This study aims to analyze investor reaction to management behavior in preparing financial reports, especially earnings quality and audit quality. We also analyze the effect of financial performance as moderation. Generally, investors react positively to a company's financial performance, but the amount of fraud surrounding financial information, including auditor cooperation, raises big questions for investors about a company's financial information. We analyzed companies within the manufacturing sector that were listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange from 2015 to 2019, and it was found that investors reacted positively to earnings quality and audit quality moderated by financial performance. These results provide evidence that management should focus on earnings quality in financial reports and on the audit process to ensure quality and exceptional financial performance to obtain positive reactions from investors, which has a positive impact on increasing the value of companies' shares. This study used the stock prices on the publication date of the financial statements, which reflect the direct reactions of investors to the information contained in the financial statements, such as earnings quality, audit quality, and financial performance. The different investor reactions were apparent on the day of the deadline for submitting financial statements according to existing regulations. These results reflect that the use of stock prices on the publication dates more accurately describes the reaction of investors than on the deadline for submitting financial statements.
Contribution/Originality:This study contributes to existing literature by investigating investor reaction to management behavior in preparing financial reports, especially earnings quality and audit quality.
INTRODUCTIONThe change in the status of a private company to a public company is based on several reasons, one of which is receiving funding from investors through buying and selling shares on the stock exchange. As an internal entity aware of the ins and outs of a company's internal transactions, management will make various efforts to portray their companies positively to attract investors.As people who do business, on the other hand, investors do not want to be reckless when making choices in stock transactions. Some investors consider the maximum return in the form of returns in the short term, while other groups consider stable returns in the long term, including a company's relationship with the community (Waluyo, 2017). Of the two types, investors' analysis of the issuer will differ as well as their reactions to the information published by the issuer through annual reports and financial reports (Melgarejo, Montiel, & Sanz, 2016;Sunder, 2017).