Key Takeaways Netskope is expanding AI governance, secure access and data protection on one platform.NTSK grew Q1 fiscal 2027 revenue 28% to $201.6M, with ARR up 29% to $845M.Netskope says AI security adoption is early as evaluations and competition affect conversions. Netskope (NTSK - Free Report) offers a focused view of how cybersecurity demand is changing as enterprises adopt generative artificial intelligence, autonomous agents and cloud-delivered applications.
The company is tying AI governance, secure access service edge and data protection into one platform. That combination makes Netskope useful for understanding both the promise and limits of this emerging security cycle.
Netskope Sits at the Center of AI SecurityNetskope’s newer AI offerings target a basic enterprise problem: companies need to see where artificial intelligence is being used, assess the risk and enforce policy in real time.
AI Command Center is designed to centralize discovery, risk understanding and remediation across AI assets. AI Guardrails, AI Gateway, Agentic Broker and AI Red Teaming extend that approach into private AI traffic, agentic communications and AI-specific data and threat risks.
NTSK Benefits From SASE and SSE AdoptionNetskope also fits the longer-running shift toward secure access service edge (SASE) and security service edge (SSE). Its Netskope One platform combines security, networking, analytics and AI security across a broad product set.
The NewEdge private cloud remains central to that pitch. Management emphasizes performance, resilience and data sovereignty, which matter as enterprises replace appliance-based network security with cloud-delivered controls.
Netskope Partnerships Extend the Trend ThesisPartnerships show that AI security is moving deeper into the enterprise stack. Deloitte is using Netskope technology to deliver managed secure access service edge services for companies modernizing infrastructure and security.
Netskope has also expanded AI-security collaborations with Anthropic, OpenAI, Google Cloud and Amazon Bedrock AgentCore. These moves support the view that AI security will be embedded into workflows, cloud platforms and managed services rather than treated as a stand-alone feature.
NTSK Also Shows the Limits of Early AdoptionThe trend is still early. Some customers remain in evaluation mode, and AI security demand can lengthen conversion cycles before it becomes recurring revenue.
Competition adds pressure. Palo Alto Networks (PANW - Free Report) and Zscaler (ZS - Free Report) are relevant peers because both compete in cloud security, zero trust and platform consolidation. Their presence keeps pricing, performance and product breadth central to late-stage enterprise decisions.
Netskope Margins Suggest Scale Can Follow DemandNetskope’s first-quarter fiscal 2027 revenue rose 28% year over year to $201.6 million, while annual recurring revenue increased 29% to $845 million. Non-GAAP gross margin reached 77%, up three points from the prior-year period.
Visibility also improved. Remaining performance obligations increased 33% to more than $1.2 billion, and contracted future billings grew 71%. If demand converts into broader platform adoption, those metrics suggest scale can support better economics over time.
NTSK Ratings Show Trend Exposure Is Not EnoughThe bottom line is that Netskope has meaningful exposure to AI security, secure access service edge and cloud-delivered network protection. The industry narrative is attractive, but the stock setup remains less favorable.
NTSK currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).
You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
It also has a Value Score of F, Growth Score of F, Momentum Score of F and VGM Score of F.
Those scores suggest weaker characteristics across valuation, growth and price momentum under the Zacks Style Scores framework. For investors, that means the AI security story should be weighed against near-term execution risk and the stock’s current quantitative profile.
Comcast (CMCSA) stock keeps falling while its sector rises. The company earns most of its money from home internet and cable TV, a shrinking business, and splitting itself in two has not fixed that.
That is why a dramatic breakup failed to lift the shares, which trade around $23.73, near a 52-week low. The problem sits inside the company, not the market.
CMCSA Stock Levels: CMCSAThe Sector Is Rising, but Not for CableThe gains did not spread evenly. The communication services sector, where Comcast sits, rose about 1.4% over the past six months. However, that gain came from its biggest members, the AI-linked giants Alphabet and Meta, not from the telecom and cable names.
Half-Year Sector Performance: FinVizThe connectivity names were left behind. Comcast stock has fallen close to 30% over the past year, and cable rival Charter Communications is down about 33% in 2026.
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The gap points to Comcast’s core business. Its home internet unit keeps losing customers to fixed wireless services from Verizon and T-Mobile, a 5G alternative to cable broadband. Comcast sits on the losing side of that shift.
Why Comcast Is Splitting Itself in TwoComcast runs two very different businesses. One sells home internet and cable TV. The other is NBCUniversal, which owns NBC, the Peacock streaming service, and the Universal theme parks.
The internet and TV side is shrinking. Customers keep dropping cable and switching to cheaper wireless home internet from T-Mobile and Verizon. Bolted together, the slow-growth internet business made the whole stock look weak. So Comcast plans to separate the two into standalone companies, betting each is worth more alone.
Comcast selling at 4x multiple with a dividend yield of 5.38%, EPS at $5.
"Company to split separate into two independent publicly traded companies through a tax-free spin-off of NBCUniversal and Sky. Following the spinoff transaction, Comcast (CMCSA) shareholders will own… pic.twitter.com/UJmq9PENXS
— Kalu Aja (@FinPlanKaluAja1) July 1, 2026 The mechanism is a spinoff. Current shareholders receive stock in the new media company, no cash changes hands, and the deal is tax-free.
.@comcast is spinning off @NBCUniversal in a tax-free deal expected to take about a year, creating two separate companies. Comcast will focus on its core connectivity and technology businesses, while NBCU concentrates on media and entertainment. https://t.co/RIB4uXorII
— ADWEEK (@Adweek) June 30, 2026 However, reshuffling the two units does not win back a single lost customer.
A Reshuffle Does Not Fix the DeclineA split changes the structure, not the numbers. Comcast’s connectivity arm, the broadband and wireless business, is its profit engine, with about $7.9 billion in adjusted earnings last quarter. However, that profit fell more than 4% from a year earlier as customers left.
The media arm being spun off has the opposite problem. It brought in $11.94 billion of revenue last quarter but just $331 million in adjusted earnings, and its Peacock streaming service lost $432 million. So the breakup separates a shrinking cash engine from a growing but unprofitable one, and it fixes neither. Separating the two businesses adds no broadband customers and makes no streaming service profitable, so each carries the same problem into its new company.
Rich Greenfield, analyst at LightShed Partners, told the New York Times the move was a concession of failure. Investors put that skepticism to the test the moment the news broke.
The Pop That Did Not LastThe announcement first sparked excitement. Comcast stock gapped up and rallied about 19% to nearly $27 on June 29, as traders bet the breakup would surface hidden value.
Comcast Daily Price Chart: TradingViewThe gain did not hold. The stock reversed almost the entire move and fell back to $23.73 by July 1, down 3.34% on the session.
That round trip is the market’s verdict. A reorganization that adds no customers and no revenue gave buyers little reason to stay. The real test, though, is whether big investors bought in.
Large funds move a stock more than anyone else, and the flow data shows they stayed away. Comcast money flow, measured by Chaikin Money Flow (CMF), a gauge of whether institutional buyers or sellers control a stock, has stayed negative and drifted lower.
Money Flow Declines: TradingViewIn plain terms, the big money kept selling even after the headline. Fresh buyers did not step in to support the price.
Options traders were more hopeful. The put-call ratio, which weighs downside bets against upside bets, sat near 0.43, meaning calls outnumbered puts and hedging stayed light.
Comcast Put-Call Ratio: BarchartThat optimism, however, was not backed by real buying, as shown by the declining CMF. Wall Street shared the caution.
Wall Street Is Split on ComcastThe analyst response was divided. Rosenblatt upgraded Comcast to buy and raised its target to $31, while Deutsche Bank turned more positive yet trimmed its target to $32.
Others stayed cautious. Citi kept a buy rating but cut its target from $35.50 to $32, and Morgan Stanley, Barclays, Scotiabank, and JPMorgan all held.
The CMCSA price targets span $28 to $36, all above the current price. Even so, four of seven Wall street firms refuse to call the stock a buy.
CMCSA Analyst Price Targets: TipRanksFor now, the breakup hands Comcast a new structure, not a new business. Until it stops losing broadband customers and stems its media losses, the stock has little reason to join a sector being carried by AI.
Key Takeaways nVent Electric is expanding manufacturing capacity as AI data center and power utility demand accelerate.NVT plans about $130 million in 2026 capital spending to boost production and strengthen its supply chain.NVT launched 11 new products, with new offerings contributing more than 20 points to Q1 2026 sales growth. nVent Electric (NVT - Free Report) is expanding its manufacturing capacity to keep up with growing demand from AI data centers and power utilities. NVT's organic sales grew 34% year over year, while organic orders increased approximately 40% year over year in the first quarter of 2026. Management said data centers were the biggest contributor to growth, helping the company deliver record sales, orders and backlog. nVent Electric believes expanding manufacturing capacity is important to support this demand and maintain growth in the coming years.
A major part of this expansion is the new Blaine, MN, facility, which started production during the first quarter of 2026. Management expects production at the facility to increase through the rest of 2026. Besides Blaine, NVT is expanding manufacturing capacity across several locations for liquid cooling products and engineered building solutions. The company is also increasing capacity for products used in power utility projects as demand for grid infrastructure continues to grow.
nVent Electric is investing heavily to support this demand. NVT plans to spend approximately $130 million on capital expenditures in 2026, indicating a 40% increase from the prior year. The capital spending will be used to expand manufacturing capacity and strengthen the supply chain to support growth in data centers and power utilities and help the company support higher production volumes as demand continues to increase.
Capacity expansion is also helping NVT grow its product portfolio. New product launches, which include products related to liquid cooling and data center applications, contributed more than 20 percentage points to first-quarter sales growth. The company launched 11 new products during the first quarter and expects more launches later this year. The above-mentioned factors show that with higher manufacturing capacity and continued investment in new products, nVent Electric remains well-positioned to meet growing customer demand and support future revenue growth.
How Do Competitors Fare Against NVTnVent Electric competes with companies like Vertiv (VRT - Free Report) and Hubbell (HUBB - Free Report) in the electrical and data center markets.
In April 2026, Vertiv completed the acquisition of Strategic Thermal Labs to expand its engineering capabilities in liquid cooling for AI and high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure. These capabilities are expected to help Vertiv improve the design, testing and performance of liquid-cooled infrastructure. The acquisition is expected to support Vertiv’s broader strategy of helping customers manage increasingly complex AI and HPC infrastructure by combining power, cooling, controls and lifecycle services into an integrated offering.
Hubbell recently completed the acquisition of NSI Industries, a key manufacturer and supplier of electrical products. The acquisition is expected to strengthen Hubbell’s offerings in areas such as light industrial, data center and network infrastructure applications. Here, electrification trends are expected to support Hubbell's growth across the electrical industry, and the acquisition will help Hubbell expand its portfolio of infrastructure-related products for its electrical and utility customers.
NVT's Price Performance, Valuation & EstimatesShares of nVent Electric have surged 56.9% year to date against the Zacks Electronics - Miscellaneous Components industry’s decline of 2.6%.
nVent Electric YTD Price Return Performance
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
From a valuation standpoint, nVent Electric trades at a forward price-to-sales ratio of 4.85X, higher than the industry’s average of 4.64X.
NVT Forward 12-Month P/S Ratio
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for nVent Electric’s 2026 and 2027 earnings per share (EPS) implies year-over-year growth of 36.1% and 23.6%, respectively. EPS estimates for both 2026 and 2027 have been revised upward by a penny and 7 cents, respectively, over the past seven days.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
nVent Electric currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Key Takeaways nVent Electric raised its 2026 sales and EPS outlook on strong data center and infrastructure demand.NVT delivered first-quarter revenue and earnings beats, supported by record backlog and robust order growth.NVT trades at a premium valuation while tariffs, copper inflation and higher capex remain key headwinds. nVent Electric plc (NVT - Free Report) has rallied 56.9% year to date and 113.6% over the past year, putting valuation discipline at the center of the buy case. That performance has sharply outpaced the Zacks sub-industry’s decline of 2.6% year-to-date and the broader Computer and Technology sector’s 18.2% rise. The business momentum is clear, but the stock is no longer being priced like an undiscovered infrastructure story.
The investment question is whether raised guidance, record backlog and data-center exposure justify paying a premium multiple while tariff, copper and capacity-expansion costs remain in view.
NVT YTD Price Return Performance
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
NVT Growth Case Looks StrongnVent raised its 2026 reported sales growth guidance to 26-28%, up from its prior view of 15-18%. Organic sales growth guidance moved to 21-23% from 10-13%, while adjusted EPS guidance rose to $4.45-$4.55 from $4.00-$4.15.
That matters because the rally is being backed by improving expectations rather than price action alone. The company’s $2.6 billion backlog and roughly 40% organic order growth in the first quarter add visibility to the revenue path, especially as infrastructure demand remains the main driver.
Vertiv Holdings Co (VRT - Free Report) is a relevant comparison for investors tracking AI infrastructure because it provides critical digital infrastructure for data centers, communication networks and commercial and industrial environments. Eaton Corporation plc (ETN - Free Report) also fits the theme, with solutions and services that help manage and monitor power systems across data center operations.
NVT’s Q1 Beat Reinforces the Growth CasenVent reported first-quarter 2026 adjusted earnings of $1.09 per share, up 62.7% year over year. The result beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 15.96%.
Revenues rose 53.5% year over year to $1.24 billion and topped the consensus mark by 12.9%. The quarter showed that data center and power utility demand is converting into reported financial performance, not just backlog commentary.
NVT’s Valuation Already Prices in Strong GrowthValuation is the main reason investors should be selective after the rally. NVT trades at 31.62X forward 12-month earnings, above 27.86X for the Zacks sub-industry, 24.14X for the Zacks sector and 21.13X for the S&P 500.
NVT Forward 12-Month P/E Ratio
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
The $195 price target also implies a richer setup, reflecting 38.57X forward 12-month earnings. That does not negate the growth case, but it does mean a larger portion of expected success may already be embedded in the stock.
Margin and Cost Headwinds Could Limit NVT’s UpsideExecution risk rises when a company is scaling this quickly. Management expects full-year adjusted margin improvement of 30-40 basis points, but the expansion is expected to be back-half weighted, with the first half essentially flat.
Tariffs and raw materials add friction. The 2026 outlook includes about $80 million of tariff impact, while copper inflation pressured Electrical Connections, where adjusted return on sales fell 390 basis points to 24.4% in the first quarter. Capex is also expected to reach roughly $130 million in 2026, up 40%, to support data center, power utility and supply-chain capacity.
What NVT’s Rank and Scores Signal NowThe bottom line is that NVT still has a strong fundamental case, but the stock looks better suited to investors comfortable paying for momentum and earnings revisions than to investors looking for a discount.
NVT currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). Its Style Scores are less balanced, with a VGM Score of D, Value Score of D, Growth Score of D and Momentum Score of A. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
That mix supports a bullish near-term revision story, while the weak Value Score and Growth Score reinforce that investors are not buying a cheap stock. For bargain hunters, the premium multiple is a real constraint. For momentum- and revision-focused investors, NVT still has a stronger case.
Key Takeaways nVent Electric is benefiting from AI infrastructure demand across power, enclosures and engineered buildings.NVT posted nearly 80% organic infrastructure sales growth, with orders up 40% and backlog at $2.6 billion. NVT is investing in capacity despite tariff, copper and capital spending pressures supporting future growth. nVent Electric plc (NVT - Free Report) is becoming a useful case study in how AI infrastructure spending is spreading beyond chips and servers. Its role in enclosures, power distribution, engineered buildings, cable management and liquid cooling makes it a broader infrastructure play.
The investment angle is that AI demand is turning into an electrification and digitalization story, where physical electrical systems matter as much as compute capacity.
