What is an earnings report?

An earnings report is the disclosure a public company makes to share how it performed over a specific period, almost always a fiscal quarter. In the United States, companies are required to file these results with regulators and to make them available to the public, which is why earnings are such a central part of following the stock market.

An earnings report is usually released alongside a press release summarizing the highlights, and is followed by a conference call in which company leaders discuss the results and answer questions from analysts.

What a quarter means

Most companies divide their financial year into four quarters of roughly three months each. After each quarter ends, the company spends a few weeks closing its books and then reports the results. This is why earnings arrive in predictable waves four times a year, a stretch often called earnings season.

Why the report moves the stock

Going into a report, analysts publish forecasts for figures like earnings per share and revenue. The earnings report reveals the actual numbers. When results come in meaningfully above or below those expectations, the share price can move quickly, because the report changes what investors believe about the company's future.

Reading a report in context

A single earnings report is most useful when read against expectations and against the company's own past results. The raw numbers matter, but so does the direction they are trending and what management says about what comes next.