Earnings reports are some of the most important sources of information available to stock investors. They give important details about the current state of a business, reveal important financial information, and may include forward earnings and revenue projections, as well as commentary by the CEO or other company leaders.
If you're invested in a particular stock, reading its quarterly and year-end earnings reports is one of the smartest things you can do to ensure your investment is still a good one. If you aren't invested in a company, reading through its recent earnings reports can help you analyze profitability, growth, financial conditions, and other important information to make educated decisions about whether a company would be a good fit for your portfolio.
What are they?
Understanding earnings reports
Earnings reports are (usually) quarterly releases that provide important details on a company's business operations and updated financial statements. Publicly traded companies in the United States are generally required to issue earnings reports once per quarter to disclose and discuss their quarterly and full-year business results to the investing community.
Earnings reports must be issued in a timely manner after the end of the period being reported. Most (but not all) companies release their earnings reports within three to seven weeks after the end of the fiscal quarter. This period that occurs after each calendar quarter is often referred to as earnings season.
However, it's important to know that some companies have fiscal years that don't match up with calendar quarters. For example, it's not uncommon to see a company with a fiscal year ending Jan. 31 or June 30.
In a company's earnings report, you can find information on its revenue (also known as top line) and earnings (bottom line) and how specific parts of the company performed. For example, in Amazon's (AMZN -1.32%) quarterly earnings report, you can learn how the company's e-commerce and Amazon Web Services (AWS) businesses performed.
Most companies provide commentary from senior leadership on the results and valuable context about future growth initiatives. These typically come both in the form of comments in the written earnings report and in an earnings conference call, which usually occurs within a day or so after the earnings report is released. Many provide forward projections, or guidance, which tell investors how management expects the business to perform in the coming quarter or for the full year.
Finally, you'll get an updated version of the three key financial statements companies are required to issue: the income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement. All three can provide valuable information for investors to use in their analysis of how a business is performing.
Upcoming reports
Upcoming critical earnings reports in 2025
Thousands of stocks trade on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Nasdaq exchanges in the United States, and thousands more trade on over-the-counter (OTC) markets and on international stock exchanges. So, it's impossible for us to discuss all of them. However, here's a list of some of the most closely followed companies when it comes to earnings reports and when investors can expect to hear from them next.
| Name (Ticker Symbol) | Market Cap |
Upcoming Earnings Date |
|---|---|---|
|
Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) |
$2.08 trillion | 4/28/2025 |
|
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) |
$778 billion | 4/23/2025 |
| Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) | $2.85 trillion | 4/23/2025 |
| Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.A)(NYSE:BRK.B) | $1.08 trillion | 5/3/2025 (actual) |
| Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) | $2.82 trillion | 5/28/2025 |
| Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)(NASDAQ:GOOG) | $2.02 trillion | 4/23/2025 |
| Shopify (NYSE:SHOP) | $120 billion | 5/6/2025 |
| Block (NYSE:XYZ) | $34.0 billion | 4/30/2025 |
| Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) | $1.54 trillion | 4/22/2025 |
It's important to note that most companies don't announce their earnings release date until a few weeks before it happens. In many cases (including in the table above), earnings dates that are a month or more in the future are approximate and based on the company's previous earnings release activity.
Recent reports
Recent important earnings reports
For the nine stocks in the earnings calendar chart above, here's a rundown of how things went the last time they reported earnings:
1. Amazon
Amazon reported its fourth-quarter earnings on Feb. 5, 2025, and the results were generally strong. Revenue surpassed analysts' expectations in the crucial holiday shopping quarter, and the company's cost-cutting efforts resulted in excellent profit margin growth. In fact, Amazon's net income nearly doubled year-over-year.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) was an especially strong point, with revenue up 19% year over year. One thing to keep an eye on is Amazon's capital expenditures, which have accelerated recently due to AI-related investments in data centers and related equipment. Management has said that the company expects capital expenditures to increase to $100 billion in 2025 (compared to $83 billion in 2024), so this is definitely something to keep an eye on.
2. Tesla
In the fourth quarter of 2024, Tesla reported an 8% year-over-year decrease in automotive revenue, which missed analysts' expectations by a significant margin. The EV maker missed expectations on the bottom line, as well. The biggest drag was reduced vehicle selling prices, which weighed on margins. Plus, Tesla reported 1.8 million vehicle deliveries for the full year 2024, which is the company's first decline. Tesla's operating margin declined by 200 basis points compared with the fourth quarter of the previous year.
3. Microsoft
In its fiscal second quarter of 2025 (its fiscal year ends June 30), Microsoft reported $69.6 billion in total revenue, which topped expectations. However, the company's forward guidance didn't quite meet expectations, falling short of what analysts expected by approximately $1.5 billion.
On the bottom line, Microsoft's earnings came in better than expected, with $3.23 per share in net profit. Revenue growth in the Intelligent Cloud segment, which includes Azure, was strong at 19% year over year but still wasn't quite in line with analyst expectations. Management said the demand for artificial intelligence (AI) is incredibly high, and like Amazon, Microsoft is spending heavily on AI infrastructure, with about $60 billion in annualized capital expenditures.