NVT’s Role in the AI Infrastructure BuildoutnVent is a picks-and-shovels provider for the AI buildout. Its portfolio includes enclosures, liquid and air cooling, control buildings, switchgear, bus systems, power connections, cable management, electrical connections and equipment protection.
The opportunity is not limited to one product category. Management cited broad-based data center strength across both gray space and white space, with gray space demand in engineered buildings, enclosures and power connections, and white space growth led by liquid cooling, power distribution units and cable management.
Vertiv Holdings Co (VRT - Free Report) is another relevant AI infrastructure name because it provides critical digital infrastructure for data centers, communication networks and commercial and industrial environments. Eaton Corporation plc (ETN - Free Report) also fits the theme, with data center solutions and services that help customers implement, manage and monitor power systems.
nVent Benefits from Grid UpgradesData center growth is also a power and grid story. nVent’s demand is tied to electrification, digitalization, grid capacity and data center investment, linking the company to both technological and industrial spending cycles.
Acquisitions have broadened that exposure. ECM Industries added connectors, tools, test instruments and cable management, Trachte added engineered control buildings, and the acquired Avail infrastructure businesses expanded nVent’s presence in power utilities and data centers.
NVT Uses Product Breadth as LeveragenVent’s advantage is not just that it serves fast-growing end markets. The company is using product breadth and added capacity to convert that demand into a larger footprint across data center infrastructure.
In the first quarter, nVent launched 11 new products, and new products contributed more than 20 points to sales growth. Its new Blaine, MN, facility began production in the quarter and is expected to ramp through 2026, supporting demand across engineered buildings, enclosures, power connections, liquid cooling, power distribution units and cable management.
That is why the story reaches beyond cooling. Infrastructure sales grew nearly 80% organically in the first quarter, led by data centers and power utilities, while organic orders rose about 40% and backlog reached $2.6 billion.
nVent Must Balance Growth and CostsThe emerging trend remains attractive, but fast growth brings pressure. Margin expansion is expected to be back-half weighted, with 2026 adjusted margin improvement of 30-40 basis points and the first half essentially flat.
Costs and cash needs also matter. Electrical Connections’ adjusted return on sales fell 390 basis points to 24.4% in the first quarter due mainly to copper inflation. The 2026 outlook includes about $80 million of tariff impact, while capex is expected to reach about $130 million, up 40%, to support data center, power utility and supply-chain capacity.
What NVT’s Rank and Scores Signal NowThe bottom line is that NVT is emerging as an AI infrastructure winner beyond cooling because its opportunity spans power, protection, buildings and connectivity. That breadth gives the company leverage to data center growth and grid modernization.
NVT currently flaunts a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). It has a VGM Score of D, Value Score of D, Growth Score of D and Momentum Score of A. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
That mix suggests analysts’ near-term earnings expectations are moving favorably, while the Momentum Score shows the trend has been rewarded in the stock price. The weak Value Score and Growth Score keep the setup from looking like a simple bargain, reminding investors that trend leadership does not automatically create valuation comfort.
Key Takeaways nVent Electric raised its 2026 sales outlook as orders and backlog reflected strong demand.NVT is seeing broad data center demand across enclosures, liquid cooling and power infrastructure products.NVT is expanding capacity with new products and its Blaine facility to support future growth. nVent Electric plc (NVT - Free Report) is increasingly tied to two durable investment themes: AI-driven data center buildouts and grid modernization.
The key question for investors is whether that demand can support the company’s raised 2026 outlook, expanding backlog and product-led share gains across both white space and gray space applications.
Inside NVT’s Electrical Infrastructure PortfolionVent designs and manufactures electrical connection and protection solutions used in infrastructure, industrial, commercial and residential, and energy applications. Its portfolio spans enclosures, cooling, switchgear, bus systems, power connections, cable management and equipment protection.
The company reports two segments: Systems Protection and Electrical Connections. Systems Protection accounted for about 67% of 2025 sales, while Electrical Connections contributed about 33% of total sales, showing that the business remains concentrated in systems protection.
nVent Electric Rides on Data Center SpendingData center spending is lifting demand across engineered buildings, enclosures, liquid cooling, power distribution units and cable management. Management cited broad-based growth across both gray space and white space, a useful sign because NVT is not relying on a single product line.
Infrastructure sales grew nearly 80% organically in the first quarter, led by data centers and power utilities. Vertiv Holdings Co (VRT - Free Report) is another relevant name in this theme, with a business focused on critical digital infrastructure for data centers, communication networks and commercial and industrial environments. Eaton Corporation plc (ETN - Free Report) also fits the broader data center power discussion, with solutions and services designed to manage and monitor data center power systems.
NVT’s Backlog Adds Revenue VisibilityBacklog is central to the current NVT story. Organic orders rose about 40% in the first quarter, and backlog reached $2.6 billion, up low double digits sequentially.
That backlog gives investors a clearer view of demand conversion through the year. It also supports management’s decision to raise 2026 reported sales growth guidance to 26-28% and organic sales growth guidance to 21-23%.
nVent Expands Capacity for GrowthnVent is also investing to meet faster demand. The company launched 11 new products in the first quarter, and new products contributed more than 20 points to sales growth.
Capacity is another part of the growth case. The new Blaine, MN, facility started production in the first quarter and is expected to ramp through 2026. Portfolio expansion through ECM Industries, Trachte and the acquired Avail infrastructure businesses has also deepened NVT’s reach in power utilities and data centers.
What NVT’s Rank and Scores Signal NowThe bottom line is that nVent’s outlook has improved because demand is showing up in sales, orders, backlog and capacity plans. The growth story looks multi-year in nature, but execution remains important as the company absorbs rapid growth, higher capex needs, tariff costs and copper-related pressure.
NVT currently carries a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). Its Style Scores are more mixed, with a VGM Score of D, Value Score of D, Growth Score of D and Momentum Score of A. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
That combination suggests the stock’s near-term appeal is driven more by earnings revisions and price action than by traditional value characteristics. For investors, NVT remains a data center and grid modernization stock with strong momentum, but not a classic value setup.
Strategy CEO Phong Le purchased 11,000 shares of STRC preferred stock through a revocable trust in his name. (Brent Lewin/Bloomberg)
Strategy Stretch preferred stock—its key vehicle for funding Bitcoin purchases—has been in a tailspin. On the heels of a record low, insiders including the company’s chief executive are snapping up shares.
Law Offices of Howard G. Smith announces an investigation on behalf of Cerebras Systems Inc. (âCerebrasâ or the âCompanyâ) (NASDAQ: [url="]CBRS[/url]) i
Shares of Space Exploration Technologies (SPCX +0.13%), known as SpaceX, trade at a steep premium, and that valuation is built on more than the company launching rockets. A big part of the bull case is Starlink, SpaceX's satellite internet business, which reached 10.3 million subscribers in the first quarter.
Starlink's subscriber base has doubled over the past year. That growth matters because Starlink is the company's most profitable business right now. Those profits can help fund SpaceX's broader ambitions in space and artificial intelligence (AI), which together represent enormous growth potential for the company.
Image source: Getty Images.
SpaceX is starving for capital SpaceX may be best known as Elon Musk's rocket company, but the financial picture looks more like a vertically integrated technology infrastructure business with three operating segments: Connectivity (Starlink), Space, and AI.
In 2025, the company generated $18.6 billion in total revenue and incurred a net loss of $4.9 billion across all segments. Starlink was the only profitable business. The Connectivity segment delivered more than $11 billion in revenue and $4.4 billion in operating profit, providing SpaceX with a meaningful pool of internally generated capital.
SpaceX is directing most of its capital spending toward the AI segment, which may signal where management sees the greatest upside over the next few years. Of the $20.7 billion in capital expenditures last year, $12.7 billion went to the AI segment, which includes xAI (Grok).
The IPO raised $86 billion in new capital, boosting its cash and equivalents to $100 billion as of June 19. It didn't waste time in deploying this fresh capital, recently acquiring Anysphere and its leading enterprise AI coding platform, Cursor. The company is trying to accelerate AI capabilities, even if that means aggressive capital deployment.
That's why Starlink's profitability is strategically valuable, and it's expected to grow quite quickly over the next few years. Goldman Sachs estimates Starlink revenue could reach $144 billion by 2030. If segment margins hold, that would put the connectivity segment's operating profit at over $50 billion -- cash that could materially support SpaceX's plans in space and AI.
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Starlink is one piece of a bigger empire The long-term value of owning AI models, data centers, communication satellites, and reusable rocket technology under one roof is hard to quantify, since space remains a largely unexplored frontier.
However, SpaceX pegs the combined addressable market across space, connectivity, and AI infrastructure at $28.5 trillion. That helps put the stock's $2 trillion market cap in perspective, but it's still very expensive, trading at roughly 100 times 2025 revenue. To justify that valuation, revenue needs to grow rapidly.
Starlink subscriber growth will be crucial, but investors should watch the AI segment, since that's where the company is investing the most capital. SpaceX recently struck a cloud services deal to lease xAI's data center capacity to Anthropic, in which it will pay SpaceX $1.25 billion per month through May 2029. More deals like this could open another large and growing revenue stream and potentially justify the stock's valuation.
Space Exploration Technologies (SPCX +0.13%) recently went public, and the stock, which also goes by just SpaceX, will soon be added to many index funds. That may not sit well with risk-averse investors who don't want exposure to the extremely expensive stock, which trades at more than 100 times its revenue and which is already among the most valuable companies in the world, despite incurring massive losses.
There's ample incentive to avoid exposure to SpaceX, as the stock may not only prove volatile but also carry significant downside risk given its extremely high valuation. For investors who want to steer clear of SpaceX, funds that track the S&P 500 may be the way to go right now.
Image source: Getty Images.
SpaceX isn't getting added to the S&P 500 anytime soon The Nasdaq loosened rules for adding stocks to the Nasdaq-100 index, and SpaceX is set to be included in there as early as next week. But the S&P 500 isn't bending its rules for SpaceX. Not only will it have to wait at least a year, but it will also need to be profitable -- which is likely to be a considerable barrier for the space company, which incurred $4.3 billion in losses during just the first three months of the year.
Meanwhile, as the company ramps up spending to pursue growth opportunities in space and artificial intelligence, its losses may become much larger in the future. It makes it incredibly unlikely that SpaceX will meet the criteria to be included in the S&P 500, a collection of leading U.S. stocks, anytime soon, regardless of how high its valuation may get.
S&P 500 index funds remain attractive options for long-term investing The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY 0.34%) is a popular, low-cost option for tracking the S&P 500, with a gross expense ratio of only 0.0945%. It offers investors a simple, no-nonsense way to gain exposure to a wide range of stocks through a single investment. And with the index averaging gains of around 10% per year for decades, it makes for a suitable long-term investment to buy and forget about.
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There are also many other funds that track the index and focus on different aspects of it. But by focusing strictly on S&P 500 stocks and funds that track the index, you can ensure you have exposure only to those stocks. And until SpaceX attains consistent profitability, it won't be part of that illustrious group.
Space Exploration Technologies Corp (NASDAQ:SPCX) shares are trading marginally higher Thursday morning, performing in-line with the broader Industrials sector, which has climbed over 0.7%.
While company-specific news is light for the session, sentiment is potentially being anchored by SpaceX’s decision to extend Starlink connectivity support in Venezuela following recent major earthquakes.
Additionally, the stock continues to ride an index-inclusion tailwind. SpaceX is scheduled to join the Nasdaq-100 before the opening bell on July 7, an institutional shift expected to trigger substantial passive buying from index-tracking funds as they rebalance their portfolios.
SpaceX stock is trading at depressed levels. What should traders watch with SPCX? What’s Happening With SpaceX Stock This Week?Starlink says it will provide free internet service through July 25 for new and existing customers in parts of Venezuela hit by twin earthquakes measuring 7.2 and 7.5, after power and telecom damage drove a sharp connectivity drop on Wednesday.
The company also said it’s working to rapidly deploy Starlink terminals to the hardest-hit areas, while offering account credits, reactivation credits for previously canceled users, and free replacement kits for damaged equipment.
SpaceX has also been in executive-level discussions with Charter Communications about a consumer mobile phone partnership, a potential distribution catalyst for Starlink Mobile’s $10-per-month add-on through T-Mobile.
The talks would have Charter route some mobile traffic over its ground-based network, similar to Spectrum Mobile infrastructure rental agreements with T-Mobile and Verizon.
SPCX Stock: Critical Levels To WatchFrom a longer-term trend view, the stock is still in a powerful uptrend (up 535.01% over the past 12 months), and it remains well above its major moving averages—about 27.9% above the 20-day SMA and more than 376% above the 200-day SMA. That kind of separation usually signals strong trend control, but it can also mean the chart is vulnerable to sharp pullbacks if momentum fades.
Momentum looks more "reset" than "extended" right now, with RSI at 49.35 (neutral), which suggests the stock isn’t currently stretched to the upside or downside. In plain terms, RSI helps gauge whether buying or selling pressure has become overheated; here, it reads like consolidation after a big run rather than a fresh breakout.
The moving-average structure is still constructive: the 20-day SMA is above the 50-day SMA, and the golden cross (50-day SMA above the 200-day SMA) that occurred in June continues to reinforce the longer-term bullish regime. With the 52-week high also set in June and the recent swing low in March, traders will often watch whether the stock can build a higher low above that March area to keep the trend intact.
Key Support: $147.00 — a nearby level where buyers previously stepped in, sitting right on top of the 52-week low zone ($147.11) What Is Space Exploration Technologies?Founded in 2002 and commonly known as SpaceX, the Space Exploration Technologies Corporation designs, manufactures and operates a family of reusable rockets to launch various payloads into Earth orbit for government and commercial customers. Starting in 2019, the company began launching a constellation of its own communication satellites to provide mobile broadband and wireless services under the Starlink brand.
In early 2026, the company acquired xAI from its founder, Elon Musk, which operates a large language artificial intelligence model named Grok, a gigawatt-scale data center called Colossus, and the social media network X.
In the context of today’s news, Starlink’s disaster-response playbook (free service windows, rapid terminal deployment, and equipment replacement) is also a real-world stress test of the network’s resilience—and a reminder that connectivity can be a mission-critical product, not just a consumer convenience.
SPCX Stock Price Activity on ThursdaySPCX Stock Price Activity: SpaceX shares were up 0.70% at $158.65 at the time of publication on Thursday, according to Benzinga Pro data.
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Short sellers piled into SpaceX (NASDAQ:SPCX) faster than almost any newly public stock in recent memory, and the position is now enormous enough to matter to every long-term holder watching this thing settle. Roughly 31% of the free float, about 196 million shares, is sold short as of Tuesday, according to Ortex data reported by Reuters. That is the anchor number, and the arithmetic that flows from it is what makes the next few weeks interesting.
The 196 million share bet against SpaceX A week earlier, the short position looked ordinary for a hot IPO. Short interest sat at roughly 83 million shares, or about 13% of the free float, before more than doubling in a matter of days. Ortex co-founder Peter Hillerberg called the buildup “extraordinary for a stock that has been public less than a month.” Extraordinary is the right word for it. Most stocks take years to attract that kind of bearish crowd. SpaceX did it in about three weeks after its June 12, 2026 Nasdaq debut.
Why so much conviction on the short side? The pitch writes itself. A $1.2 trillion market cap for a company that still books most of its revenue from launches and Starlink subscriptions is a tall order to grow into, and the post-IPO stock action gave bears an opening. Shares slipped as much as 23% in the days after the debut, and when the stock bottomed near $153 last week, shorts were up roughly $2.5 billion on paper.
