I keep hitting the buy button on Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL | GOOGL Price Prediction), and June’s volatility has only sharpened the urge. Every time the market panics that the Fed will hold rates higher for longer to fight creeping inflation, cyclical tech gets dragged down with it, and one of the cleanest compounders I own goes on sale. Macro-driven index liquidations have historically been the right backdrop to accumulate world-class monopolies, and Alphabet’s enterprise moat is insulated from central bank posturing. So I keep loading.
The thesis I cannot let go of: Google owns the digital plumbing enterprises cannot stop spending on, and AI is accelerating that dependence rather than breaking it. The bears spent a year warning that generative AI would gut Search. Then Search & other revenue grew 19% year over year to $60.40 billion in Q1 FY2026, with queries at an all-time high. The cannibalization story died on the income statement.
Three Reasons the Conviction Keeps Compounding First, Google Cloud is the re-rating engine almost nobody is pricing correctly. Cloud revenue hit $20.03 billion, up 63% year over year, with backlog nearly doubling quarter over quarter to over $460 billion. Inside that, enterprise AI solutions became the primary growth driver for Cloud for the first time, revenue from products built on GenAI models grew nearly 800% year over year, and Gemini Enterprise paid monthly active users grew 40% quarter over quarter. Cloud operating margin expanded from 17.8% to 32.9% in a single year. That is what operating leverage on a moat looks like.
Second, the cash machine economics are absurd in the best way. Q1 delivered $109.90 billion in revenue, EPS of $5.11 versus a $2.63 consensus, and operating margin of 36.1%. Across the trailing twelve months, the business produced a 35.70% return on equity, 29.60% return on invested capital, and a 32.05% operating margin. A P/E near 16 with a 6.27% earnings yield is utility-grade pricing for a business minting these returns.
Third, the balance sheet lets management spend like a hyperscaler without breaking the dividend. Net debt to EBITDA sits at 0.19, debt-to-equity at 0.143, and interest coverage at 903.26. Management still raised the dividend 5% to $0.22 per share, payable June 15, 2026. The Gemini app crossed 350 million paid subscriptions. The compounding pieces are working.
The Risk I Am Not Hand-Waving Away Capex is the honest risk. Capital expenditures more than doubled to $35.67 billion in Q1, and free cash flow fell 46.63% year over year to $10.12 billion. 2026 capex guidance now sits at $180 billion to $190 billion, with 2027 expected to step up further. If those dollars do not earn their cost of capital, the thesis cracks. What keeps me buying anyway is that Sundar Pichai said the company is “compute constrained in the near term” and that “Cloud revenue would have been higher if we were able to meet the demand”. Demand is outrunning what Google can supply.
What Keeps the Buy Button Active The stock is down 10.61% over the past month to $359.68 while the underlying business is running its 11th consecutive quarter of double-digit revenue growth. I will take that trade every June the market hands me.
by Todd Bishop on Jun 15, 2026 at 10:11 amJune 15, 2026 at 10:12 am
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy at an Amazon conference in 2025 in Seattle. (GeekWire File Photo / Todd Bishop) Amazon CEO Andy Jassy was reportedly among the tech leaders who communicated with senior Trump administration officials about security risks in Anthropic’s most advanced AI models, before a government order forced the AI lab to take its two newest models offline.
The situation puts Amazon in an unusual and potentially awkward position with Anthropic, in which it has invested $13 billion since 2023, with plans to put in as much as $20 billion more.
The Information first reported the calls between Jassy and senior officials, citing two people familiar with the conversations. The Wall Street Journal reported that Jassy told Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and others that Amazon researchers had used Anthropic’s Fable 5 to obtain information that could be used in cyberattacks.
Amazon shared those findings with administration officials, according to the reports.
“As a leading cloud provider that serves a large number of private and public sector customers, it’s not uncommon for governments to seek our counsel on potential security risks,” an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement to GeekWire on Monday morning. However, the statement added, the company doesn’t share the details of these discussions when they occur.
The administration’s directive, issued Friday afternoon, cited a method for jailbreaking Anthropic’s Fable 5 — a general-use version of its more powerful Mythos 5 model — to extract information that could aid cyberattacks. The order suspended access for any foreign national, forcing Anthropic to disable both models for all users to comply.
Axios reported that Amazon was among at least five companies that raised concerns with administration officials on Thursday night and Friday before the order came down.
In a statement Friday evening, Anthropic said it was complying with the government’s legal directive but disagreed that the situation warranted the action. The company said the vulnerabilities identified using Fable were “relatively simple” and could be found using other publicly available models, including OpenAI’s GPT-5.5.
“If this standard was applied across the industry, we believe it would essentially halt all new model deployments for all frontier model providers,” the company said.
Independent experts have questioned the severity of the finding. Andrew Morris, founder of the cybersecurity firm GreyNoise Intelligence, told the Journal that Amazon’s report showed Fable could surface security bugs in at least four software programs, but that the information was “still a long way from dangerous cybersecurity information.”
Fable 5 remains unavailable to Anthropic’s Claude users as of publication time.
It’s the latest twist in a contentious relationship between Anthropic and the Trump administration. Earlier this year, the Pentagon designated the company’s model as a supply-chain risk, after the two sides clashed over whether Anthropic’s models could be used for purposes such as mass domestic surveillance or in lethal autonomous weapons.
Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN | AMZN Price Prediction) just posted its fifth straight earnings beat, yet the stock is up just 3.35% year to date despite AWS posting its fastest growth in 15 quarters and a chips business running at a $20 billion revenue run rate.
CEO Andy Jassy says Amazon is “in the middle of some of the biggest inflections of our lifetime.” Can shares climb from $238.55 to $300 before year-end?
Why Amazon Shares Are Stuck Despite a Blowout Quarter The problem is capex, not the business. Amazon plans to spend roughly $200 billion in 2026 on data centers, custom silicon, and Project Kuiper satellites. Trailing twelve-month free cash flow has cratered to $1.2 billion, and long-term debt has ballooned to $119.1 billion from $65.6 billion. The market is choking on the bill.
AMZN is down 3.04% over the past week and 11.69% over the past month, pulling back from a May high near $264. With a beta of 1.44, this stock swings harder than the S&P, and tariff and recession headlines have not helped. The AI infrastructure spend is real; the returns are still a promise.
Wall Street Sees 31% Upside. Our Model Says 35% The Street is loaded up. 15 strong buys, 47 buys, 4 holds, and zero sells, with 94% bullish consensus and an average target of $312.51. Our internal model projects $322.28 over the next twelve months for 35.1% upside at 90% confidence, with a bull case of $368.54 and a bear case of $278.52.
The Street anchors on $312 even though Amazon just posted 74.8% YoY earnings growth. That math does not square. If AWS holds 28% growth and advertising compounds at 24%, $312 looks lazy. Consensus is too low.
The Path to $300 Per Share Reaching $300 from today’s $238.55 requires a gain of 25.8%. With forward EPS of $9.78, a $300 print implies a forward P/E of 31x. Our base case of $322.28 already implies 29x, meaning $300 needs only about 2 turns of additional multiple expansion.
Three catalysts support multiple expansion. First, the $10 billion Canadian bond raise funds AI capacity that monetizes through OpenAI’s 2 GW Trainium commitment and Anthropic’s up to 5 GW.
Second, the new LTL freight service for all U.S. businesses turns Amazon’s logistics network into a third-party revenue line.
Third, Bedrock processed more tokens in Q1 than all prior years combined, with customer spend up 170% QoQ. Jassy’s framing is direct: “our chips business topped a $20 billion revenue run rate.” The primary risk is a sharp AI capex unwind that punishes the multiple instead of expanding it.
Where Amazon Trades Today vs Its Earnings Power At $238.55 against forward EPS of $9.78, AMZN trades at a forward P/E near 24x. For a business compounding earnings at 75% and growing AWS 28%, that is not a premium multiple.
Shares sit 12% below the 52-week high of $278.56 and well above the low of $196.00. The 10-year return is 563.28%. The valuation case is straightforward: at 24x forward earnings, the multiple is modest for the most aggressive AI buildout in tech, with earnings growth doing the heavy lifting.
Is $300 Realistic? $300 by year-end requires a 25.8% gain. It is a stretch, but credible.
Three things need to go right: AWS holds 28% growth into the second half, advertising keeps printing 24%, and the market credits capex as investment, not waste. A recession that forces Amazon to defend the multiple while spending $200 billion derails it.
Prediction markets currently assign only a 7.8% probability to a $300+ print in June. That gap is the opportunity. Returns at this level shouldn’t be expected every year, but we’ve outlined the blueprint for how Amazon could reach $300 in 2026.
NEW YORK, June 15, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC, a nationally recognized investor-rights law firm, announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) and certain of its officers.
This lawsuit seeks to recover damages against Defendants for alleged violations of the federal securities laws on behalf of all persons and entities that purchased or otherwise acquired Microsoft securities between May 1, 2025 and January 28, 2026, both dates inclusive (the “Class Period”). Such investors are encouraged to join this case by visiting the firm’s site: bgandg.com/MSFT.
Microsoft Case Details
The Complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements because they failed to disclose that:
Microsoft’s Copilot family of products had experienced significant brand positioning, user experience, usage, data siloing, computational capacity, organizational, and interoperability problems; Microsoft’s flagship proprietary AI model ranked well below competitors on a number of benchmark tests; Microsoft needed to increase by billions of dollars its capital expenditures and divert graphics processing unit (“GPU”) and central processing unit (“CPU”) capacity away from fulfilling demand for its profitable Azure services in order to improve the competitive positioning of its critical Copilot family of products and increase its AI-related research and development (“R&D”); and as a result of the above, Microsoft had failed to convert a significant percentage of its commercial Microsoft 365 users to paid Copilot subscriptions and Microsoft’s Copilot offerings had lost market share to rival products, a trend that was increasing. What's Next for Microsoft Investors?
A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to review a copy of the Complaint, you can visit the firm’s site: bgandg.com/MSFT. or you may contact Peretz Bronstein, Esq. or his Client Relations Manager, Nathan Miller, of Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC at 917-590-0911. If you suffered a loss in Microsoft you have until August 11, 2026, to request that the Court appoint you as lead plaintiff. Your ability to share in any recovery doesn't require that you serve as lead plaintiff.
No Cost to Microsoft Investors
We, Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman LLC, represent investors in class actions on a contingency fee basis. That means we will ask the court to reimburse us for out-of-pocket expenses and attorneys’ fees, usually a percentage of the total recovery, only if we are successful.
Why Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC for Microsoft Securities Class Action?
Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC is a nationally recognized firm that represents investors in securities fraud class actions and shareholder derivative suits. Our firm has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors nationwide. More at www.bgandg.com
"Our practice centers on restoring investor capital and ensuring corporate accountability, which serves to uphold the essential integrity of the marketplace," said Peretz Bronstein, Founding Partner of Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC.
Follow us for updates on LinkedIn, X, Facebook, or Instagram.
Contact Info
Peretz Bronstein, Esq. or Nathan Miller
Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC
917-590-0911 | [email protected]
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Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, announces a class action lawsuit on behalf of purchasers of common stock of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) between May 1, 2025 and January 28, 2026. Microsoft describes itself as a “multinational technology conglomerate.”
For more information, submit a form, email attorney Phillip Kim, or give us a call at 866-767-3653.
The Allegations: Rosen Law Firm is Investigating the Allegations that Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) Misled Investors Regarding its Business Operations.
According to the lawsuit, throughout the Class Period, defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) Microsoft’s Copilot family of products had experienced significant brand positioning, user experience, usage, data siloing, computational capacity, organizational, and interoperability problems; (2) Microsoft’s flagship proprietary AI model ranked well below competitors on a number of benchmark tests; (3) Microsoft needed to increase by billions of dollars its capital expenditures and divert graphics processing unit ("GPU") and central processing unit ("CPU") capacity away from fulfilling demand for its profitable Azure services in order to improve the competitive positioning of its critical Copilot family of products and increase its AI-related research and development ("R&D"); and (4) as a result, Microsoft had failed to convert a significant percentage of its commercial Microsoft 365 users to paid Copilot subscriptions and Microsoft’s Copilot offerings had lost market share to rival products, a trend that was increasing. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages.
What Now: You may be eligible to participate in the class action against Microsoft Corporation. Shareholders who want to serve as lead plaintiff for the class must file their motions with the court by August 11, 2026. A lead plaintiff is a representative party who acts on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation. You do not have to participate in the case to be eligible for a recovery. If you choose to take no action, you can remain an absent class member. For more information, click here.
All representation is on a contingency fee basis. Shareholders pay no fees or expenses.
About Rosen Law Firm: Some law firms issuing releases about this matter do not actually litigate securities class actions. Rosen Law Firm does. Rosen Law Firm is a recognized leader in shareholder rights litigation, dedicated to helping shareholders recover losses, improving corporate governance structures, and holding company executives accountable for their wrongdoing. Since its inception, Rosen Law Firm has obtained over $1 billion for shareholders.
Follow us for updates on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-rosen-law-firm, on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rosen_firm or on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rosenlawfirm/.
Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Advanced Micro Devices AMD drew another bullish call from Wolfe Research, which kept an Outperform rating and a $450 price target on the chipmaker, according to a Monday research note.
AMD's next wave of artificial intelligence hardware is the focus. Wolfe said investors are looking ahead to the MI500 accelerator family and later MI-600 products, which it sees as important to the company's effort to expand in AI infrastructure.
AMD is expected to share more details on MI500 at its July Advancing AI event. Wolfe also said MI-600 could follow about 12 to 15 months later, giving the market more visibility into AMD's roadmap.
AMD shares rose about 7% on Monday following the news.
HomeIndustriesComputers/ElectronicsTech StocksTech StocksAMD’s stock is surging, with the company now worth more than JPMorgan ChasePublished: June 15, 2026 at 2:28 p.m. ET
Memory is a severe bottleneck in the artificial-intelligence buildout, and traditional chip makers are looking for every edge they can get in a bid to optimize output and control costs.
Take Advanced Micro Devices AMD, which announced on Monday its acquisition of MEXT, a company that specializes in memory optimization solutions.
Key Takeaways Nokia enhanced NSP with agentic AI to improve multi-vendor IP network management and automation.NOK's framework analyzes real-time network data to support faster, smarter operational decisions.Nokia's Troubleshooting Agent helps detect issues faster and reduce alerts, disruptions and costs. Nokia Corporation (NOK - Free Report) has enhanced its Network Services Platform (NSP) by introducing an advanced agentic artificial intelligence (AI) framework that aims to improve the management and automation of multi-vendor IP networks. This innovation marks an important step toward enabling secure, trust-based AI operations in increasingly complex network environments.
Nokia’s new framework enables AI agents to analyze real-time network data, including topology, protocol behavior, service relationships and configuration changes, allowing for faster, smarter and more accurate operational decision-making. By providing a continuously updated view of the network, it helps telecom operators manage growing AI-driven traffic, reduce downtime and ensure more reliable operations.
The platform focuses on transparency, security and control. The AI agents operate within operator-defined policies and access limits, ensuring automated decisions remain safe and aligned with network requirements. It supports communication with external AI systems using protocols such as Model Context Protocol, improving coordination across multi-vendor and multi-domain networks.
The first major use of this platform is an AI-driven Troubleshooting Agent, which helps operators detect network issues faster, reduce unnecessary alerts and resolve problems more efficiently. It enhances service reliability, lowers operational costs and reduces service disruptions for users. This has strengthened the company’s position in next-generation telecom infrastructure and is likely to support its long-term growth.
How Are Competitors Performing in the AI Space?Nokia faces stiff competition from Ericsson (ERIC - Free Report) and Cisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO - Free Report) . ERIC is using AI to make telecom networks smarter and more efficient. The company is improving network automation and performance with AI-powered 5G solutions. Ericsson is working with AI partners to support future telecom technologies.
Cisco is expanding its AI offerings to help businesses build AI-ready data centers and networks. The company is launching AI-powered security and networking tools to improve performance and cybersecurity. Cisco is also developing advanced chips and switches to support growing AI workloads.
NOK’s Price Performance, Valuation & EstimatesNokia shares have soared 179.2% over the past year compared with the industry’s 57.8% growth.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
From a valuation standpoint, Nokia trades at a forward price-to-sales ratio of 3.4, below the industry tally of 5.44.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Earnings estimates for 2026 and 2027 over the past 60 days have remained static at 40 cents and 48 cents per share, respectively.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Nokia currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Beleaguered but recovering Dow Jones aerospace stock Boeing (BA) flashed bullish signs Monday as it recovered above a key technical level. The gain came amid a broad market rally precipitated by the U.S.-Iran ceasefire deal announced late Sunday night. Once markets opened on Monday morning the S&P 500 rose about 2% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 1.4% to a record high.
Boeing stock led the Dow's advance. It rose over 5%, according to MarketSurge. Shares are currently in a consolidation working toward a buy point of 254.35.
