S&P 500 Earnings Rise 24.8% as Tech Growth and Forecasts Strengthen

By Grace Kim

How strong were Q3 earnings?

Aggregate Q3 earnings from 372 S&P 500 companies rose 24.8% year over year, while revenue increased 14.0%.

Among them, 82.3% topped EPS (earnings per share) estimates, 73.4% topped revenue estimates, and 64.8% beat both, the measure the report called the "blended" rate.

That performance extended the broad-based earnings and revenue growth seen in recent reporting cycles, rather than resting on a few isolated companies.

The weekly Zacks Earnings Trends excerpt pairs those results with historical actuals and estimates for current and following periods, showing that forecast revisions remain positive.

Takeaway: The reported numbers show that earnings strength reached well beyond the largest technology names.

How much did AI leaders skew Tech results?

Tech companies reporting results accounted for 68.8% of the sector's market capitalization in the index. Their earnings rose 33.1% year over year on 28.8% revenue growth; 83.6% beat EPS estimates and 88.5% beat revenue estimates.

Worries about AI (artificial intelligence) data-center buildout, funding and permitting had weighed on the group's stock performance during the prior month. The source used Micron and Alphabet as proxies for the higher-quality end of the AI basket.

Micron delivered blockbuster results early in the Q3 cycle, while Alphabet struggled to meet consensus estimates. Micron and Nvidia remained material contributors to the Tech growth picture.

A separate comparison covered 61 of the 88 S&P 500 Tech companies that had reported. For that same group, the Q3 EPS beat rate sat marginally below the average of the previous 20 quarters, although the excerpt gave no numerical gap.

Combining reported actuals with estimates for Tech companies yet to report put full-quarter earnings growth on track at 44.2%, with revenue up 35%.

Excluding Micron, Nvidia and Alphabet reduced the earnings-growth estimate to 27.7%. The report said Alphabet had posted an outsized gain in the preceding period, which it cited when explaining the difference.

Takeaway: AI's contribution remains large, but excluding three leaders still leaves double-digit Tech earnings growth.

What do the forecast revisions show?

With 74.4% of S&P 500 results in, estimate revisions had remained consistently positive through the reporting cycle. Estimates for 2026 Q4 and full-year 2027 continued to rise.

Q3 estimates moved higher after the quarter began, while Q4 expectations advanced in recent weeks. One chart, labeled 2026 Q3, compared the preceding four periods with the next three expected quarters, while another showed the index's annual earnings picture.

Since the beginning of July, 2027 estimates increased in 10 of 16 Zacks sectors. Tech, Energy, Finance and Industrials led the upward changes.

The practical implication is a broader base of forecast earnings growth, even though the Tech headline still carries substantial concentration.

Zacks said it would keep tracking the revision measure through the rest of the reporting cycle.

Takeaway: Forecasts are improving across 10 of 16 sectors, giving the earnings trend more breadth.

What else did the excerpt publish?

The excerpt also included a promotional section titled "Stock Most Likely to Double." Zacks said its research team had identified five stocks with the greatest probability of gaining 100% or more in the coming months, and Research Director Sheraz Mian highlighted one expected to rise highest.

The excerpt did not identify the highlighted company. It described an innovative software-as-a-service, or SaaS, firm whose user base rose 22% year over year, with that rate accelerating and margins expanding as AI efficiencies took effect.

The promotion warned that "all our elite picks aren't winners" and said the candidate could far surpass earlier Zacks "Stocks Set to Double" selections such as D-Wave Quantum, which gained 680.1%.

The page also invited readers to download "7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days" and offered free stock-analysis reports for Micron, Nvidia and Alphabet; those links added no new operating data to the scorecard.

Takeaway: That section adds promotional context, not new evidence on the earnings trend.

The measurable conclusion is broader earnings strength and rising estimates, with AI concentration and infrastructure execution still shaping the pace.