Why the squeeze math is wild Then came the rebound, and the paper gains vanished. Ortex now pegs the mark-to-market loss for shorts at about $760 million since the IPO. The mechanical part is what should get a long-term holder’s attention. Every $1 swing in SpaceX’s share price translates into roughly $200 million in gains or losses for the short book, per Ortex’s estimate. Think of it as a very large lever with a very short handle. Small moves in the stock produce very not-small moves in the P&L of the people betting against it.
The kicker is how cheap the trade still is to hold. The cost to borrow shares remains around 1%, which is unusually low for a stock this crowded on the short side. Cheap borrow means bears are not being financially bullied out of the position by carrying costs, so they can sit. But sitting only works if the stock cooperates. If it keeps grinding higher, the size of the short interest becomes its own accelerant. Hillerberg put it plainly. “(It’s) a lot of potential fuel if it tips into a squeeze.”
How the stock has traded The stock has been a two-way fight. SPCX went public at $160.95 on June 12, 2026, and closed June 30 at $170.86, a 6.16% gain over its short trading history. The one-week move into June 30 was +9.45%, from $156.11 to $170.86. Today, July 1, the stock is down to $157 from that $170.86 close. That is the whipsaw shorts are living inside. Prediction markets are reading it in real time too. Polymarket assigned a 95% probability to SPCX finishing July 1 down, and a 75% probability the stock closes above $150 for the week of June 29.
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The bull argument does not require you to fall in love with the valuation. It only requires you to respect the mechanics.
With 31% of the free float short and borrow essentially free, any sustained bid forces bears to buy back stock they do not own, which pushes the price further, which forces more covering. That is the loop.
Elon Musk has a documented history of public feuds with short sellers, which adds a wildcard the bearish spreadsheet cannot model. And the operating story is not a stub. Starlink now runs roughly 9,600 satellites and serves customers across 164 countries as of March 31, 2026, while Falcon rockets have flown at over a 99% mission success rate. None of that guarantees a squeeze. It does guarantee that if one starts, there is a real business underneath the fireworks.
What long-term holders should take from the setup For a retirement-focused holder, the takeaway is to understand that at 31% short interest and $200 million of P&L per dollar of price movement, the near-term volatility in SPCX is mechanically manufactured by the short book. The composite sentiment score sits at 60.49, bullish with medium confidence.
The next real catalyst is the lockup, which Jim Cramer flagged as a meaningful trading variable when the IPO priced. Cramer noted Musk’s “ironclad” grip on SpaceX through his 94% ownership of Class B shares carrying 10 votes each. Until then, the bears own the risk of being right about valuation and wrong about timing. That is a bad combination when the fuel gauge reads full.
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SpaceX (SPCX) just pulled off the biggest stock market debut in history. On June 12, 2026, the rocket and satellite company priced its IPO at $135 a share, opened at $150, and closed its first day up nearly 19%. If you’ve been searching for SpaceX stock, watching the SpaceX IPO stock price move, or simply asking whether SpaceX stock is a good buy right now, you’re far from alone – demand for this listing broke records across nearly every major brokerage.
This piece breaks down what SpaceX actually does, why Starlink matters more than people realize, what happened on IPO day, and what you should weigh before deciding if SPCX belongs in your portfolio.
What SpaceX Actually IsFounded by Elon Musk in 2002, SpaceX built its name on reusable rockets – a breakthrough that crushed the old cost structure of getting anything into orbit. By the time it went public, the company had completed roughly 650 orbital launches with a success rate of over 99%, the vast majority of which were on reused boosters.
However, SpaceX will no longer be just a rocket company. Earlier this year, it absorbed xAI into the business, folding Musk’s AI venture (and, by extension, X/Twitter) directly into SpaceX’s structure. The pitch to investors now is bigger than space travel: SpaceX wants to put AI data centers in orbit, starting as early as 2028, using its satellite and launch infrastructure as the backbone.
Starlink Is Quietly Running the ShowWhat’s actually paying the bills is Starlink, not rockets,
Starlink went from a 10,000-user beta in 2021 to over 10 million paying subscribers by early 2026, spread across 160+ countries. Revenue followed the same curve – $11.4 billion in 2025, up 48% year-over-year, accounting for 61% of SpaceX’s total revenue. By Q1 2026, that share climbed to 69%.
More importantly, Starlink is the only part of SpaceX that’s actually profitable. It pulled in $4.42 billion in operating income in 2025 while the rocket business lost money and the AI division ran a loss of $6 billion. Analysts now project Starlink revenue near $15.5 billion for 2026.
There’s a wrinkle worth knowing, though: average revenue per subscriber has been falling, down to roughly $81/month as SpaceX prioritized growing its global user base over squeezing more out of each customer. That trend reversed slightly in May 2026, when SpaceX raised Starlink prices by up to $10/month across the board.
Inside the SpaceX IPOThis wasn’t just a big IPO. It was the biggest ever recorded.
SpaceX initially sold 555.6 million shares at $135 each, raising $75 billion and valuing the company at $1.77 trillion – instantly making it more valuable than Tesla. After underwriters exercised their full overallotment option, total gross proceeds climbed to roughly $85.7 billion, with the valuation settling around $2.3 trillion.
On day one, SPCX opened at $150, spiked as high as $176.52, and closed at $161.11 – a gain of 19% from the offer price. Musk became the world’s first trillionaire on paper that same day.
As of July 1, 2026, SPCX is trading at $170.86, with an intraday range of $161.64 to $172.40 and a 52-week high of $225.64. That shows how wide the swings have been.
One more catalyst on the horizon: SPCX is set to join the Nasdaq-100 on July 7, 2026, which analysts estimate could trigger around $4.3 billion in passive inflows as index funds are required to buy the stock. That’s a meaningful near-term tailwind to be aware of.
What retail investors actually received at IPO, though, was a different story. Investors requesting 1,000 shares through Robinhood walked away with as few as 17. One investor who bumped their order to 4,250 shares through Schwab received just 147. Every major platform gave eligible applicants something, but allocations were thin across the board.
What Wall Street Is SayingWedbush initiated coverage on SPCX with an Outperform rating and a $190 price target, calling SpaceX a “major hyperscaler” and anchoring the bull case on its AI infrastructure ambitions.
The bear case is harder to ignore, though. SpaceX’s prospectus revealed a nearly $5 billion GAAP loss in 2025 and up to $119 billion in planned capital spending ahead. Musk himself has flagged the “genuine risk of bankruptcy” if Starship can’t hit a reliable launch cadence. That’s not typical IPO language – and it’s worth taking seriously.
How to Buy SpaceX Stock If you missed the IPO allocation window, buying SpaceX stock now is simple:
Bottom LineSpaceX delivered the largest IPO in history, and SPCX is trading at $158 levels as of today, and the Nasdaq-100 inclusion next week is adding a near-term catalyst. Starlink is the real engine behind the valuation: already profitable, still growing fast, and still the only segment consistently making money.
The risks are real, though. A near-$5 billion annual loss, a Starship program that hasn’t proven its reliability, and a $2+ trillion valuation that demands near-perfect execution – these aren’t footnotes. They’re the actual story.
Whether SPCX belongs in your portfolio comes down to one honest question: how much execution risk are you willing to hold for a piece of what might be the most consequential company of the next decade?
FAQsShould I buy SpaceX stock after the IPO?
Depends on your risk tolerance. Starlink’s growth is real and already profitable. The AI bet and Starship dependency aren’t proven yet. If you can stomach volatility, a position makes sense. If not, let the stock settle and revisit.
What happened with the SpaceX IPO?
SpaceX raised $75 billion at $135 a share, jumped over 19% on debut, and closed its first day above a $2 trillion market cap. Retail demand far exceeded supply at every major brokerage.
How does SpaceX make money?
Three ways: Starlink subscriptions (the only consistently profitable segment), rocket launch contracts, and AI revenue through xAI and Grok.
Is SPCX overvalued?
At $2.3 trillion against a near-$5 billion annual loss, the valuation is aggressive. But Starlink’s profitability and growth trajectory give bulls a credible counterargument. So, no clean answer.
What is Starlink’s revenue?
$11.4 billion in 2025, projected to be near $15.5 billion in 2026.
What’s next for SPCX stock?
The Nasdaq-100 inclusion on July 7 is the immediate catalyst – analysts expect roughly $4.3 billion in passive buying tied to index rebalancing. Beyond that, watch Starship’s launch cadence. That’s the variable everything else depends on.
Benzinga Disclaimer: This article is from an unpaid external contributor. It does not represent Benzinga’s reporting and has not been edited for content or accuracy.
Space Exploration Technologies (SPCX +0.13%) just conducted one of the largest IPOs in history. The company aimed to raise around $75 billion in new capital. Due to high demand, however, the company ended up raising a total of $85.7 billion once underwriter options were included.
Many investors were then surprised to see the company return to capital markets just weeks after the IPO, raising an additional $25 billion through a bond sale. According to CNBC, the sudden bond deal "highlighted the group's intense financing needs, capital spending plans and future refinancing obligations."
Let's break down exactly what that means.
Image source: Getty Images.
Here's why SpaceX raised another $25 billion in capital While many think of SpaceX as a space stock, the company is actually an artificial intelligence (AI) stock. More than 90% of the company's claimed total addressable market is exclusively related to AI opportunities.
Long-term, AI may not be a capital-intensive business. Once data centers are built and software is designed, deploying these services should be relatively low-cost, aside from the energy requirements. However, renewables like solar could further increase long-term service deployment costs.
Right now, however, most AI infrastructure businesses are extremely capital-intensive. Huge amounts of infrastructure need to be built, all using pricey third-party GPUs and strained energy supplies. These are the "intense financing needs" and "capital spending plans" the CNBC report is referring to.
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The CNBC report includes one other rationale for the bond sale: "future refinancing obligations." It's important to remember that SpaceX is not profitable. In 2025, the company lost around $4.9 billion.
If SpaceX wants to continue spending heavily to scale its AI business -- plus invest in other capital-intensive areas like rocket development and satellite launches -- the company may not be profitable for years to come. Therefore, SpaceX will need to continue to tap capital markets to stay financially afloat.
In short, SpaceX will need a lot of capital to survive and grow, now and in the future. Raising as much capital as possible while optimism is high seems like a smart strategic decision.
Ryan Vanzo 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.
Investors in CNX Resources Corporation (CNX - Free Report) need to pay close attention to the stock based on moves in the options market lately. That is because the July 17, 2026 $31.00 Call had some of the highest implied volatility of all equity options today.
What is Implied Volatility?Implied volatility shows how much movement the market is expecting in the future. Options with high levels of implied volatility suggest that investors in the underlying stocks are expecting a big move in one direction or the other. It could also mean there is an event coming up soon that may cause a big rally or a huge sell-off. However, implied volatility is only one piece of the puzzle when putting together an options trading strategy.
What do the Analysts Think?Clearly, options traders are pricing in a big move for CNX Resources shares, but what is the fundamental picture for the company? Currently, CNX Resources is a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) in the Oil and Gas - Exploration and Production - United States industry that ranks in the Bottom 36% of our Zacks Industry Rank. Over the last 60 days, no analysts have increased their earnings estimates for the current quarter, while three analysts have revised their estimates downward. The net effect has taken our Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current quarter from 52 cents per share to 49 cents in that period.
Given the way analysts feel about CNX Resources right now, this huge implied volatility could mean there’s a trade developing. Oftentimes, options traders look for options with high levels of implied volatility to sell premium. This is a strategy many seasoned traders use because it captures decay. At expiration, the hope for these traders is that the underlying stock does not move as much as originally expected.
Delivra Health Brands Inc. (TSX-V:DHB, OTCQB:DHBUF, FRA:3F0) has launched its LivRelief Itch Relief Cream in the Canadian market, expanding its portfolio of over-the-counter health and wellness products.
The company said the product is now available through its distributors, retail partners and e-commerce channels.
The cream is designed to provide temporary relief from itching associated with eczema, psoriasis, dermatitis and minor skin irritations, including insect bites and exposure to poison ivy, poison oak and poison sumac. Delivra Health said the formulation combines hydrocortisone, calendula and chamomile to help reduce itch, irritation and inflammation, and is hypoallergenic, fragrance-free and free from parabens, petroleum and sodium lauryl sulfate.
The launch comes as skin conditions such as eczema and psoriasis remain widespread in Canada. Delivra Health cited data from the Canadian Dermatology Association indicating that up to 17% of Canadians experience atopic dermatitis during their lifetime, while Psoriasis Canada estimates that more than one million Canadians are affected by psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis.
Delivra CEO Gord Davey wrote that the launch expands the LivRelief product line beyond its chronic pain offerings and represents a new addition to the company's innovation pipeline.
"Our Itch Relief Cream product is designed to provide Canadians with a convenient and trusted option to help manage skin irritation and discomfort, and as such, this motivated us to accelerate our launch in June 2026,” Davey said.
Dr. Joseph Gabriele, inventor of the LivRelief brand, wrote that the cream was developed to help individuals manage common dermatological conditions and improve quality of life.
Trust Stamp Inc (NASDAQ:IDAI, ISE:AIID) has filed a US provisional patent application for an artificial intelligence-based medical diagnostic support system aimed at helping physicians evaluate diagnoses while addressing common limitations of large language models (LLMs).
The patent application, titled "Medical Diagnostic Assurance System" (MDAS), was filed on June 15, 2026. The company said the technology is designed to reduce issues such as confirmation bias and AI hallucinations that can produce inaccurate or fabricated information.
According to Trust Stamp, MDAS is intended to function as a self-contained sovereign platform that tokenizes patient identities to help safeguard medical records from third-party access. The system is designed for use by qualified medical practitioners.
Rather than generating an initial diagnosis, MDAS uses a three-model consensus process to independently assess and either challenge or support a physician's diagnosis without first being exposed to that original assessment, a design the company said is intended to limit bias.
Trust Stamp CEO Gareth Genner said that reducing sycophantic behavior in LLMs is particularly important in healthcare, where unreliable AI outputs could have serious consequences.
He added that the company is negotiating a pilot program for MDAS and expects the technology to go live in the first quarter of 2027.
The filing expands the company's intellectual property portfolio, which includes 27 issued or allowed patents and seven pending patent applications related to artificial intelligence, biometrics and cryptography.
Demand for Apple Inc's (NASDAQ:AAPL, XETRA:APC) iPhone is strengthening in the United States and Europe but weakening in China, according to a new consumer survey from UBS.
The Swiss bank polled more than 7,500 smartphone users across the United States, United Kingdom, China, Germany and Japan to gauge appetite for a new handset.
The share of American consumers planning to buy an iPhone in the next 12 months rose to around 20%, up from the year before.
Purchase intent also climbed in the United Kingdom and Germany, but slipped in China to roughly 15%, a new low for the second quarter in the survey's history.
UBS said the Chinese reading was a concern, given the country accounts for about a fifth of iPhone sales and may signal wider economic and competitive pressures.
The findings come ahead of an event in September at which Apple is widely expected to launch its first foldable iPhone.
The survey found that appetite for a foldable made by Apple was far higher than for foldable phones in general, a gap UBS reads as a positive sign for demand.
The bank believes a foldable device would give consumers a more compelling reason to upgrade than the artificial intelligence features Apple unveiled at its developer conference in June.
Interest in those Apple Intelligence features has cooled, with the proportion of respondents saying the technology would prompt them to upgrade sooner falling to about 24%.
Nearly a third said the features would have no bearing on their decision to buy a new phone.
Apple retained the strongest customer loyalty of any handset maker, with about 86% of iPhone owners saying their next phone would also be an iPhone.
UBS kept a 'neutral' rating on Apple shares, with a price target of $296 against a closing price of $287.55.
The bank argued the current valuation, at about 31 times expected earnings, already reflects improving demand.
