With another earnings season almost complete, it might be useful for investors to look further ahead. Each earnings season, we can see 70% to 80% of the S&P 500 “beating” consensus quarterly profit estimates. But that in part reflects subdued expectations based on part on companies’ guidance.
But over the long term, rising EPS support higher price-to-earnings valuations and can help drive share prices higher. That sort of development is already baked into analysts’ expectations for the current calendar year, making another case for screening the 2024 estimates. The consumer discretionary sector ranks second and includes Amazon.com Inc. AMZN , which also made the screen below.The sector table also includes price-to-earnings ratios based on Aug. 11 closing prices and the consensus 2024 EPS estimates. These may not be very useful for direct comparisons of highly valued companies that are growing rapidly, but they provide frames of reference.