The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: W.W. Grainger and Fastenal

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL –October 19, 2018 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: W.W. Grainger GWW and Fastenal FAST.

Here are highlights from Thursday’s Analyst Blog:

Is Optimism About Q3 Earnings Still the Watchword?

Including all of this morning’s releases, we now have Q3 results from 69 S&P 500 members that combined account for 19% of the index’s total market capitalization. Total earnings for these 69 companies are up +20% from the same period last year on +7.8% higher revenues, with 84.1% beating EPS estimates and 62.3% beating revenue estimates. The proportion of these 69 companies beating both EPS and revenue estimates is 55.1%.

The earnings and revenue growth pace thus far represent deceleration from what we had seen in the first half of the year, but the proportion of positive revenue surprises is tracking notably below other recent periods. In fact, the proportion of positive revenue surprises at this stage in the Q3 earnings season is the lowest since the first quarter of 2017.

Another area of uncertainty is the impact of trade tensions on profitability and outlook, as we saw with the W.W. Grainger and Fastenal reports.

For more details about the Q3 earnings season and the overall earnings picture, please check our weekly Earnings Trends report  >>>>  Positive Start to Q3 Earnings Season

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Fastenal Company (FAST) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
W.W. Grainger, Inc. (GWW) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
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