Don't settle for ordinary quarterly reports.

Every week, I take a look at three companies that beat market expectations, since I believe that it's 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 Brocade (Nasdaq: BRCD). As one of the few tech stock winners of last week, the maker of networking switches that connect data storage systems posted an adjusted profit of $0.16 a share in its latest quarter. Analysts figured that Brocade's profit would fall to $0.10 a share after clocking in at $0.14 a year earlier.

Pandora Media (NYSE: P) also surprised the market, posting its second consecutive adjusted profit of $0.02 a share. Wall Street was sure that Pandora would post a deficit. There's apparently money to made in radio again, as Pandora's adjusted profit per share matched Sirius XM Radio's (Nasdaq: SIRI) better-than-expected showing from earlier this month.

Finally we have Phoenix New Media Limited (NYSE: FENG) winning over skeptics. The Chinese provider of content across several new and old media platforms posted a profit of $0.11 a share in its second quarter as a public company, and that was more than double what investors were expecting.

It's important to keep watching the 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 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.

If you want to track these stocks to see if they come out ahead next quarter, add them to My Watchlist: