Track market-moving stories before they get noisy

Si829x platform with ProVCD™ technology moves from development to pre-production release for EV traction inverters  | Source: Skyworks Solutions, Inc.

IRVINE, Calif., Oct. 07, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Skyworks Solutions, Inc. (Nasdaq: SWKS), an innovator of high-performance analog and mixed-signal semiconductors, today announced that its Si829x isolated safety gate driver with ProVCD™ technology has completed AEC-Q100 automotive qualification and is ready for advanced prototyping. Samples, tools, user guides, and application notes are available now. Designed for scalable, high-performance inverter architectures, the Si829x supports both SiC FETs and IGBTs while helping customers improve efficiency, simplify system design, and reduce system cost in applications ranging from automotive drivetrains to safety-critical electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) systems.

AEC-Q100 Qualified and Ready for Evaluation

With AEC-Q100 qualification completed, the Si829x is now positioned to support customers for initial product evaluation through pre-production prototypes. Samples are available today, giving customers a qualified, prototype-ready path to design-in.

The Si829x was designed to support customer functional safety system designs rated up to ASIL D, subject to system-level implementation and validation, to deliver the robustness required for EV traction inverters and other safety critical motor control applications. Its integrated protection features include:

Extensive diagnostic fault coverage, notification and managementComprehensive safety mechanisms including power-up self-checks and safe state enforcement – a functional safety manual is available todayAdvanced isolation technology certified by multiple independent organizations for enhanced safety and reliability With applications in battery electric vehicles, hybrid electric vehicles, eAgriculture, eTrucking, robotaxis, and exciting new segments like eVTOL aircraft, Si829x is a comprehensive choice among isolated gate drivers for safety-critical advanced propulsion systems.

Full Documentation and Development Tools Now Available

Alongside qualification, Skyworks has prepared the complete technical resource set for the Si829x, including datasheet, technical reference manual, functional safety manual and application notes. This resource set, available under NDA, gives design teams comprehensive technical documentation to evaluate, integrate and validate the part.

Skyworks has also released customer-facing development tools, including two evaluation board kits, companion GUI software and complex device driver (CDD) software, designed to shorten development cycles and reduce time-to-market.

A New Approach to Gate Drive Control

Unlike conventional voltage-mode gate drivers, the Si829x uses ProVCD™, which is Skyworks’ second-generation variable current drive that delivers high resolution gate waveform shaping and cycle-by-cycle control through a digital interface. This approach enables:

Precise 15 Amp 3-phase turn-on and turn-off current waveform controlSwitching-loss reductions of up to 44% in Skyworks testing, compared with voltage-mode gate driveReduced electromagnetic interference (EMI) and filtering requirementsImproved thermal efficiency through multiple packaging optionsSmaller PCB footprint and potential system-level cost savings Together, these benefits allow manufacturers to increase inverter efficiency while simplifying system design and accelerating development cycles.

“Si829x gives customers a qualified path from evaluation to advanced prototypes,” said Mario Battello, vice president of product line management at Skyworks. “The ProVCD™ platform combines software-configurable performance with the safety, isolation and design flexibility needed to standardize inverter designs for EVs, eVTOL, and eAgriculture, and accelerate development for high power motor applications like datacenter cooling and AI power supplies.”

Platform Scalability and Design Flexibility

The Si829x is designed as a configurable platform, allowing engineers to adjust gate drive parameters through software rather than fixed hardware components. This configurability supports:

Design reuse across multiple vehicle platformsFaster development and validation cyclesGreater flexibility to optimize performance, efficiency and costVendor-agnostic compatibility across power semiconductor technologies By supporting both SiC FETs and IGBTs within a single gate driver platform that integrates a VPOS regulator, bipolar gate drive voltages are provided without the need for additional, external bias supplies.

Si829x availability

The Si829x platform is now available for sampling. To learn more, including product features, package options and design resources, visit skyworks.com/go/si829x.

About Skyworks

Skyworks® is a global leader in high-performance RF, precision timing, power management and mixed-signal solutions that power the intelligent, connected world. Through deep engineering expertise, Skyworks helps customers address rising complexity and deliver seamless connectivity across smartphones, vehicles, networks and critical infrastructure.

From defense and aerospace systems to the connected edge, AI infrastructure and next-generation automotive platforms, Skyworks provides the essential technologies that connect, synchronize and power physical AI, as intelligence moves out of the data center and into the real world. Harnessing decades of technical leadership and trusted partnerships across the technology ecosystem, Skyworks helps the world's leading innovators bring next-generation products and services to market.

Skyworks is a member of the S&P 500® market index (Nasdaq: SWKS). For more information, please visit www.skyworks.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

Any forward-looking statements contained in this press release are intended to qualify for the safe harbor from liability established by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include without limitation information relating to future events, results and expectations of Skyworks. Forward-looking statements can often be identified by words such as “anticipates,” “expects,” “forecasts,” “intends,” “believes,” “plans,” “may,” “will” or “continue,” and similar expressions and variations or negatives of these words. Actual events and/or results may differ materially and adversely from such forward-looking statements as a result of certain risks and uncertainties including, but not limited to, our ability to timely and accurately predict market requirements and evolving industry standards and to identify opportunities in new markets; our ability to develop, manufacture, and market innovative products and avoid product obsolescence; our ability to compete in the marketplace and achieve market acceptance of our products; the level of widespread deployment or adoption of commercial 5G networks, AI and other new technologies; the availability and pricing of third-party semiconductor foundry, assembly and test capacity, raw materials and supplier components; the quality of our products; our products’ ability to perform under stringent operating conditions; and other risks and uncertainties identified in the “Risk Factors” section of Skyworks' most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K (and/or Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q) as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). Copies of Skyworks' SEC filings can be obtained, free of charge, on Skyworks' website (www.skyworksinc.com) or at the SEC's website (www.sec.gov). Any forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made only as of the date hereof, and we undertake no obligation to update or revise the forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Note to Editors: ProVCD™, SelVCD™, Skyworks and the Skyworks symbol are trademarks or registered trademarks of Skyworks Solutions, Inc., or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. Third-party brands and names are for identification purposes only and are the property of their respective owners.

Media Relations:        
Constance Griffiths
(949) 230-4867        
[email protected] Relations:
Raji Gill
(949) 508-0973
[email protected]        

The Trade Desk (TTD -0.50%) was the wrong kind of busy in September. The next-generation adtech company didn't look like a business primed for the future after announcing a restructuring plan, witnessing a rival score a high-profile client, and being booted from a major stock index, among other setbacks.

Last month was a blustery one full of headwinds for The Trade Desk, so perhaps it's lucky to have exited September with "only" an 11% decline in its share price. Yet I think it could go lower. Before we get to that, however, let's recap the company's not-so-good month.

Image source: Getty Images.

Restructurings and roadblocksSeptember didn't start on an encouraging note for The Trade Desk. Numerous media outlets, citing a company statement, reported that it planned to cut its workforce by roughly 15% as part of a broader restructuring effort. The company effectively confirmed this in a regulatory filing, in which it estimated that such moves would result in charges of around $39 million to $51 million, offset by a reversal of approximately $4 million to $5 million in stock-based compensation. There was clearly some urgency to this for The Trade Desk, as it expressed a desire to complete the process by the beginning of the third quarter (i.e., the start of October).

Also, early in the month, The Trade Desk was removed from the benchmark S&P 500 index. In a quarterly rebalancing by the index's operator, S&P Dow Jones Indices, the company's stock was shifted to the S&P SmallCap 600 Index. Such was the effect of a shrinking price and, therefore, market cap, on the beaten-down stock.

As if these body blows weren't enough, its rival Amazon (AMZN +1.95%) Ads announced a new advertising partnership with top artificial intelligence (AI) developer OpenAI. Under its terms, Amazon Ads clients will have the option to expand their campaigns into conversational experiences using OpenAI's ChatGPT model. Amazon added that select advertisers, which it did not name, were testing this service in a pilot program.

Finally, at the end of the month, industry website Ad Exchanger published a story stating that The Trade Desk was unable to serve ads to Apple's (AAPL +0.22%) Safari browser in certain instances. The problem, apparently, was the tech company's iOS 27, the latest iteration of its operating system. Ad Exchanger said Apple was investigating the issue. As of this writing, the situation had not been resolved.

Premium Feature

Moneyball Superscore

90/100

Today's Change

(

1.95

%) $

4.89

Current Price

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256.29

A September not to rememberThe Trade Desk has shown resiliency in the past, so I wouldn't underestimate its ability to rebound. Yet that seemingly urgent restructuring project indicates a company scrambling to avoid trouble, and Amazon Ads looks like it might be a tough competitor with abundant resources. It doesn't feel to me like The Trade Desk has a sufficient moat, so it's vulnerable. I believe we might not be seeing the bottom for this stock yet.

More than 175 biotechs use pre-configured applications to streamline operations

, /PRNewswire/ -- Veeva Systems (NYSE: VEEV) today announced that more than 175 emerging biotechs are establishing a technology foundation with Veeva Basics. Biotechs are launching pre-configured and pre-validated Veeva Basics applications in weeks, adding systems that can scale as they move from startup to commercialization. Veeva Basics delivers unified, end-to-end applications for clinical, regulatory, quality, medical, and commercial, enabling high-growth companies to speed innovation while saving time, effort, and cost.

"As a growing company with under 40 employees, we're focused on developing science fast to deliver antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) that target difficult-to-treat cancers," said Bryan Ball, chief technology operations officer at Whitehawk Therapeutics. "Our partnership with Veeva helped us replace paper processes with industry-leading solutions without an IT team or complex customizations. Veeva Basics redefined how we operate, significantly improving processes across regulatory and quality for greater speed and compliance."

Biotechs are leveraging Veeva Basics to drive new ways of working, including shifting regulatory publishing strategies from outsourced to insourced. Veeva Submissions Publishing Basics provides a modern application for submission building and health authority interactions that equips regulatory teams to bring publishing in-house. For biotechs preparing to publish their first submissions to the FDA, Veeva Basics enables them to hit critical regulatory milestones with improved visibility and control across the entire regulatory lifecycle.

"Insourcing our submission publishing through Veeva Basics gave us sharper quality control and significantly faster regulatory timelines," said Darryl Clarke, global head, regulatory operations at Structure Therapeutics. "We have modern applications with global support to execute quickly now, and the flexibility to scale in the future."

"Biotechs are responsible for so much of the innovation shaping the industry and they need technology that reflects the pace that they operate in," said Jim Thai, vice president, Veeva Basics. "It's been a privilege to work with industry pioneers and build this community of Veeva Basics customers advancing drug development."

Built on the proven Vault Platform, Veeva Basics applications help customers to scale their technology infrastructure seamlessly as they grow. For more on Veeva Basics, visit veevabasics.com, or register for Veeva R&D and Quality Summit, Oct. 20-21 in Boston. The event is open exclusively to life sciences industry professionals.

About Veeva Systems
Veeva delivers the industry cloud for life sciences with applications, agents, data, and consulting. Committed to innovation, product excellence, and customer success, Veeva serves more than 1,500 customers, ranging from the world's largest pharmaceutical companies to emerging biotechs. As a Public Benefit Corporation, Veeva is committed to balancing the interests of all stakeholders, including customers, employees, shareholders, and the industries it serves. For more information, visit veeva.com.

Veeva Forward-Looking Statements
This release contains forward-looking statements regarding Veeva's products and services and the expected results or benefits from use of our products and services. These statements are based on our current expectations. Actual results could differ materially from those provided in this release and we have no obligation to update such statements. There are numerous risks that have the potential to negatively impact our results, including the risks and uncertainties disclosed in our filing on Form 10-Q for the fiscal year ended July 31, 2026, which you can find here (a summary of risks which may impact our business can be found on pages 33 and 34), and in our subsequent SEC filings, which you can access at sec.gov.

SOURCE Veeva Systems

Orders supports customer's second AI processor program on Sonoma, with production expected to ramp in calendar 2027

FREMONT, CA / ACCESS Newswire / October 7, 2026 / Aehr Test Systems (NASDAQ:AEHR), a leading provider of test and burn-in solutions for semiconductor devices used in artificial intelligence (AI), silicon photonics, data center, automotive, and industrial applications, today announced approximately $6 million in follow-on production orders from its lead hyperscale customer for package-level burn-in (PLBI) of its next-generation AI processor for data center training and inference applications.

