Track market-moving stories before they get noisy

On Mad Money, a recent caller pressed Jim Cramer on Cerebras Systems (NASDAQ:CBRS) with a pointed setup: “Last week, CrowdStrike chose Cerebras to power their real-time Falcon AI detection. When George Kurtz vouches for your inference feed, isn’t it time to stop treating Cerebras like a post-IPO trade?”

Cramer conceded the valuation math. “It’s certainly reasonable to say it’s down so much and the P/E multiple is not that high,” he said. Then he redirected the money. “I don’t want to buy a lot of tech. The only one that I’m currently buying is Intel, which I think has better prospects than Cerebras. But I like your logic.”

That is a narrow, deliberate call. Cramer is holding his tech book steady and directing fresh capital toward the legacy incumbent, which he sees as the one AI semiconductor name earning it right now over the hyper-growth pure play.

Why Intel Is Cramer’s Pick Intel (NASDAQ:INTC | INTC Price Prediction) delivered the kind of quarter that supports Cramer’s conviction. Q2 FY2026 revenue landed at $16.13 billion, up 25.4% year over year, described by CEO Lip-Bu Tan as “strongest revenue growth in more than fifteen years.” Non-GAAP EPS of $0.42 beat the $0.2175 estimate by 93.1%, a swing from prior-year losses to real operating profit.

The AI story is now on Intel’s income statement. The Data Center and AI segment posted $6.26 billion in revenue, up 59% year over year, and Intel Foundry grew 31% even as it absorbed a $2.1 billion quarterly operating loss. Tan framed the setup this way: “AI is driving unprecedented demand for compute, and as we continue to execute, Intel is well-positioned to capture sustainable growth across our CPU franchise, ASICs, advanced packaging and vast wafer foundry network.” The full release is available in Intel’s Q2 2026 8-K filing.

The stock has already run hard. INTC is up 148.43% year to date and 342.85% over the past year, closing at $91.67 on July 27 before slipping 5.69% on Tuesday. Forward P/E sits at 105, with the average analyst target at $115.65. Backing the turnaround: an NVIDIA $5 billion equity investment, SoftBank’s $2 billion stake, and a U.S. government equity position tied to CHIPS Act funding.

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The Cerebras Case Cramer Won’t Take Cerebras is the harder trade to justify on fundamentals despite genuine momentum. Q1 FY2026 revenue was $193.4 million, up 94% year over year, driven by a Cloud and Other Services segment that grew 178%. Yet the company posted a GAAP loss of $0.22 per share and carries negative shareholders’ equity of -$194.7 million.

Guidance is where the margin story gets uncomfortable. Management pointed Q2 core gross margin to 36-38%, with core operating margins of -30% to -32%. Full-year 2026 core revenue is guided to $855 million to $865 million. CEO Andrew Feldman’s framing remains aggressive: “Cerebras’ wafer-scale technology delivers the fastest AI in the world. And fast AI is more valuable than slow AI because it is more productive.” Details are in the company’s Q1 2026 8-K.

Cramer’s comment about the multiple has data behind it. CBRS closed at $188.61 on July 27, down 39.37% from its post-IPO peak of $311.07 on May 14. The $20 billion, 750MW OpenAI inference deal is real, and so is customer concentration risk. That is the fork Cramer is trading around.

What Investors Should Watch Cramer is threading a specific needle: buying the profitable-turnaround AI beneficiary with government and NVIDIA backing while acknowledging Cerebras’s valuation reset. Reddit sentiment on INTC has skewed bearish to very bearish over the past 30 days, with retail investors flagging dot-com era valuations. That makes his call a contrarian one, anchored to Intel’s Q3 guide of $15.8 billion to $16.8 billion in revenue and non-GAAP EPS of $0.38. The next earnings report will tell investors whether the DCAI curve keeps bending up or whether Cerebras’s speed-of-inference pitch starts pulling incumbent CPU dollars.

Don't wait: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just revealed his top 10 AI stocks. See the full list FREE now.

