Don't settle for ordinary quarterly reports.

I take a look at three companies that beat market expectations every week, since I believe that it's the biggest factor in a stock beating the market. Leaving Wall Street's pros with stunned expressions can be a good thing. It usually means that the companies have more in the tank than analysts figured. Capital appreciation typically follows.

Let's take a look at a few companies that humbled the prognosticators over the past few trading days.

We can start with NVIDIA (Nasdaq: NVDA). The graphics-chip pioneer that's thinking outside the box by getting its Tegra chip into the faster growing tablet and smartphone realms cranked out net income of $0.27 a share for its fiscal first quarter.

It's an impressive feat since analysts figured that NVIDIA would earn substantially less than the $0.23 a share it posted a year earlier.

China's Giant Interactive (NYSE: GA) also came out on top. The online gaming company's quarterly profit of $0.17 a share bested Wall Street's target of $0.14 a share. The nearly 42% boost in profitability follows rival Changyou.com's (Nasdaq: CYOU) better than projected bottom-line growth two weeks earlier.

The news bodes well for the Chinese game developers set to report in the coming weeks, but it doesn't mean that every player is growing. Shanda Interactive (Nasdaq: SNDA) and Perfect World (Nasdaq: PWRD) are looking at substantial dips in profitability this time around.

Finally, we have Activision Blizzard (Nasdaq: ATVI) playing to win. The video game giant behind the Call of Duty and World of Warcraft franchises saw its adjusted quarterly earnings jump to $0.13 a share, well ahead of the $0.08 a share that investors were banking on. The industry has been in a bit of a funk since 2009, though game sales did bounce back last month.

It's important to keep watching the companies that surpass expectations. Over time, it will be a lucrative experience for investors as the market rewards the overachievers. That's the kind of surprise that 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.

Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended NVIDIA and Activision Blizzard, writing puts in NVIDIA, and a synthetic long position in Activision Blizzard. The Motley Fool owns shares of Activision Blizzard. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors.

Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz is a fan of toppers. He does not own shares in any of the stocks in this column. 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.