But the incentive costs and other information presented by the G.M. staff prompted many analysts to lower their fourth-quarter estimates yesterday to 50 cents or less.

Wall Street analysts reacted to today's news by drastically revising their fourth-quarter estimates, though few made sharp cuts in their forecasts for next year.

Mr. Conway lowered his fourth-quarter estimate by a penny, nevertheless, to reflect costs the company may incur from consolidating bottling operations in Russia.

The service's fourth-quarter estimates are $1 a share for Citigroup, with a very wide range of individual predictions, and 72 cents a share for Morgan.

Steve Milunovich, an analyst with Merrill Lynch, cut his fourth-quarter estimate by 5 cents, to 73 cents.

David Readerman, an analyst with Shearson Lehman, cut his fourth-quarter estimate for the software company to 5 cents a share from 20 cents a share.

The company said it still expected to meet fourth-quarter estimates of 60 to 65 cents a share.

He lowered his third-quarter estimate to $1.90 from $2.60, and his fourth-quarter estimate to 95 cents from $1.10.

John Devine, Ford's chief financial officer, said that the company was "comfortable with" analysts' fourth-quarter estimates of $1.22 a share.

But Morgan's unpredictable trading operation caused the range of fourth-quarter estimates to run from $1.70 to $2.16.