The orders include additional Sonoma™ high-power package-level test and burn-in systems, fully turnkey burn-in modules (BIMs) and device-specific sockets, as well as production software enhancements. The systems and consumables will be deployed at one of the customer's outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) partners in Taiwan. Deliveries under the order are scheduled over the next six months.

This next-generation AI processor is the second from this customer to use Aehr's Sonoma platform for production burn-in. Following the previously announced initial production win, these orders expand the customer's capacity ahead of an expected production ramp of this second AI device in calendar 2027. The customer has indicated that this second AI processor is expected to ultimately reach production volumes exceeding those of the customer's first processor brought into production burn-in on the Sonoma platform. That first processor is already in high-volume production, with volumes expected to continue ramping significantly as additional Sonoma system capacity is deployed over the next several months.

"These follow-on production orders demonstrate the continued expansion of our relationship with this hyperscale customer and its confidence in Sonoma to support successive generations of increasingly powerful and complex AI processors," said Gayn Erickson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Aehr Test Systems. "The program is progressing from qualification and initial production systems to additional systems, consumables and software supporting the anticipated production ramp. As volumes increase, we believe there is potential for significant additional demand for Sonoma systems and device-specific consumables."

The next-generation processor requires independently controlled thermal zones within each package to achieve the operating conditions needed for effective production burn-in and early-life failure screening. Sonoma's multi-zone thermal control capabilities enable independent temperature management across different areas of a device while delivering the high current required to electrically stress the processor.

The platform also supports independent electrical test vectors and monitoring of multiple devices or functional elements within a multi-chip package. These capabilities address the differing power densities and thermal characteristics of advanced AI packages, which increasingly combine compute die, high-bandwidth memory and interface components.

"As AI processors become more complex, controlling the temperature of the package as a whole is no longer sufficient for some applications," Erickson continued. "Sonoma's ability to independently manage multiple thermal zones and electrical test functions helps customers address these challenges. We believe these capabilities will become increasingly important as AI packages continue to grow in power, size, complexity and value."

Aehr is also engaged in detailed discussions with this customer regarding reliability qualification and production burn-in requirements for future generations of higher-power, larger AI devices. These discussions include both Aehr's Sonoma package-level and FOX-XP™ wafer-level burn-in (WLBI) platforms.

"As the value of advanced AI packages increases, identifying early-life failures before expensive packaging can deliver significant economic benefits," Erickson added. "WLBI can screen die before assembly, while PLBI can stress and screen the completed device. Customers may choose either approach or use both at different stages of qualification and production, depending on their requirements."

"Our ability to support both approaches positions Aehr well as customers develop reliability strategies for future AI processors. With Sonoma supporting this customer's first processor in high-volume production and now its next-generation program, we are building a foundation for continued growth as the customer's AI roadmap advances."

About Aehr Test Systems

Headquartered in Fremont, California, Aehr Test Systems is a leading provider of test solutions for testing, burning-in, and stabilizing semiconductor devices in wafer-level, singulated die, and package-level form, and has installed thousands of systems worldwide. Increasing quality, reliability, safety, and security needs of semiconductors used across multiple applications, including electric vehicles, electric vehicle charging infrastructure, solar and wind power, computing, advanced artificial intelligence (AI) processors, data and telecommunications infrastructure, and solid-state memory and storage, are driving additional test requirements, incremental capacity needs, and new opportunities for Aehr's products and solutions. Aehr has developed and introduced several innovative products including the FOX-PTM families of test and burn-in systems and FOX WaferPakTM Aligner, FOX WaferPak Contactor, FOX DiePak® Carrier and FOX DiePak Loader. The FOX-XP and FOX-NP systems are full-wafer contact and singulated die/module test and burn-in systems that can test, burn-in, and stabilize a wide range of devices such as leading-edge silicon carbide-based and other power semiconductors, 2D and 3D sensors used in mobile phones, tablets, and other computing devices, memory semiconductors, processors, microcontrollers, systems-on-a-chip, and photonics and integrated optical devices. The FOX-CP system is a low-cost single-wafer compact test solution for logic, memory and photonic devices and the newest addition to the FOX-P product family. The FOX WaferPak Contactor contains a unique full-wafer contactor capable of testing wafers up to 300mm that enables IC manufacturers to perform test, burn-in, and stabilization of full wafers on the FOX-P systems. The FOX DiePak Carrier allows testing, burning in, and stabilization of singulated bare die and modules up to 1024 devices in parallel per DiePak on the FOX-NP and FOX-XP systems up to nine DiePaks at a time. Acquired through its acquisition of Incal Technology, Inc., Aehr's new line of high-power package-level reliability/burn-in test solutions for AI semiconductor manufacturers, including its high-power Sonoma family of test solutions for AI accelerators, GPUs, and high-performance computing (HPC) processors, position Aehr within the rapidly growing AI market as a turnkey provider of reliability and testing that span from engineering to high volume production. For more information, please visit Aehr Test Systems' website at www.aehr.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Forward-looking statements generally relate to future events or Aehr's future financial or operating performance. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as "may," "will," "should," "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "going to," "could," "intends," "target," "projects," "contemplates," "believes," "estimates," "predicts," "potential," or "continue," or the negative of these words or other similar terms or expressions that concern Aehr's expectations, strategy, priorities, plans, or intentions. Forward-looking statements in this press release include, but are not limited to, future requirements and orders of Aehr's new and existing customers; Aehr's ability to receive orders and generate revenue in the future, as well as Aehr's beliefs regarding the factors impacting the foregoing, including the growth of the markets referred to herein; Aehr's ability to integrate Incal efficiently; and the timing and extent to which the acquisition is accretive. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are also subject to other risks and uncertainties, including those more fully described in Aehr's recent Form 10-K, 10-Q and other reports filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Aehr disclaims any obligation to update information contained in any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date of this press release.

# # #

SOURCE: Aehr Test Systems

When courts ordered tariff refunds for importers, Dollar Tree collected a nine-figure check from Washington. Shoppers who funded those duties through higher shelf prices are wondering if any of it finds its way back to them.

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On Tuesday the New York Federal Reserve put a number on what shoppers have suspected for a year. By February 2026, tariffs had added 2.9 percentage points to goods price inflation, and without them goods prices would have fallen slightly. Wall Street Journal economics correspondent Nick Timiraos circulated the research on October 6. It also found that roughly one quarter of every point of higher tariff rates reaches consumer prices within a year.

The person at the register paid, and some of that money is now coming back to someone else.

A $383 Million Check From Washington In February 2026, the Supreme Court ruled that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) could not authorize tariffs. On March 27, 2026, a Court of International Trade judge ordered U.S. Customs and Border Protection to reliquidate entries without the IEEPA duties. That cleared the way for importers to get back duties they had already paid.

Dollar Tree (NASDAQ:DLTR | DLTR Price Prediction) received $383 million in IEEPA refunds in its fiscal second quarter. Of that, $369 million ran through cost of sales and $14 million came as interest. The net benefit was $1.31 per share. The windfall lifted GAAP earnings to $2.70 against a $1.13 consensus, a 138.6% beat, and added 650 basis points to operating margin expansion.

In the same quarter, Dollar Tree bought back 5.6 million shares for $605 million. It still has $2.5 billion left under its authorization.

Where the Refund Money Is Going Management did not announce a rebate or price cut. CEO Mike Creedon said funds would go toward “targeted pricing strategies, marketing, store operations, and store conditions.” The company plans $210 million of refund reinvestment for the full year, including a $40 million charitable contribution. It expects that spending to cut about $0.50 from third-quarter EPS.

CFO Stewart Glendinning argued shoppers benefit indirectly through lower ongoing tariff rates absorbing inflation “rather than passing those costs on to the customer.” The full-year adjusted EPS guide of $7.70 to $8.05 still includes roughly $0.60 of net refund benefit going to shareholders.

Dollar Tree did nothing improper. Importers paid the duties, so importers get the refunds. Shoppers who paid the higher shelf prices have no way to claim any of it.

A Price-Point Promise With an Asterisk The irony cuts deeper at a chain built on a fixed price. Dollar Tree moved about 710 more stores to multi-price format, bringing the total to roughly 6,600 stores selling items above $1.25. Multi-price goods now make up 17% of total sales, while more than 85% of assortment stays priced at $2 or less. The average ticket rose 3.3% while traffic grew just 0.4%.

Why Third-Quarter Traffic Matters Most Investors have looked past the one-time gain. Shares traded at $129.84 when results were filed on August 27 and stood at $116.19 on October 6. The New York Fed data supports concerns that dollar stores may no longer be bargains after inflation and tariffs.

Third-quarter results will be the test. If the reinvestment lifts traffic well above 0.4%, it supports Creedon’s argument that customers benefit indirectly. If traffic stalls while the average ticket keeps rising, the refund will look the way it does on the income statement: a windfall for shareholders, paid for by shoppers.

Data Sources Dollar Tree tariff refund irony: the New York Fed’s estimates of how much tariffs added to goods inflation and how much reached consumer prices, as circulated by Nick Timiraos. Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

DXC expands Assure Platform with new capabilities designed to accelerate insurance modernization and innovation AI-enabled Smart Apps are delivering measurable results across critical insurance workflows, with Assure Platform adoption now exceeding 275 customers DXC strengthens its London Market capabilities to support improved connectivity, visibility, and operational control across critical workflows , /PRNewswire/ -- DXC Technology (NYSE: DXC), a leading enterprise technology and innovation partner, today announced a series of investments and capabilities designed to help insurers modernize critical operations, improve productivity, and adopt AI without disrupting the systems their businesses depend on.

Unveiled at the DXC Connect Insurance Executive Forum in London, the announcements build on DXC's Protect, Extend, Transform strategy and Smart AI approach, helping insurers modernize critical operations and apply AI with the governance, human oversight and accountability essential to insurance. Together, they provide (re)insurers and brokers with a secure foundation for innovation, spanning workflow modernization, platform innovation, London Market investment, and continued enhancement of critical insurance systems.

"Insurers are under pressure to modernize faster, unlock new opportunities with AI, and respond to changing market demands without disrupting the systems that run their businesses," said Ray August, President, Insurance Software and Business Process Services, DXC Technology. "By combining deep insurance expertise, secure platform services, connected workflows, and Smart AI, DXC is helping customers modernize on their terms, extend the value of existing investments, and create a stronger foundation for future growth."

A Stronger Foundation for Modernization and Innovation

DXC continues to expand the capabilities of its Assure Platform, providing insurers with a secure, governed foundation for modernization and innovation. Built to support DXC's Assure Architecture strategy, Assure Platform brings together platform services, insurance services, integrations, and Smart AI, helping insurers improve resilience and strengthen operational control.

The platform also enables insurers to accelerate access to new capabilities, including Assure Configuration Manager, a new capability that helps configure, assemble, and deploy Assure Architecture components more efficiently. Using low-code, configuration-driven deployment, DXC can reduce the complexity and effort required to introduce new capabilities, helping customers respond more quickly to changing business requirements. As a result, insurers can gain faster access to connected services, automation, and AI innovation aligned with their business priorities and operational requirements.

Improving Insurance Workflows Through AI-Enabled Innovation

Modernizing mission-critical operations across the insurance industry requires better access to information, greater visibility across processes, and the ability to make faster and more consistent decisions across the entire insurance lifecycle, from customer engagement and policy servicing to underwriting, claims, and operations.

DXC is expanding these capabilities through Assure Smart Apps, helping insurers automate work and improve how information and decisions move across the business. Designed to work alongside existing systems, Smart Apps allow insurers to begin with a specific business priority, demonstrate measurable value, and extend capabilities over time across underwriting, claims, broking, distribution, and operations.

Since first introducing Smart Apps one year ago, DXC has added 18 Smart App customers supporting more than 450 insurers and expanded Assure Platform adoption to more than 275 customers. At scale, these capabilities have already enabled 750,000+ automated transactions, 70+ agents deployed, and more than two million pages digitally extracted. Assure Smart Apps are further being deployed in DXC's Life & Wealth BPS operations, which support 11 million policies and process more than $11 billion in payments annually across 300,000 claims a year.

