These companies have up stellar sales numbers without being forced to compete on price
All of these companies increased their quarterly sales per share by at least 40% while expanding their gross profit margins and their operating margins.
While the S&P 500 has surged toward record highs, fueled by a strong earnings-reporting season, a closer look at sales and profitability trends shows that are still bargains to be had for investors.
The following screen highlights companies that have grown sales at a high clip while managing to improve their gross profit margins and operating margins, which are underlying measure of profitability. You might expect the stock of a company doing all three to be expensive on a relative basis, but this isn't always the case.
The advantage of looking at profit margins is that they exclude some of the one-time events that distort bottom-line numbers, such as goodwill write-downs or restructuring charges.
About 27% of companies in the S&P 500 SPX have fiscal reporting periods that don't match the calendar, so it is fair to say that earnings season never really ends. For example, Nvidia (NVDA) will report results for the second quarter of its fiscal 2027, which ended July 26, on Aug. 26.
About 90% of companies in the S&P 500 have reported results for fiscal quarters ended May 15 or later.
Here are the 17 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported so far this earnings season and have shown increases in quarterly sales per share of at least 40%, while also improving their gross profit margins and their operating margins. These terms are all defined below the table.
Company Increase in sales per share Gross margin Gross margin - year-earlier quarter Operating margin Operating margin - year-earlier quarter Forward P/E Sandisk 339% 84.57% 26.20% 78.91% 4.58% 5.5 Micron Technology 338% 84.56% 38.06% 86.11% 46.78% 5.9 TKO Group Holdings 211% 57.69% 55.99% 39.24% 37.14% 36.3 Teradyne 107% 59.42% 56.64% 35.70% 19.01% 35.3 Palantir Technologies 92% 84.66% 80.78% 47.55% 27.48% 85.8 EOG Resources 64% 47.81% 40.10% 55.60% 51.07% 8.8 Valero Energy 58% 12.76% 4.32% 13.84% 6.30% 9.1 Diamondback Energy 57% 46.62% 34.86% 68.03% 66.48% 10.1 Phillips 66 55% 8.79% 5.68% 8.66% 5.76% 9.6 Amphenol 53% 40.51% 36.34% 33.68% 29.03% 28.4 Comfort Systems USA 51% 25.31% 22.78% 18.39% 15.37% 30.4 Eli Lilly 49% 85.78% 84.27% 56.55% 48.20% 27.9 Advanced Micro Devices 47% 51.31% 35.80% 23.88% 8.58% 39.6 Monolithic Power Systems 44% 55.18% 55.08% 32.73% 26.77% 44.1 ConocoPhillips 43% 36.10% 24.39% 46.62% 38.99% 12.6 Quanta Services 40% 14.53% 13.21% 10.38% 8.90% 37.0 Seagate Technology Holdings 40% 52.30% 37.40% 45.00% 26.27% 21.3 Source: FactSet
Click on the tickers for more about each company.
Here is how we screened the 444 companies among the S&P 500 that had reported first-quarter results through Friday:
-- Increased quarterly sales per share from the year-earlier quarter. We looked at sales per share rather than raw revenue to incorporate the effects of dilution when shares are issued and the opposite when shares are repurchased. All per-share figures are adjusted by FactSet for any stock splits or spinoffs.
-- Improved gross profit margins. A company's gross margin is its net sales minus the cost of goods or services sold, divided by sales. Net sales are sales minus returns and discounts, such as coupons. The cost of goods or services sold includes the actual expenses when making the items or providing the services. Gross margin is a measurement of pricing power and core efficiency.
-- Improved operating margins. A company's operating margin incorporates more overhead and other expenses that aren't tied directly to the production of goods and services. It can be summarized as earnings before interest and taxes, divided by sales.
Profit margins vary by industry. A manufacturer of heavy equipment will tend to have lower margins than a mature software company, for example. So comparisons may be most useful between companies with similar business models.
A combination of sales growth and widening profit margins is a good sign for any company. It indicates the company isn't being forced to offer discounts to defend its market share.
Gross-margin and operating-margin figures aren't available for most companies in the financial sector, as banks and insurers have their own industry-based measures of profitability. For some companies, operating margins weren't available for the most recent reported quarters because their earnings press releases didn't include enough information for FactSet to calculate the margins.
