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Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP Securities Litigation Partner James (Josh) Wilson Encourages Investors Who Suffered Losses In Badger Meter To Contact Him Directly To Discuss Their Options

If you purchased or acquired securities in Badger Meter between April 18, 2024 and April 16, 2026 and would like to discuss your legal rights, call Faruqi & Faruqi partner Josh Wilson directly at 877-247-4292 or 212-983-9330 (Ext. 1310).

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New York, New York--(Newsfile Corp. - July 19, 2026) - Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP, a leading national securities law firm, is investigating potential claims against Badger Meter, Inc. ("Badger Meter" or the "Company") (NYSE: BMI) and reminds investors of the August 3, 2026 deadline to seek the role of lead plaintiff in a federal securities class action that has been filed against the Company.

Faruqi & Faruqi is a leading national securities law firm with offices in New York, Pennsylvania, California and Georgia. The firm has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors since its founding in 1995. See www.faruqilaw.com.

As detailed below, the complaint alleges that the Company and its executives violated federal securities laws by making false and/or misleading statements and/or failing to disclose that Badger Meter's strong financial results reflected "ongoing favorable industry trends," "secular growth drivers," and "solid operating execution." They likewise touted "strong" demand and said they were seeing "robust order pacing and a strong bid pipeline that positions us well for continued sales and earnings growth," and that Badger Meter possessed a "long runway" for growth.

The court-appointed lead plaintiff is the investor with the largest financial interest in the relief sought by the class who is adequate and typical of class members who directs and oversees the litigation on behalf of the putative class. Any member of the putative class may move the Court to serve as lead plaintiff through counsel of their choice, or may choose to do nothing and remain an absent class member. Your ability to share in any recovery is not affected by the decision to serve as a lead plaintiff or not.

Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP also encourages anyone with information regarding Badger Meter's conduct to contact the firm, including whistleblowers, former employees, shareholders and others.

To learn more about the Badger Meter class action, go to www.faruqilaw.com/BMI or call Faruqi & Faruqi partner Josh Wilson directly at 877-247-4292 or 212-983-9330 (Ext. 1310).

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for Investors Regarding the Badger Meter Securities Class Action Lawsuit:

What is the Badger Meter securities fraud lawsuit about?

The Badger Meter securities fraud lawsuit is a federal securities class action alleging that Badger Meter, Inc. (NYSE: BMI) and its executives made false and misleading statements to investors by touting "strong" demand, a "robust" order pipeline, and a "long runway" for growth while concealing that the Company's financial results were not sustainable. As the truth emerged through a series of disclosures - including disappointing Q2 2025 results and a sequential sales decline forecast on July 22, 2025, missed revenue expectations and a 6% sequential decline in utility water sales on January 28, 2026, and Q1 2026 earnings that missed consensus estimates by $0.26 per share with revenue missing by $28.58 million on April 17, 2026 - BMI's stock price dropped sharply, causing significant losses for investors.

Who may be eligible to participate in the Badger Meter class action lawsuit?

Investors who purchased or acquired Badger Meter (BMI) stock between April 18, 2024 and April 16, 2026 - the Class Period - and suffered financial losses may be eligible to participate in the Badger Meter securities class action. Participation as a class member does not require taking any affirmative legal action; eligible investors may recover losses simply by remaining members of the class. Whistleblowers, former Badger Meter employees, and others with relevant information about the Company's conduct are also encouraged to come forward.

What is a lead plaintiff, and how can I seek appointment in the Badger Meter lawsuit?

A lead plaintiff in the Badger Meter class action is a court-appointed investor - typically the one with the largest financial interest in the case - who directs and oversees the litigation on behalf of all class members. Any Badger Meter investor who purchased BMI stock during the Class Period may move the Court to serve as lead plaintiff through counsel of their choice. The deadline to seek lead plaintiff appointment is August 3, 2026. Importantly, choosing not to seek the lead plaintiff role does not affect an investor's ability to share in any recovery obtained for the class.

What should investors do if they purchased Badger Meter stock during the Class Period?

Investors who purchased Badger Meter (BMI) stock between April 18, 2024 and April 16, 2026 and suffered losses should contact Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP immediately to discuss their legal rights. The deadline to seek appointment as lead plaintiff in the Badger Meter securities class action is August 3, 2026. To speak directly with securities litigation partner Josh Wilson, call 877-247-4292 or 212-983-9330 (Ext. 1310), or visit www.faruqilaw.com/BMI for more information.

Attorney Advertising. The law firm responsible for this advertisement is Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP (www.faruqilaw.com). Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome with respect to any future matter. We welcome the opportunity to discuss your particular case. All communications will be treated in a confidential manner.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/305561

Source: Faruqi & Faruqi LLP

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July 19, 2026 18:00 ET  | Source: Trump Media & Technology Group

SARASOTA, Fla., July 19, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Trump Media and Technology Group Corp. (Nasdaq, NYSE Texas: DJT), operator of the social media platform Truth Social, the streaming platform Truth+, and the FinTech brand Truth.Fi, announced today that all claims between and among individuals and entities including Trump Media, Patrick Orlando, and ARC Global Investments II LLC have been mutually resolved pursuant to a confidential settlement agreement. 

About Trump Media & Technology Group

The mission of TMTG is to end Big Tech's assault on free speech by opening up the Internet and giving people their voices back. TMTG operates Truth Social, a social media platform established as a safe harbor for free expression amid increasingly harsh censorship by Big Tech corporations; Truth+, a TV streaming platform focusing on family friendly live TV channels and on-demand content; and Truth.Fi, a financial services and FinTech brand incorporating America First investment vehicles.

Investor Relations Contact

Shannon Devine

MZ Group | Partner, MZ North America

Email: [email protected]

Media Contact

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Yen ignores what should have been bullish news Tech earnings could matter more than economic data Traditional USD/JPY drivers losing influence Momentum, technicals still favour upside Broader narrative remains intact USD/JPY starts the week sitting just beneath the highest levels seen in decades. While the pair has struggled to break higher, the price action continues to tighten, raising the risk that the next meaningful move may be a breakout to fresh multi-decade highs.

Last week did little to change the broader narrative of persistent yen weakness. Softer US inflation would normally have weighed on the dollar, but that was offset by another lift in energy prices as tensions in the Gulf escalated.

Higher crude prices have been a recurring headwind for the yen this year. As the world's largest energy producer and a net energy exporter, the US is far better placed to absorb higher energy costs than Japan, which remains heavily reliant on imported fuel. That not only exposes Japan's vulnerability from a terms of trade and energy security perspective, but also keeps alive the risk that higher energy costs add to US inflation pressures and force the Fed to keep policy tighter for longer.

Source: TradingView

That may explain Friday's muted reaction to what would normally be bullish yen headlines out of Japan. Reuters reported that the government will reaffirm the BOJ's independence in setting monetary policy, a development that, at face value, should have been supportive for the yen. Separate reports also suggested policymakers continue to explore ways to encourage the GPIF to allocate more capital to domestic assets.

Despite both stories, neither generated much of a market reaction. The lack of interest in the recycled GPIF headlines was particularly notable given similar reports sparked a sharp rally in the yen only a week earlier. The market has already moved on.

A quiet calendar, but not a quiet week

Source: TradingView

There's nothing on this week's calendar that stands out as being likely to move USD/JPY. The Fed is in its pre-meeting blackout period ahead of next week's FOMC decision, while Japan's nationwide CPI report rarely generates much of a market reaction. Markets have tended to place far greater weight on Tokyo CPI and, more recently, the BOJ's preferred measure of underlying inflation, which won't be released until next week.

Japan is also observing the Marine Day public holiday on Monday, likely keeping liquidity lighter than usual.

That leaves developments in the Gulf and another heavy week of tech earnings as the main event risks. Results from Alphabet, Tesla, Intel and memory chipmaker SK Hynix will be watched closely after selling pressure in AI-related stocks intensified late last week. If that weakness extends, it could trigger an unwind in carry trades, creating downside risk for USD/JPY.

