Top Line Numbers Not Bad

With everyone worried about the top line revenue numbers this earnings season, we've been tracking this data closely.  As shown below, 59% of US companies have beaten revenue estimates this quarter, which is the highest reading over the last 5 earnings seasons.  While it's not in the 70%-80% range we saw during the last bull market, the direction of the revenue "beat" rate is trending higher, which is a positive for the market.

Comments

[Moveable Beast]

Beating low-ball revenue estimates is not the real litmus test here - we should be looking at absolute revenue growth. The big question is whether we can really get total GDP expanding at a rate that will create new employment opportunities. With an economy 70% dependent on consumer spending and a real need for further deleveraging, it's hard to see how real GDP can expand at 3% or even 2% while the population and workforce continue to expand inexorably. Please post data on absolute sales growth if you have it!

[Vowani]

Could you please compare companies' revenue levels in previous years with their current revenue levels?

What fundamentally matters is how current runrates compare to the past, not how they compare to analyst expectations.

For example, please show a table for the past 5 years of the quarterly revenues of all DOW or SP500 names, and the grand total.