Growth investors focus on stocks that are seeing above-average financial growth, as this feature helps these securities garner the market's attention and deliver solid returns. But finding a great growth stock is not easy at all.
That's because, these stocks usually carry above-average risk and volatility. In fact, betting on a stock for which the growth story is actually over or nearing its end could lead to significant loss.
However, it's pretty easy to find cutting-edge growth stocks with the help of the Zacks Growth Style Score (part of the Zacks Style Scores system), which looks beyond the traditional growth attributes to analyze a company's real growth prospects.
Sezzle Inc. (SEZL - Free Report) is one such stock that our proprietary system currently recommends. The company not only has a favorable Growth Score, but also carries a top Zacks Rank.
Research shows that stocks carrying the best growth features consistently beat the market. And returns are even better for stocks that possess the combination of a Growth Score of A or B and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or 2 (Buy).
While there are numerous reasons why the stock of this company is a great growth pick right now, we have highlighted three of the most important factors below:
Earnings GrowthArguably nothing is more important than earnings growth, as surging profit levels is what most investors are after. And for growth investors, double-digit earnings growth is definitely preferable, and often an indication of strong prospects (and stock price gains) for the company under consideration.
While the historical EPS growth rate for Sezzle Inc. is 380%, investors should actually focus on the projected growth. The company's EPS is expected to grow 42% this year, crushing the industry average, which calls for EPS growth of 14.9%.
Cash Flow GrowthCash is the lifeblood of any business, but higher-than-average cash flow growth is more beneficial and important for growth-oriented companies than for mature companies. That's because, high cash accumulation enables these companies to undertake new projects without raising expensive outside funds.
Right now, year-over-year cash flow growth for Sezzle Inc. is 92.6%, which is higher than many of its peers. In fact, the rate compares to the industry average of -2.3%.
While investors should actually consider the current cash flow growth, it's worth taking a look at the historical rate too for putting the current reading into proper perspective. The company's annualized cash flow growth rate has been 43.7% over the past 3-5 years versus the industry average of 13.7%.
Promising Earnings Estimate RevisionsBeyond the metrics outlined above, investors should consider the trend in earnings estimate revisions. A positive trend is a plus here. Empirical research shows that there is a strong correlation between trends in earnings estimate revisions and near-term stock price movements.
There have been upward revisions in current-year earnings estimates for Sezzle Inc.. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year has surged 0.2% over the past month.
Bottom LineWhile the overall earnings estimate revisions have made Sezzle Inc. a Zacks Rank #2 stock, it has earned itself a Growth Score of A based on a number of factors, including the ones discussed above.
You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
This combination indicates that Sezzle Inc. is a potential outperformer and a solid choice for growth investors.
GE Vernova (GEV +0.54%) has one of the strongest AI power stories in the market, thanks to scarce gas turbines, rising pricing power, and a massive backlog. But after a huge rally, the risk is no longer the business alone. It is whether enough future data center projects actually convert into real revenue.
Stock prices used were the market prices of June 26, 2026. The video was published on July 6, 2026.
Rick Orford has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends GE Vernova. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Rick Orford is an affiliate of The Motley Fool and may be compensated for promoting its services. If you choose to subscribe through their link, they will earn some extra money that supports their channel. Their opinions remain their own and are unaffected by The Motley Fool.
Gold (XAU/USD) price advances during the North American session on Thursday, up over 1.30% as the US Dollar (USD) retreats due to falling Oil prices amid easing tensions in the Middle East. The XAU/USD pair trades at $4,132 after bouncing off weekly lows of around $4,021 hit on Wednesday.
XAU/USD rises as Middle East tensions ease, pressuring DollarThe US-Iran conflict grabbed the headlines during the last two days as both parties exchanged attacks, threatening to derail negotiations that had been scheduled to begin in Pakistan on Saturday before the last escalation. Oil prices jumped, with West Texas Intermediate (WTI), the US Oil benchmark, reclaiming the $ 75.00-per-barrel barrier, but retreated on Thursday.
The jump in energy prices grew speculation that the Federal Reserve (Fed) could raise borrowing costs to tame already high inflation near 4.2% as reported in May. Now eyes turn to next week, with the release of inflation data on the consumer and producer sides, along with the Fed Chair Kevin Warsh's appearance at the US Congress.
Fed expected to rise in SeptemberWorth noting that the Fed’s last meeting minutes showed a slightly hawkish central bank, as most officials see a scenario for a rate hike, but chose to hold interest rates. As of writing, money markets are pricing in a 62% chance of a 25-basis-point rate hike at the September meeting, according to Prime Terminal data.
Source: Prime TerminalNew York Fed President John Williams stated that inflation is still "far too high" and emphasized the importance of considering energy prices when shaping monetary policy. He reaffirmed the central bank’s goal to bring inflation down to 2%, underlining that policy decisions "must remain” guided by data.
Bullion buyers are capitalizing on falling US Treasury yields, as the 10-year T-note is down five basis points at 4.529%. This is weighing on the Greenback, which, according to the US Dollar Index (DXY), is down 0.21%.
The DXY, which tracks the performance of the buck’s value against a basket of six currencies, is at 100.85, near weekly lows of 100.78.
The drop in US yields is a consequence of the dip in Oil prices. An escalation of the Middle East conflict could trigger a recovery and weigh on Gold prices, which, despite benefiting from inflationary scenarios, tend to edge lower amid high-interest-rate environments.
Next week, the US economic docket will feature the release of the Consumer Price Index (CPI), the Producer Price Index (PPI), jobless claims and housing data.
HSBC reduces Gold price forecastOn Thursday, HSBC lowered its average Gold price forecasts for 2026 and 2027 to $4,560 and $4,925, from previous estimates of $4,864 and $5,000.
XAU/USD price forecast: Gold recovers $4,100, eyes on $4,300Gold remains bearishly biased, despite posting a two-day peak at $4,138. In the short term, momentum has turned bullish, but if buyers want more reassurance that the downtrend has finished, they must push bullion prices past a downsloping resistance trendline at around $4,190-$4,215.
The Relative Strength Index (RSI), although bearish, is closing to the 50-neutral level, which, once pierced, would show that buyers are gaining traction.
If XAU/USD clears $4,200, the next resistance is at $ 4,300. On further strength, the next stop is the 200-day Simple Moving Average (SMA) at $4,362. Above is the 50-day SMA at $4,492 ahead of $4,500.
Downwards, Gold must drop below the July 8 swing low of $4,021. Beneath lies the June 30 swing low of $3,941, followed by the October 28, 2025, swing low of $3,886.
Gold daily chart Gold FAQs Gold has played a key role in human’s history as it has been widely used as a store of value and medium of exchange. Currently, apart from its shine and usage for jewelry, the precious metal is widely seen as a safe-haven asset, meaning that it is considered a good investment during turbulent times. Gold is also widely seen as a hedge against inflation and against depreciating currencies as it doesn’t rely on any specific issuer or government.
Central banks are the biggest Gold holders. In their aim to support their currencies in turbulent times, central banks tend to diversify their reserves and buy Gold to improve the perceived strength of the economy and the currency. High Gold reserves can be a source of trust for a country’s solvency. Central banks added 1,136 tonnes of Gold worth around $70 billion to their reserves in 2022, according to data from the World Gold Council. This is the highest yearly purchase since records began. Central banks from emerging economies such as China, India and Turkey are quickly increasing their Gold reserves.
Gold has an inverse correlation with the US Dollar and US Treasuries, which are both major reserve and safe-haven assets. When the Dollar depreciates, Gold tends to rise, enabling investors and central banks to diversify their assets in turbulent times. Gold is also inversely correlated with risk assets. A rally in the stock market tends to weaken Gold price, while sell-offs in riskier markets tend to favor the precious metal.
The price can move due to a wide range of factors. Geopolitical instability or fears of a deep recession can quickly make Gold price escalate due to its safe-haven status. As a yield-less asset, Gold tends to rise with lower interest rates, while higher cost of money usually weighs down on the yellow metal. Still, most moves depend on how the US Dollar (USD) behaves as the asset is priced in dollars (XAU/USD). A strong Dollar tends to keep the price of Gold controlled, whereas a weaker Dollar is likely to push Gold prices up.
SanDisk (NASDAQ:SNDK) could see upside in its upcoming fiscal fourth-quarter 2026 report, according to Wedbush Securities, which raised its price target on the stock to $2,000 from $1,200.
The semiconductor firm's management had guided fiscal fourth-quarter sales to a range of $7.75 billion to $8.25 billion, with non-GAAP earnings per share of $30 to $33.
Wedbush said that outlook implied only mid to high teens growth in average selling prices under its prior model, but conversations with industry contacts suggested pricing gains in the high double digits, leading the firm to conclude SanDisk's initial guidance underestimated the scale of pricing gains.
Wedbush's updated estimates now assume blended bit ASPs rise roughly 30% quarter over quarter, a figure the firm still characterizes as conservative given industry trends and SanDisk's pricing strategy, even after the company posted triple-digit sequential ASP growth in its fiscal third quarter.
Looking further out, Wedbush raised its fiscal 2027 estimates, citing a higher revised fiscal 2026 base along with pricing data for the current September quarter that came in above its prior projections. The firm believes that quarter will likely see gains of more than 20%, with raw NAND prices climbing above $0.30 per gigabyte and finished goods, particularly enterprise SSDs, commanding a further premium. Wedbush's own model assumes double-digit gains, below the 20% threshold, reflecting its expectation that a larger share of SanDisk's NAND output will move under long-term supply and capacity agreements, referred to as SCAs, consistent with recent management commentary.
Those revisions push Wedbush's fiscal 2027 EPS estimate to $225.99 from $194.93, on projected revenue of $55.83 billion and gross margin of 84.7%.
The firm expects earnings strength to continue through fiscal 2027 and 2028, pointing to limited new fab capacity coming online before late 2027 or 2028 and the stabilizing effect of long-term supply agreements on pricing. Wedbush's model has earnings peaking in fiscal 2028 at approximately $264 per share.
Wedbush said it does not have a firm view on when NAND supply will normalize, citing its belief that supply currently runs well below true demand, that demand will keep accelerating through the end of the decade, and that uncertainty remains around the pace of future supply additions. Still, the firm argued that long-term supply agreements should allow for a more gradual decline in margins and pricing once existing contracts expire, offering greater visibility into earnings and cash flow than memory vendors have historically provided.
Shares of SanDisk were up 12% on Thursday afternoon.
Sandisk Corporation remains a high-conviction beneficiary of the emerging AI NAND supercycle, as agentic inference expands demand for both capacity- and performance-driven data center storage. The latest stock pullback could represent the last discounted opportunity to participate in SNDK's final re-rating for AI NAND demand upside before the broader industry supply-demand imbalance eases in 2028. Sandisk's expanding QLC, TLC, and future high-bandwidth flash roadmap should deepen its penetration across the AI memory hierarchy, moving SNDK beyond cold storage into higher-value opportunities closer to compute.
SanDisk (NASDAQ:SNDK) could see upside in its upcoming fiscal fourth-quarter 2026 report, according to Wedbush Securities, which raised its price target on the stock to $2,000 from $1,200.
The semiconductor firm's management had guided fiscal fourth-quarter sales to a range of $7.75 billion to $8.25 billion, with non-GAAP earnings per share of $30 to $33.
Wedbush said that outlook implied only mid to high teens growth in average selling prices under its prior model, but conversations with industry contacts suggested pricing gains in the high double digits, leading the firm to conclude SanDisk's initial guidance underestimated the scale of pricing gains.
Wedbush's updated estimates now assume blended bit ASPs rise roughly 30% quarter over quarter, a figure the firm still characterizes as conservative given industry trends and SanDisk's pricing strategy, even after the company posted triple-digit sequential ASP growth in its fiscal third quarter.
Looking further out, Wedbush raised its fiscal 2027 estimates, citing a higher revised fiscal 2026 base along with pricing data for the current September quarter that came in above its prior projections. The firm believes that quarter will likely see gains of more than 20%, with raw NAND prices climbing above $0.30 per gigabyte and finished goods, particularly enterprise SSDs, commanding a further premium. Wedbush's own model assumes double-digit gains, below the 20% threshold, reflecting its expectation that a larger share of SanDisk's NAND output will move under long-term supply and capacity agreements, referred to as SCAs, consistent with recent management commentary.
Those revisions push Wedbush's fiscal 2027 EPS estimate to $225.99 from $194.93, on projected revenue of $55.83 billion and gross margin of 84.7%.
The firm expects earnings strength to continue through fiscal 2027 and 2028, pointing to limited new fab capacity coming online before late 2027 or 2028 and the stabilizing effect of long-term supply agreements on pricing. Wedbush's model has earnings peaking in fiscal 2028 at approximately $264 per share.