Whether that becomes a meaningful driver of USD/JPY is another question.

A market without a clear compass

Source: TradingView

The correlation matrix above provides little evidence that any single factor has consistently driven the pair over the past month or quarter. Relationships with US-Japan two-year and 10-year yield spreads have both been weak, while correlations with broader measures of risk sentiment have also been limited.

Fed pricing over the next year showed the strongest relationship with USD/JPY over the past week. That's worth monitoring, but the absence of similar signals from Treasury yields suggests it's too early to conclude it has become the dominant driver.

USD/JPY Coiling beneath resistance

Source: TradingView

From a technical perspective, USD/JPY continues to coil beneath the multi-decade highs set earlier this month. On the four-hour chart, the pair is trading within a narrowing trading range, bounded by a descending trendline from the July 1 high and a rising trendline from the July 3 low. Multiple tests of both trendlines suggest a decisive move may not be far away.

While the pair briefly traded above downtrend resistance in early Monday trade, the move has yet to attract meaningful follow-through. Even so, the broader technical picture continues to favour the topside. RSI (14) has climbed back above the neutral 50 level to 61, while MACD has completed a bullish crossover and continues to diverge from its signal line.

A convincing break above trendline resistance would bring the July 1 high at 162.84 back into focus. Given the size of the consolidation, a successful breakout could also produce a multi-big-figure move, placing 164 and potentially 165 on the radar for bulls.

On the downside, the rising trendline remains the first level of support. Below that, 161.50 and the former multi-decade high at 160.73 are the key levels to watch.

SpaceX (SPCX 5.43%) can't seem to catch a break. On Thursday, the company aborted the second launch attempt of its upgraded Starship rocket moments after ignition, hours after the stock had slid 3% to about $131 -- an all-time low for its brief public life, and below the $135 price at which it went public in June, in an initial public offering (IPO) that raised $85.7 billion.

But a scrubbed launch is a passing headline. The heavier weight on the stock is a calendar item. SpaceX's IPO lockup releases begin in August, and the biggest early tranche could put more shares on the market than the IPO itself did.

Here's how the supply wave works, and what it means for anyone eyeing the beaten-down stock.

Image source: Getty Images.

A supply wave, on a schedule SpaceX's June 12 IPO put less than 5% of the company's roughly 13.2 billion shares into public hands. Nearly everything else is locked up, for now.

The earnings-linked release could come first. Under the lockup terms in SpaceX's IPO prospectus, up to 911.5 million shares become sellable on the second full trading day after the company's first earnings report as a public company (a report the company hasn't formally scheduled yet). That single tranche alone is bigger than the entire IPO, and it is worth more than $115 billion at the current share price.

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Another 455.8 million shares would be released alongside them if the stock closes at least 30% above its IPO price, or $175.50, on five of the 10 trading days running into the report. At about $131 as of this writing, that trigger is nowhere in sight.

And the calendar keeps going. Smaller slices, each about 7% of the shares subject to the standard lockup, unlock roughly every two to three weeks from late August through late October. Another 28% becomes sellable after the company's third-quarter report, and the standard lockup winds down entirely in early December. Elon Musk's own shares stay locked until next June.

What the supply wave means for buyers Lockup expirations matter most when a stock is already weak, because they add supply exactly when demand is shaky. SpaceX fits the description. Shares have fallen about 42% from their post-IPO peak of $225.64.

And the fundamentals give potential sellers reasons. The company's Starlink-driven connectivity segment is a standout. It generated $11.4 billion of revenue and $4.4 billion of operating income in 2025, with segment operating income more than doubling year over year, and it added $3.3 billion of revenue in the first quarter of 2026. But the company's newly acquired artificial intelligence (AI) segment lost $6.4 billion from operations in 2025, and it posted a $2.5 billion operating loss in the first quarter of 2026 alone, and the space segment itself lost money in both periods, too.

Even at its lows, meanwhile, SpaceX carries a market value of about $1.7 trillion. That is nearly 90 times the revenue the business generated over the past 12 months, for a company losing billions of dollars a year.

There's also precedent for lockup pain. Meta Platforms, back when it was known as Facebook, saw its first post-IPO lockup expire in August 2012, freeing about 271 million shares. The stock fell more than 6% that day to what was then an all-time low, roughly half its IPO price. (Facebook, it's worth remembering, turned out fine.)

Of course, there's a counterargument: everyone can see this coming. The lockup schedule has been public since the prospectus, and some of the stock's roughly 35% slide over the past month likely reflects investors selling ahead of the supply. Insiders don't have to sell, either. And with shares at an all-time low, some may prefer to wait.

Still, the setup argues for patience. That first release will show where demand for SpaceX shares actually meets supply, and the tranches that follow will keep testing it into December. If the stock absorbs that first wave without breaking to new lows, that itself could be evidence the selling pressure is already priced in. Investors who believe in the long-term story of Starship, Starlink, and Musk's AI ambitions will get plenty of information over the next several months -- and, quite possibly, plenty of chances to buy.

I wouldn't buy the stock in front of that wave. Personally, I'm content to let the lockups play out before I'd even consider it. The stock's valuation simply looks too expensive anyway, in my opinion.

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD 0.66%) stock has pulled back from its highs, but i think buying the stock ahead of its July 22 Advancing AI event in San Francisco will be a smart move. It looks like there will be a few catalysts from the event that could help propel the stock higher, including raised guidance and a major new customer announcement.

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The first big catalyst could be raised guidance, both for the near term and long term. AMD typically reports its second-quarter results in early August, and it wouldn't be surprising to see the company pre-announce strong Q2 results at this event. Bank of America analyst Vivek Arya recently said he expects a beat-and-raise quarter from AMD, given "exceptional" demand for server processors and the company's central processing units (CPUs) continuing to take market share. Meanwhile, Jefferies analyst Blayne Curtis thinks AMD could match Nvidia's call for a $200 billion total addressable market (TAM) for data center CPUs, up from its earlier projection of $120 billion. This would help lift its long-term outlook.

Another big potential catalyst for the stock is AMD officially announcing Anthropic as a new customer for its graphics processing units (GPUs). Anthropic has reportedly been advertising to hire engineers who are proficient with AMD's ROCm software platform, which is a strong indication that it is set to be its next big customer. After giving large equity stakes to OpenAI and Meta Platforms as part of previous large GPU partnerships, investors will be closely watching to see whether this is a more conventional deal. Curtis also thinks AMD could announce Microsoft as a GPU customer.

I'd also expect AMD to provide updates on its CPU and GPU road maps. While this might not be quite as exciting as raised guidance or new customer announcements, at the end of the day, AMD's technology advancements will be a big driving force moving forward.

Image source: The Motley Fool.

A near-term catalyst and a long-term buy While AMD has a near-term catalyst with its Advancing AI event, I think the stock is much more than a near-term trade. The company is riding two of the most powerful trends in AI infrastructure with inference and agentic AI, and it should see explosive growth over the next few years, both in GPUs and CPUs.

It already has two large GPU partnerships in place with OpenAI and Meta, and it looks like Anthropic and Microsoft will soon follow. Its chiplet design, which packs in more memory, and its acquisition of memory optimization company MEXT make it an ideal inference option. Meanwhile, it's become the data center CPU leader at a time when the market is set to skyrocket due to agentic AI.

Given its near-term catalysts and long-term prospects, this is an AI stock I'd be buying now before it rallies.

Bank of America is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Geoffrey Seiler has positions in Advanced Micro Devices and Meta Platforms. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Jefferies Financial Group, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Netflix (NFLX 6.90%) shares have been in a slump, and things only got worse after the video streaming company reported its second-quarter results after the closing bell Thursday. After the stock's 7.3% slide on Friday, the stock is down more than 26% thus far in 2026, and its shares have been nearly cut in half over the past year.

While some investors might be tempted to buy the dip, I wouldn't rush in yet.

