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Firms likely to miss profit targets: poll

Corporate earnings worldwide will likely miss analysts' estimates in the next 12 months as a US economic slowdown weighs on global growth, a Merrill Lynch & Co survey of money managers showed.

About 77 percent of the 195 fund managers polled said profits would increase less than 10 percent. Analysts are forecasting that earnings for companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index will rise 15 percent this year, while profits for members of Europe's Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index will grow 11 percent, data compiled by Bloomberg showed.

Only 4 percent said double-digit earnings growth was attainable in Europe. About 8 percent of respondents said the US was already in a recession.

The survey is "absolutely depressing and has never been so bearish," Merrill Lynch's chief European equity strategist Karen Olney said at a news conference yesterday in London.

"Investors are saying we are heading toward, or are already in, a profits recession. It's the most bearish reading for profits and economic growth since the survey began," she said.
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