The influence of accounting measures on market performance

Abstract

The aim of this research is to analyze standard accounting measures and assess the extent of their influence on commonly used market performance-based indicators, namely earnings per share and market price, of the Gulf Pharmaceutical Industries Corporation operating in the UAE. Several statistical analyses were conducted such as descriptive analysis, coefficient of variation, correlation and regression analyses. According to coefficient of variation analysis, a moderate level of instability and variability over the years was witnessed across all three accounting measures. Furthermore, a high level of instability and variability was seen with regards to the market price. In addition, correlation analysis reveals that accounting-based profitability measures are strongly & positively linked to performance on the earnings per share measure. On the other hand, a negative relationship was observed between stock price and return on revenue. Furthermore, a moderately weak relationship was found between stock price and the remaining profitability measures. Moreover, regression analyses indicate that profitability focused accounting measurements similarly influenced the earnings per share and bit yielded no influence on stock price due to the random changes of the stock price over the eight years, indicating the susceptibility of stock prices to investor speculation.