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Turning into a cable company Netflix's biggest issue in my view is that the company is starting to look more and more like the cable networks it helped disrupt with its streaming service. Its growth now appears to be driven more by price increases than subscriber growth, and the company hasn't been helping its case by continuing to publicly report on fewer metrics to give investors insight into its business.

The company stopped reporting quarterly subscriber numbers last year, and starting next year, it plans to scale back its reporting of viewership data to just once a year. (It currently does so twice a year.) Viewing hours were up just 2% in the first half of 2026, although that was a slight increase from the 1.5% growth it saw in the first half of 2025.

Meanwhile, like linear TV, Netflix is also starting to lean into live events and advertising. Securing highly anticipated live programming, such as major sporting events, tends to be expensive, and this year is expected to account for over 5% of Netflix's content spending despite representing only 1% of its viewing hours. However, management believes this type of programming is responsible for strong new member sign-ups, and has made it a foundation of its advertising push.

The company said it is already in "advanced stages" for upfront advertising in the U.S., and is expected to lock in commitments soon. Netflix has been offering lower-cost, ad-supported subscription tiers in certain markets to help drive growth.

For Q2, Netflix saw solid growth, with revenue rising 13% to $12.56 billion. Adjusted earnings per share (EPS) climbed 11% to $0.80. Analysts on average had been looking for EPS of $0.79 on revenue of $12.59 billion, according to estimates compiled by LSEG. Revenue growth, meanwhile, was pretty consistent across regions, ranging from 14% in the U.S. and Canada to 20% in the Asia-Pacific region.

Looking ahead, management is guiding for third-quarter revenue growth to slow to below 12%, and for EPS to come in at $0.82.

Image source: The Motley Fool.

Why I'd stay on the sidelines Netflix has a solid business that generates strong free cash flow and is growing revenue at low-double-digit percentage rates. However, it is starting to look more like a traditional cable network operator than an industry disrupter.

With the stock trading at a forward price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) of around 20 times analysts' 2026 estimates, Netflix is reasonably valued. However, I think it needs to find a new type of investor base, as it's losing its appeal for its previous growth-oriented one. This could be a tough transitional period, and as such, I'd put the stock on my radar, but I'd look for it to drift lower into bargain territory before pulling the trigger.

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ +1.23%) has been a top-performing stock this year. Investors, in many cases rotating out of riskier assets, have looked for companies with a strong track record of earnings growth, solid competitive positions, and a revenue stream they can count on -- and J&J fits the bill.

As a healthcare player, J&J sells pharmaceuticals and medical devices that ensure a certain level of revenue, as patients need their procedures no matter what direction the stock market takes. Over time, the company's in-house research and acquisitions have built a market-leading portfolio that has kept earnings climbing. Investors, concerned about geopolitical uncertainties and risks to the artificial intelligence (AI) growth story, turned to J&J in the first half, sending the stock to a 22% gain.

Last week, J&J delivered a blowout earnings report and increased full-year forecasts. But is it too late to buy this healthcare giant? Let's find out.

Image source: Getty Images.

A household name You might know J&J best for consumer products that you regularly use, from Band-Aid brand bandages to Tylenol. They've made J&J a household name. But the company actually spun off its consumer health business, which includes these products, as Kenvue a few years ago. This was in an effort to boost growth, with the idea of dedicating all of its resources to the higher-growth areas of pharmaceuticals and medtech.

The Kenvue spinoff came at a key moment, as J&J prepared to lose exclusivity of its blockbuster immunology drug Stelara. At its peak in 2024, Stelara brought in more than $10 billion. But the impending entry of rivals meant that Stelara sales would drop drastically.

J&J's move was a wise one, and the latest quarter illustrates this. Solid performance from immunology drug Tremfya and leading multiple myeloma drug Darzalex compensated for Stelara declines and drove more than 6% growth to $25 billion in total revenue -- keeping J&J on track to reach its goal of $100 billion in annual revenue. Darzalex revenue jumped 18% to more than $4.2 billion in the quarter, while Tremfya soared 72% to $2 billion.

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A recent headwind J&J faced one headwind in particular in the quarter. The medtech division saw some weakness -- in an interview with CNBC, chief financial officer Joseph Wolk said sales of Abiomed heart pumps slipped after the release of a study questioning the use of Impella pumps during some high-risk procedures. Wolk said J&J plans to release data in the first half of next year that should alleviate concerns. It's important to remember that the company has 28 products or platforms that bring in revenue of at least $1 billion, offering it the fuel needed for ongoing growth.

J&J increased its full-year sales guidance to $101.1 billion at the midpoint from the previous estimate of $100.8. And it boosted adjusted earnings per share guidance to $11.68 at the midpoint from $11.55.

Should you buy J&J? Now, let's return to our question: Is it too late to buy shares of this healthcare giant after its strong run so far this year?

Today, J&J isn't dirt cheap. In fact, it's trading close to its highest in relation to forward earnings estimates.

JNJ PE Ratio (Forward) data by YCharts

It's possible that, given this valuation level, the stock may dip in the weeks or months to come, offering investors a better buying opportunity. Value investors, for example, probably should wait before jumping to get in on J&J stock at this level.

That said, it's important to note that J&J offers investors many strengths, from its broad portfolio of blockbuster products to leadership in key treatment areas such as multiple myeloma and immunology, through the two top drugs mentioned above. J&J is also a Dividend King, having increased its dividend payments for more than 50 consecutive years. So, investors focused on dividend growth may find it worthwhile to buy shares of J&J even at today's valuation -- it's high, but not outrageous.

All of this means your investment style and priorities should guide your decision. The best news of all is that this top pharma stock likely has room to run over the long term.

TSMC is racing to accelerate capacity at its Arizona factory as the company continues to see a "multi-year demand mega trend" from its customers, Chief Financial Officer Wendell Huang told CNBC.

TSMC, or Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., is scaling up its mega investment in Arizona by committing an additional $100 billion to aggressively expand its U.S. chipmaking footprint amid a surging multi-year structural demand for AI. 

The fresh commitment raises TSMC's total investment pipeline in Arizona to $265 billion, underscoring a massive AI-driven capacity buildout that also fueled an upward revision to the company's full-year capital expenditure to between $60 billion and $64 billion.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with CNBC's Emily Tan, TSMC's Huang said the fresh investment comes on the back of robust customer demand in the U.S. market and strong government support.

"We're seeing this strong-structure, multi-year demand, and we do not plan to leave any food on the table for anybody else," Huang told CNBC. "As long as the megatrend is right, then we're able to continue to deliver the profitable growth to our shareholders," he said.

Surging demandIn order to meet surging customer demand, TSMC is aggressively optimizing its leading-edge capacities, including a fast conversion of its 5-nanometer capacity to the advanced 3-nanometer node to support customers, Huang said.

The nanometer figure refers to the size of each individual transistor on a chip. The smaller the transistor, the more of them can be packed onto a single semiconductor. Typically, a reduction in nanometer size can yield more powerful and efficient chips.

When it comes to TSMC's U.S. expansion, phase one, using 4-nanometer technology, is already up and running, the CFO told CNBC. 

"It's going to be bigger and bigger in the next few quarters," Huang said, framing the 2-nanometer technology as the company's newest revenue driver heading into the third quarter, following its initial revenue generation in the second quarter.   

U.S. fab construction costs are four to five times higher than in Taiwan, however, Huang said that while the initial dilution will widen as the scale of overseas operations grows, the expansion will ultimately further foster the development of the U.S. semiconductor ecosystem.

"It will be both the front-end wafer fabs and back end advanced packaging fabs," Huang said regarding the deployment of the fresh $100 billion investment.

TSMC shares ended the day up over 1% after it posted earnings, however shares slumped 7% on Friday. The stock is up around 48% year-to-date.

TSMC shares year-to-date.

Responding to the company's share price performance, Huang said TSMC does not have any control over the financial markets. "What we can do is really to focus on fundamentals of our business," he said, adding that while the sector faces hefty price increases in components, the company sees minimal impact due to its strategic focus on the high-end market.

