Emergent BioSolutions oznámila nepeněžní znehodnocení ve výši 191,3 milionu USD kvůli konkurenci a cenovému tlaku na NARCAN. Akcie po zprávě prudce klesly.
Schall, Brown & Schwartz LLP (“SBS”), a national shareholder rights litigation firm, announces that it is investigating claims on behalf of investors of Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (“Emergent” or “the Company”) (NYSE: EBS) for violations of the securities laws.
INVESTIGATION DETAILS: The investigation focuses on whether the Company issued false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose information pertinent to investors. Emergent revealed a $191.3 million non-cash impairment charge based on competition and pricing pressure on its NARCAN product line. Based on this news, shares of Emergent fell sharply.
If you are a shareholder who suffered a loss, click here to participate.
We also encourage you to contact Brian Schall or David Schwartz of Schall, Brown & Schwartz LLP, 2049 Century Park East, Suite 2460, Los Angeles, CA 90067, at 310-301-3335, to discuss your rights free of charge. You can also reach us through the firm's website at www.schallfirm.com, or by email at [email protected].
WHY SBS? Schall, Brown & Schwartz LLP represents investors around the world and specializes in securities class action lawsuits and shareholder rights litigation. Bringing together the extensive experience and diverse skillsets of founding partners Brian Schall, Andrew Brown, and David Schwartz, SBS is dedicated to aggressively advocating for every investor.
This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and rules of ethics.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260817756341/en/
NuScale ve 2. čtvrtletí zvýšila hotovost, peněžní ekvivalenty a likvidní investice na 1,9 miliardy USD, hlavně díky 984,5 milionu USD z emisí akcií. Tržby meziročně spadly o 99 % na 75 000 USD.
NuScale (SMR -2.13%), a developer of small modular reactors (SMRs), posted its second-quarter results on Aug. 5. Its revenue plunged 99% year over year to just $75,000, but it ended the quarter with $1.9 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and liquid investments. That was an increase of $900 million from the first quarter and a near four-fold jump from a year ago. Let's see why NuScale's liquidity matters more than its declining revenue.
Why is NuScale's revenue growth so lumpy? NuScale's SMRs are much smaller than conventional nuclear reactors. They're prefabricated to reduce the time, labor, and costs for building a nuclear power plant. A single SMR generates only 77 MWe, but it can be deployed with other reactors to construct higher-capacity plants. That modular flexibility makes its SMRs well-suited for remote areas.
Image source: Getty Images.
NuScale is working with Fluor (FLR +4.53%) to deploy six of its 77 MWe reactors in a 462 MWe plant for Romania's RoPower, and plans to deploy up to six gigawatts of its SMR capacity across seven states in the U.S. for the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).
However, it doesn't expect to actually deploy any of those SMRs until the early 2030s. Until then, most of its revenue will come from its front-end engineering and design (FEED) studies, licensing fees, and consulting work for those upcoming projects.
In late 2025, NuScale concluded its FEED Phase 2 work on its RoPower project. Without any comparable projects to fill that void immediately, its revenue plummeted in the first half of 2026. That's why its revenue growth is lumpy and not a clear indicator of its future returns.
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Why does its liquidity matter more? Instead, its huge increase in liquidity during the second quarter deserves more attention. That increase is mainly attributable to its $984.5 million in net proceeds from stock offerings in the first half of 2026. To achieve that, NuScale increased its Class A share count from 318.5 million shares at the end of 2025 to 410.4 million shares at the end of the second quarter of 2026.
On Aug. 11, NuScale filed to sell an additional $750 million in shares through an at-the-market offering. That dilution will continue for the foreseeable future, since its revenue growth is lumpy, it's racking up steep losses, and it won't deploy its first commercial SMRs until the next decade.
That's not a great look for a stock that still trades at 14 times its projected 2028 sales. That's also probably why its insiders were net sellers over the past 12 months, and why investors should carefully assess how quickly NuScale is actually burning through its cash.
Podvodník, který připravil uživatele Coinbase o více než 300 milionů USD, znovu přesunul asi 500 000 USD do ETH a poslal je do Tornado Cash. Útoky byly vedené sociálním inženýrstvím, ne zranitelností smart kontraktů.
A threat actor responsible for more than $300 million in reported thefts from Coinbase users has once again moved a significant portion of stolen funds. On-chain investigator VAL reported that approximately $500,000 was recently converted to Ethereum and transferred to Tornado Cash, an Ethereum-based privacy protocol.
Investigators have linked these substantial losses to coordinated social engineering attacks rather than smart contract vulnerabilities. According to the research, scammers impersonated Coinbase customer support representatives, targeting account holders directly through deceptive communications.
Victims were tricked into sharing sensitive information such as account credentials, or into following fraudulent instructions, which resulted in unauthorized transfers or the approval of malicious transactions. These attacks exclusively targeted individual users, and there has been no evidence indicating an exploit within the Coinbase or Ethereum smart contract infrastructure.
On-chain investigator ZachXBT previously detailed that cumulative losses have exceeded $300 million. This figure accounts for multiple Coinbase accounts compromised during the course of the scam operation.
Tens of millions of dollars are believed to remain in wallets controlled by the threat actor, although investigators did not disclose the current total across all linked addresses.
Funds routed through Ethereum privacy protocolsVAL observed that in the most recent incident, the scammer converted around $500,000 into ETH before transferring it to Tornado Cash. Three weeks earlier, the same operator moved another $2 million using a similar method. Rather than executing a single large transfer, the threat actor used multiple discreet transactions to obscure the trail.
On the Ethereum blockchain, Tornado Cash functions through smart contracts that deposit and withdraw funds separately, complicating efforts to track assets once deposited in the protocol. Investigators noted it remains technically feasible to trace funds until the point of deposit into Tornado Cash contracts.
VAL identified two specific wallet addresses connected to the latest series of transactions: 0x5Da2…89D8a and 0x3ECe…f296. The operator has also been known to send custom messages within transactions to on-chain investigators, such as ZachXBT, often including taunts regarding ongoing efforts to identify the scammer.
Messages apparently mocked both ZachXBT and VAL as they pursued leads in the investigation, but so far no details have emerged about the suspect’s identity or the location of remaining funds.
Growing scrutiny and Web3 innovationBoth ZachXBT, who tracks aggregate losses, and VAL, who reports on the latest movements, have verified that these transactions form part of the same coordinated campaign targeting Coinbase users. In response to ongoing phishing schemes, Coinbase representatives have repeatedly emphasized that their staff will never request passwords, two-factor authentication codes, or asset transfers from customers.
As scams targeting traditional brokerage platforms and centralized exchanges continue, the landscape of asset management is rapidly evolving. While traditional markets rely on complex brokers, a massive shift is happening: Wall Street is moving to Web3. Investors are now using platforms like 1stepSwap to hold shares of major U.S. companies, gold, and silver directly in their crypto wallets. By tokenizing Real-World Assets (RWAs) and automatically finding the best market prices in seconds, it completely removes the middlemen.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.
Tesla se podle The Information chystá tento měsíc zahájit veřejný provoz Cybercabu v Austinu, nejprve jízdami pro zaměstnance na veřejných silnicích. O pár dní později má vůz vstoupit do služby robotaxi.
Tesla (TSLA.O) has told employees it is gearing up for a public launch of Cybercab, starting with a rollout in Austin, Texas, as soon as this month, the Information reported on Monday, citing people with knowledge of the plans.
Cybercab, a purpose-built autonomous vehicle without pedals or a steering wheel, is crucial to Tesla's robotaxi ambitions, as the company is planning to eventually deploy the vehicle for its autonomous ride-hailing service.
Here are a few details from the report:
Tesla has told staff that it plans to begin the Cybercab rollout by offering rides to its employees on public roads and then incorporate Cybercabs into its robotaxi service in Austin a few days later, according to the report.
The company has been preparing for a launch with steps including test driving, offering employee rides on private roads and conducting training with local first responders in recent weeks, the report said.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The company started running tests of the production version of its Cybercab on public roads in June, and production of the vehicle is expected to ramp up later this year.
On a recent episode of The Investor’s Podcast (838), Daniel Mahncke and Shawn O’Malley argued that Amazon offers more asymmetric upside than its hyperscaler peers: “Amazon has literally built one of the largest chip businesses in the world in the last couple of years, and barely anyone has even noticed.”
Amazon’s silicon business now exceeds a $25 billion annualized run rate, is growing at a triple-digit percentage, and has expanded from about a $10 billion run rate in under a year.
The $25B Chip Business Hiding Inside AWS Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN | AMZN Price Prediction) has scaled its custom silicon operation faster than most investors realize. On the Q2 FY2026 earnings call, CEO Andy Jassy told analysts AWS grew 36.7% year over year, the fastest growth in 18 quarters. On the show, the hosts suggested the current $25 billion run rate for the chips business “could even be double that or closer to $50 billion” if Amazon began selling chips externally.
Amazon’s Trainium2 is fully subscribed with 1.4 million chips landed, powering the majority of inference on Bedrock. Project Rainier is the world’s largest operational AI compute cluster with more than 500,000 Trainium2 chips training Anthropic’s Claude, and OpenAI committed to roughly 2 GW of Trainium capacity beginning 2027. On the CPU side, Graviton is used by 98% of the top 1,000 EC2 customers.
AWS’s $496B Backlog Supports the Silicon Expansion AWS revenue reached $42.2 billion in Q2 FY2026, with operating income of $16.6 billion and a 39% operating margin. Even more exciting, the company’s $496 billion backlog tells the forward story, growing at triple-digit rates year over year.
Amazon’s capital spending is climbing to match. Q2 CapEx was $53.1 billion, with roughly $200 billion planned for FY2026. Amazon’s CEO Andy Jassy has framed AWS as capable of becoming “a trillion-dollar annual revenue business for us in time.”
Google’s AI Rally Has Left Amazon Far Behind Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) offers a natural comparison, with its own custom TPU stack and hyperscale cloud. Google Cloud accelerated to 82% growth in Q2 FY2026, reaching $24.77 billion, with Q2 CapEx of $44.9 billion. The show hosts flagged that both companies are guiding to roughly $200 billion in CapEx and that free cash flow has turned negative as a result.
What differs is the market’s reception. At the time of recording, Alphabet was up roughly 75% while Amazon was up just 0.5% over 12 months. The hosts laid out the case for Amazon stock today, saying: “Since Amazon has benefited less from the AI hype cycle, there’s probably less for the stock to lose in terms of giving up gains,” and “It does feel like [Amazon] has a lot more room to catch up.”
Amazon’s Valuation Creates an Asymmetric AI Setup After adjusting for a $17 billion markup due to Amazon’s Anthropic stake, Amazon trades closer to 17-18x operating cash flow, which the hosts called “pretty attractive for a company of that quality.” The forward P/E sits at 28.3, with analyst consensus firmly bullish at 59 buy or strong buy ratings versus 3 hold and no sell ratings, and a target price of $327 vs a current share price of $260.
Amazon’s custom-silicon business, Trainium and Graviton, has become a core part of AWS. This business supports Anthropic, has attracted a major OpenAI commitment, and generates more than $25 billion in annualized revenue. The risk is that Amazon must spend roughly $200 billion this year to satisfy an AI demand curve that remains difficult to forecast.
Yet with Amazon trailing dramatically behind Alphabet, investors may be getting one of the world’s fastest-growing chip franchises without paying the same AI premium attached to its peers.
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.
Amazon z investice do Anthropic vykázal přes 50 miliard USD v neprovozním zisku před zdaněním z přecenění podílu, což výrazně zvedá jeho zisk. Podíl má účetní hodnotu zhruba 190 miliard USD.
Amazon's (AMZN -0.51%) investment in Anthropic has become something more than a side bet for the tech giant. In recent quarters, the company has reported over $50 billion in non-operating pretax income primarily tied to revaluations of its Anthropic stake, a contribution big enough to shift its headline profit numbers on its own. Amazon has put about $13 billion into Anthropic so far, and its filings show that stake to have a carrying value near $190 billion as Anthropic's private-market valuation has climbed toward the trillion-dollar mark.
Image source: Getty Images.
That financial stake sits atop a deep commercial partnership. Anthropic has agreed to spend more than $100 billion over 10 years on AWS technologies and Amazon's custom Trainium chips, locking in up to 5 gigawatts of compute capacity to train and run Claude models on Amazon's cloud. The result is that Amazon benefits twice -- once from the mark-to-market gains on its equity and again from Anthropic's long-term commitment to spend heavily with AWS.
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Alphabet's (GOOG -0.61%) (GOOGL -0.55%) exposure to Space Exploration Technologies (SPCX +4.45%) looks different now that the rocket company is public. SpaceX completed the largest IPO in history on June 12, pricing shares at $135 and entering the market with a valuation near $1.8 trillion. The company has more recently traded in the $1.7 trillion to $1.9 trillion range as investors have digested its first earnings report, which was released earlier this month. Alphabet's original $900 million investment from 2015 has turned into a mid-single-digit-percentage stake worth roughly $80 billion to $90 billion at recent prices, a gain of more than 90 times that initial outlay.
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The big change for investors is transparency. SpaceX is no longer a black box on Alphabet's balance sheet. The stake is now a liquid asset with a clear market value that fluctuates daily. Alphabet can choose to keep the shares as a long-term bet on commercial space and space-based AI compute, or sell part or all of the stake to fund new investments in AI.
The SpaceX IPO could be good or bad for Alphabet, depending on your perspective. The market's shifting view of SpaceX can inject more volatility into Alphabet's reported earnings, and may make it harder for investors to separate Alphabet's core operating performance from the market noise around the rocket company's stock. On top of that, much of Alphabet's multibillion-dollar position is still locked up, as the phased release of insiders' shares will continue over the next year or so.
So Alphabet management has limited flexibility to realize those gains or reduce its exposure even if SpaceX's share price slides.
Micah Zimmerman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet and Amazon. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Morgan Stanley varuje, že u hyperscalerů roste rozdíl mezi kapitálovými výdaji a tržbami, což tlačí na krátkodobou tvorbu hotovosti. Microsoft přitom plánuje investice za 190 miliard USD do AI infrastruktury.
Investment banker Morgan Stanley sounded an alarm on the artificial intelligence industry this morning -- and took a chunk out of Microsoft's (MSFT -3.04%) market cap when it did it. AI revenue isn't rising as fast as AI cost, and Microsoft could end up poorer as a result.
Shares of the mega-tech hyperscaler stock are down 3.2% through 1:45 p.m. ET.
Image source: Microsoft.
Why Microsoft investors might worry Hyperscalers as a whole are expected to grow their capital spending 57% this year, relative to 2025, says Morgan Stanley. Microsoft, in particular, plans to spend $190 billion as it builds out its AI infrastructure.
This much was already known.
What's new today is that Morgan Stanley is warning that "the gap between capital deployment and revenue generation continues to pressure near-term cash generation." At least some hyperscalers simply aren't generating enough free cash flow to cover their enormous cash outlays. And as a result, MS forecasts that some companies will need to take out more loans to cover the gap -- and pay higher interest rates to do so.
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What this means for Microsoft stock The good news is that Morgan Stanley says higher-quality borrowers will probably pay less extreme interest rates than lower-quality borrowers (such as Oracle (ORCL -2.57%), which has a rated mid-to-low BBB credit rating, reports StreetInsider.com).
The better news is that Microsoft is arguably one of the best credit risks out there in hyperscaler land. Although Microsoft is carrying a pretty substantial debt load of $129 billion, it has $77 billion in the bank to cover its payments and is generating gobs of free cash flow -- even after paying for capital investment: $67 billion is expected this year, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Long story short, despite MS's misgivings, Microsoft stock will be just fine.
Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Microsoft and Oracle. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Boeing klesl v pondělí o 2 % poté, co americká armáda dočasně uzemnila flotilu vrtulníků Apache po smrtelné nehodě u Fort Hoodu. Boeing je výrobcem AH-64 Apache.
Boeing shares BA fell 2% on Monday after the US Army temporarily grounded its fleet of Apache helicopters following a fatal crash near Fort Hood, Texas, that killed two service members.
The Army said the temporary stand-down would remain in place until officials have a better understanding of the accident's root cause.
Boeing manufactures the AH-64 Apache, but the company had not immediately commented on the grounding.
The development adds another issue for Boeing's defense business, which has been working to improve its financial performance while the company remains heavily dependent on its commercial aircraft operations.
The Army ordered the temporary grounding following the crash and expressed condolences to the families, friends and unit of the two aviators.
“We mourn these aviators, and our deepest condolences remain with their families, friends, and unit during this extraordinarily difficult time,” the Army said in a news release.
The Apache has been in US Army service for more than 40 years.
The twin-engine attack helicopter is typically operated by two crew members and can carry guns, missiles and rockets.
Boeing has produced thousands of Apaches over the years, with hundreds operated by the US military and additional aircraft in service with US allies.
The grounding comes as Boeing's defense business continues to recover from significant losses in recent years.
The segment reported $7.5 billion in second-quarter sales, up 13% from a year earlier, although it recorded a $15 million loss.
Boeing's defense and space division has faced pressure from inflation, fixed-price contracts and delivery delays across some programs.
Despite those challenges, losses have narrowed considerably. The business lost $128 million in 2025, compared with a $5.4 billion loss in 2024.
The performance of the defense unit remains relevant to investors as Boeing works to improve its overall financial position.
However, the company continues to rely primarily on its commercial aircraft business.
Boeing delivered 600 aircraft in 2025 and is expected to deliver about 670 in 2026.
That figure is projected to rise above 800 by 2028.
Analysts expect Boeing's free cash flow to improve to roughly $10 billion in 2028 from about $2 billion in 2026. The company used approximately $2 billion in cash during 2025.
Boeing also recently received certification from the Federal Aviation Administration for the 737 Max 7, the smallest aircraft in the company's bestselling Max family.
The certification followed years of regulatory reviews and delays after safety concerns surrounding the 737 Max.
Southwest Airlines has already-built Max 7 aircraft in inventory, but those planes will require additional work before entering service, meaning the carrier is not expected to begin flying them until next year.
Meanwhile, Boeing is restructuring parts of its business through a deal with Archer Aviation. The company agreed to sell three subsidiaries to Archer in exchange for a stake in the electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft maker.
The transaction will give Boeing a 19.75% stake in Archer's Class A shares, along with options to acquire additional shares over the next four years.
For Boeing investors, the Apache grounding adds a near-term uncertainty to a defense division that has been improving, while commercial aircraft deliveries remain central to the company's broader recovery.
NIKE sází na inovace vedené sportovci a nové produkty, aby oživila poptávku po výkonnostní obuvi a oblečení. V Číně zároveň přizpůsobuje strategii lokálnější nabídce a silnějším partnerstvím.
Key Takeaways NIKE is refocusing on athlete-led innovation and performance products to rebuild consumer demand.NIKE is using platforms such as NIKE MIND, Liquid Air Max and AeroFit to create differentiated products.NIKE is resetting its Greater China strategy with localized products, stronger partnerships and approaches. NIKE, Inc. (NKE - Free Report) is showing encouraging signs that product innovation is helping win back consumers, particularly in performance footwear and apparel. The company is refocusing its product strategy on athlete-led innovation, performance and differentiated technology as it seeks to reignite consumer demand. It is using insights from its proprietary technologies and advanced manufacturing to develop products that address specific athlete needs.
NIKE has shifted its focus back toward athlete-centered innovation and performance products under its “Sport Offense” strategy. The company has introduced platforms such as NIKE MIND, Liquid Air Max and AeroFit, using proprietary research and technology to create differentiated products.
The company is investing in advanced tools and capabilities to improve the speed, precision and reliability of its product creation and manufacturing processes. These investments span Air manufacturing, materials innovation, product planning and supply-chain execution, with the goal of better serving athletes while improving profitability. The focus is on becoming more premium, culturally relevant and responsive to local consumers, while creating seamless experiences across digital and physical retail channels.
In Greater China, NIKE is undertaking a comprehensive reset centered on sport and innovation. The company is taking a more localized approach to product creation and building a territory-level strategy designed to better reflect Chinese consumer preferences. It is also revamping its marketplace strategy by strengthening partnerships and exploring new approaches to accelerate growth and improve consumer engagement.
Although the progress is still underway, continued product innovation, stronger marketplace execution and deeper cultural relevance could help NIKE rebuild consumer demand and drive sustainable long-term growth.
NKE’s Peerslululemon athletica inc. (LULU - Free Report) is focused on driving sustainable growth through international expansion, product innovation and a stronger omnichannel presence. LULU is reenergizing its product engine by increasing the frequency and breadth of new styles, improving speed to market and focusing on technical performance and newness. lululemon is leveraging its innovation platform and expanding beyond traditional yoga and core categories into areas such as running, training, tennis, golf, hiking and footwear.
adidas AG (ADDYY - Free Report) is focused on enhancing profitability and competitiveness by maintaining inventory discipline, improving operational efficiency and advancing its strategic efforts. ADDYY’s innovation strategy is centered on athlete-led product development, advanced technologies, local consumer insights and a combination of performance innovation with lifestyle appeal. adidas aims to continuously launch innovative products that enhance athletic performance, resonate with evolving consumer trends and strengthen the brand’s cultural relevance and appeal.
