
📈 A tech giant reported revenue up 25% on a year ago.
📉 Its shares fell about 10% the same evening.
The market wasn’t reacting to revenue. It was reacting to cash: the company spent so heavily on AI that more went out than came in.
Earnings are full of moments like this, where good news lands badly and bad news gets cheered. None of it is hidden. It only makes sense once you know how to read it.
Five terms that change how you read an earnings headline:
Guidance: what the company expects next. A great quarter with weak guidance can still sink the shares.
EPS: profit per share. A “beat” means it came in above analysts’ estimates. Beat by less than hoped, and the shares can still fall.
Margin: how much of each sale the company keeps. Sales can rise while margins shrink.
Free cash flow: the cash left after running and investing in the business. A company can make a profit and still burn cash.
Buyback: the company buying its own shares. Fewer shares means higher EPS, even if profit hasn’t grown.
Which earnings term have you nodded along to without being sure what it meant?