Every week, I take a look at a few companies that surpassed their profit targets. Leaving Wall Street's pros with quizzical looks usually means that the companies have more in the tank than the analysts figured, and capital appreciation often follows.

Let's look at a few companies that humbled the prognosticators this past week.

We can start with Google (NASDAQ:GOOG). The world's largest search-engine company posted an adjusted second-quarter profit of $5.36 a share, 16% higher than last year's showing. Analysts were expecting net income of only $5.09 a share.

With Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO) and Bing daddy Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) set to report earnings this week, it's easy to hope that top dog Google's rosy results will carry over to its runners-up. Well, I would resist that urge. Google has routinely smoked its smaller rivals. Google also grew despite a 13% decline in what advertisers were willing to pay for the average click through the site. That trend looks particularly scary as Microsoft -- and especially Yahoo! -- step up to the quarterly stage.

Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) is another topper. The chip giant earned $0.18 a share before a steep antitrust fine. That's less than last year's profit, but it's more than double the $0.08 per share that investors were looking for on the bottom line.

Finally, we have JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) giving financial services a good name. Unlike Friday's reports out of Citigroup (NYSE:C) and Bank of America (NYSE:BAC), which did everything they could to enhance their income statements, most of JPMorgan Chase's $0.28-per-share profit was earned the hard way. Analysts had targeted a modest $0.04 per share in net income.

Keep watching the companies that exceed expectations, since 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.