Analysts expect the S&P 500 index’s earnings to grow quickly for the next several quarters. They estimate year-over-year growth of 12% in the fourth quarter and increases from 12.1% to 17% during the following four quarters.
Earnings grew 5.8% in the third quarter, based on 95% of the companies reporting results.
Analysts project the financial sector will see 38.9% fourth-quarter earnings growth, followed by communication services’ 20.7%. They predict the information technology, utilities, healthcare and consumer discretionary sectors will have better year-over-year growth than the overall S&P 500’s 12%.
The real estate and material sectors are expected to have earnings increases below that level, and they project consumer staples, industrials and energy to each have a lower bottom line vs. a year ago.
Information technology has the largest index weighting, 31.6%. Financials have a 13.7% weight, followed by consumer discretionary at 10.8% and healthcare at 10.6%.
