Whisper Numbers: Should You Listen?

During earnings season - the time when companies publicly report their results from the last quarter - many whisper numbers can be heard floating around Wall Street and on the internet. It can be a period of extreme stock market volatility; the companies that don’t meet earnings estimates are usually hammered hard and experience a decline in share price. However, even companies that meet earnings estimates can suffer if they don't match the seemingly mysterious whisper number. What are whisper numbers? Where do they come from? And what do they mean to you as an investor? We’ll attempt to demystify the whisper number and evaluate whether it is a subtle indicator of a company’s earnings - or just plain noise.