Meaning & use
whisper number
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Meaning
nouncountablefinanceinformal
An unofficial forecast of a company's earnings that traders share before the real figures are announced, often higher than the public estimate.
Grammar: Countable: the whisper number was higher than expected.
Patterns
- the whisper number for something
- beat the whisper number
The whisper number for the quarter was well above the official forecast.
The company beat the consensus but missed the whisper number, so the stock fell.
Traders look for the whisper number before earnings day.
Word forms
| plural | whisper numbers |
|---|
Common combinations
- beat the whisper number
- The firm beat the whisper number and the shares rose.
- miss the whisper number
- Missing the whisper number hurt the stock.
- whisper number for earnings
- The whisper number for earnings was higher.
- consensus versus whisper number
- Consensus versus whisper number often explains price moves.
Synonyms and how they differ
- rumor
- Rumor is any unconfirmed story, while whisper number is specifically a profit estimate.
- unofficial estimate
- Unofficial estimate is the plain-language version, with less market flavor.
- buy-side expectation
- Buy-side expectation refers to what investors privately expect, which is where whisper numbers often originate.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: whisper number or consensus estimate?
whisper number vs consensus estimate
A consensus estimate is the published average of analysts' forecasts, while a whisper number is unofficial and unpublished.
Practice
Why might a stock fall after earnings even though it beat the consensus?
Choose one answer.
Traders may have expected more than the official forecast, and that unofficial figure is the whisper number. Paying a dividend would usually not cause a drop for this reason.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “whisper number”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.