Aside from market factors, TSMC is also managing its regulatory footprint. On China, Huang said that TSMC continues to comply with all export controls while serving its Chinese customers, who contribute about 8% of total revenue. 

The chipmaker is expanding its focus toward future expansion drivers. Regarding the prospects of physical AI, he added that the company's recent joint venture with Sony for image sensors is part of its strategic commitment to supporting long-term customer growth in specialty technologies.

— CNBC's Arjun Kharpal helped contribute to this story.

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Much of the AI conversation centers on chips, but there is a quieter bottleneck forming inside data centers, and it is all about how those chips talk to one another. As artificial intelligence clusters swell to tens and even hundreds of thousands of processors, the humble copper wiring that has connected computers for decades is running out of room.

The fix is silicon photonics, and investment in it is ramping quickly. Two companies look especially well placed to benefit.

Image source: Getty Images.

Why copper is hitting a wall in AI clusters To train a modern AI model, thousands of chips must act like one enormous brain, constantly shuttling vast amounts of data among them. The more chips you add, the more traffic flows across the wires linking them, and that is where copper starts to break down. At the blistering signaling speeds these systems now demand, a passive copper cable can only carry a clean signal for less than a meter before it degrades. Push it further, and you have to pump in more and more electrical power just to keep the data intact, which generates heat and drives up the energy bill.

In a small server, that was never a problem. In a warehouse-sized cluster stretching across rows of racks, it becomes a hard physical ceiling that engineers now call the copper wall. When your bottleneck is measured in centimeters and watts, you cannot simply add more copper and hope for the best.

How silicon photonics breaks through Silicon photonics solves the problem by sending information as pulses of light through fiber instead of electrons through metal. Light travels farther, carries far more data, and uses less power over distance, which is exactly what a giant AI cluster needs. The cutting edge of this shift is co-packaged optics, where the optical components are built right next to the switch chip rather than plugged in at the edge of the box. That tight integration slashes the power lost in translation and packs far more bandwidth into the same space.

Copper is not disappearing, but its job is shrinking to the shortest hops inside a package, while optics take over everything from board to rack scale. The money following this transition is real. The optical interconnect market for AI data centers is expected to grow several times over this decade, and the broader optical transceiver market is projected to jump about 60% in a single year to roughly $26 billion in 2026.

The clearest beneficiaries are the companies that actually make the lasers, transceivers, and photonic components that this shift requires. Coherent (COHR +0.23%) is a global leader in the optical technology feeding AI data centers, and demand for its datacenter transceivers has surged as cloud giants build out. It has also deepened a partnership with Nvidia to pioneer next-generation silicon photonics, putting it close to the center of the build-out.

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Lumentum (LITE +3.77%) is the other pure-play worth watching. It supplies the lasers and optical components that power data center networking, and it has been expanding capacity to meet demand that's been outpacing supply. As roadmaps push toward lower-power optics and tighter silicon photonics integration, Lumentum sits right in the flow of that spending.

These are not sleepy blue chips. Optical component makers are cyclical and lumpy, with their fortunes closely tied to a handful of huge customers whose orders can swing hard from quarter to quarter. Both stocks have run up on AI enthusiasm, so valuations leave little room for disappointment, and competition in optics is fierce.

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The takeaway for investors The move from copper to light is not a maybe; it is a physical necessity as AI clusters keep growing, and silicon photonics is how the industry gets there. Coherent and Lumentum are two focused ways to invest in that transition. I would treat them as higher-risk, higher-reward plays on a durable trend, sizing positions with the optical business's volatility firmly in mind.

Bronstein, Gewirtz and Grossman LLC Urges Planet Fitness, Inc. Investors to Act: Class Action Filed Alleging Investor Harm PR New

Oklo's (OKLO 1.42%) stock price has declined by more than 42% in 2026 as of this writing, but analysts are still generally optimistic about the future. Of 22 analyst ratings tracked by CNN, the median one-year price target is $87.

That suggests significant gains are ahead, but there's a reason why investors will still want to proceed with caution before buying Oklo stock.

Image source: The Motley Fool.

Oklo's upside potential From Oklo's July 16 closing price of $41.11, reaching that median price target of $87 would provide a potential return of roughly 112%. Of the 22 analysts mentioned earlier, the most bullish has a price target of $140, which would imply upside of more than 240%.

At first glance, Oklo appears to be a compelling investment. Those price targets, however, even at the median, may be a bit too optimistic for the next 12 months.

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A pre-revenue business that's still building its future As demand for power supply continues to grow, Oklo is developing a promising business model. Through fuel fabrication, it can power its reactors and sell heat and electricity. Using recycling technologies, Oklo can recycle fuel for reuse in the reactors, creating a continuous cycle for power generation.

That continuous cycle and vertical integration set it apart in the nuclear power industry. But Oklo has yet to launch commercial operations that can generate sales from.

It can provide updates on construction and regulatory tailwinds that are bullish for its long-term success. But there's just nothing in place to generate meaningful revenue in the short term. In the meantime, it is well funded, with $2.5 billion in cash and marketable securities as of March 31.

Oklo could always theoretically climb to around $90 or more by next year. But being patient and pushing that price prediction out by a few years sets up a better risk-to-reward ratio for this stock.

Jack Delaney has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Astera Labs: Steady Upward Revenue ExpansionAstera Labs (ALAB 5.04%) develops, produces, and markets connectivity solutions utilizing a software-defined architecture to empower customers to deploy and operate high-performance cloud and artificial intelligence systems at scale.

While expanding its Taiwan operations and related facilities to facilitate system integration with local manufacturers, it was added to the Nasdaq-100 Index and reported a 26% net income margin for the quarter ended March 31, 2026.

Navitas Semiconductor: Navigating Ongoing Revenue DeclinesNavitas Semiconductor (NVTS 2.51%) designs, develops, and markets gallium nitride power integrated circuits, silicon system controllers, and digital isolators for various power conversion and charging applications around the world.

It responded to a new patent infringement lawsuit filed by Wolfspeed, issued earn-out shares to satisfy contingent obligations, and reported a negative 318% EBIT margin for the quarter ended March 31, 2026.

Why Revenue Matters for Retail InvestorsRevenue gives investors an essential baseline measure of the total money brought in by a business over a given period before any operating expenses, taxes, or interest payments are subtracted. This metric reveals whether an organization is successfully attracting customers and growing its overall business volume over time.

Quarterly Revenue Trends for Astera Labs and Navitas SemiconductorQuarter (Period End)Astera Labs RevenueNavitas Semiconductor RevenueQ2 2024$76.8 million (period ended June 2024)$20.5 million (period ended June 2024)Q3 2024$113.1 million (period ended Sept. 2024)$21.7 million (period ended Sept. 2024)Q4 2024$141.1 million (period ended Dec. 2024)$18.0 million (period ended Dec. 2024)Q1 2025$159.4 million (period ended March 2025)$14.0 million (period ended March 2025)Q2 2025$191.9 million (period ended June 2025)$14.5 million (period ended June 2025)Q3 2025$230.6 million (period ended Sept. 2025)$10.1 million (period ended Sept. 2025)Q4 2025$270.6 million (period ended Dec. 2025)$7.3 million (period ended Dec. 2025)Q1 2026$308.4 million (period ended March 2026)$8.6 million (period ended March 2026)Data source: Company filings. Data as of July 17, 2026.

Foolish TakeBoth Astera Labs and Navitas Semiconductor seek to capitalize on the artificial intelligence sector’s growth. Their revenue trends reveal which is successfully capturing this industry expansion. Clearly, Astera Labs is the winner here, as illustrated by the whopping 93% year-over-year sales growth seen in the first quarter.

The connectivity solutions developed by Astera Labs are critical components of AI infrastructure. They deliver superior data transfer speeds compared to previous products, and AI businesses seek speed as a key enabler of artificial intelligence technology.

