Consensus Estimate

Earnings Season

The consensus estimate is the average or median of forecasts that analysts covering a company make for items such as earnings per share and revenue.

Data providers collect and publish these forecasts, and the figure can differ slightly by source. On earnings day results are compared with this number: the stock reacts not to the result in absolute terms but to where it lands against expectations. When expectations are already high, even a good result can count as a disappointment.

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