Is total comprehensive income or net income better for the evaluation of companies' financial performance?

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to compare the utility of the net income and the total comprehensive income for the evaluation of goodness in connection with companies’ investments. For the research, we use the data of the consolidated financial statements for 2010, 2011 and 2012 published online by companies listed on the Prime Market of the Czech Republic Stock Exchange. In the last part of the work, we show the results of empirical research on the income statement of the Czech companies, which have adopted IAS/IFRS principles. The results show that the Czech companies’ financial statements have no propensity to separate the income statement section into two statements rather than integrating it into a single one, while the reclassification of the income statements privileges the reclassification by nature. The results show that the total comprehensive income possesses informative content and gives further information for the evaluation of financial performance.