How to read an earnings report: release, 10-Q and call

An earnings report is really three documents. The press release (attached as Exhibit 99.1 to a Form 8-K) carries the headline numbers. The 10-Q, or the 10-K at year end, is the full record with notes. The conference call is often where the outlook is. Read the release for the headline, its reconciliation table for what was adjusted, and the filing for everything else.

Each of the three arrives at a different time, under different rules, and the number in a headline is not always the one that best describes the business. This guide follows one round of reports through all three documents: the fiscal fourth quarter of 2026 (April to June) at Microsoft (MSFT), and the second quarter of 2026 at Alphabet (GOOGL) and Amazon (AMZN). In that round, all three companies booked investment gains outside their day-to-day operations, and each one disclosed them in a different way. Every figure below comes from the companies' SEC filings, with the date of the filing. How we source and date numbers.

What's in an earnings report: three documents

The release is an 8-K "current report" under Item 2.02, "Results of Operations and Financial Condition", and the release itself is attached as Exhibit 99.1. The 8-K is due within four business days of the announcement, and all three companies in this guide submitted theirs within minutes of the close. Besides the headline figures, the release usually carries a summary income statement, balance sheet and cash-flow statement. Amazon's 8-K for the second quarter also attaches Exhibit 99.2, a page titled "Information Regarding Non-GAAP Financial Measures". Information under Item 2.02 is "furnished" rather than "filed", which keeps it outside some of the liability provisions that apply to filed reports (Form 8-K, General Instruction B.2).

The 10-Q and 10-K are the reports of record: complete financial statements with their notes, management's discussion and analysis (MD&A), risk factors, legal proceedings and share buybacks. The 10-K's statements are audited. The 10-Q's are unaudited but reviewed by the auditor: Microsoft's 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2026, for example, includes its independent auditor's report on that review. Large accelerated filers, which include most of the S&P 500, have 40 days after a quarter ends to file a 10-Q and 60 days after the fiscal year ends to file a 10-K (SEC Release 33-8644). The fourth quarter has no 10-Q of its own: it is covered by the annual 10-K.

In May 2026 the SEC proposed letting companies file semiannual reports on a new Form 10-S instead of quarterly 10-Qs. As of its rule page, last updated Jul 31, 2026, the rule is still a proposal, and quarterly reports remain the default.

The call exists in public because of Regulation FD. When a company shares material nonpublic information with analysts or investors, it must make it public, either in an 8-K or by a method "reasonably designed to provide broad, non-exclusionary distribution of the information to the public" (17 CFR 243.101(e)). A webcast anyone can join meets that test. In this round the calls started at 4:30 pm ET (Alphabet), 5:00 pm (Amazon) and 5:30 pm (Microsoft), each on the day of the release. Amazon's release says its call "will contain forward-looking statements and other material information regarding the Company's financial and operating results."

When does each document arrive?

The release and the full filing do not always come out together. These are the times each document was accepted on EDGAR, the SEC's filing system, for the round used in this guide (Eastern Time):

Source: EDGAR acceptance times via StockFit. Microsoft's fourth quarter is covered by its annual report, the 10-K. "Filing Date" is the date EDGAR gives the full report. Gaps are our calculation, rounded to the nearest minute.

Three things follow from the table:

• On the evening of a report, the release may be all there is. Readers of Alphabet's release waited about five hours for the notes, MD&A and risk factors. Microsoft filed its full report minutes after the release, as it also did with its 10-Q on Apr 29, 2026.
• The "Filing Date" can say the next day. EDGAR treats anything submitted after 5:30 pm ET as filed on the next business day (17 CFR 232.13). Amazon's 10-Q was public at 6:11 pm on Jul 30 but carries a filing date of Jul 31. The acceptance time on the filing index is the better timestamp.
• "Accepted on EDGAR" is not the same as "released". Companies also publish on newswires and their investor-relations sites, sometimes a moment before the EDGAR acceptance.

GAAP vs non-GAAP EPS: which number is the headline?

