These Are The Most Crowded Longs and Short Ahead Of Earnings

Q1 earnings season kicks off today with Goldman reporting Q1 earnings and 8% of the S&P market cap to report this week mostly within Fins/Banks but also in focus non-Fins names like JNJ tomorrow and NFLX on Wed. Broadly, it will be a busy month for EPS season with  ~70% of S&P mkt cap due to report by May 1st.

Looking at expectations, banks forecast another solid quarter, with Goldman expecting the consensus high bar of 12% YoY EPS growth to be cleared (highest since 2021), which would mark the 6th consecutive quarter of double-digit growth, the longest streak since the GFC.  When thinking about Megacaps in particular, positioning is the cleanest it’s been this year (nets in the 50th%ile, gross in the 22nd percentile vs. past 3yrs).