NEW YORK, July 07, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Badger Meter, Inc. (“Badger Meter” or the “Company”) (NYSE: BMI). Such investors are advised to contact Danielle Peyton at [email protected] or 646-581-9980, (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll-free, Ext. 7980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and the number of shares purchased.
The class action concerns whether Badger Meter and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices.
You have until August 3, 2026, to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class if you purchased or otherwise acquired Badger Meter securities during the Class Period. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com.
[Click here for information about joining the class action]
On April 17, 2026, Badger Meter reported its first quarter 2026 financial results. Among other items, Badger Meter reported earnings per share of $0.93, missing consensus estimates by $0.26, and revenue of $202.03 million, missing consensus estimates by $28.58 million. Badger Meter disclosed that its utility water sales declined 10% year-over-year, reflecting project timing and softer short cycle municipal customer ordering.
On this news, Badger Meter’s stock price fell $36.75 per share, or 24.13%, to close at $115.54 per share on April 17, 2026.
Pomerantz LLP, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, London, Paris, and Tel Aviv, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, Pomerantz pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 85 years later, Pomerantz continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomlaw.com.
Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.
The GBP/JPY reverses course on Tuesday, loses 0.24% as the Japanese Yen recovered some ground against most G8 FX currencies, except for the US Dollar. At the time of writing, the cross-pair trades at 216.51 after reaching a multi-year high of 217.22.
GBP/JPY Price Forecast: Technical outlookThe bullish bias remains intact as the GBP/JPY printed a year-to-date (YTD) high at 217.22, which could open the door for further upside. However, it was a false breakout, as the cross pair tumbled below the previous YTD peak at 216.46, opening the door for a test of 216.00. Fears of a possible Bank of Japan (BoJ) intervention in the foreign exchange markets could prompt traders to book profits.
For a bullish continuation, buyers must clear the 217.00 figure, followed by the high of the day (HOD) fof 217.22 ‒ also the high of the year, which clears the way to challenge 218.00. On further strength, the next area of interest would be the 220.00 milestone.
On further weakness, the GBP/JPY first support would be the July 6 low at 215.33, followed by 215.00. Below this level, the next support would be the 50-day Simple Moving Average (SMA) at 214.11, followed by the 100-day SMA at 213.26.
GBP/JPY Price Chart ‒ Daily
GBP/JPY daily chart Japanese Yen Price This week The table below shows the percentage change of Japanese Yen (JPY) against listed major currencies this week. Japanese Yen was the strongest against the Swiss Franc.
USDEURGBPJPYCADAUDNZDCHFUSD0.29%-0.07%0.52%0.01%0.15%0.61%0.61%EUR-0.29%-0.37%0.24%-0.30%-0.09%0.26%0.29%GBP0.07%0.37%0.50%0.08%0.30%0.64%0.68%JPY-0.52%-0.24%-0.50%-0.54%-0.25%0.09%0.10%CAD-0.01%0.30%-0.08%0.54%0.28%0.65%0.59%AUD-0.15%0.09%-0.30%0.25%-0.28%0.34%0.39%NZD-0.61%-0.26%-0.64%-0.09%-0.65%-0.34%0.03%CHF-0.61%-0.29%-0.68%-0.10%-0.59%-0.39%-0.03% The heat map shows percentage changes of major currencies against each other. The base currency is picked from the left column, while the quote currency is picked from the top row. For example, if you pick the Japanese Yen from the left column and move along the horizontal line to the US Dollar, the percentage change displayed in the box will represent JPY (base)/USD (quote).
RICHMOND, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Genworth Financial, Inc. (NYSE: GNW) today announced that Tom McInerney, President & Chief Executive Officer, will be taking a temporary leave of absence from his role to focus on his health. The Board of Directors has named Jerome Upton, currently Genworth's Chief Financial Officer, as Interim President & Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately. “Our thoughts are with Tom and his family as he recovers, and we look forward to his return,” said Meli.
, /PRNewswire/ -- Equifax® (NYSE: EFX) will announce its financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2026, in a release to be issued on Tuesday, July 21, at 6:30 a.m. Eastern Time (ET).
Equifax will host a conference call at 8:30 a.m. ET on July 21, in which senior management will discuss financial and business results for the quarter. Related presentation materials will be published on investor.equifax.com on July 21 at 6:30 a.m. ET.
Conference Call:
US/Canada: 877-559-1190 / +1 201-389-0916
International: Click here for participant International Toll-Free access numbers
Please dial the appropriate number 5-10 minutes prior to the call to complete registration. Name and affiliation/company are required to join the call.
Webcast:
To view the webcast and slide presentation, please click the link and enter your information to be connected. The link becomes active 15 minutes prior to the scheduled start time.
An audio replay of the conference call will be available on investor.equifax.com beginning on July 22.
ABOUT EQUIFAX INC.
At Equifax (NYSE: EFX), we believe knowledge drives progress. As a global data, analytics, and technology company, we play an essential role in the global economy by helping financial institutions, companies, employers, and government agencies make critical decisions with greater confidence. Our unique blend of differentiated data, analytics, and cloud technology drives insights to power decisions to move people forward. Headquartered in Atlanta and supported by nearly 15,000 employees worldwide, Equifax operates or has investments in 24 countries in North America, Central and South America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific region. For more information, visit Equifax.com.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Molly Clegg for Equifax
[email protected]
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Golub Capital BDC, Inc., a business development company (NASDAQ: GBDC, www.golubcapitalbdc.com) (“GBDC”), announced today that it will report its financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2026 on Monday, August 3, 2026 after the close of the financial markets. Golub Capital BDC, Inc. will host an earnings conference call at 10:00 a.m. (Eastern Time) on Tuesday, August 4, 2026 to discuss its quarterly financial results. All interested parties may register to par.
WALTHAM, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ: PEGA), the enterprise AI software company for mission-critical work, today announced it will report financial results for the second quarter of 2026 on Tuesday, July 21, 2026, after market close. A conference call and audio-only webcast will be conducted at 8:00 a.m. EDT on Wednesday, July 22, 2026. Members of the public and investors are invited to join the call and participate in the question and answer session by dialing 1 (833) 461-.
WESTERVILLE, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)--agilon health, inc. (NYSE: AGL), the trusted partner empowering physicians to transform health care in our communities, today announced that it will release financial results for the second quarter 2026 after market close on Wednesday, August 5, 2026 and host a conference call at 4:30 p.m. ET to discuss the results. The conference call can be accessed by dialing (833) 439-1904 for U.S. participants and +1 (585) 542-9983 for international participants and refe.
CORAL GABLES, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--MasTec, Inc. (NYSE: MTZ) today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Electrical Specialists, Inc., d/b/a The Superior Group (“Superior”), a premier full-service electrical contractor focused on critical infrastructure (the “Transaction”). With a heritage dating to 1925 and headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, Superior has been led by the Stewart family since the mid-1980s, when Greg Stewart acquired an ownership interest. Under Bry.
Dollar bills are seen in a currency-counting machine at a currency exchange, in Tehran, Iran, October 5, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS -... Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab Read more
CompaniesJuly 7 (Reuters) - Infrastructure engineering and construction firm MasTec (MTZ.N), opens new tab said on Tuesday it would acquire electrical contractor Superior Group in a $1.65 billion cash-and-stock deal, as it seeks to expand its data center infrastructure offerings.
MasTec, which primarily caters to data centers' power generation and energy transmission needs, will now be able to supply the electrical systems for data centers, through the Superior Group deal, it said.
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Companies across sectors have been racing to boost their offerings amid a global buildout of data centers to fuel growing demand for AI services.
MasTec said it expects to close the deal by mid- to late-July.
Reporting by Nandan Mandayam in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab
, /PRNewswire/ -- Langar Investment Management LLC, the adviser to the Langar Global HealthTech ETF (NYSE Arca: LGHT), today announced the transfer of the primary listing of LGHT from NYSE Arca to the Cboe BZX Exchange on or about June 29, 2026.
Current shareholders of LGHT are not required to take any action, nor is the transfer expected to have any effect on the trading of the Fund's shares. The Fund's investment objective, strategies, and investment management team will remain unchanged.
For more information on the Langar Global HealthTech ETF, please visit langarfunds.com.
About Langar Investment Management
Langar Investment Management is the investment management subsidiary of Langar Technology, Inc. and the adviser to the Langar Global HealthTech ETF (LGHT) — the first ever pure-play healthtech ETF. LGHT seeks long-term growth of capital and offers investors targeted exposure to companies at the intersection of healthcare and technology, including digital health, medical devices, health data infrastructure, and AI-driven diagnostics. For more information, visit langarfunds.com.
Important Disclosures
Nothing contained in this material should be construed as an offer to sell nor a solicitation of an offer to buy shares of the Langar Global HealthTech ETF. This material must be preceded or accompanied by a current prospectus. Investors should read the prospectus carefully before investing.
Investing involves risk, including possible loss of principal. The Fund's shares are bought and sold at market price, not at net asset value ("NAV") per share. The shares may trade at a premium or discount to NAV. Brokerage commissions will reduce returns.
The Langar Global HealthTech ETF is distributed by Paralel Distributors LLC. Paralel Distributors LLC is not affiliated with Langar Investment Management or Langar Technology, Inc.
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Urban Edge Properties (NYSE: UE) announced today that it is rescheduling the release of its second quarter 2026 earnings and its corresponding conference call. The Company will now issue its earnings after market close on Thursday, August 6, 2026 and host an earnings conference call and audio webcast on Thursday, August 6, 2026 at 5:00 PM ET. The release and conference call were previously scheduled for Friday, August 7, 2026.
All interested parties can access the earnings call by dialing 1-833-309-3473 (Toll Free) or 1-785-838-9251 (Toll/International) using conference ID “URBAN”. The call will also be webcast and available in listen-only mode at this link: UE Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call, or on the investors page of our website: www.uedge.com.
If you are unable to participate in the live call, a replay will be available at the webcast link above, or on the investors page of our website for one year following the conclusion of the call. A telephonic replay of the call will also be available starting Thursday, August 6, 2026 at 8:00 PM ET through Thursday, August 20, 2026 at 11:59 PM ET by dialing 1-844-512-2921 (Toll Free) or 1-412-317-6671 (Toll/International) using conference ID 11162144.
ABOUT URBAN EDGE PROPERTIES
Urban Edge Properties is a NYSE listed real estate investment trust focused on owning, managing, acquiring, developing, and redeveloping retail real estate in urban communities, primarily in the Washington, D.C. to Boston corridor. Urban Edge owns 74 properties totaling 17.3 million square feet of gross leasable area.