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

W. P. Carey Inc. (WPC) Q2 2026 Earnings Call July 29, 2026 11:00 AM EDT

Company Participants

Peter Sands - Executive Director & Head of Investor Relations
Jason Fox - CEO, President & Board Member
ToniAnn Sanzone - MD & CFO
Brooks Gordon - MD & Head of Asset Management

Conference Call Participants

Spenser Allaway - Green Street Advisors, LLC, Research Division
James Feldman - Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division
Mitch Germain - Citizens JMP Securities, LLC, Research Division
Jana Galan - BofA Securities, Research Division
Jason Wayne - Barclays Bank PLC, Research Division
Bennett Rose - Citigroup Inc., Research Division
John Kim - BMO Capital Markets Equity Research
Anthony Paolone - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division
Greg McGinniss - Scotiabank Global Banking and Markets, Research Division
James Kammert - Evercore ISI Institutional Equities, Research Division
Brad Heffern - RBC Capital Markets, Research Division
Michael Goldsmith - UBS Investment Bank, Research Division

Presentation

Operator

Hello, and welcome to W. P. Carey's Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Diego, and I will be your operator today. [Operator Instructions] Please note that today's event is being recorded. [Operator Instructions]

I will now turn today's program over to Peter Sands, Head of Investor Relations. Mr. Sands, please go ahead.

Peter Sands
Executive Director & Head of Investor Relations

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for our 2026 Second Quarter Earnings Call. Before we begin, I need to remind everyone that some of the statements made on this call are not historic facts and may be deemed forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from W. P. Carey's expectations are provided in our SEC filings. An online replay of this conference call will be made available in the Investor Relations section of our website at wpcarey.com, where it will be archived for approximately 1 year and where you can also find copies of

Key Takeaways Linde's Q2 EPS estimate of $4.49 implies 9.8% growth, while revenues are seen rising 5.5%.Long-term contracts, resilient end markets and a strong project backlog may support results.Weak European industry and Middle East conflict may pressure demand and EMEA performance. Linde plc (LIN - Free Report) is set to report second-quarter 2026 results on July 31, before the opening bell.

Let us delve into the factors that are likely to have influenced the performance of this global industrial gas producer. However, before that, it would be worth reviewing LIN’s performance in the previous quarter.

LIN’s Highlights of Q1 Earnings & Surprise HistoryIn the last reported quarter, Linde’s earnings of $4.33 per share beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $4.27, driven by stronger pricing and higher volumes from the Americas segment and increased APAC segment volumes. 

Linde’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the trailing four quarters, delivering an average surprise of 1.03%. This is depicted in the graph below: 

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for second-quarter earnings per share (EPS) is pegged at $4.49, with two upward and no downward revisions over the past seven days. The bottom-line estimate implies an improvement of 9.8% from the figure reported in the prior-year quarter.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for second-quarter revenues is pegged at $8.96 billion, indicating a year-over-year improvement of 5.5%. 

Factors to Note for LINLinde is a global leader in the production of industrial gases, such as oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and others, which are used across several end markets, including healthcare, manufacturing, chemicals & energy and food & beverage, in multiple geographies.

The company is expected to have sustained a stable performance in the to-be-reported quarter, supported by its long-term, take-or-pay contracts with major on-site clients. Linde is expected to have benefited from its operations across several resilient end markets, such as healthcare and food & beverage. Moreover, LIN’s strong project backlog is also expected to have contributed positively to its earnings.

However, challenges are likely to have persisted, particularly due to weaker industrial activity in Europe, which may have dampened growth across cyclical end markets like Chemicals & Energy and Manufacturing. Moreover, the Middle East conflict may have further weighed on manufacturing activity in the region, resulting in softer demand for Linde's products and affecting the EMEA segment results.

These factors are anticipated to have affected demand and pricing dynamics, potentially hampering Linde’s quarterly performance.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for operating profit in the Americas segment is pegged at $1.3 billion, up from $1.21 billion reported in the second quarter of 2025.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for operating profit from the Engineering business unit is pinned at $94 million for the second quarter, up from $90 million recorded a year ago.

LIN's Earnings WhispersOur proven model does not conclusively predict an earnings beat for Linde this time. The combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) increases the chances of an earnings beat. That is not the case here, as you will see below.