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Boeing Stock Finds Support Boeing's advance broke a downtrend that started in late May. Reversing to cut back above a downtrend is considered a bullish move. It can signal institutional buyers ramping up purchases as the share price falls.
The stock also retook support above the 50-day moving average on Monday — another positive. On Friday, the stock closed 1.8% below its 50-day level. By Monday morning it was almost 3% above the 50-day average. Shares also retook the 21-day exponential moving average and made a decisive move above the 200-day average. Moves above the 200-day average can signal growing long-term momentum for a stock.
Boeing's rival jet makers Embraer (EMBJ) and Airbus (EADSY) also rallied on Monday, gaining 6% and close to 3%, respectively, according to MarketSurge.
Analysts Eye Boeing Recovery Since its various safety-related travails a few years ago, Boeing has been a closely watched stock. Shares plummeted in the aftermath of several high-profile accidents that forced the government to implement a cap on the number of planes it could produce a month. Since then, investors have monitored the company closely to track the progress its making in getting its production back up to full speed.
Boeing currently makes 47 737s a month, with the eventual goal of getting up to 52. A new production line is set to begin operations in July, according to a press release. However, Boeing had several delays in getting its 737 production up to its current levels. The same is true of the progress for its new line of 777 jets. The new models are now expected sometime in late 2027, about seven years past their originally scheduled due date in 2020.
But Boeing is winning over analysts of late. This month six different analysts reiterated their "buy" ratings on the stock, according to FactSet. In late April, even Deutsche Bank, which downgraded the stock to a "hold" in October, upped its price target from $223 to $233.
Boeing has a consensus rating of "overweight" with a mean price target of 270.79, which implies 20% gains from Monday's opening price of 225.30, according to FactSet. The stock is up just over 5% this year, lagging the S&P 500's 10.5% increase.
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Key Takeaways Citigroup completed the sale of its Polish consumer banking business to VeloBank.The transaction includes wealth management, credit cards, deposits and 1,600 employees.Citigroup will retain and continue expanding its institutional banking franchise in Poland. Citigroup Inc.'s (C - Free Report) subsidiary, Bank Handlowy w Warszawie S.A., operating under the Citi Handlowy brand, announced the completion of the sale of its consumer banking business in Poland to VeloBank S.A. While financially immaterial to the company, the sale provides a modest regulatory capital benefit on a cumulative basis since it was first announced in May 2025.
This marks the final divestiture of the company's international consumer businesses, excluding the largely completed wind-downs and the well-advanced Banamex divestiture. Apart from being a key milestone in Citigroup's streamlining efforts, this allows the company to focus on its core businesses and institutional banking operations.
The sale of its Polish consumer banking business includes wealth management, micro business banking, credit cards, consumer loans, deposits, assets under management, consumer clients of the brokerage business, branches and other consumer-related assets. The transaction also includes the transfer of approximately 1,600 employees to VeloBank.
The divestiture excludes Citigroup's institutional banking operations in the country, which it will continue to invest in and grow to serve institutional clients through its global network. Given Poland's importance as a key institutional market, the company intends to further strengthen its franchise in the country.
Polish Exit Caps Citigroup's Consumer Banking OverhaulThe completion of the Polish sale caps a strategic initiative unveiled by CEO Jane Fraser in April 2021 to exit consumer banking operations across 14 markets in Asia and EMEA. The restructuring was aimed at simplifying Citigroup's operations and reallocating capital toward wealth management and institutional banking businesses with greater scale and growth potential.
As part of this repositioning, the company has made significant progress in Mexico. In April 2026, the company completed the sale of a 22.6% stake in Banamex, following the divestiture of a 25% stake in December 2025, and continues to prepare for a planned initial public offering of its Mexican consumer and small and middle-market banking businesses.
The company has also streamlined other international operations. In February 2026, Citigroup completed the sale of AO Citibank to Renaissance Capital, completing its exit from Russia. The company had previously divested its China-based onshore consumer wealth portfolio to HSBC China in June 2024 and continues to advance the wind-down of its Korea consumer banking operations. These actions are intended to free up capital and support investments in wealth management hubs such as Singapore, Hong Kong, the UAE and London.
Beyond geographic streamlining, Citigroup has also simplified its governance structure by eliminating management layers and reducing organizational complexity. In 2024, the company announced plans to cut 20,000 jobs by 2026 and has already reduced its workforce by more than 10,000 employees.
Together with organizational simplification efforts, these initiatives are expected to generate $2-$2.5 billion in annualized run-rate savings by 2026, while supporting revenue growth at a 4-5% compound annual growth rate through the year.
Our Viewpoint on CitigroupBy exiting non-core consumer businesses and reallocating resources toward more profitable operations, Citigroup is simplifying its structure and sharpening its focus on higher-return opportunities. As the company almost completes streamlining initiatives, its more focused business model and greater emphasis on core businesses will support sustainable growth and improved shareholder returns over the long term.
Shares of Citigroup have gained 25.6% over the past six months compared with the industry’s growth of 6.1%.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Currently, C carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Similar Steps Taken by Other BanksIn April 2026, The Australian first reported that HSBC Holdings plc (HSBC - Free Report) had revived efforts to divest its Australian retail banking business, but the approach has evolved. Instead of selling the entire unit in one transaction, the bank is now prioritizing the sale of its loan portfolio.
The move reflects HSBC’s broader global strategy of concentrating on core markets like Hong Kong and the U.K., while sharpening its presence across Asia. The bank has been actively exiting non-core geographies and reallocating capital toward higher-return regions.
In March 2026, a Reuters report published on MSN stated that Deutsche Bank AG’s (DB - Free Report) India retail business is set to be acquired by Kotak Mahindra Bank in a deal estimated at $480.3 million.
The deal, under which Kotak Mahindra Bank is expected to acquire the business, is said to include DB’s retail loan and deposit franchise in India. The portfolio reportedly spans personal loans, mortgages, small-business lending and parts of its wealth business. The move fits squarely into Deutsche Bank’s broader restructuring strategy under CEO Christian Sewing.
Key Takeaways NIKE Direct revenues fell 7% YoY in Q3 FY26, while wholesale rose 1% as its channel strategy shifts.North America wholesale revenues rose 11%, helped by stronger ties with major retail partners.NIKE is cutting promotions, tightening inventory and prioritizing brand health over near-term sales. NIKE Inc.’s (NKE - Free Report) direct-to-consumer (DTC) strategy remains a key pillar of its long-term growth plans, but recent results suggest that a stronger wholesale business is becoming increasingly important in offsetting channel-specific weakness. During third-quarter fiscal 2026, NIKE Direct revenues declined 7%, with digital sales down 9%, reflecting the company’s ongoing efforts to reduce promotional activity, clean up inventory and improve the quality of sales. At the same time, wholesale revenues increased 1%, highlighting the benefits of NIKE’s renewed focus on a more balanced marketplace approach. Management emphasized that the company is moving away from a “NIKE Direct-first” model toward an integrated strategy that serves consumers across both owned and partner channels.
The wholesale channel is showing encouraging signs of recovery, particularly in North America, where wholesale sales surged 11% in the third quarter of fiscal 2026. NIKE has strengthened relationships with key retail partners such as Foot Locker, JD Sports, DICK’S Sporting Goods and Academy Sports, while regaining shelf space and improving in-store product presentation. Management noted that order books are growing and wholesale momentum is accelerating, supported by strong demand in performance categories such as running, football and basketball. These gains are helping offset softer trends in DTC, especially as NIKE continues to prioritize brand health over short-term sales through lower discounting and tighter inventory management.
While DTC remains critical for consumer engagement, data insights and profitability, wholesale appears better positioned to drive near-term revenue stabilization. Management highlighted improving digital quality in North America, with stronger full-price selling and narrowing performance gaps between wholesale and DTC channels. Importantly, NIKE expects to return to more balanced growth across both channels as its turnaround initiatives progress.
NIKE Faces Stiff Competition From adidas and lululemonadidas AG (ADDYY - Free Report) and lululemon athletica inc. (LULU - Free Report) are NKE’s key competitors in the global market.
adidas continues to gain momentum through strong brand heat, product innovation and market-share gains across key regions. The company has benefited from robust demand for lifestyle franchises such as Samba, Gazelle and Campus, while expanding its performance portfolio in running and football. With improving wholesale relationships and disciplined inventory management, adidas remains well-positioned to drive sustainable revenue growth and margin expansion.
lululemon remains a leader in the premium athletic apparel space, supported by a loyal customer base, product innovation and strong direct-to-consumer capabilities. The company continues to diversify beyond women’s apparel through growth in men’s wear, footwear and international markets. Although macroeconomic pressures and softer consumer spending pose near-term challenges, lululemon’s brand strength and expansion initiatives should support long-term growth.
NKE’s Price Performance, Valuation & EstimatesShares of NIKE have lost 18% in the past three months compared with the industry’s decline of 11.7%.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
From a valuation standpoint, NKE trades at a forward 12-month price-to-earnings ratio of 23.9X compared with the industry’s average of 21.33X.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for NKE’s fiscal 2026 earnings implies a year-over-year decline of 31%, while that for fiscal 2027 indicates growth of 24.3%. The company’s EPS estimates for fiscal 2026 and 2027 have been stable in the past 30 days.
Canopy Growth Corporation (TSX:WEED, NYSE:CGC) reported a narrower quarterly loss and double-digit full-year revenue growth on Monday, as the Canadian cannabis company cited the acquisition of MTL Cannabis and a strategic recapitalization as key drivers of its turnaround effort.
The company posted an adjusted loss per share of $0.29 for its fiscal fourth quarter, missing analyst estimates, though the result represented a 71% improvement from the $1.01 loss in the same period a year earlier.
Revenue came in at $51.95 million, up 13.6% from $45.75 million a year ago, but also fell short of expectations.
For the full fiscal year ended March 31, 2026, Canopy said net revenue in its Canada adult-use cannabis segment grew 20%, while Canada medical revenue rose 18%.
The company completed its acquisition of MTL Cannabis during the fiscal year, a deal it said positions Canopy as Canada's leading medical cannabis company by revenue. Canopy also closed a strategic recapitalization in January 2026 that left it with $131.3 million in net cash at fiscal year-end.
CEO Luc Mongeau said the company used the year to reset operations and lay groundwork for expansion, with Europe emerging as a key target market.
"As the leading medical cannabis business in Canada by revenue, we are well positioned to extend that leadership into Europe," Mongeau said, describing the region as representing "enormous long-term opportunity."
Chief Financial Officer Tom Stewart pointed to balance sheet improvements as a risk-reduction measure that also expands the company's strategic options.
Canopy said it expects net revenue growth across the business in fiscal 2027 and projected that improvements in cultivation practices will contribute to meaningful gross margin gains. The company is targeting positive adjusted EBITDA for the fiscal year, though it cautioned that MTL Cannabis integration activities in the first half of the year mean stronger year-over-year improvements are expected in the second half.
Canopy Growth Corporation (WEED:CA) Q4 2026 Earnings Call June 15, 2026 10:00 AM EDT
Company Participants
Luc Mongeau - CEO & Director
Thomas Stewart - Chief Accounting Officer & CFO
Conference Call Participants
Kenric Tyghe - Canaccord Genuity Corp., Research Division
Aaron Grey - Alliance Global Partners, Research Division
William Kirk - ROTH Capital Partners, LLC, Research Division
Brenna Cunnington - ATB Cormark Capital Markets Inc., Research Division
Pablo Zuanic - Zuanic & Associates
Presentation
Operator
Good morning. My name is Joanna, and I will be your conference operator today. I would like to welcome you to Canopy Growth's Fourth Quarter Fiscal 2026 Financial Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]
I will now turn the call over to [ John Vinsek ], Investor Relations. John, you may begin the conference call.
Unknown Executive
Good morning, and thank you for joining us. On our call today, we have Canopy Growth's Chief Executive Officer, Luc Mongeau; and Chief Financial Officer, Tom Stewart.
Prior to the opening of financial markets today, Canopy Growth issued a news release announcing the financial results for its fourth quarter and fiscal year ended March 31, 2026. The news release and financial statements have been filed on EDGAR and SEDAR and will be available on the website under the Investors tab.
Before we begin, I would like to remind you that our discussion during the call will include forward-looking statements that are based on management's current views and assumptions, and that this discussion is qualified in its entirety by the cautionary note regarding forward-looking statements included at the end of the news release issued today. Please review today's earnings release and Canopy's reports filed with the SEC and SEDAR for various factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from projections.
In addition, reconciliations between any non-GAAP measures to their closest
Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA | NVDA Price Prediction) has been a huge winner of the AI revolution, but the big question is whether the competition is finally getting a chance to catch up. It seems like every big tech firm with enough money to spend wants to build its own custom silicon, and it makes a lot of sense, especially since how much money is flowing into Nvidia’s pockets for its GPUs. With a likely inference boom on the horizon, perhaps the custom silicon is more of a pressure release than a way to move past Nvidia.
At the end of the day, hyperscalers are making real, massive strides in efficiency with their latest silicon. From Google (whose parent firm is Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)) TPUs to Meta Platforms‘ (NASDAQ:META) MTIA chips, it looks like AI innovators are about ready to move on.
But, given the magnitude of AI demand and how quickly the appetite for tokens could rise, it feels like there’s more than enough demand to go around, even as new suppliers join the chat. Despite the new options, though, firms, including the hyperscalers making custom silicon themselves, are still using Nvidia GPUs.
But what happens when the hyperscalers bridge the gap and start gravitating more towards their own silicon while potentially selling it to third parties? That’s the big question that might keep Nvidia shareholders up at night. CapEx is blasting off now, but who knows? A pause or pullback in spend could be in the future if a digestion phase is needed. Time will tell.
The semis recent volatility might introduce a new risk As Nvidia’s multiple compresses a bit as shares drag their feet relative to its rivals in the semi scene, I do think that the case for taking a raincheck is getting stronger. Not only is Nvidia stock not as explosive as some of the other semi stocks out there, but the shares also stand to sink if the semiconductor industry as a whole collectively rolls over. Perhaps there’s a reason why bear ETFs against the semiconductors have been so popular in the past couple of weeks.
While I do see opportunity in Nvidia longer term, I cannot say that the road higher won’t be without its fair share of bumps (or perhaps even a vicious bear market drop). I have no idea when semis will fold. Perhaps a rate hike will do it. After all, there’s nothing quite like higher rates to incentivize pulling back on spend. But, regardless, I think Meta Platforms stands out as an AI chip innovator without all of the downside risks should semis decide to nosedive tomorrow.
MTIA looks seriously impressive Of all the AI strategies, Meta’s seems the most “Mad Max,” so to speak. If it’s not reports of data centers in tents, an AI version of Mark Zuckerberg, big spend on the superintelligence team, or the rapid advancements in MTIA, it’s clear Zuckerberg is more than willing to act as a wartime CEO in this AI revolution. And I think that’s exactly why Meta will be successful in the AI race.
In any case, the six-month innovation loop with Meta’s silicon, I believe, shows just how serious Meta is in securing its custom silicon future. With a deep focus on generative AI and recommendation inference, MTIA is very application-specific. It’s custom-tailored to its business, and it might hold the keys to the future of advertising in the AI age.
In any case, things are moving fast and in a direction that I think could be most conducive to stunning ROIs. Make it for yourself, and perhaps others might come knocking. With the door open to becoming a hyperscaler willing to sell AI compute, I think the whole Meta AI story is fundamentally misunderstood. At just 20.6 times trailing price-to-earnings (P/E), shares scream deep value hiding in plain sight.
The bottom line Where some see Meta’s AI as a bit of a jumbled mess or behind in the race, I see it as on an aggressive launch pad. If anything, Zuckerberg is a wartime CEO who’s positioned to win big in AI as he deploys the capital and makes forward-thinking decisions that I think rivals might want to copy.
Nvidia is preparing to raise at least $20 billion through its first corporate bond sale since 2021, marketing bonds across seven tranches with maturities ranging from two to thirty years, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter. Ed Ludlow has more on "Bloomberg Open Interest.
Nvidia (NVDA, Financials) is returning to the bond market for the first time since 2021, with plans to raise at least $20 billion.
At first, the move may raise eyebrows. Nvidia is highly profitable and continues to generate strong cash flow. But large companies often borrow even when they do not urgently need cash, especially when they want more flexibility.
The company said it plans to use the money for general corporate purposes, including repaying or refinancing existing debt. The offering is expected to include bonds with maturities ranging from two to 30 years.
JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are helping arrange the sale.
For investors, this does not look like a warning sign. It looks more like Nvidia strengthening its balance sheet options while demand for its chips remains strong.
Shares of SpaceX (NASDAQ:SPCX) are up 16% in Monday afternoon trading, climbing to about $187 as buyers extend the post-IPO surge that began last Friday. The newly minted NASDAQ listing priced at $135 and opened at $150, and the momentum hasn’t paused since.
Meanwhile, Rocket Lab (NASDAQ:RKLB | RKLB Price Prediction) stock is rallying 7% to $109 and change. The move comes against a broader risk-on tape that has some space-sector names catching a bid.
