Glossary · Stock basics

Earnings estimates

What analysts expect a company to earn per share in coming quarters and years.

Why it matters

Stock prices react to results versus these expectations, not to results alone. Rising estimates usually lift a stock over time.

How to read it

Watch the direction of estimates (revisions) and compare forward P/E with today’s P/E.

Also called: consensus

Related

Earnings surpriseHow far a company’s reported earnings per share beat or missed the analysts’ average estimate.Earnings per shareNet profit divided by the number of shares.

In the Cluenex app, this explanation opens next to every earnings estimates figure, with the live reading for the stock you are looking at. Open it in Cluenex