Earnings ESP: Linde’s Earnings ESP is -0.10%. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

Zacks Rank: The company currently carries a Zacks Rank #3.

Stocks to ConsiderHere are some other stocks that you may want to consider, as these, too, have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat this reporting cycle.

The Chemours Company (CC - Free Report) is a major provider of performance chemicals that are used in end-products and processes across a host of industries. The company has an Earnings ESP of +27.17% and a Zacks Rank #1. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

The Chemours Company is scheduled to release second-quarter 2026 earnings on Aug. 4. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings is pegged at 43 cents per share, which suggests a 25.9% decline from the prior-year reported figure.

Huntsman Corporation (HUN - Free Report) manufactures diversified organic chemical products and markets them to a wide range of industrial and consumer customers. The company currently has an Earnings ESP of +4.31% and a Zacks Rank #3. 

Huntsman is scheduled to release second-quarter 2026 earnings on July 30. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for HUN’s earnings is pegged at 6 cents per share, indicating a 130% increase from the prior-year reported figure.

Minerals Technologies Inc. (MTX - Free Report) is involved in the production and marketing of a wide range of specialty mineral, mineral-based and synthetic mineral products. The company currently has an Earnings ESP of +5.52% and a Zacks Rank #2.

Minerals Technologies is scheduled to release second-quarter 2026 earnings on July 30. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for MTX’s earnings is pegged at $1.64 per share, indicating a 5.8% increase from the prior-year reported figure.

LayerZero [ZRO] is down more than 11% in the past 24 hours as trading activity waned. ZRO was slumping while major cryptos like Bitcoin [BTC], Ethereum [ETH], and Ripple [XRP] gained almost 2%.

The more bearish signals were pointing to why LayerZero was declining despite a daily increase in mindshare. Mindshare rose by 28% with 3.46K engagements and mentions due to a partnership with Near Protocol [NEAR]. What were these bearish signals?

ZRO price prediction: Are traders bracing for more losses? The main signal was the bearish market structure. Since equaling last October’s peak of $2.593 on the 11th of February, ZRO has been making lower levels.

ZRO broke below the sideways range between $1.244 and $2.593 last month. It confirmed the breakdown with a double retest of the $1.244 level, turning it from support to resistance.

LayerZero now appears to be trading toward the low created on October 10th’s crypto market crash. Since February, buy orders have dominated aggregate liquidations, resulting in long squeezes.

Additionally, the CVD shows selling pressure is gaining pace once again. In fact, more than 142K ZRO tokens were being sold at the time of press.

Source: ZRO/USDT on TradingView Therefore, it raises the question of whether the drop will continue down to the October 10 low of $0.310. Structurally, it looks like the more likely scenario, especially if the $0.740 zone breaks.

On the other hand, ZRO price is forming a consolidation with a triple touch of the zone. And the fourth one is coming. But why is ZRO more likely to break?

What’s heightening the price decline? Long liquidations were spiking with almost no short liquidations. This amplified the price drop, with $512K long positions wiped out compared to $5.77K worth of shorts. These figures showed bulls lost to bears by a magnitude of 10x.

Source: CoinGlass More leverage favored shorts. As per CoinGlass, cumulative short liquidation leverage was about $1 million between $0.799 and $0.885. On the other hand, long positions totaled $378.5K between $0.700 and $0.783.

These leveraged short orders indicated bears outweighed bulls by a 3x magnitude.

Furthermore, there was looming selling pressure from token unlocks. Every 20th day of the month, LayerZero has cliff unlocks of 25.71 million ZRO. This was equivalent to 4.40% of the released supply, which was 363.28 million ZRO tokens.

Source: Tokenomist Therefore, ZRO remains bearish with $0.310 as the most viable demand zone if market conditions remain the same.

Final Summary LayerZero declined by 11% in the past 24 hours as the price continued to break below key structural levels.  Long liquidations, upcoming token unlocks, and leveraged short orders add selling pressure to ZRO. 

