11th August 2017 -IAM, News
Daniel Pfund, Senior Financial Analyst, Fund Manager
Most European companies have published their semi-annual results. We are coming to the end of the “results season”. Let’s keep in mind that in Europe, companies do not have to publish quarterly results like in the US. It is therefore even more important to analyse the semi-annual results.
The game for companies is to manage the expectation of sell-side analysts and investors. The aim is to beat these expectations, commonly called consensus. Nevertheless it is not set in stone that a company, who publishes better results than expected, sees its share price rise. Indeed there are other parameters which will impact the price, among which the way the company “guides” the expectations for the next quarter/half year.
During the second quarter, 8% more companies published better results than companies which disappointed (companies in line with expectations are not considered). These figures are in line with the historical mean, but far below the record of 29% of the first quarter.