Virgin Galactic (NYSE:SPCE) stock is moving the other way, down 4% to around $3.74. That drop continues a rough stretch for the long-running space laggard and underscores the day’s clear divergence theme.
SpaceX IPO Halo Powers a Sector Rally SpaceX stock’s NASDAQ debut last Friday set the tone for today’s session. Pricing came in at $135, shares opened at $150, and momentum carried into Monday with double-digit gains. The company’s market cap sits near $1.38 trillion, instantly making SpaceX a heavyweight in the listed space cohort.
SpaceX also brings a structural advantage. Since 2023, the company has launched more than 80% of mass to orbit for the world each year with an over 99% mission success rate, and approximately 9,600 Starlink broadband and mobile satellites operate in Low-Earth Orbit, delivering connectivity across 164 countries. That scale is part of why the first trading days have generated such intense demand.
The enthusiasm is bleeding into Rocket Lab shares. There’s no company-specific catalyst for RKLB stock today, but the SpaceX halo, paired with a broader risk-on mood helped by a U.S.-Iran peace deal lifting markets, has investors leaning into the space trade. Rocket Lab stock had been working off a recent pullback, with shares down 18% over the past month heading into today’s bounce.
The fundamentals give Rocket Lab bulls something to lean on. Rocket Lab’s Q1 2026 revenue climbed 64% year over year (YoY) to $200.35 million, beating the $189.41 million estimate, and backlog reached $2.2 billion. CEO Peter Beck described it as “record financial performance of more than $200 million in revenue” with “$2.2 billion in backlog.”
Virgin Galactic Diverges on Dilution and Execution Worries Virgin Galactic stock is the clear outlier today, and the story appears to be company-specific. The company recently executed a debt-to-equity swap aimed at enhancing cash flexibility. The trade-off is near-term share dilution and continued pressure on future operations.
Analysts have cautioned that execution risk remains elevated heading into upcoming commercial launches. Virgin Galactic shares screen as 4% undervalued at current trading prices, but that valuation cushion hasn’t been enough to offset the dilution overhang.
The operating picture doesn’t help the case. Virgin Galactic’s Q1 2026 revenue came in at $227,000, down 51% YoY, missing the $240,000 estimate, and management guided to free cash flow of -$87 million to -$92 million for Q2 2026. SPCE stock now trades much closer to its 52-week low of $2.13 than its $8.90 high.
There are still operational catalysts on the calendar for Virgin Galactic. Flight testing remains on track for Q3 2026, with the first commercial spaceflight targeted for Q4 2026, and the first next-gen SpaceShip recently moved from the assembly hangar to the test-and-launch hangar. The market, however, is signaling that Virgin Galactic’s dilution risk currently outweighs that upcoming flight schedule.
Sentiment and Prediction Markets Confirm the Split The crowd is treating these as three different stories. Polymarket priced a 97% probability that Rocket Lab stock closes higher today, with 86% odds that it holds the $112 level this week. That week-ahead conviction is a strong signal that today’s bid for RKLB isn’t a one-session blip.
Reddit data tells the same divergence story. RKLB sentiment scored 88 (very bullish) on June 15, while SPCE sentiment landed at 22 (bearish), with one widely upvoted thread titled “$SPCX vs $SPCE the degenerate thesis was hilariously wrong.” Retail investors are clearly picking sides within the space trade rather than buying the basket.
Investors can watch for whether SpaceX stock holds its post-IPO gains into the close, whether Rocket Lab shares clear the $112 level the crowd has flagged, and whether Virgin Galactic stock can stabilize ahead of the company’s next operational milestone. The space sector has often moved as a single trade; today’s session shows clear divergence, and that’s an actionable takeaway for sizing exposure across the group.
Resources Investor Relations Journalists Agencies Client Login Send a Release News Products Contact , /PRNewswire/ -- Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) today announced it will post its second quarter 2026 financial results and business outlook on its investor relations website at http://ir.netflix.net on Thursday July 16th, 2026, at approximately 1:01 p.m. Pacific Time.
A live video interview with co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters, CFO Spence Neumann and VP, Finance/IR & Corporate Development Spencer Wang will begin at 1:45 p.m. Pacific Time. Management will answer questions submitted by sell side analysts.
The live earnings video interview will be accessible on the Netflix Investor Relations YouTube channel at youtube.com/netflixir at 1:45 p.m. Pacific Time and a recording of the webcast will be available shortly following the session at approximately 2:30 p.m. Pacific Time.
About Netflix, Inc.
Netflix is one of the world's leading entertainment services offering TV series, films, games and live programming across a wide variety of genres and languages. Members can play, pause and resume watching as much as they want, anytime, anywhere, and can change their plans at any time.
I keep buying Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX | NFLX Price Prediction) every time the market hands me a worse price for the same business, and the market has been generous lately. The stock closed at $81.27 on June 11, down 13.32% year to date while the Nasdaq 100 ETF is up 16.74% over the same window. That gap is the whole reason I am writing this. Wall Street is drifting away from a digital monopoly that prints cash, and I am using the drift to load up.
What Keeps Pulling Me Back The simple version: Netflix sells a habit to over 325 million paid subscribers and has finally turned that habit into an advertising business. Co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters are running a company where the ad-supported tier was over 60% of all Q1 sign-ups in ad markets and the advertiser count grew 70% year-over-year to over 4,000 clients. Ad revenue is guided to roughly $3 billion in 2026, double the prior year. That is a second engine bolted onto an already profitable streamer.
The Data That Closes the Argument First, the cash. Q1 2026 free cash flow hit $5.09 billion, up 91.44% year-over-year, and management raised full-year FCF guidance to about $12.5 billion. Operating margin is guided to 31.5%, up from 29.5% in 2025. Cash on the balance sheet sits at $12.26 billion, debt-to-equity is 0.54, and interest coverage runs 17.16x. This is an investment-grade money machine.
Second, the moat. Netflix penetration is still less than 45% of total addressable broadband households globally, and growth is showing up everywhere: Q1 revenue rose 14% in North America, 17% in EMEA, 19% in Latin America, and 20% in Asia Pacific. The content engine is producing the kind of cultural events that make churn unthinkable: KPop Demon Hunters drew 325 million views, Wednesday Season 2 pulled 114 million, and the World Baseball Classic delivered the largest sign-up day ever in Japan.
Third, the valuation reset. Trailing P/E sits at 26 with a forward P/E of 25. Return on equity is 48.5%. Netflix repurchased 13.5 million shares for $1.3 billion in Q1 with $6.8 billion left on the authorization. Buybacks at a year-low price are exactly what a long-term owner wants.
The Risk I Will Not Wave Away Competition is real. Netflix lists Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Comcast, Disney, Meta, Roblox, TikTok, and local media among rivals, and content amortization growth is front-half-weighted in 2026, which can pressure near-term margins. Walking away from the Warner Bros. deal also limits content acceleration potential. None of that breaks the thesis. Netflix collected a $2.8 billion termination fee for walking, kept its balance sheet pristine, and the engagement data says viewers are still picking Netflix when they sit down at night.
Why the Buy Button Stays Active Analyst coverage tells me I am not alone: 37 buy or strong-buy ratings against zero sells, with a mean target of $114.56. The crowd on Polymarket sees a 78% probability of NFLX touching $80 in June, which is where I keep getting filled. I own a global subscription business with a doubling ad engine, a 31.5% operating margin target, and a buyback running at a discount. I will keep clicking buy until the price stops cooperating.
Netflix to Announce Second Quarter 2026 Financial Results PR Newswire
LOS GATOS, Calif., June 15, 2026
, /PRNewswire/ -- Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) today announced it will post its second quarter 2026 financial results and business outlook on its investor relations website at http://ir.netflix.net on Thursday July 16th, 2026, at approximately 1:01 p.m. Pacific Time.
A live video interview with co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters, CFO Spence Neumann and VP, Finance/IR & Corporate Development Spencer Wang will begin at 1:45 p.m. Pacific Time. Management will answer questions submitted by sell side analysts.
The live earnings video interview will be accessible on the Netflix Investor Relations YouTube channel at youtube.com/netflixir at 1:45 p.m. Pacific Time and a recording of the webcast will be available shortly following the session at approximately 2:30 p.m. Pacific Time.
About Netflix, Inc.
Netflix is one of the world's leading entertainment services offering TV series, films, games and live programming across a wide variety of genres and languages. Members can play, pause and resume watching as much as they want, anytime, anywhere, and can change their plans at any time.
View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/netflix-to-announce-second-quarter-2026-financial-results-302799516.html
Victims of scams have lost an average of $969 so far this year
, /PRNewswire/ -- So far this year, monetary losses from scams impacting Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) customers are on track to outpace 2025, with customers losing over $211,000 through mid-year. To help customers spot the signs of a scam and avoid falling victim, PG&E is sharing important tips and is warning customers of an emerging scam that may be playing a part in that surge.
The most common scam continues to involve scammers placing a phone call to PG&E customers with a demand for immediate payment to avoid disconnection. A new wrinkle on that scam has emerged in 2026, where scammers call customers to threaten disconnection, and then send them either a barcode or QR code via text or email. The customer is then instructed to take the barcode or QR code to a store or business to present to a cashier to make payment.
"Scammers are constantly evolving their tactics to defraud customers, and the latest 'barcode scam' is a prime example of that. What hasn't changed is that they are still demanding immediate payment of your bill to avoid disconnection. If you receive a call of this nature, hang up. If someone at your door asks to see your utility bill, close the door. Then, call our 800 number or log into your account at PGE.com to verify your billing details," said PG&E lead scam investigator Matt Foley.
"Remember, PG&E will never ask you for financial information over the phone or for payment via bar code, QR code or pre-paid debit cards or money transfer services like Zelle, and we won't ask to see your bill at your door," he said.
By the Numbers
In 2025, PG&E received nearly 24,000 reports from customers who were targeted by scammers impersonating PG&E and lost over $301,000 in fraudulent payments with an average loss of $590. By mid-year 2026, customers have already reported over $211,000 in losses to utility scammers, representing a nearly a 30% increase in financial losses by year's end, with an average loss of $969. Unfortunately, that number is likely just the tip of the iceberg for overall scams, as many go unreported.
Small- and medium-sized businesses are also a target, and scammers focus their efforts during busy business hours, preying on business owners' sense of urgency to keep the doors open and the lights on. In 2026, in less than half a year, PG&E has received nearly 656 reports of scam attempts targeting business customers. That's on pace to easily surpass 2025, which saw 846 reports of scammers targeting businesses.
Signs of a potential scam
Threat to disconnect: Scammers may aggressively demand immediate payment for an alleged past due bill. Asking to see your bill: If someone comes to your home and asks to see your bill, they are not with PG&E. Request for immediate payment via prepaid debit card or money transfer service: Scammers may instruct the customer to purchase a prepaid debit card then call them back supposedly to make a bill payment, or they may ask for payment via a money transfer service like Zelle. Refund or rebate offers: Scammers may say that your utility company overbilled you and owes you a refund, or that you are entitled to a rebate, and then ask you for your banking information. How customers can protect themselves
Customers should never purchase a prepaid card to avoid service disconnection or shutoff. PG&E does not specify how customers should make a bill payment and offers a variety of ways to pay a bill, including accepting payments online, by phone, automatic bank draft, mail or in person.
If a scammer threatens immediate disconnection or shutoff of service without prior notification, customers should hang up the phone, delete the email, or shut the door. Customers with delinquent accounts receive an advance disconnection notification, typically by mail and included with their regular monthly bill.
If someone comes to your door claiming to be with PG&E, customers should know that PG&E personnel carry identification and are always prepared to show it upon request. If a customer still has doubts, they can call 800-743-5000 to confirm whether an individual is there on official company business. And remember, if someone asks to see your bill, they are not with PG&E and you should close the door.
As a reminder, PG&E will never send a single notification to a customer within one hour of a service interruption, and we will never ask customers to make payments with a pre-paid debit card, gift card, any form of cryptocurrency, or third-party digital payment mobile applications like Zelle or Venmo.
Signing up for an online account at PGE.com is another safeguard. Not only can customers log in to check their balance and payment history, they can sign up for recurring payments, paperless billing and helpful alerts.
Scammers Impersonating Trusted Phone Numbers: Scammers are now able to create authentic-looking 800 numbers which appear on your phone display. The numbers don't lead back to PG&E if called back, however, so if you have doubts, hang up and call PG&E at 1-833-500-SCAM. If customers ever feel that they are in physical danger, they should call 911.
Customers who suspect that they have been victims of fraud, or who feel threatened during contact with one of these scammers, should contact local law enforcement. The Federal Trade Commission's website is also a good source of information about how to protect personal information.
For more information about scams, visit pge.com/scams or consumer.ftc.gov.
About PG&E
Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a subsidiary of PG&E Corporation (NYSE:PCG), is a combined natural gas and electric utility serving more than 16 million people across 70,000 square miles in Northern and Central California. For more information, visit pge.com and pge.com/news.
Exxon Mobil stock is showing notable weakness. What’s behind XOM decline? What Is Driving Exxon Mobil’s Stock Today?Critical Price Levels To Watch For XOMTechnically, the selloff is pushing XOM further below its key short- and mid-term trend gauges: it's trading 7.5% below the 20-day SMA, 7.6% below the 50-day SMA, and 7.4% below the 100-day SMA, even while it remains 4.7% above the 200-day SMA. That mix often shows a longer-term uptrend that's being challenged by a sharper intermediate pullback.
Momentum also leans heavy: MACD is below its signal line with a negative histogram, which typically means upside pressure is fading versus the prior upswing unless price can reclaim that baseline. Structurally, the 20-day SMA sitting below the 50-day SMA reinforces the near-term bearish tilt, even though the longer-term "golden cross" (50-day above 200-day) from August 2025 still argues the bigger trend hasn't fully broken.
Key Resistance: $155.50 — a rebound area that lines up with the stock's cluster of 20/50/100-day moving averages in the low-to-mid $150s Key Support: $114.50 — a prior buyer-defense zone that sits closer to the lower end of the 52-week range. What Is Exxon Mobil’s Business Model?ExxonMobil is an integrated oil and gas company that explores for, produces, and refines oil worldwide, which makes its earnings power highly sensitive to the direction of crude and refined-product margins. In 2025, it produced 3.3 million barrels of liquids and 8.4 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day, giving it direct exposure when headline-driven supply expectations shift.
It's also one of the world's largest refiners, with total global refining capacity of 4.1 million barrels of oil per day, and a major chemicals manufacturer. That integration can help cushion swings in any single segment, but when the market reprices the "war premium" out of crude quickly, upstream expectations often drive the first reaction in the stock.
Exxon Mobil Benzinga Edge Scorecard AnalysisBelow is the Benzinga Edge scorecard for Exxon Mobil, highlighting its strengths and weaknesses compared to the broader market:
The Verdict: Exxon Mobil’s Benzinga Edge signal reveals a fairly balanced profile with a value tilt and mid-range momentum/growth. If crude keeps sliding, the "moderate" momentum score suggests patience may be needed, but the stronger value profile can help limit downside once the sector finds its footing.
XOM Stock Price Movement TodayXOM Stock Price Activity: Exxon Mobil shares were down 3.46% at $141.77 at the time of publication on Monday, according to Benzinga Pro data.
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Key Takeaways GE shares rose 12.2% in six months, supported by strong Commercial Engines & Services performance.GE's Commercial Engines revenues and orders jumped 34% and 93%, respectively, in Q1 2026.GE faces pressure from higher costs, debt levels and premium valuation despite growth prospects. GE Aerospace’s (GE - Free Report) shares have gained 12.2% in the past six months, outpacing the S&P 500 composite’s growth of 9% and the industry’s 4.9% decline. Shares of the leading designer and producer of jet engines have also outperformed other industry players like General Dynamics Corporation (GD - Free Report) and Textron Inc. (TXT - Free Report) , which have returned 6.7% and 7.5%, respectively, over the said time frame.
GE Outperforms the Industry, S&P 500 & Peers
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Closing at $335.30 on Friday, the stock is trading below its 52-week high of $348.48 but significantly higher than its 52-week low of $232.24. Also, the stock is trading above both its 50-day and 200-day moving averages, indicating solid upward momentum and price stability. This reflects a positive market sentiment and confidence in the company's financial health and long-term prospects.
GE Shares’ 50-Day and 200-Day SMA
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
What’s Behind GE Stock’s Momentum?The strongest driver of GE Aerospace at the moment is the persistent strength in its Commercial Engines & Services business. Solid demand for GE’s LEAP, GEnx & GE9X engines and services, supported by growth in air traffic, fleet renewal and expansion activities, is driving business’ performance. In first-quarter 2026, the company received orders for more than 650 commercial engines, including commitments from American Airlines, United Airlines and Delta Airlines. It also entered into a long-term materials agreement to support Ryanair’s fleet of about 2,000 CFM56 and LEAP engines.
