S&P 500 companies are keeping more profit from every dollar in sales than ever before, providing another tailwind for stocks.
Using FactSet data, John Butters, senior earnings analyst and vice president at FactSet, showed that the S&P 500's blended net profit margin is running at 16.9% for the second quarter. That's up from 14.8% in the first quarter and 12.9% a year ago, and well above the five-year average of 12.4%.
Net profit margin is the percentage of revenue companies get to pocket after they have paid all expenses.
If that 16.9% figure holds, it would be the highest net profit margin since FactSet began tracking the metric in 2009, Butters notes.
