Why settle for ordinary quarterly reports?

Every week, I take a look 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 Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL). It seemed like the perfect opportunity for the company to stumble, with netbooks being all the rage over the holidays and consumers staying away from big-ticket items. However, Apple delivered a quarterly profit of $1.78 a share on Wednesday, well ahead of the $1.39 a share that Wall Street was expecting.

Apple isn't necessarily a speedster. Its earnings came in mostly in line with the $1.76 a share it earned a year ago. The key here is that analysts were braced for a dramatic bottom-line shortfall that thankfully never arrived.

Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) is another topper. The dot-com bellwether came through with net income of $5.10 a share before a series of charges, including its need to write down the value of its investments in Time Warner's (NYSE:TWX) AOL and WiMAX upstart Clearwire (NASDAQ:CLWR). Google's showing was well ahead of both the $4.43 a share it posted a year ago and the $4.95 that Mr. Market was expecting.

Is Google an anomaly or is the paid search market stronger than cynics have feared? We'll get a better indication when Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO) reports tomorrow.

Finally, we have New Oriental Education (NYSE:EDU) making the grade. China's largest for-profit educator earned $0.08 a share in its latest quarter, topping the market's $0.06-a-share guesstimate. When you have a 20% spike in students, a 54% surge in revenue, and you're already enlightening a crowd that is significantly larger than stateside leader Apollo Group (NASDAQ:APOL), it's hard not to like the company's chances.

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 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.