Quarterly EPS Accuracy Report


The Quarterly EPS Accuracy Report shows by how much each analyst missed the actual each quarter for the past four quarters. The report also shows the Consensus error for that quarter.

Period of Evaluation

For Estimate Performance calculations Zacks is using the EPS forecasts of quarterly earnings for the last four fiscal quarters.

Eligibility

To be eligible, an analyst must have (a) rated at least three separate stocks within a given industry for the past five years, and (b) have at least one EPS forecast on file for the current fiscal year. This second requirement is meant to ensure that, although an analyst may not have issued buy or sell ratings for any of his or her stocks during the most recent year, the analyst is still following the industry.

Quarterly
Quarterly EPS Accuracy Report Components

Company Information

  • Ticker: The company's ticker symbol.
  • Company: The company name.
  • Industry: One of more than seventy industry groups. These groupings represent an aggregation of the over 200 industry categories under which Zacks records data.
  • Last Update: The date of the database update.

Zacks Rating

The Zacks Rating is based on our proprietary model that uses earnings estimate revisions and earnings surprises to predict short-term price movements. Stocks are rated as a Strong Buy, Buy/Outperform, Hold, Sell/Underperform, or a Strong Sell. These ratings have shown to be an accurate predictor of stock price performance (relative to the market) for the coming 90-180 days as oppose to the analyst's long-term predictions that usually represent a 6-12 month outlook.

The Zacks Rank is also a relative measure, comparing stock against the entire universe of stocks, and the distribution of ranks reflects this: approximately 20% of stocks are ranked Buy/Outperform or Strong Buy; 60% of stocks are ranked Hold; and 20% ranked Sell/Underperform or Strong Sell.

Analyst/Broker

Analyst: Under the Analyst heading is a list of the names of the individual analysts. If the analyst name is listed as Not Ident - it means that you do not have an authorization to view the name. You can click the Analyst heading to sort the column.

Broker: Under the Broker heading is a list of the names of the brokerage houses and independent research institutions that currently employ the analyst. If the broker name is listed as Not Ident - it means that you do not have an authorization to view the name. You can click the Broker heading to sort the column.

When the Broker column has the CO FORECAST entry, it identifies the company's own estimates for the earnings.

Quarterly Estimates

The Quarterly EPS Estimates section lists all analysts' EPS projections for the current and next fiscal quarters.

Current Fiscal Quarter Estimates

03/2000

The leftmost column of the Quarterly Estimates section shows the latest estimates for the current fiscal quarter. The column's heading shows the month and the year the current fiscal quarter will end in the MM/YYYY format (for example, 03/2000).

An up or down arrow next to the estimate indicates a recent estimate revision. The direction of the arrow indicates a change from the previous analyst's estimate.

0.81

Estimates made by the Most Accurate Analysts are shown in red. You can click the MM/YYYY heading to sort the column.

Date of Quarterly EPS Estimate

The Date column shows the date when the current fiscal quarter estimate was made.

03/15/2000

A blue rating date indicates the most recently released analyst EPS estimate. You can click the Date heading to sort the column.

Next Fiscal Quarter Estimates

06/2000

Analysts' EPS estimates for the next fiscal quarter are listed in the Quarterly Estimates section in the column headed by the month and year (MM/YYYY) the company's next fiscal quarter will end.

An up or down arrow next to the estimate indicates a recent estimate revision. The direction of the arrow indicates a change from the previous analyst's estimate.

0.92

Estimates made by the Most Accurate Analysts are shown in red. You can click the MM/YYYY heading to sort the column.

Date of Quarterly EPS Estimate

The Date column shows the date when the next fiscal quarter estimate was made.

03/15/2000

A blue rating date indicates the most recently released analyst EPS estimate. You can click the Date heading to sort the column.

Estimate Errors

There are four columns in the Estimate Error section. Each column represents one of the past four fiscal quarters for the company and is identified in its heading by that quarter's end date. These dates are shown in the MM/YYYY format (for example, 12/1999, 09/1999, 06/1999, 03/1999).

The data shown in each column is the Quarterly Analyst Error for that quarter.

Quarterly Analyst Error

The Quarterly Analyst Error is the difference between the quarter's actual EPS and the analyst's EPS estimate for that quarter as of the last day of the given quarter.

* Margin of Error - Top Quartile Performance

An asterisk next to the analyst's estimate denotes a margin of error in the top twenty-five percent of all analysts. Observed when analyst's error is less then consensus error.

Consensus Error

The report also includes the consensus error for each quarter. Consensus Error is the difference between the consensus estimate for the quarter and the actual quarterly EPS.

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