Track market-moving stories before they get noisy

SANTA CLARA, Calif., May 21, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Netskope (NASDAQ: NTSK), a leader in modern security and networking for the cloud and AI era, today announced a key integration with the Claude Compliance API. With this, organizations can now connect Claude Enterprise directly into the enhanced AI security features of the Netskope One platform, including full asset, identity and activity visibility, robust policy enforcement, advanced data security, and comprehensive security posture management.

According to the Netskope AI Index - the authoritative source on the enterprise use and adoption of AI worldwide - Anthropic's Claude grew from 56.2% to 94.9% adoption between April 2025 and April 2026. As AI application usage continues to rise at pace, organizations are urgently modernizing their data protection strategies. Maintaining compliance standards, mitigating data policy violations, and helping support secure usage of enterprise applications is increasingly critical.

Netskope One AI Security provides comprehensive discovery, visibility and real-time governance of AI applications, models, agents and tools in use, analyzes their specific risks, and accelerates secure AI adoption across the entire ecosystem, within a fully unified and integrated platform. Netskope’s integration with the Claude Compliance API extends the protections and controls that customers can build around their AI adoption, enabling them to build security directly into their Claude workflows. By surfacing Claude activity within the Netskope One Platform, organizations can govern Claude using the same risk frameworks, DLP profiles, and compliance controls they already operate, without adding operational overhead.

Sanjay Beri, CEO and co-founder, Netskope commented: “Organizations are rapidly moving beyond experimentation and embracing AI at scale. Our integration with the Claude Compliance API is critical to that AI ecosystem story, connecting Netskope's unified data governance and compliance controls directly to Claude usage. This allows our shared customers to adopt these valuable tools at pace and with confidence.”

Anthropic’s Compliance API is a REST API that gives enterprise IT and security teams programmatic access to Claude activity data. Rather than relying on manual exports and periodic reviews, organizations can use the Claude Compliance API for real-time programmatic access to Claude usage data and customer content, enabling them to build continuous monitoring and automated policy enforcement systems. Administrators can integrate Claude data into existing compliance dashboards, automatically flag potential issues, and manage data retention.

Through the integration, Netskope surfaces Claude activity data and enables security teams to:

Get comprehensive visibility into the Claude environment: Automatically inventory all organizations, workspaces, projects, users, API keys, and MCP servers across an entire Claude deployment. Discover every third-party tool and data source Claude is authorized to access and manage access from Netskope’s single integrated console.Protect data and defend against threats: Apply to Claude Enterprise conversations the same DLP policies that already protect other enterprise applications. Every file uploaded to, or generated within, Claude Enterprise is inspected by Netskope’s threat protection and malware engines, with Claude activity also feeding directly into Netskope's UEBA engine, surfacing behavioral anomalies and updating each user's User Confidence Index (UCI) score, so risky behavior in Claude doesn't go undetected.Stay audit-ready and in control: Continuously evaluate Claude's configuration against GDPR, HIPAA, SOC 2 (AICPA TSC), NIST 800-53, CSA CCM, and PCI-DSS, with findings mapped directly to specific compliance controls so teams know exactly what to remediate and why. Maintain full lifecycle governance over Claude API key credentials, including key rotation hygiene, least-privilege audits, orphaned key detection, and administrator attribution, all surfaced within existing Netskope workflows and without requiring custom builds. This integration will be available in private preview for all customers in June. To learn more about securing AI with Netskope, visit here.

About Anthropic
Anthropic is an AI safety company building reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems, including Claude, an AI assistant focused on safety and helpfulness.

About Netskope
Netskope (NASDAQ: NTSK), a leader in modern security and networking for the cloud and AI era, addresses the needs of both security and networking teams by providing optimized access and real-time, context-based security for the AI ecosystem inclusive of agents, applications, tools, LLMs, people, devices, and data. Thousands of customers, including more than 30 of the Fortune 100, trust the Netskope One platform, its Zero Trust Engine, and its powerful NewEdge network to reduce risk and gain full visibility and control over cloud, AI, SaaS, web, and private applications – providing security and accelerating performance without trade-offs. Learn more at netskope.com, Netskope.ai, on LinkedIn, and Instagram.

Media Relations Contact:
[email protected]

Investor Relations Contact:
[email protected]

A global survey of 1,500+ Chief Product Officers offers data on the future of product leadership and how organizations can create and deliver value at the speed of AI.

, /PRNewswire/ -- Products That Count, the world's largest nonprofit community of product leaders, and Mighty Capital, a venture capital firm specializing in product-led investing, today released the fifth annual Chief Product Officer ("CPO") Insights Report. Drawing on data from more than 1,500 product leaders across industries and geographies, from Fortune 1000 giants to early-stage startups, the 2026 edition dissects how traditional boundaries between product, design, and engineering are collapsing, and explores the emergence of a new kind of operator: the Product Builder, a hybrid Product Manager-engineering role redefining what it means to ship in the AI era. Among the report's most consequential findings: the Product Manager role as we know it will be obsolete by 2030.

"This year's insights carry new weight, because AI's impact on product management is arguably one of the most consequential shifts happening in tech right now. There's a lot of discourse around how companies should meet this moment," said SC Moatti, Founder and Board Chair at Products That Count and Founding Managing Partner at Mighty Capital. "We move beyond the theoretical with data and actionable strategies that give product leaders and organizations the foundation they need to thrive in this new reality."

Key Takeaways from the 2026 Report: What Happens When AI Eliminates Constraint
Product teams have always operated under one simple constraint: building software is expensive, slow, and resource-intensive. Everything about traditional product organizations is designed around that reality, from roadmaps to careful feature prioritization shaped by what engineering had bandwidth to ship. The 2026 CPO Insights Report confirms that in the age of AI, that constraint has largely vanished.

Three out of four product leaders are now using AI to accelerate prototyping and product exploration, with ripple effects emerging across every stage of the product lifecycle, from discovery to iteration to management:

Product Builders Are the New Product Managers In the last year, the number of Product Builders has increased 10x. Simultaneously, the number of traditional product managers has declined by 30% across all industries and by as much as 70% in SaaS. While it once required a team of 12 people to develop a single product, a team of 12 Product Builders can now deliver 12 products. Speed to Market Is the #1 Concern for CPOs in 2026 Speed to market is now the primary internal challenge facing CPOs, jumping from 14% in 2025 to 22% in 2026. Bottlenecks have shifted from building to launching: go-to-market execution, customer adoption, and organizational alignment are now where products get stuck. CPOs are Moving up the Stack to Bet on New Market Opportunities CPOs are spending more time on strategy (74%, up from 69% in 2025) and innovation (31%, up from 21%), and less time on stakeholder management (10%, down from 28%) and roadmap development (10%, down from 18%). The most ambitious CPOs are expanding scope across three new dimensions: geographies, market segments, and routes to market, blurring lines between product and marketing as they take direct ownership of positioning, adoption, and monetization. A New Role Is Emerging: the Chief Product Investor A greater stake in the bottom line is giving rise to the Chief Product Investor, a CPO who thinks like a portfolio manager, places bets across product lines, and cuts what isn't working before the financial metrics catch up. One in three CPOs now owns the AI M&A budget, deciding whether to acquire capabilities or build them with AI-native teams. "The transformational leaders in this next stage of AI will be those willing to redesign how products are built and how organizations operate," said Renée Niemi, Resident Chief Product Officer at Products That Count. "Good product leaders will move features faster. Great ones will rethink the product OS. The best will operate as portfolio-driven engines of innovation, placing bets and scaling what works as Chief Product Investors."

A Legacy of Data-Driven Predictions
The 2026 CPO Insights Report continues Products That Count and Mighty Capital's proven track record of accurate, early predictions:

The rise of the CPO, as predicted in the 2022 CPO Insights Report: The role existed at 3-4% of Fortune 1000 companies in 2020, compared to more than 30% just two years later. The increase in product leaders taking bottom-line ownership, as predicted in the 2023 CPO Insights Report: Over half of all CPOs now have Profit and Loss (P&L) responsibility. The promotion of CPOs to CEO and President, as predicted in the 2024 CPO Insights Report: 20% of Products That Count CPO award winners were promoted to CEO or President within 12 months. To download the full 2026 CPO Insights Report, visit productsthatcount.org/CPO-research.

ABOUT PRODUCTS THAT COUNT
Products That Count is the world's largest nonprofit community, engaging 600,000+ product managers and Chief Product Officers (CPOs) united by a mission: to empower everyone to build products that truly count. In a world flooded with products, only a few ignite passion, deliver value at scale, and transform lives. Behind those exceptional products are visionary CPOs and high-performing product teams driving innovation at the most bleeding-edge companies. We recognize these trailblazers through our coveted Awards, accelerate careers from PM to the C-suite and beyond through daily best practices, and serve as the trusted advisor to nearly all Fortune 1000 CPOs. Our Corporate Alliance includes Walmart, Ford, Cisco, Johnson & Johnson, Amplitude, and more. The most admired product leaders across industries serve on our Advisory Council, guiding the future of product leadership. Together, we're shaping a future where every product counts. Learn more at productsthatcount.org

ABOUT MIGHTY CAPITAL
Mighty Capital is the VC firm that leverages the Product Alpha Effect™, a data-backed way to produce outliers by reading product signals from a 600,000-product-leader network. Founded in 2018 by SC Moatti, a product visionary and former Meta product leader, and Jennifer Vancini, an idea-to-IPO veteran of tech investing, we bring a differentiated edge to venture. Through Moatti's 600,000-strong Products That Count network of product leaders, we see trends before others do, giving us a proprietary advantage in sourcing, diligence, and post-investment value creation. Our early-stage B2B tech portfolio speaks for itself, with category leaders like Amplitude (NASDAQ:AMPL), Netskope (NASDAQ:NTSK) and Groq. Founders consistently call us the most value-add investor on their cap table, and use our global product ecosystem as a marketplace to accelerate time to revenue, scale, and exit. Learn more at Mighty.Capital.

Disclaimer: Certain statements in this release, including portfolio and liquidity references, are based on Mighty Capital's internal records and analysis as of February 14, 2026. Portfolio company examples are provided for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to represent all portfolio investments or outcomes. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

MEDIA CONTACT
Tess Pawlisch
608-333-9788
[email protected]

SOURCE Mighty Capital

SANTA CLARA, Calif., June 02, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Netskope (NASDAQ: NTSK), a leader in modern security and networking for the cloud and AI era, today announced Netskope One AI Command Center, delivering comprehensive AI discovery, unified risk intelligence, and autonomous agentic response within a single unified platform. AI Command Center is the latest expansion of the Netskope One AI Security suite, further extending its capabilities to address the critical challenges security teams now face: identifying what AI is running, which risks actually matter, and how to respond at the speed the threat demands.

Among enterprises tracked by Netskope Threat Labs, the average enterprise organization saw the number of AI applications in use grow fivefold in the past year. That average organization tripled its AI user base; now manages 37 deployed AI agents; and sees 223 AI data policy violations per month1. Amidst this turbo-charged adoption, 94% of participating organizations report gaps in AI activity visibility and only 6% consider themselves to have complete visibility into their AI pipeline2.

Netskope One AI Command Center mitigates risk by discovering AI assets, whether corporate or personal, managed or shadow, cloud or on-premises, and mapping them to the identities, data stores and tools to which they connect. Once mapped, it surfaces risk insights and correlates them to Netskope’s existing knowledge banks relating to data sensitivity, user risk profiles, and application trustworthiness. By mapping relationships between AI assets, identities, and data stores, it surfaces hidden attack paths and risk exposures, and is able (from the same interface) to recommend next steps including creation or fine-tuning policy, remediation workflows, or investigation.

Along with the core AI Command Center capabilities and the discovery of AI via inline traffic inspection, the launch introduces two additional discovery components:

Endpoint AI discovery: Enhancements to the Netskope One Client extend scanning to installed applications, running processes, and listening ports on managed endpoints to identify known AI agents, local models, and browser extensions.Server AI discovery: A lightweight eBPF agent that intercepts TLS-encrypted AI traffic at the kernel level on corporate virtual machines and Kubernetes nodes, extending discovery to core AI infrastructure within the corporate perimeter. Also launching and fully integrated with the Netskope One AI Command Center is a new AgentSkope AI Risk AISecOps agent: an autonomous intelligence layer that handles triage and investigation, drives response, and scales a security team's expertise without scaling headcount.

Sanjay Beri, Co-Founder and CEO of Netskope commented: “Organizations have adopted AI faster than any security team can manually track, triage, or contain, and the tools nobody approved are almost always the ones carrying the highest risk. Netskope One AI Command Center gives security teams the unified operational view they have never had before: every AI asset in the environment, how it’s connected, what data it’s touching, and what to do about it. They can now say yes to team members who want to take full advantage of AI, and do it securely. Paired with our new AI Risk AISecOps Agent, which reasons across the full context of every incident and closes the gap between knowing and doing, we’re delivering a fundamental shift from security teams that react to AI risk, to security operations that anticipate and eliminate it.”

Jennifer Glenn, Research Director for Data and Information Security, IDC commented: “Enterprise AI adoption has skyrocketed. Data volume and sprawl have created a pervasive visibility gap for security teams. For many organizations effectively correlating risk across managed and shadow AI assets, user identities and data stores is difficult. Addressing this challenge requires moving beyond siloed tools to a unified intelligence layer. Platforms that combine comprehensive AI discovery with real-time risk correlation are essential for enabling security operations to anticipate, prioritize, and autonomously eliminate AI-fueled threats at the speed the landscape demands.”

