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Gradient Research Intelligence

06.21.2012
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Report   The six firms reviewed disclosed pension-accounting assumptions that are out of line with the rest of the publicly traded universe. As a result, their balance sheets may not provide an accurate portrayal of their financial position, while their future earnings and cash-flow streams may be at risk for unexpected declines.
05.23.2012
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Report   With one of the highest statutory corporate income tax rates in the world, we would expect U.S. companies to attempt to exploit regulatory loopholes in order to minimize taxes. Our analysis indicates that some companies may be more aggressive than others in their efforts to reduce their ETRs.
08.08.2011
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Report   While pension asset balances generally rebounded in 2010, many firms continue to face significant funding shortfalls. We analyzed 2010 fiscal year-end pension disclosures for hundreds of U.S. firms with material pension-plan obligations. The six firms reviewed disclosed pension-accounting assumptions that are out of line with norms.
09.23.2010
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Report   Issue Commentary: Bank Valuation
07.15.2010
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Report   Issue Commentary: Pensions
06.02.2010
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Report   Issue Commentary: Overvalued and Undervalued Banks
03.22.2010
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Report   Equity Incentive Analytics Issue Commentary
03.15.2010
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Report   Issue Commentary: Overvalued and Undervalued Banks
10.28.2009
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Report   Equity Incentive Analytics Issue Commentary: Rule 10b5-1 Trading Plans
10.28.2009
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Report   Equity Incentive Analytics: 10b5-1 Issue Commentary
09.29.2009
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Report   Issue Commentary: Bank Valuation
09.11.2009
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Report   EIA Move to Inactive Review
07.07.2009
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Report   Issue Commentary: Pensions
06.25.2009
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Report   Earnings Quality Issue Commentary: Bank Valuation
04.14.2009
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Report   EIA Issue Commentary: Hedging Transactions
11.24.2008
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Report   Fair-Value Accounting Not to Blame
09.10.2008
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Report   Gradient Viewpoint: Risk and Opportunity in the Financial Sector
07.15.2008
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Report   Gradient Viewpoint: Depth of Economic Woes Hasn't Sunk in Yet
06.11.2008
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Report   Gradient Viewpoint: Extreme Negative Bias in Gradient Models
05.06.2008
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Report   Gradient ViewPoint: More Transparency, Less Fantasy Needed in Financial Reporting
04.09.2008
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Report   Gradient ViewPoint: Evaluating Aggressive Uses of Rule 10b5-1
02.10.2008
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Report   Continuing Risk in the Financial Sector
01.17.2008
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Report   With the onset of the Q4 2007 earnings season, we are releasing a broader analysis of impairment risk at 15 publicly traded lenders. We focus on loan impairment risk due to several trends that indicate lenders have been slow to take the charges needed to establish loan loss reserves commensurate with the increase in default risk.
11.07.2007
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Report   In this Issue Commentary, we present a critical analysis of quality of earnings at five large capitalization firms in the mortgage banking business.
06.07.2007
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Report   Equity Incentive Issue Commentary, Exercise & Hold Activity, Part 2 of 2: June 7, 2007
06.06.2007
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Report   Equity Incentive Issue Commentary, Exercise & Hold Activity, Part 1 of 2: June 6, 2007
05.31.2007
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Report   Equity Incentive Issue Commentary, Inactive Review: May 31, 2007
04.25.2007
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Report   Equity Incentive Issue Commentary, Rule 10b5-1 Update: Part 2 of 2: April 26, 2007
04.23.2007
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Report   Equity Incentive Issue Commentary, Rule 10b5-1 Update: Part 1 of 2: April 23, 2007
01.29.2007
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Report   In this commentary we provide a brief overview of the performance of the stocks that EIA has issued reports on, focusing primarily on 2006. We also discuss the risk-assessment tools provided to our clients in 2006.
12.21.2006
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Report   In this report we move 36 companies from our active coverage library to our inactive library. We did not move firms with positive grades, firms where we see continuing behavioral-related activities that appear to be related to a future (negative) information event, or firms covered in our risk assessment work on options backdating.
12.20.2006
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Report   Share-disposition backdating occurs when an executive waits to report transactions to determine when the company's share price was at or near the highest point during the reporting "look-back" period and uses the associated date/price for recording the issuer's purchase of shares from the executive. JCI and SKWY are highlighted in this report.
11.29.2006
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Report   In this review we update firms that have been identified in the backdating scandal since our August report. Specifically, we look at companies first identified by EIA, and where other firms fell on our Backdating Risk-Assessment Tool.
11.27.2006
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Report   In this review we examine "exercise backdating." Well-timed exercises appear to provide individuals with the opportunity to reduce their own personal taxes, potentially resulting in adverse economic consequences for their firms as a whole.
09.28.2006
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Report   Spring-loading appears to be an opportunistic option grant award practice that has followed the (now understood) practice of backdating. In this review, we look at the possible pervasiveness of spring-loading and its implications.
08.10.2006
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Report   In this issue commentary, we examine issues in the unfolding saga related to options backdating. We also look at those firms identified to date in relation to the 1,700 firms on our options Backdating Risk Assessment Tool.
07.27.2006
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Report   Well Timed Option Grants
07.27.2006
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Report   A discussion of the Risk Assessment Tool for Options Backdating.
06.15.2006
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Report   In this Issue Commentary, we examine the accounting implications for companies that may have backdated options and the potential financial statement effects of correcting such actions.
05.25.2006
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Report   In this Issue Commentary, we provide an overview of the accruals measure and publish a list of twenty firms with the highest level of accruals.
05.03.2006
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Report   An analysis of the effectiveness of certain Rule 10b5-1 programmed selling plans.
03.09.2006
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Report   In this Editor's Review, we look at companies whose options expense represents a material portion of earnings. These companies also appear to have aggressively adopted valuation assumptions that will lower their reported options expense under 123R.
02.15.2006
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Report   A potential change to Sarbanes-Oxley may relax internal control reporting for a majority of small public companies, which could increase the risk of material misstatement, create comparability challenges and provide incentive to remain covered by the new legislation.
11.09.2005
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Report   In this Issue Commentary we discuss a number of ways companies are responding to expensing requirements under FAS 123(R) and note the impact of these changes on the overall compensation structure of firms that have employed them.
Issue Commentaries are provided to the public 6 months after initial publication date