This blog post originally appeared on RealMoney Silver on Oct. 27 at 7:27 a.m. EDT.

Underpromising and overdelivering is the oldest game in the investor relations handbook, as earnings expectations are often cagily crafted by corporate managements. In turn, many Wall Street analysts, emulating Ralph Wanger's zebras, follow that company guidance in adopting a herd mentality that morphs into a Wall Street consensus. To be sure, I am being somewhat hyperbolic. Not all Wall Street analysts are lemmings or are simply providing maintenance research. There are still (and always will be) research stars. But, in the main, a variant view from the sell-side consensus is relatively rare, as the middle of the Wanger's herd of zebras seems to provide a security blanket to most analysts....
TAGGED: Doug Kass, stocks, Earnings