Read more about Netskope One AI Command Center, the new agent, and the extended discovery capabilities in the Netskope blog.

Netskope One AI Command Center is generally available today, with enhanced capabilities, including endpoint AI discovery, server AI discovery, AI asset mapping and risk correlation, and the AI Risk AISecOps Agent moving from private preview to general availability throughout Q3 2026.

About Netskope
Netskope (NASDAQ: NTSK), a leader in modern security and networking for the cloud and AI era, addresses the needs of both security and networking teams by providing optimized access and real-time, context-based security for the AI ecosystem inclusive of agents, applications, tools, LLMs, people, devices, and data. Thousands of customers, including more than 30 of the Fortune 100, trust the Netskope One platform, its Zero Trust Engine, and its powerful NewEdge network to reduce risk and gain full visibility and control over cloud, AI, SaaS, web, and private applications – providing security and accelerating performance without trade-offs. Learn more at netskope.com, netskope.ai, on LinkedIn, and Instagram.

Media Relations Contact:
[email protected]

Investor Relations Contact:
[email protected]

1 Netskope Cloud and Threat Report 2026
2 Netskope’s 2026 AI Risk and Readiness Report

Annual Recurring Revenue increased 29% year-over-year to $845 millionQ1 revenue increased 28% year-over-year to $202 million SANTA CLARA, Calif., June 03, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Netskope, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTSK) a leader in modern security and networking for the cloud and AI era, today announced financial results for the first quarter of fiscal year 2027 ended April 30, 2026.

“We started fiscal year 2027 with strong ARR growth of 29% year-over-year, a testament to the critical role Netskope plays in securing the modern enterprise,” said Sanjay Beri, CEO of Netskope. “The rise of AI is exponentially increasing the pace and potency of attacks and the misuse of sensitive data, while most organizations deploying agents have little or no policy controls in place to do so securely. This is the era that Netskope was built for. Our fundamental right to win is rooted in the AI-native fabric of our extensive Netskope One platform, providing the semantic intent and context needed to secure broad AI usage including autonomous agents at scale. Netskope is empowering our customers to close the AI Security Gap without compromising performance. This deep technological moat differentiates us from our competitors and has strongly positioned us for the massive market opportunity created by the AI Supercycle.”

First Quarter Fiscal 2027 Financial Highlights

Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR): ARR grew 29% year-over-year to $845 million as of April 30, 2026.Revenue: Q1 revenue was $201.6 million, an increase of 28% year-over-year.Gross Profit and Margin: GAAP gross profit was $148.3 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2027, compared to $109.5 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2026, and GAAP gross margin was 74%, compared to 69% for the first quarter of fiscal 2026. Non-GAAP gross profit was $154.6 million, compared to $116.1 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2026, and non-GAAP gross margin was 77%, compared to 74% for the first quarter of fiscal 2026.Loss from Operations and Operating Margin: GAAP loss from operations was ($108.7) million in the first quarter of fiscal 2027, compared to a loss of ($45.4) million for the first quarter of fiscal 2026, and GAAP operating margin was (54%), compared to (29%) for the first quarter of fiscal 2026. Non-GAAP loss from operations was ($29.2) million, compared to a loss of ($28.6) million for the first quarter of fiscal 2026, and non-GAAP operating margin was (14%), compared to (18%) for the first quarter of fiscal 2026.Net Loss Per Share: GAAP net loss per share was ($0.29) in the first quarter of fiscal 2027, compared to ($0.76) in the first quarter of fiscal 2026. Non-GAAP net loss per share was ($0.06), compared to ($0.28) in the first quarter of fiscal 2026.Cash Flow: Net cash used in operations was ($53.9) million in the first quarter of fiscal 2027, compared to $25.6 million provided by operations in the first quarter of fiscal 2026. Free cash flow was ($57.2) million, compared to $17.5 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2026 and free cash flow margin was (28%), compared to 11% in the first quarter of fiscal 2026.Cash, Cash Equivalents, and Marketable Securities: Total cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities at the end of the first quarter of fiscal 2027 was $1.1 billion. Recent Business Highlights

Announced the Launch of Netskope One AgentSkope, an architectural foundation that allows organizations to easily deploy Netskope AI agents capable of running end-to-end security and networking workflows autonomously to assist security and networking teams bogged down by capacity constraints, complexity and manual triage, freeing up skilled staff to focus on strategic initiatives. The initial launch includes six agents: Netskope DLP AISecOps AgentNetskope Insider Threat AISecOps AgentNetskope Private Access AIOps AgentNetskope DEM Data Intelligence AgentNetskope DEM Insights AgentNetskope CCI Insights Agent Announced the Launch of Netskope AI Command Center, bringing end-to-end operational intelligence that broadens and unifies how customers discover AI, manage risks, and autonomously remediate issues across the entire enterprise AI ecosystem.Additionally, Netskope announced an expanded Global Partnership with Deloitte to Deliver Managed SASE Services. Deloitte will leverage Netskope technology to provide managed SASE capabilities to enterprises seeking to transform their infrastructure, modernize security and networking, and drive secure AI adoption. We also announced new and expanded collaborations across AI security:

Joining Anthropic’s Project Glasswing, using Anthropic’s most advanced AI model, Claude Mythos, to find vulnerabilities in code at unprecedented speed and scale while working together to secure and defend organizations at AI speed.Integrating with Anthropic’s Compliance API, which enables organizations to build security directly into their Claude workflows. By surfacing Claude activity within the Netskope One Platform, organizations can govern Claude using the same risk frameworks, DLP profiles, and compliance controls they already operate, without adding operational overhead.Participating in OpenAI’s Trusted Access for Cyber program, which includes access to GPT-5.5-Cyber in limited preview. We view this as a vital force multiplier that turns AI potential into immediate operational impact, accelerating time from novel attack behavior to stronger protections for the thousands of enterprises that rely on Netskope today.Announcing Netskope AI Guardrails Solution Powered by Google Cloud TPUs to deliver performance and security for AI workflows. The new solution uses Netskope One AI Guardrails to enable enterprise deployment of high-performance generative AI and autonomous agentic workflows at scale on Google Cloud. Planned CFO Transition

Additionally, as a next step in Netskope's long-term succession planning process, Chief Financial Officer Drew Del Matto - working closely with the CEO & Board of Directors - has announced his intention to retire following a distinguished 40-year career, including seven years helping guide Netskope through a period of significant growth and transformation. To ensure a seamless leadership transition, Mr. Del Matto intends to remain in his current role as CFO while the Company conducts a comprehensive search for his successor, and then to transition to an advisory role for a period thereafter.

Financial Outlook

Netskope is providing the following guidance for the second quarter and full year fiscal 2027:

For the second quarter of fiscal 2027, we expect:

Revenue of $213 million to $215 million, representing approximately 25% to 26% growth year-over-yearNon-GAAP operating margin of approximately (14%) to (15%)Non-GAAP net loss per share of ($0.06) to ($0.07), using approximately 410 million weighted average common stock outstanding For the full year of fiscal 2027, we now expect:

Total revenue of $879 million to $883 million, representing approximately 24% to 25% growth year-over-yearNon-GAAP gross margin of approximately 77%Non-GAAP operating margin of approximately (9.5%) to (10.0%)Non-GAAP net loss per share of ($0.18), using approximately 415 million weighted average common stock outstandingFree cash flow margin of 2% to 4% These statements are forward-looking, and actual results may differ materially. Refer to the Forward-Looking Statements safe harbor below for information on the factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements.

A reconciliation of non-GAAP guidance measures to corresponding GAAP measures is not available on a forward-looking basis without unreasonable effort due to the uncertainty regarding, and the potential variability of, reconciling items that may be incurred in the future, such as stock-based compensation and related employer payroll taxes, the effect of which may be significant.

Conference Call

Netskope will host a conference call at 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time / 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time today to discuss its financial results and outlook. The conference call will be available via live webcast and replay at the Investor Relations section of Netskope’s website at investors.netskope.com.

Supplemental Financial and Other Information:

Supplemental financial information can be accessed through Netskope’s investor relations website at investors.netskope.com.

Conference Participation Schedule

Netskope will participate and present at the following upcoming investor conferences. Details of the events are as follows:

FBN Virtual Conference - Friday, June 5, 2026, 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time / 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time
Mizuho Technology Conference, New York, NY - Wednesday, June 10, 2026. 1:05 p.m. Eastern Time About Netskope

Netskope (NASDAQ: NTSK), a leader in modern security and networking for the cloud and AI era, addresses the needs of both security and networking teams by providing optimized access and real-time, context-based security for the AI ecosystem inclusive of agents, applications, tools, LLMs, people, devices, and data. Thousands of customers, including more than 30 of the Fortune 100, trust the Netskope One platform, its Zero Trust Engine, and its powerful NewEdge network to reduce risk and gain full visibility and control over cloud, AI, SaaS, web, and private applications – providing security and accelerating performance without trade-offs. Learn more at netskope.com, netskope.ai, on LinkedIn, and Instagram.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, statements regarding our future financial and operating performance, including our GAAP and non-GAAP guidance and financial outlook for the second quarter of fiscal 2027 and full year fiscal 2027, the market opportunity created by AI and the demand for AI security products. There are a significant number of factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from statements made in this press release, including but not limited to: macroeconomic influences and instability, geopolitical events, operations and financial results and the economy in general; risks associated with scaling our business and managing our rapid growth; our ability to expand our partner relationships; our ability to identify and effectively implement the necessary changes to address execution challenges; our limited experience with new products and the risks associated with new product offerings, including adoption by customers and the discovery of software bugs; our ability to attract and retain new customers; the failure to timely develop and achieve market acceptance of new products as well as existing products; rapidly evolving technological developments in the market for security, networking, analytics and AI products and our ability to innovate and remain competitive; length of sales cycles; risks related to the use of AI in our platform; and general market, political, economic and business conditions, as well as those risks and uncertainties included in filings we make with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time.

All forward-looking statements in this press release are based on information available to Netskope as of the date hereof, and we undertake no obligation to update these forward-looking statements, to review or confirm analysts’ expectations, or to provide interim reports or updates on the progress of the current financial quarter.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

In addition to GAAP financial measures, this press release includes non-GAAP financial measures that we use to evaluate our business performance, identify trends affecting our business, formulate business plans and make strategic decisions. These non-GAAP financial measures include non-GAAP gross profit, non-GAAP gross margin, non-GAAP loss from operations, non-GAAP operating margin, non-GAAP net loss, non-GAAP net loss per share, free cash flow and free cash flow margin, and their respective definitions are presented below.

There are limitations to the non-GAAP financial measures included in this press release, and they may not be comparable to similarly titled measures of other companies. The non-GAAP financial measures included in this press release should not be considered in isolation from or as a substitute for their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures. Our management believes that our non-GAAP financial measures provide meaningful supplemental information regarding our performance and liquidity by excluding certain expenses and income that may not be indicative of our ongoing core operating performance. We believe that both management and investors benefit from referring to these non-GAAP financial measures in assessing our performance and when analyzing historical performance and liquidity and when planning, forecasting and analyzing future periods.

For a reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measures presented for historical periods to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures, please see the tables captioned "Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Financial Information" included at the end of this press release. We encourage you to review the reconciliation in conjunction with the presentation of the non-GAAP financial measures for each of the periods presented. In future periods, we may exclude similar items, may incur income and expenses similar to these excluded items and may include other expenses, costs and non-recurring items.

Non-GAAP Gross Profit and Non-GAAP Gross Margin

We define non-GAAP gross profit as GAAP gross profit excluding stock-based compensation expense and related taxes, and amortization of acquired intangible assets. We define non-GAAP gross margin as non-GAAP gross profit as a percentage of revenue.

Non-GAAP Loss from Operations and Non-GAAP Operating Margin

We define non-GAAP loss from operations as GAAP loss from operations excluding stock-based compensation expense and related taxes and amortization of acquired intangible assets. We define non-GAAP operating margin as non-GAAP loss from operations as a percentage of revenue.

Non-GAAP Net Loss

We define non-GAAP net loss as GAAP net loss adjusted to exclude stock-based compensation expense and related taxes, amortization of acquired intangible assets, gain or loss on fair value changes in convertible notes, and non-GAAP provision for (benefit from) income taxes.

Non-GAAP Net Loss Per Share

We define non-GAAP net loss per share as GAAP net loss per share adjusted to exclude stock-based compensation expense and related taxes, amortization of acquired intangible assets, gain or loss on fair value changes in convertible notes, and non-GAAP provision for (benefit from) income taxes.

Free Cash Flow and Free Cash Flow Margin

We define free cash flow as net cash provided by (used in) operating activities less purchase of property and equipment and capitalized internal-use software. Free cash flow margin is determined by dividing free cash flow by revenue. We believe free cash flow and free cash flow margin serve as valuable indicators of liquidity, as it provides our management, board of directors, and investors with insight into our ability to generate cash from our operations, strategic initiatives, and strengthening our balance sheet.

ARR

We define ARR as the annualized value of our cloud subscription contracts that are active as of the measurement date, assuming any contract that expires during the next 12 months is renewed on its existing terms. Provided that we are actively negotiating a renewal or new agreement with a customer after the expiration of a contract, we continue to include that contract's annualized value in ARR until the customer notifies us of their decision not to renew. ARR excludes non-recurring components of revenue such as professional services, training, sales of hardware, and other non-recurring revenue.