These capabilities are delivered within a secure, governed framework built on connected data, operational controls, and insurance-specific expertise, helping insurers innovate with confidence while maintaining the resilience and accountability required for mission-critical operations.

Supporting Critical Workflow Modernization Across the London Market

DXC provides technology supporting critical London Market services while also working directly with brokers and insurers through its broader insurance software and services business. DXC has set out its intent to combine capabilities from Assure Platform with specialist capabilities developed through the London Market Core Platform (LMCP), strengthening scale, security, and operational capabilities. This includes supporting the modernization of critical workflows to improve how work and information move across the market, enabling better connectivity, greater visibility, stronger operational control, and improved access to information while protecting the continuity and reliability the market depends on.

DXC is applying Assure Architecture and Workflow Assistant to support the modernization of selected London Market workflows, improving how work is routed, tracked and managed across the market, while maintaining the resilience, continuity and operational certainty on which market participants depend.

SOURCE DXC Technology Company

Archer Aviation stock NYSE:ACHR has fallen roughly 38% in 2026, but Cathie Wood is buying the dip.

ARK Invest funds purchased about 2.57 million ACHR shares worth $12.1 million on Oct. 6, while ARK’s ARKW fund sold roughly $9.4 million of SpaceX stock (NASDAQ: SPCX).

At $4.65, Archer now sits near the bottom of its 52-week range even as TipRanks analysts see around 149% upside.

Archer Aviation remains a high-risk stock despite Wall Street’s bullish targets. TipRanks’ six-analyst consensus of $11.60 implies roughly 149% upside from $4.65, while broader analyst data put the average target near $10.61.

The bull case depends on Archer expanding into defence, autonomy and airspace technology, while heavy cash burn and unfinished Midnight certification remain the biggest risks.

Archer has fallen from a 52-week high of $14.62 to $4.65, leaving it only modestly above its $4.30 low.

That collapse has come even as the company advances Midnight flight testing and prepares for the White House’s eVTOL Integration Pilot Program.

ARK is adding after a repricing rather than chasing momentum.

The investment case has widened beyond passenger air taxis. On Archer’s earnings call, Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Andres Sheppard said the company “no longer is an eVTOL company,” describing it instead as an aerospace, defence and advanced-air-mobility platform.

Archer plans to acquire Boeing’s Wisk Aero, Insitu and SkyGrid businesses, adding autonomy, military drones and airspace software. Insitu alone brings more than $200 million in annual revenue.

Wood is therefore buying a company whose share price has collapsed just as its addressable market is broadening.

TipRanks’ six-analyst consensus target stands at $11.60, implying roughly 149% upside from Tuesday’s close.

A broader nine-analyst set puts the average target closer to $10.61. But the range is unusually wide, as the lowest target is about $4.50, implying slight downside from current levels, while the highest target of $18 suggests potential upside of almost 290%.

That spread tells investors something the headline average cannot: Wall Street broadly agrees Archer has significant long-term potential, but analysts disagree sharply over what that potential is worth today.

The bullish argument increasingly depends on Archer becoming a broader aerospace and defence platform, not simply getting Midnight certified.

Canaccord Genuity analyst Austin Moeller kept a Buy rating and $12 target after Archer announced the Boeing transaction. TipRanks reported that Moeller sees the company “evolving into a more defence tech-focused business.”

Canaccord lifted its 2027 revenue estimate to about $325.5 million from $124.5 million, reflecting expected contributions from defence and autonomous-aviation assets alongside Midnight.

Archer is also developing Halo and Thunder autonomous aircraft and ZEE, an aviation-focused AI foundation model. Boeing is set to become a strategic shareholder and partner.

Archer generated $5 million of second-quarter revenue while adjusted EBITDA showed a $177.1 million loss. Operating expenses approached $280 million, and cash used in operations reached $156.4 million.

Canaccord estimated quarterly free-cash use at roughly $194 million and expects an adjusted EBITDA loss of about $717 million for 2026.

H.C. Wainwright analyst Amit Dayal nevertheless reiterated a Buy rating and $18 target after the results. From $4.65, that implies almost 290% upside.

But the $4.50 low target provides an important counterweight. It suggests at least one Wall Street view sees little reason for the stock to trade materially above current levels until Archer proves more of its commercial story.

Certification remains another central risk. Canaccord noted that Archer had not provided detailed timing for Phase 4 testing and analysis required for Midnight’s airworthiness certification.

That helps explain the gulf between bullish targets and weak price action. Investors are being asked to value businesses that could become large before the underlying programmes prove they can scale commercially.

NuScale Power (SMR +4.43%) says it holds the only design certification the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has given a small modular reactor. Its newer US460 design, based on bigger 77-megawatt modules, also earned the agency's standard design approval in May 2025.

But the first commercial small modular reactor the NRC has approved for construction isn't a NuScale design. On Sept. 29, the regulator granted a permit for the Tennessee Valley Authority to build a 300-megawatt BWRX-300 reactor from GE Vernova (GEV +3.96%) on TVA's Clinch River site in Tennessee.

NuScale shares trade near $8 as I write, down about 86% from the $57.42 they hit a year ago. And the permit came under three weeks after UBS cut the growth stock to sell, arguing rivals were moving into construction but NuScale had no firm customer commitments.

I wouldn't buy or sell a stock over a rating change. But it's worth comparing how TVA won its permit to where NuScale's own customers are.

Image source: The Motley Fool.

A 14-month reviewThe NRC officially started reviewing TVA's application in July 2025 and finished in 14 months, four months ahead of schedule. And TVA already had an early site permit for Clinch River, granted in 2019.

The GE Vernova design is moving in Canada, too. Ontario Power Generation got a license to construct the first BWRX-300 in April 2025, and nuclear construction is now underway at its Darlington site.

NRC records for NuScale look different. The agency lists NuScale in pre-application work for future combined license applications (the filing a utility submits to build and operate a plant) that would reference the US460 design. When it approved the design, the NRC said that anyone wanting to use it would still need to apply to build and operate a reactor. None has done that yet.

What needs to happen first?Everything goes through ENTRA1 Energy, NuScale's exclusive commercialization partner. In September 2025, ENTRA1 and TVA signed a non-binding agreement for up to 6 gigawatts of capacity from NuScale's power modules, billed partly as power for artificial intelligence (AI) data centers. As of NuScale's second-quarter report in August, ENTRA1 was still working toward a definitive power purchase agreement with TVA.

The license application itself waits for that agreement. On NuScale's second-quarter earnings call, CEO John Hopkins said one of the first steps once power purchase agreements are in place would be starting the license application with the customer. He added that around 60% of the application work done for a scrapped Utah project could be reused.

So even a signed deal probably leaves NuScale's customer with an application to finish and file, and a federal review that, at TVA's pace, could run over a year. Under NuScale's partnership terms, a binding agreement also triggers NuScale's next milestone payment to ENTRA1 (35% of the total it could owe) before any reactor revenue comes in.

Revenue has almost dried upMeanwhile, the revenue NuScale does report keeps dropping, from $8.2 million in 2025's third quarter to around $1.8 million in the fourth. Then it slid to $565,000 in the first quarter of 2026 and just $75,000 in the second, compared to $8.1 million a year earlier. Most of the older revenue was from engineering work for a planned plant in Romania, which finished in late 2025. And a pricing agreement with the project's prime contractor for that work cut second-quarter revenue by $176,000, leaving the company's power plant and module services line negative.

Romania won't close the gap soon, either. Hopkins said the Romanian project's final notice to proceed is "probably another year from now."

And losses are growing. NuScale's operating loss hit $64 million in the second quarter. That's around 49% more than a year before, and up from the $57.5 million it lost in the first quarter.

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NuScale posted a net loss for each of those periods, so there's no net income to value the stock on yet.

Sure, NuScale has time -- and money. It finished June with $1.9 billion in cash and investments, around half the stock's market value of about $3.5 billion. That's probably enough to cover years of operating losses at the current rate, but a signed deal would also trigger the milestone payment to ENTRA1.

Ultimately, NuScale still has an approved design, lots of cash, and a partner negotiating with the same utility that just won the first permit. But a rival's reactor is now cleared for construction, while NuScale's route to selling one still starts with a contract that hasn't been signed.

NuScale's third-quarter call on Nov. 5 is the next chance for management to say if ENTRA1 and TVA have gotten there. Until then, I'd wait on the stock.

Item 1 of 2 The logo of semiconductor company Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) is displayed over a booth at the Web Summit digital trade show in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, May 12, 2026. REUTERS/Chris Helgren/File Photo

[1/2]The logo of semiconductor company Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) is displayed over a booth at the Web Summit digital trade show in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, May 12, 2026. REUTERS/Chris... Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab Read more

SEOUL, Oct 7 (Reuters) - AMD (AMD.O), opens new tab CEO Lisa Su said on Wednesday that the US chipmaker continues to ​explore partnership opportunities with Samsung Electronics (005930.KS), opens new tab in ‌the memory and foundry businesses.

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In response to tight memory chip supply, Su said AMD is "working with our customers ​to optimise their memory footprint so that ​we can satisfy more computing going forward."

Speaking to ⁠reporters during a visit to Seoul, Su ​said she had met with executives at SK ​Hynix (000660.KS), opens new tab and was going to meet with executives from Samsung Electronics.

Su said she encourages memory suppliers to "build faster, as ​fast as possible."

"I think we very much rely ​on the Korean supply chain," Su said, adding that Samsung ‌and ⁠SK Hynix are "key for us to accomplish our broad ambition in data centres."

Su said overall data centre demand remained very strong, with AMD seeing ​strong demand ​signals across ⁠its product portfolio.

In March, AMD and Samsung Electronics signed a memorandum of understanding ​to expand their strategic partnership on ​memory chip ⁠supplies for artificial intelligence infrastructure.

The companies said at the time they would also discuss opportunities for ⁠a ​foundry partnership, under which Samsung ​could provide contract chip manufacturing services for next-generation AMD products.

Reporting by ​Heekyong Yang and Hyunjoo Jin Editing by Ed Davies

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Starbucks is facing a proposed class-action lawsuit alleging the coffee giant misleadingly markets eight protein beverages as “Sugar-Free” despite the drinks containing naturally occurring sugar from milk.

The lawsuit, filed Friday in the US District Court for the Western District of Washington, alleges Starbucks’ “Sugar-Free” protein drinks contain between 13 and 21 grams of sugar per venti serving.

The plaintiffs contend the product names violate federal regulations governing “sugar-free” labeling claims.

Starbucks disputes the allegations.

“We believe these claims have no merit,” a Starbucks spokesperson said in a statement.

“Starbucks has consistently and clearly provided information about its protein beverages, sugar-free options, customization choices and nutritional content across product announcements, menus, marketing materials, Starbucks.com and the Starbucks app, and we intend to vigorously defend ourselves in this matter.”

Starbucks is facing a lawsuit alleging it misleadingly marketed protein drinks as “sugar-free” despite containing natural sugar. Studio Aurelia – stock.adobe.com At the center of the dispute is the distinction between total sugar and added sugar. The plaintiffs acknowledge that Starbucks provides nutritional information showing the beverages contain sugar, but argue that using “Sugar-Free” in the product names is misleading.

“This case is about false and misleading product names. It is not about missing nutritional information,” the complaint states.

The sugar at issue is lactose naturally present in the milk used to make the beverages, according to the lawsuit. Figures cited in the complaint from Starbucks’ nutrition information show venti versions contain between 13 and 21 grams of sugar.

A venti Sugar-Free Caramel Protein Matcha contains 21 grams of sugar, according to the complaint. ClassAction.org A venti Sugar-Free Caramel Protein Matcha contains 21 grams, while a Sugar-Free Vanilla Protein Matcha contains 20 grams, according to the complaint. The lawsuit includes screenshots of Starbucks’ ordering pages showing those sugar amounts alongside the “Sugar-Free” product names.

Starbucks has distinguished between total sugar and added sugar in descriptions of the beverages. According to the complaint, Starbucks has described the products as containing “no added sugar” while also incorporating “Sugar-Free” into their names.