, /PRNewswire/ -- Harley-Davidson, Inc. (NYSE: HOG) will release its second quarter 2026 financial results before market hours on Thursday, July 23, 2026. The public is invited to attend an audio webcast from 8-9 a.m. CT.
Harley-Davidson, Inc. senior management will discuss the Company's financial results, developments in the business, and updates to the Company's outlook.
Webcast participants should log-on and register at least 10 minutes prior to the start time and can access the slide presentation here: https://investor.harley-davidson.com/events-and-presentations/default.aspx . A replay of the audio webcast will be available approximately two hours after the call concludes.
Company Background
Harley-Davidson, Inc. is the parent company of Harley-Davidson Motor Company and Harley-Davidson Financial Services.
Bitcoin continues to recover from its recent sell-off, but the market remains trapped beneath a major resistance cluster that has capped every relief rally since the June breakdown. While short-term momentum has improved, BTC is now approaching a decisive area where the next move could determine whether the recovery evolves into a larger trend reversal or remains a corrective bounce within a broader bearish structure.
Bitcoin Price Analysis: The Daily Chart On the daily timeframe, Bitcoin remains in a clear downtrend, trading below the 100-day and 200-day moving averages, both of which continue to slope lower. The recent recovery from the $58K-$61K demand zone has helped stabilize the price action, but the asset is still trading beneath the major resistance area between $64K and $66.5K.
It recently formed another higher low inside the broader support region, while the RSI has continued to print higher lows despite the weakness seen throughout June. This developing bullish divergence suggests that downside momentum is fading and that buyers are gradually regaining control.
However, the market structure remains bearish until Bitcoin can reclaim the $64K-$66.5K supply zone. This area aligns with previous support turned resistance and continues to act as the primary obstacle preventing a larger recovery. A successful breakout above this region would likely expose the next major resistance near $72K-$74K, while rejection could send the price back toward the $60K support zone.
BTC/USDT 4-Hour Chart The 4-hour chart shows a much more constructive picture. After establishing a base around the $58K-$59K demand region, Bitcoin produced a strong impulsive rally and pushed directly into the descending trendline that has defined the corrective structure since mid-June.
The asset recently swept the local liquidity resting above previous highs within the $61K-$62K region before encountering resistance near the descending trendline. This liquidity grab is important because it removed nearby buy-side liquidity and allowed the market to test a key technical level.
The current structure suggests that Bitcoin is attempting to transition from a series of lower highs into a potential breakout formation. A confirmed move above the descending trendline and the $64K-$66K resistance zone would significantly improve the bullish outlook and could accelerate upside momentum toward higher resistance levels.
Conversely, failure to break the trendline could trigger another period of consolidation between the $60K support and the $64K-$66K supply zone. As long as Bitcoin holds above the $60K-$61K support area, the short-term recovery structure remains intact.
Sentiment Analysis The 48-hour liquidation heatmap highlights a notable concentration of liquidity above the current market price, particularly around the $64K-$66K region. This cluster aligns closely with the resistance zone identified on the 4-hour chart, reinforcing its significance as a major magnet for price action.
Importantly, the intra-range liquidity highlighted on the technical chart is also confirmed by the liquidation heatmap. The recent push into the $61K-$62K area successfully targeted nearby liquidity resting within the range, validating the idea that price has been moving between liquidity pockets rather than trending directionally.
At present, the largest liquidation concentration remains overhead near $65K-$66K, making it a logical target if buyers maintain momentum. Markets often gravitate toward these liquidity pools before determining the next directional move.
If Bitcoin manages to sweep this overhead liquidity and secure acceptance above the $64K-$66K region, it would strengthen the case for a broader recovery toward the higher resistance zones. However, if the sweep is followed by rejection and an inability to sustain prices above resistance, the move could simply represent a liquidity-driven rally before another test of lower support levels.
For now, both the technical structure and the liquidation data suggest that the path of least resistance remains slightly higher, with the overhead liquidity cluster acting as the most likely near-term destination.
NEW YORK, July 07, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Helen of Troy Limited (“Helen of Troy” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: HELE). Such investors are advised to contact Danielle Peyton at [email protected] or 646-581-9980, (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll-free, Ext. 7980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and the number of shares purchased.
The class action concerns whether Helen of Troy and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices.
You have until August 3, 2026, to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class if you purchased or otherwise acquired Helen of Troy securities during the Class Period. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com.
[Click here for information about joining the class action]
On July 9, 2024, Helen of Troy announced its 2025 first quarter results, allegedly reflecting a 49% decrease in earnings per share year-over year and reducing its full year revenue outlook by more than 20%.
On this news, Helen of Troy’s stock price fell nearly 28%.
Then, on July 10, 2025, Helen of Troy announced its 2026 first quarter results, allegedly reflecting a net sales decline of 11% year-over-year and a nearly 60% decline in adjusted earnings per share. The Company also announced a $414.4 million goodwill impairment. On this news, Helen of Troy’s stock price fell nearly 23%.
Finally, on October 9, 2025, Helen of Troy announced its 2026 second quarter results, allegedly revealing that quarterly sales were down 8.9% year-over-year, adjusted earnings per share fell 51%, and business disruptions and cost headwinds would continue throughout the remainder of the year.
On this news, Helen of Troy’s stock price fell 25%.
Pomerantz LLP, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, London, Paris, and Tel Aviv, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, Pomerantz pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 85 years later, Pomerantz continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomlaw.com.
Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.
New York, July 07, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Namib Minerals (Nasdaq: NAMM) ("Namib Minerals" or the "Company") today announced a series of Board and executive leadership appointments to strengthen Board oversight, reinforce financial leadership and support the Company's next phase of growth, including the planned restart of the Redwing Mine and execution of its development financing strategy.
NuScale Power stock has plummeted since hitting a high in mid-October 2025. If the stock grew 100-fold, a $10,000 investment at today's price could become $1 million.
A view shows the logo of Brazilian state-run oil firm Petrobras in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil June 5, 2025. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
CompaniesRIO DE JANEIRO, July 7 (Reuters) - Brazilian state-run oil firm Petrobras (PETR3.SA), opens new tab signed an agreement with regulator ANP committing to bring 335 temporarily abandoned offshore wells into compliance with safety and environmental rules, both parties said in separate statements on Tuesday.
Under the signed agreement, Petrobras will pay 300 million reais ($58.3 million) to ANP, and has until the end of 2030 to comply with the rules.
The agreement is a result of negotiations between the oil regulator and Petrobras.
Petrobras said it has already brought 233 of the 335 wells into compliance.
($1 = 5.1484 reais)
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Reporting by Marta Nogueira in Rio de Janeiro and Andre Romani in Sao Paulo; Editing by Kylie Madry
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab
SCHAFFHAUSEN, Switzerland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aptiv PLC (NYSE: APTV), a global industrial technology leader, will release its second quarter 2026 financial results on August 4, 2026 prior to market open, and will hold an investor call the same day at 8:00 a.m. ET. The call will be hosted by Chair and Chief Executive Officer, Kevin Clark, and Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Varun Laroyia. A link to the live webcast and presentation materials will be made available on the Apti.
CoreWeave remains the leading neocloud with a $100 billion revenue backlog, yet trades at a depressed valuation due to debt and competitive fears. Meta Platform's AI cloud ambitions are misunderstood; META's long-term capacity needs likely reinforce, not threaten, CRWV's revenue pipeline. CRWV trades at only 2x 2028 EV/S target, with EBITDA forecasted at 70% of revenues and significant cash generation underway.
July 07, 2026 17:01 ET | Source: Eldorado Gold Corporation
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 07, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Eldorado Gold Corporation (“Eldorado” or the “Company”) (TSX: ELD, NYSE: EGO) will release its Second Quarter 2026 Financial and Operational Results after the market closes on Thursday, July 30, 2026, and will host a conference call on Friday, July 31, 2026 at 11:30 AM ET (8:30 AM PT).
Q2 2026 Financial and Operational Results Call Details
The call will be webcast and can be accessed at Eldorado Gold’s website: www.eldoradogold.com, or via: https://event.choruscall.com/mediaframe/webcast.html?webcastid=KlTNaz6C.
Conference Call Details
Replay (available until September 11, 2026)
Date:July 31, 2026Toll:+1 412 317 0088Time:11:30 AM ET (8:30 AM PT)Toll Free:1 855 669 9658Dial in:+1 647 846 2782 Access code:6422557Toll free:1 833 752 3325 Participants may elect to pre-register for the conference call via this link: https://dpregister.com/sreg/ 10209854/10438a8dd8a. Upon registration, participants will receive a calendar invitation by email with dial in details and a unique PIN. This will allow participants to bypass the operator queue and connect directly to the conference. Registration will remain open until the end of the conference call.
About Eldorado Gold
Eldorado is a gold and base metals producer with mining, development and exploration operations in Canada, Türkiye, and Greece. The Company has a highly skilled and dedicated workforce, safe and responsible operations, a portfolio of high-quality assets, and long-term partnerships with local communities. Eldorado's common shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: ELD) and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: EGO).
Figma Inc. (FIG) shares climbed more than 6% on Tuesday after Bank of America reinstated coverage of the design software company with a Buy rating.
The brokerage argued that artificial intelligence is strengthening its competitive position and creating new opportunities for revenue growth.
The brokerage assigned Figma a $30 price target while reinstating coverage of Adobe Inc. with an Underperform rating and a $190 price target, saying the two companies are positioned differently as generative AI reshapes the design software market.
Although both stocks have declined sharply in 2026 amid concerns that AI tools could reduce demand for traditional design software, Bank of America believes Figma is better placed to benefit from the shift while Adobe faces greater competitive pressure.
Bank of America analyst Tal Liani said Figma's collaborative platform gives the company an advantage as AI-generated content becomes more common across software development and product design.
Unlike traditional design applications focused on individual creative work, Figma is designed to help teams collaborate on complex projects such as user interfaces and digital product development.
The brokerage argued that while AI can automate parts of the design process, enterprises still require a centralized platform to organize, refine, and integrate AI-generated work into production-ready products.
Figma has also incorporated AI capabilities into its existing pricing model through a combination of seat-based subscriptions and usage-based AI credits.
“This structure allows Figma to introduce a direct pathway to monetize incremental AI usage as adoption scales, without disrupting or cannibalizing its core [software-as-a-service] model,” Liani said.
Bank of America pointed to early signs that the strategy is generating additional revenue.
