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Bridge over ocean
1 November 1966 Financial Analysts Journal Volume 22, Issue 6

Relative Growth of Earnings Per Share—Past and Future

  1. Joseph E. Murphy

This article examines the correlation between relative rates of growth of earnings per share in successive periods. Based upon a study of 344 companies in 12 industries in 38 different test periods between the years 1950 and 1965, there appears to be little significant correlation between relative rates of growth of earnings per share in one period and relative growth in earnings per share in the next period. Only rarely did companies which recorded superior growth in earnings per share in one period show more than an even chance of recording above average growth in the next period. In about one-fourth of the tests companies recording below average rates of growth in earnings per share in one period tended to record above average rates of growth in the next period. In seven-tenths of the tests there was no significant correlation between relative growth in earnings per share in successive periods.

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