Investors always hope that businesses will show higher profits than expected and surprise experts. These “earnings beats” can lead to changes in how much money the company is expected to make in the next few quarters. This can help stock prices rise over time.
But sales growth can also push up stock prices. And there are many companies in the S&P 500 SPX -0.67% that are outliers and have sales growth rates that are projected to be much higher than the index as a whole through 2026.
We expect the S&P 500 to have a 5.7% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in sales from 2024 to 2026 and a 13.8% CAGR in earnings per share over the next two years.
Based on market value, the S&P 500 is weighted. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY -0.68%’s five biggest stocks make up 26.5% of the portfolio.
Here are those five companies, with their expected sales and EPS CAGR through 2026, ranked by how much they are worth in the SPY portfolio. All of the predictions in this piece are based on calendar years. The average predictions made by analysts surveyed by FactSet have been changed to account for companies whose fiscal years don’t coincide with the calendar.
