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What: Shares of outdoor-goods expert Cabela's (NYSE: CAB) were high on life today, gaining as much as 14% in intraday trading after the company reported fourth-quarter results.

So what: What do investors want in a quarterly report? In short, they want better-than-expected earnings, better-than-expected revenue, and an optimistic view of the future. Cabela's fourth-quarter earnings release had all three.

For the fourth quarter, the hunting-and-fishing-gear maven delivered $1.06 in adjusted earnings per share on $984 million in revenue. On a YOY basis, revenue was up 5.4%, while adjusted EPS climbed 23%. Wall Street analysts were looking for just $0.99 in per-share profit and $963 million in sales.

Now what: As for the future, management has decided that business has been good enough and profitability has been strong enough that it's time to hit the gas pedal a bit harder. The company said that it's ramping up growth efforts, targeting a retail-square-footage increase of 10% in 2012 and another 11% to 13% in 2013. Cabela's is also rolling out a new store concept that will allow it enter some smaller markets.

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