Wall Street watches a company's quarterly report closely to understand as much as possible about its recent performance and what to expect going forward. Of course, one figure often stands out among the rest: earnings.
Life and the stock market are both about expectations, and rising above what is expected is often rewarded, while falling short can come with negative consequences. Investors might want to try to capture stronger returns by finding positive earnings surprises.
Hunting for 'earnings whispers' or companies poised to beat their quarterly earnings estimates is a somewhat common practice. But that doesn't make it easy. One way that has been proven to work is by using the Zacks Earnings ESP tool.
The Zacks Earnings ESP, Explained
The Zacks Earnings ESP, or Expected Surprise Prediction, aims to find earnings surprises by focusing on the most recent analyst revisions. The basic premise is that if an analyst reevaluates their earnings estimate ahead of an earnings release, it means they likely have new information that could possibly be more accurate.
The core of the ESP model is comparing the Most Accurate Estimate to the Zacks Consensus Estimate, where the resulting percentage difference between the two equals the Expected Surprise Prediction. The Zacks Rank is also factored into the ESP metric to better help find companies that appear poised to top their next bottom-line consensus estimate, which will hopefully help lift the stock price.
In fact, when we combined a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) or better and a positive Earnings ESP, stocks produced a positive surprise 70% of the time. Perhaps most importantly, using these parameters has helped produce 28.3% annual returns on average, according to our 10 year backtest.
Stocks with a ranking of #3 (Hold), or 60% of all stocks covered by the Zacks Rank, are expected to perform in-line with the broader market. Stocks with rankings of #2 (Buy) and #1 (Strong Buy), or the top 15% and top 5% of stocks, respectively, should outperform the market; Strong Buy stocks should outperform more than any other rank.
Should You Consider Coeur Mining?
The last thing we will do today, now that we have a grasp on the ESP and how powerful of a tool it can be, is to quickly look at a qualifying stock. Coeur Mining (CDE) holds a #1 (Strong Buy) at the moment and its Most Accurate Estimate comes in at $0.29 a share one day away from its upcoming earnings release on October 29, 2025.
CDE has an Earnings ESP figure of +14.00%, which, as explained above, is calculated by taking the percentage difference between the $0.29 Most Accurate Estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.25. Coeur Mining is one of a large database of stocks with positive ESPs. Make sure to utilize our Earnings ESP Filter to uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they've reported.
CDE is just one of a large group of Basic Materials stocks with a positive ESP figure. Lithium Americas Corp. (LAC) is another qualifying stock you may want to consider.
Lithium Americas Corp., which is readying to report earnings on November 4, 2025, sits at a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) right now. Its Most Accurate Estimate is currently -$0.04 a share, and LAC is seven days out from its next earnings report.
Lithium Americas Corp.'s Earnings ESP figure currently stands at +28.74% after taking the percentage difference between its Most Accurate Estimate and its Zacks Consensus Estimate of -$0.05.
CDE and LAC's positive ESP metrics may signal that a positive earnings surprise for both stocks is on the horizon.
Find Stocks to Buy or Sell Before They're Reported
Use the Zacks Earnings ESP Filter to turn up stocks with the highest probability of positively, or negatively, surprising to buy or sell before they're reported for profitable earnings season trading. Check it out here >>
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Coeur Mining, Inc. (CDE): Free Stock Analysis Report Lithium Americas Corp. (LAC): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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