Earnings season is underway, and corporate buybacks are set to boost earnings per share for S&P 500 (^GSPC) companies.

That’s the assessment from Credit Suisse strategists, led by chief U.S. equity strategist Jonathan Golub and senior equity strategist Patrick Palfrey.

Credit Suisse expects S&P 500 earnings to decline by 2.1% year-over-year, but earnings per share is expected to grow by 0.2%. Earnings per share accounts for corporate buybacks. Earnings and EPS aren’t interchangeable terms.

As of Wednesday, 15.3% of the S&P 500’s market cap released second quarter financial results and 81% of these companies have topped their profit estimates.

Assuming S&P 500 companies beat their earnings per share expectations by 2.8%, which was the average beat rate for second quarter earnings seasons from 2010-2017, this year’s second quarter earnings per share is actually set to grow by 2.3%, according to Credit Suisse.

After all, buybacks for S&P 500 companies could top $1 trillion in 2019, according to analysis released earlier this month from Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Buybacks topped $1 trillion in 2018, as well.

Here’s a quick recap of the big earnings reports so far:

• PepsiCo (PEP): earnings and revenue beat

• Delta Air Lines (DAL): earnings and revenue beat

• JPMorgan Chase (JPM): earnings and revenue beat

• Citigroup (C): earnings and revenue beat

• Wells Fargo (WFC): earnings and revenue beat

• Goldman Sachs (GS): earnings and revenue beat

• Bank of America (BAC): earnings beat, revenue match

• CSX (CSX): earnings and revenue miss

• UnitedHealth (UNH): earnings beat, revenue match

• Netflix (NFLX): earnings beat, revenue miss

The market still awaits results from large-cap technology stocks including Apple (AAPL) and Microsoft (MSFT).

Scott Gamm is a reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter @ScottGamm.

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