In the first quarter, the company highlighted its progress under the FLIGHT DECK lean model, including supplier improvements that contributed to the commercial Engines & Services business’ revenues. GE’s total engine deliveries increased 43% from the prior-year quarter, indicating better throughput as it works through customer demand. The Commercial Engines & Services business’ revenues and orders jumped 34% and 93%, respectively, on a year-over-year basis in the first quarter.
Growing popularity of the company’s propulsion & additive technologies, critical aircraft systems and aftermarket services in the defense sector is driving the Defense & Propulsion Technologies business’ performance. In first-quarter 2026, it clinched a $1.4 billion deal for T408 engines to support the U.S. Marine Corps’ CH-53K helicopter fleet.
GE also secured a deal from Boeing Defence UK for the extension of support services for T700-GE-T701D engines. In the first quarter, the Defense & Propulsion Technologies business’ revenues increased 19% year over year and orders grew 67% in the year. Driven by business strength, GE Aerospace expects total revenues (on an adjusted basis) to increase in the low-double-digit range in 2026.
The company’s commitment to rewarding its shareholders through dividends and share buybacks is also encouraging. In first-quarter 2026, it repurchased shares for $2.2 billion. In the same period, the company paid dividends of $381 million, up 26.2% year over year, to its shareholders.
Near-Term Concerns PrevailDespite the positives, GE has been grappling with high costs and operating expenses. In the first quarter, its cost of sales surged 32% year over year to $7.9 billion, while selling, general and administrative expenses increased 23.9% to $1.08 billion. Research and development expenses also rose 22.6% to $440 million. In the quarter, GE’s operating profit margin contracted 200 basis points to 21.8%.
Also, the rising debt level has been concerning for the company. Exiting the first quarter, GE Aerospace’s total borrowings were $20.3 billion. The figure comprised of $2.1 billion of short-term borrowings and $18.2 billion of long-term borrowings.
Valuation Remains an OverhangGE Aerospace is trading at a forward 12-month price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 41.81X, higher than the industry average of 32.71X. This elevated valuation could make the stock vulnerable to further pullbacks if market sentiment sours.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
In comparison with GE’s valuation, its peers, General Dynamics and Textron, are trading cheaper. Notably, General Dynamics and Textron are currently trading at 20.76X and 13.39X, respectively.
Earnings Estimate RevisionThe Zacks Consensus Estimate for GE’s 2026 earnings has inched up 0.7% to $7.48 per share over the past 60 days, indicating year-over-year growth of 17.4%. The consensus mark for 2027 earnings increased 0.6% to $8.67 per share, indicating a year-over-year increase of 15.9%.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Final Take on GE StockGE Aerospace’s strong foothold and persistent strength in the commercial and defense aerospace markets, driven by solid build rates and a robust defense budget, bode well for growth. However, high debt level, rising operating expenses and premium valuation are limiting this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company’s near-term prospects.
While current shareholders should hold their positions, new investors should wait for the stock to retract some of its recent gains and provide a better entry point.
You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
All investors love getting big returns from their portfolio, whether it's through stocks, bonds, ETFs, or other types of securities. However, when you're an income investor, your primary focus is generating consistent cash flow from each of your liquid investments.
While cash flow can come from bond interest or interest from other types of investments, income investors hone in on dividends. A dividend is the distribution of a company's earnings paid out to shareholders; it's often viewed by its dividend yield, a metric that measures a dividend as a percent of the current stock price. Many academic studies show that dividends account for significant portions of long-term returns, with dividend contributions exceeding one-third of total returns in many cases.
Headquartered in Fairfield, Cincinnati Financial (CINF - Free Report) is a Finance stock that has seen a price change of 3.48% so far this year. The insurer is currently shelling out a dividend of $0.94 per share, with a dividend yield of 2.22%. This compares to the Insurance - Property and Casualty industry's yield of 0.76% and the S&P 500's yield of 1.41%.
Looking at dividend growth, the company's current annualized dividend of $3.76 is up 8% from last year. Over the last 5 years, Cincinnati Financial has increased its dividend 5 times on a year-over-year basis for an average annual increase of 8.39%. Looking ahead, future dividend growth will be dependent on earnings growth and payout ratio, which is the proportion of a company's annual earnings per share that it pays out as a dividend. Cincinnati Financial's current payout ratio is 37%, meaning it paid out 37% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.
Looking at this fiscal year, CINF expects solid earnings growth. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2026 is $8.61 per share, representing a year-over-year earnings growth rate of 8.30%.
Investors like dividends for many reasons; they greatly improve stock investing profits, decrease overall portfolio risk, and carry tax advantages, among others. It's important to keep in mind that not all companies provide a quarterly payout.
High-growth firms or tech start-ups, for example, rarely provide their shareholders a dividend, while larger, more established companies that have more secure profits are often seen as the best dividend options. Income investors must be conscious of the fact that high-yielding stocks tend to struggle during periods of rising interest rates. With that in mind, CINF is a compelling investment opportunity. Not only is it a strong dividend play, but the stock currently sits at a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
Chip stocks are leading a broad risk-on move at midday on Monday, June 15. Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD | AMD Price Prediction) stock is up 8% and just printed an intraday record near $558, pushing the company’s market value above $900 billion for the first time.
NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) shares are climbing 4% to roughly $214, while Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) stock is up 3% to $128 and change. The Dow has joined the rally, with traders citing a U.S.-Iran peace deal as the macro tailwind.
The chip complex is leading the tape, but AMD stock is the lead story. The catalyst is Advanced Micro Devices’ product line, though sentiment is a contributing factor today.
AMD’s Ryzen AI Halo Lights the Fuse AMD unveiled the Ryzen AI Halo developer platform priced at $3,999, undercutting NVIDIA’s DGX Spark by $700. The desktop-class device runs local AI workloads on the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 processor with 128GB of unified memory.
AMD claims support for up to 200 billion parameter models running locally, matching DGX Spark’s stated ceiling, plus up to 14% better tokens-per-second performance across multiple models. It also runs both Windows 11 and Linux, while the DGX Spark is Linux-only.
The product launch arrives on top of bullish Wall Street notes from last week. Citi upgraded AMD stock to Buy with a $575 target, up from $460, and Bank of America raised its target to $560 from $500, citing a server-CPU opportunity now forecast at more than $170 billion by 2030.
NVIDIA and Intel Ride the Wave The interesting wrinkle: AMD’s Ryzen AI Halo directly challenges DGX Spark, yet NVIDIA shares are rallying anyway. The market is treating local AI inference as additive to the broader buildout, not a zero-sum trade.
NVIDIA’s most recent quarter showed $81.62 billion in revenue and an $80 billion share repurchase authorization, with CEO Jensen Huang positioning the new Vera CPU business as a potential $200 billion opportunity. News-sentiment readings on NVIDIA stock sit at 63.47, bullish, with a 7-day move of +7.43 points.
Intel stock is the quiet outperformer of the trio over a longer frame, sitting on a one-year gain of 500% heading into today’s session. The recent fuel: Wells Fargo’s $110 target, Barclays at $100, and Computex 2026 momentum tied to Xeon 6+ and rackscale AI systems. Composite prediction sentiment on Intel stock reads 63.96, bullish with medium confidence.
The Risk-On Tape and Retail Tone AMD’s analyst consensus now sits at 36 Buy and 5 Strong Buy ratings against 10 Holds and zero Sells, with an average price target of $486.33. The stock’s trailing P/E ratio of 169x remains rich, leaning on 91% year over year quarterly earnings growth to justify the valuation.
Retail sentiment is more divided than the tape suggests. StockTwits chatter on AMD is roughly neutral, and Reddit’s WallStreetBets crowd skewed bearish last week with sentiment scores running between 18 and 38. That tension between institutional bullishness and retail skepticism can make the intraday tape choppy.
What to Watch Now Investors may want to watch for whether AMD stock holds the $900 billion market-cap line into the close, and whether NVIDIA shares can recapture ground after a 9% pullback over the past month. Hyperscaler capex commentary and the next MI450 ramp update could shape the next leg.
Beyond today’s session, the MI450 Series and Helios platform timeline remains the single biggest swing factor for Advanced Micro Devices. CEO Lisa Su flagged that leading customer forecasts are exceeding initial expectations, and the Meta deal to deploy up to 6 GW of Instinct GPUs gives the ramp a visible anchor. Any update on shipment cadence or additional hyperscaler wins would reinforce the bull case.
For NVIDIA and Intel, watch the Rubin platform rollout, where Intel Xeon 6 sits as the host CPU. That cross-pollination means Intel Foundry execution and 18A volume ramp updates carry read-through for the entire AI stack, not just Intel shares.
Takeaway: Today’s tape rewards the AI-infrastructure trade broadly, but product execution, not sentiment, will decide which chip name leads into the next earnings cycle. Investors can treat hyperscaler capex commentary and MI450 ramp data as key indicators to keep an eye on.
Artificial intelligence (AI) computing power has mostly been allocated to training large language models (LLMs) so far, but a shift is now happening in this space. Inference, which is the process of putting trained AI models to work in real-world situations by exposing them to new data and queries, is expected to account for the majority of AI computing power.
According to McKinsey, inference will account for more than half of AI computing capacity in data centers by 2030, surpassing the training phase. This explains why demand for central processing units (CPUs) is now increasing at a robust pace, as they are considered ideal for handling AI inference workloads due to lower costs.
In fact, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD +7.00%) doubled its server CPU total addressable market (TAM) estimate last month to $120 billion by 2030, noting that demand for these chips is increasing due to agentic AI and inference applications. AMD, however, isn't the only one benefiting from the improving CPU demand.
Intel (INTC +2.79%) is the dominant player in the server CPU market, suggesting it may be better positioned to capitalize on this massive opportunity. However, there is more than what meets the eye in this space, which is why we will take a closer look at AMD and Intel's positioning in server CPUs to find out which of these two semiconductor stocks is a better play on the growing inference demand.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
Intel dominates server CPUs, but AMD is quickly closing the gap According to Mercury Research, Intel accounted for almost 67% of the server CPU market at the end of the first quarter of 2026. AMD accounted for the rest of the market. However, what's worth noting is that Intel has been consistently losing ground to AMD.
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Intel was way more dominant in server CPUs four years ago, controlling just over 88% of the market in the first quarter of 2022. AMD has significantly dented Intel's position in server CPUs by offering better products, enabling it to attract more customers. What's more, AMD is enjoying stronger pricing power in this space despite holding a significantly lower unit share.
This is evident from the fact that AMD's revenue share of server CPUs stood at a record 46.2% in Q1, suggesting that the average selling price (ASP) of its products is higher. Customers have been willing to pay more for AMD's server processors because of their performance and cost advantages. The good news for AMD investors is that it expects to corner a bigger share of the server CPU market in 2026.
AMD anticipates a 70% jump in server CPU revenue in the second quarter of 2026. Additionally, management sees the "robust growth continuing through the second half of 2026 and into 2027 as we ramp our next-generation EPYC processors."
Intel, meanwhile, is hamstrung by a short supply of its server CPUs. Intel management noted on the April earnings call that "demand continues to run ahead of supply for all our businesses, especially for Xeon server CPUs" despite the company's efforts to improve factory output. However, the good news for Intel stock investors is that the company is "seeing strong and sustained momentum" for Xeon server CPUs.
Intel also points out that the ratio of server CPU deployment in data center accelerators, compared to graphics processing units (GPUs), is now favoring CPUs. Moreover, Intel may be able to arrest the market-share slide thanks to its partnership with Nvidia, which has decided to use the Xeon 6 processor in its Vera Rubin server racks.
Also, Intel is looking to prevent AMD from gaining more share by ramping up the production of its server CPUs based on the 18A architecture, which it claims could deliver a 30% performance gain and a 50% efficiency lead over AMD's Epyc processors. Intel, however, will need to ensure that it can produce enough of these chips to stop AMD from making further gains in server CPUs.
The valuation makes it easier to decide which one is the better buy now Both Intel and AMD have seen a significant spike in their stock prices this year. Intel is up 216%, as of this writing, while AMD stock has gained 129%. This explains why AMD is significantly cheaper than Intel.
Data by YCharts
Also, consensus estimates suggest that AMD's earnings growth will significantly outpace Intel's. Specifically, AMD's bottom line is expected to jump by nearly 78% in 2027, well above the 42% jump predicted for Intel. Also, AMD's growing influence in the data center GPU market, where it has lucrative contracts with major hyperscalers and AI companies, is another reason why it is the better pick over Intel.
After all, Intel has been finding it tough to crack the data center GPU market, giving AMD a distinct advantage in AI chips. In the end, it can be concluded that AMD's relatively cheaper valuation, stronger earnings growth, and opportunities in the GPU market make it a better AI stock to capitalize on the growing inference demand.
Adobe (ADBE +1.84%) stock is down 50% over the past year, and investors think this will be one of the losers of the age of AI. But the company continues to perform well with revenue growing and free cash flow coming in. Now that the stock is trading for under 10x earnings and free cash flow, is this a deal that's too good to pass up? That's the answer I try to find in this video.
*Stock prices used were end-of-day prices of June 12, 2026. The video was published on June 15, 2026.
Travis Hoium has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Adobe. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2028 $330 calls on Adobe and short January 2028 $340 calls on Adobe. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Travis Hoium is an affiliate of The Motley Fool and may be compensated for promoting its services. If you choose to subscribe through their link they will earn some extra money that supports their channel. Their opinions remain their own and are unaffected by The Motley Fool.
If it weren't for question marks about its future growth, Pfizer (PFE 0.38%) stock would undoubtedly be trading at a much higher price. Sales were down last year, and the stock has been floundering, struggling to gain much traction. Even though it looks persistently cheap, investors haven't been buying it, even for its dividend, which yields an astonishingly high rate of 6.6%. By comparison, the S&P 500 averages a yield of only 1.1%.
But what if Pfizer does have a path to return to growth? The company's management sees a brighter future ahead, and here's a look at when Pfizer might get back to delivering high-single-digit growth.
Image source: Getty Images.
Pfizer's CEO believes the growth rate will improve after 2028 On Pfizer's first-quarter earnings call, CEO Albert Bourla was optimistic that in 2029, the company will begin a five-year period of strong growth, with revenue growth rates in the high single digits. A big win for the company has come from recent settlements involving Vyndamax, which have pushed its patent expirations to 2031. Previously, the company expected a steep decline in Vyndamax revenue in 2029, but now it expects product sales to be fairly stable from 2028 through the middle of 2031.
Meanwhile, Pfizer is investing in other healthcare businesses to bolster its pipeline. Bourla said the company is planning to begin 20 pivotal studies this year and anticipates four regulatory decisions, calling 2026 "a pivotal year for R&D." Pfizer has been investing in its growth for multiple years, and positive news from its pipeline could put the healthcare stock on a much more positive trajectory.
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Why Pfizer can be a great stock to buy and forget about While Pfizer hasn't been a hot buy of late and is down more than 30% over the past five years, its future isn't as troubling as the stock's performance might suggest. The company has been investing in its future growth, though it could be a while before those efforts pay off and investors consider it a good buy again.
However, that's precisely why the stock may be worth buying today and just forgetting about it. It's a long-term play that will require some patience, as a catalyst may not be around the corner. But with the stock offering a high yield and also trading at just nine times its estimated future earnings (based on analyst projections), now may be a great time to buy it while it's still undervalued. In the long run, this has the potential to generate some terrific returns for patient investors.
Key Takeaways IBM and ServiceNow expanded their alliance to help businesses deploy AI at scale across enterprise systems.IBM's deal targets fragmented data and legacy technology that limit flexibility, efficiency and AI adoption.IBM's AI push also includes Google Cloud and Red Hat partnerships to improve infrastructure and security. International Business Machines Corporation (IBM - Free Report) has strengthened its partnership with ServiceNow, Inc. (NOW - Free Report) through a long-term strategic collaboration to help businesses overcome fragmented data across enterprise systems and outdated legacy technology, the two major barriers to artificial Intelligence (AI) adoption. The deal enables IBM to provide customers with an open, secure and flexible platform for large-scale AI usage.
Per the agreement, IBM will combine its advanced AI, automation and data management capabilities with ServiceNow’s AI platform to help enterprises deploy AI at scale. It helps organizations modernize existing systems, reduce costs and complexity, and address the challenges of outdated infrastructure that limits flexibility and efficiency.
Application modernization, enterprise data governance and autonomous infrastructure operations are the three key areas the alliance will focus on. It aims to help businesses upgrade legacy applications for AI integration, improve data quality and management to keep enterprise data AI-ready, and enhance IT operations through automation that enables the detection and resolution of issues before they impact business operations.
IBM recently expanded its AI efforts through partnerships with Google Cloud to improve AI infrastructure and security. The collaborations reinforce the company’s growing presence in the enterprise AI market.
How Are Competitors Advancing?IBM faces competition from Microsoft Corporation (MSFT - Free Report) and Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN - Free Report) . Microsoft has expanded its AI efforts by launching new AI tools to help businesses automate complex tasks. The company is improving Windows with more built-in AI features to enhance speed, privacy and efficiency. Microsoft continues to strengthen its Copilot and cloud AI services to support enterprise AI adoption.
