The Upcoming Third-Quarter Earnings Season

This is, thankfully, the final week of the third quarter. In a few weeks, the third-quarter earnings season will begin.

For last year’s Q3, the S&P 500 reported earnings of $21.56. Wall Street currently expects earnings of $24.72 for this year’s Q3 which represents an increase of 14.7%. For the second quarter, the S&P 500 earned $24.86 so sequential earnings may decline slightly.

Earnings growth for the fourth quarter is actually expected to accelerate to 18.7%. But I wouldn’t be surprised to see those estimates get pared back between now and the end of the year.

Here’s the expected earnings third-quarter growth for the 10 S&P 500 sectors:

Consumer Discretionary 12.6%
Consumer Staples 7.8%
Energy 50.3%
Financials 2.8%
Health Care 11.4%
Industrials 10.5%
Information Technology 15.2%
Materials 27.7%
Telecommunication Services 2.2%
Utilities 1.7%

Posted by on September 27th, 2011 at 10:52 am


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