What happened

Shares of toy figurines-maker Funko (FNKO 6.62%) closed Friday up by 13.2% after trading mostly flat on Thursday.

So what

So what changed in the story of this consumer discretionary toy seller? Really, only one thing. After the close of trading Thursday, Funko announced the date and time for its next quarterly earnings release: Nov. 5 after the market closes.  

Now what

Was that a good enough reason for Funko's stock price to have popped? I mean, we may not have known until now precisely when Funko was planning to report earnings, but at least we knew that it was going to report ... eventually.

Still, it seems that confirmation of the date and time of the earnings release grabbed investors' attention Friday. Perhaps adding to their enthusiasm was an upbeat indicator from Zacks Equity Research. Analysts have been warning that Funko sales have been suffering due to the coronavirus pandemic, asserting that its earnings could drop by much as 74% year over year to $0.10 per share. However, on Thursday, Zacks confided its view that Funko is actually "expected to beat" that consensus earnings figure. Thus, the thing really pushing up Funko stock on Friday would appear to have been not just the confirmation of the earnings date -- but an analyst telling investors they can bet on Funko beating earnings on that date.    

Analyst supporting a rising stock arrow

Image source: Getty Images.

Will that actually happen? Tune in Nov. 5 to find out.