Guidance

A company's own forecast of its coming performance, whether formal and numeric or informal and directional.

Guidance is a commitment as much as a prediction, and companies manage toward it, which is what makes the pattern of beats and misses informative. A firm that beats its own guidance by a small margin every quarter is managing expectations rather than surprising the market.

The change in guidance matters more than the level. A company raising a growth range from 8% to 10% has said something; one reiterating a range for the fourth consecutive quarter has said something else.

Some sectors guide and some do not. Absence is not evasion.