Compusat Point-In-Time contains after-the-fact restatements of prior period data. Additionally, some restatements are due to the withdrawal and replacement of prior reports. Through the data collection process, the originally reported values and the useful information collected in multiple restatements may be replaced. Compustat Point-in-Time gives you a view of reported values beginning at the month when finalised, through each intermediate restatement, to the fiscal quarter-end date.
Compustat Point-in-Time contains quarterly fundamental financial data from the income, balance sheet and cash flow statements for active and inactive U.S. and Canadian companies. Each month from 1987 March onwards, with a rolling twenty-quarter history of the most recently reported finalised quarters as they appeared in Compustat at the end of the month. Thus, originally reported data and any subsequent restatements are retained in a meaningful way.
Compustat Point-in-Time data equips backtesters with what they have always asked for—a consistent view of historical financial data the way it appeared at the end of any month. Researchers finally have access to a monthly snapshot of companies’ reporting and restatement history, answering not only the question “What did investors know?” but more importantly “When did they know it?” This allows for greater control by researchers who perform historical quantitative analyses and long-term backtesting, specifically when focusing on between-period statistics like sales growth, profitability growth and sales momentum or any four-quarter trailing calculations. A significant amount of the quarterly standard Compustat data is restated because a restatement affects not just the quarter in which the restatement happened but can affect the data for the prior quarters.
In addition to the Point-in-Time database, Standard & Poor’s provides additional databases for backtesting purposes. These include:
The Compustat Unrestated Quarterly database provides data the way it was originally reported, filtering out the influences of restatements, giving you a true picture of past data the way the markets first saw it. The monthly file provides coverage on active and inactive North American companies, showing both unrestated quarterly data and restated quarterly data for easy comparison, as well as unrestated finalised quarterly numbers back to Q1Y87.
The Compustat Preliminary History database provides files that go back in time, showing preliminary company information that was known before the company filed with the SEC. This data includes annual and quarterly historical preliminary data from 1987 with weekly updates.
Analytic services and products provided by Standard & Poor’s are the result of separate activities designed to preserve the independence and objectivity of each analytic process. Standard & Poor’s has established policies and procedures to maintain the confidentiality of non-public information received during each analytic process.
