A study on effects of cash flow patterns and auditors’ opinions in predicting financial distress

Bankruptcy has been one of the most important issues among investors in stock market and there are literally different techniques for predicting bankruptcy. In this paper, we study on effects of cash flow patterns and auditors’ opinions in predicting financial distress on some 80 selected firms traded on Tehran Stock Exchange over the period 2005-2011. In this study, the combination of cash flow patterns represent firm’s resource allocations and operational capabilities interacted with their strategy choices. In additions, predictions about each individual cash flow components, operational, investment, financial, are derived from economic theory, which forms a basis for the life proxy. We use cash flow patterns in the decline stage and compare the results with auditors’ opinions. The results indicate that cash flow patterns could predict financial distress companies in Iran. In addition, the effective cash flow patterns in predicting financial distress is more than auditors’ feedbacks.