O impacto dos principais assuntos de auditoria sobre a variação nos preços das ações

Abstract

Concerning the reduction of informational asymmetry in investment decisions, investors can mitigate the uncertainties in a company’s valuation when analyzing the independent auditor's report, once it is able to vouch the fidelity of the information disclosed by the companies to the accounting standards. Nevertheless, many studies show expectation gaps between parties interested in the independent auditor's report (investors, audited companies, auditors, among others). To create a more informative audit report model (to mitigate the information gap), the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) has changed the structure of the audit report. One of the main innovations brought by the "new model of the report " was the inclusion of a section called Key Audit Matters (KAM), which in Brazil the Federal Accounting Council (CFC) denominated as Principal Audit Matters (PAA). This section aims to list the issues that required more attention from the independent auditor during the audit process. In this context, the aim of this research was to analyze the disclosure of the Principal Audit Matters (PAA) and their influence on the price (return) of publicly traded companies' stock in Brazil. For this purpose, a descriptive, documental and quantitative research was carried out; concerning the aim, procedures, and the approach of the problem, respectively. The empirical study of events was used to analyze the effect of the disclosure of PAAs on stock prices (return). The sample was composed of 300 companies, considering the years of 2016 and 2017. The achieved results suggested that although it didn’t present statistical significance, the number of PAAs disclosed in the independent auditor's report is related to the stock price (return). However, the sort of subject disclosed, in general, did not present an association, except the matters related to revenues and benefits to employees. Finally, it was concluded that a possible explanation for the non-market reaction (with statistical significance) is that the structure and/or content of the PAA and/or the current audit report model might not be adequate for its users, also it doesn’t add new information to the market, besides those that can be obtained from other sources.