Investor Relations Contact:
Floris van der Veer
[email protected]

Media Relations Contact:
Tim Whitman
[email protected]

 NETSKOPE, INC.
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS
(in thousands)
(unaudited)
 April 30, January 31,   2026   2026  Assets    Current assets:    Cash and cash equivalents$205,850  $432,583  Marketable securities 897,338   725,603  Accounts receivable, net 136,131   158,278  Inventories 5,226   4,902  Deferred contract acquisition costs 55,089   54,048  Prepaid expenses and other current assets 71,725   73,553  Total current assets 1,371,359   1,448,967  Property and equipment, net 91,859   93,876  Operating lease right-of-use assets 31,258   32,096  Intangible assets, net 21,248   21,403  Goodwill 61,083   61,083  Deferred contract acquisition costs, noncurrent 101,139   100,798  Other assets, noncurrent 13,061   14,069  Total assets$1,691,007  $1,772,292  Liabilities and Stockholders’ Equity    Current liabilities:    Accounts payable$23,867  $14,436  Accrued compensation and benefits 55,627   99,880  Deferred revenue 520,602   532,732  Operating lease liabilities, current 9,945   10,769  Accrued expenses and other current liabilities 22,227   23,715  Total current liabilities 632,268   681,532  Deferred revenue, noncurrent 132,234   143,126  Convertible notes 713,321   720,960  Operating lease liabilities, noncurrent 23,339   23,424  Other liabilities, noncurrent 14,329   8,719  Total liabilities 1,515,491   1,577,761  Stockholders’ equity:    Preferred stock -   -  Class A common stock 6   6  Class B common stock 34   34  Additional paid-in capital 2,967,830   2,888,202  Accumulated other comprehensive loss (46,958)  (64,811) Accumulated deficit (2,745,396)  (2,628,900) Total stockholders’ equity 175,516   194,531  Total liabilities and stockholders’ equity$1,691,007  $1,772,292        NETSKOPE, INC.
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS
(in thousands, except share and per share data)
(unaudited)
 Three Months Ended April 30,  2026
 2025
 Revenue$201,592  $157,736  Cost of revenue(1) 53,337   48,223  Gross profit 148,255   109,513  Operating expenses:    Sales and marketing(1) 105,682   69,376  Research and development(1) 105,714   67,881  General and administrative(1) 45,596   17,614  Total operating expenses 256,992   154,871  Loss from operations (108,737)  (45,358) Other income (expense), net:    Loss on changes in fair value of convertible notes (12,225)  (33,429) Other income, net 7,522   1,999  Loss before provision for income taxes (113,440)  (76,788) Provision for income taxes 3,056   2,454  Net loss$(116,496) $(79,242) Net loss per share attributable to common stockholders, basic and diluted$(0.29) $(0.76) Weighted-average shares used in computing net loss per share attributable to common stockholders, basic and diluted 400,493,597   104,706,962       (1)Includes stock-based compensation expense as follows:    Cost of revenue$3,997  $506  Sales and marketing 14,364   3,373  Research and development 31,235   5,308  General and administrative 26,432   904  Total stock-based compensation expense$76,028  $10,091        NETSKOPE, INC.
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS
(in thousands)
(unaudited)
 Three Months Ended April 30,   2026   2025  Cash flows from operating activities    Net loss$(116,496) $(79,242) Adjustments to reconcile net loss to net cash (used in) provided by operating activities:    Stock-based compensation expense 76,028   10,091  Depreciation and amortization 10,059   13,929  Amortization of deferred contract acquisition costs 15,336   12,313  Non-cash operating lease expenses 3,607   3,147  (Accretion of discount) amortization of premium on investments (2,069)  (274) Loss on changes in fair value of convertible notes 12,225   33,429  Deferred income tax benefit -   (84) Other (18)  30  Changes in operating assets and liabilities:    Accounts receivable 22,147   79,656  Inventories (364)  103  Deferred contract acquisition costs (16,718)  (13,492) Prepaid expenses and other current assets 873   (5,953) Other non-current assets 118   (2,195) Accounts payable 8,019   2,833  Accrued compensation and benefits (43,632)  (26,477) Operating lease liabilities (3,678)  (2,781) Accrued expenses and other current liabilities (1,938)  4,607  Deferred revenue (23,022)  (4,690) Other non-current liabilities 5,610   642  Net cash (used in) provided by operating activities (53,913)  25,592  Cash flows from investing activities    Purchases of property and equipment (2,159)  (7,410) Capitalized internal-use software (1,094)  (726) Purchases of intangible assets (2,300)  -  Purchases of marketable securities (444,973)  (8,214) Proceeds from maturities of marketable securities 273,347   37,865  Net cash (used in) provided by investing activities (177,179)  21,515  Cash flows from financing activities    Proceeds from issuance of common stock under employee stock purchase plan 12,272   -  Proceeds from issuance of common stock upon exercise of stock options 5,820   6,604  Payments for withholding taxes upon settlement of equity awards (14,623)  -  Payments for holdback consideration on business combination -   (1,197) Payments for deferred offering costs -   (666) Net cash provided by financing activities 3,469   4,741  Net (decrease) increase in cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash (227,623)  51,848  Cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash, beginning of period 433,769   167,197  Cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash, end of period$206,146  $219,045        NETSKOPE, INC.
RECONCILIATION OF GAAP To NON-GAAP FINANCIAL INFORMATION
(in thousands, except percentages and per share data)
(unaudited)
 Three Months Ended April 30,
  2026
 2025
 Gross profit reconciliation:      Gross profit$148,255  $109,513  Stock-based compensation expense and related taxes 4,067   520  Amortization of acquired intangible assets 2,309   6,082  Non-GAAP gross profit$154,631  $116,115  Gross margin 74%  69% Non-GAAP gross margin 77%  74%        Sales and marketing expense reconciliation:      Sales and marketing expense$105,682  $69,376  Stock-based compensation expense and related taxes (14,728)  (3,403) Amortization of acquired intangible assets (146)  (516) Non-GAAP sales and marketing expense$90,808  $65,457  Sales and marketing expense as a percentage of revenue 52%  44% Non-GAAP sales and marketing expense as a percentage of revenue 45%  41%        Research and development expense reconciliation:      Research and development expense$105,714  $67,881  Stock-based compensation expense and related taxes (31,643)  (5,345) Non-GAAP research and development expense$74,071  $62,536  Research and development expense as a percentage of revenue 52%  43% Non-GAAP research and development expense as a percentage of revenue 37%  40%        General and administrative expense reconciliation:      General and administrative expense$45,596  $17,614  Stock-based compensation expense and related taxes (26,642)  (905) Non-GAAP general and administrative expense$18,954  $16,709  General and administrative expense as a percentage of revenue 23%  11% Non-GAAP general and administrative expense as a percentage of revenue 9%  11%        Loss from operations reconciliation:      Loss from operations$(108,737) $(45,358) Stock-based compensation expense and related taxes 77,080   10,173  Amortization of acquired intangible assets 2,455   6,598  Non-GAAP loss from operations$(29,202) $(28,587) Operating margin (54)%  (29)% Non-GAAP operating margin (14)%  (18)%        Net loss reconciliation:      Net loss$(116,496) $(79,242) Stock-based compensation expense and related taxes 77,080   10,173  Amortization of acquired intangible assets 2,455   6,598  Loss on fair value changes in convertible notes 12,225   33,429  Provision for income taxes 297   -  Non-GAAP net loss$(24,439) $(29,042)        Basic and diluted EPS reconciliation:      Net loss per share, basic and diluted$(0.29) $(0.76) Stock-based compensation expense and related taxes 0.19   0.10  Amortization of acquired intangible assets 0.01   0.06  Loss on fair value changes in convertible notes 0.03   0.32  Provision for income taxes -   -  Non-GAAP net loss per share, basic and diluted$(0.06) $(0.28) Note: Certain figures may not sum due to rounding.              NETSKOPE, INC.
SELECTED CASH FLOW INFORMATION
(in thousands, except percentages)
(unaudited)
 Three Months Ended April 30,
   2026   2025  Reconciliation of cash (used in) provided by operating activities to free cash flow    Net cash (used in) provided by operating activities$(53,913) $25,592  Purchase of property and equipment (2,159)  (7,410) Capitalized internal-use software (1,094)  (726) Free cash flow$(57,166) $17,456       Net cash (used in) provided by investing activities$(177,179) $21,515       Net cash provided by financing activities$3,469  $4,741       Operating cash flow margin (27)%  16% Free cash flow margin (28)%  11% Note: Certain figures may not sum due to rounding.         

Netskope, Inc. (NTSK) Q1 2027 Earnings Call Transcript

Netskope shares sink after the cybersecurity's annual recurring revenue fails to impress analysts.

In the first quarter of 2026, Baron Discovery Fund declined 10.65% (Institutional Shares), trailing the Russell 2000 Growth Index by 7.84% due to significant underperformance in the software sector. Advanced Energy Industries, Inc.'s stock rose during the quarter as the market began to appreciate the strength that the company would see in both its data center and semiconductor end markets. Baron Discovery Fund sold its investment in Intapp, Inc. in the quarter as the team believes that its other software holdings have better overall competitive advantages.

When deciding whether to buy, sell, or hold a stock, investors often rely on analyst recommendations. Media reports about rating changes by these brokerage-firm-employed (or sell-side) analysts often influence a stock's price, but are they really important?

Before we discuss the reliability of brokerage recommendations and how to use them to your advantage, let's see what these Wall Street heavyweights think about Blue Bird (BLBD - Free Report) .

Blue Bird currently has an average brokerage recommendation (ABR) of 1.38, on a scale of 1 to 5 (Strong Buy to Strong Sell), calculated based on the actual recommendations (Buy, Hold, Sell, etc.) made by eight brokerage firms. An ABR of 1.38 approximates between Strong Buy and Buy.

Of the eight recommendations that derive the current ABR, six are Strong Buy and one is Buy. Strong Buy and Buy respectively account for 75% and 12.5% of all recommendations.

Brokerage Recommendation Trends for BLBD

Check price target & stock forecast for Blue Bird here>>>

The ABR suggests buying Blue Bird, but making an investment decision solely on the basis of this information might not be a good idea. According to several studies, brokerage recommendations have little to no success guiding investors to choose stocks with the most potential for price appreciation.

Are you wondering why? The vested interest of brokerage firms in a stock they cover often results in a strong positive bias of their analysts in rating it. Our research shows that for every "Strong Sell" recommendation, brokerage firms assign five "Strong Buy" recommendations.

In other words, their interests aren't always aligned with retail investors, rarely indicating where the price of a stock could actually be heading. Therefore, the best use of this information could be validating your own research or an indicator that has proven to be highly successful in predicting a stock's price movement.

With an impressive externally audited track record, our proprietary stock rating tool, the Zacks Rank, which classifies stocks into five groups, ranging from Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) to Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell), is a reliable indicator of a stock's near-term price performance. So, validating the Zacks Rank with ABR could go a long way in making a profitable investment decision.

ABR Should Not Be Confused With Zacks RankIn spite of the fact that Zacks Rank and ABR both appear on a scale from 1 to 5, they are two completely different measures.

The ABR is calculated solely based on brokerage recommendations and is typically displayed with decimals (example: 1.28). In contrast, the Zacks Rank is a quantitative model allowing investors to harness the power of earnings estimate revisions. It is displayed in whole numbers -- 1 to 5.

It has been and continues to be the case that analysts employed by brokerage firms are overly optimistic with their recommendations. Because of their employers' vested interests, these analysts issue more favorable ratings than their research would support, misguiding investors far more often than helping them.

On the other hand, earnings estimate revisions are at the core of the Zacks Rank. And empirical research shows a strong correlation between trends in earnings estimate revisions and near-term stock price movements.

Furthermore, the different grades of the Zacks Rank are applied proportionately across all stocks for which brokerage analysts provide earnings estimates for the current year. In other words, at all times, this tool maintains a balance among the five ranks it assigns.

Another key difference between the ABR and Zacks Rank is freshness. The ABR is not necessarily up-to-date when you look at it. But, since brokerage analysts keep revising their earnings estimates to account for a company's changing business trends, and their actions get reflected in the Zacks Rank quickly enough, it is always timely in indicating future price movements.

Should You Invest in BLBD?In terms of earnings estimate revisions for Blue Bird, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year has remained unchanged over the past month at $4.56.

Analysts' steady views regarding the company's earnings prospects, as indicated by an unchanged consensus estimate, could be a legitimate reason for the stock to perform in line with the broader market in the near term.

The size of the recent change in the consensus estimate, along with three other factors related to earnings estimates, has resulted in a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) for Blue Bird. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stocks here >>>>

It may therefore be prudent to be a little cautious with the Buy-equivalent ABR for Blue Bird.

MACON, Ga.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Blue Bird Corporation (Nasdaq: BLBD), the leader in electric and low-emission school buses, has announced the appointment of Lyndon Lie as senior vice president of engineering. In this role, Lie will oversee all engineering functions across Blue Bird's platforms to support the company's long-term growth strategy. Lie will be responsible for leading product development, platform engineering, innovation and execution. He will also manage the integration of engineering.

