World Wrestling Entertainment (NYSE: WWE)'s stock jumped Thursday after the market took a look at the company's Q3 data. Overall revenues didn't see much of an increase, but earnings per share rose over 70% to 12 cents. Driving this incredible growth rate was a cut in gross costs. Analysts were betting on 10 cents in per-share profit, according to Earnings.com.

Did WWE deserve a pop of 7% during yesterday's trading session? Some of the excitement was certainly justified. It's obviously a positive thing to see management acting so diligently when it comes to costs. Of course, there was an increase in selling, general, and administrative expenses during the quarter, so there is still room for improvement (the nine-month table did show a decrease in this line, to be fair).

Kellogg Company (NYSE: K) didn't need a hearty breakfast to get its stock going today (although I'm sure it had one anyway). All it needed was a reasonably healthy earnings report. Judging by how the stock is performing, I think the company got one.

For the third quarter, Kellogg saw flat sales growth. However, take out currency effects and acquisitions, and you've got a 3% expansion rate on the top line. Well, that isn't so robust, either, but let's head to the bottom line. Earnings per share came in at 94 cents, representative of a 6% increase. Not so bad, and according to Mark Fightmaster's preview, that was a dime better than what analysts wanted to see.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) issued Q3 data on Monday. According to the press release, the telecommunications entity made, on an adjusted basis, 60 cents per share. Disappointing, since that's six pennies less than last year's comparable number. However, it was a penny ahead of analyst expectations, according to Reuters.

Of course, when discussing Verizon, what tends to receive focus is cash flow. As we all know, the company is a famous dividend play. Many investors consider this angle to be not only valuable, but an added safety element as well.

Kimberly-Clark Corporation (NYSE: KMB), a consumer products entity whose colleagues include Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), is up today on third-quarter results. At the time of this writing, my screen was showing shares of Kimberly-Clark higher by a little under 6%.

According to the corporate press release, sales declined 1.7%. Not a great start, but Kimberly-Clark highlighted a better metric: organic sales increased 3%, helped along by price increases. Luckily, sales volume didn't fare too badly; they were essentially flat.

Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT) is doing great. The stock is hot, and even though the company is still reporting sales and earnings declines, you just know that the fundamentals will eventually get better. In the meantime, management is doing its best to beat earnings expectations.

Yesterday, management succeeded. For the third quarter, according to our Closing Bell post, Caterpillar said it made 64 cents per share. Analysts were expecting only 6 cents per share. Well, something was off there, huh? Anyway, according to the actual press release, sales decreased over 40%, and per-share profit was off by 15%, but really, it didn't matter to the market. Shares of the heavy equipment maker closed higher by 3%, on heavy volume.

"It's time to take some profits and play defense for a while," says Glenn Rogers, adding, "Fortunately, we can hedge our bets by taking some profits and building cash reserves and reinvesting in more defensive securities."

In The Internet Wealh Builder, the advisor suggests, a trio of conservative dividend-focused exchange-traded funds.

He explains, "Everybody I talk to these days is nervous, although for different reasons. Some are nervous because they feel left behind. They sat on the sidelines and missed the incredible rally we've had since March. Now they're afraid they won't have a chance to participate because the market has been refusing to correct.

"Others are nervous because they made a pot of money in the rebound and they're afraid they could lose it all in a replay of last year's meltdown. Meanwhile, there some relatively low-risk ETFs where you could park some money while we see how all this plays out.

ConAgra Foods (NYSE: CAG) issued Q1 numbers on Tuesday. The market wasn't too impressed by them, but they weren't bad, actually. Net sales were lackluster, I'll admit. They dropped about 3%. Earnings per share from continuing operations, on the other hand, really shined. They increased well over 60% to 38 cents. Net income from continuing operations on a dollar basis soared over 50%.

Even better, that 38-cents-per-share statistic was firmly ahead of Wall Street expectations. According to our earnings preview, analysts were looking for 34 cents per share.

If you're trying to get your head around some stock strategies for the upcoming fall trading season, you might want to consider dividend yields. Volatility could increase since we've had such a run-up in many equities, so thinking about payouts is probably advisable.

I was looking around for some higher-yielding blue chips and became interested in McDonald's (NYSE: MCD). As of last Friday's closing price, McDonald's yields almost 3.6% on an annual basis. It pays out 50 cents per share per quarter according to its corporate website.