AbbVie (ABBV +1.26%), one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies, is usually considered a blue chip dividend stock rather than a higher-growth one. Yet over the past five years, its stock has rallied 125% and delivered a total return of 170% with reinvested dividends.

AbbVie has raised its dividend for 53 consecutive years (including its history as part of Abbott Laboratories (ABT +1.21%) up to 2013), putting it in the elite club of Dividend Kings that have boosted their payouts each year for at least half a century. It also still looks like a bargain at 18 times forward earnings. So is AbbVie one of the best healthcare stocks to buy right now?

Image source: Getty Images.

What happened to AbbVie over the past few years? Back in 2018, AbbVie's blockbuster autoimmune drug, Humira, accounted for 61% of its top line. To diversify its top line away from Humira, which was set to lose its U.S. patent exclusivity in 2023, it launched two immunology drugs, Skyrizi and Rinvoq, in 2019. It also acquired Allergan -- the developer of Botox -- in a $63 billion cash-and-stock deal in 2020.

Many investors still dreaded Humira's loss of patent exclusivity. But from 2021 to 2025, AbbVie's revenue still rose from $56.1 billion to $61.2 billion as stronger sales of Skyrizi and Rinvoq, the integration of Allergan's business, and new acquisitions offset that pressure.

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Its adjusted EPS still dipped from $11.85 to $10.00 as biosimilars squeezed Humira's margins, it recognized some big upfront charges from its acquisitions of ImmunoGen and Cerevel Therapeutics, and it ramped up its R&D investments to develop new drugs.

However, AbbVie proved the bears wrong by growing its top line and staying firmly profitable even after Humira faced more biosimilar competitors. Its annual free cash flow (FCF) dropped from $22.0 billion in 2021 to $17.8 billion in 2025, but it still easily covered its annual dividends -- which rose from $9.3 billion in 2021 to $11.7 billion in 2025.

What will happen to AbbVie over the next few years? From 2025 to 2028, analysts expect AbbVie's revenue and adjusted EPS to grow at CAGRs of 9% and 21%, respectively. That growth should be driven by the stabilization of Humira's year-over-year growth, soaring sales of Skyrizi and Rinvoq, and the growing importance of ImmunoGen's antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) and Cerevel's neuroscience assets.

Skyrizi and Rinvoq are already approved for inflammatory bowel disease, plaque psoriasis, and other dermatological conditions, and will likely be approved for additional uses over the next few years. AbbVie expects those two drugs to generate over $31 billion in combined sales by 2027 (which would be equivalent to 43% of its projected revenue for that year).

Both of those drugs will remain under patent protection well into the 2030s, giving AbbVie plenty of cash and time to develop and acquire more blockbuster drugs. It will also continue to expand its oncology and neuroscience portfolio to reduce its dependence on the immunology market.

Is it the right time to buy AbbVie? AbbVie pays a forward yield of 2.7%, which might not seem impressive compared to the 10-year Treasury's 4.6% yield or Pfizer's (PFE -0.24%) 7% yield. However, AbbVie has also easily outperformed Pfizer -- which lost more than 40% of its value over the past five years as it struggled with plummeting COVID-19 vaccine sales and upcoming patent expirations. AbbVie can also easily afford to continue raising its dividends for the foreseeable future.

AbbVie might not be an exciting investment, but it's a reliable dividend play for long-term investors. That's why I hold AbbVie as one of my top holdings (5.9% of my portfolio), and why I wouldn't hesitate to add more shares even as it hovers near its all-time high.

Key Takeaways SNAP reports Q2 results on Aug. 3, with revenues expected at $1.52B-$1.55B and consensus at $1.53B.SNAP faces Middle East disruption, restructuring charges and no Q2 revenues from the Perplexity partnership.Snap sees ad and Snapchat growth, while AI ad tools and newer formats aim to support monetization. Snap (SNAP - Free Report) is set to report second-quarter 2026 results on Aug. 3.

Snap expects second-quarter 2026 revenues to be in the range of $1.52-$1.55 billion. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenues is currently pegged at $1.53 billion, indicating a 13.97% increase from the year-ago quarter’s reported figure.

