Learn the stock market › Studies
How much does a stock move on earnings day? Every report, company by company
On earnings day a stock moves a median of 3.5%, against 1.0% on a normal day. A month later the price was still above the close before the report after 78% of the rises, and still below it after 63% of the falls. We counted 826 reports at 20 large US companies since 2015.
How far the price moves, median
How far the price moves
The move counts up or down, without its sign, from the close before the report to the close on earnings day. The median of 826 reports was 3.5%. On every other trading day in the same period the median was 1.0%. Why the price moves so much is explained in the lesson on earnings day.
20 of 20 companies moved more on earnings day than on a normal day. The largest of all was AMD on Apr 22, 2016: +52.3% in one day.
Did the direction hold a month later?
We compare the close 21 trading days after earnings day with the close before the report. If the price rose on earnings day and was still above, the direction held. If it fell and was still below, it held too.
The direction held a month later
Rises held more often than falls. They did after normal days too, because prices have risen over these years.
After a report the direction held more often than after a normal day, both ways.
A normal day's move is much smaller, and a small move is easily wiped out. So the table compares moves of the same size.
| The day's move | Reports | Held after a report | Held after a normal day |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rise under 2% | 110 | 63% | 64% |
| Rise 2–5% | 126 | 76% | 70% |
| Rise at least 5% | 158 | 89% | 74% |
| Fall under 2% | 140 | 46% | 43% |
| Fall 2–5% | 131 | 60% | 54% |
| Fall at least 5% | 145 | 83% | 60% |
After a fall of at least 5% on earnings day the price was still below in 83% of cases, against 60% after an equally large fall on a normal day. After a rise of at least 5% it was still above in 89%, against 74%.
Counted from the close on earnings day, the price changed a median of +1.6% over the next month after a rise and +0.9% after a fall. After a normal day it was +1.9%. What happened after the very largest falls, on earnings day or not, is in the study of one-day falls.
Company by company
Each row is the median of the company's earnings days against the median of its normal days, and how often the direction held a month later. A company has at most 47 reports, so a single row can shift a lot by chance.
| Company | Earnings day | Normal day | Direction held |
|---|---|---|---|
| Palantir | 12.0% | 2.1% | 92% |
| Netflix | 7.4% | 1.2% | 76% |
| AMD | 7.0% | 1.9% | 74% |
| Amazon | 6.5% | 1.2% | 78% |
| Tesla | 6.4% | 1.8% | 76% |
| Meta | 5.6% | 1.1% | 74% |
| Alphabet | 5.4% | 1.1% | 83% |
| Oracle | 5.1% | 0.8% | 74% |
| Broadcom | 4.8% | 1.2% | 74% |
| Nvidia | 4.6% | 1.8% | 58% |
| Microsoft | 3.7% | 0.8% | 80% |
| Apple | 3.5% | 0.8% | 72% |
| Walmart | 3.2% | 0.6% | 79% |
| Eli Lilly | 3.1% | 0.9% | 61% |
| Mastercard | 2.0% | 0.8% | 59% |
| JPMorgan Chase | 1.9% | 0.8% | 57% |
| Costco | 1.9% | 0.7% | 62% |
| Visa | 1.6% | 0.7% | 67% |
| Exxon Mobil | 1.6% | 0.9% | 61% |
| Berkshire Hathaway | 1.5% | 0.6% | 60% |
How we counted
- 20 of the 20 largest US companies on our list, from Feb 19, 2015 or from the company's first stored report, to Nov 6, 2026.
- Earnings day is the trading day the market could react. A report before 4 pm local time counts that day, a later one the next trading day.
- The report dates are the ones we have stored. We checked them on 5 November 2026: at 40 of 872 reports, the day before or after moved at least twice as much, and at least 4%. Some of that is other news, some may be a wrong date. They are included, so the move on earnings day is if anything a little too small.
- The closes have dividends and splits worked in, so an ex-dividend date does not count as a fall.
- Normal days are all other trading days from the company's first report.
- A month is 21 trading days. A report from the latest month counts in the move but not in whether the direction held. A price that did not change counts in neither direction.
- Large moves on normal days are not the same kind of day as earnings days. Some are the whole market moving, as in spring 2020 when it soon turned up. So the comparison between sizes is not exact.
- Reports often come in the same weeks, so the same market move can sit in many rows. The rows are not independent of each other.
- These are today's largest companies. Companies that fell and never came back are not here. That raises how often rises held and lowers how often falls held.
- Closing prices only. Fees and tax are not included.
You are welcome to use the numbers
Link here, quote the table or embed the chart on your own page. Name ChartCompass as the source and keep the link.