Del Monte Foods (NYSE: DLM), a supermarket brand whose colleagues include ConAgra (NYSE: CAG) and Kraft (NYSE: KFT), was way up in afternoon trading. When a stock like Del Monte gains 9% on great volume, you know something big must have happened. Well, it was the company's fiscal Q1 results that made investors want to buy today. After checking over the news, I can honestly say that I see the market's point.

Sales increased 12% during the quarter, and earnings from continuing operations calculated out to 30 cents per share, a huge improvement over the loss observed in the comparable period. According to Earnings.com, Wall Street was only looking for a measly four pennies for the bottom line.

H.J. Heinz Company (NYSE: HNZ), a food company that shares space at the supermarket with products from Kraft Foods, Inc. (NYSE: KFT), ConAgra (NYSE: CAG), and Campbell Soup (NYSE: CPB), issued first-quarter data on Thursday. Even though the effect of currency translations continues to put a cloud over the top-line performance, management did end up beating earnings expectations.

Net sales came in flat, and net income was 67 cents per share. Analysts were expecting 5 cents less, according to Earnings.com. Shareholders should be happy about that. When I covered Heinz's last quarter, I noted that expectations were essentially beat by a penny.

Kimberly-Clark (NYSE: KMB), a consumer-products company that counts Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) and Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE: CL) as colleagues, announced Q2 results on Thursday. The performance wasn't spectacular, but management successfully defended the bottom line from the recession by instituting pricing strategies that leveraged the brand equity of the company's portfolio.

The bottom line fell, of course, but probably not as far as it would have if there weren't any pricing mechanisms in place. Earnings per share came in at 97 cents. This was six cents lower than last year's adjusted Q2 income. Revenues were challenged by dollar fluctuations, dropping well over 5%. However, here's the silver lining: organic sales increased almost 3%, even with volumes on the decline.

Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO), the main thorn in PepsiCo's (NYSE: PEP) side, will report earnings for the second quarter on Tuesday July 21. Don't expect any profit growth, however. According to Earnings.com, Coke made $1.01 per share in the year-ago period. Analysts believe that the beverage maker will only deliver 89 cents per share tomorrow. That's a pretty steep drop.

But those who own Coke very often hold Coke for the long term, so any earnings release is looked at in a specific context: so long as nothing seems too out of the ordinary with the numbers, the original thesis for buying will be considered intact, and no action will be necessary. In fact, if the market wants to sell Coke off for one reason or another, then it can mean that a buying opportunity has been gifted to those who are indeed keeping shares for a while.

Gannett (NYSE: GCI), publisher of USA Today and other newspapers, as well as owner of many informational websites such as CareerBuilder.com, made some news of its own yesterday on Wall Street. After reporting second-quarter results, the stock had a great day. How great was Gannett's day? Shares closed higher by nearly 29%. Let me repeat that: 29%! And volume . . . it was way, way above the norm.

What in the world triggered this response by investors and/or traders? Gannett beat expectations. On an adjusted basis, the company made 46 cents per share. Earnings.com indicates that this performance is 10 cents better than analyst expected.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), a company that counts Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) and Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) as colleagues, will report results for the second quarter on Tuesday, July 14. JNJ is expected to post a bit of a profit decline. Last year's Q2, according to Earnings.com, saw the health-care business earn $1.18 per share. This time around, analysts are thinking that JNJ will do somewhere around $1.11 per share.

Will JNJ beat the analysts? It's quite possible, since the company has a good record on this count. As a matter of fact, JNJ beat predictions by four cents back in April. Sales, however, came in a little weak. Interestingly enough, the market didn't really care too much about the earnings performance on that day. Shares had rallied a bit in pre-market trading, but they closed slightly down by the end of the regular session. I found a similar situation back in January.

Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory's (NASDAQ: RMCF) first fiscal quarter release had an undeniable theme running throughout. No, it wasn't a happy promo about its delicious confections. Instead, it was the very familiar issue of the recession. I guess the company's premium chocolates aren't wholly economically defensive in nature after all.

According to the results, sales declined by over 5%. Same-store franchised revenues dropped well over 6%. Earnings per diluted share were cut by 25% to 12 cents. Things are rough for Rocky Mountain.