SOUTHFIELD, Mich., June 16, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- General Motors (GM) recognized Chemico as a 2025 Supplier of the Year in the category of Industrialization during GM’s recent 34th annual Supplier of the Year award event in Austin, Texas. During its 37-year tenure as a GM supplier, Chemico has received 16 GM Supplier of the Year awards, including an Overdrive award for above-and-beyond performance in 2023.
“Receiving our 16th Supplier of the Year award from General Motors is a tremendous honor,” said Leon C. Richardson, founder, president, and CEO of Chemico. “This achievement reflects the strength of our lasting collaborative partnership with GM and the daily dedication to service, quality, and excellence that our team brings each day. It is also a testament to the mission we set out with in 1989 -- to add value to our customers’ supply chain, add value to the lives of our employees, and add value to the communities in which we live and work.”
For 2025, GM’s 34th annual Supplier of the Year and Overdrive awards recognize 103 suppliers spanning 14 countries. These suppliers deliver outstanding performance, partnership, and innovation in support of GM’s global operations. Awardees are selected by a global GM team based on performance across key categories such as safety, innovation, execution, resilience, and customer support, along with their alignment to GM’s core values and strategic priorities.
“Supplier of the Year is one of those key moments our whole team looks forward to every year because it highlights the partnerships behind every vehicle we build,” said Shilpan Amin, Senior Vice President, Global Chief Procurement and Supply Chain Officer, General Motors. “The results our suppliers deliver throughout the entire product development cycle are central to our ability to deliver world-class vehicles to our customers. When our suppliers, such as Chemico, lean in with us on new technology and flawless execution, we can move faster, compete harder and unlock more value across the entire supply chain.”
Founded in 1989, The Chemico Group has become one of the nation’s leading providers of chemical management services, distribution and specialty product manufacturing firms across North America and abroad. The company specializes in integrated solutions for the entire chemical lifecycle - from procurement to on-site inventory management and environmentally conscious disposal. Chemico’s vast network of suppliers and specialty manufacturers provides a wide variety of chemical solutions to customers across the automotive, aerospace, electronics and healthcare industries and the defense sector. With 50 locations and more than 450 employees across the U.S. and Mexico, the company remains poised for significant growth.
Chemico has entered a strategic partnership with DuBois Chemicals, whose product breadth includes value-added chemical solutions and process improvements for industrial manufacturing, cleaning, and water treatment applications. DuBois’ local technical expertise and facility footprint, coupled with Chemico’s industry-leading service capabilities, deliver unparalleled value to customers.
For more information, visit www.thechemicogroup.com.
Caption: Chemico CEO Leon C. Richardson (center) accepts the 2025 Supplier of the Year award from General Motors during their 34th annual Supplier of the Year awards event in Austin, Texas. Richardson is flanked by Mauricio Pincheira, Chemico VP Automotive & Industrial Accounts (far left), Sham Kunjur, GM Executive Director Purchasing (left) and Dave Macleod, Chemico Executive VP (right).
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/cbb30f33-55bd-497e-9d3c-7f2d608b473d.
General Motors Co. (NYSE:GM) introduced the fifth-generation 2027 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 on Tuesday, giving its top-selling pickup a ground-up redesign on a modified T1-2 platform and a sharper bet on V8 power.
Chevrolet Bets On Larger V8 Engines AgainChevrolet said the new Silverado replaces the outgoing 5.3-liter and 6.2-liter engines with larger 5.7-liter and 6.6-liter V8s built on GM's Gen VI small-block architecture. The 5.7-liter engine revives the classic "350" small-block identity for the first time in nearly 30 years, while the 6.6-liter replaces the prior 6.2-liter option.
The standard turbocharged four-cylinder stays in the lineup but gets performance upgrades. The fuel-efficient 3.0-liter Duramax turbo-diesel inline-six also carries over. Every 2027 Silverado now comes with a 10-speed automatic transmission, replacing the previous eight-speed setup on lower trims.
Digital Cabin And Simplified Trims Take ShapeChevrolet also simplified the truck's trim structure to seven choices. The company retired the long-running LT badge and renamed that core consumer trim simply "Silverado." Three trims arrive as factory-lifted models because of what Chevrolet called "significant demand" in its press release.
Inside, the Silverado moves to a far more digital cabin. Every trim, including the Work Truck, gets a 16.3-inch center touchscreen and a 12.2-inch digital driver display. High Country and ZR2 models add an 11.5-inch passenger screen, head-up display and rear camera mirror, giving premium trims more than 60 inches of total screen space.
Chevrolet said availability and pricing will be announced later this year. Edmunds pricing for the current Work Truck sits around the $39,000 to $40,000 range, below base versions of the Ford F-150 XL and Ram 1500 Tradesman.
Reliability Questions And Earnings Frame Silverado LaunchThe redesign also follows reliability scrutiny for GM's current 6.2-liter V8. GM recalled nearly 600,000 L87-equipped vehicles in the U.S. last year after engine-failure concerns and a later change to oil guidance.
The launch comes as GM says the Silverado EV remains in its lineup, even after the Trump administration rolled back the EPA's 2009 Endangerment Finding.
GM recently reported first-quarter adjusted earnings of $3.70 per share, beating estimates of $2.62. Revenue slipped 0.9% to $43.624 billion, while adjusted EBIT rose 21.9% to $4.253 billion. GM is scheduled to report second-quarter results on July 21.
Benzinga Edge Rankings show that General Motors stock scores well on the Momentum and Value metrics and offers a favorable price trend in the Short, Medium and Long Term.
Price Action: GM stock fell 1.86% to $82.51 at market close on Tuesday, but gained 0.59% to $83.00 during the after-hours session.
Photo Courtesy: Jonathan Weiss on Shutterstock.com
Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs
SummaryGE Aerospace remains a Buy, with nearly 18% upside to a $402.85 price target, supported by dominant engine program positions and resilient aftermarket revenue.GE benefits from multi-decade growth via CFM LEAP, GEnx, and GE9X engines, leveraging a vast installed base and strong pricing power in aftermarket sales.Recent Middle East conflict posed risks to utilization, but a peace deal and GE's diversified fleet mitigate near-term headwinds; inflation pressures are manageable due to pricing power.Q2 revenue is expected to grow 16% to $11.8B, but H2 growth estimates have softened; supply chain commentary will be critical for forward expectations and valuation.Looking for more investing ideas like this one? Get them exclusively at The Aerospace Forum. Learn More »Sitewide Sale 2026: Get 20% Off Zhi Xiong Lee/iStock via Getty Images
GE Aerospace (GE) remains a Buy despite the stock gaining nearly 25% since my last report, significantly outperforming both the S&P 500 and its aerospace peers. While the strong share price performance
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Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have no stock, option or similar derivative position in any of the companies mentioned, and no plans to initiate any such positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
Seeking Alpha's Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.
A contract crew from Verizon installs 5G telecommunications equipment on a tower in Orem, Utah, U.S. December 3, 2019. Picture taken December 3, 2019. REUTERS/George Frey/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
WASHINGTON, June 16 (Reuters) - Verizon (VZ.N), opens new tab is aiming to attract customers by offering simpler plans, dropping activation and upgrade fees and unveiling a new loyalty program offering discounts and perks.
The U.S. company is aggressively competing with AT&T (T.N), opens new tab and T-Mobile (TMUS.O), opens new tab in the saturated U.S. telecoms market, where network providers have extended device subsidies, added plan discounts and increased network infrastructure spending.
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Verizon said its new program will offer customers 3% back on bills from July that can be used toward new phones or at consumer brands like Sephora, Hilton, Marriott and Starbucks.
Alfonso Villanueva, interim CEO of Verizon Consumer Group and Verizon chief transformation officer, told Reuters the move is about making it simpler and more flexible for customers.
"How do we create a value proposition that makes sense for every cohort?" Villanueva said in an interview, adding: "We are convinced that our retention will be even higher".
Verizon said postpaid customers on all phone and connected device plans can opt in to its loyalty program and avoid activation and upgrade fees. It is also offering perks such as free Starbucks coffee, a Dunkin' Donuts treat or FIFA World Cup 2026 merchandise.
Its new "Simplicity" plan will drop network tiers and another will combine Mobility and Home on one bill with taxes and fees included.
Under new CEO Dan Schulman, Verizon in April raised its annual profit forecast. It declined to say how much the changes announced on Tuesday would cost but they are expected to be accretive to revenue. The program would not change its 2026 financial guidance, Verizon said.
Like AT&T (T.N), opens new tab, Verizon has leaned into discounted bundles combining high-speed broadband and wireless plans, a strategy aimed at boosting customer retention.
T-Mobile has had success with its loyalty programs offering perks and aggressive marketing along with its plans that bundle Netflix, Apple TV and Hulu with five-year price guarantees.
Last month, Verizon cut several hundred jobs after saying in November it was cutting more than 13,000.
Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Alexander Smith
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab
It doesn't matter your age or experience: taking full advantage of the stock market and investing with confidence are common goals for all investors. Luckily, Zacks Premium offers several different ways to do both.
The research service features daily updates of the Zacks Rank and Zacks Industry Rank, full access to the Zacks #1 Rank List, Equity Research reports, and Premium stock screens, all of which will help you become a smarter, more confident investor.
It also includes access to the Zacks Style Scores.
What are the Zacks Style Scores? The Zacks Style Scores is a unique set of guidelines that rates stocks based on three popular investing types, and were developed as complementary indicators for the Zacks Rank. This combination helps investors choose securities with the highest chances of beating the market over the next 30 days.
Based on their value, growth, and momentum characteristics, each stock is assigned a rating of A, B, C, D, or F. The better the score, the better chance the stock will outperform; an A is better than a B, a B is better than a C, and so on.
The Style Scores are broken down into four categories:
Value ScoreFor value investors, it's all about finding good stocks at good prices, and discovering which companies are trading under their true value before the broader market catches on. The Value Style Score utilizes ratios like P/E, PEG, Price/Sales, Price/Cash Flow, and a host of other multiples to help pick out the most attractive and discounted stocks.
Growth ScoreGrowth investors, on the other hand, are more concerned with a company's financial strength and health, and its future outlook. The Growth Style Score examines things like projected and historic earnings, sales, and cash flow to find stocks that will experience sustainable growth over time.
Momentum ScoreMomentum trading is all about taking advantage of upward or downward trends in a stock's price or earnings outlook, and these investors live by the saying "the trend is your friend." The Momentum Style Score can pinpoint good times to build a position in a stock, using factors like one-week price change and the monthly percentage change in earnings estimates.
VGM ScoreIf you want a combination of all three Style Scores, then the VGM Score will be your friend. It rates each stock on their combined weighted styles, helping you find the companies with the most attractive value, best growth forecast, and most promising momentum. It's also one of the best indicators to use with the Zacks Rank.
How Style Scores Work with the Zacks Rank The Zacks Rank, which is a proprietary stock-rating model, employs earnings estimate revisions, or changes to a company's earnings expectations, to make building a winning portfolio easier.
It's highly successful, with #1 (Strong Buy) stocks producing an unmatched +24% average annual return since 1988. That's more than double the S&P 500. But because of the large number of stocks we rate, there are over 200 companies with a Strong Buy rank, plus another 600 with a #2 (Buy) rank, on any given day.
With more than 800 top-rated stocks to choose from, it can certainly feel overwhelming to pick the ones that are right for you and your investing journey.
That's where the Style Scores come in.
To maximize your returns, you want to buy stocks with the highest probability of success. This means picking stocks with a Zacks Rank #1 or #2 that also have Style Scores of A or B. If you find yourself looking at stocks with a #3 (Hold) rank, make sure they have Scores of A or B as well to ensure as much upside potential as possible.
The direction of a stock's earnings estimate revisions should always be a key factor when choosing which stocks to buy, since the Scores were created to work together with the Zacks Rank.
Here's an example: a stock with a #4 (Sell) or #5 (Strong Sell) rating, even one with Style Scores of A and B, still has a downward-trending earnings outlook, and a bigger chance its share price will decrease too.
Thus, the more stocks you own with a #1 or #2 Rank and Scores of A or B, the better.
Stock to Watch: Verizon Communications (VZ - Free Report) Based in New York, Verizon Communications Inc. offers communication services in the form of local phone service, long-distance calls, wireless and data services. In January 2006, Verizon completed its merger with MCI Corporation, a leader in long-distance and data networking services. With the acquisition of Alltel Wireless Corp. in early 2009, Verizon has surpassed AT&T Inc. as the largest wireless carrier in North America, serving millions of customers nationwide.
VZ is a #3 (Hold) on the Zacks Rank, with a VGM Score of B.
It also boasts a Value Style Score of A thanks to attractive valuation metrics like a forward P/E ratio of 9.48; value investors should take notice.
Eight analysts revised their earnings estimate upwards in the last 60 days for fiscal 2026. The Zacks Consensus Estimate has increased $0.06 to $4.96 per share. VZ boasts an average earnings surprise of +3.2%.
With a solid Zacks Rank and top-tier Value and VGM Style Scores, VZ should be on investors' short list.
June 16, 2026 17:16 ET | Source: Verizon Communications, Inc.
BASKING RIDGE, N.J., June 16, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- With tropical storm watches now in place for portions of the Gulf Coast, Verizon is reassuring residents, businesses, and first responders that its network and emergency response teams are ready to maintain critical connectivity.
As part of its year-round preparation, Verizon builds a highly resilient network ecosystem utilizing built-in backup power, redundant fiber routes, and hardened infrastructure. In addition, nearly 3,000 mobile assets—including portable cell sites, mobile command centers, and temporary tower structures—are staged across the country and prepared for rapid deployment to the hardest-hit areas.
Groundbreaking Tech Anchor 2026 Response Strategy
To keep customers connected more efficiently during the 2026 hurricane season, Verizon is integrating advanced technology and enhanced assets into its disaster recovery arsenal:
Digital Twin Technology: Utilizing drone-captured 3D imagery and artificial intelligence, Verizon engineers can virtually visit and inspect cell sites immediately following a storm. By automatically identifying exact damage to antennas or cables with pinpoint accuracy, Verizon can prepare specialized equipment and prioritize repairs before ground crews can safely access the site.Multi-Orbit Satellite Fleet: Verizon has expanded its satellite fleet to 2,600 total assets. To combat instances where extreme weather severs terrestrial fiber optic lines, Verizon is deploying the new Multi-Orbit Off-Road Trailer. This high-clearance vehicle can dynamically toggle between Geosynchronous (GEO) and Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites to drop off 5G connection kits for first responders while maintaining mobile network hubs.Elite Specialist Support: The Verizon Frontline Crisis Response Team remains on standby to deploy portable cell sites, mobile devices, charging stations and more in support of public safety agencies. Supporting them are the Major Event Response Incident Team (MERIT)—armed with new gas-detecting drones—and the Dedicated Impact Response Team (DIRT) of expert technicians surging into impacted zones. Full details on Verizon's extensive defensive infrastructure can be found in the Verizon 2026 Hurricane Readiness Announcement.
Prepared to support community recovery efforts
Verizon is readying its new fleet of connectivity vans, part of its broader Community Disaster Resilience Initiative. These vans deploy during a crisis like natural disasters and provide Verizon wifi connection, charging stations, and other resources to the local community. Additionally, large support assets, such as the Mobile Emergency Operations Center, Tactical/Mobile Command Trailer, the Wireless Emergency Community Center (WECC), and Big Red (a vehicle with 24 workstations), are prepared to provide vital on-site facilities, communication centers, charging stations, and technical support for first responders and the community.
10 Ways Families and Businesses Can Prepare Now
While Verizon engineers work behind the scenes to secure infrastructure, customers are urged to finalize their personal digital preparedness plans:
Charge Up Early: Keep all mobile devices, tablets, and portable power banks fully charged well before storm watches or warnings are issued for your location.Protect Your Gear: Place phones, chargers, and external batteries in waterproof accessories or heavy-duty zip-lock bags to safeguard them against floodwaters or rain.Establish a Communication Plan: Coordinate a dedicated family emergency plan, noting down important emergency contact numbers directly into your device.Secure Visual Backups: Take photos of your home, vehicle, and valuables for insurance purposes. Ensure these images are uploaded to the cloud so you can access them even if your phone is lost or damaged.Utilize Digital Resources: Download critical weather tracking, news, and American Red Cross safety apps ahead of time.Mitigate Customer Disruption: List critical software, equipment, service contracts and vital contacts (utilities, vendors, authorities) needed to maintain operations. Review coverage with your insurance agent to eliminate gaps.Contacts and Documents Are Key: Centralize updated contact info for all staff (including remote and satellite offices) and keep accessible, secure copies of your insurance policies.Keep Track of Equipment: Maintain an inventory of all corporate hardware deployed to remote employees to streamline claims for potential loss or damage.The Right Tech Makes an Impact: Secure the mobile-ready technology and infrastructure needed to maintain business connectivity if you are forced to relocate.Have a Backup Plan: Establish a protocol to immediately reroute workloads if remote employees lose power or face evacuation. Verizon will continue monitoring the Gulf disturbance and will provide local network status adjustments as necessary. Customers can track live network updates in their immediate area using the Check Network Status tool on Verizon’s website or directly within the My Verizon mobile app.
Visit our Emergency Resource Center for further details on Verizon’s emergency response capabilities.
This announcement was originally published by Verizon. Read the original press release.
Verizon is looking to attract and retain customers by offering new, simpler plans that will drop activation and upgrade fees while also rolling out a new loyalty program offering discounts and other perks.
The company is competing aggressively with AT&T and T-Mobile in the telecoms market, with rivals looking to gain an edge with consumers and have extended device subsidies, added plan discounts and proposed increased spending on network infrastructure.
The new "Simplicity" plan drops network tiers and will combine Mobility and Home on one bill, with taxes and fees included.
Verizon said the new loyalty program will offer customers 3% back on bills from July that can be used to buy new phones or at consumer brands such as Sephora, Hilton, Marriott and Starbucks.
VERIZON CUSTOMERS FACE 35-DAY WAIT TO UNLOCK PAID-OFF PHONES UNDER POLICY CHANGE
Verizon believes the new initiatives will help with retaining customers. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Alfonso Villanueva, interim CEO of Verizon Consumer Group and Verizon chief transformation officer, told Reuters the move is about making it simpler and more flexible for customers.
"How do we create a value proposition that makes sense for every cohort?" Villanueva told the outlet in an interview.
"We are convinced that our retention will be even higher," he added.
VERIZON NAMES FORMER PAYPAL BOSS DAN SCHULMAN AS CEO
Ticker Security Last Change Change % VZ VERIZON COMMUNICATIONS INC. 46.73 -0.34 -0.72% TMUS T-MOBILE US INC. 184.36 -4.50 -2.38% T AT&T INC. 23.16 -0.13 -0.56% Verizon said postpaid customers on all phone and connected device plans can opt into its loyalty programs and avoid activation and upgrade fees. It is also offering perks like free Starbucks coffee, a Dunkin' Donuts treat or FIFA World Cup 2026 merchandise.
