagt habe.....

Gottseidank wird ja den realen Gewinnen momentan keinerlei Bedeutung beigemessen und das alle Schätzungen auf den berühmt berüchtigten EBITDA bzw Proformabasis ( ex dieses, ex jenes, usw.) basieren......Ansonsten wäre das KGV ( wenn es denn überhaupt vorhanden wäre ) auch zu schockierend... Gut zu wissen das einige der Experten den Markt immer noch als "billig" betiteln..... Wenn man die richtige "Proformakalkulation" (siehe What are pro formaearnings? ) zugrunde legt sicher kein Problem.... Ich jedenfalls wundere mich schon lange nicht mehr das ich den Gewinnausweis nach der einheitlichen Bilanzierungsvorschrift GAAP nur nach lagem suchen im Kleingedruckten der Quartalsberichte finden kann..... Vor alternativen Analysten und Unternehmenskreationen wie EBITDA ( oftmal noch versüßt durch andere "außerordentliche" Belastungen ) usw. kann man sich in der tagtäglichen Berichterstattung hingegen kaum retten.....;-)

Alternative yardsticks for US earnings tell different stories By Paul Marson via FT

Every quarter, US companies publish their results under the defined US GAAP accounting rules. These results are labelled "reported earnings".

However, the most commonly looked at form of earnings are adjusted "operating earnings" on which companies prefer to focus as they onsider these better capture the underlying trend in activity

Adjusted operating earnings exclude non-recurring expenses such as restructuring charges, asset sales gains, major litigation charges, goodwill right downs and other write-offs.

While reported earnings are based on strict accounting rules, adjusted operating earnings are at the discretion of companies because there is no defined set of exclusions

Neither measure is perfect but with adjusted operating earnings, exclusions are currently so large that information about the true state of companies (and therefore the market as a whole) is being excluded.

These exclusions have reached the level where the gap between adjusted operating earnings and reported earnings is so wide that they deliver different messages on the state of US corporates.

Today reported earnings per share for the S&P 500 companies gathered by Standard & Poor's is $7.2 per share, down 91 per cent from the 2007 peak.

On an adjusted operating basis, earnings are $61.2, down 34 per cent from the 2007 peak.

This $54 gap is a record.

How has this come about? Much of the difference between adjusted operating earnings and reported earnings is caused by massive writedowns in the financial sector. However, outside the financial sectors write-offs are also at record highs as corporates are eager to toss out impaired assets during periods of stress.

Furthermore, when looking at adjusted operating earnings, it seems that most US corporates managed to beat their analyst estimates thanks to production and job cuts.