The consensus mark for the bottom line has remained steady at 7 cents per share in the past 30 days.

Snap’s earnings surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate twice in the trailing four quarters, while matching once and missing once, with an average negative surprise of 42.22%.

Let’s see how things have shaped up for the upcoming announcement.

Factors to NoteThe company expects adjusted EBITDA of $175 million to $200 million, an acceleration management attributed largely to North American advertising strength and a roughly 10% year-over-year rise in upfront ad commitments. Yet that same guidance embedded a full quarter of geopolitical disruption in the Middle East, a region that already dented March revenues by $20 million to $25 million, with no expectation of easing during the quarter.

Compounding the top-line pressure, the company confirmed the amicable end of its Perplexity partnership, meaning the second quarter carried zero contribution from that revenue source for the first time.

Management also flagged that total eCPMs remained under strain as ad inventory continued shifting toward newer, still-maturing surfaces like Spotlight and Sponsored Snaps, a mix shift that management itself acknowledged was margin-dilutive during its demand-building phase.

On profitability, the quarter absorbed the bulk of restructuring charges tied to April's workforce actions, guided at $95 million to $130 million, positioned by management as a direct headwind to net income even as the company pursued more than $500 million in annualized cost reduction for the back half of the year. Meanwhile, the commercial unveiling of Specs in June, priced at $2,195, thrust a capital-intensive hardware bet into the spotlight just as investor patience over the unit's cumulative spend appeared to be thinning, raising questions about near-term monetization versus long-term AR ambitions. The launch drew visible investor unease, with shares retreating in the sessions that followed.

Evolving regulatory scrutiny around age assurance, data privacy and advertising practices added another layer of uncertainty, with management cautioning that compliance costs could rise and engagement could be affected, though the timing and magnitude remained unclear heading into the print.

Despite the headwinds, direct-response advertising and Snapchat+ subscription growth remained ongoing contributors to revenue diversification, an area management has repeatedly flagged as a structural offset to platform-specific volatility. Newer ad surfaces such as Sponsored Snaps and Spotlight, while still margin-dilutive, were also expected to add incremental inventory and impressions as they scaled further into demand-building. Additionally, the June rollout of a broader suite of AI-powered capabilities across the ads stack was positioned by the company as a lever to improve ad relevance and advertiser return, a factor management suggested could support monetization even as macro and geopolitical crosscurrents persisted.

Between lingering geopolitical drag, restructuring-related net income pressure, a costly and unproven hardware push, and regulatory overhang, the balance of company-disclosed factors tilted toward caution. Until execution translates guidance into consistent, sustainable earnings, investors may find it prudent to stay on the sidelines ahead of the print.

What Our Model IndicatesPer the Zacks model, the combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) increases the odds of an earnings beat. That's not the case here.

Snap has an Earnings ESP of 0.00% and a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell). You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

Stocks to ConsiderArista Networks shares have gained 28.8% in the year-to-date period.

AMETEK (AME - Free Report) has an Earnings ESP of +0.39% and a Zacks Rank #2. AMETEK shares have lost 27% in the year-to-date period.

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD - Free Report) has an Earnings ESP of +1.56% and a Zacks Rank #2 at present. AMD shares have lost 0.4% in the year-to-date period.

Arista Networks, AMETEK and AMD are each set to report their upcoming quarterly results on Aug. 4.

It took Virtuals Protocol less than a month to turn Robinhood Chain into one of crypto’s busiest AI agent marketplaces. The protocol announced on July 29 that its infrastructure has facilitated over $200 million in agent trading volume on the platform, with more than 5,600 autonomous AI agents deployed and $2.7 million raised for builders across the ecosystem.

For context, Robinhood Chain only launched in early July 2026. Going from zero to $200 million in trading volume in roughly three weeks is the kind of growth curve that makes even seasoned crypto observers do a double-take.

Inside the agent economy Virtuals Protocol was integrated into Robinhood Chain from day one. The setup allows users to create, fund, and deploy autonomous AI agents that operate within tokenized markets, handling everything from yield automation to prediction markets.

