Guidance (Management Outlook)

Guidance is a company's official forecast of its future financial performance, usually shared during earnings calls or press releases. Think of it as management's best guess about revenue, profits, or other metrics for the coming quarter or year. You'll see this whenever a company reports results—it matters because investors use guidance to decide if a stock is worth buying or selling. If a company raises guidance, it signals confidence in growth; if it lowers guidance, that's often a red flag. For example, TechCorp might say "We expect Q3 revenue between $500M and $520M," giving investors a target to watch against.