Don't settle for ordinary quarterly reports.

I take a look at three companies that beat market expectations every week, 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 pros over the past few trading days.

We can start with The Fresh Market (Nasdaq: TFM).

The upscale grocery store operator saw its net income soar 27% to $0.28 a share. Wall Street was waiting at the checkout counter perched on $0.27 a share in profitability.

The Fresh Market had no problem attracting shoppers. Net sales popped 21% higher, fueled by healthy expansion and a robust 8% spike in comps. Investors shouldn't be surprised to see that consumers are willing to spend more on superior groceries. Organic foodstuffs champion Whole Foods Market (Nasdaq: WFM) also served up better than expected earnings on strong same-store sales this summer.

Ship Finance (NYSE: SFL) is also sailing past the pros. The shipper with a fleet of roughly 70 vessels reported a quarterly profit of $0.77 a share, a little more than double what Wall Street was projecting.

Ship Finance is attractive to income investors given its juicy 9.7% yield. Strong bottom-line growth is the easiest way to keep those distributions flowing.

Finally, we have TiVo (Nasdaq: TIVO) recording better than expected results. The DVR pioneer may have posted a quarterly deficit of $0.23 a share, but that was just ahead of the $0.24 loss that Wall Street was forecasting.

Moving in the right direction
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. If that's not up your alley just yet, you can still check out a free special report detailing the next trillion-dollar revolution.

Either way, come back next week to learn about more stocks that blew the market away in the coming days.