Information Technology companies report earnings and guidance |
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31 May 2011 |
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Overall, it has been another strong earnings season to date relative to the expectations of analysts. Of the 490 companies that have reported earnings to date in the index for Q1 2011, 73% have reported EPS above the mean estimate and 68% have reported sales above the mean estimate. As a result of the strong performance, there has been an uptick in the earnings and revenue growth rates for the index since the start of earnings season. The blended (combines actual results for companies that have reported and estimated results for companies yet to report) earnings growth rate for the S&P 500 for Q1 2011 is 18.7%, and the blended revenue growth rate is 8.9%. On March 31, the estimated earnings growth rate was 11.5%, while the estimated revenue growth rate was 6.9%. Some of the key themes that affected earnings and sales for the first quarter (and may also affect future quarters) include the disaster in Japan, rising commodity prices, and global economic growth. Next week, two S&P 500 companies are scheduled to report earnings. Read more about the past week's earnings results in FactSet Earnings Insight. |
During the past week, a number of companies in the Information Technology sector in the S&P 500 reported earnings for Q1 2011. Three of these companies also issued EPS guidance for Q2 2011. Two companies issued negative EPS guidance, while one company issued positive EPS guidance. This 2-to-1 ratio of negative-to-positive EPS guidance for the week is identical to the overall ratio of negative-to-positive EPS guidance to date for the Information Technology sector for Q2 2011. The percentage of Information Technology companies that have issued negative EPS guidance for Q2 2011 is higher than the percentage of companies that issued negative EPS guidance in Q1 2011. In conjunction with this increase in negative guidance, the percentage of companies in the sector that have recorded a decline in estimated EPS has also increased relative to Q1 2011. So far, the aggregate earnings decline has been isolated to Q2 2011, but this trend will bear watching moving forward to see if it spreads to future quarters.