It flagged possible price rises linked to higher memory costs, alongside uncertainty over Apple's product roadmap, as factors capping the shares.
I keep hitting the buy button on Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL | AAPL Price Prediction), and I stopped apologizing for it a long time ago. Every time a fresh paycheck lands, or a dividend clears, or the stock takes a breather, I add. This is the position in my brokerage account that I plan to hand down for the long term.
The pull is simple. Apple sits inside 2.5+ billion active devices that people voluntarily carry, wear, and open every day. That is a distribution utility with a luxury margin bolted on top. When a company owns the front door to that many pockets, revenue becomes a rhythm.
The three receipts I keep coming back to First, the earnings cadence. Apple has now beaten EPS estimates for eight consecutive quarters. In the most recent March quarter, revenue came in at $111.18B, up 16.6% YoY, with EPS of $2.01 versus a $1.94 estimate.
The quarter before that put up $143.76B in revenue, up 15.7%, with operating cash flow of $53.93B, up 80.1% YoY. Growth is accelerating from the 6% to 9% band of Q3 to Q4 FY25 into the mid-teens. That is the shape of a company hitting a new gear.
Second, Services. This is the piece I care about most as a holder. Services printed $30.98B in Q2 FY26, an all-time record, on top of $30.01B the prior quarter. Recurring, high-margin, sticky revenue attached to that installed base is what turns Apple from a hardware cycle stock into a compounding platform.
Tim Cook framed the quarter as “our best March quarter ever, with revenue of $111.2 billion and double-digit growth across every geographic segment.”
Third, the capital return machine. The board just raised the dividend 4% to $0.27 per share and authorized a fresh $100B buyback. In Q1 FY26 alone, Apple returned nearly $32B to shareholders, and full-year FY2025 buybacks totaled $90.71B.
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Profitability sits at 32% operating margin and 26.9% net margin, with an ROE of 141.5%. Every share I own becomes a larger slice of a widening pie, quarter after quarter.
The risk I refuse to wave off China. Apple discloses reliance on third-party components and manufacturing, trade disputes, and geopolitical tensions as real risks, and Greater China softened in Q4 FY25 to $14.49B from $15.03B. Retail chatter picked up on this too, with a Reddit post about Apple seeking memory chips from a blacklisted Chinese company pushing sentiment into the bearish 36 to 47 range in late June.
I hold that risk in view every time I add. What has not changed is the response. Greater China rebounded to $25.53B in Q1 FY26 (up from $18.51B) and $20.50B in Q2 FY26. The company keeps solving the problem I am worried about.
Why the buy button stays green Valuation is not cheap at a P/E of 39x and a forward P/E of 30x. I pay it willingly.
Analyst consensus sits at a $315.09 target with 63% bullish ratings, and the stock has delivered 1,248.62% over ten years. Incoming CEO John Ternus told the Street this is “the most exciting time in my 25-year career at Apple Inc. to be building products and services.”
I believe him, because the receipts back him up. As long as the installed base grows and Services keeps compounding, I keep buying, and the next decade takes care of itself.
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It would sell access to its AI computing power and proprietary models to external customers. The move is more than a product launch, in my opinion it is a fundamental reframing of what Meta is.
Why the Meta Stock Surge Makes Strategic SenseThe bear case was straightforward: Meta was spending like AWS, but monetizing like a social network. Indeed, today’s Bloomberg report directly addresses that concern. By selling compute to third parties, Meta converts its data centers into a recurring revenue stream. Moreover, this puts Meta in direct competition with AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud.
This isn’t entirely a surprise because at Meta’s annual shareholder meeting in late May, CEO Mark Zuckerberg noted that selling excess compute capacity was "definitely on the table". Today’s reporting suggests those plans have since taken concrete shape.
Why the Market is Reacting NowThe timing matters here. META had been under meaningful pressure heading into today’s session. On June 29, a federal judge denied Meta’s bid to dismiss a multi-state child addiction lawsuit, adding legal overhang to an already difficult June for the stock.
During the month-long selloff, more than seven of the largest companies lost over $2 trillion in market capitalization. META itself is down approximately 15% from its highs in the first half of 2026. As a result, today’s cloud announcement is changing the mood.
The Fundamentals Behind the MoveMeta’s underlying business remains strong. In Q1 2026, the company reported earnings per share of $10.44, well ahead of consensus estimates of approximately $8.20. Net income reached $22.8 billion, supported by fast advertising monetization driven by AI-enhanced targeting across Facebook, Instagram, and Reels.
It’s worth noting that Q1 net income was partially inflated by a one-time tax benefit of $8.03 billion. Stripping that out, diluted EPS would have been approximately $3.13 lower (a detail worth keeping in mind when modeling forward quarters).
More than 8 million advertisers now use at least one of Meta’s AI tools for content creation. A video-generation tool showed a 3% improvement in conversion rates in large-scale testing. Advertising revenue growth continues to be the engine and AI is making that engine more efficient.
Looking ahead, management forecasts second-quarter 2026 revenue of $58 billion to $61 billion, implying continued double-digit growth despite the high comparative base.
Is the Meta Stock Surge Justified?What today’s report signals is that Meta is attempting a strategic repositioning: from a consumer social media platform with AI infrastructure costs, to a diversified technology company with consumer, advertising, and enterprise cloud revenue streams.
Of 55 Wall Street analysts tracked across major platforms, 43 currently rate META a Strong Buy, with consensus price targets ranging from $825 to $880 ( a meaningful upside from current levels). A subset of more bullish estimates reaches $1,086.
The risk factors remain real: the child addiction lawsuit overhang, Google’s reported limits on Meta’s access to Gemini models, potential regulatory action on kids’ social media use, and the sheer execution risk of entering a cloud market dominated by entrenched hyperscalers.
But for a stock that, according to most discounted cash flow models, entered today’s trading session trading below its intrinsic value, the pivot to cloud computing opens a new chapter in the bullish scenario and the market is pricing it in.
Benzinga Disclaimer: This article is from an unpaid external contributor. It does not represent Benzinga’s reporting and has not been edited for content or accuracy.
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Chief marketing officers are measured by results, not creativity or awards, and must do work that inspires the people in the company, says Meta's Alex Schultz.
At the time of this interview, Schultz was CMO and VP of analytics. A few days after the 2026 Cannes Lions concluded, Meta announced that Schultz would become the company's first chief data officer, passing the CMO title to Denise Moreno.
Schultz said there are three categories of brand AI use in the future — pure AI-only content, creators enabled by AI, and brands and creators who swear they will never use it. "The middle category will be the biggest," he said. "Pure human makes sense for some brands, but that middle bit of brands and humans enabled by AI will be the biggest."
Chief marketing officers are measured by results, not creativity or awards, and must do work that inspires the people in the company, says Meta's Alex Schultz.
At the time of this interview, Schultz was CMO and VP of analytics. A few days after the 2026 Cannes Lions concluded, Meta announced that Schultz would become the company's first chief data officer, passing the CMO title to Denise Moreno.
Schultz said there are three categories of brand AI use in the future — pure AI-only content, creators enabled by AI, and brands and creators who swear they will never use it. "The middle category will be the biggest," he said. "Pure human makes sense for some brands, but that middle bit of brands and humans enabled by AI will be the biggest."
Reports that Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) would begin renting out excess compute not only moved its stock market price but also triggered a deluge of Wall Street analyst forecast updates by press time on July 2.
Specifically, in the first two days of the month alone, as many as ten institutional experts unveiled their META shares rating and target revisions, with 80% of the notes being bullish.
UBS’ Stephen Ju was responsible for the highest 12-month forecast on July 1 when he both issued a ‘Buy’ recommendation and estimated the blue-chip technology giant would rally to $865.
Citi (NYSE: C) analyst Ronald Josey was nearly as bullish one day later when his $850 price target was accompanied by a ‘Buy’ rating. Meanwhile, Mizuho Securities’ Lloyd Walmsley and Bank of America’s (NYSE: BAC) were tied for the spot of the third-most optimistic Wall Street experts, with their sights set on Meta stock hitting $835.
Elsewhere, though JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM) analyst Doug Anmuth and Brian Pitz from BMO Securities refrained from issuing bearish notes, they were, nonetheless, outliers in ranking the equity as a ‘Hold.’ Additionally, the former refrained from setting a price target, and the latter forecasted a climb to $710 in the next 12 months.
The rush of rating revisions came together with a sudden July stock market rally for Meta shares that has left the equity 9.52% up in the weekly chart and at $595.11 even after the moderate correction early on the morning of July 2.
Meta stock price one-week chart. Source: Google By press time, the move appears primarily driven by reports indicating that Mark Zuckerberg’s company is preparing to rent out some of its excess artificial intelligence (AI) capacity.
While the alleged decision has been widely taken as a bullish sign for the firm and a similar move has already served to transform and increase the revenue of Elon Musk’s newer public company – SpaceX (NASDAQ: SPCX) – it can simultaneously be seen as a warning about the AI move.
Indeed, multiple reports throughout 2026 indicated that data center construction hasn’t been going according to plan, with numerous delays and even outright cancellations meaning that, despite capacity being lower than could have been expected based on initial announcements, demand remains lower than supply.
Shares of Meta Platforms (META 4.34%) traded sharply lower Thursday morning, falling as much as 4%. As of 10:49 a.m. ET, the stock was still down 3.7%.
The catalyst that sent the social media titan lower was a Wall Street analyst's comments on the company's future.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
Cloud spending spree This week has been a rollercoaster ride for Meta investors. Early yesterday, rumors emerged that the company is working on blueprints to develop a cloud infrastructure business, according to a Bloomberg report. The purpose of this venture will be to establish a platform to sell Meta's excess computing power and provide customers with greater access to its popular artificial intelligence (AI) models, according to the report.
This would not only put the company in direct competition with established cloud infrastructure providers, including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Alphabet's Google Cloud, but also pit it against emerging neocloud operators CoreWeave and Nebius Group.
Wall Street has had a day to digest the information, and while this will no doubt represent significant potential upside for Meta and its shareholders, every rose has its thorns.
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Analysts at Wolfe Research have crunched the numbers and concluded that Meta could potentially add 20% to its earnings per share (EPS) for every gigawatt (GW) of compute power it sells. That will come at a cost, however. The analysts suggest Meta's capital expenditures (capex) will increase to $200 billion in 2027, up from previous estimates of $160 billion, and will likely require a capital raise to support the higher spending.
You have to spend money to make money, as the old saying goes, and this case is no different. However, Meta is entering a market expected to exceed $500 billion for the first time this year, which represents a significant, ongoing new revenue opportunity for the company.
Moreover, at just 21 times earnings, Meta stock is selling at a significant discount to its big tech peers. That gives savvy investors the opportunity to pick up shares of this highly profitable company at a discount.
Danny Vena, CPA has positions in Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms, and Microsoft. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms, and Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Mega-cap technology sector leaders are fundamentally altering the landscape of artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure by transforming internal compute clusters into highly scalable revenue channels.
Meta Platforms Today
$585.93 -26.98 (-4.40%)
As of 12:48 PM Eastern
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52-Week Range$520.26▼
$796.25Dividend Yield0.36%
P/E Ratio21.32
Price Target$840.64
When Meta Platforms NASDAQ: META builds an internal compute cluster for research and development, the enterprise eventually hits a point where physical infrastructure outpaces immediate internal utilization.
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Wall Street traditionally hates this dynamic. Analysts view heavy capital expenditure (CapEx) cycles as a severe drag on free cash flow, compressing near-term margins and draining liquidity. Meta Platforms is currently projecting capital expenditures between $125 billion and $145 billion through 2026 to secure hardware.
Investors initially punished the stock for this heavy outlay, fearing an endless cash burn with no immediate return on invested capital. This tension creates a structural disconnect between visionary technology builds and quarterly market expectations.
Deploying the Megacluster: Turning CapEx Into CashThe narrative shifts violently when those sunk costs become a zero-marginal-cost product. Meta Platforms is pivoting to monetize its surplus graphical processing unit capacity by selling raw compute directly to third-party developers.
Markets actively validated this transition on July 1, sending shares up 8.81% to close at $612.91. By externalizing its surplus capacity, Meta Platforms is rewriting its return-on-invested-capital equation and repricing an operational liability into a highly scalable revenue stream.
Meta Platforms, Inc. (META) Price Chart for Thursday, July, 2, 2026
Investors can review SpaceX's NASDAQ: SPCX recent strategic pivots as the structural precedent. SpaceX leveraged its vast internal satellite routing infrastructure to externalize excess capacity for cash flow. When tech giants operate with zero reliance on cloud-leasing margins for their survival, they can price surplus bandwidth or compute at highly disruptive levels, establishing a formidable competitive advantage against standalone providers.
Margin Collapse: Pure-Play Lessors Face ExtinctionThis influx of subsidized bare-metal compute supply from a $1.55 trillion tech giant introduces a severe deflationary force to the broader infrastructure-as-a-service market. Bare-metal compute refers to leasing raw, unconfigured server hardware directly to developers, completely free from layers of proprietary enterprise software. It is a highly commoditized product, and pricing power dictates survival.
Because Meta Platforms has already financed its data centers for internal development, any external sales act as pure margin expansion. This dynamic establishes a deflationary pricing floor that heavily penalizes pure-play artificial intelligence infrastructure providers.
Mid-tier hardware lessors recently experienced severe multiple contractions, with CoreWeave NASDAQ: CRWV shares tumbling nearly 15% as investors discounted the viability of independent providers operating in the shadow of Big Tech.
Specialty hardware lessors require high leasing rates to finance ongoing data center build-outs and service heavy debt loads. They simply cannot sustain pricing power against a competitor possessing a 36.93% return on equity and a pristine 0.24 debt-to-equity ratio.
Meta Platforms uses its 32.84% net margins to provide the financial insulation needed to dump raw compute into the open market, forcing a necessary structural market correction among highly levered peripheral infrastructure plays.
Trench Warfare: Why Amazon and Microsoft SurviveWhile the injection of cheap compute decimates single-layer hardware providers, it exposes a critical bifurcation within the cloud sector. Legacy hyperscalers remain better insulated from this specific pricing war. Amazon.com Inc. NASDAQ: AMZN and Microsoft NASDAQ: MSFT offer compute through Amazon Web Services and Azure, respectively, but those platforms are far more than raw infrastructure. They bundle compute with sticky cybersecurity frameworks, platform-as-a-service tools and complex corporate integration software.
Large enterprises gladly pay a premium for compliance guarantees, data security, and seamless workflow integrations that bare-metal providers cannot offer. Meta Platforms lacks this deep business-to-business software stack.
Entering the raw compute market heavily pressures hardware leasers but currently leaves the high-margin enterprise moats of legacy hyperscalers completely intact. Investors must also monitor a potential regulatory friction point arising from the current administration's recent push for voluntary reviews of artificial intelligence models. This introduces a compliance bottleneck that could temporarily complicate the speed-to-market for hosted proprietary models, keeping Meta Platforms focused purely on raw open-source hosting in the near term.
Spoils of War: Cheaper Compute Boosts AI SoftwareThe most compelling aspect of this infrastructure reset is the downstream catalyst it provides to the broader technology sector. Cheaper raw compute dramatically lowers the barrier to entry for application-layer artificial intelligence development.
For software-as-a-service companies, server and compute costs represent a significant portion of their total cost of goods sold. When Meta Platforms weaponizes its excess capacity and drives down the market rate for compute, software developers experience immediate margin expansion.
Lower development costs accelerate product deployment, freeing up capital for user acquisition and feature engineering. This dynamic actively transfers enterprise value away from infrastructure middlemen and funnels it directly into high-margin software platforms.