During the first quarter of 2026, 75% of enterprise customers that exceeded their AI credit allocations purchased additional credits, while more than 95% remained active on the platform.
The brokerage also noted that Figma ended the quarter with 690,000 paid users, representing a 53% increase from a year earlier.
Strong growth outlook but risks remainBank of America expects Figma to continue outpacing the broader software industry over the next several years.
The brokerage forecasts revenue growth of 35.6% in 2026 and 23% in 2027, compared with peer averages of 19.3% and 15.7%, respectively.
It also expects operating margins to improve from 9.2% in 2026 to 13.8% by 2028 as AI investments mature and free cash flow margins expand.
Enterprise adoption remains another key driver.
Bank of America projects customers generating more than $100,000 in annual recurring revenue will increase 26.2% in 2026 before growing by more than 22% annually through 2028.
Although Figma trades at a premium valuation, with shares valued at roughly 7.6 times estimated next-12-month sales compared with Adobe's 3.2-times multiple, the brokerage believes the premium is justified.
“We acknowledge increasing AI-driven competitive risks across the design ecosystem, but believe these risks are already reflected in the current valuation,” Liani wrote.
Despite its positive outlook, Bank of America said risks remain, including slower-than-expected AI adoption, stronger competition from AI-native design platforms, and weaker monetization of AI features.
Even so, the firm believes Figma is positioned as an AI beneficiary rather than an AI casualty.
Figma (NYSE:FIG) was reinstated with a ‘Buy’ rating and a $30 price objective by Bank of America, with the firm arguing that artificial intelligence is likely to strengthen the company's competitive position rather than undermine it.
Shares of Figma traded higher on the news, adding more than 7% at about $23 on Tuesday afternoon.
Bank of America analysts wrote that concerns over generative AI disrupting the design software market have weighed on the stock, but they believe AI is more likely to act as a tailwind by expanding demand for collaborative workflows.
The firm also pointed to progress in Figma's transition toward a hybrid consumption- and seat-based pricing model as a potential driver of additional monetization.
The analysts wrote that while AI can speed up content creation, it also increases the need for platforms that enable teams to collaborate, coordinate and move AI-generated work into production environments. They expect this trend to reinforce Figma's strategic role as more individuals and organizations adopt AI tools.
Bank of America also cited early signs that AI-related products are contributing to growth. According to the firm, 75% of enterprise customers purchased additional AI credits after exceeding their initial allocations during the first quarter of fiscal 2026, which the analysts wrote reflects strong engagement and willingness to pay for AI capabilities.
The firm noted that enterprise customers generating more than $100,000 in annual recurring revenue increased 48% year over year, while net dollar retention stood at 139% and paid-user growth reached 54%.
Bank of America said it expects Figma's revenue to grow 36% in fiscal 2026 and 23% in fiscal 2027. The firm values the company at 8 times estimated calendar 2027 enterprise value-to-sales, citing what it views as a premium growth profile despite expected near-term margin pressure from AI investments.
The analysts wrote that key risks to their outlook include slower-than-expected adoption, increased competitive pressure and weaker monetization of AI offerings.
Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison speaks during the Bloomberg Screentime conference in Los Angeles on October 9, 2025.
AFP via Getty Images
When I wrote at the end of last year that Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison's pursuit of Warner Bros. Discovery would likely make him the next Rupert Murdoch, both media titans already shared plenty of similarities.
They’re each second-generation media entrepreneurs, for example, who turned family fortunes into sprawling empires. Murdoch’s key moment came during the early days of cable TV, while Ellison’s era is dominated by streaming, AI, and consolidation plays.
To that latter point, as Paramount's proposed takeover of WBD gets closer to the finish line, the comparison between both men gets even harder to miss.
Once the deal closes, Ellison won’t just be running another Hollywood studio. He’ll be in charge of a media portfolio that spans movies, TV, streaming, news, sports and gaming. The kind of Murdoch-ian collection of assets, in other words, that few executives have ever had under their purview at one time.
The scale of David Ellison’s media empireThere’s one detail that underscores the scale of the merger all by itself: Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures—two studios that stretch back more than 100 years, all the way back to the golden age of Hollywood—will both live on the same balance sheet. On that same note, the combined Paramount-WBD would also encompass New Line Cinema, DC Studios, Paramount Animation, Warner Animation Group and Ellison's own Skydance Media.
Streaming, meanwhile, will also give Ellison a big lineup of brands. The company will own HBO Max, Paramount+, Pluto TV, Discovery+, BET+ and a collection of smaller streamers that range from premium subscription platforms to free ad-supported TV.
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“By uniting the iconic, basically, libraries of Paramount and the iconic libraries of Warner Brothers, we now have a library of 15,000 films,” Ellison said in a March CNBC interview. “When you put Paramount+ and HBO MAX together, you get to over 200 million basically gross subscribers ... That puts us in an incredible position to really be able to win in the content space.”
From HBO Max and CNN to CBS NewsIts television holdings will be just as substantial. Along with CBS, the merged company will include channels like HBO, TNT, TBS, HGTV, the Food Network, Discovery Channel, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon and BET.
Ellison will also oversee both CNN and CBS News, including its crisis-hit show 60 Minutes, along with CBS Sports and TNT Sports. Paramount will likewise control rights to the NFL, NCAA March Madness, Big Ten football and basketball, SEC football and basketball, the NHL, and PGA Tour events.
And all that’s even before you get to the intellectual property.
The company's catalog will be, in a word, enormous. It’s set to include everything from Batman to Superman, Wonder Woman, Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, and Game of Thrones, plus franchises like Mission: Impossible, Top Gun, Transformers and Star Trek. On the TV side, the merged company’s properties will include staples like Friends, The Big Bang Theory, NCIS, Survivor, CSI and South Park.
For now, though, the deal still has some final challenges to sort through.
European regulators confirmed in recent days that Paramount has offered concessions to address competition concerns. Barring any unexpected regulatory hiccups, the merger is expected to close sometime in the third quarter of 2026.
Once the remaining approvals come together, Ellison will find himself running one of the biggest and most culturally influential media companies in the world.
Murdoch, of course, spent decades building his influence through News Corp. and Fox across newspapers, TV, sports and Hollywood. Ellison is getting there via a much different route, but the end result is still the same: Control of one of the few media portfolios with the power to shape what audiences around the world watch every day.
VIRGINIA CITY, Nev., July 07, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Comstock Inc. (NYSE American: LODE) (“Comstock” and the “Company”) today announced that Corrado De Gasperis, CEO of Comstock, will participate in the upcoming Water Tower Research Fireside Chat Series taking place on Thursday, July 9, 2026, at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time.
The Fireside Chat will be hosted by Peter Gastreich, Managing Director at Water Tower Research, covering the following topics:
Systems-based strategies and decision processes: De Gasperis’ philosophy behind Comstock’s systems-based approach and how the Company targets unsolved, industry-wide problems and constraints for high impact and high value.Financial position, liquidity and non-dilutive capital resources: Transformation of the institutional capital base, capital redeployment, legacy mining and real estate monetization.Solar panel recycling (critical minerals extraction) opportunity: Innovation, differentiation, speed and leadership.Commercial ramp and economics: Commissioning Plant #001, enhancing revenue and throughput, and a novel metal extraction solution and its impact on plant economics and the system overall.National buildout and milestones: The Cambridge, Ohio facility, the seven-plant network thesis, and key milestones. This event is open access for all investors. Interested parties can register for the event through Water Tower Research at:
EVENT REGISTRATION
About Water Tower Research
Modernizing Investor Engagement Through Research-Driven Strategies. At WTR, we help companies and investors connect by creating expert information flow and strategies that are the foundation of a successful modern investor engagement platform. Our analysts and capital markets professionals bring decades of unrivaled Wall Street experience and insight to a new digital world of investor communications and engagement. Our research and investor content is open for everyone to access and distributed across traditional research aggregators like Bloomberg, FactSet, etc., proprietary direct distribution lists, social media, search engines, and our website. As a result, every institutional and retail investor has equal access to our high-quality company research. Our mission is to help companies proactively reach investors while bringing investors a consistent flow of quality information to help them understand our clients’ businesses, industries, and the investment opportunities they present. Visit our website for more information at Water Tower Research.
About Comstock Inc.
Comstock Inc. (NYSE: LODE) innovates and commercializes technologies, systems and supply chains that enable, support and sustain clean energy systems by efficiently, effectively, and expediently extracting and converting under-utilized natural resources into reusable metals, like silver, aluminum, gold, and other critical minerals, primarily from end-of-life photovoltaics. To learn more, please visit www.comstock.inc.
Comstock Social Media Policy
Comstock Inc. has used, and intends to continue using, its investor relations link and main website at www.comstock.inc in addition to its X.com, LinkedIn and YouTube accounts, as means of disclosing material non-public information and for complying with its disclosure obligations under Regulation FD.
Contacts
For investor inquiries:
Judd B. Merrill, Chief Financial Officer
Tel (775) 413-6222 [email protected]
For media inquiries:
Zach Spencer, Director of External Relations
Tel (775) 847-7573 [email protected]
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release and any related calls or discussions may include forward-looking statements 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. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, are forward-looking statements. The words “believe,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “project,” “plan,” “forecast,” “seek,” “target,” “should,” “intend,” “may,” “will,” “would,” “potential” and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements but are not the exclusive means of doing so. Forward-looking statements include statements about matters such as: future market conditions; future financial, natural, and social gains; future prices and sales of, and demand for, our products and services; permits; production capacity and operations; operating and overhead costs; future capital expenditures and their impact on us; operational and management changes (including changes in the Board of Directors); changes in business strategies, planning and tactics; future employment and contributions of personnel, including consultants; future land and asset sales; investments, acquisitions, joint ventures, strategic alliances and business combinations; litigation, administrative or arbitration proceedings; environmental compliance and changes in the regulatory environment; offerings of equity or debt securities; and future working capital needs, revenues, variable costs, throughput rates, operating expenses, debt levels, cash flows, margins, taxes and earnings. These statements are based on assumptions and assessments made by our management in light of their experience and their perception of historical and current trends, current conditions, possible future developments and other factors they believe to be appropriate. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees, representations or warranties and are subject to risks and uncertainties, many of which are unforeseeable and beyond our control and could cause actual results, developments and business decisions to differ materially from those contemplated by such forward-looking statements. Some of those risks and uncertainties include the risk factors set forth in our filings with the SEC. Occurrence of such events or circumstances could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations or cash flows, or the market price of our securities. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements by or attributable to us or persons acting on our behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by these factors. Except as may be required by securities or other law, we undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Neither this press release nor any related calls or discussions constitutes an offer to sell, the solicitation of an offer to buy or a recommendation with respect to any securities of the Company or any other issuer.
