Monday, October 25, 2010

Earnings Beat Rates by Sector

From Bespoke Investment Group:
Last week we did a post looking at the percentage of all companies that have beaten earnings estimates this reporting period.  Below we break up the numbers by sectors to see which areas of the market are coming in better or worse than average.  As of last Friday, 74% of all US companies had beaten earnings estimates. 
Four sectors have "beat rates" that are better than 74%, while six have "beat rates" that are worse than 74%.  As shown below, the Technology sector has far and away the highest beat rate at 84.4% this earnings season.  Energy ranks second at 77.8%, followed by Industrials (76.9%) and Health Care (74.3%).  The Consumer Staples sector surprisingly has the lowest beat rate at just 50%.  Materials ranks 2nd to last at 65%, and Consumer Discretionary is just above that at 66%.  Telecom (66.7%), Utilities (66.7%), and Financials (71.4%) are the other sectors with beat rates less than the overall market.

We also track how stocks react to their earnings reports on the first trading day following their release....MORE