These surprising stocks could be some of the biggest drivers of S&P 500 earnings growth

By Emily Bary

Boeing, Meta and EchoStar recorded steep charges and expenses a year ago, which are expected to make this latest quarter's results look especially strong by comparison

Boeing is among the five biggest anticipated contributors to third-quarter earnings growth for the S&P 500, according to FactSet.

It's an unlikely quintet, to say the least.

Micron Technology (MU), Nvidia (NVDA), Meta Platforms (META), EchoStar (ECHO) and Boeing (BA) are expected to be the biggest contributors to the S&P 500's SPX earnings growth for the third quarter, according to a new report from FactSet.

It's perhaps unsurprising that Micron and Nvidia are expected to be major earnings contributors. Micron has become a profit machine, as demand for memory chips has soared. The company has been able to recognize sky-high pricing since supply is so tight. As for Nvidia, earnings are still growing rapidly even though the company is years into realizing the benefits of the artificial-intelligence boom.

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Micron's results are already in the books for what FactSet considers the third quarter. The company saw earnings rise more than 1,000% during its August quarter. Nvidia is expected to see a 90% boost in earnings per share for its October quarter, with net income closing in on $60 billion.

The other three companies are projected to be big contributors for quirkier reasons, the FactSet report noted. Meta, EchoStar and Boeing all racked up hefty charges and expenses that weighed on earnings for the third quarter of 2025. Since results for the latest quarter will be compared against results from that period, the companies are expected to see especially dramatic reversals of fortune.

Meta, for instance, is projected to see more than 500% growth in earnings. EchoStar, a satellite-technology company, is expected to swing to a 17-cent profit per share after it lost $1.06 a year before. Boeing is going up against a year-ago period when it took a $4.9 billion pretax earnings charge related to 777X jet delays, and the company is expected to see a much smaller loss this time around.

Investments in privately held companies remain a wild card. FactSet senior earnings analyst John Butters noted in the report that Alphabet (GOOG) (GOOGL) saw $98 billion in other income related to its gains on equity investments during the second quarter, while Amazon.com (AMZN) saw a gain of $53 billion. Those numbers largely reflected paper gains on stakes in Anthropic and SpaceX (SPCX), which drove Alphabet and Amazon to unexpectedly become the largest contributors to S&P 500 earnings growth for the period.

While some third-quarter results trickled in last week, 79 companies in the S&P 500 are due to report in the week ahead as the pace ramps up. Tesla (TSLA), Meta and International Business Machines (IBM) are among the the tech sector's highlights, with all three coming on Wednesday. SpaceX isn't in the S&P 500 but will report results on Tuesday.

The blended earnings growth rate for the third quarter - when factoring in reported results as well as estimates for companies that haven't yet posted their financials - is expected to be 29%, according to the FactSet report. Without contributions from Micron and Nvidia, the expected growth rate is 20%.

-Emily Bary

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10-18-26 1000ET