Third quarter earnings results are pouring in. So far I would
characterize the season as good, but not great. We have 126, or
25.2%, of the S&P 500 firms reporting so far. That sort of
understates things a bit, since those 25.2% of firms represent 39%
of all expected earnings for the quarter (provided that the
remaining 374 firms all report exactly in line with
expectations).
The year-over-year growth rate for the S&P 500 is 12.13%. That
is actually well above the 3.33% growth that those same 126 firms
posted in the second quarter. However, the second quarter was
distorted by some big hits to the financial sector, most notably
Bank of America (BAC). This time it reported
better-than-expected earnings and did not have the big “write off”
it did in the second quarter. That resulted in a $12 billion swing
in total net income between the second and third quarters.
If we exclude the financial sector, the year-over-year growth rate
is just a bit higher at 13.51%, but it represents a far bigger
slowdown from the second quarter, when growth was 22.71%. The
remaining 374 stocks are expected to growth their earnings 12.33%
over last year, down from 22.71% growth in the second quarter. If
we exclude the financials, the remaining growth in the third
quarter is expected to slow to 11.99% year over year from 17.99%.
Then again, at the beginning of earnings second quarter season,
growth of 9.7% was expected; 12.2% ex-financials.
We will need another season where positive earnings surprises far
outpace disappointments if we are going to match the second quarter
growth rate. If we combine the already reported results with the
expectations, it now looks like the final growth will come in at
12.25%.
Better than Expected
Relative to expectations, both earnings and revenues are doing
better than expected. Then again, having far more companies report
positive surprises than disappointments is entirely normal. The
current ratio of 2.65 (for the 126) is actually well below the
average experience of the last five years or so. The median
surprise is 2.78% and that is also below normal. Still, it is far
more positive surprises than disappointments.
Top-line surprises started off extremely strong, but faded over the
last week. The surprise ratio is now 2.00 for revenues with a 1.12
median surprise. Not bad, but not terrific either. Top line growth
so far has been 8.37%, and 8.83% ex-financials. The remaining 374
firms are collectively expected to grow their top lines by 7.20%,
or by 10.28% if we exclude the financials.
Expanding net margins have been one of the keys to earnings growth.
That is still the case, with reported net margins of 13.40% so far,
up from 12.95% a year ago, and 12.27% in the second quarter (for
those 126 firms). However, the mix of firms that have reported so
far is skewed towards higher-margin firms, and the BAC effect is
very big as far as the increase relative to the second quarter is
concerned. Excluding financials, net margins have come in at 9.99%
up from 9.58% a year ago, but down from 10.45% in the second
quarter.
Looking ahead, overall net margins are expected to be down only
slightly from the second quarter at 7.97% versus 8.00% in the
second quarter, but up from 7.61% a year ago. Excluding the
financials, though, it looks like the expanding net margin party
might be coming to an end, with only 7.17% expected, down from both
the 7.94% level of the second quarter, and 7.59% a year ago.
On an annual basis, net margins continue to march northward.
In 2008, overall net margins were just 5.88%, rising to 6.33% in
2009. They hit 8.57% in 2010 and are expected to continue climbing
to 9.28% in 2011 and 9.84% in 2012. The pattern is a bit different,
particularly during the recession, if the financials are excluded,
as margins fell from 7.78% in 2008 to 6.99% in 2009, but have
started a robust recovery and rose to 8.18% in 2010. They are
expected to rise to 8.82% in 2011 and 9.12% in 2012.
The expectations for the full year are very healthy, with total net
income for 2010 rising to $793.6 billion in 2010, up from $543.4
billion in 2009. In 2011, the total net income for the
S&P 500 should be $907.0 billion, or increases of 46.0% and
14.3%, respectively. The expectation is for 2012 to have total net
income passing the $1 Trillion mark to $1.015 Trillion, for growth
of 11.9%.
S&P "EPS" to Surpass $100
That will also put the “EPS” for the S&P 500 over the $100 “per
share” level for the first time at $106.43. That is up from $56.98
for 2009, $83.25 for 2010, and $95.10 for 2011. In an environment
where the 10-year T-note is yielding 2.19%, a P/E of 14.6x based on
2010 and 12.8x based on 2011 earnings looks attractive. The P/E
based on 2012 earnings is just 11.4x.
Estimate revisions activity is starting to rise again. We have seen
a little bit of a bounce in the ratio of upwards to downwards
revisions, especially for this year, but it is still far from
turning positive. To some extent, there is a mechanical reason for
upwards revisions to this year. After all, the third quarter is
part of the full year, so if a company beats by, say, a nickel, and
the analysts don’t increase their estimates for the firms by at
least that much, they are implicitly cutting their numbers for the
fourth quarter. With more than five positive surprises for every
disappointment, one should expect more upwards revisions than
cuts.
Even so, the ratio is still deep in negative territory at just
0.61, although that figure still includes a lot of estimate changes
that were made before the earnings reports came in (we track a four
week moving total). There is no mechanical effect when it comes to
the revisions for next year, and those remain even further in
negative territory at just 0.36, or almost three cuts for every
increase.
The net cuts are very widespread. For this year only five of 16
sectors are seeing more positive than negative revisions, and eight
sectors have more than two cuts for every increase. For next year,
every single sector has more cuts than increases, and cuts out
number increases by more than three to one in nine sectors. As the
principal argument in the bulls favor is the high level of
corporate earnings, and the low valuations relative to them, this
trend needs to reverse -- and soon.
I would look for those companies with solid dividends and for which
the analysts are still raising their estimates for next year, and
which are rated either #1 or #2 on the Zacks Rank. Some of
the names that meet those criteria are
DuPont
(DD),
Eaton (ETN) and
PPG
Industries (PPG) and
Phillip Morris
(MO).
BANK OF AMER CP (BAC): Free Stock Analysis Report
DU PONT (EI) DE (DD): Free Stock Analysis Report
EATON CORP (ETN): Free Stock Analysis Report
PPG INDS INC (PPG): Free Stock Analysis Report
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