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As we head towards the close of earnings season, there is no shortage of drama to challenge investors. Our resident mixologists, Chris Versace, Chief Investment Office and Lenore Hawkins, Chief Macro Strategist pour over the data and the headlines and distill it all down in our latest episode of Cocktail Investing.
As of the end of last week, 81% of the companies in the S&P 500 had reported their results for the March quarter with 78% reporting actual EPS above the mean EPS estimates (above the 5-year average of 70%). If this percentage, or better, ends up being the final for the quarter, it will be the highest percentage of S&P 500 companies reporting actual EPS above estimates since FactSet began tracking the metric in Q3 2008. For top line sales, 77% have reported actuals above, which is a tie with the prior quarter, Q4 2017, for the highest beat rate.
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Strong results, yet share prices are not being rewarded. Chris and Lenore discuss why they think investors aren’t rewarding share prices and what surprises they think may be in store for investors in the coming quarters. Lenore talks about how the global economic acceleration narrative is falling apart while Chris digs into what nuggets of insight he was able to mine from earnings calls this season.