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

Published: Thursday, 29 Oct 2009 | 11:22 AM ET

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By: Ariel Nelson
Director of Market Data & Content Services

Yesterday we passed the earnings season midpoint and now ~60% of the S&P 500 [.SPX Loading... () ] companies have reported earnings.

Here's how things stand so far:

Companies Exceeding EPS Estimates: 80%
Companies Matching EPS Estimates: 6%
Companies Falling Below EPS Estimates: 14%

At the same point last quarter, 14% of the companies reporting had missed EPS estimates and 76% had beaten estimates.

Dow component, Caterpillar [CAT Loading... () ] has had the biggest percent surprise to the upside followed by Capital One [COF Loading... () ] and Sallie Mae [SLM Loading... () ]. In absolute dollars, financials sit atop the leaderboard. After Citigroup's [C Loading... () ] surprise of over $1.3 billion, JP Morgan Chase [JPM Loading... () ] and Wells Fargo [WFC Loading... () ] follow with ~$1.2 billion and ~$900 million surprises.

Earnings - Best Performers (as of 10/29 am)

Company	Symbol	Sector	Date	EPS Est.	Actual	%Chg
Caterpillar	CAT	Industrials	10/20/2009	0.06	0.64	967%
Capital One	COF	Financials	10/22/2009	0.14	0.94	571%
Sallie Mae	SLM	Financials	10/20/2009	0.04	0.26	550%
AK Steel	AKS	Materials	10/27/2009	0.01	0.06	500%
PNC Financial	PNC	Financials	10/22/2009	0.31	1.00	223%

On the downside, Massey Energy [MEE Loading... () ] overtook Pittsburgh based Allegheny Technologies [ATI Loading... () ] to lead the losers, reporting a -122% miss. In absolute dollars, Bank of America leads with its $433 million negative surprise.

Earnings - Biggest Losers (as of 10/29 am)

Company	Symbol	Sector	Rpt Date	EPS Est.	Actual	%Chg
Massey Energy	MEE	Energy	10/27/2009	0.18	-0.04	-122%
Allegheny Technologies	ATI	Materials	10/21/2009	0.03	0.01	-67%
Harley Davidson	HOG	Cons Disc	10/15/2009	0.21	0.11	-48%
Genzyme	GENZ	Healthcare	10/21/2009	0.44	0.31	-30%
CONSOL Energy	CNX	Energy	10/22/2009	0.66	0.48	-27%

Source: Thomson Reuters

Many companies have improved their earnings by cutting costs. Investors are looking for topline growth as a sign that the economy has indeed turned the corner. Continue on to the next page to see the biggest revenue surprises to date as well.

CONTINUED: Biggest revenue surprises to date

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