In September, the S&P 500 fell 0.45 per cent.
There was broad-based weakness with just two sectors posting gains. The technology and communication services sectors rallied 4.42 per cent and 4.26 per cent, respectively.
There were five sectors that realized negative price returns of five per cent or more in September: financials, materials, real estate, utilities, and consumer discretionary with losses of 7.28 per cent, 6.93 per cent, 6.7 per cent, 6.14 per cent and 5.91 per cent, respectively.
The top 10 performers in the S&P 500 Index in September were:
- Everpure Inc. (P-N), up 41 per cent
- Moderna Inc. (MRNA-Q), up 37 per cent
- Intel Corp. (INTC-Q), up 34 per cent
- Bloom Energy Corp. (BE-N), up 34 per cent
- Advanced Micro Devices (AMD-Q), up 30 per cent
- Illumina Inc. (ILMN-Q), up 28 per cent
- Skyworks Solutions Inc. (SWKS-Q), up 28 per cent
- Meta Platforms Inc. (META-Q), up 27 per cent
- Marvell Technology Inc. (MRVL-Q), up 25 per cent
- Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE-N), up 22 per cent
Stocks with material positive revisions to their average target prices over the past month include:
- Phillips 66 (PSX-N), increased 14 per cent to $257.40 from $225.95
- Marathon Petroleum Corp. (MPC-N), increased 13 per cent to $379 from $336.06
- Dell Technologies (DELL-N), increased 13 per cent to $593 from $526.94
- Valero Energy Corp. (VLO-N), increased 12 per cent to $361.78 from $324.17
Earnings season is set to ramp up.
According to an Oct. 1 LSEG I/B/E/S report, year-over-year earnings growth in the third quarter is anticipated to come in at 30.6 per cent with expected revenue growth of 11.6 per cent. Sectors with the highest forecast earnings growth rates are energy, technology, communication services and materials with growth rates of 114.7 per cent, 66.5 per cent, 49 per cent and 30.9 per cent, respectively.
In the second quarter, year-over-year earnings growth was 53.7 per cent and revenue growth came in at 15.8 per cent.
Earnings growth expectations have ticked higher. Year-over-year earnings growth is forecast to be 35.8 per cent in 2026 and 15.6 per cent in 2027. Last month, earnings growth was forecast to rise 34.3 per cent in 2026 and 14.7 per cent in 2027.
According to LSEG, the forward four-quarter price-to-earnings multiple for the S&P 500 stood at 20.1 times, down from 20.4 times as of Aug. 28.
In the first nine months of 2026, the S&P 500 Index rallied 11.77 per cent.
Now, here’s a look at analysts’ target prices, recommendations, forecast returns and yields for all securities in the S&P 500 grouped by sector and ranked according to their expected price returns (excluding dividend and distribution income). The posted target price for each security is an average of all available target prices from analysts.
A target price typically reflects an expected share or unit price 12 months from now based on an analyst’s financial modelling, such as a discounted cash flow or sum-of-the-parts model.
It’s important to note that high target prices, which imply stellar returns that seem unbelievable may be just that - unrealistic. At times, when a stock price falls analysts may maintain their bullish expectations, inflating the forecast return. In addition, an outlier (extreme target price) can skew the average target price, to the upside or downside, particularly when the number of analysts covering a stock is low. Don’t let a huge projected gain lure you into a position – it is critical to look at the company and industry fundamentals.
Data is as of Sept. 30.