The S&P 500 just posted its best earnings growth in over four years, and the usual suspects deserve most of the credit. But not all of it.

Blended earnings growth for Q1 2026 came in at roughly 27-28% year-over-year, nearly doubling the 13.1% that analysts had penciled in at the end of March. That makes it the strongest quarter for corporate profits since Q4 2021, and the sixth consecutive quarter of double-digit earnings growth for the index.

The Magnificent Seven did the heavy lifting

The so-called Magnificent Seven posted a collective blended growth rate of 61% for the quarter.

Three names in particular drove the upward revisions. Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta together accounted for 71% of the net dollar increase in S&P 500 earnings revisions in a single week.

The Magnificent Seven’s dominance over index-level earnings has been a recurring theme since 2023, when certain analyses suggested that without their contributions, S&P 500 earnings growth could have actually turned negative.

The other 493 companies aren’t slouching

The non-Magnificent Seven companies, the remaining 493 names in the S&P 500, posted earnings growth of roughly 17-19%. That represents their strongest performance in the last five years.

The beat rate reinforces that read. Between 84% and 89% of S&P 500 companies that reported results exceeded their earnings-per-share estimates, sitting meaningfully above historical averages.

What this means for investors

The near-doubling of actual results versus expectations, from 13.1% projected to 27-28% delivered, is particularly noteworthy. Three companies driving 71% of earnings revisions in a given week is the kind of statistic that should make diversification-minded investors pause, regardless of how strong the headline numbers look.