Second Quarter Earnings Analysis by Sector

Below we highlight the percentage of S&P 500 companies that beat earnings estimates in the second quarter by sector.  With 435 out of 500 companies already having reported, the final numbers shouldn't change too much from here. 

As shown, Telecom and Industrials have beaten estimates at a very high rate (just under 89%).  Health Care, Consumer Staples, Technology and Materials are the other sectors doing better than the S&P 500 as a whole, while Consumer Discretionary, Energy, Utilities and Financials have done worse than the S&P 500. 

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We also provide a chart of the percentage of companies reporting earnings that were stronger than they were in Q2 '07.  Again, the Industrial sector has had a strong showing, with 88.7% of companies in the sector showing year-over-year earnings growth.  Health Care ranks a close second, followed by Energy, Telecom and Technology.  The S&P 500 as a whole has seen 63% of companies report stronger YoY growth.  Consumer Discretionary and Financials are once again the weak links, with less than 50% of companies in each reporting stronger growth.