TeraWulf CEO Paul Prager says a new 20-year lease agreement with Anthropic is a major vote of confidence in the company's AI infrastructure strategy. Speaking on "Bloomberg The Close," Prager also discusses plans for a purpose-built AI campus at TeraWulf's Kentucky site and what the long-term partnership means for future growth.
New York, New York and New Orleans, Louisiana--(Newsfile Corp. - July 7, 2026) - Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC ("KSF") and KSF partner, former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., remind investors with substantial losses that they have until August 25, 2026 to file lead plaintiff applications in a securities class action lawsuit against Futu Holdings Limited ("Futu" or the "Company") (NASDAQ: FUTU), if they purchased or otherwise acquired the Company's securities between May 24, 2023 and May 27, 2026, inclusive (the "Class Period"). This action is pending in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
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What You May Do
If you purchased securities of Futu as above and would like to discuss your legal rights and how this case might affect you and your right to recover for your economic loss, you may, without obligation or cost to you, contact KSF Managing Partner Lewis Kahn toll-free at 1-877-515-1850 or via email ([email protected]), or visit https://www.ksfcounsel.com/cases/nasdaqgm-futu/ to learn more. If you wish to serve as a lead plaintiff in this class action, you must petition the Court by August 25, 2026.
>>>CLICK HERE for more information
About the Lawsuit
Futu and certain of its executives are charged with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period, violating federal securities laws.
The alleged false and misleading statements and omissions include, but are not limited to, that: (i) the Company was not in compliance with the requirements of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, including because it continued to conduct securities business, public fund sales business and futures business in mainland China without obtaining the requisite licenses or approval; (ii) as a result, the Company was reasonably likely to face regulatory penalties, including the disgorgement of ill-gotten gains and other penalties; (iii) as a result of the foregoing, the Company's financial results were overstated; and (iv) as a result of the foregoing, defendants' positive statements about the Company's business, operations, and prospects were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis.
The case is Tang v. Futu Holdings Limited, et al, 26-cv-05453.
>>>To Learn More, Click HERE
About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC
KSF, whose partners include former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is one of the nation's premier boutique securities litigation law firms. This past year, KSF was ranked by SCAS among the top 10 firms nationally based upon total settlement value. KSF serves a variety of clients, including public and private institutional investors, and retail investors - in seeking recoveries for investment losses emanating from corporate fraud or malfeasance by publicly traded companies. KSF has offices in New York, Delaware, California, Louisiana, Chicago, and a representative office in Luxembourg.
TOP 10 Plaintiff Law Firms - According to ISS Securities Class Action Services
To learn more about KSF, you may visit www.ksfcounsel.com.
>>>For More Information about the case, Click HERE
NEW YORK, July 07, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Futu Holdings Ltd. (“Futu” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: FUTU). Such investors are advised to contact Danielle Peyton at [email protected] or 646-581-9980, (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll-free, Ext. 7980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and the number of shares purchased.
The class action concerns whether Futu and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices.
You have until August 25, 2026, to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class if you purchased or otherwise acquired Futu securities during the Class Period. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com.
[Click here for information about joining the class action]
On May 22, 2026, Reuters published an article entitled “China to crack down on ‘illegal’ cross-border securities.” The article reported that China “would punish brokers it accused of illegally moving money to foreign markets[.]” The article further reported that online brokers, including Futu, “would be penalised for soliciting business in China without an onshore licence[.]”
On this news, the price of Futu American Depositary Shares (“ADSs”) fell $34.10 per ADS, or 27.5%, to close at $89.76 per ADS on May 22, 2026.
Then, on May 28, 2026, Futu issued a press release reporting its financial results for the first quarter 2026, including net income of HK$831.0 million (US$106.0million) after giving effect to the proposed penalties comprised of: “(i) confiscation of illegal gains of approximately RMB470 million [approximately $69.21 million USD], and (ii) imposition of fines of approximately RMB1.38 billion, [approximately $20 billion USD] in an aggregate amount of approximately RMB1.85 billion.” The press release reported this adjustment under the Company’s financial statements as “Others, net” in its statements of comprehensive income for the applicable period.
On this news, Futu’s ADS price fell $5.31 per ADS, or 4.8%, to close at $104.91 per ADS on May 28, 2026.
Pomerantz LLP, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, London, Paris, and Tel Aviv, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, Pomerantz pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 85 years later, Pomerantz continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomlaw.com.
Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.
Key Takeaways SailPoint launched Agentic Fabric to secure AI agents and non-human identities at enterprise scale.Non-human identities drove 40% of identity growth and 14% of cloud-managed identities in Q1.SailPoint still has $350M of on-premise ARR available for SaaS conversion and cross-sell. SailPoint (SAIL - Free Report) is leaning into one of the sharper shifts in enterprise security: access control is no longer only about employees. It increasingly includes machine identities, applications and autonomous AI agents.
That changes the role of identity security. As AI moves from experimentation to production, SailPoint is trying to make its platform a central control layer for the modern enterprise.
SailPoint is Chasing the AI Agent WaveSailPoint launched Agentic Fabric in May 2026 to help enterprises secure AI agents and other non-human identities at scale. The product is designed to discover agents, govern access and protect activity through a single identity-centered model.
The approach reflects a broader move from static access reviews to real-time control. Agentic Fabric maps agents to human owners, applies least-privilege access and supports automated response when risky behavior emerges.
SAIL Sees Nonhuman Identity as a Growth DriverThis is more than a branding exercise for SailPoint. In the first quarter of fiscal 2027, non-human identities accounted for 40% of identity growth and represented 14% of all identities managed in the company’s cloud offering.
Management also said the agentic pipeline doubled in the quarter. Customers that adopted advanced non-human identity capabilities increased annual recurring revenue by more than 50%, giving the AI-agent theme direct revenue relevance.
SAIL Faces Stiff CompetitionSailPoint is also trying to widen the opportunity through partners and platform extensions. Its Identity Security Cloud already supports a large integration base, and the company has positioned Agentic Fabric as a layer that can work across cloud customers, on-premise IdentityIQ customers and even enterprises using other basic access management platforms.
However, the competitive context is expanding. Okta (OKTA - Free Report) , Cisco Systems (CSCO - Free Report) and Microsoft (MSFT - Free Report) are other identity-focused company investors may watch in this context.
Microsoft is SailPoint’s most significant competitor through its Microsoft Entra portfolio, which includes Entra ID, Identity Governance, Privileged Identity Management (PIM) and Conditional Access. Microsoft’s biggest advantage is its massive installed base of Microsoft 365 and Azure customers, allowing it to bundle identity governance with productivity, cloud and security offerings at attractive pricing.
Meanwhile, following the acquisition of Splunk and continued investment in cybersecurity, Cisco has strengthened its identity-focused security capabilities through Cisco Duo and its broader Zero Trust platform. Duo provides multi-factor authentication, device trust, adaptive access and identity verification, while Cisco integrates identity signals with networking and security operations.
Okta’s outlook is supported by steady demand for identity security, an expanding installed base, and rising attach of newer products such as Identity Governance, Privileged Access, and posture and threat capabilities. Management’s agent-focused roadmap and broad partner ecosystem keep Okta relevant as enterprises secure non-human identities and deploy AI workflows across multiple platforms.
SailPoint shares have dropped 18% year to date, outperforming Microsoft’s fall of 18.7%, while Okta and Cisco shares have returned 74.1% and 46.7%, respectively.
SAIL Stock’s Price Performance
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
SAIL Still Faces Early Monetization RiskThe near-term financial story is still developing. Emerging products represented 20% of net new annual recurring revenue in the first quarter of fiscal 2027, with a significant portion tied to AI-generated demand.
Management has not built an aggressive AI contribution into guidance. Customers are still working through discovery, workshops and architecture decisions, so the trend is visible even though the monetization curve remains early.
SailPoint Trend Story Needs Migration ExecutionSailPoint’s AI identity strategy could gain leverage from on-premise-to-software-as-a-service migrations. The company still has about $350 million of on-premise annual recurring revenue available for conversion and cross-sell.
That opportunity carries execution risk. Migrations involve integration work, change management and customer timing, which means the pace of enterprise modernization will help determine how quickly AI identity demand appears in reported results.
The bottom line is that SailPoint is aligned with a real enterprise security problem: AI agents and machine identities are multiplying faster than traditional access models were built to handle. Its platform strategy gives it a credible way to participate in that shift.
SAIL currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Camden Property Trust (NYSE:CPT) (the “Company”) announced today that its second quarter 2026 earnings will be released after the market closes on Thursday, July 30, 2026. The Company will host a conference call on Friday, July 31, 2026, at 10:00 AM Central Time, which will include prepared remarks by management and a question-and-answer session. Camden's complete earnings release and supplemental data will be available in the Investors section of the Company's website.
Index-inclusion day is supposed to be a party. Passive funds line up to buy, forced demand meets thin supply, and the newly added stock pops. That is the script. SpaceX (NASDAQ:SPCX) officially joined the Nasdaq 100 today, and by lunchtime shares were down 5.65% to $151.35, while the broader Nasdaq 100 proxy QQQ slipped 1.74%. So SpaceX is underperforming the very index it just joined on the day it joined.
Steve Grasso, CEO of Grasso Global, went on CNBC this morning and said the quiet part out loud. Institutional buyers already front-ran this.
What Actually Happened on Inclusion Day Grasso’s read, delivered during the “Morning Call Sheet: AI trade stays strong despite semiconductor pullback” segment, is that flat-to-lower price action at the exact moment forced buyers show up tells you something. Front-running an index add is what it sounds like. Hedge funds and quant desks know weeks in advance which stock is about to get added, they buy it early, and they sell into the passive-fund demand on inclusion day. If the stock does not pop when the buying arrives, it is because someone was there first. Reddit noticed too. r/stocks users landed on the framing “SPCX finally joined the Nasdaq-100. The first reaction was to sell it”, and community sentiment collapsed from a bullish reading of 72 over the weekend to a very bearish 18 by Tuesday morning.