On April 16, 2026, Blue Bird Corp BLBD shares fell 4.8% to a current price of $59.13. This decline comes amid a 52-week range that saw the stock hit a high of $65.47 and a low of $32.61. The recent price drop is notable, especially considering the stock's strong performance year-to-date, up 25.8%, and a remarkable 77.8% increase over the past year.

GF Value™ verdict: Current price is $59.13, compared to GF Value™ of $44.21, indicating the stock is 33.7% overvalued.GF Score™: 83/100 (Strong), suggesting solid fundamentals and potential for long-term performance.Most notable signal: Insider activity shows that insiders sold $0.5M worth of shares in the last three months, indicating a lack of buying interest. Is BLBD Overvalued or Undervalued? Based on the current price of $59.13 and the GF Value™ estimate of $44.21, Blue Bird Corp appears to be significantly overvalued, with a margin of safety of approximately 33.7%. The GF Valuation label indicates that the stock is "Significantly Overvalued," which presents a risk for potential investors. The difference between the market price and the intrinsic value suggests that the stock may be trading at a premium, which can expose investors to price corrections if market sentiments shift.

GF Value™ is GuruFocus' proprietary measure of intrinsic value, calculated from historical trading multiples, past business growth, and future performance estimates. The current overvaluation raises concerns about the sustainability of the stock price, especially in light of today's drop and the recent insider selling activity, which can be a red flag for investors looking for confidence in management's outlook.

How Does BLBD's Valuation Compare to Its History? Metric Current Historical P/E (TTM) 14.9x 15.1x Forward P/E 12.7x N/A The current P/E (TTM) of 14.9x is slightly below its 5-year median P/E of 15.1x, suggesting that while the stock is currently priced reasonably relative to its historical average, it is still elevated when considering the GF Value™ verdict. This P/E analysis aligns with the conclusion of overvaluation indicated by the GF Value™, reinforcing the notion that the stock may not offer a compelling value at its current price level.

What Does BLBD's GF Score™ Tell Us? Metric Rating GF Score™ 83 Financial Strength 8/10 Profitability 7/10 Growth 6/10 Valuation 5/10 Momentum 10/10 The GF Score™ of 83/100 indicates that Blue Bird Corp is positioned favorably when it comes to its overall fundamentals, with strong financial strength (8/10) and profitability (7/10) scores. However, the valuation score (5/10) indicates that while the company has solid growth prospects, its current valuation may not reflect its intrinsic worth. The high momentum rank (10/10) suggests that the stock has seen positive price trends, but this may not be enough to justify the current price when weighed against the overall valuation context.

What Are Insiders Doing with BLBD Stock? In the last three months, insiders have sold $0.5 million worth of shares, with no reported buying activity. This pattern may suggest a lack of confidence from management regarding the stock's future performance or potential valuation. Insider selling can often be interpreted as a cautionary signal, indicating that those closest to the company may not expect significant price appreciation in the near term.

While insider activity alone should not determine investment decisions, it is an important factor to consider alongside other metrics and overall market sentiment.

What This Means for Investors Based on the analysis of GF Value™, Blue Bird Corp appears to be overvalued at its current price of $59.13, with a significant 33.7% margin over the estimated intrinsic value of $44.21. Given the signs of potential risk from insider selling and the overall valuation context, investors may want to approach this stock with caution.

For the complete analysis, visit the Blue Bird Corp BLBD stock page. You can also explore the GF Value™ page for detailed valuation methodology, or use the GuruFocus Stock Screener to find similar opportunities.

Frequently Asked Questions What is BLBD's GF Score™?

BLBD's GF Score™ is 83/100, which indicates strong fundamentals and potential for long-term returns based on historical data.

Is BLBD overvalued or undervalued?

BLBD is currently overvalued, with a GF Value™ of $44.21 compared to the current price of $59.13, indicating a potential risk for investors.

What is BLBD's P/E ratio?

BLBD's P/E (TTM) is 14.9x, which is slightly below its 5-year median of 15.1x, suggesting the stock is trading reasonably but still aligns with the overvaluation indicated by GF Value™.

This stock alert was generated using automated technology and GuruFocus financial data to provide readers with timely and accurate market reporting. This content was reviewed by GuruFocus editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to [email protected].

MACON, Ga.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Blue Bird Corporation (Nasdaq: BLBD), the leader in electric and cleaner-emission school buses, will release its fiscal 2026 second quarter results on May 6, 2026. The public is invited to attend an audio webcast in which Blue Bird executives John Wyskiel, President and CEO, and Razvan Radulescu, CFO, will discuss results. This webcast will take place at 4:30PM ET on May 6, 2026. A slide presentation will be available to support the webcast. Dial-in details and the.

In the latest trading session, Blue Bird (BLBD - Free Report) closed at $62.93, marking a -2.37% move from the previous day. This change lagged the S&P 500's 0.49% loss on the day. On the other hand, the Dow registered a loss of 0.05%, and the technology-centric Nasdaq decreased by 0.9%.

The stock of school bus maker has risen by 18.45% in the past month, leading the Auto-Tires-Trucks sector's gain of 5.12% and the S&P 500's gain of 12.8%.

Investors will be eagerly watching for the performance of Blue Bird in its upcoming earnings disclosure. The company's earnings report is set to be unveiled on May 6, 2026. The company's earnings per share (EPS) are projected to be $0.81, reflecting a 15.63% decrease from the same quarter last year.

For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates project earnings of $4.56 per share and a revenue of $0 million, demonstrating changes of +4.11% and 0%, respectively, from the preceding year.

Investors should also pay attention to any latest changes in analyst estimates for Blue Bird. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the business outlook.

Empirical research indicates that these revisions in estimates have a direct correlation with impending stock price performance. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

The Zacks Rank system, ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), possesses a remarkable history of outdoing, externally audited, with #1 stocks returning an average annual gain of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection remained stagnant. Blue Bird is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

In terms of valuation, Blue Bird is presently being traded at a Forward P/E ratio of 14.15. This valuation marks a discount compared to its industry average Forward P/E of 15.65.

Investors should also note that BLBD has a PEG ratio of 2.38 right now. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. As the market closed yesterday, the Automotive - Domestic industry was having an average PEG ratio of 1.06.

The Automotive - Domestic industry is part of the Auto-Tires-Trucks sector. With its current Zacks Industry Rank of 95, this industry ranks in the top 39% of all industries, numbering over 250.

The strength of our individual industry groups is measured by the Zacks Industry Rank, which is calculated based on the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within these groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.

Blue Bird (BLBD - Free Report) closed at $63.20 in the latest trading session, marking a -1.42% move from the prior day. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.29%. At the same time, the Dow lost 0.31%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.89%.

Shares of the school bus maker have appreciated by 9.35% over the course of the past month, outperforming the Auto-Tires-Trucks sector's gain of 2.86%, and lagging the S&P 500's gain of 10.54%.

The investment community will be closely monitoring the performance of Blue Bird in its forthcoming earnings report. The company is scheduled to release its earnings on May 6, 2026. On that day, Blue Bird is projected to report earnings of $0.81 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 15.63%.

Looking at the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $4.56 per share and revenue of $0 million. These totals would mark changes of +4.11% and 0%, respectively, from last year.

Additionally, investors should keep an eye on any recent revisions to analyst forecasts for Blue Bird. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the business outlook.

Empirical research indicates that these revisions in estimates have a direct correlation with impending stock price performance. To take advantage of this, we've established the Zacks Rank, an exclusive model that considers these estimated changes and delivers an operational rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, running from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), holds an admirable track record of superior performance, independently audited, with #1 stocks contributing an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant within the past month. At present, Blue Bird boasts a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Investors should also note Blue Bird's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 14.07. This denotes a discount relative to the industry average Forward P/E of 16.14.

We can also see that BLBD currently has a PEG ratio of 2.37. The PEG ratio is akin to the commonly utilized P/E ratio, but this measure also incorporates the company's anticipated earnings growth rate. By the end of yesterday's trading, the Automotive - Domestic industry had an average PEG ratio of 1.1.

The Automotive - Domestic industry is part of the Auto-Tires-Trucks sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 69, putting it in the top 29% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank is ordered from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Remember to apply Zacks.com to follow these and more stock-moving metrics during the upcoming trading sessions.

MACON, Ga.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Blue Bird Corporation (“Blue Bird”) (Nasdaq: BLBD), the leader in electric and low-emission school buses, announced today its fiscal 2026 second quarter financial results.

Highlights

(in millions except Unit Sales and EPS data)

Three Months Ended
March 28, 2026

B/(W) Prior
Year

Six Months Ended
March 28, 2026

B/(W) Prior
Year

Unit Sales

2,148

(147

)

4,283

(142

)

GAAP Measures:

Revenue

$

352.6

$

(6.2

)

$

685.7

$

13.0

Net Income

$

29.3

$

3.3

$

60.1

$

5.3

Diluted EPS

$

0.90

$

0.11

$

1.84

$

0.19

Non-GAAP Measures1:

Adjusted EBITDA

$

50.8

$

1.6

$

100.9

$

5.9

Adjusted Net Income

$

32.5

$

1.0

$

65.0

$

2.9

Adjusted Diluted EPS

$

1.00

$

0.04

$

2.00

$

0.13

1 Reconciliation to relevant GAAP metrics shown below

“I am incredibly proud of our team in delivering another outstanding quarterly result,” said John Wyskiel, President & CEO of Blue Bird Corporation. “The Blue Bird team continued to exceed expectations, improving operations, navigating tariffs, and expanding our leadership in alternative-powered buses. We delivered an exceptional Adj. EBITDA of $51M / 14% for the second fiscal quarter of 2026, a new all-time second-quarter record for the Company.

“In our push to expand our leadership in alternative-powered school buses, we delivered 201 electric-powered buses this quarter. As of the end of the quarter, we had more than 900 EV buses in our firm order backlog, which supports our EV sales target for 2026.

"Additionally, we are very pleased with the timely closing and integration progress of our recently announced acquisition of Micro Bird. The acquisition strengthens Blue Bird’s position with the industry’s most comprehensive bus portfolio and expands our addressable market with the Buy America–compliant shuttle bus market.

“Based on our strong first half of 2026 and final closing of the Micro Bird acquisition, we are raising our 2026 full-year Adjusted EBITDA guidance to $245 million. We look forward to sustained profitable growth in the coming years as we march towards ~$2.5B in revenue and a 15%+ Adjusted EBITDA margin.”

FY2026 Guidance and Long-Term Outlook

“We are very pleased with our second quarter results, with our highest ever Q2 Adj. EBITDA and Free Cash Flow,” said Razvan Radulescu, CFO of Blue Bird Corporation. “Our business is in a very strong position and we continue to deliver ahead of the plan we have been messaging. With the strong first half we delivered, we are raising all full-year 2026 guidance metrics, as well as building in consolidated results for Micro Bird for the second half. 2026 Guidance is being raised to Net Revenue at ~$1.75 Billion and Adj. EBITDA to ~$245 million. Additionally, we are raising our long-term profit outlook towards an Adjusted EBITDA margin of $375+ million, or 15%+, on $2.5+ billion in revenue. We are confident in our profitable growth plans.”

Fiscal 2026 Second Quarter Results

Net Sales

Net sales were $352.6 million for the second quarter of fiscal 2026, a decrease of $6.2 million, or 1.7%, compared to $358.9 million for the second quarter of fiscal 2025. The decrease in net sales is primarily due to a 6.4% decrease in units sold resulting from a 6.7% decrease in the number of production days in the second quarter of fiscal 2026 when compared with the same period in fiscal 2025, which primarily resulted from the timing of holidays, and our corresponding plant shutdown, in our production calendar. As a result of producing fewer buses, we had fewer units that were available to sale. However, the decrease resulting from selling fewer units was partially offset by Bus customer and product mix changes and cumulative Bus price increases, including increases that were intended to mitigate the impact of increased procurement costs for certain of our imported inventory as a result of the imposition of tariffs beginning during the second half of fiscal 2025 and continuing into the first half of fiscal 2026, as well as an increase in Parts sales.

Bus sales decreased $7.6 million, or 2.3%, reflecting a 6.4% decrease in unit bookings that was partially offset by a 4.4% increase in average sales price per unit. In the second quarter of fiscal 2026, 2,148 units booked compared to 2,295 units booked for the same period in fiscal 2025. The increase in unit price for the second quarter of fiscal 2026 compared to the same period in fiscal 2025 was primarily due to customer and product mix changes as well as price increases implemented to offset increases in inventory costs.

Parts sales increased $1.4 million, or 5.4%, for the second quarter of fiscal 2026 compared to the second quarter of fiscal 2025. This increase is primarily attributed to price increases that were implemented to offset increases in inventory costs as well as higher fulfillment volumes and slight variations due to product and channel mix.

Gross Profit

Second quarter gross profit of $70.6 million represented a decrease of $0.2 million from the second quarter of last year. The decrease was primarily driven by the $6.2 million decrease in net sales, discussed above, and partially offset by a corresponding decrease of $6.0 million in cost of goods sold.

Net Income

Net income was $29.3 million for the second quarter of fiscal 2026, an increase of $3.3 million from the second quarter of last year. Among other smaller fluctuations, the increase in net income was largely driven by a decrease of $5.6 million in selling, general and administrative expenses, primarily due to the significant amount of share-based compensation expense recorded in the second quarter of fiscal 2025 resulting from the retirement of our former President and Chief Executive Officer, with no similar significant expense recorded for the acceleration of vesting of stock awards in the second quarter of fiscal 2026. Partially offsetting the decrease in selling general, and administrative expenses was a decrease of $3.4 million in other (expense) income, net, primarily due to $2.7 million in pretax costs relating to the acquisition of the remaining 50% of the outstanding common stock of Micro Bird effective April 1, 2026, with no such costs incurred during the second quarter of fiscal 2025.

