Barry Ritholz quotes Adam Parker at Morgan Stanley:
….88% of the S&P500 earnings growth for 2012 came from just 10 firms.
Makes you question whether earnings are sustainable — especially when the four biggest are Apple, AIG, Goldman Sachs, and Bank of America.
via 4 Companies Provided Half of SPX 2012 Earnings Growth | The Big Picture.
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What is he talking about? C lost $0.24 per share in the trailing twelve months earnings? JPM added $0.01, GE added $0.14, WFC added $0.48, (140 companies in the S&P500 added more in the trailing twelve months than these four), BA added $0.62 (93 better), IBM added $1.66 (24 better), GS added $4.03, (in the trailing twelve months these companies added more to their yearly per share earnings than GS: WPO added $15.25 a share, CF added $9.20 a share, PCLN added $8.40, STX added $6.62, PLD added $6.22, ALL added $4.87). WDC added $6.21, AAPL added $16.49 and AIG added $20.34 (but AIG had a loss of $15.81 in prior TTM, and is only making $4.53 in the current TTM). This is all UN-Weighted TTM operating earnings data, now if you weight it, or use the “As reported” data, or only look at ten companies in the S&P500 to begin with, it could skew it to whatever it is he was seeing…
So APPL, WDC, and GS actually make the top ten in earnings growth, none of the rest do. Oh, by the way, 202 companies in the S&P500 reported TTM earnings records in the third quarter.
Looking at C earnings per share: 2010 $3.50; 2011 $3.70; forecast 2012 $3.93 on businessweek.com
Oops, I used BA instead of BAC, not much changes, they fit right in where BA is, BAC added $0.50 (but lost $0.13 in the prior TTM) and there are 144 that increased earnings more.