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.