Adjusted Net Income

Adjusted net income of $32.5 million represented an increase of $1.0 million from the second quarter of last year. The increase was primarily driven by the $3.3 million increase in Net Income, discussed above, when adjusting for the impact of expenses that are excluded in calculating Adjusted Net Income, including share-based compensation and Micro Bird acquisition costs, discussed above.

Adjusted EBITDA

Adjusted EBITDA was $50.8 million, which was an increase of $1.6 million compared with the second quarter of fiscal 2025. The increase primarily relates to the increase in Micro Bird earnings, when adjusted for the impact of expenses that are excluded in calculating Adjusted EBITDA, that was partially offset by a decrease in other income, net, when adjusted for the impact of expenses that are excluded in calculating Adjusted EBITDA, as discussed above.

Year-to-Date Fiscal 2026 Results

Net Sales

Net sales were $685.7 million for the six months ended March 28, 2026, an increase of $13.0 million, or 1.9%, compared to $672.7 million for the six months ended March 29, 2025. The increase in net sales is primarily due to Bus customer and product mix changes and cumulative Bus price increases, including increases that were intended to mitigate the impact of increased procurement costs for certain of our imported inventory as a result of the imposition of tariffs beginning during the second half of fiscal 2025 and continuing into the first half of fiscal 2026, as well as an increase in Parts sales. The Bus increases described above were partially offset by a decrease in Bus units sold resulting from a 4.3% decrease in the number of production days during the six months ended March 28, 2026 when compared with the same period in fiscal 2025, which primarily resulted from the timing of holidays, and our corresponding plant shutdown, in our production calendar. As a result of producing fewer buses, we had fewer units that were available to sale.

Bus sales increased $11.9 million, or 1.9%, reflecting a 5.3% increase in average sales price per unit that was partially offset by a 3.2% decrease in units booked. The increase in unit price for the first six months of fiscal 2026 compared to the same period in fiscal 2025 was primarily due to customer and product mix changes as well as price increases implemented to offset increases in inventory costs. This increase was partially offset by the impact of booking 4,283 units in the six months ended March 28, 2026 compared with 4,425 units during the same period in fiscal 2025.

Parts sales increased $1.1 million, or 2.1%, for the six months ended March 28, 2026 compared to the six months ended March 29, 2025. This increase is primarily attributed to price increases that were implemented to offset increases in inventory costs as well as higher fulfillment volumes and slight variations due to product and channel mix.

Gross Profit

Gross profit for the six months ended March 28, 2026 was $141.9 million, an increase of $10.7 million compared with the same period in the prior year. The increase was primarily driven by the $13.0 million increase in net sales. This was partially offset by an increase of $2.3 million in cost of goods sold, primarily corresponding the increase net sales.

Net Income

Net income was $60.1 million for the six months ended March 28, 2026, which was a $5.3 million increase from the same period in the prior year. Among other smaller fluctuations, the increase in net income was primarily driven by the $10.7 million increase in gross profit, discussed above, and partially offset by a $6.5 million increase in other expense. During the second quarter of fiscal 2026, the Company incurred approximately $2.7 million of pretax costs relating to the acquisition of the remaining 50% of the outstanding common stock of Micro Bird effective April 1, 2026, with no such costs incurred during the six months ended March 29, 2025. Additionally, during the first quarter of fiscal 2025, the Company sold certain state emissions credits that it was not projecting to use for approximately $2.6 million, with no similar income recorded during the first six months of fiscal 2026.

Adjusted Net Income

Adjusted net income for the six months ended March 28, 2026 was $65.0 million, an increase of $2.9 million compared with the same period last year, primarily due to the $5.3 million increase in net income, discussed above, when adjusting for the impact of expenses that are excluded in calculating Adjusted Net Income.

Adjusted EBITDA

Adjusted EBITDA was $100.9 million for the six months ended March 28, 2026, an increase of $5.9 million compared with the same period in the prior year. The increase primarily relates to the increase in (i) gross profit, when adjusted for the impact of expenses that are excluded in calculating Adjusted EBITDA, as discussed above and (ii) Micro Bird earnings, when adjusted for the impact of expenses that are excluded in calculating Adjusted EBITDA, that were partially offset by (iii) an increase in selling, general and administrative expenses, when adjusting for the impact of expenses that are excluded in calculating Adjusted EBITDA, and (iv) a decrease in other income, net, when adjusted for the impact of expenses that are excluded in calculating Adjusted EBITDA, as discussed above.

Conference Call Details

Blue Bird will discuss its fiscal 2026 second quarter and year to date financial results in a conference call at 4:30 PM ET today. Participants may listen to the audio portion of the conference call either through a live audio webcast on the Company's website or by telephone. The slide presentation and webcast can be accessed via the Investor Relations portion of Blue Bird's website at www.blue-bird.com.

Webcast participants should log on and register at least 15 minutes prior to the start time on the Investor Relations homepage of Blue Bird’s website at http://investors.blue-bird.com. Click the link in the events box on the Investor Relations landing page. Participants desiring audio only should dial 646-844-6383 or 833-470-1428. The access code is 005726. A replay of the webcast will be available approximately two hours after the call concludes via the same link on Blue Bird’s website.

About Blue Bird Corporation

Blue Bird (NASDAQ: BLBD) is recognized as a technology leader and innovator of school buses since its founding in 1927. Our dedicated team members design, engineer and manufacture school buses with a singular focus on safety, reliability, and durability. School buses carry the most precious cargo in the world – 25 million children twice a day – making them the most trusted mode of student transportation. The company is the proven leader in low- and zero-emission school buses with more than 25,000 propane, natural gas, and electric powered buses sold. Blue Bird is transforming the student transportation industry through cleaner energy solutions. For more information on Blue Bird’s complete product and service portfolio, visit www.blue-bird.com.

Key Non-GAAP Financial Measures We Use to Evaluate Our Performance

This press release includes the following non-GAAP financial measures “Adjusted EBITDA,” "Adjusted EBITDA Margin," "Adjusted Net Income," "Adjusted Diluted Earnings per Share," “Free Cash Flow” and “Adjusted Free Cash Flow”. Adjusted EBITDA and Free Cash Flow are financial metrics that are utilized by management and the board of directors, as and when applicable, to determine (a) the annual cash bonus payouts, if any, to be made to certain employees based upon the terms of the Company’s Management Incentive Plan, and (b) whether the performance criteria have been met for the vesting of certain equity awards granted annually to certain members of management based upon the terms of the Company’s Omnibus Equity Incentive Plan. Additionally, consolidated EBITDA, which is an adjusted EBITDA metric defined by our Credit Agreement that could differ from Adjusted EBITDA discussed above as the adjustments to the calculations are not uniform, is used to determine the Company's ongoing compliance with several financial covenant requirements, including being utilized in the denominator of the calculation of the Total Net Leverage Ratio. Accordingly, management views these non-GAAP financial metrics as key for the above purposes and as a useful way to evaluate the performance of our operations as discussed further below.

Adjusted EBITDA is defined as net income or loss prior to interest income; interest expense including the component of operating lease expense (which is presented as a single operating expense within cost of goods sold or selling, general and administrative expenses in our U.S. GAAP financial statements) that represents interest expense on lease liabilities; income taxes; and depreciation and amortization including the component of operating lease expense (which is presented as a single operating expense within cost of goods sold or selling, general and administrative expenses in our U.S. GAAP financial statements) that represents amortization charges on right-of-use lease assets; as adjusted for certain non-cash charges or credits that we may record on a recurring basis such as share-based compensation expense and unrealized gains or losses on certain derivative financial instruments as well as certain charges such as (i) transaction related costs or (ii) discrete expenses related to major cost cutting and/or operational transformation initiatives. While certain of the charges that are added back in the Adjusted EBITDA calculation, such as transaction related costs and major cost cutting and/or operational transformation initiatives, represent operating expenses that may be recorded in more than one annual period, the significant project or transaction giving rise to such expenses is not considered to be indicative of the Company’s normal operations. Accordingly, we believe that these, as well as the other credits and charges that comprise the amounts utilized in the determination of Adjusted EBITDA described above, should not be used in evaluating the Company’s ongoing annual operating performance.

We define Adjusted EBITDA Margin as Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of net sales. Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin are not measures of performance defined in accordance with U.S. GAAP. The measures are used as a supplement to U.S. GAAP results in evaluating certain aspects of our business, as described below.

We believe that Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin are useful to investors in evaluating our performance because the measures consider the performance of our ongoing operations, excluding decisions made with respect to capital investment, financing, and certain other significant initiatives or transactions as outlined in the preceding paragraphs. We believe the non-GAAP measures offer additional financial metrics that, when coupled with the U.S. GAAP results and the reconciliation to U.S. GAAP results, provide a more complete understanding of our results of operations and the factors and trends affecting our business.

Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA margin, Adjusted Net Income and Adjusted Diluted Earnings per Share should not be considered as alternatives to net income or GAAP earnings per share as an indicator of our performance or as alternatives to any other measure prescribed by GAAP as there are limitations to using such non-GAAP measures. Although we believe the non-GAAP measures may enhance an evaluation of our operating performance because they exclude the impact of prior decisions made about capital investment, financing, and other expenses, (i) other companies in Blue Bird’s industry may define Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA margin, Adjusted Net Income, and Adjusted Diluted Earnings per Share differently than we do and, as a result, they may not be comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies in Blue Bird’s industry, and (ii) Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA margin, Adjusted Net Income, and Adjusted Diluted Earnings per Share exclude certain financial information that some may consider important in evaluating our performance.

We compensate for these limitations by providing disclosure of the differences between Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA margin, Adjusted Net Income, and Adjusted Diluted Earnings per Share and GAAP results, including providing a reconciliation to GAAP results, to enable investors to perform their own analysis of our operating results.

Our measures of “Free Cash Flow” and "Adjusted Free Cash Flow" are used in addition to and in conjunction with results presented in accordance with GAAP and Free Cash Flow and Adjusted Free Cash Flow should not be relied upon to the exclusion of GAAP financial measures. Free Cash Flow and Adjusted Free Cash Flow reflect an additional way of viewing our liquidity that, when viewed with our GAAP results, provides a more complete understanding of factors and trends affecting our cash flows. We strongly encourage investors to review our financial statements and publicly-filed reports in their entirety and not to rely on any single financial measure.

We define Free Cash Flow as total cash provided by/used in operating activities as adjusted for net cash paid for the acquisition of fixed assets and intangible assets. We use Free Cash Flow, and ratios based on Free Cash Flow, to conduct and evaluate our business because, although it is similar to cash flow from operations, we believe it is a more conservative measure of cash flow since purchases of fixed assets and intangible assets are a necessary component of ongoing manufacturing operations. Accordingly, we expect Free Cash Flow to be less than operating cash flows.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the “safe harbor” provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements relate to expectations for future financial performance, business strategies or expectations for our business. Specifically, forward-looking statements include statements in this press release regarding guidance, seasonality, product mix and gross profits and may include statements relating to:

Inherent limitations of internal controls impacting financial statements Growth opportunities Future profitability Ability to expand market share Customer demand for certain products Economic conditions (including tariffs) that could affect fuel costs, commodity costs, industry size and financial conditions of our dealers and suppliers Labor or other constraints on the Company’s ability to maintain a competitive cost structure Volatility in the tax base and other funding sources that support the purchase of buses by our end customers Lower or higher than anticipated market acceptance for our products Other statements preceded by, followed by or that include the words “estimate,” “plan,” “project,” “forecast,” “intend,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “seek,” “target” or similar expressions These forward-looking statements are based on information available as of the date of this press release, and current expectations, forecasts and assumptions, and involve a number of judgments, risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing our views as of any subsequent date, and we do not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date they were made, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws. The factors described above, as well as risk factors described in reports filed with the SEC by us (available at www.sec.gov), could cause our actual results to differ materially from estimates or expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements.