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The protocol’s native token, VIRTUAL, serves as the backbone of this ecosystem. It handles governance, liquidity provision, and transaction fees across the platform. VIRTUAL has a total supply of 1 billion tokens, with approximately 657.5 million currently in circulation. Recent trading has seen the token hovering between $0.56 and $0.60.

Several agent-specific tokens have also emerged within the ecosystem, including $GTR and $PRIZE, creating a layered token economy where individual AI agents have their own tradeable assets.

Why Robinhood Chain matters here Robinhood Chain is built as an Arbitrum-based Layer 2, which means it inherits Ethereum’s security while offering faster and cheaper transactions. The chain’s focus sits squarely on DeFi and tokenized real-world assets.

The 5,600 agents launched so far span multiple use cases. Some focus on DeFi yield optimization, automatically moving capital between lending protocols to chase the best returns. Others operate in prediction markets, placing bets based on data analysis. Still others function as trading terminal tools, helping users execute more sophisticated strategies than they could manage manually.

Competitions and ecosystem growth Virtuals Protocol has hosted trading competitions designed to pull in new participants. A notable recent example was a Binance Wallet competition featuring a $60,000 prize pool.

What this means for investors VIRTUAL’s price range of $0.56 to $0.60 puts the token’s fully diluted valuation at roughly $560 million to $600 million, while the circulating market cap sits closer to $370 million to $395 million based on the 657.5 million circulating supply.

The $2.7 million in builder funding is a start, but it’s modest compared to the war chests deployed by more established Layer 2 networks.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

3 High-Yield Dividend Stocks With Real Capital Gains Potential in 2026Ares Capital NASDAQ: ARCC reported second-quarter core earnings of $0.47 per share, unchanged from the prior quarter, while GAAP net income rose to $0.24 per share from $0.13 in the first quarter. Chief Executive Officer Kort Schnabel said the company’s core earnings represented an annualized return on equity of 9.7% and reflected healthy portfolio performance despite subdued market activity.

The business development company said its portfolio continued to show organic weighted-average last-12-month EBITDA growth of about 8%, in line with its 10-year average. Schnabel said interest coverage, leverage and revolving-credit-facility utilization among portfolio companies remained near historical averages, while borrowers maintained average equity cushions of more than 50% below Ares Capital’s investments.

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Portfolio and Credit Performance Maximize Your Returns: 3 Dividend Stocks With Yields Over 5%Ares Capital ended the quarter with investments totaling $29.7 billion at cost and a portfolio valued at $29.3 billion at fair value, down slightly from $29.5 billion in the first quarter. Chief Financial Officer Scott Lem attributed the change principally to mark-to-market valuation adjustments and net repayment activity.

Net asset value was $13.9 billion, or $19.35 per share, down $0.24 per share sequentially. Lem said the company has increased NAV per share by more than 30% since inception while paying stable dividends.

3 Dividend-Yielding Stocks Too Cheap to Pass UpNon-accrual investments represented 2.4% of the portfolio at cost and 1.4% at fair value at quarter-end. President Jim Miller said the cost-based non-accrual rate remained below the company’s approximately 3% historical average since the global financial crisis and below an approximately 4% historical average for the BDC industry over the same period.

Management expects industry credit conditions to continue normalizing toward longer-term averages, though it said performance differences among managers have widened. Schnabel said Ares Capital added four investments to non-accrual during the quarter, but the companies were in unrelated businesses and did not indicate a sector-specific trend.

In response to questions about challenged portfolio companies, Schnabel said the company’s preference is for sponsors to provide additional capital and work with lenders rather than for Ares Capital to take control of businesses. He said the company is prepared to take control when necessary and views that capability as a competitive advantage.

Origination Activity and Market Conditions Ares Capital originated $2.6 billion of new investment commitments during the quarter across 20 industries and 38 sub-industries. About 75% of transactions involved existing borrowers, which management said demonstrated the value of its incumbent borrower and sponsor relationships.

While overall market transaction activity remained muted, Schnabel said Ares reviewed more than 25% more transactions than in the prior quarter. June was one of the company’s strongest months for transactions reviewed in the past two years, and management said the increased activity continued into July.