Verizon in April raised its annual profit forecast under new CEO Dan Schulman. The company declined to say how much the changes announced on Tuesday would cost, but they are expected to be accretive to revenue.
The company also said that the new program wouldn't change its 2026 financial guidance.
FANATICS AND AT&T ANNOUNCE EXCLUSIVE MULTI-YEAR PARTNERSHIP TO CONNECT MORE FANS TO SPORTS MOMENTS
Verizon is vying with rivals like AT&T and T-Mobile for business in the highly competitive cellular service market. (iStock)
Like its rival AT&T, Verizon has leaned into discounted bundles combining high-speed broadband and wireless plans as part of a strategy to boost customer retention.
T-Mobile has had success with its loyalty programs offering perks and aggressive marketing along with its plans which bundle Netflix, Apple TV and Hulu with five-year price guarantees.
Last month, Verizon cut several hundred jobs after it said in November it was cutting more than 13,000.
FILE PHOTO: Goldman Sachs logo appears in this illustration taken December 1, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File Photo/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
CompaniesJune 16 (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs (GS.N), opens new tab has managed more than $1 trillion worth of announced mergers and acquisitions so far in 2026, marking a record pace for any investment bank within a half-year period, the Wall Street giant said in a LinkedIn post citing Dealogic data.
The figure comes on the back of the investment bank managing SpaceX's (SPCX.O), opens new tab landmark initial public offering as lead left underwriter. The Elon Musk company went public in New York on Friday.
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The bank also acted as co-financial advisors to power company Dominion Energy (D.N), opens new tab in its sale to NextEra Energy (NEE.N), opens new tab in a $66.8 billion deal announced last month.
In a separate post, CEO David Solomon said global M&A volumes have already exceeded $2.6 trillion this year as AI and strategic consolidation reshape industries, while trading volumes have reached all-time highs as clients navigate a range of risk events.
Wall Street executives anticipated a strong year for M&A despite uncertainty stemming from the Middle East conflict, due to a softer regulatory environment under U.S. President Donald Trump and growing momentum in AI.
"CEOs and Boards are taking a long-term strategic view, despite the complex backdrop, to capture scale and amplify their competitive advantages," said Matt McClure, global co-head of investment banking at Goldman Sachs.
"This momentum is playing out globally, with active dialogues continuing across all sectors and transaction sizes."
Goldman's investment banking fees rose to $2.84 billion in the first quarter, a 48% jump from a year ago. Shares of the bank have gained about 24% so far in 2026.
Goldman Sachs has retained its top ranking for global M&A advisor in 2026 after securing the spot last year, according to Dealogic data. JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N), opens new tab occupies the second position.
Reporting by Pritam Biswas in Bengaluru and Saeed Azhar in New York; Editing by Leroy Leo
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab
Saeed Azhar is a Reuters financial journalist and part of the U.S. banking team, which covers Wall Street's biggest banks. He focuses on Goldman Sachs and Bank of America, and also writes about regional banks. Before moving to New York in July 2022, he led the finance team in the Middle East from Dubai, and also worked in Singapore, covering Southeast Asia finance.
BlackRock’s (NYSE: BLK) next quarterly dividend of 2026 is coming in exactly one week, on June 23, with the ex-dividend date as of June 5.
As per the current DivvyDiary estimates, investors will receive $5.73 per share, meaning the payment remains unchanged from the last one issued on March 24.
Accordingly, 100 BLK shares will generate $573 in BlackRock stock dividends this quarter, too. If the hedge fund does not increase the payout by the end of 2026, the yearly amount will come in at $2,292.
BlackRock dividends calendar. Source: DivvyDiary BlackRock dividend gains This year, BlackRock’s dividend provided a modest cushion for investors. Notably, a hypothetical $10,000 investment made on Jan 1 would have generated $91.36 in dividends, assuming dividends were reinvested. However, the fund’s shares have declined enough over the same period to result in a capital loss of around $386.
In other words, having factored in dividend income, the investment would be worth just above $9,704, representing a total loss of more or less $295 and a year-to-date loss of almost 3%.
Total BlackRock returns in 2026 with dividends reinvested. Source: DivvyDiary BlackRock payout ratio and yield The asset manager currently offers a dividend yield of 2.25%, equivalent to an annual payout of $23.47 per share, and it has raised its dividend for 17 consecutive years. With a forward payout ratio of 37.79%, BlackRock is distributing less than half of its earnings as dividends, suggesting the payout remains well covered by profits.
The company pays dividends quarterly and has historically delivered a financial-sector yield in line with or below many traditional income stocks (the average is 3.18%). This reflects a focus on dividend growth alongside business expansion.
BlackRock’s average dividend recovery period stands at 5.7 days, meaning the stock has historically regained the value lost on the ex-dividend date in less than a week on average.
Featured image via Shutterstock
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NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--BlackRock today announced the launch of the iShares Bitcoin Premium Income ETF (Nasdaq:BITA), an exchange-traded product (ETP) designed to provide investors with bitcoin upside participation while generating monthly option premium.
The iShares Trusts are not an investment company registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940, and therefore are not subject to the same regulatory requirements as mutual funds or ETFs registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940.
BITA gains bitcoin exposure through a combination of spot bitcoin and the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) – the world’s largest and most-traded bitcoin ETP.1 BITA aims to write call options on IBIT representing approximately 25% to 35% of the portfolio, generating option premiums that may be distributed to investors each month. This approach preserves the majority of BITA’s bitcoin exposure, allowing investors to participate in market movements while potentially producing income.
"A significant segment of our client base is interested in bitcoin but is also highly focused on income generation," said Robert Mitchnick, Head of Digital Assets at BlackRock. "BITA was built in response to that demand, enabling investors to retain the majority of their bitcoin upside exposure while capturing potential income through a convenient exchange-traded structure."
BITA is designed with quality in mind. BITA’s differentiated structure holds bitcoin (and IBIT) directly for tax-efficient growth2 while selling options on IBIT that benefit from lower 60/40 taxation3 as section 1256 contracts.4 Investors may also benefit from certain tax efficiencies inherent in the partnership structure, including the ability to pass through capital losses to offset other investment gains and the character of both short-term and long-term gains as capital gains.
Delivering Greater Investor Choice Backed by iShares' Scale and Quality
BITA builds on two established pillars of BlackRock’s platform: its digital assets product suite – including IBIT, the iShares Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHA), and the iShares Staked Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHB) – and its premium income offerings, with over $3 billion in client assets across ETFs registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940 such as the iShares U.S. Large Cap Premium Income Active ETF (BALI) and the iShares Nasdaq Premium Income Active ETF (BALQ). BITA leverages the scale and liquidity of IBIT and its options market, which averages approximately $3.7 billion in daily trading volume and ranks among the top 1% of all options products.5
“BITA applies BlackRock's proven options capabilities to our established digital assets platform – purpose-built for investors with long-term bitcoin conviction who also want to put that allocation to work,” said Jessica Tan, Head of Americas for Global Product Solutions at BlackRock. “Delivering a strategy like BITA at scale requires deep ETP and options expertise, rigorous risk management, and scalable infrastructure – capabilities that iShares delivers every day.”
BlackRock is a leading asset manager in the digital asset ecosystem, overseeing more than $130 billion in assets across digital asset ETPs, tokenized liquidity funds, and stablecoin reserve management.6 iShares captured approximately 90% of industry flows into U.S.-listed digital asset ETPs in 2025.7
About BlackRock
BlackRock’s purpose is to help more and more people experience financial well-being. As a fiduciary to investors and a leading provider of financial technology, we help millions of people build savings that serve them throughout their lives by making investing easier and more affordable. For additional information on BlackRock, please visit www.blackrock.com/corporate | Twitter: @blackrock | LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/blackrock
About iShares
iShares unlocks opportunity across markets to meet the evolving needs of investors. With more than twenty years of experience, a global line-up of more than 1,700 exchange traded funds (ETFs) and approximately $5.5 trillion in assets under management as of March 31, 2026, iShares continues to drive progress for the financial industry. iShares funds are powered by the expert portfolio and risk management of BlackRock.
Disclosure
This information must be preceded or accompanied by a prospectus for BITA, IBIT, ETHA and ETHB. Investors should read and consider the relevant prospectus carefully before investing.
The Trust is not a commodity pool for purposes of the Commodity Exchange Act. Before making an investment decision, you should carefully consider the risk factors and other information included in the prospectus.
Investing involves a high degree of risk, including possible loss of principal. An investment in the Trust is not suitable for all investors, may be deemed speculative and is not intended as a complete investment program. An investment in Shares should be considered only by persons who can bear the risk of total loss associated with an investment in the Trust.
Investing in digital assets involves significant risks due to their extreme price volatility and the potential for loss, theft, or compromise of private keys. The value of the shares is closely tied to acceptance, industry developments, and governance changes, making them susceptible to market sentiment. Digital assets represent a new and rapidly evolving industry, and the value of the Shares depends on their acceptance. Changes in the governance of a digital asset network may not receive sufficient support from users and miners, which may negatively affect that digital asset network’s ability to grow and respond to challenges Investing in the Trust comes with risks that could impact the Trust's share value, including largescale sales by major investors, security threats like breaches and hacking, negative sentiment among speculators, and competition from central bank digital currencies and financial initiatives using blockchain technology. A disruption of the internet or a digital asset network would affect the ability to transfer digital assets and, consequently, would impact their value. There can be no assurance that security procedures designed to protect the Trust’s assets will actually work as designed or prove to be successful in safeguarding the Trust’s assets against all possible sources of theft, loss or damage.
The Trust’s use of derivatives may decrease its returns, increase volatility, and expose it to additional operational and counterparty risks—that is, the risk that another party in a transaction may fail to meet their contractual obligations. Losses may arise from derivative holdings due to limited liquidity in secondary markets and unexpected market changes. Writing covered call options on IBIT shares limits the Trust's gains above the option exercise price. The Trust remains exposed to losses below the exercise price, as premiums may not cover declines tied to bitcoin or IBIT volatility. Additionally, the Trust could be impacted by declining share values, restrictions on trading options, and other risks linked to options strategies.
Trading shares of ETPs may result in brokerage commissions and tax consequences. This material is provided for educational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. The information contained herein is based on current tax laws, which may change in the future. BlackRock cannot be held responsible for any direct or incidental loss resulting from applying any of the information provided in this publication or from any other source mentioned. The information provided in this material does not constitute any specific legal, tax or accounting advice. Please consult with qualified professionals for this type of advice.
Shares of the Trust are not deposits or other obligations of or guaranteed by BlackRock, Inc., and its affiliates, and are not insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other governmental agency. The sponsor of the trust is iShares Delaware Trust Sponsor LLC (the “Sponsor”). BlackRock Investments, LLC ("BRIL"), assists in the promotion of the Trust. The Sponsor and BRIL are affiliates of BlackRock, Inc.
1 Based on AUM and 20-day average trading volume. Source: Bloomberg, as of May 29, 2026.
2 Holding spot bitcoin may allow more appreciation to remain unrealized at the fund level compared to synthetic implementations that use options or futures for the long exposure.
3 Refers to blended tax rate where 60% of gains are taxed at lower long-term rates and 40% at short-term rates.
4 Refers to exchange-traded derivatives that qualify for blended tax treatment under U.S. tax rules.
5 Bloomberg, Markit, OCC, as of June 1, 2026. The average daily trading volume of IBIT options over the past 12 months is approximately $3.7 billion.
6 BlackRock, as of June 2, 2026.
7 Bloomberg and BlackRock calculations, as of December 31, 2025.
Key Takeaways SpaceX has surged 43% since its debut, extending gains after its record-breaking IPO.Retail and institutional investors are pouring money into SpaceX, driving strong demand.SPAX, LOFF, and SPCM offer 2x leveraged exposure for bullish SpaceX investors. SpaceX (SPCX - Free Report) shares surged more than 19% on Monday, their first full trading day on Wall Street, extending gains to 43% since the company's blockbuster market debut, as quoted on Yahoo Finance. The stock added another 3.5% after market on Jun 15, 2026.
IPO Raises More Than Initially AnnouncedThe aerospace giant initially sold 555.6 million shares, raising a record $75 billion. However, SpaceX disclosed on Monday that total proceeds climbed to $85.7 billion after underwriters exercised their over-allotment, or "greenshoe," option, selling an additional 83.3 million shares.
SpaceX Towers Over Market GiantsThe scale of SpaceX's valuation has caught Wall Street's attention. "Elon Musk's SPCX is already $700 billion larger than Tesla and more than twice the size of Berkshire Hathaway," research firm Bespoke Investment Group noted, as mentioned in the same Yahoo Finance article.
Retail Investors Fuel Buying FrenzyRetail investors have played a major role in SpaceX's explosive start. According to Vanda Research, individual investors have been selling other stocks at the fastest pace since November 2023, potentially freeing up capital to buy SpaceX shares.
Meanwhile, retail purchases of space-related stocks have climbed to their highest level since December 2024, the Yahoo Finance article noted.
Major Investors Add to PositionsInstitutional demand has also been robust. Veteran investor Ron Baron, a longtime supporter of Elon Musk, revealed that he purchased an additional $1 billion worth of SpaceX shares during the IPO process, bringing his firm's total stake to approximately $25 billion.
BlackRock (BLK - Free Report) reportedly placed orders for at least $5 billion worth of SpaceX shares, while other major asset managers submitted similarly massive bids, indicating unprecedented institutional demand for the IPO, as quoted on Wall Street Journal.
Leveraged ETFs to PlayAgainst this backdrop, investors can consider the following SpaceX-based leveraged ETFs. These funds offer amplified exposure to the stock's daily performance.
REX Shares Launches T-REX 2X Long SpaceX Daily Target ETF (SPAX)
On June 15, 2026, REX Shares and Tuttle Capital Management launched the T-REX 2X Long SpaceX Daily Target ETF (SPAX), a leveraged ETF providing 2x daily long exposure to SPCX.“Few companies have generated this much anticipation ahead of a public listing, and that demand doesn’t wait for the stock to settle in,” said Greg King, CEO and Founder of REX. It charges 150 bps in fees.
Direxion Daily SpaceX Bull 2X ETF (LOFF)
The actively-traded LOFF ETF, launched on June 15, seeks daily investment results, before fees and expenses, of 200% of the performance of SPCX. Gross expense ratio of the fund is 0.99%.
Tradr 2X Long SpaceX Daily ETF (SPCM)
The Tradr 2X Long SpaceX Daily ETF seeks daily investment results, before fees and expenses, that correspond to two times (200%) the daily performance of the common shares of SPCX. The fund does not seek to achieve its stated investment objective for a period of time different than a trading day. Its expense ratio is 1.49%. The fund was launched on June 12, 2026.
Bitcoin’s (BTC) plunge and subsequent correction in June have sparked renewed optimism regarding the cryptocurrency’s next moves but also a debate about whether the digital asset has found its cycle bottom.
One of the most prominent individuals to weigh in on what is coming for BTC was Rick Rieder, BlackRock’s (NYSE: BLK) Chief Investment Officer of Global Fixed Income, who, on June 15, told Bloomberg he anticipates the coin will be ‘going considerably higher.’
However, Rieder explicitly positioned his prediction as a long-term one, highlighting multiple technical factors that limit his company’s confidence in the cryptocurrency in the foreseeable future and have led to its decision not to increase exposure.
Notably, not all of the elements that led to the decision arise from BTC’s own short-term outlook and instead reflect BlackRock identifying numerous other investment opportunities elsewhere, such as in the technology sector.
“I think bitcoin is ultimately going considerably higher” – Rick Rieder on ETF IQ yest, who owns a little in one of his MFs and was an early believer inside BlackRock. That said he hasn’t increased allocation due to all the other compelling opportunities rn eg tech, EM debt pic.twitter.com/4zoaWaTETx
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) June 16, 2026 For example, SpaceX (NASDAQ: SPCX) has arguably already had a significant impact on Bitcoin’s recent downturn as investors were seeking to raise capital so they could assume a position in Elon Musk’s newer public company.
BlackRock launches income-focused Bitcoin fund Elsewhere, Rick Rieder’s comments are not indicative of BlackRock cooling off on the world’s premier cryptocurrency.
As recently as June 11, the company purchased more than $38 million worth of Bitcoin and Ethereum (ETH), and the firm also launched its new BTC income-focused iShares Bitcoin Premium Income ETF (BITA) on June 16.
Along with its recency, BITA is notable for its approach, as part of which it will limit digital assets gains in favor of providing its shareholders with monthly payments generated through an actively managed options strategy.
Bitcoin remains on a downtrend despite mid-June price recovery Meanwhile, Bitcoin has climbed to $65,603 by press time on June 16, for a total 10% gain from the early June lows slightly under $60,000.
Bitcoin price one-month chart. Source: Finbold Despite the upswing, the world’s premier digital asset remains below both the relatively stable range it maintained between February and April, and the relatively elevated prices held through most of April and May.
Indeed, following a series of lower highs and lower lows in trading since the late 2025 all-time high (ATH) above $125,000, BTC appears to be on a protracted downtrend and is 25% in the red year-to-date (YTD).
Featured image via Shutterstock
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Key Takeaways BLK is cutting just under 1% of its global workforce, affecting roughly 200 employees.Cuts span investment, technology and operations as staffing is aligned with business needs.BLK continues integrating acquisitions, including HPS, while pursuing efficiency and growth. BlackRock (BLK - Free Report) is moving ahead with another targeted workforce reduction, signaling a shift toward a more continuous approach to organizational restructuring. Per a Bloomberg report, citing people with knowledge of the matter, the world's largest asset manager is cutting just under 1% of its global workforce, affecting roughly 200 employees across multiple business divisions.
BLK’s Workforce Optimization StrategyUnlike large-scale layoffs that often accompany economic downturns, BlackRock has characterized the latest reductions as part of routine business management. Regular evaluations of staffing needs are essential to ensuring resources remain aligned with client demands and strategic priorities.
The latest cuts are spread across investment, technology and operations teams, highlighting a broad-based review rather than a pullback from any single business area.
Positions within the firm's private financing segment are also being impacted despite BlackRock's recent push to strengthen its presence in private markets.
BlackRock Balances Expansion With EfficiencyThe workforce reductions come as BLK continues to integrate major acquisitions completed in recent years. One notable transaction was its $12-billion acquisition of HPS Investment Partners, which significantly expanded the firm's private credit capabilities and reinforced its ambition in alternative investments.
As BlackRock grows through acquisitions and broadens its product offerings, management appears focused on ensuring that staffing levels evolve alongside changing business needs.
The latest job reductions suggest that the firm is prioritizing operational efficiency while continuing to invest in areas viewed as critical for long-term growth.
BLK's Previous Workforce Reduction EffortsThis is not the first time BlackRock has taken steps to streamline its workforce. After largely avoiding broad layoffs during the pandemic years, the company resumed headcount reductions in 2023.
The asset manager has conducted multiple rounds of job cuts over the past 18 months, including two separate reductions of approximately 1% of staff in 2025.
