InsiderFlow › Guides › How to Read an Earnings Report in 10 Minutes
Four times a year every listed company publishes its accounts. You don't need to read the 80-page filing: you need to know where to look.
EPS vs estimates: earnings per share against analyst forecasts — the "beat" or "miss" that makes headlines. Revenue vs estimates: is growth real or just cost cuts? Guidance: management's forecast for coming quarters, often more important than the results themselves: markets price the future.
Margins (expanding or compressing?), cash flow (do profits turn into real cash?), buybacks and dividends. For tech: active users and recurring revenue. For banks: loan loss provisions.
An hour after the numbers, management answers analysts. Transcripts are free online: the tone of answers about next quarter is often worth more than the whole press release.
The stock's reaction in the first minutes (it often reverses), the press release's adjectives ("record", "exceptional": read numbers, not adjectives) and hot takes on social media.
An earnings report is judged in its trend: compare with the previous 4–8 quarters. And watch what institutions do in the following weeks: 13Fs reveal whether smart money bought the dip or sold the bounce.