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3 REITs to Watch as AI Data Center Spending Surpasses Office ConstructionIron Mountain NYSE: IRM reported record second-quarter results for 2026, with revenue rising 19% year over year to $2.03 billion and adjusted EBITDA increasing 16% to $727 million, as growth in data centers, asset lifecycle management and digital solutions outpaced the company’s expectations.

President and Chief Executive Officer Will Meaney said organic revenue grew 17% during the quarter, while adjusted funds from operations, or AFFO, increased 17%. The company’s data center, asset lifecycle management, or ALM, and digital businesses collectively grew by more than 50%, contributing 35% of second-quarter revenue, up 750 basis points from a year earlier.

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4 High-Yield Real Estate Stocks to Buy as Investors Get Defensive“Our team delivered another outstanding performance with record-breaking second quarter results exceeding our expectations across all metrics,” Meaney said.

Data Center Leasing and Capacity Iron Mountain’s data center business generated $263 million in second-quarter revenue, up $73 million, or 39%, from the prior year. The segment’s adjusted EBITDA rose $41 million to $137 million, and its adjusted EBITDA margin increased 140 basis points year over year to 52.2%.

Picks & Shovels: Investing in the Physical Foundation of AIThe company signed 13 megawatts of new data center leases in the second quarter, including a 10-megawatt lease in Amsterdam. In July, it signed an additional 75 megawatts of leases, bringing year-to-date leasing to 110 megawatts. July activity included a 25-megawatt lease that fully leased Iron Mountain’s London Three asset and a 51-megawatt, 10-year agreement with a major global hyperscaler in Mumbai.

Meaney said the company has about 325 megawatts of capacity expected to be energized during the next 24 months, following leasing activity in the first half and July. He said demand is strong across the company’s pipeline, including at its Richmond campus, in Europe and in India.

Management said it expects to “meaningfully exceed” its original 100-megawatt full-year leasing target, though executives noted that large hyperscale leases can be uneven from quarter to quarter. Chief Financial Officer Barry Hytinen said the company plans to emphasize its energization schedule rather than issue annual leasing guidance, describing the available capacity as located in attractive markets with robust customer pipelines.

ALM Growth Drives Revenue Upside ALM revenue rose 88% year over year to $288 million, including 82% organic growth. Hytinen said the segment exceeded the company’s prior projection by more than $45 million, supported by both enterprise ALM services and hyperscale data center decommissioning.

Enterprise ALM revenue grew more than 60% organically, aided by expansion with existing customers and new contract wins. Data center decommissioning revenue increased more than 100% from the prior year, partially reflecting about $30 million of timing benefits from large hyperscaler projects that were accelerated into the second quarter.

Meaney characterized ALM as a multibillion-dollar opportunity, citing a $35 billion addressable market. The company said the enterprise channel accounts for roughly 75% of that market and offers recurring activity and cross-selling opportunities across Iron Mountain’s customer base of more than 240,000 customers.

Iron Mountain raised its full-year ALM revenue outlook and now expects the business to approach $1 billion in 2026 revenue. Hytinen said the enterprise ALM business is expected to grow more than 50% this year and generate slightly more than $600 million of full-year revenue.

The company also recently acquired Group ATF, an ALM provider in France and Belgium. Hytinen said the transaction closed around Aug. 1 and involves annual revenue in the high teens of millions. Iron Mountain expects approximately $7 million of revenue contribution during the second half, with the acquired business carrying an EBITDA margin in the low 20% range before expected cost and revenue synergies.

Records and Digital Businesses Continue to Expand Global records and information management revenue reached a quarterly record of $1.4 billion, up 8% on a reported basis and 7% organically. Storage revenue rose 5% organically, while services revenue increased 9% organically.

Iron Mountain’s digital business grew more than 25%, according to Hytinen. Meaney said digital solutions posted record quarterly revenue and that more than 45% of digital revenue is now recurring. He also cited traction for the company’s AI-powered InSight DXP platform, including new deployments with financial services and fintech customers in the United Kingdom and Australia.

Hytinen said physical storage volumes continued to increase, with the company storing more physical volume for customers than at any prior point. He expects physical volumes to remain modestly positive, supported by continued outsourcing in markets including India.

The company also said its Internal Revenue Service digital-services contract ramped faster than expected. Hytinen said the contract generated more than $15 million of second-quarter revenue, compared with about $9 million in the first quarter, and that Iron Mountain continues to expect annual revenue from the program to exceed $100 million in 2027.

Raised 2026 Outlook Iron Mountain raised its full-year financial outlook following the second-quarter performance. The company now expects:

Total revenue of $7.94 billion to $8.01 billion, representing 16% growth at the midpoint. Adjusted EBITDA of $2.945 billion to $2.975 billion, representing 15% growth at the midpoint. AFFO of $1.76 billion to $1.78 billion, or $5.87 to $5.93 per share. For the third quarter, the company expects approximately $1.98 billion in revenue, $745 million in adjusted EBITDA and $440 million in AFFO, or $1.47 per share.

Iron Mountain generated $888 million in year-to-date operating cash flow, up $315 million from the prior-year period. The company invested $553 million in growth capital expenditures and $38 million in recurring capital expenditures during the second quarter. It ended the period with net lease-adjusted leverage of 4.8 times and declared a quarterly dividend of $0.864 per share, payable in early October.

About Iron Mountain (NYSE:IRM)Iron Mountain Incorporated is a global information management company that helps organizations protect, store, and manage their physical and digital information. The firm provides a range of services including secure records storage, document imaging and digitization, secure shredding and destruction, and information governance solutions designed to support regulatory compliance and business continuity. Iron Mountain also offers specialized secure storage environments and logistics for sensitive assets such as art, medical records, and legal archives.

Beyond traditional records management, Iron Mountain has expanded into technology-driven services to support customers' digital transformation.

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Docusign: Another Beat, Another Selloff—Why the Analysts Are WrongHubSpot NYSE: HUBS reported second-quarter 2026 revenue growth of 20% year over year on a reported basis, or 17% in constant currency, as the company navigated slower customer acquisition and greater budget scrutiny tied to the transition toward artificial intelligence products.

Chief Executive Officer Yamini Rangan said April began slowly and that the quarter did not develop as the company had expected. She attributed the performance to deliberate changes in product, pricing and go-to-market strategy, as well as a demand environment in which customers showed increased caution around technology budgets.

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MarketBeat Week in Review – 06/01 - 06/05“Customers adopting AI want proof of value before they commit and predictability in what it costs,” Rangan said. HubSpot introduced trials that allow customers to test agents and its AEO offering in their own environments, while also lowering certain entry prices, adding outcome-based pricing for several agents and providing spending controls.

Rangan said the moves were expected to extend buying cycles in the near term but were intended to lower adoption barriers and support longer-term AI usage. She added that the trial approach has been most effective with larger customers that can receive additional support from HubSpot teams and partners.

Customer Growth Misses Internal Expectations MongoDB Is the Latest SaaS Apocalypse Victim to Say "Not Today"HubSpot added 7,000 net new customers during the quarter, ending the period with more than 306,000 customers globally. The customer total grew 14% from a year earlier, but Chief Financial Officer Kate Bueker said the quarterly additions were below the company’s expectation of 9,000 to 10,000 net adds, primarily because of weaker conversion rates and increased buyer hesitation.

Domestic revenue increased 17% year over year. International revenue rose 23% on a reported basis and 18% in constant currency, accounting for 49% of total revenue. Subscription revenue grew 20%, while services and other revenue increased 8%.

Average subscription revenue per customer was $11,800, up 4% on a reported basis and 2% in constant currency. Customer dollar retention remained in the high 80% range, while net revenue retention was 102%, down one percentage point year over year. Bueker said expansion in seats and credits was offset by pressure from other upgrade motions as customers optimized budgets.

Management said prospects are involving larger buying committees, with more transactions requiring approval from chief executives, boards or private-equity firms. Rangan said larger opportunities are still closing and up-market win rates remain solid, but approvals are taking longer.

Deals worth more than $120,000 in annual recurring revenue increased 38% year over year. Meanwhile, 64% of new Professional and Enterprise customers adopted multiple product hubs, up three percentage points from the prior year.

AI Adoption and Product Expansion HubSpot highlighted increased adoption of its AI products. Data Agent had more than 16,000 activated customers, up 80% sequentially, while Prospecting Agent had nearly 17,000 activated customers, up 28%. Customer Agent reached more than 10,000 customers.

The company launched HubSpot AEO in April through Marketing Hub and as a standalone product. Since launch, 32% of Marketing Hub Professional and Enterprise customers have activated AEO, and nearly 16,000 customers activated standalone AEO trials during the quarter, according to Rangan.

More than 55% of HubSpot’s Professional and Enterprise customers now use either its agents or Breeze Assistant, Rangan said. Monthly agentic actions across the customer base have increased more than threefold since the beginning of the year. Breeze Assistant weekly active usage has doubled since the start of 2026.

HubSpot also launched Agent Builder and Agent Hub in July. Agent Builder enables customers to create custom agents and workflows connected to HubSpot CRM data and external systems, while Agent Hub provides a central management location for HubSpot-built, customer-built and partner-built agents. More than 2,700 customers had activated the products in beta, Rangan said.

Management said it is focusing on helping customers move beyond experimentation, particularly for customer-facing AI products. Rangan said customers often begin with internal uses, such as data enrichment and sales productivity, before adopting agents that directly interact with prospects or customers.

Profitability, Cash Flow and Capital Returns Non-GAAP operating margin was 20% in the second quarter, expanding three percentage points from a year earlier. GAAP operating margin was 5%, compared with a negative 3% margin in the prior-year period.

Non-GAAP net income totaled $165 million, or $3.26 per diluted share, representing year-over-year increases of 40% and 49%, respectively. GAAP net income was $43 million, or $0.86 per share.

The company generated $168 million in free cash flow, equal to 18% of revenue, and ended June with $1.4 billion in cash and marketable securities. It repurchased more than $500 million of stock under its existing $1 billion authorization during the quarter. The board authorized an additional repurchase program of up to $1 billion.

Bueker said HubSpot expects two percentage points of non-GAAP operating-margin expansion in 2026 and anticipates an additional two to three percentage points of expansion in 2027 as it applies AI internally and maintains discipline in headcount spending.

Third-Quarter and Full-Year Outlook For the third quarter, HubSpot expects reported revenue of $924 million to $925 million, representing 14% reported growth and 15% constant-currency growth. The company forecast non-GAAP operating income of $187 million to $188 million, or a 20% margin, and non-GAAP diluted earnings per share of $3.25 to $3.27.

For full-year 2026, HubSpot expects revenue of $3.678 billion to $3.686 billion, up 18% on a reported basis and 16% in constant currency. It maintained its forecast for non-GAAP operating income of $762 million to $766 million, representing a 21% margin, while projecting non-GAAP diluted earnings per share of $13.23 to $13.31.

The company expects the headwinds observed in the second quarter to continue through the remainder of the year. It projects quarterly net customer additions of approximately 5,000 to 6,000, low- to mid-single-digit constant-currency growth in average subscription revenue per customer, and roughly flat full-year net revenue retention.

Bueker said budget pressure appeared consistent through the second quarter and continued into July.

About HubSpot (NYSE:HUBS)HubSpot, Inc is a software company that develops a cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) platform designed to help organizations attract, engage and delight customers. Its primary business activities center on providing integrated marketing, sales and customer service tools that support inbound marketing strategies, content management, lead nurturing, sales automation and customer support workflows.

The company's product suite is organized around modular “hubs” built on a central CRM: Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, Service Hub, CMS Hub and Operations Hub.

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3 Stocks Increasing Dividend Payouts Ahead of Interest Rate CutsHudson Pacific Properties NYSE: HPP reported record office leasing activity in the second quarter of 2026, higher occupancy and a sharp increase in Core FFO, supported by a major San Francisco government lease, improved studio performance and ongoing cost reductions.

Chairman and CEO Victor Coleman said the company signed 1.3 million square feet of new and renewal office leases during the quarter, including an 891,000-square-foot, 24-year lease with the City and County of San Francisco at 1455 Market. The agreement provides “nearly a quarter of a century of cash flow visibility,” Coleman said.

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Top 3 Michael Burry Stock Picks to Watch in 2024Office occupancy increased 470 basis points sequentially to 82.5%, while the leased rate rose 440 basis points to 82.8%. The company reported its fourth consecutive quarter of occupancy gains. Same-store net operating income rose 7.5%, reflecting improved results in both office and studio operations.

Leasing Pipeline Remains Active President Mark Lammas said 61% of the quarter’s 1.3 million square feet of office leasing was new leasing and 39% was renewals. Excluding the large San Francisco government lease, Hudson Pacific completed another 402,000 square feet of leasing, of which 71% was new.

Michael Burry's Alibaba Bet and the Broader Market ImplicationsThe company’s leasing pipeline stood at 2.4 million square feet at quarter-end, with nearly 70% representing prospective new leases and an average requirement above 20,000 square feet. Art Suazo, executive vice president of leasing, said active deals in the pipeline were evenly divided between technology and artificial-intelligence-related tenants and non-tech tenants, including professional-services, FIRE-sector and government users.

GAAP rent spreads increased 17.2%, while cash rent spreads declined 11.4%. Excluding the City and County of San Francisco lease, GAAP rents declined 3.3% and cash rents declined 9.9%, which Lammas attributed primarily to mid-sized Palo Alto leases rolling from pre-pandemic peak rents. He said those rents remained above $80 per square foot.

Hudson Pacific said net effective rents rose 22% from the preceding quarter and 9% from a year earlier, significantly aided by the San Francisco lease. Trailing 12-month net effective rents increased 7% sequentially and 1% year over year. Tour activity rose nearly 20% year over year.

Market Conditions Vary by Region Coleman said office demand was broadening in several markets amid limited new construction, though recovery rates differed by region. He pointed to San Francisco’s seventh straight quarter of positive absorption and its largest year-over-year rent increase since 2020. The company also cited positive absorption in Foster City, Redwood City and Redwood Shores, as well as headline leasing activity in Santa Clara.

In Los Angeles, Coleman said Hudson Pacific is focusing leasing efforts on West Los Angeles, where activity and rents are stronger than in the wider market. He said demand in the region has been led by financial, insurance and real estate tenants, particularly law firms, along with entertainment and streaming companies and their related businesses.

In Seattle, Suazo said the company has seen increased leasing activity across the central business district and has more active deals under negotiation there than in any other Hudson Pacific market. Washington 1000 has approximately 350,000 square feet of deals in various negotiation stages across nine tenants, according to Suazo. The company has coverage for about 65% of the building, compared with 60% in the prior quarter.

Downtown Vancouver remained one of the company’s strongest markets, ending the period at effectively 94% leased along with Palo Alto. Coleman said Vancouver’s downtown vacancy was just above 12%, the lowest among Hudson Pacific’s markets.

Studio Business and Quixote Restructuring The company’s in-service studio stages were 74.6% leased in the second quarter, up 180 basis points sequentially. The increase was driven by Sunset Pier 94, where the leased rate rose 40 percentage points to 78.5%. Hudson Pacific’s Hollywood stages, including Sunset Las Palmas, were 95.5% leased.

Hudson Pacific is restructuring Quixote, its production-services business, and plans to exit Quixote’s leased soundstage facilities, Atlanta-area operations, pro-supplies business and stage ancillary operations such as lighting and grip. Going forward, the company will report core studio NOI based on Sunset Studios and Quixote’s fleet operations in Los Angeles and New York.

