SEC Targets Small Accounting Adjustments in First Enforcement Actions Under Earnings-Per-Share Initiative

SEC Targets Small Accounting Adjustments in First Enforcement Actions Under Earnings-Per-Share Initiative

October 9, 2020, Covington Alert

Last week, the SEC announced settled enforcement actions against two public companies and two former senior executives based on small allegedly improper quarterly accounting adjustments that cumulatively overstated the companies’ reported earnings per share (EPS) by as little as one penny. These actions arise from the agency’s ongoing EPS initiative, which applies risk-based analytics to accounting and financial disclosure data to identify and investigate potentially improper accounting adjustments.