Why $27 Billion Still Has to Chase This Stock The mechanical piece Grasso keeps hammering is the part most retail investors miss. The Nasdaq 100 is float-weighted, meaning your weight in the index depends on how many shares actually trade freely, not on total market cap. SpaceX has a roughly $1.15 trillion market cap but only a sliver of that is public float. Jim Cramer walked through the same dynamic in June, noting that “when SpaceX comes public, it will be weighed like a $225 billion company” and that “as the lockups gradually expire and SpaceX’s float increases, so will its weight within the index”.
Grasso puts a number on the cumulative demand. Roughly $27 billion in notional passive buying will have to be absorbed in tiers over time as each lockup releases and index funds are forced to rebalance up.
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That demand arrives as a staircase, tier by tier, not in a single session.
The Front-Running Tell, and What Grasso Is Doing About It The staircase is why Grasso stays long. He added to his SpaceX allocation, plans to hold longer, expects extreme volatility, and sees a decent chance of a retest of $135 before the next leg higher. It also implicitly admits the easy money got pulled forward. The retail crowd sniffed this out too.
When a third of the float is short and the stock still cannot rally on forced index buying, the short thesis has more weight than the retail bulls wanted to believe. For context on why the underlying business justifies staying engaged through the chop, SpaceX is now a three-pillar company. Falcon and Starship on the launch side, Starlink delivering broadband via approximately 9,600 satellites to customers in 164 countries, territories, and other markets, and xAI, acquired in early 2026, making Grok a core asset.
What This Means for You The tiered demand is real. The forward pull on returns is also real. If Grasso is right about a $135 retest, chasing SPCX at $151 on inclusion day is buying the top of the front-run rather than the bottom of the staircase. Volatility is the price of admission. Grasso’s own positioning, long and adding on weakness, is the shape of the trade for anyone who believes the mechanical bid arrives in waves rather than in a single Tuesday morning bell.
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Brian Dobson and Greg Pendy from Clear Street examine SpaceX's (SPCX) edition to the Nasdaq-100 (NDX) Tuesday. The firm initiated SpaceX coverage with buy rating and a $217 price target.
Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL, XETRA:APC)'s App Store revenue growth slowed in the June 2026 quarter, according to an analysis by UBS, which tracked third-party App Store data from Sensor Tower.
UBS analysts wrote that the App Store recorded approximately 3% year-over-year growth on a reported basis during the quarter, while growth was around 2% on a foreign exchange-neutral basis. The firm noted that growth slowed by roughly 440 basis points compared with the prior quarter, despite only a slightly more challenging comparison period.
The US market was a key source of weakness, with App Store revenue declining approximately 6% year-over-year in the quarter, UBS wrote. In other regions, the App Store grew about 9% year-over-year on a reported basis.
UBS wrote that Apple’s September 2026 quarter will face an easier comparison period, with the year-over-year growth benchmark expected to be around 10%, approximately 270 basis points lower than the June quarter comparison.
The analysts maintained their June-quarter Services revenue estimate, forecasting growth of about 14.3% year-over-year, compared with consensus expectations of roughly 14.5%.
UBS wrote that the estimate remains unchanged despite potential downside risks from slower App Store growth, noting that Apple’s Services segment continued to show strength in the March 2026 quarter, when Services revenue increased about 16.3% despite App Store growth of roughly 8%.
UBS also flagged slowing growth in generative artificial intelligence-related activity, which it views as a contributor to App Store growth. The firm wrote that AI-related growth may be moderating due to tougher comparisons and increasing market saturation.
For valuation, UBS maintained a price target of $296 for Apple shares, based on a valuation multiple of 30 times its calendar 2027 earnings-per-share estimate of $9.86. UBS wrote that the valuation reflects balanced expectations for solid demand alongside uncertainty surrounding Apple’s artificial intelligence strategy.
Shares of Apple were little changed at $313 on Tuesday afternoon.
Muse Image, which can create realistic images for users on Instagram and WhatsApp, is the company's latest attempt to catch up in the global artificial intelligence race.
On July 6, 2026, Meta disclosed in a court filing that four states (California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey) are seeking approximately $1.4 trillion in penalties ahead of an August 2026 trial in Oakland, California. The number is close to Meta‘s (NASDAQ:META | META Price Prediction) entire market value of approximately $1.55 trillion. The stock closed up 1.75% the following session, trading near $610.80.
What the $1.4 Trillion Actually Is The figure is a proposed penalty calculation, not a verdict. The states calculated it by multiplying per-violation fines under state law against the number of young users they claim were harmed. The states’ own filings on penalty methodology are sealed; Meta disclosed the $1.4 trillion number in its own rebuttal filing, calling the demand “unsupported by the evidence” and stating “a sanction of that size has no analog in the history of consumer protection enforcement.” US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers rejected Meta’s attempt to dismiss the case.
The New Mexico Chapter On March 25, 2026, a Santa Fe jury ordered Meta to pay $375 million in civil penalties for 75,000 violations of New Mexico’s Unfair Practices Act. The case originated from a 2023 undercover investigation where state agents posing as a 13-year-old were quickly targeted by predators on Meta’s platforms. The stock hit its 52-week low of $520.26 the day after the verdict, then recovered. The market treated it as isolated.
The Pullout Threat Meta warned reforms could “force Meta to withdraw its apps entirely” from New Mexico. Attorney General Raul Torrez called it a “PR stunt”: “This is not about technological capability. Meta simply refuses to place the safety of children above its profits.” Demanded reforms include bans on infinite scroll, autoplay, and push notifications during school and sleep hours, mechanics that directly drive ad engagement.
The Avalanche Meta is defending more than 2,400 consolidated federal lawsuits, a 42-state attorney general coalition case, and 14 additional state lawsuits going to trial in February 2027. A Los Angeles jury found Meta and Google negligent on March 25, 2026 ($6 million verdict). Meta’s SEC filings warn damages “could amount to hundreds of billions of dollars.” Insurance carriers are reportedly refusing to defend certain claims. Plaintiffs’ attorney Mark Lanier has publicly compared the litigation to tobacco, which ultimately produced a $246 billion national settlement.
The Bull Case Courts rarely award maximum statutory penalties. Meta generated approximately $160 billion in revenue in 2025 and posted Q1 2026 revenue of $56.31 billion, up 33.1% year over year, with EPS of $10.44 versus $6.66 consensus (although one-time benefits increased quarterly EPS). Analyst sentiment remains bullish: median 12-month price target approximately $840, Cantor Fitzgerald Overweight at $920. The current P/E ratio of 22 does not price existential risk. Polymarket traders assign 97.3% probability META stays above $530 by Friday.
The Open Question Shares are down approximately 8.9% year to date, underperforming but far from collapsing. The market has bought every dip: after New Mexico, after the LA verdict, after the $1.4 trillion filing. Analyst target price sits at $828.17. Yet the August Oakland trial, the July 27 California bellwether, the February 2027 state cases and the imminent New Mexico public nuisance ruling arrive within roughly seven months. At what point does accumulated legal exposure change the reflex to buy the dip? Meta shareholders may want to answer that before the calendar does.
Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Meta didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today.
If four of the states suing Meta for allegedly fueling a teen mental health crisis prevail in their case, the company will be on the hook for a whopping $1.4 trillion in penalties, Meta says — a figure the tech giant blasted as “outlandish.”
The Mark Zuckerberg-led company arrived at the gigantic sum — which is nearly as large as the company’s entire market cap — based on how the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey have argued penalties should be calculated if they win the case.
The two sides are scheduled to face off in Oakland federal court on Aug. 18.
Meta and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg have strenuously denied wrongdoing. CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images “A sanction of that size has no analog in the history of consumer protection enforcement,” Meta’s attorneys wrote in the late Monday filing, adding that the states’ proposals were “unsubstantiated” and “outlandish.”
A total of 29 states are attached to the lawsuit against Meta, which accuses the company of major violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. The legislation bars the collection of data from underage users without parental consent.
They further allege that Facebook and Instagram were designed to be addictive to kids, causing a wave of issues ranging from anxiety and depression to self-harm and even suicide.
California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey are also targeting Meta for allegedly misleading the public about safety risks.
Meta, which has strenuously denied wrongdoing, said the four states’ proposed remedies go far beyond the scope of the case. They also accuse Meta of improperly double- or even triple-counting teen users who allegedly experienced harm based on how long they use Facebook and Instagram each day.
“These remedies have no basis in the record in this case, are entirely unmoored from the claimed deceptive statements or unfair practices, are based on features this Court has held are immune from liability under Section 230, and violate the legal and due process limits on the scope of [Unfair Practices Act] penalties,” the company’s lawyers wrote, referring to the section of the Communications Act of 1934 that broadly protects online platforms from being held liable for content posted by their users.
While the states’ specific proposals remain under seal, plaintiff attorneys said at a court hearing last month that they were guided by local laws and the estimated number of underage users in each state who were affected.
“Our lawsuit alleges Meta has prioritized profits over the safety of kids and fueled the mental health crisis we see impacting a generation of American children,” a spokesperson for the California attorney general’s office said in a statement. “The California Department of Justice looks forward to holding Meta fully accountable at trial in August.”
The $1.4 trillion in penalties is nearly equal to Meta’s entire market cap. Bloomberg via Getty Images Representatives for the attorneys general of Colorado and New Jersey declined comment. Kentucky’s AG did not immediately respond.
Meta shares were up 3% in trading Tuesday.
US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who is overseeing the case, shot down an attempt by Meta to get it thrown out on June 30, stating in part that there were still material factual disputes as to whether the company’s apps were designed to be addictive.
Meta faces more than 2,400 pending lawsuits brought by school districts, parents and governments in what critics have described as a “Big Tobacco moment” for social media.
The company suffered major legal setbacks earlier this year in back-to-back court losses – one in California state court that found Meta liable for fueling social media addiction for a woman identified as KGM, and another in New Mexico, where a jury found that Meta failed to protect kids from online sex creeps and misled the public about safety risks on its apps.
More than two dozen state AGs are suing Meta for fueling a teen mental health crisis. AP Still, the $1.4 trillion penalty is likely far higher than what Meta will ultimately face in the case brought by state AGs.
In the KGM case, Meta and fellow defendant Google were ordered to pay a total of $6 million in damages, with Meta on the hook for 70% of that sum.
In New Mexico, Meta was ordered to pay $375 million in penalties. Company spokesman Andy Stone touted the verdict as “just a fraction of what the state sought.”
The move turns Meta’s flagship assistant from a largely text‑based helper into a full‑fledged creative studio, and that shift matters for both engagement on Meta’s platforms and the long‑term argument for Meta’s stock.