Amazon is investing in AI chips to reduce dependence on third-party processors and strengthen its cloud capabilities. The company is integrating more AI-powered features into Alexa to deliver smarter and more personalized interactions. Amazon is using AI in its logistics network to improve inventory management, delivery speed and operational efficiency.
IBM’s Price Performance, Valuation & EstimatesIBM shares have lost 3.4% over the past year against the industry’s growth of 234.7%.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
From a valuation standpoint, IBM trades at a forward price-to-sales ratio of 3.51, below the industry average of 6.7.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Earnings estimates for 2026 have declined 0.2% to $12.38 over the past 60 days, while the same for 2027 have increased 0.8% at $13.42.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
IBM currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
@ProsperTradingAcademy's Scott Bauer walks us through today's Big 3 by highlighting stocks he sees falling off many investors' radar. He points to DoorDash's (DASH) outperformance, IBM Corp.'s (IBM) sell-off, and consumer pressures potentially hitting Mastercard (MA) as reasons to watch these companies.
While prices at the pump in the U.S. were easing in late May, oil industry veterans were sounding the alarm on depleting inventories and a potential oil price spike. Since then, there have been media reports of more oil cargoes transiting the Strait of Hormuz. Oil prices retreated as hopes of a peace deal culminated, with plans to sign an agreement in Switzerland this coming Friday. For energy infrastructure, the day-to-day oil swings are arguably more noise than substance. However, this piece will take a closer look at oil market dynamics, why even oil companies do not want $150 oil, and what midstream investors should focus on when it comes to oil prices.
Key Takeaways In late May, energy executives were highlighting the rapid depletion of global inventories and the risk of an oil price spike. With a potential peace deal and reopening of the Strait in the works, Brent oil prices fell below $90 per barrel last week and saw more pressure on Monday, but that doesn’t mean oil prices won’t rise from here. Instead of focusing on day-to-day oil price moves, midstream investors should be keeping an eye on futures prices, which are over $70 per barrel next year for the U.S. benchmark and will be more impactful for producer drilling plans. Depleting Inventories Drove Concerns of an Oil Price Spike in Late May At a conference in late May, executives from Exxon (XOM) and Chevron (CVX) highlighted the severity of inventory depletion as this important buffer for the oil market begins to diminish. Chevron’s CEO discussed the potential for physical prices to see upward pressure into June and July.
Exxon Senior Vice President Neil Chapman discussed the possibility of a price spike as inventories reach low levels, with models forecasting $150 or $160 for Dated Brent crude. In contrast to the Brent futures often cited, Dated Brent is a better reflection of physical prices and the spot price for oil ready to be shipped. Importantly, Dated Brent sets the price for the majority of global oil trades.
Dated Brent had reached a high of $144/bbl on April 7, while Brent futures were only at $109/bbl. A distortion between physical and paper markets has been common in recent months. However, the spread between Dated Brent and Brent futures was fairly negligible at the end of last week, with both closing around $88/bbl.
Oil at $150 or $160/bbl Is Not Good — Even for Oil Companies Investors may think that oil producers would be delighted by oil at $150+ per barrel, but that is not the case. That price level destroys demand, and with petroleum such an important input for so much of the economy, the impact of high prices would be broadly painful. The concern is that the global economy could plunge into a recession. With that perspective, it makes sense that oil industry executives were highlighting this risk.
Politicians likely realized that strategic oil releases and measures like lifting sanctions on Russian petroleum cargoes at sea could only buy so much time with the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed. In that vein, President Trump revealed last week that more than 100 million barrels of oil had secretly been moved through the Strait with the help of the U.S. military.
While modest relative to the amount disrupted since the war began, the secret shipments could provide context to why prices have not risen more. A dramatic drop in Chinese imports has also been credited for avoiding a more severe price spike, with China having aggressively built their reserves over the last 18 months, according to comments from Chevron’s CEO.
Is the Relative High in Oil Prices Behind Us? Oil prices have fallen as optimism rises for a peace deal and a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. The front-month Brent contract closed at $87/bbl on Friday — its first close below $90/bbl since March 10. Prices were under pressure again on Monday following the announcement of plans for a peace agreement over the weekend.
It may feel like oil prices are poised for a continued downtrend. That said, even as the Strait reopens, it is expected to take time for flows to return to normal levels. Vessels need to reposition, and ships may also need confirmation that there are no mines in the Strait. There are also some lingering questions around infrastructure in the region and how quickly operations can ramp back up.
The Short-Term Energy Outlook from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), published June 9, assumed flows would only start to slowly resume in 3Q. With that timeline, the EIA forecasted that production and trade flows would not return to normal until early 2027.
While making oil price calls is tough, especially in this tape, it bears noting that oil tends to overreact in either direction. Even with a successful peace deal, inventories are likely to continue to fall near term, which could put upward pressure on prices. It remains to be seen whether the buffers that have helped mitigate the oil price spike to this point will continue to be effective until volumes return to more normalized levels. For example, at the recent run rate, the releases from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve would be exhausted around the end of August.
Midstream Investors Should Look Past Oil Volatility to Focus on Futures Curve For midstream investors, the day-to-day, headline-driven volatility in oil should not be a major concern. The greater focus should be futures prices for oil, particularly into 2027 and even beyond. Eventually, the world will need to restock oil, which should support future prices. Additionally, one could argue that a greater risk premium should be embedded into the curve, given the potential for the Strait to close again.
For midstream, the futures curve is what matters, as it is what producers will use to determine their drilling plans. Compared to the start of the year, 2027 futures prices for the U.S. crude benchmark have risen around $15/bbl to over $70/bbl. The EIA is currently forecasting that U.S. oil production will grow by 0.43 million barrels per day on average for 2027, compared to prior expectations for oil production to decline next year. Midstream has long enjoyed tailwinds from growing natural gas demand, but now growth opportunities related to oil are more likely, given a stronger price outlook.
Bottom Line: To say there are a lot of moving parts in the oil market today would be a major understatement. For energy infrastructure, a lot of this is noise. Instead of focusing on day-to-day moves in the current futures contract, midstream investors should look more to the futures curve, particularly prices into 2027.
Looking for midstream insights in your inbox? Subscribe here to keep a pulse on midstream investing through our weekly updates.
Related Research: Revisiting Energy Market Impacts From the Iran War
Energy and Midstream Implications From Attacks on Iran
Addressing Questions on Oil, Geopolitics, & Midstream
For more news, information, and analysis, visit the Energy Infrastructure Content Hub.
Stocks are trying to adjust to a macroeconomic outlook that looks different today than it did in January. Inflation is down from its peak 2022 levels, but it has settled well above the Federal Reserve’s preferred 2% target, and oil prices are sending it higher. Interest rates have followed, staying elevated relative to the zero-bound era.
However, GDP growth remains nominally strong, and the labor market keeps surprising to the tight side. All of this means that investors are accepting that the cost of money isn't returning to 2019 levels anytime soon.
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That’s not great news for companies that need to refinance debt at a higher rate. But it’s a tailwind for companies that earn more as nominal activity rises, that hold pricing power when input costs are elevated, and whose revenue models are either structurally linked to inflation or directly benefit from sustained high rates. Here are five stocks that won’t just survive despite higher-for-longer rates, but thrive because of them.
Rate Leverage With a Fortress Balance SheetJPMorgan Chase & Co. NYSE: JPM is the most direct beneficiary of a sustained high-rate environment among large-cap financials. It’s also the most profitable bank in American history.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. Today
JPM
JPMorgan Chase & Co.
$320.29 -0.43 (-0.13%)
As of 02:43 PM Eastern
This is a fair market value price provided by Massive. Learn more.
52-Week Range$266.85▼
$337.25Dividend Yield1.87%
P/E Ratio15.34
Price Target$339.08
The bank's Q1 2026 earnings report made the case: net interest income (NII) of $25.5 billion was up 9% year-over-year. That contributed to total managed revenue of $50.5 billion, a 10% gain, and net income of $16.5 billion, up 13%. Diluted earnings per share (EPS) of $5.94 beat consensus by more than 9%. The full-year 2026 NII guidance of approximately $103 billion is more evidence that JPMorgan will continue to benefit from a higher interest rate environment.
In a higher-for-longer environment where JPMorgan’s loan book earns more and the spread between deposit costs and asset yields remains attractive, JPM's earnings power carries more weight with investors. The fortress balance sheet doesn't need the macroeconomic environment to be easy, just sustainable.
A Stock to Own When Nominal GDP Is the ProductVisa Inc. NYSE: V doesn't lend money or take deposits. It has virtually no exposure to credit losses. What it does is move money. In a world of strong nominal GDP growth, more money moves, more often, at higher dollar amounts per transaction.
Visa Today
V
Visa
$324.88 +2.49 (+0.77%)
As of 02:43 PM Eastern
This is a fair market value price provided by Massive. Learn more.
52-Week Range$293.89▼
$360.22Dividend Yield0.82%
P/E Ratio28.28
Price Target$387.78
That's the core of the higher-for-longer thesis for Visa. Inflation-elevated transaction values combined with resilient volume growth compound into durable revenue expansion with minimal incremental cost.
In the company’s Q2 2026, net revenue of $11.2 billion grew 17% year-over-year. That was the strongest growth since 2013 outside of the post-pandemic recovery. Processed transactions reached 66 billion, up 9%. Cross-border volume climbed 12%, reflecting robust travel and e-commerce activity. Adjusted EPS grew 20% to $3.31, beating the consensus estimate by 7%.
The flywheel compounds beyond the core payment processing business: value-added services now represent 30% of net revenue, growing above 25% in constant dollars. Visa Direct, the real-time money movement network, processed transactions up 23% year-over-year. Management guides to low-double-digit to low-teens net revenue growth for the full fiscal year. For investors who want nominal GDP exposure without exposure to credit risk, Visa is the cleanest vehicle available.
Profit From Infrastructure CapEx at Record ScaleCaterpillar Inc. NYSE: CAT is a barometer of global industrial CapEx, and right now the barometer is reading exceptionally high.
Caterpillar Today
$937.71 +27.14 (+2.98%)
As of 02:43 PM Eastern
This is a fair market value price provided by Massive. Learn more.
52-Week Range$356.96▼
$946.83Dividend Yield0.70%
P/E Ratio46.66
Price Target$933.27
Q1 2026 results were emphatic: sales and revenues of $17.4 billion, up 22% year-over-year, with adjusted EPS of $5.54 surging 30% versus the prior year.
But the real highlight may have been the company’s order backlog, which was a record $63 billion and up 79% year over year.
Management understated this as a strong foundation for continued momentum. But it was the basis for a raised full-year outlook to low-double-digit sales growth.
Caterpillar is increasingly becoming part of the AI trade. The company’s Power and Energy business generated $7 billion, up 22%, driven by surging data center demand for large reciprocating engines. Management described data center-driven demand as a major catalyst for a capacity expansion plan that will nearly triple large engine output from 2024 levels.
Infrastructure and industrial CapEx aren't going to slow down because of higher rates. In fact, they’re likely to accelerate because project economics that work at elevated nominal growth levels justify long-duration investment decisions. CAT has a 79%-larger-than-prior-year backlog, proving that is more than a theoretical argument.
Inflation Is This Company’s Business ModelMost companies treat inflation as a headwind to manage. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. NYSE: BIP treats it as a revenue mechanism. The majority of BIP's assets, including toll roads, regulated utilities, pipelines, data towers, and ports, operate under contracts that include explicit inflation escalators. When the CPI runs hot, cash flows rise automatically, without requiring volume growth to offset.
Brookfield Infrastructure Partners Today
BIP
Brookfield Infrastructure Partners
$38.11 -0.17 (-0.44%)
As of 02:43 PM Eastern
This is a fair market value price provided by Massive. Learn more.
52-Week Range$29.63▼
$40.32Dividend Yield4.78%
P/E Ratio57.82
Price Target$44.63
Q1 2026 demonstrated that model at its best. Funds from operations (FFO) reached a record $709 million, up 10% year-over-year, driven by organic growth at the high end of the 6% to 9% target range. Management specifically cited "higher inflation-linked revenues" as a primary driver alongside strong midstream utilization and $1.7 billion of commissioned projects.
The utilities segment, where inflation indexation is most direct, generated FFO of $201 million, up 5%. The data segment delivered FFO growth of 46%, adding a secular growth vector on top of the inflation-linked base.
BIP has now declared its 18th consecutive annual dividend increase, the latest at 6% above the prior year. For investors who want inflation protection without the commodity price volatility of a mining or energy company, BIP's contractual revenue structure offers something structurally different: the higher inflation stays, the better the cash flows.
This Retailer’s Scale Wins When Prices Are HighIn a higher-nominal-price environment, Walmart Inc. NASDAQ: WMT is the scale player with the cost advantage. When grocery prices are elevated, and consumers are stretching dollars further, Walmart's flywheel spins faster. And as the company’s last few quarters have shown, it’s not just among its traditional lower-income customer base. Higher-earning households are trading down or shifting share toward Walmart's price leadership.
Walmart Today
$120.59 -0.45 (-0.37%)
As of 02:43 PM Eastern
This is a fair market value price provided by Massive. Learn more.
52-Week Range$93.62▼
$135.15Dividend Yield0.82%
P/E Ratio42.33
Price Target$138.85
In its most recent quarter, Walmart U.S. comparable sales grew 4.1% year-over-year, with e-commerce up 26% globally. That makes 12 consecutive quarters of double-digit U.S. e-commerce gains.
But the real story is that Walmart is more than just a retail story. Advertising revenue surged 36% overall, including a 44% increase in the company’s high-margin Walmart Connect business. Membership fee revenue grew in double digits, with net additions hitting a record Q1 high.
Walmart's supply chain leverage, private-label expansion, and ability to absorb tariff-related cost pressures give it a structural advantage that attracts price-sensitive consumers. In a higher-for-longer world, Walmart is where the volume goes.
Should You Invest $1,000 in Visa Right Now?Before you consider Visa, you'll want to hear this.
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Kootenay Silver Announces Positive PEA with a US$763 Million After-Tax NPV & 41% IRR for La Cigarra Silver Project Kootenay Silver Announces Positive PEA with a US$763 Million After-Tax NPV & 41% IRR for La Cigarra Silver Project PR Newswire
VANCOUVER, BC, June 15, 2026
The Project includes a 14-year open-pit silver project delivering strong economics, a rapid 1.9 year payback, and a 63.7-million-ounce payable silver production profile with significant exploration upside remaining along a 9-kilometre mineralized trend.
, /PRNewswire/ - Kootenay Silver Inc. (the "Company" or "Kootenay") (TSXV: KTN) (OTCQX: KOOYF) is pleased to announce the results of a positive Preliminary Economic Assessment ("PEA")i for its 100%-owned La Cigarra Silver Project ("La Cigarra" or the "Project") in Chihuahua, Mexico.
The La Cigarra Project is situated within the well-established Parral Mining District of Chihuahua State, Mexico), which hosts two nearby mining operations, the Santa Barbara Mine and the San Francisco Del Oro Mine. Both mines are active silver producers located approximately 20–30 kilometres to the south of La Cigarra along the same mineralized trend and are actively mining to depths of up to 2,000 kilometres deep. Together, these two operations produced 440 million ounces of silver from 1650 to 1988 (Grant and Ruiz, 1988) with both operations still in production today. Readers are cautioned that the information disclosed from adjacent properties is not necessarily indicative to the mineralization on the Project that is the subject of this disclosure.
Key Highlights of the PEA
All monetary values are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted.
Project Economics
After-tax net present value at consensus metal pricesii (5% discount rate): $763 millionAfter-tax internal rate of return (IRR): 41%After-tax net present value at spot metal pricesiii (5% discount rate): $1,295 million and IRR of 64%Capital and Cost Structure
Initial capital cost: $332 millionSustaining capital cost: $80 millionPayback period: 1.9 years (after tax)Study life-of-mine (LOM): 14 yearsProduction Profile
Average annual silver production over Years 1–5: 6.22 million ounces.Average LOM annual payable silver production: 4.55 million ouncesLOM payable-silver production: 63.6 million ouncesAverage annual after-tax revenue: $107 million per year.Average all-in sustaining cost: $18.73/oz AgProcessing rate: 6,000 tonnes per dayAverage silver recovery: 89.3%
Management Commentary
James McDonald, President and CEO of Kootenay Silver, said:
"The Preliminary Economic Assessment marks a significant milestone in advancing La Cigarra toward development. The 14-year mine life, strong annual production, and IRR demonstrate the potential for a long-life silver operation in one of Mexico's premier mining districts, a district that has been producing for nearly 500 years. We believe the combination of attractive economics, substantial resource-growth potential, existing infrastructure, and strong silver market fundamentals, positions La Cigarra as a compelling development asset, significantly adding value to the stakeholders in the region."
Ken Berry, Chairman of Kootenay Silver, added:
"This study validates our strategy of advancing our portfolio of silver assets through the development pipeline. With La Cigarra now supported by a positive PEA, we are evaluating the next steps to unlock additional value through resource expansion, engineering optimization, and advancement toward permitting and feasibility engineering."
