Scaled Earnings Surprise

Scaled Earnings Surprise is a means of comparing the level of earnings surprise to the amount of disagreement between various analysts (since a wide range of expectations has different implications for what is “unexpected”).

Stockopedia explains Scaled Earnings Surprise

This is calculated by dividing the percentage earnings surprise by the standard deviation of analyst earnings forecasts.

Thus, if the earnings surprise is £0.05 and the standard deviation of analyst estimates was £0.03, the scaled earnings surprise is £0.05/£0.03 = 1.67.

Another related approach - Standardised Unexpected Earnings - is to divide it by the standard deviation of earnings surprises measured over some historic period (e.g the previous 10 years). For example, Cisco was once said to consistently beat earnings estimates by a penny.

Thus, if the company did beat by a penny it was hardly unexpected. Consider a stock that had a £0.03 earnings surprise, and that the standard deviation of past earnings surprises is £0.05. The surprise is smaller than normal, and the standardised earnings surprise would be £0.03/£0.05 = 0.6.

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The 5 highest Scaled Earnings Surprise Stocks in the Market

TickerNameScaled Earnings SurpriseStockRank™
LON:DOCSDr Martens-6.4950
LON:HLNHALEON-6.8445
LON:ITRKIntertek-10.2669
LON:FUTRFuture-10.3864
LON:MNDIMondi-19.3086

Variants of Scaled Earnings Surprise