META stock is moving. See the chart and price action here. Meta’s AI CapEx Delivers New FeaturesMeta has poured billions into AI infrastructure and models, from Llama to Muse Spark, while investors have struggled to see where that spending connects to everyday product use.
A consumer‑ready image generator changes that. Muse Image makes visual creation a native feature of Meta.ai, letting people generate illustrations, social graphics, and concept art directly in the same environment where they chat, search and plan.
The result is an assistant that is more useful and stickier, increasing the odds that Meta’s AI investments show up in actual user behavior rather than just research blog posts and developer demos.
Increased User EngagementVisual creation inside Meta.ai can lift engagement on Meta’s platforms in three connected ways. It keeps sessions inside Meta instead of third‑party apps, extends time spent and increases chances to surface content, recommendations, and ads.
Muse Image also improves how posts look. When average output moves closer to creator‑grade work, feeds become richer, and interaction metrics that matter for Meta Stock can rise.
Financial impact comes through ad inventory. If Muse becomes part of how small businesses, creators, and advertisers produce visuals, the volume and quality of ad‑ready assets inside Meta’s ecosystem increase, enabling more personalized, visually varied campaigns with better performance and pricing.
A native image generator also signals that Meta is committed to an AI‑powered creative platform, reinforcing the idea that heavy AI capex is building more profitable ad products rather than just experimental tools.
The Bottom LineMuse Image is not a guaranteed accelerator for Meta; competition in AI imagery is fierce and regulatory risks remain.
It does, however, give analysts and investors tangible signals to watch — uptake of visual creation in Meta.ai, creator adoption, and whether gains in engagement and ad quality show up in results —putting fresh fuel under Meta’s stock at a time when markets are demanding proof that Meta’s AI era has durable commercial legs.
META Stock Price Activity: Meta Platforms shares were up 2.55% during regular trading and down 0.23% in after-hours trading on Tuesday, last trading at $614.17, according to Benzinga Pro data.
Photo: Shutterstock
This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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Starting the week on a bullish note, Meta Platforms (META +2.59%) stock closed 3% higher yesterday, up from its finish the previous market session. Shares of the social media stock continued their ascent today after the company provided insight into its new image-generation model.
Shares of Meta closed 2.6% higher today, after retreating from an earlier 4.2% gain.
Image source: Getty Images.
Drawing a picture of its new image-generation tool Meta announced today that its first image-generation model from Meta Superintelligence Labs is now available in Meta AI.
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615.85
Dubbed Muse Image, the model is available across various Meta platforms, including Instagram and WhatsApp. According to the company, Muse Images uses "advanced reasoning to understand complex prompts, seamlessly blending multiple photos into high-quality creations you can download and share anywhere -- including directly to your chat, story, or feed."
Muse Image will soon be available on Facebook, Messenger, and to advertisers through Meta Advantage+ creative.
Is Meta stock a buy on today's news? Today's announcement of Muse Image is noteworthy, but it's hardly sufficient, in and of itself, to justify buying Meta stock. Now, however, seems like a great time for another reason. Trading at 11.6 times operating cash flow, a discount to its five-year average cash flow multiple of 13.7, Meta stock is currently sitting in the bargain bin. For investors seeking a summer buying opportunity, Meta stock is worth a close look.
Scott Levine has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Meta Platforms. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
City officials in Cheyenne, Wyoming, said a Meta data center under construction caused the contamination of the city's wastewater treatment facility. Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities Officials in the city of Cheyenne, Wyoming, say a massive, under-construction Meta data center campus located just south of the city is responsible for contaminating part of its recycled water system.
Cheyenne's Board of Public Utilities said in recent public notices that water discharged by Goat Systems, a Meta contractor at the site, contaminated the city's wastewater treatment facility with a rare bacterium.
That facility includes Cheyenne's reuse water system, which is used for irrigation purposes only, a board spokesperson said. The system cleans used water so it can be safely released back into the environment or reused for watering things like parks and golf courses. The bacterium did not enter the city's drinking supply, city officials said.
"We were able to connect the Meta Data Center campus to this through sampling their site and it was determined to be through their fill-and-flush discharge that the bacteria was introduced to the system," Erin Lamb, a spokesperson for the Board of Public Utilities, told Business Insider on Tuesday.
Fill-and-flush operations are a cooling system for data centers in which water is periodically flushed from pipes, discarded, and then replenished with new water. Some data centers now use a "closed-loop" system that recycles the same water within the facility.
The board's public notice characterized the infraction as "significant noncompliance" and revoked Goat Systems' "industrial discharge privileges for fill and flush operations." While the board posted the notice on July 2, it said the operations were halted on March 24.
Goat Systems, the Meta contractor, "immediately ceased discharge of wastewater from the fill and flush operation" after it was notified of the pollutant, Cheyenne's Board of Public Utilities said. A representative for Goat Systems could not be reached for comment by Business Insider.
A Meta spokesperson told Business Insider the company is working with its general contractor, Fortis, to resolve the issue.
"When the board shared that it found a substance in the city's wastewater — not public drinking water — Fortis immediately stopped discharging industrial wastewater and began hauling it offsite," the spokesperson said. "Fortis also began its own water testing with an independent environmental specialist, which has found no trace of the substance."
A spokesperson for Fortis said the company "takes its environmental obligations seriously and will continue to work constructively with BOPU and all relevant authorities as this matter is fully resolved."
The Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities said in its notice that it would pause accepting any industrial water discharge from any data center, whether it's a fill-and-flush or closed-loop system.
The board said the bacterium it found in the wastewater was Cupriavidus gilardii. Although infections are rare, direct exposure can pose a risk to older people or those who are immunocompromised. Laboratory staff identified the bacterium during a wastewater sampling in February, the board said.
"Over the past two months, BOPU staff have undertaken significant remediation efforts, including draining and disinfecting the entire reuse water system and Prairie View Pond to eliminate any remaining bacterial presence," the board said in its notice. "To prevent potential migration throughout the reuse distribution network, all affected irrigation systems were temporarily converted to potable water supplies."
Lamb, the spokesperson for BOPU, told Business Insider that the agency plans to hold a press conference on the matter in the next week or so.
Meta announced the $800 million, 715,000-square-foot data center development in 2024. Once the campus is fully operational, Meta says it will be wholly sustainable. The company said it aims to be water-positive by 2030, meaning it will restore more water than it consumes.
"The Cheyenne Data Center will be optimized for our AI workloads and help people connect, build communities, and grow their businesses," Meta said at the time of its announcement.
Data centers have become a divisive topic. Tech companies are spending billions of dollars to develop the facilities that power their AI products. They say data centers can generate economic growth, create jobs, and push the US ahead in the AI race against China.
Critics, however, are much less enthused. Many Americans are pushing back against data centers and don't want them anywhere near their communities. They're concerned that the sprawling facilities will negatively impact water resources, worsen air quality, increase noise levels, and interfere with their quality of life. Some protesters have swarmed local planning meetings, created petitions, and taken legal action to stop construction.
In response, a handful of legislators have taken steps to place parameters around data center developments or ban them altogether. At the federal level, Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York proposed a moratorium on AI data centers.
The data center industry is still speeding full steam ahead, however. By the end of 2025, there were over 1,400 data centers built or approved for construction in 45 states and Washington, DC.
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Lauren Edmonds You're currently following this author! Want to unfollow? Unsubscribe via the link in your email.
Lauren Edmonds is an award-winning reporter on the Business News team. When news isn't breaking, she covers personal finance, kitchen-table economics, and paths to financial freedom, including investing, real estate, side hustles, and small business. She also writes about guaranteed and universal basic income programs in the United States.Lauren has also covered lifestyle and entertainment, digital culture, and more. She has a master's degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and resides in New York City.Do you have an interesting story to tell? You can reach Lauren at [email protected] or on Signal at ledmonds0.07.Popular StoriesNetflix wants to be Disney when it grows up Why Hollywood is paying this 17-year-old up to $20,000 to boost film trailers with TikTok editsHere's all the free money Trump's talked about giving Americans during his second term — and where it all standsA 17-year-old earned $72,000 after investing his e-commerce profits into stocks. Here's why he bet on the tech industry.Lawmakers float a nationwide basic income experiment that would cover the cost of a 2-bedroom apartmentNearly 30,000 Americans have received about $335 million in basic income. Here are 5 takeaways. Americans ditch suffocating healthcare costs and divisive politics to retire in Italy: 'It's the way they approach life'From 'road-schooling' to gas that costs $500, this family of 4 shares what it's like living in a solar-powered Greyhound bus
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Natalie is a senior reporter on Business Insider's Business News team.She was previously on BI's Legal Affairs team where she covered major cases out of state and federal court, as well as bankruptcy. Her coverage often focused on stories at the intersection of law, business, politics and technology. Natalie has covered Donald Trump’s criminal and civil cases, the wave of lawsuits against the second Trump administration, the indictment and criminal trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs, the shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, and the legal battles facing Elon Musk and his companies. Natalie came to Business Insider in June 2021 as a breaking news reporter, focusing on the most interesting angles around the trending news of the day. Natalie largely drove BI’s coverage around the fatal “Rust” shooting involving Alec Baldwin and the disappearance and murder of Gabby Petito.Prior to joining BI, Natalie worked for the New York Post, the New York Daily News, and The Brooklyn Paper. She has an extensive background covering crime and courts. During her more than 12-year journalism career, she did a stint covering the police beat out of the headquarters for the New York Police Department. Natalie, a Brooklyn native, graduated from Brooklyn College in 2012 with a journalism degree. Popular articles
Walmart and Amazon face legal trouble for using a points system to track and fire employees over absences: lawyersCelebrities who partied with Diddy may want to contact their lawyersAn unchecked AI could usher in a new dark ageAt Diddy's A-list 'white parties,' naked women were a staple — but that didn't seem to raise eyebrows at the timeThe illegal maneuvers the rich use to get richerOwner of ship that crashed into Baltimore bridge will likely try to invoke 1851 law used to cap damages after Titanic disaster Meta Data Centers
ToplineElon Musk’s net worth dropped more than $50 billion Tuesday as SpaceX shares tumbled, even as Wall Street banks raved about the rocket maker’s potential, including one that praised Musk’s firm’s potential impact on humanity as “bigger than any company’s we’ve ever seen.”
Shares of the rocket maker hovered over their debut price, even as Wall Street lauded the firm's potential.
Getty Images
Key FactsShares of SpaceX plunged by nearly 7% Tuesday to below their $150 debut price, while Tesla shares dropped by more than 4%.