Our View on BlackRockThe recurring but measured nature of these workforce reduction actions reflects that the company is focused on maintaining cost discipline while navigating an evolving asset management landscape. Because of a rise in employee compensation expenses, along with the company’s inorganic expansion efforts, its total expenses have witnessed a CAGR of 10.3% over the last five years (ended 2025).
Thus, as BLK continues expanding into private markets and technology-driven investment solutions, workforce adjustments may remain a regular feature of its operating strategy.
Thanks to its solid assets under management (AUM) balance, product diversification efforts and active equity business focus, the company remains well-positioned for top-line growth.
Over the last five years (2020-2025), AUM witnessed a CAGR of 10.1%. The company’s total revenues (on a GAAP basis) saw a CAGR of 8.4%. The uptrend for both metrics continued in the first quarter of 2026.
BLK’s Price Performance & Zacks RankOver the past three months, BlackRock shares have gained 7.4% compared with the industry’s 10.3% growth.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Currently, BLK carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Job Cuts by Other Finance FirmsBLK’s latest workforce reduction comes amid a broader wave of cost and efficiency measures across the financial sector.
So far this year, several major institutions have announced staff reductions, including Morgan Stanley (MS - Free Report) and Goldman Sachs (GS - Free Report) .
Morgan Stanley cut roughly 2,500 roles or about 3% of its global workforce. The layoffs were announced in early March 2026 and extended across MS’ major business segments.
Conversely, Goldman Sachs continued its annual performance-based workforce review process.
Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX | SBUX Price Prediction) and McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD) both delivered upbeat quarters this spring, but the stories underneath could not be more different.
Starbucks is mid-turnaround under CEO Brian Niccol, while McDonald’s is a steady franchised cash machine led by Chris Kempczinski. If you are deciding where to park $10,000, the choice comes down to turnaround upside versus durable scale.
The Turnaround Caffeinates. The Arches Just Execute. Starbucks’ Q2 FY2026 was the clearest sign yet that the “Back to Starbucks” plan is working. Global comps rose 6.2%, with North America jumping 7.1% on 4.4% transaction growth. Real customers are walking back through the doors.
Adjusted EPS of $0.50 beat the $0.44 estimate, and revenue hit $9.53 billion. Niccol called it “the turn in our turnaround.” The catch: North America operating margin contracted 170 basis points on labor investments, tariffs, and coffee inflation. China comps barely moved at 0.5%, prompting the Boyu Capital JV that hands operating control to a local partner.
McDonald’s Q1 FY2026 was less dramatic and arguably more reassuring. Revenue grew 9.44% to $6.52 billion, EPS of $2.83 beat estimates, and global comps rebounded to +3.8% after a negative reading a year earlier.
International Operated Markets revenue jumped 14%, helped by the UK, Germany, and Australia. Loyalty is the quiet weapon: systemwide sales to members topped $9 billion in the quarter and $38 billion on a trailing basis.
Franchised Cash Flow vs. Company-Owned Risk Lens SBUX MCD Core bet Coffeehouse experience reset Value, marketing, menu innovation Operating margin (TTM) 8.4% 44.3% Forward P/E 35x 22x Dividend yield 2.41% 2.55% Key vulnerability Coffee and labor inflation Inflation on company-owned stores McDonald’s runs a roughly 95% franchised model, which is why franchised restaurants generated $4.01 billion of the quarter’s revenue with much higher pass-through economics.
Starbucks remains heavily company-operated, meaning every wage hike and bean cost lands directly on its P&L. That structural difference shows up in margin and in valuation.
The Next Test Is Pricing Power and Loyalty I will be watching whether Starbucks can hold the 5% or greater comp guidance into fiscal H2 as the China JV reshapes reported revenue. For McDonald’s, the question is whether loyalty across 70 markets can keep lifting check size while value menus protect traffic.
Shares since earnings tell a story: SBUX is up 6.54% since April 28, while MCD has nudged just 1.07% higher since May 7. Year to date, SBUX has run 23.88%, MCD is down 5.66%. Reddit retail sentiment on MCD has skewed bearish in early June, which is worth noting but not investing on.
Weighing the $10,000 Question On the numbers, McDonald’s looks like the more defensive position. The combination of a 22x forward multiple, mid-to-high 40% operating margin guide, and $1.86 quarterly dividend supports durable compounding while the stock sits below its 200-day average.
Starbucks offers more turnaround optionality, though the 35x forward P/E and 29.8% tax rate leave little room for slippage. If coffee inflation worsens or U.S. comps stall, the Starbucks thesis is the first to reassess.
, /PRNewswire/ -- Cincinnati Financial Corporation (Nasdaq: CINF) announced that John S. Kellington, chief information officer and executive vice president for its lead subsidiary, The Cincinnati Insurance Company, will retire August 7.
Kellington joined the company in 2010 as a proven insurance and technology leader. He transformed Cincinnati's information technology operations by championing an architecture-led IT model. The success of that model enabled the company to become a leader in agency interface services, including real time download and upload capabilities directly to an agency's management system. It also paved the way for innovative breakthroughs, such as the patented architecture platform behind the company's award-winning small business system – powered by CinergySM.
Ryan M. Osborn, vice president, Information Technology, will assume executive responsibility for the company's information technology teams. Osborn joined Cincinnati Insurance in 2000. Throughout his 26-year career with the company, he's been consistently recognized for his technical excellence and strong communication abilities. Osborn quickly advanced through the ranks, playing key leadership roles in maturing the company's architecture program, reducing technical debt, strengthening standards and roadmaps, and accelerating modernization through the implementation of both Agile and DevOps process models.
Stephen M. Spray, president and chief executive officer, commented: "John led an outstanding transformation of our IT organization, and I'm grateful for the energy and dedication he's given to Cincinnati Insurance over the past 16 years. By focusing on shared enterprise capabilities, he enabled our technology team to solve many challenges created by the complexity of our industry and to deliver technology advancements with incredible speed and accuracy."
"We wanted a technology leader who understood the standards and governance mechanisms that underpin that system," continued Spray. "Ryan's experience in laying the groundwork for many of our project management and architecture standards make him the ideal candidate to drive the next evolution of our technology teams. He has a clear vision of what it will take to meet the ever-increasing demands of our business."
"Understanding that the retirement of key leaders is part of the natural course of business, we've established succession planning processes to facilitate smooth transitions. John and Ryan will work through that process together to ensure we don't miss a beat in delivering on key IT projects already underway," concluded Spray.
About Cincinnati Financial
Cincinnati Financial Corporation offers primarily business, home and auto insurance, our main business, through The Cincinnati Insurance Company and its two standard market property casualty companies. The same local independent insurance agencies that market those policies may offer products of our other subsidiaries, including life insurance, fixed annuities and surplus lines property and casualty insurance. For additional information about the company, please visit cinfin.com.
Mailing Address:
Street Address:
P.O. Box 145496
6200 South Gilmore Road
Cincinnati, Ohio 45250-5496
Fairfield, Ohio 45014-5141
Safe Harbor Statement
Our business is subject to certain risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those suggested by forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statements contained herein, are based upon our current estimates, assumptions and plans that are subject to uncertainty. These statements are made subject to the safe-harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements can be identified by words like "seek," "expect," "will," "should," "could," "might," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "intend," "likely," "future," or other similar expressions. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they were made; we assume no obligation to update such statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to:
Insurance-Related Risks
Risks and uncertainties associated with our loss reserves or actual claim costs exceeding reserves Increased frequency and/or severity of claims or development of claims that are unforeseen at the time of policy issuance Unusually high levels of catastrophe losses due to risk concentrations or changes in weather patterns, environmental events, war or political unrest, terrorism incidents, cyberattacks, civil unrest or other causes; and our ability to manage catastrophe risk Risks associated with analytical models in key areas such as underwriting, pricing, capital management, reserving, investments, reinsurance, and catastrophe risk management Inadequate estimates or assumptions, or reliance on third-party data used for critical accounting estimates Events or conditions that could weaken or harm our relationships with our independent agencies and hamper opportunities to add new agencies, resulting in limitations on our opportunities for growth Mergers, acquisitions, and other consolidations of agencies that result in a concentration of a significant amount of premium in one agency or agency group and/or alter our competitive advantages Our inability to manage business opportunities, growth prospects, and expenses for our ongoing operations Changing consumer insurance-buying habits The inability to obtain adequate ceded reinsurance on acceptable terms, for acceptable amounts, and from financially strong reinsurers; and the potential for nonpayment or delay in payment by reinsurers Domestic and global events, such as the wars in Ukraine and in the Middle East, future pandemics, inflationary trends, changes in U.S. trade and tariff policy, and disruptions in the banking and financial services industry, resulting in insurance losses, capital market or credit market uncertainty, followed by prolonged periods of economic instability or recession, that lead to: Securities market disruption or volatility and related effects such as decreased economic activity and continued supply chain disruptions that affect our investment portfolio and book value Significant or prolonged decline in the fair value of securities and impairment of the assets Significant decline in investment income due to reduced or eliminated dividend payouts from securities Significant rise in losses from surety or director and officer policies written for financial institutions or other insured entities or in losses from policies written by Cincinnati Re or Cincinnati Global An unusually high level of claims in our insurance or reinsurance operations that increase litigation-related expenses Decreased premium revenue and cash flow from disruption to our distribution channel of independent agents, consumer self-isolation, travel limitations, business restrictions and decreased economic activity The inability of our workforce, agencies, or vendors to perform necessary business functions Financial, Economic, and Investment Risks
Declines in overall stock market values negatively affecting our equity portfolio and book value Downgrades in our financial strength ratings Interest rate fluctuations or other factors that could significantly affect: Our ability to generate growth in investment income Values of our fixed-maturity investments and accounts in which we hold bank-owned life insurance contract assets Our traditional life policy reserves Economic volatility and illiquidity associated with our alternative investments in private equity, private credit, real property, and limited partnerships Failure to comply with covenants and other requirements under our credit facilities, senior debt, and other debt obligations Recession, prolonged elevated inflation, or other economic conditions resulting in lower demand for insurance products or increased payment delinquencies The inability of our subsidiaries to pay dividends consistent with current or past levels impacting our ability to pay shareholder dividends or repurchase shares General Business, Technology, and Operational Risks
Ineffective information technology systems or failing to develop and implement improvements in technology Difficulties with technology or data security breaches, including cyberattacks, could negatively affect our, or our agents', ability to conduct business; disrupt our relationships with agents, policyholders, and others; cause reputational damage, mitigation expenses, data loss, and expose us to liability Difficulties with our operations and technology that may negatively impact our ability to conduct business, including cloud-based data information storage, data security, remote working capabilities, and/or outsourcing relationships and third-party operations and data security Disruption of the insurance market caused by technology innovations – such as driverless cars – that could decrease consumer demand for insurance products Delays, inadequate data developed internally or from third parties, or performance inadequacies from ongoing development and implementation of underwriting and pricing models and methods, including usage-based insurance methods, automation, artificial intelligence, or technology projects and enhancements expected to increase our efficiency, pricing accuracy, underwriting profit, and competitiveness Intense competition, and the impact of innovation, emerging technologies, artificial intelligence and changing customer preferences on the insurance industry and the markets in which we operate, could harm our ability to maintain or increase our business volumes and profitability Inability to defer policy acquisition costs for any business segment if pricing and loss trends would lead management to conclude that the segment could not achieve sustainable profitability Unforeseen departure of certain executive officers or other key employees that could interrupt progress toward important strategic goals or diminish the effectiveness of certain longstanding relationships with insurance agents and others Our inability, or the inability of our independent agents, to attract and retain personnel Events, such as a pandemic, an epidemic, natural catastrophe, or terrorism, which could hamper our ability to assemble our workforce, work effectively in a remote environment, or other failures of business continuity or disaster recovery programs Regulatory, Compliance, and Legal Risks
Actions of insurance departments, state attorneys general or other regulatory agencies, including a change to a federal system of regulation from a state-based system, that: Impose new obligations on us that increase our expenses or change the assumptions underlying our critical accounting estimates Place the insurance industry under greater regulatory scrutiny or result in new statutes, rules, and regulations Restrict our ability to exit or reduce writings of unprofitable coverages or lines of business Increase assessments for guaranty funds, other insurance‑related assessments, or mandatory reinsurance arrangements; or that impair our ability to recover such assessments through future surcharges or other rate changes Increase our provision for federal income taxes due to changes in tax laws, regulations, or interpretations Increase other expenses Limit our ability to set fair, adequate, and reasonable rates Restrict our ability to cancel policies Impose new underwriting standards Place us at a disadvantage in the marketplace Restrict our ability to execute our business model, including the way we compensate agents Adverse outcomes from litigation, environmental claims, mass torts or administrative proceedings, including effects of social inflation and third-party litigation funding on the size and frequency of litigation awards Events or actions, including unauthorized intentional circumvention of controls, which reduce our future ability to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 Effects of changing social, global, economic, and regulatory environments Additional measures affecting corporate financial reporting and governance that can affect the market value of our common stock Risks and uncertainties are further discussed in other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our 2025 Annual Report on Form 10-K, Item 1A, Risk Factors, Page 30.
Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG | PG Price Prediction) is the household name every retirement portfolio reaches for when markets get choppy, and its $350.4 billion market cap makes it the default consumer defensive trade on every desk.
The internals tell a different story.
The Crowded Trade Is Quietly Cracking P&G beat its most recent quarter, but the internals are softening under the polish. Management guided fiscal 2026 results toward the lower end of a $6.83 to $7.09 core EPS range while absorbing a $400 million after-tax tariff headwind and a $100 million commodity hit. Volume has gone quiet in Oral Care, Fabric Care, and Family Care, and the recent top-line gains have leaned on pricing and mix rather than units moving off shelves. That is the exact setup that invites private-label trade-downs when consumer budgets tighten, a risk flagged directly in the organic volume versus pure pricing dynamic going into 2026.
The valuation does not pay you to wait through that. PG trades at a trailing PE of 22 with a 2.85% yield, and shares are down 3.46% over the past year while the broader market has run. This is the crowded mega-cap defensive trade, and the room is full.
The Cash-Flow Powerhouse Already Delivering Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE:CL) just posted its fourth consecutive EPS beat, delivering adjusted EPS of $0.97 against a $0.9445 consensus, on revenue of $5.324 billion that grew 8.41% year over year. Shares are up 16.06% year to date while PG has lagged. Three reasons this gap widens from here.
1. The cash flow is accelerating. Operating cash flow jumped 24.5% to $747 million in Q1 2026, and free cash flow climbed 27.94% to $609 million. Full-year 2025 generated $3.634 billion in free cash and returned $3.033 billion to shareholders. The 60.6% gross profit margin gives Colgate the cushion to absorb input inflation without crimping earnings power.
2. International volume is doing the heavy lifting. Latin America revenue grew 14.8%, Europe 11.9%, and Asia Pacific 8.9%, with emerging markets posting 6.2% organic growth on 3.5% volume gains. Colgate holds 41.1% of the global toothpaste market and 32.6% of manual toothbrushes. The growth engine runs through international markets, away from the U.S. consumer exposure that weighs on PG.
3. Dividend Aristocrat status with room to run. Colgate is a 63-year Dividend Aristocrat, just lifted the quarterly payout to $0.53, and is executing a Strategic Growth and Productivity Program targeting $200 to $300 million in annual pretax savings. At a $72.5 billion market cap with a forward PE of 23, the runway is wider than the crowded trade above it.
CEO Noel Wallace framed the setup plainly: “We delivered a strong start to 2026, with broad-based top and bottom-line growth. Net sales and organic sales grew in every category and in four of five divisions with a nice balance of volume and pricing growth.”
The Action Colgate-Palmolive belongs on the short list of defensive holdings worth researching this week.
As part of the vacation brand's Artist Discovery Program, the group of artists will create original artwork for six locations across the newest Icon Class vacation
, /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Royal Caribbean unveiled the next chapter of its Artist Discovery Program with its newest cohort of emerging artists on Legend of the Seas, the ultimate family vacation debuting July 2026 in Europe. This summer, six artists from across the Caribbean and Central America will debut original, destination-inspired artwork throughout the ship, bringing the spirit, color and culture of the region in bold new ways.
Royal Caribbean’s Legend of the Seas is the newest family vacation set to deliver summer 2026 adventures to Europe ahead of its grand Caribbean debut from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in November 2026. Vacationers can go all in on experiences like the most dining at sea with 28 options, new entertainment and more ways to thrill, chill and stay.
Royal Caribbean’s Artist Discovery Program calls on emerging artists in the destinations the vacation brand visits to spotlight their region’s culture and people. The program’s Caribbean editions take center stage on Icon and Star of the Seas, plus at shore at Royal Beach Club Paradise Island. The evolution of the program continues summer 2026 on Legend of the Seas, inviting artists across the Caribbean and Central America to display their work for millions of vacationers to see. The Artist Discovery Program connects budding, local talent and their artwork with audiences around the world who experience Royal Caribbean ships and destinations. The latest cohort for Legend marks the continued expansion of the program, now reaching beyond the Caribbean to include artists from Mexico and Central America. The initiative also extends beyond the ship to highlight local talent across Royal Caribbean's destination experiences, including Royal Beach Club Paradise Island in Nassau, The Bahamas, featuring 11 local Bahamian artists across 25 locations at the all-inclusive beach club.
"Since its introduction on Icon of the Seas, the Artist Discovery Program has continued to evolve how we connect guests with the places we visit by championing up-and-coming artists and giving them a global stage to showcase their work," said Jay Schneider, chief product innovation officer, Royal Caribbean. "With Legend of the Seas we've expanded our call for talent beyond the Caribbean to include Mexico and Central America, bringing together an even broader range of voices and perspectives. Featuring artists onboard our ships and across our destinations like Royal Beach Club Paradise Island creates a seamless ship-to-shore experience, where the art brings each destination to life."
For Legend, Royal Caribbean received 250 artist applications comprised of a personal statement, resume and unpublished conceptual artwork from across the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America. Six artists were chosen and received grants to create art pieces, each inspired by the artists' home countries. The artwork will be showcased in six highly visible locations around the ship including the embarkation and welcome area when guests first arrive; the Royal Promenade neighborhood; the exclusive Suite Sundeck and Suite Sundeck Lobby; and two new locations at the Royal Promenade entrance on deck six and the guest boarding area on deck two. In addition to large-scale murals, the art pieces on Legend will take shape in different art forms such as a ceramic mosaic art piece and a stainless-steel structure.