NKE’S Price Performance, Valuation and EstimatesShares of NIKE have lost 36.9% in the past six months compared with the industry’s decline of 31.4%.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
From a valuation standpoint, NKE trades at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 21.8X compared with the industry’s average of 19.3X.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for NKE’s fiscal 2027 and fiscal 2028 earnings implies year-over-year growth of 10.1% and 34.5%, respectively. The company’s EPS estimate for fiscal 2027 and fiscal 2028 has moved south in the past 30 days.
NIKE stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Home Depot a Lowe’s tento týden zveřejní výsledky; obchodníci čekají pohyb akcií až o 4 % v obou směrech u Home Depot a až o 5 % u Lowe’s do konce týdne. Analytici čekají růst tržeb u obou firem.
Key Takeaways
Home Depot and Lowe’s are set to report earnings this week, with traders anticipating sizable moves in the stocks.Both companies are expected to report growing sales, with business from professional contractors seen outpacing DIY spending.
Home Depot and Lowe’s are set to report earnings on Tuesday and Wednesday morning, respectively, with traders anticipating sizable moves from the home-improvement retailers’ stocks.12
Recent options pricing suggests traders see Home Depot (HD) shares swinging up to 4% in either direction by the end of the week. A move of that size from Monday afternoon’s level around $337 could see the stock rally as high as $350, recovering some of its recent losses, or slip to $324. Lowe’s (LOW) stock is seen moving up to 5%, which could drive it as high as $225, or drag it below $205.
Heading into the results, Home Depot shares are down about 2% for the year so far, while Lowe’s has plunged 11%, amid some concerns that squeezed consumers could continue to put off big-ticket spending on renovations and appliances. Home Depot was also pressured last week after the company announced CEO Ted Decker is taking a temporary medical leave of absence. Senior executive vice president Ann-Marie Campbell and CFO Richard McPhail are jointly assuming the CEO’s duties until Decker returns.3
Why This Matters to Investors
Results from Home Depot and Lowe’s could offer investors more insights into the state of the housing market, and how willing consumers are to take on big spending projects.
Bank of America analysts recently wrote that they expect spending growth from professional contractors to outpace do-it-yourself home improvement projects, which they said could favor Home Depot, as it relies more on pro sales than Lowe’s. The analysts also said both retailers are likely to have gotten a boost from tariff refunds, which could offset higher supply-chain costs.4
Analysts expect Home Depot to report adjusted earnings of $4.73 per share on a 4% year-over-year rise in revenue to $47.28 billion. Lowe’s is seen reporting adjusted EPS of $4.23 on a 9% jump in revenue to $26.09 billion. Both retailers are projected to report same-store sales growth of just under 1% for the quarter, according to estimates compiled by Visible Alpha.
Analysts are largely bullish on the stocks of both companies. Nine out of 10 analysts tracked by Visible Alpha have “buy” recommendations for Home Depot, while 10 out of 11 have bullish ratings for Lowe’s. The mean target for Home Depot at $391 would suggest roughly 16% upside from the stock’s recent level, while the $272 average target for Lowe’s would imply a 27% rise.
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Akcie Meta Platforms klesají o 4 % na 567,58 USD před úterním soudním jednáním o bezpečnosti dětí, protože trh znovu přeceňuje právní riziko v sociálních sítích. Akcie Pinterestu klesají o 4 % na 23,15 USD a akcie Snapu o 3 % na 5,25 USD.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META | META Price Prediction) stock is down 4% to $567.58, and it is down 10% year to date (YTD). The decline arrives on the eve of a bellwether child safety trial. Pinterest (NYSE:PINS) stock is down 4% to $23.15, and it is down 7% year to date. Snap (NYSE:SNAP) stock is down 3% to $5.25, and it is down 33% year to date.
The market is repricing legal risk across the social media sector. Both Pinterest and Snap are falling alongside Meta Platforms stock despite not being defendants in Tuesday’s trial.
Bellwether Youth Trial Opens Tuesday A lawsuit filed by 29 states in 2023 goes to trial Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in Oakland, before District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers. California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey are taking part, and testimony is expected from Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri. Plaintiffs claim the company “developed and refined a set of psychologically manipulative platform features designed to maximize young users’ time spent on its social media platforms,” including infinite scroll, autoplay and likes.
The states also allege the company knew its apps harmed users, including through increased instances of anxiety, depression and suicide, and separately allege violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
Meta Platforms has said potential damages in the case could be as high as $1.4 trillion, against a market capitalization the company describes as about $1.5 trillion. That’s the company’s own characterization of its exposure, offered as context rather than as a court finding or award. A Meta Platforms spokesperson stated:
The State AGs may call this a landmark case, but their limited claims are unsubstantiated, and their financial demands are vastly disproportionate. The AGs offer no proof anyone in their states was misled, claim benign features like having an additional Instagram account somehow harmed their residents, and attempt to penalize Meta for industry-wide challenges like age verification. Rather than sticking to the facts or the law, the states have instead decided to chase an outlandish payout. We stand by our record of creating strong protections for teens, and look forward to making our case in court.
Earlier this month a New Mexico District Court ordered Meta Platforms to pay $567 million to address teen mental health in the state, plus $375 million in civil penalties. In March a jury found both Meta Platforms and YouTube negligent in a suit alleging their products drove a user’s dependency, anxiety, depression and self-harm after she began using the platforms at age 10, with $6 million in punitive and compensatory damages ordered. Thousands of similar cases are pending against social media companies in the U.S., and countries from Australia to Turkey have imposed laws restricting children’s use of these platforms.
Peer Stocks Reprice Alongside Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) stock is down 0.5% to $344.13, though Alphabet shares are up 11% year to date. That much smaller move and positive YTD return stand apart from the social platforms, despite YouTube being a co-defendant in the March verdict.
The declines in Pinterest stock and Snap stock signal the market is repricing sector-wide regulatory and litigation risk.
In a secondary but nonetheless relevant news item, BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) stock is down 2% to $1,154.47, though BlackRock shares are up 11% year to date. The Financial Times reported Monday that a $14 billion data center project in El Paso, Texas faces potential insurance gaps, raising concerns about losses that may not be fully protected. The venture is developing a one-gigawatt campus, with BlackRock holding an 80% interest and Meta Platforms owning the remaining 20%.
Each company is expected to finance its portion of development costs. Insurance, arranged through Marsh, reportedly covers up to $218 million for certain construction delays and $645 million related to terrorism. During construction the project is expected to carry property protection up to $427 million, rising to $450 million once operational, with commercial liability capped at $50 million per event and in aggregate. This remains a reported risk on a project still under construction.
Meanwhile, the Communication Services Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSEARCA:XLC) is down 2% to $110.82, and the ETF is down 3% year to date. The fund’s smaller decline shows how a diversified sector basket absorbs single-name legal risk relative to individual social platforms.
What to Watch Investors can watch for whether Zuckerberg and Mosseri testify as expected, how the bellwether verdict lands and what it signals for pending cases against social media companies, and whether additional states join or settle. A bellwether outcome can set terms for follow-on litigation, which is why peer stocks are moving even without direct exposure to Tuesday’s case.
Traders may also want to monitor for any revision to insurance arrangements on the El Paso project and further disclosures from Meta Platforms or BlackRock on the venture. A cautious position size is reasonable given legal uncertainty layered on top of an already volatile setup for Meta Platforms stock.
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In fiscal 2022, Micron Technology (MU +4.13%) earned $8.7 billion, one of the best years the memory maker had ever reported. In fiscal 2023, it lost $5.8 billion. Revenue nearly halved to $15.5 billion, and gross margin collapsed from 45% to negative 9%.
That is what the end of a memory boom looks like. And it is worth studying now, because Micron is in the middle of a far bigger one.
The company's net income over its last 12 reported months comes to $50.5 billion, nearly six times what that fiscal 2022 peak delivered. Its most recent reported quarter alone, the fiscal third quarter ended in May, brought in $28.2 billion of net income under generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) -- double fiscal 2018's full-year record.
So what happens to memory earnings after a top? Micron's own income statement answers that question better than any forecast could.
Image source: Micron.
The bust, year by year The speed is the striking part. Micron's revenue fell 49% in fiscal 2023, to $15.5 billion from $30.8 billion the year before. Gross margin, 45.2% in fiscal 2022, finished fiscal 2023 at negative 9.1% -- meaning the company was selling chips for less than they cost to make. And the bottom line swung from an $8.7 billion profit to a $5.8 billion loss in the space of a single fiscal year.
Nothing about the company had broken. Memory chips are commodities, demand stalled, industry supply kept growing anyway, and prices fell until the profit was gone.
Of course, investors who watched it happen knew the script. It had run before.
The cycle before ran slower The 2023 bust wasn't a one-off, though the cycle before it took a different shape. Micron's net income peaked at $14.1 billion in fiscal 2018. It fell to $6.3 billion in fiscal 2019, then to $2.7 billion in fiscal 2020 -- down 81% from the peak over two years, without ever tipping into a loss.
The shapes differ, one fast and deep, the other slower and shallower. In both, though, most of the peak's earnings were gone within about two years of the top.
Zoom out further and the pattern holds. Micron has recorded an annual loss three times in the last 15 years, most recently in fiscal 2023.
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A peak of a different size The artificial intelligence (AI) boom running now dwarfs both of those cycles. Micron's revenue is running near $90 billion a year, against the $15.5 billion fiscal 2023 produced, and the June report showed quarterly sales at more than four times the year-ago level. And the quarter ahead is expected to be bigger still. Management's latest guidance called for about $50 billion of revenue in the fiscal fourth quarter alone.
Management, for its part, is behaving like a company that expects demand to hold -- and I don't doubt that today it does.
"Micron is investing at record levels in technology, products and supply to address our customers' rapidly growing demand," CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said in the company's June earnings release.
That sentence carries history's uncomfortable note, however. Memory busts have a way of being financed by the boom before them -- high prices paying for new supply until the new supply arrives. And the investment underway now is, by management's own description, at record levels.
With that said, Micron has built defenses this time that earlier cycles lacked. Its multi-year Strategic Customer Agreements lock in commitments years ahead, and management believes they will make its results significantly more durable and predictable.
They may. No previous cycle had them. But agreements can shape how a downturn arrives without preventing one.
History's message here is a modest one, then. Nothing in the record says this boom must end soon (the last two cycles gave little notice either way), and this one is larger, more profitable, and arguably better-defended than any before it.
As of this writing, the stock sits near $972, valuing the company around $1.1 trillion. The market is paying about 22 times earnings for a business it knows is cyclical.
The record, I believe, justifies respect in both directions. Micron has never had a run like this. It has also never held a peak. The swing from fiscal 2022 to fiscal 2023 took back the entire boom and then some, and fiscal 2023 is only three years back.
Broadcom má u první transakce financování AI maximální riziko 29 miliard USD, nikoli 370 miliard USD. Firma zároveň uvedla, že její zisk ve fiskálním 2. čtvrtletí vzrostl o 88 % na 9,3 miliardy USD při tržbách 22,2 miliardy USD.
Broadcom (AVGO -0.14%) shares fell 5.9% on Friday, closing at about $393 -- nearly 21% below their 52-week high. The drop capped a difficult week for the tech sector. Among the week's unwelcome news was a downgrade aimed not at Broadcom's earnings but at its debt.
Early last week, Bank of America reportedly downgraded Broadcom's bonds to market weight -- the firm's equivalent of a neutral. The reported reason was a new platform Broadcom built with Apollo Global Management and Blackstone to finance customers' artificial intelligence (AI) data centers.
The headline number from the note: the financing behind the platform could reach $370 billion by mid-2029, with Broadcom reportedly guaranteeing much of it.
A number that size deserves scrutiny. But I'd argue it also deserves context, because $370 billion isn't what Broadcom owes, and it isn't what Broadcom has signed.
The company's own quarterly filing caps the maximum it can lose on the platform's first transaction at $29 billion. Even the bank's analysis reportedly puts the modeled worst case for the full platform (every customer defaulting at once) at about $42 billion.
Image source: Getty Images.
That platform launched in June, when Broadcom, Apollo, and Blackstone announced what they call the AI XPV Platform, starting with a $35 billion financing package led by Apollo. It's designed to enable more than 20 gigawatts of compute capacity for frontier AI labs through 2028.
Anthropic and OpenAI are the named customers, with Anthropic's first phase covering more than 1 gigawatt of compute starting in mid-2026.
In short, outside investors buy the AI racks built on Broadcom's custom chips, the AI lab leases them, and Broadcom stands behind much of the financing. The chipmaker keeps booking enormous orders without its customers needing hundreds of billions of dollars up front.
The $370 billion is what Bank of America's analysts reportedly get when they model the platform scaling all the way to its 20-gigawatt design. By mid-2029, the financing stacked across those deals (much of it carrying Broadcom's guarantees) could reach that figure. It's a ceiling on hypothetical future commitments, not debt on Broadcom's balance sheet.
The same analysis reportedly estimated that if every customer defaulted, Broadcom's losses would be about $42 billion. At a 25% default rate, the reported figure is about $10.5 billion. Those modeled losses, unlike the filing's cap, assume Broadcom recovers some value on the racks.
What Broadcom has signedBroadcom's latest 10-Q filing describes the commitment that exists today. On June 8, the company arranged for an investor partner to take on agreements to purchase AI racks based on Broadcom's custom AI accelerators, plus the related customer leases. Broadcom agreed to backstop that customer's lease payments over five-year terms. The backstop grows as racks are deployed, shrinks as the customer pays, and tops out at $29 billion. If the customer defaults, Broadcom can take over the lease or sell the racks, either of which would reduce the loss.
That makes the filing's figure a cap, not a forecast. For Broadcom to lose the full $29 billion, its customer would have to stop paying entirely and the racks would have to be worth almost nothing.
For perspective, Broadcom earned $9.3 billion in its fiscal second quarter of 2026 (the period ended May 3, 2026), up 88% year over year, on revenue that rose 48% to $22.2 billion. And the growth is accelerating -- management guided for fiscal third-quarter revenue of about $29.4 billion, up about 84%. A total wipeout on the first transaction would equal about nine months of profits at the current pace -- painful, but nowhere near $370 billion.
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The number that growsSure, today's cap is $29 billion. But it covers only the first deal. The platform is designed to reach more than 20 gigawatts, and if Broadcom backstops each new deal the same way, the committed number will likely keep climbing. That is how the bank's model reportedly gets to $370 billion.
The customers behind those leases are private AI labs, and their lease payments depend on the AI build-out staying funded. Broadcom is, in effect, helping finance the demand for its own chips.
At about $393 as of this writing, shares cost about 65 times earnings and about 25 times the coming year's expected profits. Even after Friday's drop, the price is built on the AI ramp continuing for years to come.
Ultimately, the risk I'd weigh isn't the $370 billion ceiling, which describes deals not yet signed. It's that Broadcom's growth now leans partly on guarantees the company extends to keep that ramp going. For now, the number Broadcom has committed to is $29 billion, and each new deal Broadcom backstops will add to it.
Strategy uvedla, že její krátkodobou prioritou je stabilizovat digitální úvěrový byznys STRC, nikoli zpětný odkup MSTR ani dividendu. Firma také neplánuje dividendu na kmenové akcie.
Strategy's Structural Strength: Hidden in a $8 Billion IllusionStrategy NASDAQ: MSTR executives said the company’s near-term priority is strengthening its digital credit business, particularly its STRC preferred instrument, rather than repurchasing common shares or paying a dividend on MSTR stock.
During a live investor Q&A moderated by Natalie Brunell, Founder and Executive Chairman Michael Saylor and Chief Executive Officer Phong Le addressed shareholder concerns about common-stock performance, the company’s capital structure, STRC liquidity and the role of Bitcoin in Strategy’s longer-term business model.
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Strategy Prioritizes Digital Credit Japan’s Crypto Overhaul Could Open the Door to a Wave of Institutional MoneySaylor described Bitcoin as “digital capital” within a broader digital-assets taxonomy. In his view, Bitcoin competes with stores of capital such as gold, real estate, equities and credit, while STRC represents “digital credit” designed to generate yield with less volatility than Bitcoin.
He said Strategy sees an opportunity to develop digital monetary instruments that combine the relative stability of fiat-linked digital currencies with yield derived from digital credit. Saylor said the company believes expanded credit and money-market products tied to the Bitcoin ecosystem could help attract capital from traditional financial markets.
Strategy’s Bitcoin Pivot Gives Investors a New Reason to Watch Preferred Shares“The single most important thing is for us to stabilize the credit business and to build the most sustainable, highest quality credit business that we can,” Saylor said. “The equity will actually come later.”
Le said the company’s objective is to increase Bitcoin per share, which it has historically pursued through leverage and convertible bonds and more recently through STRC. He said issuing equity above net asset value to buy Bitcoin can be accretive on a Bitcoin-per-share basis, and using proceeds from equity issuance to repurchase STRC below its issuance price can also be accretive.
No Common Dividend Planned Responding to an investor who said his MSTR investment had declined substantially, Le said common shareholders remain the company’s “most important priority,” but said Strategy does not plan to pay a common-stock dividend.
Le said Strategy believes capital is better deployed toward making STRC successful and using the resulting financing capacity to acquire Bitcoin. Saylor said investors seeking dividend income should consider the company’s preferred instruments, including STRC, STRK and STRD, rather than common equity.
Saylor characterized MSTR as amplified exposure to Bitcoin, saying the common stock can fall more sharply during Bitcoin drawdowns but is intended to outperform during stronger Bitcoin markets. He said MSTR investors should have at least a four-year investment horizon, with seven to 10 years being preferable.
Strategy is open to repurchasing MSTR if the shares trade at a substantial discount to net asset value, Saylor said. However, he said MSTR was not then trading at such a discount, while STRC was trading below par. As a result, the company views STRC repurchases as a higher priority.
STRC Trading Range and Liquidity Saylor said Strategy intends to keep STRC within a target range of $99 to $100 and does not want the instrument to trade materially above $100. He argued that stable pricing around par supports liquidity and gives investors confidence they can buy or sell the instrument without meaningful price uncertainty.
He said the company would use its resources to support STRC if it falls below par, while also issuing supply near $100 if demand drives the security above that level. Saylor said the approach is designed to create a low-volatility, high-liquidity digital credit instrument rather than one that trades over a wide range.
Le said a key lesson from STRC’s recent drawdown and recovery was the importance of maintaining U.S. dollar liquidity to support dividend payments. He said Strategy now has $4.8 billion in U.S. dollars and may add to its dollar reserve or other forms of dollar liquidity as it raises capital in the future.
Strategy also learned it must be prepared to both buy and sell Bitcoin and STRC, Saylor said, as part of dynamically managing its Bitcoin reserves, restricted and unrestricted cash, and capital structure.
Institutional Adoption and Cash Reserves Le said the investor mix for Strategy’s digital credit products has shifted from roughly 80% retail and 20% institutional to approximately 70% retail and 30% institutional. He said retail investors tend to adopt new product categories earlier, while institutions generally seek one to three years of dividend and trading history before increasing allocations.
Saylor said Strategy expects its dollar cash balances, Bitcoin reserves and unrestricted operating cash to increase over time. The company could use that capital opportunistically to repurchase credit instruments, common stock or debt, or to acquire Bitcoin, he said.
Le added that additional cash reserves could support Strategy’s corporate credit rating, currently B-minus according to his remarks. However, he said the more significant issue for ratings agencies is whether Bitcoin is recognized as capital on the company’s balance sheet.
On a proposed MSCI policy that could remove Bitcoin treasury companies from certain indexes, Le said MSCI-related holdings represented about 3% to 4% of Strategy’s current shares. He said an exclusion could create selling pressure over time but described the potential impact as immaterial to the company.
Saylor said Strategy remains focused on creating digital credit rather than acquiring unrelated cash-flowing businesses. Adding such businesses would complicate the investment case for equity, derivatives and credit investors, he said.
“We’re laser focused on our business model,” Saylor said. “We want to create the world’s best credit.”
About Strategy (NASDAQ:MSTR)Strategy, formerly known as MicroStrategy, Incorporated NASDAQ: MSTR is a global provider of enterprise analytics and mobility software. The company’s flagship platform offers business intelligence, data discovery, and advanced visualizations that enable organizations to analyze large volumes of data and deliver actionable insights. In addition to traditional on-premises deployments, Strategy provides a range of cloud-based services and managed offerings that allow customers to leverage the power of its analytics tools without managing complex infrastructure.
Founded in 1989 by Michael J.
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Should You Invest $1,000 in Strategy Right Now?Before you consider Strategy, you'll want to hear this.
MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. MarketBeat has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on... and Strategy wasn't on the list.
While Strategy currently has a Moderate Buy rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys.
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The AI boom extends far beyond the biggest tech names. Discover 10 companies supplying the memory, storage, networking, semiconductor manufacturing, and power infrastructure that make AI possible. Learn where the next wave of AI investment opportunities may emerge—and the key risks investors should watch as the global AI buildout accelerates.
, /PRNewswire/ -- Aon plc (NYSE: AON), a leading global professional services firm, today announced that Edmund Reese will transition from his role as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, effective immediately, to pursue opportunities outside the firm. Aon appointed Nadin Virani as Interim CFO, effective immediately, and Reese will serve as senior advisor to Aon President and CEO Greg Case, through August 16, 2027, to support the transition.
