Earnings Season
Learn to read what public companies actually report every quarter — the anatomy of an earnings report, consensus estimates, GAAP vs non-GAAP earnings, guidance, and the metrics that move stocks.
Start the course
- Plain English, minimal math
- Free to start
- Real company data
Looking for who reports when instead? See the earnings calendar.
The problem this course solves
Apple reports record profits. The stock drops 8 percent. Your colleague says the results were disappointing. But the revenue was up 15 percent year-over-year. What is going on?
Markets do not react to what happened — they react to the gap between what happened and what was expected. This course teaches you to read that gap: the anatomy of a release, how expectations are set, what guidance signals, and how to form a view on what the market will do next.
What you will be able to do
Read any earnings release
Know exactly where to look and what each section means.
Understand consensus estimates
Where the "expected" number comes from and why beating it is what really matters.
Decode guidance
Separate sandbagging from genuine concern in management forecasts.
Weight revenue vs EPS by sector
Know which headline number the market is actually watching for each industry.
Tell GAAP from adjusted earnings
See what companies add back to reach non-GAAP profit, and judge when it is fair.
Spot the whisper number
Understand the gap between published consensus and the real market expectation.
Form a post-earnings thesis
Turn a 10-minute report read into a structured, one-paragraph investment view.
Curriculum — 8 lessons
- 01The Anatomy of an Earnings ReportWhat a company actually publishes every quarter — and where to look first when the numbers land.25 min
- 02How the Consensus Estimate Is SetWhere the "expected" number comes from, who sets it, and why beating it is what really matters.25 min
- 03Reading a Real Earnings ReportWalk through an actual quarterly report line by line and separate the signal from the noise.30 min
- 04Revenue vs EPS — Which One Matters?Why a company can grow revenue and still disappoint, and how the two headline numbers interact.25 min
- 05Operating KPIs — Beyond Revenue and EPSSubscribers, deliveries, daily active users, ARR and net revenue retention, same-store sales — the operating metrics that often move a stock more than the headline numbers.25 min
- 06GAAP vs Non-GAAP — Which Earnings Are Real?Almost every release reports two different profit numbers. Learn what companies add back to reach "adjusted" earnings, when that is fair, and when it is a red flag.25 min
- 07Guidance — The Number That Moves the StockWhy the forecast a company gives for next quarter often matters more than the results it just reported.25 min
- 08Final Project — Read an Earnings Report YourselfPut it all together: pick a company, read its latest report, and form your own view of the quarter.30 min