Third-quarter earnings season has been “solid” so far, Bank of America says

Investing.com — The third-quarter earnings season has been solid so far, with corporate incomes topping expectations set at the start of the reporting period in early October, according to analysts at Bank of America Securities.

Traders are currently assessing a busy week that will see roughly 169 companies unveil their latest returns, including figures from the so-called “Magnificent Seven” group of tech industry giants like Google-owner Alphabet (NASDAQ:), Facebook-parent Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:), e-commerce behemoth Amazon (NASDAQ:), software player Microsoft (NASDAQ:) and iPhone-maker Apple (NASDAQ:).

One of the key questions lingering over the latest quarterly results is whether they will support recently elevated stock valuations. According to LSEG data cited by Reuters, the S&P 500’s price-to-earnings ratio — a gauge of earnings estimates for the next 12 months — stood at 21.8 last week, close to the highest level in more than three years.

The earnings deluge, along with a raft of US economic data and the upcoming US presidential election on Nov. 5, could test the staying power of these frothy valuations.

In a note dated on Oct. 28, the BofA analysts led by credit strategist Yuri Seliger noted that 37% of investment-grade US public companies had reported 38% of the expected aggregate third-quarter earnings.

“The results reported so far have been relatively strong,” the BofA analysts said, citing an internal earnings tracker. “Based on the actual results when available and bottom-up expectations otherwise, we are tracking a +5.1% and +4.4% year-on-year earnings and revenue growth, respectively.”

They added that returns so far have come in 5% above estimates established at the beginning of the quarterly earnings season on Oct. 7 — higher than a 1.9% positive surprise in the second quarter and 3.7% pre-pandemic average. Revenues have also been stronger than either of those periods as well, the analysts noted.