Musk, who holds 4.8 billion SpaceX shares and another 350 million stock options, as well as roughly 700 million Tesla shares, had his net worth cut by $58.2 billion as a result, dropping it to $941.2 billion.
Several investment brokers opened coverage of SpaceX’s stock on Tuesday, the most bullish of which came from Raymond James analyst Brian Gesuale, who wrote his firm believed SpaceX was building the “foundational platform for the next generation of industrial capacity.”
“SpaceX’s ambitions, and potential impact on humanity, are bigger than any company’s we’ve ever seen,” JPMorgan analysts wrote.
surprising factJPMorgan analyst Rajat Gupta cast doubt on a possible merger between Tesla and SpaceX, writing that a tie-up between Musk’s firms is “strategically coherent on paper” and that their businesses would complement each other, but regulatory approval would prove difficult.
crucial quote“Just as railroads, electric grids, and the internet reshaped prior economic eras, we believe SpaceX is building the foundational platform for the next generation of industrial capacity,” Gesuale wrote.
big number$800. That’s Raymond James’ price target for SpaceX shares, a roughly 500% surge above its IPO price that would swell the company’s market valuation well above $10 trillion. Arete Research set a $401 price target, while Morgan Stanley set a $300 target and Goldman Sachs a $205 goal. On average, brokers expect SpaceX shares to be worth $236.
key backgroundMusk’s fortune has dropped by more than $500 billion since peaking at $1.45 trillion last month. His net worth plummeted as SpaceX shares lost momentum after a record-setting IPO, and Musk briefly lost his trillionaire status after Forbes cut $116 billion of his restricted Tesla stock from estimates of his wealth. He has since buoyed above and below the trillion-dollar threshold over the last week, even as more analysts offer bullish takes for SpaceX’s growth potential. Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives, a consistent bull for Tesla, called SpaceX “one of the most differentiated assets within the tech market” last week and argued Musk’s firm is “well-positioned to become a major hyperscaler” across connectivity, rocket launches and AI infrastructure.
further readingForbesMusk Is A Trillionaire Again: SpaceX And Tesla Boost Net Worth By $60 BillionBy Ty Roush
SpaceX Short-Term vs. Long-TermWoods told readers of his weekly newsletter and anyone who asked for advice on the SpaceX IPO, including his father, to make their allocations smaller than they would have liked.
"I think the valuation and the pre-market valuations, they scare me," Woods told Benzinga. "I think there are going to be a lot of people looking to cash out and that’s why I didn’t want it to go into the (S&P 500) index."
Woods said early inclusion in the S&P 500 may have forced buying and made the stock even more volatile at IPO, with people cashing out profits early.
The market expert is far from a SpaceX bear, telling Benzinga he believes the company is "here to stay."
"It’s going to be the biggest grower over time."
Woods said Starlink alone could be a trillion-dollar business.
"If you believe in Elon Musk, you don’t bet against him."
Woods is cautious on the stock keeping its valuation high in the short term after the IPO, telling Benzinga past successful large-cap IPOs have shown that investors get better opportunities to buy into the stock later on.
"I think any long-term investor, you want to buy the stock, put it away, don’t look at it."
Woods highlights Aug. 11 and quarterly earnings for SpaceX as a test, along with several lock-up periods.
"I don’t think this is something we have to rush into. I think there’ll be better opportunities."
Woods said SpaceX likely needs a couple of quarters of financial results as a public company before investors can get too optimistic and get away from the hype brought about by the company’s S1 filing.
"They’ll come back to Earth at some point. Yes, puns intended."
Woods said the $135 IPO pricing range could even get tested and give investors another chance to buy at that level.
"This stock will eventually double from where it is. But I don’t know the time frame as to when that will happen and I think there are better opportunities right now for a trader than to be in space."
SpaceX Index InclusionAhead of SpaceX’s IPO, Woods was vocal about long-standing indexes like the S&P 500 not changing their rules to speed up inclusion or change the requirements for a company to become a member.
"I think you know we have standards for a reason," Woods tells Benzinga. "I understand the market cap really calls into question that maybe there should be a special category. But, let them have this as a goal and guide."
Woods said that SpaceX doesn’t meet the profitability or float requirements that other companies had to meet to be included in the S&P 500.
"When you’re floating such a small amount of share, you’re not utilizing an inclusion into an index to help expand your float. And that to me was just wrong on that grounds."
The market expert recalled Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) going down the same road, needing to hit profitability to be included in the S&P 500.
Woods said he doesn’t like the Nasdaq changing its rules, with SpaceX set to join the Nasdaq 100, tracked by the Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ:QQQ) on July 7.
"The Nasdaq 100 is a very iconic place to be in," he added.
Image via Shutterstock
Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs
As the nation celebrates its 250th birthday and people head to the beach, it's also a good time to do a mid-year review of your investments. For investors seeking dividend growth, Coca-Cola (KO +1.31%) stands out. Here's why this company belongs in your forever portfolio.
Image source: Getty Images.
A payout you can count on Coca-Cola has built an impressive track record of raising dividends. When the board of directors hiked the quarterly payout earlier this year, it brought the company's streak to 64 straight years. That makes Coca-Cola a Dividend King, an illustrious group of stocks that have increased their dividends for at least 50 straight years.
Shares of the iconic beverage maker currently pay a quarterly rate of $0.53 per share, 4% higher than the previous $0.51 per share. The $2.12 annualized rate works out to a 2.5% dividend yield. That's much higher than the S&P 500 index's 1.1% yield.
Today's Change
(
1.31
%) $
1.09
Current Price
$
84.05
Of course, investors want to make sure a company can continue paying dividends. Fortunately, Coca-Cola passes this test.
The company has a payout ratio of 65%. That's an important measure since it compares dividends to earnings. The ratio shows Coca-Cola has plenty of cushion to make payouts. And it keeps growing the bottom line, including a 15% year-over-year increase in first-quarter adjusted earnings per share.
A long history of dividend increases, the ability to continue doing so, and a better-than-market dividend yield add up to a long-term buying opportunity. Once you do, you'll enjoy those summer beach days, secure in the knowledge that Coca-Cola will continue rewarding you.
Lawrence Rothman, CFA has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
On CNBC this morning, David Faber walked through the bond deal of the day with Jim Cramer, and the numbers do a lot of the talking. Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN | AMZN Price Prediction) is tapping the US dollar investment-grade market for $25 billion across multiple tranches, some stretching out to 40 years.
That comes on top of $54 billion Amazon already issued in March 2026, and it feeds a capex plan Andy Jassy has openly pegged at roughly $200 billion for 2026. Amazon has told underwriters it will not come back to the debt market again this year, a deliberate signal about supply management.
Why a Cash-Rich Company Is Borrowing Tens of Billions Amazon generated $139.5 billion in operating cash flow in 2025 and sits on $101.8 billion in cash. So the reflex question from a retail reader is fair. Why borrow at all? Because the capex line ate almost the entire cash flow. Capex was $131.8 billion in 2025, and $44.2 billion in Q1 2026 alone. Trailing twelve-month free cash flow has collapsed to $1.2 billion, down about 95%, because AI data centers, custom Trainium chips, and the deployment of a million-plus NVIDIA GPUs have to be paid for now, in cash, while the revenue arrives later.
Running negative free cash flow to fund capex here is a deliberate choice. Amazon is voluntarily running the pipe dry to build capacity it has already sold. OpenAI has committed to roughly 2 gigawatts of Trainium capacity beginning in 2027, and Anthropic has locked up to 5 gigawatts. The demand is contracted. The concrete and the silicon are not yet poured.
The “Last Time This Year” Signal, and Why Bondholders Care Long-term debt has already jumped from $65.6 billion at year-end 2025 to $119.1 billion by the end of Q1 2026. Interest expense followed and climbed to $800 million from $541 million a year earlier. When Amazon tells underwriters this is the last issuance of the year, it is managing supply. Every new tranche in the same name pressures spreads on the existing bonds. Guiding the market to a hard stop protects the buyers of today’s deal from being diluted tomorrow. It also anchors the trade against a rising rate backdrop. The 10-year Treasury is at 4.49%, sitting in the 93rd percentile of its 12-month range. Locking in 40-year money now, before the window narrows, is a treasury-desk decision made in real time.
Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Amazon didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today.
Capacity is ample. The US investment-grade market is roughly $9 trillion, and demand for high-quality duration has been sturdy. The 10Y-2Y spread is positive at 0.35%, meaning investors are still being paid to extend, and Amazon is one of the few names that can absorb $25 billion in one sitting without indigestion.
The Telecom Parallel, and When Someone Cries Uncle Faber’s historical rhyme is worth sitting with. Verizon and AT&T were once the largest corporate issuers precisely because they had the largest capex budgets. Fiber, spectrum, towers. The hyperscalers have taken that mantle. Morningstar pegs combined hyperscaler capex at $452.8 billion in 2026, more than four times what the entire US energy sector spends. Amazon alone is projected to outspend all of Big Oil.
Cramer’s read on the psychology, “too risky to not spend,” captures the underwriting logic. If AWS growth re-accelerated to 28%, its fastest in 15 quarters, and the custom chips business is running at a $20 billion-plus run rate with triple-digit growth, then not borrowing is the risky move. The ROI math still holds. It stops holding the moment demand curves bend, and that is the bond covenant every investor is really underwriting. For now, with 62 of 66 analysts bullish and a $312.91 target, the market is treating this as disciplined aggression. Read Amazon’s Q1 8-K and decide whether you agree.
Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Amazon didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today.
One line from Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT | MSFT Price Prediction) CEO Satya Nadella on the April earnings call reframed the entire debate over how quickly generative AI can turn into a real profit-and-loss line. The company’s AI business now operates at scale, and the growth rate suggests the ramp is still in its early innings.
The Number $37 billion. That is Microsoft’s AI annual revenue run rate as of the fiscal third quarter of 2026, reported in the company’s 8-K filed April 29, 2026. On Microsoft’s recent earnings call, Nadella stated it plainly: “Our AI business surpassed an annual revenue run rate of $37 billion, up 123% year over year.”
This is a company disclosure of a run-rate metric, distinct from reported GAAP revenue and from forward guidance. It also reflects annualized current-quarter run rate as defined by management.
What It Means A 123% year-over-year jump on a base this large is the operational headline. It sits inside a broader cloud engine that is accelerating with it. Intelligent Cloud revenue reached $34.681 billion, up 30%, and Azure grew 40% in constant currency. Microsoft Cloud clocked $54.5 billion in the quarter, up 29%.