In addition to the sales and margin data, the table includes forward price/earnings ratios in the rightmost column - share prices divided by consensus 12-month earnings-per-share estimates among analysts polled by FactSet. These may be of particular interest for investors holding or considering Sandisk $(SNDK)$ and Micron $(MU)$, which top the list. Both trade at very low forward P/E when compared with weighted valuation ratios of 20.3 for the S&P 500 and 23 for the index's information technology sector, as calculated by FactSet.
The low P/E for Sandisk and Micron reflect investors' concerns over the cyclical nature of the semiconductor industry, and computer memory chips and peripherals in particular. On the table, you can see that the margins for these two companies were much lower a year ago.
For more context, here is a look at the 11 sectors of the S&P 500, showing forward P/E ratios, sorted ascending, those at the end of 2025 and year-to-date weighted price changes. The full index is at the bottom.
Sector or index Forward P/E Forward P/E at end of 2024 2026 price change
Energy 13.0 13.7 32.2%
Financials 15.3 16.7 5.7%
Utilities 17.3 17.3 1.0%
Communication services 18.0 20.0 2.1%
Materials 18.1 18.6 15.1%
Real estate 18.6 17.6 10.9%
Healthcare 18.8 16.9 7.8%
Consumer staples 22.9 21.8 8.1%
Information technology 23.0 28.9 23.2%
Industrials 25.2 21.5 19.4%
Consumer discretionary 25.8 29.9 2.1%
S&P 500 20.3 21.8 13.3%
Healthcare
The full S&P 500, the IT sector and the energy sector all have lower forward P/E than they did at the end of 2025. This shows that we're in the midst of an earnings-driven bull market. The earnings estimates, for the most part, are rising more quickly than stock prices.
Four energy companies on the list (EOG $(EOG)$, Valero $(VLO)$, Diamondback (FANG) and Phillips 66 (PSX)) trade at forward P/E of less than half the S&P 500 and at significant discounts to the weighted forward P/E of 13 for the S&P 500 energy sector.
Don't miss: How to earn a 9% dividend yield while cutting your risk in the stock market
-Philip van Doorn
MW 17 S&P 500 companies with growing revenue and profit margins - and some of their stocks are cheap
By Philip van Doorn
These companies have up stellar sales numbers without being forced to compete on price
All of these companies increased their quarterly sales per share by at least 40% while expanding their gross profit margins and their operating margins.
While the S&P 500 has surged toward record highs, fueled by a strong earnings-reporting season, a closer look at sales and profitability trends shows that are still bargains to be had for investors.
The following screen highlights companies that have grown sales at a high clip while managing to improve their gross profit margins and operating margins, which are underlying measure of profitability. You might expect the stock of a company doing all three to be expensive on a relative basis, but this isn't always the case.
The advantage of looking at profit margins is that they exclude some of the one-time events that distort bottom-line numbers, such as goodwill write-downs or restructuring charges.
About 27% of companies in the S&P 500 SPX have fiscal reporting periods that don't match the calendar, so it is fair to say that earnings season never really ends. For example, Nvidia (NVDA) will report results for the second quarter of its fiscal 2027, which ended July 26, on Aug. 26.
About 90% of companies in the S&P 500 have reported results for fiscal quarters ended May 15 or later.
Here are the 17 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported so far this earnings season and have shown increases in quarterly sales per share of at least 40%, while also improving their gross profit margins and their operating margins. These terms are all defined below the table.
Company Increase in sales per share Gross margin Gross margin - year-earlier quarter Operating margin Operating margin - year-earlier quarter Forward P/E
Sandisk 339% 84.57% 26.20% 78.91% 4.58% 5.5
Micron Technology 338% 84.56% 38.06% 86.11% 46.78% 5.9
TKO Group Holdings 211% 57.69% 55.99% 39.24% 37.14% 36.3
Teradyne 107% 59.42% 56.64% 35.70% 19.01% 35.3
Palantir Technologies 92% 84.66% 80.78% 47.55% 27.48% 85.8
EOG Resources 64% 47.81% 40.10% 55.60% 51.07% 8.8
Valero Energy 58% 12.76% 4.32% 13.84% 6.30% 9.1
Diamondback Energy 57% 46.62% 34.86% 68.03% 66.48% 10.1
Phillips 66 55% 8.79% 5.68% 8.66% 5.76% 9.6
Amphenol 53% 40.51% 36.34% 33.68% 29.03% 28.4
Comfort Systems USA 51% 25.31% 22.78% 18.39% 15.37% 30.4
Eli Lilly 49% 85.78% 84.27% 56.55% 48.20% 27.9
Advanced Micro Devices 47% 51.31% 35.80% 23.88% 8.58% 39.6
Monolithic Power Systems 44% 55.18% 55.08% 32.73% 26.77% 44.1
ConocoPhillips 43% 36.10% 24.39% 46.62% 38.99% 12.6
Quanta Services 40% 14.53% 13.21% 10.38% 8.90% 37.0
Seagate Technology Holdings 40% 52.30% 37.40% 45.00% 26.27% 21.3
Source: FactSet
Click on the tickers for more about each company.