The plaintiffs argue that distinction does not satisfy federal requirements for a “sugar free” claim.

The complaint cites Food and Drug Administration regulations that plaintiffs say permit a “sugar free” claim only when a food or beverage contains less than 0.5 grams of sugar per reference amount customarily consumed and per labeled serving, among other requirements.

Starbucks launched its protein drink lineup in September 2025. Brian Zak/NY Post The plaintiffs allege Starbucks’ drinks exceed that threshold because of the lactose in the milk used to make them.

The lawsuit also alleges Starbucks fails to provide a calorie disclaimer that plaintiffs contend is required under FDA regulations when a “sugar free” claim is made on a product that is not labeled low or reduced calorie. The complaint says the eight beverages contain roughly 270 to 340 calories per venti serving.

The allegations have not been adjudicated, and Starbucks denies any wrongdoing.

The lawsuit was brought by consumers Michael Walsh of California, Anne Legnini of New York and Elna Potter of Washington.

They are seeking to represent a nationwide class of customers who purchased the beverages, or alternatively separate classes of consumers in California, New York and Washington.

The eight beverages at issue are hot and iced Sugar-Free Vanilla and Caramel Protein Lattes and Protein Matchas. Starbucks launched its protein beverage lineup in September 2025 as the company sought to tap growing consumer demand for protein-enhanced drinks.

The plaintiffs are pursuing claims under consumer protection and false advertising laws in Washington, California and New York, along with claims for breach of implied warranty and unjust enrichment.

They are seeking damages and restitution as well as an order barring Starbucks from marketing beverages as “Sugar-Free” unless they meet the applicable requirements.

NEW YORK, Oct. 07, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Leading securities law firm Bleichmar Fonti & Auld LLP announces that it is investigating Barry Diller’s bid to buy MGM Resorts International (NYSE:MGM). MGM is incorporated in Delaware.

Barry Diller is a member of MGM’s board of directors. People, Inc. (“People,” f/k/a/ IAC, Inc.), a company that Diller founded and controls, is MGM’s largest single stockholder. On June 1, 2026, People made an unsolicited bid to buy the remaining MGM stock for $48.30 per share.

If you are a current shareholder of MGM, you are encouraged to obtain additional information by visiting: https://www.bfalaw.com/cases/mgm-resorts-investigation.

Key Details of the MGM ($MGM) Investigation:

Investigation Overview: Breaches of Fiduciary Duty in connection with Barry Diller’s offer to acquire the remaining stock of MGM for $48.30 per shareAction: Contact BFA Law to discuss your rights Why is the MGM Transaction being Investigated?

As a director, Diller owes fiduciary duties to MGM and its stockholders. People also recently entered a governance agreement with MGM that gave People the right to designate two MGM directors going forward.   Because Diller “stands on both sides” of the proposed deal, and because other MGM fiduciaries could potentially receive benefits that other stockholders do not receive, these facts create a create conflicts of interest under Delaware law. If MGM and Diller reach an agreement, they must comply with Delaware’s strict requirements for “cleansing” these conflicts and ensuring the deal is fair to MGM’s stockholders.

In a news release on June 1, MGM stated that the board of directors “will carefully review and consider the proposal to determine the course of action that it believes is in the best interests of the Company and all of its shareholders.”  

BFA is investigating whether the potential agreement complies with Delaware law.

Click here for more information:

https://www.bfalaw.com/cases/mgm-resorts-investigation

What Can You Do?

If you are a current holder of MGM stock, you may have legal options and are encouraged to submit your information to the firm.

All representation is on a contingency fee basis; there is no cost to you. Shareholders are not responsible for any court costs or expenses of litigation. The firm will seek court approval for any potential fees and expenses.

Submit your information by visiting:

https://www.bfalaw.com/cases/mgm-resorts-investigation

Or contact:

Adam McCall
[email protected]
212.789.3619

Why Bleichmar Fonti & Auld LLP?

BFA is a leading international law firm representing plaintiffs in securities class actions and shareholder litigation. It has been named a top plaintiff law firm by Chambers USA, The Legal 500, and ISS SCAS, and its attorneys have been named “Elite Trial Lawyers” by the National Law Journal, “Litigation Stars” by Benchmark Litigation, among the top “500 Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyers” by Lawdragon, “Titans of the Plaintiffs’ Bar” by Law360 and “SuperLawyers” by Thomson Reuters.

Most recently, The Legal 500 awarded BFA the most client satisfaction accolades of any plaintiff’s securities litigation law firm, with clients noting: “[t]here is no better service provider in the practice area,” “[t]he interest of the client is always front and center,” and “[t]here isn’t a better firm in this space.” One testimonial described the firm as “nimble and entrepreneurial,” with a “relentless focus on adding value for clients.”

Among its recent notable successes, BFA recovered over $900 million in value from Tesla, Inc.’s Board of Directors, as well as $420 million from Teva Pharmaceutical Ind. Ltd.

For more information about BFA and its attorneys, please visit https://www.bfalaw.com.

https://www.bfalaw.com/cases/mgm-resorts-investigation

Attorney advertising. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.

, /PRNewswire/ -- Today, eBay released its 2026 Recommerce Report, new global research showing that secondhand shopping is becoming a more deeply embedded part of everyday life. The research indicates that consumers around the world are increasingly turning to recommerce for value, selection, sustainability and connection.

Based on surveys of more than 10,500 consumers and more than 1,700 eBay sellers across several markets, the report demonstrates a meaningful shift in the role of recommerce: what was once a more occasional or discretionary way to shop is increasingly becoming an engrained part of how consumers and eBay sellers manage household budgets and make everyday purchasing decisions.

Among the report's key global findings:

70% of global consumers surveyed consider secondhand shopping important for managing their household budgets. 47% say they buy secondhand goods at least monthly, up from 35% in 2025. 76% say they have shopped for secondhand products in the past year. 89% plan to spend the same or more on secondhand goods next year. Younger consumers continue to lead the shift, with 53% of 18–29-year-olds expecting to buy more secondhand products over the next 12 months, compared with 36% overall. For the first time, eBay's research shows U.S. consumers place greater importance on secondhand for managing household budgets than consumers globally. In the U.S., 36% of consumers surveyed say secondhand is "very important" to managing their household budgets, compared with 28% globally. The new research shows the meaningful role recommerce can play for sellers, too: 45% of U.S. eBay sellers say resale provides supplemental income, while 25% say the money from their sales has provided vital support for their household income. With millions of sellers from around the world on the platform and approximately 70% of eBay sales coming from small businesses, these findings underscore how recommerce is increasingly helping people stretch their budgets as buyers while also creating economic opportunity for sellers.

"Recommerce has been core to our marketplace for 30 years, and this year's report makes clear that its role in people's lives is only growing," said Jamie Iannone, Chief Executive Officer at eBay. "With more than 2 billion live eBay listings, consumers around the world are embracing secondhand for the affordability, quality, trust, and discovery it offers. eBay is proud to help power that global shift by connecting people with the products they love and the economic opportunity that recommerce creates."

The report also points to several forces shaping the next chapter of recommerce:

There is significant opportunity to unlock more supply: 85% of surveyed eBay sellers source secondhand inventory from their own belongings, highlighting the potential to bring more of the items sitting in homes and closets back into circulation.  At the same time, sustainability remains a powerful part of the story, with 83% of consumers surveyed agreeing that recommerce has real environmental benefits.  And as recommerce grows more social and interactive, 54% of consumers say community and shared connections, like live shopping, are important to their secondhand shopping experience. About the Research
The 2026 Recommerce Report is based on two surveys conducted online in partnership with Bounce Insights, a leading agile research platform. The external survey included 10,522 consumers across the U.S., U.K., Germany, Poland, France, Italy, Spain, Australia, Austria, and Japan. The survey fieldwork took place between July 9, 2026 and July 27, 2026. Respondents included consumers who have engaged in recommerce, defined as individuals who have bought pre-loved or secondhand goods. In addition, a survey of 1,707 eBay sellers was conducted between July 15, 2026 and August 10, 2026 across the U.S., U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Australia, and Japan. Respondents included active eBay sellers who have engaged in recommerce by selling pre-loved or secondhand goods on the platform.

About eBay
eBay Inc. (Nasdaq: EBAY) is a global commerce leader that connects people and builds communities to create economic opportunity for all. Our technology empowers millions of buyers and sellers in more than 190 markets around the world, providing everyone the opportunity to grow and thrive. Founded in 1995 in San Jose, California, eBay is one of the world's largest and most vibrant marketplaces for discovering great value and unique selection. In 2025, eBay enabled $80 billion of gross merchandise volume. For more information about the company and its global portfolio of online brands, visit www.ebayinc.com.

SOURCE eBay Inc.

SummaryAccenture delivered strong Q4 results, dispelling fears that AI adoption would hurt demand; instead, AI is driving transformational projects and operational efficiency.Q4 revenue grew 7% in constant currency, exceeding guidance, with robust bookings momentum and broad-based demand across consulting and managed services.AI is both a growth and margin driver for ACN, with productivity gains supporting operating leverage and a shift toward fixed-price, outcome-based contracts.Shares remain attractively valued at ~13.3x FY27 EPS, with buybacks, dividends, and federal spend normalization supporting a buy rating. HJBC/iStock Editorial via Getty Images

Investment Thesis Accenture’s (ACN) recent results have significantly strengthened the bull case. The company’s Q4 results indicate that investor concerns about AI being a headwind for the business are not justified. Instead, AI adoption is resulting

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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.

Watts Water Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:WTS – Get Free Report)’s share price crossed above its two hundred day moving average during trading on Tuesday. The stock has a two hundred day moving average of $334.68 and traded as high as $366.19. Watts Water Technologies shares last traded at $362.0630, with a volume of 148,087 shares traded.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades WTS has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Robert W. Baird set a $405.00 price target on shares of Watts Water Technologies in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Watts Water Technologies from $414.00 to $425.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $374.00 target price on shares of Watts Water Technologies in a report on Friday, August 7th. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price target on shares of Watts Water Technologies from $350.00 to $417.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their price target on shares of Watts Water Technologies from $380.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Watts Water Technologies has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $367.70.

Read Our Latest Analysis on Watts Water Technologies

Watts Water Technologies Trading Down 0.2% The company has a current ratio of 2.66, a quick ratio of 1.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.62, a PEG ratio of 3.52 and a beta of 1.15. The business has a 50 day moving average of $363.21 and a 200-day moving average of $334.68. Watts Water Technologies (NYSE:WTS – Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The technology company reported $3.66 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.34 by $0.32. Watts Water Technologies had a return on equity of 19.16% and a net margin of 14.34%.The company had revenue of $763.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $725.99 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.09 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 18.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Watts Water Technologies, Inc. will post 12.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Watts Water Technologies Dividend Announcement The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 1st were given a dividend of $0.63 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 1st. This represents a $2.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. Watts Water Technologies’s dividend payout ratio is 22.01%.

Insider Buying and Selling In related news, Director Joseph T. Noonan sold 3,650 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $353.72, for a total value of $1,291,078.00. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Elie Melhem sold 1,096 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $359.55, for a total transaction of $394,066.80. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 7,867 shares in the company, valued at $2,828,579.85. This trade represents a 12.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 1.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Watts Water Technologies A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of WTS. First Trust Advisors LP increased its position in Watts Water Technologies by 6.7% during the first quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 545,404 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $158,325,000 after buying an additional 34,381 shares during the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Watts Water Technologies by 79.8% during the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 218,832 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $63,525,000 after acquiring an additional 97,115 shares during the period. Squarepoint Ops LLC increased its holdings in shares of Watts Water Technologies by 8,421.5% during the 2nd quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 104,815 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $41,030,000 after acquiring an additional 103,585 shares during the last quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt raised its stake in Watts Water Technologies by 20,071.4% in the 1st quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 141,200 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $40,989,000 after acquiring an additional 140,500 shares during the period. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its holdings in Watts Water Technologies by 58.7% during the 1st quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 135,140 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $39,230,000 after purchasing an additional 49,960 shares during the last quarter. 95.02% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Watts Water Technologies Company Profile (Get Free Report)

Watts Water Technologies, Inc designs and manufactures products that help manage the safety, efficiency, and quality of water in residential, commercial, institutional, and industrial systems. Its offerings are used in plumbing, heating, water distribution, and drainage applications.

