Study

Do companies beat their own guidance?

Across 11,138 scored figures from 1,687 companies, 52% came in above guidance, 23% in range and 25% below.

Above: 52%
In range or at: 23%
Below: 25%

Stacked bars by target year, 2015 to 2025: share of guided figures that came in above, inside or below the company range — By target year, 2015 to 2025, the years shown in the chart; n is the number of scored figures in each year.

How the figures are scored

Stock Atlas holds 252,532 guided figures from 8-K earnings releases since 2008, with every revision kept. Once the company reports the period, each guide is matched to the reported result and scored above, in range (or at the point guide) or below. Guides without a reported result are left unscored, and rows with an implausible scale are withheld.

Look up one company: Microsoft. Run the same query yourself: guidance against the result.