The resulting commoditization acts as a powerful tailwind, aggressively supporting a bullish thesis for the wider software and end-user application ecosystem. Investors looking beyond the direct hardware impact should focus on agile software firms poised to capitalize on plummeting hosting fees.
Trading the Compute WarsThe strategic externalization of raw compute marks a critical evolution in how markets value technology infrastructure. With institutional sentiment holding a moderate buy consensus and an average price target of $840.64, attention now shifts directly to execution.
Overall MarketRank™100th Percentile
Analyst RatingModerate Buy
Upside/Downside37.2% Upside
Short Interest LevelHealthy
Dividend StrengthWeak
News Sentiment1.02 Insider TradingSelling Shares
Proj. Earnings Growth19.32%
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Options market makers are pricing in extreme implied volatility ahead of Meta Platforms' July 29 earnings call, with 1.14 million contracts traded around the catalyst. Heavy accumulation in August 2026 $720 calls indicates that the market is demanding forward revenue guidance and concrete timelines regarding the cloud monetization pivot.
The risk of a potential equity raise to comfortably finance the $145 billion capital expenditure cycle also remains a near-term liquidity concern. Investors assessing this structural shift may consider reweighting portfolios to capture the downstream benefits of deflationary infrastructure pricing.
Application-layer developers poised to capitalize on cheaper development costs present a compelling opportunity, while cautious participants might prefer to wait for Q2 projections before establishing new positions in the underlying infrastructure layer.
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Meta's new app "Pocket" lets people make interactive social posts. Getty Images; Tyler Le/BI Get ready for another Meta app.
Meta is rolling out Pocket, a new social AI app, Business Insider has learned. Meta describes the Pocket as a platform to "create, share, and discover gizmos with friends."
The app is listed on Meta's Help Center and in the Google Play Store. The timeline and rollout regions are unclear. It was not available to download in the US on Thursday. Meta did not respond to a request for comment.
"The Pocket app is not yet available everywhere," Meta's Help Center says. "If it is available for you, some features may not yet be available in your area."
What's a "gizmo," you ask?
It's basically a mini-game you can create by typing out a prompt. In Meta's words, "a gizmo is an interactive, playable AI-generated experience."
For instance, you could prompt Pocket to create a gizmo that turns a flower into a paintbrush, letting you draw an image with that flower-brush on the touchscreen.
Interactive posts on Pocket are called "gizmos." Screenshot/Google Play Store/Meta Meta's family of apps has grown well beyond Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. It has introduced new social apps like Threads and Forum, as well as several new AI apps that build on Meta's focus on artificial intelligence.
Business Insider exclusively reported in March that Meta had hired the team behind Atma Sciences Inc., which built an app called Gizmo. It also acquired a non-exclusive license to the startup's tech. Meta declined to disclose the financial details of the deal at the time.
A few months after scooping up the team, Meta appears to be cashing in on the gizmo experience with its new stand-alone app, Pocket.
Gizmo, by Atma Sciences Inc., had over 14,000 ratings on Apple's App Store with a 4.9 score. Sccreenshot/Apple App Store The app is listed on Google's Play Store and is pitched as a social feed where users can vibe code their own interactive games or content:
Scroll a feed of gizmos from people around the world. Gizmos respond to your touch and the tilt of your phone. They play sound effects and your favorite songs. They can use your camera or pull in photos from your camera roll. Some can even reason about the world around them.Alessandro Paluzzi, a developer who reverse-engineers Meta's apps to reveal internal tests, spotted that Pocket will be promoted within Meta's apps alongside a growing portfolio that includes Instants (Instagram's latest Snapchat-like app).
Pocket isn't the only app trying to build out a social feed around vibe-coded games. Sekai, an app with a similar premise, recently raised $20 million in Series A funding.
As some social feeds start to feel stale — and less social — interactive games could be a way to reignite engagement. TikTok has also experimented with its own feed of mini games.
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Sydney Bradley You're currently following this author! Want to unfollow? Unsubscribe via the link in your email.
Sydney Bradley has been covering media and tech for Business Insider since 2020. She breaks news and writes extensively about Instagram and Facebook, as well as new platforms and startups shaping social media, dating apps, the creator economy, venture capital, and tech culture.Sydney's reporting on Instagram was nominated as a finalist for the 2021 Los Angeles Press Club National Entertainment Journalism Awards.She graduated from the University of Virginia with a degree in American Studies. You can follow Sydney's work on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram at @sydneykbradley.Have a tip? You can also contact her via encrypted messaging app Signal (@sydneykbradley.123), encrypted email ([email protected]), or standard email ([email protected]). Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here’s our guide to sharing information securely.Selected stories:
Young founders are going viral modeDeath isn't the end: Meta patented an AI that lets you keep posting from beyond the graveDating apps are betting millions that AI will convince you to fall back in love with themHitting the social media jackpot is harder than ever — and it's changing the creator economyBig Tech's AI obsession is rattling creatorsNew startups race to bring back the 'old internet' vibes of the 2000sThe mysterious demise of a $1 billion social shopping appThe loneliness epidemic has given rise to a new crop of startups aiming to help people connect in real lifeIt's not just you — no one is posting on social media anymoreHow Instagram's unpredictable changes are giving influencers whiplashWhy YouTube subscriber counts have become an unreliable 'vanity metric' in the era of short videoInside the week that changed Facebook forever Meta AI Apps More Exclusive
Tesla blew past Wall Street estimates for second-quarter deliveries on Thursday, posting a record for the period as recovering demand in Europe outweighed persistent weakness in North America.
The strong figures suggest Tesla’s mainstay auto business is regaining momentum after two straight annual sales declines, providing the spending cushion needed to power its ambitions in autonomous driving and artificial intelligence — the main drivers of the company’s roughly $1.6 trillion valuation.
Tesla expects to spend more than $25 billion on capital expenditure in 2026, nearly triple the $8.5 billion last year, to expand AI infrastructure, battery production, Cybercab manufacturing and Optimus robots.
The strong figures suggest Tesla’s mainstay auto business is regaining momentum after two straight annual sales declines, Tesla Model 3 and a person dressed in a Tesla Optimus humanoid robot, above. NurPhoto via Getty Images “I think the huge growth in Europe is the key driver for Tesla right now. US sales still appear to be down, albeit less than the broader US EV decline, while China is seeing small growth,” said Seth Goldstein, senior equity analyst at Morningstar.
Tesla’s recovery in Europe was aided by government EV incentives, faster electrification of corporate fleets, higher fuel prices and an easing of the consumer backlash over CEO Elon Musk’s far-right politics last year.
The company delivered 480,126 vehicles in the April-June period, a record for the second quarter and up about 25% from a year earlier, easily surpassing analysts’ average estimate of 402,776 vehicles, according to Visible Alpha data.
Tesla produced 451,758 vehicles during the quarter.
The deliveries exceeded production by more than 28,000 vehicles, leading the company to draw down inventory that it built up during the first quarter.
The company’s China-made EV sales have risen this year, helped by production of the refreshed Model Y, despite intense competition from BYD and other domestic automakers.
Tesla’s recovery in Europe was aided by government EV incentives, faster electrification of corporate fleets, higher fuel prices and an easing of the consumer backlash over CEO Elon Musk’s far-right politics last year. Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency / BACKGRID Shares of Austin, Texas-based Tesla were down about 6% after gaining 12% so far this week. The company said it will report quarterly results on July 22 after markets close.
Analysts said much of the optimism had already been priced in after Tesla’s shares rallied ahead of the quarterly deliveries report, resulting in a muted reaction on Thursday.
Earlier in the day, smaller rival Rivian raised its annual deliveries forecast and beat estimates for second-quarter deliveries.
Tesla has continued to roll out its Full Self-Driving (FSD) advanced driver assistance software in Europe, although it is available in only a handful of countries.
Tesla produced 451,758 vehicles during the quarter. The deliveries exceeded production by more than 28,000 vehicles, leading the company to draw down inventory that it built up during the first quarter. AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes Analysts expect broader availability over the coming months to support demand.
The company expanded its robotaxi operations after launching a limited commercial service in Austin in June.
Musk has said the company intends to rapidly expand the service through 2026.
Production of the Cybercab, Tesla’s purpose-built autonomous vehicle without pedals or a steering wheel, is expected to ramp up later this year.
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Stock Market Skids As Trump Makes This Trade Call; Jobs Report Due The stock market rebounded strongly for the week, but with a lot of volatility. The Dow Jones and, briefly, the small-cap Russell 2000 hit all-time highs while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite rebounded above key levels. Meta Platforms (META) rallied on reports it'll sell AI computing power to outsiders, but that news hit neoclouds, chips and other AI hardware.…
Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) reported second quarter vehicle deliveries of 480,126 and production of 451,758, surpassing Wall Street expectations as the electric vehicle maker seeks to reverse recent sales declines.
The company delivered 467,762 Model 3 and Model Y vehicles during the quarter, while deliveries of its other models totaled 12,364. Tesla produced 442,936 Model 3 and Model Y vehicles and 8,822 vehicles across its other models.
Analysts had expected deliveries of about 406,600 vehicles, according to a StreetAccount consensus, while Tesla's company-compiled consensus forecast 406,024 deliveries.
The Q2 delivery total was up about 25% from approximately 384,000 vehicles delivered in the same period last year and 34% higher than the 358,023 vehicles delivered in the first quarter of 2026.
Tesla also reported deploying 13.5 GWh of energy storage products during the quarter.
Despite the stronger-than-expected delivery results, Tesla shares were down 7% on Thursday morning, likely reflecting profit taking.
Key Takeaways Tesla reported substantially more second-quarter deliveries than Wall Street expected, likely a partial reflection of EV demand pushed higher by high U.S. gas prices amid the U.S.-Iran conflict.Rivian also topped its own second-quarter projections, and lifted its full-year guidance.Shares of Tesla tumbled Thursday morning, while Rivian stock jumped more than 10%. Tesla's deliveries delivered today.
Elon Musk's EV company on Thursday morning said second-quarter deliveries came in above 480,000, substantially topping both Visible Alpha's average of Wall Street analysts' expectations and an average compiled by the company.1
That data—along with news that Rivian (RIVN) said its own Q2 deliveries came in higher than it expected, leading it to lift its full-year guidance—may in part reflect an uptick in EV demand driven by gas prices that were pushed higher by the U.S.-Iran conflict.2 Shares of Rivian were recently up 11%, while Tesla (TSLA) was off more than 6% in early Thursday trading.
Why This Matters to Your Money High gas prices can affect consumer behavior in a number of ways, including restraining other types of spending and sending drivers to the fuel pump more frequently for less gas. Data from the second quarter indicated that they may also have driven car buyers to EVs as they sought relief.
The average price of a gallon of regular unleaded, recently a bit above $3.80 according to AAA data, is down from a month ago but well above year-earlier levels.3 (Here's Investopedia's take on what to expect from gas prices over the balance of 2026.)
Some market experts think gas prices might have had little effect on second-quarter buying habits. "Although there is a tremendous amount of economic and policy uncertainty these days, the new-vehicle market seems to be relatively unfazed," Cox Automotive said last month. 4
Tesla shares had an interesting first half to 2026. They rose about 13% in the second quarter, slightly underperforming the S&P 500, but they were down for the year while the benchmark index rose nearly 10%. More broadly, the Magnificent 7 group of stocks, of which Tesla is a member, retreated over the first six months of the year, reflecting some unease about the health of the Big Tech rally.
CEO Elon Musk has sought to retrain investors from thinking of Tesla as an EV company, encouraging focus on emerging lines of business such as autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence and robots. Some market watchers, meanwhile, believe the company's long-term future is as a division of SpaceX (SPCX), which Musk brought to public markets last month. Both companies are among the world's most valuable.
Shares of SpaceX, meanwhile, were up about 1% Thursday morning at $159. They're holding above the $150 price at which they started trading on IPO day three weeks ago; earlier this week, the company picked up fresh Wall Street analyst coverage, with Wedbush setting a $190 price target on the shares. That's well above recent levels, but below the stock's post-IPO highs.
Key Takeaways Uber is expanding its robotaxi push through partnerships with WeRide and Amazon's Zoox.Uber's gross bookings rose 25% to $53.7B in Q1, topping the consensus estimate of $52.9B.Uber faces risks from elevated debt, labor unrest, geopolitical woes and weak stock performance. Uber Technologies (UBER - Free Report) is looking to establish a strong foothold in the lucrative robotaxi space through a partnership-focused approach. The global autonomous vehicle market, valued at $3.36 trillion in 2025, is expected to reach $4.44 trillion in 2026 and $41.75 trillion by 2034, at a compound annual growth rate of 32.3% during 2026-2034, according to Fortune Business Insights.
In 2020, Uber sold the self-driving division but retained its focus on becoming the ultimate ride-hailing super app. Multiple collaborations highlight Uber’s commitment to integrating cutting-edge AV technologies into its platform. By working with third-party autonomous technology developers, the company sidesteps the heavy research and development costs required to build proprietary self-driving systems.
Uber’s dominant market share in the ride-hailing industry also gives it a unique advantage. With its vast network of drivers and customers, Uber can quickly scale autonomous services once the technology matures. Its app is designed to integrate AVs from multiple partners, giving users a variety of options.
Some Recent AV Collaborations of UberLast month, Uber, in collaboration with WeRide (WRD - Free Report) , a Chinese autonomous vehicle company, announced plans to introduce commercial robotaxi services in the Greater Zurich Region. This move represents their second joint deployment in Europe, coming just weeks after the announcement of a similar initiative in Madrid.
The service is expected to commence later this year in partnership with Switzerland’s Federal Roads Office (“FEDRO”), pending regulatory approvals. At launch, passengers will be able to access the robotaxi service through the Uber app. The launch builds on the partners’ growing track record in autonomous mobility.
Since December 2024, WeRide and Uber have introduced robotaxi services across several Middle Eastern markets, including fully driverless commercial operations in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, as well as public services in Riyadh. These deployments provide an operational foundation for their European expansion. In November 2024, WeRide obtained a driverless permit from FEDRO, allowing autonomous vehicle operations on public roads in Zurich’s Furttal region.
Earlier in the year, Uber entered into a strategic partnership with Amazon’s (AMZN - Free Report) Zoox to deploy its purpose-built robotaxis on the former’s platform. The Amazon unit’s robotaxis differ from many other autonomous vehicles currently in development because they are not modified versions of traditional passenger cars. Instead, the vehicles are purpose-built specifically for ride-hailing services and designed to enhance rider comfort and social interaction. The Amazon unit and Uber indicated that Zoox rides are expected to be available in Los Angeles next year.
Undoubtedly, Uber’s AV ambitions are commendable. Now, the question is whether it is worth buying the stock at current prices. Let us dig deeper to find out.
Further Factors Working in Favor of UBERGross Bookings Growth: Uber continues to benefit from robust growth in gross bookings. The company has been recording solid double-digit growth in gross bookings across both its mobility and delivery businesses.
Despite the crisis in the Middle East, UBER’s Mobility business saw impressive demand, with segmental revenues increasing 5% year over year on a reported basis and 1% on a constant currency basis to $8.2 billion in the first quarter of 2026. Gross bookings from the unit were highly impressive, aiding the first-quarter results. Gross bookings from the Mobility segment in the March quarter increased 20% year over year on a constant-currency basis to $26.4 billion.
Uber’s Delivery business also performed well in the quarter, with segmental revenues growing 23% year over year on a constant-currency basis. Gross bookings from the Delivery segment in the first quarter rose 23% year over year on a constant-currency basis to $26 billion. Total gross bookings jumped 25% to $53.7 billion, ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $52.9 billion.
