The height of geekdom (I know), but note the improvement in Q2 ’25 EPS and revenue growth rates expected by the end of September ’25, and then note Q3 ’25 and Q4 ’25 improving estimates as well.
It’s really remarkable.
The first horizontal bordered area shows the week the estimates growth rates bottomed after the Liberation Day kerfuffle.
The 2nd black line shows this week’s jump in the expected growth rates. 2026 is improving as well.
The only other period I can remember seeing positive revisions like this was June of ’21, which was the quarter with the easiest compares versus the June ’20 Covid shutdown.
The sell-side analysts keep underestimating consensus growth rates and not by a little, either.
Cisco and Walmart report:
Cisco (NASDAQ:) reports Wednesday night, 8/13/25, after the closing bell. The stock closed above $71 on Friday night, August 8th, 2025, one of it’s highest prints since peaking at $80 per share in April, 2000. It’s been 25 years since Cisco has traded up at these price levels.
Walmart (NYSE:) reports Thursday night, 8/21/25, after the closing bell. Although their fiscal year ends January ’26, the retail giant is on track to print $700 billion in revenue this year, and Amazon (NASDAQ:) is expected to do the same. That’s $1.4 trillion in revenue for the two retail giants, in a $31 trillion economy.
Amazon actually had a very good quarter and saw upward revisions to forward EPS and revenue estimates. I’d expect Walmart to do the same, but this blog will do a full preview on Walmart’s fiscal Q2 ’26 before next week.
Conclusion:
Per LSEG data, about 450 of the have reported Q2 ’25 financial results. It’s been a very good quarter. The tariff headlines have not seemed to bother the corporate results one bit (at least so far in ’25).
The upside surprise for S&P 500 EPS is a whopping 8.8% as of Friday, August 8th, while revenue “upside surprise” is even more impressive at +2.8%.
Earnings season unofficially ends next week, with Walmart’s report.
Disclaimer: None of this is advice or a recommendation, but only an opinion. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Readers should gauge their own comfort with portfolio volatility and adjust accordingly.
Thanks for reading.