Another earning season is over. The winners? Most of our stocks. Twenty-three out of 33 portfolio names delivered third-quarter reports were deemed good or great by the Investing Club, thanks partly to a still-strong consumer and largely to the massive build out of all things AI. Case in point: In the S & P 500, 86% of technology companies beat sales estimates for the third quarter, according to FactSet data. That was followed by healthcare (79%) and real estate (74%). Communication services led all sectors for bottom-line beats, with 95%, followed by technology, at 86%. Two big moves to note. We initiated a position in Goldman Sachs after the financial name reported third-quarter results — we obviously liked what we saw on the release and heard from management — so it isn’t included in this report. Also excluded is Advanced Micro Devices , which we exited Dec. 31 after the chipmaker reported lackluster results and gave little reason to stick with it into the new year. As always, we’re wrapping up the season with a review of results for all Club holdings. These quarterly report cards are not the end-all, be-all for analysis. However, we believe stock prices ultimately follow the underlying business fundamentals of companies and having an idea of which companies did well and which didn’t can help with buying and selling decisions. Similar to prior quarters, we grouped company results into one of four categories. The companies in each category are listed in alphabetical order. The Great The Good The Not So Bad The Ugly The Great Alphabet “Listening to the post-earnings conference call made one thing abundantly clear: Artificial intelligence is being woven into every aspect of this company and, in turn, driving more engagement from both consumers and enterprise customers alike. It’s not just revenue that AI is helping to grow, it’s also helping the company become more efficient than ever.” — Oct. 29 after the bell Amazon “[The company] reported a much better-than-expected third quarter Thursday, with strong growth across online sales, its cloud business and advertising. Margin initiatives lead to soaring profits. Additionally, the fourth-quarter forecast was exactly what was needed to keep investors happy.” — Oct. 31 after the bell (Amazon is a core holding in the Club’s portfolio; one of 12 stocks with this designation.) Broadcom “The headline numbers for the August-to-October quarter may have been mixed, but make no mistake, this was a very strong report. You wouldn’t understand just how strong, though, unless you listened to the earnings call. It is the latest example to support Jim Cramer’s long-held investing principle that investors need to wait for the call before making a post-earnings trade.” — Dec. 12 after the bell (We exited Advanced Micro Devices on Dec. 31 because companies want custom AI chips from Broadcom and others if they can’t get Nvidia.) BlackRock “The firm posted third-quarter earnings that crushed analysts’ expectations, yet again. Management also announced that assets under management reached another record high, an incredible $11.5 trillion, on surging inflows as the stock market rallied.” — Oct. 11 before the bell (The Club called up the world’s largest asset manager from the Bullpen and started a position on Oct. 16 .) Costco “Costco shares are not cheap by traditional standards, trading at around 54 times next-12-months EPS estimates. The lofty valuation, however, hasn’t stopped the stock’s monstrous rise over the years. The stock is deserving of its hefty premium due to the company’s share gains and dependability with a subscription model.” — Dec. 12 after the bell (Costco is a core Club holding.) Disney “It was a great quarter. Sales and earnings beat. The company generated strong cash flow. And perhaps most importantly for investors, its direct-to-consumer streaming unit’s profitability was well ahead of the consensus estimate. And the good run should continue, with management forecasting earnings growth acceleration over the next couple of years.” — Nov. 14 before the bell Meta Platforms “[The company] delivered one heck of a strong third quarter and a current quarter revenue guide above expectations. … Fewer-than-expected daily active users in the quarter and bump higher in full-year capital expenditures guidance [were not concerning],” — Oct. 30 after the bell (Meta is a core Club holding .) Morgan Stanley “This was as clean a quarter as anyone could have asked for. Morgan Stanley outpaced expectations in just about every aspect of each operating division and put up very strong quarterly results in terms of firmwide key performance indicators.” — Oct. 16 before the bell (Despite the strong quarter, the Club sold half of its Morgan Stanley position on Dec. 19 and initiated a position in Goldman Sachs. In the trade alert, we wrote, “We plan to use our remaining Morgan Stanley shares as a source of funds to scale deeper into Goldman Sachs .”) Nvidia “Nvidia reported a fantastic quarter … even if guidance for the current quarter came up a bit short of the loftiest expectations. … It’s hard to complain about a beat-and-raise quarter just because the beat and raise wasn’t as big as some craved.” — Nov. 20 after the bell (Nvidia is one of two “own it, don’t trade it” stocks in the portfolio. Apple is the other one . Both are among the Club’s core holdings) Wells Fargo “[The company] missed expectations on third-quarter revenue. Investors focused instead on the bank running leaner and generating