Distress risk information content in stock returns, leverage and accruals Nejad Mohammad Esmaeil Fadaeia, Shahryari Sarab, Salim Farshadc,,d aAssociate Professor(PhD), Shahid Beheshti University, Faculty of Management and Accounting, Iran bPhD student of Finance, Shahid Beheshti University, Faculty of Management and Accounting, Iran cFaculty Member of Accounting Department, PNU dPhD student of Accounting, Allameh Tabataba'i University, Faculty of Management and Accounting, Iran Online published on 15 April, 2014. Abstract We examine the relation between stock return, financial distress and leverage, and on the other hand the relation of distress risk and accruals to find out how distress risk and these variables are affected each others. Our findings suggest that returns are negatively related to financial distress intensity and leverage. These are puzzles under capital markets assumptions but are consistent with optimizing firms that differ in their exposure to financial distress costs. Also, we find a negative relation between accruals and distress risk. Past accruals anomaly studies have documented results that suggest that distress risk increases systematically across decreasing accruals portfolios. Top Keywords Financial distress, stock returns, leverage, accruals. Top |