Resumen de The Restating of Financial Statements by REITs
John C. Adams, D.K. Hayunga, Stephanie J. Rasmussen
This article is the first to examine financial restatements by real estate investment trusts (REITs). We provide a descriptive breakdown of the underlying causes of REIT restatements as well as overall and subsample analyses of stock market reactions to restatements from 2000 to 2011. REIT restatements occur for a large variety of accounting issues with the most common being expense-related (e.g., leases, depreciation). We find that the average market reaction for REIT restatements is negative 0.63%, which is less negative than non-REIT restatements. Further investigation reveals that a significant portion of REIT restatements result in large positive or negative returns, the most extreme of which appear to be a result of both the restatement and other news released simultaneously. Cross-sectional analysis shows that the most important determinant of restatement cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) is whether the restatement is a result of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) comment letters or involves an investigation by regulators, which lowers the CAR by 5.64%. Overall, the findings suggest that REIT restatements occur for a variety of reasons, and REIT investors place high value on quality financial statements.