Cautionary Statement Regarding the PEA
The PEA is preliminary in nature and includes Inferred Mineral Resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as Mineral Reserves. Inferred Mineral Resources have a lower level of confidence than that applied to Measured and Indicated Mineral Resources and there is no certainty that Inferred Mineral Resources will be converted to Measured or Indicated Mineral Resources through further exploration. There is no certainty that the results of the PEA will be realized.
Mineral Resources that are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. The Project does not contain any Mineral Reserves and the economic analysis contained in the PEA is based on Mineral Resources, including Inferred Mineral Resources and there is no certainty that Mineral Resources will be converted into Mineral Reserves.
PEA Inputs
The following tables outline various operation and capital cost inputs, production details including ounces of silver and gold produced and pounds of lead and zinc produced, mining rate, tonnes mined, strip ratio, metal recovery factors, total cash cost for silver, all in sustaining cost for silver long term price assumptions for silver, gold, lead and zinc, tax inputs, EBITA, pre and post-tax for net present values, internal rate of return, free cash flow, and payback period.
Description
Unit
LOM Total /
Average
General assumptions
Silver price
US$/oz
50.0
Gold price
US$/oz
3,611.0
Lead price
US$/lb
0.91
Zinc price
US$/lb
1.25
Discount rate
%
5.00
Production
Total payable silver
koz
63,663.9
Total payable gold
koz
27.3
Total payable lead
Mlb
45.3
Total payable zinc
Mlb
48.5
Operating costs
Mining cost
US$/t mined
2.11
Processing cost
US$/t processed
9.49
Site G&A cost
US$/t processed
3.50
Operating cash cost
US$/oz AgEq
16.85
AISC
US$/oz AgEq
18.73
Capital costs
Initial capital (Inc. Closure
Deposit)
US$M
332.2
Sustaining capital
US$M
79.7
Economics
Net Revenue
US$M
3,326.3
EBITDA
US$M
2,342.1
Pre-tax Free Cashflow
US$M
1,897.0
Pre-tax NPV (5%)
US$M
1,265.0
Pre-tax IRR
%
55 %
Pre-tax payback
years
1.7
Post-tax Free Cashflow
US$M
1166.0
Post-tax NPV (5%)
US$M
762.7
Post-tax IRR
%
41 %
Post-tax payback
years
1.9
Table of production details in the PEA
Metric
Unit
Base Case
Mine life
years
14
Plant throughput
t/d
6,000
Total material mined
Mt
273.1
Total material processed
Mt
30.4
Oxide material processed
Mt
5.8
Sulphide material processed
Mt
24.6
Average strip ratio
t:t
8.0
Average Ag head grade
g/t
78.66
Average Au head grade
g/t
0.06
Average Pb head grade
%
0.13 %
Average Zn head grade
%
0.18 %
Total payable Ag in doré
koz
20,873.7
Total payable Au in doré
koz
6.8
Total payable Ag in concentrates
koz
42,790.2
Total payable Au in concentrates
koz
20.6
Total payable Pb
Mlb
45.3
Total payable Zn
Mlb
48.5
Total payable AgEq
koz AgEq
67,674.4
Table of capital cost inputs
Capital cost item
Unit
Base Case
Mining capital
US$M
7.9
Processing capital
US$M
122.6
Tailings and water management
US$M
12.4
Site infrastructure
US$M
57.8
Indirect costs / EPCM / owner's costs
US$M
73.3
Contingency
US$M
54.4
Closure and reclamation Deposit
US$M
3.7
Total initial capital
US$M
332.2
Sustaining capital
US$M
79.7
Closure and reclamation
US$M
-33.2
Total LOM capital
US$M
378.6
Table of operating cost inputs.
Operating cost item
Unit
Base Case
Mining cost
US$/t mined
or moved
$2.11
Rehandle cost
US$/t
rehandled
$2.11
Oxide processing cost
US$/t
processed
$9.49
Sulphide processing cost
US$/t
processed
$9.49
Mixed/campaign processing cost
US$/t
processed
$9.49
G & A
US$/t
$3.50
Total site operating cost
US$/t
processed
$32.41
Operating cash cost
US$/oz Ag
Payable
$16.85
AISC
US$/oz Ag
Payable
$18.75
Table of tax inputs
Item
Unit
Base Case
Income Tax
%
30.0
Mining Royalty Tax (EBITDA)
%
8.5
Precious Metal Royalty tax (Au-Ag NSR)
%
1.0
Total Income Tax and Royalty Incurred
US$M
731.0
Total LOM royalties
US$M
231.3
Table of revenue source by metal
Revenue source
Net revenue
contribution
Silver
94.1 %
Gold
2.9 %
Lead
1.2 %
Zinc
1.8 %
Total
100.0 %
Project Overview
La Cigarra is approximately 26 kilometers from the historic mining city of Parral, and benefits from strong existing infrastructure, including road access, nearby power, and a skilled local workforce.
The updated Project Mineral Resource estimate ("MRE") (Table 1) forms the basis of the PEA.
Highlights of the Project MRE are as follows:
Measured + Indicated Mineral Resources are estimated at 23.02 Mt grading 81 g/t Ag, 0.06 g/t Au, 0.14% Pb, and 0.19% Zn (93 g/t AgEq). The Measured + Indicated MRE includes 60.02 Moz Ag, 45.2 koz Au, 71.3 Mlb Pb, and 97.0 Mlb Zn (69.02 Moz AgEq).Inferred Mineral Resources are estimated at 6.78 Mt grading 79 g/t Ag, 0.05 g/t Au, 0.15% Pb, and 0.17% Zn (90 g/t AgEq). The Inferred MRE includes 17.25 Moz Ag, 11.90 koz Au, 22.7 Mlb Pb, and 25.5 Mlb Zn (19.72 Moz AgEq).Table 1: La Cigarra Deposit Mineral Resource Estimate, April 4, 2026
Resource
Class
Tonnes
(M)
Grade
Total Metal
Ag
(g/t)
Au
(g/t)
Pb
(%)
Zn
(%)
AgEq
(g/t)
Ag
(Moz)
Au
(koz)
Pb
(Mlb)
Zn
(Mlb)
AgEq
(Moz)
Measured
2.93
84
0.06
0.14
0.19
96
7.87
5.60
9.1
12.4
9.01
Indicated
20.09
81
0.06
0.14
0.19
93
52.14
39.60
62.2
84.6
60.01
Measured + Indicated
23.02
81
0.06
0.14
0.19
93
60.02
45.20
71.3
97.0
69.02
Inferred
6.78
79
0.05
0.15
0.17
90
17.25
11.90
22.7
25.5
19.72
Notes:
•
The classification of the current MRE into Measured, Indicated, and Inferred is consistent with current CIM Definition Standards For Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves (CIM, 2014).
•
All figures are rounded to reflect the relative accuracy of the estimate, and numbers may not add due to rounding.
•
Mineral Resources that are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. An Inferred Mineral Resource has a lower level of confidence than that applying to an Indicated Mineral Resource and must not be converted to a Mineral Reserve. It is reasonably expected that most Inferred Mineral Resources could be upgraded to Indicated Mineral Resources with continued exploration.
•
It is envisioned that the La Cigarra deposit may be mined using open-pit mining methods. Mineral Resources are reported at a base-case cut-off grade of 30 g/t AgEq. The in-pit Mineral Resource grade blocks are quantified above the base-case cut-off grade, above the constraining pit shell, below topography, and within the constraining mineralized domains (the constraining volumes).
•
The results from the pit optimization are used solely for the purpose of testing the "reasonable prospects for economic extraction" by an open pit and do not represent an attempt to estimate Mineral Reserves. There are no Mineral Reserves on the property. The results are used as a guide to assist in the preparation of a Mineral Resource statement and to select an appropriate resource-reporting cut-off grade.
•
Mineral Resources are presented undiluted and in situ, constrained by continuous 3-D wireframe models, and are considered to have reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction at the base-case cut-off grade of 30 g/t AgEq.
•
The base-case AgEq cut-off grade considers metal prices of $36.00/oz Ag, $3,600/oz Au, $0.91/lb Pb, and $1.23/lb Zn, and considers variable metal recoveries for Ag, Au, Pb, and Zn: for oxide mineralization—88.3% for Ag, 37.5% for Au; for sulphide mineralization—89.3% for Ag, 61.8% for Au, 70.0% for Pb, and 59.1% for Zn.
•
The base-case cut-off grade of 30 g/t AgEq considers a mining cost of $2.00/t mined, and processing, treatment, refining, General & Administrative, and transportation cost of $23.23/t for oxide mineralization, and $22.33/t for sulphide mineralization.
•
The estimate of Mineral Resources may be materially affected by environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, socio-political, marketing, or other relevant issues.
The updated Project in-pit MRE at various cut-off grades is presented in Table 2.
Table 2: In-Pit Mineral Resource Estimate at Various AgEq Cut-off Grades, April 4, 2026
AgEq Cut-Off
Grade (g/t)
Tonnes
(M)
Ag
(g/t)
Au (
g/t)
Pb
(%)
Zn
(%)
AgEq
(g/t)
Ag
(Moz)
Au
(koz)
Pb
(Mlb)
Zn
(Mlb)
AgEq
(Moz)
Measured
20
3.14
79
0.06
0.13
0.18
91
8.02
5.80
9.3
12.7
9.19
30
2.93
84
0.06
0.14
0.19
96
7.87
5.60
9.1
12.4
9.01
40
2.53
92
0.06
0.15
0.20
105
7.52
5.10
8.5
11.4
8.56
50
2.11
104
0.06
0.17
0.22
117
7.03
4.40
7.8
10.2
7.95
60
1.75
116
0.07
0.18
0.23
130
6.51
3.70
7.1
9.1
7.32
70
1.45
129
0.07
0.19
0.25
143
6.01
3.10
6.2
7.9
6.70
80
1.23
141
0.07
0.21
0.25
156
5.56
2.60
5.6
6.9
6.16
Indicated
20
21.52
77
0.06
0.14
0.18
88
53.04
41.30
64.4
87.3
61.21
30
20.09
81
0.06
0.14
0.19
93
52.14
39.60
62.2
84.6
60.01
40
17.26
89
0.06
0.15
0.21
102
49.61
35.60
57.6
78.3
56.81
50
14.46
100
0.07
0.16
0.22
114
46.36
31.10
52.3
70.4
52.76
60
12.14
110
0.07
0.18
0.23
125
43.01
26.80
47.2
62.7
48.66
70
10.06
122
0.07
0.19
0.25
137
39.44
22.80
41.5
55.1
44.34
80
8.40
134
0.07
0.20
0.26
149
36.10
19.40
36.6
47.8
40.33
Inferred
20
7.25
75
0.05
0.15
0.16
86
17.54
12.60
23.6
26.3
20.12
30
6.78
79
0.05
0.15
0.17
90
17.25
11.90
22.7
25.5
19.72
40
5.95
86
0.05
0.16
0.18
98
16.56
10.20
21.1
23.8
18.78
50
4.87
98
0.05
0.18
0.20
110
15.29
8.20
19.1
21.3
17.21
60
4.00
109
0.05
0.19
0.22
122
14.01
6.90
16.6
19.4
15.69
70
3.23
122
0.05
0.21
0.24
135
12.64
5.60
14.7
17.3
14.09
80
2.64
135
0.05
0.22
0.26
149
11.43
4.50
12.9
15.1
12.66
Notes:
•
Values in these tables reported above and below the base-case cut-off grades for in-pit MRE's should not be mistaken for a Mineral Resource statement. The values are only presented to show the sensitivity of the block-model estimates to the selection of the base-case cut-off grade (highlighted).
•
All values are rounded to reflect the relative accuracy of the estimate, and numbers may not add due to rounding.
In addition to silver, the deposit contains gold, lead, and zinc credits that contribute to Project economics and provides additional optionality as engineering work advances.
Development Plan
The PEA contemplates developing:
Conventional open-pit miningCrushing and grinding circuitsFlotation and leaching process plantTailings and rock management facilitiesMine infrastructure and support facilitiesProgressive mine development over a 14-year operating life.The Project also remains open for expansion along strike and at depth, with mineralization traced over a broader 9-kilometre trend that supports further exploration upside.
Upside Opportunities
The Company has identified several opportunities to further enhance Project value, including:
Resource expansion drilling along strike and at depthConversion of Inferred Mineral Resources to higher-confidence categoriesEvaluation and conversion of satellite and extension mineralized zonesMetallurgical optimization studiesMine plan optimization and staged development alternatives.Next Steps
Following completion of the PEA, Kootenay intends to:
Initiate additional resource expansion drillingAdvance environmental baseline studiesConduct geotechnical and hydrogeological investigationsEvaluate opportunities for a Feasibility StudyContinue stakeholder engagement and permitting activities.Technical Report
The full National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101") Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects Technical Report supporting the PEA will be filed on SEDAR+ within 45 days of this news release and will also be available on the Company's website.
Qualified Persons
The Kootenay technical information in this news release for the PEA has been prepared in accordance with the Canadian regulatory requirements and reviewed and approved on Kootenay's behalf by consultants who are independent, and each of whom is a Qualified Person ("QP") as defined by NI 43-101. The following acted as authors of the PEA:
Shervin Teymouri (P.Eng.), Sacré-Davey Engineering Inc.Marinus André de Ruijter (P.Eng.), Sacré-Davey Engineering Inc.Allan Armitage (PhD. P.Geo.), SGS Canada Inc. Geological ServicesAntonio Loschiavo (P.Eng.), AKF Mining Services Inc.Stacy Freudigmann (P.Eng. F.AusIMM.), Canenco Consulting Corp.Craig Hall (P.Eng.), Knight Piésold Ltd.Mr. Dale Brittliffe (BSc., P. Geol.), Vice President, Exploration, of Kootenay Silver, is the Company's QP under NI 43-101, and has reviewed and approved, the scientific and technical content in this press release.
About Kootenay Silver Inc.
Kootenay Silver Inc. is an exploration company actively engaged in the discovery and development of mineral projects in the Sierra Madre region of Mexico. Supported by one of the largest junior portfolios of silver assets in Mexico, Kootenay continues to provide its shareholders with significant leverage to silver prices. The Company remains focused on the expansion of its current silver resources, new discoveries, and the near-term economic development of its priority silver projects in prolific mining districts in Sonora State and Chihuahua State, respectively.
This news release contains "forward looking information" and "forward-looking statements", within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation (collectively, "forward-looking statements"). All statements other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as of the date of this news release.
Forward-looking statements in this news release include, without limitation, statements regarding: the results of the Preliminary Economic Assessment ("PEA"); projected economics of the La Cigarra Silver Project (the "Project"), including net present value, internal rate of return, payback period, capital costs, operating costs, cash costs, all-in sustaining costs, production rates, mine life, processing rates, recoveries and revenues; the potential development of the Project; future resource growth and conversion; opportunities to enhance Project economics; future exploration, drilling, engineering, metallurgical, environmental, geotechnical and hydrogeological programs; advancement of the Project toward a pre-feasibility study, feasibility study, permitting and potential construction; the timing of future technical studies; the future price of silver, gold, lead and zinc; and the Company's future plans, objectives and strategies.
Forward-looking statements are based upon a number of assumptions considered reasonable by management at the time such statements are made, including, but not limited to: the accuracy of the current Mineral Resource Estimate; the assumptions and methodologies used in the PEA; the achievement of projected production, operating and capital cost estimates; assumed metal prices, exchange rates and tax regimes; the availability of financing on acceptable terms; the ability to obtain required permits, licences and approvals in a timely manner; the availability of equipment, labour, contractors and supplies; the realization of anticipated metallurgical recoveries; and general business, economic and market conditions.
Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others: fluctuations in commodity prices; changes in capital and operating cost estimates; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; risks related to Mineral Resource estimation; risks associated with the inclusion of Inferred Mineral Resources in the PEA; uncertainty of future exploration results; uncertainty of obtaining permits, licences and regulatory approvals; environmental and social risks; taxation changes; political and economic developments in Mexico; labour shortages; inflationary pressures; financing risks; foreign exchange risks; title risks; and other risks disclosed in the Company's public disclosure record available on SEDAR+.
Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct, and readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and except as otherwise required by law, Kootenay expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any such statements to reflect any change in Kootenay's expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based.
Cautionary Note to US Investors: This news release includes Mineral Reserves and Mineral Resources classification terms that comply with reporting standards in Canada and the Mineral Reserves and the Mineral Resources estimates are made in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 – Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101"). NI 43-101 is a rule developed by the Canadian Securities Administrators that establishes standards for all public disclosure an issuer makes of scientific and technical information concerning mineral projects. These standards differ significantly from the requirements adopted by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"). The SEC sets rules that are applicable to domestic United States reporting companies. Consequently, Mineral Reserves and Mineral Resources information included in this news release is not comparable to similar information that would generally be disclosed by domestic U.S. reporting companies subject to the reporting and disclosure requirements of the SEC. Accordingly, information concerning mineral deposits set forth herein may not be comparable with information made public by companies that report in accordance with U.S. standards.
