S&P 12-month target 4600: Climb continues on digitally powered EPS growth

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, S&P earnings per share (EPS) has surprised substantially to the upside. The past 6 quarters of upside surprises versus bottom-up sell-side analyst estimates w ere among the largest in IBES S&P 500 earnings estimates history. In the first few quarters of 2020, substantial beats posted by S&P firms represented greater S&P EPS resilience against a deep recession than ever seen before.