The featured artists include:
Giovanni Abath from Curacao: As vacationers enter the Royal Promenade on deck six, they'll encounter a large-scale mural and stainless-steel sculpture created by Abath, setting the tone for the lively neighborhood lined with restaurants, bars and entertainment. A multi-disciplinary artist, Abath uses diverse materials and techniques, like metal and Styrofoam, to create sculptures and installations that bridge industrial materiality with cultural symbolism and personal narrative. His work focuses on bringing landscapes, community and cultural traditions of the Caribbean to life. Vanessa Dalla Costa from Trinidad and Tobago: Costa is a ceramic artist who will craft a mosaic sculpture to be featured in the Suite Sundeck, an elevated outdoor space for suite guests. Her artistic style explores the intersection of light, texture, and the transformation of raw earth, such as clay, to create stained-glass-like art. Each piece of clay is hand-cut and hand-painted, embodying the vibe of the space it inhabits. Porschia Denning from U.S. Virgin Islands: Denning is a multidisciplinary artist creating vibrant paintings and sculptures using acrylic oil, stone, copper and more. Her art is inspired by the energy of nature and rhythm of island life. She aspires to invite spectators to slow down, unplug and reconnect, evoking the vibe guests will experience when they see her custom mural in the luxurious Suite Sundeck Lobby. Rafeal Vega Feliciano from Puerto Rico: Feliciano is a contemporary visual artist who will draw on his experience in expressionist portraiture and ancestral symbolism to create an expressive, thought-evoking mural in the boarding area on deck two, where guests disembark and return to the ship for port visits and excursions. His artwork reflects the often-overlooked history of pre-colonial Puerto Rico and the Caribbean, bringing the vibrance of the communities Legend visits onboard. Rodrigo Macias Maldonado from Mexico: Maldonado is a visual artist who will design a large-scale mural at the heart of Legend, the Royal Promenade. His artwork explores the relationship between geometry, human resilience, and the built environment, inspiring him to curate an immersive experience as guests explore the space. Alexander Lopez Ryliouk from Costa Rica: Ryliouk's large-scale mural will light up Legend's embarkation area for a show-stopping first impression at the start of their vacation. Through the use of vibrant paint, the art will set the tone for what vacationers will experience throughout their time onboard. Legend will deliver an all-encompassing lineup of standout dining, thrills, entertainment and ways for families and vacationers of all ages to make memories across eight neighborhoods. Beginning July 2026, vacationers can experience 7-night Western Mediterranean getaways from Barcelona, Spain, and Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy. In November 2026, the adventures continue with 6-night Western Caribbean getaways and 8-night Southern Caribbean vacations from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to the sun-soaked shores of Roatan, Honduras; Willemstad, Curacao, and more, along with visits to the vacation brand's top-rated destination, Perfect Day CocoCay in The Bahamas.
About Royal Caribbean
Royal Caribbean, part of Royal Caribbean Group (NYSE: RCL), has delivered memorable vacations for more than 50 years. The cruise line's game-changing ships and exclusive destinations revolutionize vacations with industry-leading innovations and an all-encompassing combination of experiences, from thrills and ways to chill, to dining and entertainment, for every type of family and vacationer. Voted "Best Cruise Line Overall" for 23 consecutive years in the Travel Weekly Readers Choice Awards, Royal Caribbean makes memories with adventurers across more than 300 destinations in 80 countries on all seven continents, including Perfect Day CocoCay in The Bahamas and Royal Beach Clubs in Paradise Island and Santorini, plus Royal Beach Club Lelepa launching October 2027.
Media can stay up to date by following @RoyalCaribPR on X and visit www.RoyalCaribbeanPressCenter.com. For additional information or to book, vacationers can visit www.RoyalCaribbean.com, call (800) ROYAL-CARIBBEAN or contact their travel advisor.
Recognition marks WEI's third HPE Partner of the Year award and highlights its leadership in hybrid cloud transformation, private cloud innovation, and HPE GreenLake solutions.
, /PRNewswire/ -- WEI, a leading IT solutions provider, today announced it has been named the 2026 Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) North America Partner of the Year for Hybrid Cloud Solutions.
The award recognizes WEI for its leadership in hybrid cloud, strong collaboration with HPE, and continued investment in technical expertise, certifications, and engineering excellence. The company helps customers modernize infrastructure across hybrid cloud, compute, storage, and networking environments while aligning technology investments with business objectives.
This marks WEI's third HPE Partner of the Year award and further reinforces its position as an HPE Triple Platinum Plus Partner, reflecting one of the highest levels of technical expertise and commitment within the HPE ecosystem. WEI's partnership with HPE extends over 30 years.
"Being named HPE's 2026 North America Partner of the Year for the third time is an incredible honor," said Belisario Rosas, President and Founder of WEI. "This recognition reflects our team's investment in world-class engineering capabilities and deep technical expertise that help customers navigate today's IT challenges. Together with HPE, we continue to help organizations modernize infrastructure, adopt hybrid cloud strategies, and build technology foundations that support innovation and growth."
"The HPE Partner of the Year 2026 Awards spotlight partners who don't just keep pace with innovation, they invest in truly understanding the full HPE portfolio and building the expertise to apply it to real customer challenges," said Simon Ewington, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Channel and Partner Ecosystem at HPE. "That depth of capability is what turns great technology into measurable outcomes for our customers. HPE is proud to celebrate our partners' achievements and to help them deliver world-class innovation and services for all our customers."
The recognition builds on WEI's continued investment in hybrid cloud expertise, including HPE GreenLake and private cloud solutions, as well as advanced certifications across compute, hybrid cloud, networking, and services delivery. These capabilities enable WEI to help customers modernize infrastructure while balancing identified business objectives.
For 36 years, WEI has guided organizations to align technology investments with business objectives through a customer-centric approach focused on assessment, design, implementation, and ongoing support. With more than 100 engineers comprising its technical bench, enterprises rely on WEI to modernize and optimize infrastructure environments spanning data center, cloud, networking, cybersecurity, end user compute, and digital transformation initiatives.
About WEI
WEI is an innovative, full-service, customer-centric IT solution provider. It is an expert in business technology improvement, helping clients optimize their technological environments and work efficiently. WEI works with clients to understand goals, integrate strategy with technology solutions, and leverage their current IT environment into one company-wide model to increase utilization and efficiency around their unique business processes.
WEI's clients benefit from a strong focus on customer satisfaction and attention to detail. They combine cutting-edge technology with architectural design, value-added services, onsite training, integration, testing labs, and a commitment to quality. From solution design through implementation, WEI's sales and technical team remains focused on providing unwavering support throughout a project.
About HPE
HPE (NYSE: HPE) is a leader in essential enterprise technology, bringing together the power of AI, cloud, and networking to help organizations achieve more. As pioneers of possibility, our innovation and expertise advance the way people live and work. We empower our customers across industries to optimize operational performance, transform data into foresight, and maximize their impact. Unlock your boldest ambitions with HPE. Discover more at www.hpe.com.
Media contact: Erika Montgomery, [email protected], 14082182391
FREMONT, Calif. & CLEARWATER, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--TD SYNNEX (NYSE:SNX), a leading global distributor and solutions aggregator for the IT ecosystem, today announced it has earned multiple awards from HPE across Europe and North America. These awards honor HPE partners who have demonstrated outstanding dedication and success in providing value to their customers and helping them realize their full growth potential. The recognition is awarded to HPE partners who have achieved exceptional perfor.
Paramus, NJ, June 16, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CloudCasa by Catalogic, a leader in cloud-native data protection, today announced CloudCasa Disaster Recovery (CloudCasa DR) for Kubernetes powered by HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000. The solution brings enterprise class disaster recovery to Kubernetes applications and KubeVirt virtual machines across HPE and hybrid cloud environments.
Building on CloudCasa's existing support for backup and recovery of HPE Kubernetes Service (HKS) clusters, the new integration adds orchestrated disaster recovery with near-zero data loss and fast recovery times. Rather than restoring from backups, CloudCasa DR uses HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000 native replication helping organizations meet stringent recovery objectives and reduce downtime.
CloudCasa DR pairs Kubernetes-aware orchestration with array-native replication to automate failover and failback across clusters and sites. The solution supports bidirectional disaster recovery, namespace-level recovery, and multi-tenant isolation, with enterprise security and RBAC controls. Protected workloads include both Kubernetes applications and KubeVirt virtual machines such as those running on Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization and SUSE Virtualization. Supported platforms include HPE Kubernetes Service, Red Hat OpenShift, SUSE Rancher, and other Kubernetes environments.
"Organizations running Kubernetes on HPE infrastructure need disaster recovery that meets enterprise RPO and RTO targets without the delay of full backup restores," said Ryan Kaw, VP of Global Sales and Alliances at CloudCasa. "By combining Kubernetes-aware orchestration with HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000 native replication, CloudCasa helps customers recover mission-critical applications and virtual machines in minutes across hybrid and multi-cluster environments."
This announcement extends CloudCasa's collaboration with HPE, giving customers a single strategy for backup, recovery, and disaster recovery of Kubernetes workloads. Customers can also use HPE StoreOnce and HPE X10000 Object Storage as backup storage targets for retention. Together, CloudCasa and HPE help organizations protect and recover mission-critical Kubernetes applications across hybrid and multi-cluster environments.
Additional Resources
CloudCasa Kubernetes Backup and RestoreLearn more about HPE Alletra Storage MP B10000 About CloudCasa
CloudCasa, powered by Catalogic Software, delivers cloud-native backup and disaster recovery designed specifically for Kubernetes and modern application environments. The platform provides automated protection, granular recovery, migration, and ransomware resilience to help organizations safeguard applications and data across public cloud, private cloud, hybrid, and edge infrastructures. Trusted by enterprises and service providers worldwide, CloudCasa helps simplify data protection while supporting operational consistency at scale.
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HPE, HPE Alletra, HPE Morpheus, HPE GreenLake, and StoreOnce are trademarks or registered trademarks of Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP in the U.S. and other countries.
LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- #1111systems--11:11 Systems (“11:11”), a leading managed infrastructure solutions provider, today announced it has been named the 2026 HPE Service Provider Partner of the Year for North America by Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE). The award marks the company's eighth consecutive year as a top HPE partner. These awards honor HPE partners who have demonstrated outstanding dedication and success in providing value to their customers and helping them realize their full growth potentia.
FREMONT, Calif. & CLEARWATER, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--TD SYNNEX (NYSE: SNX), a leading global distributor and solutions aggregator for the IT ecosystem, today announced the expansion of its HPE Unleash AI solutions offerings, enabling partners to more easily identify, source and deploy certified AI applications as part of the NVIDIA AI Computing by HPE Portfolio.
The expanded portfolio includes newly onboarded solutions from ISVs such as Aible, Smart Spatial, Kamiwaza, Iterate, Gambit, EPIC iO and Medical Informatics Corp, alongside established Unleash AI offerings already available through TD SYNNEX. Together, these solutions are part of Destination AI™, TD SYNNEX’s comprehensive AI enablement framework, and support a broad range of AI use cases across industries, including computer vision, data intelligence, healthcare and smart environments.
The HPE Unleash AI program brings together infrastructure, software and services designed to support scalable, repeatable enterprise-grade AI workloads. Through its ongoing collaboration with HPE, TD SYNNEX is helping translate this ecosystem into actionable opportunity for customers by onboarding and enabling a focused set of priority ISVs across the program, including several solutions newly available through TD SYNNEX. These ISV partners are chosen for this program because they deliver real-world, outcome-driven AI use cases that can be validated by HPE and NVIDIA and taken to market jointly enabling customers to move from pilots to production faster, underpinned by the NVIDIA AI Computing by HPE portfolio.
As organizations move from AI exploration to production-ready deployments, partners are increasingly challenged by the complexity of integrating infrastructure and AI software into scalable, repeatable offerings. By making a growing selection of validated HPE Unleash AI solutions available through its platform, TD SYNNEX helps customers shorten deployment timelines, reduce integration risk and build AI solutions with greater confidence.
“Partners are looking for practical ways to bring AI solutions to market that are aligned with trusted infrastructure and validated for real-world demands,” said Vince Stemen, SVP, Vendor Solutions at TD SYNNEX. “By expanding our vendor portfolio through the HPE Unleash AI program, we’re helping customers leverage solutions that are ready to deploy, supported by an established ecosystem and designed to deliver measurable outcomes for customers.”
“With the HPE Unleash AI program, TD SYNNEX partners can bring enterprise-ready AI to market with the right support, the right economics, and the confidence customers expect,” said Robin Braun, Vice President of AI Business Development, Hybrid Cloud, HPE. “HPE Unleash AI helps TD SYNNEX partners deliver trusted, cost-effective solutions that are easier to position, scalable, and aligned to real customer needs.”
To learn more about TD SYNNEX and HPE, visit https://www.tdsynnex.com/na/us/hpe/.
About TD SYNNEX
TD SYNNEX (NYSE: SNX) is a leading global distributor, solutions aggregator, and original design and contract manufacturer that plays a central role in connecting the technology ecosystem. We support more than 150,000 customers across over 100 countries with a comprehensive edge-to-cloud portfolio spanning cybersecurity, analytics, artificial intelligence, mobility, and Everything-as-a-Service. We are a Fortune 100 company that helps partners maximize the value of technology investments and achieve measurable business outcomes through our global reach, expertise and enablement capabilities. Headquartered in Clearwater, Florida, and Fremont, California, the Company's distribution business brings together a broad portfolio of IT hardware, software and systems, providing access to products across the global IT ecosystem. The Company's Hyve Solutions business partners with technology companies to design, manufacture, and deliver traditional and accelerated compute, cloud, and connected infrastructure. For more information, visit www.TDSYNNEX.com, follow our newsroom or follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.
Copyright 2026 TD SYNNEX Corporation. All rights reserved. TD SYNNEX, the TD SYNNEX Logo, and all other TD SYNNEX company, product and services names and slogans are trademarks of TD SYNNEX Corporation. Other names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
HPE Private Cloud AI deploys secure AI agents through new governance and improves tokenomics through scaled AI-data pipelines
The HPE AI Factory with NVIDIA adds NVIDIA Vera CPU, NVIDIA Agent Toolkit, and NVIDIA Confidential Computing
LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--HPE Discover Las Vegas 2026 – HPE (NYSE: HPE) today announced new innovations to help customers transform into agentic enterprises and move AI into production with greater security, governance, and control. These new offerings transform the HPE AI Factory with NVIDIA for the next era of AI where intelligence adapts, evolves, collaborates, and governs.
As organizations move to operationalize agentic AI and optimize token usage, HPE is delivering technology architected to simplify that journey
Share “As AI becomes more autonomous, organizations need a new architecture to run it securely, govern it responsibly, and scale it economically,” said Antonio Neri, president and CEO, HPE. “Across networking, servers, storage and software, HPE is delivering full-stack AI solutions with NVIDIA that build the foundation for agentic enterprises, helping customers move from experimentation to production with control and confidence.”
“Every layer of the computing stack is being reinvented for the age of AI agents,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO, NVIDIA. “Together with HPE, we are building AI factories for this new era of computing — powered by NVIDIA Vera CPUs, accelerated infrastructure, and secure AI software — to help enterprises transform their data into intelligent action.”
Fully-operational enterprise agentic AI in the HPE AI Factory with NVIDIA
Across every industry, enterprises are navigating how to thoroughly harness AI agents in full-scale production environments and to automate business processes and make better decisions. As organizations move to operationalize agentic AI and optimize token usage, HPE is delivering technology architected to simplify that journey while making it more secure and performant. HPE Private Cloud AI, a turnkey AI factory solution co-engineered with NVIDIA, is introducing new capabilities that help customers deploy trusted, enterprise-ready agentic AI with greater control, observability, and efficiency.
Secure and governed agentic AI gives enterprises the controls needed to move agents from development to production with confidence. NVIDIA Agent Toolkit software, including NVIDIA Nemotron open models, NVIDIA NemoClaw, and the NVIDIA OpenShell secure runtime, provide an agent operating system that efficiently reasons, lets customers monitor agent behavior, enforce policies, and reduce deployment risk. HPE Private Cloud AI adds HPE ProLiant Compute DL394 Gen12 with NVIDIA Vera CPU as a compute-optimized foundation for agentic AI and high-performance data processing, including security and management features. New HPE Zerto Software capabilities help customers identify when rogue agent actions take place and use continuous data protection to rewind to a clean slate. HPE Private Cloud AI also supports secure local agent registration, providing customers with the ability to approve AI models, skills, and tools while adhering to centralized governance and security policies.
Data is foundational to the AI journey but can also be its biggest bottleneck. HPE Private Cloud AI helps enterprises turn unstructured data into AI-ready pipelines in minutes while improving inference efficiency. With the built-in intelligence of HPE Alletra Storage MP X10000, customers can automatically apply metadata and governance policies to prepare data for AI applications and cut token response times by up to 20X1. HPE Private Cloud AI helps customers optimize by improving prompt processing efficiency and boosting token throughput by up to 20%2. HPE Data Fabric Software broadens data availability for agentic workflows by extending support of model context protocol (MCP) to Apache Airflow and introduces an enterprise AI inventory that enriches distributed data with metadata. A standalone HPE Data Fabric appliance, available on HPE ProLiant Compute servers, simplifies and accelerates deployment.
HPE Private Cloud AI optimizes a customer’s AI investment by helping to control token costs, maximize GPU utilization, and enable long-term scalability. New capabilities include a unified model gateway for governed frontier model access, active workload prioritization, and multi-node inferencing for up to 256 GPUs. Fine-tuning of pre-trained AI models, including NVIDIA Nemotron open models, with secure access to existing enterprise data for agentic AI is supported through NVIDIA NeMo.
More security for the large-scale HPE AI Factory
HPE is enhancing HPE AI Factory at-scale and HPE Sovereign AI Factory by introducing the following new capabilities:
NVIDIA Confidential Computing for at-scale and sovereign architecture: HPE is integrating NVIDIA Confidential Computing for the HPE AI Factory through HPE Services. NVIDIA Confidential Computing protects models and private data during execution for on-premises or sovereign deployments. Establishing a chain of trust through cryptographic attestation and encryption at every stage to verify hardware, software, and datasets, enabling the HPE AI Factory to comply with regional or industry standards3. Across the HPE AI Factory, NVIDIA BlueField and NVIDIA DOCA enable zero-trust policy enforcement, runtime threat detection, and networking encryption – helping enterprises protect AI workloads, agents and data across the AI factory while maintaining performance and operational efficiency. Enhanced NVIDIA integration: HPE AI Factory at-scale and HPE Sovereign AI Factory will be available with NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server Edition GPUs, NVIDIA Spectrum-X Ethernet, NVIDIA BlueField-3 DPUs, and NVIDIA ConnectX-8 SuperNICs. The full-stack HPE AI Factory is based on NVIDIA reference architectures and supports a broad range of use cases, from AI development to production-ready deployments at scale – with software including NVIDIA AI Enterprise and ecosystem partners in the HPE Unleash AI program. HPE also recently announced it is broadening its AI factory solutions with NVIDIA Vera Rubin NVL72 by HPE rack-scale system, HPE Compute XD700 built on NVIDIA HGX Rubin NVL8, the HPE Cray Supercomputing GX240 Compute blade designed with NVIDIA Vera CPUs, and NVIDIA Quantum-X800 InfiniBand support for the HPE Cray Supercomputing GX5000.
