i'll be nice about it, but it's probably worth explaining.
example - let's say 9 analysts from 9 different investment banks say aal will lose $4.00 a share for the quarter. if you know that aal has, say, 500 million shares outstanding - you know they are talking about aal losing $2 billion in a quarter.
if aal ends up losing $3.98 a share in that quarter - it's a beat. they beat on the bottom line. they 'beat' the street. the street said $4 a share loss, company ended up losing $3.98 a share.
they beat by .02 cents. doesn't matter that they lost money in the quarter..they beat. in that context, which is universally accepted by the investment world, my statement stands.
if those same analysts said that aal would rake in $5 billion in revenue in a quarter and aal says they pulled in $5.1 billion in revenues for that quarter - then, that's called a beat on the top line.
i throw bags for a living and i know that. i'm just trying to help out and talk about issues that the airlines and employees are dealing with. i'll temper it down a few notches.
i used the term 'beat' because they did beat - money-wise and in the context of more pax flew than expected; without a vaccine and a therapuetic for the virus.
this tells me that the american public is itching to travel when the virus is judged to be under control, by the powers that be.