IBES is kind of the baseball box scores tables for earnings (and other) estimates from Wall Street sellside analysts/brokers.
IBES makes it their business to be up to date on what more or less every professional analyst is estimating and/or thinking about the earnings and growth capabilities of companies in their broad investment universe. IBES then sells subscriptions to this product to buyside investors who...care.
Is there much correlation between IBES estimates and/or stock broker recommendation of stocks and bonds and actual investing success? Eh, not in the long run. But IBES numbers at least give one anchoring point for professional investors to set their investing GPS coordinates as they then search for the latest Zodiac revelation to tell them where to put their money.
Isn't that what Warren does?