Quarterly Summary Q2 2026
The Q2 reporting season brought several positive signals. Revenue growth accelerated and exceeded expectations for the first time in two years, while earnings grew at an even faster pace. Market reactions also continued to develop in a positive direction, with strong reports being rewarded more than in previous quarters. Here, we summarize the reporting season – from growth and earnings performance to share price reactions and changes in expectations for the remainder of the year.
The summary is based on 275 companies that received at least 8 estimates on pinpointestimates.com.
A shift in the revenue growth trend
Average revenue growth in Q2 came in at +6.4%, marking a clear shift from the previous quarters.
Many companies faced relatively weak comparative figures in the second quarter, with revenue in the previous Q2 increasing by only marginally (+0.2%) on average. Investors had expected a clear improvement to +4.9% – but actual growth came in even higher.
The latest reporting season marked the first time since Q4 2024 that companies, on aggregate, exceeded revenue expectations.
Operating leverage drove earnings growth
Over several quarters, we have seen many companies report strong profitability despite weak revenue development, driven by efficiency measures and cost savings. As revenue growth now improved, we could clearly see a significant impact on earnings. Earnings increased by +15.0%, outpacing revenue growth and exceeding the expected +12.4%.
Revenue vs. consensus
As usual, the majority of companies (61%) reported broadly in line with expectations (defined as a deviation of less than 5% from consensus). The difference this time was that more companies surprised positively than in previous quarters: as many as 26% exceeded forecasts, while 13% came in below expectations.
The pattern of more companies missing than beating expectations has now been broken, marking the most positive period since Q4 2024.
Earnings vs. consensus
When looking at the share of companies reporting earnings above or below expectations, we see a more nuanced picture than when looking at average earnings growth.
In fact, more companies missed than beat expectations – 43% compared with 39%. Since average earnings growth was nevertheless higher than expected, this indicates that the companies that exceeded expectations did so by a greater margin than those that missed.
Actuals vs. consensus by company size
Breaking down the results by company size, we continue to see that the smallest companies have greater difficulty meeting expectations, while larger companies (above SEK 10 billion in market capitalization) show greater stability.
Reporting season winners
Rank | Company | Share price reaction | Revenue beat/miss | Earnings beat/miss |
1. | +35.4% | +13.8% | +258.1% | |
2. | +27.8% | +25.9% | +58.6% | |
3. | +26.7% | +10.0% | +38.7% | |
4. | +26.3% | +15.3% | +28.3% | |
5. | +24.7% | +11.4% | +44.0% |
Reporting season losers
Rank | Company | Share price reaction | Revenue beat/miss | Earnings beat/miss |
1. | -32.7% | -6.5% | N/A (miss) | |
2. | -31.2% | -12.0% | -24.8% | |
3. | -27.7% | -4.7% | -10.2% | |
4. | -21.2% | +0.2% | -21.3% | |
5. | -20.7% | +35.4% | N/A (miss) |
Positive market sentiment
The trend from the previous quarter continued, with a clear positive bias in market reactions. Positive surprises were rewarded to a greater extent, while negative surprises were not penalized as heavily as in previous quarters.
Companies that beat expectations rose by an average of +4.0% on the day of the report, while companies that missed expectations fell by -3.4%.
Profit warnings
The second quarter presented a clearly more positive picture than the previous year. The number of upward earnings revisions increased, while profit warnings became less frequent.
Growth expectations for 2026
For the full year 2026, all company size segments are expected to report growth. Following the latest reporting season, expectations were also revised significantly less than in previous periods.
After several reporting seasons of successive downward revisions to forecasts, we are now seeing an upward revision for the smallest companies, while expectations for the largest companies remain relatively unchanged. For mid-sized companies, with a market capitalization of between SEK 2 billion and SEK 10 billion, expected growth was instead revised slightly lower, to +6.2%.
Visit Pinpoint to stay up to date with the expectations for your favorite companies ahead of upcoming quarterly and full-year reports!