Availability
The new HPE Private Cloud AI features will be available July 2026. HPE Data Fabric Software will be available October 2026. Additional HPE Private Cloud AI products and features including agentic observability, data intelligence, HPE Alletra Storage MP X10000, NVIDIA Agent Toolkit support and NVIDIA NemoClaw, will be available in Q4 2026. HPE Zerto Software support for agent action monitoring and continuous data protection will be available for Q4 2026. HPE Private Cloud AI with HPE ProLiant Compute DL394 Gen12 will be available in 2027. NVIDIA Confidential Computing will be available for HPE AI Factory with NVIDIA in Q4 2026. HPE AI Factory with NVIDIA RTX PRO Blackwell Server Edition GPUs, Spectrum-X Ethernet, BlueField-3 DPUs, and ConnectX-8 SuperNICs is available now. For more information, see HPE AI Factory With NVIDIA Expands for the Era of Agents.
About HPE
HPE (NYSE: HPE) is a leader in essential enterprise technology, bringing together the power of AI, cloud, and networking to help organizations achieve more. As pioneers of possibility, our innovation and expertise advance the way people live and work. We empower our customers across industries to optimize operational performance, transform data into foresight, and maximize their impact. Unlock your boldest ambitions with HPE. Discover more at www.hpe.com.
LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--HPE Discover Las Vegas 2026 – HPE (NYSE: HPE) today announced major advancements that expand its self-driving networking strategy across AI factories, data centers, and the enterprise edge by introducing new AI data center networking, routing, Agentic AIOps, and security innovations designed to simplify operations and improve performance across increasingly distributed AI-driven environments.
Innovations introduced today advance networking as the foundation of HPE’s agentic enterprise strategy, with self-driving networks delivering the intelligent automation needed to simplify operations, reduce complexity, and enable autonomous IT at scale without human intervention. The new capabilities include support for HPE Networking CX wired access switches in the HPE Mist platform, expanded HPE Marvis AI-driven insights and self-healing automation in HPE Aruba Central, and new AI data center features that use agentic reasoning to speed root cause analysis and remediation.
As part of its expanded AI networking innovations, HPE is also strengthening its networks for AI portfolio with new HPE Juniper Networking QFX Switches optimized for inferencing and scale-up architectures, as well as deeper integration of HPE Juniper Networking data center switching and operations into HPE AI Data Center Solution.
Additionally, a new unified AI-native SASE platform simplifies the convergence of networking and security through common operations and accelerates zero trust adoption to maximize the protection of users, devices, and applications.
“The success of agentic AI in the enterprise depends on a modern networking foundation built for autonomous workflows, where network performance, reliability, and intelligence determine the effectiveness of the entire AI architecture,” said Rami Rahim, executive vice president, president and general manager, Networking, HPE. “HPE is delivering that foundation, enabling enterprises to deploy agentic AI with greater control, confidence, security, and operational simplicity.”
New networking innovations for AI workloads
The HPE AI Data Center Solution is expanding to include HPE Networking, integrating HPE Juniper Networking QFX Switches managed through HPE Networking Data Center Director. This new capability adds to HPE’s existing full-stack AI infrastructure, and strengthens HPE’s pre-integrated solution spanning compute, networking, storage, software, and services, accelerating AI data center deployments while improving interoperability and delivering a scalable, production-ready foundation with predictable performance.
These innovations are designed to support increasingly complex AI training and inference workloads, helping customers scale AI infrastructure platforms such as AMD Helios from experimentation to production.
In addition, new introductions to HPE’s networks for AI portfolio include:
HPE Juniper Networking QFX5140 Switch: designed for inference clusters and edge AI use cases, delivering the performance and scalability required for the rapidly growing inference market, instrumental in driving HPE AI Data Center Solution to the edge. HPE Juniper Networking QFX5252 Switch tray for AMD Helios: scale-up module for AMD Helios AI rack-scale platform, delivering the low-latency, high-bandwidth switching required to maximize AI infrastructure performance at scale. HPE’s new switching innovations enable GPUs to spend more time processing workloads and less time waiting on the network, eliminating a key bottleneck in AI deployments while improving infrastructure efficiency and lowering total cost of ownership (TCO). Together, they strengthen HPE’s position as a leader in delivering end-to-end AI infrastructure that enables customers to move from experimentation to production faster.
Extending Agentic AIOps across the HPE Self-Driving Network portfolio
HPE continues to advance its agentic enterprise vision that includes its unified self-driving networking portfolio by aligning the HPE Aruba Central and HPE Mist AI platforms with shared agentic capabilities, common hardware, and consistent AI-native operations. This integration between platforms marks yet another milestone in HPE’s ‘cross-pollination’ strategy to unite the HPE Aruba Networking and HPE Juniper Networking portfolios. New AI for networks capabilities in the HPE portfolio include:
Integration of the HPE Networking CX switching portfolio with HPE Mist, giving HPE Networking CX customers flexibility in Agentic AIOps platform while introducing advanced wired capabilities such as AI-native visibility, zero-touch provisioning, wired assurance for layer 2 access, dynamic PCAP, service-level insights, and HPE Marvis AI-driven actions. Availability of HPE Marvis AI-powered self-driving capabilities for HPE Aruba Central, including trusted actions such as wired port remediation to further extend autonomous operations across the HPE networking portfolio. HPE has also expanded data center operations within the HPE Mist platform. In addition to existing self-driving data center networking capabilities, such as proactive HPE Marvis actions and minis, HPE has now added the following:
Proactive maintenance using predictive analytics: AI and machine learning (AI/ML) are used to predict system and optics failures with a high-confidence level, well before they occur, with intelligent multidimensional visualization to prevent network outages and deliver higher application resiliency. Advanced reasoning agent for high-confidence remediation: Agentic AI is used to continuously and autonomously reason across diverse data streams, including millions of TAC cases and a contextual graph database from HPE Networking Data Center Director, to deliver precise root cause analysis (RCA) and actionable remediation in the data center network. HPE Networking, compute, and hybrid cloud integrations to enable HPE’s agentic enterprise vision
Building on the successful integration with HPE OpsRamp Software and HPE Morpheus Software, HPE Networking is further expanding its unified infrastructure stack to deliver a seamless, cross-domain experience across compute and hybrid-cloud environments. This expansion accelerates the journey toward a self-driving data center by bridging operational silos, streamlining operations, and delivering a single point of control with the following announcements:
HPE Mist Networking Data Center Assurance is now integrated with HPE Compute Ops Management, reducing tool sprawl, delivering cross-domain visibility and insights, and enabling efficient scaling with existing teams. HPE Mist Networking Data Center Assurance is now integrated into GreenLake to deliver a unified cross-domain user experience with streamlined operations that simplify IT infrastructure management. Unified SASE with zero trust security
HPE also announced a new unified SASE platform, built on HPE Networking EdgeConnect and powered by advanced firewall technology, that converges SD‑WAN and cloud‑delivered security in a single, AI‑native management console. As AI helps attackers discover and exploit vulnerabilities faster, the platform minimizes exposure through accelerated zero trust adoption and simplified operations. This unified approach by HPE protects self-driving networks by ensuring that only authorized users and devices can securely access the resources they need while keeping those resources hidden from attackers. Key benefits include:
Integrated SD-WAN and SSE: Bringing SD-WAN and Security Service Edge (SSE) into a unified console for simplified management and consistent policy enforcement. Faster zero trust adoption: Embedded SSE connector deploys zero trust faster without installing additional ZTNA connectors or infrastructure. A dedicated Secure Web Gateway (SWG) tunnel extends protection against web-based threats to all devices, including IoT devices. Foundation for sovereign SASE: The SSE connector combined with Private Edge keeps traffic within the corporate boundary without hairpinning traffic through cloud SSE PoPs. AI-native operations: Accelerating issue resolution and detecting security gaps through natural-language interaction and intelligent analytics with SASE copilot. New opportunities to reinvest in AI networking
HPE Financial Services is launching a new Network Migration Program to help organizations move to AI‑ready networks faster, with lower cost and less risk. The program brings together better‑than‑cash hardware financing, 0% software financing, and a new IT Asset Program that unlocks value from existing gear to fund innovation.
Today's announcement blogs:
HPE Networking EdgeConnect unifies SD-WAN & SSE in an AI-native console to power SASE Self-Driving Operations, Cross-Domain Integrations, and Purpose-Built Networks for AI HPE Self-driving Networks are kicking into high gear Recent HPE News:
HPE accelerates self-driving network operations with new HPE Mist agentic AI-native innovations HPE disrupts networking industry with expanded AI-native portfolio; reimagines future of IT operations with self-driving networks strategy HPE introduces sweeping security advancements to secure AI adoption and strengthen enterprise resiliency About HPE
HPE (NYSE: HPE) is a leader in essential enterprise technology, bringing together the power of AI, cloud, and networking to help organizations achieve more. As pioneers of possibility, our innovation and expertise advance the way people live and work. We empower our customers across industries to optimize operational performance, transform data into foresight, and maximize their impact. Unlock your boldest ambitions with HPE. Discover more at www.hpe.com.
Key Takeaways Finding the best Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) momentum stocks to buy in June and the second half of 2026.Buy soaring artificial intelligence infrastructure stock HPE for growth, value, and upside. The stock market soared on Monday as investors celebrated the possibility that the Strait of Hormuz could reopen by the end of the week. Trump also said the U.S. reached the foundation of a lasting ceasefire with Iran that gives all the parties time to hammer out a larger agreement in the coming months.
The market cooled off a bit on Tuesday, even as oil prices tanked again. But the bulls have pushed the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 right back above their 21-day moving averages and within touching distance of their peaks.
If the critical oil and commodities choke point does open by Friday and the ceasefire holds, the bulls might be ready to spur the market to new highs in the back half of June.
Given this backdrop, investors likely want to keep buying stocks to make sure they are exposed to another potential rally. Some investors might want to start buying into beaten-down stocks, hoping that a turnaround is in sight. But it might be more prudent in the near-term to buy stocks that have already proven themselves to be winners in the 2026 market conditions.
The momentum stocks this screen puts on your radar have seen strong upward earnings revisions, earning them a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buys) right now.
Let’s dive into how investors can find the best "Strong Buy" momentum stocks to add to their portfolios right now in June and heading into the second half of 2026.
Screen Basics: Finding Top Momentum Stocks to BuyThe screen we are looking into today comes loaded with the Research Wizard. The screen helps investors dig through all of the Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stocks, of which there are over 200 at any given time, to find some of the top momentum names.
The screen narrows down the list of Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stocksto those with upward price momentum that are also trading within 20% of their 52-week highs. The screen then uses the PEG ratio and the Price to Sales ratio to help make sure investors are getting value as well. The screen then makes your life a little easier and narrows it down to just seven stock picks.
The screen basics are listed below…
· Zacks Rank = #1 (Strong Buy)
· Current Price/52-week High >= 0.8
· PEG Ratio: P/E F(1)/EPS Growth <= 1
· Price/Sales <= 3
· Percentage Change Price -12 Weeks = Top # 7
This strategy comes loaded with the Research Wizard and it is called bt_sow_momentum_method1 It can be found in the SoW (Screen of the Week) folder.
The screen is simple, yet powerful. Here is one of the seven stocks that made it through this week's screen…
Buy Soaring AI Stock HPE for Growth, Value, and 40% UpsideHewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE - Free Report) builds the behind-the-scenes technology that powers AI data centers, computer networks, and more. It makes servers, networking equipment, storage systems, and offers cloud-like services that help businesses run AI, store data, and manage their IT needs.
HPE is benefiting from surging demand driven by the AI spending boom, as hyperscalers like Meta and Microsoft pour hundreds of billions into data centers.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
The server and networking company raised its FY26 guidance when it reported its Q2 results on June 1, as “customers continue to invest in modernizing their infrastructure and scaling AI.” HPE’s earnings revisions skyrocketed 42% for FY26 and 50% for FY27 as the technology company rides the historic capex-heavy spending spree.
The AI infrastructure stock’s upward revisions earn it a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). It is projected to grow its revenue by 31% in FY26 and 12% next year to reach $50.36 billion vs. $34 billion in FY25. HPE’s adjusted earnings are projected to skyrocket 76% this year and 18% next to hit $4.02 a share, doubling 2025’s $1.94 a share in the process.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
HPE’s 100% YTD surge helped it break out of a prolonged stretch of sideways trading to new all-time highs. The stock has dipped over 10% from its early June peaks alongside the market and all things AI.
But it found support at some key technical levels already, and its average Zacks price target still marks 40% upside from Tuesday’s levels. The AI data center infrastructure stock trades at 14.8X forward 12-month earnings, marking a 55% discount to its highs.
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, /PRNewswire/ -- Integrated Research (ASX: IRI, "IR"), a leading global provider of observability solutions for mission‑critical payments, infrastructure and communications, today announced the launch of Iris for Nonstop, extending its conversational AI intelligence layer to HPE Nonstop environments.
Building on the success of Iris in multi‑vendor unified communications and collaboration (UC&C) observability, IR has embedded Iris directly into the Prognosis Platform for HPE Nonstop. This allows IT teams, business application stakeholders and more to ask questions in natural language and receive immediate, context‑rich answers about the health, performance and capacity of their Nonstop systems.
"Nonstop powers some of the world's most critical transactions, but the data that keeps these environments running has traditionally been locked up in specialist tools and expertise," said Ian Lowe, CEO at IR.
"With Iris for Nonstop, we're providing AI powered intelligence direct to the IT function. Iris understands Nonstop, understands context unique to each clients environment, and can turn complex telemetry into actionable insight in seconds."
AI‑powered observability for always‑on Nonstop environments
HPE Nonstop is a trusted platform for high‑volume, always‑on workloads in financial services, retail, telecommunications and other industries where downtime is not an option. IR's Infrastructure suite, powered by Prognosis, has long helped clients monitor, troubleshoot and optimize the performance and availability of these environments with real‑time dashboards, alerting and automated reporting.
Iris for Nonstop builds on this foundation by adding a conversational AI layer that:
Answers complex questions in plain language – Operators can ask questions such as "Is CPU usage normal for this time period?" or "Can you show me the network traffic trends over the past 2 weeks?", and Iris will respond with explanations, context and recommended next steps. Accelerates incident resolution – By synthesizing Prognosis' real‑time telemetry into guided insights, Iris helps teams identify root causes faster, reducing mean time to resolution in high‑stakes Nonstop environments. Democratizes Nonstop expertise – Iris makes Nonstop performance and capacity data accessible to broader IT, business and executive stakeholders, with easy‑to‑consume natural‑language summaries and reports. Supports proactive capacity and batch planning – By leveraging Prognosis Infrastructure, Business Insight and Batch Manager capabilities, Iris can surface trends in capacity, usage patterns and batch workloads, helping teams plan ahead before issues impact production. Unified intelligence layer for hybrid Nonstop, from core to edge
As Nonstop clients adopt virtual Nonstop, cloud deployments and hybrid infrastructures spanning core and edge, the complexity of managing performance and capacity continues to grow. The combination of Prognosis Server on Nonstop, Prognosis Edge, and now Iris for Nonstop gives organizations a unified intelligence layer over their distributed, mission‑critical environments.
"Our clients are running Nonstop everywhere – in data centers, in virtualized environments and at the edge," said Ian Lowe. "By embedding Iris directly into our Infrastructure solutions, we're giving our clients an AI assistant that understands their topology, their workloads and their SLAs, wherever Nonstop is deployed."
Iris for Nonstop is available now with Prognosis 13.3, for clients using IR Infrastructure and the Prognosis Platform for HPE Nonstop. For more information, visit the website.
About IR
At IR, we power elite business performance. Trusted by the world's largest organizations for more than 30 years, our market-leading observability solutions are powered by Prognosis – the real-time intelligence platform built for multi-vendor infrastructure, UC&CX and payments environments. To find out more, visit www.ir.com.
The 10-year Treasury at 4.48% has made every dividend payer fight for capital. PepsiCo (NASDAQ: PEP | PEP Price Prediction), the global snack and beverage giant behind Pepsi, Lay’s, Gatorade, and Doritos, just announced its 54th consecutive annual dividend increase. With the stock at $144.27 and a yield near 3.96%, the question for income investors is simple: is this Dividend King still safe?
Dividend Snapshot Metric Value Annual Dividend $5.92 per share Dividend Yield 3.96% Consecutive Annual Increases 54 years Most Recent Increase 4% (Feb 2026, effective June 2026) Dividend King Status Yes (50+ years) Cash Flow Covers the Dividend, but Barely PepsiCo expects to pay roughly $7.9 billion in dividends in fiscal 2026 against FY2025 free cash flow of about $7.672 billion (operating cash flow of $12.087 billion minus $4.415 billion in capex). The dividend slightly exceeds last year’s FCF, a tight fit management plans to ease through its at least 80% FCF conversion target and a record productivity push.
Against FY2025 core EPS of $8.14, the forward $5.92 dividend lands at a 72.7% payout ratio.
Metric Value Assessment Earnings Payout (forward div / FY25 core EPS) 72.7% Elevated FCF Payout (FY26 div / FY25 FCF) ~103% Concerning at face value Operating Cash Flow Coverage 1.53x Adequate A Balance Sheet With Real Cushion Total debt and interest expense figures are not detailed here, so a debt-to-EBITDA or interest coverage figure is omitted. What is available is reassuring: $10.475 billion in cash at Q1 2026, EBITDA of $18.7 billion, and a beta of 0.36 that reflects unusually stable cash generation.
Metric Value Assessment Cash on Hand $10.48B Solid buffer Shareholders’ Equity $21.54B Growing EBITDA (TTM) $18.7B Strong 54 Years of Increases, but Growth Is Slowing Year Annual Dividend Dividend 2026 (forward) $5.92 2025 $5.6225 2024 $5.33 2023 $4.945 2022 $4.525 2021 $4.2475 That works out to a roughly 6.9% five-year CAGR, but the most recent raise of 4% is the slowest in years, reflecting tighter coverage.
Management Is Affirming Guidance CEO Ramon Laguarta on the Q1 2026 call: “We are affirming fiscal 2026 financial guidance and expected cash returns to shareholders, including the previously announced 4 percent increase in the annualized dividend per share beginning with the June 2026 payment, which will represent our 54th consecutive annual increase.” Paired with a fresh $10 billion buyback authorization through Feb 28, 2030, capital return is central to the story.
Safe, but I Want That FCF Payout Below 90% Dividend Safety Rating: Safe. A 54-year streak, $10.5 billion in cash, and 4 to 6% core constant-currency EPS growth guidance give Pepsi room to defend the payout. The dividend looks defensible for income-focused investors if international momentum (EMEA operating profit +29%, Asia Pacific Foods +35%) keeps lifting FCF as Fed cuts compress Treasury yields. The picture turns more cautious if tariff-driven commodity costs keep FCF flat, because the payout ratio cannot stay above 100% forever.
Key Takeaways Visa posted strong growth in payments, cross-border activity and commercial transactions.V expanded AI commerce, stablecoin programs and Visa Direct to drive transaction growth.PayPal grew Venmo, BNPL and checkout volumes, but Visa shows higher implied upside. Visa Inc. (V - Free Report) and PayPal Holdings, Inc. (PYPL - Free Report) are leading players in the global digital payments industry, benefiting from the ongoing shift toward cashless transactions, e-commerce growth and increasing digital commerce activity worldwide. Both compete in online payments and checkout solutions while serving consumers and merchants across a rapidly evolving payments ecosystem.
