Larry, Reported earnings and cash flow metrics (such as AFFO) are different beasts.
I'm strongly of the opinion that it's better to look at cash flow metrics rather than reported earnings/reported EPS.  The reason for this is that there are so many non-cash puts and takes in reported earnings per IFRS. This can dramatically effect reported earnings. For example, the lifecos can have wild swings in quarterly/annual earnings driven by the fact that they have to mark-to-market their long term instruments (which could have a life remaining of 10, 20 years or higher. 

REITs reported earnings are distorted by CCA (depreciation) which is deducted when calculating reported earnings even though it is a non-cash expense and typically a chunk or all of it is flowed through to unit holders in their distributions (that is why REITs typically have a large ROC (return of capital) component in their distributions).
Out of space - wasn't aware of stupid length restriction in this new format.

Labels: moderation: insult