Two months into the fourth quarter, analysts have shaved 4 percent off their earnings estimates to $41.12 a share. That's a drop of almost 1 percent compared with a year ago, following a 1.3 percent decline last quarter.
It's common for earnings expectations to drop as a period progresses, but the current pace has been exceeded only twice since 2015. Analysts now expect earnings to rebound sometime next year, although it might be well into 2020 before profits rise meaningfully. The consensus forecast is for a 9.2 percent gain for next year.
Eight months ago, analysts projected fourth-quarter profits would jump more than 9 percent after falling in the first few months of the year. They now see contraction for this quarter and don’t expect a return to 10 percent growth until the second half of 2020.
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