As investors look to a fresh week of corporate earnings announcements, figures published last week revealed that 72 percent of S&P 500 companies beat analysts’ expectations in terms of profits.
In addition to a “positive surprise” in the form of higher-than-expected earnings per share (EPS) figures—which serve as a gauge of a company’s profitability—nearly two-thirds of firms listed on the S&P 500 came in above expectations in revenues, data released on Jan. 17 by FactSet (pdf) showed.
