S&P 500 Third-Quarter Earnings Grow 30.2% With 60% of Companies Reported: FactSet
With about 60% of S&P 500 companies having reported actual results for the third quarter of 2026, the blended earnings growth rate for the index stands at 30.2%, according to FactSet's Earnings Insight report released on October 30. That is up from 29.5% a week earlier and from the 29.1% estimated at the end of the quarter on September 30. If 30.2% holds as the final figure, it will mark the third straight quarter of earnings growth above 25% for the index and the eighth straight quarter of double-digit growth.
Among companies that have reported, 82% posted earnings per share above analyst estimates and 70% beat revenue estimates. The blended revenue growth rate is 13.4%, a third consecutive quarter of double-digit revenue growth. The blended net profit margin is 14.9%, above the year-ago 13.0% and the five-year average of 12.6%, but below the previous quarter's 17.0%.
All eleven sectors are reporting year-over-year earnings growth, seven of them in double digits, led by energy, information technology and materials. The information technology sector's blended revenue growth rate has been revised up to 41.9% from 39.9% during the season.
The five largest contributors to the index's earnings growth are Micron Technology, Nvidia, Meta Platforms, EchoStar and Boeing, according to FactSet, which has calculated that excluding Micron and Nvidia alone would cut the blended growth rate to about 20%, underlining how much of this season's profit growth is being powered by chipmakers. For the fourth quarter, 19 S&P 500 companies have issued negative EPS guidance and 28 have issued positive guidance.
Source: GSM · USA
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：纽约华尔街路牌（Acediscovery 摄，经 Wikimedia Commons，CC BY 4.0）。 / A Wall Street sign in New York (Photo: Acediscovery via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0).
