Are More S&P 500 Companies Withdrawing or Providing EPS Guidance for 2020?

During each corporate earnings season, it is not unusual for companies to provide guidance on expected earnings for future quarters or for the full year. However, a number of companies are currently having difficulty providing an estimate for future earnings due to the uncertainty surrounding the negative impacts of COVID-19. Given this difficulty, how many S&P 500 companies have provided EPS guidance for 2020 during the Q1 earnings season? How many S&P 500 companies have withdrawn EPS guidance for 2020 during the Q1 earnings season?

To answer these questions, FactSet searched for comments on annual EPS guidance in the Q1 earnings releases, presentations, and conference call transcripts of the 122 S&P 500 companies that had reported actual results for the first quarter through April 24. Of these 122 companies, 50 (41%) commented on EPS guidance for the current year.

Of these 50 companies, 30 (60%) stated that they were withdrawing or had already withdrawn previous EPS guidance for FY 2020. All 30 of these companies cited the uncertainty of the future impacts of COVID-19 as the reason for withdrawing EPS guidance for the full year. At the sector level, the Industrials (8) and Consumer Staples (7) sectors had the highest number of companies withdrawing EPS guidance for the year.

On the other hand, 20 S&P 500 companies provided EPS guidance for FY 2020. Of these 20 companies, 10 provided annual EPS guidance that was lower than the previous guidance issued by the company, six maintained previous (annual) EPS guidance, and four provided annual EPS guidance that was higher than the previous guidance issued by the company. At the sector level, the Health Care (4) and Information Technology (4) sectors had the highest number of companies issuing EPS guidance for the year.

The market will certainly continue to focus on any forward EPS guidance issued by S&P 500 companies for the remainder of the earnings season to gain as much clarity as possible on the financial impact of COVID-19.

A list of the companies that withdrew and provided 2020 EPS guidance (and their comments) can be found in the full FactSet Earnings Insight report, which can be downloaded at the link below.