At the end of the day, a stock is simply a share in the ownership of a business, and market prices are reflecting a particular set of expectations about the earnings power of such a business. If the company can prove to investors that it can consistently do better than expected, then the stock price will most probably increase in order to reflect increased earnings expectations. As a matter of fact, academic research has proven that companies announcing better than expected earnings tend to outperform the market over time.
With this in mind, the following