The gross bookings forecast for the second quarter of 2026 was very impressive, highlighting the bullishness surrounding the key metric. Despite the geopolitical woes, gross bookings are projected in the range of $56.25-$57.75 billion, highlighting growth of 18% to 22% year over year on a constant-currency basis. The outlook assumes a roughly 2 percentage-point currency tailwind to total reported year-over-year growth.
Continued expansion in gross bookings strengthens Uber’s revenue base, improves operating leverage across its platform and deepens network effects among riders, drivers and merchants. This momentum not only supports revenue growth but also enhances the company’s long-term profitability potential by enabling fixed costs to be distributed more efficiently across a larger transaction base.
Commendable Expansion Efforts: Even though Uber’s primary business is ridesharing, it has diversified into food delivery and freight over time. Diversification is imperative for big companies to reduce risks and Uber has excelled in this area. As part of its expansion efforts, Uber acquired parking startup SpotHero. Following the deal, Uber has introduced a native, in-app parking reservation feature powered by SpotHero, focusing on parking options for commuters as well as at events, venues and airports. Over time, Uber One members may also receive parking-related benefits as part of their membership.
The company is looking to strengthen Uber Eats, its online food ordering and delivery platform and has inked multiple deals recently on that front. Recently, Uber announced the inclusion of multiple new retailers to the Uber Eats marketplace, aimed at expanding its retail selection availability for on-demand delivery. Uber Eats is expanding beyond its patent food delivery business and offering a vast marketplace which covers everyday needs such as skincare, shipping supplies, art materials, sporting goods and pet supplies.
Earnings History: Uber’s earnings have outpaced the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three of the past four quarters, missing the mark on the other occasion. The average beat is 89.6%.
Growth Opportunity for UBER Is Real, But So Are the RisksWhile Uber is benefiting from its AV-related ambitions and gross booking strength, investors should remember that it is facing some headwinds that cannot be ignored.
UBER’s financial metrics indicate that its leverage is elevated and is a massive negative for its shareholders. The long-term debt burden of the company stood at $10.5 billion at the end of the first quarter of 2026, which translates into a long-term debt-to-capitalization of 29.4%, which is reasonable but above the sub-industry’s 9.5%. UBER’s times interest earned ratio at the March quarter-end was 12.1, which is much lower than its industry, indicating a high risk of default.
Shares of Uber have declined in double digits (% wise) over the past six months, underperforming the Zacks Internet-Services industry as well as the S&P 500 index.
6-Month Price ComparisonImage Source: Zacks Investment Research
Apart from the regulatory headwinds, highlighted by labor unrest, the geopolitical woes have the potential to hurt Uber’s operations.
What Do Estimates Suggest for Uber?The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2026 implies a year-over-year decline of approximately 44% in EPS, while 11% growth is indicated in terms of revenues. Moreover, the earnings estimate revision trend is mixed. While full-year 2026 estimates have moved lower over the past 60 days, projections for the current and next quarter and full-year 2027 have improved.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
How to Play UBER Stock Currently?While Uber’s weak stock performance, high debt load, labor unrest and geopolitical woes present near-term challenges, the outlook for the ride-hailing giant remains far from discouraging.
The company’s strategic diversification, AV focus and shareholder-focused initiatives continue to serve as key strengths. With a market capitalization of $146.89 billion, Uber remains well positioned to navigate economic uncertainties. Uber’s ongoing commitment to diversification — through acquisitions, geographic expansion and innovative product offerings — has helped reduce risks and reinforce its competitive standing.
Overall, Uber’s scale, strategic investments and diversification efforts provide a strong foundation for sustained long-term growth. Despite the recent unfavorable price performance, maintaining a position in this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock appears to be a sensible approach for now, while potential investors may prefer to wait for a more attractive entry point.
You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
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Focus List Spotlight: Alphabet (GOOGL - Free Report) Alphabet is one of the most innovative companies in the modern technological age. Over the last few years, the company has evolved from primarily a search-engine provider to cloud computing, ad-based video and music streaming, autonomous vehicles, healthcare and others. In the online search arena, Google has a monopoly with roughly 90% of the online search volume and market. Over the years, the company has witnessed increase in search queries, resulting from ongoing growth in user adoption and usage, primarily on mobile devices, continued growth in advertiser activity, and improvements in ad formats.
On May 19, 2025, GOOGL was added to the Focus List at $166.19 per share. Shares have increased 117.35% to $361.21 since then, and the company is a #2 (Buy) on the Zacks Rank.
For fiscal 2026, five analysts revised their earnings estimate upwards in the last 60 days, and the Zacks Consensus Estimate has increased $0.3 to $14.32. GOOGL boasts an average earnings surprise of 34.4%.
Moreover, analysts are expecting GOOGL's earnings to grow 32.5% for the current fiscal year.
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Growth ScoreGrowth investors, on the other hand, are more concerned with a company's financial strength and health, and its future outlook. The Growth Style Score examines things like projected and historic earnings, sales, and cash flow to find stocks that will experience sustainable growth over time.
Momentum ScoreMomentum traders and investors live by the saying "the trend is your friend." This investing style is all about taking advantage of upward or downward trends in a stock's price or earnings outlook. Employing factors like one-week price change and the monthly percentage change in earnings estimates, the Momentum Style Score can indicate favorable times to build a position in high-momentum stocks.
VGM ScoreIf you want a combination of all three Style Scores, then the VGM Score will be your friend. It rates each stock on their combined weighted styles, helping you find the companies with the most attractive value, best growth forecast, and most promising momentum. It's also one of the best indicators to use with the Zacks Rank.
How Style Scores Work with the Zacks Rank The Zacks Rank is a proprietary stock-rating model that harnesses the power of earnings estimate revisions, or changes to a company's earnings expectations, to help investors build a successful portfolio.
#1 (Strong Buy) stocks have produced an unmatched +23.94% average annual return since 1988, which is more than double the S&P 500's performance over the same time frame. However, the Zacks Rank examines a ton of stocks, and there can be more than 200 companies with a Strong Buy rank, and another 600 with a #2 (Buy) rank, on any given day.
With more than 800 top-rated stocks to choose from, it can certainly feel overwhelming to pick the ones that are right for you and your investing journey.
That's where the Style Scores come in.
To have the best chance of big returns, you'll want to always consider stocks with a Zacks Rank #1 or #2 that also have Style Scores of A or B, which will give you the highest probability of success. If you're looking at stocks with a #3 (Hold) rank, it's important they have Scores of A or B as well to ensure as much upside potential as possible.
The direction of a stock's earnings estimate revisions should always be a key factor when choosing which stocks to buy, since the Scores were created to work together with the Zacks Rank.
A stock with a #4 (Sell) or #5 (Strong Sell) rating, for instance, even one with Scores of A and B, will still have a declining earnings forecast, and a greater chance its share price will fall too.
Thus, the more stocks you own with a #1 or #2 Rank and Scores of A or B, the better.
Stock to Watch: Alphabet (GOOGL - Free Report) Alphabet is one of the most innovative companies in the modern technological age. Over the last few years, the company has evolved from primarily a search-engine provider to cloud computing, ad-based video and music streaming, autonomous vehicles, healthcare and others. In the online search arena, Google has a monopoly with roughly 90% of the online search volume and market. Over the years, the company has witnessed increase in search queries, resulting from ongoing growth in user adoption and usage, primarily on mobile devices, continued growth in advertiser activity, and improvements in ad formats.
GOOGL is a #2 (Buy) on the Zacks Rank, with a VGM Score of B.
Momentum investors should take note of this Computer and Technology stock. GOOGL has a Momentum Style Score of A, and shares are up 0.6% over the past four weeks.
Five analysts revised their earnings estimate upwards in the last 60 days for fiscal 2026. The Zacks Consensus Estimate has increased $0.30 to $14.32 per share. GOOGL boasts an average earnings surprise of +34.4%.
With a solid Zacks Rank and top-tier Momentum and VGM Style Scores, GOOGL should be on investors' short list.
Washington quietly reversed course on one of the more consequential AI export restrictions of the year, and the beneficiary happens to be the one U.S. lab most aggressively courting overseas customers. Bloomberg senior strategist Neil Campling flagged the shift on July 1. He called it a green light for Anthropic’s global push at the exact moment Chinese frontier models have started closing the gap. The catch for stock pickers is that Anthropic is private, so the trade has to be built through the public names in its orbit.
The security fix that unlocked the door At the heart of the reversal is Anthropic’s newest frontier model, Fable 5, which had been walled off from foreign users over national security concerns. Campling’s read is that the company patched the specific jailbreak pathway regulators cared about. “There’s extra security, some security safeguards in place now, which will get over the national security concerns that the government previously had,” he said, describing the fix as “putting a new safeguard to make sure that it targets and blocks behavior that had allowed some users to bypass the security before.” Restrictions on Anthropic’s Mythos model were eased on June 26, so this is the second loosening in a week.
Timing is the whole story. Chinese labs have been narrowing the frontier gap in recent weeks, and Dylan Patel has noted that Anthropic will reach 2-plus gigawatts of compute this year and roughly 10 gigawatts by the end of next year, a scale advantage that only matters if the company can actually sell into non-U.S. markets. Campling is blunt. “This should certainly enable Anthropic to continue its leadership that it has in the AI frontier space.”
Why Google DeepMind is suddenly playing catch-up The more interesting piece of Campling’s commentary is about the science stack. Anthropic has been quietly building tools aimed at drug discovery and research workflows, which is the territory DeepMind has owned since AlphaFold. “DeepMind has gone from the leader and the most advanced model in this space to actually now playing catch up for the science industry,” Campling said.
That is a real problem for Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL | GOOGL Price Prediction), whose entire enterprise pitch leans on DeepMind’s science leadership.
Alphabet is not exactly limping. Google Cloud is compounding revenue at 63% with a $462 billion backlog, and the company just replaced Verizon in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. But the regulatory ledger keeps growing.
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A Swedish court just ordered Google to pay $1.97 billion in damages in the PriceRunner antitrust case, and reporting has surfaced that Google is tapping MediaTek to build its Triggerfish TPU, potentially at the expense of longtime partners. Losing the science narrative on top of that would sting.
The public tickers with Anthropic exposure The cleanest way to get Anthropic exposure is through its infrastructure partners. Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ:AKAM) just landed a $1.8 billion, seven-year cloud infrastructure deal with Anthropic, and the stock surged 27% on the news. Akamai was a legacy CDN name six months ago. Now it is a diversification play for a lab that clearly does not want to be locked into any single hyperscaler.
Meanwhile, Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) is building its own AI cloud business to sell computing power and models, aimed squarely at AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud. The takeaway from Anthropic’s global clearance is that frontier AI is no longer a two-horse race between OpenAI and Google, and the cloud spend is going to fragment across more vendors than the market was pricing in a quarter ago.
What the reversal means for public shareholders Anthropic staying private means you cannot buy it directly. What you can buy is the shift Campling is describing, where AI-for-science leaks away from DeepMind and international enterprise revenue leaks toward whichever U.S. lab regulators trust to ship abroad. Prediction markets already priced a low probability (0.122) that Trump would ease AI export controls to China, so this Anthropic-specific carve-out looks like the administration’s actual policy. That is to keep the wall up against Beijing and open the gate for U.S. labs with real safeguards.
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The EU's top court on Thursday upheld a record 4.1 billion euro ($4.7 billion) fine the bloc slapped on Google for anticompetitive practices related to its Android operating system.
My Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN | AMZN Price Prediction) call is straightforward. The 24/7 Wall St. price target for Amazon is $323.43 by July 2, 2027, and my base-case path has the stock crossing $300 for the first time around April 2, 2027 at a modeled $301.86. From a current price of $241.70, that is roughly 33.81% of upside. My recommendation is buy, at high confidence.
24/7 Wall St. Price Target Summary Metric Value Current Price $241.70 24/7 Wall St. Price Target $323.43 $300 Crossed On April 2, 2027 Upside 33.81% Recommendation BUY Confidence Level 90% How Amazon Got Back to $241 After a Rough Spring Amazon is up 3.17% over the past week and 9.63% over the past year, but trading has been choppy. Shares fell 7.49% in the last month and sit about 12% below the 52-week high of $278.56, with a low of $196.
The setup got better fast in Q1 2026: EPS of $2.78 topped the $1.73 consensus, a 60.69% surprise on revenue of $181.52 billion, up 16.61% YoY. AWS grew 28%, the fastest in 15 quarters, and Prime Day just kicked off with online spending rising 5.3% on day one to $8.3 billion.
The Bull Case for $370 The bull scenario takes Amazon to $370.31, or 53.21% upside. Three engines drive it. AWS is compounding at 28% on a 37.7% operating margin, with landmark AI compute commitments from OpenAI (2 GW of Trainium), Anthropic (up to 5 GW), and Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META).
The custom-chips business already runs at a $20 billion annual run rate with triple-digit YoY growth. Advertising is a $70 billion+ TTM franchise growing 24% at software-like margins.
North America retail margins expanded to 7.9% from 6.3%, and unit growth hit 15%, the highest since COVID. Analyst consensus already sits at $312.99 with 62 buy ratings and zero sells.
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The Risks Worth Watching The bear path stops at $279.32, still 15.57% upside, but the risks are real. Planned 2026 CapEx of roughly $200 billion pushed free cash flow down sharply, and long-term debt has climbed to $119.1 billion from $65.6 billion. AWS operating margin slipped to 37.7% from 39.5%, and Q1’s headline net income of $30.25 billion was boosted by $16.8 billion in non-recurring Anthropic gains.
Reddit sentiment turned bearish in late June around “overinvestment in data centres” concerns. It should be noted, however, that bulls counter that adjusted operating income still grew 30% YoY excluding investment gains, and management is guiding to strong long-term return on invested capital from the CapEx surge.
Amazon Price Prediction 2026-2030 My 24/7 Wall St. price target for Amazon is $323.43, a buy with 90% confidence. The tipping factor is AWS re-acceleration paired with a custom-silicon business that already prints $20 billion.
I’d be a buyer here if Q2 revenue lands inside the guided $194 billion to $199 billion range and AWS holds mid-20s growth. I’d stay on the sidelines if AWS decelerates below 22% or CapEx overshoots $210 billion without matching revenue.
Year 24/7 Wall St. Price Target 2026 $270 2027 $323 2028 $385 2029 $460 2030 $552 These projections assume Amazon continues executing on AWS, ads, and custom silicon at a 17.95% annualized base-case return through 2031. Significant upside could come from Trainium winning share from NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA), while downside would likely come from a CapEx-driven return-on-capital reset.
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I keep hitting the buy button on Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT | MSFT Price Prediction), and the June selloff only made me press it harder. When the tape dragged this stock down to $373 in June while the underlying business printed 18.3% revenue growth, my thesis stopped being a thesis and started feeling like a gift. I own this for the next twenty years of retirement income, through many cycles of noisy headlines.
What pulls me back is boring in the best way. Microsoft sells the plumbing every enterprise on earth now depends on: Windows, Office 365, Azure, GitHub, Dynamics, LinkedIn. Companies do not rip that stack out during a recession. They renew it, expand it, and pay more for it every cycle. That is the cash-flow utility I want anchoring my portfolio.
Three Reasons I Keep Adding First, the operational reality is running in the opposite direction of the stock chart. Q3 FY26 delivered EPS of $4.27 against a $4.07 estimate, the fourth consecutive beat, on $82.89 billion in revenue. Intelligent Cloud grew 30%, Azure grew 40%, and the AI business now runs at a $37 billion annualized rate, up 123% year over year. Alpha Vantage shows 12 consecutive quarterly beats and an 83.8% beat rate across 130 quarters. That is a compounding machine.
