Always meeting earnings targets

[Floratang]

The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight says top officers at Fannie Mae created a false image of always meeting earnings targets. This let them receive millions of dollars in extra pay.----from an economics report named "Fannie Mae Agrees to Big Fine to Settle Accounting Case".

please explain the phrase for me.

[Yankee]

Hi floratang

A company's earnings is basically the same as profit (i.e., total revenues minus overhead, cost of sales, taxes). Companies always set goals/targets for this.

Basically your sentence means, Fannie Mae always gave the false or misleading information that they had achieved their profit goals.

Does that help?

Amy