Thomson One Banker Excel Add-in and IBES

We recently got access to IBES (I/B/E/S – Insitutional Brokers’ Estimate System) from Thomson Reuters on WRDS. This is excellent for researchers who want to access large quantities of brokers’ estimate data, for example when dealing with the detailed estimates collected on an individual broker basis.

Summary (or Consensus) IBES data is also available on Thomson One Banker and Datastream. This consensus data is gathered monthly so gives a record of how brokers’ expected/expect a company to perform in terms of several variables. (Earnings per Share (EPS) is the most forecast of these.)

Thomson One Banker Excel Add-in IBES example is a spreadsheet that uses the Thomson Reuters PFDL functions to retrieve IBES data. (You need the TOB Excel add-in installed to use this.)

Related resources:

• Where can I find earnings estimates for companies?
• For Thomson One Banker, is web or Excel interface best?

No of Analysts covering a company

How many analysts provide estimates for a company? It sounds like a simple question but there are some complications (see below). However, we can relatively easily find:

Number of analysts providing EPS (Earnings per Share) estimates for the next financial year (FY1).

EPS is the most estimated financial variable and most analysts covering a company will estimate it for the next financial year.

This variable is part of the IBES summary data available through Thomson One Banker or Datastream:

• ThomsonOneBanker – data item  IBH.EPSNbrEstFY1
• Datastream – datatype  F1NE  (or F1NET  if available)

This data is available monthly (not all analysts covering a company will estimate every month so it can vary over the year).

FAQ question – Where can I find earnings estimates for companies?

Why knowing exactly how many analysts cover a company is hard.

First, there is no requirement for brokers and analysts to record what companies they are following. The ThomsonReuters IBES database, which is the most used analysts estimates database for research, is gathered by asking brokers/analysts to be involved and provide their estimates on a monthly basis.

Second, analysts coverage of a company can vary in detail. They provide estimates for a number of key financial variables but the choice of variables will vary between analysts.

Using the IBES detailed database, it would be possible to write a program to count the number of distinct analysts who provided an estimate for any financial variable for a company within a chosen time period. However, if within a broker one analyst estimates EPS, and another analyst estimates Sales, is that 2 analysts covering the company or just one?

EPS announcement date

Research on analysts’ estimates often involves comparing the estimates with the actual reported values, and knowing the date that the actual value was reported can be important. For example, the Glaxosmithkline EPS for the year to Dec 2009, was reported in 4 Feb 2010.

While IBES on Datastream gives access to the consensus forecasts for EPS and other variables, it does not include this actual report date.

The actual report date is also available from:

• ThomsonOneBanker – database IBES, variable EPSActualReportDate
• IBES – Detailed Actuals File, Announcement Date
• FactSet ExcelConnect – [to be confirmed]
• Compustat (for North American companies) – RDQ, Report Date of Quarterly Earnings (in Fundamentals Quarterly)

There is one answer covering analysts’ estimates:

Where can I find earnings estimates for companies?

Detailed documentation is available in the Library/File databases folder (database PCs in the Eddie Davies Library).