In a recent study, finance professor Patrick Verwijmeren of Erasmus School of Economics and accounting professor David Veenman of the Universiteit van Amsterdam compared U.S. stocks that often posted positive earnings surprises against those that seldom did.
The companies that most frequently beat expectations were almost 50% more likely to do so again, and outperformed by an average of about one percentage point the next time they surpassed analysts’ forecasts.