That said, Navitas is undergoing an interesting transition period. Last year, the company decided to discontinue its lucrative mobile and consumer businesses in China, which accounted for 60% of its revenue in 2024. It wants to focus on power conversion and charging solutions for the AI market instead. That’s why its sales are in freefall.

However, Navitas management believes revenue will start to climb this year, as demonstrated by the 18% sales increase in the first quarter over Q4. Investing in the company at this point is a leap of faith that its AI strategy will be a winner over the long term.

Apple recently filed a trade secrets lawsuit against OpenAI, accusing the AI company of a pattern of misconduct aimed at getting current and former Apple employees to share confidential information. (In response, OpenAI said it is “not aware of any evidence that this complaint has merit.”)

On the latest episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Sean O’Kane, and I debated whether this lawsuit will cast a shadow over OpenAI’s much-discussed plans to get into the hardware business (starting with a mobile smart speaker) and go public.

“Even setting aside whether or not the court grants any kind of injunctive relief or any kind of restraining order over what OpenAI is doing, it just naturally can lead to that sort of situation where it’s going to cause some delays in what OpenAI is working on,” Sean suggested. “Which I’m sure was probably part of the reasoning behind Apple doing this. They don’t do this stuff willy nilly.”

With all those plans on the line, will OpenAI try to settle this as quickly as possible, or did it learn from its recent courtroom victory against Elon Musk that it can endure the cost and embarrassment of a trial? Kirsten, at least, predicts the latter.

Keep reading for a preview of our conversation, edited for length and clarity.

Kirsten Korosec: Sean, how do you feel about Sam Altman listening to you with a little device maybe in your pocket?

Sean O’Kane: I’m good. Maybe that’s predictable, but I’m good. No thanks.

We’ll get into it, I’m sure, but this is allegedly the first product that OpenAI has been working on in its hardware division with Jony Ive and company. They’ve been really coy ever since that weird video they put out last year of them sitting at that coffee shop or bar in San Francisco and sort of talking very vaguely about hardware and legacy devices, meaning laptops and phones. And so if this is the direction they’re headed in, all power to people who want to have somebody like that always listening to them. This is not going to be for me.

Anthony Ha: Part of what we have to remember about those kinds of devices is also that, depending on how mobile it is, it’s not just listening to you, it’s listening to the people around you. I might be fine with it — I’m not fine with it, but let’s say I was — but then if we met up in-person at Disrupt, then suddenly it might be listening to all of us. 

There’s all kinds of social norms that are going to have to be renegotiated if these things become widespread. I think we should make fun of and criticize people who record other people without consent.

Kirsten: Well, I bring up the device that has been speculated about for a really long time, and we’ll see what it really ends up being once it’s officially introduced, but it’s important in the context of this lawsuit that Apple filed last Friday. 

It was the biggest news of the week, certainly, and this is a trade secret lawsuit. It has some pretty wild allegations and we should very much emphasize these are allegations that have been filed in a complaint by Apple. But what it is accusing OpenAI of is a pattern of misconduct at the highest levels, specifically directed towards OpenAI employees who used to work at Apple. And in fact they’ve named the chief hardware officer Tang Tan in this lawsuit.

This is all important because Apple is accusing OpenAI of essentially stealing their trade secrets, but in the context of that, this could be then used for a competing hardware product. I’m wondering if maybe we don’t get into whether this lawsuit has merits, because we haven’t gone through full discovery, but what are your initial impressions of the lawsuit aside from the fact that wow, this is going to be entertaining?

Sean: Two things. One, this is a pretty big risk potentially to whatever it is OpenAI is working on. Even setting aside whether or not the court grants any kind of injunctive relief or any kind of restraining order over what OpenAI is doing, it just naturally can lead to that sort of situation where it’s going to cause some delays in what OpenAI is working on, which I’m sure was probably part of the reasoning behind Apple doing this. They don’t do this stuff willy nilly.

The other is that we think that OpenAI is — we know that they’ve filed confidentially for an IPO. We think it might happen as early as the end of this year, or early next year, if you believe Sam Altman’s cautious language around the IPO. And this just raises a whole bunch of questions around that because, on the one hand, we think their business right now is probably overwhelmingly the software; they’re not really factoring in any hardware business into that picture at the moment.

They’re about to go to the markets and they’re going to be pitching bankers and investors on where they think their addressable market should be, and if they have a big amount of that pegged to a potential hardware division and hardware products, this could be a huge risk to that and changes a lot of the calculus of sort of how the IPO gets priced. So that’s where my head’s at.

Anthony: One [allegation] that I assume that Apple must have pretty solid like numbers on is, they said more than 400 Apple employees now work at OpenAI. Granted, both of them are very large companies with many thousands or tens of thousands of employees. So as a percentage, it’s not necessarily huge. But that seems like a lot of people and a pretty serious talent drain. 

And the other thing I’m wondering is related to Sean’s point. With the context of the potential IPO, how much damage did OpenAI ultimately take from a marketing and brand perspective from the trial it already went through? That it seemed to basically win, but there was a lot of not-terrible-but-kind-of-embarrassing dirty laundry that came out in the testimony. To what extent are they just like, “We do not want to go through that again”? Or did they take the lesson of, “Hey, we went through it and we survived and we’ll be okay if we have to do another trial with Apple”?

Kirsten: I fully predict the latter, by the way.

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TL;DR Table of Contents

TL;DRAltcoins are no longer moving in lockstep with BitcoinNarrow leadership replaces broad participationBitcoin remains the market’s primary driverDispersion remains the key signal CryptoQuant’s 14-day average altcoin-Bitcoin correlation has fallen to around 0.26–0.27, indicating weaker co-movement. Analysts say the low correlation reflects market dispersion, not a confirmed altcoin season or bullish decoupling. The current setup resembles early May, when altcoins briefly moved more independently before market dynamics shifted. Narrow market leadership suggests capital is flowing into select altcoins instead of the broader market. The relationship between Bitcoin and the wider altcoin market has weakened significantly, according to fresh on-chain data, but analysts say investors should avoid interpreting the trend as evidence of an impending altcoin season.

CryptoQuant’s latest 14-day average correlation metric shows altcoins currently have a correlation of roughly 0.26–0.27 with Bitcoin, one of the lowest readings in recent months. While lower correlation means altcoins are moving more independently from BTC, analysts argue the data reflects increasing market fragmentation rather than widespread strength across alternative cryptocurrencies.

Altcoin Data | Source: CryptoQuant Altcoins are no longer moving in lockstep with Bitcoin Correlation measures how closely assets move together. A reading close to 1.0 indicates nearly identical price movements, while lower values suggest the assets are behaving more independently.

CryptoQuant’s latest data shows the average correlation between Bitcoin and major altcoins has dropped to approximately 0.26, well below the levels seen during periods when the broader crypto market moves as a single asset class.

The accompanying chart shows a similar decline occurred in early May, when Bitcoin and altcoins briefly decoupled before market dynamics shifted again. Although lower correlation often sparks speculation about an approaching altcoin rally, analysts caution that the metric alone does not signal that altcoins are outperforming Bitcoin across the board.

Instead, it indicates that price action has become increasingly dispersed, with only select tokens attracting meaningful investor attention.

Narrow leadership replaces broad participation Historically, strong crypto bull markets tend to lift most digital assets together.

However, as market rebounds mature, leadership frequently narrows, with capital rotating into a smaller number of outperforming projects while the majority of altcoins struggle to keep pace.

The current low-correlation environment appears consistent with that pattern.

Rather than signaling widespread bullish momentum, the data suggests investors are becoming increasingly selective, concentrating capital in a handful of stronger-performing assets while many other cryptocurrencies trade independently or lag behind.

This type of market fragmentation has become more common as institutional investors focus on projects with stronger fundamentals, clearer regulatory positioning, or growing real-world adoption.

Bitcoin remains the market’s primary driver Despite the weakening correlation, Bitcoin continues to set the broader direction of the digital asset market.

