S&P 500 Earnings Leaderboard: Biggest Surprises Season to Date
By: Ariel Nelson | Director of Market Data & Content Services, CBNC
So far 364 of the S&P 500 companies (just under 75%) have reported earnings.
Here's how things stand:
- Companies Exceeding Estimates: 219 or 60%
- Companies Matching Estimates: 49 or 13%
- Companies Falling Below Estimates: 96 or 26%
So far, it is the tech sector that has the biggest surprises to the upside, with Lexmark reporting EPS that was 122% above expectations. In absolute dollars, Exxon still leads with its $982 million surprise. Disney surprised last week by $219 million.
Earnings Leaderboard - Best Performers (as of 2/8)
| Company | Symbol | Sector | Date | EPS Est. | Actual | %Chg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lexmark Holdings | LXK | Tech | 1/29 | 0.58 | 1.29 | 122% |
| Tellabs Inc | TLAB | Tech | 1/22 | 0.01 | 0.02 | 100% |
| LSI Corp | LSI | Tech | 1/23 | 0.07 | 0.13 | 86% |
| JDS Uniphase | JDSU | Tech | 2/5 | 0.12 | 0.22 | 83% |
| Tyson Foods Inc | TSN | CnStp | 1/28 | 0.04 | 0.07 | 75% |
| Valero Energy | VLO | Energy | 1/29 | 0.64 | 1.02 | 59% |
| Raytheon Co. | RTN | Indus | 1/31 | 0.92 | 1.45 | 58% |
| Cincinnati Financial | CINF | Fin Svcs | 2/6 | 0.74 | 1.07 | 45% |
| CA Inc. | CA | Tech | 1/31 | 0.25 | 0.36 | 44% |
| Polo Ralph Lauren | RL | CnDisc | 2/6 | 0.77 | 1.08 | 40% |
Thomson Financial
On the downside, the banks lead the losers with Sallie Mae reporting the biggest miss in that sector, off by 165%. The biggest surprise overall has been Tesoro which missed by 1,550%. In absolute dollars, Merrill Lynch is still the biggest loser with its $6.3 billion downside surprise.
Source:Thomson Financial
To date 364 (just under 75%) of the S&P 500 companies have reported earnings. Here's a look at which companies have had the biggest surprises so far...