The company’s product portfolio includes backflow prevention devices, pressure regulators, safety and relief valves, water quality and conditioning equipment, leak detection products, drainage systems, and hydronic and HVAC components.

See Also Five stocks we like better than Watts Water Technologies Constellation Energy’s Google Deal Shows Why Nuclear Uprates Matter for AI Lamb Weston’s Turnaround Is Starting to Look Real These 3 Stocks Got the Most Love From Analysts in September Record French Debt Could Create Opportunities for U.S. Market Operators Receive News & Ratings for Watts Water Technologies Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Watts Water Technologies and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.

Manulife Financial Corp (NYSE:MFC – Get Free Report) (TSE:MFC)’s stock price passed above its 200-day moving average during trading on Tuesday. The stock has a 200-day moving average of $40.65 and traded as high as $43.43. Manulife Financial shares last traded at $42.93, with a volume of 1,402,315 shares traded.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth Several analysts have issued reports on the stock. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Manulife Financial from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 2nd. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their target price on Manulife Financial from $55.00 to $67.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, August 7th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Manulife Financial from a “buy (a-)” rating to a “buy (a)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 19th. TD Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Manulife Financial in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Finally, Scotiabank reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Manulife Financial in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $59.00.

View Our Latest Report on Manulife Financial

Manulife Financial Trading Down 0.0% The firm has a market cap of $71.23 billion, a PE ratio of 16.02 and a beta of 0.84. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $43.65 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $40.65. Manulife Financial (NYSE:MFC – Get Free Report) (TSE:MFC) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The financial services provider reported $0.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.01. Manulife Financial had a return on equity of 16.68% and a net margin of 9.99%.The firm had revenue of $2.22 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.28 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.95 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Manulife Financial Corp will post 3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Manulife Financial Announces Dividend The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 21st. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 21st were issued a C$0.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 21st. This represents a $1.94 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.5%. Manulife Financial’s dividend payout ratio is 51.49%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Manulife Financial Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Bank of Nova Scotia bought a new position in Manulife Financial in the second quarter worth about $594,832,000. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board bought a new stake in shares of Manulife Financial in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $495,841,000. Legal & General Group Plc bought a new position in shares of Manulife Financial during the second quarter valued at $430,039,000. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund increased its stake in Manulife Financial by 183.7% during the 1st quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 11,702,230 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $402,969,000 after purchasing an additional 7,577,711 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Manulife Financial during the second quarter valued at approximately $230,451,000. 52.56% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

(Get Free Report)

Manulife Financial Corporation is a Canadian financial services company that provides insurance, wealth and asset management, retirement solutions and employee benefits. Its offerings include life and health insurance, annuities, group benefits, mutual funds, pension products and investment management services for individuals, businesses and institutional clients.

Founded in 1887 as The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company, Manulife has grown into an international organization serving customers primarily in Canada, the United States and Asia.

Recommended Stories Five stocks we like better than Manulife Financial Constellation Energy’s Google Deal Shows Why Nuclear Uprates Matter for AI Lamb Weston’s Turnaround Is Starting to Look Real These 3 Stocks Got the Most Love From Analysts in September Record French Debt Could Create Opportunities for U.S. Market Operators Receive News & Ratings for Manulife Financial Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Manulife Financial and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.

In a massive power generation deal agreed between two titans in their industries, Constellation Energy (CEG +12.25%) and Alphabet (GOOG +0.22%)(GOOGL +0.35%) have signed a pair of related long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs).

Alphabet, the parent company of eternal online search king Google, will buy 3.59 gigawatts of electricity from Constellation, the largest clean energy producer in the U.S. Of this, at least 890 megawatts will come from Constellation's nuclear assets.

This pact is already a huge boon to Constellation -- whose stock justifiably zoomed 12% higher on Tuesday following the announcement; however, we probably can't say the same for the wider nuclear industry. Let's dig into the deal to see why.

Image source: Getty Images.

Thirst for powerThe electricity will be consumed by Google, which, like many deep-pocketed and ambitious tech companies, is aiming to expand its network of artificial intelligence (AI) data centers. It's willing and able to fund a clutch of these projects with significantly increased capital expenditures (of almost $45 billion in the last reported quarter). Most of this spending is devoted to AI and advanced data center construction.

In its announcement of the deal, Constellation did not specify how much Alphabet/Google will pay for the 3.59 gigawatts of power, an immense amount by any standard. It did specify that 890 megawatts -- almost 25% of the total -- would be produced by the utility company's nuclear fleet (which, by the way, is by far the largest in this country with 21 reactors). The remainder is to be channeled through the PJM wholesale market, within which Constellation is the largest single power producer. As several of the company's nuclear plants supply PJM, it's likely the Google facilities will draw much more than that 890 megawatts from such sources.

The nuclear-exclusive part of the deal has a 20-year term. The additional 2.7 gigawatts is covered under a 15-year PPA.

Alphabet/Google isn't only getting power juice in the arrangement with Constellation. The latter company has committed to implementing Google Cloud and Alphabet's Gemini Enterprise AI solution as part of a five-year "technology alliance" to bolster its operations.

"For communities served by Constellation Energy, the aim is to use AI to reduce the costs of new infrastructure, improve performance, ensure enough power is generated to meet rising demand, and safeguard the energy grid they rely on," the electricity company wrote.

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The new age of nuclearNuclear power has enjoyed quite the resurgence in the U.S. recently, thanks largely to AI. The technology is a resource hog, requiring vast amounts of power to support the heavy computing it performs. Nuclear proponents argue that it’s the only form of energy, not to mention the sole green energy, which can service that kind of demand.

With this deal, Constellation will have plenty of coin to modernize and expand the capacity (or "uprate" in industry-speak) of its already considerable fleet -- it wrote in the press release that it'll devote a whopping $4.3 billion-plus to that purpose. Although we don’t know how much Alphabet/Google is spending on all that Constellation electricity, the amount is obviously considerable if over $4 billion from it can be allocated to plant improvements.

So, in the end, this deal pushes Constellation even higher up the ladder of both nuclear and clean-energy power producers. After all, existing and active nuclear plants in this country operate at nearly full capacity, so a meaningful expansion of the power supply would require physical engineering uprates or new builds. And with fleets that are notably smaller than Constellation's, there's only so much capacity expansion possible, even with a generous infusion of capital.

While small modular reactor (SMR) technology holds much promise, these facilities take time (and, of course, plenty of capital) to build and deploy. Some projects are in advanced stages of development, but the earliest operational targets are in 2028.

Ultimately, I'd consider this deal a monster win for Constellation. However, this assumes that collaboration with Alphabet/Google goes smoothly; that's never a guarantee in the nuclear industry, which is subject to execution risks such as regulatory hiccups, cost overruns, construction delays, and other constraints.

Back in August, Nvidia (NVDA +0.14%) announced a partnership with six Wall Street asset managers to provide financing for AI infrastructure build-outs. The effort aims to provide up to $500 billion to companies that build data centers and install Nvidia's GPUs in them.

Here's the key to those deals, though: The GPUs themselves act as collateral on the loans. That means the value of the GPUs is one of the main considerations for lending decisions.

An extra $500 billion in easy-to-access capital would be a boon for companies that are heavily reliant on debt to build new data centers. Neocloud companies like CoreWeave (CRWV +4.96%) and Nebius (NBIS +7.44%) are highly leveraged, and making huge bets that the AI compute shortage will continue for some time. Nvidia, meanwhile, benefits from its customers having more capital in their hands to put toward the data center build-out.

But Nvidia is facing some major pushback from its financing partners on Wall Street, and it all centers around how much of their value its GPUs retain over time. The answer to that question could reverberate throughout the entire industry.

Image source: Nvidia.

A big mismatch between Nvidia and the banks At the center of the controversy is just how long an Nvidia GPU's useful life is. Nvidia says it could be a decade; Wall Street bankers say it's more like three to four years, according to a Reuters report.

Nvidia published a blog post in response to the Reuters article. At the center of its argument was the question of how hyperscalers have changed their depreciation schedules for server and networking equipment over the last few years. It showed that Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta Platforms have extended the depreciation life of their hardware from three or four years to five or six years.

Also working in Nvidia's favor are recent pricing changes from CoreWeave and Nebius. CoreWeave announced that it "continued to contract new compute capacity at higher prices," signing new customer contracts at an annualized rate of $40 million per megawatt in September. Nebius, meanwhile, just raised prices across the board for hourly compute rentals by 17% to 21% for various Nvidia GPUs, including four-year-old chips.

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Nonetheless, at the end of the day, the banks are the ones putting up the capital, so they hold all the cards. The challenge is that it's truly impossible to know yet whether the way AI data centers function has created a structural change in the useful life of an Nvidia GPU. It's just too early to tell. Whether the banks are right or not will have a huge impact on some of the most popular AI stocks in the market.

How it could impact the major AI stocks If the banks want better guarantees, Nvidia or its customers will have to provide them. The Reuters article indicates there are already tens of billions of dollars in loans in the pipeline with stronger guarantees than were originally outlined in Nvidia's August announcement. Those guarantees could come from Nvidia itself, which would require it to maintain capital reserves, or from the revenue streams of investment-grade technology companies such as Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, or Meta Platforms.

Nvidia is reportedly in talks with insurance companies to hand off some of the financing risk tied to these loans in case a borrower defaults and the value of the GPUs fails to cover the debt. That could add to the cost of Nvidia's financing plans, however. The coverage is specifically aimed at neocloud companies like CoreWeave and Nebius.

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It's important to note that if a neocloud defaults, it will likely be in part because the Nvidia GPUs powering its data centers aren't worth as much as originally anticipated. The counterargument to the fact that neoclouds are raising prices is that we're currently in the midst of a severe shortage of AI compute. That has pushed prices higher for what's essentially a commodity product. When the market reaches equilibrium, prices for compute will begin to decline.

In other words, today's higher prices aren't a reflection of the increased durability of Nvidia GPUs, but rather a reflection of AI developers' desperation to get their hands on any available compute.

The hyperscalers don't carry nearly as much risk, but if AI chips' useful lives prove shorter than expected, it will negatively impact their return on invested capital. The good news is that Amazon reports it will break even on its AI accelerator chips within three years, and Alphabet says its breakeven time is just two years.

These days, both hyperscalers are installing more of their own custom AI accelerators than Nvidia GPUs, and those application-specific chips have even shorter payback periods. While GPUs can still generate positive returns on investment, they might not be the massive returns currently projected.

Shares of Illinois Tool Works Inc. (NYSE:ITW – Get Free Report) have been assigned an average rating of “Reduce” from the thirteen brokerages that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have issued a hold recommendation and two have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $282.00.

Several analysts recently commented on ITW shares. Truist Financial cut their price objective on Illinois Tool Works from $308.00 to $297.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Monday. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Illinois Tool Works from $278.00 to $297.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Illinois Tool Works from $310.00 to $350.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price objective on shares of Illinois Tool Works from $287.00 to $281.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, September 30th. Finally, Citigroup reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Illinois Tool Works in a report on Monday, July 13th.

Get Our Latest Report on ITW

ITW opened at $266.94 on Wednesday. Illinois Tool Works has a twelve month low of $238.82 and a twelve month high of $303.15. The company has a quick ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.26. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $277.56 and a 200-day moving average price of $268.15. The stock has a market capitalization of $76.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.20, a PEG ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.96. Illinois Tool Works (NYSE:ITW – Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 28th. The industrial products company reported $2.84 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.80 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $4.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.19 billion. Illinois Tool Works had a net margin of 19.39% and a return on equity of 101.72%. The firm’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.58 EPS. Illinois Tool Works has set its FY 2026 guidance at 11.350-11.550 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Illinois Tool Works will post 11.44 earnings per share for the current year.

Illinois Tool Works Increases Dividend The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 9th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 30th will be paid a $1.72 dividend. This is a positive change from Illinois Tool Works’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.61. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 30th. This represents a $6.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.6%. Illinois Tool Works’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 62.38%.

