Another earning season is over. The winners? Most of our stocks. Twenty-three out of 33 portfolio names delivered third-quarter reports were deemed good or great by the Investing Club, thanks partly to a still-strong consumer and largely to the massive build out of all things AI. Case in point: In the S&P 500, 86% of technology companies beat sales estimates for the third quarter, according to FactSet data. That was followed by healthcare (79%) and real estate (74%).
Communication services led all sectors for bottom-line beats, with 95%, followed by technology, at 86%. Two big moves to note. We initiated a position in Goldman Sachs after the financial name reported third-quarter results — we obviously liked what we saw on the release and heard from management — so it isn't included in this report. Also excluded is Advanced Micro Devices, which we exited Dec. 31 after the chipmaker reported lackluster results and gave little reason to stick with it into the new year. As always, we're wrapping up the season with a review of results for all Club holdings. These quarterly report cards are not the end-all, be-all for analysis. However, we believe stock prices ultimately follow the underlying business fundamentals of companies and having an idea of which companies did well and which didn't can help with buying and selling decisions. Similar to prior quarters, we grouped company results into one of four categories. The companies in each category are listed in alphabetical order. The Great The Good The Not So Bad The Ugly The Great Alphabet 'Listening to the post-earnings conference call made one thing abundantly clear: Artificial intelligence is being woven into every aspect of this company and, in turn, driving more engagement from both consumers and enterprise customers alike. It's not just revenue that AI is helping to grow, it's also helping the company become more efficient than ever.' — Oc