The peak weeks of Q3'11 have finished with 73% of S&P 500 companies reporting above expectations

Despite a number of high profile companies reporting EPS below expectations (including Wal-Mart Stores, Sears Holdings, and Tyson Foods) in recent weeks, most companies have reported EPS above the analyst expectations. Of the 491 companies that have reported earnings to date, 73% have reported earnings above expectations, which is consistent with the 74% average recorded over the past four quarters.

Due to these results, the blended earnings growth rate now stands at 15.7%, up from last week’s growth rate of 15.6%. Better-than-expected earnings from Deere and Hewlett-Packard accounted for most of the increase in the growth rate during the week.

Overall, the current blended earnings growth rate of 15.7% is just below the estimated growth rate of 16.5% at the start of the quarter (June 30). However, analysts significantly overestimated earnings growth in some sectors (Financials and Materials) and substantially underestimated earnings in other sectors (Health Care and Utilities).

The “peak weeks” of the Q3 2011 earnings season are now finished. The remaining 2% of companies in the index that have not reported earnings for Q3 2011 to date will do so over the next two weeks. During the upcoming week, four companies in the S&P 500 are scheduled to report earnings.

Read more about earnings season in this week's edition of FactSet Earnings Insight.

All of the data used to compile FactSet Earnings Insight is available in the FactSet workstation.