RE:Imperus to issue 2015 results April 25 The early announcement of the release of the annual financial statements is a good sign. Not something to bank on, but statisically speaking it bodes well for investors. There is a lot of research about the timing of news releases.
New York Stern School of Business - Is There News in the Timing of Earnings Announcements?
Introduction:
The academic literature has conjectured and documented that firms with negative earnings surprises are more likely to delay their earnings announcements, and those with good news are more likely to report them earlier (Givoly and Dan 1982; Chambers and Penman 1984; Bagnoli et al. 2002). The rationale for this managerial behavior is that managers who have negative earnings surprises are more likely to delay the disclosure of negative news, hoping to "soften the blow" by disclosing some positive news at the same time, such as a major new customer, a major order, a new strategic partnerships, a positive FDA action, etc. They also hope that other firms in the industry will report even worse news first, so their own bad news will not cause a strong negative market reaction. In contrast, when the firm has a positive earnings surprise, it is more likely to rush and disclose it early for several reasons. It can upstage similar good news by other firms in the same industry, it can set the bar higher for other firms in the industry, it can attract analysts' and institutional investors' attention, and it reduces the likelihood that a negative event will occur (such as a natural disaster, regulatory investigation, revoking its license), which would need to be disclosed with earnings, potentially harming the good earnings surprise. Thus, the timing of the earnings disclosure can potentially signal the direction of the earnings surprise.