- As we enter peak earnings season for the second quarter, S&P 500 EPS growth continues to improve, now at 6.4% YoY
- Key tech players from the Magnificent 7 release results this week – Meta and Microsoft on Wednesday, and Apple and Amazon on Thursday
- Four S&P 500 companies reporting this week have delayed their earnings dates: Teradyne Inc, PPG Industries, UnitedHealth Group, and Kimberly Clark Corp
Peak earnings season for the second quarter begins this week and lasts through the second week of August. This is when roughly 75% of S&P 500 companies are scheduled to report. Thus far 34% of companies from the index have reported, and the early results bode well for the rest of the season.
Last week investors focused on results from the first two Magnificent 7 constituents, Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) and Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL), which both reported on Wednesday and had differing results.
Not surprisingly, Tesla (TSLA) continued to report waning demand. This was expected after the EV maker released disappointing results in their Second Quarter 2025 Production, Deliveries & Deployments on July 2. That report showed that second quarter vehicle deliveries declined 14%, the second straight quarterly decline.1
In their second quarter earnings report, Tesla missed expectations on the top and bottom-line due to automotive revenue which was down 16% YoY, in part due to competition from Chinese EV makers which are producing more affordable models.2 The stock is down ~16% YTD.
On the flipside, Google parent, Alphabet (GOOGL), was a bright spot. Alphabet beat expectations on the top and bottom-line, driven by robust revenue from YouTube advertising and Google Cloud. The company also offered 2025 CapEx estimates that were higher than Wall Street’s expectations for the second time this year.
In February, Alphabet said it expected to spend $75B in capital expenditures (CAPEX) mainly due to the expansion in its AI capabilities, which was higher than the $58.84B analysts had expected. Last week that number rose to $85B, this time due to “strong and growing demand for our Cloud products and services.” Alphabet CFO, Anat Ashkenazi, told investors to expect further increases to CAPEX in 2026.3 Alphabet stock is up ~2% YTD.
With the results from those names as well as the 110 other S&P 500 constituents that reported last week, Q2 growth propelled to 6.4% from 5.6% the prior week. Revenues also increased to 5.1% from 4.4% the week prior. Beat rates remain impressive with 80% of S&P 500 companies surpassing expectations on the top and bottom-line, better than the 1, 5, and 10-year beat rate averages according to FactSet.4
On Deck this Week – More Big Tech Results
This week all eyes will be on four more Magnificent 7 reports – from Meta and Microsoft on Wednesday, and Apple and Amazon on Thursday. Nvidia is the final of the group to report on August 27.
Outlier Earnings Dates This Week
Academic research shows that, when a company confirms a quarterly earnings date that is later than when they have historically reported, it’s typically a sign that the company will share negative news on their upcoming call, while moving a release date earlier suggests the opposite.5
This week we get results from a number of large companies on major indexes that have pushed their Q2 2025 earnings dates outside of their historical norms. Eight companies within the S&P 500 confirmed outlier earnings dates for this week, four of which are earlier than usual and therefore have positive DateBreaks Factors*. Those names are Regency Centers Corp (REG), Booking Holdings (BKNG), AES Corp (AES) and CVS Health Corp (CVS). The four companies with negative DateBreak Factors for this week are Teradyne Inc (TER), PPG Industries (PPG), UnitedHealth Group (UNH), and Kimberly Clark Corp (KMB).
Sources:
1 Tesla Second Quarter 2025 Production, Deliveries & Deployments, July 2, 2025, https://ir.tesla.com
2 Tesla Q2 2025 Quarterly Earnings Update, July 23, 2025, https://www.tesla.com
3 Alphabet Announces Second Quarter 2025 Results, July 23, 2025, https://abc.xyz
4 FactSet Earnings Insight, John Butters, July 25, 2025, https://advantage.factset.com
5 Time Will Tell: Information in the Timing of Scheduled Earnings News, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Eric C. So, Travis L. Johnson, Dec, 2018, https://papers.ssrn.com
Twitter: @ChristineLShort
The author may hold positions in mentioned securities. Any opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author, and do not in any way represent the views or opinions of any other person or entity.
