Zacks Earnings Trends Highlights: IBM, Intel, Yum Brands and Family Dollar
CHICAGO, Oct. 21, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Zacks Director of Research Sheraz Mian says, "The picture emerging from the 2013 Q3 earnings season is far from inspiring or reassuring."
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The Uninspiring Q3 Earnings Season
The picture emerging from the 2013 Q3 earnings season is far from inspiring or reassuring. There hasn't been much growth in recent quarters and not much was expected from Q3 either, particularly after the sharp estimate cuts in the run up to the reporting season. But companies are struggling with meeting and exceeding even those lowered expectations.
Total earnings for the 99 S&P 500 companies that have reported results already, as of Friday October 18th, are up +1.0% from the same period last year, with 62.6% beating earnings expectations with a median surprise of +2.1%. Total revenues for these companies are up +2.1%, with 43.4% beating revenue expectations with a median surprise of +0.0%.
All of the growth is coming from the Finance sector. Excluding Finance, total earnings growth for the companies that have reported falls in the negative category – down -6.2%. This is weak performance than what we have seen from the same group of companies in Q2 and the 4-quarter average.
Expectations for the four-fifths of the S&P 500 members still to report Q3 results remain low, which should effectively guarantee that most companies will have little difficulty in beating them. We see this quarter after quarter, with about two-thirds of the companies beating earnings expectations – a good illustration of management teams' tendency to under-promise and over-deliver. However, beat ratios are running a tad bit lower thus far in Q3.
But unlike the low growth expectations for Q3, consensus estimates for Q4 and beyond represent a material acceleration in the growth pace.
Total earnings growth is expected to ramp up to +9.5% in Q4 from the roughly +3.1% growth pace in the first half of the year and the current expected +0.2% growth in Q3. The actual growth in Q3 will likely be more in the vicinity of what was achieved in the first half of the year, i.e. in the +2.5% to +3% range.
Guidance has overwhelmingly been negative over the last few quarters. But if current Q4 expectations have to hold, then we will need to see a change on the guidance front; we need to see more companies either guide higher or reaffirm current consensus expectations. The overall tone of guidance thus far in Q3 isn't materially different from what we have been seeing in the last few quarters, as the negative guidance from IBM (NYSE:IBM-Free Report), Intel (Nasdaq:INTC-Free Report), Yum Brands (NYSE:YUM-Free Report), Family Dollar (NYSE:FDO-Free Report) and many others shows. We will know more in the next three weeks, but Q4 estimates remain at risk of significant revisions in the absence of reassuring company guidance.
The market hasn't cared much in the recent past about negative revisions as aggregate earnings estimates have been coming down for over a year now. But if we are entering a post-QE world, as I believe we are, then it will likely be difficult to overlook negative earnings estimate revisions going forward. How the market responds to negative guidance and the resulting negative revisions will tell us a lot about what to expect going forward.
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