9 COMPANIES BOLDLY BUCK PROFIT SLUMP

Each of these companies is likely to post 70% or greater adjusted profit growth in the third quarter.

Hold on! It’s going to be a rocky thirdquarter earnings season as investors brace for the first profit recession in years. But a few companies are bucking the pain.

Nine companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index, including financial management firm Legg Mason, solar panel maker First Solar and Ford Motor, are expected to blow away the profit malaise. Each of these companies is likely to post 70% or greater adjusted profit growth in the third quarter.

Investors are braced for the worst quarter for corporate profit growth since the third quarter of 2009. Adjusted profit for the S&P 500 is expected to fall 5.3%. Stocks have been in a holding pattern as investors wait to see how profit ultimately shakes out during the period.

Legg Mason is expected to be the profit growth champ of the third quarter. Analysts forecast the firm to put up quarterly profit of an adjusted 93 cents a share, which is up 166% from the same period a year ago.

The big profit gain is not really about a surge in business. Revenue is seen coming in about flat. But it is a bounceback from depressed earnings when a debt-refinancing hurt the company in the same quarter a year ago.

Both growth and cost controls are at play at First Solar, a leading maker of solar panels. The company’s adjusted profit is expected to jump 154% during the period to $1.55 a share. That jump is being fueled in part by a surge in demand.

Analysts expect the company’s revenue to gain 25% from the same period last year. Shares of First Solar have gained 14% this year — also bucking the stock market’s pain — as investors prepare for solid earnings.

It has been a great year for the auto industry, and it shows with Ford. Adjusted profit at the automaker is expected to be up 98% to 47 cents a share. Growth this quarter is also getting a pop since last year was depressed to performance in parts of South America and Europe.

It’s important to note analysts could be overly optimistic. Shares of four of nine stocks expected to post big earnings gains are down this year, showing investors aren’t overly enthusiastic — yet. Shares of Legg Mason, for instance, are down 18% this year so far

ut it’s important to investors to know that while the headline earnings number might be ugly, there are still places to find growth.