Don't settle for ordinary quarterly reports.

Every week I take a look at three companies that beat market expectations, as I believe it's the biggest factor in beating the market. Leaving Wall Street's pros with stunned expressions can be a good thing. It usually means that a company has 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 Zipcar (ZIP.DL2) peeling out.

The leading car-sharing service saw its profitability pop fivefold to $0.10 a share in its latest quarter. Analysts were only holding out for net income of $0.01 a share. Zipcar's ability to grow its user base and expand profit margins in its four largest markets clearly paid off for the company. Zipcar's stock soared 16% on Friday after Thursday night's report.

Qualcomm (QCOM -0.20%) also clocked in ahead of the prognosticators. Checking in with a quarterly profit of $0.89 a share last week, it was well ahead of the $0.82 per share that analysts were targeting. Some may argue that this isn't much of a surprise. Qualcomm has bested Wall Street's estimates in 12 of the past 13 quarters. The rub here is that the one time it did miss over the past four years just happened to be this summer. It's good to see Qualcomm back on a new winning streak.

Finally, we had SodaStream (SODA) getting busy with the fizzy.

The company behind the popular beverage system that turns still water into sparkling water posted another strong report. Adjusted earnings climbed 58% to $0.87 a share, blowing through the $0.72 per share the pros were forecasting.

SodaStream's beat isn't much of a surprise; the pop star has blasted through Wall Street estimates in each and every quarter since going public a little more than two years ago.

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.