Stephannie Larocque
Biography
Stephannie Larocque brings extensive global experience to the Mendoza College of Business, where she has served as a professor in the Department of Accountancy since 2009. She is an award-winning instructor and has taught the Principles of Financial Accounting course to executive MBA students since 2020. A former equity research analyst with an 8-year career in investment banking, Dr. Larocque’s research now encompasses empirical capital markets including analysts’ forecasts, private equity funds, and financial statement analysis and valuation.
COURSES:
Principles of Financial Accounting (MBAE 60161)
Publications, Commentaries & Research
Stephannie and her colleague examine the impact of unexpected exclusions in street earnings, uncovering their role in forecasting future profitability and benchmark-beating behavior. Their research shows that unexpected exclusions often reflect misestimated recurring items when analysts forecast exclusions and transitory items when they do not.
Stephannie investigates how analyst characteristics like experience, busyness, and resources influence performance, building on research from the late 1990s and early 2000s. By reproducing and extending earlier studies, she finds that analyst experience consistently improves earnings forecast accuracy, while results for busyness and resources vary depending on methodology and variable measurement.
Larocque and team examine how differences in the earnings metrics analysts forecast—GAAP versus non-GAAP—impact forecast accuracy and market reactions.
Larocque and team review research on monitoring in private equity, focusing on oversight of general partners (GPs) by limited partners (LPs). Unlike prior studies that emphasize GPs’ governance of portfolio companies, it highlights the unique principal-agent dynamics within private equity funds.
This study examines analysts’ abilities to forecast firm value, highlighting the effectiveness of independent analysts’ target prices compared to those from investment-bank analysts. Independent analysts’ target prices are more accurate and more likely to be met 12 months after issuance, though the market reacts less strongly to their revisions. These findings challenge prior research suggesting lower quality in independent analysts’ work and emphasize the value of their insights, especially for certain firms.
This study examines analysts’ abilities to forecast firm value, highlighting the effectiveness of independent analysts’ target prices compared to those from investment-bank analysts. Independent analysts’ target prices are more accurate and more likely to be met 12 months after issuance, though the market reacts less strongly to their revisions. These findings challenge prior research suggesting lower quality in independent analysts’ work and emphasize the value of their insights, especially for certain firms.
This study examines analysts’ abilities to forecast firm value, highlighting the effectiveness of independent analysts’ target prices compared to those from investment-bank analysts. Independent analysts’ target prices are more accurate and more likely to be met 12 months after issuance, though the market reacts less strongly to their revisions. These findings challenge prior research suggesting lower quality in independent analysts’ work and emphasize the value of their insights, especially for certain firms.
