whisper number

Whisper Number

Unofficial and unpublished earnings per share forecasts that circulate among the professionals and wealthy investors on Wall Street. Whisper numbers are especially useful when they differ from the consensus forecast.

Notes:

Whisper numbers come from a variety of sources, but it is often an employee or insider who leaks them. They traditionally were meant for the wealthy clients of top brokerages. However, with the advent of the Internet, many websites have sprung up to supply the individual investor with whispers.

Whisper numbers are one of several major driving forces behind a stock's short term price movement. Remember, the whisper is not always correct - it is just a rumor.

See also: Earnings, EPS, First Call, Insider Information, Street Expectation, Whisper Stock

---

whisper number

An unofficial estimate of a financial variable (generally, earnings or revenues) that will be reported by a corporation. A whisper number may be different from published estimates by financial analysts or earnings guidance provided by corporate management.

Case Study Whisper numbers frequently proved a major factor in moving stock prices during the stock market boom of the late 1990s. A corporate earnings announcement that met consensus estimates by analysts but fell short of the whisper number often resulted in a major price decline in the price of the firm's stock. Likewise, an earnings announcement that exceeded the whisper number could push a stock price higher. Whisper numbers often originated in Internet chat rooms, where individual investors shared rumored information with fellow investors. These rumors were occasionally believed to have corporate insiders as a source. In particular, investors were searching for companies that were likely to report earnings that were higher or lower than expected by Wall Street analysts. Whisper numbers lost their clout following the 2001 implementation of Regulation Fair Disclose, which prohibited companies from making selective disclosures.