Recent weeks have seen Bitcoin benefit from renewed institutional demand, with U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs returning to net inflows after several sessions of volatility. At the same time, whale wallets have continued accumulating BTC, while exchange reserves have remained relatively subdued, reinforcing the view that long-term investors are maintaining confidence.

Against that backdrop, analysts warn that today’s low-correlation environment could quickly reverse if Bitcoin experiences a meaningful correction.

Should BTC begin to decline, independent altcoin performance may fade as investors reduce risk across the sector, causing the market to return to its more familiar Bitcoin-led trading behavior.

Dispersion remains the key signal The current data does not necessarily point to weakness in the crypto market, but it does suggest investors should avoid assuming that all altcoins will benefit equally from improving sentiment.

Periods of low Bitcoin-altcoin correlation often coincide with increased dispersion, where a limited number of projects outperform while many others underperform or trade sideways.

For traders and portfolio managers, this places greater emphasis on asset selection rather than relying on broad market exposure.

Until correlation begins rising again or participation expands across a wider range of cryptocurrencies, analysts say the market is likely to remain highly selective.The next major signal may come from Bitcoin itself.

If BTC continues climbing steadily, the current fragmented environment could persist, allowing market leadership to remain concentrated among a small group of altcoins.

However, if Bitcoin experiences renewed volatility or a broader pullback, analysts expect correlations to increase again as risk appetite weakens across the crypto market.

For now, CryptoQuant’s latest data suggests the current environment is better described as one of dispersion rather than decoupling, reminding investors that low correlation alone should not be mistaken for evidence of a broad-based altcoin rally.

When Alphabet (GOOG 2.06%)(GOOGL 2.05%) introduced Gemini 3.5 Flash at its I/O developer conference in mid-May, the company said the model's more powerful sibling, Gemini 3.5 Pro, would arrive in June. June came and went.

On Thursday, Bloomberg reported that the flagship AI (artificial intelligence) model is months behind schedule as Google works to improve its capabilities in coding -- and that some inside the company worry rivals OpenAI and Anthropic are shipping models that have passed Gemini by.

After peaking at $408.61 earlier this year, Alphabet shares closed Friday at $346.77, a decline of about 15%. That's a modest pullback by most standards. But it's a notable wobble for a stock that has been one of the market's favorite ways to bet on AI.

So, is the AI leader actually falling behind? Gemini 3.5 Pro is late -- that much is settled. But does the delay change the investment case? Alphabet's own numbers argue that it doesn't. At least not yet.

Image source: Alphabet Inc

A flagship model stuck in testing The timeline is what makes this delay notable. Google launched Gemini 3 in late 2025, and the 3.5 generation was supposed to continue a rapid release cadence, with the Flash version announced in May and the Pro version promised a month later.

Instead, according to Bloomberg's reporting, Google updated the data used to train Gemini in an attempt to improve its coding skills, and the results were disappointing.

Google hasn't announced a new launch date.

"We're currently testing 3.5 Pro, an upgraded Flash model, and other models with partners," the company said in a statement, adding that it is "shipping quickly across a wide range of models while keeping them highly cost-effective for customers."

After all, coding is arguably the main battleground for AI labs right now, and it's a big part of what enterprise customers pay for. A flagship model that can't yet clear the company's own bar there is an uncomfortable place for Google to sit while rivals keep shipping.

And the stakes are bigger than one product date. Alphabet expects capital expenditures of as much as $190 billion this year, much of it going toward the infrastructure behind its AI push. Spending on that scale assumes Gemini stays competitive at the frontier. A model that slips by a month is noise. A pattern of slipping models would worry me.

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A powerful business So far, there's no sign of that pattern in the results. Alphabet's revenue climbed 22% year over year to $109.9 billion in the first quarter, making it 11 quarters in a row of double-digit growth. Google Cloud revenue jumped 63% year over year to $20.0 billion, accelerating from 48% growth in the fourth quarter of 2025 and 34% in the third quarter. The cloud segment's operating income roughly tripled year over year to $6.6 billion. And Google Search & other revenue rose 19%, with management saying search queries hit an all-time high.

Demand for Gemini itself looks healthy, too. CEO Sundar Pichai said the company's cloud backlog nearly doubled from the prior quarter to over $460 billion, and that its models were processing over 16 billion tokens per minute through direct customer use, up 60% in three months.

"Our AI investments and full stack approach are lighting up every part of the business," Pichai said in the company's first-quarter earnings release.

In other words, customers don't appear to have been waiting on Gemini 3.5 Pro before signing contracts this spring.

Of course, the delay still deserves attention. Alphabet trades at about 25 times forward earnings -- a price that assumes growth rates remain robust. If Gemini were to fall a full generation behind OpenAI and Anthropic, the AI demand filling that cloud backlog could become harder to defend, and the AI features now driving search usage could start to lag rivals. Ultimately, however, I don't think one late model gets Alphabet anywhere close to that point. But it's the right risk to watch.

Fortunately, investors won't wait long for fresh evidence. Alphabet is scheduled to report second-quarter results on Wednesday, July 22. I'll be watching two things: Google Cloud's growth rate and any launch timing management offers on Gemini 3.5 Pro.

Nvidia (NVDA 1.97%) enjoys one particular attribute that is a hallmark of many successful companies: It's still being led by one of its founders, Jensen Huang. There are countless examples of visionaries who have built business empires, and Huang ranks among the best.

Over the company's past few quarterly conference calls, Nvidia has repeatedly told investors it expects that the world's annual data center capital expenditures could grow to up to $4 trillion by 2030. That's a huge prediction, and if it's right, Nvidia could become a $20 trillion stock over the next few years.

That would be a gigantic increase from its $5 trillion market cap today, but the math to support that prediction is pretty simple. 

Image source: Nvidia.

The data center build-out could last for many years Nvidia makes GPUs and the various products that support their use in data centers. Its GPUs have become the gold standard by which all high-performance parallel processors are measured. Furthermore, Nvidia captured the vast majority of the market in the early days of the AI arms race, which makes it incredibly difficult for data center operators to switch away from its products now. This advantage will only grow as more data centers are built.

The big four AI hyperscalers have estimated that they will spend a total of around $650 billion on data center capital expenditures in 2026. That figure doesn't include the spending of neoclouds, international players in markets such as China, nor other rising stars like large language model developers Anthropic and OpenAI.

With that in mind, we can estimate that 2026's actual total data center spend will be something more like $800 billion. Huang's prediction of $4 trillion in global data center capital expenditures by 2030 would therefore be a fivefold rise. If Nvidia keeps capturing its current share of that market's sales and profits, its top and bottom lines would rise proportionally.

The company only needs to quadruple to reach a $20 trillion market cap from today's level, so Nvidia could actually lose market share and still hit that target, assuming Huang's projection for data center capex pans out.

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However, I don't see that market share loss as likely. Nvidia is still rapidly growing: In its latest quarter, revenue grew 85% year over year. Next quarter, Wall Street analysts expect nearly 100% revenue growth. All that growth is without any chip sales to China. But that could be changing.

A U.S. official recently stated that "very few" Nvidia H200 chips have been shipped to China. While that may sound negative, that comment can actually be read as a strong sign that Nvidia is returning to the Chinese market. The U.S. government banned the export of most of its high-end chips to China, and even after President Trump relaxed those restrictions somewhat, the Chinese government has been putting roadblocks in the way of Nvidia's return. If those barriers are coming down, that would be a growth catalyst for sales that's currently not factored into any of the company's guidance figures. The result could be even greater growth for Nvidia and better returns for its shareholders.

Given the potential for Nvidia to quadruple over the next four and a half years, it's a no-brainer buy at these levels.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM 2.96%) may be one of the most important companies to the health of the AI infrastructure build-out. Its foundries churn out the logic chips designed by nearly every one of the major players in the space, and it just made an announcement that supports the idea that we're still in the early innings of the AI build-out. During its second-quarter earnings call, it announced it would make an additional $100 billion investment in expanding its chipmaking facilities in Arizona. If Taiwan Semiconductor suspected that the AI build-out was nearing completion, it wouldn't be increasing its production capacity.

