The second-quarter 2026 earnings season is underway, with several companies in the Medical Dental – Supplies and Medical Services industries already releasing their numbers. According to the latest Earnings Trends report, quarterly results of the Medical sector are projected to be mixed.
Earnings are likely to have been subdued amid the worldwide macroeconomic headwinds, including geopolitical tensions, tariff-related challenges and rising freight charges. The sector is expected to have benefited from rising demand for medical products and services, AI-powered advancements, and improved diagnosis enabled by robotic systems and data analytics.
Going by the broader Medical sector’s scorecard, 32.2% of the companies in the sector, accounting for 35.9% of its market capitalization, reported earnings through July 29. Earnings improved 18.1% year over year on revenue growth of 6.8%. Of the companies that have reported results, 94.7% beat both earnings and revenue estimates.
Overall, the Medical sector’s second-quarter earnings are expected to decline 15.2% despite revenue growth of 6.1%. This compares with the first-quarter earnings decrease of 2.3% on revenue growth of 7.1%. Based on the latest trends, the Medical sector is one of only three sectors expected to post lower earnings for the second quarter of 2026 than in the year-ago period.
A few major healthcare companies are scheduled to report their quarterly results in the coming days. Let's see how things might have shaped up for the Medical Dental – Supplies and Medical Services industries and their players, including McKesson MCK, Cencora COR, Solventum Corporation SOLV and Pacific Biosciences of California PACB, prior to their announcements.
Our quantitative model predicts an earnings beat for a company if it has a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold). This combination increases the chances of an earnings beat. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.
You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Let’s delve deeper.
Key Factors Driving Healthcare Supplies & Services Stocks' Earnings
The Medical Supplies and Healthcare Services industries are expected to have delivered another quarter of healthy operational performance, supported by resilient demand for specialty pharmaceuticals, diagnostic testing, laboratory services and healthcare utilization. Continued investments in specialty diagnostics, precision medicine, digital health solutions and automation are expected to have fueled innovation, while healthy pharmaceutical demand, expanding clinical trial activity and strong patient volumes should have provided additional momentum.
Contract research services and hospital admissions are likely to have remained on solid footing, while the increasing adoption of biologics, precision medicine, AI-enabled laboratory workflows and digital healthcare solutions must have continued to create long-term growth opportunities. At the same time, companies could have benefited from ongoing productivity initiatives, portfolio optimization, automation and recurring revenue models, which might have contributed to improved operating leverage and earnings growth.
Despite these favorable demand trends, investors are likely to have remained focused on a handful of execution and policy-related challenges. Academic and government funding constraints likely continued to weigh on capital equipment demand in life sciences, while healthcare reimbursement changes, unfavorable payer mix shifts and policy-driven pricing pressure in certain international markets must have weighed on certain businesses.
Ongoing restructuring programs, acquisition integration and business transformation initiatives might have also created near-term cost pressures. Nevertheless, recurring revenue streams from diagnostics, laboratory services, specialty pharmaceuticals and consumables, combined with expanding hospital partnerships and AI-enabled workflow improvements, may have helped industry players sustain healthy revenue growth and could position them well for the second-quarter earnings season.
Healthcare Stocks to Watch
McKesson
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for MCK’s first-quarter fiscal 2027 revenues is pegged at $104.25 billion, indicating 6.6% growth year over year. McKesson’s fiscal first-quarter performance is likely to have benefited from continued momentum in oncology services, biopharma solutions, specialty pharmaceuticals and AI-driven workflow.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for first-quarter earnings has moved down 2 cents over the past 30 days to $9.46 per share. The consensus mark implies a 14.5% upside from the year-ago reported numbers. MCK’s operating margins are expected to have remained healthy during the soon-to-be-reported quarter.
MCK is scheduled to report first-quarter fiscal 2027 results on Aug. 5, after market close. Our proven model does not conclusively predict an earnings beat for MCK this time around, as it has an Earnings ESP of -1.26% and a Zacks Rank #2 at present.
