FactSet: Negative Earnings Guidance at Seven Year Highs

The below from FactSet Research’s end of Q1 report (emphasis mine):

* For Q1 2013, 86 companies have issued negative EPS guidance and 24 companies have issued positive EPS guidance. This marks the fourth consecutive quarter that the percentage of negative guidance has been above 70% at the end of the quarter.

* For the current fiscal year, 168 companies have issued negative EPS guidance and 77 companies have issued positive EPS guidance. This marks the third consecutive month that the percentage of negative EPS guidance has increased, as many companies have transitioned to issuing annual guidance for 2013 (as the new current fiscal year) instead of 20 12 over the past few months.

* For Q4 2012, all 113 of companies that issued quarterly EPS guidance have reported earnings for the quarter. Of these 113 companies, 74% reported actual EPS above guidance, 21% reported actual EPS below guidance, and 4% reported actual EPS equal to guidance. The percentage of companies that reported EPS above guidance is below the five-year average (78%).

* Over the past five years, companies that issued either quarterly or annual EPS guidance have outperformed companies that did not issue quarterly or annual EPS guidance.

* For Q1 2013, 86 companies have issued negative EPS guidance while 24 companies have issued positive EPS guidance. As a result, the overall percentage of companies issuing negative EPS guidance to date for Q1 2013 stands at 78% (86 out of 110). If this is the final percentage for the quarter, it will mark the highest percentage of companies issuing negative EPS guidance since FactSet began tracking guidance data in Q1 2006.

Not my favorite trend here…

Source:

FactSet