Reference
Grant, G. J., & Ruiz, J. (1988). The Pb-Zn-Cu-Ag deposits of the Granadena Mine, San Francisco del Oro-Santa Barbara District, Chihuahua. Economic Geology, 83, 1683–1702.
______________________________
i Prepared by Sacré-Davey Engineering Inc. and Canenco Consulting Corp., the PEA evaluates an open-pit mine and conventional processing facility at La Cigarra.
ii Consensus metal prices of $50.00/oz Ag, $3,611/oz Au, $0.91/lb Pb, and $1.25/lb Zn.
iii Spot metal prices of $67.23/oz Ag, $4,210/oz Au, $0.91/lb Pb, and $1.57/lb Zn.
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Salesforce Inc (NYSE:CRM, XETRA:FOO) said on Monday it has agreed to acquire Fin, formerly known as Intercom, in a deal valued at approximately $3.6 billion, as the enterprise software giant looks to bolster its artificial intelligence agent capabilities.
Fin's core product is an AI agent that handles customer service queries across channels including live chat, email, WhatsApp, SMS, phone, and Slack. The agent runs on a proprietary AI model called Apex, built specifically for customer support, which the company says has resolved an average of 76% of support volume end-to-end.
"We're thrilled to welcome Fin to Salesforce as we enable every company to become an agentic enterprise," Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said in a statement. "Fin brings proven agent technology, a deep commitment to customer success, and an incredible AI team that will complement Agentforce with powerful service agent capabilities."
The deal adds more than 30,000 companies to Salesforce's customer base and brings Fin's technical AI team into the fold. Fin CEO and co-founder Eoghan McCabe said the combination would allow the company to deploy its technology more broadly than it could have independently.
The acquisition is expected to close in the fourth quarter of Salesforce's fiscal year 2027.
Fin's technology will complement Agentforce, Salesforce's existing AI platform, which reached $1.2 billion in annual recurring revenue in the first quarter of fiscal 2027, up 205% year-over-year. Salesforce said the combined offering would be particularly suited to small and mid-sized businesses looking to deploy AI-powered customer service quickly.
Salesforce shares were up approximately 1.2% on Monday.
Salesforce (CRM, Financials) is making another push into artificial intelligence, agreeing to acquire customer-agent platform Fin for approximately $3.6 billion.
The deal gives Salesforce access to technology designed to handle customer interactions across multiple channels, including chat, email, phone, WhatsApp and Slack. Fin's platform is built around its proprietary AI model, Apex, which focuses on resolving customer service issues with limited human involvement.
The acquisition comes as software companies race to prove that AI can do more than generate content. Customer support has emerged as one of the most practical applications, offering businesses a way to improve response times while controlling labor costs.
For Salesforce, the transaction also strengthens Agentforce, the company's fast-growing AI platform. Agentforce generated $1.2 billion in annual recurring revenue during the first quarter, more than tripling from a year earlier. Fin's technology could help Salesforce expand those capabilities and reach customers looking for ready-to-deploy AI solutions.
Importantly, Salesforce said the acquisition will not affect its fiscal 2027 guidance or capital return plans, suggesting management remains confident in both the company's financial position and the strategic value of the deal.
Salesforce Inc. has agreed to buy Fin, a firm that develops artificial intelligence-powered customer agents, for about $3.6 billion as the software company works to win new business for enterprise AI. Fin's flagship product, AI Agent, handles customer queries via chat, email, WhatsApp, text message, phone and Slack.
Dover Corporation (DOV - Free Report) could be a solid addition to your portfolio given its recent upgrade to a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). This upgrade primarily reflects an upward trend in earnings estimates, which is one of the most powerful forces impacting stock prices.
A company's changing earnings picture is at the core of the Zacks rating. The system tracks the Zacks Consensus Estimate -- the consensus measure of EPS estimates from the sell-side analysts covering the stock -- for the current and following years.
The power of a changing earnings picture in determining near-term stock price movements makes the Zacks rating system highly useful for individual investors, since it can be difficult to make decisions based on rating upgrades by Wall Street analysts. These are mostly driven by subjective factors that are hard to see and measure in real time.
As such, the Zacks rating upgrade for Dover is essentially a positive comment on its earnings outlook that could have a favorable impact on its stock price.
Most Powerful Force Impacting Stock PricesThe change in a company's future earnings potential, as reflected in earnings estimate revisions, has proven to be strongly correlated with the near-term price movement of its stock. That's partly because of the influence of institutional investors that use earnings and earnings estimates for calculating the fair value of a company's shares. An increase or decrease in earnings estimates in their valuation models simply results in higher or lower fair value for a stock, and institutional investors typically buy or sell it. Their bulk investment action then leads to price movement for the stock.
For Dover, rising earnings estimates and the consequent rating upgrade fundamentally mean an improvement in the company's underlying business. And investors' appreciation of this improving business trend should push the stock higher.
Harnessing the Power of Earnings Estimate RevisionsAs empirical research shows a strong correlation between trends in earnings estimate revisions and near-term stock movements, tracking such revisions for making an investment decision could be truly rewarding. Here is where the tried-and-tested Zacks Rank stock-rating system plays an important role, as it effectively harnesses the power of earnings estimate revisions.
The Zacks Rank stock-rating system, which uses four factors related to earnings estimates to classify stocks into five groups, ranging from Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) to Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive externally-audited track record, with Zacks Rank #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here >>>> .
Earnings Estimate Revisions for DoverThis company is expected to earn $10.61 per share for the fiscal year ending December 2026, which represents no year-over-year change.
Analysts have been steadily raising their estimates for Dover. Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the company has increased 0.7%.
Bottom LineUnlike the overly optimistic Wall Street analysts whose rating systems tend to be weighted toward favorable recommendations, the Zacks rating system maintains an equal proportion of "buy" and "sell" ratings for its entire universe of more than 4,000 stocks at any point in time. Irrespective of market conditions, only the top 5% of the Zacks-covered stocks get a "Strong Buy" rating and the next 15% get a "Buy" rating. So, the placement of a stock in the top 20% of the Zacks-covered stocks indicates its superior earnings estimate revision feature, making it a solid candidate for producing market-beating returns in the near term.
You can learn more about the Zacks Rank here >>>
The upgrade of Dover to a Zacks Rank #2 positions it in the top 20% of the Zacks-covered stocks in terms of estimate revisions, implying that the stock might move higher in the near term.
Drop $500 into the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (NYSEARCA:SMH) starting in June, 2016, add another $500 every month, and the math pegs the account at $495,000 this week. Total contributions across those ten years come to $60,500. Everything else is what a single-sector ETF did to your money while you ignored it.
The math holds up against the underlying price history. SMH closed at about $26 on June 13, 2016 and printed $609 on June 11, 2026, a 2,269% decade on a price basis. A lump sum at the start would have done dramatically more. The dollar-cost averaging trade-off, smoother entries in exchange for buying a lot of shares at much higher prices in 2023, 2024, and 2025, is the reason $60,500 of contributions compounds to ~$495,000 rather than seven figures. ~$495,000 is enough to retire on with Social Security coming in and a reasonable cost-of-living zip code.
What actually did the work SMH holds 25 stocks, one sector, and a market-cap weighting that tips the fund into whichever names happen to be winning. The entire AI capex food chain, from chip designers to the foundry casting them to the Dutch lithography monopolist whose machines etch the transistors, lives in one ticker.
Concentration is the mechanism. When semiconductors are the trade, SMH is the cleanest expression of the trade, and the underlying numbers have been ridiculous. Worldwide semiconductor revenue reached $298.5 billion in Q1 2026, up 79.2% year over year, while average selling prices jumped 57%. SMH itself returned 399% over five years and 133% over the trailing twelve months. The 0.35% expense ratio matters here because the compounding window is long, and 35 basis points of annual drag over a decade is the difference between funding the kitchen remodel and funding the kitchen.
What you would need to see for a repeat The honest forward look is that this run is regime-dependent, and the regime is starting to wobble in places worth watching. The fund is up 69% year to date through June 11, which pulls forward a lot of earnings expectations on its own. SMH then dropped 9% from its June 3 record high, and put-option flow has run above 70% of total volume, which is what hedging looks like when professionals do want to sell outright. Leopold Aschenbrenner reportedly built a roughly $8 billion put position against the chip sector, while Dan Loeb’s Third Point disclosed a long position in SMH itself. Sophisticated investors are taking opposite sides.
The variable that matters most is hyperscaler capital expenditure. Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT | MSFT Price Prediction), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG), Meta (NASDAQ:META), Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), and Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) fund NVIDIA’s (NASDAQ:NVDA) order book, Broadcom’s custom silicon business, and Micron’s HBM ramp. If their next round of capex guidance tightens, the multiple on the entire fund compresses fast. Memory pricing is the second tell. HBM3E supply has been the bottleneck Micron and the Korean memory makers have been earning outsized margins against, so any sign of inventory builds at the hyperscalers shows up in Micron gross margins within a quarter. The third indicator is ASML’s order book, because EUV equipment bookings are the leading edge of every fab plan two years out.
Stack those together and the read becomes straightforward. The mechanism that turned $500 a month into ~$495,000 is intact, expensive, and visibly contested. Another decade of the same outcome would require the same buyers spending at the same pace into a sector already trading at much richer multiples than it did in 2016. The playbook keeps working until the capex line bends.
Coach Prime encourages men to get their annual physicals and shares words of encouragement as the new face of Depend Real Fit® packaging
, /PRNewswire/ -- This Men's Health Month, Depend®, the #1 brand of absorbent underwear, and Deion "Coach Prime" Sanders are encouraging men to take a proactive approach to their health with "Depend Wake Up Calls" – reminding Men to stop putting off regular checkups and screenings.
Now through the end of the month, consumers can sign up to receive a video message from Coach Prime, delivered in his signature motivational style and centered on accountability, preparation, and confidence.
DEPEND® AND DEION “COACH PRIME”SANDERS ENCOURAGE PROACTIVE CARE DURING MEN’S HEALTH MONTH
DEPEND® AND DEION “COACH PRIME”SANDERS ENCOURAGE PROACTIVE CARE DURING MEN’S HEALTH MONTH By visiting DependWakeUpCall.com, consumers can choose from one of three video text messages encouraging them to schedule a physical, supporting those navigating a recent health diagnosis, or empowering those experiencing bladder leaks to move past embarrassment and get back to living life.
After publicly sharing his bladder cancer diagnosis and recovery journey, Coach Prime knows firsthand how critical early detection can be. Together, Depend and Coach Prime are urging men to stop delaying care and take action on their health. This partnership builds on Coach Prime's longstanding relationship with Depend as someone who personally relies on the brand after undergoing bladder removal surgery following his bladder cancer diagnosis in 2025.
"Too many men keep putting their health on pause and that's a losing game," said Deion Sanders. "Together with Depend, I'm encouraging you to stop waiting, stop the excuses and take control now. You don't always need a doctor to light that fire - sometimes you need a coach to push you to be your best."
The campaign coincides with the nationwide rollout of new Depend Real Fit® packaging featuring Coach Prime on pack for the first time ever. By bringing his signature swagger straight to the package, Coach Prime boldly shows how actively managing health challenges head-on is a point of pride, not something to hide.
Bladder leaks affect millions of Americans, yet many people suffer in silence, letting stigma stand in the way of solutions. Together, Depend and Coach Prime are working to change that narrative - shifting the conversation from embarrassment to empowerment.
"Coach Prime is a powerful partner for Depend because he embodies unapologetic confidence and authenticity," said Katie Moran, North America President of Adult and Feminine Care. "Together, we're working to break the stigma around bladder leaks by bringing this very real experience into the open and empowering people to move past embarrassment, reclaim their confidence and get back to living life to the fullest every day."
For more information about bladder health and how Depend is helping shift the conversation, visit depend.com or follow Depend on social media.
About Kimberly-Clark
Kimberly-Clark (NASDAQ: KMB) and its trusted brands are an indispensable part of life for people in more than 175 countries and territories. Our portfolio of brands, including Huggies, Kleenex, Scott, Kotex, Cottonelle, Poise, Depend, Andrex, Pull-Ups, Goodnites, Intimus, Plenitud, Sweety, Softex, Viva and WypAll, hold No. 1 or No. 2 share positions in approximately 70 countries. Our company's purpose is to deliver Better Care for a Better World. We are committed to using sustainable practices designed to support a healthy planet, build strong communities, and enable our business to thrive for decades to come. To keep up with the latest news and learn more about the company's more than 150-year history of innovation, visit the Kimberly-Clark website.
Media Contacts:
Alison Brod Marketing + Communications
[email protected]
Costco (NASDAQ:COST | COST Price Prediction) is the rare retailer whose stock trades like a high-growth software name. The membership model prints cash, comparable sales keep accelerating, and the digital business is finally getting credit.
Yet shares sit at $982.35, up 14.24% year to date but well below their recent peak. Can COST punch through to $1,100 by June 2027? The math is tighter than the bears think, but it requires Costco to keep doing exactly what it has been doing.
Why Costco Shares Are Stuck Near $1,000 The pullback is about expectations. Shares are down 4.91% over the past month and 1.48% over the past year, even after a 1.08% bounce last week. The stock printed a 52-week high of $1,096.50 before sliding back, and the narrative has shifted to whether perfection is already in the price.
Costco trades at a forward P/E in the mid 40s, closer to a megacap tech multiple than a discount retailer. With a beta of just 0.87, the stock has to earn every dollar of upside through results.
Wall Street Sees Modest Upside. I Think They Are Lowballing The Street consensus target sits at $1,082.33, with 3 Strong Buy, 19 Buy, 13 Hold, and 2 sell ratings. Our internal model lands at a base case of $1,068.40, with a bull case of $1,150.31 by June 2027, carried at 90% confidence.
Analyst bullishness sits at 59%, but quarterly earnings growth is running at 45.5% year over year. That is a wide gap. When a stable consumer defensive name accelerates earnings like that, the consensus target tends to drift higher rather than reset lower.
The Path to $1,100 Per Share Reaching $1,100 from today’s price of $982.35 would require a gain of 12%. With forward EPS of $21.69, a price of $1,100 implies a forward P/E of 51x. Our base case of $1,068.40 already implies 49x, meaning the bold target asks for roughly 2 turns of additional multiple expansion.
That is not crazy. The 247Factor adjustment of 1.074 already credits Costco for accelerating earnings, a Consumer Defensive sector multiplier of 1.02, and a price position contribution of 0.015 for trading near the high.
Q3 FY26 delivered EPS of $4.93 on revenue of $70.53B, up 11.58%, with comparable sales of 9.8% and digital comp of 21.5%. Membership fees grew 10.7% to $1.37B, with a worldwide renewal rate of 89.7%. That is annuity-quality cash flow. The biggest risk is a consumer slowdown that compresses ticket growth and forces the multiple lower.
Where Costco Trades Today vs Its Earnings Power At $982.35 against forward EPS of $21.69, COST trades at roughly 45x forward earnings. That is expensive on the surface, but EPS is compounding fast and free cash flow hit $7.84B in FY25. S
hares sit between a 52-week low of $841.69 and a high of $1,096.50, and the 10-year return is 646.23%. Long-term holders have been paid to ignore valuation noise.
The Bottom Line on $1,100 To reach $1,100 by June 2027, Costco needs that 12% gain and roughly 2 turns of multiple expansion.
Three things need to go right: comparable sales stay above 6%, membership renewal holds near 89.7%, and digital comp keeps printing above 20%. A consumer pullback that hits ticket and traffic derails it. We’ve outlined the blueprint for how Costco could reach $1,100 in 2027.
Realty Income (NYSE:O | O Price Prediction) is structured for multi-decade income generation because its triple-net lease architecture, monthly dividend discipline, and recession-tested tenant base together produce the kind of compounding income stream a retirement portfolio can lean on without supervision.
Wall Street’s current fixation on the 4.48% 10-year Treasury yield has pushed REIT sentiment into a defensive crouch, and that is precisely the backdrop that makes the long-term case stronger. The thesis is built around long-duration income, and rests on three pillars: business durability, income generation, and proven cycle survival.
Pillar One: A Business Built to Outlast Its Tenants Under a triple-net lease, the tenant, not Realty Income, is responsible for property taxes, insurance, and ongoing maintenance, which insulates the landlord from inflationary operating overhead. That structure is applied across 15,500-plus properties leased to 1,786 clients operating in 92 industries, spread across all 50 U.S. states, the United Kingdom, eight additional European countries, and Mexico.
The portfolio is anchored by counter-cyclical, non-discretionary retail giants like Walmart, Dollar General, and major grocery chains, with Dollar General, 7-Eleven, Walgreens, Family Dollar, and Life Time Group among the top tenants. Occupancy sits at 98.9%, and re-leased properties are recapturing 103.4% of prior rent, showing that the underlying real estate has pricing power even when individual tenants churn.
