but half the time the headline is "X Company beats expectations, stock slides anyway".... unless these are super outliers, it seems like the effect on the stock can be random
The example quote you give does happen of course but you tend to remember those cases more than the more common beats-expectations-stock-rises cases precisely because they feel more unexpected.
Like Netflix beating revenue and earnings expectations, and even beating new subscriber number expectations, but subscriber growth in a key market slowing much more than anticipated.
If you know all these numbers, you can screen them for potential negative catalysts that might counteract the positive effects of expectation beats. If you find none, you can relatively safely assume that the stock price will probably pop after release.