Insiders Place Their Bets In other Illinois Tool Works news, CAO Matteo C. Pigozzo sold 277 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $289.22, for a total value of $80,113.94. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 3,394 shares in the company, valued at $981,612.68. This represents a 7.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Ernest Santi sold 41,431 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $287.09, for a total value of $11,894,425.79. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 266,288 shares in the company, valued at $76,448,621.92. This trade represents a 13.46% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 0.83% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Illinois Tool Works Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Winnow Wealth LLC grew its holdings in shares of Illinois Tool Works by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Winnow Wealth LLC now owns 3,809 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $941,000 after buying an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Crown Wealth Group LLC grew its stake in Illinois Tool Works by 4.0% during the 1st quarter. Crown Wealth Group LLC now owns 953 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $248,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Argos Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Illinois Tool Works by 2.6% in the 1st quarter. Argos Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,526 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $397,000 after purchasing an additional 39 shares in the last quarter. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Illinois Tool Works by 21.5% during the 2nd quarter. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 226 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $61,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Finally, North Star Investment Management Corp. increased its holdings in shares of Illinois Tool Works by 0.5% in the first quarter. North Star Investment Management Corp. now owns 8,191 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $2,132,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the last quarter. 79.77% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Illinois Tool Works (Get Free Report)

Illinois Tool Works Inc (NYSE: ITW) is a diversified industrial manufacturer that develops and produces engineered products and systems for customers worldwide. The company serves a broad range of end markets, including automotive, construction, food service, welding, electronics, and general industry.

ITW’s product portfolio includes automotive components and fasteners, commercial food equipment, welding equipment and consumables, test and measurement instruments, electronic components, polymers and fluids, construction fastening systems, and other specialized industrial products.

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Dell AI Data Platform, the data foundation of the Dell AI Factory, expands with new data orchestration and storage capabilities

Unified Semantic Layer and Enterprise Knowledge Graph give every application and agent the same trusted view of enterprise data Dell AI Data Platform shortens the wait between question and insight with accelerated data processing that processes data nearly 4 times faster on average than CPUs alone Dell AI Data Platform storage enhancements improve security and benchmark performance New AI-ready data services move organizations from deployment to production quickly and reliably ROUND ROCK, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dell Technologies (NYSE: DELL) expands the Dell AI Data Platform so AI systems deliver better answers, cost less to run and reach production faster, giving applications and agents trusted, current context from a company's own data.

Arthur Lewis, president, Infrastructure Solutions Group, Dell Technologies: "Data without context is just noise. Most enterprises have spent years making their data accessible. That's not the same as making it usable."

Share Why it matters

In most cases the model isn't the bottleneck to achieving enterprise scale for AI. The data is. A company's most useful information sits in files, databases, cloud services and systems across multiple sites. Most of it was created long before anyone expected an AI agent to read it. It was never labeled, connected or organized with a machine reader in mind. As a result, agents burn tokens reconstructing answers that should already exist. Every query means more steps, more compute, more cost and slower, less trustworthy results.

Giving data meaning and context

The Dell AI Data Platform is built end to end, from where data is stored to where agents use it. Storage moves critical data to accelerated compute without bottlenecks; orchestration connects and prepares it; analytics and search transform and index it. NVIDIA Nemotron Retriever models enable document parsing, embedding and reranking. NVIDIA cuVS accelerates vector indexing and search. Because every layer runs on one platform, everything it produces traces back to governed data the customer already owns. Agents return to the same documents, history and decisions repeatedly, and most systems rebuild their understanding from scratch every time. That means answering the same two questions on every request: what does this term mean and how does it relate to everything else? Dell is extending the Dell AI Data Platform with three new features to answer both at once.

The Unified Semantic Layer gives structured and unstructured information consistent business meaning with rules, definitions and a searchable glossary, so a term means the same thing everywhere it appears. If one system calls it a client and another calls it an account, AI now knows they're the same thing. Users can also import existing ontologies and classification taxonomies, reusing industry-standard or enterprise-specific taxonomy assets. Dell is also enabling NVIDIA Auto-Ontology, an open-source library that builds knowledge graphs from enterprise data, to extend the Unified Semantic Layer. The Enterprise Knowledge Graph maps how structured and unstructured data is related, so an application or an agent can find the right context. It uses metadata, lineage and query history to keep tuning the graph as activity changes. When an agent asks a question, the platform pulls in every related piece it's allowed to see: the right tables, data products, multimodal data and vector indexes, wherever they live. For instance, a manufacturer chasing a production line problem can trace one odd sensor reading to the machine, its repair history, the supplier batch and the orders at risk. Knowledge Agents put that context to work. Each one acts as a trusted advisor on a single topic, grounded in a defined slice of the Enterprise Knowledge Graph. Customers set the rules: what guidance it follows, what data it can see, what quality bar it must clear and how much it's allowed to spend. NVIDIA Nemotron Retriever models provide reasoning and visual understanding to Knowledge Agents. The Unified Semantic Layer, Knowledge Graph and Knowledge Agents hold a customer's most valuable and sensitive information, so they stay inside the platform in the customer's data center. The platform builds context from that data, keeps it current as the business changes and shares it across every application and agent, without locking customers into any single model, data or storage provider.

Acceleration and security built into the data path

Business context is only reliable if data is accurate, current and governed from source to application. Customers should not have to adopt another proprietary layer to accelerate different parts of their data environment. Dell brings acceleration into the data engines themselves, working with NVIDIA across the data path. Data must be transformed and analyzed, then reach accelerated compute fast enough to keep GPUs saturated and stay protected along the way. Dell data and storage advancements include:

cuDF accelerated data processing with Apache Arrow: New testing shows that the Dell Data Processing Engine, powered by NVIDIA cuDF on NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell Server Edition GPUs, processes data nearly 4 times faster on average than CPUs alone across a range of workloads, and up to 20 times faster on batch processing workloads.¹ Apache Arrow moves data efficiently between Dell storage and processing, so jobs can query data in place. This can reduce data-preparation time and shorten the path from raw enterprise information to trusted context. Expanded multitenancy and security: Dell PowerScale now supports up to 500 tenants in a single cluster, with mTLS over NFS to encrypt and authenticate file traffic and more granular role-based access control for managing each tenant. AI service providers and enterprises running shared AI platforms can serve more teams and customers from one cluster while keeping each tenant's data isolated and secure. Benchmark workload performance: The new Dell Storage Performance Tool helps customers confidently size AI infrastructure, compare vendor solutions and keep GPUs fed by testing the performance of their S3-compatible object storage across training, inference and checkpointing. Expertise to get to production

Dell is expanding Dell AI Data Platform implementation services across its data and storage engines to move organizations from deployment to production results quickly and reliably. Dell Services establish a production-ready foundation, activating the platform’s analytics, processing, search and orchestration capabilities while keeping the platform tuned to the demands of AI workloads.

Perspectives

Arthur Lewis, president, Infrastructure Solutions Group, Dell Technologies:
“Data without context is just noise. Most enterprises have spent years making their data accessible. That's not the same as making it usable. An agent that can find a customer record but doesn't know what it means, how it connects to everything else, or whether it can be trusted isn't intelligent. It’s just fast. The companies that solve it won't just deploy AI faster or run more agents. They'll get more out of the data they already have.”

Jason Hardy, vice president of storage technology, NVIDIA:
“AI agents are only as effective as the data they can access, understand, and trust, and NVIDIA accelerated computing and AI software help turn governed data into AI-ready context. By bringing NVIDIA cuDF acceleration directly into the Dell Data Processing Engine, Dell helps shorten the path from stored data to GPU-accelerated AI-ready data their agents can use to drive real world innovation.”

Availability

The Unified Semantic Layer, Enterprise Knowledge Graph and Knowledge Agents will be released in 1H 2027. Dell Data Processing Engine enhancements with the NVIDIA acceleration stack will be available in December 2026, with further acceleration using Apache Arrow expected 1H 2027. Dell PowerScale security and multitenancy enhancements will be available in November 2026. The Dell Storage Performance Tool is available now. AI-ready data services are available now. Additional resources

Blog: Getting Enterprise AI into Production Starts with Context Connect with Dell on X and LinkedIn 1. Based on Dell internal testing in September 2026 comparing GPU-accelerated and CPU-only Apache Spark runs across diverse data processing workloads on a Dell PowerEdge R770 with NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell Server Edition GPUs. Results showed a 3.9x average speedup and a 20.4x peak speedup on a batch processing (data mining) workload. The numbers are from default configurations without any performance tuning to the engine or infrastructure. Actual results may vary.

About Dell Technologies

Dell Technologies (NYSE: DELL) helps organizations and individuals build their digital future and transform how they work, live and play. The company provides customers with the industry’s broadest and most innovative technology and services portfolio for the AI era.

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Ballard Secures 4.8MW Order from Siemens Mobility to Power Hydrogen Trains in RomaniaPR Newswire

VANCOUVER, BC, Oct. 6, 2026

24 FCrail™ fuel cell modules will power 12 Mireo Plus H trains, Romania's first hydrogen fleet and the platform's largest deployment to date.

, /PRNewswire/ -- Ballard Power Systems (NASDAQ: BLDP) (TSX: BLDP) today announced an order for 24 x FCrail™ 200 kW fuel cell modules from Siemens Mobility GmbH ("Siemens Mobility"; www.mobility.siemens.com), a leader in rail automation and electrification.

The order, totaling 4.8 MW, is expected to power 12 Mireo Plus H hydrogen passenger trains for Romania's Railway Reform Authority (ARF). This represents the largest commercial deployment of the Mireo Plus H platform to date, the first outside of Germany, as well as the first fleet of Mireo trains in Eastern Europe. Fuel cell engine deliveries are scheduled for 2027 and 2028, with the fleet expected to enter passenger service in 2029.

This order deepens the long-standing collaboration between Ballard and Siemens Mobility, building on a multi-year supply commitment established in 2022. As Siemens Mobility expands its hydrogen rail fleet, this new order leverages the proven success of earlier Mireo Plus H deployments in Germany, reflecting the trusted performance and reliability of Ballard's fuel cell technology in the demanding rail sector.

"We are grateful for our partnership with Siemens Mobility and their passionate commitment to expanding zero-emission rail technology across Europe. Together, we are innovating and delivering clean transport solutions that are leading the industry. This order is the largest deployment of the Mireo Plus H fleet and we are proud to work side by side with Siemens Mobility to deliver the future - today." Marty Neese, CEO, Ballard Power Systems

"With this order, we will introduce our proven and trusted Mireo trains as well as hydrogen- powered rail transport to Eastern Europe. The 12 Mireo Plus H trains will make up Romania's first hydrogen-powered train fleet, based on our reliable Mireo platform and the successful deployment of this technology in Germany," said Thomas Graetz, Head of Regional and Commuter Rail at Siemens Mobility.

Trains powered by Ballard fuel cells offer safe and reliable zero-emission operations, including long range, fast refueling and flexible operation across a wide variety of routes and environmental conditions, acting as a 1:1 replacement of diesel engines on non-electrified rail lines.

About Ballard

Ballard Power Systems (NASDAQ: BLDP; TSX: BLDP) is a global leader in zero-emission hydrogen energy solutions and an integrated Energy-as-a-Service (EaaS) provider. Together, with its wholly owned subsidiary, GeoPura Ltd., Ballard delivers turnkey, vertically integrated hydrogen ecosystem solutions spanning hydrogen production, logistics, refuelling, zero-emission fuel cell engines, and stationary Hydrogen Power Units.

Ballard powers critical off-grid, stationary applications - including construction, events, film sets, healthcare, defense, temporary power infrastructure, and supplies fuel cell engines for heavy-duty mobility applications such as bus, rail, and marine. With an EaaS model, combined with cutting-edge technology across the hydrogen value chain, Ballard decarbonizes mission-critical operations worldwide. To learn more about Ballard, visit www.ballard.com.

This release contains forward-looking statements concerning anticipated product and service attributes, product deliveries, and deployments. These forward-looking statements reflect Ballard's current expectations as contemplated under section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Any such forward-looking statements are based on Ballard's assumptions relating to its financial forecasts and expectations regarding its product development efforts, manufacturing capacity, and market demand.

These statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause Ballard's actual results to be materially different, including general economic and regulatory changes, detrimental reliance on third parties, successfully achieving our business plans and achieving and sustaining profitability. For a detailed discussion of these and other risk factors that could affect Ballard's future performance, please refer to Ballard's most recent Annual Information Form. Readers should not place undue reliance on Ballard's forward-looking statements and Ballard assumes no obligation to update or release any revisions to these forward-looking statements, other than as required under applicable legislation.

Further Information
Sumit Kundu – Investor Relations, +1.604.360.3517 or [email protected]

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SOURCE Ballard Power Systems Inc.

NEW YORK, Oct. 06, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of L3Harris Technologies, Inc. (“L3Harris” or the “Company”) (NYSE: LHX).  Such investors are advised to contact Danielle Peyton at [email protected] or 646-581-9980, ext. 7980.

The investigation concerns whether L3Harris and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices. 

[Click here for information about joining the class action]

On August 17, 2026, L3Harris disclosed that Christopher Kubasik has stepped down as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately.  L3Harris said that it had become aware of certain conduct by Kubasik that was not consistent with the values of the Company as outlined in its Code of Conduct.

On this news, L3Harris’s stock price fell $13.44 per share, or 4.61%, to close at $278.38 per share on August 17, 2026.

Pomerantz LLP, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, London, Paris, and Tel Aviv, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, Pomerantz pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 85 years later, Pomerantz continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomlaw.com.

Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.  

CONTACT:
Danielle Peyton
Pomerantz LLP
[email protected]
646-581-9980 ext. 7980

New specialization builds on Huntington's existing reinsurance trust platform and decades of experience serving captive insurance clients

, /PRNewswire/ -- The Huntington National Bank today announced the expansion of its captive insurance banking capabilities, further strengthening Huntington Commercial Bank's ability to provide comprehensive financial solutions to captive insurance companies and other alternative risk transfer structures.

The expanded capabilities build on Huntington's existing work with captive insurance clients and its growing reinsurance trust platform. The specialized team helps captive insurance clients manage collateral needs through solutions such as letters of credit and reinsurance trusts, while connecting clients to the broader Huntington platform.

With this expansion, the bank is bringing additional specialization, leadership and coordination to better support captive insurance companies of varying sizes, including global captives seeking streamlined access to banking, collateral and risk-management solutions.

"We've served captive insurance clients for decades, and this expansion reflects our continued investment in specialized capabilities that meet increasingly complex client needs," said Andy Arduini, senior managing director of Global Specialty Products at Huntington. "By combining experienced people, a strong platform and Huntington's balance sheet, we're positioned to deliver a more comprehensive model for clients across the captive insurance industry."

The expanded offering will be led by Jordan Mosher as head of captive insurance banking. Mosher previously helped build Huntington's reinsurance trust vertical and will work with leaders across Global Specialty Products to bring an end-to-end approach to the market. Joe McDonald will serve as managing director and support the continued development and delivery of the bank's captive insurance solutions.

"Captive insurance companies need partners who understand the industry, can move with speed and certainty, and can deliver collateral solutions as part of a broader banking relationship," Mosher said. "Our goal is to make it easier for clients to access the solutions they need through one coordinated team."

The expansion is the latest example of Huntington Commercial Bank's continued investment in specialized industry expertise. In addition to expanding into new geographic markets, Huntington Commercial Bank in recent years has launched a broad range of industry verticals and strengthened its national capabilities to serve clients across the country.

About Huntington 
Huntington Bancshares Incorporated is a $284 billion asset regional bank holding company headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. A top 10 U.S. commercial bank, The Huntington National Bank and its affiliates provide consumers, small and middle-market businesses, corporations, municipalities, and other organizations with a comprehensive suite of banking, payments, wealth management, and risk management products and services. Founded in 1866, Huntington operates over 1,400 branches in 21 states, with certain businesses operating nationally. Visit Huntington.com for more information.

SOURCE Huntington Bancshares Incorporated

The agreement pairs QazCode's expertise and technology with Amdocs aOS, modernizing VEON's technology operations and accelerating its digital operator strategy

DUBAI, AE AND ALMATY, KZ AND JERSEY CITY, NJ / ACCESS Newswire / October 7, 2026 / VEON Ltd. ("VEON"), a global digital operator, and Amdocs (NASDAQ:DOX), a leading provider of software and services to communications and media companies, today announced a 10-year strategic agreement. Under the agreement, Amdocs will run and continuously modernize VEON's core technology operations, accelerate its strategy as a digital operator, and provide long-term cost predictability across its IT operations in Eurasia. Amdocs will utilize certain QazCode intellectual property rights, leveraging QazCode's technology expertise, which will be integrated into Amdocs aOS, an agentic operating system purpose-built for telecommunications.

"Digital and AI services are an increasingly important part of how we serve our customers, already accounting for about 27% of VEON's Group revenue, and that contribution keeps growing," said Kaan Terzioğlu, Chief Executive Officer of VEON. "QazCode has helped us build the technology and talent to bring better digital experiences to the millions of people who rely on us every day, and adopting Amdocs' aOS capabilities is a natural next step in that journey. Our strategic partnership with Amdocs creates a strong foundation to keep improving people's lives through digital and AI innovation over the next decade."

"VEON is one of the most ambitious digital operators in our industry, and exactly the kind of partner we built aOS, the agentic operating system specialized for telco, for. With aOS, Amdocs will help transform VEON's operations, customer experiences and digital services through verticalized, telco-specific AI, advancing its evolution toward intelligent agentic autonomy. VEON's trust in Amdocs to lead this journey reflects our shared ambition to shape the next era of the digital operator. This agreement also expands Amdocs' presence in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and the wider Eurasia region, where we see significant opportunity," said Anthony Goonetilleke, Group President, New Growth Horizons at Amdocs.

About VEON

VEON is a digital operator that provides connectivity and digital services to over 150 million connectivity customers and more than 228 million digital customers. Operating across five countries that are home to more than 6% of the world's population, VEON is transforming lives through technology-driven services that empower individuals and drive economic growth. VEON is listed on NASDAQ. For more information, visit: https://www.veon.com.

About QazCode

QazCode is one of the leading AI companies and the exclusive digital partner of Beeline Kazakhstan. The company is part of the VEON group, which is listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange. The company has over 750 employees with 8 years of experience in software development for the telecom and IT markets with a deep understanding of business and technology. The solution portfolio includes the development of private Large Language Models (LLM) with a focus on data security, process optimization through Agile methodologies, full-cycle implementation of Business Support Systems (BSS), and IT outsourcing for effective product development, team expansion, and project management to help accelerate time to market. The company already operates in Central Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, and is actively expanding its presence in new markets.

About Amdocs

Amdocs helps the world's leading communications and media companies deliver exceptional customer experiences through reliable, efficient, and secure operations at scale. We provide software products and services that embed intelligence into how work runs across business, IT, and network domains - delivering measurable outcomes in customer experience, network performance, cloud modernization, and revenue growth. With our talented people, and more than 40 years of experience running mission-critical systems around the globe, Amdocs runs billions of transactions daily. Our technology is relied on every day, connecting people worldwide and advancing a more inclusive, connected world. Together, we help those who shape the future to make it amazing. Amdocs is listed on the NASDAQ Global Select Market (NASDAQ:DOX) and reported revenue of $4.53 billion in fiscal 2025. For more information, visit www.amdocs.com.

VEON's Forward-Looking Statement

This release contains "forward-looking statements", within the meaning of the Section 27A of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements relating to closing of the Amdocs transaction and our strategic ambitions. There are numerous risks, uncertainties that could cause actual results and performance to differ materially from those expressed by such statements, including risks relating to the closing of the Amdocs transaction and our strategic ambitions, among others discussed in the section entitled "Risk Factors" in VEON's 2025 Form 20-F filed with the SEC on March 16, 2026 and other public filings made by VEON with the SEC. The forward-looking statements contained herein speak only as of the date of this release and VEON disclaims any obligation to update them, except as required by law.

Amdocs' Forward-Looking Statement

This press release includes information that constitutes forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provision of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements about Amdocs' growth and business results in future quarters and years. Although we believe the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, we can give no assurance that our expectations will be obtained or that any deviations will not be material. Such statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause future results to differ from those anticipated. These risks include, but are not limited to, the effects of general macroeconomic conditions, prevailing level of macroeconomic, business and operational uncertainty, including as a result of geopolitical events or other regional events or pandemics, changes to trade policies including tariffs and trade restrictions, as well as the current inflationary environment, and the effects of these conditions on the Company's customers' businesses and levels of business activity, including the effect of the current economic uncertainty and industry pressure on the spending decisions of the Company's customers. Amdocs' ability to grow in the business markets that it serves, Amdocs' ability to successfully integrate acquired businesses, adverse effects of market competition, rapid technological shifts that may render the Company's products and services obsolete, security incidents, including breaches and cyberattacks to our systems and networks and those of our partners or customers, potential loss of a major customer, our ability to develop long-term relationships with our customers, our ability to successfully and effectively implement artificial intelligence and Generative AI in the Company's offerings and operations, and risks associated with operating businesses in the international market. Amdocs may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future; however, Amdocs specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These and other risks are discussed at greater length in Amdocs' filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including in our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2025, filed on December 15, 2025, for the first quarter of fiscal 2026 on February 17, 2026, for the second quarter of fiscal 2026 on May 26, 2026 and for the third quarter of fiscal 2026 on August 18, 2026.

Media Contacts

VEON
[email protected]

Amdocs
Swati Sharma
[email protected]

SOURCE: Amdocs Management Limited

New features broaden in-plan retirement income access and strengthen support for plan sponsors and participants

, /PRNewswire/ -- J.P. Morgan Asset Management today announced enhancements to Retirement Link℠, its workplace retirement offering for employers with 401(k), 403(b) and nonqualified plans to help advisors, plan sponsors and participants prepare for retirement. The updates broaden access to in-plan retirement income solutions, strengthen implementation and ongoing operational services to simplify plan administration, and expand participant communications to increase engagement. The enhancements are delivered through a deepened recordkeeping partnership with Empower, building on a relationship that dates back to 2012.

"Helping participants achieve a secure retirement is at the core of everything we do. Plan sponsors today are looking for ways to support people throughout their retirement journey. We believe these expanded capabilities can strengthen retirement readiness by delivering clearer education and access to retirement income solutions," said Steve Rubino, Head of Retirement at J.P. Morgan Asset Management. "We look forward to continuing our partnership with Empower to extend these capabilities through our recordkeeping experience."

"Our longstanding relationship with J.P. Morgan Asset Management has been built on a shared commitment to helping individuals achieve their financial goals," said Joe Smolen, President of Empower Workplace Solutions. "We're proud to help build upon that foundation by expanding the products and solutions available to individuals, giving them more ways to meet their evolving needs and pursue greater financial well-being."

The expanded capabilities are designed to support plan sponsors and advisors with:

Broader access to retirement income solutions. In J.P. Morgan Asset Management's 2026 Defined Contribution Plan Participant Survey, 91% of participants expressed interest in in-plan guaranteed retirement income solutions, and 75% said they would likely keep assets in-plan if their plan offered an income solution. Plan sponsors will have the option to access J.P. Morgan Asset Management's SmartRetirement Lifetime Income, its retirement income solution offered in a target date format, across all of Empower's recordkeeping platforms.  Enhanced implementation and ongoing sponsor operations. J.P. Morgan Asset Management is enhancing the implementation and onboarding experience to be more seamless by  leveraging additional resources and technology. Plan sponsors will also benefit from expanded operational services, such as enhanced required minimum distribution (RMD) processing, designed to simplify day-to-day administration and reduce overall administrative burden. Expanded participant communications and education. Building on Retirement Link's best-in-class service model1, J.P. Morgan Asset Management is adding participant engagement resources and educational support, including multilingual resources, to help participants make better financial decisions and improve their retirement readiness. J.P. Morgan Asset Management's retirement recordkeeping platform includes Retirement Link℠ and Everyday 401(k), supporting workplace retirement plans for employers ranging from first-time plan sponsors to established small- to mid-market plans. The platform combines investment solutions with implementation support, ongoing sponsor operations and participant communications delivered through the recordkeeping experience.

