Counter-intuitive as it seems, keep in mind that it's actually in the shareholders best interest for the company to report as low of earnings as possible every quarter. The higher the earnings, the more taxes the company has to pay.
If the company is able to generate large cash flows and pay a dividend at an increasing rate I am happy. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying ignore earnings, they are the mother's milk for an increasing share price, but don't get hung up too much on variances from quarter to quarter. Sometimes those accounting techniques are nothing more than avoidance of the tax man.
If the company is able to generate large cash flows and pay a dividend at an increasing rate I am happy. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying ignore earnings, they are the mother's milk for an increasing share price, but don't get hung up too much on variances from quarter to quarter. Sometimes those accounting techniques are nothing more than avoidance of the tax man.