In last week’s update, smaller companies (those outside the S&P 500) were finally reporting more revenue than Q2 2023, but were still suffering through lower net income levels. 

Well, that dynamic has not changed. 

As of noon ET on Aug. 9, our Earnings Tracker had crunched the Q2 earnings data of more than 3,100 smaller firms, and net income stood at $76.76 billion — down 10.3 percent from the $85.63 billion in net income that those companies had reported for Q2 2023. 

S&P 500 firms (449 of them so far) were in much better shape, with net income up 12.1 percent. That figure includes large banks and other financial firms, too. When you exclude them and only look at non-financial S&P 500 firms, net income was up even higher, to 14.5 percent.

Figure 1, below, tells the tale.

As you can see, net income is up for all firms collectively, all firms excluding the financial sector, all S&P 500 firms, and even all financial firms in the S&P 500 (although just barely for that last group). Only small firms are seeing net income decline this quarter compared to one year ago. 

Revenue is a better picture. Altogether, the 3,593 firms we have tracked through Aug. 9 reported revenue up an impressive 33.8 percent. Across each sub-category we track revenue was up anywhere from 3.4 to 7 percent— although smaller firms reported the smallest revenue growth, up only 3.45 percent. See Figure 2, below.

We will continue to update our earnings tracker at the end of every week for another few weeks, until Q2 reports slow down to a trickle. 

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