  BLUE BIRD CORPORATION AND SUBSIDIARIES

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS

(Unaudited)

  (in thousands of dollars, except for share data)

March 28, 2026

September 27, 2025

Assets

Current assets

Cash and cash equivalents

$

275,893

$

229,313

Accounts receivable, net

12,940

20,650

Inventories

144,765

139,470

Other current assets

32,969

22,195

Total current assets

$

466,567

$

411,628

Property, plant and equipment, net

$

117,868

$

108,541

Goodwill

18,825

18,825

Intangible assets, net

40,750

41,685

Equity investment in affiliates

39,204

35,197

Deferred tax assets

—

2,697

Pension

4,664

4,889

Other assets

1,486

1,793

Total assets

$

689,364

$

625,255

Liabilities and Stockholders' Equity

Current liabilities

Accounts payable

$

127,124

$

151,479

Warranty

7,235

7,494

Accrued expenses

53,752

55,164

Deferred warranty income

12,015

11,329

Other current liabilities

49,156

6,333

Current portion of long-term debt

5,000

5,000

Total current liabilities

$

254,282

$

236,799

Long-term liabilities

Revolving credit facility

$

—

$

—

Long-term debt

82,982

85,324

Warranty

9,540

9,681

Deferred warranty income

23,292

22,368

Deferred tax liabilities

8,189

5,439

Other liabilities

13,151

10,229

Total long-term liabilities

$

137,154

$

133,041

Guarantees, commitments and contingencies

Stockholders' equity

Preferred stock, $0.0001 par value, 10,000,000 shares authorized, 0 shares issued and outstanding at March 28, 2026 and September 27, 2025

$

—

$

—

Common stock, $0.0001 par value, 100,000,000 shares authorized, 31,646,589 and 31,884,721 shares issued and outstanding at March 28, 2026 and September 27, 2025, respectively

3

3

Additional paid-in capital

197,690

195,466

Retained earnings

128,302

88,193

Accumulated other comprehensive loss

(28,067

)

(28,247

)

Total stockholders' equity

$

297,928

$

255,415

Total liabilities and stockholders' equity

$

689,364

$

625,255

  BLUE BIRD CORPORATION AND SUBSIDIARIES

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS

(Unaudited)

  Three Months Ended

Six Months Ended

(in thousands of dollars except for share data)

March 28, 2026

March 29, 2025

March 28, 2026

March 29, 2025

Net sales

$

352,635

$

358,851

$

685,719

$

672,723

Cost of goods sold

281,988

287,997

543,843

541,552

Gross profit

$

70,647

$

70,854

$

141,876

$

131,171

Operating expenses

Selling, general and administrative expenses

31,529

37,143

65,081

64,418

Operating profit

$

39,118

$

33,711

$

76,795

$

66,753

Interest expense

(1,545

)

(1,813

)

(3,111

)

(3,728

)

Interest income

1,929

1,258

3,910

2,826

Other (expense) income, net

(2,922

)

444

(3,133

)

3,360

Income before income taxes

$

36,580

$

33,600

$

74,461

$

69,211

Income tax expense

(9,102

)

(9,129

)

(18,221

)

(17,822

)

Equity in net income of non-consolidated affiliates

1,823

1,575

3,817

3,379

Net income

$

29,301

$

26,046

$

60,057

$

54,768

Earnings per share:

Basic weighted average shares outstanding

31,629,376

31,917,407

31,703,272

32,072,354

Diluted weighted average shares outstanding

32,430,122

32,885,993

32,558,241

33,152,066

Basic earnings per share

$

0.93

$

0.82

$

1.89

$

1.71

Diluted earnings per share

$

0.90

$

0.79

$

1.84

$

1.65

  BLUE BIRD CORPORATION AND SUBSIDIARIES

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS

(Unaudited)

  Six Months Ended

(in thousands of dollars)

March 28, 2026

March 29, 2025

Cash flows from operating activities

Net income

$

60,057

$

54,768

Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash provided by operating activities:

Depreciation and amortization expense

8,045

7,710

Non-cash interest expense

158

167

Share-based compensation expense

4,027

9,940

Equity in net income of non-consolidated affiliates

(3,817

)

(3,379

)

Loss on disposal of fixed assets

51

285

Deferred income tax expense (benefit)

5,390

(3,962

)

Amortization of deferred actuarial pension losses

236

139

Changes in assets and liabilities:

Accounts receivable

7,710

43,313

Inventories

(5,295

)

(36,034

)

Other assets

(10,241

)

(10,955

)

Accounts payable

(25,101

)

9,929

Accrued expenses, pension and other liabilities

43,120

(17,741

)

Total adjustments

$

24,283

$

(588

)

Total cash provided by operating activities

$

84,340

$

54,180

Cash flows from investing activities

Cash paid for fixed assets

$

(13,319

)

$

(13,616

)

Equity investment in affiliates

(190

)

(500

)

Total cash used in investing activities

$

(13,509

)

$

(14,116

)

Cash flows from financing activities

Term loan repayments

$

(2,500

)

$

(2,500

)

Principal payments on finance leases

—

(604

)

Repurchase of common stock in connection with repurchase programs

(19,948

)

(30,053

)

Repurchase of common stock in connection with stock award exercises

(2,574

)

(4,412

)

Cash received from stock option exercises

771

567

Total cash used in financing activities

$

(24,251

)

$

(37,002

)

Change in cash and cash equivalents

46,580

3,062

Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of period

229,313

127,687

Cash and cash equivalents at end of period

$

275,893

$

130,749

  Reconciliation of Net Income to Adjusted EBITDA

  Three Months Ended

Six Months Ended

(in thousands of dollars)

March 28, 2026

March 29, 2025

March 28, 2026

March 29, 2025

Net income

$

29,301

$

26,046

$

60,057

$

54,768

Adjustments:

Interest (income) expense, net (1)

(233

)

633

(486

)

1,066

Income tax expense

9,102

9,129

18,221

17,822

Depreciation, amortization, and disposals (2)

4,673

4,251

9,244

8,494

Micro Bird acquisition costs

2,673

—

2,673

—

Share-based compensation expense

1,670

7,434

4,027

9,940

Micro Bird Holdings, Inc. total interest expense, net; income tax expense or benefit; depreciation expense and amortization expense

3,628

1,713

7,136

2,869

Adjusted EBITDA

$

50,814

$

49,206

$

100,872

$

94,959

Adjusted EBITDA margin (percentage of net sales)

14.4

%

13.7

%

14.7

%

14.1

%

Reconciliation of Free Cash Flow to Adjusted Free Cash Flow

  Three Months Ended

Six Months Ended

(in thousands of dollars)

March 28, 2026

March 29, 2025

March 28, 2026

March 29, 2025

Net cash provided by operating activities

$

47,761

$

27,770

$

84,340

$

54,180

Cash paid for fixed assets

(7,854

)

(9,022

)

(13,319

)

(13,616

)

Free cash flow

$

39,907

$

18,748

$

71,021

$

40,564

Cash paid for Micro Bird acquisition costs

2,673

—

2,673

—

Adjusted free cash flow

$

42,580

$

18,748

$

73,694

$

40,564

Reconciliation of Net Income to Adjusted Net Income

  Three Months Ended

Six Months Ended

(in thousands of dollars)

March 28, 2026

March 29, 2025

March 28, 2026

March 29, 2025

Net income

$

29,301

$

26,046

$

60,057

$

54,768

Adjustments, net of tax expense or benefit (1)

Micro Bird acquisition costs

1,978

—

1,978

—

Share-based compensation expense

1,236

5,501

2,980

7,356

Adjusted net income, non-GAAP

$

32,515

$

31,547

65,015

62,124

_____________ (1) Amounts are net of estimated tax rates of 26%.

Reconciliation of Diluted EPS to Adjusted Diluted EPS

  Three Months Ended

Six Months Ended

March 28, 2026

March 29, 2025

March 28, 2026

March 29, 2025

Diluted earnings per share

$

0.90

$

0.79

$

1.84

$

1.65

One-time charge adjustments, net of tax benefit or expense

0.10

0.17

0.16

0.22

Adjusted diluted earnings per share, non-GAAP

$

1.00

$

0.96

$

2.00

$

1.87

Adjusted weighted average dilutive shares outstanding

32,430,122

32,885,993

32,558,241

33,152,066

Blue Bird acquired the remaining 50% of Micro Bird for $201.8M, implying 10.7x FY2026 forecast EBITDA, which is below the 12.3x sector median. The FY2026 EBITDA guidance raise of 8.9% is largely inorganic, while the organic raise is only 2.2%. Management has beaten guidance for 14 consecutive quarters, supporting credibility of midterm EBITDA targets.

On May 19, 2026, Blue Bird Corp BLBD shares fell 11.1% to a current price of $64.68. This decline comes amid a 52-week trading range of $37.68 to $81.51, highlighting significant volatility in the stock's performance.

GF Value™ verdict: Currently priced at $64.68, which is 32.5% above the GF Value™ of $48.81, indicating the stock is overvalued.GF Score™ of 81/100 suggests a strong overall assessment, indicating solid fundamentals.Most notable signal: The momentum rank of 10/10 reflects strong recent price performance. Is BLBD Overvalued or Undervalued? Blue Bird Corp BLBD is currently trading at $64.68, significantly above its GF Value™ of $48.81. This overvaluation of 32.5% indicates a lack of margin of safety for potential investors. The GF Valuation label classifies the stock as significantly overvalued, which raises concerns about the sustainability of the current stock price amid market fluctuations.

Investors should be cautious when considering entering or holding positions in BLBD at this price, as the high valuation suggests that the stock may be susceptible to corrections. GF Value™ is GuruFocus' proprietary measure of intrinsic value, calculated from historical trading multiples, past business growth, and future performance estimates.

How Does BLBD's Valuation Compare to Its History? Metric Current Historical P/E (TTM) 15.9x 15.2x Forward P/E 13.3x N/A Currently, Blue Bird Corp's P/E ratio of 15.9x is above its 5-year median P/E of 15.2x, indicating that the stock is trading at a premium compared to its historical valuation. The forward P/E of 13.3x suggests that future earnings may be expected to improve, but this still does not align with the GF Value™ verdict that indicates the stock is overvalued. Therefore, the P/E analysis agrees with the GF Value™ assessment, highlighting potential risks in the current valuation.

What Does BLBD's GF Score™ Tell Us? The GF Score™ ranks stocks from 0 to 100 based on five key aspects: Financial Strength, Profitability, Growth, Valuation, and Momentum. Stocks with higher GF Score™ values have been found to generate higher long-term returns (backtested 2006-2021).

Metric Rating GF Score™ 81 Financial Strength 8/10 Profitability 7/10 Growth 7/10 Valuation 3/10 Momentum 10/10 Overall, BLBD's GF Score™ of 81/100 indicates strong fundamentals, with particularly robust financial strength and momentum, scoring 8/10 and 10/10 respectively. However, the valuation score of 3/10 reveals significant concerns regarding the stock's current price relative to its intrinsic value, emphasizing that while the company shows promise in profitability and growth, its elevated valuation may pose risks for potential investors.

What Are Insiders Doing with BLBD Stock? In recent months, insider activity at Blue Bird Corp has shown that insiders sold a total of $0.5 million worth of stock, with no recorded buying activity. This pattern of selling may suggest a lack of confidence among insiders regarding the current stock price and its future performance. A lack of insider buying during a period of stock price decline can be perceived as a negative signal, potentially indicating that insiders do not view the current valuation as attractive.

What This Means for Investors Based on the GF Value™ of $48.81 and the current price of $64.68, Blue Bird Corp is assessed as overvalued. This overvaluation, combined with insider selling and a low valuation score, suggests that potential investors may want to exercise caution and reassess the stock's fundamentals before making investment decisions.

For the complete analysis, visit the Blue Bird Corp BLBD stock page. You can also explore the GF Value™ page for detailed valuation methodology, or use the GuruFocus Stock Screener to find similar opportunities.

Frequently Asked Questions What is BLBD's GF Score™?

BLBD's GF Score™ is 81/100, indicating strong fundamentals and a solid ranking compared to its peers.

Is BLBD overvalued or undervalued?

BLBD is currently overvalued according to the GF Value™, which estimates the stock's fair value at $48.81, indicating a significant premium at the current price.

What is BLBD's P/E ratio?

BLBD's P/E ratio (TTM) is 15.9x, which is above its 5-year median P/E of 15.2x, suggesting that the stock is trading at a premium compared to its historical valuation.

This stock alert was generated using automated technology and GuruFocus financial data to provide readers with timely and accurate market reporting. This content was reviewed by GuruFocus editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to [email protected].

When deciding whether to buy, sell, or hold a stock, investors often rely on analyst recommendations. Media reports about rating changes by these brokerage-firm-employed (or sell-side) analysts often influence a stock's price, but are they really important?

Before we discuss the reliability of brokerage recommendations and how to use them to your advantage, let's see what these Wall Street heavyweights think about Blue Bird (BLBD - Free Report) .

Blue Bird currently has an average brokerage recommendation (ABR) of 1.88, on a scale of 1 to 5 (Strong Buy to Strong Sell), calculated based on the actual recommendations (Buy, Hold, Sell, etc.) made by eight brokerage firms. An ABR of 1.88 approximates between Strong Buy and Buy.

Of the eight recommendations that derive the current ABR, five are Strong Buy and one is Buy. Strong Buy and Buy respectively account for 62.5% and 12.5% of all recommendations.

Brokerage Recommendation Trends for BLBD

Check price target & stock forecast for Blue Bird here>>>

The ABR suggests buying Blue Bird, but making an investment decision solely on the basis of this information might not be a good idea. According to several studies, brokerage recommendations have little to no success guiding investors to choose stocks with the most potential for price appreciation.

Are you wondering why? The vested interest of brokerage firms in a stock they cover often results in a strong positive bias of their analysts in rating it. Our research shows that for every "Strong Sell" recommendation, brokerage firms assign five "Strong Buy" recommendations.

In other words, their interests aren't always aligned with retail investors, rarely indicating where the price of a stock could actually be heading. Therefore, the best use of this information could be validating your own research or an indicator that has proven to be highly successful in predicting a stock's price movement.

With an impressive externally audited track record, our proprietary stock rating tool, the Zacks Rank, which classifies stocks into five groups, ranging from Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) to Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell), is a reliable indicator of a stock's near-term price performance. So, validating the Zacks Rank with ABR could go a long way in making a profitable investment decision.

Zacks Rank Should Not Be Confused With ABRAlthough both Zacks Rank and ABR are displayed in a range of 1--5, they are different measures altogether.