Given its leading position in a still-growing space, I think Taiwan Semiconductor is one of the lowest-risk, highest-potential-reward options in the market, and it still looks like a phenomenal investment now, even after rising over 30% so far this year.

Image source: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.

AI computing power starts with Taiwan Semiconductor Taiwan Semiconductor is the world's leading third-party chip foundry, which means it takes chip designs from its clients and manufactures them on their behalf. Its customers include tech giants Nvidia, AMD, Apple, Broadcom, and Tesla. This puts TSMC in a strong position, as it often manufactures chips for rivals such as Nvidia and AMD, allowing it to profit regardless of which of those customers is winning in the marketplace. Taiwan Semiconductor accounts for nearly three-quarters of all semiconductor industry revenue in the world, according to research by The Motley Fool. During the quarter, 66% of its revenue came from high-performance computing, showcasing that AI is eating up a lot of Taiwan Semiconductor's production capacity, and explaining its plan to expand its Arizona foundries.

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Taiwan Semiconductor is one of the top ways to invest in the AI arms race, and it's honestly not as expensive as you might guess, considering its solid growth rate. (Revenue grew by 34% in U.S. dollars during Q2.) At 24 times forward earnings, Taiwan Semiconductor trades at only a small premium to the S&P 500 (^GSPC 1.01%), which averages 21.7 times forward earnings.

TSM PE Ratio (Forward) data by YCharts.

Few companies have as much guaranteed success as Taiwan Semiconductor does as long as spending on AI computing power remains robust. All signs point to that assumption remaining correct over the next few years, which gives me confidence that Taiwan Semiconductor will be a market-crushing stock over that period, making it a no-brainer buy today.

Keithen Drury has positions in Broadcom, Nvidia, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, and Tesla. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Apple, Broadcom, Nvidia, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, and Tesla. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Pi Network’s PI Suddenly Explodes by 20%: Recovery or Dead-Cat Bounce?

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)---- $HCA--HCA Investors Have Opportunity to Join HCA Healthcare, Inc. Fraud Investigation with the Schall Law Firm.

Jonathan Vassil, Chief Revenue Officer of Toast, Inc. (TOST 0.81%), sold 11,170 shares of Class A Common Stock on July 13 and July 14, 2026, as disclosed in a recent SEC Form 4 filing.

Transaction summaryMetricValueShares sold11,170Transaction value~$336,900Post-transaction shares154,235Post-transaction shares (directly held)69,966Post-transaction shares (indirectly held)84,269Post-transaction value$4.6 millionTransaction value based on SEC Form 4 weighted average sale price ($30.16); post-transaction value based on July 14, 2026, market close ($30.00).

Key questionsHow does this transaction relate to the executive's total equity exposure?
While the sale involved 11,170 shares, Jonathan Vassil maintains a substantial long-term incentive position with 316,431 outstanding stock options, ensuring continued alignment with the company's valuation performance.What were the mechanics of the share acquisition and disposal?
The transaction was executed as a cashless exercise and sale, in which options with an exercise price of $2.21 were converted to Class A Common Stock and immediately sold at prices ranging from $30.00 to $30.52.What is the significance of the 10b5-1 plan adoption date?
The trading plan was established on March 13, 2026, with a four-month cooling-off period before the first transactions were executed in July, a standard governance practice for executive portfolio management.How does the current market valuation compare to the transaction price?
The shares were sold at a weighted-average price of $30.16, slightly above the July 14, 2026, market close of $30.00, during a period when the stock had declined 33% over the previous 12 months.Company OverviewMetricValueShare Price (as of market close 2026-07-17)$30.08Market Capitalization$17.4 billionRevenue (TTM)$6.4 billionNet Income (TTM)$412.0 millionCompany SnapshotToast, Inc. delivers a comprehensive cloud-based digital technology platform purpose-built for the restaurant industry, featuring a robust product suite that includes the Toast Point of Sale (POS) system, Toast Flex terminals, and complementary hardware solutions that generate recurring software and services revenue.The company operates a subscription-based business model in which restaurant operators pay recurring fees for access to its integrated cloud platform, point-of-sale hardware, payment processing services, and ancillary software solutions, thereby creating predictable, scalable revenue streams.Toast serves restaurant operators of varying sizes across the United States and Ireland, targeting independent and multi-unit restaurant chains seeking comprehensive digital infrastructure solutions to streamline operations, enhance customer engagement, and optimize financial management.Toast, Inc. is a leading provider of cloud-based digital infrastructure solutions for the restaurant industry, with a market capitalization of $17.4 billion, TTM revenues of $6.4 billion, and TTM net income of $412.0 million. The company maintains operational scale with 6,500 employees. It leverages its integrated platform architecture, combining point-of-sale hardware, payment processing, and software services, to create significant switching costs and customer stickiness in a fragmented yet growing market. Toast's competitive positioning is reinforced by its vertical specialization in the restaurant sector, enabling deep product-market fit and the ability to capture multiple revenue streams across hardware, software subscriptions, and payment processing services.

What this transaction means for investorsInvestors shouldn’t worry about Vassil’s recent sales as they are pretty run-of-the-mill, pre-planned transactions for management to make over time. Vassil still has ample exposure to Toast’s long-term results, and these sales were relatively minor.

The main focus for investors should be on Toast’s stock and its actual operations, which appear to be moving in contrasting directions. While Toast stock is down 35% over the last year, I’d argue that the company has never been stronger financially and operationally. The company has locked in its status as the leading payment provider in the states for restaurants of all types and has recently delivered exceptional growth despite a challenging macroeconomic environment and the ever-looming, all-encompassing “AI disruption threat.”

Toast just grew annual recurring revenue by 26%, adjusted EBITDA by 34%, and saw EPS double in its latest quarter as its payments platform continued to scale beautifully. Now solidly profitable and becoming ever more so with each quarter, Toast’s focus will turn to protecting its leadership position from peers, incorporating AI into its operations, and upselling current customers on new services. Trading at just 22 times forward earnings while guiding for recurring gross profits to grow by 22% this year, I’ll be looking to open a starter position in the company soon.

© Photo by Drew Angerer / Getty Images

Apple just closed at a fresh all-time high. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL | AAPL Price Prediction) trades at $333.26 after a 5.39% weekly gain and a 22.81% year-to-date gain.

Our 24/7 Wall St. price target for Apple is $363.77, implying another 9.15% of upside over the next 12 months. The recommendation is buy, with confidence at 90%.

Metric Value Current Price $333.26 24/7 Wall St. Price Target $363.77 Upside 9.15% Recommendation BUY Confidence 90% How Apple Powered Through Every Headwind and Hit $333 Apple has climbed 11.37% over the past month and 59.21% over the past year.

The March quarter delivered $111.2 billion in revenue, up 16.6% year over year, with EPS of $2.01 beating the $1.94 consensus for an eighth consecutive quarterly beat. iPhone hit $56.99 billion on iPhone 17 demand, and Services set another record at $30.98 billion. Management authorized a fresh $100 billion buyback and raised the dividend 4%.

On July 16, 2026, Apple received Chinese government approval to roll out Apple Intelligence features with Alibaba and Baidu partners, pushing the stock 4.2% higher in one session. Greater China revenue recovered to $20.50 billion in the March quarter, removing the largest remaining overhang on that region.

Why Bulls See $380 and Beyond The bull case rests on Services compounding, iPhone 18 tailwinds, and Apple Intelligence monetization. Citi carries a $365 target on margin expansion tied to selective price hikes and market-share gains. Our bull-case scenario points to $380.43 over 12 months.

Prediction markets on Polymarket assign a 66.2% probability that Apple hits $344 in July, and an iPhone 18 release before year-end sits at 96.6%. Broadcom’s supply agreement extending through 2031 secures a critical silicon partner.

