The authors examined the potential profitability of a strategy that exploits the
post–earnings announcement drifts contingent on jump dynamics
identified in stock prices around earnings announcements. With long positions in
positive-jump stocks and short positions in negative-jump stocks, their hedge
portfolio achieved an annualized abnormal return of 15.3% and an annualized
Sharpe ratio of 1.52 over the last four decades. Neither conventional risk
factors nor common company characteristics explain the abnormal return.