GAAP figures follow US accounting rules (generally accepted accounting principles). Non-GAAP or "adjusted" figures are the company's own variation: GAAP minus items the company chooses to exclude, such as acquisition costs, restructuring charges or investment gains and losses. There is no single definition. Each company writes its own, and it can change.

The rules are about presentation. Under Regulation G, a company that publishes a non-GAAP measure must also present "the most directly comparable" GAAP measure and a quantitative reconciliation between the two (17 CFR 244.100). In SEC filings, the GAAP figure must appear "with equal or greater prominence" (Regulation S-K Item 10(e)). So whenever a release uses a non-GAAP measure, a reconciliation table comes with it, and that table is the fastest way to see what was adjusted.

Microsoft's release for the quarter to Jun 30, 2026 shows why the table matters:

Source: Microsoft's release (8-K, Exhibit 99.1), Jul 29, 2026.

Microsoft's non-GAAP figures exclude only "the impact from investments in OpenAI". In this quarter those investments produced net gains, so the adjusted EPS of $4.74 is lower than the GAAP EPS of $4.81. A year earlier it went the other way: losses on the same investments reduced GAAP EPS by $0.21, and the adjusted figure ($3.86) was higher than GAAP ($3.65). That is why the two growth rates differ so much: diluted EPS rose 32% on a GAAP basis and 23% on a non-GAAP basis (Microsoft).

Two more lessons from the same release:

• "Adjusted" does not mean "excluding every one-off". Microsoft says discrete items, including "a $3.2 billion gain from our investment in Anthropic", added $0.27 to diluted EPS compared with its April guidance. Its non-GAAP definition covers OpenAI only, so that gain is part of both $4.81 and $4.74. Read the definition, usually near the end of the release.
• The company says what non-GAAP is not. Microsoft's own caveat: its non-GAAP measures "should not be considered as a substitute for, or superior to" GAAP measures.

Not every company reports adjusted EPS. Alphabet's only non-GAAP measures in its second-quarter release are free cash flow and revenue growth in constant currency (growth with exchange-rate changes taken out). Its EPS is GAAP only.

Operating income vs net income: where one-off gains show up

When non-GAAP EPS isn't there to help, the income statement itself separates the business from everything else. Operating income is revenue minus the costs of running the business. Below it sits other income (expense): interest, currency effects and gains or losses on investments. Net income and EPS include everything.

Alphabet, Q2 2026. Operating income was $40.8 billion. Other income, net, was $98.0 billion, driven by a $99.0 billion gain on equity securities. Diluted EPS was $9.11. Alphabet quantifies the effect in a footnote to its other-income table: "the net effect of the gain on equity securities of $99.0 billion increased the provision for income tax, net income, and diluted net income per common share by $21.9 billion, $77.1 billion, and $6.26, respectively" (Alphabet). The footnote also warns that changes in the value of its investments "could significantly contribute to the volatility" of other income in future periods.

So $6.26 of the $9.11 came from that gain, by Alphabet's own count. Use the company's quantification rather than building an "EPS without the gain" of your own: the tax effect and share count are already worked into its figure.

Amazon, Q2 2026. Operating income was $27.5 billion, up from $19.2 billion a year earlier. Net income was $62.6 billion, or $5.75 per diluted share, up from $18.2 billion and $1.68. The release explains the difference in one sentence: net income "includes non-operating pre-tax other income of $53.4 billion, primarily from our investments in Anthropic" (Amazon).

Microsoft shows the same pattern in a smaller size. Its other income, net, was $3.4 billion, against a net expense of $1.7 billion a year earlier, while operating income was $40.6 billion.

In plain terms: operating income and the company's own figure for a one-off item show what the business earned in the quarter. Net income and EPS show everything that happened to the company's accounts, including the value of its stakes in other companies.

What do "beat" and "miss" mean?

In market reporting, a company "beat" estimates when its EPS or revenue came in above the average analyst estimate compiled by a data provider, and "missed" when it came in below. MoverTape writes "above", "below" or "in line with" instead, and always names the estimate's source, the number of analysts behind it and the date.