"I want to recognize Edmund for his many contributions to our firm," said Case. "Through consistent execution of our 3x3 Plan and a relentless and disciplined focus on performance, Edmund has helped to enhance our capabilities, accelerate growth and deliver meaningful value for our shareholders."
"It has been a privilege to serve as CFO of Aon," said Reese. "I am proud of the significant progress we have made building on the firm's strong financial foundation, strengthening our growth engine and enhancing our capacity to invest in long-term value creation. With a winning strategy and an experienced financial leadership team in place, Aon is well positioned to continue delivering strong results and creating value for clients, colleagues and shareholders."
Virani brings deep financial leadership expertise and a wealth of experience in the financial services industry to his new role, having previously served as the firm's Global Head of Corporate Planning and Analytics with oversight of financial planning and analysis, forecasting processes, cash management and budgeting. Prior to joining Aon, Virani served as Head of Corporate Planning and Analytics at Broadridge Financial and General Manager for the Delta Amex Co-Brand portfolio at American Express, where for 18 years he held a number of CFO positions in London, Frankfurt and New York, supporting areas such as international and U.S. lending, loyalty, insurance and merchant pricing.
"As Global Head of Corporate Planning and Analytics and a member of our Aon Executive Committee, Nadin has played a central role in strengthening our financial performance and developing our strategy to drive sustainable growth across our firm," said Case. "His financial expertise and proven leadership will be invaluable as we continue to accelerate our Aon United strategy and create better outcomes for clients and shareholders."
Virani will report to Case and lead Aon's Finance organization, while working closely with the Aon Executive Committee to ensure continuity and oversight of the firm's financial strategy. Aon has also engaged a leading executive search firm to conduct a comprehensive internal and external search for a permanent CFO.
"I am honored to serve as Interim CFO of Aon and build on the strong foundation we have established across our Finance organization," said Virani. "We will remain focused on financial discipline and thoughtful investment in the business as we continue to support Aon's growth and create long-term shareholder value."
Consistent with the update provided in its second quarter earnings release on July 29, 2026, Aon reaffirmed its full-year 2026 guidance.
About Aon
Aon plc (NYSE: AON) exists to shape decisions for the better — to protect and enrich the lives of people around the world. Through actionable analytic insight, globally integrated Risk Capital and Human Capital expertise, and locally relevant solutions, our colleagues provide clients in over 120 countries with the clarity and confidence to make better risk and people decisions that help protect and grow their businesses.
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The Trade Desk klesl až o 5,8 % na nejnižší úroveň od ledna 2019 po snížení ratingu HSBC z hold na reduce (sell). Analytik Mohammed Khallouf upozornil na slabé výsledky za 2. čtvrtletí, které označil za „dismal“, a na tlak konkurence z AI, která podle něj způsobuje strukturální posun od otevřeného internetu.
Shares of The Trade Desk (TTD -5.23%) plunged again on Monday, falling as much as 5.8% to lows not seen since Jan. 2019. As of 2:27 p.m. ET, the stock was still down 5.4%.
The catalyst that sent the adtech specialist swooning was the latest Wall Street downgrade.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
Bleak outlook HSBC analyst Mohammed Khallouf downgraded The Trade Desk to reduce (sell) from hold and slashed his price target to $10 from $20. That suggests the stock could still fall by another 29% from Friday's closing price.
The analyst cited The Trade Desk's waning performance, calling its second-quarter results "dismal" and noting the company's "sizable miss and guidance shock." He went on to say that the increasingly competitive operating environment wrought by artificial intelligence (AI) is causing a structural shift away from the open internet -- the company's bread and butter.
The Trade Desk's results from earlier this month bear out the analyst's take. In the second quarter, the company reported revenue growth of just 3% year over year to $715 million. The anemic growth flowed through to the bottom line, as adjusted earnings per share (EPS) slumped 17% to $0.34. That was well below analysts' consensus estimates, which called for revenue of $753 million and EPS of $0.18.
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I've been a shareholder of The Trade Desk for years, so I'm rooting for the company to succeed. That said, management has been working to engineer a turnaround for 18 months now, and its results continue to deteriorate.
The stock is currently selling for less than 16 times earnings, its lowest valuation ever, but the uncertainty facing The Trade Desk and its apparent inability to turn things around make it far too risky for new money. I'm not selling yet, but my patience is beginning to wear thin.
HSBC Holdings is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Danny Vena, CPA has positions in The Trade Desk. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends The Trade Desk. The Motley Fool recommends HSBC Holdings. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Paramount Skydance chce, aby žalobci včetně Kalifornie a 11 dalších států složili kauci 1,88 miliardy USD, pokud spor prohrají. Firma varuje, že zpoždění dohody ji stojí téměř 7 milionů USD denně.
Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison wants California Attorney General Rob Bonta's state and its counterparts to post a bond to cover the merger delay costs. Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images; Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images David Ellison wants those challenging his Warner Bros. Discovery deal — including California and 11 other states — to be prepared to pay nearly $1.9 billion if they lose their lawsuit.
Paramount Skydance's $110 billion WBD acquisition is on pause after lawsuits from 12 states and the Writers Guild of America, which argued the deal is anticompetitive. A federal judge said the plaintiffs "raised serious questions" in their lawsuit and set a trial date for early March.
Ellison's company now wants the judge to order its legal opponents to post a $1.88 billion bond that Paramount would receive if it eventually prevails in court.
Paramount has agreed to pay WBD shareholders a "ticking fee" of nearly $7 million per day that its deal isn't closed, starting October 1. By the time the trial concludes, Paramount would owe $1.3 billion in ticking fees that would be "unrecoverable," the company said on Monday, adding that it's also missing out on "significant additional cost savings" by not closing the WBD deal now.
Corey Martin, an M&A lawyer who's head of the entertainment finance practice at Los Angeles-based firm Granderson Des Rochers, said it was "very unlikely" that Paramount would convince the judge that the plaintiffs should be on the hook for the ticking fees.
The judge can decide whether the plaintiffs need to post a bond and, if so, in what amount.
"I would be surprised if they could apply the proceeds of any bond toward the ticking fee," Martin said.
When Nexstar was hit with an antitrust case after buying rival Tegna, the TV station giant asked the court to require the plaintiffs to post a $150 million bond. The judge required only a $10,000 bond.
Paramount has already secured approval from every other relevant regulatory authority, including the US Department of Justice and the European Commission.
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Robinhood v červenci meziročně zvýšil aktivní účty v akciích o 29,7 % na 4,8 milionu a aktivní účty v opcích o 90,9 % na 2,1 milionu. Krypto aktivní účty ale klesly o 45,4 % na 0,6 milionu.
Key Takeaways HOOD's equity and options DATs jumped 29.7% and 90.9%, respectively, year over year in July 2026.Product expansion across futures, options, prediction markets and AI could support higher trading activity.HOOD's crypto DATs fell 45.4% year over year to 0.6 million, highlighting mixed trading trends. Robinhood Markets, Inc. (HOOD - Free Report) reported strong growth in equity and options Daily Average Trades (DATs) in July 2026, underscoring continued momentum in its active-trader business. Equity DATs rose 29.7% year over year to 4.8 million, while options DATs surged 90.9% to 2.1 million. However, crypto DATs fell 45.4% to 0.6 million, highlighting the mixed trends across Robinhood’s trading businesses.
To strengthen its position in the active-trader market, HOOD has been expanding its product offerings and entering new markets. In June 2026, it acquired WonderFi, adding approximately 300,000 funded customers and strengthening its regulated crypto presence in Canada. Earlier, in January 2026, its joint venture with Susquehanna International Group acquired a controlling stake in MIAX Derivatives Exchange, supporting its expansion into futures and derivatives. HOOD also agreed to acquire Indonesia’s PT Buana Capital Sekuritas and PT Pedagang Aset Kripto in December 2025 to gain local licenses and accelerate its APAC expansion. In June 2025, it acquired Bitstamp, adding established crypto infrastructure to support its international business.
Robinhood is also broadening its product suite to drive customer engagement. In 2026, it enhanced Robinhood Legend with futures, short selling and index options and expanded its prediction markets and futures offerings. In 2025, it launched Robinhood Strategies, Robinhood Cortex, an AI assistant for market analysis and real-time insights, and Robinhood Social, which offers verified trading profiles, strategy sharing and expert portfolio tracking. The broader product ecosystem could help HOOD attract and retain active traders while supporting higher trading activity over time.
Thus, continued product expansion and strategic investments are expected to support customer acquisition and transaction-based revenues. The metric witnessed a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 57.7% over the last six years ended 2025, primarily driven by options and equities trading. The momentum continued in the first half of 2026, supported by strong trading activity and increased adoption of new products.
Other Details From Robinhood's July Operating DataIn July 2026, HOOD’s total platform assets climbed 19.1% year over year to $355 billion, supported by $5.6 billion in net deposits. Further, funded customers totaled 28.5 million, up 6.7% from July 2025.
Robinhood's equity notional trading volumes were $332.8 billion in July, up 59.1% year over year. Options contracts traded increased 65.5% to 324.2 million. Robinhood App crypto notional trading volumes declined 74.4% from the prior-year month to $4.3 billion, while Bitstamp crypto notional trading volume was $6.6 billion, down 44.5% from the year-ago month. Hence, overall crypto notional trading volumes declined 62% year over year to $10.9 billion.
How Are Competitors Scaling Up to Challenge Robinhood?HOOD’s key competitors, Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. (IBKR - Free Report) and Tradeweb Markets Inc. (TW - Free Report) , have been expanding their products and technology to strengthen market share.
Interactive Brokers reported daily average revenue trades of 4.4 million clients in July 2026, up 27% year over year, while customer accounts rose 34% to 5.32 million. IBKR continues to expand its product suite and global reach, including nearly 24/5 Forecast Contracts trading, a unified prediction markets interface and broader access to Korean equities in May 2026.
Tradeweb reported $67.5 trillion in total trading volume in July 2026, with average daily volume rising 23.3% year over year to $2.9 trillion. TW continues to invest in electronic trading and AI. In June 2026, it launched TARA, an AI-powered research assistant for institutional credit trading, while also expanding prediction-market data and blockchain-based trading capabilities.
HOOD’s Price Performance, Valuation & Estimate AnalysisIn the past six months, Robinhood shares have gained 27% compared with the industry’s 15.3% growth.
Price Performance
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
HOOD shares are currently trading at a massive premium to the industry. The company has a 12-month trailing price-to-tangible book of 9.93X compared with the industry average of 3.38X.
Price-to-Tangible Book TTM
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Robinhood’s 2026 earnings implies a year-over-year decline of 1.46%, while the 2027 estimate indicates year-over-year growth of 16.2%. Earnings estimates for both years have been revised upward over the past 30 days.
Estimates Revision Trend
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Currently, HOOD carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Stříbro míří v roce 2026 k šestému po sobě jdoucímu strukturálnímu deficitu, odhadem 46 až 50 milionů uncí. Silver Institute zároveň čeká pokles těžby o 0,3 %.
Silver has experienced a wild ride in 2026, but The Silver Institute President and CEO Michael DiRienzo says investors shouldn’t let the volatility obscure a much bigger story: the underlying silver market remains remarkably strong.
DiRienzo joined Money Metals podcast host Mike Maharrey to discuss silver’s dramatic price swings, persistent supply deficits, industrial demand, solar energy, artificial intelligence, investment flows, and the metal’s expanding role in medicine.
His central message was straightforward. Silver is no longer the $13 or $15 metal investors remember from less than a decade ago. In DiRienzo’s view, the market has established substantially higher floors because silver is increasingly being valued for both its industrial utility and its investment potential.
From $121 Silver back to $65Silver surged to roughly $121 an ounce on January 29, 2026, before falling sharply alongside gold. By the morning of Maharrey’s interview with DiRienzo, silver was trading around $65 per ounce.
DiRienzo said the late-February outbreak of war in Iran put additional pressure on precious metals. Interestingly, he noted that gold and silver have tended to respond positively to announcements involving ceasefires or the reopening of the straits, suggesting the conflict has been weighing on the precious metals complex rather than providing the traditional geopolitical boost investors might expect.
But underneath the geopolitical turmoil, DiRienzo sees strong fundamentals.
He noted that just two years ago, predicting an average 2026 silver price above $72 to $75 per ounce would have sounded extraordinary. Yet the market has reached precisely that neighborhood this year.
Mining companies have also benefited substantially from higher prices. DiRienzo said second-quarter figures being reported by mining companies were broadly positive, including among Silver Institute members producing silver both as a primary product and as a byproduct.
Industrial demand remains a powerful forceIndustrial demand remains one of the most important pillars supporting silver.
The Silver Institute expects a small decline in industrial demand this year, driven in part by reduced silver consumption in photovoltaics. With silver prices elevated, solar manufacturers have an obvious incentive to reduce the amount of silver they use or substitute another material.
Doing so, however, isn't simple.
Silver has the highest electrical conductivity of any metal, and the process of screen-printing silver paste onto solar cells is already mature and highly efficient. Alternative materials and metallization technologies still face hurdles before they can compete with silver at scale.
Copper metallization exists, for example, but DiRienzo said it has yet to scale sufficiently to replace silver across the solar industry. For solar farms designed to operate for 25 years, manufacturers also have to consider silver's reliability, durability, and stability rather than simply its upfront cost.
Solar’s Silver appetite has explodedThe scale of silver consumption in solar has changed dramatically over the past decade.
DiRienzo said solar represented about 11% of total silver industrial demand in 2014. By 2024, its share had climbed to just under 30%, marking the peak year for silver consumption in solar to date.
The industry is now attempting to engineer some silver out of its cells as prices rise. But manufacturers were already trying to reduce silver consumption when the metal traded for only $13 per ounce.
As DiRienzo explained, manufacturers relentlessly pursue even tiny savings. Reducing costs by two, three, or four cents per solar cell can matter when production is measured in enormous volumes.
That means efforts to thrift silver will continue. But DiRienzo doesn't foresee silver disappearing from photovoltaics the way photographic demand largely disappeared with the transition to digital photography.
AI could become another major Silver demand driverArtificial intelligence represents another potentially significant source of future silver demand.
The AI boom requires an enormous physical infrastructure of data centers filled with electrical contacts, wiring, and other components that can use silver.
DiRienzo said data centers have grown by more than 6,000% in just three years. The Silver Institute has already examined silver's role in AI data centers and other emerging technologies in a report on silver as a “next generation metal.”
The precise amount of silver being consumed by AI infrastructure remains difficult to quantify. DiRienzo acknowledged that the Institute is hearing about increased consumption but doesn't yet have firm numbers.
The direction, however, appears clear to him. With AI infrastructure still in its infancy and data-center installations expanding around the world, DiRienzo expects silver demand from this sector to increase.
Higher Gold prices are also affecting jewelrySilver may also be benefiting indirectly from gold's elevated price.
DiRienzo pointed to examples of jewelry made primarily from silver and then plated with gold, providing the appearance of gold while using silver as the underlying metal.
Jewelry demand remains highly price-sensitive because it is fundamentally a discretionary purchase. DiRienzo also highlighted an interesting demographic trend: more women between the ages of 24 and 30 are buying silver jewelry globally.
The Silver Institute expects overall silver jewelry demand this year to remain relatively consistent with last year's level.
Higher prices can't quickly produce more SilverThe supply side of the market presents a very different challenge.
A silver miner can't simply flip a switch and dramatically increase production because prices have risen. DiRienzo noted that some of the mining taking place today traces back to plans made 10 years ago, in 2016.
Mining companies are spending more on exploration, but DiRienzo said they aren't doing so recklessly. Much of the activity appears concentrated around existing projects as companies search for additional or previously unidentified veins.
That means substantially higher silver prices aren't necessarily going to unleash a flood of new supply anytime soon.
Mine production increased about 3% in 2025, but the Silver Institute expects production to decline 0.3% in 2026.
A Sixth consecutive Silver market deficitThe supply constraint becomes particularly important when considered alongside persistent demand.
The Silver Institute expects the silver market to record its sixth consecutive annual structural deficit in 2026. DiRienzo estimated the shortfall at roughly 46 million to 50 million ounces, although it could become larger if demand strengthens.
Recycling will help. The Institute expects recycled silver supply to increase by roughly 7% this year.
It still won't be enough.
Even after incorporating recycling into total supply, DiRienzo expects demand to exceed supply again in 2026.
A market deficit doesn't mean the world has literally run out of silver. It means annual demand is exceeding annual newly available supply, forcing the market to draw on above-ground inventories.
And those inventories aren't necessarily as freely available as headline figures might suggest.
The Silver sitting in vaults isn't necessarily availableDiRienzo used London inventories to illustrate the problem.Suppose London Bullion Market Association vaults contain approximately 750 million ounces of silver. That sounds like an enormous stockpile.
But DiRienzo estimated that roughly 75% of that silver is already allocated to exchange-traded products around the world.
That leaves a much smaller pool of readily available metal — and accessing that remaining “free float” can be extremely price sensitive.
The consequences became apparent when tariff concerns caused silver to move from London and elsewhere into New York ahead of the April 2, 2025, “Liberation Day” tariff announcement.
Precious metals ultimately weren't included in the tariffs, but the episode demonstrated how quickly physical metal can move when market participants anticipate disruptions.
Maharrey pointed to another example closer to home: Money Metals was shipping 1,000-ounce silver bars to India during the tight market around Diwali.
DiRienzo recalled the episode and noted that silver lease rates subsequently surged as the market became extremely tight.
Could similar silver squeezes happen again?
“Absolutely,” DiRienzo said. “No question about it.”
Silver investment demand could strengthenThe Silver Institute also expects stronger retail investment demand for physical silver.
DiRienzo said demand for silver coins and bars could increase approximately 7% in 2026, despite challenges involving Indian import duties. India has been an especially strong market for silver bars and coins over the past several years.
Exchange-traded products tell another part of the investment story.
Silver ETPs recorded net inflows of approximately 270 million ounces in 2025. The outbreak of war subsequently contributed to liquidations in gold and silver ETPs, with DiRienzo saying silver had experienced outflows of roughly 6% this year.
He added that the Silver Institute was hearing that investment activity was beginning to pick up again.
Medicine shows another side of SilverWhen Maharrey asked DiRienzo to name one of silver's lesser-known applications that he finds particularly interesting, DiRienzo pointed to health and medicine.
Silver's antibacterial properties give it uses throughout healthcare environments. DiRienzo cited silver coatings in operating rooms and on operating tables and instruments, along with silver incorporated into hospital drapes and used alongside cleaning agents.
He also highlighted emerging nanotechnology. The Silver Institute's August edition of Silver News was set to examine how nanosilver can help doctors administer the correct drug dosage.
Silver's antibacterial properties extend beyond hospitals. DiRienzo also cited water purification, pools, and efforts to combat outbreaks of Legionnaires' disease. In these applications, silver can help prevent infection and promote healing.
These applications may represent relatively small amounts of silver compared with solar panels, electronics, or investment products, but they demonstrate just how broad the metal's usefulness has become.
From $15 to more than $70Perhaps the most striking way to understand today's silver market is simply to look backward.
During the interview, DiRienzo opened the World Silver Survey and read off a series of historical average prices.
Silver averaged $17.05 per ounce in 2017. It subsequently averaged $15.71, followed by $16.21 in 2019. By 2023, the average had risen to $23.35, followed by $28.27 in 2024 and approximately $40 in 2025.
In 2026, DiRienzo said the market is talking about an average above $70 per ounce.
That longer-term perspective matters after silver's retreat from its January peak.
At around $65 an ounce during the interview, silver was dramatically below its $121 high. But Maharrey emphasized that it wasn't very long ago that investors were accustomed to silver trading for $13, $14, or $15.
DiRienzo believes the difference reflects a fundamental change in the market.
“We think new floors have been set in the market,” he said. Silver, in his assessment, is now trading on the strength of both its industrial applications and its investment appeal.
A tight market with powerful long-term driversSilver's 2026 correction may dominate short-term investor psychology, but the fundamentals DiRienzo described point toward a much larger story.
The market is heading toward a sixth consecutive structural deficit. Mine production is expected to decline slightly. Recycling is increasing, but not enough to close the gap. Physical investment demand could rise 7%. Solar still consumes enormous amounts of silver despite ongoing thrift efforts. AI infrastructure presents another rapidly growing source of potential demand.
Meanwhile, much of the silver sitting above ground isn't necessarily freely available to the market.
DiRienzo believes 2026 is shaping up to be a remarkable year for the metal. He expects the annual average silver price to set a record, and he sees evidence that the market has established price floors far above those of the previous decade.
Silver may still be volatile. But in DiRienzo's view, today's silver market is fundamentally different from the one investors knew when the metal traded in the teens.
And those fundamentals — industrial demand on one side and investment demand on the other — could continue defining the silver market long after the geopolitical turbulence of 2026 has passed.
Targa Resources uzavřela s ExxonMobil 20leté midstream dohody v Permské pánvi a oznámila tři nové zpracovatelské závody v Delaware Basin v Permské pánvi s kapacitou asi 825 MMcf/d.
