Stock Profits: Getting to the Core—New Fundamentals for a New Age

only to find that conclusion contradicted with more information. In

these examples, we did not have to look very far to vastly improve

our understanding of the basic fundamental trends; by simply mak-

ing the core earnings adjustments and then reevaluating results, the

quality of information improved significantly. This is likely to be

the case for many other corporate annual reports as well.

Endnotes

1. Cassell Bryan-Low, “Accounting Firms Are Still Consulting,”

Wall Street Journal, September 23, 2002.

2. General Electric, investor information announcement, July

31, 2002.

3. Helen Jung, “Microsoft’s Stock Option End Shows Change,”

Associated Press, July ...