Miller said new senior loan commitments during the quarter carried average spreads 20 basis points wider than in the fourth quarter of 2025, while average upfront fees were 50 basis points higher. He said market terms had improved, particularly in the upper middle market, where fewer lenders have the scale to compete for larger transactions.

Schnabel said Ares Capital’s closing ratio was moderately below its historical average of roughly 5%, reflecting continued selectivity amid lower-quality deal flow earlier in the quarter. Management said it has recently seen deal quality improve alongside rising transaction volume.

The company said it committed to a nearly $2 billion credit facility during the second quarter, initially providing the full commitment before reducing its position. Schnabel said the ability to underwrite commitments of that size can create opportunities for higher fees and economics.

Management also said interest-rate volatility can be more disruptive to deal activity than the absolute level of rates, because buyers and sellers face more difficulty modeling financing costs under a wide range of potential rate outcomes.

Software and AI Exposure Schnabel said Ares Capital’s software investments continued to produce organic EBITDA growth above the broader portfolio average during the second quarter. The company has one small software loan on non-accrual and said its software debt investments have loan-to-value ratios in the low 40% range.

The company reiterated that its independent review of software-oriented portfolio companies found limited overall AI-related risk. Less than 50 basis points of the portfolio’s fair value was attributed to software investments considered higher AI risk, while less than 4% was attributed to medium or higher AI risk investments. Management said companies classified as medium risk were performing in line with the overall portfolio.

Liquidity, Funding and Dividend Ares Capital reported debt-to-equity leverage, net of available cash, of 1.12 times at quarter-end, effectively unchanged from the first quarter. The company had about $6 billion of available liquidity after repaying $1 billion of unsecured notes in July, Lem said.

During the quarter, the company completed approximately $1.2 billion of additional financing, including $800 million of unsecured notes and about $370 million of incremental commitments across two secured revolving credit facilities. It also launched what management described as the BDC sector’s first commercial paper program, with up to $1 billion of capacity.

Lem said commercial paper could lower funding costs by roughly 50 to 100 basis points compared with the company’s average secured borrowings at current market levels. The company made its first issuance under the program after the quarter ended and expects to use a few hundred million dollars of capacity initially.

The company declared a regular third-quarter dividend of $0.48 per share, payable Sept. 30 to shareholders of record Sept. 15. Ares Capital has paid stable or increasing regular quarterly dividends for 68 consecutive quarters, according to Lem. The company estimated taxable income spillover available for future distributions at approximately $988 million, or $1.38 per share.

About Ares Capital (NASDAQ:ARCC)Ares Capital Corporation NASDAQ: ARCC is a publicly traded business development company (BDC) that specializes in providing debt and equity financing solutions to U.S. middle-market companies. As a BDC, Ares Capital offers investors access to a diversified portfolio of tailored credit investments, including senior secured loans, unitranche financing, mezzanine debt and equity co-investments. The firm's flexible capital structures are designed to support companies seeking growth capital, refinancing or strategic acquisitions.

Through its credit platform, Ares Capital focuses on originations, underwriting and portfolio management across a range of industries, with a particular emphasis on sectors such as healthcare, technology, industrials and business services.

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].

Should You Invest $1,000 in Ares Capital Right Now?Before you consider Ares Capital, you'll want to hear this.

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Key Takeaways Southwest Airlines' adjusted EPS jumped 118.6% to 94 cents, beating the consensus estimate by 80.8%.LUV's operating margin rose 3.3 points to 6.7% as unit revenue gained 20.1% on nearly flat capacity.Southwest has $5.3 billion in liquidity, but fuel, Boeing dependence and higher costs cloud the rebound. Southwest Airlines Co. (LUV - Free Report) has a stronger investment case after a sharp earnings rebound and a major stock rally. Better revenue productivity, solid liquidity and shareholder returns support the recovery story.

The case is still balanced. Fuel exposure, Boeing-related execution risk and a valuation premium to the airline sub-industry limit how aggressively investors may want to chase the shares.