Establishes new 20-year fee-based, integrated midstream agreements to support ExxonMobil’s development of its premier Permian Basin acreageEstablishes an extensive new area of mutual interest (AMI) across the Permian Delaware for gathering and processing, and downstream services for 20 yearsAdds new acreage to our existing AMI in the Permian MidlandExtends Targa’s current Permian Midland agreements to 20 years for gathering and processing, and downstream servicesAdds a new 20-year NGL dedication for transportation and fractionation services across both the Permian Delaware and Permian MidlandAnnounced today three new natural gas processing plants in the Permian Delaware to support production growth in the areaEvaluating up to five additional new processing plants in the Permian Delaware to accommodate expected production growth in the area over the longer termAnnounced today a new ~70-mile natural gas pipeline in the Permian Delaware (“Bull Run II”) to increase natural gas takeaway capacity to the Waha HubFurther enhances Targa’s existing long-term relationship with ExxonMobilUpdating full year 2026 net growth capital estimate to ~$5.0 billion HOUSTON, Aug. 17, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Targa Resources Corp. (NYSE: TRGP) (“Targa” or the “Company”) today announced the execution of new long-term, integrated midstream agreements with subsidiaries of ExxonMobil, further strengthening the parties’ strategic relationship across the Permian Basin.
Targa has entered into long-term fee-based agreements with ExxonMobil for integrated natural gas gathering and processing (“G&P”) and downstream services in the Permian Basin. These agreements meaningfully add to and extend our strategic relationship with ExxonMobil with significant acreage dedications in the Delaware and Midland basins under 20-year agreements.
In the Permian Delaware our agreements with ExxonMobil add significant new acreage dedications for integrated fee-based services, including gathering, processing, treating, NGL transportation, and fractionation through 2046. In the Permian Midland, our agreements add new acreage dedications and extend our existing fee-floor gathering and processing agreements through 2046. The agreements in both the Delaware and Midland include 20-year NGL dedications to Targa’s logistics and transportation (“L&T”) systems.
The new commercial agreements will add substantial long-term volume growth across Targa’s integrated wellhead to water position, utilizing our existing infrastructure, projects currently underway, and planned future system expansions. Targa’s commercial success is a result of our proven execution capabilities, expansive integrated footprint and strong operational reliability. We expect these agreements will add to Targa’s overall growth rate over the medium and long term.
“We are excited to meaningfully expand our strategic relationship with ExxonMobil,” said Matt Meloy, Targa’s Chief Executive Officer. “Our track record has positioned us as an attractive partner, and a provider of exceptional execution and reliability for our producer customers. As the largest gatherer and processor in the Permian, we continue to invest across our footprint and our execution allows Targa the unmatched ability to handle our customers’ long-term production growth plans. We expect this expansion of our strategic relationship with ExxonMobil to meaningfully add to Targa’s strong growth rate well into the next decade and bolster our outlook for durable and growing adjusted free cash flow over the long term.”
Growth Project Update and 2026 Capital Outlook
To accommodate our customers’ continued growth plans and these new commercial agreements, Targa announced three new natural gas processing plants in the Permian Delaware, the Wrangler, Ranger and Ranger II plants, with aggregate capacity of ~825 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d). The three new plant additions are expected to be in service in the first half of 2028 and we are evaluating up to five additional new processing plants to accommodate expected production growth in the area over the longer term. Targa is also evaluating the timing of an additional fractionation train in Mont Belvieu.
Targa also announced a new ~70-mile natural gas pipeline as part of our Bull Run residue system in the Permian Delaware (“Bull Run II”). The pipeline will provide natural gas takeaway from the new plant additions announced today to Waha and will be supported by take or pay commitments. Bull Run II is expected to begin operations in the first half of 2028.
We are updating our estimate for FY26 growth capital to ~$5.0B which incorporates expected investment in the new Delaware processing plants announced today, incremental associated field capital, and the Bull Run II natural gas pipeline. The new commercial success announced today adds long-term visibility to our growth, and we expect our plant, field and downstream infrastructure currently underway will be much needed to accommodate planned volume growth.
About Targa Resources Corp.
Targa Resources Corp. is a leading provider of midstream services and is one of the largest independent infrastructure companies in North America. The Company owns, operates, acquires and develops a diversified portfolio of complementary domestic infrastructure assets, and its operations are critical to the efficient, safe and reliable delivery of energy across the United States and increasingly to the world. The Company’s assets connect natural gas and NGLs to domestic and international markets with growing demand for cleaner fuels and feedstocks.
Targa is a FORTUNE 500 company and is included in the S&P 500.
For more information, please visit the Company’s website at www.targaresources.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements in this release are “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, included in this release that address activities, events or developments that the Company expects, believes or anticipates will or may occur in the future, are forward-looking statements, including statements regarding the Company’s projected financial performance, capital spending, payment of future dividends and stock repurchase activity. These forward-looking statements rely on a number of assumptions concerning future events and are subject to a number of uncertainties, factors and risks, many of which are outside the Company’s control, which could cause results to differ materially from those expected by management of the Company. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, actions taken by other countries with significant hydrocarbon production, weather, political, economic and market conditions, including a decline in the price and market demand for natural gas, natural gas liquids and crude oil, the timing and success of the Company’s completion of capital projects and business development efforts, including the Company’s realization of the expected benefits of new commercial agreements, the expected growth of volumes on the Company’s systems, the impact of significant public health crises, commodity price volatility due to ongoing or new global conflicts, changes in laws and regulations, particularly with regard to taxes, tariffs and international trade, and other uncertainties. These and other applicable uncertainties, factors and risks are described more fully in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, and any subsequently filed Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K. The Company does not undertake an obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Key Takeaways CONMED delivered 6% organic sales growth in Q2, with broad momentum across its continuing portfolio.Buffalo Filter is gaining from smoke-free OR laws, while BioBrace sees growing surgeon adoption and retention.AirSeal growth is slowing, while tariffs are expected to create a 35 cent EPS headwind in 2026. CONMED Corporation (CNMD - Free Report) is well positioned for growth on the back of rising adoption of its high-margin, differentiated platforms like AirSeal, Buffalo Filter and BioBrace. The company’s long-term prospects seem good as robotic procedure volume rises, coupled with the expanding penetration of Ambulatory Surgery Centers. Improving supply-chain bottlenecks should drive top and bottom-line growth.
CONMED is facing tariff headwinds that are unfavorably impacting its earnings per share (EPS) and revenue expansion. Higher operating expense investments remain a concern.
Shares of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company have gained 24.2% in the year-to-date period, outperforming the industry’s 5.8% increase and the S&P 500 Index’s 13.3% rise.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
CONMED, a renowned global medical products manufacturer specializing in surgical instruments and devices, has a market capitalization of $1.51 billion. The company projects 4.8% earnings growth over the next five years.
The company’s earnings surpassed estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, delivering an average surprise of 11.30%.
Factors Favoring CNMD StockCore Portfolio Is Returning to Healthy Organic Growth: CONMED delivered 6% organic sales growth in the second quarter of 2026, modestly above the high end of its previous expectation, despite reported revenues rising only 0.3% due to portfolio exits and currency. General Surgery grew 5.3% organically, while Orthopedic Surgery increased 6.8%, demonstrating broad-based momentum across the continuing portfolio.
International orthopedic sales were particularly strong, rising 10.8%. Management remains confident in achieving at least 5% organic constant-currency growth in 2026, while expecting sequential improvement during the second half. This suggests that the business is likely to report healthier returns in the next couple of quarters as CONMED completes its portfolio optimization.
Buffalo Filter Benefits From Regulatory Tailwinds: Buffalo Filter offers CONMED a potentially durable growth opportunity as surgical smoke evacuation gains regulatory momentum. Direct smoke evacuation sales exceeded the company's longer-term high-single-digit to low-double-digit growth target in the second quarter, more than offsetting declines in the OEM portfolio.
Importantly, 22 U.S. states now have smoke-free operating-room laws covering approximately 57% of the U.S. population, while more than 10 additional states have pending legislation. Michigan and Maryland recently added requirements, creating a multiyear adoption runway. CONMED is also seeing early traction internationally and expects its next-generation PlumeSafe X5 to strengthen penetration in ambulatory and outpatient settings.
Biobrace and Orthopedic Soft-Tissue Repair Can Support Sustained Growth: BioBrace is emerging as another differentiated growth franchise, particularly in rotator cuff repair, where approximately 1 million procedures are performed annually in the United States and re-tear rates remain significant. CONMED cites a 94% healing rate among high-risk patients using BioBrace augmentation, supported by more than 30 published studies and updated AAOS guidelines recommending augmentation.
The one-year-old BioBrace RC product is also gaining traction because it simplifies and standardizes augmentation, encouraging repeat utilization. Management noted increasing new-user adoption and durable retention among surgeons who gain experience with the product. These dynamics could create a recurring growth engine as BioBrace penetrates a large unmet clinical need.
Challenges Facing CNMD StockAirSeal Growth Is Moderating Relative to Earlier Expectations: Although AirSeal remained the top contributor to General Surgery growth in the second quarter, its performance was below management's expectations. The company now expects growth to improve in the second half of 2026, but at a slower pace than previously anticipated, prompting a more measured outlook.
This matters because AirSeal is a key component of CONMED's growth thesis, and a slower adoption curve could delay the benefits expected from robotic surgery, laparoscopic procedures and ASC expansion. Management continues to believe the franchise can generate high-single-digit to low-double-digit long-term growth, but the near-term deceleration highlights execution and adoption risks even within one of the company's highest-priority growth platforms.
Tariffs Remain a Meaningful Earnings Headwind Despite Refund: CONMED’s second-quarter EPS benefited materially from a 21-cent-per-share tariff refund, creating a risk that investors may overestimate the sustainability of the quarter’s earnings strength. Management noted that the refund was related to tariffs paid in 2025, while the company continues to expect a roughly 35-cent-per-share EPS headwind from tariffs in 2026.
Excluding the refund, second-quarter adjusted operating margin was essentially flat year over year, underscoring that underlying profitability was less robust than the headline 250-basis-point margin expansion suggested. As a result, future earnings growth will need to be driven by organic sales growth, product mix, and operating efficiencies instead of temporary tariff benefits.
Estimate TrendCONMED is witnessing a stable estimate revision trend for 2026. In the past 30 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings has improved 3.7% to $4.54 per share.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for third-quarter 2026 revenues and EPS is pegged at $336.8 million and $1.00, respectively, suggesting a decline of 0.3% and 7.4% from the year-ago reported numbers.
Stocks to ConsiderSome better-ranked stocks from the broader medical space are Globus Medical (GMED - Free Report) , West Pharmaceutical (WST - Free Report) and The Cooper Companies (COO - Free Report) .
Globus Medical, currently sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), reported a second-quarter 2026 adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $1.34, which surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 19.6%. Revenues of $789.6 million beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 0.4%. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
GMED has an estimated long-term earnings growth rate of 12.4%. The company’s earnings beat estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 27.9%.
West Pharmaceutical, carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present, reported second-quarter 2026 adjusted EPS of $2.37, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 13.9%. Revenues of $872.3 million surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 4.2%.
WST has an estimated long-term earnings growth rate of 16%. WST’s earnings surpassed estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 17.4%.
The Cooper Companies, carrying a Zacks Rank #2 at present, reported a second-quarter fiscal 2026 adjusted EPS of $1.21, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 10%. Revenues of $1.08 billion beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 2.6%.
COO has an estimated long-term earnings growth rate of 8.3%. COO’s earnings surpassed estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 5.8%.
QuidelOrtho snížila výhled tržeb na rok 2026 na 2,52–2,60 mld. USD, upraveného EBITDA na 540–560 mil. USD a upraveného zisku na akcii na 65–90 centů kvůli slabosti v Číně a na respiračním trhu. Přestože za tři měsíce vzrostla o 31,7 %, tlak na marže a vysoký dluh zůstávají.
Key Takeaways QuidelOrtho gained 31.7% in three months as core diagnostics growth and cost actions supported profits.QDEL cut 2026 revenue, adjusted EBITDA and earnings guidance amid China and respiratory weakness.QuidelOrtho held $123.4 million in cash against $2.89 billion in debt as gross margin fell 130 basis points. QuidelOrtho Corporation (QDEL - Free Report) has gained 31.7% in the past three months, but the rally now faces a mixed operating backdrop. Core diagnostics businesses are still growing, and cost actions are lifting profitability, even as China and respiratory demand weaken.
The next leg higher may depend on whether those operating gains can offset lower guidance, margin pressure and a heavily leveraged balance sheet.
QDEL’s Core Businesses Show Resilient GrowthSecond-quarter 2026 revenues rose 2.8% year over year to $630.9 million. Labs revenues increased 3.6%, Immunohematology grew 1.4% and Point of Care advanced 16.3%.
Excluding China, revenues grew 6% at constant currency. Labs revenues outside China rose 9%, while Immunohematology revenues outside China increased 5%, supporting management’s view that the core franchises remain comparatively resilient.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
QuidelOrtho’s Cost Actions Support ProfitabilityAdjusted EBITDA increased 21% year over year to $129 million in the second quarter, while adjusted EBITDA margin reached 20.5%. Operating expenses as a percentage of revenues also improved 40 basis points.
The Optimization Plan continues to target facility consolidation, procurement savings and distribution rationalization. QuidelOrtho still expects roughly $50 million of net cost savings through 2027, which could help support profitability while revenue growth remains uneven.
QDEL Faces a Sharp China SlowdownChina revenues fell 18.7% on a reported basis and 23.3% at constant currency in the second quarter. Slower distributor purchases ahead of national in-vitro diagnostics pricing changes were a key drag on the region.
Management observed customers reducing inventories faster than expected after quarter-end and expects China challenges to persist through the remainder of 2026. The timing and implementation of the revised pricing guidelines remain uncertain, limiting near-term demand visibility.
QuidelOrtho’s Lower Outlook Tests the RallyQuidelOrtho cut its 2026 revenue guidance to $2.52-$2.60 billion from $2.70-$2.75 billion. Adjusted EBITDA guidance dropped to $540-$560 million from $615-$630 million, while adjusted earnings guidance fell to 65-90 cents per share from $1.80-$2.00.
The company also adopted more conservative assumptions for the 2026-2027 respiratory season after lower U.S. positivity rates and softer Southern Hemisphere indicators. That approach reduces expectations for a seasonal rebound and keeps near-term earnings visibility constrained.
QDEL’s Financial Risks Could Limit Further UpsideAdjusted gross margin contracted 130 basis points to 44.4% in the second quarter. QuidelOrtho ended the period with $123.4 million in cash against $2.89 billion of total debt, while cumulative operating cash use reached $143.6 million.
Competition also remains substantial. Abbott Laboratories (ABT - Free Report) reported $3.1 billion in second-quarter Diagnostics sales, while Danaher Corporation (DHR - Free Report) completed its Masimo acquisition in June, adding specialty diagnostics and patient-monitoring capabilities to its Diagnostics segment.
QDEL’s Bearish Signal Calls for CautionThe 31.7% three-month advance shows that QDEL has already made a sizable move, but sustaining it may require better cash conversion and evidence that cost improvements can overcome China weakness, respiratory volatility and margin pressure.
The stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell), a bearish signal that reflects unfavorable earnings estimate revisions. QDEL has a Value Score of B, suggesting that its valuation characteristics are relatively favorable. However, the Growth Score of F and Momentum Score of F point to weak growth and price-momentum attributes, while the VGM Score of D indicates an unfavorable overall combination of value, growth and momentum factors.
You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
QuidelOrtho uvedla, že její hlavní diagnostický byznys mimo Čínu ve 2. čtvrtletí rostl o 6 % při konstantním kurzu, ale problémy v Číně mají přetrvat až do roku 2026.
Key Takeaways QuidelOrtho's core diagnostics growth outside China offers support despite weaker near-term visibility.QDEL expects China challenges through 2026 as pricing uncertainty and faster inventory cuts weigh on demand.QuidelOrtho had $123.4 million in cash versus $2.89 billion in debt after $143.6 million in cash use. QuidelOrtho Corporation (QDEL - Free Report) is showing resilience in its core diagnostics businesses, but the investment case remains constrained by worsening visibility in China, uncertain respiratory demand and financial pressure. The mix leaves investors weighing operational progress against risks that could limit earnings recovery.
Cost savings and product investment provide support, yet weaker cash conversion and elevated leverage keep the near-term risk-reward profile unfavorable.
QDEL’s Core Growth Offers Some SupportSecond-quarter revenues outside China grew 6% at constant currency, reflecting healthier trends across much of QuidelOrtho’s portfolio. Labs revenues outside China increased 9%, while Immunohematology revenues outside China rose 5%.
Management expects those two core businesses outside China to grow roughly 3%-5% in aggregate during the second half of 2026. Their recurring-revenue characteristics provide some stability while other parts of the business remain more volatile.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
China Weakness Clouds QDEL’s Near-Term VisibilityChina revenues fell 18.7% on a reported basis and 23.3% at constant currency in the second quarter. Slower distributor purchases ahead of evolving national in-vitro diagnostics pricing guidelines weighed on demand, particularly in Labs.
Customers also reduced inventories more quickly than management had anticipated after quarter-end. With final pricing rules and implementation timing still uncertain, QuidelOrtho expects China-related challenges to persist through the remainder of 2026.
QDEL’s Cost Actions Help but Margins Stay PressuredAdjusted EBITDA increased 21% year over year to $129 million in the second quarter, showing that productivity and expense-control efforts are having an impact. The Optimization Plan continues to target approximately $50 million of net cost savings through 2027.
That progress has not removed margin pressure. Adjusted gross margin contracted 130 basis points to 44.4%, with lower China volumes contributing to an unfavorable geographic mix. Further cost execution remains important if revenue headwinds persist.
NULEXA Gives QDEL a Longer-Term Growth OptionQuidelOrtho is shifting its molecular strategy toward NULEXA following the April acquisition of LEX Diagnostics. The company is advancing manufacturing scale-up, supply-chain readiness and commercial launch preparations, with customer placements and test utilization expected to build as the 2026-2027 respiratory season progresses.
NULEXA also provides a platform for future menu expansion, but adoption is not assured. Competition remains substantial. Abbott Laboratories (ABT - Free Report) reported $3.1 billion in second-quarter Diagnostics sales, while Danaher Corporation (DHR - Free Report) reported 7% Diagnostics sales growth, highlighting the scale of established diagnostics rivals.
QDEL’s Leverage and Cash Use Keep Risk ElevatedQuidelOrtho ended the second quarter with $123.4 million in cash and cash equivalents against $2.89 billion of total debt. During the first six months of 2026, operating activities used $143.6 million of cash compared with cash generation in the prior-year period.
Weak cash conversion increases the importance of delivering on cost savings and improving working-capital efficiency. Elevated leverage also leaves less room for execution setbacks if China weakness or softer respiratory demand lasts longer than expected.
QDEL’s Bearish Signal Supports a Cautious ViewQDEL’s core growth, cost actions and NULEXA opportunity provide reasons to monitor the stock, but they do not yet outweigh the company’s weaker earnings visibility, margin pressure and balance-sheet risks. The investment case remains better suited to a cautious stance until operating improvements translate into stronger cash performance.
The stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell). QDEL also has a Value Score of B, but its Growth Score of F and Momentum Score of F signal weak growth and momentum characteristics, while the VGM Score of D points to an unfavorable combined profile. Given that Style Scores are designed to complement the Zacks Rank, the current mix does not provide a strong signal for buying the shares despite the relatively favorable value reading.
You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
NAVI Protocol spustil NAVI Prime na Sui Network, modulární lending protokol s izolovanými trhy a vlastními pravidly zajištění. Cílem je oddělit riziko mezi trhy a zvýšit kapitálovou efektivitu.
NAVI Prime targets capital isolation in DeFi lending@Navi_protocol has unveiled NAVI Prime, a modular lending protocol built on @SuiNetwork, designed for what the team describes as high-conviction capital isolation. The launch marks a deliberate departure from the unified liquidity pool model that has defined much of DeFi lending to date.
Rather than pooling all assets into a single shared market, NAVI Prime creates individual lending markets, each with its own collateral rules and risk parameters. The core idea is straightforward: by separating markets, losses or volatility in one pool cannot spill over into another. Quality assets can therefore reach higher capital efficiency without being dragged down by the risk profile of lower-grade collateral sitting in the same pool.
Building on Sui's modular infrastructure @Navi_protocol is a decentralized lending and liquidity infrastructure protocol built natively on the Sui blockchain, with a strong focus on unlocking capital efficiency for digital assets. The choice of @SuiNetwork as the foundation for NAVI Prime is consistent with NAVI's broader strategy. The Sui blockchain is known for its high throughput and low latency, making it a practical foundation for a protocol that aims to offer efficient and dynamic lending services.
As the first native liquidity protocol on the Sui blockchain, NAVI leverages Sui's high throughput and the Move programming language for security, with a modular architecture in which smart contracts are built as interchangeable components for flexibility. NAVI Prime extends that philosophy by applying modularity not just at the contract level, but at the market structure level as well.
Isolation mode allows riskier assets to be listed without exposing the main protocol to bad debt , a principle that sits at the heart of the NAVI Prime design. By giving each market its own collateral methodology, the protocol aims to let blue-chip assets operate at tighter, more efficient parameters while still accommodating newer or more volatile tokens in separate, ring-fenced environments.