The demand behind the run rate is visible in Microsoft’s reported backlog. Commercial remaining performance obligations hit $627 billion, nearly doubling year over year at 99% growth. That is contracted revenue queued up for future delivery. On top of this key figure, capital expenditures came in at $30.876 billion, up 84.39% year over year. That’s the amount Microsoft has set aside to fund its AI data centers which support that backlog. Copilot adoption is the other tell. Paid seats crossed 20 million, up 250% year over year, with Accenture alone taking 740,000 seats.
Market Reaction Shares of Microsoft traded at $428.00 at the April 29 filing, closed at $414.44 one day later, and reached $450.24 thirty days after the report. As of July 2, 2026, the stock closed at $390.49, with a one-week gain of 10.67% off a lower base and a one-year decline of 19.85%. The stock’s 10-year return of 763.3% puts the recent pullback in context for long-term holders.
Bull Case Microsoft’s bull case rests on scale, mix, and durability.
Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Microsoft didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today.
In terms of scale, a $37 billion AI run rate compounding at triple digits is generating cash flow now, with operating cash flow of $46.679 billion in the quarter, up 26.01%. The company’s mix has also improved, with consolidated operating margin sits at 46%, and CFO Amy Hood told investors AI margins are “better and have remained better in our AI business versus where we saw them in the cloud transition looking back.” And on durability, there’s plenty for Microsoft investors to like. Capacity is sold out, with management saying it expects to remain capacity-constrained “at least through 2026.”
The ROI question that hangs over hyperscaler capex was answered directly. Nadella responded recently that, “When the TAM is so expansive and when shortages are generally growing between supply and demand, it gives you a lot of confidence in the ROI.” The chip supplier picture reinforces the demand signal. NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) is up 24.06% over the past year, closing at $194.83 on July 2, 2026, on continued AI infrastructure orders.
Analyst View Analyst sentiment aligns with the operational picture. Microsoft carries 12 strong buys, 40 buys, 3 holds, and zero sell ratings, with an analyst target price of $561.11 against a share price near $390. Forward P/E stands at 20.
Bottom Line For long-term holders, the $37 billion AI run rate is the pivot point in the Microsoft story. It converts the capex debate from theoretical to arithmetic. The $627 billion commercial backlog and 20 million paid Copilot seats provide the revenue lines that the roughly $190 billion in calendar 2026 planned capex is meant to serve.
Microsoft’s 12-month drawdown coexists with an AI franchise scaling at a rate few software businesses ever have. That gap between price action and operating trajectory is where patient investors tend to find their edge.
Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Microsoft didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today.
Image Credits:JASON REDMOND/AFP / Getty Images As AI costs continue to rise, companies are looking for ways to cut back. The most recent example is Microsoft, which has reportedly begun to deploy a cost-savings strategy by relying less on software from OpenAI and Anthropic and instead deploying its own in-house models.
Indeed, when it comes to two of its most widely used programs — Excel and Word — Microsoft has begun to use its homemade MAI models to respond to a certain percentage of user prompts, Bloomberg reported Tuesday. In the past, the company had advertised the fact that large parts of Office 365 are powered by models from both OpenAI and Anthropic.
While Microsoft still relies on those third-party models, it has also increasingly sought to stand up its own AI agents. Last month, at its annual Build conference, the company announced the launch of seven new MAI models, including an agentic coder and a text-to-image generator.
When reached for comment by TechCrunch, Microsoft said that it had nothing further to share.
Microsoft’s apparent cutbacks are part of a broader trend. After a brief blitz of “tokenmaxxing” earlier this year, the last few months have seen a news cycle awash in stories about tech companies acting significantly more thrifty. Other large companies — like Amazon, Uber, Meta, and Accenture — have also reportedly made moves to curb spending.
The immense cost of providing and buying AI services has become a controversial part of the industry. The sticker shock has gotten so bad in some parts of Silicon Valley that some companies are reportedly looking to Chinese models for more affordable agentic solutions — despite some concerns over potential security issues.
Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox plans to eliminate 3,200 jobs, or around 20% of its staff over the next year, as part of a massive reorganization to spur growth in the struggling gaming division. Xbox will also divest four of its video-game development studios and is beginning the process to part ways with a fifth.
WHY: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, reminds purchasers of common stock of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) between May 1, 2025 and January 28, 2026, inclusive (the “Class Period”), of the important August 11, 2026 lead plaintiff deadline.
SO WHAT: If you purchased Microsoft common stock during the Class Period you may be entitled to compensation without payment of any out of pocket fees or costs through a contingency fee arrangement.
WHAT TO DO NEXT: To join the Microsoft class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/cases/microsoft-corporation/join or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email [email protected] for information on the class action. A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than August 11, 2026. A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation.
WHY ROSEN LAW: We encourage investors to select qualified counsel with a track record of success in leadership roles. Often, firms issuing notices do not have comparable experience, resources, or any meaningful peer recognition. Many of these firms do not actually handle securities class actions, but are merely middlemen that refer clients or partner with law firms that actually litigate the cases. Be wise in selecting counsel. The Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. Rosen Law Firm has achieved the largest ever securities class action settlement against a Chinese Company. Rosen Law Firm was Ranked No. 1 by ISS Securities Class Action Services for number of securities class action settlements in 2017. The firm has been ranked in the top 4 each year since 2013 and has recovered billions of dollars for investors. In 2019 alone the firm secured over $438 million for investors. In 2020, founding partner Laurence Rosen was named by law360 as a Titan of Plaintiffs’ Bar. Many of the firm’s attorneys have been recognized by Lawdragon and Super Lawyers.
DETAILS OF THE CASE: According to the lawsuit, throughout the Class Period, defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) Microsoft’s Copilot family of products had experienced significant brand positioning, user experience, usage, data siloing, computational capacity, organizational, and interoperability problems; (2) Microsoft’s flagship proprietary AI model ranked well below competitors on a number of benchmark tests; (3) Microsoft needed to increase by billions of dollars its capital expenditures and divert graphics processing unit (“GPU”) and central processing unit (“CPU”) capacity away from fulfilling demand for its profitable Azure services in order to improve the competitive positioning of its critical Copilot family of products and increase its AI-related research and development (“R&D”); and (4) as a result, Microsoft had failed to convert a significant percentage of its commercial Microsoft 365 users to paid Copilot subscriptions and Microsoft’s Copilot offerings had lost market share to rival products, a trend that was increasing. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages.
To join the Microsoft class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/cases/microsoft-corporation/join or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email [email protected] for information on the class action.
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Michael Burry is famous for making a massive bet against the U.S. housing market in 2005, a few years before it collapsed and triggered the global financial crisis in 2008. He has since closed his hedge fund, Scion Asset Management, and now invests his own money whenever he identifies worthy opportunities.
Burry was very active in the stock market last week, opening a series of short positions against companies that operate in the artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure space. Over the past few months, he used his social media and his Substack pages to voice skepticism about the sustainability of the AI spending boom, and he's now putting his money where his mouth is. By going short, he will profit if the underlying stocks or securities he's betting against decline in value.
As of June 30, Burry was short the iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX 5.57%), an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that exclusively invests in companies selling the chips and components powering the AI boom. This position suggests he believes the entire semiconductor industry is overvalued, but is he right?
Image source: Getty Images.
This ETF holds America's fastest-growing semiconductor stocks The iShares Semiconductor ETF focuses on companies that design, manufacture, and distribute chips and components, but particularly those benefiting from the AI revolution. It has a highly concentrated portfolio of just 30 stocks, but it has 36.5% of its assets parked in its top five positions alone:
Stock
iShares ETF Portfolio Weighting
1. Micron Technology (MU 5.25%)
8.16%
2. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD 6.97%)
8.15%
3. Nvidia (NVDA +0.62%)
7.50%
4. Broadcom (AVGO 1.02%)
6.56%
5. Intel (INTC 10.06%)
6.17%
Data source: iShares. Portfolio weightings are accurate as of July 2, 2026, and are subject to change.
Therefore, Burry is effectively betting against some of the world's best semiconductor companies that are currently generating blistering growth. Micron Technology, which supplies high-bandwidth memory (HBM) for data centers, grew its revenue by a staggering 345% year over year during its most recent quarter and is forecasting a similar increase in the current quarter.
AMD and Nvidia supply graphics processing units (GPUs) for data centers, which are the main chips used in AI training and inference workloads. Nvidia has grown its revenue sevenfold over the past three years, thanks primarily to GPU sales, and it's now the world's largest company with a market capitalization of $4.7 trillion.
Broadcom supplies some of the semiconductor industry's best data center networking equipment, but it's also taking the fight to AMD and Nvidia by selling AI accelerators, a type of AI chip that can be tailored to suit the needs of specific customers. Alphabet and Anthropic are two companies that have placed tens of billions of dollars' worth of orders for these chips.
Outside its top five positions, the iShares ETF also holds semiconductor powerhouses Applied Materials, Marvell Technology, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing.
The iShares ETF has a remarkable track record, but Burry might be right The iShares Semiconductor ETF has delivered a compound annual return of 14.9% since its inception in 2001, so it has comfortably beaten the S&P 500 index, which returned 9% per year over the same period. That gap has widened significantly over the past three years, with the iShares ETF soaring at an annual rate of more than 54% thanks to the AI boom.
It seems audacious for Burry to bet against such incredible momentum, but he makes some very good arguments. First, he thinks the iShares ETF is expensive, which is fair, considering that its price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 74.3 is more than twice the P/E of the Nasdaq-100 technology index. In other words, semiconductor stocks have run far ahead of their big-tech peers in terms of valuation.
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Second, Burry questions the sustainability of the AI infrastructure spending boom, because the companies allocating the most money to chips and components aren't performing as well as the semiconductor companies they're funding. In other words, while chipmakers are enjoying huge gains in value because of their soaring revenue and high profit margins, their customers aren't reaping the same rewards from selling AI as an end product. This situation could lead to a sharp decrease in hardware spending in the near future.
In fact, a recent survey by UBS Group suggests that around 60% of businesses are curbing their AI spending, which isn't good news for AI companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic, nor is it good for cloud providers. The effects could flow through to the semiconductor industry and potentially result in a significant correction in the iShares ETF especially from its elevated valuation.
It's impossible to know whether Burry's short position in this ETF will pay off, but the evidence suggests he might be on the right side of this trade. Only time will tell.
Anthony Di Pizio has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Alphabet, Applied Materials, Broadcom, Intel, Marvell Technology, Micron Technology, Nvidia, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, and iShares Trust-iShares Semiconductor ETF. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
