Q to Q. Step by step. Like tin soldiers.
Companies (and their investors) measure revenue growth in two distinct venues. They look at the summer quarter last year versus the summer quarter this year. That's called year over year growth, or YOY (also the name of fine delis around the world).
They also look at sequential growth. Like...from Q1 to Q2, how much did we grow?
Why is this a Thing? Well, many companies are, in fact, seasonal. They can shrink from Q3 to Q4, because really...how many people in Wyoming buy lawnmowers in December? Yeah, not many.
So in that case, the year over year numbers matter most. But other companies just growing (think: early Facebook) are just sequentially driven growers who only care how last quarter's metrics stack up to this quarter's metrics. And so it goes.
Related or Semi-related Video
Finance: What are a 10K and 10Q?57 Views
finance a la shmoop what are 10K and 10Q filings well as the pros say 10Q
very much yeah you know we had to go there sorry well they're just filings a [Girl filing her fingernails]
different kind of filings legal filings papers or data
well the 10K is the annual report and the 10Q is the quarterly report their
note the Q in there yeah very clever naming their people well we have no idea
why the K is there like shouldn't it have been a 10A fling equals annual
anyway the filings contain the key elements that report to shareholders the [Man giving presentation to shareholders]
progress or lack thereof that the company has made in the period it's
reporting and these apply to public companies people privates don't
necessarily file... well the K the Q have to contain an updated income statement [Income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement appear]
balance sheet and cash flow statement along with tons of notes on whatever
business metrics the company regularly reports the number of people made sick
by the lemonade the number a coal miner Barbies sold the number of Disney cruise
passengers infected with Legionnaires disease and so on and if you're the CEO [Person puking off the edge of a cruise ship]
or CFO of the company and you don't get your filings in on time well you'll be
doing a different kind of filing so yeah 10K, 10Q they're really important
don't ignore them...
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