The "M-score” — a metric that seeks to approximate the degree of corporate accounting fraud and manipulation — is currently at its highest level in over 40 years. So argues Messod D. Beneish — a professor of accounting at Indiana University who developed the score.
The M-score analyzes a company’s financial statements to determine whether it is engaging in manipulation. It has been used to identify red flags at individual companies since the 1990s, flagging up things like abrupt increases in receivables or changes in accruals, for instance, which companies can manipulate in order to appear profitable even when actual sales aren’t improving.
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