better-than-expected profitability. … We like the efficiency gains at the bank; the progress being made to get the Federal Reserve-imposed asset cap lifted; and the optimistic outlook for the economy and inflation.” — Oct. 11 before the bell (Wells Fargo is a core Club holding .) The Good Apple “[The company] delivered a quarter that can only be described as much better than feared. It wasn’t perfect, but it was pretty darn good. … We are once again reminded why it doesn’t pay to try to game Apple’s quarterly release. For all the fearmongering we have had to contend with over the past few weeks about just how horrendous this print was going to be, it ended up being a September quarter sales record for the world’s greatest consumer technology company.” — Oct. 31 after the bell Abbott Laboratories “In its third quarter, Abbott Labs demonstrated why we wanted to stick with the stock in the face of legal battles that emerged earlier this year and spooked investors. … [The company] upped its earnings guidance for the third straight quarter.” — Oct. 16 before the bell Bristol-Myers Squibb “Third-quarter earnings and revenue that blew past Wall Street’s expectations thanks to its blockbuster blood thinner Eliquis and a portfolio of drugs it expects to deliver long-term growth.” — Oct. 31 before the bell (The Club called Bristol-Myers up from the Bullpen and started a position on Nov. 25 , encouraged by the company’s FDA-approved drug Cobenfy, the first novel treatment for schizophrenia in over 30 years.) CrowdStrike “CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz noted on the [fiscal 2025 third quarter] earnings release that the company has realized a gross retention rate of over 97%, an important factor given investor concerns about customers leaving the platform following a botched software update back in July that caused a global IT outage. Since the glitch, Kurtz and his team have put on a master class in addressing the company’s misstep — and as the fiscal third-quarter results show, it appears to be resonating with customers.” — Nov. 26 after the bell DuPont “DuPont’s performance on profitability metrics shined, with the better-than-expected operating EBITDA and earnings results for the quarter compounded by an increase to management’s full-year outlook on both metrics. Profit margin performance was also strong, as was cash flow generation, with transaction-adjusted free cash flow conversion of 130% — a sign of healthy earnings.” — Nov. 5 before the bell Danaher “Investors [on the earnings release] questioned the sustainability and magnitude of bioprocessing improvements in 2025. Wall Street’s reaction [then] does not reflect the strides Danaher made in that important end-market, which is contained in the company’s biotechnology segment.” — Oct. 22 before the bell (Danaher is a core Club holding .) Home Depot “High interest rates and economic uncertainty still weigh on Home Depot. But same store sales — a key metric in the retail space that seeks to adjust sales results for new store opening or closings — while down from a year ago, did show improvement in the U.S. and globally. The company raising its guidance is another reason to stay positive.” — Nov. 12 before the bell (Home Depot is a core Club holding .) Linde “It wasn’t the typical beat-and-raise quarter that Linde has become known for over the years. However, its profits growing faster than sales shows how adept the company is at navigating tough economic conditions. Once economic activity picks up – perhaps from lower interest rates around the globe – and volumes grow again, we expect Linde will be back to its usual beat-and-raise cadence.” — Oct. 31 before the bell (Linde is a core Club holding .) Microsoft “[Despite] positive trends and innovations, revenue guidance for next quarter fell a touch short of expectations. That’s a no-no in this market that needs beats and raises to send stocks higher, especially for a stock where there is still some investor frustration on whether these big AI bets will pay off.” — Oct. 30 after the bell Nextracker “Arguably the best part of Nextracker’s report was the increase in its backlog — even more so than the revenue and earnings beats. Why? Because questions about Nextracker’s backlog overshadowed stronger-than-expected headline results in August.” — Oct. 30 after the bell Palo Alto Networks “The cybersecurity company delivered strong fiscal 2025 first-quarter results, beating estimates on basically every line. It also raised full-year guidance across several key metrics. … The cybersecurity company delivered strong fiscal 2025 first-quarter results, beating estimates on basically every line. It also raised full-year guidance across several key metrics.” — Nov. 20 after the bell Salesforce “Wall Street is willing to look past Salesforce’s slight miss on adjusted EPS because of the upbeat revenue performance. Investors know Salesforce has become disciplined on margins, but what the market really wants to see next to take the stock higher is better topline growth. The quarterly results and outlook demonstrated that the company’s fundamentals have remained resilient without any contribution from one of the most exciting product launches in its history: Agentforce.” — Dec. 12 after the bell TJX Companies “While guidance was a bit below expectations, it was not overly concerning given the off-price retailer’s proclivity to…
Read More: Here is our third-quarter earnings report card for 33 stocks in the portfolio