Don't settle for ordinary quarterly reports.

Every week, I take a look at three companies that beat market expectations, since I believe that such outperformance is the biggest factor in a stock beating the market. Leaving Wall Street's pros with stunned expressions can be a good thing. It usually means that the companies have more in the tank than analysts figured. Capital appreciation typically follows.

Let's take a look at a few companies that humbled the prognosticators over the past few trading days.

We can start with Expedia (NYSE: EXPE). Adjusted earnings climbed 16% to $0.44 a share, as the travel portal landed ahead of the $0.42 a share that analysts were expecting.

Expedia enjoyed a 19% uptick in gross travel bookings, which naturally bodes well for its rivals. Orbitz Worldwide (NYSE: OWW) and Chinese leader Ctrip.com (Nasdaq: CTRP) are scheduled to post their quarterly financials over the next few trading days.

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (Nasdaq: GMCR) also brewed up a smoking-hot cup of earnings. The company behind the Keurig single-cup java makers and the K-Cup refills that fuel them reported adjusted earnings soaring 82%, to a per-share equivalent of $0.19. Wall Street was settling for net income of $0.18 a share. That may seem like a slim victory, but the fast-growing java junkie had simply met analyst targets in two of the three previous quarters.

Net sales soared 64% as the company's single-cup brews continue to win over coffee lovers interested in convenient premium hot beverages at attractive prices. Some may rightfully argue that Starbucks (Nasdaq: SBUX) trades at a cheaper earnings multiple, but Green Mountain is naturally growing substantially faster.

Green Mountain also initiated fiscal 2011 bottom-line guidance of $1.15 to $1.20 a share, well ahead of analysts perched at the $1-a-share mark.

Finally we have First Solar (Nasdaq: FSLR) shining brighter than the pros expected. Earnings per share dipped 13% to $1.84, as operating expenses ate into the company's top-line growth, but the pros were sunning themselves at $1.61 per share.

It's important to keep watching companies that surpass expectations. Over time, it will be a lucrative experience for investors, as the market rewards the overachievers. That's the kind of surprise that we look for in the Motley Fool 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.