Wedbush said it does not have a firm view on when NAND supply will normalize, citing its belief that supply currently runs well below true demand, that demand will keep accelerating through the end of the decade, and that uncertainty remains around the pace of future supply additions. Still, the firm argued that long-term supply agreements should allow for a more gradual decline in margins and pricing once existing contracts expire, offering greater visibility into earnings and cash flow than memory vendors have historically provided.
Shares of SanDisk were up 12% on Thursday afternoon.
, /PRNewswire/ -- Class Action Attorney Juan Monteverde with Monteverde & Associates PC (the "M&A Class Action Firm"), has recovered millions of dollars for shareholders and is recognized as a Top 50 Firm in the 2025 ISS Securities Class Action Services Report. The firm is headquartered at the Empire State Building in New York City and is investigating Solstice Advanced Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ: SOLS) related to its merger with Element Solutions, Inc. Is it a fair deal?
Click here for more info https://monteverdelaw.com/case/solstice-advanced-materials-inc/. It is free and there is no cost or obligation to you.
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Comstock Inc. (LODE) Discusses System-Based Strategy and Asset Monetization in Renewable Metals and Energy July 9, 2026 11:00 AM EDT
Company Participants
Corrado De Gasperis - CEO & Director
Conference Call Participants
Peter Gastreich - Water Tower Research LLC
Presentation
Peter Gastreich
Water Tower Research LLC
Welcome to today's fireside chat with Comstock Inc., New York Stock Exchange ticker LODE. I'm your host, Peter Gastreich, Managing Director of Energy Transition and Sustainable Investing at Water Tower Research. Today, I'm very pleased to welcome Corrado DeGasprois, who is Chief Executive Officer of Comstock Inc.
Comstock is a Nevada-based renewable metals and energy company with breakthrough technologies that unlock critical supply chain constraints in metals and fuels. Today, we will ask Corrado to outline the strategy, bring us up to speed on recent developments and help investors understand where we are on asset monetizations and critical metals recovery ramp. So before we introduce Corrado and bring him in, I'd like to point out that the company's safe harbor statements can be found on its Investor Relations tab on its website.
This fireside chat may not be reproduced or written transcript distributed without the expressed written consent of Water Tower Research. Also, this conversation is being recorded, so you can access it again in the future and share it with others. So finally, investors can submit their questions during this live fireside chat. And if we do not get to your questions, we'll be happy to deliver those to Corrado and his team after the chat. So with those housekeeping notes out of the way, let's get started. So Corrado, it's always great to have you back. So welcome, and thanks so much for joining us today.
Important Notice Regarding Alleged Unlicensed Cross-Border Securities Operations That Resulted in RMB 1.85 Billion in Proposed Regulatory Penalties
, /PRNewswire/ -- SueWallSt notifies investors in Futu Holdings Limited (NASDAQ: FUTU) that a class action lawsuit has been filed on behalf of shareholders who purchased securities between May 24, 2023 and May 27, 2026. Find out if you could qualify to recover losses. You may also contact Joseph E. Levi, Esq. at [email protected] or (888) SueWallSt.
Futu shares fell $34.10 per share, a 27.5% single-day decline, after regulators proposed approximately $271 million in penalties for alleged unlicensed brokerage operations in mainland China. The lead plaintiff deadline is August 25, 2026.
How Unlicensed Operations Allegedly Inflated Financial Results
The global online brokerage sector has drawn intense regulatory scrutiny as platforms expand across borders. Futu built a substantial business serving mainland Chinese investors through its Futubull platform, growing paying clients from 1.5 million in early 2023 to over 2.8 million by mid-2025. The lawsuit contends that this growth was fueled by operations conducted without requisite CSRC licenses or regulatory approval, meaning revenues and client metrics reported throughout the Class Period were allegedly tainted by illegal activity.
The CSRC first flagged Futu's cross-border operations in December 2022, banning new mainland Chinese account openings. Yet the complaint alleges the Company continued conducting securities, public fund sales, and futures business in mainland China without obtaining the required licenses.
Key Allegations Regarding Regulatory Non-Compliance for Shareholders
The CSRC proposed confiscation of approximately RMB 470 million (roughly $69 million) in gains the regulator characterized as illegally obtained The CSRC proposed additional fines of approximately RMB 1.38 billion (roughly $203 million), bringing total proposed penalties to approximately RMB 1.85 billion ($271 million) Futu's Futubull app was removed from mainland Chinese app stores in May 2023, yet the action alleges unlicensed business activity continued The Company's quarterly earnings releases throughout the Class Period reported growing client counts and rising revenues without disclosing that a material portion allegedly derived from non-compliant operations A personal fine of RMB 1.25 million was proposed against the Company's founder and chief executive The Regulatory Overhang Factor
The lawsuit asserts that Futu's SEC filings used hedging language suggesting penalties were merely hypothetical. The Company's annual reports stated it had "limited information to accurately predict if any disciplinary action or punishment will be taken." The action contends this language was misleading because Futu knew it was operating without required licenses and that regulatory consequences were not speculative but foreseeable.
When the China Securities Regulatory Commission, along with seven other government agencies including the central bank, launched a coordinated crackdown on brokers accused of illegally moving money to foreign markets, the alleged gap between Futu's disclosures and operational reality was exposed.
"This case presents important questions about cross-border regulatory compliance disclosure obligations in the online brokerage sector. Investors are entitled to know whether a company's reported growth depends on activities that lack regulatory authorization." -- Joseph E. Levi, Esq.
Submit your information here or contact Joseph E. Levi, Esq. at (888) SueWallSt.
WHY SUEWALLST: SueWallSt is a brand of Levi & Korsinsky LLP. Levi & Korsinsky LLP has established itself as a nationally-recognized securities litigation firm that has secured hundreds of millions of dollars for aggrieved shareholders and built a track record of winning high-stakes cases. The firm has extensive expertise representing investors in complex securities litigation and a team of over 70 employees to serve our clients. For seven years in a row, Levi & Korsinsky has ranked in ISS Securities Class Action Services' Top 50 Report as one of the top securities litigation firms in the United States.
Frequently Asked Questions About the FUTU Lawsuit
Q: What is the FUTU class action lawsuit about? A: A securities class action has been filed against Futu Holdings Limited (NASDAQ: FUTU) alleging materially false and misleading statements between May 24, 2023 and May 27, 2026. Shares fell approximately 27.5% after the truth was revealed, causing significant losses for shareholders.
Q: Who is eligible to join the FUTU investor lawsuit? A: Investors who purchased FUTU stock or securities between May 24, 2023 and May 27, 2026 and suffered financial losses may be eligible. Eligibility is based on purchase date and documented losses, not on whether you still hold the shares.
Q: How much did FUTU stock drop? A: Shares fell approximately 27.5%, a decline of $34.10 per share, after the Company disclosed receipt of a CSRC Notification Letter proposing RMB 1.85 billion in penalties for alleged unlicensed cross-border brokerage operations. A further 4.8% decline followed days later when Q1 2026 results reflected the proposed penalties.
Q: What do FUTU investors need to do right now? A: Investors may gather brokerage records showing purchase dates, share quantities, and prices paid. Contact SueWallSt, a brand of Levi & Korsinsky LLP, for a no-cost, no-obligation case evaluation at [email protected] or (212) 363-7500. No immediate action is required to remain eligible as an absent class member.
Q: What is a lead plaintiff and why does it matter? A: A lead plaintiff is the investor appointed by the court to represent the entire class. Lead plaintiffs are typically investors with the largest documented losses. Being appointed does not increase individual recovery but gives direct oversight of how the case is run.
Q: What if I already sold my FUTU shares -- can I still recover losses? A: Yes. Eligibility is based on when you purchased, not whether you still hold them. Investors who bought during the class period and sold at a loss may still participate.
Q: What does it cost me to participate? A: Nothing. Securities class actions are handled on a pure contingency basis. No upfront fees, no retainer, no out-of-pocket costs.
Q: What court was the FUTU class action filed in? A: The case was filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, governed by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
CONTACT:
Levi & Korsinsky, LLP
Joseph E. Levi, Esq.
33 Whitehall Street, 27th Floor
New York, NY 10004
[email protected]
Tel: (888) SueWallSt
Fax: (212) 363-7171
Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.
Key Takeaways ALAB is riding on PCIe demand as AI infrastructure spending accelerates across data centers. ALAB posted $308M in Q1 revenues, up 14% sequentially and 93% year over year. Scorpio X-Series supports up to 320 lanes for scale-up networking in large AI clusters. Astera Labs (ALAB - Free Report) is benefiting from surging demand for its PCIe (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express) solutions, particularly as the AI infrastructure market accelerates and hyperscalers, AI labs and sovereign entities invest heavily in next-generation data center technologies.
In the first quarter of 2026, Astera Labs delivered strong financial results, with revenues reaching $308 million, up 14% sequentially and 93% year over year. PCIe Gen 6 revenues accounted for more than one-third of the company’s total revenues in the quarter, underscoring the centrality of this product line to Astera Labs’ growth. Millions of PCIe Gen 6 ports have been shipped to date, demonstrating the maturity and adoption of Astera Labs’ portfolio across AI fabric and signal conditioning applications.
The company’s Scorpio product family, which includes both the X-Series and P-Series PCIe 6 switches, is at the forefront of this momentum. The newly launched Scorpio X-Series supports up to 320 lanes, enabling high-radix, scale-up networking for large AI clusters. These switches are purpose-built to maximize AI economics, featuring hardware-accelerated hypercast and in-network compute engines that can double collective operations performance.
ALAB is diversifying its customer base with new design wins and is well-positioned to capitalize on the industry’s transition to PCIe 6, 800 gigs, and 1.6T Ethernet connectivity. Management expects continued strong revenue growth through 2026 and into 2027, driven by the proliferation of AI fabrics and the ongoing shift to higher-speed connectivity standards.
For the second quarter of 2026, ALAB expects revenues between $355 million and $365 million, implying 15% to 18% sequential growth. The outlook is driven by the continued adoption of PCIe 6 across AI platforms, rising Taurus volumes for AI scale-out connectivity and a sustained early-stage ramp-up of Scorpio X-Series products for large-scale XPU clustering.
ALAB Faces Stiff CompetitionALAB is facing stiff competition from other industry players like Marvell Technology (MRVL - Free Report) and Credo Technology (CRDO - Free Report) . Both Marvell Technology and Credo Technology are making strong efforts in the connectivity space.
Marvell Technology’s expanding portfolio has been noteworthy. In June 2026, Marvell Technology introduced the Teralynx T100, a 102.4 Tbps AI-optimized switch silicon designed to enhance high-speed connectivity and networking efficiency in large-scale AI data centers through lower latency and reduced power consumption.
Credo Technology’s expanding portfolio has been noteworthy. In May 2026, Credo Technology completed its acquisition of DustPhotonics, adding industry-leading silicon photonics technology to strengthen its optical interconnect portfolio across 800G, 1.6T and 3.2T solutions. The acquisition enhances Credo Technology’s vertically integrated AI connectivity stack and is expected to be a significant growth driver in fiscal 2027, supported by increasing hyperscale AI adoption.
ALAB’s Share Price Performance, Valuation, and EstimatesALAB shares have surged 136.4% in the year-to-date period, outperforming the broader Zacks Computer & Technology sector’s increase of 14.8%. The Zacks Internet - Software industry has decreased 8% in the same time frame.
ALAB Stock’s Performance
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
ALAB stock is trading at a premium, with a forward 12-month Price/Sales of 36.42X compared with the Internet - Software industry’s 3.89X. ALAB has a Value Score of F.
ALAB’s Valuation
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2026 earnings is pegged at $2.94 per share, which has increased by a couple of pennies over the past 30 days. This suggests 59.78% year-over-year growth.
ALAB’s Zacks RankAstera Labs currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Investors might want to bet on GFL Environmental Inc. (GFL - Free Report) , as earnings estimates for this company have been showing solid improvement lately. The stock has already gained solid short-term price momentum, and this trend might continue with its still improving earnings outlook.
The upward trend in estimate revisions for this company reflects growing optimism of analysts on its earnings prospects, which should get reflected in its stock price. After all, empirical research shows a strong correlation between trends in earnings estimate revisions and near-term stock price movements. Our stock rating tool -- the Zacks Rank -- has this insight at its core.
The five-grade Zacks Rank system, which ranges from a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) to a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive externally-audited track record of outperformance, with Zacks #1 Ranked stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 2008.
For GFL Environmental Inc., there has been strong agreement among the covering analysts in raising earnings estimates, which has helped push consensus estimates considerably higher for the next quarter and full year.
The chart below shows the evolution of forward 12-month Zacks Consensus EPS estimate:
12 Month EPS
Current-Quarter Estimate RevisionsFor the current quarter, the company is expected to earn $0.17 per share, which is a change of -10.5% from the year-ago reported number.
Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for GFL Environmental has increased 10.31% because one estimate has moved higher compared to no negative revisions.
Current-Year Estimate RevisionsFor the full year, the earnings estimate of $0.59 per share represents a change of +9.3% from the year-ago number.
In terms of estimate revisions, the trend for the current year also appears quite encouraging for GFL Environmental. Over the past month, one estimate has moved higher compared to no negative revisions, helping the consensus estimate increase 8.46%.
Favorable Zacks RankThanks to promising estimate revisions, GFL Environmental currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). The Zacks Rank is a tried-and-tested rating tool that helps investors effectively harness the power of earnings estimate revisions and make the right investment decision.
You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Our research shows that stocks with Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and 2 (Buy) significantly outperform the S&P 500.
Bottom LineWhile strong estimate revisions for GFL Environmental have attracted decent investments and pushed the stock 11.8% higher over the past four weeks, further upside may still be left in the stock. So, you may consider adding it to your portfolio right away.
Cerebras Systems CBRS shares rose 11% on Thursday after the artificial intelligence infrastructure company unveiled plans for a major expansion across Europe.
The initiative includes new AI data centres that will partially support OpenAI workloads under the companies' existing partnership.
The company said it expects to bring its first European data centre capacity online by the end of this year before expanding its footprint across France, Finland and Norway.
Cerebras said it plans to build out a large artificial intelligence data centre network in Europe, marking its first entry into the region as demand grows for locally hosted AI infrastructure.
The company expects to expand total capacity to 200 megawatts by the end of 2027.
A portion of that capacity is expected to support OpenAI workloads through the companies' existing partnership.
Cerebras said the investment is intended to address increasing demand from European enterprises, research institutions and governments seeking low-latency AI infrastructure within the region rather than relying on providers in the United States or Asia.
Power capacity has become a key measure of AI data centres because electricity availability is increasingly the primary constraint on expanding AI computing.
While smaller enterprise data centres typically consume between 1 and 20 megawatts, hyperscale facilities operated by cloud providers can require 100 megawatts or more.
Chief executive Andrew Feldman said the projects represent a significant investment.
"These are massive expansions" worth several billion dollars, Feldman told AFP on the sidelines of the RAISE Summit in Paris.
He also said, "By putting data centres across Europe... we think that we can meet all the unique European requirements" on issues such as data sovereignty.
Alongside its European expansion, Cerebras announced an expanded manufacturing partnership with Flex to increase production of its CS-3 AI accelerator systems.
Production will be scaled at Flex's facilities in Milpitas, California, with the expanded operation expected to increase CS-3 manufacturing capacity by approximately seven times through 2026.
The expansion will be supported by additional production lines, increased manufacturing space and more skilled workers.
"The CS-3 is unlike any computer system ever built, and scaling its production requires an extraordinary manufacturing partner," said Chief Operating Officer Dhiraj Mallick.
The company said the manufacturing expansion is designed to support rising demand for AI inference infrastructure.
Cerebras has focused on processors designed specifically for AI inference, the process through which AI models generate responses to user prompts.
Demand for inference-focused chips has accelerated alongside the growing adoption of AI agents, which require significantly more computing resources.
Feldman said demand across Europe continues to outpace supply.
"These deployments will enable us to move decisively on what our customers have been asking for: fast, high-performance AI compute located in Europe," he said in the company's statement.
He also told AFP that demand for generative AI computing in Europe is "extraordinary... growing very, very quickly," adding that the market is expanding "faster than we can keep up".
The expansion comes as AI infrastructure investment accelerates across Europe.
The AI infrastructure boom also helped Cerebras raise $5.5 billion in its US initial public offering in May, making it one of the 15 largest IPOs in Wall Street history.
According to TipRanks data, all 10 analysts covering the company currently rate the stock a Buy, with an average price target of $296, implying roughly 46% upside from current levels.
Grantham on SpaceX IPOIn a recent podcast appearance, GMO co-founder Grantham called SpaceX "the craziest IPO in the history of man."
The legendary investor shared his thoughts on SpaceX, the company’s lack of profitability, and its early inclusion in the Nasdaq-100 with Morningstar on "The Long View" podcast.
"$1.7 trillion for a company that’s rolling in red ink when 90% of the projection are on the AI of their currently third-rate AI offering who’s getting kicked around the block by Anthropic and OpenAI and so on," Grantham told Morningstar. "Just amazing."
The investor said JPMorgan and others are recommending SpaceX stock to clients, and there will be early demand thanks to the Nasdaq changing its rules.
"For one thing, it’s Nasdaq has cheated and changed the laws of the land so that they can squeeze it into the Nasdaq index despite the fact it has no earnings, etc. What that means is there’ll be a lot of people who have to buy it for any index that is Nasdaq-y."
Grantham said this means there could be more demand than sellers for SpaceX stock.
Benzinga reached out to the Nasdaq and SpaceX for comment and did not hear back at the time of publication.
Nasdaq Changes Rules, S&P 500 Stays Mostly FirmThe index company also changed its 10% minimum float rule to a 3x weighting boost for low-float stocks.
As of Thursday, SpaceX is the 21st-largest holding in the Invesco QQQ Trust, accounting for 1.25% of assets.
Nasdaq President Nelson Griggs previously told Bloomberg that no rules were broken by changing the rules of the Nasdaq 100. SpaceX ultimately chose to list on Nasdaq rather than the New York Stock Exchange, a decision that some believe may have been influenced by Nasdaq’s change to its index rules.
With its large market capitalization and early inclusion in the Nasdaq-100, billions of dollars in SpaceX shares were needed for ETFs and mutual funds. This also means that investors who avoided the SpaceX IPO may now have exposure to the large space stock through ETFs and mutual funds they hold in their accounts.
The S&P 500 eased its float requirements for inclusion in the index but failed to approve fast-track rules or a change to its profitability rule. To be included in the S&P 500, a company has to be profitable in the most recent quarter and profitable by the sum of the last four quarters combined.
SpaceX does not currently meet the profitability requirements.
The S&P 500 also has a 12-month requirement before a public stock can be added.
Freedom Capital Markets Chief Market Strategist Jay Woods was among those who argued against allowing SpaceX early entry into the S&P 500.
Woods said the listing criteria for stocks in the S&P 500 matters.
“This isn’t bureaucratic red tape. It is the product of decades of hard lessons about what makes an index durable, reliable, and trustworthy for the trillions of dollars benchmarked against it,” Woods previously said.
Photo: Shutterstock
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SpaceX Corp (NASDAQ:SPCX) released Grok 4.5, the company's first major update to its AI model built in collaboration with Cursor, targeting coding and agentic workflows as the company pushes further into the enterprise AI market.
The 1.5 trillion parameter model was trained on tens of thousands of GB300 GPUs and builds on Grok 4.3, which launched in April 2026.
SpaceX said Grok 4.5 delivers performance close to Anthropic's Claude Opus 4.8 and OpenAI's GPT 5.5, while offering lower pricing and greater token efficiency.
Grok 4.5 is priced at $2 per 1 million input tokens and $6 per 1 million output tokens, compared with $5 and $25 for Opus 4.8, $10 and $50 for Fable 5, and $5 and $30 for GPT 5.5.
SpaceX said the model uses approximately 16,000 tokens per SWE-Bench Pro task, versus 67,000 for Opus, a roughly 4.2 times improvement in efficiency. The company reported sizeable gains across agentic and coding benchmarks compared with Grok 4.3, along with continued advances in knowledge and reasoning tasks.
The release comes as SpaceX targets what UBS estimates is a $23 trillion enterprise AI total addressable market. UBS said SpaceX is entering the enterprise market from a relatively low base but is building momentum through an expanding product portfolio and improving customer adoption.
OpenAI is expected to release GPT 5.6 in the coming days, a launch UBS said should raise the competitive benchmark across AI labs and underscores the importance of continued model advancement.
UBS rates SpaceX shares Buy with a $210 price target, based on a sum-of-the-parts approach valuing the Space segment at 24 times 2028 estimated revenue, Connectivity at 30 times 2028 estimated EBITDA, and AI at 28 times 2028 estimated EBITDA.
Space Exploration Technologies (SPCX +3.10%) hasn't been trading publicly for a full month yet, but it has already been through plenty of price swings. Since its initial public offering (IPO) on June 12, the stock price has traded as low as $147.11 and as high as $225.64.
As of the close of trading Tuesday, it was back down to $149.47.
Image source: Getty Images.
Early SpaceX returns On June 12, SpaceX went public at $135 per share, but it opened trading at $150. For nearly all retail investors, that would have been the first price at which they could have picked up shares, and plenty of them attempted to. But many of those investors had difficulty filling their entire orders. On the day, the stock price climbed as high as $176.52, but it closed at $160.95
Given the significant variations in the prices investors paid for their shares on that day, we'll use the first-day closing price of $160.95 to calculate potential returns.
With online brokers like Robinhood Markets allowing fractional investing, investors no longer need to buy full shares of companies; they can invest in dollar amounts instead. A $1,000 investment in SpaceX at $160.95 per share would give an investor a little more than six shares.
Based on SpaceX's closing price of $149.47 on Tuesday, July 7, that $1,000 investment would now be worth roughly $926 -- a 7.4% decline.
But for investors, what's more important than where a stock has been is where it's headed. And some analysts recently offered fresh views on that topic.
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Analyst outlooks Despite the choppy trading early on, the good news for shareholders is that a fresh wave of analyst price targets suggests upside ahead. According to Barron's, the average 12-month price target among 15 new analyst ratings is roughly $250 per share. That stock price would give SpaceX a market cap of $3.3 trillion.
If that $250 price target is reached from the July 7 closing price of $149.47, that would represent a gain of more than 62%.
However, it's worth keeping in mind that each price target is merely an analyst's estimate. Looking at all of them as a group can give investors a sense of the potential range of where a stock could trade in the next year or so, but there are no guarantees that it will reach those prices within that time frame. Also, because of its diverse business units and its speculative space operations and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure build-outs, SpaceX is not the easiest company to value.
SpaceX's long-term story is still playing out SpaceX believes it has a $28.5 trillion total addressable market, with $26.5 trillion of that potential coming from AI. Part of its path toward capitalizing on that opportunity will involve establishing AI infrastructure and commercializing an orbital constellation of data center satellites.
The company will face plenty of challenges as it attempts to make those things happen, but if SpaceX executes successfully, it could produce gains for long-term shareholders. However, investors will need to give it more time to turn its ambitious visions into reality.
Following a quiet period for IPO underwriters, Wall Street firms were out with a bevy of largely bullish stock initiations on Space Exploration Technologies (SPCX +3.10%), or SpaceX. But one certainly stood out from the rest. Raymond James, which was an underwriter on the IPO, started coverage of the stock with a "strong buy" rating and a whopping $800 price target.
Now it's worth noting that early analyst ratings of recent IPOs tend to be bullish. After all, the firms that are underwriters on an IPO make a lot of money, and they aren't going to get a lot of new business if they start coming out bearish on a recent IPO with which they were associated. The industry can try to set up the biggest "ethical walls" it wants, but you can guarantee that big new IPOs are getting an initial bullish rating from underwriting firms.
However, Raymond James certainly took this to another level with a price target on SpaceX light-years above any other Wall Street firm. Analyst Brian Gesuale centered his bullish thesis on SpaceX becoming "the foundational platform for the next generation of industrial capacity" across various industries.
The core argument of his thesis is that his next-generation massive reusable rocket, Starship, will make space transportation so cheap that it will help create new industries that don't yet exist. This includes things like using the rocket to fly cargo across Earth in under an hour, mining asteroids, and building AI data centers and factories in space.
Gesuale projects that SpaceX will generate more than $837 billion in revenue in 2031 and $696 billion in EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization). He said his $800 target is based on a 27x exit multiple applied to his discounted cash flow projections.
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Don't buy the hype In my view, Raymond James' $800 price target on SpaceX is trying to bolster a speculative stock with more hopes and dreams. First, Starship has to demonstrate that it can be launched routinely and reused to dramatically reduce launch costs and increase payload capacity. But that is just step one.
Earth-to-Earth cargo transportation in under an hour is an interesting concept, but there would be many safety, regulatory, and infrastructure obstacles to overcome, and the economics of such a business are uncertain. I don't believe this will be up and running in the next five years, and it would be hard to imagine the U.S. and China suddenly working together to build the infrastructure needed for this work.
AI data centers in space are something multiple companies are pursuing, given that they can be powered by solar and have access to nearly endless sunlight, but, once again, there are major hurdles to overcome. Eliminating the impact of cosmic radiation on AI chips is a big one, as is finding a way to cool systems in the vacuum of space. Then there is the whole cost of building and servicing an orbital data center.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
Asteroid mining, meanwhile, would require breakthroughs in robotics and extraction, and it may not be economically viable. AI factories also seem like a niche that likely may not really be necessary.
