Estimates for S&P 500 earnings next year are too high given the low pace of U.S. economic growth, AB's chief investment officer of U.S. concentrated growth said Monday.
Bottom-up estimates for 2017 see earnings per share at $134, which would represent double-digit growth, Jim Tierney told CNBC's "Squawk Box."
"I don't think there's a chance in the world we get there with 1 percent GDP, which is what we did in the first half. You're just not going to see that kind of growth, so I think numbers have to come down," he said.
"It's tough to see how we get anything close to double-digit earnings growth next year."
AB has sold some of its positions selectively in anticipation of a temporary stock price pullback, Tierney said.
U.S. corporate earnings are poised for the fourth-straight quarter of profit declines. As of Friday morning, with 63 percent of S&P 500 companies having reported, they were on pace to fall 3.7 percent, according to Thomson Reuters data.
The energy sector is producing the largest headwind. Following a series of disappointing earnings from integrated oil companies, energy earnings are expected to be down about 94 percent from the year-earlier period, Thomson Reuters says.
The results come as U.S. crude futures resumed their slide last month, falling nearly 14 percent in July, after rallying from the winter's 12-year lows in the first half. That has raised concerns that oil markets could once again drag down stock prices.
UBS portfolio manager Alan Rechtschaffen said Monday most market participants have priced in oil at $40 to $50 per barrel. But if prices break below that range, all bets are off, he said.
"The Federal Reserve has consistently spoken about the transient effect of oil prices. Well, if it happens the beginning of this year — January and February remember — it happens again now, when does transient become permanent?" he told "Squawk Box."