Core studio NOI rose $3.1 million sequentially and $7 million from a year earlier to $4.6 million. Hudson Pacific’s share turned positive for the first time in two years, reaching $2.2 million.

Lammas said Quixote generated negative cash NOI of $18.6 million in 2024. Restructuring efforts have improved its annualized cash NOI run rate by about $14.3 million, leaving the fleet business at slightly more than $4 million of negative annualized cash NOI at current demand levels. He said the business could reach break-even if show counts increased modestly from roughly 70 to 80, although the company’s guidance does not assume an improvement in show counts.

Financial Results and Updated Outlook Total revenue was $188.3 million, compared with $190 million a year earlier, as the impact of asset sales, particularly the sale of Element L.A., was nearly offset by higher office occupancy. General and administrative expense declined 11% to $12 million.

Core FFO nearly tripled to $23.1 million from $8 million a year earlier. Core FFO per diluted share increased 30% to $0.35 from $0.27. Same-store cash NOI increased 7.5% to $90.2 million. Total liquidity was $876 million, including $81 million in cash and $795 million of availability under the credit facility. Interest expense fell 20% year over year, producing $9.7 million in savings. Chief Financial Officer Harout Diramerian said all of Hudson Pacific’s debt is fixed or capped. He also said the Hollywood Media portfolio loan transferred to a special servicer after the quarter ahead of its third-quarter maturity. The borrower and special servicer agreed to terms for a longer-term extension, with a 30-day extension to complete documentation. The company said its outlook maintains the same interest-expense assumptions.

Hudson Pacific raised its full-year 2026 Core FFO guidance to $1.12 to $1.20 per diluted share, from a prior range of $1.10 to $1.18. Diramerian said the midpoint increase reflects about $0.01 of second-quarter outperformance and another $0.01 from improved expectations for the second half. The company expects third-quarter lease expirations to pressure occupancy and earnings before a projected fourth-quarter rebound.

On dispositions, Coleman said Hudson Pacific sold 2001 Gateway after quarter-end and has three additional Bay Area office assets in contract or negotiation, along with its 10950 Washington residential development site. The company is targeting $200 million of asset sales and said it expects to exceed that amount, citing stronger buyer interest in Bay Area office properties.

About Hudson Pacific Properties (NYSE:HPP)Hudson Pacific Properties NYSE: HPP is a self-managed real estate investment trust focused on the acquisition, development and management of high-quality office and studio properties. The company's portfolio spans strategic West Coast markets in the United States and key markets in Canada, providing space for technology, media and creative companies as well as major film and television producers. As an owner and operator of both traditional office buildings and specialized production facilities, Hudson Pacific seeks to deliver stable income through long-term leases and strategic property enhancements.

In its office segment, Hudson Pacific targets markets with strong job growth and limited supply, including Los Angeles, Silicon Valley, San Diego and Seattle, as well as Vancouver, British Columbia.

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Advanced Micro Devices (AMD -1.21%) is one of the world's leading suppliers of graphics processing units (GPUs) for data centers, which are the primary chips used in artificial intelligence (AI) training and inference workloads. In fact, it has become one of the most formidable competitors to the industry leader, Nvidia.

On Aug. 4, AMD released its operating results for the 2026 second quarter, and they revealed substantial revenue and earnings growth led by its data center business. But considering its stock is up 200% during the past 12 months, is most of that growth already priced in? The answer might depend on how long an investor plans to hold the stock, and I'll explain why.

Image source: The Motley Fool.

AMD is starting to ship its most powerful chips ever AMD was on the back foot when it entered the AI data center race in 2023. Its MI300X GPU was designed to compete with Nvidia's industry-leading H100, but that company was already in the process of launching its Blackwell architecture, which extended its dominance.

AMD is closing the gap, though, and it has since captured some of Nvidia's top customers, including Oracle, Microsoft, and OpenAI. AMD's new MI450 series GPUs are widely expected to be a comparable alternative to Nvidia's new Vera Rubin chips when they start shipping during the next few months, which should significantly increase the company's market share.

In fact, when the MI450 is paired with AMD's new Helios rack, which includes specialized central processing units (CPUs) and networking components, it can be as much as 15% more powerful and 30% more cost-efficient than any of its competition.

The company is already working on its MI500 series GPUs, which are expected to reach customers in 2027. Chief Executive Officer Lisa Su said it could produce a staggering 2,000 times more performance in inference workloads compared to the original MI300X, which highlights the company's rapid progress during the past four years.

OpenAI and Meta Platforms will each deploy 6 gigawatts' worth of computing capacity using AMD's GPUs during the next few years, starting with the MI450 and Helios. Su says Anthropic and Microsoft will also be deploying MI450 GPUs in Helios racks, so AMD is amassing a very impressive customer list.

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AMD's data center revenue doubled during the second quarter AMD generated a record $11.5 billion of revenue during the second quarter, a 50% increase from the year-ago period. The company's data center business contributed more than half of that total with $6.7 billion in revenue, and it grew by a whopping 107%.

But considering Su predicts the market for AI data center chips will grow to $1.4 trillion annually by 2030, AMD has barely scratched the surface of its opportunity. She now expects the company's data center revenue to continue to more than double in 2027, which is positive news for shareholders.

There is currently a shortage of AI data center hardware because of the incredible level of demand, which gives suppliers like AMD the ability to dictate prices. This is having a profound affect on the company's bottom line, with its second-quarter adjusted (meaning not in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles) earnings soaring by 246% to $1.66 per share.

Is it too late to buy AMD stock after its recent gains? Based on AMD's adjusted trailing-12-month earnings of $5.76 per share, its stock is trading at a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 83.6, which is more than double Nvidia's P/E of about 33.5. Therefore, AMD stock certainly looks expensive after its 12-month rally of 200%.

Nevertheless, Wall Street's average forecast (provided by Yahoo! Finance) suggests AMD's adjusted earnings could rise to $13.92 per share in 2027, giving its stock a forward P/E of just 34.6. That means the stock might actually look attractive at the current price to investors who intend to hold it for at least the next 18 months. And if Su is right about the market for AI data center chips growing to $1.4 trillion annually by 2030, then AMD stock might actually be cheap today.

As a result, whether AMD stock is a good buy after its recent rapid gains might depend entirely on an investor's time horizon. Those who are looking for strong returns during the next few months should probably steer clear, whereas those who are willing to stay the course for several years could do very well, as long as the AI infrastructure spending boom continues.

Canopy Growth (CGC +4.07%) is one of a handful of marijuana stocks that were all the rage early on as investors thought pot would be a huge growth market. Pot demand has grown dramatically, but marijuana stocks didn't live up to the early hype. But will that change if the classification of marijuana changes at the Federal level in the United States? Not for Canopy Growth, here's why.

A slow progression for pot? Marijuana has been legal to use in an increasing number of states. Some have focused on medical use, while others have gone all the way to legalizing recreational use. That opened the way for companies to grow and sell marijuana.

Image source: Getty Images.

There was just one problem. Marijuana is also regulated at the Federal level. For a long time, marijuana was considered to be in the same category as heroin. Now, however, the drug has been rescheduled, putting it in the same classification as acetaminophen, an over-the-counter pain medication. While pot is still regulated, the marijuana industry's path forward is much clearer. That could open up more opportunities for growth for marijuana companies in the U.S. market.

Canopy Growth isn't likely to benefit from rescheduling Canopy Growth is a pot stock, so in the big picture, rescheduling is good news. However, Canopy Growth's core operations are in Canada and Europe. With regard to the U.S. market, the company's annual report explains:

We are not considered a U.S. Marijuana Issuer (as defined in the Canadian Securities Administrators Staff Notice 51-352 – Issuers with U.S. Marijuana-Related Activities (the "Staff Notice")) nor do we have material ancillary involvement in the U.S. cannabis industry in accordance with the Staff Notice. While we have an investment in Canopy USA, which is a platform that is intended to enable such U.S.-based companies that may themselves participate in the U.S. cannabis market to operate, the transaction structure was intended to ensure that we do not violate the federal laws of the United States respecting cannabis and do not allow us to participate in cannabis activities in the United States or direct the activities of Canopy USA. Where a noncontrolled affiliate has expressed an intent to enter the U.S. cannabis market, we have taken steps to insulate ourselves from all economic and voting interests.

That's a lot! The summary is that Canopy Growth is an investor in Canopy USA, but it doesn't directly control Canopy USA. That's issue number one. The second issue is that Canopy USA is more focused on recreational use than medical use, which Canopy Growth explained limits the benefit that Canopy USA will see from the rescheduling. Indeed, the rescheduling was meant to increase access to the drug for medical purposes and to make it easier for companies to do research around marijuana. Making it legal for recreational purposes is a goal that is further down the road.

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Canopy Growth isn't in the right place at the right time What's notable is that Canopy Growth is heavily involved in the medical marijuana market in Canada. In fact, the company recently strengthened its market position there by acquiring MTL Cannabis. But the uncertain legal environment in the United States led the company to take a different approach, limiting its exposure to and business control in the U.S. market.

That wasn't a bad business decision, given the circumstances and the opportunities available elsewhere. But it has left the company in a situation where U.S. rescheduling just isn't as big a deal as investors may hope. And it doesn't have as much control as investors may like to capitalize on such changes, anyway.

The nationʻs largest bank, JPMorgan Chase (JPM +0.34%), has long been the most successful bank, particularly since Jamie Dimon became CEO in 2006.

His strategy of building a fortress balance sheet has carried JPMorgan through the difficult times and benefited it in the good times.

JPMorgan Chase has been on an especially good run over the past year or so as rates have stabilized in a sweet spot for lending and net interest income, mergers & acquisitions (M&As) have taken off, and markets have been incredibly active.

Jamie Dimon. Image source: Getty Images.

In the second quarter, JPMorgan set revenue records in every line of its business as revenue surged 27% year over year to $58 billion, and earnings rose 47% to $7.70 per share. In the call with analysts, Dimon said, "It's getting close to as good as it gets. We just don't know how long it's going to last."

Off-the-charts ROTCE A key metric for banks is return on tangible common equity, or ROTCE, which measures the profit a bank generates from shareholder equity. It is considered a cleaner view of a bankʻs profitability as it strips out goodwill and intangible assets, showing how the bank is growing organically.

Generally, a ROTCE of 15% is considered good, and anything over that is excellent. In Q2, JPMorgan Chase had an off-the-charts ROTCE, excluding special items, of 23%. By comparison, Bank of America (BAC +0.27%) had a ROTCE of 17% while Wells Fargo (WFC +0.18%) had a ROTCE of 17.7%.

JPMorgan Chaseʻs Q2 ROTCE was the highest in almost five years. It has set a high bar for itself, establishing a long-term target of 17% ROTCE. It has exceeded that target every quarter dating back to at least Q4 2023.

Can JPMorgan keep the momentum going? Dimonʻs recent comments comments were peppered with cautious statements and uncertainty.

"When you have great returns and very good margins, which actually went up this quarter, not down, the notion that somehow you can forever increase your operating leverage is a crazy notion," Dimon said on the Q2 earnings call. "I do think you might actually see a slowdown in growth, maybe a slowdown in 2027 or 2028," he added.

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Then, in a recent interview with CNBC, Dimon cited the mounting risks in the stock market and how he wouldnʻt be a buyer of the broader market at this high valuation level. However, he would consider individual stocks if they are a "great investment."

Is JPMorgan Chase stock a great investment? It has been pretty much since Dimon took the reins 20 years ago, and it remains so.

Strong organic growth should continue as the interest-rate environment remains favorable and M&A activity remains hot. And if there is an economic slowdown, JPMorgan Chase has a great dividend and a fortress balance sheet built to navigate just about any cycle. Itʻs also trading at a favorable valuation with a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 15.

JPMorgan Chase stock remains a great long-term investment in uncertain times.

Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ:ISRG | ISRG Price Prediction) trades at $373.71, while the average Wall Street price target sits at $477.25. That leaves the stock roughly 28% below consensus, and Bernstein pegs fair value at $685, implying returns north of 83%.

Intuitive Surgical dominates the robotic-assisted surgery market with its da Vinci surgical system and Ion lung biopsy platform. It has an installed base of 11,710 da Vinci systems worldwide. Wall Street has treated it as a compounder for years, making the current gap between price and target notable.

How A Compounder Lost A Third Of Its Value ISRG is down 34.02% year to date and 21.17% over the past twelve months. The trigger was a slower guide, not a broken business. Full-year 2026 da Vinci procedure growth was set at 13.5% to 15.5%, a clear deceleration from the roughly 18% pace investors expected.

Tariffs compounded the damage. Instruments and accessories are manufactured in Mexico, endoscopes in Germany, and certain materials come from China. Management embedded a 1.0% revenue drag from tariffs into gross margin guidance and warned further escalation could materially hit results. HSBC downgraded the stock from Buy to Hold and cut its target from $604 to $391. A Class II recall of 11,113 da Vinci SP drapes added noise, and moderation in U.S. elective procedures tied to ACA subsidy expiration finished the decline.

Why The Bulls Are Still On Board Analysts remain bullish because the underlying business kept beating expectations through the selloff. Q2 2026 non-GAAP EPS came in at $2.80 versus a $2.50 consensus, revenue of $2.89 billion grew 18.5% year over year, marking the fifth consecutive quarterly beat. Non-GAAP gross margin expanded to 70.0% from 67.9%.

The bull thesis rests on the da Vinci 5 upgrade cycle. Placements hit 246 dV5 systems in Q2, and CFO Jamie Samath compared the trajectory to the Xi cycle, which “took about seven years before we got to the peak trade-in volumes.”. Add a growing recurring instruments base, $8.63 billion in cash, and an extended-use instrument program rolling out in 2027. The rating mix shows 7 analysts rate ISRG Strong Buy, 16 Buy, 9 Hold, and just 1 Sell.

Peers Held Up Better The medtech group softened in 2026, yet ISRG stands alone in drawdown depth. Its two closest scaled robotic peers held up far better, raising whether the market overcorrected on the leader.

Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) trades at $85.92, down just 9.03% YTD. Its Hugo robotic system cleared FDA for general surgery submission, but robotics is a small part of a diversified device portfolio. The Street target of $98.44 implies about 15% upside, with 18 Buys and 12 Holds.

Stryker (NYSE:SYK) sits at $337.43, off only 3.47% YTD after a Q2 beat driven by 9.0% organic growth and Mako robotic orthopedics. Its $381.50 target implies about 13% upside, with 23 Buys against 5 Holds.

The largest analyst-implied upside sits with Intuitive Surgical by a wide margin. Peers offer roughly half the implied return with far smaller drawdowns, suggesting ISRG’s punishment overshot its fundamental deterioration.

What The Tape Says Intuitive Surgical trades at $373.71 against an average analyst target of $477.25, implying roughly 28% upside from 33 covering analysts. The stock is down 34.02% year to date while the S&P 500 is up 12.71%, a spread of nearly 47 points against a former market darling.

Valuation still reflects that pedigree. Trailing P/E is 42 and forward P/E sits at 34, both premium to the broader medical device group. Bernstein’s $685 Street-high target is the outlier pinning the 83% figure in the headline, but consensus already argues the derating went too far.

The Case For And Against The bull case holds if the da Vinci 5 trade-in cycle mirrors the Xi ramp, tariff pressure caps near current guidance, and U.S. elective procedure growth stabilizes as ACA subsidy noise fades. In that scenario, the recurring instruments engine compounds, margins hold near 70%, and the stock reprices toward the Street’s $477.25 average within 12 to 18 months.

