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 over the past few trading days.
We can start with E-House (NYSE: EJ). The Chinese real estate agency earned $0.29 a share in its latest quarter, comfortably ahead of the $0.24 a share that analysts were expecting.
Despite the real estate malaise we're experiencing in the U.S., clearly it's a more robust market in China. As of Friday's close, E-House was trading higher than its successful IPO at $13.80 a share this past summer. It's not just E-House, of course. Chinese residential homebuilder Xinyuan Real Estate (NYSE: XIN) recently saw its quarterly revenue more than double.
TiVo (Nasdaq: TIVO) is another topper. The DVR pioneer proved worthy of its green thumbs-up button after posting a quarterly deficit of $0.06 a share, much less than both the $0.20 a share it surrendered a year ago and the $0.11-a-share loss that Wall Street was banking on.
TiVo has been on a roll. Whether it's emerging victorious in a patent infringement lawsuit against EchoStar Communications (now DISH Network (Nasdaq: DISH)), offering up ad-watching trends to the major networks, or striking technology licensing deals with cable operators such as Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA), the red ink is fading as its prospects start to shine.
Finally, we have Marvell Technology (Nasdaq: MRVL). The chip designer reversed a year-ago loss by breaking even in the fourth quarter, although its non-GAAP profit clocked in at $0.20 a share. It's on that adjusted basis that analysts were expecting a profit of just $0.11 a share for the period.
So, keep watching the companies that lap expectations. Over time, it will be a rewarding experience for investors as the market rewards the overachievers.
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Either way, come back next Monday to learn about more stocks that blew the market away.
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