The Good Times Are Rolling - 77% Of Companies That Recently Reported Results Announced EPS That Surpassed Analyst Expectations

During childhood, the week report cards came out was often stressful because of your grades’ impact on your home life. Good grades frequently meant extra privileges, while bad grades usually led to punishment or extra chores. Quarterly earnings season carries that kind of stress on Wall Street. Recently, 28 of 36 of S&P 500 companies beat analysts' earnings per share  expectations for Q4 2024. Benzinga looks at some of the top performers.

The biggest winner was streaming giant Netflix NFLX, which posted record Q4 2024 earnings and exceeded analyst’s expectations on multiple fronts. The company posted strong revenue on the back of adding 18 million new subscribers, which is double the 9 million that most analysts were expecting. That translated to a very impressive revenue total of $10.25 billion, which is a 16% increase over its Q4 2023 performance.

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Its 18.24% net profit margin beat the previous year's total by 71.75%. Earnings per share was a very robust $4.27 which represented an improvement of 102% over Q3 2023. Netflix's Q4 2024 report caused its stock to surge to almost $1,000 per share, though it has since retreated to the $976 range. JP Morgan analysts raised their 2025 price target for Netflix to $1150, meaning there could still be plenty of upside here for investors.

The financial sector was also a big winner, with Charles Schwab SCHW posting  impressive numbers. The investment banking house reported $5.33 billion in revenue, which bested its Q4 2023 numbers by 19%. Schwab's earnings per share of $1.01 also blew the previous year's figure of $0.68 out of the water. Both the revenue and EPS stats beat Zack's expectations of $5.18 billion and $0.90.

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Charles Schwab performed strongly in terms of net revenues from asset management and fees. Although the brokerage's $389 million was slightly lower than the consensus analyst's expectations of $391.06 million, it still beat the Q4 2023 numbers by 30%. Schwab's net revenue of $175 million also beat Q4 2023's total by 19.1%. Regional lender Fifth Third Bancorp's FITB EPS of $0.90 also exceeded analyst expectations.

McCormick MKC, Procter & Gamble PG, and D.R. Horton DHI all performed strongly and beat expectations on the consumer goods front. United Airlines Holdings UAL got in on the fun when they reported $14.8 billion in revenue; a 7.8% increase in revenue over Q4 2023. That helped United stockholders earn a very respectable $3.26 per share. Needless to say, anyone invested in any of the above companies is hoping the Q4 2024 momentum carries into 2025 and beyond.

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