At $800, SpaceX would be an over $10 trillion company. The stock is not valued based on any of its current businesses, as it generated just $19 billion in revenue last year and posted an operating loss. Its Starlink business is a solid, growing recurring business, although it is set to see increased competition. Meanwhile, SpaceX's mobile Grok app has been losing market share, according to Apptopia data.
Not only is Raymond James' $800 target likely highly unrealistic, but it also wouldn't surprise me if the space stock is lower over the next year, as it faces multiple lock-up expirations that will release more shares into the market.
The quiet period has ended for underwriters of SpaceX's IPO, and analysts are starting to publish their views on Elon Musk-led company. William Blair's Louie DiPalma launched coverage with a bullish rating, citing the company's growing advantage as rival Blue Origin turns to outside investors.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL | AAPL Price Prediction) just signed a $30 billion multiyear deal with Broadcom for U.S.-made custom silicon and is closing in on Nvidia for the largest market cap in the world. Shares are up 15.49% year to date and sit at $313.39.
Can Apple ride its AI infrastructure pivot to $500 per share by 2030? Here is what the math says.
Why Apple Shares Face a Near-Term Ceiling Shares are up 6.46% over the past week and 49.82% over the past year. The stock trades 1% from its 52-week high of $317.40, and CFO Kevan Parekh flagged that memory costs will drive an increasing impact on our business beyond the June quarter.
Fresh App Store litigation, where developers accuse Apple of defying a 2021 injunction, broadens the risk profile. Beta of 1.097 means Apple needs a real earnings catalyst to break out rather than a beta-fueled melt-up.
Wall Street Sees 1% Upside. Our Model Says 12%. Analyst target price sits at $315.57, essentially where shares trade today. The rating breakdown: 6 Strong Buys, 22 Buys, 16 Holds, 1 Sell, and 2 Strong Sells.
Our internal model projects a base case of $350.82 with 11.94% upside and a bull case of $400.83 within a year. Confidence is high at 90%. With quarterly earnings growth of 21.8% year over year and bullish analyst sentiment at 60%, the fundamentals argue for a higher multiple.
The Path to $500 Per Share Reaching $500 from today’s price of $313.39 would require a gain of 59.5%. With forward EPS of $9.35, a price of $500 implies a forward P/E of 53x. Our base case of $350.82 already implies 38x, meaning the bold target requires roughly 15x of additional multiple expansion over four years if EPS compounds at double digits.
Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Apple didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today.
Three catalysts drive this. First, the Broadcom deal locks in silicon supply and positions Apple as an AI infrastructure supplier alongside its consumer hardware franchise.
Second, Tim Cook stated on the Q2 call that “R&D is accelerating much higher than the company overall”, funding the Apple Intelligence push.
Third, incoming CEO John Ternus called this “the most exciting time in my 25-year career at Apple Inc. to be building products and services”. The primary risk is memory cost inflation compressing that 49.3% gross margin before EPS growth catches up.
Where Apple Trades Today vs Its Earnings Power Apple currently trades at a forward P/E of 34x on $9.35 forward EPS. That is rich for a mega-cap, but defensible given nine consecutive quarters of earnings beats and a 52-week range of $200.70 to $317.40. Apple has returned 1,323.98% over the past ten years. That compounding shows what happens when installed base scale meets services monetization.
Is $500 Realistic? Getting to $500 by 2030 requires a gain of 59.5% from here. That is a reasonable stretch.
Three things need to go right: services keeps compounding double digits, Apple Intelligence becomes a genuine upgrade driver for the 2.5 billion active device installed base, and the Broadcom silicon deal converts into real AI infrastructure revenue. Memory cost shock that hits gross margins before EPS catches up derails it. We’ve outlined the blueprint for how Apple could reach $500 in 2030.
Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Apple didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today.
Luxshare Precision Industry, a Shenzhen-based Apple (AAPL) supplier that assembles products including iPhones and AirPods, came under pressure in its Hong Kong
Reports that Meta Platforms (META +2.06%) has signed a "multi-year" deal to secure flash memory from Sandisk (SNDK +12.30%) sent Sandisk stock flying -- and Meta stock dying -- early this morning. Meta stock initially fell 4% on the news, before recovering.
As of 11:40 a.m. ET, Meta stock is back in the green, up 0.5%.
Image source: Getty Images.
Details, please Citing internal Meta documents, Reuters reports the social media giant will buy NAND from Sandisk, DRAM from Samsung, and fiber optics from Sumitomo as it builds out its very own artificial intelligence computing infrastructure.
Additional beneficiaries may include Broadcom (AVGO +4.51%), which is helping Meta design Iris AI semiconductors for its data centers, and also Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM +0.83%), which will contract-manufacture these AI chips.
All these companies are declining to officially confirm the details of the Reuters report. Regardless, investors are "buying the rumor" and shares of all the U.S. publicly traded stocks named -- Sandisk, Broadcom, and TSMC -- are moving higher today.
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Why Meta stock is slumping Meta stock, on the other hand, is not moving higher, or at least not much. Indeed, Meta stock initially sold off on this news.
Why is that? Consider that Meta has plans to spend $145 billion on AI infrastructure this year, and today's Sandisk news seems to confirm this plan is on track. On the one hand, that kind of money will buy Meta a lot of AI capacity as it competes with the likes of Alphabet, OpenAI, and Anthropic. On the other hand, $145 billion is even more than the $136.6 billion Meta is expected to bring in via cash from operations this year, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Meta's skating close to the edge these days, and if that makes investors nervous, I totally understand.
Rich Smith has positions in Meta Platforms. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Broadcom, Meta Platforms, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
SummaryMeta Platforms is reportedly soon entering into the cloud computing provider business, positioning itself as a formidable AI infrastructure cloud.META's AI-driven ad tools and compute expansion could unlock significant monetization and margin improvement opportunities. The market is clearly underestimating its prowess.The stock trades at under 19x forward earnings, below peers, despite anticipated growth inflection from compute partnerships and AI advancements.I expect META's next step into the compute business and plausible Anthropic partnership could catalyze a rerating toward all-time highs.If you've been waiting for a chance to double down on Meta, you might not find a better opening to do so.Looking for a helping hand in the market? Members of Ultimate Growth Investing get exclusive ideas and guidance to navigate any climate. Learn More » panida wijitpanya/iStock Editorial via Getty Images
Finally, Meta is reportedly selling compute Finally, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has understood the importance of having a cloud computing business, as Meta (META) has reportedly been looking to sell compute for the first time.
I'm not sure how long
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Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have a beneficial long position in the shares of META, GOOGL either through stock ownership, options, or other derivatives. 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.
In a bid to lower its GPU costs amid an unprecedented component shortage, Meta is on track to start making the latest versions of its AI-specific chip in September, Reuters reported, citing an internal memo.
At least one chip sailed through its testing phase in about six weeks, the memo said. Meta is working with Broadcom on the chip design, but it will use Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) to manufacture them. It is also buying RAM from Samsung, storage from Sandisk, and fiber-optic equipment from Sumitomo Electric, according to the report.
Meta detailed the four new chips, developed under its Meta Training and Inference Accelerator (MTIA) program, in March, some of which are currently in deployment or will be this year or next. The company is taking a modular approach to designing these chips, anticipating that their needs will change as AI evolves rapidly by the time the chips are in production.
“Each MTIA generation builds on the last, using modular chiplets, incorporating the latest AI workload insights and hardware technologies, and deploying on a shorter cadence,” the company wrote at the time.
The chips are expected to help the company save on buying GPUs from chipmakers like Nvidia and AMD, although it still expects to spend plenty with those providers as well, Reuters reports. Meta intends to use the MTIA chips for training models for its ranking and recommendation algorithms, broader AI workloads, and inference aimed at its applications. The social media company has been producing its own AI chips since 2023.
Meta has been spending massively on securing enough compute capacity to power its various AI efforts. The company in April said it expects capital expenditures between $125 billion and $145 billion this year, a lot of which is going toward its AI efforts.
The company has been striking data center and power deals across the world, spending tens of billions to secure computing capacity to train and deploy its new Muse Spark series of AI models. It plans to deploy 7 gigawatts of compute this year, and double that next, according to Reuters, which cited the memo.
It also signed a deal with ARM last year to secure compute for its recommendation systems, in addition to a multibillion-dollar deal with AMD for its Instinct GPUs and a multibillion-dollar deal with Amazon to use the cloud giant’s homegrown CPUs for AI-related needs.
Meta isn’t the only company trying to stem the tide of capital going to Nvidia. OpenAI last month unveiled an inference processor that it is building with Broadcom, and Anthropic is said to be considering developing its own chips with Samsung. Amazon and Google both develop their own chips for AI training and inference, and there’s a host of startups building in the space to meet skyrocketing demand.
Meta declined to comment.
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Ram is a financial and tech reporter and editor. He covered North American and European M&A, equity, regulatory news and debt markets at Reuters and Acuris Global, and has also written about travel, tourism, entertainment and books.
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Meta Platforms (META) introduced Muse Spark 1.1 on Thursday, calling the new AI model a major upgrade as Mark Zuckerberg pushes harder against Google (GOOG), Op
Meta launches a new AI coding model with 'very aggressive' pricing, CEO Mark Zuckerberg says By You're currently following this author! Want to unfollow? Unsubscribe via the link in your email.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC Meta could spark a price war in the booming AI coding market.
The tech giant announced its latest AI model, Muse Spark 1.1, on Thursday, saying it performs well on industry tests for coding and AI agents. It's Meta's first AI model that it charges users for.
In comments on X, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the model has a "very low price," though the company hasn't announced the cost yet. He also called out other AI companies for pricing their chatbots at "very extreme" levels in comments to Bloomberg. He told Bloomberg that the model outperformed Google's Gemini in several categories, including agents, coding, and other capabilities.
"We think that there's a real ability to be able to offer frontier or very high-level intelligence at a much more affordable cost," Zuckerberg told the outlet.
The model, which isn't fully available to developers yet, marks the latest milestone for Meta's AI efforts — and shows the company intends to compete on price.
If Meta's new AI models can compete with widely-used coding tools from rivals like Anthropic, OpenAI, and Cursor, that could represent a huge new source of revenue. Meta's stock was up nearly 2% on Thursday.
The cost of using AI has become a growing concern for companies as employees incorporate the technology into more of their day-to-day work. Companies have been throttling their employees' use of AI in recent months as vibe coding takes off. Coinbase, for example, now limits its engineers' weekly AI spending to $500 to $5,000 a week.
Meta quoted one of its customers, AI coding startup Cline, saying that the new AI model's price point makes it easy to run heavy AI coding tasks at scale.
"That combination is rare, and it's exactly why we wanted Cline developers to have access early," Saoud Rizwan, the Cline CEO, said on Meta's website.
Meta is spending massive amounts of cash on AI, raising its capital expenditure guidance for this year to $125-$145 billion, up from a previous estimate of $115-$135 billion. Meta remains highly dependent on its ads business, which accounts for about 98% of its total revenue, according to its first-quarter earnings results.
"We believe Meta is well positioned to generate ample revenue to support its spending, driven by monetization of its own AI initiatives, advertising share gains, incremental subscription revenue, an optionality of cloud offering, and fees for external use of its AI models," BNP Paribas Equity Research senior analyst Nick Jomes wrote in a note to investors on Thursday.
Meta is also working on a coming AI model codenamed "Watermelon," which its AI chief Alexandr Wang says has caught up to one of the latest versions of OpenAI's ChatGPT.
The model uses "an order of magnitude" more computing power than Meta's previous model, Wang told staff last week, Business Insider reported earlier.
Meta didn't respond to a request for comment.
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Charles Rollet is BI's tech correspondent in San Francisco. Prior to joining BI, Charles worked at TechCrunch covering startups and VC. Charles is based in the Bay Area, where he enjoys hiking with his dogs. You can contact Charles securely on Signal at charlesrollet.12 or +1-628-282-2811.
It's Thursday, 2 p.m., and do you know where the Nasdaq is?
It's up a respectable 1.2% -- but the Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3X Shares ETF (SOXL +13.09%) is up much, much more, surging past 14.1% on some billion-dollar-plus news items in semiconductors today.
Image source: Getty Images.
Micron boosts the market The first news comes from Micron (MU +7.10%) stock, which is surging nearly 8% after announcing it's investing up to $3 billion "to strengthen the U.S. semiconductor supply chain ecosystem," including by loaning GlobalWafers Co., Ltd. $500 million to help build its 300mm raw silicon wafer manufacturing facility in Sherman, Tex., and its signing a 10-year deal to buy the wafers GlobalWafers churns out.