The bear case builds if tariffs escalate beyond the current 1.0% drag, Chinese domestic robotic competitors freeze that market, or GLP-1 pressure on bariatric procedures signals broader structural hits to surgical volume. A P/E of 42 leaves no room for error. On balance, the peer comparison makes the drawdown look excessive, but this story needs one more clean quarter before the tape trusts it again.

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SummaryConocoPhillips is upgraded from Hold to Buy, driven by robust Q2 results and a constructive oil price outlook.COP's tier-1 Lower-48 shale assets are supported by strong operational and financial performance.The CEO transition to Andrew O'Brien signals strategic continuity, with no major shifts expected before Willow comes online in 2029.However, COP's capital returns remain heavily skewed toward buybacks over dividends, contrasting with Chevron's approach.Meantime, refining fundamentals at Conoco's sister company, Phillips 66, are already very tight, will tighten further, and refined product margins are expected to stay very strong through 2027. Dmitrii Pichugin/iStock via Getty Images

ConocoPhillips (COP) reported its Q2 results on Thursday, and there were no surprises in the financials—it was yet another display of solid operations and consistent and steady project execution. Revenue and earnings were, of course, significantly boosted

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Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have a beneficial long position in the shares of COP, XOM, CVX, PSX either through stock ownership, options, or other derivatives. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

I am an electronics engineer, not a CFA. The information and data presented in this article were obtained from company documents and/or sources believed to be reliable, but have not been independently verified. Therefore, the author cannot guarantee their accuracy. Please do your own research and contact a qualified investment advisor. I am not responsible for the investment decisions you make.

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

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Inside a 28-story testing tower erected in the middle of the suburban town of Bristol, Connecticut, Otis engineers run elevator parts through dust chambers, humidity cells and saltwater fog machines.

"[Elevators] are supposed to work in the extreme conditions of the world. Whether it's the desert or the Arctic," said Haran Vela, senior vice president of engineering for Otis. "We try to simulate all of those conditions in this facility so that we know that our designs will work in the real environment."

Otis is the largest elevator company in the world, operating in 200-plus countries. In 2025, the company generated more than $14 billion in revenue — up roughly 13% since it spun off from United Technologies in 2020.

Otis' investment case hinges on the premise of long-term, stable growth, especially in an increasingly volatile market. 

But the company's stock is down about 15% year-to-date, underperforming both the industrial sector and the broader market.

"There's definitely a wave of money that's been following along or chasing … the [artificial intelligence] plays," said Melius Research global machinery analyst Robert Wertheimer.

At the same time, Otis' own business has been faltering.

"Otis, as a service-led business, had a setback in service," Wertheimer said. "And they're fixing it. It'll get fixed. But that was kind of a stumble at the right time for flow of funds to go in the other direction."

Otis vs. Industrial sector

The service engineBuilding new elevators isn't an inherently lucrative venture. In 2025, Otis' operating profit margin on new equipment was just 4.8%. 

The real profit driver of the business comes in servicing these elevators once they are installed. Initially, that involves things like maintenance and repairs. Then after about 20 years, the elevator needs to be modernized, which involves partially or fully replacing its parts.

"That's the engine that allows us to generate over 90% of our profits," said Otis CEO and Chair Judy Marks.

Otis currently services about 2.5 million elevators worldwide, up from over 2 million units in 2020.

The company has incrementally grown its profit margins on service over the past couple of years, reaching 25.5% by the end of 2025. But service margins fell by 250 basis points in the first quarter of 2026.

That margin decline is a result of a broader issue the company has been working through since the start of last year. Otis saw its retention rate, meaning the customers that renew their service contracts, dropping as it entered 2025.

"They started calling out cost actions they were going to do to fix it, which is simply hiring more people, focusing more on maintenance; less revenue-producing but more customer-pleasing" said Wertheimer. "It's been an issue that has coincided with a lot of noise around tariffs and some China programs to stimulate growth. … There's just been a little bit more uncertainty around what is normally a very stable earnings stream."

Getting back on trackThe company said it is making $50 million in incremental investments to its service business throughout 2026.

In Otis' most recent quarter, service sales were up 11% year over year, but in its earnings call, Marks said the company had not yet seen a significant improvement in retention. The company cut its profit guidance for the year.

Wertheimer wrote in a July analyst note that these investments in the service business should lead to fewer outages for customers, which would, in turn, improve retention. As he puts it: "Renewals are somewhat automatic if no one is unhappy."

But Otis needs to prove its tens of million of dollars in investments can pay off. It's banking on long-term predictability to get Wall Street back on board.

"Urbanization, digitalization, aging people who need mobility and infrastructure modernization is not only going to be attractive in the near term, the next few years, versus all the data center expansion that's happening," Marks said, "but this has decadelong runs in it."

Competitive landscapeNews of an industry shake-up could also soon impact the elevator market.

Finland's Kone agreed to buy Germany's TK Elevator in a nearly $35 billion deal announced in April.

Wolfe Research senior analyst Nigel Coe noted that merger could potentially benefit Otis, as there would be just three instead of four major players bidding for elevator contracts. 

But the merger could face regulatory hurdles. The second-largest elevator company, Schindler, has said it would challenge the deal over antitrust considerations.

When asked about how she views the current competitive landscape, Marks said Otis is going to leave the matter to regulators and let customers make their decisions. 

MarketBeat Week in Review – 12/4 - 12/8Hagerty NYSE: HGTY reported second-quarter results marked by continued policy growth, higher written and earned premiums, and increased adjusted EBITDA, prompting the specialty insurer to raise its full-year outlook.

Chief Executive Officer and Chairman McKeel Hagerty said the first half of 2026 was the company’s strongest on record based on growth in policies in force, written premium, earned premium and adjusted EBITDA. The company surpassed 3 million insured vehicles during the second quarter and added a record 279,000 new members in the first half, aided by State Farm policy conversions.

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Suddenly markets are betting on Hagerty, AutoZone after UAW Written premium increased 19% in both the second quarter and first six months of 2026, accelerating from 14% growth a year earlier, according to Chief Financial Officer Patrick McClymont. Earned premium rose 42% to $252 million in the second quarter, reflecting policy growth and the company’s increased participation in underwriting economics under its new Markel fronting arrangement.

Markel Arrangement Changes Reported Financial Presentation Hagerty reassumed 100% of underwriting risk on its U.S. book beginning Jan. 1 under the Markel Fronting Arrangement. McClymont said the structure provides Hagerty with a 25% step-up in underwriting profits and investment income, but it also changes the presentation of its GAAP revenue and income statement.

First-half reported GAAP revenue declined 6% to $667 million despite 19% written premium growth, as MGA commission revenue and related ceding commission expense are eliminated in consolidation. Hagerty reported GAAP net income of $8 million in the second quarter, while its first-half GAAP net loss was $5 million.

Second-quarter net loss attributable to Class A common shareholders was $2 million, or $0.02 per share on both a GAAP and adjusted basis. The company’s second-quarter results included $64 million in amortization of deferred ceding commissions related to 2025 policies.

McClymont said Hagerty capitalized about $57 million in new acquisition expenses during the first half, with $16 million recognized through the income statement. That created a $41 million cumulative first-half benefit, including $20 million during the second quarter. The company expects that benefit to decline to $15 million in the second half and to be absent in the fourth quarter as policy acquisition expense amortization catches up with costs.

Management expects the accounting effects of the fronting transition to be largely resolved in 2027, when revenue and earnings should present a more normalized view of operating performance.

Profitability, Cash Flow and Outlook Hagerty Re reported a 90% combined ratio during the second quarter, following an 88% combined ratio for the first half. The first-half loss ratio was 41%. Management cited investments in underwriting and in-house claims capabilities as factors supporting member outcomes and lower loss costs.

Adjusted EBITDA was $75 million in the second quarter and $160 million in the first half, up 32% year over year. Operating cash flow for the first six months totaled $186 million, nearly double the amount generated in the first half of 2025.

As of June, Hagerty had $298 million of unrestricted cash and $216 million of total debt, including $88 million of back leverage associated with Broad Arrow’s portfolio of collector-car loans.

Based on first-half performance and momentum entering the second half, the company raised its 2026 guidance. Hagerty now expects:

Written premium growth of 16% to 17% for the full year. GAAP net income of $18 million to $30 million. Adjusted EBITDA of $270 million to $280 million. McClymont said stronger-than-expected cost efficiency and better Marketplace profitability were contributing to the increased EBITDA outlook. He also noted that Hagerty’s Marketplace business, which includes auctions and private sales, had performed better than expected and had major sales planned for the second half.

Distribution Expansion and Marketplace Growth Management said growth was broad-based across its distribution channels. The State Farm Classic+ program was active for new Hagerty policies in 37 states as of the end of the second quarter. Conversion of State Farm’s existing 525,000 collector-car policies was underway in 14 states, with Hagerty maintaining its target to complete the transition by 2028.

The company said its independent agency channel includes 54,000 agents and remains a significant opportunity. Hagerty is investing in automated vehicle-identification tools, straight-through processing and agent education to identify enthusiast vehicles insured under standard daily-driver policies.

Hagerty also cited expanding relationships with carriers including Progressive and Liberty Mutual. McClymont said the Progressive relationship has expanded beyond vehicles built before 1981 to include vehicles that are at least 25 years old, adding 17 years of potential vehicle cohorts on a rolling basis.

Enthusiast+, Hagerty’s offering for more modern enthusiast vehicles, was performing in line with revised pricing assumptions in Colorado. The company expanded the program into three additional states in July. McKeel Hagerty said younger collectors were increasingly driving demand, with year-to-date quote volume from Gen X, millennial and Gen Z consumers exceeding 60% of total demand.

Bennetts Acquisition and Marketplace Results After the quarter ended, Hagerty acquired Bennetts, the second-largest specialty motorcycle insurer in the United Kingdom, for £34 million. McClymont said the acquisition immediately triples Hagerty’s scale in the U.K. market. Management characterized acquisitions as likely to be modest and infrequent, with capital allocation remaining focused primarily on investments that grow policy count, improve unit economics and deepen the company’s member ecosystem.

Hagerty Marketplace generated $65 million in first-half total sales, up 17%. Broad Arrow, the company’s high-end live auction business, recorded a 74% increase in first-half sales and a 91% sell-through rate. Private sales declined from the prior-year period, which had benefited from the sale of a large single-owner collection.

McKeel Hagerty said the marketplace operation also serves as a customer-acquisition channel, as vehicles sold through auctions and private transactions may become Hagerty insurance policies. The company said it remains focused on reaching 3 million policies by 2030.

About Hagerty (NYSE:HGTY)Hagerty is a specialized automotive lifestyle and insurance company that caters primarily to collectible car enthusiasts. Its core business centers on offering classic vehicle insurance policies designed to protect antique, vintage and specialty automobiles, motorcycles and boats. These policies typically feature agreed-value coverage, flexible usage options and access to restoration services, aligning with the unique needs of collectors and hobbyists.

Beyond insurance, Hagerty operates a comprehensive suite of community and content services under its automotive lifestyle brand.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to [email protected].

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Robotics and automation are rapidly becoming essential infrastructure across healthcare, manufacturing, logistics, and many other industries.

"Physical AI" is coming to the United States, and there are four ways that investors can gain exposure to this new robotics revolution. Plus, learn which seven companies are most positioned to benefit as intelligent robots enter the workforce.

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Ten years ago, Axon Enterprise (AXON +9.29%) was a small-cap company best known for its TASER stun guns. A share cost about $17 when 2016 began. As of this writing, the price is near $553 -- a gain of more than 3,100%, enough to turn a $10,000 investment into about $329,000.

The recent chapter looks nothing like that, though. The stock sits more than 35% below the record closing high of $870.97 it set on Aug. 7, 2025 (almost exactly one year ago). Since that peak, shares have traded as low as $339.01.

And the stock slid again this week after the company's second-quarter report, even with the business still growing 35%.

So, has something actually changed at the company -- or just at the price? I lean toward the second answer.

Image source: Getty Images.

Where the decade of gains came from Axon's 33-fold run wasn't luck. Over the past decade, the company turned itself from a weapons manufacturer into something closer to a software company for public safety. It still sells TASER devices, but it pairs them, along with its body cameras and drones, with subscription software for storing footage and managing digital evidence.

The second quarter showed that model working. Revenue rose 35% year over year to $904 million, a quarterly record, and the growth was nearly identical on both sides of the business: Software and services revenue climbed 36% to $398 million, while connected devices grew 35% to $507 million. Growth even accelerated a touch from the first quarter's 34% pace, making this the company's 10th consecutive quarter of revenue growth above 30%. Annual recurring revenue, the subscription base underneath it all, reached $1.64 billion, up 39% year over year. And customers already under contract represent $15.1 billion in future bookings, up 41% from a year earlier. That's more than four times the revenue the company is on pace to produce this year.

Existing customers keep spending more, too. Net revenue retention came in at 126%, meaning that base is spending 26% more on Axon's software than it was a year ago.

Management also lifted its full-year forecast, its second raise this year. Axon now expects 2026 revenue growth of 32% to 34%, up from the 30% to 32% it guided in May and the 27% to 30% it started the year with. In short, the business arguably looks healthier than the stock chart.

What the sell-off is actually about The slide has less to do with the business than with the price the stock reached last summer. Even after a year of declines, shares cost about 75 times the company's adjusted earnings from the past quarter, annualized. A stock priced that way can get punished for small disappointments, and the second-quarter report contained one.

Adjusted gross margin slipped to 62.9%, down slightly from a year earlier, as lower-margin professional services and newly scaled products made up more of sales.

Profitability is also thinner than the headline numbers suggest. On a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) basis, second-quarter net income was just $29 million against an adjusted figure of $155 million.

Still, a margin dip driven by mix is a footnote next to 35% growth. To me, the bigger issue was always the multiple, and a year of a falling stock price set against a growing business has been working that problem down.

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So, does the decade-long case still hold? I think it does. The formula that produced the 33-fold return (recurring software revenue attached to hardware that police departments replace on a schedule) is growing faster than the company as a whole, and contracted bookings stretch years into the future.

Zoom out, and the past year looks like the valuation resetting, not the business.

Of course, a multiple like this one still leaves no room for a true slowdown, and if growth ever cools toward 20%, the stock could fall a long way from here. What would change my mind is growth stepping below 30% while the margin keeps slipping. Neither happened this quarter.

The price is the part that requires patience. Axon remains an expensive growth stock even after the decline, and I wouldn't rush in all at once. But for the first time in about a year, the price looks like a reasonable place to start.

3 Small-Cap Stocks Trading Under $10 With Room to RunGenworth Financial NYSE: GNW reported second-quarter net income of $47 million, or $0.12 per share, while adjusted operating income excluding its closed block business totaled $112 million, or $0.29 per share. The company’s results were led by mortgage insurance subsidiary Enact, while losses in the closed block and continued investment in CareScout weighed on overall performance.

Jerome Upton, Genworth’s interim president and chief executive officer and chief financial officer, said the company continues to focus on three priorities: generating shareholder value through Enact, building its CareScout aging-care platform, and managing the self-sustainability of its closed block of long-term care, life insurance and annuity products.

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Genworth Financial Stock is Retracing Fine Upton also addressed the medical leave of absence of Tom, whose last name was not provided during the call. Upton said the board remains confident in Genworth’s strategy and leadership team, adding that the company would share material developments when appropriate.

Enact Drives Operating Results and Capital Returns Enact contributed $143 million of adjusted operating income to Genworth in the quarter. Its results included a $37 million pre-tax reserve release, reflecting what Upton described as continued strong performance and loss mitigation activity. Enact’s loss ratio was 14% for the quarter.

