Earnings estimates are suffering from a bout of weakness these days, writes Michael Krause of AltaVista Independent Research, a New York consultancy that specializes in fundamental analysis of exchange traded funds, or ETFs. In a newly minted report, Krause observes that for 2006 forecasts “we are seeing sustained and accelerating revisions to the downside. Over the past month, 2006 estimates for seven out of nine sectors declined….” He adds that the slide is “the fastest rate of decline since we began monitoring 2006 estimates back in July 2005.”
Krause’s report comes at an anxious moment, given all the debate about whether the economy is, or isn’t poised for a stumble. Indeed, the mixed signals emanating from recent economic releases has Wall Street abuzz about what comes next for the stock market. In search of clues, we interviewed Krause via email….
In your latest research report, you write that “we are seeing sustained and accelerating revisions to the downside.” Give us an overview of what’s going on. Is the earnings cycle finally turning?
We still expect that S&P 500 earnings will increase this year. What’s different is that expectations are now on the decline, whereas for the past two years estimate revisions were almost universally positive, even excluding the effect of Energy earnings on the S&P, which everyone recognizes played a big part.
The accompanying graph (see below) illustrates the trend in 2006 earnings estimates since July of last year. Estimates for the S&P 500 as a whole rose through November and then started to decline. But excluding Energy, estimates that had remained stable through last summer began to weaken in the fall and have started to decline at a faster rate more recently.
Historically, trends in estimates revisions tend to persist for some time. That is, they don’t haphazardly move up/down from month to month, so the downward trend, now established, could well continue. After two years of being behind the ball on the strength of corporate earnings, Wall Street analysts might now be too optimistic at a time when earnings growth is quite naturally slowing in this, the fifth year of a profit recovery.
However, the fact that Wall Street gets its numbers wrong need not spell doom for the market. Even if negative estimates revisions were to continue apace, S&P 500 earnings would likely end the year up around 6%. That’s not as high as the 11.4% suggested by current consensus estimates, but still in-line with the post-WWII average of 6.2%.