Cencora
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for COR’s third-quarter fiscal 2026 revenues is currently pegged at $84.89 billion, which indicates a 5.2% gain from the year-ago figures. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for COR’s third-quarter earnings has been revised upward by 1 cent over the past 30 days to $4.37 per share. The consensus mark for earnings implies a 9.3% upside from that recorded a year ago.
Although Cencora’s third-quarter sales are likely to have remained constrained by industry-specific pricing dynamics and customer mix changes, margins should have been supported by strong demand for higher-margin MSO business, portfolio optimization initiatives and disciplined expense management.
COR is scheduled to report third-quarter fiscal 2026 results on Aug. 5, before market opens. Our proven model predicts an earnings beat for COR this time around, as it has an Earnings ESP of +1.37% and a Zacks Rank of 2 at present.
Solventum
Solventum’s second-quarter revenues are expected to have benefited from more than $100 million of advanced customer orders ahead of the planned U.S. ERP cutover in the third quarter. Contributions from the Acera acquisition and ongoing cost-saving initiatives are also likely to support results. However, Tariff-related headwinds are expected to have remained a drag.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for SOLV’s second-quarter 2026 revenues is currently pegged at $2.17 billion, which indicates a 0.2% uptick from the year-ago reported numbers. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for SOLV’s second-quarter earnings has remained stable over the past 30 days at $1.91 per share. The consensus mark for earnings implies a 13% upside from the year-ago reported figure.
SOLV is scheduled to report second-quarter 2026 results on Aug. 5, after market close. Our proven model does not conclusively predict an earnings beat for Solventum this time around, as it has an Earnings ESP of 0.00% and a Zacks Rank #2 at present. It had an Earnings ESP of -1.36% and a Zacks Rank of 2 when we issued our second-quarter 2026 earnings preview.
PacBio
Pacific Biosciences of California, popularly known as PacBio, is likely to report a mixed second-quarter 2026 performance, with continued strength in consumables partially offsetting lingering weakness in instrument sales.
Clinical adoption of HiFi sequencing, record consumables momentum, and the commercial rollout of SPRQ-Nx are expected to have remained the primary growth drivers. However, persistent pressure on academic and government funding — particularly in the Americas — along with higher compute component costs, could have weighed on overall results.
As per management, consumables are likely to have remained the key contributor to revenue growth, supported by increasing utilization from the installed base and a growing mix of clinical customers. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for PACB’s second-quarter 2026 revenues is currently pegged at $40.7 million, which indicates a 2.3% uptick from the year-ago reported numbers.
Sales of consumables are likely to have been aided by the transition of clinical customers from validation to commercial-scale sequencing and the launch of SPRQ-Nx chemistry. The new chemistry should have improved sequencing economics, increased throughput, and supported higher consumable pull-through, while clinical demand in rare disease, carrier screening and newborn screening likely continued to expand. Asia-Pacific demand is also expected to have improved as Chinese customers likely resumed purchases following the commercial availability of SPRQ-Nx kits.
Revio placements are expected to have benefited from increasing clinical opportunities and stronger demand in EMEA, where rare disease sequencing adoption continues to accelerate. Vega sales could have remained volatile despite normalized pricing following the first-quarter promotional campaign, as academic funding constraints persist, especially in the United States.
Gross margin is likely to have improved sequentially as temporary first-quarter headwinds — including Vega promotional discounts, inventory adjustments and warranty-related charges — subside. However, elevated memory and compute component costs are expected to have limited the pace of margin expansion.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for PACB’s second-quarter 2026 loss has remained stable over the past 30 days at 14 cents per share. The consensus mark for earnings implies a 7.7% downside from the year-ago reported figures.
PACB is scheduled to report second-quarter 2026 results on Aug. 5, after market close. Our proven model does not conclusively predict an earnings beat for PacBio this time around, as it has an Earnings ESP of 0.00% and a Zacks Rank of 3 at present.
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McKesson Corporation (MCK): Free Stock Analysis Report
Cencora, Inc. (COR): Free Stock Analysis Report
Pacific Biosciences of California, Inc. (PACB): Free Stock Analysis Report
Solventum Corporation (SOLV): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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