Forgotten Genworth Financial Stock is Ready to Unlock ValueNew insurance written at Enact was $15 billion, increasing from the prior-year period due to a larger estimated market size. Primary insurance in force grew 2% year over year to $274 billion, supported by new insurance written and elevated policy persistency. Earned premiums were $245 million, up sequentially and in line with the prior-year quarter.

Enact’s estimated PMIER sufficiency ratio stood at 161%, or about $1.9 billion above requirements, at the end of the second quarter. Genworth’s share of Enact’s book value, including accumulated other comprehensive income, rose to $4.4 billion from $4.3 billion at the end of the first quarter.

Enact returned $103 million of capital to Genworth during the quarter. Following Enact’s earnings release, Genworth increased its estimate for full-year capital returns from Enact to between $445 million and $485 million, based on Genworth’s approximately 81% ownership position. Enact expects to return roughly $550 million to $600 million to shareholders during 2026.

Buybacks, Debt Reduction and Holding Company Liquidity Genworth repurchased $62 million of shares during the second quarter at an average price of $8.74 per share, followed by another $4 million of repurchases in July. Since its buyback authorization began in May 2022, the company has repurchased approximately $922 million of stock at an average price of $6.48 per share through July 31.

The company increased its 2026 share repurchase outlook to a range of $225 million to $250 million. Upton said the amount ultimately deployed could vary based on market conditions, business performance, holding company cash and Genworth’s share price.

Genworth also retired $10 million of principal debt at a discount during the quarter, leaving holding company debt at $768 million. The company ended the quarter with $215 million of cash and liquid assets. For capital-allocation purposes, it excluded about $81 million of cash held for future obligations, including advance cash payments from subsidiaries.

Upton said Genworth’s capital-allocation priorities remain investing in CareScout growth, repurchasing shares when they trade below intrinsic value, and opportunistically reducing debt.

CareScout Expands Network and Worksite Insurance Offering CareScout Services continued expanding its aging-care provider network, which included more than 1,100 home-care locations as of the end of the second quarter. Genworth began adding senior living communities to the network in the first quarter and is targeting at least 2,000 senior living communities by year-end.

The company doubled the number of local advisers during the year to date, with advisers represented in 26 states at quarter-end. These advisers help families evaluate senior living options, while CareScout’s nurse network provides clinical expertise.

CareScout facilitated approximately 1,450 matches between care seekers and providers in the second quarter, bringing first-half matches to approximately 2,950—more than double the total from the first half of 2025. However, Upton said current match volumes are pacing below the level required to achieve the company’s full-year target of approximately 7,500 matches, compared with 3,255 in 2025.

CareScout Services generated $6 million of revenue in the second quarter and $12 million in the first half. Genworth maintained its full-year revenue expectation of $25 million and projected 2026 investment in the business of approximately $50 million to $55 million.

Meanwhile, CareScout Insurance’s Care Assurance worksite product was approved for a planned third-quarter launch in at least 34 states. The employer-distributed product combines long-term care cost protection with access to CareScout care-planning, navigation, caregiver-support and provider-network services. Genworth said it does not anticipate additional capital investment in CareScout Insurance during 2026 after making an initial $85 million investment in 2025.

Closed Block Results and Rate Actions Genworth’s closed block segment reported an adjusted operating loss of $110 million, driven by a $127 million pre-tax liability remeasurement loss tied primarily to long-term care actual-versus-expected experience.

Upton said first-half actual-versus-expected loss experience trended above the level implied by Genworth’s full-year expectation of about $300 million. If the trend continues, full-year losses could exceed that amount. He said these GAAP fluctuations do not affect the company’s cash flows, economic value or approach to managing the business.

The company secured $46 million of gross incremental premium approvals in the second quarter, compared with $41 million a year earlier, and received an additional $27 million of approvals in July. Genworth expects 2026 premium approvals and benefit reductions to be broadly in line with 2025 levels, contributing about $1 billion of value on a net-present-value basis.

Since 2012, Genworth has achieved approximately $34.8 billion of benefit reductions and premium increases on a net-present-value basis. About 62% of policyholders offered a benefit reduction have chosen that option, according to the company.

Genworth said it will continue to manage the closed block as a closed system using existing reserves and capital to cover future claims. The company does not expect to inject capital into the closed-block companies or receive capital returns from them.

AXA Litigation Remains Uncertain Genworth said an appeal hearing related to its AXA litigation took place in July. The company expects the Court of Appeal to issue a decision about three to six months after the hearing.

If the judgment is upheld and all appeals are resolved favorably, Genworth expects to recover approximately $750 million, subject to exchange rates at the time. The company said it does not expect to owe taxes on any recovery.

Greg Karawan, Genworth’s general counsel, said the company was pleased with how the hearing proceeded but emphasized that litigation is inherently uncertain. Upton said any potential recovery is not incorporated into current capital-allocation plans. If received, proceeds would be allocated according to existing priorities, including CareScout investment, shareholder returns and debt reduction.

About Genworth Financial (NYSE:GNW)Genworth Financial NYSE: GNW is a leading financial security company offering a broad range of insurance products. Based in Richmond, Virginia, Genworth provides individuals and families with solutions designed to protect against long-term care expenses, secure life insurance needs and support homeownership through private mortgage insurance. With operations spanning the United States, Canada and Australia, the company serves both retail and institutional clients through a diversified portfolio of risk management services.

The company's Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) segment offers coverage to lenders and consumers in the US, Canada and Australia, enabling homebuyers to purchase properties with lower down payments.

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The AI boom is creating opportunities across semiconductors, cloud computing, enterprise software, infrastructure, cybersecurity, and automation.

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The bear case on Shopify (SHOP +2.80%) over the past year has been simple. If artificial intelligence (AI) agents start doing the shopping, they could come between merchants and their customers, cutting the e-commerce platform behind those merchants' storefronts out of the transaction. Coming into this week's report, shares sat about 32% below their 52-week high.

Then the company reported its second quarter on Wednesday. AI-referred traffic to merchants' storefronts tripled year over year. Orders that began with an AI search tripled, too. And new buyers arriving through AI channels placed orders at nearly twice the rate of other channels.

In short, the technology that was supposed to cut Shopify out is, so far, sending it customers. The market noticed, and shares jumped about 17% on the report, to about $144 as of this writing.

So, was the AI-casualty thesis simply wrong?

Image source: Getty Images.

What the quarter showed The AI figures came on top of a quarter that was strong in the ordinary ways. Revenue rose 34% year over year to $3.6 billion, matching the first quarter's pace. Gross merchandise volume (GMV), the total value of goods sold across Shopify's platform, reached $115.6 billion, up 32% year over year and up from $100.7 billion just one quarter earlier. Operating income climbed 68% to $488 million. And free cash flow was $654 million, with the margin expanding to 18% from 15% in the first quarter.

"This was a monster quarter," president Harley Finkelstein said in the earnings release.

The AI detail is what makes this report different, though. Half of AI-referred sessions land directly on a product page (2.5 times the rate of traditional search, the company said), meaning these shoppers arrive closer to a purchase. What's more, 75% of AI-attributed purchases came from outside the top 100 product categories, a sign the traffic is reaching niche merchants, not just the biggest brands.

The new-buyer figure matters most to me. Merchants pay Shopify to help them find customers. And a channel that delivers first-time buyers at nearly twice the usual rate gives merchants one more reason to stay.

Shopify is also building for the agents directly. AI search powered by the company's product catalog converts at twice the rate of AI search built on scraped data, according to the company. And Sidekick, Shopify's AI assistant for merchants, saw daily active merchants grow 3.6 times year over year.

The old channel isn't shrinking either. Finkelstein said traditional search sessions have grown 1.3 times over the past two years and still account for about a third of storefront sessions. AI traffic is coming on top of search, not instead of it.

How big the AI channel actually is What Shopify didn't disclose is how much money the AI channel drives. The company gave growth rates (tripled, twice the rate) but no dollar figure for AI-referred GMV and no share of the $115.6 billion total.

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Of course, growth rates like these usually sit on small bases. Traffic that triples from a sliver is still a sliver. These numbers are an early indicator, not the thing paying the bills. And the channel isn't Shopify's to control. The agents belong to other companies, and the terms of that traffic could change.

Still, the core business is why the AI debate matters less than it might seem. Revenue growth stepped up from 27% in early 2025 to 34% in each of this year's first two quarters, and management guided third-quarter revenue to grow at a low-thirties percentage rate year over year, so it expects only a slight step down this quarter. Monthly recurring revenue reached $221 million, up from $212 million one quarter earlier. Whatever AI shopping becomes, the business underneath it is compounding at scale.

That leaves the price. After the jump, shares trade at about 70 times forward earnings. That multiple was arguably harder to defend when the AI-casualty worry hung over the business, and this quarter took a lot of that worry off the table. But it also means the growth has to keep coming.

So, does the quarter make the growth stock worth buying at this new price? If I owned it, I wouldn't sell after a report like this one. I think it answered the year's biggest doubt about the business. But calling it a buy probably isn't wise, either. At its high valuation, the price now arguably reflects the good news that arrived this week. I'd wait for a better entry point.

The Volatility Harvester That Thrives in Market ChaosFidelity National Financial NYSE: FNF reported higher second-quarter earnings as strength in its Title segment, including commercial activity and improved margins, offset a still-muted residential housing transaction environment.

The company reported net earnings of $288 million for the quarter, including $333 million of net recognized gains, compared with net earnings of $278 million, including $98 million of net recognized gains, a year earlier. Adjusted net earnings increased to $370 million, or $1.39 per diluted share, from $318 million, or $1.16 per share, in the second quarter of 2025.

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HealthEquity Stock: Leading Health Savings Account InvestmentTotal revenue was $4.1 billion. Excluding net recognized gains and losses, revenue was $3.7 billion, compared with $3.5 billion in the prior-year quarter.

Title segment posts margin expansion Chief Executive Officer Mike Nolan said the Title business generated adjusted pretax earnings of $448 million, up 33% from the second quarter of 2025. Its adjusted pretax margin rose 230 basis points year over year to 17.8%.

The Title segment produced $2.5 billion in revenue excluding $14 million of net recognized gains, compared with $2.2 billion a year earlier. Direct premiums rose 21%, agency premiums increased 15%, and escrow, title-related and other fees grew 13%.

Chief Financial Officer Tony Park said direct operations generated a margin of slightly more than 26%, up roughly 80 basis points from a year earlier. The agency business had an 8% margin on gross agency dollars, while national commercial units generated a margin just below 30%. Home warranty recorded an 18% margin, and ServiceLink reported a margin of about 24%.

Nolan said existing-home sales remained historically low at an annual pace of about 4 million, reflecting elevated mortgage rates and housing-market conditions. Still, daily purchase orders opened rose 3% year over year and 7% sequentially during the second quarter. July daily purchase orders were 4% above the prior-year month.

Refinance orders opened averaged 1,600 per day in the second quarter, up from 1,300 a year earlier but down from 2,000 in the first quarter. Refinancing represented 7% of direct revenue during the period. July refinance orders averaged 1,500 per day, up 15% year over year, despite higher mortgage rates.

Commercial activity supports revenue growth Commercial revenue continued to be a key contributor. Direct commercial revenue reached $778 million in the first six months of 2026, up 24% from $626 million in the first half of 2025. Total commercial orders opened averaged 919 per day in the second quarter, up 7% from a year earlier.

Nolan said the company was on track for a “very strong and potentially record year” in commercial business. He cited a pipeline spanning industrial properties, data centers, multifamily projects, affordable housing, retail and energy. The company closed 29 transactions that each generated more than $1 million in premiums during the quarter across its direct and agency businesses.

Management also pointed to what it described as an early and fragmented recovery in office real estate. Nolan said a return to more normal transaction levels in central business districts, including markets such as New York, could become a meaningful commercial tailwind, although he did not quantify the potential impact.

Total orders opened averaged 6,200 per day during the quarter. In July, total orders averaged 5,900 per day, up 7% from a year earlier.

Recruiting and acquisitions may pressure second-half margins While FNF expects commercial momentum to continue, Nolan said the company remains cautious about residential purchase and refinance activity through the rest of the year. He also said Title margins could experience modest compression in the second half relative to the second quarter.

That pressure is expected to reflect increased spending on recruiting and tuck-in acquisitions. Nolan said FNF’s recruiting performance over the past two quarters has been its strongest to date, while acquisitions completed in July will add more than 200 employees. Such investments bring expenses immediately, while revenue generally takes several months to reach full productivity, he said.

In response to an analyst question, Nolan said acquisitions and recruiting efforts have extended across multiple regions, including Texas and markets in the East, with activity weighted more toward residential business than commercial. He said the company generally pays valuations of four to six times pretax profit for acquisitions.

The company continues to invest in technology and artificial intelligence. Its inHere digital transaction platform engaged 80% of FNF’s residential sale transactions in both the first half of 2026 and throughout 2025. Nolan said the company has not quantified a per-file cost or cycle-time benefit, but believes the platform improves workflow efficiency, customer visibility and fraud prevention.

FNF also launched a complimentary property-monitoring service in 35 states during the second quarter. Nolan said the service is intended as a customer value-add rather than a direct margin driver.

F&G assets approach $75 billion FNF’s F&G segment reported assets under management before reinsurance of $74.7 billion at June 30, up 8% from a year earlier. Retained assets under management totaled $55.9 billion.

F&G generated gross sales of $2.7 billion during the quarter, including $2 billion of core sales and $700 million of opportunistic sales. Core retail sales of indexed annuities and indexed life products were $1.8 billion, while pension-risk-transfer sales were $200 million. Net sales were $1.5 billion.

Adjusted net earnings attributable to FNF from F&G were $65 million, compared with $89 million in the prior-year quarter, reflecting FNF’s approximate 72% ownership stake versus approximately 82% a year earlier. In the first six months, F&G contributed 23% of FNF adjusted net earnings, down from 32% in the comparable 2025 period.

Nolan also highlighted F&G’s leadership transition, with Conor Murphy becoming CEO and president and Michael Bailey joining as chief financial officer. F&G is exploring strategic alternatives for Peak Altitude, an owned-distribution business. Murphy said a transaction involving a partner taking a 51% stake was the option favored at this early stage, allowing continued expansion of the underlying business.

During the quarter, FNF returned about $195 million to shareholders through $138 million of common dividends and $57 million of share repurchases. The company ended the quarter with $457 million of cash and short-term liquid investments at the holding company.

About Fidelity National Financial (NYSE:FNF)Fidelity National Financial NYSE: FNF is a leading provider of title insurance and transaction services to the real estate and mortgage industries. The company underwrites title insurance policies that protect property owners and lenders against title defects, liens, and other encumbrances. Alongside its core title insurance operations, FNF offers escrow and closing services, e-recording solutions, and real estate data and analytics through a network of agents and underwriters.

FNF operates through two primary segments: Title Insurance and Specialty Insurance and Services.

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Cheap Thrills: Why These 3 Entertainment Stocks Are SoaringSix Flags Entertainment NYSE: FUN reported higher same-park attendance, revenue and adjusted EBITDA in the second quarter of 2026, as the amusement park operator cited growth in season-pass visitation, improved operating discipline and progress at previously underperforming parks.

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On a same-park basis, which reflects the parks operated throughout the full second quarter of 2026, attendance rose 4% despite 44 fewer operating days than a year earlier. Net revenue increased more than 2%, while adjusted EBITDA climbed 7%. The company’s active pass base expanded 6% entering the peak summer season.

