There used to be an official start to earnings season. It was when Alcoa Inc. reported. This changed after the aluminum company split into two parts in 2016: Arconic Corp. and Alcoa Corp. (AA).

Now, there isn’t a single company that has the honor of starting earnings season. Rather, earnings season can be said to officially start when the big banks report. Bank of America Corp. (BAC), Citigroup Inc. (C) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) will report their second-quarter 2025 results during the week of July 14. A relatively small group of other companies will join them that week.

Earnings season is tied to calendar quarters. Second-quarter earnings season starts in July, following the end of the April through June quarter. (Retailers, whose second quarter tends to run from May to July, mostly report in August.)

Not all companies follow traditional quarters. FedEx Corp. (FDX) and Nike Inc. (NKE), for instance, operate on June to May fiscal years.

What matters is not the date of the earnings release, but rather the results the company reports and the forward-looking guidance it gives. The majority of headlines focus on the first part, specifically whether earnings met or missed analyst expectations. Some headlines may highlight the change in a company’s revenues or sales. Others may touch on management’s guidance.

All are helpful facts, but none tell you the full story. In the latest installment in our financial statement analysis series, we provide a framework for analyzing earnings that will give you a more complete understanding of whether a company’s earnings were good, bad or somewhere in between.

Properly analyzing earnings does not have to be a time-consuming process. As I point out in the article, an earnings release can be scanned through in about five minutes when you know what to look for. The same goes for an earnings conference call transcript.

I personally find it helpful to compare a company’s current financial statements against the same numbers from the prior-year quarter. I specifically look for any line items that changed in an unexpected way. If I spot something unusual, I seek out an explanation.

Try out our simple five-step process this earnings season. I think you will notice some changes that weren’t in the headlines.

Wishing you prosperity and good health,