Three questions decide whether such a comparison means anything:

1. Whose estimate, and how many analysts? Each provider averages its own group of analysts. A consensus based on 3 estimates is a thinner signal than one based on 14.
2. Same basis? Compare the estimate with the figure the company headlines: non-GAAP EPS where the company reports it (Microsoft), GAAP EPS where it reports only GAAP (Alphabet, Amazon).
3. Is a one-off bigger than the gap? When a company has quantified an item, such as Alphabet's $6.26 per share, and the item is larger than the difference between the result and the estimate, "above" or "below" tells you about the item, not the business. Give both numbers and the item instead.

The last point is not hypothetical. Gains like Alphabet's and Amazon's depend on the value of stakes in other companies and are hard to forecast, which is why last quarter's EPS made a poor reference point for the following round of reports.

StockFit's earnings calendar gives, for each company, the next report date, whether it comes before the open or after the close, the consensus EPS estimate and the number of estimates behind it. It has no revenue consensus. An estimate is a snapshot: it changes as analysts update, so we always print it with the time we read it.

Guidance: where to find it and how to compare it

Guidance is the company's forecast for the next quarter or year. It is voluntary. The SEC "encourages" management projections that have a reasonable basis (Regulation S-K Item 10(b)), but no rule requires them, so companies choose whether to give guidance, what to cover and where to put it. The three companies in this guide made three different choices:

• Amazon puts it in the release. A section titled "Third Quarter 2026 Guidance" gave net sales of $197.0 billion to $202.0 billion (growth of 9% to 12%) and operating income of $22.5 billion to $26.5 billion, against $17.4 billion a year earlier. It states its assumptions: an unfavorable currency effect of about 80 basis points, "no impact from energy derivative contract remeasurements", and no additional acquisitions, restructurings or legal settlements. And it dates itself: the figures reflect "expectations as of July 30, 2026, and are subject to substantial uncertainty."
• Microsoft gives it on the call. Its release says it "will provide forward-looking guidance in connection with this quarterly earnings announcement on its earnings conference call and webcast." The outlook covers revenue by segment, costs, other income, the tax rate and capital spending.
• Alphabet's release has no outlook section. Anything Alphabet says about the future comes on the call.

How to read a result against guidance:

• Against the company's own range. "Operating income came in within the range Amazon gave on Jul 30" is a statement anyone can check. A result outside the range is the clearest kind of surprise there is, because the company set the bar itself.
• On the guidance's basis. If the guidance assumed no energy-derivative remeasurements, a result that includes one needs that item set aside, and the company usually quantifies it. Constant-currency guidance is compared with constant-currency results.
• With the update in mind. Microsoft's April guidance was the yardstick for its June quarter, which is why its July release measured the quarter against "our forward-looking guidance provided on April 29, 2026".

Forward-looking statements come with legal warnings ("safe harbor" language under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995). Those paragraphs are boilerplate, but the specific assumptions listed next to the numbers, as in Amazon's case, are not.

Segments, and why to compare with restated figures

Segments are the parts of a company that its top decision-maker manages separately. Under the accounting standard ASU 2023-07, US public companies must also disclose significant segment expenses and give the title and position of the executive who reviews them (FASB).

Amazon's segment table for the second quarter of 2026:

Source: Amazon's release (8-K, Exhibit 99.1), Jul 30, 2026.

AWS made up 21% of net sales, according to the release. By our calculation from the same table, it produced 60.5% of operating income ($16.6 billion of $27.5 billion). A headline about total sales growth and a headline about profit can describe different businesses.

Segments get redrawn, and when they do, old and new figures stop being comparable. On Sep 2, 2026, Microsoft announced it would move from three reporting segments to two, "Agents and Infra" and "Devices and Consumer", starting with fiscal 2027, and filed restated history for both prior years (Microsoft, 8-K Exhibit 99.1). Company totals did not change: revenue for the quarter to Sep 30, 2025 is $77,673 million in both versions. But some metrics did:

• Azure's growth in the quarter to Jun 30, 2026 was 43% as reported in July, under the old "Azure and other cloud services" definition. Under the new "Azure" definition, which moves GitHub cloud and some other services elsewhere, the restated figure is 42%.
• Microsoft also restated its guidance for the quarter to Sep 30, 2026. Its July outlook of Azure growth of "approximately 45% in constant currency" became 44% to 45% under the new definition.