A New Leader at Six Flags: Is the Roller Coaster Over? Chief Executive Officer John Reilly said the company has made progress on strategic priorities established earlier in the year, including greater park-level accountability, more targeted marketing, ride-uptime improvements and disciplined capital allocation.

“In the second quarter, stronger local leadership, clearer accountability, focused resources, and improved commercial execution produced higher adjusted EBITDA and better margins” at underperforming parks, Reilly said.

Second-Quarter Financial Performance MarketBeat Week in Review – 10/27 - 10/31Chief Financial Officer Ash Walia said same-park net revenue increased 2% to approximately $864 million. Attendance increased by roughly 449,000 visits, or 4%, driven primarily by season-pass visitation and commercial initiatives.

Per-capita spending declined by less than 1%, which Walia attributed to a greater share of visits from season-pass and membership holders rather than weaker pricing. He said like-for-like pricing increased across admissions products and guest spending remained healthy in food and beverage, extra-charge attractions and other in-park experiences.

Same-park adjusted EBITDA increased approximately 7% to $249 million. Walia said the company maintained cost discipline despite a largely fixed or semi-fixed expense structure that includes labor, maintenance, utilities, insurance and overhead.

Excluding the seven parks sold in its portfolio transaction and one park closed after the 2025 season, Six Flags said first-half adjusted EBITDA rose about 63%, or $56 million. Trailing 12-month adjusted EBITDA totaled $801 million, compared with $745 million for full-year 2025.

The company ended the quarter with approximately $135 million in cash, total liquidity of about $837 million and net debt of approximately $4.9 billion. Walia said deferred revenue increased on a current-operating-portfolio basis, reflecting membership growth and advance sales.

Passes, Memberships and Guest Spending Reilly said season-pass sales increased during the quarter, membership participation expanded and demand for higher-tier products remained strong. Both single-day tickets and combined season-pass and membership products produced higher average prices, according to the company.

Six Flags expanded its membership offering to six additional parks in June. Cross-park visitation also grew as guests used multi-park products to visit more locations. Reilly said passholders visit about four times per year on average, creating repeat opportunities for food, beverages, merchandise, parking, games and premium experiences.

The company plans to launch its 2027 passes on Aug. 7 with a best-price guarantee, enhanced benefits and flexible dining-plan options. Reilly said early results at parks where new dining products were tested showed double-digit growth in attachment rates, though he described those returns as early.

Management also highlighted potential to build in-park revenue through Fast Lane queue products, refreshed beverage concepts and improved Halloween-event upsells. Six Flags plans to add food-and-beverage events across its portfolio next year, pointing to Knott’s Berry Farm’s Boysenberry Festival as an internal example of an event that drives visitation, per-capita spending and pass renewals.

Second-Half Outlook and Seasonal Events Six Flags expects adjusted EBITDA to grow year over year in the second half of 2026, including both the third and fourth quarters, although Reilly said the opportunity for growth is greater in the fourth quarter.

The company cited two early third-quarter headwinds: the July 4 holiday falling on a Saturday rather than a Friday in the prior year, and wildfire-related air-quality disruptions that affected parks from the Great Lakes region through Virginia and caused some closures. Still, Reilly said the company recorded its highest summer attendance day in five years on a same-park combined basis on a July day unaffected by those disruptions.

Six Flags plans 2,133 operating days in the third quarter, 66 more than a year earlier, primarily due to the timing of Labor Day and an additional week of summer operations at several Northern and Midwestern parks. Management said it expects modest growth in cash costs during the balance of the year.

Fourth-quarter demand drivers are expected to include the company’s Halloween programming, which management said will feature 448 Halloween-themed experiences, 107 haunted mazes and 11 new horror-franchise attractions. Six Flags also plans to restore Holiday in the Park at Six Flags Over Georgia and Six Flags Great Adventure, where the event was not offered in 2025.

Capital Plans, Portfolio and Leverage The company is investing in new and refreshed attractions, including Tormenta Rampaging Run at Six Flags Over Texas, Phantom Theater at Kings Island, Looney Tunes Land at Magic Mountain and Shoreline Pier at Six Flags Great Adventure. Its 2027 attraction pipeline includes projects at Great Adventure, Fiesta Texas, Carowinds and Six Flags Over Georgia, as well as Camp Timber Trail at Six Flags Great America in Chicago.

Reilly said Six Flags expects capital expenditures to be in a range of $400 million to $425 million over time and remains focused on reducing net leverage toward a long-term target of about four times EBITDA. He said the company has liquidity to manage upcoming Georgia-related payments.

The company does not expect additional changes to its park portfolio this year. Reilly said management will continue to evaluate opportunities to create shareholder value, but said there are no current plans for further divestitures. He reiterated that proceeds from asset sales would be used to repay debt.

Six Flags has a signed purchase agreement for land at the former park site in Bowie, Maryland, though Reilly said a closing could occur in late 2027 or early 2028 as the buyer completes due diligence. The company is also evaluating bids and interest for excess land in Richmond, Virginia.

About Six Flags Entertainment (NYSE:FUN)Six Flags Entertainment Corporation is a publicly traded regional theme park operator based in Arlington, Texas. The company develops, owns and operates amusement and water parks, offering a diverse portfolio of thrill rides, family attractions, live entertainment, food and beverage offerings, and retail merchandise. Its main revenue streams include single-day tickets, season passes, on-site accommodations, in-park retail sales, and food and beverage services.

Founded in 1961 by Angus G.

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F&G Annuities & Life NYSE: FG reported second-quarter adjusted net earnings of $85 million, or $0.65 per share, as lower alternative-investment returns and the impact of a reinsurance transaction weighed on results. Management said the quarter was largely in line with expectations and highlighted growth in assets under management, strong core retail sales and continued efforts to shift toward more fee-based, higher-margin and less capital-intensive businesses.

CEO and President Conor Murphy, speaking on his first earnings call in the role, said the company is focused on expanding its retail and institutional franchises while maintaining disciplined capital allocation. Murphy previously served as F&G's chief financial officer and president before becoming CEO.

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Assets, Sales and Investment Portfolio Assets under management before reinsurance rose 8% from a year earlier to $74.7 billion as of June 30. Retained AUM totaled $55.9 billion, reflecting positive asset flows that were partly offset by the first-quarter cession of a $1.8 billion in-force block associated with the F&G Life Re sale and a $750 million Funding Agreement-Backed Note maturity during the second quarter.

Gross sales totaled $2.7 billion, including $2 billion of core sales and $700 million of opportunistic sales. Core retail sales of indexed annuities and indexed life insurance reached $1.8 billion, which Murphy described as one of F&G's strongest quarters on record for core retail sales. He said the result came despite a year-over-year contraction in industry fixed indexed annuity sales.

Core institutional pension risk transfer sales were $200 million, while opportunistic sales included roughly $600 million of funding agreements and $100 million of Multi-Year Guaranteed Annuities, or MYGAs. Management said it has de-emphasized MYGA sales because current returns are below its threshold. Net sales were $1.5 billion, reflecting reinsurance activity consistent with the company's capital targets for fixed indexed annuities and MYGAs.

F&G said 97% of fixed maturities in its retained investment portfolio were investment grade. Fixed-income yield increased to 4.91% from 4.77% in the first quarter and 4.83% in the prior-year quarter. Credit-related impairments averaged six basis points over the past five years and were two basis points during the first half of 2026.

The alternative-investment portfolio totaled $4 billion, or about 8% of the retained portfolio, including approximately $3 billion of limited partnerships and $1 billion of other equity interests. Annualized alternative-investment returns were approximately 5.9% in the second quarter, down from 8.3% in the first quarter. Murphy said many of those investments remain in earlier stages of their value-creation cycles.

Earnings and Capital Position Interim CFO Mark Wiltse said second-quarter alternative-investment income was $49 million, or $0.38 per share, below management's 12% long-term expected return but in line with its previously announced post-tax estimate of $51 million.

Adjusted net earnings declined $25 million from the first quarter. Wiltse attributed $21 million of the after-tax reduction to lower alternative-investment returns and $8 million to the incremental effect of the F&G Life Re resale completed March 1. Those factors were partially offset by consistent core spread, higher fees from accretive flow reinsurance, owned-distribution margin and expense discipline.

Compared with the second quarter of 2025, adjusted net earnings declined $18 million. The F&G Life Re resale reduced earnings by $12 million from the year-earlier period, while lower surrender-charge fee income and higher other liability costs, including expected increased amortization expense, also affected product margins.

Adjusted return on equity excluding accumulated other comprehensive income was 8% in the second quarter. Adjusted return on assets was 68 basis points. Operating expenses as a percentage of AUM before reinsurance declined to 47 basis points from 48 basis points in the first quarter. Management expects the operating expense ratio to improve to approximately 45 basis points by year-end 2027, compared with 60 basis points at the end of 2024. F&G reported GAAP equity excluding AOCI of $6 billion and book value per share excluding AOCI of $45.93. The company targets debt-to-capitalization, excluding AOCI, of approximately 25% and expects to maintain its estimated company action-level risk-based capital ratio above 400%.

Wiltse said the estimated effect of newly adopted NAIC capital charges on the company's collateralized loan obligation portfolio would reduce its RBC ratio by about 10 points as of June 30, before management actions. He described the impact as manageable.

Capital Allocation, Peak Alternatives and Outlook During the first six months of 2026, F&G funded $75 million of common and preferred dividends, $80 million of holding-company interest expense and $120 million of share repurchases. The company bought back 4.5 million shares at an average price of $26.44. Murphy said the second-quarter repurchases were opportunistic and should not be viewed as a primary use of capital going forward. He said approximately $12 million to $15 million remained under the current authorization, while any expansion would be a decision for the board.

Management also discussed Peak Altitude, F&G's owned-distribution business. Peak had approximately $700 million deployed into it and generated about $80 million of annual EBITDA in 2025, according to Murphy. Former CEO Chris Blunt, who remains an F&G director and is CEO of Peak Altitude, has launched a formal process to explore strategic alternatives for the business.

Murphy said F&G would ideally retain a minority ownership position in Peak while bringing in a strategic partner that acquires slightly more than half of the business. He said there has been interest but that the process remains in its early stages.

Looking ahead, management expects continued emphasis on core retail sales, fee-based businesses, life insurance, pension risk transfer and reinsurance partnerships. Murphy said F&G added another flow reinsurance partner in July. He expects pension risk transfer activity to increase in the second half, although he said the company is targeting annual PRT volume in the range of $1.5 billion to $2 billion rather than seeking year-over-year expansion.

F&G also announced that Mike Bailey, most recently retail CFO at Corebridge Financial, joined the company as incoming CFO. Bailey is expected to formally participate in F&G's third-quarter earnings call.

About F&G Annuities & Life (NYSE:FG)F&G Annuities & Life is the principal life insurance and annuity subsidiary of F&G Financial Group, Inc NYSE: FG, a publicly traded financial services holding company headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa. The company focuses on designing and issuing retirement income solutions that address longevity risk, capital preservation, and wealth transfer for individual and institutional clients.

Its product suite includes fixed indexed annuities, which offer the potential for market-linked growth with downside protection; fixed-rate annuities, delivering guaranteed interest over a defined term; and a range of life insurance policies such as term, universal, and variable universal life.

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Investors Abandoned These 3 AI Stocks Too Early, Says Jeff ClarkFigma NYSE: FIG reported second-quarter 2026 revenue of $370 million, up 48% from a year earlier, as the company recorded its third consecutive quarter of accelerating growth and its first full quarter of AI credit monetization.

Co-founder and CEO Dylan Field said companies are “doubling down on Figma” as they adapt product-development workflows for artificial intelligence. The company ended the quarter with $1.7 billion in cash equivalents and marketable securities.

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Financial Results and Outlook 3 Sectors to Buy While They're Down and 1 to Walk Away FromFigma’s net dollar retention rate for paid customers with more than $10,000 in annual recurring revenue was 136% in the second quarter. Chief Financial Officer Praveer Melwani said approximately two-thirds of those customers added full seats at renewal, while gross retention remained in the mid- to high-90% range.

Paid customers with more than $10,000 in annual recurring revenue increased 34% year over year, while customers with more than $100,000 in annual recurring revenue rose 46%. International revenue grew 50% from a year earlier.

Insiders Step in to Buy These 3 Tanking StocksOn a non-GAAP basis, gross profit totaled $314 million, up 40% year over year, and gross margin reached 85%, improving 2.5 percentage points sequentially. Non-GAAP operating income was $36 million, representing a 10% operating margin. Free cash flow was $53 million, or a 14% margin.

Melwani said the company’s annual Config user conference, which drew more than 10,000 community members in San Francisco during the quarter, affected both operating income and free cash flow. Increased AI inference costs were also the largest driver of the year-over-year change in free cash flow.

For the third quarter, Figma forecast revenue of $373 million to $375 million, representing 36% growth at the midpoint. The company raised its full-year revenue outlook by $40 million to a range of $1.463 billion to $1.467 billion, implying 39% growth at the midpoint. It maintained its full-year non-GAAP operating-income outlook of $125 million to $135 million.

Melwani said the full-year revenue increase reflects strength in monetized AI credit consumption, customer conversion and expansion, as well as early signals from recently launched products. However, products still in beta or early-access programs are not included in the outlook because they do not yet consume paid credits.

AI Monetization and Product Expansion Figma began applying credit limits to all seats in mid-March, with customers able to buy additional credits through add-on subscriptions or pay-as-you-go arrangements. As of the end of the second quarter, more than 80% of paid customers with over $10,000 in annual recurring revenue were consuming AI credits weekly, according to Melwani.

Field said the company is expanding the potential uses of AI across design and software-development workflows. In June, Figma announced Code Layers, a planned early-access feature that will allow interactive code to exist on the Figma canvas, enabling teams to edit code, manipulate it visually and compare code-backed prototypes side by side.

The company is also expanding Figma Make, including an ability introduced in May for teams to work directly in production code bases. Field said 1Password uses Figma from prototyping through code that is deployed to production.

Figma’s Model Context Protocol, or MCP, server is intended to let teams move work between Figma and external tools. Usage of MCP write-to-Figma capabilities rose 75% sequentially in the second quarter, Field said.

Other new capabilities include Figma Motion for animations, Shaders for generating and editing visual effects, and Weave for refining AI-generated visual media on the canvas. Field said these features could expand Figma’s reach to audiences including in-house brand designers and creative agencies.

Agent Adoption and Cost Management Figma’s agent entered open beta in June. As of July 31, more than half of paid customers with over $10,000 in annual recurring revenue were using the Figma agent weekly, according to Field. More than 20% of weekly credit-consuming users on paid plans were exclusively consuming credits through the agent.

The company also reported that weekly creation of generative plugins had more than doubled from levels before the feature’s launch. Generative plugins allow users to describe a needed tool, which the agent can create for teams to reuse.

Melwani said Figma is investing in model routing, provider optimization and first-party models trained on its design corpus. The company seeks to improve quality and latency while reducing inference costs, though it expects gross margin to vary quarter to quarter as it funds usage of products in beta before monetizing them.

“We do not charge our customers for their usage of products that are currently in beta, and we bear the cost of inference without offsetting consumption revenue,” Melwani said.

Figma has begun rolling out user-level AI credit limits, providing administrators more control over credit allocations. Executives said customers want greater choice, governance and visibility into the return on AI spending.

Leadership Changes Field announced several leadership transitions. Chief Technology Officer Kris Rasmussen will become chief architect and focus on business-critical engineering challenges, beginning with the Figma agent. The company has started a search for a new CTO, while the engineering teams responsible for AI and editor efforts will report directly to Field in the interim.