In related news, Reuters is reporting that Meta Platforms (META +2.07%) has signed a multi-year supply agreement to source NAND flash memory for its data centers from Sandisk (SNDK +12.30%), and is also buying DRAM from Samsung, and fiber optic cables from Sumitomo Electric, and Iris artificial intelligence chips from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM +0.83%) -- with Broadcom (AVGO +4.51%) doing the chip design work.
It's all part of a Meta plan to spend $145 billion building out AI infrastructure this year alone.
3x the risk, 3x the gain Think all the above might be enough to get semiconductor investors excited? Today it is, for sure. And several of the companies making headlines today -- Micron, Broadcom, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing -- are components of the Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3X Shares ETF, too.
Their share price gains directly translate into upwards momentum for the ETF, and once 3x'ed... well, that's how you take a 1.2% Nasdaq gain, and parlay it into a 14.1% skyrocket for this heavily leveraged bet on semiconductor stocks.
Rich Smith has positions in Meta Platforms. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Broadcom, Meta Platforms, Micron Technology, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta plans to design its own artificial intelligence chips in-house starting in September – part of an industry-wide effort by the biggest names in AI to start making their own chips amid ongoing high demand.
Zuck’s initiative, known internally as “Iris,” centers on developing custom silicon to supercharge the AI systems behind Facebook and Instagram, Reuters reported Thursday.
The social media giant — which expectes to spend up to $145 billion on AI infrastructure this year — is working with Palo Alto, Calif.-based Broadcom on design and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing on production.
Meta wants to use custom chips to supercharge its social platforms, including Instagram. ink drop – stock.adobe.com Meta joins a growing list of technology companies seeking to handle more of their chip development internally to cut costs and reduce dependence on Nvidia, which has dominated the AI chip business with its ultra-powerful semiconductors.
Even as Meta and other companies are launching their foray into chip building, the semiconductor industry remains under tremendous demand strain, and AI companies’ efforts to become more autonomous provides no silver bullet to the supply chain conundrum.
Demand for manufacturing, packaging and other chip production resources continues to outpace supply, while several specialized chip-making processes are controlled by a small number of companies already operating at capacity even as they invest mountains of capital to expand.
Meta’s latest project builds on a long-running effort to develop its own chips. Its Training and Inference Accelerators program, launched more than five years ago, has focused on in-house chip development, though progress has been slow.
Development of the new chip has reportedly moved much more rapidly. Testing took just six weeks and faced no major problems, according to Reuters. Meta plans to introduce a new chip roughly every six months through 2027, compared with the typical annual-or-longer release cycle for AI chips.
Meta is aiming to double its computing infrastructure in 2027, according to Reuters.
The custom product is intended to complement the large number of graphics processing units, or GPUs, that Meta buys from Nvidia and AMD for AI workloads.
Mark Zuckerberg’s chip initiative is intended to reduce Meta’s reliance on Nvidia and cut costs. CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images But bringing the newest GPUs online at Meta’s scale “has been a heavy lift, and it has cost us time,” according to a company memo reviewed by Reuters.
Developing custom chips can potentially lower costs and diversify supply chains, Axios noted.
“I want something in my pocket when I’m sitting across the table from Jensen negotiating,” Bernstein senior analyst Stacy Rasgon told the outlet, referring to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.
In addition to Meta, Amazon, Google and Microsoft all have in-house chip programs. OpenAI recently introduced its first custom inference chip with Broadcom, while Anthropic is reportedly in talks with Samsung about developing its own chip.
Nvidia, led by Jenson Huang, dominates the AI chip industry. Getty Images Apple announced this week that it plans to spend more than $30 billion with Broadcom over the next five years, helping the chipmaker expand a manufacturing facility in Fort Collins, Colo.
The consumer tech giant already designs its own chips for the iPhone, iPad and Mac, and is reportedly developing separate processors for AI servers.
Samsung manufactures advanced chips for both its own products and outside customers, while Intel is working to expand its contract manufacturing business after its production technology fell behind in recent years, Axios noted.
Showing the complexity of attaining chip autonomy, those manufacturers rely on lithography equipment from Dutch company ASML — the only supplier of the most advanced machines used to produce AI chips, per the news site.
The Post has sought comment from Meta, Broadcom and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing.
Key features of SFYI-Invests in the 50 most widely held U.S.-listed stocks across SoFi Invest self-directed brokerage accounts.
-Employs an actively managed options strategy, including covered calls and call spreads, to seek monthly income distributions alongside growth potential.
-Offers a lower capital barrier, as investors can access an options-based income strategy through a single ETF instead of owning at least 100 shares required for traditional covered call strategies.
-Provides access to complex options strategies through a convenient ETF structure.
-Applies its options strategy across a diversified portfolio rather than a single stock.
-Builds on the existing SoFi Social 50 ETF (NYSE:SFYF), which tracks the platform’s 50 most widely held stocks.
-Carries a gross expense ratio of 0.73%.
The launch comes as investors increasingly look beyond traditional fixed-income strategies amid an uncertain interest-rate environment and elevated market volatility.
According to SoFi, SFYI simplifies options-based income investing by embedding professionally managed covered calls and call spreads into a single ETF, eliminating the need for investors to build and manage their own options positions.
“Income-seeking investors are being challenged to rethink their traditional playbook,” said Brian Walsh, SoFi’s head of Advice and Planning, adding that the fund is designed to provide exposure to the platform’s most widely held stocks while pursuing monthly income and potential capital appreciation.
Photo: PJ McDonnell / Shutterstock
This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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SummaryTesla, Inc. remains my top long-term holding, driven by dominant Q2 deliveries and a robust multi-segment ecosystem.Q2 deliveries hit a record 480,126 vehicles (for any Q2), signaling a turnaround in core EV operations and potential for earnings beats.My Q2 estimates—$28.28B revenue, $0.51 EPS—are near the high end of consensus, with upside if margins outperform.I maintain a 12-month price target for TSLA stock of $550–$600, citing Tesla’s leadership in EVs, FSD, energy, and AI, and other segments, but highlight execution and valuation risks.Looking for a helping hand in the market? Members of The Financial Prophet get exclusive ideas and guidance to navigate any climate. Learn More » Getty Images
You know, I've been bullish on Tesla, Inc. (TSLA) for a long time. In fact, the first time I bought into the stock was back in October 2013, which seems like ages ago. Nonetheless, my investment in Tesla has been
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Google is rolling out a new feature aimed at helping people understand when an ad they’re seeing was made using AI technology.
AI makes it easier for businesses to create ads, place their brand’s products in various settings, and save money on real-world e-commerce photography. But it can also be misleading if consumers don’t know that what they’re looking at isn’t a real product photo. While Google prohibits misleading and deceptive ads, an ad can still leverage AI to create some type of synthetic or digitally altered content. Until now, that’s something Google only required election ads to disclose.
ScreenshotImage Credits:Google The tech giant said the new consumer-facing feature will be introduced to the “My Ad Center” panel, which anyone globally can access by clicking the three-dot menu or on the info icon on the ads they come across via Google Search, YouTube, and Google Discover.
This panel already lets users block or report ads, learn more about the advertiser or why the ad was shown, among other things. Now, users also see an option that says “how this ad was made,” which will indicate if the ad was created or edited with AI.
Google says that when advertisers use its own generative AI advertising tools to create ads, the disclosure will be automatically enabled.
However, if the ad is created elsewhere, the advertiser will need to use a new control to indicate if AI was involved in its creation — Google will not perform its own check to determine if that’s the case. In some markets, the ad may also be labeled as AI if local law requires it.
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BRECKENRIDGE, Colo., July 09, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Breckenridge Distillery, one of the most-awarded craft distilleries in the U.S., and a subsidiary of Tilray Brands, Inc. (NASDAQ: TLRY and TSX: TLRY), announced the launch of Breck Vodka Seltzer today, a bold new entry into the ready-to-drink category that captures the spirit of the Colorado Rockies in every can. Available in four vibrant flavors, Breck Vodka Seltzer is crafted for those who live for bright days, fresh air, and laid-back mountain culture vibes.
Born in the Rockies and built for the outdoors, Breck Vodka Seltzer blends crisp tartness with a touch of natural sweetness, delivering a clean, easy-drinking experience at 5% ABV. Each flavor bursts with ripe fruit character, the kind of refreshment that keeps pace with wherever the day takes you.
“Our new Vodka Seltzer is crafted for anyone looking for real flavor, balanced from nose to finish,” said Bryan Nolt, Founder of Breckenridge Distillery. “Born in the Rockies and inspired by mountain culture, it’s an easy drinking seltzer you can take anywhere, made with the same quality as our award-winning Breckenridge Vodka.”
Breck Vodka Seltzers are now available in four flavors, lime, grapefruit, peach and tropical in 4-pack individual flavors and 8-pack variety formats in Colorado retailers, coming to national retailers Fall 2026. 4-pack $11-13.99 MSRP and 8-pack variety $18.99-19.99 MSRP.
Flavors include:
Lime Breck Vodka Seltzer: Bright, refreshing aromas of fresh lime zest lead the nose. The palate opens with crisp, vibrant lime, balanced by a smooth touch of sweetness. It finishes clean and invigorating, with light, tingly lime juice notes that leave you reaching for another sip.
Grapefruit Breck Vodka Seltzer: Juicy, refreshing grapefruit aromas greet the senses. On the palate, bright grapefruit juice delivers a gentle tartness, balanced by a lingering sweetness. The finish carries a fresh grapefruit retro nasal note that remains pleasant on the breath.
Tropical Breck Vodka Seltzer: A sun‑drenched blend of vibrant citrus and lush island fruit. Aromas of ripe orange and sweet pineapple set a breezy, beach‑day tone, rounded by a smooth trace of coconut. The palate is juicy and well‑balanced; it’s bright, fruity, and effortlessly smooth, offering a tropical escape in every sip.
Peach Breck Vodka Seltzer: Inviting aromas of ripe peach and peach ring candy, with a creamy, dessert-like character. The palate showcases sweet, juicy peach layered with cream and a subtle vanilla note. The finish is smooth and lingering, tapering to a clean, crisp peach and vanilla close.
For more information about Breckenridge Distillery, visit www.breckenridgedistillery.com and click here to find retailers near you. Follow Breckenridge Distillery on Instagram @breckdistillery and become a fan at facebook.com/BreckDistillery. Age 21+. Always enjoy responsibly.
About Breckenridge Distillery
Founded in Colorado in 2008, Breckenridge Distillery is the “World’s Highest Distillery,” and is best known for its award-winning blended bourbon whiskey, a high-rye mash American-style whiskey.
One of the most highly awarded distilleries in the U.S., the Breckenridge Distillery is proudly a 3x Icons of Whisky and 10x winner of Best American Blended winner at the World Whiskies Awards by Whisky Magazine and a 4x winner of Colorado Distillery of the Year by the New York International Spirits Competition. Most recently, Breckenridge Port Cask Finish was named World’s Best Finished Bourbon at the 2024 World Whiskies Awards, joining Breckenridge High Proof, named World’s Best Blended Whiskey and Breckenridge Gin, named World’s Best Compound Gin at the World Gin Awards by Gin Magazine. Breckenridge spirits have been awarded 6 Double Golds at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition.
The Breckenridge Distillery is more than award-winning spirits, offering an immersive guest experience. Named as one of the country’s Top Visitor Attractions by Whisky Magazine, guests can dine at their award-winning restaurant, enjoy show-stopping cocktails, learn about their highly awarded spirits with an in-depth tasting, and get an inside look at their active production facility. New to the distillery, guests have the opportunity to blend their own whiskey as they learn the inner workings of whiskey production.
Breckenridge Distillery is a subsidiary of Tilray Brands, Inc. (NASDAQ: TLRY and TSX: TLRY), a leading global cannabis-lifestyle and consumer packaged goods company inspiring and empowering the worldwide community to live their very best life.
To learn more about Breckenridge Distillery, visit www.breckenridgedistillery.com. Keep up with Breckenridge Distillery on Instagram by following @breckdistillery and become a fan at facebook.com/BreckDistillery.
For more information about Tilray Brands, visit www.tilray.com and follow @tilray on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
About Tilray Brands
Tilray Brands, Inc. (“Tilray”) (Nasdaq: TLRY; TSX: TLRY), is a leading global lifestyle and consumer packaged goods company with operations in Canada, the United States, Europe, Australia, and Latin America that is leading as a transformative force at the nexus of cannabis, beverage, wellness, and entertainment, elevating lives through moments of connection. Tilray’s mission is to be a leading premium lifestyle company with a house of brands and innovative products that inspire joy and create memorable experiences. Tilray’s unprecedented platform supports over 40 brands in over 20 countries, including comprehensive cannabis offerings, hemp-based foods, and craft beverages.
