S&P Capital IQ Estimates
Understand market expectations at scale
See market expectations more clearly with standardized global Estimates
The S&P Capital IQ Estimates dataset is the most comprehensive global estimates based on projections, models, analysis and research.
This dataset can be used to evaluate earnings estimates to select stocks, manage investment performance, and to track the direction and magnitude of upgrades and downgrades, and more.
Available as Global, International or North American company packages, this dataset includes:
Consensus Estimates
Aggregate analyst estimates for public companies
Broker & Analyst Coverage
Estimates of public companies at any point in time provided by brokers and analysts
Surprise Analysis
Compare estimates from the day before a company reported earnings with the actual values
Detailed Estimates
Historical and current estimates for specific trading items or companies
Consensus Analysis
Estimated growth rates and estimate surprise calculations
Industry Estimates
Industry-specific operating metrics across 14 sectors, including airlines, banks, healthcare, real estate, and technology.
Company Guidance
A public company's estimates on its own future profit or loss
Estimate Revisions
Upward and downward changes of broker estimates
Point-in-time snapshot data
Providing all changes to estimates items and their associated dates
NEW
S&P Capital IQ Estimates Snapshot
Point-in-time history without look-ahead bias
- Snapshot every 2 hours
- Includes all updates to the S&P Capital IQ Estimates database since August 2016
- Global population with Span delivery for all data items
- Capture the exact date/time with two additional columns spEffectiveDateand spToDate.
- All Data Items: Periodic, Non-Periodic, and Industry specific
Flexible Delivery Channels
Data delivered where and how you work.
S&P Capital IQ Pro
Access S&P Capital IQ Estimates on the S&P Capital IQ Pro platform.
- Explore company-level forecasts and assumptions with direct links to consensus, detail, and industry-specific projections.
- Benchmark companies with peer analysis and trend visualization tools.
- Integrate directly with Excel via Capital IQ Pro Office for automated model updates and custom analytics.
95+ Industry-specific Estimates across 14 industries
S&P Global's industry-specific estimates offer a comprehensive toolset for analyzing the financial health of companies across a broad range of sectors. The S&P Capital IQ Estimates dataset features a wide array of global estimates, including over 95 industry-specific operating forecasts across 14 industries.
Discover How Estimates Can Help Your Workflow
Investor Relations
Understand investor sentiment and how your company measures against market expectations. Bridge gaps between internal forecasts and analyst estimates to guide strategy and communication.
Investment Management
Compare company and sector performance with earnings and revenue forecasts. Identify valuation gaps, uncover emerging trends, and assess investment opportunities with greater precision.
Investment Banking
Incorporate sector forecasts into client presentations, valuations, and analysis. Strengthen pitch materials with forward-looking financial and market insights.
Commercial Banks
Use estimate surprise data to analyze performance against expectations. Evaluate financial health and growth outlooks across peers and industry benchmarks.
Private Equity
Assess growth potential, risk, and value of target companies through projected financials. Benchmark portfolio performance against estimates to refine strategy and deal pricing.
Professional Services
Enhance valuations, benchmarking, and market analysis with access to historical and forecast estimates. Uncover insights that strengthen client advisory and industry positioning.
Technology, Media & Telecom
Integrate sector forecasts into reporting and analysis to identify emerging market shifts. Compare company performance and guidance against industry peers.
Academia
Use historical and forecast data to advance research, analyze market behavior, and enhance investment and finance curricular.
Corporations
Benchmark company performance against peers and industry expectations using analyst forecasts. Integrate market and investor insights into strategy, valuation, and planning.
Featured Content
Coverage FAQs for S&P Capital IQ Estimates
Coverage
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What counts as a contributor?
- Each contributor is counted once – In situations where a contributor has departments in different regions (e.g., Credit Suisse North America, Credit Suisse Europe) we still count them as a single contributor (e.g., “Credit Suisse”)
- Definition of inactive contributors can differ among vendors – We generally only include active contributors in our publicly available coverage statistics. Vendors have varying definitions of “active contributor” which can explain some of the differences in the contributor counts among vendors. For example, a contributor may still be in business but is no longer producing estimates. We will deem them inactive for estimates; therefore, they will not be included in our coverage statistics.
- Estimates by ticker/trading item – We capture “per share” estimates on the ticker/trading item level. If a user is not seeing all the contributors they expect for a company with multiple listings, we recommend checking under the other listing(s). For example, Sony trades on TSE under 6758 and NYSE under SONY. We reflect the different estimates from analysts for the two trading items respectively. There is more estimates coverage for TSE:6758 compared to NYSE:SONY. The user may be looking at NYSE:SONY but expecting TSE:6758 coverage.
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Why are there coverage differences between S&P Global and other competing vendors?
- Coverage by small regional contributors may differ amongst estimates vendors, whereas bulge bracket coverage tends to be consistent among the major vendors.
- S&P Capital IQ Estimates are collected from broker research reports or from estimates feeds provided by the brokers directly. Our estimates data set does not include automated/computer-generated estimates.
