As we near the end of earnings season, two trends are clear: Profits have gone through the roof, helped by lower corporate income taxes. But sales have also increased remarkably, and that trend started before the tax cuts went into effect.

About 18% of S&P 500 SPX, +0.00% companies have fiscal quarter-end dates that don’t match the end dates of calendar quarters. Also, through Aug. 7, about 95% of S&P 500 companies had reported results for fiscal quarters ended April 27 or later.

But that’s close enough for us to show a set of remarkable numbers. According to the most recently available quarterly data through Aug. 7, 267 S&P 500 companies increased their sales per share by 10% or more from a year earlier. Here’s the data going back eight quarters:

Quarter Number of S&P 500 companies showing increases in sales per share of 10% or more from year-earlier quarter Q2 2018 267 Q1 2018 253 Q4 2017 249 Q3 2017 189 Q2 2017 174 Q1 2017 196 Q4 2016 176 Q3 2016 165 Quarterly data through Aug. 7, 2018, subject to revision. Source: FactSet

That’s a pretty clear trend, and you can see a big move from the third quarter of 2017 to the fourth quarter. The partial recovery of oil prices played a part. (West Texas crude oil CL1, +0.28% hit a high of $107.68 a barrel in June 2018 and fell to a low of $26.05 in Feb. 2016 before recovering to $60.41 at the end of 2017 and closing at $69.17 on Aug. 7.)

We have been looking at sales per share, rather than raw revenue, because a company’s sales might jump because of the acquisition of another large company. Acquisitions are often funded in whole or in part by the issuance of new shares by the acquiring company. So the per-share numbers can give a better indication of whether or not a merger was “worth it” to the acquiring company’s shareholders.

While the per-share numbers reflect any dilution from the issuance of stock for any reason, they are also boosted by the repurchase of shares, which is an important trend that shows no signs of letting up.

Second-quarter sales winners

Here are the 37 S&P 500 companies (nearly half are energy companies) that increased their sales per share by 25% or more for their most recent reported quarters through Aug. 8, while also showing improved gross profit margins:

Company Ticker Industry Increase in sales per share - most recently reported quarter from year-earlier quarter Gross income margin - most recently reported quarter Gross income margin - year-earlier quarter Total return - 2018 through Aug. 7 FMC Corp. FMC, +1.95% Chemicals 91% 43.81% 36.14% -5% Pioneer Natural Resources Co. PXD, -0.20% Oil and Gas Production 84% 29.48% 14.32% 7% Nvidia Corp. NVDA, +1.00% Semiconductors 69% 64.48% 59.37% 30% EOG Resources Inc. EOG, -2.15% Oil and Gas Production 69% 33.08% 14.93% 18% Newfield Exploration Co. NFX, -3.68% Oil and Gas Production 68% 50.81% 37.31% -4% Concho Resources Inc. CXO, -1.84% Oil and Gas Production 66% 44.02% 21.16% -10% Phillips 66 PSX, -0.18% Oil Refining/Marketing 55% 6.95% 4.10% 23% Marathon Oil Corp. MRO, -3.45% Oil and Gas Production 54% 30.34% -9.33% 25% Incyte Corp. INCY, +0.94% Biotechnology 52% 93.68% 91.66% -33% Marathon Petroleum Corp. MPC, -0.39% Oil Refining/Marketing 52% 9.43% 9.14% 8% Nektar Therapeutics NKTR, +0.53% Biotechnology 47% 82.52% 75.21% -10% Valero Energy Corp. VLO, -1.15% Oil Refining/Marketing 44% 4.90% 4.64% 28% Anadarko Petroleum Corp. APC, +0.14% Oil and Gas Production 43% 43.45% 5.13% 38% Apache Corp. APA, -1.96% Oil and Gas Production 43% 40.65% 15.53% 12% Freeport-McMoRan Inc. FCX, -0.51% Precious Metals 40% 34.58% 19.48% -7% Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. JEC, +0.39% Engineering and Construction 40% 18.68% 18.27% -1% Netflix Inc. NFLX, -1.21% Cable/Satellite TV 39% 41.39% 31.71% 85% Andeavor ANDV, -0.29% Oil Refining/Marketing 37% 8.23% 4.47% 18% Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, +1.00% Internet Retail 37% 42.08% 38.21% 55% Hess Corp. HES, -3.03% Oil and Gas Production 36% 19.14% -19.27% 44% Applied Materials Inc. AMAT, +0.38% Electronic Production Equipment 35% 45.85% 44.78% -5% PulteGroup Inc. PHM, +0.17% Homebuilding 34% 23.80% 16.37% -13% Micron Technology Inc. MU, -0.57% Semiconductors 34% 60.57% 46.87% 28% ConocoPhillips COP, -2.93% Oil and Gas Production 33% 30.69% 11.71% 28% Interpublic Group of Cos. IPG, -0.34% Advertising/Marketing Services 30% 11.62% 11.25% 12% Microsoft Corp. MSFT, +0.23% Software 30% 67.57% 66.79% 27% Helmerich & Payne Inc. HP, -1.47% Contract Drilling 30% 9.38% 3.48% -3% Exxon Mobil Corp. XOM, -0.94% Integrated Oil 29% 22.80% 22.50% 1% HollyFrontier Corp. HFC, +0.55% Oil Refining/Marketing 29% 13.15% 5.65% 35% E-Trade Financial Corp. ETFC, -0.18% Investment Banks/Brokers 29% 89.62% 89.20% 22% Occidental Petroleum Corp. OXY, -1.83% Oil and Gas Production 28% 39.21% 19.22% 17% PerkinElmer Inc. PKI, -0.32% Medical Specialties 28% 45.39% 45.20% 18% Nucor Corp. NUE, -0.42% Steel 26% 18.06% 13.75% 1% Apple Inc. AAPL, -0.15% Telecommunications Equipment/Computers 25% 38.91% 38.15% 14% Adobe Systems Inc. ADBE, -0.01% Software 25% 86.40% 85.29% 45% PayPal Holdings Inc PYPL, +0.16% Data Processing Services 25% 42.00% 38.79% 16% Illumina Inc. ILMN, +0.04% Biotechnology 25% 70.00% 66.62% 52% Source: FactSet

You can click on the tickers for more information about each company, including news, earnings coverage and other financials, charts, estimates and price ratios.

A company’s gross margin is its sales, less the cost of goods or services sold, divided by sales. It doesn’t incorporate overhead expenses but is useful when considering the quality of a company’s core business. If sales growth comes as a result of a significant lowering of prices in the face of competition, the trend is not sustainable. It’s a good sign if a company’s sales are growing rapidly while its gross margin is widening.

FactSet doesn’t provide gross margin numbers for banks and insurance companies, which use other measures of profitability for their products and services. So here are the six S&P 500 financial-services companies that showed increases in sales per share of 25% or more for the second quarter:

Company Ticker Industry Increase in sales per share - most recently reported quarter from year-earlier quarter Total return - 2018 through Aug. 7 SVB Financial Group SIVB, +0.08% Regional Banks 38% 26% Goldman Sachs Group Inc. GS, +0.15% Investment Banks/Brokers 36% -12% Fifth Third Bancorp FITB, +0.64% Regional Banks 34% -3% Everest Re Group Ltd. RE, +0.01% Property/Casualty Insurance 26% 5% MetLife Inc. MET, +0.41% Life/Health Insurance 26% -12% Morgan Stanley MS, +0.08% Investment Banks/Brokers 26% -9% Source: FactSet

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