For more information on how we are elevating lives through moments of connection, visit Tilray.com and follow @Tilray on all social platforms.
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements in this communication that are not historical facts constitute forward-looking information or forward-looking statements (together, “forward-looking statements”) under Canadian and U.S. securities laws and within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, that are intended to be subject to the “safe harbor” created by those sections and other applicable laws. Forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as “forecast,” “future,” “should,” “could,” “enable,” “potential,” “contemplate,” “believe,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “plan,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “project,” “will,” “would” and the negative of these terms or similar expressions, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Certain material factors, estimates, goals, projections, or assumptions were used in drawing the conclusions contained in the forward-looking statements throughout this communication. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding our intentions, beliefs, projections, outlook, analyses, or current expectations. Many factors could cause actual results, performance, or achievement to be materially different from any forward-looking statements, and other risks and uncertainties not presently known to the Company or that the Company deems immaterial could also cause actual results or events to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements contained herein. For a more detailed discussion of these risks and other factors, see the most recently filed annual information form of Tilray and the Annual Report on Form 10-K (and other periodic reports filed with the SEC) of Tilray made with the SEC and available on EDGAR. The forward-looking statements included in this communication are made as of the date of this communication and the Company does not undertake any obligation to publicly update such forward-looking statements to reflect new information, subsequent events, or otherwise unless required by applicable securities laws.
Despite being a key player in the artificial intelligence (AI) space, NVIDIA NVDA is now trading at one of its lowest valuation levels in years, per a Yahoo Finance article. The company's forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio has fallen to 22.22x, its lowest level since at least 2019, according to Yahoo Finance AlphaSpace data.
Long the leading light of the industry, Nvidia has had a bad couple of months. Bloomberg has the ugly details, but the upshot is that the company’s stock price has fallen 15% since its peak in May, even as projected revenue continues to grow. Compared with expected earnings, the company is now cheaper than the S&P average; investors are paying less per dollar of Nvidia’s projected profit than they do for the typical large American company.
Money is still flooding into AI infrastructure stocks, but it’s mostly going into memory companies. Over the same period, Micron — one of the world’s largest makers of DRAM, the standard type of memory chip found in computers and servers — has nearly tripled in value, establishing memory as the new bottleneck for data centers and the hot new AI trade. The basic reason is simple: The GPU shortage that looked so alarming last year has eased off a bit. At the same time, data centers need all the memory money can buy.
For anyone who appreciates Nvidia’s technological accomplishments, this can feel a bit deflating. There’s a lot of genuinely impressive technology behind Nvidia’s rise, both in developing CUDA, its widely adopted programming platform that made Nvidia GPUs the default engine for AI research, and in pushing the pace of GPU development to a speed few thought possible. Nvidia’s success is the kind of thing you can write whole books about, and the GPUs themselves are among the most complex devices ever produced, right at the bleeding edge of human capability.
For memory companies like Micron, the story is much simpler. They build high-bandwidth memory chips — specialized components designed to move data in and out of processors as fast as possible — which have been getting incrementally better for 20 years. Without the chips or the companies changing too much, the service they provide suddenly became very valuable — and since demand is growing faster than anyone can scale up supply, they have been able to increase prices tenfold over the past year.
This, via Datatrack, is what the spot price for DRAM — the price buyers pay for chips on the open market, as opposed to long-term contract rates — looks like since 2023:
Image Credits:Datatrack (screenshot) You might think there was some amazing technical breakthrough in the summer of 2025, but no, the industry as a whole just vastly underestimated how much memory it would need for the data center buildout.
In comparison, this (via the compute marketplace Ornn) is how the spot price for an hour of time on an Nvidia H100 GPU has changed over the last year:
Image Credits:Ornn (screenshot) Just like Nvidia’s stock price, there’s a peak in May (around $3.20 an hour) and then a steady drop-off. For better or worse, Nvidia’s value as a company is tied to the price of compute and that price is falling. Micron and its cohort are tied to the price of DRAM, and that price keeps rising.
When I talked to Ornn co-founder and CTO Wayne Nelms about the forces driving that disparity, he framed it as a simple issue of supply and demand. Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and even OpenAI have launched their own custom processors to lessen their dependence on Nvidia; even if those chips aren’t as good as the latest model from Nvidia, they’re good enough to drive down the price of compute.
“More GPU and accelerator players are entering the market. Everyone wants to make their own silicon, but no one is making their own DRAM,” Nelms told me. “Until there’s a major technological breakthrough on HBM [high-bandwidth memory], a shift in supply and demand, or someone new [enters the market in memory], I think things will more or less persist as we see today.”
It’s a frustrating state of affairs for Nvidia, and largely a product of its own success. Having proven how valuable compute can be, the company finds itself at the center of a market everyone wants to be in — while simpler technologies and less interesting companies get rich on the sidelines.
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Russell Brandom has been covering the tech industry since 2012, with a focus on platform policy and emerging technologies. He previously worked at The Verge and Rest of World, and has written for Wired, The Awl and MIT’s Technology Review. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Signal at 412-401-5489.
So far this year, Nvidia (NVDA 0.08%) stock has exhibited an unusually muted performance. As of this writing (July 7), Nvidia stock has gained just 5% in 2026 -- a result that stands in sharp contrast to the parabolic surges that have defined the company's trajectory in recent years.
This pause is prompting investors to reassess both the near-term price action of a company that has spent the last few years at the center of the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, and their longer-term expectations for it.
Image source: Nvidia.
What's wrong with Nvidia stock? After reaching a series of all-time highs between 2023 and 2025, Nvidia stock has traded within a relatively narrow range in 2026.
That consolidation in Nvidia stock has coincided with a period of broader weakness across large-cap technology names, where frothy valuations have increasingly been met with questions about the pace of spending on generative AI infrastructure. As investors' capital rotates out of big tech, attention is shifting toward other semiconductor companies that are perceived to offer more immediate upside or to possess underappreciated exposure to AI supply chains.
Memory specialist Micron Technology, storage and flash-memory players such as Sandisk, and connectivity-focused names including Marvell Technology have all drawn incremental interest during this rotation. The net effect has been a redistribution of inflows, leaving Nvidia stock without the concentrated buying pressure seen in earlier phases of the AI supercycle.
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Is Nvidia's business maturing? Some may see Nvidia as a company transitioning from hypergrowth to a more measured, mature phase. This characterization, however, doesn't mesh with several concrete developments inside the business.
Revenues from Nvidia's data center segment -- the primary engine of the business -- set a record in the first quarter. Moreover, management guided for further revenue growth acceleration for the second quarter. This is particularly meaningful because the company's data center segment sales had previously shown signs of plateauing.
Management has also articulated roughly $1 trillion in revenue visibility for its Blackwell and Vera Rubin processors across 2026 and 2027, anchored by multiyear commitments from hyperscalers and large enterprise customers.
At the same time, the company is quietly pursuing a deliberate strategy of extending its reach across the full AI infrastructure stack. Strategic investments and partnerships involving Nokia in networking, Coherent and Lumentum in optical components, and Marvell in complementary silicon have positioned Nvidia to participate in every major layer of the AI value chain -- from training and inference chips to high-speed interconnects and power delivery.
Nvidia stock is set up for explosive gains In the chart below, investors can see trends in Nvidia's forward price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple over the past four years. Nvidia's current valuation profile illustrates a clear compression from elevated levels that accompanied the company's most rapid growth phases.
NVDA PE Ratio (Forward) data by YCharts.
This suggests that premiums that once reflected investors' expectations of sustained revenue and earnings acceleration have normalized to levels more typical of a maturing business. In effect, the market appears to be pricing Nvidia as though its best growth opportunities are behind it.
This is not the first time such a rerating has occurred with Nvidia. In earlier instances when Nvidia's forward P/E contracted amid consolidation or shifting sentiment, subsequent evidence of accelerating revenue and profitability triggered multiple expansions. This pattern is consistent: Once operational results confirm that the company's AI-driven growth is continuing, investors eventually reengage, and the valuation rerates higher.
With Nvidia now showing renewed momentum in its data center business and laying the foundation for added gains across adjacent layers of the AI chip stack, I think that sequence is likely to repeat. Patient investors who recognize that Nvidia's recent price action reflects investor caution rather than a fundamental deterioration of its thesis can position themselves to benefit from meaningful share price appreciation as the chip giant continues to execute.
Nvidia stock (NVDA) slipped on Thursday, giving back some of the previous session's gains even as semiconductor stocks broadly rallied, underscoring investors' continued preference for other parts of the artificial intelligence supply chain. Shares were down 1.1% at $201.76 in midday trading after jumping 3.7% on Wednesday.
The Number SemiAnalysis, the semiconductor research firm that AI hardware investors track obsessively, pegs NVIDIA’s (NASDAQ:NVDA | NVDA Price Prediction) Data Center compute revenue at roughly $203 billion for the back half of Fiscal 2027, about 20% above Wall Street consensus of about $169 billion.
That gap is the anchor of this story. If SemiAnalysis is right, the sell-side model that currently underwrites Nvidia valuation math is materially low on the company’s largest business unit.
What It Means Data Center is the engine. Last quarter, Data Center revenue hit $75.246 billion, up 92% year over year, split between Data Center Compute at $60.4 billion (up 77% YoY) and Data Center Networking at $14.8 billion (up 199% YoY). Roughly 50% of Data Center revenue comes from hyperscale customers, and NVIDIA has already locked in $119 billion of total supply-related commitments and $30 billion of multi-year cloud service commitments.
SemiAnalysis carries weight because its estimates are stitched together from the full supply chain: wafer starts, HBM availability, server integrator shipments, hyperscaler build plans. That is grittier input than the sell-side models that lean on company guidance. The firm attributes the upside to a large Rubin ramp after earlier HBM4 issues that are now resolved and front-end wafer supply that has been built up.
There is a wrinkle. SemiAnalysis also flagged that NVIDIA’s Kyber NVL144 rack-scale system may slip from 2027 to 2028 due to a PCB midplane manufacturing challenge, a claim NVIDIA disputed by saying its roadmap is intact. That debate concerns a 2028 product. The bullish revenue call is about the 2H FY2027 ramp already in flight, so the two threads do not collide.
Market Reaction Shares closed at $204.12 on July 8, 2026, up 3.65% on the day. Year to date the stock is up 9.58%, and it is up 27.74% over the past year. Prediction markets on Polymarket assign an 83% probability NVDA closes July above $208, with the crowd showing a 75.5% historical accuracy on NVDA markets.
Bull Case The valuation math is the point. NVDA trades near $204, with a forward P/E around 35. If the largest business unit earns 20% more than consensus expects in the back half of FY2027, forward EPS moves higher and the multiple compresses on its own. The stock becomes cheaper without doing anything.
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The trailing evidence supports the direction. Q1 FY2027 delivered non-GAAP diluted EPS of $1.87 versus a $1.77 estimate, a 5.42% beat, on revenue of $81.615 billion, up 85.23% YoY and 3.16% ahead of consensus.
That was the twelfth consecutive quarterly EPS beat. Margins told the same story: non-GAAP gross margin expanded to 75% from 60.8% a year ago, while net income rose 210.63% and operating income rose 147.42% year over year.
Cash generation is doing the work in the background. Free cash flow reached $48.554 billion in Q1, up 85.41% YoY. Management responded by raising the quarterly dividend from $0.01 to $0.25 and authorizing an additional $80 billion share repurchase with no expiration. Wall Street’s read is aligned: an analyst target price of $301.62 with 10 strong buy, 48 buy, 2 hold, and 1 sell ratings.
Q2 guidance from the company itself calls for $91 billion in revenue plus or minus 2%, gross margin of 75.0% plus or minus 50 bps, and excludes any China Data Center compute revenue. SemiAnalysis is layering a higher ramp on top of an already high bar.
Bottom Line For a retirement-focused investor, the real question is whether the denominator in that P/E is right, not the sticker multiple. SemiAnalysis says it is too low by roughly 20% in the biggest revenue line, driven by a Rubin ramp that is already staged.
The risks are real: the estimate is a research firm’s, not company guidance, consensus expectations are already elevated, and any execution or demand hiccup pressures a mega-cap at scale. The next hard data point is the Q3 FY2027 earnings report on August 26, 2026, after the close. Until then, the anchor number is $203 billion.
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AI chip startup Positron is seeking about $750 million in financing as investor demand continues to build around companies trying to challenge Nvidia (NVDA), th
NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA | NVDA Price Prediction) has maintained its status as the world’s most valuable company for most of the past two years. Now trading at a valuation of a little more than $4.7 trillion, Nvidia has seen roughly $4 billion of market capitalization added over the past five years, as this chip giant has seen its market capitalization soar on the back of the AI revolution.