Second, the forward book is enormous. Commercial remaining performance obligations reached $627 billion, up 99%. Contracted revenue at that scale is a multi-year visibility signal I do not get from most large caps. Layer on the restructured OpenAI deal, where Microsoft holds a ~27% stake valued around $135 billion and secured IP rights through 2032 plus an incremental $250 billion Azure commitment, and I own a piece of the frontier without owning the burn.
Third, the balance sheet and returns profile do the heavy lifting. ROE of 33.28%, operating margin of 45.62%, interest coverage of 53.89x, and debt-to-equity of 0.176. Trailing P/E of 22 and forward P/E of 19 on a business compounding EPS at this pace is the kind of setup I rarely get outside of a market panic. The dividend yields only 1.01%, but Microsoft returned $12.7 billion to shareholders last quarter through dividends and buybacks, up 32%.
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The Risk I Will Not Wave Away Capex is the real concern. Q3 capital expenditures hit $30.88 billion, up 84.39%, and Microsoft’s share of OpenAI losses ran $3.1 billion in Q1 FY26 against $523 million a year earlier. If AI monetization stalls, that spend gets ugly. What keeps me buying is the response function on the other side of the ledger: operating income grew 19.99% and operating cash flow grew 26.01% in the same quarter the capex nearly doubled. The customers are paying for the buildout in real time.
I also noticed 13 board members quietly accumulated shares on June 5 during the drawdown, and the Chief Accounting Officer picked up 5,004 shares on June 15. That is a group leaning into its future.
Why the Buy Button Stays Live Ten-year total return on this stock sits at 724.68%, and the fundamentals underneath it look stronger today than they did at the beginning of that run. When the market hands me a global cash-flow utility at 19 times forward earnings with a $627 billion backlog, I do not overthink it. I buy the plumbing, collect the compounding, and let time do the rest.
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Key Takeaways MSFT launches new Surface devices in Thailand ahead of July 23 sales after July 1 early-bird registration.MSFT's refreshed lineup uses Snapdragon X2 chips with AI features, faster graphics and longer battery life.MSFT faces Devices sales pressure as it guides More Personal Computing revenues to $11.8-$12.3B for fiscal Q4. Microsoft (MSFT - Free Report) is rolling out its next-generation Surface Pro and Surface Laptop lineup, with Thailand becoming the latest market to receive the devices ahead of official sales on July 23, 2026, following early-bird registration that opened July 1.
The refreshed hardware, powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon X2 processors, targets professionals and creators seeking on-device AI performance alongside cloud-based workflows. The Surface Laptop's 13.8-inch and 15-inch models offer up to 58% more graphics performance than their predecessors, with battery life reaching up to 20 hours on the smaller model and 19 hours on the larger one. Display sharpness on the 15-inch variant has also improved, with pixel density climbing from 201 to 262 PPI.
The launch arrives as Microsoft's device business continues to face headwinds. In its third-quarter fiscal 2026 results, Windows OEM and Devices revenues declined 2% (down 3% in constant currency), contributing to a 1% overall decline in the More Personal Computing segment, which totaled $13.2 billion. That followed a second-quarter fiscal 2026 period in which Windows OEM and Devices revenues had actually grown 1%, even as total segment revenues fell 3% due to softer Xbox and other consumer categories.
For the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026, Microsoft has guided More Personal Computing revenues to a range of $11.8 billion to $12.3 billion, reflecting continued uncertainty tied to broader PC market conditions.
Against this backdrop, the new Surface rollout represents a modest but deliberate push to reinvigorate premium hardware demand through performance and battery-life upgrades rather than aggressive pricing.
How Apple and Dell Compare in the Premium Device RaceMicrosoft's Surface push places it against Apple (AAPL - Free Report) and Dell Technologies (DELL - Free Report) in the premium computing space. Apple continues to lean on its MacBook lineup and custom silicon to defend margins, while Dell remains focused on enterprise and business-class notebooks alongside its own AI-capable PC offerings. Apple's ecosystem advantage and brand loyalty give it steady premium demand, whereas Dell's scale in commercial channels provides resilience during soft consumer cycles. Compared with Apple and Dell, Microsoft's Surface strategy leans more heavily on hybrid form factors and Copilot+ AI integration, positioning it as a differentiated, if smaller, player among these three hardware competitors.
MSFT’s Share Price Performance, Valuation & EstimatesMSFT shares have lost 18.7% in the past six-month period compared with the Zacks Computer – Software industry’s decline of 21.4%. The Zacks Computer and Technology sector has appreciated 15.8% in the same time frame.
MSFT’s 6-Month Price Performance
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
From a valuation standpoint, MSFT stock appears overvalued, trading at a forward 12-month price/earnings ratio of 22.92X, higher than the industry’s 17.2X. MSFT has a Value Score of C.
MSFT’s Valuation
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for MSFT’s fiscal 2026 earnings is pegged at $17.33 per share. The estimate indicates 27.05% year-over-year growth.
Microsoft currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
, /PRNewswire/ -- Glancy Prongay Wolke & Rotter LLP announces that investors with losses have opportunity to lead the securities fraud class action lawsuit against Microsoft Corporation ("Microsoft" or the "Company") (NASDAQ: MSFT).
IF YOU SUFFERED A LOSS ON YOUR MICROSOFT INVESTMENTS, CLICK HERE BEFORE AUGUST 11, 2026 (LEAD PLAINTIFF DEADLINE) TO PARTICIPATE IN THE SECURITIES FRAUD LAWSUIT
What Is The Lawsuit About?
The complaint filed alleges that, between May 1, 2025 and January 28, 2026, Defendants failed to disclose to investors: (1) that Microsoft's Copilot family of products had experienced significant brand positioning, user experience, usage, data siloing, computational capacity, organizational, and interoperability problems; (2) that Microsoft's flagship proprietary AI model ranked well below competitors on a number of benchmark tests; (3) that Microsoft needed to increase by billions of dollars its capital expenditures and divert GPU and 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 R&D; (4) that, as a result of the foregoing, Microsoft had failed to convert a significant percentage of its commercial Microsoft 365 users to paid Copilot subscriptions and the Company's Copilot offerings had lost market share to rival products, a trend that was increasing; and (5) as a result, Defendants' positive statements about the Company's business, operations, and prospects were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis at all relevant times.
Contact Us To Participate or Learn More:
If you wish to learn more about this action, or if you have any questions concerning this announcement or your rights or interests with respect to these matters, please contact us.
Charles Linehan, Esq.,
Glancy Prongay Wolke & Rotter LLP,
1925 Century Park East, Suite 2100,
Los Angeles California 90067
Email: [email protected]
Telephone: 310-201-9150 (Toll-Free: 888-773-9224)
Visit our website at www.glancylaw.com.
Follow us for updates on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook.
If you inquire by email, please include your mailing address, telephone number and number of shares purchased.
To be a member of the class action you need not take any action at this time; you may retain counsel of your choice or take no action and remain an absent member of the class action.
This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules.
Contact Us:
Glancy Prongay Wolke & Rotter LLP,
1925 Century Park East, Suite 2100,
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Charles Linehan
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Visit our website at: www.glancylaw.com.
by Todd Bishop on Jul 2, 2026 at 9:03 amJuly 2, 2026 at 9:03 am
As the country marks its 250th birthday this week, Microsoft is rolling out an unlikely summer project: a six-part series of short videos, hosted by Microsoft President and Vice Chair Brad Smith, that look to American history for lessons relevant to technology and innovation today.
The premise is that every technology debate of the moment — over such issues as patents, privacy, and who gets to shape AI — has a precedent somewhere in the country’s past, and that we’d all benefit from remembering how we got here in the first place.
“We felt that the 250th anniversary of the country deserved some added reflection about the lessons of history, the role of technology, and the questions that we’re facing as a country,” explained Smith, a well-known history buff, in an interview with GeekWire this week.
In the first episode, for example, he stands in Philadelphia’s Independence Square to explain how a steamboat demonstration on the Delaware River in 1787 helped inspire the Constitutional Convention to give Congress the power to grant patents. This was the basis for the intellectual property framework that Smith describes as a bedrock of American innovation.
Savvy viewers may see some irony in a company extolling the virtues of IP protections even as Microsoft and OpenAI defend themselves against a New York Times copyright suit over the material used to train their AI models.
Asked about that, Smith made it clear he doesn’t see a contradiction.
“Every generation of technology has required a new round of legal thinking, legislation and oftentimes lawsuits, so that courts can sustain the balance that has always been needed between new innovation and the protection of things created already,” he said.
He also noted that Microsoft is often the party going to court to protect customers, pointing as one example to the company’s move this week to intervene before Europe’s top court in defense of the European Union and U.S. data-protection framework.
The six-part series was overseen by Smith’s longtime chief of staff, Carol Ann Browne, a Microsoft vice president; and produced by Kirkland, Wash.-based Trifilm. The episodes, around 3 or 4 minutes each, will roll out in the coming weeks. Smith said they recorded during existing travel plans, working the shoots into stops on trips he was already taking.
The series travels next to a Boston courtroom for the birth of privacy rights, Henry Ford’s Detroit assembly line for the spread of new technology, Cincinnati for Tocqueville’s take on nonprofits, Great Falls, Md., for George Washington’s early infrastructure ambitions, and the Lewis and Clark expedition in Montana for the value of uniting competing viewpoints.
“The 250th anniversary of the country is quite rightly an occasion to honor the past, celebrate the past,” Smith said, explaining the motivation for the series. “But let’s make sure we get something out of the past that helps us be more successful in the future.”
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) stock was little changed on Thursday, slipping 0.13% to $541.58, even as the broader market moved higher. The Nasdaq gained 0.38%, while the S&P 500 rose 0.59%.
AMD’s modest decline appears to reflect profit-taking after a strong multi-month rally rather than a broader shift in market sentiment.
Cramer Sees Dip As Buying OpportunityTechnical AnalysisThe longer-term trend remains firmly positive.
AMD is trading 4.3% above its 20-day simple moving average of $518.00, 17.3% above its 50-day SMA of $460.85 and 94.2% above its 200-day SMA of $278.30. The 20-day SMA remains above the 50-day SMA, while the 50-day SMA is above the 200-day SMA, confirming a bullish trend.
However, momentum has softened. The moving average convergence divergence, or MACD, remains below its signal line and the histogram is negative. That typically signals slowing upside momentum, even if the broader trend remains intact.
Key resistance stands near $546.50. A move above that level could support another leg higher. Initial support is around $437.00, close to the 50-day trend area.
Earnings And Analyst OutlookWall Street expects AMD to report second-quarter results around Aug. 4.
Analysts project earnings of $1.55 per share, up from 48 cents a year earlier, on revenue of $11.28 billion, compared with $7.68 billion last year.
The stock trades at about 180.3 times earnings, reflecting a premium valuation tied to its growth outlook.
The consensus analyst rating is Buy, with an average price forecast of $499.44. Recent analyst actions include:
Wells Fargo: Overweight, raised price forecast to $615 on June 30. Cantor Fitzgerald: Overweight, raised price forecast to $700 on June 29. UBS: Buy, raised price forecast to $670 on June 24. Benzinga Edge RankingsAMD continues to score well across several Benzinga Edge metrics.
Momentum scored 98.59, Growth 96.83 and Quality 95.35, while Value remained weak at 3.17, reflecting the stock’s rich valuation.
The combination suggests investors continue to favor AMD’s long-term growth story. However, its premium valuation could leave the shares more sensitive to disappointing news or slower growth.
The Funds Most Invested In AMDAMD remains a major holding in several semiconductor and AI-focused exchange-traded funds, including:
Strong inflows or outflows in these funds can influence demand for AMD shares because of their sizable portfolio allocations.
Price ActionAMD Stock Price Activity: Advanced Micro Devices shares were up 0.13% at $541.58 at the time of publication on Thursday, according to Benzinga Pro data.
Image via Shutterstock
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Our NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA | NVDA Price Prediction) 24/7 Wall St. price target for the next 12 months is $252.14, implying 27.62% upside from the current price of $197.58. NVIDIA has slipped hard in the recent AI-compute selloff, but the fundamentals under the hood have not cracked. Our recommendation is buy, with a high confidence level of 90%.
Metric Value Current Price $197.58 24/7 Wall St. Price Target $252.14 Upside 27.62% Recommendation BUY Confidence Level 90% How NVIDIA Got Caught in a Sector-Wide Reset NVIDIA is down 11.84% over the past month, retreating from a mid-May peak near $225.32. Even after the pullback, shares are still up 6.07% year-to-date and 29.05% over the past year, with the stock currently sitting between a 52-week low of $157.13 and a high of $236.26. The July 1 semiconductor session was ugly, with KLA down 12.3%, Micron down 8%, and AMD down 5.73% as institutions rotated out of chips.
Q1 FY2027 revenue hit $81.615 billion, up 85.23% year-over-year, with non-GAAP EPS of $1.87 beating consensus by 5.42%, the fourth straight beat. Data Center revenue reached $75.246 billion (up 92% YoY), and management guided Q2 to $91 billion, again excluding any China Data Center compute.
The Case for $262 and Higher Our bull case points to $262.02 over the next year. The driver is Blackwell 300 ramping into insatiable hyperscaler demand, with 54 research firms carrying a Buy consensus and an average target of $303.84.
Strategic wins keep piling up: the Vera Rubin A5X instances on Google Cloud, a Marvell NVLink Fusion tie-up, the OpenAI 10GW deployment, and a multi-generational Meta agreement spanning millions of Blackwell and Rubin GPUs. Networking revenue tripled to $14.8 billion (up 199% YoY), showing that InfiniBand, NVLink, and Spectrum-X are becoming their own business.
Capital return has finally arrived, with the dividend lifted from $0.01 to $0.25 per share and a new $80 billion buyback approved.
The Risks Worth Watching Our bear case lands at $218.92, roughly 10.8% above today. Zero China Data Center revenue is baked into guidance, and $119 billion in supply commitments creates real downside if hyperscaler capex ever cools.
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Michael Burry is short NVDA, and insiders including CEO Jensen Huang and CFO Colette Kress sold shares on June 17 at $207.41, with Director Mark Stevens disposing of over 2 million shares in June.
The executive sales were coordinated on a single day at an identical price, consistent with pre-scheduled 10b5-1 plans rather than a panic exit. Free cash flow of $48.554 billion in a single quarter tells you demand is real.
I’d Buy It Here Our 24/7 Wall St. Price Target is $252.14, our recommendation is buy, and our confidence is 90%. The tipping factor is the collision between an 85% revenue growth rate and a 12% one-month drawdown. I’d be a buyer here if hyperscaler capex commentary holds firm into the next earnings report. I’d stay on the sidelines if China export policy tightens further or Q2 guidance disappoints.
Looking further out, here is where our model projects NVIDIA could trade, assuming Blackwell and Rubin adoption continue on their current arc.
Year 24/7 Wall St. Price Target 2026 $252 2027 $291 2028 $328 2029 $365 2030 $401 These projections assume NVIDIA continues executing on the Vera Rubin roadmap and agentic AI adoption scales as forecast. Meaningful upside or downside could come from China policy shifts, custom ASIC competition from Broadcom and AMD, or a step-change in hyperscaler capex.
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Nvidia NVDA shares edged lower on Thursday, extending a recent pullback.
The stock started the day in the green and even went on to reclaim the $200 mark, but fell shortly after.
Shares of Nvidia fell about 1% in early trading after finishing Wednesday below the $200 level, a level it has struggled to hold in recent weeks.
While Nvidia remains one of the central beneficiaries of rising AI spending, the stock has underperformed many semiconductor peers in 2026 as investor enthusiasm broadens across the industry.
The weakness follows an extraordinary first half for semiconductor stocks.
