It appears that once a public company has reached a point of success, it also becomes "smart" enough to know when to play that success down. Over the last few days, both eBay and Apple performed pretty well earnings-wise, but both will likely be smacked down for projecting less than stellar results going forward.
This is a learned skill. Simply, the best way to beat estimates later is to talk them down now. Microsoft is probably the best at this in the tech world, consistently beating estimates in the quarter following chicken-littling them down in the current quarter. It's always the same - "Microsoft net increases 20%, but guidance was guarded to negative going foward". It's the mentality and practice of saying "We can't keep this up indefinitely" - and then doing it indefinitely.
Thus, perhaps the best buying opportunity for companies like these that are consistent strong performers is right AFTER they get pummeled for downplaying the next quarter. Of course, they COULD be telling the truth, but I suspect there's more gamesmanship there than anything.
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