While Visa operates the world's largest payment network, PayPal has built a strong presence through its digital wallet and online payments platform. Their distinct business models and strategic priorities highlight different approaches to capturing opportunities across the expanding digital payments landscape.
Let’s dive deep and closely compare the fundamentals of the two stocks to determine which stock offers greater upside right now.
The Case for VisaVisa's core payments business continues to deliver steady growth across consumer, commercial and cross-border transactions. In the second quarter of fiscal 2026, payments volume and processed transactions each increased 9% year over year, while commercial payments volume rose 11%. Cross-border activity also remained healthy, supported by resilient spending trends and expanding digital commerce. With cash displacement continuing globally, Visa remains well positioned to benefit from rising transaction volumes across its network.
The company is also gaining traction in money movement and commercial payments, two areas that extend beyond traditional card transactions. Revenues from commercial and money movement solutions increased 24% year over year, while Visa Direct transactions grew 23% in the second quarter of fiscal 2026. Visa Direct’s network now reaches more than 18 billion endpoints worldwide, supporting use cases such as remittances, business payments and real-time transfers. Another key growth driver is V's value-added services business. Revenues from these offerings increased 27% year over year in the fiscal second quarter and now represents roughly 30% of net revenues.
It beat earnings in each of the past four quarters, with an average surprise of 3.2%.
It is investing heavily in AI-driven payment technologies. The company believes agentic commerce can expand digital payment activity and create new transaction opportunities across consumer and business payments. Recent initiatives, including Intelligent Commerce Connect and Visa CLI, are designed to support AI-enabled transactions, while Visa's tokenization, security and fraud-prevention capabilities strengthen its position as commerce becomes increasingly automated.
Visa is also expanding its role in the stablecoin ecosystem by serving as a bridge between blockchain-based assets and traditional payment networks. The company now supports more than 160 stablecoin-linked card programs globally, allowing users to spend stablecoin balances anywhere Visa is accepted. Stablecoin payment volume associated with these programs surged nearly 200% year over year in the second quarter of fiscal 2026. V is also broadening its stablecoin settlement capabilities across multiple blockchains, with annualized stablecoin settlement volume reaching approximately $7 billion. As stablecoins gain wider adoption for payments, remittances and settlements, these initiatives could increase transaction activity across its network.
Additionally, V’s strong cash position enables substantial share buybacks and dividend payouts. It supports inorganic growth and financial stability. With $12.4 billion in cash, the company maintains a solid capital position. Visa returned $9.2 billion to its shareholders through share repurchases and dividends in the fiscal second quarter.
The Case for PayPalPayPal is strengthening engagement across its merchant and consumer ecosystem through improvements in checkout experiences and payment solutions. Total payment volume rose 11% year over year in the first quarter of 2026, supported by healthy transaction activity and improving performance in branded checkout. Pay with Venmo and buy now, pay later continued to outperform, with payment volumes rising 34% and 23%, respectively. Meanwhile, Venmo and Enterprise Payments delivered mid-teens growth.
Venmo and consumer financial services remain key pillars of PYPL's growth strategy. The company is expanding beyond payments by offering a broader set of financial products and services that encourage deeper customer engagement. In March 2026, Venmo announced a major expansion, extending its peer-to-peer payment experience to users worldwide across 90 markets. Increased adoption of Venmo, along with growing usage of digital financial tools, is helping expand activity across PayPal's ecosystem. It beat earnings estimates in three of the past four quarters and missed once, with an average surprise of 10.3%.
PayPal is advancing a multi-year transformation effort focused on simplifying its operating structure and improving efficiency. The company expects to generate more than $1.5 billion in savings over the next two to three years through organizational realignment, the elimination of duplicated work and layers, and broader use of AI and automation. These efforts are designed to streamline operations and support investment in strategic priorities.
The company is deploying AI across technology development, customer support, operations and risk management to improve productivity and customer experiences. It is also expanding into agentic commerce through partnerships with OpenAI, Perplexity, Anthropic, Microsoft and Salesforce. These initiatives are designed to enable AI agents to discover products, make purchasing decisions and complete transactions using PYPL's payment infrastructure, extending the company's role within the evolving digital commerce ecosystem.
It is also strengthening its presence in digital assets through PayPal USD (“PYUSD”), its U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin that is increasingly being integrated across the company's payments ecosystem. The stablecoin supports peer-to-peer transfers, merchant transactions and cross-border payment use cases. The company recently expanded its availability to 70 markets globally. The broader rollout is helping extend PYUSD's reach as PYPL works to embed stablecoin capabilities across digital commerce.
The company exited the first quarter of 2026 with cash and cash equivalents of $7 billion. It returned $1.5 billion to its shareholders by repurchasing shares of common stock in the first quarter of 2026.
How Do the Zacks Consensus Estimate Compare for V & PYPL?The Zacks Consensus Estimate for V’s bottom line is comparably favorable at this stage. The consensus estimate for V’s fiscal 2026 earnings indicates a 14.1% increase from a year ago, while the same for revenues suggests 13.4% growth. It has witnessed 14 positive earnings estimate revisions over the past 60 days, against no downward revisions.
On the other hand, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for PYPL’s 2026 EPS indicates a 0.2% year-over-year decline, and the same for revenues signals a 3.3% rise. It has witnessed six upward earnings estimate revisions over the past 60 days and six downward movements.
Valuation: V vs. PYPLComing to the valuation story, it seems that investors are willing to pay a premium for Visa compared to PayPal. This is reflected in V’s forward 12-month price/earnings (P/E) of 22.63X compared with PYPL’s 7.70X. Both are currently trading below their three-year median P/E value.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Price TargetVisa currently trades below its average analyst price target of $400.46, implying a 24.2% potential upside from current levels. PayPal also trades below its average analyst price target of $48.30, implying an 16.3% potential upside from current levels.
Price Performance ComparisonOver the past three months, shares of Visa have outperformed PayPal and the industry. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 has increased 10.7% during this time.
Price Performance – V, PYPL, Industry & S&P 500
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
ConclusionBoth Visa and PayPal are benefiting from the long-term shift toward digital payments, but their current trajectories differ. PayPal is making progress through checkout improvements, Venmo growth, stablecoin expansion and ongoing efficiency initiatives.
Visa, however, appears to have the stronger investment case at this stage. Its diversified growth drivers, including cross-border payments, money movement, value-added services, AI-powered commerce and stablecoins, are supporting robust earnings growth. Combined with favorable estimate revisions and higher implied upside, Visa stands out as the more attractive stock right now.
While V currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), PYPL has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Paypal (PYPL - Free Report) closed at $43.65 in the latest trading session, marking a +2.73% move from the prior day. The stock's change was more than the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.57%. On the other hand, the Dow registered a gain of 0.64%, and the technology-centric Nasdaq decreased by 1.15%.
Prior to today's trading, shares of the technology platform and digital payments company had lost 4.27% lagged the Business Services sector's gain of 0.13% and the S&P 500's gain of 2.14%.
The investment community will be closely monitoring the performance of Paypal in its forthcoming earnings report. The company's upcoming EPS is projected at $1.28, signifying a 8.57% drop compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $8.5 billion, up 2.58% from the prior-year quarter.
PYPL's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $5.3 per share and revenue of $34.26 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of -0.19% and +3.29%, respectively.
Any recent changes to analyst estimates for Paypal should also be noted by investors. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the business outlook.
Our research reveals that these estimate alterations are directly linked with the stock price performance in the near future. To utilize this, we have created the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model that integrates these estimate changes and provides a functional rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, spanning from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), boasts an impressive track record of outperformance, audited externally, with #1 ranked stocks yielding an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.03% lower. Paypal is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Investors should also note Paypal's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 8.02. This represents a discount compared to its industry average Forward P/E of 10.55.
We can additionally observe that PYPL currently boasts a PEG ratio of 1.06. The PEG ratio bears resemblance to the frequently used P/E ratio, but this parameter also includes the company's expected earnings growth trajectory. The Financial Transaction Services industry had an average PEG ratio of 0.77 as trading concluded yesterday.
The Financial Transaction Services industry is part of the Business Services sector. Currently, this industry holds a Zacks Industry Rank of 57, positioning it in the top 24% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.
Qualcomm stock has risen 68% in three months ahead of an expected unveiling of its data-center chip plans and it could be lining up an acquisition to bolster its strategy.
Qualcomm QCOM shares moved higher on Tuesday as investors focused on the chipmaker's expanding artificial intelligence ambitions.
Investors also reacted to reports of a potential acquisition and expectations for new details on the company's data-center strategy at an upcoming investor event.
The stock gained about 3% in premarket trading to $228.09, extending a strong rally that has seen shares rise roughly 68% over the past three months.
Investors appear increasingly focused on Qualcomm's efforts to diversify beyond its traditional smartphone business and establish a larger presence in the rapidly growing market for AI infrastructure and data-center chips.
A major source of investor interest emerged after a report from The Information indicated that Qualcomm is in discussions to acquire privately held AI chip startup Tenstorrent for between $8 billion and $10 billion.
Tenstorrent develops AI accelerators designed for model training and inference workloads and has positioned its technology as an alternative to traditional graphics processing units used in AI computing.
The potential acquisition could also provide Qualcomm with access to Tenstorrent Chief Executive Officer Jim Keller, one of the semiconductor industry's most prominent chip architects.
Keller previously held engineering roles at AMD, Apple, and Tesla.
The reported talks come as Qualcomm continues to expand its AI-related capabilities.
Last year, the company completed its acquisition of UK-based Alphawave Semi for $2.4 billion, adding technology designed to improve inter-chip data-transfer speeds.
While no transaction has been announced, investors view the potential deal as another sign of Qualcomm's commitment to strengthening its position in the AI hardware market.
Attention is also turning toward Qualcomm's investor day scheduled for June 24.
J.P. Morgan analyst Samik Chatterjee said investors are expecting additional details regarding Qualcomm's custom AI processors and data-center strategy.
The analyst believes the company could outline a path to more than $3 billion in data-center revenue by fiscal 2027, with that figure potentially expanding to $35 billion by fiscal 2031.
“We are placing Qualcomm shares on Positive Catalyst Watch driven by expectations for targets outlined at the investor day to exceed investor expectations, even though we remain Neutral-rated awaiting evidence of execution to the outlined opportunities in an increasingly competitive market,” Chatterjee wrote in a recent research note.
Investors are also anticipating the announcement of a major customer for Qualcomm's custom data-center chips.
The company's growing focus on AI infrastructure has helped offset concerns surrounding its smartphone business and increasing competition in the PC chip market from rivals, including Nvidia.
Qualcomm is trading above 20 times its projected earnings in the next year, making it a cheaper option among chip stocks.
For comparison, Arm Holdings trades around 175 times its projected earnings.
Qualcomm Chief Executive Officer Cristiano Amon recently discussed the company's broader AI strategy during an appearance on CNBC's The Tech Download podcast.
According to Amon, Qualcomm currently has more than 40 AI-enabled device designs in development, including smart jewelry, camera-equipped audio wearables, pins, and watches.
He described smart glasses as a category that could eventually reach smartphone-like scale.
Amon noted that annual shipments are already measured in the "tens of millions" and could eventually grow into the "hundreds of millions."
Amon also highlighted the growing importance of agentic AI, which can perform tasks across multiple applications and platforms.
“Those agents are going to be the new app,” he said.
QUALCOMM Inc (NASDAQ:QCOM) shares are volatile on Tuesday amid reports that the company is in talks to acquire AI chip startup Tenstorrent.
Qualcomm stock is showing upward bias. What should traders watch with QCOM? Qualcomm In Talks To Acquire TenstorrentThe Information reported Monday that Qualcomm is in discussions to acquire Tenstorrent for between $8 billion and $10 billion, a deal that would expand the company’s AI chipmaking capacity. The negotiations remain ongoing, and the report noted the valuation could still change or the deal could collapse altogether.
It’s also unclear whether a final agreement would include performance-based milestone payments, a structure commonly used in past chip startup acquisitions.
CEO Details Broader AI Device StrategyThe reported talks come as Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon discussed the company’s broader AI ambitions in an interview on CNBC’s “The Tech Download” podcast Monday. Amon said Qualcomm is developing more than 40 new AI-powered devices, betting that consumers will increasingly adopt smaller, personalized AI hardware such as smart jewelry, camera-equipped earbuds, pins and watches that function as personal AI agents.
“Right now, we have over 40 designs of those devices, and I’m telling you, the types of form factors are very, very broad,” Amon said.
Critical Levels To Watch For QCOM StockRSI provides the clearest read on momentum. The indicator is at 53.69, which signals neutral conditions rather than an overextended or washed‑out setup. RSI helps measure whether recent buying or selling has become overheated. In this case, the reading suggests the stock is digesting gains rather than breaking down.
Key levels are straightforward based on the recent advance and the moving averages that sit below current price.
Key Resistance: $248.00 — This is a round‑number zone near the upper area where rebounds have struggled to push through as the stock trades below its recent highs. Key Support: $191.00 — This is an area where buyers previously stepped in and it aligns more closely with the rising intermediate trend near the 50‑day region. Qualcomm Benzinga Edge Scorecard BreakdownThe Benzinga Edge scorecard highlights how Qualcomm stacks up against the broader market across several factors.
The Verdict Qualcomm's Benzinga Edge profile is driven primarily by momentum and quality. Trend strength continues to support the longer‑term picture, while valuation remains the main drag. For bullish investors, the key focus is whether the stock can reclaim the 20‑day average and continue to hold above $191 during pullbacks.
QCOM Shares Are DroppingQCOM Price Action: Qualcomm shares were down 0.42% at $219.89 at the time of publication on Tuesday, according to Benzinga Pro .
Image: viewimage/Shutterstock
Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs
Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon said Tuesday that the company is working on over 40 different AI wearable devices — including jewelry, earbuds with cameras, pins, and watches — a sign of how aggressively the chipmaker is betting that the next major computing platform won’t be a phone.
To power that vision, Qualcomm is announcing two new offerings: a platform called Snapdragon Reality Elite for mixed-reality glasses, designed to run more powerful on-device AI, and the Scalable Turnkey AI-Ready Toolkit (START), a combination of hardware modules and a software stack for AI devices, starting with smart glasses.
Compared to its previous XR platform, the new Snapdragon Reality Elite delivers improvements of up to 60% in GPU performance, up to 30% in CPU performance, and up to 160% in NPU performance, according to the company. Percentage gains in chip specs can be hard to contextualize, but Qualcomm offers one concrete data point, saying the platform can run a 3-billion-parameter language model at 45 tokens per second — fast enough for quick, responsive AI interactions. Qualcomm says the chip will also enable better head and hand tracking, along with improved see-through capabilities.
The Snapdragon Reality Elite supports 4.4K per-eye resolution at 90 fps, a modest bump from the XR2+ Gen 2’s 4.3K per-eye resolution. (The higher the per-eye resolution and frame rate, the sharper and smoother the visual experience, which matters most for reducing the motion sickness and eye strain that’ve historically made extended headset use uncomfortable.)
Qualcomm says the platform is designed to power two types of devices: stand-alone video-see-through (VST) headsets, which layer digital content over a camera feed of the real world, and lightweight, tethered optical-see-through (OST) glasses, which blend digital imagery directly into your field of view. Among the first devices to use it: XREAL Project Aura, shown at Google I/O earlier this year, and an upcoming device from Play for Dream.
START, meanwhile, consists of an AR chip, a software platform, companion apps, and a white-label program aimed at helping hardware makers get to market faster. Through the white label program, the company is offering three reference designs: an audio + camera setup similar to Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses, a monocular display, and a binocular display.
Eyewear manufacturers Inspecs and O’Neill — owned by TitanFlex — will be among the first partners in the white label program. Qualcomm said START will expand beyond smart glasses to support other form factors in the future.
Amon’s comments, made to CNBC, flesh out the strategic logic behind both announcements. He argued that as companies seek to gather more real-world data from users to power their AI agents, a new wave of hardware startups building novel form factors will emerge, with major implications for established smartphone players like Apple and Samsung.
“I think there’s going to be a lot of experimentation with different form factors,” Amon said. “Right now, we have over 40 designs of those devices, and I’m telling you, the types of form factors are very, very broad.” He added, “The principle is something that you wear, something [that] is with you all the time, something that can see the world around you, so you have context and have the ability for you to access an agent and talk to the agent.”
To that end, Qualcomm is explicitly positioning itself as the foundational silicon layer for whatever comes after the smartphone. START’s white-label program, in particular, is designed to lower the barrier for new entrants.
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Qualcomm (QCOM - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $214.07, moving -3.05% from the previous trading session. The stock's change was less than the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.57%. Meanwhile, the Dow experienced a rise of 0.64%, and the technology-dominated Nasdaq saw a decrease of 1.15%.
Heading into today, shares of the chipmaker had gained 8.43% over the past month, outpacing the Computer and Technology sector's gain of 2.85% and the S&P 500's gain of 2.14%.
Investors will be eagerly watching for the performance of Qualcomm in its upcoming earnings disclosure. The company is expected to report EPS of $2.26, down 18.41% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $9.7 billion, down 6.46% from the prior-year quarter.
Regarding the entire year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates forecast earnings of $10.8 per share and revenue of $42.72 billion, indicating changes of -10.22% and -3.21%, respectively, compared to the previous year.
It's also important for investors to be aware of any recent modifications to analyst estimates for Qualcomm. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the business outlook.
Our research suggests that these changes in estimates have a direct relationship with upcoming stock price performance. To exploit this, we've formed the Zacks Rank, a quantitative model that includes these estimate changes and presents a viable rating system.
Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection remained stagnant. Qualcomm is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Looking at its valuation, Qualcomm is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 20.45. This signifies a discount in comparison to the average Forward P/E of 53.71 for its industry.
We can additionally observe that QCOM currently boasts a PEG ratio of 20.24. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. QCOM's industry had an average PEG ratio of 2.1 as of yesterday's close.
The Electronics - Semiconductors industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. With its current Zacks Industry Rank of 58, this industry ranks in the top 24% of all industries, numbering over 250.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.
Dr. Stephen Hoge, President of Moderna, to Assume an Expanded Role With Operational Oversight of the Company's Infectious Disease, Intismeran and Rare Disease Franchises
Ester Banque to Join Moderna as Chief Commercial Officer
CAMBRIDGE, MA / ACCESS Newswire / June 16, 2026 / Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) today announced changes to its operating model to support its short- and long-term business goals.
As Moderna executes its long-range plan to become a diversified, multi-modality biotechnology company, the Company is preparing to manage three commercial franchises while advancing a broad mRNA pipeline and investing in Moderna research and early development (mRED). Building on strong momentum in its infectious disease vaccine business with four approved products, Moderna is anticipating the potential launch of up to three new products in 2027 and 2028, including flu plus COVID combination, seasonal flu and norovirus vaccines. At the same time, the Company expects important clinical milestones this year, including potential pivotal data readouts for its investigational individualized neoantigen therapy (Intismeran autogene) and rare genetic disease propionic acidemia therapeutic, which could support the possible launch of its first oncology and rare disease products.
