S&P500 Revenue Growth Statistics

As previously commented upon in this site, one of the challenging and problematic aspects of today’s business environment is the continuing “lagging” nature of corporate revenue growth.

For reference purposes, below is a table (Table 3 titled “Revenue Growth Context”) seen in the Zack’s Earnings Trends (pdf) report dated February 20, 2014.  This chart shows YoY Revenue Growth for the Zack’s sectors, as well as the total S&P500, over various time periods:

Table 3 – Revenue Growth Context

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There is notable commentary regarding revenue growth seen on page 1 of the report.  Here is an excerpt:

Revenue growth has been a challenge for companies for quite some time and we don’t see any improvement on that front in Q4 either. If anything, the aggregate revenue growth rate at this stage is even weaker than what we have been seeing in recent quarters, though the bulk of the revenue weakness is due the Finance and Energy sectors.

There is notable commentary regarding future earnings growth within the context of weak revenue growth.  Here is an excerpt, seen on page 15 of the report, under the heading “Where Will the Growth Come From?” :

Bottom line, it’s hard to envision companies overcoming their revenue growth problems in the coming quarters in this economic growth backdrop. But in order to reach the expected +8.7% total earnings growth in 2014, we need a fair amount of expansion in net margins to compliment the revenue growth this year.

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