REVENUE SURPRISE AND EQUITY RETURNS IN BORSA ISTANBUL

Öz

This paper examines the importance of revenue surprise in the cross-section of stock returns in Borsa Istanbul. Portfolio-level analyses and multivariate cross-sectional regressions document a statistically and economically significant positive relation between revenue surprise and expected returns. Average excess and abnormal return spreads between equities in the highest and lowest revenue surprise deciles are more than 1% per month. The findings of the paper are robust when well-known firm-specific attributes including earnings surprise are controlled for.