S&P 500 Earnings Leaderboard: Biggest Surprises Season to Date

As of yesterday afternoon, ~50% of the S&P 500 companies had reported earnings.

Here's how things stand so far:

• Companies Exceeding Estimates: 76%
• Companies Matching Estimates: 10%
• Companies Falling Below Estimates: 14%

Compared to the same point in time last earnings season, the breakdown has shifted with a significantly larger increase in companies beating vs. missing estimates. At the same point last quarter, 26% of the companies reporting had missed EPS estimates and only 63% had beaten estimates.

Sallie Mae still has had the biggest percent surprise to the upside followed by JP Morgan Chase and Caterpillar . In absolute dollars, financials take 4 of the top 5 slots in the leaderboard. Citigroup leads with $4.7 billion surprise followed by Wells Fargo's $1.1 billion and JP Morgan's surprise of nearly $936 million. Ford is the only non-financial on the list, with an $869 million surprise.

Earnings Leaderboard - Best Performers (as of 7/23)

Company	Symbol	Sector	Date	EPS Est.	Actual	%Chg
Sallie Mae	SLM	Financials	7/21/2009	0.04	0.31	675%
JP Morgan Chase	JPM	Financials	7/16/2009	0.04	0.28	600%
Caterpillar	CAT	Industrials	7/21/2009	0.22	0.72	227%
Whirlpool	WHR	Cons Disc	7/22/2009	0.51	1.04	104%
Freeport McMoran	FCX	Materials	7/21/2009	0.69	1.38	100%

Thomson Reuters

On the downside, Allegheny Technologies still leads the losers, reporting a -567% miss. In absolute dollars, Intel leads with its $838 million negative surprise followed by Morgan Stanley's $825 million downside surprises.

Earnings Leaderboard - Biggest Losers (as of 7/23)

Company	Symbol	Sector	Rpt Date	EPS Est.	Actual	%Chg
Allegheny Technologies	ATI	Materials	7/22/2009	0.03	-0.14	-567%
Nabors Industries	NBR	Energy	7/21/2009	0.26	-0.68	-362%
Intel	INTC	Tech	7/14/2009	0.08	-0.07	-188%
Harley Davidson	HOG	Cons Disc	7/16/2009	0.24	0.08	-67%
Host Hotels	HST	Financials	7/22/2009	0.24	0.12	-50%

Thomson Reuters

Source:Thomson Reuters

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