Ex-Ante: What It Means and How It Works

What Is Ex-Ante?

Ex-ante refers to future events that are based on forecasts or predictions rather than concrete results. Translated from Latin, it means before the event. Ex-ante can be used to describe the potential returns of a particular security or company.

Much of the analysis conducted in the markets is ex-ante, focusing on the impacts of long-term cash flows, earnings, and revenue. While this type of ex-ante analysis focuses on company fundamentals, it often relates to asset prices.

Forecasting

In finance, any prediction or forecast ahead of an event before market participants become aware of the pertinent facts is ex-ante. Research or analysis that financial professionals conduct is generally considered ex-ante.

The information they provide in their reports isn't based on actual results because the event hasn't yet happened. Predictions are often based on a company or security's historical performance and may include:

• Buy-side analysts often use fundamental factors to determine a price target for a stock, and then compare the predicted result to actual performance.
• Earnings estimates involve ex-ante analysis. They take into account the predicted performance of a company’s business units and in some cases individual products. This also involves modeling uses for cash, such as capital investments, dividends, and stock buybacks.

Types of Ex-Ante Analysis

Investors commonly use ex-ante earnings-per-share (EPS) analysis in the aggregate. Consensus estimates help to set a baseline for corporate earnings. It’s also possible to gauge which analysts among the group covering a particular stock tend to be the most predictive when their expectations are notably above or below those of their peers.

Analysts may also provide ex-ante predictions when a merger is widely expected, but before it takes place. Such analysis takes into account potential cost savings related to paring redundant activities, as well as possible revenue synergies brought about by cross-selling. There’s considerable uncertainty related to fundamental company performance following a merger. The merger is the initial event, but the ex-ante analysis makes projections related to the next major upcoming event, such as the first time the combined firm reports earnings.

It’s often impossible to account for all the variables for every form of ex-ante analysis. The market sometimes behaves erratically. That's why price targets that account for many fundamental variables sometimes miss the mark due to exogenous market shocks that affect nearly all stocks.

Ex-Post

Ex-post is the opposite of ex-ante. It's Latin for after the event and compares expectations versus actuals once the ex-ante analysis's event passes. Looking back at predictions ex-post helps to refine them going forward.

Analysts and investors can use historic returns to make predictions on the performance of investments and companies. As such, any risks that an investor or other individual may experience in the future can be determined using statistical measurements based on the investment's long-term returns.

Investors, advisers, and analysts can use ex-post analyses to calculate the largest scope of losses possible. This doesn't include future market swings, abnormalities, or other unexpected events that may take place.

Advantages and Disadvantages

Ex-ante analyses use past performance and allow investors and companies to better prepare themselves for every possible outcome of investing, whether that's positive or negative. Using historical data makes investors, analysts, and companies more prepared to make important investment decisions.

However, this type of analysis is only a prediction and isn't based on actual results. As such, it doesn't provide any concrete determinations, nor does it account for unexpected events, such as market swings, investor sentiment, or other surprising industry news.

Example

Suppose Company ABC is expected to report earnings on a certain date. Analysts at a research firm will use economic and financial data from its past and present operating conditions to predict its EPS. They may analyze the overall economic climate and whether the company's business operation costs might be affected by it. They may also use past business decisions and earnings statements to hypothesize about the company's sales figures.

The Bottom Line

There are many different ways for investors and companies to make important decisions about their investments. One of the most common ways to do so is by conducting or reviewing ex-ante analysis. This type of research is done using forecasting by taking historical returns and performance into account. This is common for earnings reports and other major events like mergers.