Security leader Dev Akhawe will become chief security officer. Chief Product Officer Yuhki Yamashita will depart after seven years to take extended time off, with Chief Design Officer Loredana Crisan expanding her responsibilities to lead the product function. Chief Marketing Officer Sheila Vashee will leave at the end of August, and Chief Communications Officer Nairi Hourdajian will become CMO.

About Figma (NYSE:FIG)Figma is a San Francisco–based software company that offers a web-based platform for interface design, prototyping and collaboration. Its flagship product, Figma, enables teams to create and refine user interfaces, vector graphics and design systems directly in a browser, eliminating the need for local installations. The platform's real-time collaboration features allow multiple stakeholders—designers, developers and product managers—to edit and comment simultaneously, streamlining workflows and reducing version control issues.

In addition to its core design tool, Figma provides FigJam, a digital whiteboarding solution that facilitates brainstorming sessions, wireframing and diagramming.

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3 Major Buybacks Just Dropped—Here’s the Signal Investors SeeEquitable NYSE: EQH said second-quarter operating earnings rose as the company advanced its pending merger with Corebridge and reported positive net flows across all of its business segments. Shareholders of both companies approved the transaction on July 30, and Equitable said it remains on track to close the merger by the end of 2026.

President and Chief Executive Officer Mark Pearson said the company has established the first three levels of management for the combined organization and begun integration planning, including work on expense, revenue and capital synergies. More than 97% of voting shareholders supported the transaction, and federal antitrust review has been completed, according to the company.

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3 Dividend Stocks Just Hiked Payouts 10%+ and Beat the Market“We remain focused on achieving our 2026 financial targets and are not treating this as a gap year,” Pearson said.

Second-Quarter Results and Capital Returns Equitable reported non-GAAP operating earnings of $488 million, or $1.70 per share, for the second quarter. Excluding notable items, operating earnings were $1.75 per share, up 24% from a year earlier. The company reported a net loss of $453 million, which Chief Financial Officer Robin Raju attributed to non-economic hedge portfolio impacts resulting from strong equity markets.

Notable items included $49 million of below-plan alternative investment returns, partly offset by a $35 million benefit from favorable tax items. Equitable’s alternative-investment portfolio, representing about 2% of its total general account, generated an annualized return slightly above 1% during the quarter. Raju said private-equity results were affected by the lagged effect of first-quarter market declines.

The company expects alternative-investment returns to improve in the second half, though it plans to provide more detailed guidance later in the quarter. Equitable’s consolidated tax rate was 15% in the second quarter, aided by tax planning, but management expects a more typical rate of about 20% in the third quarter.

Assets under management and administration reached a record $1.2 trillion, up 10% year over year, supported by favorable equity markets and net inflows. Equitable returned $449 million of capital to shareholders during the quarter, including $366 million in share repurchases. Its quarterly payout ratio was 92%, while its first-half payout ratio was 70%. The company continues to target a full-year payout ratio of 60% to 70%.

Equitable ended the quarter with $800 million of cash and liquid assets at the holding company and said its estimated combined NAIC risk-based capital ratio remained well above its 400% target operating level. Management reaffirmed its goal of generating roughly $1.8 billion of holding-company cash flow in 2026.

Business Segment Momentum In Retirement, Equitable recorded $1.7 billion of net inflows, led by 10% growth in registered index-linked annuity, or RILA, sales and higher institutional volumes. Its spread-lending operation generated $2.6 billion of net issuance during the period.

Retirement earnings, excluding notable items, were $408 million. Net interest margin increased 11% from a year earlier and 1% sequentially, while core spreads excluding alternatives rose by one basis point from the first quarter to 174 basis points. Raju said management expects core spreads to remain near current levels, although quarterly volatility remains possible.

Wealth Management generated $2 billion in advisory inflows and posted an 11% trailing-12-month organic growth rate. Total assets under administration increased 27% to $141 billion, while advisor productivity rose 13%. Segment earnings increased 26% year over year. Nick Lane, president of Equitable Financial, said the company expects margins to increase as the business adds scale and assets.

AllianceBernstein returned to positive organic growth with $800 million in net inflows. Its assets ended the quarter at a record $906 billion, and earnings rose 21% year over year to $158 million. The asset manager’s retail flows benefited from a $9 billion sub-advisory mandate from Equitable separate accounts, while institutional flows were also positive.

In July, AllianceBernstein onboarded $12 billion of Equitable commercial mortgage loans that had previously been managed by a third party. AllianceBernstein Chief Financial Officer Tom Simeone said the transferred book carries fee rates in the high single digits and will begin generating fees for AllianceBernstein in the fourth quarter. The company also cited a $14 billion unfunded commercial-mortgage-loan pipeline.

Private-markets assets under management at AllianceBernstein rose 18% year over year to $91 billion, reaching the company’s $90 billion-to-$100 billion target range more than a year ahead of schedule. Active ETF assets surpassed $20 billion across 31 strategies and generate about $100 million in annual fee income, according to Equitable.

Corebridge Strategy and Revenue Synergies Equitable has said the merger with Corebridge is expected to generate at least 10% accretion to earnings and cash flow per share by the end of 2028 and produce a return on equity above 15% on a capital base exceeding $30 billion. Management said it remains confident in the financial targets announced with the deal.

Pearson said the company is now working through technology-stack decisions and integration planning. He said outreach to external distribution partners has been positive, with partners seeking to identify ways to expand their relationships with the combined company.

Raju said the companies must continue operating independently until the deal closes, but planning is underway for potential revenue initiatives. These include distributing Corebridge fixed annuities, term life insurance and indexed universal life products through Equitable Advisors. Equitable Advisors currently sells approximately $2 billion of fixed annuities, he said.

Management also expects the merger to expand its institutional-market capabilities through offerings such as pension risk transfer, guaranteed investment contracts, stable value and structured settlements. The larger combined balance sheet is expected to provide more capacity for institutional and spread-lending growth.

Employee Benefits Sale Equitable also discussed its planned sale of its employee benefits business to The Hartford. The business, established in 2015, has grown to more than 800,000 customers and about $500 million in premiums but has not yet become profitable because of insufficient scale, Raju said.

The transaction is expected to have a neutral to slightly positive near-term effect on earnings. Equitable plans to use proceeds to invest in its larger-scale businesses as it prepares for the Corebridge merger.

About Equitable (NYSE:EQH)Equitable Holdings, Inc NYSE: EQH is a leading provider of life insurance, annuities and retirement plan services in the United States. Through its insurance subsidiary, AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company, the firm offers a broad range of permanent and term life insurance products designed to help individuals and families manage risk and build wealth. In addition, Equitable provides fixed, variable and indexed annuity solutions to support income planning in retirement, as well as a suite of group retirement and pension plan services for employers and plan sponsors.

The company also maintains an asset management arm that delivers investment strategies across equities, fixed income and alternative asset classes for both retail and institutional clients.

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3 Healthcare Stocks With Fresh Dividend Hikes and Different Income ProfilesEncompass Health NYSE: EHC reported second-quarter 2026 results marked by revenue, earnings and discharge growth, prompting the inpatient rehabilitation provider to raise its full-year outlook.

Revenue increased 9.6% from the prior-year quarter, while adjusted EBITDA rose 9.2% to $348 million and adjusted earnings per share increased 10.7%, President and Chief Executive Officer Mark Tarr said on the company’s earnings call. The revenue increase reflected 5.6% discharge growth and a 3.9% increase in net revenue per discharge, according to Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Doug Coltharp.

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Healthcare Added 35,200 Jobs—3 Stocks Positioned to BenefitColtharp said the increase in net revenue per discharge was driven by higher patient acuity, including growth in medically complex categories such as stroke and brain injury. Same-store stroke volume rose 5.5%, while same-store brain injury volume increased 3.9%. Total growth in those categories was 7.9% and 8.0%, respectively. Knee and hip replacement volume increased about 1% during the quarter.

Guidance Raised Following Second-Quarter Results The company raised its full-year 2026 outlook and now expects net operating revenue of $6.41 billion to $6.49 billion, adjusted EBITDA of $1.365 billion to $1.395 billion, and adjusted EPS of $6.02 to $6.25.

More Than Yield: 5 Stocks Beating the Market and Hiking DividendsThe updated outlook incorporates an estimated 2.3% increase in net revenue per Medicare discharge beginning Oct. 1, based on the 2027 inpatient rehabilitation facility final rule issued by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on July 30. The company expects the rule’s Medicare pricing impact in the fourth quarter to be approximately 2.3%.

Encompass also revised its assumptions for salaries, wages and benefits per full-time equivalent employee, now expecting growth of 3.5% to 4.0% for 2026. Coltharp said the increase reflects greater participation in nursing and therapy career ladder programs, although the company expects the investments to support retention, quality and lower reliance on premium labor.

Premium labor costs declined $2.6 million year over year to $25 million in the quarter. Contract labor represented 1.1% of total FTEs, improving 20 basis points from the second quarter of 2025. The company has recorded 11 consecutive quarters of year-over-year declines in premium labor costs, Coltharp said.

However, Encompass reduced its expected 2026 net provider-tax benefit to adjusted EBITDA to approximately $10 million, from a prior expectation of roughly $21 million. The change stemmed primarily from retroactive adjustments related to the 2025 Florida Medicaid program.

Capacity Expansion Continues Demand for inpatient rehabilitation services remained strong, Tarr said. During the second quarter, Encompass opened a 50-bed hospital in Concordville, Pennsylvania, and a 40-bed hospital in Loganville, Georgia. The Loganville facility is the company’s eighth joint venture with Piedmont. It also added 10 beds at existing hospitals.

Through the first half of 2026, the company opened three hospitals totaling 139 beds and added 54 beds at existing facilities. It plans to open another five hospitals with 250 total beds during the remainder of the year and add between 100 and 150 beds to existing hospitals.

Encompass’ announced development pipeline beyond 2026 includes 13 hospitals and 606 beds. Management said it expects to announce additional projects, including smaller-format hospitals, later this year.

Systemwide occupancy was 77.4% in the second quarter, up 290 basis points from a year earlier. The company had 60 hospitals with occupancy above 90%, averaging 94% occupancy. About 90% of planned bed additions for the second half of 2026 and first half of 2027 are slated for hospitals in that highly occupied group.

New hospitals have generally reached four-wall positive EBITDA by month six and occupancy above 70% by month 10, Coltharp said. The company has lowered the occupancy threshold at which it begins evaluating bed expansions to 70% to 75%, compared with its historical range of 80% to 85%.

North Carolina Opportunity and Capital Allocation North Carolina repealed its certificate-of-need law for inpatient rehabilitation care effective Oct. 1. Encompass currently operates one hospital in the state and has identified 15 priority markets after conducting a market-by-market review. The company has three real-estate parcels under contract and expects its next North Carolina hospital opening in late 2028 or early 2029.

Management said the state could move the company toward the upper end of its target to open six to 10 new facilities annually beginning in 2029. The opportunity may also include a hub-and-spoke approach combining traditional hospitals and small-format facilities.

During the quarter, Encompass repurchased about 704,000 shares for $74.2 million, bringing year-to-date repurchases to approximately 1.41 million shares for $145.8 million. The company also increased its quarterly dividend to $0.21 per share, payable in October, and raised its share repurchase authorization to $1 billion.

The company issued $500 million of 5.875% senior notes due 2034 during the quarter and used most of the proceeds to redeem $400 million of 4.5% senior notes due 2028. Net leverage stood at 1.9 times at quarter-end.

Medicare Advantage Appeals and Workforce Programs Management said Medicare Advantage preauthorization denials remained a challenge, despite marginal improvement from the fourth quarter of 2025 and first quarter of 2026. Encompass has been piloting an “admit and appeal” program across nine hospital markets since late February.

Through July, the company had admitted 298 patients under the program. Of 144 cases that had been fully adjudicated, Encompass prevailed in 128 cases, an 89% success rate. Chief Operating Officer Pat Tuer said the company may initially expand the effort for diagnoses where results have been strongest, including potentially stroke patients, before considering a broader rollout by year-end.

The company also cited improvement in clinical turnover. Annualized nursing turnover was about 19%, the lowest level in more than 12 years, while therapy turnover was just above 7%, the lowest in five years. Tuer said 43% of eligible registered nurses and certified nurses participate in the company’s career ladder programs, and turnover among ladder participants was approximately 5%.

About Encompass Health (NYSE:EHC)Encompass Health Corporation is a leading provider of post‐acute healthcare services in the United States, operating a comprehensive network of inpatient rehabilitation hospitals and home health and hospice agencies. Its inpatient rehabilitation hospitals offer intensive therapy programs for patients recovering from conditions such as stroke, brain injury, spinal cord injury, cardiac and pulmonary disorders, and orthopedic procedures. Through its home health segment, Encompass Health delivers skilled nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy to patients in the comfort of their homes, while its hospice services provide end‐of‐life care focused on symptom management and emotional support for patients and families.

Founded in 1984 as HealthSouth Corporation and rebranded as Encompass Health in 2018, the company has grown organically and through acquisitions to serve patients across more than 30 states.

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3 Small-Cap Stocks to Watch After the Fed’s Rate CutsEmergent Biosolutions NYSE: EBS reported second-quarter 2026 revenue and adjusted EBITDA above its prior guidance and analyst consensus, driven by accelerated medical countermeasure deliveries to U.S. government customers. The company also lowered its full-year outlook as increased competition and pricing pressure in the naloxone market are expected to weigh on sales of NARCAN.

Revenue for the second quarter totaled $234 million, above the high end of the company’s prior guidance range of $185 million. Adjusted EBITDA was $97 million, representing a 41% margin, compared with $33 million and a 23% margin in the year-earlier period. Year-to-date revenue reached $390 million, up from $363 million in the first half of 2025, while adjusted EBITDA increased to $132 million from $112 million.

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Big Rallies Brewing? 3 Analyst Favorites to Watch CloselyChief Executive Officer Joseph Papa said the results reflected “strong execution and acceleration” of medical countermeasure, or MCM, deliveries during the quarter. MCM revenue totaled $168 million, which Papa said was the company’s highest second-quarter MCM revenue since 2020.

Medical Countermeasures Drive First-Half Performance Emergent said its MCM business remains a central growth driver, supported by contracts with the U.S. government and international customers. During the quarter, the company received a $52.7 million contract modification for ACAM2000 and a $64.5 million contract modification for botulism antitoxin. It secured more than 10 contract awards year to date.

Watch These 4 Overbought Stocks As Market Rotation ContinuesInternational MCM sales accounted for approximately 20% of total first-half 2026 MCM revenue, according to Papa. The company cited continued engagement with U.S. and allied governments amid heightened concerns about biodefense preparedness.

Papa also said Emergent is seeking to collaborate with artificial intelligence leaders and partners to address potential bioterrorism risks and improve preparedness. He noted that the company continues to pursue programs including TEMBEXA, Ebanga and Raxibacumab. The MOSA study in Africa, which is evaluating TEMBEXA in Mpox, has enrolled more than 100 patients, with additional sites being opened by the study sponsor and partners.

During the quarter, Emergent received Saudi Food and Drug Authority approval for ACAM2000 and approval from Singapore’s Health Sciences Authority to expand ACAM2000’s label to include an Mpox indication.

NARCAN Competition Prompts Restructuring and Impairment Management said the naloxone market changed late in the second quarter with a new 4-milligram over-the-counter nasal naloxone approval on June 16 and the anticipated August launch of a 10-milligram prescription product. The company also cited more aggressive pricing across the category.

