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

As of this morning, 399 companies or nearly 80% of the S&P 500 have reported earnings.

Here's how things stand:

• Companies Exceeding Estimates: 57%
• Companies Matching Estimates: 8%
• Companies Falling Below Estimates: 35%

Compared to three weeks ago when only 20% had reported, the breakdown has shifted with a larger increase in companies beating vs. missing estimates. Even compared to one week ago, the trend shows a slight increase in companies beating. On a percentage basis, steel players US Steel and Nucor continue to lead the list of upside surprises. In absolute dollars, energy and tech rule. Chevron's $549 million surprise passes Pfizer's $405 million surprise followed by Marathon Oil's $381 million and Apple's $347 million surprise. IBM is next in line with a $336 surprise.

Earnings Leaderboard - Best Performers (as of 2/18)

Company	Symbol	Sector	Date	EPS Est.	Actual	%Chg
US Steel	X	Materials	1/27/2009	0.75	2.00	167%
Nucor	NUE	Materials	1/27/2009	0.13	0.34	162%
Stanley Works	SWK	Cons Disc	1/28/2009	0.34	0.66	94%
Texas Instruments	TXN	Tech	1/26/2009	0.12	0.21	75%
CF Industries	CF	Materials	2/10/2009	2.11	3.59	70%
Janus Capital	JNS	Financials	1/22/2009	0.03	0.05	67%

Thomson Reuters

On the downside, Financials continue to take all 5 of the 5 worst surprises. Fifth Third leads the losers, reporting the biggest miss in that sector, off by a whopping 38,000%. In absolute dollars, Citigroup leads with its $6.3 billion negative surprise followed by Regions Financial's $6.2 billion and Wells Fargo's $4.7 billion downside surprises.

Source:Thomson Reuters

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