- Vendors may use different criteria to determine which contributors to add to their network. Examples:
- Analyst calculations vs. automated estimates – brokers that primarily provide automated forecasts are generally excluded from our network
- One-person shops vs. institutions – the brokers in our network tend to be institutions
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Companies: If contributors are comparable across estimates providers why do some providers show different levels of company coverage for the same contributor?
- Contributor entitlements: Contributors may restrict users from seeing estimates for particular companies or geographies. On S&P Capital IQ and S&P Capital IQ Pro, if a user is entitled to a particular broker, they can view all the contributor’s estimates (they are not restricted to particular geographies or companies).
- Company coverage statistics may differ between data vendors due to active and inactive companies – There are situations where we deem a company inactive (no longer in business or have active estimates coverage). Our active company coverage statistics do not include inactive companies.
- Parent vs. consolidated – We provide estimates for both parent and consolidated estimates (where available and provided by analysts). Other data vendors may only collect one or the other. For example, company A owns 60% of company B. Company A may have estimates that reflect the parent company only (company A) and may have estimates for consolidated estimates, which include company A and 60% of company B’s estimates. Ten analysts provided consolidated estimates for company A and three analysts provided standalone parent estimates. We will have estimates both parent (3) and consolidated (10) while other information providers may only have estimates for one or the other. [Example: CEAT Limited (BSE:500878)]
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History: What is the difference in the historic coverage of S&P Capital IQ Estimates compared to other providers?
- Our historical estimates date back to 1997 internationally and 1999 specifically for North American companies. The length of history varies based on metric.
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Metrics: What metrics will be added to S&P Capital IQ Estimates in the future?
We are working to expand our industry specific, segment and product level estimates.
Our metrics currently include:
- General metrics (44)
- Industry specific metrics for
- Oil and Gas (12)
- Banks (10)
- Insurance (5)
- REITs (6)
- Commodity price targets (20)
- S&P 500 top down
Quality/Methodology
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Why are there differences in the contributors included in your consensus compared to other providers? In some cases, you have less – doesn’t that make your consensus less accurate?
Our robust methodology is one of the strengths of S&P Capital IQ Estimates. Our rigorous inclusion/exclusion process can result in us excluding contributors that others don’t. Our methodology ensures high quality consensus values that truly reflect valid estimates. A higher number of contributors in consensus does not always mean a more accurate consensus. Our products will display all estimates with a clear explanation on why certain contributors have been excluded from consensus.
- We only include the majority basis – Different contributors estimates are not always comparable, some include items others don’t, etc. Mixing estimates that are not the same basis will not give a valid consensus number. Some competitors mix the basis in their consensus. We always exclude the minority basis. As an example, a company may have ten analysts covering it. Eight out of the ten include stock-based compensation while two do not. We will exclude the two contributors that were not aligned with the majority and display a consensus of eight contributors.
- Our estimates are updated to reflect guidance and significant events – We exclude estimates that are not reflecting the latest company guidance or not reflecting significant events such as a large earnings surprise, natural event, new regulations, etc.
- We do not calculate estimates on behalf of analysts e.g., company vs. per share level – Certain aggregators may calculate estimates on analysts’ behalf when components are available. We do not do this as we want to only reflect analysts’ actual estimates. For example, some analysts may provide estimates for both local and ADR estimates while others only provide one or the other. We will only reflect ones that are provided by the analysts even though we may have enough to calculate an ADR equivalent.
- Variations in policies for stale estimates - Stale estimates policies differ between providers. Some are more relaxed while others are stricter. Based on our analysis, 180 days for North American (reports quarterly) and 210 days for international (reports semi-annually) is the optimum amount of time. It gives enough time for analysts to digest, analyze and publish new estimates.
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Why do S&P Capital IQ Estimates show revenue as net for some companies and gross for others?
In certain situations, we may only have one field for a metric. For example, Revenue. Let’s say there are 10 analysts providing revenue estimates, 8 provide net revenue while 2 provide gross revenue. Our revenue consensus will reflect the 8 net revenue estimates and a consensus footnote will indicate that it’s reflecting net revenue. The 2 excluded gross revenue estimates will have an exclusion footnote indicating they are on a different basis. Different companies therefore may have revenue estimates that are not comparable as the majority of brokers look at net revenue for one but gross revenue for another.
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How does the quality of S&P Capital IQ Estimates compare to other providers?
- We offer best in class data quality and pride ourselves on it. As evidence of how strongly we stand behind both the quality and timeliness of our data we offer a quality program giving $50 for every verified error received.
- To ensure our data quality we run a robust list of automated and manual quality checks at the point of ingestion, before, at the time of and after collection.
Timeliness
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What are the differences in speed of S&P Capital IQ Estimates and other estimates providers?
There are minimal differences in general, but differences in prioritization amongst providers may result in small variations in timing for certain metrics or companies. Our typical turnaround times range from minutes to a few hours.
S&P Capital IQ Estimates
Data Type
Typical Turnaround Time
Award Eligibility
Estimates
2 hours
24 hours
Headline Actuals
1 hour
12 hours
Guidance
3 hours
12 hours
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