Google provides two definitions for "expectation" (a) a strong belief that something will happen or be the case in the future. (b) a belief that someone will

Google provides two definitions for "expectation" (a) a strong belief that something will happen or be the case in the future. (b) a belief that someone will or should achieve something. The first is a descriptive expectation. A statement about what you think _will be_. The second is a prescriptive expectation. A statement about what you think _should be_. I think the person is trying to point out that in this context, "expectation" is a descriptive expectation, rather than a prescriptive one. If you interpreted it as a prescriptive expectation the other meaning of the sentence might be something like "47% is less than the number _desired_ by analysts"