The VanEck Semiconductor ETF gained more than 70% during the first six months of 2026, marking the strongest first-half performance since the fund launched in 2000.
However, some of the sector's biggest winners have recently pulled back as investors locked in profits following the historic rally.
Nvidia has notably lagged much of the broader semiconductor advance despite maintaining its leadership position in graphics processing units used for artificial intelligence workloads.
Investor attention has increasingly shifted toward other segments of the AI supply chain.
Memory-chip makers have benefited from supply constraints and rising demand, while companies focused on central processing units have attracted growing interest as investors bet that next-generation agentic AI systems will require substantially greater computing resources beyond GPUs alone.
Micron has emerged as one of the biggest winners from the memory cycle, while Advanced Micro Devices and Intel have benefited from expectations that CPU demand could accelerate alongside the expansion of AI infrastructure.
The trend has left Nvidia facing a more competitive investment landscape even as demand for its products remains strong.
Separately, Nvidia announced a new initiative designed to deepen its relationships with fast-growing artificial intelligence startups.
Under the program, Nvidia will enter revenue-sharing arrangements with selected companies, allowing them to access computing resources powered by Nvidia hardware in exchange for a portion of future revenue.
The company said participating startups will receive token credits that can be used to support development and deployment of AI products.
Cloud-based AI companies, model developers, and other technology firms will share portions of their product and cloud-generated revenue with Nvidia as part of the arrangement.
The initiative further expands Nvidia's role beyond hardware supplier and positions the company as a more active participant in the economics of the AI ecosystem.
Nvidia also identified two initial partners participating in the program.
Australia-based Sharon AI plans to deploy as many as 40,000 Nvidia graphics processors under the arrangement.
Meanwhile, Singapore-based AI infrastructure company Firmus Technologies is developing a data center in Batam, Indonesia, that is expected to scale to 360 megawatts and eventually house up to 170,000 Nvidia GPUs.
The initiative reflects the growing importance of access to computing power across the artificial intelligence industry.
As demand for advanced AI infrastructure continues to outpace supply in many areas, graphics processors have become one of the most sought-after resources for startups and model developers.
The scarcity of computing capacity has encouraged a growing number of AI companies to pursue revenue-sharing and equity-based arrangements with infrastructure providers and chipmakers as an alternative to traditional financing.
For Nvidia, the strategy creates another avenue to participate in the growth of emerging AI businesses while reinforcing demand for its hardware platform.
The first major humanoid robotics company just went public. Agility Robotics completed its public debut through a merger with SPAC Churchill Capital Corp XI, and the supply-chain names that feed the robotics buildout are already moving. The clearest tell: Ouster (NASDAQ:OUST) has run 149.86% year-to-date, with a 13.43% gain on June 30 alone. The names below sit directly in the path of the capital now chasing Physical AI.
1. Vishay Precision Group (VPG): The Surprise Humanoid Pick Most readers have never heard of Vishay Precision Group (NYSE:VPG). It is a Malvern, Pennsylvania, designer of sensors, sensor-based measurement systems, special resistors, and strain gauges. Strain gauges are the unglamorous components that enable humanoid robots to sense force, torque, and pressure at every joint. When humanoid developers move from prototype to production, they need a precision sensor supplier that can ship at scale. VPG is one of the few American names already in that conversation.
Q1 FY26 made the connection explicit. Revenue came in at $84.35M, up 17.6% year over year and beating consensus by 9.43%, with orders of $102.1M, a book-to-bill of 1.21, and a Sensors segment book-to-bill of 1.36. The kicker: $1.0M in humanoid robotics orders booked in Q1, and engineering discussions are underway with a fourth humanoid developer. Shares are up 269.06% year to date and 401.91% over the past year.
2. NVIDIA (NVDA): The Physical AI Platform NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA | NVDA Price Prediction) has expanded well beyond AI compute. Its robotics stack now includes Isaac GR00T N foundation models, Isaac simulation, Cosmos, DRIVE Hyperion, and Halos OS for AI vehicles, with Hyundai, Kia, Uber, BYD, Geely, Isuzu, and Nissan signed up for L4-ready integration. Every humanoid developer that goes public, Agility included, validates the platform NVIDIA sells into the entire ecosystem.
The scale of growth in the first quarter of fiscal year 2027 became impossible to ignore. Revenue reached $81.61 billion, an increase of 85.2% from the previous year, which exceeded expectations by 3.16%. Data Center revenue climbed 92% to hit $75.25 billion, while Networking revenue surged 199% to $14.8 billion. With non-GAAP gross margins landing at 75.0% and second-quarter guidance pointing toward $91 billion, CEO Jensen Huang described the current moment as the largest infrastructure expansion in human history.
The catch: NVIDIA shares are only up 4.67% year to date, lagging the smaller supply-chain names by a wide margin. That gap is exactly what the next stock is closing.
3. Ouster (OUST): The Sensor Pure-Play Ouster is a San Francisco designer and manufacturer of digital lidar sensors for the industrial automation, intelligent infrastructure, robotics, and automotive markets. With the Stereolabs acquisition closed, the company now combines lidar, cameras, AI compute, and perception software in a single stack. That is the exact bill of materials a humanoid robot or a robotaxi platform needs to ship. CEO Angus Pacala framed Ouster as “the foundational sensing and perception platform for Physical AI.”
The first quarter of fiscal year 2026 provided the hard numbers behind the recent market surge. Total revenue climbed to $48.58 million, marking a 49% increase over the previous year, while product revenue grew by 55% to hit $48.23 million. The company shipped more than 12,600 sensors during the quarter and saw its GAAP gross margin reach 43%, an improvement of 200 basis points from the year before. Looking ahead, management set second-quarter guidance in the range of $49.5 million to $52.5 million.
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4. Teradyne (TER): The Wafer-to-Robot Bridge Teradyne (NASDAQ:TER) sits in two robotics seats at once. It tests the AI chips going into every robot, and it owns Universal Robots, one of the world’s largest collaborative robot makers. CEO Greg Smith calls the strategy “wafer to AI data center.” When Agility Robotics, or any humanoid maker, scales production, Teradyne shows up on both the silicon and cobot sides.
The first quarter results for fiscal year 2026 were impressive across every category. Revenue reached $1.28 billion, an 87% increase from the prior year, which beat analyst expectations by 5.56%, while non-GAAP earnings per share of $2.56 topped estimates by 21.15%. Approximately 70% of total revenue is now directly tied to AI, and the non-GAAP operating margin expanded significantly to 37.5% from 20.5% a year ago. Looking forward, the company provided second-quarter guidance of $1.15 billion to $1.25 billion in revenue, with non-GAAP earnings per share expected between $1.86 and $2.15.
The market has already reacted to these gains. The stock is up 139.5% year-to-date and 413.97% over the past year, hitting an all-time high of $460.53 on June 25, 2026. This momentum has recently drawn positive upgrades from analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald and Bank of America.
5. Symbotic (SYM): The Punchline Symbotic (NASDAQ:SYM) is the pure-play warehouse robotics name in the United States. The company is a pioneer in robotic automation and artificial intelligence, focused on transforming supply chain logistics, with major retailers and wholesalers as core customers. Walmart is the anchor. SoftBank is the partner. The opportunity is the entire warehouse layer of e-commerce, and Symbotic is the only listed name pointed straight at it.
The second quarter of fiscal year 2026 clearly quantified the company’s growing backlog. Revenue hit $676.48 million, a 23.1% increase over the previous year, while adjusted EBITDA more than doubled to $77.75 million, and gross margins improved to 22.2% from 20.2%. The number of active systems in deployment climbed to 70 from 46, operational systems rose to 52 from 37, and the contracted backlog stood at approximately $22.7 billion. For the third quarter, management provided guidance of $700 million to $720 million in revenue and $80 million to $85 million in adjusted EBITDA.
While the other four companies on this list have seen significant gains, this stock remains down 29.18% year-to-date, even after an 8% rally on June 30. It presents an interesting case of a warehouse robotics pure-play that, despite a massive $22.7 billion backlog and current lack of profitability, trades well below its 200-day moving average.
The Bottom Line The public market debut of Agility Robotics acts as the catalyst that finally pulled robotics supply-chain stocks off the bench. Vishay Precision Group and Ouster are already seeing significant momentum. NVIDIA and Teradyne continue to sell the foundational platforms that power these machines. Symbotic has lagged behind the rest of the group for now. The robotics IPO window is officially open, and the names associated with this theme are repricing in real time.
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Key Takeaways T is expanding Build-A-Plan to offer more flexibility across wireless and home Internet services.AT&T customers can customize wireless and add Fiber or Internet Air in the same purchase process.AT&T's bundled packages start at $70 per month, helping customers manage costs and service choices. AT&T Inc. (T - Free Report) is aiming to extend its Build-A-Plan offering to give customers greater flexibility, personalization and value across wireless and home Internet services. The updated offering intends to deliver a more seamless and convenient experience for customers both at home and outside.
The enhanced Build-A-Plan allows customers to customize their wireless services to their needs and easily add home Internet options such as AT&T Fiber or AT&T Internet Air during the same purchase process. The plan offers greater control over service choices while helping customers manage costs, with bundled packages starting at $70 per month.
AT&T Fiber remains a key part of the initiative, offering high-speed Internet for households with growing connectivity needs. In areas where fiber is unavailable, AT&T Internet Air offers a dependable alternative through its wireless network, further strengthening the company’s customer-focused strategy.
How Are Competitors Performing?AT&T faces stiff competition from Verizon Communications, Inc. (VZ - Free Report) and T-Mobile, US, Inc. (TMUS - Free Report) . Verizon has strengthened its connectivity services by expanding its 5G network nationwide. The company continues to invest in infrastructure upgrades to deliver broader coverage and more stable network performance. This ongoing expansion positions Verizon to better support future technological advancements and digital innovation.
T-Mobile is improving connectivity by expanding its fixed wireless Internet services to reach more households. The company is focusing on enhancing network capacity to manage increasing data traffic. T-Mobile leverages its spectrum assets to improve network efficiency and strengthen overall service quality.
T’s Price Performance, Valuation & EstimatesAT&T shares have lost 27.8% over the past year compared with the industry’s decline of 23.5%.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
From a valuation standpoint, AT&T trades at a forward price-to-sales ratio of 1.08, below the industry tally of 1.5.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Earnings estimates for both 2026 and 2027 remained static at $2.30 and $2.52, respectively.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
AT&T currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
When a former Dividend Aristocrat slashes its payout, the market’s memory is long. But four years on, AT&T (NYSE:T | T Price Prediction) has built a cash flow machine that, in my view, makes its current distribution one of the safer high yields in the large-cap universe. With shares trading at a sub-8x forward earnings multiple and a yield approaching 5%, the question for retirees is simple: can this $1.11 payout hold?
The Dividend at a Glance Metric Value Annual Dividend $1.11 per share Dividend Yield 4.95% Consecutive Years of Increases 0 (since 2022 reset) Quarterly Rate Stability 16+ consecutive quarters at $0.2775 Aristocrat/King Status No (lost in 2022) Cash Flow Covers the Dividend Nearly 2.4 Times Over AT&T generated $19.4 billion in free cash flow during FY 2025 against just $8.18 billion in common dividends. With trailing EPS of $2.97 against the $1.11 payout, only about 37% of profits go out the door.
Metric Value Assessment Earnings Payout Ratio 37% Healthy FCF Payout Ratio 42% Healthy Operating Cash Flow Coverage 4.9x Strong Management has guided $18 billion-plus in free cash flow for 2026, leaving ample cushion even with $8 billion in planned buybacks.
Debt Is Heavy, but Leverage Is Manageable Metric Value Assessment Total Debt $138.4B Elevated Debt-to-Equity 1.10x Moderate Net Debt-to-EBITDA 2.71x Manageable Cash on Hand $12B Solid buffer Leverage will tick up to roughly 3.2x after the EchoStar spectrum deal closes, then drift back toward 2.5x within three years. That trajectory protects the dividend.
The Track Record: Still Haunted by 2022 AT&T cut its quarterly payout from $0.52 to $0.2775 in early 2022 after the WarnerMedia spin to Discovery, ending a 35-plus year streak of increases. The current rate has held flat for 16 straight quarters. No growth, but no further cuts.
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What Stankey Is Telling Shareholders CEO John Stankey on the Q1 2026 call: “We returned $4.3 billion to shareholders in the first quarter through dividends and share repurchases. We continue to expect to repurchase stock this year and to maintain a consistent pace of buybacks through 2028 as we execute against our plans to return $45 billion plus to shareholders over this time period.”
That language tells me the $1.11 floor is secure, with buybacks serving as the flex variable.
The Verdict: This Dividend Is Safe Dividend Safety Rating: Safe. A 42% FCF payout ratio, a 0.395 beta, and predictable wireless subscription cash flows give this distribution a wide margin of safety. I’d be comfortable owning AT&T for income if you believe the fiber buildout pays off and net leverage drifts back below 2.7x by 2027. I’d be cautious if integration costs from Lumen and EchoStar push capex higher than guided and FCF dips below $17 billion. On balance, the math works. For retirees seeking a near-5% yield from a defensive cash generator, this one clears the bar.
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Netflix presents a low-risk, high-upside buying opportunity after a pullback to key technical support. Strong 2025 fundamentals: 16% revenue growth to $45B, 26% net profit growth to $11B, and a 24.5% margin. Ad-tier expansion and proprietary ad tech are central to closing ARPU gaps and driving future valuation.
Visa debuted a solution designed to help financial institutions spot cyberthreats and prevent fraud, according to a Thursday (July 2) press release.
The Visa Threat Intelligence Platform (VTIP) employs the same cybersecurity capabilities Visa uses to protect its network, the release said.
“Fraud is widely recognized as a downstream outcome of earlier cyber incidents, often beginning with data compromise, credential theft or system exploitation well before a transaction is initiated,” the release said. “Cyberattacks that expose payment credentials can originate anywhere across the payments ecosystem, from merchants and issuers to acquirers, processors and service providers. In some cases, compromised credentials are trafficked and later misused, which can result in financial loss and operational disruption.”
Visa blocks around 90 million cyberattacks and 11 million phishing emails per month, and VTIP brings the same intelligence behind these defenses to customers in the financial sector, according to the release.
It includes capabilities such as Threat Intelligence, which provides “malware-based indicators of compromise” designed for the financial sector; Vulnerability Intelligence, which focuses on exploits and exposures relevant to each organization; Brand Intelligence, which identifies and prevents impersonation and brand abuse; Digital Identity Intelligence, which helps keep executives and employees from being personally targeted; and Financial Intelligence, which unearths compromised payment credentials from the dark web and “enriches them with VisaNet insights” to provide intelligence for fraud and risk teams, per the release.
“By unifying cyber and fraud intelligence, VTIP helps financial institutions better anticipate upstream threats, prioritize response and reduce the likelihood that cyber incidents escalate into fraud losses,” the release said.
James Mirfin, senior vice president, head of risk and security intelligence solutions at Visa, told PYMNTS in April about how fraud has evolved.
“Fraud has become a business, an economy,” he said, adding that technology has transformed criminal activity from ad hoc schemes to coordinated, professionalized operations.
In addition, advanced technology has given cybercriminals new weapons, even as it helps fraud-prevention teams do their jobs.
Artificial intelligence agents, deepfakes and voice cloning are tools that allow for larger and more convincing scams. Criminals can now automate activities that once needed human labor, allowing attacks to persist and at a wider volume.
Over the past month, Visa Inc.'s V stock has jumped 12.4%, comfortably outpacing the broader industry's 7.9% growth while the S&P 500 has slipped 0.8%. Rival Mastercard Incorporated MA has advanced 10.8%, while American Express Company AXP has gained an even stronger 15.8%.
