Analysts forecast earnings and presumably rely of financial statement information as well as information outside the financial statements to do so. A paper, now somewhat dated, develops a forecasting score that combines financial statement analysis along the lines in this book into a number that predicts one-year-ahead earnings. The score predicts stock returns that exceed the returns based on consensus analysts’ stock recommendations. That speaks to the informativeness of financial statement analysis but also questions the ability of the average analyst to extract pertinent information from financial statements.
See Wahlen, J. and M. Wieland. 2011. Can Financial Statement Analysis Beat Consensus Analysts’ Recommendations? Review of Accounting Studies 16, 89-115.