Every week, I take a look at a few companies that lapped their profit targets. Leaving Wall Street's pros with quizzical looks on their faces can be a good thing. It usually means that the companies have more in the tank than analysts figured, and capital appreciation often follows.

Let's take a look at a few companies that humbled the prognosticators this past week.

We'll start with Embraer (NYSE:ERJ). The Brazilian jet maker flew past profit targets, earning $0.67 a share in its fiscal fourth quarter. The pros had drawn the landing strip at the $0.60 per-share mark. Making airplanes doesn't seem like a very glamorous niche in these days of troubled legacy carriers, but Embraer has held up well, filling orders for smaller outfits like JetBlue (NASDAQ:JBLU) that still have room to grow.

Citi Trends (NASDAQ:CTRN) was another well-dressed topper. The discount apparel retailer earned $0.73 a share over its holiday quarter. That's comfortably ahead of the market consensus, at $0.69 a share. The company's healthy comps growth over the past two years has turned heads, but those same heads turned down when Citi Trends followed its excellent report with a disappointing outlook for 2007.

Finally, we have Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE). The company behind creative software like Photoshop and Acrobat was supposed to earn $0.29 a share. It actually posted earnings of $0.24 a share for the period, but it would have been $0.30 per share before charges related to its Macromedia acquisition.

Keep watching the companies that lap expectations. Over time, it will be a rewarding experience for investors as the market rewards the overachievers. That's the kind of surprise 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.

JetBlue and Embraer are Motley Fool Stock Advisor recommendations.

Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz is a fan of toppers. He does not own shares in any of the companies in this story. He is also part of the Rule Breakers newsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early. The Fool has a disclosure policy.