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For the second quarter, the percentage of companies beating revenue forecasts was the lowest since 2009. For every company that gave a positive outlook, nearly five companies gave negative outlooks, Thomson Reuters data showed.

Third-quarter earnings estimates are down sharply, and now show a year-over-year decline of 1.8 percent, which would be the first quarter of negative growth in three years.

Overall earnings growth for the second quarter looked pretty solid - 8.4 percent. But a charge taken by Bank of America at this time a year ago skews everything. Take them out, and growth was just 3 percent, according to Thomson Reuters data.

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Despite this, U.S. stocks have held up. The S&P 500 is just a few points from four-and-a-half year highs. With results in from 95 percent of the Standard & Poor's 500 companies, just 41 percent have beaten revenue expectations, well below the 64 percent average of the last four quarters, Thomson Reuters data showed.

U.S. companies have been hit on several fronts: a recession in Europe, slower growth in China and a lack of momentum in the U.S. economy. According to a recent Reuters poll, gross domestic product likely expanded at a 1.5 percent annual rate between April and June, after rising 1.9 percent in the first three months of the year.

While much of the economic news is not new, the number of companies posting revenue shortfalls was a surprise in this period. That has happened even though 68 percent of companies beat earnings expectations, the data showed.

Companies have done that by holding down costs and consolidating businesses rather than spending, a fact reflected in the nation's stubbornly high unemployment rate.

Sectors with the worst revenue misses for the second quarter include materials, industrials and utilities, with all three showing a more than 70 percent miss rate on revenue, Thomson Reuters data showed.

"Revenues have not grown in proportion with earnings. That's to be expected early in the recovery, but now we've matured. We're well along in the cycle, and revenues are still trailing," said Michael Gibbs, co-head of Equity Advisory Group at Raymond James in Memphis, Tennessee.