The ABR is calculated solely based on brokerage recommendations and is typically displayed with decimals (example: 1.28). In contrast, the Zacks Rank is a quantitative model allowing investors to harness the power of earnings estimate revisions. It is displayed in whole numbers -- 1 to 5.

It has been and continues to be the case that analysts employed by brokerage firms are overly optimistic with their recommendations. Because of their employers' vested interests, these analysts issue more favorable ratings than their research would support, misguiding investors far more often than helping them.

In contrast, the Zacks Rank is driven by earnings estimate revisions. And near-term stock price movements are strongly correlated with trends in earnings estimate revisions, according to empirical research.

In addition, the different Zacks Rank grades are applied proportionately to all stocks for which brokerage analysts provide current-year earnings estimates. In other words, this tool always maintains a balance among its five ranks.

There is also a key difference between the ABR and Zacks Rank when it comes to freshness. When you look at the ABR, it may not be up-to-date. Nonetheless, since brokerage analysts constantly revise their earnings estimates to reflect changing business trends, and their actions get reflected in the Zacks Rank quickly enough, it is always timely in predicting future stock prices.

Should You Invest in BLBD?In terms of earnings estimate revisions for Blue Bird, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year has declined 3.8% over the past month to $4.67.

Analysts' growing pessimism over the company's earnings prospects, as indicated by strong agreement among them in revising EPS estimates lower, could be a legitimate reason for the stock to plunge in the near term.

The size of the recent change in the consensus estimate, along with three other factors related to earnings estimates, has resulted in a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell) for Blue Bird. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stocks here >>>>

Therefore, it could be wise to take the Buy-equivalent ABR for Blue Bird with a grain of salt.

Quantum computing and artificial intelligence-linked stocks led large-cap gainers last week as investors rotated into semiconductor, data center and next-generation computing names amid fresh government funding, analyst optimism and product expansion announcements.

Companies tied to quantum infrastructure, AI hardware and advanced connectivity drew strong momentum, while healthcare and space technology names also advanced on regulatory approvals and strategic execution updates.

These ten large-cap stocks were top performers last week. Are they a part of your portfolio?

Astera Labs, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALAB) gained 40.61% this week. The move comes after multiple Form 144 filings disclosed proposed sales totaling 280,000 Astera Labs shares worth roughly $60.4 million.

Credo Technology Group Holding Ltd (NASDAQ:CRDO) jumped 27.64% this week.

Dell Technologies Inc. (NYSE:DELL) increased 24.03% this week  after Wall Street analysts raised price forecasts ahead of the company's upcoming earnings report on May 28.

HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) jumped 20.48% this week.

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Nvidia (NVDA 3.39%) has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. Shares have already soared by more than 1,300% in the past five years. However, the next big AI stock gains may come from less obvious players.

Image source: Getty Images.

As AI infrastructure spending expands, demand is rising not just for AI chips but also for high-speed connectivity technologies that enable the movement of massive amounts of data between servers and across data centers.

Against this backdrop, here's why these three AI-powered tech stocks are worth watching for a potential Nvidia-style run in the coming years.

Astera Labs Astera Labs (ALAB 3.08%) designs high-speed connectivity chips and hardware that enable AI chips, servers, and memory to communicate efficiently within modern data centers. AI spending is increasingly shifting away from training large models toward running AI applications at scale. Subsequently, demand for connectivity solutions that enable faster and more efficient data movement across data centers is also growing significantly. Astera is well-positioned to capitalize on this opportunity.

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Astera's recent financials highlight its growing momentum. Revenue surged 93% year over year to $308.4 million, while adjusted earnings per share (EPS) rose 84.8% year over year to $0.61 in the first quarter of fiscal 2026 (ending March 31, 2026). Management now expects Q2 revenue in the range of $355 million to $365 million, up 15% to 18% sequentially.

Astera has already shipped millions of PCIe Gen 6 ports, high-speed connections that help move data quickly between AI chips, memory, and servers. These products accounted for more than one-third of the company's Q1 revenue. The company's Scorpio switch family (connectivity chips that help large groups of AI processors communicate faster) is also ramping quickly. The company expects Scorpio to become Astera's largest product line by the end of 2026 even though it accounted for just 15% of the total revenue in fiscal 2025.

The long-term opportunity could be even larger. Astera estimates it can generate more than $1,000 in revenue per AI processor deployed on a server. The company is also developing connectivity products for Nvidia's NVLink Fusion ecosystem, which is designed to help different AI processors communicate efficiently within large AI systems.

Astera's stock has already soared 225% in the past year. However, if the company continues expanding its role in next-generation AI infrastructure, the stock may soar even higher.

Marvell Technology Marvell Technology (MRVL 4.77%) designs custom AI chips, networking products, and optical interconnect technologies that help move massive amounts of data between processors, servers, and data centers.

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Marvell's growth outlook is impressive. Management expects the company's fiscal 2027 revenue to grow year over year by more than 30% to nearly $11 billion. Revenue is then projected to grow another 40% year over year to $15 billion in fiscal 2028. Marvell's custom AI silicon business is expected to at least double year over year, while its high-speed connectivity, Ethernet switching, and optical networking businesses should also continue to expand in fiscal 2028. As a result, the company expects its overall data center revenue to grow nearly 50% year over year in fiscal 2028.

Nvidia recently invested $2 billion in the company, highlighting the strategic value of Marvell's semi-custom chips and advanced optical networking capabilities. The partnership aims to help customers integrate custom AI chips into Nvidia's AI infrastructure. As hyperscalers increasingly develop their own AI processors, this could create a major opportunity for Marvell's high-speed connectivity and optical technologies.

Marvell is also expanding into AI scale-up networking, a rapidly emerging market focused on connecting large AI systems more efficiently. The company's recent acquisitions of Celestial AI and Polariton Technologies strengthen its optical networking capabilities. Hence, as AI infrastructure grows larger and demands faster, more power-efficient connectivity, Marvell's optical networking business could become a key growth catalyst.

Marvell trades at almost 61.7 times trailing-12-month earnings, indicating that investor expectations are already high. But with data movement emerging as a key bottleneck to scaling AI systems, Marvell could prove to be one of the strongest long-term AI infrastructure picks, alongside Nvidia.

Credo Technology Credo Technology (CRDO +1.59%) designs high-speed connectivity solutions that enable data movement between AI processors, servers, and networking equipment in modern data centers. One of its key businesses is active electrical cables (AEC), increasingly used for short-distance server connections due to their power efficiency and reliability.

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Credo's revenue surged 201% year over year to $407 million in fiscal 2026 Q3. The company has guided revenue between $425 million and $435 million in Q4. Management also expects fiscal 2027 revenue to grow year over year by more than 50%, driven by continued demand from hyperscalers and newer cloud AI infrastructure providers. Credo also recently highlighted a fifth hyperscaler win, suggesting its customer base is continuing to expand.

Credo is trying to expand beyond being just a cable supplier by focusing on AI system reliability. The company's ZeroFlap technology is designed to reduce connection failures in large AI clusters where downtime can become extremely expensive. Management now expects its ZeroFlap optics business to ramp earlier than previously anticipated in fiscal 2027.

Credo is also preparing for the next phase of AI connectivity. The company announced a $750 million acquisition of DustPhotonics to strengthen its optical networking capabilities as AI data centers move toward faster, next-generation networking architectures.

Credo, however, is exposed to high customer concentration risk, with its top three customers accounting for 88% of its Q3 revenue. The company also trades at a very rich valuation of around 107.2 times trailing-12-month earnings.

Despite the risks, if Credo manages to expand from an AEC leader into a broader AI connectivity platform, the stock could still grow even at these elevated valuations.

Astera Labs, Inc. (ALAB) Presents at TD Cowen's 54th Annual Technology, Media & Telecom Conference Transcript

Expanded Cloud-Scale Interop Lab and growing engineering presence to strengthen AI system integration with leading AI platform providers and Taiwan system manufacturers June 02, 2026 21:00 ET  | Source: ASTERA LABS, INC.

TAIPEI, Taiwan, June 03, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Astera Labs, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALAB), a leader in semiconductor-based connectivity solutions for rack-scale AI infrastructure, today announced a significant expansion of its Taiwan operations and Cloud-Scale Interop Lab, deepening the company’s engineering, operational footprint, and strategic coordination with customers and ecosystem partners in one of the world’s most important semiconductor ecosystems.

As AI labs race to stand up training and inference capacity for frontier models, time-to-deployment increasingly depends on how quickly silicon, systems, and manufacturing partners can qualify designs, resolve issues, and move platforms into production. In that environment, proximity in Taiwan becomes a strategic advantage, bringing platform interop and validation closer to the semiconductor supply chain, specialized engineering talent, and the local AI infrastructure ecosystem that helps turn designs into deployable infrastructure.

Astera Labs’ expanded Taiwan presence positions the company to bring together broader engineering, cross-functional support, and closer business coordination with the ecosystem building rack-scale AI systems. In collaboration with AI platform providers AMD, Arm, Intel, and NVIDIA and Taiwan original design manufacturers (ODMs) including GIGABYTE, Ingrasys (a subsidiary of Foxconn), Inventec, Quanta Cloud Technology, and Wiwynn, Astera Labs will strengthen the validation and system integration work required to bring purpose-built AI infrastructure to market faster. The expanded presence will also broaden cross-functional capabilities in engineering operations, hardware engineering, quality, and technical support to help customers reduce iteration cycles during product development, debugging, diagnostics, and qualification. The work builds on the momentum of Astera Labs’ recently announced Scorpio fabric switch family, whose expanded 32-to-320-lane portfolio further embeds Astera Labs in the rack-scale platforms now being developed with ODM partners.

"Taiwan is where the global AI supply chain gets built, and the programs driving the most ambitious AI buildouts run through this ecosystem,” said Campbell Kan, vice president of Asia Sales and Taiwan general manager at Astera Labs. “Expanding our footprint here will help customers shorten the path from qualification to deployment, so new training and inference capacity comes online at the speed of the AI race.”

Astera Labs is also highlighting its expanded Taiwan footprint and ecosystem momentum this week at Computex 2026.

Ecosystem Support:

AI Platform Providers:
Ravi Pendekanti, Corporate Vice President, Data Center Solutions Group, AMD.
"AMD is committed to working with partners to give customers choice and help bring AI infrastructure to market faster. The Astera Labs Taiwan Cloud-Scale Interop Lab supports validation across AMD Instinct GPUs, EPYC CPUs, and Pensando advanced networking solutions in the environments customers use to scale their AI infrastructure.”

Eddie Ramirez, Vice President of Go-to-Market, Cloud AI Business Unit, Arm
“As AI infrastructure becomes increasingly complex, close ecosystem collaboration is essential to accelerate platform readiness. Astera Labs’ expanded presence in Taiwan, together with its connectivity portfolio validated on Arm compute platforms like Arm AGI CPU, will help streamline system integration so customers can move from development to deployment faster.”

Taiwan System and Manufacturing Collaborators:

Chris Pai, Engineering VP, Ingrasys, a subsidiary of Foxconn 
"Moving AI infrastructure from design into volume production takes fast execution across the manufacturing chain. Astera Labs’ deeper investment in Taiwan strengthens the engineering coordination needed to bring validated platforms into manufacturing on tighter customer schedules.”

Benny Lan, Chief Operation Officer at Giga Computing
“Speed and time-to-market matter more than ever in this industry. GIGABYTE is shipping rack-scale AI systems that integrate high speed fabric and PCIe signals that demand quick validation turnarounds. Astera Labs' expanded Taiwan footprint puts their team where ours is, and that translates directly into faster, better-validated platforms for our customers.”

Vincent Lin, President of Enterprise Business Group, Inventec Corp
“The largest AI infrastructure programs require close coordination across silicon, system design, and manufacturing. Astera Labs’ expanded Taiwan presence and Cloud-Scale Interop Lab give the Taiwan ecosystem a shared environment to validate platforms earlier and move from design win to deployable system faster.”

Mike Yang, Executive VP of Quanta Computer Inc. & President of Quanta Cloud Technology
“For hyperscalers and AI labs, time lost in platform qualification directly delays usable compute capacity. The Taiwan Cloud-Scale Interop Lab gives Quanta Cloud Technology and Astera Labs a closer path for system integration work, helping shorten debugging and qualification cycles before systems reach production.”

Tony Wen, Vice President, Wiwynn
"In hyperscale AI infrastructure, validation velocity is key to bringing new capacity online faster. Our close engineering collaboration with Astera Labs in Taiwan tightens the feedback loop across system design and qualification, accelerating the path to high-volume deployment at hyperscaler speed."

About Astera Labs
Astera Labs (Nasdaq: ALAB) provides rack-scale AI infrastructure through purpose-built connectivity solutions. By collaborating with hyperscalers and ecosystem partners, Astera Labs enables organizations to unlock the full potential of modern AI. Astera Labs’ Intelligent Connectivity Platform integrates CXL®, Ethernet, NVLink Fusion, PCIe®, and UALink™ semiconductor-based technologies with the company’s COSMOS software suite to unify diverse components into cohesive, flexible systems that deliver end-to-end scale-up and scale-out connectivity. The company’s custom connectivity solutions business complements its standards-based portfolio, enabling customers to deploy tailored architectures to meet their unique infrastructure requirements. Discover more at www.asteralabs.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This communication contains certain forward-looking statements regarding Astera Lab’s expectations with respect to the impact of its Taiwan operations expansion. Such forward-looking statements are introduced using words such as “positions,” “to,” “will” and variations of such words and similar expressions. Such statements involve risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the control of Astera Labs, that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements, including, among others, the risk that the expected capabilities and impact of the expansion may not materialize (including strengthened AI system integration and validation, strategic customer and partner coordination, cross-functional capabilities, speed and reduced iteration cycles, and shortened path from qualification to deployment); delays, disruptions, challenges or increased costs in the ability to integrate and bring into effect such expanded operations or achieve the expected results within the expected timelines; the complexities and uncertainties in developing and implementing solutions based on new features and technologies; litigation or disputes related to our products; macroeconomic conditions, including general semiconductor industry economic conditions; regulatory restrictions; international conflict and other risks and uncertainties described in Astera Lab’s Form 10-K, Form 10-Q and other filings with the SEC.

Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements, and no person assumes any obligation to update or revise any such forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except to the extent that disclosure may be required by law.

CONTACT:
Peter Lo
[email protected]

It has been about a month since the last earnings report for Astera Labs, Inc. (ALAB - Free Report) . Shares have added about 70% in that time frame, outperforming the S&P 500.

Will the recent positive trend continue leading up to its next earnings release, or is Astera Labs, Inc. due for a pullback? Well, first let's take a quick look at the most recent earnings report in order to get a better handle on the recent catalysts for Astera Labs, Inc. before we dive into how investors and analysts have reacted as of late.

Astera Labs Q1 Earnings Beat Estimates, Revenues Increase Y/YAstera Labs reported first-quarter 2026 non-GAAP earnings of 61 cents per share, up 84.8% year over year. The results beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 13.66%.

Revenues totaled $308 million, up 93.4% from the year-ago quarter and surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 5.42%. Results reflected robust demand tied to the company’s PCIe 6 connectivity portfolios, which contributed more than one-third of total revenue in the quarter.

ALAB Posts Broad-Based Growth Across Core PortfoliosALAB’s top line increased 14% sequentially, supported by strength across signal conditioning and switch fabric offerings that enable both scale-up and scale-out connectivity in AI platforms. Management highlighted continued diversification, with multiple customers and product categories contributing to growth.

PCIe Gen 6 momentum remained a central theme. The company noted it has shipped millions of PCIe Gen 6 ports to date, underscoring both portfolio maturity and the pace of adoption as AI infrastructure transitions to higher-speed interconnect standards.

Astera Labs Deepens Scorpio Lineup for AI FabricsAstera Labs emphasized progress in its Scorpio family, with Scorpio X-Series products beginning to ship in initial production volumes during the quarter. Management expects Scorpio X-Series shipments to rise in the second quarter, alongside initial shipments of the newly announced 320-lane Scorpio X device, before ramping up to full volume production in the second half of 2026.

The company also expanded the Scorpio P-Series PCIe 6 switch family to span 32 to 320 lanes. Leadership positioned the broader Scorpio portfolio as a platform for higher-value AI fabric deployments, citing features such as Hypercast and in-network compute aimed at improving collective operations and reducing networking overhead in large-scale training and inference workloads.

ALAB’s Operating DetailsNon-GAAP gross margin was 76.4% in the first quarter, expanding 150 basis points year over year, primarily due to a lower mix of hardware sales within the signal conditioning portfolio. This result points to solid underlying profitability despite the ongoing product ramp and expanding portfolio.

Research and development expenses surged 94.6% year over year to $125.6 million. Sales and marketing expenses increased 0.9% year over year to $21.9 million. General and administrative expenses increased 17.9% year over year to $25.8 million.

The non-GAAP operating margin was 36.2% compared with 33.7% in the year-ago quarter.

Astera Labs Maintains Strong Liquidity and Operating CashAs of March 31, 2026, cash and cash equivalents and marketable securities were $1.18 billion.

Cash flow from operations was $74.6 million in the first quarter.

ALAB Posts 2Q26 GuidanceFor the second quarter of 2026, ALAB expects revenues between $355 million and $365 million, implying 15% to 18% sequential growth. The outlook is driven by the continued adoption of PCIe 6 across AI platforms, rising Taurus volumes for AI scale-out connectivity and a sustained early-stage ramp-up of Scorpio X-Series products for large-scale XPU clustering.

Non-GAAP gross margin is expected to be approximately 73%, including an estimated 200-basis-point noncash impact tied to a recently executed warrant agreement with a customer.

The company expects non-GAAP operating expenses in the range of $128 million-$131 million, with non-GAAP diluted earnings projected to be between 68 cents and 70 cents per share.

How Have Estimates Been Moving Since Then?In the past month, investors have witnessed a upward trend in fresh estimates.

The consensus estimate has shifted 30.62% due to these changes.

VGM ScoresCurrently, Astera Labs, Inc. has a strong Growth Score of A, though it is lagging a lot on the Momentum Score front with a C. However, the stock was allocated a grade of F on the value side, putting it in the lowest quintile for value investors.

Overall, the stock has an aggregate VGM Score of C. If you aren't focused on one strategy, this score is the one you should be interested in.

OutlookEstimates have been trending upward for the stock, and the magnitude of these revisions looks promising. Interestingly, Astera Labs, Inc. has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). We expect an in-line return from the stock in the next few months.

Performance of an Industry PlayerAstera Labs, Inc. is part of the Zacks Internet - Software industry. Over the past month, F5 Networks (FFIV - Free Report) , a stock from the same industry, has gained 19%. The company reported its results for the quarter ended March 2026 more than a month ago.

F5 reported revenues of $811.7 million in the last reported quarter, representing a year-over-year change of +11%. EPS of $3.90 for the same period compares with $3.42 a year ago.

F5 is expected to post earnings of $3.98 per share for the current quarter, representing a year-over-year change of -4.3%. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate remained unchanged.

The overall direction and magnitude of estimate revisions translate into a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) for F5. Also, the stock has a VGM Score of D.

Shares of AI connectivity provider Astera Labs (ALAB 3.08%) rallied 76.1% in May, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Astera has become one of the leading names in connectivity for artificial intelligence systems, as networking between servers, chips, and memory is increasingly important in the age of agentic AI.

Thus, it's no surprise Astera rose last month, as it reported strong earnings and gave a bullish outlook amid a strong month for AI chip stocks generally.

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Astera was stellar in May In its fiscal first quarter, Astera Labs saw revenue jump 93.5% to $308.4 million, with adjusted (non-GAAP) earnings jumping 84.8% to $0.61. Both figures handily beat analyst estimates. Management also strongly guided to $360 million in revenue at the midpoint for the current quarter, which would amount to very strong 26% quarter-over-quarter growth.

Aside from the strong results, Astera stock jumped again on May 19, rising over 17% at one point on the day, after the company presented at an industry conference and a sell-side analyst raised its price target.

At the J.P. Morgan Global Technology, Media and Communications Conference, CEO Jitendra Mohan gave very positive commentary on the company's growth outlook, particularly the ramp for Astera's new data center switch chipset, the Scorpio X fabric switch. Mohan said the product should ramp to become the company's largest product by sales by the end of the year. That's an exciting feat, given that Astera just introduced the Scorpio X in early May.

That same day, tech analysts at Evercore ISI raised the firm's price target on Astera shares from $215 to $297. The analysts cited positive channel checks, noting that the progression of agentic AI is placing an onus on low-cost-per-token inference, which requires several types of chips, not just expensive training-oriented GPUs. The optimization across GPUs, CPUs, ASICs, and memory requires ever-increasing connectivity, which benefits Astera's product portfolio.

Image source: Getty Images.

Put Astera in the AI winner basket Astera is up 250% over the past year, and currently trades at a lofty 105 times this year's earnings estimates. Like several other semiconductor stocks that produce GPUs, CPUs, memory, connectivity, or the machines that build these chips, just about every company exposed to the agentic AI build-out has had a fantastic year.

Still, at these levels, valuations are quite high, and a pullback is to be expected. One might have begun, in fact, on Friday. That being said, Astera should be a part of any investor's "basket" of AI beneficiaries to buy on any large dips.

That's because the AI build-out seems set to continue. Given the massive investment news we have seen recently, including Alphabet's announcement that it will raise $80 billion in stock to fund its AI build-out, the chip bull market seems set to continue over the next couple of years.

Key Takeaways CRWD said Charlotte AI usage jumped more than sixfold as Threat Graph handles 1T events daily. SNOW is seeing faster AI-led platform demand, helped by Cortex Code and Snowflake Intelligence.ALAB said PCIe Gen 6 AI fabric and signal conditioning topped one-third of first-quarter revenues. U.S. stock markets have been witnessing an astonishing bull run supported by artificial intelligence (AI) trade. For the past three and a half years, AI trade has single-handedly driven Wall Street. What is surprising is that as days progress, AI trade is gaining more strength despite the highly overstretched valuation of this space. 

Here, we recommend three AI-powered infrastructure giants for investors to keep in focus for long-term investment purposes. These stocks have provided more than 25% returns in the past month. These stocks are: CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. (CRWD - Free Report) , Snowflake Inc. (SNOW - Free Report) and Astera Labs Inc. (ALAB - Free Report) . Each of these stocks currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

The chart below shows the price performance of the above-mentioned three stocks in the past month.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

CrowdStrike Holdings Inc.CrowdStrike Holdings continues to leverage AI and machine learning to drive superior security outcomes and operational efficiency. CRWD’s Charlotte AI, its generative AI-powered platform, is gaining traction by automating security operations, improving response times and enhancing overall protection. 

Charlotte AI also achieved FedRAMP high authorization in fiscal 2026. The platform is witnessing strong adoption. During the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026 earnings call, CRWD highlighted that Charlotte AI usage has soared more than six times year over year, while annual recurring revenues tripled in fiscal 2026. This positions CrowdStrike as a frontrunner in applying AI to cybersecurity, a key differentiator in the market. 

CRWD’s Threat Graph, a proprietary data-driven engine, now processes more than one trillion security events per day, significantly enhancing its threat detection capabilities. This data-centric approach strengthens CRWD’s ability to identify and neutralize threats effectively, boosting customer confidence and retention.

CrowdStrike Holdings has an expected revenue and earnings growth rate of 23.4% and 30.6%, respectively, for the current year (ending January 2027). The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year’s earnings has improved 0.4% over the last seven days.

Snowflake Inc.Snowflake is seeing faster AI-led platform demand, helped by Cortex Code and Snowflake Intelligence that expand use cases and support higher fiscal 2027 product revenue guidance. Customer growth and retention remain healthy, and contracted backlog continues to provide revenue visibility for the consumption model. 

Rapid product releases and deeper partnerships with hyperscalers and model providers should reinforce adoption and lower unit costs over time. AI is accelerating SNOW’s core platform consumption as customers migrate workloads to access governed data and context for AI at scale, while first-party AI products create new monetization. 

SNOW raised full-year fiscal 2027 product revenue guidance to $5.84 billion, implying 31% year-over-year growth, and guided second-quarter fiscal 2027 product revenues to $1.415-$1.420 billion, implying 30% growth. Remaining performance obligations were $9.21 billion at the end of the first quarter of fiscal 2027, up 38% year over year, which reflects customer commitments even as recognized revenues follow usage patterns.

Snowflake has an expected revenue and earnings growth rate of 29.6% and 54.4%, respectively, for the current year (ending January 2027). The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year’s earnings has improved 6.6% over the last 30 days.

Astera Labs Inc.Astera Labs is benefiting from rising demand for PCIe 6 signal conditioning and AI fabric switching as hyperscalers expand rack-scale AI deployments. In first-quarter 2026, PCIe Gen 6 revenues across AI fabric and signal conditioning contributed more than one-third of revenue, highlighting early adoption.

First-quarter results showed demand broadening across ALAB’s PCIe Gen 6 portfolio, with Gen 6 revenues across AI fabric and signal conditioning contributing more than one-third of the company's revenues. ALAB cited continued strength in smart cable modules for Ethernet AECs as program designs ship in volume and additional designs ramp across GPU, XPU, and general-purpose systems.

ALAB expects the AI fabric portfolio to expand into 2027 with UALink-based products for AI scale-up platforms. It highlighted the publication of a new UALink specification in early April, adding features such as manageability and 200-gig performance, which reinforces an open, vendor-neutral approach to scale-up fabrics. 

In parallel, ALAB is progressing through qualification at a large AI platform provider for an ultra-high precision optical fiber coupler, with volume shipments targeted to begin in 2027. Success in these programs would broaden the company beyond copper interconnects and extend its content opportunity into optical and custom solutions.

Astera Labs has an expected revenue and earnings growth rate of 80% and 58.7%, respectively, for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year’s earnings has improved 22.2% over the last 60 days.

HomeEarnings AnalysisTech 

SummaryAstera Labs is at the forefront of the AI revolution, benefiting from surging semiconductor demand.ALAB has consistently beaten earnings estimates since its IPO, with accelerating bottom-line growth and near triple-digit revenue expansion.Exposure to hyperscalers and data center clients positions ALAB for multi-year secular growth in cloud computing markets.I remain bullish on ALAB, viewing its quality and growth as justifying a buy rating despite valuation considerations. imaginima/iStock via Getty Images

Now, I view the current AI development as revolutionary. And I also view semiconductor companies as being at the forefront of this revolution. So, I have decided to initiate coverage on Astera Labs (ALAB

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Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have no stock, option or similar derivative position in any of the companies mentioned, and no plans to initiate any such positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Seeking Alpha's Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.