A researcher investigates how the temperature of an oven (in ${}^{\circ }\text{C}$) affects the time (in minutes) needed to bake a loaf of bread. After collecting data from several test bakes, a regression equation $\hat{y}=80.5-0.12x$ was developed, where $x$ is the oven temperature. What does the symbol $\hat{y}$ represent in this equation?