3 Stocks That Blew the Market Away

By Rick Aristotle Munarriz | More Articles
September 14, 2009 | Comments (1)

Watch stocks you care about

The single, easiest way to keep track of all the stocks that matter...

Your own personalized stock watchlist!

It's a 100% FREE Motley Fool service...

Click Here Now

Why settle for ordinary quarterly reports?

I believe that the biggest factor in a stock's ability to beat the market is its ability to beat the market's expectations. That's why I look every week at three companies that have humbled Wall Street's pros over the past few trading days. If a company has more in the tank than the analysts figured, capital appreciation often follows.

We can start with Casey's General Stores (Nasdaq: CASY ) . The market was expecting improvement out of the discount retailer. Its quarterly profit was supposed to clock in at $0.60 a share, marginally ahead of the $0.57 it rang up a year ago. Casey's hit it out of the park, earning $0.87 a share for the period.

Shuffle Master (Nasdaq: SHFL ) also had a winning hand. The maker of automatic card shufflers earned $0.10 a share, enough to beat the $0.07 profit target. Servicing the casino industry has been a losing bet lately, but maybe the sector has turned the corner. Wynn Resorts (Nasdaq: WYNN ) plans to raise as much as $1 billion by listing its Macau-based assets in Hong Kong. As a bonus to Shuffle Master, cash-strapped states may turn to legalized gambling to help offset their budgetary shortfalls.

Pep Boys (NYSE: PBY ) is another winner. The auto-parts chain posted a profit of $0.15 a share for its latest quarter, ahead of both the $0.10 it earned a year ago and the $0.14 that Mr. Market was looking for. Rival auto-supply retailers AutoZone (NYSE: AZO ) and Advance Auto Parts (NYSE: AAP ) have been outsmarting analysts lately, as consumers with aging cars spend more money to maintain their vehicles.

So keep watching the companies that surpass expectations. Over time, doing so will be a rewarding experience for investors, as the market rewards the overachievers. That's the kind of surprise we look for in the Rule Breakers newsletter service. Want in? Check out a 30-day trial subscription.

Either way, come back next Monday to learn about more stocks that blew the market away.

Best Odds in the Universe!
If you're interested in a 98.79% chance at beating the market... and a 70.84% chance at DOUBLING the market's return – Motley Fool Supernova could be just what you're looking for. And get this: We arrived at these odds from 10,000 random back-tested portfolios composed of Motley Fool Co-founder David Gardner's personal stock picks.

It's why David recently handpicked a small team of world-class portfolio managers. You see, he thinks these odds can get even better! And he'd like to prove it to you...

Simply enter your email address. And the answer to the question everybody is asking will be delivered to your inbox!

Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz is a fan of toppers. He owns no shares in any of the stocks in this column and is also part of the Rule Breakers newsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early. The Fool has a disclosure policy.

Read/Post Comments (1) | Recommend This Article (6)

Comments from our Foolish Readers

Help us keep this a respectfully Foolish area! This is a place for our readers to discuss, debate, and learn more about the Foolish investing topic you read about above. Help us keep it clean and safe. If you believe a comment is abusive or otherwise violates our Fool's Rules, please report it via the Report this Comment icon found on every comment.

Report this Comment On September 15, 2009, at 7:40 PM, greenwave3 wrote:

Autozone (AZO) is a badly overpriced stock. At least it's rivals have financial stability, even though the entire sector is looking a bit pricey. AZO's balance sheet, combined with their $500 million loan to repurchase shares, is setting off alarm bells. They are dancing with insolvency and the largest shareholder recently sold off a lot of stock.

Add your comment.

Compare Brokers

Fool Disclosure

DocumentId: 983805, ~/Articles/ArticleHandler.aspx, 2/14/2012 6:50:30 PM

Report This Comment

Use this area to report a comment that you believe is in violation of the community guidelines. Our team will review the entry and take any appropriate action.

Sending report...

Today's Market

updated Moments ago Sponsored by:
	DOW	12,878.28	4.24	0.03%
	S&P 500	1,350.50	-1.27	-0.09%
	NASD	2,931.83	0.44	0.02%

Create My Watchlist

Go to My Watchlist

You don't seem to be following any stocks yet!

Better investing starts with a watchlist. Now you can create a personalized watchlist and get immediate access to the personalized information you need to make successful investing decisions.

Data delayed up to 5 minutes