To support this next phase of growth, Stephen Hoge, M.D., President of Moderna, will assume oversight of operational and cross-functional leadership across Research & Development, Manufacturing and Commercial for the Company's three franchises. In this expanded role, Dr. Hoge will help ensure strategic alignment across the business, strengthen enterprise execution, and accelerate Moderna's ability to deliver innovative medicines to patients around the world.
As part of this evolution, Ester Banque has been appointed as the Company's Chief Commercial Officer, effective June 15, 2026. In this role, she will focus on continuing to build out Moderna's global commercial organization, leading execution across product launches, and expanding the Company's presence in new markets. Ms. Banque will serve on Moderna's Executive Committee and report to Chief Executive Officer Stéphane Bancel.
"As we execute on our strategic plan and prepare to manage three commercial franchises spanning infectious diseases, intismeran and rare diseases, it is critical that we continue to strengthen our operating model," said Stéphane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer of Moderna. "As President, Stephen has played a central role in shaping Moderna's strategy and advancing our pipeline, and his expanded responsibilities will help ensure strong operational execution as we prepare for multiple potential product launches and important late-stage clinical milestones. To support this next phase of growth, we are excited to welcome Ester to Moderna as Chief Commercial Officer. Her deep global commercial experience will be essential as we continue to build our commercial capabilities, launch new products and expand into new markets."
Most recently, Ms. Banque served as Executive Vice President and President, U.S. Operations at Zoetis, where she led the company's largest market and was responsible for its U.S. commercial operations, driving growth across key franchises while helping shape the market for future innovation. Prior to Zoetis, Ms. Banque served as Senior Vice President and General Manager of Bristol Myers Squibb's U.S. Hematology & Cell Therapy Business, where she accelerated the launch of five new products. Before joining Bristol Myers Squibb, Ms. Banque spent 25 years at Novartis, holding leadership roles of increasing responsibility across multiple therapeutic areas and geographies. During her tenure, she led the global and U.S. commercialization of one of the most successful launches in the company's history, and later served as General Manager, Oncology, Germany.
"I am proud to join Moderna at such an exciting time in the company's journey," said Ms. Banque. "Throughout my career, I have been driven by a passion for helping bring innovative medicines to patients, and I have long admired what Moderna has accomplished in advancing a new class of medicines through its mRNA platform. I believe deeply in the potential of the company's science and innovation, and I have been equally impressed by the talent, passion and commitment of its people. I look forward to partnering with teams across Moderna to help deliver on the promise of mRNA medicines for patients everywhere."
Ms. Banque received a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry at Universitat Autónoma Barcelona and Master of Business Administration at Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Spain.
"I am thrilled to take on this expanded role while partnering with Ester, the rest of the Executive Committee, and our talented team as we prepare to manage three commercial franchises," said Stephen Hoge, M.D., President of Moderna. "Our commercial team has built a solid foundation and demonstrated strong execution as we have expanded our portfolio globally. As our intismeran and rare disease franchises advance toward commercialization, Ester's experience leading launches and scaling organizations will help us build on that momentum."
While Moderna prepares for multiple potential product launches across its franchises, the Company will continue to invest in mRED, its innovation engine focused on advancing new modalities through clinical proof of concept and creating the next wave of growth beyond its current portfolio.
About Moderna
Moderna is a pioneer and leader in the field of mRNA medicine. Through the advancement of its technology platform, Moderna is reimagining how medicines are made to transform how we treat and prevent diseases. Since its founding, Moderna's mRNA platform has enabled the development of vaccines and therapeutics across infectious diseases, cancer, rare diseases and more.
With a global team and a unique culture, driven by the company's values and mindsets, Moderna's mission is to deliver the greatest possible impact to people through mRNA medicines. For more information about Moderna, please visit modernatx.com and connect with us on X, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended, including statements regarding: anticipated product launches in 2027 and 2028; Moderna's ability to execute its long-range plan; anticipated clinical milestones, including potential pivotal data readouts for intismeran and propionic acidemia; possible launches of oncology and rare disease products; Moderna's global commercial organization and ability to expand in new markets; and Moderna's investments in mRED. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "will," "may," "should," "could," "expects," "intends," "plans," "aims," "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "predicts," "potential," "continue," or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology, although not all forward-looking statements contain these words. The forward-looking statements in this press release are neither promises nor guarantees, and you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements because they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are beyond Moderna's control and which could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These risks, uncertainties, and other factors include, among others, those risks and uncertainties described under the heading "Risk Factors" in Moderna's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and in subsequent filings made by Moderna with the SEC, which are available on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. Except as required by law, Moderna disclaims any intention or responsibility for updating or revising any forward-looking statements contained in this press release in the event of new information, future developments or otherwise. These forward-looking statements are based on Moderna's current expectations and speak only as of the date of this press release.
Moderna Contacts
Media:
Chris Ridley
Vice President, Global Head of Communications
+1 617-800-3651 [email protected]
Investors:
Lavina Talukdar
Senior Vice President & Head of Investor Relations
+1 617-209-5834 [email protected]
Moderna appointed a new chief commercial officer and widened its president's role to oversee certain franchises, the vaccine maker said on Tuesday, as it prepares for potential product launches over the next couple of years.
A sign marks the offices of Moderna in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S., July 22, 2025. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
SummaryCompaniesFDA's advisory committee will vote on June 18 whether mFlusiva benefits outweigh risks in older adultsModerna seeks accelerated approval of mFlusiva for adults 65 and olderIf approved, mFlusiva will be first mRNA-based seasonal flu shot in USJune 16 (Reuters) - U.S. Food and Drug Administration staff reviewers said on Tuesday data demonstrating an immune response to Moderna's (MRNA.O), opens new tab flu shot may support effectiveness in adults 65 years and older, sending its shares up 6%.
Moderna's shot, mFlusiva, also showed superior relative vaccine efficacy versus a standard-dose flu vaccine in adults aged 50 to 64, they said in briefing documents published ahead of a meeting of the regulator's independent advisers on Thursday.
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The panel will vote on whether the benefits of mFlusiva outweigh the risks in adults 50 years and older.
FDA staff noted that Moderna's application for adults 65 and older mainly rests on immunogenicity data against a standard-dose vaccine rather than CDC-preferred high dose shots for older adults.
The assessment follows an unusually public clash between Moderna and the FDA, under the leadership of former commissioner Marty Makary. The regulator initially rejected the company's flu vaccine application over trial design concerns and later reversed course after the company agreed to amend its application.
Senior FDA officials had then said Moderna put patients at risk by not giving the preferred higher-dose flu vaccine to patients 65 and over as the control arm in its clinical trial.
Under the leadership of Makary and vaccine skeptic Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the FDA had shifted its approach to vaccine oversight. Kennedy and Makary have been particularly critical of mRNA vaccines.
The assessment highlights "a change in response to this specific application from a few months ago and let us hope more generally with respect to vaccines," said former FDA chief scientist Jesse Goodman.
Jefferies analyst Andrew Tsai said the assessment looks favorable, and that he expects $750 million of U.S. flu and COVID-flu combo vaccine sales by 2030.
FDA staff said Moderna's data had limitations that the committee should consider. They include the fact that the vaccine has only been studied during one influenza season and that because immunocompromised people and very frail older adults were excluded from trials, it is not clear that the vaccine is effective in this high-risk group.
Staff raised the idea that the group may respond differently to an mRNA-based vaccine, without providing further information.
Moderna has agreed to run an additional study and submit more data in adults 65 and older if they get approval for that age group.
Moderna is seeking a traditional approval of mFlusiva for adults 50 to 64 years old, and an accelerated approval for adults 65 and older.
If approved, mFlusiva would be the first mRNA-based seasonal flu vaccine in the U.S., with a decision expected by August 5.
Moderna did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Reporting by Christy Santhosh, Mariam Sunny in Bengaluru, Michael Erman in New York; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar and Devika Syamnath
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Moderna Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) announced changes to its operating model and leadership structure. The biotechnology company is preparing for potential new product launches and advancing a broad pipeline.
The company said the changes will support both its near-term and long-term objectives.
On May 1, the COVID-19 vaccine maker reported a first-quarter adjusted loss of $1.18 per share, narrower than analysts' expectations for a loss of $3.81. The adjusted figure excludes litigation-related expenses of $2.22 per share.
Revenue totaled $389 million, exceeding the consensus estimate of $227.97 million.
Moderna reiterated its goal of up to 10% revenue growth in 2026, up from $1.94 billion in 2025, and expects the 2026 revenue split to be approximately 50% U.S. and 50% international.
President Stephen Hoge Takes Expanded Oversight RoleAs part of the restructuring, Stephen Hoge will expand his responsibilities and oversee operational and cross-functional leadership across R&D, manufacturing, and commercial operations for Moderna's three franchises.
Moderna is currently managing a growing commercial portfolio, supported by four approved products in its infectious disease vaccine business.
The company is also preparing for the potential launch of up to three additional products in 2027 and 2028, including a flu-plus-COVID combination vaccine, a seasonal flu vaccine, and a norovirus vaccine.
Pipeline Progress Remains Key Focus For ModernaAlongside its commercial ambitions, Moderna said it expects several important clinical milestones this year.
These include potential pivotal data readouts for its investigational individualized neoantigen therapy, Intismeran autogene, and its therapeutic candidate for propionic acidemia, a rare genetic disease.
Positive outcomes could support the launch of the company's first oncology and rare disease products.
MRNA Stock Price Activity: Moderna shares were up 6.35% at $55.44 at the time of publication on Tuesday, according to Benzinga Pro data.
Image via Shutterstock
Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs
A man walks across the logo of Intel at the ongoing India Mobile Congress 2025 at Yashobhoomi, a convention and expo center in New Delhi, India, October 8, 2025. REUTERS/Anushree Fadnavis/File... Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab Read more
SAN FRANCISCO, June 15 (Reuters) - Cornelis, an Intel (INTC.O), opens new tab spinout developing networking technology aimed at data centers, on Tuesday said that its chips are now being used by a U.S. supercomputer used for nuclear weapons work.
Under the National Nuclear Security Administration, a trio of U.S. national labs works to develop and maintain the nation's nuclear weapons with extremely accurate computer simulations of nuclear reactions, one of the most demanding tasks in the entire computing industry. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory said Tuesday that it has tapped Cornelis chips to connect 952 computers in its new "Lynx" system.
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The Lynx system is part of a $70 million program at the three labs, opens new tab to build workhorse supercomputers out of standard, off-the-shelf components from the computing industry.
Cornelis, which spun out of Intel in 2020 and in which the chipmaker remains a minority shareholder, is developing a networking technology called Omni-Path that seeks to challenge rival networking chips from Nvidia (NVDA.O), opens new tab, Broadcom (AVGO.O), opens new tab for applications where a computing problem is so large that it must be spread out over many different computers.
One of the features of Cornelis chips is traffic routing technology that, for example, recognizes when it may be faster to send data to a computer that's further away if all nearby computers are clogged with network traffic.
"You might drive a mile longer, but you get there 10 minutes faster because you avoided the stadium traffic from the FIFA World Cup," said Lisa Spelman, CEO of Cornelis.
Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Kim Coghill
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab
Key Takeaways AMD's server CPU revenues rose more than 50% year over year; management sees over 70% growth in Q2 2026.Intel launched Panther Lake and Xeon 6 chips targeting AI PCs, edge AI and server workloads.NVIDIA plans Vera Rubin shipments in second-half 2026, with 36 CPUs and 72 GPUs per system. The artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure trade has shifted from pure-play generative AI-based semiconductors to other AI-powered data center infrastructures. Moreover, the explosion of agentic AI is expanding the scope of AI infrastructure providers in the physical layer across industries.
This physical layer AI will ensure the next phase of the AI wave with the extensive application of agentic AI in fields like robotics, automotive, PCs and game consoles, to name a few. As a result, the so long dormant AI server CPU (Central Processing Unit) space has charged up with the advent of agentic AI tools.
Bofa Global Research estimated that the total addressable market for server CPU will grow to more than $170 billion by 2030 from $35 billion in 2025. NVIDIA projected a $200 billion opportunity for the server CPU market.
Here, we recommend five AI infrastructure giants that have taken initiatives to develop chips for the AI server CPU space. These are: Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD - Free Report) , Intel Corp. (INTC - Free Report) , Arm Holdings plc (ARM - Free Report) , NVIDIA Corp. (NVDA - Free Report) and QUALCOMM Inc. (QCOM - Free Report) . Each of these stocks currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
The chart below shows the price performance of our five picks year to date.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Advanced Micro Devices Inc.Advanced Micro Devices is expanding its AI portfolio from Instinct MI355X to the MI450 series and the Helios rack-scale platform. In the first quarter of 2026, AMD’s Data Center revenue rose 57% year over year to $5.8 billion, supported by higher EPYC and Instinct shipments.
EPYC adoption is being pulled by AI workloads that require more CPU orchestration, data movement and head nodes for accelerators. In the first quarter of 2026, AMD’s server CPU revenues grew more than 50% year over year, and management expects server CPU revenues to grow more than 70% year over year in the second quarter of 2026 as supply ramps.
AMD is on track to launch sixth-gen EPYC Venice later in 2026, with more customers validating platforms than prior generations. Management also raised its view of the server CPU market to greater than 35% annual growth, reaching over $120 billion by 2030.
Advanced Micro Devices has an expected revenue and earnings growth rate of 40.7% and 72.9%, respectively, for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year’s earnings has improved 0.1% over the last 30 days.
Intel Corp.Intel launched the Intel Core Ultra series 3 processor (code-named Panther Lake) in January 2026 and Xeon 6+ (code-named Clearwater Forest) on June 2026. Panther Lake is designed to power a broad spectrum of consumer and commercial AI PCs, gaming devices and edge solutions. Clearwater Forest is an E-core server processor that enables business enterprises to scale workloads, reduce energy costs and power more intelligent services.
INTC launched the new vPro platform with the Intel Core Ultra processor that delivers enhanced power efficiency. With dedicated AI acceleration capability spread across the central processing unit, graphics processing unit and the new neural processing unit, it will unlock an endless new wave of AI experiences across all apps.
Along with the AI PC domain, Intel is also expanding into the rapidly growing Edge AI landscape. It has recently introduced Intel Core Ultra Series 3 processors. The chips offer significantly better large language model performance, video analytics and higher throughput on vision language action models. With its leading-edge features, the chips are ideal for edge AI deployment in smart cities, robotics, healthcare and other sectors.
Intel has an expected revenue and earnings growth rate of 9.4% and more than 100%, respectively, for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year’s earnings has improved 1% over the last seven days.
Arm Holdings plcArm Holdings researches, develops, licenses, and markets CPU intellectual property (IP), GPU IP, systems IP, compute subsystems (CSS) and associated software, tools and related services. ARM’s product portfolio includes CPU IP, GPU and neural processing unit (NPU) accelerators, system IP such as interconnects, compute platform products including pre-integrated CSSs, and development tools and software.
Arm Holdings has an expected revenue and earnings growth rate of 21% and 18.6%, respectively, for the current year (ending March 2027). The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year’s earnings has remained the same over the last 30 days.
NVIDIA Corp.NVIDIA is aiming to become a leading supplier of AI CPUs. In this regard, NVDA’s new AI superchip — Vera Rubin — may become a game-changer. This innovative rack-scale system will deliver 10 times more performance per watt than its predecessor, Grace Blackwell.
The Vera Rubin system comprises 1.3 million components, including 72 Rubin GPUs and 36 Vera CPUs. NVIDIA will start the shipment of Vera Rubin in the second half of 2026. NVDA had earlier announced the roadmap for Rubin Ultra, likely to be introduced in late 2027, and Feynman AI chips to be launched in 2028.
NVIDIA has an expected revenue and earnings growth rate of 78.5% and 87.8%, respectively, for the current year (ending January 2027). The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year’s earnings has improved 10.1% over the last 30 days.
QUALCOMM Inc.QUALCOMM is investing to extend its Oryon CPU and AI acceleration beyond smartphones into PCs and servers. Management said its 2026 Snapdragon X2 PC platforms are in production and positioned to enable always-on agentic experiences, supported by a Hexagon NPU delivering up to 85 TOPS.
QCOM also said the Alphawave integration is off to a good start and that it is pursuing opportunities with hyperscalers and other partners. QCOM is entering the custom silicon space with a leading hyperscaler and expects initial shipments in the December quarter, adding a revenue stream that is not tied to handset unit cycles.
The Alphawave acquisition, completed in fiscal 2026 for $2.3 billion, adds high-speed wired connectivity IP and custom silicon capabilities intended to accelerate QCOM’s expansion into data centers.
QUALCOMM has an expected revenue and earnings growth rate of -3.2% and -10.2%, respectively, for the current year (ending September 2026). The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year’s earnings has remained the same over the last 30 days.
Shares of Intel (NASDAQ:INTC | INTC Price Prediction) are down 7% at midday on Tuesday, while Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) stock is sliding 6%. The pullback comes after a torrid multi-session rally in both names.
Intel stock closed yesterday at $127.86, having climbed 18% over the past month. AMD stock ended Monday at $547.26, an all-time high.
No fresh negative catalyst is driving the slide. Today looks like a routine consolidation after a vertical move.
Profit-Taking, Not Fundamentals The irony is hard to miss for Intel. The chipmaker received a Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) double upgrade to Buy from Underperform last week, with the price target lifted to $135 from $96, citing CPU and foundry growth plus an agentic-AI opportunity. Yet, Intel stock is among the worst performers in the group today.
The fundamentals supporting the rally remain intact. Intel’s Q1 FY2026 results showed non-GAAP EPS of $0.29 versus the $0.0127 estimate and revenue of $13.58 billion, with the Data Center and AI segment up 22% year over year to $5.05 billion. Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan framed the agentic-AI shift as “significantly increasing the need for Intel’s CPUs and wafer and advanced packaging offerings.”
For AMD, today’s headline catalyst was actually positive. The company secured a new AI infrastructure agreement with Rackspace, building on a Q1 FY2026 print that delivered revenue of $10.25 billion, up 38% year over year, and Data Center sales of $5.78 billion, up 57%. Advanced Micro Devices CEO Lisa Su recently described AI infrastructure demand as “accelerating,” with MI450 Series customer forecasts exceeding initial expectations.
Reddit sentiment is reinforcing the breather thesis. Intel sentiment on r/WallStreetBets has cooled from a very bullish 82 on June 12 to a neutral 48 by June 15, with the narrative shifting toward a r/investing thread titled “redistribute Intel stock or hold?” That tonal shift aligns with the price action seen midday.
Possible Rotation Into Storage and Space Rackspace Technology (NASDAQ:RXT) stock is benefitting directly from the AMD partnership and trades at $6.49, up 10% today. The non-binding MOU with AMD positions Rackspace as an enterprise AI infrastructure beneficiary.
Some capital may also be rotating into adjacent AI infrastructure names. Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) stock is up 3% today and now sits near $670, extending a 39% one-month gain. The storage maker’s fiscal Q3 2026 results showed non-GAAP EPS of $2.72 versus $2.39 estimates and a 20% dividend hike to $0.15 per share, with CEO Irving Tan noting that “virtually every AI workload creates data that is stored persistently and cost-efficiently on HDDs.”
