Walmart (WMT) wrapped up the Q2 2020 earnings reporting period on Tuesday with a huge beat on both the top and bottom line.  It was a fitting end to what turned out to be a record-setting earnings season.

As we highlighted in our Q2 Earnings Season preview in early July, analysts were rapidly increasing earnings estimates leading up to earnings season.  Normally when that happens, stocks have trouble performing well during earnings season because the expectations bar has been set higher.  This season, even with analyst estimates on the rise in the four weeks leading up to the start of the reporting period, companies managed to beat bottom-line EPS estimates at the highest rate in the history of our database going back to 1999.

As shown below, 76% of companies reported stronger-than-expected EPS numbers this season, which eclipsed the prior record high of 73% seen during the Q3 2006 reporting period.

Long-term Bespoke subscribers know how much we like earnings triple plays, but for those that haven’t heard of the term, we came up with it back in the mid-2000s.  An earnings triple play is a company that beats EPS estimates, beats revenue estimates, and raises forward guidance all in the same quarterly earnings report.  Investopedia.com is one of the best online resources for financial markets education, and they’ve actually given us credit for coining the “triple play” term on their website.  We consider triple play stocks to be the cream of the crop of earnings season, and we are constantly finding new long-term buy opportunities from this basket of names each quarter.

This earnings season there were a massive number of earnings triple plays.  We went through the list of this season’s triple plays to find the ones that have the most attractive set-ups heading into the earnings off-season.  Today we have identified 37 stocks that made the cut.  To see these names, simply start a two-week free trial to Bespoke Premium today.  Upon sign-up, you’ll unlock our Top Triple Plays report!