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 a company has 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 Carrols Restaurant Group (NASDAQ:TAST). The fast-food-chain operator went public just three months ago, but it's already off to a quick-service start. In its first quarter as a public company, Carrols posted earnings of $0.13 a share, comfortably ahead of the $0.11 per share that the market had been expecting.

Carrols runs several Pollo Tropical and Taco Cabana franchised locations, but it's the company's Burger King (NYSE:BKC) units that really brought home the bacon (as in bacon double cheeseburger). Comps rose a sharp 7.9% at its Burger King eateries. The burger brand accounts for roughly half the revenue mix at Carrols.

Gap (NYSE:GPS) was another topper. The troubled specialty retailer apparently didn't do too badly in Paul Pressler's final quarter as CEO. The company earned $0.27 a share in the seasonally spiked fourth quarter, beating the market's $0.24-per-share target. Hold your applause, though; the results still fell far short of the $0.39 a share it had earned a year earlier.

The swan-song quarter may not be enough to save Pressler's reputation. It obviously wasn't enough to save his job, and the search continues for his replacement. In the meantime, Gap isn't standing still; the retailer decided to kill off its Forth & Towne concept last week.

Then we have NetEase (NASDAQ:NTES). The company behind some of China's most popular multiplayer Internet games earned $0.30 a share, while analysts were only looking for a profit of $0.24 a share.

It may not have been much of a surprise. NetEase has beaten Wall Street's estimates in 12 of the past 13 quarters. Unfortunately for the company, it posted the blowout results on the same day that Chinese stocks got hammered. Once the ripples subside, NetEase will probably regain its growing ways.

So 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.

NetEase is a Rule Breakers recommendation. Gap has been singled out in both the Inside Value and Motley Fool Stock Advisor newsletter services.

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.