The announcement positions NAVI Prime as an infrastructure play for more sophisticated capital allocators looking for precision risk management within the Sui DeFi ecosystem, rather than a one-size-fits-all lending pool.
Sources:
CoinMarketCap: What Is NAVI Protocol (NAVX) And How Does It Work?
NAVI Protocol Official Documentation
Backpack Exchange: NAVI Protocol Overview
Společnost Coherent začala dodávat partnerům v oblasti AI čipů vzorky 300mm substrátů z karbidu křemíku s vysokou tepelnou vodivostí. Materiál má zlepšit odvod tepla až o 25 %.
SAXONBURG, Pa., Aug. 17, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Coherent Corp. (NYSE: COHR), a global leader in photonics, today announced that it has begun sampling of its 300mm high thermal conductivity silicon carbide (SiC) substrates to leading AI semiconductor partners. The milestone advances Coherent’s scalable materials platform for the growing thermal management requirements of artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) systems.
As AI processors move toward higher power densities, effective heat removal is becoming a primary constraint on system performance, reliability, and datacenter efficiency. Customer sampling moves Coherent’s 300mm SiC platform from internal development to customer evaluation across the AI semiconductor ecosystem.
Silicon carbide combines high thermal conductivity, mechanical strength, and thermal stability for next-generation heat spreaders and related packaging solutions. Coherent’s vertically integrated capabilities in SiC crystal growth, wafering, polishing, and characterization provide control across the production process and support progression toward future high-volume manufacturing. The high thermal conductivity substrates are engineered to improve heat spreading by up to 25% more than current solutions while maintaining compatibility with existing semiconductor manufacturing platforms.
“AI performance is increasingly constrained by the industry’s ability to remove heat from next-generation processors,” said Craig Mullaney, Senior Vice President and General Manager at Coherent. “Advanced SiC thermal management materials can play an important role in addressing that challenge. By combining decades of silicon carbide expertise with a scalable 300mm manufacturing platform, Coherent is helping build the materials foundation for future AI infrastructure.”
This milestone marks the next step in Coherent’s roadmap to expand its 300mm SiC platform for AI and high-performance computing. By combining customer engagement, vertically integrated materials expertise, and a scalable manufacturing strategy, Coherent is positioning its SiC capabilities to support successive generations of AI infrastructure.
For more information, please visit: https://www.coherent.com/news/press-releases/Coherent-expands-silicon-carbide-platform-with-300mm-capability-to-support-growing-demand-of-ai-and-datacenters.
About Coherent
Coherent is the global photonics leader. We harness photons to drive innovation. Industry leaders in the datacenter, communications, and industrial markets rely on Coherent’s world-leading technology to fuel their own innovation and growth.
Founded in 1971 and operating in more than 20 countries, Coherent brings the industry’s broadest, deepest technology stack; unmatched supply chain resilience; and global scale to help its customers solve their toughest technology challenges. For more information, visit us at coherent.com.
Jabil čeká ve fiskálním roce 2026 tržby z AI kolem 13,6 miliardy USD, proti 9 miliardám v předchozím roce. Růst táhne expanze kapacit a třetí hyperscale zákazník.
Key Takeaways Jabil expects AI-related revenues to reach $13.6 billion in fiscal 2026, up from $9 billion.Capacity expansion and a third hyperscale customer are supporting Jabil's AI growth momentum.Jabil is exploring an India alliance with Adani to build a multi-gigawatt AI manufacturing platform. Jabil, Inc. (JBL - Free Report) is benefiting from solid momentum in the AI infrastructure market. The company has developed a comprehensive portfolio spanning computing, storage, networking, optics, power and cooling. Such an end-to-end product offering allows it to compete across several layers of the AI data-center buildout. Such broad exposure is translating into significant revenue growth. Jabil is expecting AI-related revenues of approximately $13.6 billion in fiscal 2026, up from $9 billion a year earlier.
To support the extended demand, Jabil is expanding manufacturing capacity across the United States, Mexico and India. Simultaneously, it is strengthening relationships with hyperscalers. The company won its third hyperscale customer in the third quarter. The AI data-center buildout is also increasing demand for high-speed networking equipment. Growing demand for InfiniBand and Ethernet, along with switchgear and silicon photonics, is a growth driver for the company.
Expansion in the emerging market of India could be a long-term driver for the company. Jabil and Adani Enterprise are exploring a strategic alliance focused on building a multi-gigawatt AI data-center infrastructure manufacturing platform. The collaboration, if realized, could manufacture AI racks, liquid-cooled racks, servers, storage systems and networking equipment. If materialized, they could become a major revenue earner for Jabil.
However, it is to be noted that supply chain and execution risks remain. The rapid expansion of AI infrastructure is putting pressure on the supply of certain components such as high-bandwidth memory and high-density interconnect PCBs. Lead time has increased for certain components.
How Are Competitors Faring?Jabil faces competition from Flex LTD. (FLEX - Free Report) and Celestica, Inc. (CLS - Free Report) in this domain. Flex continues to deepen its exposure to AI infrastructure through CPI (Cloud and Power Infrastructure), combining compute integration, cooling and power capabilities. In first-quarter fiscal 2027, CPI revenues rose 35% to $2.2 billion, led by Power as Cloud & Cooling programs continued to ramp. Flex is developing high-density power solutions and cooling technologies for next-generation AI systems.
Celestica is also benefiting from strong AI infrastructure demand, particularly in hyperscale computing and high-speed networking. The company is ramping 800G networking programs and steadily preparing for broader 1.6T deployments. Celestica’s Connectivity & Cloud Solutions revenues increased 84% year over year to $3.81 billion. Segment margin improved to 8.7% from 8.3%, reflecting favorable operating leverage and stronger execution as demand from hyperscale data center customers remained robust.
JBL’s Price Performance, Valuation and EstimatesJabil has gained 68.4% in the past year compared with the industry’s growth of 73.8%.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Going by the price/earnings ratio, the company’s shares currently trade at 22.09 forward earnings, higher than 21.91 for the industry.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Earnings estimates for Jabil's fiscal 2026 have increased 3.07% to $12.74 over the past 60 days, while those for 2027 have also increased 12.93% to $16.59.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Jabil currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Boot Barn v 1. čtvrtletí zvýšil srovnatelné tržby z e-commerce o 13,4 %. Firma čeká růst srovnatelných tržeb z e-commerce o 13 % proti 3% růstu v prodejnách.
Key Takeaways BOOT's comparable e-commerce sales rose 13.4%, driven by double-digit growth on bootbarn.com.Exclusive brand websites are gaining traffic and sales, led by Cody James.BOOT expects 13% e-commerce comp growth, ahead of its 3% retail-store comp outlook. Boot Barn Holdings, Inc. (BOOT - Free Report) delivered strong e-commerce performance in the first quarter, with comparable e-commerce sales increasing 13.4%, driven by double-digit growth on bootbarn.com. The company fulfills a large portion of online orders through its stores, helping enhance merchandise margins while giving customers access to a broader inventory assortment. The strong adoption of buy online, pick up in store and ship-to-store offerings is also driving store traffic, reducing fulfillment costs and enhancing customer engagement through a more seamless shopping experience across digital and physical channels.
The company continues to see strong traction across its exclusive brand websites, with both traffic and sales trending upward. Cody James remains the strongest performer among these sites, supported by its position as the company’s largest brand. Beyond direct sales, the sites are helping strengthen brand storytelling and brand building, with millions of sessions and visitors giving customers greater exposure to brands such as Cheyenne, Cody James and Hawx.
Boot Barn also noted that TikTok Shop continues to gain traction, supporting sales of both the company’s own brands and certain third-party brands. Management remains bullish as the platform continues to grow rapidly in the United States and has become a broad marketplace. The company is also using everyday influencers, including nano creators with fewer than 10,000 followers. Boot Barn is also partnering with different sororities ahead of the upcoming RushTok season.
The company continues to expect same-store sales to increase 4%, including a 3% increase in retail-store comps and 13% growth in e-commerce comps, highlighting stronger expected momentum in the digital channel. Overall, Boot Barn’s digital ecosystem remains an important part of its omnichannel strategy, with e-commerce growth, strong traffic to exclusive-brand sites and integrated digital and physical shopping capabilities supporting the company’s broader customer experience.
Zacks Rundown for BOOTBoot Barn’s shares have gained 15.8% in the past three months compared with the industry’s growth of 2.4%. BOOT presently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
From a valuation standpoint, Boot Barn trades at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 17.23, higher than the industry’s average ratio of 13.51.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for BOOT’s current and next fiscal-year earnings implies year-over-year rallies of 22.6% and 10.5%, respectively.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Other Stocks to ConsiderSome other top-ranked stocks have been discussed below:
FIGS, Inc. (FIGS - Free Report) operates as a direct-to-consumer healthcare apparel and lifestyle company in the United States and internationally. At present, FIGS carries a Zacks Rank of 2. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for FIGS’s current fiscal-year sales and earnings implies growth of 18.2% and 57.9%, respectively, from the year-ago figures. FIGS has delivered a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 201.8%, on average.
Victoria’s Secret & Co. (VSXY - Free Report) operates as a specialty retailer of women's intimate apparel and other apparel and beauty products worldwide. At present, VSXY carries a Zacks Rank of 2.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for VSXY’s current fiscal-year sales and earnings implies growth of 9.1% and 55.7%, respectively, from the year-ago figures. VSXY has delivered a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 81.9%, on average.
Fossil Group, Inc. (FOSL - Free Report) designs, develops, markets, and distributes consumer fashion accessories in the United States, Europe, Asia, and internationally. At present, FOSL carries a Zacks Rank of 2.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for FOSL’s current fiscal-year sales indicates a decline of 4%, while the same for earnings indicates growth of 96.7% from the year-ago figures. FOSL delivered a trailing four-quarter negative earnings surprise of 236.2%, on average.
SAN DIEGO, Aug. 17, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Zentalis® Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ZNTL) (“Zentalis” or the “Company”), a clinical oncology innovator advancing late-stage development of an investigational, potentially first-in-class WEE1 inhibitor, azenosertib, as a biomarker-driven treatment approach for ovarian cancer, today announced that it has closed its previously announced underwritten public offering of 26,450,000 shares of its common stock, including 3,450,000 shares sold pursuant to the underwriters’ full exercise of their option to purchase additional shares. The shares of common stock were sold to the public at a price of $3.50 per share. The total gross proceeds to the Company from the offering, before deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and offering expenses, were approximately $92.6 million. All of the shares of common stock sold in the public offering were sold by the Company.
The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the offering, together with the Company’s existing cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities, to fund clinical trials, preclinical studies, regulatory filings, manufacturing and the Company’s companion diagnostic in support of its programs, as well as for pre-commercial activities, capital expenditures, working capital and other general corporate purposes.
TD Cowen, Guggenheim Securities and Oppenheimer & Co. acted as joint bookrunners for the offering. H.C. Wainwright & Co. acted as a passive bookrunner for the offering. Rodman & Renshaw LLC acted as a manager for the offering.
The securities described above were offered pursuant to an effective shelf registration statement that was filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on March 26, 2025, and became effective on April 4, 2025. This offering was made only by means of a prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus which forms a part of the effective shelf registration statement.
A final prospectus supplement related to the offering (including the accompanying prospectus) has been filed with the SEC and is available on the SEC’s website located at www.sec.gov. Copies of the final prospectus supplement related to the offering and the accompanying prospectus may be obtained by visiting the SEC’s website or by contacting: TD Securities (USA) LLC, c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, NY 11717, or by email at [email protected]; or Guggenheim Securities, LLC, Attention: Equity Syndicate Department, 330 Madison Avenue, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10017, by telephone at (212) 518-9544, or by email at [email protected]; or Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., Attention: Syndicate Prospectus Department, 85 Broad Street, 26th Floor, New York, NY 10004, by telephone at (212) 667-8055, or by email at [email protected].
This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of, the securities in this offering in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of such state or jurisdiction.
About Zentalis Pharmaceuticals
Zentalis is a clinical oncology innovator developing a treatment approach for ovarian cancer and multiple tumor types. Leveraging therapeutics development and biomarker expertise, Zentalis is advancing monotherapy and combination studies of its investigational first-in-class WEE1 inhibitor, azenosertib. Focused on translating WEE1 science into clinical practice, we aim to equip physicians with a targeted, non-chemo, orally available medicine that enhances treatment experience, choice, and outcomes. Our mission: to unburden cancer patients with more convenience and care.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. Certain statements contained in this press release, including, without limitation, the planned use of proceeds of the offering, the sufficiency of the proceeds of the offering and the Company’s cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities to fund its operating expenses and capital expenditures, are forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties associated with market conditions, the anticipated use of proceeds of the offering, general economic conditions and other risks identified from time to time in the reports the Company files with the SEC, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, and the final prospectus supplement and accompanying prospectus related to the proposed offering to be filed with the SEC, which are available at www.sec.gov. The forward-looking statements in this press release speak only as of the date of this document, and the Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any of the statements. The Company’s business is subject to substantial risks and uncertainties, including those referenced above. Investors, potential investors, and others should give careful consideration to these risks and uncertainties.
Eaton posiluje růst díky akvizicím v datových centrech, letectví a technologiích pro elektrifikaci a AI. Boyd Thermal ve 2. čtvrtletí 2026 přidala 7 % růstu a sama zvýšila tržby Electrical Global o 25 %.
Key Takeaways Eaton's buyouts target data centers, aerospace and technologies tied to electrification, digitalization & AI.Boyd Thermal's liquid-cooling technology supports an integrated grid-to-chip offering for AI data centers.Acquired businesses contributed 7% to second-quarter 2026 growth. Boyd lifted Electrical Global sales by 25%. Eaton Corporation’s (ETN - Free Report) acquisition strategy is emerging as a key growth engine, strengthening its position in high-growth markets benefiting from electrification, digitalization and artificial intelligence. The company is selectively acquiring differentiated technologies that complement its power-management portfolio and can be cross-sold through its global customer network. Management prioritizes businesses with above-market growth potential, attractive returns and strong strategic alignment.
The AI-driven data-center expansion is the biggest catalyst. Acquisitions including Fibrebond, NordicEPOD, Resilient Power and Boyd Thermal enhance Eaton’s ability to address increasing power density and infrastructure complexity. Boyd Thermal, acquired for $9.55 billion in March 2026, is particularly significant. Its liquid-cooling technology enables Eaton to provide an integrated “grid-to-chip” solution as AI workloads sharply increase data-center power and cooling requirements.
Eaton is also expanding its aerospace capabilities. The $1.53 billion purchase of Ultra PCS in January 2026 added electronic controls, sensing and data-processing technologies, increasing the company’s exposure to mission-critical aerospace systems.
Acquisitions are already making a meaningful financial contribution. Eaton’s 2025 sales rose 10% to $27.4 billion, with acquired businesses contributing two percentage points of growth. Their contribution increased to 4% in the first quarter of 2026 and 7% in the second. Boyd alone added 25% growth to second-quarter Electrical Global sales, helping the segment deliver 44% sales growth and a 41% increase in operating profit.
Overall, these acquisitions expand Eaton’s addressable market, technological capabilities and exposure to powerful secular trends. Successful cross-selling and synergy realization could further strengthen growth, earnings and long-term competitive advantage.
What About ETN’s Peers?Emerson Electric Co. (EMR - Free Report) is using acquisitions to expand its market presence, strengthen customer relationships and enhance its technology portfolio. Through AspenTech, Emerson is accelerating its shift toward software-defined automation, gaining exposure to higher-growth, recurring-revenue markets. The acquisition strengthens Emerson’s digital capabilities while supporting long-term growth and margin expansion.
Powell Industries (POWL - Free Report) is enhancing its automation platform through Remsdaq, adding SCADA technology that complements its electrical hardware. For Powell, the deal enables integrated utility solutions, expands its automation capabilities and supports higher-margin growth. Powell views the acquisition as strategically and financially accretive.
ETN Price PerformanceShares of Eaton have gained 42.4% year to date, outperforming the industry.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
ETN’s Expensive ValuationEaton’s shares are trading at a premium compared with its industry. The company’s forward 12-month price-to-earnings of 30.11X is higher than its industry’s 25.74X.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Estimate Movement for ETNThe Zacks Consensus Estimate for ETN’s third-quarter 2026 EPS did not witness any movement, while that for the fourth quarter moved 2.3% north in the past 30 days. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2026 and 2027 EPS has moved 1% and 1.1% north, respectively, in the past 30 days.
DigitalOcean oznámil obecnou dostupnost Managed AI Agents v Cloudways; akcie během dne vzrostly o 5 % na 137,04 USD. Nabídka má zjednodušit nasazení AI agentů bez správy infrastruktury.
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Shares of DigitalOcean (NYSE:DOCN | DOCN Price Prediction) are climbing midday Monday after the company announced general availability of Managed AI Agents through its Cloudways service. DigitalOcean stock is up 5% to $137.04, extending a 170% year-to-date advance.
The move stands out because the rest of cloud infrastructure is trading lower. Fastly (NYSE:FSLY) shares are down 4% to $28.67, and Akamai (NASDAQ:AKAM) shares are down 2% to $122.89. That divergence points to a company-specific reaction rather than a broad sector bid.
Managed AI Agents Land on Cloudways Cloudways, a DigitalOcean service, announced general availability of Managed AI Agents, a new product line launching with OpenClaw and Hermes as its first two managed agents, with additional open-source agents planned. The pitch is that deploying AI agents in production usually requires provisioning infrastructure, configuring containers, securing environments, and handling ongoing maintenance. The managed offering removes that overhead.
Customers can deploy through the same Cloudways platform they already use for application hosting. Every deployment runs in an isolated environment, agent runtime updates are validated by Cloudways before rollout, and a 1-click MCP integration lets an agent act on the servers and applications a customer already runs on the platform. DigitalOcean cited more than 386,000 GitHub stars for OpenClaw and more than 228,000 for Hermes as evidence of established communities behind both projects.
Suhaib Zaheer, SVP Managed Hosting at DigitalOcean and General Manager at Cloudways, provided a concise explanation:
The general availability of OpenClaw and Hermes on Cloudways represents an important milestone in our vision of making AI infrastructure simpler and more accessible. As AI agents become an increasingly important part of how the customer builds and deploys applications, we believe running them should be just as simple and reliable as deploying any other workload.
The announcement is DigitalOcean’s own press release distributed through Business Wire, not independent reporting. No pricing, customer commitments, revenue contribution, or financial targets were disclosed.
The Honest Read The constructive case is that DigitalOcean positions itself as an AI-native cloud built for inference and agentic workloads, serving more than 680,000 customers. Managed agent hosting fits that strategy, moving the company up the stack from raw infrastructure toward higher-value managed services (we profiled seven picks-and-shovels AI infrastructure names, from power to networking, in a report you can access here).
The skeptical case is that OpenClaw and Hermes are open-source projects DigitalOcean didn’t build, so packaging third-party software as managed hosting is a competitive convenience rather than proprietary technology. With DigitalOcean stock already up 170% year to date, the launch lands on a name with substantial expectations built in. That cuts both ways.
Peers Trade the Other Direction Fastly stock, from an edge cloud platform spanning delivery, security, compute, and observability, is down 4% today despite a 194% year-to-date run. Akamai stock is down 2% today for the cybersecurity and cloud computing company operating a highly distributed content delivery network, with Akamai stock up 43% year to date.
Cloudflare (NYSE:NET), a connectivity cloud company building infrastructure for agent-driven internet traffic, has Cloudflare stock up 60% year to date. The peer read reinforces that today’s action is about DigitalOcean specifically.
WisdomTree Cloud Computing Fund (NASDAQ:WCLD) shares are down 2% to $39.82, and the ETF is up 16% year to date. Its decline alongside gains in DigitalOcean isolates how company-specific the move is. The gap between the fund’s return and DigitalOcean’s shows how far the individual name has outrun the broad cloud basket.
What to Watch Investors can watch for whether DigitalOcean discloses pricing, adoption, or revenue contribution for Managed AI Agents in future reporting, and whether additional open-source agents are added on schedule. Also worth tracking is whether larger cloud providers move to offer comparable managed agent hosting, and whether the company’s AI-related workload mix continues accelerating into Q4 2026.
On the peer side, Fastly’s ability to defend edge and CDN turf against AI-native cloud entrants remains a key question, as does whether today’s rotation into DigitalOcean signals a broader repricing of cloud infrastructure names by AI exposure.
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.
Mexická divize Nu se ve 2. čtvrtletí rozrostla na téměř 16 milionů zákazníků a ARPAC dosáhl 12,30 USD. Divize navíc v 1. čtvrtletí 2026 poprvé dosáhla bodu zvratu.
Nu Holdings (NU -2.33%) owns NuBank, the largest digital bank in Latin America. It served 139 million customers in the second quarter of 2026, representing 30% growth from a year earlier. As a digitally native bank, it expanded much faster than its brick-and-mortar peers.
Most of Nu's customers are located in Brazil, where it already serves more than half of the country's adult population. To gradually reduce its dependence on that maturing market, Nu is aggressively expanding in Mexico -- but that market has a higher ratio of non-performing loans. Nu is also ramping up its spending on additional products in Mexico -- including credit cards, bank deposits, loans, and other services -- to grow its revenue per active customer.
Image source: Getty Images.
