Sales Fail to Keep Pace With Profits as Economy Stays Sluggish

Sales growth lagged behind profits as companies in the Standard & Poors’ 500 Index beat analysts’ estimates this week, a signal that economic recovery may be slow.

Second-quarter revenue at Caterpillar Inc. and Freeport- McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. tumbled more than 30 percent from a year earlier, though earnings topped the average of analysts’ predictions. Amazon.com Inc.’s profit skidded and sales missed estimates. United Parcel Service Inc.’s sales slid 17 percent. Microsoft Corp. saw annual sales drop for the first time in 23 years as a public company.

“The economy is coming back but it is not going to come roaring back,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com. Companies “are going to be reluctant to add investment and jobs until they get better sales.”

Revenue at 143 companies in the S&P 500 reporting this week, many of them bellwethers for the American economy, fell on average 10 percent from a year ago, according to Bloomberg data. Seventy managed to top the analysts’ consensus for sales, while 107 did so for earnings per share.

The economy probably declined 1.5 percent in the three months ended June 30, marking the fourth straight drop and the longest such streak since quarterly records started in 1947, according to the median of 66 economists in a Bloomberg survey.