These recordkeeping capabilities are part of J.P. Morgan Asset Management's broader retirement offering that includes defined contribution investments, such as the award-winning2 SmartRetirement target date franchise, and thought leadership through the Retirement Insights program, including the Guide to Retirement and other in-depth analyses of timely retirement topics.

For more information about Retirement Link, please visit its dedicated website.

1NMG Satisfaction Survey, 2025. Scores reflect clients who provided 7/6 on a 7-point scale. When evaluating DC providers, a top 2 box rating of 85% or greater corresponds to best-in-class rating. Chatham Partners is a market research/consulting firm offering custom lifecycle-oriented research to the financial services industry. Their independent third-party research tracks J.P. Morgan's effectiveness in delivering client service to retirement client's and benchmarks J.P. Morgan's standing relative to other mid- and small-market defined contribution providers. Retirement Link has been #1 since NMG, formerly Chatham Partners, started reporting the Customer Experience score in 2019.

2 Morningstar Medalist Rating™ Target-Date categories. "Gold" Medalist rating applies to SmartRetirement Blend R6 mutual funds only.

About J.P. Morgan Asset Management
J.P. Morgan Asset Management, with assets under management of $4.6 trillion as of June 30, 2026, is a global leader in investment management. J.P. Morgan Asset Management's clients include institutions, retail investors and high net worth individuals in every major market throughout the world. J.P. Morgan Asset Management offers global investment management in equities, fixed income, real estate, hedge funds, private equity and liquidity. For more information, visit: www.jpmorgan.com/am.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) is a leading financial services firm based in the United States of America ("U.S."), with operations worldwide. JPMorganChase had $5.0 trillion in assets and $375 billion in stockholders' equity as of June 30, 2026. The Firm is a leader in investment banking, financial services for consumers and small businesses, commercial banking, financial transaction processing and asset management. Under the J.P. Morgan and Chase brands, the Firm serves millions of customers in the U.S., and many of the world's most prominent corporate, institutional and government clients globally. Information about JPMorgan Chase & Co. is available at www.jpmorganchase.com.

Information about JPMorgan Chase & Co. is available at www.jpmorganchase.com.

About Empower
Recognized as a leader in retirement services and wealth management, Empower administers more than $2.1 trillion in assets for more than 20 million individuals through the provision of workplace and individual retirement plans, advice, financial planning and investments. Connect with us on empower.com, Facebook, X,  LinkedIn, TikTok, and Instagram.

SOURCE J.P. Morgan Asset Management

 | Source: Vaxcyte, Inc.

SAN CARLOS, Calif., Oct. 06, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Vaxcyte, Inc. (Nasdaq: PCVX), a clinical-stage vaccine innovation company, announced today the pricing of concurrent underwritten public offerings of 7,412,500 shares of common stock, pre-funded warrants to purchase 400,000 shares of common stock and $500 million aggregate principal amount of 1.50% convertible senior notes due 2032 (the “notes”). The shares of common stock are being sold at a public offering price of $64.00 per share, and the pre-funded warrants are being sold at a public offering price of $63.999 per pre-funded warrant. The exercise price of the pre-funded warrants is $0.001 per share. The shares of common stock, pre-funded warrants and notes to be sold in the offerings are being offered by Vaxcyte. Vaxcyte has granted the underwriters of the common stock and pre-funded warrant offering a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 1,171,875 shares of its common stock at the public offering price per share, and has granted the underwriters of the note offering a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional $75 million aggregate principal amount of notes at the public offering price, solely to cover over-allotments, in each case less underwriting discounts and commissions.

The aggregate gross proceeds to Vaxcyte from the common stock and pre-funded warrants offering are expected to be approximately $500 million and the aggregate gross proceeds to Vaxcyte from the notes offering are expected to be $500 million, in each case before deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and other offering expenses, and excluding the exercise of any pre-funded warrants and assuming no exercise of the underwriters’ options.

Vaxcyte intends to use the net proceeds from the offerings to fund (i) clinical development of the VAX-31 adult and pediatric programs, including (a) for the ongoing VAX-31 adult Phase 3 program, the trial evaluating concomitant administration with a seasonal influenza vaccine (OPUS-2, enrolled), the trial in adults who have previously received a pneumococcal vaccine (OPUS-3, enrolled) and the planned manufacturing consistency study, and the anticipated topline safety, tolerability and immunogenicity data announcements from such studies, and (b) for the VAX-31 infant Phase 2 dose-finding study (enrolled), the anticipated topline data announcement(s) from the primary three-dose immunization series and booster dose; (ii) manufacturing scale-up, processes and supply to support our clinical studies and the potential commercial launches of our PCV programs, including (a) to establish additional manufacturing capacity to meet potential incremental supply requirements for the global adult and pediatric populations following the potential initial commercial launch of VAX-31 in adults in the United States and (b) to build inventory levels in advance of such potential commercial launch; (iii) medical affairs, commercial and systems-related investments to prepare for and execute the anticipated U.S. launch of VAX-31 in adults; (iv) ongoing research and development of our other early-stage pipeline vaccine candidates; and (v) general corporate purposes, including working capital, operating expenses and capital expenditures, as well as potential expansion of Vaxcyte’s research pipeline.

The completion of the common stock and pre-funded warrant offering is not contingent on the completion of the note offering, and the completion of the note offering is not contingent on the completion of the common stock and pre-funded warrant offering.

The offerings are expected to close on October 9, 2026, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.

Jefferies, Leerink Partners, BofA Securities, Evercore ISI, Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC and Guggenheim Securities are acting as joint book-running managers for the common stock and pre-funded warrant offering. Mizuho is acting as bookrunner and BTIG is acting as lead manager for the common stock and pre-funded warrant offering.

Jefferies, Leerink Partners, BofA Securities, Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC and Evercore ISI are acting as joint book-running managers for the note offering. Guggenheim Securities and Mizuho are acting as bookrunners and Needham & Company is acting as lead manager for the note offering.

J. Wood Capital Advisors is acting as financial advisor to Vaxcyte in connection with the note offering.

The notes will be senior, unsecured obligations of Vaxcyte and will accrue interest at a rate of 1.50% per annum, payable semi-annually in arrears on April 15 and October 15 of each year, beginning on April 15, 2027. The notes will mature on October 15, 2032, unless earlier repurchased, redeemed or converted. Before July 15, 2032, noteholders will have the right to convert their notes only upon the occurrence of certain events. From and after July 15, 2032, noteholders may convert their notes at any time at their election until the close of business on the second scheduled trading day immediately before the maturity date. Vaxcyte will settle conversions by paying or delivering, as applicable, cash, shares of its common stock or a combination of cash and shares of its common stock, at Vaxcyte's election. The initial conversion rate is 11.1607 shares of common stock per $1,000 principal amount of notes, which represents an initial conversion price of approximately $89.60 per share of common stock. The initial conversion price represents a premium of approximately 40.0% over the public offering price per share of common stock in the common stock offering. The conversion rate and conversion price will be subject to adjustment upon the occurrence of certain events.

The notes will be redeemable, in whole or in part (subject to certain limitations), for cash at Vaxcyte's option at any time, and from time to time, on or after October 22, 2029 and on or before the 20th scheduled trading day immediately before the maturity date, but only if the last reported sale price per share of Vaxcyte's common stock exceeds 130% of the conversion price for a specified period of time. The notes will also be redeemable, in whole and not in part, for cash at Vaxcyte's election at any time if the principal amount of the notes then outstanding is less than 10% of the aggregate principal amount of the notes issued in this offering (including any additional notes issued pursuant to any exercise of the underwriters' option to purchase additional notes). The redemption price will be equal to the principal amount of the notes to be redeemed, plus accrued and unpaid interest, if any, to, but excluding, the redemption date.

If a "fundamental change" (as defined in the indenture for the notes) occurs, then, subject to a limited exception, noteholders may require Vaxcyte to repurchase their notes for cash. The repurchase price will be equal to the principal amount of the notes to be repurchased, plus accrued and unpaid interest, if any, to, but excluding, the fundamental change repurchase date.

A shelf registration statement relating to the offered securities was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and was automatically effective upon filing on May 24, 2024. A preliminary prospectus supplement and accompanying prospectus relating to each offering has been filed, and a final prospectus supplement and accompanying prospectus relating to each offering will be filed with the SEC and will be available on the SEC’s website, located at www.sec.gov. Copies of the final prospectus supplement and the accompanying prospectus relating to each offering may be obtained, when available, from Jefferies LLC, Attention: Equity Syndicate Prospectus Department, 520 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10022, by telephone at (877) 821-7388, or by email at [email protected]; or Leerink Partners LLC, Attention: Syndicate Department, 53 State Street, 40th Floor, Boston, Massachusetts 02109, by email at [email protected] or by phone at (800) 808-7525, ext. 6105.

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy these securities nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.

About Vaxcyte

Vaxcyte is a vaccine innovation company engineering high-fidelity vaccines to protect humankind from the consequences of bacterial diseases. VAX-31, a 31-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) candidate being evaluated in the OPUS Phase 3 adult clinical program and in a Phase 2 infant clinical program, is being developed for the prevention of invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) and is the broadest-spectrum PCV candidate in the clinic today. VAX-24, a 24-valent PCV candidate, has generated positive Phase 2 clinical results in both adults and infants and is designed to cover more serotypes than any PCV on-market. VAX-31 and VAX-24 are designed to improve upon standard-of-care PCVs by covering the serotypes in circulation that cause a significant portion of IPD and are associated with high case-fatality rates, antibiotic resistance and meningitis, while maintaining coverage of previously circulating strains. VAX-XL, in earlier-stage development, also leverages Vaxcyte’s carrier-sparing, site-specific conjugation technology with the aim of further expanding coverage to deliver the broadest-spectrum candidate in Vaxcyte’s PCV franchise.

VAX-A1 is a prophylactic vaccine candidate designed to provide broad, strain-independent protection against disease caused by Group A Strep and is currently being evaluated in a Phase 1 clinical study in adults. Group A Strep remains a significant global cause of morbidity and mortality across both adult and pediatric populations and is a leading driver of antibiotic use, underscoring the substantial public health burden.

Vaxcyte is re-engineering the way highly complex vaccines are made through XpressCF®, its cell-free protein synthesis platform exclusively licensed from Sutro Biopharma, Inc. Unlike conventional cell-based approaches, Vaxcyte’s system for producing difficult-to-make proteins and antigens is intended to develop and deliver high-fidelity vaccines with enhanced immunological benefits. Vaxcyte’s pipeline also includes VAX-GI, a vaccine candidate designed to prevent Shigella.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding Vaxcyte, Inc. within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements include, but are not limited to, statements about the completion, timing and expected closing of the offerings, the expected amount of the gross proceeds of the offerings and the intended use of the net proceeds therefrom. Words such as “expects,” “intends,” “intended,” “designed,” “aim,” “will” and “may” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Forward-looking statements represent Vaxcyte’s current expectations regarding future events and are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those implied by the forward-looking statements. Among those risks and uncertainties are market and other conditions, the satisfaction of the closing conditions related to the offerings, risks described under the caption “Risk Factors” in the preliminary prospectus supplements (and, when available, the final prospectus supplements) for the offerings, risks relating to Vaxcyte’s business, and the other risks described more fully in Vaxcyte’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed with the SEC on August 5, 2026 or in other documents Vaxcyte subsequently files with or furnishes to the SEC. Vaxcyte may not consummate the offerings described in this press release and, if the offerings are consummated, cannot provide any assurances regarding its ability to effectively apply the net proceeds as described above. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements included in this press release speak only as of the date of this press release, and Vaxcyte does not undertake to update the statements included in this press release for subsequent developments, except as may be required by law.

Contacts:

Patrick Ryan, Executive Director, Corporate Affairs
Vaxcyte, Inc.
415-606-5135
[email protected]

Jeff Macdonald, Executive Director, Investor Relations
Vaxcyte, Inc.
917-371-0940
[email protected]