Nu's customer base in Mexico grew 32% year over year to nearly 16 million customers in the second quarter. However, that expansion boosted its credit risk and average cost per active customer while compressing its margins. The Mexican government recently authorized Nu Mexico to operate as a full-fledged bank in the country. Still, that approval could also expose it to tighter regulations, stricter capital requirements, and other banking expenses. So is Nu's Mexican business finally starting to carry its own weight, or is it still its weakest link?
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What milestones has Nu's Mexican business achieved? Nu expanded into Mexico in 2020. Over the following five years, it launched its credit card, Cuenta Nu savings and debit accounts, Cajita digital savings app, and personal loans. It now serves 98% of all municipalities in Mexico, as well as 78% of customers outside major cities.
Before joining NuBank, 35% and 52% of its Mexican customers lacked bank accounts and credit cards, respectively. Only 63% of Mexican adults had bank accounts at the end of the second quarter, compared with 94% in Brazil. Nu still only serves 16.5% of Mexico's adult population -- so it still has plenty of room to expand.
Nu's Mexican business broke even for the first time in the first quarter of 2026. It reached that milestone two years faster than its flagship Brazilian business, and silenced the bears who had claimed the Mexican market would become a money pit.
Its average revenue per active customer (ARPAC) in Mexico also reached $12.30 in the second quarter, compared to Brazil's $5.60 at the equivalent phase of its expansion in the second quarter of 2020. All of those figures clearly indicate that Nu's Mexico business isn't just carrying its own weight -- it's becoming the fintech company's core growth engine.
Reddit začne testovat novou audio a video verzi příspěvků ve vybraných anglickojazyčných příspěvcích v aplikacích pro iOS a Android. Uživatelé si budou moci vybrat mezi „read“ a „play“, když bude tato možnost k dispozici.
Reddit recently said it would bring most viral stories to life through a new “video Reddit” experience, allowing users to listen to Reddit posts in the background while doing other tasks and activities. On Monday, Reddit will begin testing an initial version of this experience with both video and audio posts across select communities to see which type of posts resonate with its users and have the potential to scale.
The company announced its plans for narrated Reddit videos during its second-quarter earnings call in July, when CEO Steve Huffman told analysts on the quarterly call that people were already consuming Reddit content like this on other platforms.
He was referring to how other social media platforms, like TikTok and Meta’s Reels, often feature popular Reddit stories narrated through a text-to-speech feature or read aloud by creators. Some of those videos display the words on screen as they’re read or are accompanied by unrelated footage, like video gameplay or cooking content.
Screenshot of TikTok’s Reddit storiesImage Credits:TikTok screenshot “There is an emerging content type elsewhere on the internet of, basically, podcasts where people read Reddit content,” Huffman explained on the call. “I think this version of, like, listened-to or spoken Reddit can be really engaging, as well,” he added.
Reddit tells TechCrunch the initial tests are early, limited experiments meant to provide the company with a better understanding of how these formats can be useful to users, and whether they can be done in a way that feels authentic to Reddit. Users will be able to choose whether they want to “read” or “play” a post, when available.
The test will focus only on select English-language posts for the time being, and will be accessible through Reddit’s iOS and Android apps.
The different formats will not replace the original, text-only post, Reddit notes. Both the original post and the comments can still be viewed and engaged with as before. Instead, Reddit suggests that people may sometimes want to listen to Reddit audio while exercising, walking, or running errands, while others might want to watch written conversations come to life through video and audio combined.
This isn’t the first time Reddit has experimented with video. The company in earlier years rolled out native video hosting and tried various iterations of a TikTok-style video feed. More recently, Reddit launched support for video in comments, which it says now accounts for more than 10% of video posts on its platform.
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Petrobras potvrdila přítomnost uhlovodíků ve vrtné sondě Morpho v bloku FZA-M-59 u pobřeží Amapá. O komerčním využití rozhodnou až další geologické a technické studie.
Key Takeaways Petrobras confirmed hydrocarbons in the Morpho well, an exploration milestone in Block FZA-M-59.Further studies must assess the accumulation's size, quality and potential for commercial development.Petrobras' 100% ownership of FZA-M-59 gives it full control over the next exploration and evaluation stage. Petrobras (PBR - Free Report) , a Brazil-based integrated energy company, has confirmed the presence of hydrocarbons in the Morpho exploratory well in Block FZA-M-59, marking an important development in exploration along Brazil’s equatorial margin. The discovery was made in deep waters off the coast of Amapá, within the Amazon River Mouth sedimentary basin, an area being evaluated for its potential to support future oil and natural gas resources.
The Morpho well, officially identified as 1-BRSA-1405-APS, is located about 175 kilometers off the coast of Amapá at a water depth of approximately 2,886 meters. The result provides Petrobras with additional geological information as it evaluates the hydrocarbon potential of one of Brazil’s frontier offshore regions.
Petrobras Confirms Hydrocarbons in Block FZA-M-59Petrobras operates Block FZA-M-59 and holds a 100% working interest. The company acquired the block during Brazil’s 11th Bidding Round in 2013 under the concession regime administered by the National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels.
The identification of hydrocarbons is an encouraging exploration result, but it does not yet represent a declaration of commercial reserves. Petrobras must conduct additional geological and technical studies to determine the nature, size and quality of the accumulation and assess whether it can support future development.
The finding nevertheless strengthens the company’s exploration portfolio and provides another data point for evaluating the petroleum system of the Amazon River Mouth basin.
Morpho Well Highlights Brazil’s Equatorial Margin PotentialThe Morpho well was drilled in an exceptionally deepwater environment, with the seabed nearly 2,900 meters below sea level. Its offshore location underscores the technical complexity involved in exploring Brazil’s equatorial margin.
Beyond the hydrocarbons encountered, the well is expected to generate geological information that could help Petrobras better understand subsurface structures, reservoir properties and the region’s broader petroleum system. Such data can be valuable when determining whether additional prospects warrant exploration.
The Amazon River Mouth basin is part of Brazil’s equatorial margin, where companies have shown growing interest in identifying new oil and gas resources. For Petrobras, exploration success in this area could help expand its understanding of a relatively less-developed offshore frontier.
Exploration Supports Petrobras’ Reserve StrategyThe discovery aligns with Petrobras’ broader strategy of maintaining its resource base through continued exploration. As producing fields mature and natural declines affect output over time, successful exploration becomes important for identifying resources that could eventually replace produced reserves.
Petrobras has extensive experience operating in deepwater and ultra-deepwater environments, particularly in Brazil. That expertise provides an operational advantage as the company evaluates technically challenging frontier opportunities such as FZA-M-59.
However, the commercial significance of the Morpho well will depend on the results of subsequent evaluation. Petrobras will need to determine the extent of the accumulation, reservoir characteristics and recoverability before establishing its development potential.
Implications for Brazil’s Energy OutlookPetrobras has linked exploration in frontier areas with Brazil’s objective of maintaining energy security while advancing its energy transition. The company continues to view oil and natural gas as important components of the country’s energy system even as renewable and lower-carbon sources expand.
A successful exploration program could provide Brazil with additional resource options over the longer term. It could also generate economic benefits through investments in offshore infrastructure, specialized services, technology and potential future production.
Any development arising from the Morpho discovery would, however, remain subject to technical and economic assessments as well as environmental and regulatory requirements.
What the Morpho Discovery Means for PetrobrasThe immediate significance of the Morpho well is the confirmation that hydrocarbons are present in a previously less-developed area of the equatorial margin. This gives Petrobras additional geological insight while supporting its efforts to evaluate new offshore resources.
The 100% ownership and operatorship of Block FZA-M-59 also give Petrobras full control over the next stage of exploration and evaluation. The company can incorporate the well results with geological and geophysical data from the surrounding area to improve its assessment of the basin.
The discovery should therefore be viewed as an important exploration milestone rather than a completed development project. Further appraisal work will determine whether the hydrocarbons encountered can ultimately translate into commercially recoverable resources.
For Petrobras, the Morpho result reinforces the potential strategic value of Brazil’s equatorial margin and the role of frontier exploration in sustaining its long-term resource base. For the country, it adds to the geological understanding of an emerging offshore region that could become increasingly important to Brazil’s future oil and gas supply.
PBR's Zacks Rank & Key PicksCurrently, PBR has a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).
Investors interested in the energy sector might consider some better-ranked stocks, such as Par Pacific (PARR - Free Report) and Delek US Holdings (DK - Free Report) , both sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), and Oceaneering International (OII - Free Report) , carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present. You can seethe complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Par Pacific is valued at $4.02 billion. It is a diversified energy company that owns and operates petroleum refineries, logistics assets and retail fuel businesses across the United States. Par Pacific focuses on refining, transporting and marketing fuel products while serving regional markets with reliable energy solutions.
Delek US Holdings is valued at $4.01 billion. It is a diversified downstream energy company engaged in petroleum refining, renewable fuels, asphalt production and logistics operations. Delek US Holdings operates multiple refineries in the United States and is committed to delivering safe, reliable energy while investing in cleaner energy initiatives.
Oceaneering International is valued at $5.20 billion. It is a global technology and engineering company. Oceaneering International provides subsea robotics, offshore services, engineered products and advanced solutions to the energy, defense, aerospace and other industries.
Rigetti uvedla, že její první dvě 9qubitové soustavy v roce 2026 koupili komerční zákazníci pro výzkum. Firma zároveň očekává, že zakázka C-DAC za 8,4 milionu USD přinese tržby ve 4. čtvrtletí.
Key Takeaways Rigetti's first two 9-qubit systems delivered in 2026 went to commercial customers for research.Rigetti sees an expanding pipeline across commercial enterprises, universities and governments.Rigetti's $8.4 million C-DAC order for a 108-qubit system remains on track for fourth-quarter revenues. Rigetti Computing’s (RGTI - Free Report) second-quarter 2026 results highlighted a potentially important shift in the quantum computing market, with commercial traction emerging alongside government and academic demand. While government-backed programs and research institutions remain important sources of opportunity, management noted that the company is increasingly seeing commercial organizations purchase on-premises quantum systems.
Rigetti said that its first two 9-qubit systems delivered in 2026 went to commercial customers, which purchased the systems primarily for research and experimentation rather than practical workloads. This marks a notable change from a year or two ago, when commercial demand was largely absent. The trend also contributed to the company’s first-half revenue growth, with management specifically attributing a significant portion of sales growth to commercial organizations purchasing on-premises quantum systems.
The broader customer pipeline appears to be expanding across commercial enterprises, universities and governments, giving Rigetti multiple avenues for future system deployments. The company reported additional Novera demand from national laboratories and universities, including the University of Saskatchewan and a research arm of a large Japanese conglomerate.
Meanwhile, its $8.4 million C-DAC order for a 108-qubit system remains on track for revenue recognition in the fourth quarter, while the HPE-Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center collaboration is expected to place a full 9-qubit Rigetti system into an HPC environment in 2027. The latter could be particularly meaningful as it moves Rigetti beyond standalone quantum computing toward hybrid quantum-classical computing, potentially demonstrating how superconducting quantum systems can complement conventional CPUs and GPUs.
Peers UpdatesD-Wave Quantum (QBTS - Free Report) posted $3.1 million in revenues in the second quarter of 2026, essentially flat year over year. The company recognized revenues from approximately 100 customers, with commercial enterprises accounting for roughly 62.4% of revenues, up from 45.1% a year earlier.
D-Wave’s QCaaS subscription revenues jumped 50% year over year to $1.9 million, while professional services revenues grew more than 18% to roughly $900,000. Systems and other revenues were $300,000, largely from installation and site preparation related to the $20 million Florida Atlantic University sale.
IonQ (IONQ - Free Report) continues to strengthen its position in quantum computing by expanding its vertically integrated, full-stack platform. The company recently completed the acquisition of SkyWater Technology, creating a U.S.-based quantum foundry and strengthening its control over semiconductor manufacturing, advanced packaging and supply-chain capabilities. The transaction is expected to accelerate IonQ’s fault-tolerant quantum computing roadmap while supporting secure, end-to-end development of its quantum computing, networking, sensing and security technologies.
Rigetti’s Price Performance, Valuation and EstimatesShares of RGTI have lost 15.1% in the year-to-date period compared with the industry’s decline of 1.1%.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
From a valuation standpoint, Rigetti trades at a price-to-book ratio of 11.69, above the industry average. RGTI carries a Value Score of F.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Rigetti’s 2026 earnings implies a significant 71.9% improvement from the year-ago period.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
The company currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
CAVA za týden vzrostla o 19,2 % po zveřejnění výsledků, které ukázaly růst tržeb o 31,3 % a EPS nad odhady. Zároveň ale zůstává její forward P/S na 5,17 a marže klesly o 60 bazických bodů.
Key Takeaways CAVA gained 19.2% in a week as fresh earnings results sharpen focus on its operating momentum.CAVA's revenue rose 31.3%, EPS topped estimates, traffic grew 5.3%, and 17 net new restaurants opened.CAVA's 5.17 forward P/S ratio remains a premium, while restaurant-level margins fell 60 basis points. CAVA Group, Inc. (CAVA - Free Report) shares gained 19.22% in the past week, putting fresh attention on whether operating momentum can keep pace with investor expectations.
The move should not be assigned to any single development. CAVA's latest earnings, traffic, restaurant expansion and valuation instead provide a framework for judging whether the recent price strength is supported by business performance.
CAVA's 19.2% Jump Meets a Fresh Earnings BeatCAVA reported fiscal second-quarter 2026 earnings of $0.19 per share, up from $0.16 a year earlier and 5.6% above the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.18. Total revenues increased 31.3% year over year to $368.44 million and topped the consensus mark of $353 million by 4.4%.
Those results add fundamental context to the stock's one-week advance. They show that sales and earnings improved sharply in the quarter, but they do not establish that the earnings report caused the share-price move.
CAVA Traffic and Unit Growth Reinforce MomentumSame-restaurant sales rose 9%, with guest traffic contributing 5.3% and menu price and product mix adding 3.7 percentage points. Average unit volume increased to $3.09 million from $2.94 million a year earlier.
CAVA opened 17 net new restaurants and ended the quarter with 476 locations, up 19.6% year over year. New restaurant productivity remained above 100%, and the company reaffirmed its fiscal 2026 plan for 75-77 net new openings.
CAVA Margins Reveal the Cost of Growth InvestmentsRestaurant-level profit increased 28.1% year over year to $93.81 million, but restaurant-level profit margin declined 60 basis points to 25.7%. Higher sales therefore produced more restaurant-level profit dollars without preventing margin compression.
Food, beverage and packaging costs rose 50 basis points to 30% of CAVA revenues, largely because of salmon input costs. Labor costs increased 30 basis points to 25.3% as CAVA made an incremental 3% wage investment, while other operating expenses rose 40 basis points to 12.8% on a higher third-party delivery mix.
CAVA's Premium Valuation Raises the BarCAVA trades at a forward 12-month price-to-sales ratio of 5.17, versus 3.16 for its Zacks sub-industry and 1.51 for the broader Zacks sector. The multiple is below CAVA's two-year median of 6.83, but it still represents a sizable premium to both comparison groups.
Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (CMG - Free Report) reported second-quarter 2026 comparable restaurant sales growth of 2.2% and a restaurant-level operating margin of 25.2%. Shake Shack Inc. (SHAK - Free Report) posted same-Shack sales growth of 3.5% and a restaurant-level profit margin of 23.0% in its latest quarter. These peers provide useful operating context, though their concepts and scales differ from CAVA's.
CAVA's Mixed Signals Temper the Momentum CaseThe bottom line is that CAVA's recent stock strength is accompanied by rapid revenue growth, positive traffic and continued unit expansion, while margin pressure and a premium valuation keep the execution bar high.
CAVA currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). It also has a Growth Score of A, a Value Score of F, a Momentum Score of F and a VGM Score of D. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
The Growth Score points to favorable growth characteristics under the Zacks Style Score framework. The F grades for Value and Momentum indicate weaker characteristics in those styles, while the VGM Score of D reflects an unfavorable combined profile across value, growth and momentum. Together with the Zacks Rank #3, the scores support a more balanced view of CAVA's near-term prospects rather than a clear-cut signal from the one-week rally alone.
Klarna Group (NYSE:KLAR | KLAR Price Prediction) stock is sliding midday Monday, with shares down 7% to $19.38 ahead of the buy now, pay later (BNPL) firm’s second-quarter report. The pullback unwinds part of a three-week rally right before a binary event.
Klarna stock had climbed 4% for the week and 6% for the month through Friday’s close, and shares are down 33% year to date (YTD). The company went public on the New York Stock Exchange in September 2025, and Tuesday’s report before the market open is its most anticipated print since that listing.
Pre-Earnings De-Risking Ahead of Tuesday’s Print There’s no fresh company-specific Klarna news driving Monday’s drop. The move looks like straightforward profit-taking and risk reduction into an earnings event, with traders trimming exposure after a run that lifted the stock heading in. Positioning ahead of a binary earnings event often outweighs fundamentals in the final hours before a release.
The Street is looking for a Klarna loss of $0.06 per share on revenue of $995 million, per Fiscal.ai. Morgan Stanley raised its price target on Klarna stock to $21 from $18 while keeping an Equal Weight rating, and the 12-month average target sits at $24.55 per Koyfin. Of 22 analysts covering the stock, 13 have a Buy or higher rating and 9 have a Hold.
Retail sentiment on Stocktwits was neutral even as message volume surged 300% over 24 hours. One analyst noted expectations for a Q2 2026 beat on the back of robust e-commerce results, while flagging that Klarna’s discount to its larger BNPL competitor “likely only compresses with sustained execution on credit,” per TheFly.
Klarna’s own guidance sets the bar. For Q2 2026, management guided to GMV of $35.5 billion to $36.5 billion, revenue of $960 million to $1 billion, transaction margin dollars of $375 million to $395 million, and adjusted operating profit of $30 million to $50 million. The $995 million consensus revenue figure sits inside that range, shifting the focus to margins and credit.
Last quarter, Klarna posted a loss of $0.01 per share against a $0.13 consensus, on revenue of $1.012 billion, up 51.3% year over year (YoY). Fair Financing GMV grew 138% YoY to $4.1 billion, reaching 12% of total GMV, and interest income rose 56% to $284 million. Management has told investors that credit-loss provisions are expected to rise across Q2, Q3, and Q4 on seasonality, Fair Financing growth will moderate as comparables normalize, and the foreign exchange tailwind from a weaker dollar will diminish through the year.
BNPL Peers Split: Sezzle, PayPal, and Affirm Sezzle (NASDAQ:SEZL) stock is down 5% to $122.89 midday Monday. The smaller BNPL platform’s shares are still up 103% YTD, though Sezzle stock is down 32% for the month after a sharp reset from July highs, and up 9% for the week through Friday. That mixed pattern reflects investors still digesting Sezzle’s most recent print rather than reacting to anything new today.
PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) stock is down 2% to $60.35 in the large-cap payments corner. PayPal shares are up 11% for the month and up 6% YTD, holding steadier than either Klarna or Sezzle heading into the Klarna earnings report. The scale of PayPal’s payments platform makes it less sensitive to any single BNPL data point.
Affirm (NASDAQ:AFRM) stock is down 4.17% to $75.08 Monday, giving back a chunk of last week’s advance after the shares closed Friday at $78.35. Affirm had gained 4.12% for the week through Friday’s close, though it remains down 4.11% over the past month, and it’s still up 5.27% year to date on that same basis. As the larger U.S.-listed buy-now-pay-later platform, Affirm serves as the natural valuation anchor for Klarna, and the fact that it’s falling alongside Klarna on a day with no sector news suggests investors are trimming BNPL exposure broadly ahead of Tuesday’s print rather than singling out one name.
The split across the three names supports the read that Monday’s action is Klarna-specific positioning rather than a category event. When Sezzle, PayPal, Affirm, and Klarna splinter on the day before an earnings report, it usually points to single-name flows and hedging, not a macro repricing of BNPL.
What to Watch Investors can watch for whether Klarna’s revenue lands inside the guided $960 million to $1 billion range, whether transaction margin dollars hit the guided $375 million to $395 million, and whether adjusted operating profit stays positive within the $30 million to $50 million guide. Provision growth and full-year commentary are the two swing factors that could dictate the reaction into Wednesday.
The other tells for Klarna include how much provisions climb, and whether management reaffirms the full-year framework of GMV above $155 billion and adjusted operating profit above 6.9% of revenue. Tuesday’s release before the open could set the tone for BNPL sentiment into the back half of the year.
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.
USA Rare Earth spustila první fázi komerční linky na výrobu magnetů ve Stillwateru a začíná plnit objednávky zákazníků. Trh ji teď bude hodnotit podle výroby, poptávky a růstu tržeb.
For the past several years, USA Rare Earth (USAR -4.77%) has focused on financing projects, building manufacturing capacity, and assembling a domestic rare-earth supply chain. Those investments are finally beginning to produce commercial products, which means the market can now evaluate the company based on production, customer demand, and revenue growth rather than construction milestones.
USA Rare Earth recently commissioned the first phase of its commercial magnet production line at its facility in Stillwater, Oklahoma, enabling the company to begin fulfilling customer orders for its permanent magnets. Management says the facility represents the first new large-scale U.S. rare-earth magnet manufacturing plant in decades. Those magnets, by the way, are used in electric vehicles, robotics, aerospace, defense systems, and AI-related infrastructure. These are all industries that will be in high demand for the foreseeable future.
