Featured Image

Earnings Update: March 17, 2017

Earnings

By John Butters  |  March 17, 2017

Here are the key earnings metrics for the week of March 17, 2017: 

  • Earnings Growth: For Q1 2017, the estimated earnings growth rate for the S&P 500 is 9.0%. If 9.0% is the actual growth rate for the quarter, it will mark the highest (year-over-year) earnings growth for the index since Q4 2011 (11.6%).
  • Earnings Revisions: On December 31, the estimated earnings growth rate for Q1 2017 was 12.3%. Nine of the eleven sectors have lower growth rates today (compared to December 31) due to downward revisions to earnings estimates, led by the Materials sector.
  • Earnings Guidance: For Q1 2017, 78 S&P 500 companies have issued negative EPS guidance and 32 S&P 500 companies have issued positive EPS guidance.
  • Valuation: The forward 12-month P/E ratio for the S&P 500 is 17.8. This P/E ratio is above the 5-year average (15.0) and above the 10-year average (13.9).
  • Earnings Scorecard: As of today (with 4 companies in the S&P 500 reporting actual results for Q1 2017), 2 S&P 500 companies have beat the mean EPS estimate and 2 S&P 500 companies have beat the mean sales estimate.
spx change in forward eps.png
Download the latest Earnings Insight

John Butters

Vice President, Senior Earnings Analyst

Mr. John Butters is Vice President and Senior Earnings Analyst at FactSet. His weekly research report, “Earnings Insight,” provides analysis and commentary on trends in corporate earnings data for the S&P 500 including revisions to estimates, year-over-year growth, performance relative to expectations, and valuations. He is a widely used source for the media and has appeared on CNBC, Fox Business News, and the Business News Network. In addition, he has been cited by numerous print and online publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, The New York Times, MarketWatch, and Yahoo! Finance. Mr. Butters has over 15 years of experience in the financial services industry. Prior to FactSet in January 2011, he worked for more than 10 years at Thomson Reuters (Thomson Financial), most recently as Director of U.S. Earnings Research (2007-2010).

Comments

The information contained in this article is not investment advice. FactSet does not endorse or recommend any investments and assumes no liability for any consequence relating directly or indirectly to any action or inaction taken based on the information contained in this article.