The Risks Worth Watching KeyBanc is the loudest bear, carrying an Underweight rating and a $250 target citing extended replacement cycles and reduced carrier subsidies. Trailing P/E of 40 leaves little margin for a miss.

Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Apple didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today.

Insider selling reached $87.6 million over the past three months, and Apple’s active OpenAI trade-secret lawsuit adds legal noise. Our bear case scenario pegs 12-month downside at $308.83. The multiple expansion reflects Services now running at a $30.98 billion quarterly run rate with structurally higher margins than hardware.

How Apple Compares to Microsoft and Alphabet Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) trades at a P/E of 29 with fiscal Q3 2026 EPS of $4.27 on 18.3% revenue growth. Microsoft’s cheaper multiple reflects heavier capex intensity; Apple’s premium reflects capital-light Services and buyback firepower.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) posted Q1 2026 EPS of $5.11 on revenue of $109.9 billion, up 21.8%, with Google Cloud growing 63%. Alphabet’s faster top-line growth against Apple’s premium multiple frames the tradeoff. Against these peers, our 24/7 Wall St. price target of $363.77 looks reasonable.

What to Watch Next on Apple The 24/7 Wall St. price target of $363.77 with 90% confidence reflects a defensible 9.15% path higher over 12 months, anchored by China AI approval, Services compounding, and the iPhone 18 cycle.

The bull thesis strengthens if the July 30 earnings report confirms Services margin expansion. The setup weakens if iPhone 18 pre-orders disappoint or if forward guidance softens on China. The setup favors the bulls.

The 5-year base case sits at $465.41 by July 2031, assuming current growth trajectories and margin trends hold.

Year 24/7 Wall St. Price Target 2026 $345 2027 $375 2028 $405 2029 $435 2030 $465 These projections assume Apple continues executing on Services growth and the iPhone 18 and 19 cycles land on schedule. Meaningful upside or downside could result from foldable iPhone traction, further AI monetization, or a China policy reversal.

Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Apple didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today.

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

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Focus will move beyond autos to AI. (0:17) Comi-Con starts Thursday. (1:52) U.S. strikes Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. (2:24)

The following is an abridged transcript:

With earnings season in full swing and Tesla (TSLA) is lined up to report Wednesday.

Analysts expect Tesla to report revenue of $26.4B, EPS of $0.54 and automotive gross margin excluding credits slightly above 18%.

Tesla already disclosed that it delivered 480,126 vehicles in Q2 and produced 451,758. Beyond the core numbers, investor attention will once again center on the updates on autonomy, software, the robotaxi rollout, and AI4-AI5 chips, as well as the capex needed for the company to be a leader in physical AI.

SA Analyst Yiannis Zourmpanos says Tesla enters earnings with momentum on its side.

“The improvement in demand, rising analyst expectations, and strong execution show that the market could be undervaluing the stock’s potential earnings performance,” he added.

But Agar Capital warns a great company does not necessarily mean a great stock.

They argue its market cap of $1.5T is overvalued by $1T for “businesses that still lack commercial scale, complete authorizations, verifiable unit economics, and significant FCF.”

Here's how the rest of the earnings calendar shapes up:

Domino’s Pizza (DPZ) and AMC Entertainment (AMC) report Monday.

Novartis (NVSEF), 3M (MMM), GM (GM) and Halliburton (HAL) are due Tuesday.

Alphabet (GOOG) (GOOGL), Texas Instruments (TXN), IBM (IBM), AT&T (T), ServiceNow (NOW), Philip Morris (PM) and Kinder Morgan (KMI) join Tesla on Wednesday.

Thursday brings reports from Intel (INTC), T-Mobile (TMUS), Lockheed Martin (LMT), Union Pacific (UNP) and Comcast (CMCSA).

American Express (AXP), Verizon (VZ) and Charter Communications (CHTR) close out the week on Friday.

The economic calendar is very light, but this week also brings, AMD's (AMD) Advancing AI event in San Francisco on Wednesday, where CEO Lisa Su is expected to outline the chipmaker's latest AI strategy.

The biennial Farnborough International Airshow begins Monday, with Boeing (BA), Airbus (EADSF), Embraer (EMBJ) and other industry leaders expected to announce aircraft orders and showcase new technologies.

And San Diego Comic-Con kicks off Thursday, with Disney (DIS), Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), and Apple (AAPL) among the media companies expected to showcase upcoming films and streaming content.

In the news this weekend, the U.S. military launched airstrikes targeting Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on Sunday in retaliation for an attack in Jordan that killed two American service members and wounded four others, further escalating the conflict between Washington and Tehran.

Walmart (WMT) announced that it has removed four bagged iceberg lettuce salad products after receiving a notice from its supplier, Taylor Farms, as recalls tied to a cyclosporiasis outbreak that causes explosive diarrhea widen.

Taylor Farms is one of the largest suppliers of fresh vegetables and packaged salads in North America, serving retailers including not just Walmart (WMT), but Costco (COST) and Whole Foods Market (AMZN) as well as McDonald's (MCD) and Taco Bell (YUM).

And for income investors, Caterpillar (CAT) and Colgate-Palmolive (CL) go ex-dividend on Monday.

Caterpillar pays on August 19 and Colgate-Palmolive on August 14.

Dell (DELL) goes ex-dividend Tuesday, with a July 31 payout date.

Pfizer (PFE) goes ex-dividend on Friday, paying out Sept. 1.

Kelly Ortberg says the company needs to get its finances and technology in place first.

Ken Griffin's hedge fund, Citadel LLC, has been called the most profitable hedge fund in history. It currently manages around $68 billion, and has posted average annual returns of 19.2% after fees since 1990.

The fund is highly analytical, employing 260 PhDs who use 100 petabytes of data to make daily trading decisions. The firm is so active in its trading that it's often credited with coining the phrase "high-frequency trading."

Earlier this month, Griffin gave his opinion on several ongoing market trends -- everything from geopolitical tensions to artificial intelligence. Investors of all kinds would be wise to hear what he has to say.

Here's what Ken Griffin thinks investors should understand about AI right now Griffin spent a lot of time talking about AI, a technology he thinks most people still don't fully understand. He began by sharing a story of asking business leaders how AI has transformed their businesses.

"I couldn't help myself. I'm like, 'Let's go around the table and share stories about how AI is transforming your business,'" Griffin said. What he got back were four or five "incredible stories" all talking about so-called productivity gains. But after digging deeper, Griffin determined that "not one involved AI."

Instead, he believed the gains were realized using other, more elementary methods like data optimization and digitization. Griffin thinks that a lot of people are labeling things "AI" that are simply employing the use of other technologies.

Image source: Getty Images.

According to Griffin, the "nuance between AI and technology writ large gets a little bit lost" when discussing any sort of tech implementation these days. He said: "There is a technological revolution happening, of which AI is a component of the story, but it's just a piece."

This last observation is important for investors to understand. Many publicly traded companies are claiming that they are either developing AI technology or implementing AI into their workflows. However, it's critical for investors to remain skeptical about these claims. Whether investors are considering a chipmaker like Nvidia (NVDA 1.97%) or quantum stocks like Rigetti Computing (RGTI +0.07%) or D-Wave Quantum (QBTS 1.12%), it's critical to determine how much a company is exposed specifically to AI versus another technology altogether.

Perhaps Griffin has also made the same mistake in the past. Previously, he dismissed artificial intelligence. "I was with one of my colleagues who runs our commodities business and he handed [me a] report that we generated with an AI engine," he said earlier this year. "The first few sentences, like wow that's really insightful and then you go down below that and it's all garbage."

Just a few months later, Griffin is changing his tune. Now, Griffin thinks AI will set off a "golden age of entrepreneurial activity" in which a handful of scrappy entrepreneurs can challenge powerful incumbents by leveraging AI. Griffin likely came to this conclusion by developing a better ability to discern what is AI and what is not. Investors would be wise to follow his lead.