since both positive and negative earnings surprises have lingering longterm effects tracking these revisions is a rewarding investment strategy aaii has created four screens that look for earnings revisions one that looks for upward revisions in annual earnings estimates one that screens for companies with downward revisions one that screens for companies that have had at least a 5 increase in annual earnings estimates over the last month and finally one that screens for companies that have had at least a 5 decrease in annual earnings estimates over the last month aaii’s stock investor pro contains consensus earnings estimates from ibes and is used to perform our screens in this article i cover our strategy that focuses on firms that have had at least a 5 increase in annual earnings estimates over the last month our estimate revisions up 5 screening model have an average annual gain since 1998 of 240 versus 65 for the sp 500 index over the same period firstquarter earnings announcement season is complete it was a strong earnings season with more sp 500 companies beating earnings per share eps estimates for the first quarter than average and beating earnings estimates by a wider margin than average according to factset analysts expect doubledigit earnings growth for the remaining three quarters of 2021 these aboveaverage growth rates are due to a combination of higher earnings for 2021 and an easier comparison to unusually weak earnings in 2020 due to the negative impact of the coronavirus pandemic on numerous industries this improving trend has driven estimate revisions upward for many of the hardest hit industries and companies most exposed to the coronavirus pandemic during 2020 retailers oil  gas restaurants airlines casinos and real estate investment trusts reits have enjoyed strong performance over the past few weeks as well as upward revisions to earnings estimates from analysts and may be worth examining in a resurgent economy expectations play a key role in determining if a stock’s price “gains” or “loses” when actual earnings are reported investors quickly learn that the market is forwardlooking security prices are established through expectations and prices change as these expectations change or are proven incorrect there are several services that track and analyze expected earnings estimates services such as refinitiv ibes and zacks investment research provide consensus earnings estimates by tracking the estimates of thousands of investment analysts tracking these expectations and their changes is an important and rewarding strategy for stock investors in using earnings estimates the first rule to keep in mind is that the current price usually reflects the consensus earnings estimate it is common to see price declines for stocks that report earnings increases from the previous reporting period because in many cases while the actual earnings represent an increase the increase is not as great as the market had expected earnings surprises occur when a company reports actual earnings that differ from consensus earnings estimates most companies announce earnings approximately one month after the end of the quarter during the earnings reporting season business news channels and financial websites provide daily reports on earnings announcements firms with significant earnings surprises are often highlighted positive earnings surprises occur when actual reported earnings are significantly above the forecasted earnings per share negative earnings surprises occur when reported earnings per share are significantly below the earnings expectations the stock prices of firms with significant positive earnings surprises show aboveaverage performance while those with negative surprises have belowaverage performance changes in stock price resulting from an earnings surprise can be felt immediately and the surprise has a longterm effect studies indicate that the effect can persist for as long as a year after the announcement this means that it does not make sense to buy a stock after the initial price decline of a negative earnings surprise there is a good chance that the stock will continue to underperform the market for some time it also indicates that it may not be too late to buy into an attractive company after a betterthanexpected earnings report is released not surprisingly large firms tend to adjust to surprises more quickly than small firms do larger firms are tracked by more analysts and portfolio managers who tend to act quickly firms with a significant quarterly earnings surprise also often have earnings surprises in subsequent quarters when a firm has a surprise it often is a sign that other similar surprises will follow since both positive and negative earnings surprises have lingering longterm effects a rewarding investment strategy is one that avoids stocks you believe will have negative earnings surprises or that have had negative earnings surprises selecting positive earnings surprise stocks before and even after the earnings come in may be similarly profitable even a strategy of simply selling after negative earnings surprises and buying after positive earnings surprises probably has some merit revisions made by analysts to earnings estimates lead to price adjustments similar to earnings surprises when earnings estimates are revised significantly upward—5 or more—stocks tend to show aboveaverage performance stock prices of firms with downward revisions show belowaverage performance after the adjustment changes in estimates reflect changes in expectations of future performance perhaps the economic outlook is better than previously expected or maybe a new product is selling better than anticipated revisions are often precursors to earnings surprises as the reporting period approaches estimates normally converge toward the consensus a flurry of revisions near the reporting period can indicate that analysts missed the mark and are scrambling to improve their estimates companies like to report positive earnings surprises so it is not surprising that many companies try to “manage” the estimates slightly downward to create a positive surprise studies show that on average there are more positive quarterly surprises than there are negative surprises interestingly estimates for the fiscal year do not tend to show the same positive surprise bias aaii’s first filter eliminates those firms with less than five estimates for the current fiscal year this filter helps to ensure that revisions actually reflect a change in general consensus not just a change by one or two analysts however requiring a stock to have at least five analysts reporting earnings estimates will knock out most of the very smallcapitalization stocks the number of estimates for each firm is provided to help gauge the interest in the firm and the meaningfulness of the overall estimates the larger the firm the greater the number of analysts that will track it the number of upward revisions indicates how many analysts have revised their estimates upward in the last month when compared to the number of analysts making estimates this is a confirmation of the significance of the percentage change in estimates you can put more faith in a revision if a large percentage of the analysts tracking a firm have revised their estimates the next filter requires that the firm have an upward change over the course of the last month in its consensus estimates for the current y0 and next y1 fiscal year we are also screening to make sure analysts have not lowered estimates for the current or next fiscal year during the past month naturally we also look for those companies that have had at least a 5 increase in the current and next fiscalyear earnings estimates over the last month earnings estimates are important they are a numerical view of expectations and changing expectations drive stock prices if you are investing in individual stocks a few points on earnings estimates are worth keeping in mind   know the consensus earnings forecast of a stock you own or are interested in   realize that the stock price already reflects the general consensus about future earnings be aware that if a stock is highly touted the basis for the recommendation should be an earnings forecast by analysts significantly above the prevailing opinion   ask for and carefully evaluate the foundation of an earnings forecast that deviates substantially from the consensus before investing   significant earnings surprises positive or negative probably have a fairly longterm effect on a stock’s price as analysts revise longterm earnings forecasts accordingly 25 stocks passing the estimate revisions up 5 screen ranked by currentyear revisions made last month the stocks meeting the criteria of the approach do not represent a “recommended” or “buy” list it is important to perform due diligence if you want an edge throughout this market volatility become an aaii member