What It Means A four-plus trillion dollar valuation would be a curiosity if the underlying business did not keep pace. It does. In the most recent quarter (Q1 FY27, reported May 20, 2026), NVIDIA posted revenue of $81.61 billion, up 85.2% year over year, beating the consensus estimate of $79.12 billion by 3.16%. Net income landed at $58.32 billion, up 210.63% from a year earlier. Non-GAAP EPS came in at $1.87 against a $1.77 estimate.
The company’s Data Center segment did the heavy lifting, generating $75.25 billion in the quarter, up 92% year over year. Data Center Networking alone climbed to $14.8 billion, a 199% jump. Non-GAAP gross margin sat at 75.0%, up from 60.8% a year prior. Free cash flow totaled $48.55 billion. Companies at this scale are not supposed to grow this fast at this margin.
Market Reaction Shares closed at $221.54 on the day of the Q1 FY27 8-K filing (May 20, 2026). Since then the stock has drifted lower, ending July 2 at $194.83, down 12.46% over the past month while remaining up 24.06% over the past year and 854.24% over five years. Over the past decade, NVIDIA shares are up 16,930.86%. Again, over the past five years, that gain for investors is around 850%.
Bull Case The rules of tech investing used to say that companies could not compound at hypergrowth rates once they crossed a few hundred billion in market value. NVIDIA is testing that assumption in real time. Q2 FY27 revenue guidance is $91.0 billion, plus or minus 2%, and that figure excludes China Data Center compute revenue entirely. Nvidia’s management team has committed to $119.0 billion in supply-related purchases, a signal about how deep the order book actually runs.
Capital return has scaled with the business. The board approved an additional $80.0 billion in buyback authorization in May 2026, on top of the $38.5 billion that remained under the prior program. NVIDIA returned about $20 billion to shareholders in Q1 through repurchases and dividends, and raised the quarterly dividend from $0.01 to $0.25 per share, declared May 18, 2026 and paid June 26, 2026.
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CEO Jensen Huang framed the setup in the quarter: “The buildout of AI factories, the largest infrastructure expansion in human history, is accelerating at extraordinary speed.” He added that “Agentic AI has arrived, doing productive work, generating real value and scaling rapidly across companies and industries.” Roughly 50% of Data Center revenue comes from hyperscalers, with sovereign AI demand adding another leg. Blackwell 300 is ramping. The Vera Rubin platform has been announced.
Right now, I think Nvidia’s valuation supports a bull case, rather than stretches it. Currently, this stock trades at an otherwise reasonable (given its long-term run rate) multiple of 30x trailing earnings and a 23x forward PE, with an operating margin of 65.6% and return on equity of 114.3%. Of 61 covering analysts, 58 rate the stock a Buy, with an average target price of $301.62.
Bottom Line The reason Nvidia’s $4.72 trillion market cap is rewriting the rules is that the company’s growth arithmetic behind it still works. Revenue almost doubled year over year at a 75.0% gross margin, and the forward guide of $91.0 billion raises the bar again while explicitly leaving China out of the number.
For long-term holders, the next test is the Q2 FY27 earnings report, where investors will see whether the Blackwell 300 ramp and sovereign AI demand can carry the model past the size where every prior tech leader stalled. On the current numbers, NVIDIA keeps compounding at a rate that bends the historical pattern for companies of its size.
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Have you been searching for a stock that might be well-positioned to maintain its earnings-beat streak in its upcoming report? It is worth considering Johnson & Johnson (JNJ - Free Report) , which belongs to the Zacks Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry.
When looking at the last two reports, this world's biggest maker of health care products has recorded a strong streak of surpassing earnings estimates. The company has topped estimates by 1.18%, on average, in the last two quarters.
For the last reported quarter, Johnson & Johnson came out with earnings of $2.7 per share versus the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.67 per share, representing a surprise of 1.12%. For the previous quarter, the company was expected to post earnings of $2.43 per share and it actually produced earnings of $2.46 per share, delivering a surprise of 1.23%.
Price and EPS Surprise
With this earnings history in mind, recent estimates have been moving higher for Johnson & Johnson. In fact, the Zacks Earnings ESP (Expected Surprise Prediction) for the company is positive, which is a great sign of an earnings beat, especially when you combine this metric with its nice Zacks Rank.
Our research shows that stocks with the combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) or better produce a positive surprise nearly 70% of the time. In other words, if you have 10 stocks with this combination, the number of stocks that beat the consensus estimate could be as high as seven.
The Zacks Earnings ESP compares the Most Accurate Estimate to the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the quarter; the Most Accurate Estimate is a version of the Zacks Consensus whose definition is related to change. The idea here is that analysts revising their estimates right before an earnings release have the latest information, which could potentially be more accurate than what they and others contributing to the consensus had predicted earlier.
Johnson & Johnson currently has an Earnings ESP of +2.11%, which suggests that analysts have recently become bullish on the company's earnings prospects. This positive Earnings ESP when combined with the stock's Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) indicates that another beat is possibly around the corner. We expect the company's next earnings report to be released on July 15, 2026.
Investors should note, however, that a negative Earnings ESP reading is not indicative of an earnings miss, but a negative value does reduce the predictive power of this metric.
Many companies end up beating the consensus EPS estimate, though this is not the only reason why their shares gain. Additionally, some stocks may remain stable even if they end up missing the consensus estimate.
Because of this, it's really important to check a company's Earnings ESP ahead of its quarterly release to increase the odds of success. Make sure to utilize our Earnings ESP Filter to uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they've reported.
As the nicotine industry shifts toward smoke-free alternatives, investors face a choice between legacy giants and nimble mid-cap players. Altria Group (MO 0.95%) and Turning Point Brands (TPB 0.32%) represent two distinct paths.
Altria dominates the traditional U.S. cigarette market while aggressively expanding its footprint in vapor and oral nicotine products. Turning Point Brands focuses on specialty accessories, such as rolling papers and niche tobacco products, that appeal to specific consumer segments. Comparing these two reveals a trade-off between massive cash distributions and high-growth potential.
The case for AltriaAltria sells cigarettes, cigars, and oral nicotine products primarily to adult consumers in the United States. Its core operations include iconic brands like Marlboro and Copenhagen, while it builds out newer segments like NJOY in the e-vapor market. The company also maintains a joint venture with Japan Tobacco to market heated tobacco products, diversifying its portfolio beyond traditional combustion products.
In FY 2025, revenue reached nearly $20.1 billion, a slight decline of approximately 1.5% from the previous year. Despite this dip, the company reported net income of nearly $6.95 billion for the period, indicating the business remains highly profitable despite volume challenges in the traditional cigarette market.
As of its December 2025 balance sheet, the debt-to-equity ratio, which compares total debt to shareholder equity, was -7.3x. This negative value indicates that total liabilities exceed shareholders’ equity. Free cash flow for the fiscal year was nearly $9.1 billion, calculated by subtracting capital expenditures from operating cash flow.
Turning Point Brands markets and distributes alternative smoking accessories and tobacco products like Zig-Zag rolling papers and Stoker's chewing tobacco. It operates through about 220,000 retail locations in North America and manages critical supply agreements with partners like Philip Morris International (PM 2.51%) subsidiary Swedish Match. The company is a niche player among tobacco stocks, focusing on high-growth accessories and specialty tobacco.
For the period ending in FY 2025, the company reported revenue of approximately $463.1 million, a substantial 28% year-over-year increase. Net income was close to $58.2 million, which shows the company is successfully scaling its higher-growth brands.
Based on the December 2025 balance sheet, Turning Point Brands has a debt-to-equity ratio of nearly 0.9x. This ratio compares total debt to shareholders’ equity, indicating a moderate level of borrowing relative to shareholders’ equity. Free cash flow, or cash from operations minus capital spending, reached approximately $43.9 million for the year.
Risk profile comparisonAltria faces regulatory hurdles, specifically with the FDA's review process for e-vapor products and enforcement against illicit flavored disposables. Litigation remains a concern, including a certified class action lawsuit related to its past investment in the vaping company Juul Labs. Furthermore, traditional tobacco volumes are declining as consumer preferences shift and price gaps between premium and discount brands widen.
Turning Point Brands is vulnerable to supply chain disruptions because it relies on a small number of third-party suppliers, such as Swedish Match. Failure to renew these licensing and supply agreements would severely restrict its market access. Additionally, the company faces intense competition from larger firms like Altria that have significantly more capital to influence retail distribution and pricing strategies.
Valuation comparisonTurning Point Brands carries a higher Forward P/E based on future earnings estimates, while Altria provides a lower P/S ratio for value-conscious investors.
MetricAltriaTurning Point BrandsSector BenchmarkForward P/E13.0x62.9x287.6xP/S ratio6.0x3.5xSector benchmark uses the SPDR XLP sector ETF.
Valuation metrics sourced from Financial Modeling Prep (FMP) and may differ from other data providers.
Which stock would I buy in 2026?Altria is facing significant headwinds in its main market, the U.S., due to declining smoking rates. Smoking as a habit is declining globally and has hit its lowest level in the U.S., at under 10% of all adults, down from a peak of about 46% in the mid-1960s. Altria is finding some difficulty replacing revenue from the loss of traditional smokers because of the number of e-cigarette competitors taking share in the grey market outside regulatory approval. Wall Street estimates it will take Altria about five years to grow its revenue by just 5% from 2025 levels. Still, management is finding ways to boost profits, with net income seen rising 25% to $9.3 billion in 2026 on essentially flat revenue.
Turning Points Brands should see sales rise 13% this year to about $525 million, with net income of $58 million. That’s a 45% jump in profits. Nicotine pouch sales in the U.S. as a category grew 500% last year and are expected to remain strong this year. Still, there is a risk around pouches being hit by more regulations, and the fact that oral tobacco in the past was deeply criticized for contributing to oral cancers.
So which is the better buy? The difference here is Altria’s excellent dividend payments, with the stock trading at a forward dividend yield of nearly 6%, while Turning Point Brands is at less than 1%. Coupled with its lower forward P/E ratio, MO is the stock to pick.
Gold 090726 Daily Chart Gold rebounds as traders focus on the strong pullback in the oil markets. Oil prices are down by -4% as traders react to recent events in the Middle East.
According to recent reports, Iran sent oil tankers carrying 11 million barrels of crude through the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. has continued to attack targets in Iran but did not impose a naval blockade of the country’s ports, so Iran rushed to sell its oil.
Iran has also attacked targets in the region in response to U.S. attacks, which were triggered by Iran’s attacks on vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.
Recent reports suggest that Qatar and Pakistan are ready to get back to their roles as mediators in order to facilitate negotiations between U.S. and Iran.
Falling oil prices provided support to gold prices as Treasury yields fell. The yield of 2-year Treasuries declined towards the 4.16% level, while the yield of 10-year Treasuries settled near 4.53%. Lower yields are bullish for gold that pays no interest.
U.S. dollar pulled back against a broad basket of currencies as forex traders focused on falling Treasury yields. Weaker dollar provided additional support to gold markets.
The nearest resistance level for U.S. Dollar Index is located in the $4180 – $4200 range. A successful test of this level will open the way to the test of the next resistance at $4360 – $4380.
Silver Attempts To Settle Above The $60.00 Level Silver 090726 Daily Chart Silver rallied as gold/silver ratio pulled back towards the 68.50 level. Gold/silver ratio is moving lower when the appetite for risk is rising. In case gold/silver ratio settles below 68.50, it will head towards recent lows near the 66.00 level, which will be bullish for silver.
Currently, silver is trying to settle above the resistance level at $61.00 – $62.00. If silver manages to settle above the $62.00 level, it will head towards the next resistance at $65.00 – $66.00.
On the support side, a move below the $60.00 level will open the way to the test of the support at $56.00 – $57.00. A move below the $56.00 level will show that silver markets are ready to gain additional downside momentum.
Platinum 090726 Daily Chart Platinum has also managed to gain upside momentum amid rising demand for precious metals. Palladium markets were up by +2.6%, providing additional support to platinum.
From the technical point of view, platinum attempts to settle above the resistance level at $1600 – $1620. If platinum manages to settle above the $1620 level, it will head towards the next resistance, which is located in the $1680 – $1700 range.
On the support side, platinum needs to settle back below the $1560 level to gain downside momentum in the near term. A move below the $1560 level will open the way to the test of the nearest support at $1500 – $1520. RSI is in the moderate territory, so there is plenty of room to gain momentum in the near term.
If you’d like to know more about how to trade gold and silver, please visit our educational area.
