Yet the trend in strategist revisions may matter more than the actual level of the forecasts, and more downward adjustments may be in the offing after developments this week. Walmart Inc. and Target Corp. both cut their growth outlooks this week, showing even stores known for bargains remain vulnerable to the highest inflation in 40 years. Walmart now projects earnings will fall 1% this year compared with earlier estimates of single-digit gains. Target, for its part, cut its projected full-year operating income margin to “around 6%” from a previous “8% or higher.” In both cases, the companies are proving cautionary tales: For the most part, higher costs are offsetting resilient same-store sales.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, strategists are decent at projecting the S&P’s destination in normal times, but the consensus is often wrong — or at least excessively slow to adjust — when the outlook gets messy.
In the 23-year-old series, the May projections of strategists surveyed by Bloomberg have undershot the actual end of December index value 14 times and overestimated it nine times. But the underestimates were often close calls, and some of the overshoots were egregiously wrong, including most notably in 2008 and every year of the dot-com bust. If you think there’s a chance that 2022 may join those ignominious years in market history, you might be better off ignoring the consensus.
The latest announcements from Target and Walmart show inflation is already pressuring profits, and that’s without considering the possibility of a recession. While strategists’ outlooks underscore the upside potential to stocks, the past week is a reminder that there’s plenty of risk on the downside, too.
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
Jonathan Levin has worked as a Bloomberg journalist in Latin America and the U.S., covering finance, markets and M&A. Most recently, he has served as the company’s Miami bureau chief. He is a CFA charterholder.
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