Here's what this could all mean for USA Rare Earth and the stock going forward.
Moving beyond the mine When it comes to rare-earth companies, mining alone captures only a portion of the industry's economics. In fact, the higher-value opportunity actually lies in processing rare-earth oxides and manufacturing permanent magnets. China still dominates much of that supply chain, making domestic production a strategic priority for both governments and manufacturers. USA Rare Earth is trying to build that entire value chain.
Image source: Getty Images.
In addition to its Oklahoma magnet facility, the company continues advancing development of its Round Top rare-earth project in Texas while expanding processing capabilities through strategic investments, including its recently completed investment in French rare-earth processor Carester. That partnership gives USA Rare Earth additional access to separation capacity while strengthening its position in the global supply chain.
The company also remains well-capitalized, with a balance sheet providing a decent amount of flexibility. USA Rare Earth ended the second quarter with approximately $1.53 billion in cash and cash equivalents. During the quarter, the company also finalized agreements with the U.S. Department of Commerce for access to up to $1.6 billion in CHIPS Act funding.
Management says that this capital will support the continued ramp-up of its Stillwater magnet facility, construction of a new magnet and metals manufacturing operation in South Carolina, and ongoing development of the Round Top rare-earth project.
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Of course, that doesn't mean the hard part is over. Commercial manufacturing is very different from building a facility. We now need to see consistent production volumes, customer wins, and growing revenue, rather than simply new construction announcements.
What will drive the stock Demand does appear to be working in the company's favor. Electric vehicles, humanoid robots, wind turbines, military equipment, and AI data centers all rely on high-performance permanent magnets. At the same time, the U.S. and Europe continue investing billions of dollars to reduce dependence on China's rare-earth supply chain. That creates a favorable backdrop for companies capable of producing magnets outside China.
Until recently, buying USA Rare Earth largely meant betting that management could finance and build a domestic rare-earth business. Now the focus shifts to whether the company can successfully manufacture, deliver, and scale commercial production. That's a much more measurable business.
The stock will almost certainly remain volatile as production ramps. But each commercial shipment, customer agreement, and increase in manufacturing output provides another data point you can use to evaluate execution. After years spent building the business, USA Rare Earth is finally entering the phase where results, not construction updates, are likely to drive the stock.
Red Cat oslabuje o 4 % poté, co Blue Ops oznámila partnerství s Havoc za účelem integrace autonomního softwaru do více bezposádkových hladinových plavidel. Finanční podmínky nebyly zveřejněny.
Red Cat (NASDAQ:RCAT) shares are down 4% to $10.65 Monday afternoon, slipping despite a fresh maritime autonomy partnership announcement from the company’s Blue Ops division. The pullback follows a scorching run that lifted Red Cat stock 21% for the week through Friday and 40% over the past month.
The move looks like consolidation. Red Cat stock is still up 35% year to date (YTD) and 30% over the past year, and the names that ran hardest on Friday’s drone tariff rally are giving back the most today.
Blue Ops and Havoc Sign an Integration Deal Red Cat’s Blue Ops maritime unit announced a partnership with Havoc, a private developer of all-domain collaborative autonomy. The companies plan to integrate Havoc’s collaborative autonomy software and command-and-control capabilities across multiple Blue Ops uncrewed surface vessels, including the Variant 7 and additional platforms as they are introduced, enabling coordinated multi-vessel operations for U.S. and allied defense customers.
The partnership builds on Blue Ops’ Modular Open Systems Architecture approach and includes plans to establish operational fleets at Havoc’s Rhode Island headquarters and Blue Ops’ Florida headquarters for live demonstrations, testing, training and operational evaluation, along with cross-marketing to each company’s customer base.
Here’s the key qualifier. No financial terms, contract value, or revenue contribution were disclosed. The release describes a framework for technical integration, demonstrations, and joint customer engagement rather than a purchase order. Blue Ops President Barry Hinckley stated the goal is “to build the best small USVs in the world while making it easy to integrate leading technologies from across the U.S. and our allies.”
Friday’s Tariff Rally Is Giving Back The broader catalyst behind today’s selling traces to Friday, when President Trump signed a proclamation imposing tariffs of up to 100% on imported drones and unmanned aircraft parts, sending domestic drone names sharply higher. Most of those tariffs take effect 21 days after the proclamation, with a 180-day delay on less-sensitive components, so nothing has hit revenue yet.
Red Cat’s fundamentals also complicate the narrative. The company’s fiscal second-quarter report on August 6 showed revenue of $20.19 million, missing the $22.58 million consensus, with a GAAP loss of $0.26 per share against a $0.17 estimate. Revenue rose 527% year over year (YoY), cash stood at $325.55 million, and the company reaffirmed its full-year target of $150 million to $180 million.
Peers Give Back Friday’s Gains Unusual Machines (NYSE:UMAC) stock is down 7% to $31.78 after leading Friday’s rally on its status as a domestic maker of NDAA-compliant drone components. The stock is still up 30% for the week through Friday and 167% YTD.
Ondas Holdings (NASDAQ:ONDS) shares are down 3% to $9. The Nantucket-based autonomous systems platform spans drones, counter-UAS, and secure communications. Ondas Holdings stock is up 31% for the month yet down 5% YTD.
Kratos Defense & Security Solutions (NASDAQ:KTOS) stock is down just 1% to $63.9, showing the relative resilience of an established Pentagon supplier versus the smaller drone names. Kratos Defense stock is up 30% for the month and down 15% YTD.
The ETF Absorbs the Volatility REX Drone ETF (NASDAQ:DRNZ) shares are unchanged at $24.01 Monday, up 14% for the month and 11% YTD. The flat print against the individual declines shows how a diversified drone basket can absorb single-name volatility in both directions.
The fund is a narrow thematic product with meaningful concentration risk, is not leveraged, and has a short trading history. Investors sizing exposure to the drone theme may want to weigh their allocation against those constraints.
What to Watch Investors can watch for whether the Blue Ops and Havoc integration produces an actual defense order, whether the Rhode Island and Florida operational fleets open on schedule, whether the drone tariffs take effect as written on the 21-day and 180-day timelines, and whether Red Cat’s revenue trajectory supports the $150 million to $180 million full-year target after the Q2 FY2026 miss.
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.
Paramount Skydance žádá státy, které žalobou blokují fúzi s Warner Bros. Discovery, aby složily záruku 1,88 miliardy USD na pokrytí nákladů z prodlení. Firma tvrdí, že ji zpoždění už stojí miliardy na běžících poplatcích.
Paramount Skydance will seek to force the states holding up its merger with Warner Bros. Discovery to pay for the fees and costs associated with the delay, according to a new filing in the antitrust case Monday.
Paramount is requesting a $1.88 billion bond that would be posted by the states behind the lawsuit. In July, a dozen state attorneys general led by California's Rob Bonta filed to challenge the proposed $110 billion merger between Paramount and WBD.
The proposed deal would combine two storied film studios — Paramount and Warner Bros. — as well as put together a sprawling portfolio of pay TV networks in the U.S. and streaming platforms HBO Max and Paramount+.
The group of state attorneys general said in its initial filing that the merger would violate the Clayton Antitrust Act, which is the more-than-100-year-old law that prohibits anticompetitive mergers and acquisitions.
In a statement from a Paramount spokesperson, the company pointed to the Clayton Antitrust Act and other federal law that calls on the plaintiffs — or states in this case — being required "to post a bond covering the potential harm from halting a transaction to litigate."
"Here, every month of delay carries substantial and quantifiable financial consequences," Paramount said in its statement.
A representative from Bonta's office didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.
Paramount has received regulatory approvals from the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as all other global jurisdictions needed to move forward with the merger. But last month, Paramount agreed to delay the proposed acquisition to as late as June 2027 while the state AGs' case heads to trial.
Paramount long planned to have the deal closed by the end of September. The delay could prove costly for Paramount.
Paramount agreed to a so-called ticking fee under the terms of the merger agreement, meaning that beginning Sept. 30 it would pay WBD shareholders an additional 25 cents per share, per quarter, until the deal closes. The amount could add up to roughly $650 million in cash value per quarter.
"By the time trial concludes and the parties submit their final briefs, Paramount will have paid Warner Bros. shareholders an unrecoverable $1.3 billion in ticking fees alone," Paramount said in the filing. "Delay also threatens to nullify the regulatory approvals that Defendants have already spent months securing."
"Absent security, even a complete victory on the merits would not restore a dollar of those extraordinary losses. That is precisely why federal law requires plaintiffs to provide security as a condition for receiving preliminary relief such as the court-approved order," the filing says.
In Paramount's statement, the company said that the $1.88 billion amount is a "straightforward calculation of the maximum potential ticking consideration and financing costs from this litigation."
However, the statement goes on to add that these are not the only costs associated with delaying the deal: "By virtue of what will be at least an eight-month delay in closing, there will be no integration and no ramped-up investment in content, production, and creative talent by the combined company. Of course, in addition, employees of both Paramount and WBD are also harmed by the uncertainties caused by the delay."
In addition to California, the group of states suing to block the merger includes Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon and Washington.
SpaceX Corp (NASDAQ:SPCX) could be on the cusp of a major growth inflection for its Starlink satellite broadband business, with UBS arguing that the company's next-generation satellites and an unconventional ground-network strategy could significantly expand its reach.
Analysts expect SpaceX shares to continue trading on demand for tokens, reflecting the leverage it sees in the company as both a major cloud provider and a frontier-model player.
Over the medium term, however, the investment bank believes Starship's ability to accelerate Starlink's expansion could become an important source of value.
Shares of SpaceX gained 5.6% on Monday.
UBS expects Starlink growth to accelerate once SpaceX reaches critical mass with its V3 fixed broadband satellites, which it expects to happen sometime next year.
The picture is more complicated for mobile services. SpaceX's V2 mobile low-Earth-orbit constellation cannot provide coverage in some of the most challenging environments, including dense urban locations and the interiors of office buildings and multi-dwelling units.
SpaceX has said it plans to address those gaps by incorporating small terrestrial radios, known as femtocells, into its next-generation Starlink terminals.
UBS said SpaceX’s femtocell strategy hinges on securing low-band spectrum and achieving sufficient deployment density.
Frequencies below 1GHz are attractive for their broad coverage, with potential sources including spectrum held by EchoStar, NextNav and Anterix, while UHF spectrum could offer a longer-term opportunity. However, reallocating broadcast spectrum would likely take years.
Femtocells typically cover 10 to 50 metres, with range dependent on spectrum, power and antenna gain. Their effectiveness will ultimately depend on the number and geographic distribution of Starlink subscribers, as the devices would be built into next-generation terminals.
UBS currently models around 3 million US Starlink subscribers, rising to 6 million by the end of 2027 and 20 million by the end of 2031.
UBS continues to believe SpaceX's preferred route for US mobile services would be an MVNO agreement with an existing wireless carrier. If such a deal does not materialize, however, the bank expects SpaceX could pursue a hybrid network combining Starlink satellites with ground infrastructure, including towers where femtocells cannot provide sufficient coverage.
Apple čelí tlaku americké vlády kvůli plánům odebírat paměťové čipy od čínských dodavatelů, včetně CXMT. Washington zároveň tlačí firmu k rozšíření výroby v USA.
is facing pressure from the U.S. government over plans to source memory components from Chinese suppliers, adding another complication to the company's efforts to secure chips amid tight global supply.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the Trump administration does not support Apple purchasing memory from Chinese manufacturers. He also indicated that the government has urged the company to expand its domestic manufacturing operations.
Apple has been evaluating memory supplied by China-based ChangXin Memory Technologies, or CXMT, for potential use in products including iPhones and MacBooks, according to The Wall Street Journal. The company is not prohibited from purchasing commercially available components from Chinese suppliers, although some transfers of product information require U.S. licensing.
The issue comes as artificial-intelligence demand puts pressure on the broader memory market. Apple's shares closed at $305.26 on Aug. 14 and rose 0.22% during the session. The company had a market capitalization of about $4.46 trillion, while its forward price-to-earnings ratio stood at 34.77.
The administration has also encouraged Apple to shift more manufacturing activity to the U.S., potentially adding supply-chain costs and execution challenges as the company evaluates alternative sources for memory components.
Meta čelí novému riziku u svého datového centra v El Pasu za 14 miliard USD s BlackRock: projekt je podle Financial Times pojištěn jen částečně. Při velké škodě by tak mohl nést miliardové ztráty.
Meta Platforms Inc. (META, Financials), the social media and artificial intelligence company, faces a new risk around its $14 billion Texas data-center project with BlackRock.
The joint venture is developing a 1-gigawatt campus in El Paso, with BlackRock holding an 80% stake and Meta retaining 20%.
According to the Financial Times, only part of the project is fully insured, potentially leaving the venture exposed to billions of dollars in losses if the campus suffers a major event.
The project reportedly carries up to $427 million in all-risk property coverage during construction, rising to $450 million once operational. It also has $645 million of terrorism coverage and up to $218 million for rent losses caused by construction delays.
Those figures remain small relative to the roughly $14 billion development cost. For Meta investors, the issue adds another layer of risk to an already aggressive AI infrastructure buildout.
Joint ventures can reduce Meta's upfront capital burden, but they do not eliminate its economic exposure if major projects run into construction, financing or asset-value problems.
The key question is whether Meta's AI data centers generate enough long-term returns to justify both the spending and the risks attached to financing them.
Meta jde k soudu kvůli obvinění, že Facebook a Instagram navrhla jako návykové a zatajovala rizika pro děti. Proces má začít s úvodními řečmi v úterý v Oaklandu a může trvat čtyři až šest týdnů.
Social media giant Meta is heading to court in a case brought by a group of state attorneys general who claim the company designed its social media platforms to be addictive and misled the public about potential risks.
The trial is expected to begin with opening statements on Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in Oakland after the two sides went through the jury selection process last week and Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers turned down Meta's request for the case to be dismissed. The trial is expected to last four to six weeks, with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg expected to testify.
Attorneys general from California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey first filed the lawsuit in 2023 after a multistate investigation into the impact of Facebook and Instagram on young users. They argue that the platforms were designed to be addictive and that the company downplayed the potential impact on young people, while also alleging Meta violated federal law when it collected personal information from children.
Attorneys general from California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey first filed the lawsuit in 2023 after a multistate investigation into the impact of Facebook and Instagram on young users. (Mike Blake/Reuters)
Meta, which is the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has denied wrongdoing and disputes claims that its social media platforms caused the harm alleged by states. It also argues that "social media addiction" isn't an officially recognized psychiatric diagnosis, which will be a significant point of contention at trial.
FOUR STATES SEEKING $1.4 TRILLION IN PENALTIES IN CHILD SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICTION TRIAL, META SAYS
California Attorney General Rob Bonta issued a statement last week after the court allowed the case to proceed, saying, "Meta designed a dangerous product for young users, knew it to be dangerous, and then lied to children, families, and the community about how dangerous it was."
A Meta spokesperson pushed back on the states' case against the company and said in a statement to FOX Business that the "limited claims are unsubstantiated and their financial demands are vastly disproportionate."
"The AGs offer no proof anyone in their states was misled, claim benign features like having an additional Instagram account somehow harmed their residents, and attempt to penalize Meta for industry-wide challenges like age verification. Rather than sticking to the facts or the law, the states have instead decided to chase an outlandish payout," the company spokesperson said, adding that the company stands by its "record of creating strong protections for teens, and look forward to making our case in court."
Ticker Security Last Change Change % META META PLATFORMS INC. 589.85 -5.12 -0.86% Meta has argued that the damages sought by the state attorneys general could reach as high as $1.4 trillion, which is nearly the size of the company's market capitalization – though the AGs haven't disclosed the amount they plan to seek at trial and will likely do so once the trial begins.
NEW MEXICO COURT ORDERS META TO PAY $567M, OVERHAUL TEEN PROTECTIONS
Monte Mann, a partner at Armstrong Teasdale, told FOX Business in an interview that this will be a "bellwether case" for the theory that social media platforms were designed to be addictive and have harmful effects on young users.
Mann said that as someone who has tried cases like this one, he will be paying close attention to what internal Meta documents indicate about the company's knowledge of the allegedly compulsive nature of its products and their mental health impact, saying those documents "may be the star witness in the case."
"I will be very interested to see what the internal Meta, Facebook, Instagram documents say about what they knew of the compulsive nature of these products and services; when they knew it; whether they tried to enhance their design elements to take advantage of those things, what they disclosed to the public," he said.
Meta has argued that the damages sought by the state attorneys general could reach as high as $1.4 trillion. (Mike Blake/Reuters)
Mann also noted that Judge Gonzalez Rogers appointed an advisory jury in the case, which can provide feedback and recommendations on community standards for children's use of social media that she may consider.
META, OTHER COMPANIES MUST FACE THOUSANDS OF LAWSUITS OVER CHILD SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICTION, APPEALS COURT RULES
The Oakland trial is the latest high-profile case involving social media companies like Meta, which have faced numerous lawsuits brought by individuals, school districts and state governments over the alleged impacts of social media use on children.
A ruling in another prominent case was delivered earlier this month when a state court in New Mexico ordered Meta to pay $567 million and to overhaul its protections for teen users on Facebook and Instagram.
That followed a prior ruling from March which ordered Meta to pay $375 million for violating state law, with the company's total liability in the case at nearly $942 million.
Meta told FOX Business after the most recent ruling that it disagreed with the decision and vowed to appeal, explaining that the company is "confident in our record of protecting teens online and will continue to defend ourselves against claims that misrepresent the facts."
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FOX Business' Michael Sinkewicz, Sumner Park and Reuters contributed to this report.
Akcie Meta Platforms v pondělí klesly asi o 4 % kvůli rostoucím právním rizikům a pochybnostem o strategii v oblasti AI. Firma čelí žalobě od 29 generálních prokurátorů států.
Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) stock fell about 4% on Monday as investors weighed mounting legal risks and questions about the company’s AI strategy. The decline also came as Communication Services ranked as the market’s weakest sector.
The Nasdaq fell 0.14%, while the S&P 500 dropped 0.38%.
California Trial Puts Meta’s Legal Risks In FocusMeta faces a case brought by 29 state attorneys general. They accuse the company of illegally collecting children’s data and misleading consumers about safety. They also allege that Facebook and Instagram included features designed to encourage addictive behavior among young users.
U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers will decide the case. An eight-person advisory jury will also issue a nonbinding verdict.
Meta has said potential damages could reach $1.4 trillion. However, attorneys for the states have cited about $200 billion as a more likely figure, CNBC reported Monday.
The trial follows Meta’s recent losses in New Mexico. A jury there ordered the company to pay $375 million. A judge later directed another $567 million into an abatement fund. Meta plans to appeal.
The states also want Meta to delete certain children’s data and algorithms trained on that information. They are seeking the removal of features they describe as addictive.
Meta disputes the allegations. It has called the claims “unsubstantiated” and the financial demands “vastly disproportionate.”
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez has warned that a large judgment could affect Meta’s ability to fund future investments. Meta’s AI spending could reach $145 billion this year.
McNamee Questions Meta’s AI PositionThe legal uncertainty comes as Elevation Partners’ Roger McNamee questions Meta’s position in the AI race. He called CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s open-source AI vision “science fiction that is untethered from reality.”
Speaking on CNBC, McNamee said Zuckerberg’s recent manifesto aims to create the impression that Meta is well positioned in AI while also improving his reputation.
McNamee also challenged broader assumptions about the AI boom. He urged investors to reconsider whether current large language models can deliver the economic transformation markets expect.
“If I owned the stocks today, I’d be sitting there and asking the question, ‘Are all my assumptions still sound?’” McNamee said. “Because I think a few of them aren’t.”
He argued that large language models rely on historical observations to generate the most likely response. That approach, he said, raises questions about how many economically valuable uses require an “average result.”
Meta Stock Remains Below Key Moving AveragesMeta shares remain under pressure from a technical perspective. The stock trades 4.2% below its 20-day simple moving average and 5.1% below its 50-day average.
It also sits 6.9% below its 100-day average and 9.7% below its 200-day average. In addition, the stock’s MACD remains below its signal line, pointing to weak momentum.
Meta shares have fallen 26.28% over the past 12 months. The stock’s 52-week range is $520.26 to $796.25.
Analysts Remain BullishWall Street remains positive despite the recent weakness. Meta carries a Buy consensus rating and an average price forecast of $767.42.
UBS maintained a Buy rating while lowering its price forecast to $715 on July 30. Baird kept an Outperform rating and cut its forecast to $750. Goldman Sachs maintained a Buy rating and lowered its forecast to $725.
META Price ActionMETA Price Action: Meta Platforms shares were down 4.11% at $565.63 at the time of publication Monday, according to Benzinga Pro data.
Nokia ve 2. čtvrtletí zvýšila tržby segmentu Network Infrastructure na 2,04 miliardy EUR díky silné poptávce po AI & Cloud. Tržby AI & Cloud vyskočily meziročně o 105 %.