Papa said Emergent believes NARCAN retains more than 50% of the naloxone market and remains the market leader. However, he said the company expects further price erosion as new competitors enter the market. Management expects overall naloxone unit demand to remain relatively flat.

In response, Emergent announced restructuring actions expected to generate about $40 million in annualized net savings. The measures include:

A reduction of approximately 90 positions; The closure of two wet laboratories in Maryland; The sale of an underutilized office building for $6.4 million; and An exit from a central warehouse lease. The company expects to incur approximately $11 million in costs to achieve the savings. Papa said the company will begin realizing some savings in 2026, with the full $40 million annualized run rate expected in 2027.

Chief Financial Officer Rich Lindahl said Emergent recorded a non-cash impairment charge of approximately $191 million during the second quarter related to the NARCAN asset group. The charge reflected the company’s revised assessment of expected future cash flows amid pricing and competitive developments. Lindahl said the impairment does not affect cash, liquidity, operating cash flow or adjusted EBITDA, but will reduce GAAP net income.

Emergent plans to seek growth in the commercial franchise through additional NARCAN offerings, including a carrying case, multipack configurations and wall kits.

Outlook Lowered on Commercial Revenue Pressure Emergent lowered its full-year 2026 revenue guidance to $645 million to $675 million, from a prior range of $720 million to $760 million. The revision primarily reflects lower expected commercial revenue in the second half due to increased NARCAN competition and naloxone pricing and volume pressure.

The company maintained its view that MCM revenue would be flat to slightly down for the full year, with the first-half benefit from accelerated deliveries already reflected in reported results.

GAAP net loss: $245 million to $225 million Adjusted net income: $10 million to $30 million Adjusted EBITDA: $130 million to $150 million, down from prior guidance of $155 million to $175 million Adjusted gross margin: 42% to 44% Third-quarter revenue: $110 million to $130 million At June 30, Emergent had $140 million in cash and $190 million in total liquidity. Gross debt was $590 million and net debt was $450 million. Lindahl said the company collected $145 million through July from accounts receivable outstanding at quarter-end, describing the collections as normal working-capital activity rather than a securitization or financing transaction.

The company completed a term loan refinancing in April, establishing a $150 million term loan maturing in 2031. Its board also authorized a $75 million program to repurchase senior unsecured notes. During the second quarter, Emergent repurchased 1.1 million shares for approximately $9 million, bringing year-to-date share repurchases to $18 million.

About Emergent Biosolutions (NYSE:EBS)Emergent BioSolutions is a global specialty biopharmaceutical company focused on developing, manufacturing and commercializing medical countermeasures and specialty products that address public health threats. The company's portfolio includes vaccines, antibody therapies and critical care products designed to protect against biological, chemical and emerging infectious disease threats. Emergent has longstanding partnerships with government agencies, including the U.S. Department of Defense and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), to support national preparedness programs.

Key commercial products in Emergent's lineup include BioThrax (anthrax vaccine adsorbed), ACAM2000 (smallpox vaccine) and Vaxchora (cholera vaccine), alongside therapeutic treatments such as Anthrasil (anthrax immune globulin) and the naloxone-based nasal spray Narcan for opioid overdose reversal.

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From High-Yield to High-Growth: 3 Stocks Boosting DividendsDevon Energy NYSE: DVN said second-quarter execution exceeded its guidance targets as the company advanced integration work following its May 7 merger with Coterra, identified more than 350 synergy initiatives and completed its 2026 debt-reduction target.

Second-quarter results included legacy Devon operations for the full period and Coterra operations beginning May 7. President and Chief Executive Officer Clay Gaspar said the company generated $1.7 billion in adjusted free cash flow while exceeding guidance for oil production, total production and capital spending.

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Devon Energy Bets on Scale With Coterra Acquisition“We outperformed our second quarter guidance across the key value drivers,” Gaspar said. “That execution translated into a $1.7 billion adjusted free cash flow.”

Production, costs and capital spending beat guidance Chief Financial Officer Shane Young said oil production averaged 503,000 barrels per day, or 1.6% above the midpoint of guidance. Total production reached 1.36 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, at the top end of the company’s forecast range.

3 Dividend Stocks Offering Higher Yields and Bullish ForecastsTotal operating costs, including gathering, processing and transportation expenses, were $8.23 per barrel of oil equivalent, 2% better than the midpoint of guidance. Capital expenditures totaled $1.3 billion, 2.4% below the midpoint, Young said.

Gaspar said the company’s reinvestment rate improved to 43% of cash flow, compared with rates in the mid-50% range over the preceding two years. He attributed the performance to well productivity and drilling and completion efficiencies.

Following first-half execution, Devon tightened its full-year 2026 oil-production guidance to 495,000 to 505,000 barrels per day. The company expects total volumes of about 1.4 million barrels of oil equivalent per day and full-year capital spending of $4.8 billion to $5 billion.

For the third quarter, Devon forecast oil production of 550,000 to 560,000 barrels per day, total production of 1.66 million to 1.69 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, and capital spending of $1.4 billion to $1.5 billion. Young said the quarter should be the company’s highest-capital quarter of 2026, reflecting a full quarter of combined operations and some spending that shifted from the second quarter. Capital spending is expected to decline in the fourth quarter as activity decreases in the Marcellus, Anadarko and Powder areas.

Merger integration and shareholder returns Gaspar said Devon is confident it can achieve at least $1 billion in annual synergies by year-end 2027. The company has identified more than 350 initiatives across capital optimization, operating margins and corporate costs.

The capital initiatives include lower drilling and completion costs, supply-chain benefits and reallocating 2027 spending toward more efficient uses. Operational plans include consolidating field activities, leveraging infrastructure and improving gathering, processing, transportation and revenue deductions. Corporate initiatives include eliminating redundancies and lowering the cost of capital.

Young said Devon returned more than $1 billion during the second quarter through dividends, share repurchases and debt reduction. The company paid a quarterly dividend of $0.32 per share, up 33% from the first quarter, totaling $366 million. It also repurchased 4.3 million shares during the final seven weeks of the quarter after buybacks resumed following the merger closing.

Devon retired $250 million of senior notes and $250 million of term-loan debt during the quarter. In July, it retired the remaining $750 million of its term loan scheduled to mature in the third quarter. The company said it has now completed its $1.25 billion debt-reduction target for 2026. It ended the quarter with $4 billion in liquidity, including $1 billion of cash. Devon’s remaining repurchase authorization was $7.8 billion, which Young said would be deployed through a combination of systematic and opportunistic repurchases. The company is targeting approximately $9 billion of total debt by year-end 2027, a level it said is achievable largely through maturities occurring during 2027.

Permian lease sale adds inventory Devon highlighted its acquisition of federal acreage in New Mexico’s Delaware Basin, which it said added approximately 400 premium drilling locations. Gaspar said the headline acquisition cost was $6.5 million per location, but the acreage’s 12.5% federal royalty rate—roughly half the typical royalty burden for state and private acreage—provided an estimated $2.5 million per-location benefit. That implied an effective cost of roughly $4 million per location, he said.

The acreage was undeveloped and adjacent to Devon’s existing footprint, according to Gaspar. He said the location could support longer laterals and benefit from the company’s existing water, gas-gathering and electrical infrastructure. Devon is already filing permits and expects the acreage to play a meaningful role in its 2027 program.

Gaspar said the federal lease sale was the last Delaware Basin federal sale of that scale. Going forward, the company expects to focus on acreage trades and smaller bolt-on acquisitions.

Technology and portfolio review remain priorities Management described technology as a key component of its operational and integration strategy. Gaspar said Devon’s closed-loop artificial intelligence system is autonomously optimizing 1,000 wells in real time, with broader deployment planned. The company is also using proprietary subsurface models to predict well performance and optimize spacing and completion designs.

Devon reported that its first 10 surfactant trial wells across six landing zones showed improved recovery versus offset control wells. John Raines, executive vice president of exploration and production for the Permian, said 90% of the trial wells showed material uplift and the company observed more than 15% uplift at 180 days. Devon plans to expand the completion-phase testing program to more than 50 wells this year.

The company is also conducting surfactant work during the production phase of wells in the Delaware Basin, with plans to scale that activity to about 20 jobs per month and evaluate expansion to the Williston Basin by year-end.

Meanwhile, Devon’s portfolio review remains underway. Gaspar said each asset is being evaluated on capital efficiency, free-cash-flow durability, market value and strategic fit within a Permian-centric business. He expects an update this fall and said the review would be measured in months rather than years.

On potential sale proceeds, Young said Devon would first address associated tax obligations and then assess the effect of any divestiture on cash flow, credit capacity and its debt target. He said possible uses could include debt reduction, opportunistic repurchases, dividend support or, for a sufficiently large transaction, an accelerated share-repurchase program.

About Devon Energy (NYSE:DVN)Devon Energy Corporation NYSE: DVN is an independent oil and gas exploration and production company headquartered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The company focuses on the exploration, development, production and marketing of hydrocarbons, including crude oil, natural gas liquids (NGLs) and natural gas. Devon operates as an upstream energy company that acquires, evaluates and develops onshore resource plays using a combination of drilling, completion and production optimization techniques.

Core business activities include identifying and developing energy reserves, operating well programs and managing reservoir performance to generate production and cash flow.

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Crane Stock Soars, But the Best Could Be Yet to Come: Here's WhyCrane NXT NYSE: CXT reported second-quarter 2026 sales of $493 million, up 22% from a year earlier, as organic growth in its Security and Authentication Technologies business and contributions from Antares Vision supported results. The company raised its full-year adjusted earnings-per-share outlook following what management described as a strong first half of the year.

Adjusted EBITDA was $115 million in the quarter, representing an adjusted EBITDA margin of about 23% and 150 basis points of organic margin expansion, according to Chief Financial Officer Christina Cristiano. Adjusted EPS increased 13% year over year to $1.10, while adjusted free cash flow totaled $79 million, for a conversion ratio of approximately 124%.

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Crane can fly to new highs in 2024“We are executing against our value creation priorities, delivering growth, building on our leadership positions, and driving operational excellence through organic margin expansion and strong free cash flow,” President and Chief Executive Officer Aaron Saak said.

Guidance Raised on Sales Momentum and Lower Non-Operating Expense Crane NXT raised its 2026 adjusted EPS guidance to a range of $4.22 to $4.42 per share. The revised outlook reflects higher expected sales in the Security and Authentication Technologies, or SAT, segment as well as an improved forecast for non-operating expense.

The company maintained its forecast for total sales growth of 15% to 17% for the year and continues to expect adjusted EBITDA margin of approximately 24%. It lowered its forecast for non-operating expense to approximately $80 million from $85 million, citing anticipated debt paydown and lower borrowing costs.

For the third quarter, Crane NXT expects low-double-digit sales growth overall and an adjusted EBITDA margin in the mid-20% range. SAT sales are expected to be flat to slightly down from the prior year because of a strong 2025 comparison, while Detection and Traceability Technologies, or DTT, sales are projected to rise in the mid-20% range.

Management said revenue in the second half will be more weighted toward the fourth quarter, in line with normal seasonality.

Currency Demand Drives SAT Growth and Record Backlog Second-quarter SAT sales totaled $227 million, rising about 17% year over year. Organic sales increased approximately 10%, driven by sustained international currency demand. The segment also benefited from one month of contribution from the De La Rue Authentication acquisition, which closed in May 2025.

Adjusted EBITDA in SAT was $59 million, with a 26% margin. Organic adjusted EBITDA margin expanded by about 200 basis points year over year, reflecting productivity actions in the currency business and planned authentication synergies.

SAT backlog reached a record of approximately $500 million. Saak said the company is adding capacity through partnerships and through expansion of micro-optics facilities in the U.S. and Europe. He said the investments are intended to support high mid-single-digit growth in international currency over the next several years and eventually double the company’s micro-optics capabilities.

Crane NXT now expects high-single-digit to low-double-digit SAT sales growth for the full year, supported by international currency backlog and customer demand. The company also renewed its U.S. passport paper contract with the U.S. Government Publishing Office, extending the relationship for another 10 years.

Within authentication, management expects to end 2026 with a mid-teens EBITDA margin. Cristiano said the company expects mid-single-digit revenue growth in authentication during the second half and approximately 100 basis points of margin expansion for the SAT segment for the full year.

Antares Integration Supports DTT Results DTT sales increased 26% year over year to $267 million, reflecting a full-quarter contribution from Antares Vision. The company expects Antares to contribute approximately $200 million to $210 million of sales in 2026, with the fourth quarter representing its largest quarterly contribution because of historical seasonality.

Management said Antares had been part of Crane NXT for about 150 days at the time of the call and that integration efforts were progressing. Saak said the company has implemented the Crane Business System, including training and Kaizen events, to pursue productivity and margin-improvement opportunities.

Antares backlog was approximately $125 million within DTT’s total segment backlog of $257 million. Crane NXT expects to deliver that Antares backlog over the next 12 months.

Saak said the company expects Antares to generate adjusted EBITDA margins in the teens for 2026 and to increase those margins into the low 20% range over the next several years. He also cited potential longer-term opportunities to apply authentication technology in pharmaceutical markets and leverage currency-business relationships in emerging markets for pharmaceutical traceability initiatives.

CPI Hardware Softness Offset by Margin Actions Crane Payment Innovations, or CPI, faced softer hardware demand, particularly in retail-related custom projects, while services continued to grow in the mid-single digits. CPI backlog was approximately $132 million at quarter-end, up about 10% sequentially, and the business reported a book-to-bill ratio of approximately 1.1 times.

Despite softer hardware demand, DTT expanded organic EBITDA margin by approximately 240 basis points through pricing discipline and productivity actions. Management expects CPI sales to decline in the low single digits in the third quarter before improving to low-single-digit growth in the fourth quarter.

For the full year, Crane NXT expects CPI sales to be slightly down, including mid-single-digit services growth, low-single-digit vending growth and a mid-single-digit decline in hardware sales.

Crane NXT ended the quarter with net leverage of approximately 2.7 times. The company plans to direct free cash flow toward debt reduction and expects to end 2026 with net leverage of about 2.3 times. Management maintained its expectation for full-year free-cash-flow conversion of 90% to 110%.

About Crane NXT (NYSE:CXT)Crane NXT, Co operates as an industrial technology company that provides technology solutions to secure, detect, and authenticate customers' important assets. The company operates through Crane Payment Innovations and Crane Currency segments. The Crane Payment Innovations segment offers electronic equipment and associated software, as well as advanced automation solutions, processing systems, field service solutions, remote diagnostics, and productivity software solutions. The Crane Currency segment provides advanced security solutions based on proprietary technology for securing physical products, including banknotes, consumer goods, and industrial products.

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CareTrust REIT NYSE: CTRE reported record second-quarter investment activity and raised its full-year 2026 guidance, citing continued deal flow across U.S. skilled nursing, U.K. care homes, senior housing operating properties (SHOP), and strategic real estate loans.

President and Chief Executive Officer David Sedgwick said the company closed approximately $900 million of investments during the second quarter at a blended stabilized yield of 8.9%, representing its largest quarterly investment total excluding M&A activity. He said the quarter also produced record revenue and funds from operations per share.

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“After two back-to-back record-setting years, we are again on pace to deliver in a big way for our operators and shareholders,” Sedgwick said.

Investment activity reaches $1.5 billion year to date Chief Investment Officer James Callister said CareTrust’s second-quarter investments covered the company’s full platform, including U.S. skilled nursing sale-leasebacks, U.K. care homes, SHOP investments, and loans to skilled nursing operators that were made alongside, or in anticipation of, asset acquisitions.

