Why settle for ordinary quarterly reports?

I take a look every week at three companies that beat market expectations, since I believe that it's the biggest factor in a stock beating the market. 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 Sohu.com (NASDAQ:SOHU). China's popular Internet portal saw net income more than quadruple to $1.02 a share. Analysts were expecting a profit of only $0.95 a share.

Sohu's win shouldn't come as a big surprise. Baidu.com (NASDAQ:BIDU) set the tone a week earlier, when China's leading search engine raced through Wall Street's bottom-line targets. Sohu has also easily topped analysts in each of the past six quarters.

Steiner Leisure (NASDAQ:STNR) is another topper. The provider of spa services on leading cruise lines like Royal Caribbean (NYSE:RCL) and Carnival (NYSE:CCL) cracked its knuckles and delivered third-quarter earnings of $0.89 a share. Investors were braced for earnings to dip to $0.68 a share after earning $0.72 a share a year earlier.

Finally we have DreamWorks Animation (NYSE:DWA) proving that there's more green to be made beyond Shrek. The worldwide success of Kung Fu Panda this summer -- now the company's biggest non-sequel theatrical release -- fueled a quarterly profit of $0.38 a share at the computer animation studio, well ahead of the $0.32 a share that analysts were expecting.

So, keep watching the companies that top 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 Motley Fool Rule Breakers newsletter service. Want in? Check out a 30-day free trial subscription.

Either way, come back next Monday to learn about more stocks that blew the market away.