Fiscal-year-end cash holdings are an important indicator in external stakeholders' assessment of a firm's liquidity and credit risk. Do fiscal-year-end cash holdings reflect a firm's intra-year liquidity conditions? We observe that firms report significantly higher cash holdings in the fourth fiscal quarter, followed by a subsequent reversal. This pattern is pervasive across industries, persistent over time, and not explained by conventional factors or calendar effects. The extent of the fourth-quarter cash increase is more pronounced for informationally opaque firms reliant on external markets and those with financial constraints and reduced monitoring. We investigate firms' real, financing, and timing activities that could potentially account for this pattern. Our study suggests that a complete picture of intra-year cash holdings dynamics is necessary for external stakeholders to fully assess a firm's liquidity and credit conditions.

中文翻译：

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公司的流动性是否如年报中所显示的那样？

财年末现金持有量是外部利益相关者评估企业流动性和信用风险的重要指标。财年末现金持有量是否反映了公司年内的流动性状况？我们观察到，公司在第四财季报告的现金持有量显着增加，随后又出现逆转。这种模式在各个行业中普遍存在，并且随着时间的推移而持续存在，并且不能用传统因素或日历效应来解释。对于依赖外部市场、信息不透明的公司以及财务紧张和监管减少的公司来说，第四季度现金增长的幅度更为明显。我们调查了可能解释这种模式的公司的实际、融资和时间活动。我们的研究表明，外部利益相关者需要全面了解年内现金持有动态，才能全面评估公司的流动性和信用状况。