Analyst Expectation

Analysts and the rest of the Wall Street community spend a lot of time eagerly waiting for reports and financial information with the same eagerness your local Comic-Con goers await the newest Star Wars trailer. And both sci-fi junkies and analysts have lots of expectations. The sci-fi fans might expect the latest special effects, while money guys might expect that companies will post certain earnings or reach certain benchmarks on other metrics. These Wall Street predictions are known as "analyst expectations."

Analyst expectations are also known as "Street Numbers," or sometimes, collectively, as the "consensus estimate." These figures represent the numbers that money folks think a company will post for their quarterly earnings or other estimates—before said company actually posts the numbers.

Example: Let's say Cisco has told the Wall Street analysts (employees who work for brokerage houses to provide "expert" advice to investors) that it expects to earn 40-45 cents a share on $10.5-11 billion in revenues. One analyst publishes that they expect 43 cents on $10.652 billion; another analyst publishes that they expect 40 cents on $11.1 billion, etc. These individual estimates are then compiled into a consensus estimate that's used to judge the final result. When you see headlines like "Cisco Beats Expectations With Earnings Report" these are the estimates being referenced. See Whisper Number, Buy Side, and Sell Side for more gory details.