off topic to prakash, who wrote:
"You know what, people on wall street don't pay much attention to estimates given by people other than First Call."
I am sure you know this, but First Call does not "give" estimates. It simply reports estimates made by others. And many respected brokerages chose not to report to First Call, but to another service instead. So the mere fact that a brokerage reports to First Call is no stamp of approval or superiority, by any means. Nor is a broker's absence from First Call a sign of inferiority. It only means they chose not to participate with First Call, but with another reporting service instead.
prakash also wrote: "There are often differences between First Call and Zacks estimates, even if the number of analysts covering the stock is the same. You know the reason, Zacks number is expressed per basic share and First Call is expressed per diluted share which is really the number that counts."
Sorry, but this is not correct. If First Call and Zacks both have eight analysts but the mean earnings estimate is different, it is because they are polling a different group of eight analysts. (There may be twelve who cover the stock.) It has nothing to do with the new accounting rules that require companies to report diluted earnings now. (Before, this quarter, companies had to report diluted earnings only if more than 3% of the shares outstanding were things like unused options or other kinds of securities that can be converted to shares.) First Call and Zacks do not typically make choices between basic and diluted earnings. They just take the numbers given to them by analysts. Although I suspect they might lean on analysts to report diluted earnings now that they are required, if the analyst is not already using them. Or First Call and Zacks may make the conversion to diluted earnings.
prakash also wrote: "So if wall street don't pay that much attention to a widely used service such as Zacks, who cares about your BS service and its 26 analysts estimates."
Wall Street pays a heck of a lot of attention to Zacks, since its data are used by many brokerages and buy side analysts. And they pay a lot of attention to the other service, which is not "BS," as you so politely state, by any means.
Anyway, the bottom line is this: If it annoys you so much to read about earnings revisions, please do not read my posts. No one is forcing you to. And unless you demonstrate that you know the advantages and disadvantages of each analyst or reporting service, it won't do you much good to know which ones are making or reporting revisions.
How did you know my printer was broken?
Happy Investing!
Yappity |
