Institutional Brokers' Estimate System

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The Institutional Brokers' Estimate System (I/B/E/S) is a service founded by the company I/B/E/S International Inc. which tallys available information about earnings forecasts made by investment analysts for publicly traded companies. I/B/E/S was ultimately bought by Thomson Financial.

The I/B/E/S database currently covers over 45,000 companies in 70 markets. It provides to a discriminating client base of 50,000 institutional money managers. More than 700 firms contribute data to I/B/E/S, from the largest global houses to regional and local brokers, with US data back to 1976 and international data back to 1987. [1]

It is unclear why slashes are used in the acronym, vs. periods or nothing at all, but this is its common usage. Users of the data have hypothesized it to be to "demonstrate their uniqueness as a database" ^[1], a la Using "@" instead of "at".

1 I/B/E/S Current Forecast Data
2 I/B/E/S Historical Forecasts
3 References
4 External links

[edit] I/B/E/S Current Forecast Data

The I/B/E/S current forecast database is offered on a summary (consensus) level or detailed (analyst-by-analyst) basis. With over 26 data items that are updated as often as five times a day, it is designed to help portfolio managers and analysts identify, manipulate, and analyze exceptional information for over 25,000 equities worldwide.

[edit] I/B/E/S Historical Forecasts

I/B/E/S History is the only statistically significant historical estimate database in the business. Starting in 1976 for US forecasts and 1987 for International forecasts, I/B/E/S History contains records on over 45,000 companies across 70 markets and presents a unique opportunity for back testing investment theories in a variety of global market conditions. Such research against historical trends and market conditions can provide a confident glimpse into future results.

There are two versions of the I/B/E/S earnings estimate history, Summary and Detail:

The Summary History consists of a snapshot of the consensus level data taken monthly. The U.S. edition covers reported earnings estimates and results since January 1976, while the international starts in 1987.
The Detail History (Analyst Earnings Estimate History) is a timeline of individual analysts' earnings forecasts (daily records at the analyst level). The U.S. edition starts in 1983, while the International edition starts in 1987.

Both data sets are available for US and International stocks. The databases cover 56 countries and 70 markets.