Highest Number of S&P 500 Earnings Calls Citing “Oil” Since 2020

Given the sharp increase in the price of oil since the beginning of March, did more S&P 500 companies comment on oil during their earnings conference calls for the first quarter compared to the fourth quarter?

The answer is yes. FactSet Document Search (which allows users to search for key words or phrases across multiple document types) was used to answer this question. Through Document Search, FactSet searched for the term “oil” in the conference call transcripts of all the S&P 500 companies that conducted earnings calls from March 15 through June 5.

Overall, the term “oil” was cited on 149 earnings calls conducted by S&P 500 companies during this period. This number reflects a quarter-over-quarter increase of 176% compared to Q4 2025, when the term “oil” was cited on 54 earnings calls (from December 15 through March 14). The number for Q1 2026 is also above the trailing 5-year average (66), 10-year average (87), and 15-year average (97) for a quarter.

In fact, this marks the highest number of earnings calls conducted by S&P 500 companies citing the term “oil” since Q1 2020 at 165 (using current index constituents going back in time). The current record for the highest number of earnings calls where the term “oil” was cited over the past 15 years is 230 in Q4 2014.

At the sector level, the Industrials (30) sector has the highest number of earnings calls where the term “oil” was cited, while the Energy (100%) sector has the highest percentage of earning calls where the term “oil” was cited.

On a quarter-over-quarter basis, all 11 sectors have recorded an increase in the number of earnings calls where the term “oil” was cited, led by the Consumer Discretionary (+21), Industrials (+21), and Health Care (+17) sectors.

Despite the volatility in the price of oil in recent months, it is interesting to note that only a small number of the companies that cited “oil” on Q1 earnings calls also lowered EPS guidance for 2026.

Of the 149 S&P 500 companies that cited “oil” on their Q1 earnings calls, 86 (or 58%) also provided annual EPS guidance for 2026. This percentage (58%) is higher than the overall percentage of S&P 500 companies providing annual EPS guidance for 2026 (53%).

Of these 86 companies, 38 maintained previous (annual) EPS guidance, 34 provided annual EPS guidance that was higher than the previous (annual) guidance issued by the company, 9 provided annual EPS guidance that was lower than the previous (annual) guidance issued by the company, 3 initiated new or quantifiable annual EPS guidance, and 2 did not provide an update relative to previous (annual) guidance.

Therefore, 84% (72 out of 86) of the S&P 500 companies that cited “oil” on their Q1 earnings calls and provided annual EPS guidance either increased or maintained prior EPS guidance for 2026. On the other hand, 13% (11 out of 86) of the S&P 500 companies that cited “oil” on their Q1 earnings calls and provided annual EPS guidance either lowered annual EPS guidance or did not provide an update relative to previous EPS guidance for 2026.

Of these 11 companies, seven cited oil prices as a factor for either lowering or not updating annual EPS guidance. A list of these 7 companies and their comments can be found in Appendix 1 starting on page 33 of the Earnings Insight report. The other four companies cited other factors or did not provide specific reasons for lowering or not updating annual EPS guidance.

As a result, 8% (7 out of 86) of the companies that cited “oil” on their Q1 earnings calls and provided annual EPS guidance cited oil prices as a factor for either lowering or not updating annual EPS guidance. 

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