Key Takeaways Nokia's Network Infrastructure sales rose to 2.04 billion euro, fueled by strong AI & Cloud demand.AI & Cloud sales surged 105%, while Optical Networks and IP Network revenues grew 20% and 16%, respectively.Nokia is expanding optical capacity as telecom modernization adds another growth driver. Nokia Corporation (NOK - Free Report) is benefiting from solid revenue growth in the Network Infrastructure segment. During the second quarter, net sales from Network Infrastructure totaled €2.04 billion ($2.37 billion), increasing from €1.83 billion in the year-ago quarter. There are multiple factors driving this growth.
The rapid expansion of AI infrastructure has substantially increased the need for high-capacity connectivity. Nokia, with its robust Optical Network and IP network portfolio, is capitalizing on this emerging trend. In the second quarter, AI & Cloud net sales increased 105% year over year, while AI & Cloud order intake reached 2.8 billion euros.
During the second quarter, Optical Networks revenues grew 20% year over year on a constant currency (cc) basis, while IP Network grew 16% on a cc basis, backed by growing AI infrastructure spending. Nokia is actively expanding its optical manufacturing capacity to support the growing demand. Its new San Jose facility is expected to scale production in the fourth quarter of 2026. The Pennsylvania advanced test and packaging capacity is being increased 10x. These capacity expansions will help the company support expanding demand in the next several years.
Telecom network modernization remains a secondary growth driver. Telecom networks are also extending and enhancing their network to support high-bandwidth applications and AI workloads. This is also expected to remain a growth driver for upcoming quarters.
Weakness in the Fixed networks business remains a drag on this segment’s net sales growth. Lower sales of consumer-premise fiber products are impacting revenues.
How are Competitors Faring?Nokia faces competition from Ciena Corporation (CIEN - Free Report) and Arista Networks, Inc. (ANET - Free Report) in the Network Infrastructure segment. Ciena is witnessing solid demand trends as AI applications drive higher network traffic and bandwidth consumption across cloud and service provider environments. The company’s Optical Networking revenues increased to $1.10 billion from $773.6 million a year ago in the second quarter of 2026.
The company offers high-capacity optical transport, coherent optics and data-center interconnect solutions. This helps cloud providers and network operators handle rapidly increasing bandwidth requirements. Ciena is also targeting AI infrastructure with higher-capacity optical technologies, putting it in direct competition with Nokia.
Arista Networks competes with Nokia primarily in IP and data-center networking. The company boasts a strong presence in high-speed Ethernet switching and routing. This gives Arista exposure to the rapid expansion of AI data centers. During the second quarter of 2026, the company exceeded 100 cumulative AI fabric customers using Etherlink switches compared with only a handful of early adopters in 2024. Management also expects AI revenues to reach at least $3.6 billion in 2026, supported by scale-up, scale-out and scale-across deployments.
NOK’s Price Performance, Valuation & EstimatesNokia shares have soared 153.2% over the past year compared with the industry’s 38.2% growth.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
From a valuation standpoint, Nokia trades at a forward price-to-sales ratio of 2.47, below the industry tally of 5.06.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Earnings estimates for 2026 have declined 2.5% to 39 cents over the past 60 days, while those for 2027 have increased 2.04% to 50 cents.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Nokia currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Nike klesá o 3 % na 39,47 USD a vytváří nové 52týdenní minimum 39,42 USD, protože slabost v Číně přebíjí oživení velkoobchodu. Akcie jsou 51 % pod 52týdenním maximem 80,16 USD.
Nike (NYSE:NKE | NKE Price Prediction) shares are sliding again Monday, with the stock down 3% to $39.47 and printing a fresh 52-week low of $39.42. Nike shares now sit 51% below the 52-week high of $80.16.
There isn’t a fresh company-specific headline today. The move looks like a rerating driven by continued pressure across athletic apparel, an unresolved China problem, and a market that no longer trusts the reported margin improvement.
Nike stock was down 2% for the week and down 5% for the month through Friday’s close, down 35% year to date (YTD) and down 45% over the past year. The weekly and monthly slides show the selling pressure has intensified into today’s fresh low.
The China Problem Hasn’t Turned Nike’s fiscal 2026 results laid out the geographic problem clearly. Greater China generated $5.85 billion in revenue, 12.6% of the company total, with sales down 11% as reported and 13% currency-neutral. Direct digital sales in the region fell 29%.
China EBIT fell 20% to $1.28 billion, and footwear unit sales in the region dropped 14%. That volume decline signals the weakness runs deeper than currency translation.
Wholesale Recovers, Direct Keeps Shrinking The channel mix is working against the turnaround story. Fiscal 2026 revenue was $46.40 billion, unchanged as reported and down 2% currency-neutral. Nike Brand wholesale rose 6% to $27.45 billion as retailers restocked, while Nike Direct fell 6% to $17.72 billion and Nike Brand Digital fell 12%.
Converse revenue fell 31% to $1.17 billion, and inventory held unchanged at $7.5 billion. The higher-margin direct and digital businesses are the ones contracting.
The Margin Question Nike’s Q4 FY2026 gross margin climbed 890 basis points to 49.2%, but 900 basis points came from an anticipated tariff recovery. Underlying margin was close to unchanged. CFO Matthew Friend stated the company was “improving the health of our business” while noting sell-through continued to face challenges.
On coverage math, Nike pays a $0.41 quarterly dividend, $1.64 annualized, representing 78.1% of reported fiscal 2026 EPS of $2.10. TechStock² ran a stress illustration that strips out the disclosed $0.52 fourth-quarter tariff-recovery gain, producing an example EPS of $1.58 and a payout of 103.8%. That is the outlet’s stress scenario, not Nike guidance, and dividend coverage depends on an earnings recovery rather than the reported number alone (a payout ratio flirting with 100% is one of the classic warning signs we noted in our dividend trap guide).
Valuation and the Street Split Nike stock trades at a P/E ratio of 18.8x and 1.26 times projected fiscal 2026 revenue. Among 25 analysts there are nine Buys, 14 Holds and two Sells, with an average price target of $50.29. Targets range from JPMorgan’s $40 to Jefferies’ $75.
JPMorgan downgraded Nike to Sell on August 4 with a $40 target, which now sits essentially at the market. The unusually wide dispersion is itself the story. The Street cannot agree on whether Nike stock is a value opportunity or a value trap.
Peers Are Selling Off Too Lululemon Athletica (NASDAQ:LULU) shares are down 3% to $116.52 and off 42% YTD, with the premium yoga and athletic apparel brand facing its own U.S. slowdown. Americas comp sales turned negative in the latest quarter even as China Mainland comps jumped.
Deckers Outdoor (NYSE:DECK) stock is down 2% to $91.06 and down 10% YTD, dragging the owner of the HOKA and UGG premium footwear brands lower. Deckers recently raised its FY27 EPS guide on strong international momentum.
On Holding (NYSE:ONON) shares are down 3% to $31.42 and down 31% YTD, with the fast-growing premium Swiss running brand caught in the same rerating. Nike underperformed this small peer group by 0.4 percentage point.
The SPDR S&P Retail ETF (NYSEARCA:XRT) is down 1% to $87.86 yet remains up 5% YTD. The broad retail basket is holding up far better than the athletic names, which suggests much of today’s damage is Nike-specific and athletic-apparel-specific rather than a full sector break. The ETF is a sector fund with concentration risk relative to the broad market, and it is not leveraged.
What to Watch Investors can watch for whether Greater China revenue and regional digital sales stabilize, whether Nike Direct returns to growth, and whether gross margin holds once the tariff-recovery benefit rolls out of the comparison. The near-term technical marker is JPMorgan’s $40 level, which Nike stock is now trading beneath.
The wholesale rebound is real, but it is the lower-margin channel, and it cannot offset the direct and digital contraction indefinitely. Peer results at Deckers and On Holding show international execution is possible in this environment, which puts more weight on Nike’s next update out of Greater China.
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.
Akcie Nike v pondělí klesly o 4,3 % na nejnižší úroveň od září 2014. UBS uvedla, že slabší ceny bot Nike a Jordan na sekundárním trhu v červenci ukazují na přetrvávající slabost značky. Ceny bot Nike na sekundárním trhu klesly v červenci meziročně o 2,9 % a ceny Jordan o 2,8 %.
Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE, XETRA:NKE) shares fell 4.3% Monday to their lowest level since September 2014, extending a decline that has now wiped out more than $200 billion in market value since the stock's 2021 record high, a drop of 78%.
Soft direct-to-consumer sales and a fresh analyst downgrade weighed on the stock as it hovered near multi-year lows. Analysts project revenue will stay muted next quarter as the company continues working through a structural reset of its retail business.
UBS said secondary-market prices for Nike and Jordan footwear weakened year-over-year in July, citing new UBS Evidence Lab data. Nike brand shoe prices in the secondary sneaker market fell 2.9% y/y in July, the third straight month of decline and a roughly 120-basis-point deterioration from a 1.7% decrease in June. Jordan brand prices fell 2.8% y/y in July, an 480-basis-point deterioration from 2.0% growth in June.
UBS called the data "a modest negative" for Nike, noting the company still has considerable work ahead to restore sustainable sales growth and meaningful margin expansion, while the market continues to price in a solid turnaround.
UBS said secondary-market data serves as a reasonably good proxy for brand momentum, and that Nike's stock is likely to improve once investors gain confidence the company's growth rate has bottomed and visibility emerges into a return to sustainably positive growth. July's data did not show that inflection, the bank said, as Nike's decline deepened and Jordan moved back into negative territory.
Visa Direct ve 3. čtvrtletí fiskálního roku 2026 zvýšil počet transakcí meziročně o 21 % a výnosy z komerčních a převodních řešení o 17 % v konstantních dolarech. Visa rozšiřuje platformu na 18 miliard způsobilých platebních endpointů ve více než 195 zemích a teritoriích a v 150+ měnách.
Key Takeaways Visa Direct transactions grew 21% as Visa expands money movement across domestic and cross-border use cases.Visa expanded Visa Direct to 18 billion payment endpoints across 195-plus countries and 150-plus currencies.Stablecoin partnerships give businesses more liquidity flexibility and support faster cross-border payouts. Visa Inc. (V - Free Report) is expanding its role in money movement as Visa Direct gains traction across domestic and cross-border use cases. In third-quarter fiscal 2026, Visa Direct transactions grew 21% year over year, while commercial and money-movement solutions revenues increased 17% in constant dollars. V also expanded Visa Direct into new applications, including DoorDash’s Crimson banking and rewards platform.
The opportunity is getting larger as Visa Direct expands its network. It provides access to 18 billion eligible payment endpoints across cards, accounts and digital wallets in more than 195 countries and territories and 150-plus currencies. The platform supports a growing range of use cases, from payouts and remittances to marketplace payments and account funding.
V is also strengthening its cross-border capabilities. In February 2026, the company announced a connection between Visa Direct and UnionPay International’s MoneyExpress platform that is expected to enable transfers to more than 95% of UnionPay International debit cardholders in mainland China. This could open a key corridor for remittances and business-to-consumer payouts.
Meanwhile, V is expanding Visa Direct’s stablecoin capabilities through partnerships with infrastructure providers such as BVNK and zerohash. The initiatives allow eligible businesses to prefund Visa Direct payouts with stablecoins and, in select pilot programs, enable recipients to receive funds directly in stablecoins. By bringing stablecoins into its existing money-movement infrastructure, Visa can give businesses greater flexibility in managing liquidity while supporting faster, more flexible cross-border payouts.
As these initiatives scale, Visa Direct could help Visa diversify growth beyond traditional card transactions and capture a larger share of the rapidly evolving global money-movement market.
How Are Competitors Faring?Some of V’s competitors in the fintech space include Mastercard Incorporated (MA - Free Report) and PayPal Holdings, Inc. (PYPL - Free Report) .
Mastercard is strengthening its position in stablecoin-powered money movement after completing its acquisition of BVNK, a stablecoin infrastructure provider. The deal combines BVNK’s digital-asset capabilities with Mastercard’s global payments network, helping connect stablecoins with traditional fiat rails. This could give MA more ways to capture growth as digital assets gain traction in mainstream payments.
PayPal is taking a more direct stablecoin approach through PYUSD, which is now available across 70 markets. The company is integrating PYUSD into its payments ecosystem to facilitate faster, potentially lower-friction transactions, giving PayPal a natural avenue to expand cross-border money movement beyond conventional payment rails.
Visa’s Price Performance, Valuation & EstimatesOver the past year, shares of Visa have gained 6.3%, outperforming the industry’s 12.7% fall.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
From a valuation standpoint, V trades at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 24.70, well above the industry average of 18.85. V carries a Value Score of D.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Visa’s fiscal 2026 earnings implies a 14.7% jump from the year-ago period.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Visa stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Bank of America vkládá do Jio Credit Limited asi 1,9 miliardy USD za podíl až 49,9 %. Tím posílí svou přítomnost v Indii a získá přístup k digitální úvěrové platformě.
Key Takeaways BAC will invest $1.9 billion for up to a 49.9% stake in Jio Credit, expanding its footprint in India.BAC will gain equal board representation, combining its know-how with Jio Credit's digital lending platform.BAC gains exposure to Jio Credit's lending platform through its strategic investment in India. Bank of America Corporation (BAC - Free Report) is strengthening its presence in India by investing approximately $1.9 billion for up to a 49.9% stake in Jio Credit Limited (JCL), the lending subsidiary of Jio Financial Services (JFSL). The investment will provide BAC with exposure to India’s rapidly growing credit market while leveraging Jio Financial Services’ digital reach, customer base and local expertise.
The transaction will enable BAC to combine its global financial-services expertise, technology, governance and risk-management capabilities with Jio Credit’s digital-first lending platform. The partnership is expected to create long-term growth opportunities for BAC as Jio Credit expands its lending operations across India.
BAC’s strong digital capabilities, with 86% of relationship clients digitally active in the second quarter of 2026, could complement Jio Credit’s digital reach and local market expertise. With Jio Credit’s AUM reaching $3.2 billion (~INR30,667 crore) as of June 30, 2026, up 2.6x year over year, BAC will gain exposure to a rapidly scaling lending business while supporting its expansion into existing and new lending products. The partnership will also provide BAC with equal representation on Jio Credit’s board, giving it a direct role in the subsidiary’s strategic direction and governance.
Digitally Active Client Relationship
Image Source: Bank of America Corporation
The Jio Credit partnership aligns with Bank of America’s strategy of expanding its global franchise in high-growth markets. The company will be able to leverage an established local platform rather than building a comparable lending network organically. The combination of Jio’s local expertise and digital distribution with BAC’s technology, risk-management and governance capabilities is likely to provide the company with greater participation in India’s expanding consumer-credit market.
The transaction is unlikely to materially impact BAC’s near-term financial results. The investment’s long-term success will depend on Jio Credit’s ability to scale its loan book profitably, manage credit risks, and effectively deploy the additional capital.
Over the past year, shares of BAC have gained 34.6%, outperforming the industry’s 27.4% increase.
One-Year Price Performance
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
At present, BAC carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 (Strong Buy) Rank stocks here.
Acquisition by Other Financial FirmsLast week, StoneX Group Inc. (SNEX - Free Report) agreed to acquire Banco Travelex S.A., Brazil’s first bank dedicated exclusively to FX operations. The deal is expected to strengthen SNEX’s payments and FX capabilities, expand its presence in Brazil, and support cross-selling across nearly 20,000 clients and approximately $6 billion in annual volume.
The acquisition will broaden StoneX’s local banking and payment capabilities while complementing its existing FX and international payments businesses. The deal comes as Payments operating revenues rose 7% year over year to $173.3 million in the first nine months of fiscal 2026, although an 8% decline in RPM indicates continued pressure on revenue capture.
Earlier this month, KeyCorp (KEY - Free Report) completed the acquisition of Clearwater Corporate Finance LLP (Clearwater UK), a U.K.-based middle-market investment banking advisory firm. The transaction expands KEY’s advisory business into Western Europe and strengthens its middle-market M&A capabilities.
The acquisition supports KeyCorp’s strategy of expanding its investment banking franchise and growing fee-based businesses. Management expects 2026 investment banking fees to grow at a mid-single-digit rate, with third-quarter fees projected to increase more than 20% sequentially, supported by improving deal activity and the Clearwater UK acquisition.
Disney plánuje během deseti let investovat 60 miliard USD do parků a zaměřuje se na fanoušky. Současně vrací do atrakcí oblíbené prvky, jako je yeti z Expedition Everest, Figment a Tomorrowland.
It's not everyday that a live crowd goes wild for an animatronic yeti.
But the audience at Disney's D23 Expo isn't just any old crowd, and its superfans are central to Disney's strategic parks investments — some $60 billion planned over a decade.
"We are bringing the yeti back to life," Thomas Mazloum, chairman of Disney Experiences, announced to 12,000 Disney parks fans Saturday night during the division's D23 showcase in Anaheim, California.
The repair he was referencing is within the Expedition Everest attraction at Walt Disney World's Animal Kingdom theme park. Since 2006, the ride's yeti has been stationary. At the time the figure was unveiled it was the largest and most complex audio-animatronic that Walt Disney Imagineering had ever built. But after only a few months, it broke.
Its location within the finished ride made it difficult to fix, so Imagineers placed the machine in "B-mode," in which a strobe-light effect was used to give the illusion of movement. The broken animatronic has since become affectionately known as "Disco Yeti." Now, it's getting a second life.
Mazloum, who became parks chief after Josh D'Amaro was appointed as Disney CEO, announced the yeti repair — as well as the return of fan-favorite characters Dreamfinder and Figment to EPCOT in Florida and an overhaul of Tomorrowland in California — to some of Disney's most ardent fans on Saturday.
It's a signal of where the company plans to put its focus for the blockbuster Disney Experiences unit, made up of theme parks, cruise lines and consumer goods sales. As Disney expands its reach, it will need to lean on its most loyal attendees and biggest spenders to counter macroeconomic uncertainties and challenging travel trends.
"It may not sound like a big thing, but something like the Yeti or Figment or really being serious about Tomorrowland, they mean a lot to people because they grew up with these stories," Mazloum told CNBC.
"They're small, they're immediate, but they're meaningful," he added.
A balancing actFor Mazloum, the focus of his tenure as head of Disney's experiences division will be about balancing the company's massive expansion plans — new lands and area overhauls based on popular intellectual property — meant to attract the less frequent out-of-state and international visitors with more targeted updates and upgrades that annual passholders and more regular attendees want to see.
"Our job is to listen carefully and then find the way to harmonize the different needs and wants," he said.
"The simplest way to frame it is: I'm really focused on making sure we put our fans and the consumer and the guests into the center of our decision-making," he added.
Mazloum said these efforts are already paying off, touting the company's recent fiscal third-quarter earnings report in which the experiences division posted nearly $10 billion in revenue, a 10% jump from the same quarter a year prior and a quarterly record.
"I believe the results are at the end of doing something right at the beginning, and that is really putting the fans in the center of our attention," he said. "That's why, despite some, you know, other companies reporting different results, we're doing extremely well in Florida. We're doing very well here in California, because we've listened carefully and we've really responded to the right consumer at the right time."
Last month, rival Comcast reported lags in theme park attendance, particularly in Orlando, Florida. And yet, at Disney, domestic park attendance was up 3% and guest spending rose 4%.
The company attributed strong attendance to its Cool Kids Summer promotion, which features kid-focused character meet-and-greets, dance parties and air-conditioned hangout spots as well as free water park admission for hotel guests.
Disney also recently refreshed and reimagined park attractions like Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and the Muppets-themed Rock 'n' Roller Coaster.
Driving attendance with IPNext up is the refurbishment of the Carousel of Progress, which is expected to be completed in late spring 2027, and the opening of the Monsters, Inc.-themed Monstropolis land, also set for 2027.
In the meantime, Disney continues working on its Avengers Campus expansion, its new Villains Land, the retheming of Frontierland featuring the Cars franchise as well as the new Tropical Americas land, among other long-term projects.
Disney's portfolio of IP has been the bedrock of its theme parks since the very first location opened its doors, and that library of content has only grown in recent decades. The company has a vast well of stories and characters to tap into in order to entice parkgoers.
While these new lands and rethemed attractions are designed for all future Disney parkgoers, these additions predominantly act as a beacon to those that don't travel as often to the company's resorts and parks. They offer a fresh reason for out-of-state and international guests to book a trip.
"The percentage of people that go to Shanghai Disneyland just to go to Zootopia Land is very, very high," then-CEO Bob Iger said during the company's fiscal first-quarter earnings report in February.
Rewarding loyal parkgoersEqually important are the guests that frequent Disney's parks more often. These attendees have some of the strongest emotional attachment to the parks and more purchasing opportunities when it comes to merchandise and concessions.
These parkgoers enjoy the new marquee expansions, but it's not the only driver for their visits to the parks. Those who visit annually or several times during the year are deeply passionate about the live shows, character meet-and-greets, holiday food specials, seasonal festivals and parades and nighttime spectaculars that these parks provide.
On Saturday, Disney revealed the return of two fan-favorite nighttime spectaculars — Remember Dreams Come True, a fireworks show at Disneyland, and the original World of Color at California Adventure. The Magic Happens parade will also be making a comeback at Disneyland.
"This new set of announcements demonstrates that Disney is listening to what fans want," said Gavin Doyle, founder of MickeyVisit.com. "The reaction in the room was cheering and thunderous applause. People feel like Disney hears what they have been asking for."
