Why beating forecasts is largely irrelevant in this U.S. earnings season

Link: Why beating forecasts is largely irrelevant in this U.S. earnings season

Quote1: “Corporate management has been attempting to support their stock values by lowballing profit forecasts – this influences analyst earnings expectations – to easily achievable levels for a long time. For this reason, earnings beats are far from uncommon and largely irrelevant. They can also obscure the longer term trend in profit growth that is most important for portfolio returns.”

Quote2: There are many traders and investors with the time and focus to use earnings surprise data in an attempt to find inflection points in volatile sectors. For most investors, however, steady year-over-year growth is the path to long-term investment success.”