There aren’t that many large-cap earnings reports still to come, but plenty of small-cap companies have yet to report Q2 results. At this stage, Q2 results are awaited from only 9 S&P 500 index members, though the number of companies from the small-cap S&P 600 index yet to report results is 131.
We have 67 companies on deck to report results this week, including 7 S&P 500 members and 17 S&P 600 members. Best Buy (BBYBBY – Free Report) , Lululemon Athletica (LULU – Free Report) and H&R Block (HRB – Free Report) are some of the notable companies reporting quarterly results this week.
The earnings focus lately has been on the Retail sector where only 3 companies in the S&P 500 are still to report results. Total Q2 earnings for the Retail sector in the S&P 500 index are up +0.3% from the same period last year on +4.6% higher revenues, with 75.7% beating EPS estimates and 81.1% beating revenue estimates.
Please note that we have a stand-alone Retail sector, unlike the official Standard & Poor’s placement of this space in the Consumer Discretionary sector. The Zacks Retail sector includes, besides the traditional department stores and other brick-and-mortar retailers, the online vendors like Amazon and Priceline and restaurant operators. Results from the online vendors and most of the restaurant operators typically come out in the first phase of each reporting cycle.
The side-by-side charts below compare the sector’s results thus far with what we have seen from the same group of 37 retailers in other recent periods.
The aggregate growth pace from the 37 retailers that have reported results already are tracking below what we had seen from the same companies in other recent periods. A big contributor to the weak earnings growth showing this quarter is the -77% drop in Amazon’s earnings on +24.8% higher revenues. Excluding the Amazon drag, Q2 earnings for the sector would be up +3.9% on +3% higher revenues. This ex-Amazon growth picture compares relatively favorably with historical periods, as the chart below shows.
Unlike growth, positive surprises are as numerous in this sector as they have been all along in other sectors this earnings season. In fact, the proportion of retailers beating revenue estimates is the third highest of all 16 Zacks sectors in Q2 at 81.1%, behind only the Conglomerates (83.3%) Technology (86.4%) sectors.
Scorecard for the Small-Cap Retailers
The Retail sector has a shade more earnings weight in the small-cap S&P 600 index than is the case with the large-cap S&P 500 index. The sector accounted for 9.2% of the small-cap index’s total earnings over the last four quarters, with its earnings contribution to the large-cap index over the comparable period is 7.2%.
For the S&P 600 index, we now have Q2 results from 35 of the 54 retailers in the index. Total earnings for these small-cap retailers are down -13.5% from the same period last year on +1.8% higher revenues, with 60% beating EPS estimates and 51.4% beating revenue estimates. The comparison charts below put these small-cap Q2 results in a historical context.
