38 separate analysts, high estimate was $13, low estimate was $9.92. Average was $10.65, actual numbers were $9.03, so below even the most pessimistic analyst. That usually means the publicly available info just wasn't accurate, that something happened privately that only Google knew about.
Usually companies avoid this kind of thing by giving some mid-quarter update so that they can mitigate some of the damage.
Google actually provides no EPS guidance at all though, which also caused problems with a big miss in January 2012. Analysts like to have something to work off of.
Which should theoretically let you "put your money where your mouth is", since if analysts are systematically wrong, and the prices move in response to analysts...
Although I think most serious investors either ignore analysts or know to adjust for their biases. Some of the real victims are lazy academics, as the paper discusses.
38 separate analysts, high estimate was $13, low estimate was $9.92. Average was $10.65, actual numbers were $9.03, so below even the most pessimistic analyst. That usually means the publicly available info just wasn't accurate, that something happened privately that only Google knew about.
Usually companies avoid this kind of thing by giving some mid-quarter update so that they can mitigate some of the damage.
Google actually provides no EPS guidance at all though, which also caused problems with a big miss in January 2012. Analysts like to have something to work off of.