Freshly listed SpaceX (NASDAQ:SPCX) stock is also drawing attention, trading up 9% to $210. SPCX shares have climbed since their debut, and options trading on the name is launching today. Whether capital is flowing directly from Intel and AMD into Western Digital or SpaceX is not confirmed, so investors can treat the rotation angle as a possible contributing factor rather than a proven cause.
What to Watch Into the Close The key question is whether the buyers will step back in. Both Intel and AMD remain dramatically higher than where they started the year, with Intel stock up 226% year to date and AMD stock up 144%.
Investors can watch for whether INTC stock holds $115 and whether AMD reclaims $520. A clean close above yesterday’s levels would suggest that the dip was simply digestion.
Position sizing matters more than ever after a run like this, and traders should manage their risk throughout the week. The next directional cue may arrive with tomorrow’s macro data and any follow-on commentary from sell-side desks on the Rackspace deal.
Intel stock INTC tumbled more than 6% on Tuesday as a broad technology selloff swept through markets, interrupting one of the strongest rallies in the semiconductor sector this year.
The decline came as investors appeared to reduce exposure to high-flying technology stocks ahead of the first Federal Reserve interest-rate decision under Chair Kevin Warsh.
The Nasdaq Composite fell 0.5%, weighed down by weakness across major technology names.
Advanced Micro Devices declined more than 4%, Broadcom lost over 3%, and Nvidia, Tesla, and Microsoft each fell more than 1%.
Despite the sharp pullback, Intel remains one of the semiconductor sector's strongest performers in 2026.
The stock has gained more than 200% during the past six months and continues to trade near the upper end of its 52-week range.
Tuesday's decline came as a rally that had pushed major indexes toward record highs began to lose momentum.
While most stocks within the S&P 500 traded higher, weakness in large-cap technology shares weighed on the Nasdaq.
At the same time, falling oil prices helped push bond yields lower.
Brent crude briefly dropped below $80 per barrel amid expectations that global energy supplies could increase.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average moved closer to record territory.
The latest pullback comes less than a week after Intel received a significant endorsement from Bank of America.
Last Thursday, BofA Securities analyst Vivek Arya upgraded Intel shares to Buy from Underperform, bypassing the firm's Neutral rating.
Arya also raised his price target to $135 from $96.
In a note to clients, Arya said growing confidence in Intel's ability to capitalize on opportunities in server central processing units and semiconductor manufacturing services had led the firm to raise its sales and earnings forecasts.
According to BofA, Intel's server CPU business could generate approximately $40 billion in annual revenue by 2030.
The firm estimates the total addressable market for server CPUs could reach roughly $170 billion by the end of the decade, implying Intel could capture about one-quarter of the market.
Intel's resurgence has been closely tied to growing investor enthusiasm surrounding server CPUs and their role in artificial intelligence infrastructure.
While graphics processing units remain central to AI model training, many investors increasingly view CPUs as critical components of the expanding AI ecosystem, particularly as agentic AI applications require greater coordination, orchestration, and system management capabilities.
That shift has helped improve sentiment toward Intel after years of lagging competitors in the AI race.
BofA also highlighted Intel's foundry business as an increasingly important source of future growth.
The segment, which was widely viewed as a major challenge for the company as recently as last year, remains unprofitable but is showing signs of gaining traction with customers.
According to the firm's analysis, Intel is currently negotiating manufacturing agreements with several major technology companies, including Apple and Elon Musk's Terafab project.
Institutional ownership remains relatively lowBofA argued that Intel remains under-owned by institutional investors despite its substantial market capitalization.
The firm noted that only 16% of major funds currently hold Intel shares, making it one of the least-owned semiconductor stocks within the S&P 500.
Only Sandisk has lower ownership among major semiconductor companies tracked by the firm.
Institutional ownership increased by approximately 3% from the prior month, but BofA believes there remains significant room for additional investors to establish positions.
The firm said broader ownership could become an important driver of future gains if more fund managers begin adding Intel shares to portfolios.
While the bullish outlook is not without risks—including increased competition from rivals such as Arm Holdings and the possibility of slower AI spending growth—BofA's rare double upgrade underscored growing confidence that Intel's turnaround remains intact.
SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--At the 2026 VLSI Symposium, Intel Foundry provided an update on its process roadmap and long-term innovation investments. It shared that Intel 18A-P, the first performance enhancement in the Intel 18A family, has entered risk production, meeting the timeline first shared with customers and partners last year.
“Our updates and presentations at VLSI signal to Intel Foundry customers and partners that we are fully committed to leading edge process innovation over the long term,” said Naga Chandrasekaran, executive vice president and general manager of Intel Foundry. “This is a journey, and while we have more work ahead, we appreciate the opportunity to share the progress we are making with Intel 18A-P and our longer-range R&D.”
Intel 18A-P updates at VLSI
Intel Foundry enables Intel 18A-P performance, power and design benefits through a mix of transistor, interconnect, and design-technology co-optimizations. At VLSI, engineers from Intel Foundry detailed the following advancements:
Intel 18A-P delivers 9% higher performance at iso-power or 18% lower power at iso-performance compared to Intel 18A, alongside enhanced thermal characteristics and expanded design flexibility.Unveiled Power Boost, Intel 18A-P’s new dual contact, low resistance transistor option enabling increased drive current and greater frequency at matched capacitance.20-40% improved thermal resistance through both materials and design innovations.10-30% improved via resistance (referring to the vertical connections between the layers of a chip) using geometric and materials optimizations.Mobility enhancement through PMOS via strain engineering, letting current move through the transistor more efficiently.New low power and high-performance transistor options.New fifth logic Vt pair between ULVT and LVT (an additional fifth Vt option for designers to balance speed and power).Intel 18A-P is fully design rule compatible with Intel 18A, enabling straightforward reuse of existing IP and design flows.Similar to Intel 18A, Intel 18A-P offers two cell heights (180nm and 160nm), a contacted poly pitch of 50nm.Additional updates at VLSI
Intel Foundry brought gate-all-around (GAA) transistors and backside power delivery (BSPD) to market last year with Intel 18A. This week, engineering teams discussed how these technologies provide the foundation for improved performance, energy efficiency and scaling for future logic designs:
In a VLSI invited talk, Intel Foundry Vice President and Fellow Eric Karl showed how the company is quantifying the advantages of backside power delivery and gate-all-around transistors. Karl discussed 11% routed area reduction and 10X dynamic voltage droop reduction, enabling up to 6% frequency uplift or greater than 15% dynamic power reduction versus a comparable frontside interconnect technology.Manju Shamanna from Intel Foundry’s Silicon and Platform Engineering group shared silicon results from CPU cores built on a gate-all-around and backside power delivery process. His research demonstrates stronger frequency scaling at lower voltages, including ~ 30% frequency improvement at low voltage (~0.5V), while also reducing IR drop and enabling more efficient operation.Future innovation at VLSI
Intel Foundry also presented long-term research updates at the event, across several areas important to future silicon scaling:
CFET (Complementary FET): Intel demonstrated monolithic CFET inverters with vertically stacked NMOS and PMOS devices at a 45nm gate pitch, advancing a path to continue logic scaling beyond gate all around transistors through vertical device architecture.GaN + Si integration for power management: Intel demonstrated 300mm monolithic integration of gallium nitride power devices with silicon logic, including a ~1,000 gate digital control block, enabling efficient, large scale digital control alongside high performance power devices in a single process and reducing system complexity.Subtractive ruthenium interconnect: Intel demonstrated subtractive ruthenium with airgap integration, achieving up to ~35% capacitance reduction and measurable frequency gains versus copper, pointing to a viable path for improved resistance capacitance scaling as interconnects continue to shrink.Learn more about Intel Foundry’s VLSI updates and presentations here.
Forward-Looking Statements
This release contains forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Words such as "accelerate", "achieve", "aim", "ambitions", "anticipate", "believe", "committed", "continue", "could", "designed", "estimate", "expect", "forecast", "future", "goals", "grow", "guidance", "intend", "likely", "may", "might", "milestones", "next generation", "objective", "on track", "opportunity", "outlook", "pending", "plan", "position", "possible", "potential", "predict", "progress", "ramp", "roadmap", "seek", "should", "strive", "targets", "to be", "upcoming", "will", "would", and variations of such words and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements, which may include statements regarding:
Our Intel 18A-P process node and risk production of such node, including the performance, power and design benefits, competitiveness and technological advancements;Our research developments in CFET inverters, GaN + Si Integration and sRu interconnects.Such statements involve many risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied, including those associated with:
the high level of competition and rapid technological change in our industry;the significant, long-term and inherently risky investments we are making in R&D and manufacturing facilities that may not realize a favorable return;the complexities and uncertainties in developing and implementing new semiconductor products and manufacturing process technologies;changes in product demand and margins;macroeconomic conditions and geopolitical tensions and conflicts, including geopolitical and trade tensions between the U.S. and China, tensions and conflict affecting Israel and the Middle East, rising tensions between mainland China and Taiwan and the impacts of Russia's war on Ukraine;recently elevated geopolitical tensions, volatility and uncertainty with respect to international trade policies, including tariffs and export controls, impacting our business, the markets in which we compete and the world economy;the evolving market for products with AI capabilities;our complex global supply chain supporting our manufacturing facilities and incorporating external foundries, including from disruptions, delays, trade tensions and conflicts, or shortages;product defects, errata and other product issues, particularly as we develop next-generation products and implement next-generation manufacturing process technologies; andother risks and uncertainties described in this report, our 2025 Form 10-K and our other filings with the SEC.Given these risks and uncertainties, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. Readers are urged to carefully review and consider the various disclosures made in this release and in other documents we file from time to time with the SEC that disclose risks and uncertainties that may affect our business.
Unless specifically indicated otherwise, the forward-looking statements in this release do not reflect the potential impact of any divestitures, mergers, acquisitions or other business combinations that have not been completed as of the date of this filing. In addition, the forward-looking statements in this release are based on management's expectations as of the date of this release, unless an earlier date is specified, including expectations based on third-party information and projections that management believes to be reputable. We do not undertake, and expressly disclaim any duty, to update such statements, whether as a result of new information, new developments, or otherwise, except to the extent that disclosure may be required by law.
About Intel
Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) designs and manufactures advanced semiconductors that connect and power the modern world. Every day, our engineers create new technologies that enhance and shape the future of computing to enable new possibilities for every customer we serve. Learn more at intel.com.
Intel has begun production of its most-advanced chip node, bringing the company one step closer to a possible deal to make some chips for Apple devices.
Intel announced it's making the new chip node, 18A-P, at the VLSI Symposium in Honolulu, Hawaii, on Tuesday.
"This is a journey, and while we have more work ahead, we appreciate the opportunity to share the progress we are making," Intel foundry head Naga Chandrasekaran said in a statement. Chandrasekaran called the development a "signal to Intel Foundry customers and partners that we are fully committed to leading edge process innovation over the long term."
First announced last year, 18A-P is now in what's known as "risk production," an early production stage with data indicating it will meet customer requirements upon final qualification. After years of missteps and low yields, Intel touted 18A as key to a turnaround that would finally convert the company into a competitive chip manufacturer for non-Intel products.
Intel brought 18A to PC chips in January, but the company has yet to secure a major outside customer. Analysts say 18A-P may be a more likely proving point.
Intel said 18A-P can deliver 9% higher performance or use 18% less power than 18A, which the company has been making at volume at its chip plant in Arizona since December. The chip is at least 20% more heat resistant and is fully compatible with existing 18A buildouts, the company said.
"Yield rate is the number one criteria here," said chip analyst Neil Shah of Counterpoint Research. "If they can commit to more than 90% yield rate in the first month, I think they can attract a few more customers."
Wall Street has been anticipating a massive rebound in the business, sending Intel shares up over 200% this year after the stock soared 84% in 2025. A major catalyst for the move came in August, when the U.S. government took a 10% stake in the company, followed by Nvidia's $5 billion investment in September.
Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan told CNBC in May that he expects commitments from multiple foundry customers in the second half of 2026.
Shares popped nearly 14% that month on reports that Intel reached a preliminary deal to make chips for Apple. Chip analyst Ben Bajarin told CNBC that Apple is likely to wait to make chips on 18A-P.
One big roadblock, Shah said, is that Intel primarily manufactures chips on the traditional x86 instruction sets, while custom chips from Apple, Google, Amazon and others are made on rival Arm architecture.
"Building Arm chips is something that they have not done," Shah said. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, the market leader, "has mastered that," he said.
TSMC is expanding its own $165 billion chipmaking campus just 50 miles North of Intel's Arizona plant.
Intel may be more likely to first secure a major customer for its leading advanced packaging technology, a lesser-known step of the chipmaking process that involves individual chip dies being connected to larger systems with increasingly complex methods. Intel's EMIB packaging — embedded multi-die interconnect bridge — rivals TSMC's leading CoWoS packaging technology.
"There is a lot of packaging bottlenecks at TSMC," Shah said. "That is a big opportunity right now, very low hanging opportunity for Intel."
WATCH: Can Intels' Arizona chip fab bring it back from the brink?
The Intel logo, on display at HPE Discover Las Vegas 2026, in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., June 16, 2026. REUTERS/Caroline Brehman Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
June 16 (Reuters) - Intel (INTC.O), opens new tab on Tuesday said the new generation of its 18A manufacturing process has entered risk production, as the chipmaker sees strong demand for its central processors.
By moving 18A-P into initial production, Intel is aiming to show it is following through on its manufacturing commitments, potentially making the technology more appealing to external customers.
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Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan has started recognizing 18A as a potential offering for external clients, reversing his earlier view that the process would generate returns only through Intel's own products, finance chief David Zinsner said in March.
Compared to 18A, 18A-P delivers 9% higher performance at the same power level — known as iso-power — or 18% lower power at the same processing speed, which is iso-performance, alongside improved thermals and design flexibility.
18A-P is fully design-rule-compatible with Intel 18A, which enables reuse of existing intellectual property and design flows, the company said.
Demand for Intel's central processors from firms offering AI services was so strong in the first quarter that it sold even chips it had originally written off.
It forecast second-quarter revenue of $13.8 billion to $14.8 billion, compared with an estimate of $13.07 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.
Reporting by Juby Babu in Mexico City; Editing by Joyjeet Das
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Intel's new manufacturing process has entered a stage that signals the company is confident in its ability to bring on external customers, analysts say.
SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Adobe (Nasdaq:ADBE) — the global technology leader that unleashes creativity, productivity and customer experiences through innovative tools and platforms — and LinkedIn — the world's largest professional networking platform — today announced AI Essentials for Marketers, a joint global initiative designed to help marketing professionals develop the AI skills that matter most to their roles, so they can be equipped to lead their organizations in the AI era. Cre.
Adobe Systems (ADBE - Free Report) is one of the stocks most watched by Zacks.com visitors lately. So, it might be a good idea to review some of the factors that might affect the near-term performance of the stock.
Shares of this software maker have returned -19.3% over the past month versus the Zacks S&P 500 composite's +2.1% change. The Zacks Computer - Software industry, to which Adobe belongs, has lost 4.9% over this period. Now the key question is: Where could the stock be headed in the near term?
Although media reports or rumors about a significant change in a company's business prospects usually cause its stock to trend and lead to an immediate price change, there are always certain fundamental factors that ultimately drive the buy-and-hold decision.
Earnings Estimate RevisionsHere at Zacks, we prioritize appraising the change in the projection of a company's future earnings over anything else. That's because we believe the present value of its future stream of earnings is what determines the fair value for its stock.
Our analysis is essentially based on how sell-side analysts covering the stock are revising their earnings estimates to take the latest business trends into account. When earnings estimates for a company go up, the fair value for its stock goes up as well. And when a stock's fair value is higher than its current market price, investors tend to buy the stock, resulting in its price moving upward. Because of this, empirical studies indicate a strong correlation between trends in earnings estimate revisions and short-term stock price movements.
For the current quarter, Adobe is expected to post earnings of $5.81 per share, indicating a change of +9.4% from the year-ago quarter. The Zacks Consensus Estimate has changed +6.1% over the last 30 days.
The consensus earnings estimate of $23.62 for the current fiscal year indicates a year-over-year change of +12.8%. This estimate has changed +3.8% over the last 30 days.
For the next fiscal year, the consensus earnings estimate of $26.64 indicates a change of +12.8% from what Adobe is expected to report a year ago. Over the past month, the estimate has changed +0.2%.
Having a strong externally audited track record, our proprietary stock rating tool, the Zacks Rank, offers a more conclusive picture of a stock's price direction in the near term, since it effectively harnesses the power of earnings estimate revisions. Due to the size of the recent change in the consensus estimate, along with three other factors related to earnings estimates, Adobe is rated Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
The chart below shows the evolution of the company's forward 12-month consensus EPS estimate:
12 Month EPS
Revenue Growth ForecastEven though a company's earnings growth is arguably the best indicator of its financial health, nothing much happens if it cannot raise its revenues. It's almost impossible for a company to grow its earnings without growing its revenue for long periods. Therefore, knowing a company's potential revenue growth is crucial.
In the case of Adobe, the consensus sales estimate of $6.69 billion for the current quarter points to a year-over-year change of +11.8%. The $26.55 billion and $28.68 billion estimates for the current and next fiscal years indicate changes of +11.7% and +8%, respectively.
Last Reported Results and Surprise HistoryAdobe reported revenues of $6.62 billion in the last reported quarter, representing a year-over-year change of +12.7%. EPS of $5.96 for the same period compares with $5.06 a year ago.
Compared to the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $6.46 billion, the reported revenues represent a surprise of +2.5%. The EPS surprise was +2.23%.
The company beat consensus EPS estimates in each of the trailing four quarters. The company topped consensus revenue estimates each time over this period.
ValuationNo investment decision can be efficient without considering a stock's valuation. Whether a stock's current price rightly reflects the intrinsic value of the underlying business and the company's growth prospects is an essential determinant of its future price performance.
Comparing the current value of a company's valuation multiples, such as its price-to-earnings (P/E), price-to-sales (P/S), and price-to-cash flow (P/CF), to its own historical values helps ascertain whether its stock is fairly valued, overvalued, or undervalued, whereas comparing the company relative to its peers on these parameters gives a good sense of how reasonable its stock price is.
The Zacks Value Style Score (part of the Zacks Style Scores system), which pays close attention to both traditional and unconventional valuation metrics to grade stocks from A to F (an A is better than a B; a B is better than a C; and so on), is pretty helpful in identifying whether a stock is overvalued, rightly valued, or temporarily undervalued.
Adobe is graded A on this front, indicating that it is trading at a discount to its peers. Click here to see the values of some of the valuation metrics that have driven this grade.
ConclusionThe facts discussed here and much other information on Zacks.com might help determine whether or not it's worthwhile paying attention to the market buzz about Adobe. However, its Zacks Rank #3 does suggest that it may perform in line with the broader market in the near term.