Key Takeaways XOM expects higher liquids prices to add about $3.5-$3.9 billion to Q2 earnings versus Q1 2026. ExxonMobil sees Energy, Chemical and Specialty Products margins boosting second-quarter earnings. Middle East disruptions hurt production, but supportive prices may still aid XOM's upstream profitability. Exxon Mobil Corporation (XOM - Free Report) , a U.S. oil and gas giant, has an integrated business model spanning upstream operations, refining and trading. The majority of its earnings are generated by its upstream segment. While the exploration and production business is vulnerable to fluctuations in oil and gas prices, the current business environment seems favorable for XOM’s upstream activities.
The conflict in the Middle East has disrupted global oil and gas flows, causing a major spike in crude prices, with the West Texas Intermediate benchmark surpassing the $100 per barrel mark in May 2026. In its latest 8-K filing, ExxonMobil has provided an update regarding its second-quarter results. The company indicated that higher crude prices and the impacts of the Middle East disruptions are expected to boost its second-quarter earnings compared with the first quarter. In fact, XOM estimates changes in liquids prices to add approximately $3.5-$3.9 billion to its earnings compared with first-quarter 2026.
Moreover, the company mentioned in its filing that the Energy Products and Chemical Products segments are expected to benefit from changes in margins. The Energy Products segment is expected to gain between $2 billion and $2.4 billion, while the Chemical Products segment is expected to witness an increase between $1 billion and $1.2 billion. The Specialty Products segment is forecasted to add approximately $300-$500 million to its earnings compared with first-quarter 2026. The gains in refining and chemicals margins likely reflect stronger industry margins in the second quarter. However, ExxonMobil noted that the ongoing conflict in the Middle East has caused production disruptions and operational shutdowns, partially offsetting these benefits. ExxonMobil is scheduled to release its second-quarter results on July 31.
The current market conditions, however, have changed significantly, and crude prices have retreated from the war-premium highs seen previously. Nevertheless, the current pricing environment remains supportive for ExxonMobil. Recent developments related to the conflict between the United States and Iran have again resulted in heightened uncertainty in global energy markets. The escalating geopolitical tensions may push oil prices higher in the near term, thereby supporting ExxonMobil’s upstream business. The company is well positioned to generate attractive upstream earnings and sustain its profitability, supported by its portfolio of low-cost, high-return advantaged assets in the Permian Basin and Guyana.
XOM’s Zacks Rank and Key PicksXOM currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Some better-ranked stocks from the energy sector are Cenovus Energy (CVE - Free Report) , Par Pacific Holdings (PARR - Free Report) and FuelCell Energy (FCEL - Free Report) . While Cenovus Energy and Par Pacific currently sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) each, FuelCell Energy carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks Rank #1 stocks here.
Cenovus Energy Inc. is a Canadian integrated energy company with operations spanning the upstream, midstream and downstream sectors. The company is involved in exploration and production from its low-cost oil sands and heavy oil assets in Canada. The strategic MEG Energy acquisition is expected to boost Cenovus Energy's production levels in 2026.
Par Pacific Holdings operates an integrated downstream energy business across the United States, with fuel retail operations in Hawaii, Washington, and Idaho, refining operations in Hawaii, Wyoming, Washington, and Montana, and a supporting logistics network. Its refineries have a combined crude oil throughput capacity of 219,000 barrels per day and produce gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, marine fuels, asphalt, and other petroleum products.
FuelCell Energy is a clean energy company that offers scalable, reliable, low-carbon power solutions. It produces power using flexible fuel sources such as biogas, natural gas and hydrogen. The company’s proprietary molten carbonate fuel cell systems generate electricity through an electrochemical process instead of burning fuel, reducing carbon emissions and minimizing the environmental impact of power generation. FCEL is anticipated to play a crucial role in the energy transition by enabling industries and communities to shift from traditional fossil fuels to low-carbon alternatives.
Key Takeaways GE's Defense & Propulsion Technologies revenues rose 19%, with orders jumping 67% in Q1.GE secured defense contracts with Boeing Defence UK and a multi-year partnership with Palantir.GE expects mid-to-high single-digit 2026 revenue growth for its Defense & Propulsion Technologies segment. GE Aerospace (GE - Free Report) is benefiting from persistent strength in its Defense & Propulsion Technologies segment. After experiencing growth of 11% in 2025, revenues from the segment increased 19% year over year in first-quarter 2026. The surge in revenues was driven by the growing popularity for GE’s propulsion & additive technologies, critical aircraft systems and aftermarket services in the defense sector.
Some of the notable contracts secured by the company include a deal from Boeing Defence UK for the extension of support services for T700-GE-T701D engines. GE will be responsible for providing logistics management, repair, maintenance and technical support services for these turboshaft engines. Also, it entered into a multi-year partnership with Palantir Technologies Inc. (PLTR - Free Report) to improve the fleet management and operational readiness of the U.S. Air Force’s military aircraft.
The strong pipeline of projects boosted the Defense & Propulsion Technologies segment’s orders, which surged 67% in the first quarter on a year-over-year basis. The segment’s operating profit grew 17% to $379 million.
It's worth noting that the fiscal year 2026 Defense Appropriations Act was signed into law in February 2026, providing a strong budgetary allocation for defense. Such robust provisions set the stage for GE Aerospace, which remains focused on its defense business.
Backed by favorable geopolitical developments and consistent government support, the company’s Defense & Propulsion Technologies segment is well-placed for growth in the quarters ahead. For 2026, GE expects revenues from the Defense & Propulsion Technologies segment to increase in the mid-to-high single-digit range.
GE's Peers in the Defense MarketHowmet Aerospace Inc. (HWM - Free Report) is benefiting from strong momentum in its defense aerospace market. After experiencing growth of 21% in 2025, revenues from the defense aerospace market increased 10% year over year in first-quarter 2026. The surge in revenues was driven by the solid demand for engine spares, particularly related to the F-35 program, and an increase in orders for legacy fighter jet spares.
Northrop Grumman’s (NOC - Free Report) defense market is playing an important role in driving its overall growth. In first-quarter 2026, revenues from Northrop’s Defense Systems segment climbed 5.2% year over year to $1.90 billion. This improvement was driven by the continued ramp-up of the Sentinel program, as well as the higher volume of tactical solid rocket motor programs and the Integrated Battle Command System portfolio.
GE's Price Performance, Valuation and EstimatesShares of GE Aerospace have gained 9.8% in the past six months against the industry’s 6.2% decline.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
From a valuation standpoint, GE is trading at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 43.97X, above the industry’s average of 33.75X. GE Aerospace carries a Value Score of D.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for GE’s 2026 and 2027 earnings has increased over the past 60 days.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
The company currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Have you been searching for a stock that might be well-positioned to maintain its earnings-beat streak in its upcoming report? It is worth considering Verizon Communications (VZ - Free Report) , which belongs to the Zacks Wireless National industry.
This largest U.S. cellphone carrier has seen a nice streak of beating earnings estimates, especially when looking at the previous two reports. The average surprise for the last two quarters was 3.87%.
For the most recent quarter, Verizon was expected to post earnings of $1.22 per share, but it reported $1.28 per share instead, representing a surprise of 4.92%. For the previous quarter, the consensus estimate was $1.06 per share, while it actually produced $1.09 per share, a surprise of 2.83%.
Price and EPS Surprise
For Verizon, estimates have been trending higher, thanks in part to this earnings surprise history. And when you look at the stock's positive Zacks Earnings ESP (Expected Surprise Prediction), it's a great indicator of a future earnings beat, especially when combined with its solid Zacks Rank.
Our research shows that stocks with the combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) or better produce a positive surprise nearly 70% of the time. In other words, if you have 10 stocks with this combination, the number of stocks that beat the consensus estimate could be as high as seven.
The Zacks Earnings ESP compares the Most Accurate Estimate to the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the quarter; the Most Accurate Estimate is a version of the Zacks Consensus whose definition is related to change. The idea here is that analysts revising their estimates right before an earnings release have the latest information, which could potentially be more accurate than what they and others contributing to the consensus had predicted earlier.
Verizon has an Earnings ESP of +2.75% at the moment, suggesting that analysts have grown bullish on its near-term earnings potential. When you combine this positive Earnings ESP with the stock's Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), it shows that another beat is possibly around the corner. The company's next earnings report is expected to be released on July 24, 2026.
With the Earnings ESP metric, it's important to note that a negative value reduces its predictive power; however, a negative Earnings ESP does not indicate an earnings miss.
Many companies end up beating the consensus EPS estimate, but that may not be the sole basis for their stocks moving higher. On the other hand, some stocks may hold their ground even if they end up missing the consensus estimate.
Because of this, it's really important to check a company's Earnings ESP ahead of its quarterly release to increase the odds of success. Make sure to utilize our Earnings ESP Filter to uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they've reported.
Shares of PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP | PEP Price Prediction) slipped after Wednesday’s Q2 filing, opening today near $136.11 after closing at $142.51. The pullback opens an entry point. Our 24/7 Wall St. price target for PepsiCo is $169.51, implying 24.54% upside over the next 12 months.
Our recommendation is buy, with confidence rated high at 90%. The setup: a dividend aristocrat trading at a mid-teens forward multiple with organic volume growth at multi-year highs.
Metric Value Current Price $136.11 24/7 Wall St. Price Target $169.51 Upside 24.54% Recommendation BUY Confidence Level 90% The Post-Earnings Reset PEP is down 4.49% today after Q2 results, though the stock is still up 9.69% over the past year and 1.23% year to date. The 52-week high sits well above today’s price, with the low at $128.66. Q2 core EPS came in at $2.20 on revenue of $24.18 billion, a 6.4% YoY gain and the fourth straight EPS beat.
International segments led the quarter, with Latin America Foods +15%, Asia Pacific Foods +12%, International Beverages Franchise +11%, and EMEA +10%. PepsiCo Foods North America slipped 2% on softer pricing, and core operating margin contracted 40 basis points.
CEO Ramon Laguarta noted that “PepsiCo’s global organic volume has increased at the highest rate since 2022”, and management reaffirmed 2-4% organic revenue growth and 4-6% core constant currency EPS growth for FY2026.
Why Bulls See a Breakout The bull case rests on international acceleration and the productivity flywheel. Bulls point to Q1 2026 operating margin expansion of 210 basis points and management’s guidance for a “record year on productivity.” poppi integration, functional hydration wins at Gatorade and Propel, and the 2026 World Cup “No Lays No Game” campaign add commercial tailwinds.
Capital returns are massive: $8.9 billion in 2026 cash returns, a 54th consecutive dividend hike to $5.92 annualized, and a fresh $10 billion buyback authorization through 2030. Our bull-case scenario points to $176.32, a 29.54% return. The Street’s high analyst target sits at $165.55 on 8 buy ratings.
The Risks Worth Watching The bear case rests on North America. PFNA revenue fell 2% in Q2, core operating margin compressed 40 basis points, and global minimum tax regs are trimming EPS growth by 1-2 percentage points. FY2025 operating income fell 19.57% on $1.993 billion in Rockstar and Be & Cheery impairments.
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Bulls counter that impairments are non-recurring and the margin dip reflects reinvestment in affordability initiatives already driving share gains. Our bear-case target is $153.40, still 12.70% above today’s price. Bearish analyst sentiment is only 4%, with just 1 sell rating.
How PepsiCo Compares to Coca-Cola and Mondelez Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) is the closest global beverage comp. Coke posted Q1 2026 organic revenue growth of 10% with operating margin at 35.0%, well above Pepsi’s Q1 2026 16.5%. At a $352 billion market cap versus Pepsi’s $186 billion, Coke carries the premium multiple. Pepsi looks cheap on a relative basis, supporting our $169.51 target.
Mondelez (NASDAQ:MDLZ) is the pure-play global snacks peer to Frito-Lay. Mondelez beat Q1 2026 EPS by 10.22% but adjusted operating margin fell 310 basis points to 11.7% on cocoa inflation, and FY2026 guidance calls for only flat to 2% organic revenue growth. PepsiCo’s diversified snacks-plus-beverages model with a 53% gross margin looks more resilient, further supporting our target.
The Dip in Context The 24/7 Wall St. price target of $169.51 with 24.54% upside and 90% confidence points to buy. Valuation is the tipping factor: a mid-teens forward multiple on a business with reaccelerating international volumes and a fortress balance sheet.
The setup rewards investors with a two-year holding horizon while North America snacks stabilize. The picture changes if commodity and tariff pressure force another guidance cut in Q3.
Here is where our model projects PEP could trade, assuming current growth trajectories and the reaffirmed 4-6% long-term EPS algorithm hold.
Year 24/7 Wall St. Price Target 2026 $149.60 2027 $168.43 2028 $197.86 2029 $222.43 2030 $243.39 These projections assume Pepsi continues executing its productivity and international growth playbook. Significant upside or downside could come from faster margin recovery in North America or sustained commodity and tariff headwinds.
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Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have a beneficial long position in the shares of VICI either through stock ownership, options, or other derivatives. 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.
