One of the basic criteria for deciding on a stock exchange is stock returns. Stock returns themselves contain information content, and most actual and potential investors use it in financial analysis and forecasting. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of the auditor's type of statement on the relationship between the level of retention of the critique and the return on surplus. For this purpose, two hypotheses have been developed, which in these hypotheses are to maintain the level of the critique of the independent variable, the excess return of the dependent variable, and the type of comment of the auditor of the moderator variable. The statistical population of the study of companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange and the sample under study, includes 144 companies accepted during the years 2014 to 2018. The research method is descriptive and in terms of the relationship between variables is a combination of correlation and is applied in terms of purpose. Regression methods and panel data, as well as a fixed effects model, have been used to process and test the hypotheses. The results obtained from the analysis of the hypotheses showed that the level of cash holding has no significant relationship with excess return and the type of auditor's statement has a negative and significant effect on the relationship between cash holding level and excess return. Based on the results of the research, it is recommended that companies, by providing accurate and correct financial statements, prevent the auditor's comments from being modified so that they can finance themselves easily and without the need for collateral or any other means.
Keywords: surplus return, cash holding level, auditor's comment type