So when Microsoft reports a quarter in the new structure, the year-ago comparison is the restated figure from the Sep 2 document, and the yardstick is the restated guidance. Compare a new-definition number with an old one and the change is partly an artifact of the definitions.

What happens on the earnings call?

The call usually starts with prepared remarks from the chief executive and the chief financial officer, followed by questions from analysts. It is where companies that don't publish guidance in the release give their outlook, and where management often explains the items in the reconciliation table. All three companies in this guide webcast their calls, and Microsoft and Amazon say in their releases that replays stay available on their investor-relations sites.

Call transcripts are usually not filed with the SEC, so a quote from a call should name the speaker and the date. Some companies post their prepared remarks or an outlook slide deck on their investor-relations site after the call.

Where to find each part on EDGAR and in StockFit data

On SEC EDGAR, for any US-listed company:

1. Search for the company in EDGAR's company search and open its filings list.
2. Filter by form type 8-K and look for a filing that lists Item 2.02 on the report date.
3. Open the filing index. The press release is the document of type EX-99.1, and the index shows the "Accepted" time.
4. Filter by 10-Q (or 10-K after the fourth quarter) for the full report. MD&A is Part I, Item 2 of a 10-Q, and risk factors are Part II, Item 1A.
5. For a segment change, look for an 8-K filed in the months before the first report in the new structure. Microsoft used Item 7.01 for its Sep 2 recast.

StockFit, the data source of this site, has the same filings with their EDGAR acceptance times. A request for a company's earnings releases filters 8-Ks by the event earnings, which corresponds to Item 2.02. This short example, run on a server so the API key stays private, lists Amazon's two latest:

// Runs on a server: the API key comes from an environment variable.
const url = new URL("https://api.stockfit.io/v1/api/filings");
url.searchParams.set("symbol", "AMZN");
url.searchParams.set("event", "earnings"); // 8-K Item 2.02

const res = await fetch(url, {
  headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.STOCKFIT_API_KEY}` },
});
if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`StockFit returned ${res.status}`);
const { data } = await res.json();
for (const filing of data.slice(0, 2)) {
  console.log(filing.dateFiled, filing.acceptedAt, filing.url);
}

Three fields do the work. dateFiled is EDGAR's filing date, the one that rolls over after 5:30 pm. acceptedAt is the acceptance time in UTC: for Amazon's second-quarter release it is 20:06:23 UTC, which is 4:06 pm ET in summer. url points to the filing on sec.gov. Setting type to 10-Q or 10-K instead of event returns the full reports. StockFit's income statements and segment figures come from those 10-Q and 10-K filings, so they appear once the full report is filed, not with the release.

After the close: reading the first reaction

Companies that report after the 4:00 pm close are first traded in extended hours, when fewer shares change hands and prices can swing more than in the regular session. Early moves are reported by news outlets with a time stamp, and they can reverse during the call or by the next day's open. A move is a fact, while its cause is a claim: unless a named source attributes the move to something specific, a careful reading leaves the cause open. Several things often happen on the same evening, from other companies' reports to economic data.

A reading order

1. The release's first page: revenue, operating income, net income and EPS, with their growth rates and the period.
2. The reconciliation table and the non-GAAP definition: what was adjusted, and in which direction.
3. Other income below operating income: any large investment gain or loss, and the company's own figure for it.
4. Guidance: in the release or, if it isn't there, from the call, compared with the previous range on the same basis.
5. The segment table: which part of the company produced the change, compared with restated figures after any recast.
6. The 10-Q or 10-K: the notes behind any unusual line, MD&A and risk factors.

For examples in practice, all our results coverage is in Earnings.