Since June 30, the company has closed an additional approximately $308 million of investments at a blended stabilized yield of about 7.8%. That activity included a 16-property U.K. care homes portfolio leased to a new CareTrust operator relationship and a $65 million, two-community addition to its SHOP platform.

CareTrust’s investments for 2026 stood at approximately $1.5 billion as of the call, comprising:

About $735 million in U.S. triple-net skilled nursing and senior housing investments; Approximately $397 million in U.K. care homes; Approximately $240 million in loans; and Approximately $81 million in SHOP investments. The company’s current investment pipeline totaled about $540 million, with roughly two-thirds tied to skilled nursing and one-third consisting of loans to strategic partners and U.K. care homes. Callister said the pipeline includes transactions the company has a reasonable level of confidence it can close within the next 12 months and generally excludes larger portfolios still under review.

While the immediate pipeline does not include SHOP opportunities, Callister said that reflects timing and underwriting discipline rather than a retreat from the property type. He said CareTrust continues to develop relationships with operators and managers that could help it move quickly when suitable opportunities arise.

SHOP competition remains intense Management said competition has been particularly significant in SHOP, where Callister said more private-market entrants have contributed to cap-rate compression and more competitive acquisition processes. The company is reviewing larger SHOP portfolios but said it remains selective about pricing and expected returns.

In response to questions about CareTrust’s more measured pace in SHOP compared with some peers, Sedgwick said SHOP is intended to be a long-term complementary growth engine rather than the company’s sole strategic focus. The company can instead allocate capital among its three growth areas, including skilled nursing and U.K. care homes.

Callister said the company typically loses SHOP opportunities on price when projected returns no longer meet its underwriting standards. He cited cases involving stable portfolios with occupancy in the mid-90% range that have been priced at mid- to low-5% capitalization rates, compared with skilled nursing and care-home opportunities generating yields in the high-8% to 9% range.

CareTrust said its U.K. team has broadened its sourcing beyond traditionally marketed transactions by cultivating operator and other industry relationships. Callister also said the company is considering structures beyond triple-net leases, including potential SHOP arrangements when appropriate.

FFO and FAD rise; guidance increases Chief Financial Officer Derek Bunker said normalized FFO increased 44% year over year to $119.7 million in the second quarter, while normalized funds available for distribution, or FAD, rose 43% to $118.5 million. On a per-share basis, normalized FFO and FAD were each $0.51, up approximately 19% from the prior-year period.

CareTrust raised its full-year 2026 outlook, now projecting normalized FFO per share of $2.03 to $2.06 and normalized FAD per share of $2.01 to $2.04. At the midpoint, the guidance would represent 16.2% growth in normalized FFO per share and approximately 15.1% growth in normalized FAD per share compared with 2025.

The updated outlook assumes no investments, loans, dispositions, debt issuances, or equity issuances beyond those completed year to date. It also assumes 2.5% inflation-based rent escalators under long-term triple-net leases, $147 million in loan repayments during the year, and no material change in the British pound-to-U.S. dollar exchange rate. Bunker said approximately $104 million of expected loan repayments had been received so far.

Liquidity and operator focus The company reported approximately $1.4 billion of liquidity, including about $90 million of cash, $605 million available under its revolving credit facility, and approximately $671 million in unsettled equity forward contracts. CareTrust also had about $785.8 million of capacity under its at-the-market equity program.

Net debt to annualized normalized run-rate EBITDA was 1.0 times at quarter-end, while fixed-charge coverage was 9.9 times, according to Bunker. The company has no scheduled debt maturities before 2028.

Sedgwick emphasized that CareTrust’s underwriting begins with operator selection. He said the company’s operators exceeded industry averages in overall star ratings, health inspections, quality measures, successful discharges, and readmission rates after managing facilities for at least four years.

Management said it remains willing to allow concentration with high-quality operators to build over time. Sedgwick said CareTrust would rather partner with what it considers an “A operator” in a less attractive market than accept a weaker operator in a stronger market.

On skilled nursing, Sedgwick described the current operating environment as stable from both a regulatory and reimbursement perspective. He said CareTrust views skilled nursing as an important component of the healthcare continuum and continues to see attractive risk-adjusted returns from the sector.

About CareTrust REIT (NYSE:CTRE)CareTrust REIT, Inc is a real estate investment trust based in Deerfield Beach, Florida, specializing in the ownership, acquisition and management of net-leased healthcare properties. The company primarily focuses on seniors housing and post-acute care facilities, entering into long-term, triple-net lease agreements with leading operators in the skilled nursing, assisted living, memory care, inpatient rehabilitation and specialty hospital sectors. Through its portfolio, CareTrust REIT aims to provide investors with stable and predictable rental income while supporting the ongoing demand for quality healthcare real estate across the United States.

Since its initial public offering in September 2013, CareTrust REIT has pursued a disciplined acquisition strategy, targeting properties in primary and select secondary markets.

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Delek Logistics Partners NYSE: DKL reported second-quarter adjusted EBITDA of approximately $144 million, a quarterly record and up from $127 million in the same period of 2025, as higher utilization at its Libby Gas Complex and stronger Permian crude margins supported results.

The partnership reaffirmed its full-year 2026 adjusted EBITDA guidance of $520 million to $560 million. President and Chairman Avigal Soreq said the results reflected the company’s position as a provider of crude, gas and water services in the Permian Basin, while management said it expects roughly 80% of run-rate EBITDA in 2026, on a pro forma basis, to come from third-party customers.

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“All three of our segments are doing well,” Soreq said, citing progress in gas operations, record performance in Delaware crude gathering and continued strength in the water business.

Gas volumes rise as sour-gas project advances Management said it is nearing completion of an integrated sour-gas processing, treating and acid-gas injection solution at the Libby Gas Complex in the Delaware Basin. The project includes expanded processing capacity, the company’s first AGI well, sour-gas gathering infrastructure and compressor stations.

Executive Vice President Mark Hobbs said the project is intended to address increasing sour-gas production in the region as some customer production shifts from sweet gas to sour gas. He said the completed system is expected to support producers’ future development plans and drive a “step change” in gas volumes later this year.

Gas volumes exceeded 80 million cubic feet per day during the second quarter, compared with approximately 64 million cubic feet per day in the first quarter, according to Hobbs. Both Libby One and Libby Two were operating well, he said, and the company expects utilization to increase as the sour-gas solution comes online.

Management also said it continues to evaluate future investments that could expand the Libby Complex in response to anticipated customer demand for additional sour-gas processing capacity.

Crude and water operations post higher volumes Delek Logistics’ Delaware crude-gathering operation delivered record volumes during the quarter. Hobbs said Delaware crude volumes exceeded 157,000 barrels per day, up from roughly 129,000 barrels per day in the first quarter.

Produced-water volumes across the Midland and Delaware basins increased to more than 687,000 barrels per day from 557,000 barrels per day in the prior quarter. The company attributed water-business performance in part to the integration of the H2O and Gravity acquisitions completed in late 2024 and early 2025, respectively.

Management said its combined crude, gas and water offering has improved its competitive position, particularly in Lea County, New Mexico. Hobbs said activity among producers in the Northern Delaware remains strong and that Delek Logistics’ infrastructure is located near customer acreage and drilling activity.

During the question-and-answer session, management said higher commodity prices and stronger Waha natural-gas prices have supported higher production forecasts for the second half of 2026 and for 2027. Mohit Bhardwaj, executive vice president of new energy, strategy and investor relations, said stronger Waha pricing is a relatively modest direct benefit to results but a more significant positive for volumes.

Segment results and capital program Gathering and processing adjusted EBITDA totaled $104 million in the second quarter, up from $78 million a year earlier. The increase was driven primarily by higher Libby utilization and stronger realized margins in the Permian crude business, Chief Financial Officer Robert Wright said.

Wholesale marketing and terminaling adjusted EBITDA was approximately $13 million, compared with $23 million in the prior-year quarter. Wright said the decline was largely related to the effects of the 2024 amend-and-extend agreement with Delek. Storage and transportation adjusted EBITDA was $16 million, compared with $17 million a year earlier, primarily reflecting a January 2026 related-party transaction. Investments in pipeline joint ventures contributed $21 million of adjusted EBITDA, up from $17 million in the second quarter of 2025, led by continued results from the Wink-to-Webster joint venture. Total capital spending was approximately $61 million in the second quarter, including $51 million of growth capital. The growth spending primarily funded drilling of the first AGI well and construction of sour-gas gathering infrastructure, along with work on power solutions for the Libby Gas Complex.

The partnership expects its $180 million to $190 million full-year growth capital program to generate up to $75 million of run-rate EBITDA. Bhardwaj said the company expects about $15 million of that EBITDA contribution in 2026 and $60 million in 2027.

Distribution rises for 54th consecutive quarter Distributable cash flow, as adjusted, was approximately $81 million, while the distributable cash flow coverage ratio was about 1.33 times. The board approved a quarterly distribution of $1.135 per unit, marking the partnership’s 54th consecutive quarterly distribution increase.

Delek Logistics ended the quarter with a leverage ratio of 4.23 times, modestly higher than in the first quarter because of growth investments, Wright said. Management reiterated its long-term leverage target of 3.5 times but said it expects to manage around 4 times while pursuing growth opportunities and reduce leverage as the expected EBITDA from new projects is realized.

During the quarter, the company issued $800 million of senior notes due 2034, fully retired its 2028 notes and partially redeemed its 2029 notes. Wright said the refinancing lowered annual interest costs and extended the partnership’s maturity profile. Liquidity stood at approximately $1.1 billion at quarter-end.

Soreq said the company will continue to consider acquisitions, but only when they are accretive to leverage, coverage and free cash flow and align with its broader strategy.

About Delek Logistics Partners (NYSE:DKL)Delek Logistics Partners L.P. NYSE: DKL is a master limited partnership formed in 2011 through contributions of pipeline, terminal and crude oil gathering assets by its sponsor, Delek US Holdings, Inc Headquartered in Brentwood, Tennessee, the partnership is managed by Delek Logistics GP, LLC, an affiliate of Delek US. Delek Logistics Partners owns and operates an integrated network of petroleum pipelines and terminals that support the movement, storage and throughput of crude oil and refined products.

The partnership's core operations include crude oil gathering and processing systems, long-haul pipeline transportation and storage terminal services.

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Ginkgo Bioworks NYSE: DNA reported second-quarter 2026 revenue of $20 million, down 48% from the year-earlier period, as the company continued to shift its focus toward autonomous laboratory systems, contract research services and related software.

Chief Executive Officer Jason Kelly said the company’s priorities for 2026 remain investing in autonomous labs, expanding its Nebula autonomous laboratory in Boston, and pursuing new sales to biopharma companies, national laboratories and research universities.

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The company also reaffirmed its full-year cash-burn guidance of $125 million to $150 million. Ginkgo ended the quarter with $302 million in cash and cash equivalents, along with $87 million of restricted cash designated for certain customers and operating activities, Kelly said.

Financial Results and Cash Burn Chief Financial Officer Steve Coen said Ginkgo’s former Biosecurity business, which was divested in a transaction completed April 3, is classified as discontinued operations. Financial commentary for the quarter relates exclusively to continuing operations, which the company now reports as one segment.

Revenue totaled $40 million for the first six months of 2026, a 49% decline from the prior-year period. Coen noted that the first half of 2025 included $7.5 million of non-cash revenue related to the mutual termination of the BiomEdit agreement. Excluding that amount, first-half revenue declined about 42% year over year.

Research and development expense was $30 million, down 4% from $31 million a year earlier. General and administrative expense was $12 million, down 26% from $16 million in the prior-year quarter. Net loss from continuing operations was $57 million, compared with a $53 million loss a year earlier. Adjusted EBITDA was negative $36 million, compared with negative $25 million in the second quarter of 2025. Second-quarter cash burn was $45 million, compared with $38 million a year earlier. For the first half of 2026, cash burn was $93 million, down 3% from $96 million in the prior-year period. Coen said first-quarter cash burn included a $14 million payment to Google Cloud related to an amended 2025 commitment. The revised arrangement reduced future minimum commitments by more than $100 million and extended the commitment term to six years from three years, he said.

Adjusted EBITDA included $14 million in costs associated with excess leased space during the second quarter, up from $12 million a year earlier. Coen said those expenses consist of rent and related charges on unoccupied space, net of sublease income, and could potentially be reduced through additional subleasing.

Ginkgo raised $17 million through its at-the-market equity program during the quarter. The company excludes those proceeds from its cash-burn calculation.

Autonomous Lab Expansion Kelly said Ginkgo expanded Nebula, its Boston autonomous lab, to 105 racks after adding roughly 50 racks during the quarter. He said the expansion was installed and operating within approximately three weeks after the racks had been manufactured.

The system uses a track-and-robotic-arm configuration to move samples among laboratory devices. According to Kelly, Nebula operates continuously and on an average day can run about 30 unique protocols submitted by scientists, with more than 100 protocol copies across the system’s devices.

Kelly said Ginkgo is working to move a majority of its internal laboratory work to Nebula over time. The company expects the system to improve the economics of its service offerings while serving as a demonstration platform for prospective autonomous-lab customers.

He contrasted the company’s autonomous-lab approach with more conventional laboratory work cells, which can automate repeated tasks but generally lack flexibility for new experimental protocols. Kelly said Ginkgo is seeking to combine the continuous operation of automated systems with the flexibility of manual laboratory benches.

Government and University Projects Ginkgo said it is building an autonomous laboratory system for Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Kelly said the company had previously installed the first 13 racks at the Department of Energy laboratory and expects the project to expand to a 97-rack system.

The company also said it was selected to build autonomous labs for MIT, Caltech, the University of Maryland and Northwestern University. Kelly said the Caltech, Maryland and Northwestern projects are part of a National Science Foundation program, while MIT’s project is funded through a separate grant.

Coen said revenue from large automation projects is generally recognized when equipment is delivered and installation is completed. He said the national laboratory project has generated some preliminary-contract revenue, but revenue from the larger installation will be recognized upon delivery and completion of installation.

In addition to equipment revenue, Coen said autonomous-lab contracts can include support, maintenance, custom work and software licensing revenue that may continue after installation.

Datapoints Services and Drug Discovery Offering Ginkgo also highlighted its Datapoints contract research offerings, including a recently launched service called ADME-One. The service provides a panel of five assays used to assess absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion properties of small-molecule drug candidates.

Kelly said Ginkgo is offering the service for $199 per panel, compared with prices he cited of $2,000 to $5,000 from Western contract research organizations and $1,000 to $2,500 from Chinese providers. The offering includes partnerships with Inductive Bio for pharmacokinetic projections and Tangible Scientific for compound management, he said.

The company said it has conducted internal quality-control testing and comparisons with external vendors for the assays. Kelly also said Ginkgo plans to add plate-based chemistry, chemical purification and inert-atmosphere chemistry capabilities to its automated operations.

Coen said Datapoints revenue is recognized over time, similar to Ginkgo’s legacy services business. He said Datapoints projects are generally smaller than historical projects and typically run from three to nine months, though some can extend longer.

About Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE:DNA)Ginkgo Bioworks, Inc is a synthetic biology company that designs custom microbes for customers across a range of industries. Utilizing a proprietary organism foundry platform, the company engineers cells to produce high-value chemicals, enzymes, and other biological materials. By integrating automation, data analytics and machine learning, Ginkgo Bioworks seeks to accelerate the development of biologically derived solutions at industrial scale.

The company's services span the entire development cycle, from genetic design and strain optimization to fermentation and downstream processing.

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