According to Factset, for Q4 2013, 94 companies have issued negative EPS guidance and 13 companies have issued positive EPS guidance.
”If these are the final numbers for the quarter, it will mark the highest number of companies issuing negative EPS guidance and tie the mark for the lowest number of companies issuing positive EPS guidance since FactSet began tracking the data in 2006”, Factset says in its product insights report.
The percentage of companies issuing negative EPS guidance is 88% . If this is the final percentage for the quarter, it will mark the highest percentage of companies issuing negative EPS guidance for a quarter, Factset says
However, according to Factset companies are guiding EPS estimates down by a lower margin than average. ”For Q4 2013, companies have issued EPS guidance that has been 5.7% below the mean EPS estimate on average. This percentage decline is smaller than the five-year average of -11.1%.”