4. Berkshire Hathaway
Berkshire Hathaway is one of the few companies that always reports earnings on Saturdays, as management wants the market to have time to digest it before trading opens on Monday. In the fourth quarter of 2024, Berkshire reported strong year-over-year growth in its operating businesses, with most of the growth coming from higher underwriting profits and investment income from the large insurance operation.
Warren Buffett and his team continue to be net sellers of stock, and thanks to some stock sales, including a substantial reduction in its Bank of America (BAC 0.17%) investment, Berkshire reported an all-time high cash and short-term investments balance of more than $334 billion, giving the company tremendous financial flexibility going forward.
5. Nvidia
For the fourth quarter of its fiscal year, graphics chipmaker Nvidia reported both revenue and earnings that handily surpassed expectations. It generated $39.3 billion in revenue and expects this to swell to $43 billion in the first quarter. This guidance implies 65% year-over-year growth, thanks to the continued surge in demand for AI chips.
Nvidia has been a major beneficiary of the surge in AI investment, and this has been fueling rapid growth in recent quarters. However, there are some concerns about the company's ability to sustain its growth at a level that justifies its massive valuation. Even so, with rapid growth and an impressive 73% gross margin, there could be plenty of profit growth in the years ahead.
6. Alphabet
In the fourth quarter of 2024, Alphabet (better known for its main subsidiary, Google) reported earnings that exceeded analysts' expectations, although the tech giant missed expectations on top-line revenue.
Looking a little deeper, revenue from the fast-growing Google Cloud business slightly missed expectations, although this was somewhat offset by YouTube advertising revenue beating the consensus. It's also important to mention that Alphabet expects $75 billion in capital expenditures in 2025, mainly having to do with its AI growth strategy. This is far more than investors had been expecting, so it will be important to watch and see if the company can achieve a strong return on its investment.
7. Shopify
E-commerce service platform Shopify beat expectations on revenue in the fourth quarter of 2024, although earnings came in a little light. However, the company's forward guidance came in as expected, and the company specifically called out the "strong merchant momentum" that it expects to carry over into the first quarter.
The numbers back this up, as gross merchandise volume from Shopify customers came in at $94.5 billion, significantly more than analysts had been expecting. There are still some ongoing concerns about discretionary spending, but Shopify is doing a great job of setting itself up for long-term success regardless of short-term headwinds.
8. Block
Despite fears of lower consumer spending, fintech giant Block (formerly Square) reported solid fourth-quarter 2024 results throughout its business. Gross profit increased by 14% year over year, and while revenue came in a bit light, the business has become far more profitable than it was a year ago. Block's Cash App Card is a particularly interesting point to watch, as it is growing its active user base rapidly and creating many opportunities to cross-sell new products.
9. Meta Platforms
Meta Platforms, better known by its former name, Facebook, reported fourth-quarter 2024 earnings that handily beat expectations on both the top and bottom lines. Revenue in the fourth quarter increased by 21% year-over-year, and net income reached $20.8 billion -- $6.8 billion more than the same quarter a year ago.
Meta reiterated that its AI-related capital expenditures would be in the range of $60 billion to $65 billion for the full year 2025. There are 3.35 billion daily active users on the company's platforms, which also exceeded analyst expectations.
Related investing topics
Their importance
Why are earnings reports important?
Earnings reports are important because they provide lots of important insights into the current state of the companies you invest in and clues about where those companies could be heading. Among other things, earnings reports can help you spot growth trends, profit margin growth or contractions, balance sheet health, and how management expects the business to perform going forward.
It's also important to note that earnings reports generally coincide with a conference call with the company's management team and analysts who cover it (also known as an earnings call). These can also be worth listening to, as the company's key executives can provide context and commentary about the numbers you read in their earnings reports.
Earnings Call
With most U.S. companies, earnings reports are the most up-to-date look investors will get at a company's business and financials. Reading the most recent earnings report is an important part of doing ongoing due diligence as a buy-and-hold investor and can help you find new investment opportunities.
FAQ
Earnings reports FAQ
What time are earnings reports released?
There's no specific rule governing the timing of earnings reports, but most companies choose to release their results within a few hours before the stock market opens or after it closes. Most earnings reports are released in the 6 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. ET or 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. ET windows, but there certainly are exceptions.
Where can I find earnings reports?
There are a few places where you can find earnings reports. The easiest place is typically on the company's investor relations page, but you can also look at the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Alternatively, if you have a brokerage account, you can typically see all recent news (including earnings releases) in a company's news feed.
How much do earnings reports affect stock prices?
Earnings reports can certainly influence stock prices, but this isn't always the case. If a company misses expectations on earnings or revenue, reports an unexpectedly strong or weak quarter, or issues future guidance that is either worse or better than expected, its stock price could move sharply in one direction or another. On the other hand, if a company's earnings report is completely lacking in surprises, it's entirely possible for a stock to barely budge after earnings.
