3 Stocks That Blew the Market Away

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 puzzled looks on their faces 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 Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX). The DVD-rental specialist is growing its empire of high-tech couch potatoes. Net income in its latest quarter climbed 36% to $0.56 a share. Wall Street was braced for a showing of just $0.45 a share on the bottom line. Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) also dazzled its shoppers. The leading online retailer saw holiday-quarter profits soar 71% to $0.85 a share, obliterating analyst guesstimates of $0.72 a share. Real world retailers aren't doing nearly as well. Wall Street expects profits to grow by just 9% at Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) and 11% at Macy's (NYSE: M) for their holiday quarters. Finally, we have Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (Nasdaq: GMCR) awakening shareholders with some hot coffee sales. The company behind the Keurig single-cup brewers posted a 163% surge in adjusted profits to $0.27 a share. Decaffeinated pros were banking on a mere $0.16 a share in profitability. Starbucks (Nasdaq: SBUX) investors may have applauded the barista baron's 4% top-line spike two weeks ago, but they have to be envious of Green Mountain's 77% burst in net sales. © 2010 UCLICK L.L.C.