The second-quarter reporting cycle has begun and 54 S&P 500 members, representing 16.9% of the index’s total market capitalization, have already reported their results.

Per the latest Earnings Trends, total earnings of these companies are up 11.9% on a year-over-year basis (79.6% of the companies beat EPS estimates) while total revenue is up 5.5% on a year-over-year basis (72.2% of the companies also beat top-line estimates).

Overall second-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies are anticipated to be up 7.2% from the year-ago quarter on revenues that are estimated to increase 4.5%.

Technology Earnings Expectations

Technology is one of the five sectors projected to report the highest growth in the second quarter. The other four are Energy, Aerospace, Construction and Industrial Products.

We note that the technology sector has been a strong performer on a year-to-date basis. The sector is benefiting from increasing demand for cloud-based platforms, growing adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions, Augmented/Virtual reality devices, autonomous cars, advanced driver assisted systems (ADAS) and Internet of Things (IoT) related software. Earnings for the technology sector are anticipated to be up 10.1%.

Let’s take a sneak peek into four technology companies that are set to report their quarterly earnings on July 24.

Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL – Free Report) is unlikely to beat second-quarter 2017 expectations as it has an unfavorable combination of a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) and an Earnings ESP of -3.15%. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

This is because, as per our proven model, a company needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 or 3 (Hold) to deliver an earnings surprise. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

We caution against stocks with a Zacks Rank #4 or 5 (Sell rated) going into an earnings announcement, especially when the company is seeing negative estimate revisions.

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