ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Earnings guidance

Okay kiddo, earnings guidance is like a report card that a company gives to its investors or shareholders. Just like how your teacher tells your parents how well you are doing in school, companies tell their investors how well they are doing in making money.

When companies release earnings guidance, they predict how much money they expect to make in the future. This can help investors decide whether they want to invest in the company or sell their shares.

The predictions that companies make are based on a lot of different things, like how much they sold in the past, how much they expect to sell in the future, and how much it costs them to make their products. Kind of like how you can predict what you will get on a test by looking at how you did on previous tests and how much you studied.

Sometimes, companies can make mistakes in their predictions, just like you might be surprised by a test score that you didn't expect. Good news or bad news can also affect the predictions.

Overall, earnings guidance is important for companies and investors to understand how well a company is doing and how it expects to do in the future.