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The first-quarter earnings season is heating up—both in tempo and the numbers themselves.
More than a third of S&P 500 companies had reported their latest financial results through Friday, according to a FactSet analysis. This week is going to be busy with high-profile results from companies all over, but especially tomorrow and Thursday. Goldman Sachs estimates that more than 40% of benchmark index’s market capital will be reported this week.
A preliminary analysis of the data indicates that the first-quarter results were strong. FactSet’s blended estimate for total S&P 500 earnings—meaning a combination of numbers already reported and Wall Street expectations for those remaining—as of Friday, pointed to year-over-year growth just above 10%. A week earlier it was closer to 7%.
FactSet reported that a 10.1% increase would be a second quarter in a row of index companies growing at double-digit rates, and seventh quarter in a row of earnings growth year-overyear.
Some market watchers had expected fewer companies would provide guidance this season. Bank of America’s analysis shows that they were right. Only 16% of the companies that have reported have provided outlooks. This is down from 27% last year.
This week is full of results that will be closely observed. The key results are Coca-Cola and Pfizer on Tuesday, Meta (META), Microsoft (MSFT) and Apple (AAPL), Amazon AMZN and McDonald’s MCD on Thursday.