Here is how we screened the 444 companies among the S&P 500 that had reported first-quarter results through Friday:
-- Increased quarterly sales per share from the year-earlier quarter. We looked at sales per share rather than raw revenue to incorporate the effects of dilution when shares are issued and the opposite when shares are repurchased. All per-share figures are adjusted by FactSet for any stock splits or spinoffs.
-- Improved gross profit margins. A company's gross margin is its net sales minus the cost of goods or services sold, divided by sales. Net sales are sales minus returns and discounts, such as coupons. The cost of goods or services sold includes the actual expenses when making the items or providing the services. Gross margin is a measurement of pricing power and core efficiency.
-- Improved operating margins. A company's operating margin incorporates more overhead and other expenses that aren't tied directly to the production of goods and services. It can be summarized as earnings before interest and taxes, divided by sales.
Profit margins vary by industry. A manufacturer of heavy equipment will tend to have lower margins than a mature software company, for example. So comparisons may be most useful between companies with similar business models.
A combination of sales growth and widening profit margins is a good sign for any company. It indicates the company isn't being forced to offer discounts to defend its market share.
Gross-margin and operating-margin figures aren't available for most companies in the financial sector, as banks and insurers have their own industry-based measures of profitability. For some companies, operating margins weren't available for the most recent reported quarters because their earnings press releases didn't include enough information for FactSet to calculate the margins.
In addition to the sales and margin data, the table includes forward price/earnings ratios in the rightmost column - share prices divided by consensus 12-month earnings-per-share estimates among analysts polled by FactSet. These may be of particular interest for investors holding or considering Sandisk (SNDK) and Micron (MU), which top the list. Both trade at very low forward P/E when compared with weighted valuation ratios of 20.3 for the S&P 500 and 23 for the index's information technology sector, as calculated by FactSet.
The low P/E for Sandisk and Micron reflect investors' concerns over the cyclical nature of the semiconductor industry, and computer memory chips and peripherals in particular. On the table, you can see that the margins for these two companies were much lower a year ago.
For more context, here is a look at the 11 sectors of the S&P 500, showing forward P/E ratios, sorted ascending, those at the end of 2025 and year-to-date weighted price changes. The full index is at the bottom.
Sector or index Forward P/E Forward P/E at end of 2024 2026 price change
Energy 13.0 13.7 32.2%
Financials 15.3 16.7 5.7%
Utilities 17.3 17.3 1.0%
Communication services 18.0 20.0 2.1%
Materials 18.1 18.6 15.1%
Real estate 18.6 17.6 10.9%
Healthcare 18.8 16.9 7.8%
Consumer staples 22.9 21.8 8.1%
Information technology 23.0 28.9 23.2%
Industrials 25.2 21.5 19.4%
Consumer discretionary 25.8 29.9 2.1%
S&P 500 20.3 21.8 13.3%
Healthcare
The full S&P 500, the IT sector and the energy sector all have lower forward P/E than they did at the end of 2025. This shows that we're in the midst of an earnings-driven bull market. The earnings estimates, for the most part, are rising more quickly than stock prices.
Four energy companies on the list (EOG (EOG), Valero (VLO), Diamondback (FANG) and Phillips 66 (PSX)) trade at forward P/E of less than half the S&P 500 and at significant discounts to the weighted forward P/E of 13 for the S&P 500 energy sector.
Don't miss: How to earn a 9% dividend yield while cutting your risk in the stock market
-Philip van Doorn