Yes, analyst quarterly estimates will drive short term stock prices up or down. When they are wrong (high or low) the ensuing market corrections are for their mistakes, not the company’s. But those are analyst “misses” not company failures. And they have no real affect on long term investors, unless they had already planned to sell for non-speculative reasons.

If you don’t want to accept company guidance, fine, (most do prefer to err on the side of caution) but it is a leap of faith to believe the analysts are going to get it right.

They frequently do not have all the pertinent facts. During my management years in a major corporation, there was frequent board room amusement and head shaking about analysts’ often mis- ill- or un-informed opinions and/or questions. And we didn’t try to keep our information as much under wraps as Apple does.

After guessing low for several quarters in a row (I don’t care enough to try to keep count), analysts fell all over themselves raising their guestimates for last quarter. Watching all those feverish statements being issued day after day, I would have been very surprised to see Apple beat them. But again, the “miss” was on the analysts’ part, not Apple’s.

The stock doesn’t trade on Apple’s estimates. When they are often shattered by upper double digit percentage they become meaningless.

Bash the Street all you want but the fact is their estimates are better than Apple’s own – every single time.