Every week, I take a look at a few companies that lapped their profit targets. Leaving Wall Street's pros with quizzical looks on their faces can be a good thing. It usually means that the companies have more in the tank than analysts figured and capital appreciation often follows.
Let's take a look at a few companies that humbled the prognosticators over the past few trading days.
We can start with Research In Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM ) . The company behind the ubiquitous BlackBerry smartphones saw its quarterly profits more than double to $0.72 a share, just ahead of Wall Street's $0.70-a-share target.
Investors probably saw that one coming. Research In Motion has now beaten guesstimates in 19 of the past 20 quarters. Despite companies like Nokia (NYSE: NOK ) and Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL ) rolling out nifty new phones with smartphone functionality, there clearly is no BlackBerry-killer on the market right now.
Best Buy (NYSE: BBY ) is another topper. The consumer electronics superstore had a solid quarter, earning $1.71 a share during the seasonally potent holidays. The company may have benefited from an extra week during the period, and profits on a per-share basis have benefited from stock repurchases, but analysts still had that baked into their forecast of $1.65 a share.
Consumer electronics may seem like a tricky sector at the moment, but companies like Best Buy and hhgregg (NYSE: HGG ) are expanding at a time when others like Circuit City (NYSE: CC ) are in a state of flux.
Finally, we have lululemon athletica (Nasdaq: LULU ) giving its shareholders a reason to relax. The upscale yoga apparel retailer saw quarterly earnings more than quadruple to $0.21 a share, well ahead of the $0.19 a share that the market was expecting. Then again, good things happen when you manage to post positive comps of 41%, or a still impressive 24% on a constant dollar basis.
Keep watching the companies that lap expectations. Over time, it will be a rewarding experience for investors as the market rewards the overachievers. That's the kind of surprise we look for in the Motley Fool Rule Breakers newsletter service. Want in? Check out a 30-day trial subscription absolutely free, with no obligation to subscribe.
Either way, come back next Monday to learn about more stocks that blew the market away.
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