Pillar Two: Income You Can Set Your Watch To Realty Income calls itself The Monthly Dividend Company for a reason. The board has now declared 670 consecutive monthly dividends and raised the payout 114 consecutive quarters. The annualized payout has climbed to $3.246 per share, and the dividend yield of 5.22% sits 72 basis points above the 10-year Treasury.
Coverage is healthy. AFFO per share reached $1.13 in the first quarter, up 6.6% year over year, and management raised 2026 AFFO guidance to $4.41 to $4.44. With a payout ratio near 75.1% of AFFO, the income is funded by operations.
Pillar Three: Surviving Cycles, Not Predicting Them The dataset stretches back to January 1999, covering the dot-com bust, the 2008 financial crisis, COVID, and the most aggressive rate-hiking cycle in 40 years. The monthly check has never been skipped or cut.
The balance sheet is conservatively positioned: net debt to annualized pro forma adjusted EBITDAre improved to 5.2x, debt-to-equity stands at 0.83, and beta is just 0.734. Management is still deploying capital at attractive spreads, investing $2.80 billion at a 7.1% initial weighted average cash yield in Q1 and raising full-year investment guidance to $9.50 billion.
The One Scenario Where It Lags In an environment of persistently elevated rates and a roaring growth-stock bull market, Realty Income will trail the index. Interest expense already climbed to $1.13 billion for full year 2025 versus $1.02 billion in 2024, and the stock can drift while capital chases higher-octane names. That doesn’t change the forever thesis, because the business is engineered to deliver contracted rent. The monthly dividend keeps arriving while the stock argues with itself.
For income-focused investors, the thesis rests on the discipline of the model and the durability of the next 670 monthly checks.
The iShares Core Dividend Growth ETF (NYSEARCA:DGRO) was built for investors who want a paycheck that gets bigger every year, not a yield chase. DGRO tracks the Morningstar US Dividend Growth Index, screening for companies with at least five consecutive years of dividend growth and payout ratios under 75%. The fund pays a roughly 2.2% to 2.5% trailing yield at an ultra-low 0.08% expense ratio, and DGRO’s top holdings tell the real story about whether that income is durable. The short answer: the distribution is among the safest you can find in an equity ETF.
How DGRO Manufactures Its Income DGRO’s distribution comes straight from dividends collected from roughly 400 underlying U.S. companies, passed through quarterly. Because the index requires five years of consecutive dividend growth and caps the payout ratio at 75%, the fund mechanically excludes companies stretching to pay shareholders. That methodology is why the top of the portfolio reads like a who’s who of cash flow machines: Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ | JNJ Price Prediction), Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG), AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), and JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM).
The Dividend Kings Anchoring the Fund JNJ just raised its payout to $1.34 per quarter, extending its streak to 64 consecutive years of dividend growth. Q1 revenue rose 9.9% to $24.06 billion and management raised full-year adjusted EPS guidance to $11.45 to $11.65. STELARA biosimilar erosion and a $330 million litigation charge dented quarterly free cash flow, but DARZALEX, TREMFYA, and CARVYKTI are growing fast enough to defend coverage.
P&G is on its 70th consecutive annual increase, paying $1.0885 a quarter and yielding 3.0%. Operating cash flow was $4.05 billion last quarter and management plans roughly $10 billion in dividends and $5 billion in buybacks this fiscal year. Tariff costs near $400 million are pushing EPS toward the lower end of guidance, but the dividend is not the constraint.
The Higher-Yield, Higher-Risk Names AbbVie is the holding that demands the closest look. The quarterly dividend was raised 5.5% to $1.73, yielding about 3.1%. Humira sales fell 39% last quarter, but Skyrizi at $4.48 billion (+31%) and Rinvoq at $2.12 billion (+23%) have more than filled the hole. With 2.26x net debt to EBITDA and a free-cash-flow yield near 5%, the payout is covered, but the cushion is thinner than the rest of the cohort.
JPMorgan returned $12.20 billion to shareholders in Q1, split between a $1.50 quarterly dividend and $8.1 billion in buybacks. With $291 billion in CET1 capital and a 14% ratio, dividend risk is essentially a function of recession credit losses, not capital adequacy.
The Coverage Cushion Most Investors Miss Microsoft and Apple yield a combined rounding error, paying $0.91 and $0.27 per quarter respectively. What they bring to DGRO is the opposite of income vulnerability: Microsoft’s 54x interest coverage and Apple’s $100 billion buyback authorization mean these dividends could double and still be afterthoughts. They are the future aristocrats stabilizing the present ones.
Total Return and the Verdict DGRO is up about 8% year to date and roughly 25% over the past year, trailing SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSEARCA:SPY) at about 10% YTD but with materially lower drawdown risk. Against a nearly 5% 10-year Treasury, DGRO’s yield looks modest, but Treasuries do not raise their coupon every year. Investors hunting for a higher current payout can compare DGRO against the Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF (NYSEARCA:SCHD), which screens harder for yield at the cost of slightly slower growth. The DGRO distribution is safe, and the underlying holdings are still raising payouts. Income-focused investors who can accept a 2% starting yield in exchange for compounding raises should be comfortable. Those who need a 4% check today should look elsewhere.
The past five years have been a difficult stretch for the stock of luxury furniture company RH (RH 2.32%), which is down more than 75% in that span. The home furnishing industry has been hit with a perfect storm of prior demand pull-forward due to COVID restrictions, low housing turnover, and tariffs.
Despite delivering first-quarter revenue results that topped its prior guidance, RH stock slid as it issued a cautious second-quarter forecast. Let's take a close look at RH's results and prospects to see if a turnaround could be in store.
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Making bold moves Despite facing an incredibly difficult furnishing environment, RH has been putting up respectable results as it expands its brand to Europe through the opening of grandiose galleries.
It's also making one of its boldest brand extensions ever with RH Estates, as it introduces a more traditional furniture line that tends to be preferred by many luxury homeowners. This will include ultra-high-end, fully customizable furniture catering to both wealthy consumers and design professionals, and is expected to help propel growth starting in the second half of the year.
For its fiscal Q1, RH reported a 1.7% decrease in revenue to $800.3 million, which was above its prior guidance for revenue to decline by 2% to 4%. Adjusted earnings per share, meanwhile, had a loss of $1.97, versus a profit of $0.13 a year ago. That was better than the $2.07 loss expected by analysts.
Looking ahead, RH raised its full-year revenue forecast, taking it to growth of between 4.5% and 8%, up slightly from a prior outlook of 4% to 8% growth. For Q2, it projected revenue to grow by between 0.5% to 2.5%, before accelerating to 12% growth in the second half. The second-half growth acceleration is expected to be led by a combination of backlog reduction (4.5%), new store growth (2.5%), and RH Estates (5%).
RH has also been selling some assets, like its Aspen real estate portfolio. Management thinks that the combination of improved sales, reduced spending, and asset sales will lead to significant free cash flow generation and help it become debt-free by 2029.
Image source: Getty Images.
Is it time to buy the stock? If RH can accelerate sales and reduce debt, the stock could have a lot of upside from here. It's making some big bets with Europe and RH Estates, so it certainly isn't sitting still. The stock only trades at a forward price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) of 16 based on next fiscal year analyst estimates, but its leverage and sales growth have been keeping the stock back.
I think the stock looks like an interesting speculative bet at current levels, with some nice potential over the next few years if its strategy works.
This is a fair market value price provided by Massive. Learn more.
52-Week Range$106.30▼
$257.00P/E Ratio28.82
Price Target$171.47
Luxury home furnishings retailer RH NYSE: RH reported first-quarter results after the market closed Thursday, topping Wall Street's earnings and revenue expectations and raising its full-year outlook.
Despite better-than-expected results and the company's enthusiasm for its strategic expansion plans, shares were volatile following the report, as investors appeared focused on the pace of improvement needed to meet the company's second-half forecast.
Get RH alerts:
Shares were recently trading down about 2%.
RH Tops Earnings and Revenue Estimates Despite Q1 LossRH reported a fiscal year 2026 (FY2026) Q1 loss of $1.97 per share, compared with earnings of 13 cents per share in the year-ago quarter. Analysts had expected a loss of $2.13 per share.
Revenue of approximately $800 million declined 1.7% from the prior-year period but topped Wall Street estimates by roughly $8 million.
The company said Q1 net revenue was negatively impacted by tariff-related sourcing disruptions, resulting in an approximately $45 million headwind due to higher backorder and special-order balances.
RH reported an adjusted EBITDA margin of 7.1%, exceeding the high end of its expectations despite the impact of backorders and special-order balances.
RH Sees Stronger Growth Acceleration in Second HalfFollowing its stronger-than-expected Q1, RH raised the low end of its full-year outlook for both revenue growth and adjusted EBITDA margin.
The company now expects FY2026 revenue growth of 4.5% to 8%, compared with its previous outlook of 4% to 8%. It also raised the low end of its adjusted EBITDA margin forecast to 14.2% to 16%, up from its prior range of 14% to 16%.
RH maintained its adjusted free cash flow forecast of $300 million to $400 million.
The outlook includes an approximately 270-basis-point drag from pre-opening and startup costs associated with the company's international expansion efforts.
RH also issued second-quarter guidance calling for revenue growth of 0.5% to 2.5% and adjusted EBITDA margin of 11.5% to 13%. The forecast includes an estimated 380-basis-point headwind related to the international expansion.
In prepared remarks read during the earnings call, Chief Executive Gary Friedman addressed the company's path to achieving its full-year outlook, saying, “How, many may ask, in an economic environment like the one we are navigating through, do you get from your half one numbers to your half two numbers necessary to make the year?"
Friedman pointed to three factors supporting the business's acceleration from flat growth in the first half to approximately 12% growth in the second half: a backlog reduction worth 4.5 percentage points, new-store growth expected to contribute 2.5 percentage points, and RH Estates, which is projected to contribute approximately five percentage points.
Global Expansion and RH Estates Expected to Drive Long-Term GrowthFriedman discussed RH's international expansion efforts, which include openings in Milan, Paris, and London, as well as the launch of RH Estates, a new brand targeting the traditional luxury market.
Friedman described the international locations as "arguably the three most immersive and inspiring brand experiences anywhere in the world," adding that they "will form the foundation necessary to earn the respect and recognition of not only the European and U.K. customer, but a global one."
Friedman described the launch of RH Estates as one of the company's most significant initiatives to date.
"I think it's the most intelligent, deep-thinking launch of a brand we've done," he said. "We're trying to make big moves that are industry-redefining. I think this is one of them. I think this is the biggest move we've ever made."
He also addressed the launch of RH Bespoke Furniture and RH Couture Upholstery, which will offer customizable pieces. Friedman said the new brands make products that were previously available only through trade showrooms more accessible. The company is also launching a compensation program designed to incentivize trade professionals, including interior designers and architects.
Analysts Remain Cautiously Optimistic as RH Faces Execution TestDespite the stock's decline following earnings, at least two analysts reacted favorably to the report. Guggenheim reiterated its Buy rating on the shares, while Robert W. Baird raised its price target to $150 from $125.
Current Price$153.19High Forecast$251.00Average Forecast$171.47Low Forecast$88.00RH Stock Forecast Details
Among the 20 analysts currently covering RH, the consensus rating is Hold, comprising eight Hold ratings, seven Buy ratings, and five Sell ratings. The average 12-month price target is $171.47, implying roughly 13% upside from current levels. Price targets range considerably from $88 to $350.
RH shares closed just under $160 ahead of the earnings release after gaining more than 7% the day leading up to the report. Following the results, the stock swung from as high as $163.55 to as low as $147. Most recently, shares were trading at approximately $157.71, down about 2%. Shares remain down around 13% year to date and roughly 12% over the past 12 months.
The stock has fared better than some peers, however. Shares of luxury furniture retailer Arhaus NASDAQ: ARHS fell after the company reported Q1 results in May and provided cautious guidance for Q2 amid macroeconomic uncertainty. Shares of Arhaus are down roughly 36% over the past year.
RH also remains one of the market's more heavily shorted stocks, with short interest rising to 40.9% of float as of May 29, up from 23.7% at the end of January.
While RH's message centered on the company's long-term growth opportunities, investors appeared cautious about the path to achieving its second-half targets. The company's ability to execute on its international expansion, RH Estates launch, and trade initiatives will remain a key focus in the quarters ahead as investors assess whether those efforts can deliver the growth needed to support management's outlook.
Should You Invest $1,000 in RH Right Now?Before you consider RH, you'll want to hear this.
MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. MarketBeat has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on... and RH wasn't on the list.
While RH currently has a Hold rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys.
View The Five Stocks Here
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Top Wall Street analysts changed their outlook on these top names. For a complete view of all analyst rating changes, including upgrades, downgrades and initiations, please see our analyst ratings page.
Considering buying ROKU stock? Here’s what analysts think:
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Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs
Shares of Roku Inc (NASDAQ:ROKU) came under pressure in early trading on Monday, after surging on Friday on reports of a potential sale.
The company is more valuable than what its fundamental analysis suggests, as a large tech, media, or advertising company could create more value by using its platform "across a broader ecosystem of devices, services, data, content, ads, and/or commerce products," according to Needham.
The Roku Analyst: Analyst Laura Martin maintained a Buy rating, while raising the price target from $140 to $170.
The Roku Thesis: The price target has been raised to reflect the company's takeover value, which is the incremental value it could create for an acquirer's entire ecosystem, Martin said in the note.
Check out other analyst stock ratings.
She added that acquiring Roku gives the buyer:
An installed base of more than 100 million TV homes 4 hours per day of proprietary first-party TV viewing data Premium connected-TV advertising inventory More than 150 million direct consumer relationships The analyst mentioned that Roku is worth more to the following types of companies:
ROKU Price Action: Roku shares were down 0.31% at $143.22 at the time of publication on Monday. The stock is approaching its 52-week high of $148.88, according to Benzinga Pro data.
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Rumors were swirling late last week that Roku (ROKU 1.35%) had put itself on the auction block. The scuttlebutt suggested that the company was in talks to be acquired by a major U.S. media company, according to Bloomberg, citing "people with knowledge of the matter." Those reports sent the stock up 20% on Friday, as investors considered the ramifications of a potential tie-up.
Turns out those rumors were well-founded. A joint press release dropped Monday morning, revealing that Roku had agreed to be acquired by Fox Corporation (FOXA 17.79%) (FOX 15.45%) in a deal that's sure to shake up the media space.
Here's what investors need to know.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
The end of an eraFox has agreed to acquire Roku in a cash-and-stock deal that values the streaming pioneer at $22 billion or $160 per share. Fox will pay $96 in cash per share and 0.9693 shares of Fox Class A common stock for each share of Roku Class A and Class B stock outstanding. Once the deal closes, Fox shareholders are expected to own roughly 73% of the combined company, while Roku shareholders will own roughly 27%.
The press release noted that the transaction had already been unanimously approved by the Boards of Directors of both companies and is expected to close in the first half of calendar year 2027. Roku founder and CEO Anthony Wood will "have an ongoing role" in the company and will be appointed to Fox's board once the deal closes.
Fox notes that the transaction combines a streaming leader with the company's No. 1 live news and sports portfolio, thereby increasing its scale and reach, positioning it in the high-growth connected TV segment, and boosting Roku's streaming credentials with Fox's premium content.
A lot to likeIt's easy to see why Fox would be interested in Roku. Earlier this year, Roku announced that it had surpassed 100 million streaming households worldwide.
The company's Howdy discount streaming service, which costs $2.99 per month, has attracted more than 1 million subscribers since its debut in August, by offering thousands of titles totaling more than 10,000 hours of entertainment, with movies and programming courtesy of Warner Bros. Discovery, Lionsgate, and FilmRise, as well as select original programming from Roku's own library.
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Then there's The Roku Channel -- Roku's homegrown ad-supported channel -- which has established itself as one of the premier ad-supported channels. Data from Nielsen shows that The Roku Channel ended 2025 in the Top 10 among media companies, with a 3% share of all U.S. TV viewership.
That same data suggests that the combination of Fox and The Roku Channel will place it third on the list, commanding roughly 10% of the television viewing audience, behind Alphabet's YouTube and The Walt Disney Company, with 12.7% and 10.7%, respectively.
So why are the stocks trading lower today?In a telling turn of events, both Roku and Fox are trading lower on Monday, after investors in both camps panned the idea. Indeed, Fox shares have slumped 16% as of 1:06 p.m. ET, while Roku is down about 1%.
Shareholders are likely concerned about Fox's plan to take on $12 billion in new debt and the 34% premium it's paying for Roku compared to its price before Friday's rumors. Additionally, Roku's willingness to offer its streaming devices at or near cost to bring viewers into its ecosystem has been a winning strategy for the company, but it will add a measure of complexity to Fox's business.
It also suggests that Roku shareholders believe Fox is underpaying and that a potential competing bid could emerge.
Stay tuned.
Danny Vena, CPA has positions in Alphabet, Roku, and Walt Disney. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Roku, Walt Disney, and Warner Bros. Discovery. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
