London (CNN Business)A growing number of companies are warning that the coronavirus will prevent them from meeting sales or profit targets for the first three months of the year. Some are even getting specific, and putting a number on the financial damage.

Yet the situation remains highly uncertain, and many of the financial projections assume the coronavirus will be contained in China over the coming weeks and months, and that there won't be a major outbreak in another country. If the Chinese economy doesn't come roaring back as quickly as expected, investors could be caught off guard.

"Investors have largely taken the view that the impact will be temporary, hopefully short-lived, and that most of the weakness should be reversed with a strong rebound in the quarters that follow," Peter Oppenheimer, chief global equity strategist at Goldman Sachs, wrote this week.