S&P 500: 5 Biggest Earnings Season Winners of Q2 2023

investing.com:

Despite concerns over elevated inflation, high interest rates, and a possible economic slowdown, Wall Street's second-quarter earnings season has offered a glimmer of relief as the expected slowdown in profits proves less than feared.

Of the 443 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported quarterly earnings as of Friday, 78.6% have beaten consensus Q2 EPS estimates, according to Refinitiv data.

This strong performance has narrowed the year-over-year decline in Q2 earnings to -3.8%, a significantly smaller drop compared to the gloomy -6.8% drop projected at the start of the reporting season.

As the dust settles, it’s time to look back and identify which companies have managed to weather the storm amid the challenging environment.

In this article, I will delve into the five notable winners of Wall Street's Q2 earnings season. Using the InvestingPro stock screener, I also examined the potential upside and downside for each name based on their Investing Pro ‘Fair Value’ models.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) reported its second straight ‘earnings triple play’ last month, delivering profit, sales growth, and guidance which all exceeded consensus expectations. META stock rose 5.5% in response to the upbeat results and solid outlook, its third big earnings-reaction-day rally in a row.

Source: InvestingPro

The parent of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and (now) Threads posted surprisingly strong numbers for the second quarter on July 26, along with third-quarter guidance that was well ahead of Wall Street estimates, reflecting a rebound in the digital advertising market.

Meta’s ongoing attempts to improve its ad system following Apple’s iOS privacy change finally appear to be showing signs of success, with sales growth expected to