cgaros:

That said, when you talk about growth your talking about the future, so you need some sort of analysis.  Unfortunately, analysts are pretty terrible at estimating growth. 

In my own view, it doesn't hurt to include analyst estimates since they help drive a stock's performance.  REGARDLESS of whether they are right or wrong.  When there are constant upward revisions of a stock's earnings potential, that tends to move the stock up.  So analysts may not be gods, but they do help move the market.

But that doesn't seem to be what the OP is after, so I guess it's moot at this point