Earnings

The Earnings section shows a company's earnings track record, its surprise history, forward estimates, and earnings-call transcripts. This page explains what the section shows, how to read each figure, and how the beat rate and average surprise are computed. The section is available to Free, Pro Lite, and Pro accounts.

Before you begin

What it shows

An earnings-per-share or revenue history chart, switchable between quarterly and annual.
A performance card: Beat Rate, Average Surprise, and the current beat Streak over the selected period.
A table of earnings per share or revenue by period.
Upcoming earnings estimates.
A list of past earnings calls with a transcript panel for the selected call.

Inputs

View mode: Quarterly or Annual. The default is Quarterly.
Period: 1Y, 3Y, 5Y, 10Y, or All. The default varies by section.
Table metric: earnings per share or revenue.

Outputs and how to read them

Beat Rate: the share of reported periods where the actual result beat the estimate; higher signals consistent execution.
Average Surprise: the average percent by which actuals beat (positive, green) or missed (negative, red) the estimates.
Streak: consecutive recent beats, marked Q for quarters or Y for years.
Estimates: the consensus expectation for upcoming periods.

How it is calculated

Two figures on the performance card are computed: the beat rate and the average surprise.

Beat rate

The beat rate tells you how often the company beat expectations over the chosen window.

beat rate = periods beaten / total periods

In this formula, periods beaten is the number of periods where the actual earnings per share exceeded the estimate, and total periods is the number of periods in the selected window. The card also shows the count as beats over total. For example, 10 beats out of 12 quarters give 10 over 12, which is 83%, shown as "83%, 10/12." A beat counts equally whether it was by a penny or a wide margin, so pair the beat rate with the average surprise for magnitude.

Average surprise

The average surprise measures the typical size of the beat or miss.

surprise percent = (actual EPS − estimate EPS) / |estimate EPS| × 100; average surprise = mean of each period's surprise percent

Here actual EPS and estimate EPS are the reported and expected earnings per share for a period, and the average is taken across the window. For example, surprises of plus 5%, minus 2%, and plus 8% average to plus 3.67%. Small or near-zero estimates can produce outsized surprise percentages, because the denominator is small.

Data and timing

Reported and estimated earnings per share and revenue, plus the call transcripts, come from AlphaVantage. They refresh daily and after each earnings event.

Use cases

Judge how reliably a company hits its numbers.
Read the latest call transcript before earnings season.
See what the Street expects next quarter.

Limitations and disclosures

A beat counts equally regardless of margin, and near-zero estimates can distort the surprise percent. These are reported and consensus figures, so no disclosure is required for this section.