Toward a More Informative Measure of Operating Performance in the REIT Industry: Net Income vs. Funds From Operations.
研究比较了净收入与营运资金两种经营业绩指标在REIT行业中的价值相关性，发现营运资金与股票回报关联更紧密，但排除了有价值相关的出售投资损益。
Abstract SYNOPSIS: This paper examines the value relevance and information content of alternative measures of operating performance in the Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) industry, The National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (NAREIT) has suggested that Net Income (NI) is a misleading measure of operating performance for REITs. They assert that historical cost depreciation is inappropriate for income-producing real estate because it is not correlated with changes in the value of those assets. Accordingly. the industry has promoted Funds From Operations (FFO) as a supplemental measure of operating performance. FFO is calculated as net income before depreciation expense and realized gains/losses from the sale of real estate, NAREIT asserts that FFO is a more informative measure of firm performance in the REIT industry. We test the industry's proposal by comparing the association of NI and FFO with REIT stock returns. In addition, we also examine specific components of NI that differ from FFO to assess their value-relevance. The results suggest that FFO is more closely associated with stock returns than NI. In particular, the association of returns with the components of NI indicates that FFO and gains/losses from the sale of investments are significantly related to stock returns while depreciation expense is not. These results generally support the industry's claim that GAAP-based depreciation expense does not provide value-relevant information. However, the fact that gains/losses from the sale of investments are associated with returns indicates that FFO excludes value-relevant accounting data. Therefore, this study provides evidence regarding which components of NI are considered most informative by investors in REITs.