LUV’s Earnings Beat Strengthens the Bull CaseSouthwest Airlines reported second-quarter 2026 adjusted earnings of 94 cents per share, up 118.6% year over year. The result was 80.8% above the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 52 cents.

The earnings beat came despite a revenue miss. Operating revenues of $8.43 billion rose 16.4% but missed the consensus mark by 1.7%, showing that cost control and stronger unit economics were central to the quarter’s upside.

Southwest Airlines Restores Margin MomentumAdjusted operating income climbed 138.8% to $585 million. Adjusted operating margin expanded 3.3 percentage points to 6.7%, despite an $889 million year-over-year increase in fuel expense.

The improvement was not driven by broad volume growth. Capacity increased only 0.2%, while adjusted revenue per available seat mile jumped 20.1%, helped by higher fares, disciplined capacity, assigned and extra-legroom seating, bag fees and better revenue management.

LUV’s Valuation Sends Mixed SignalsLUV trades at 0.66X forward 12-month price-to-sales. That is above 0.53X for the Zacks airline sub-industry but below Southwest Airlines' five-year median of 0.88X.

That creates a split valuation picture. The stock may look inexpensive against its own history, but it does not offer a clear discount to direct industry benchmarks. Delta Air Lines (DAL - Free Report) and American Airlines Group (AAL - Free Report) remain relevant peers for investors comparing airline demand, pricing and cost exposure; Delta Air Lines operates a global network serving more than 290 destinations, while American Airlines' investor relations site provides financial information for stockholders and analysts.

Southwest Airlines Has Moderate Target UpsideSouthwest Airlines' $55 price target compares with a reported share price of $46.31. The target still implies upside, but the stock has already gained 12.1% year to date and 50.8% over the trailing 12 months.

After that move, execution matters more. Further appreciation likely depends on whether Southwest Airlines can sustain unit-revenue gains while managing fuel, retrofit costs and fleet-delivery risk.

LUV’s Liquidity Supports the TurnaroundSouthwest Airlines ended the second quarter with $5.3 billion of liquidity, including $3.8 billion in cash and cash equivalents. Gross leverage was 2.1 times, and first-half operating cash flow reached nearly $2 billion.

Capital allocation also supports flexibility. The company paid $181 million in dividends in the first half of 2026 and repurchased $1.25 billion of common stock in the first quarter, while management expects 2026 net capital spending near the low end of, or below, the prior $3.0-$3.5 billion range.

Southwest Airlines’ Rating Case Needs ConfirmationThe bottom line: Southwest Airlines has improved its earnings profile, but investors still need confirmation that the rebound can withstand fuel volatility, higher nonfuel costs and Boeing-related execution challenges.

The stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Its Value Score of A, Growth Score of A, Momentum Score of B and VGM Score of A indicate favorable estimate and style characteristics, but the remaining risk factors argue for selectivity rather than an unconditional chase after the rally.

Key Takeaways Corteva's two businesses offer investors distinct growth, margin and risk drivers.Seed organic sales rose 9%, EBITDA climbed 23% and margin expanded about 310 basis points.Crop Protection volumes rose 6% as cost savings helped lift total operating EBITDA 21%. Corteva, Inc. (CTVA - Free Report) gives investors exposure to two agriculture technology businesses with different earnings drivers. Seed accounts for 56.9% of total company net sales, while Crop Protection contributes 43.1%.

That balance matters as the company moves toward a planned fourth-quarter 2026 separation. The split could lead investors to value each business on its own growth, margin and risk profile.

Corteva’s Two Engines Support a Balanced Growth StorySeed and Crop Protection address separate farmer needs. Seed focuses on germplasm and traits that support yield potential and resistance to weather, disease, pests and herbicides. Crop Protection supplies products that protect crops from weeds, insects, other pests and disease.

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Both segments are tied to the same farm economy. Crop acreage, commodity prices, farmer income, weather, seasonal planting patterns, currency moves and regional input demand all influence results. The mix can provide resilience when one business faces weaker pricing or seasonal pressure.

That context matters for peers, too. Bayer AG (BAYRY - Free Report) competes across seed, crop protection and digital farming, making it a useful comparison for integrated agriculture technology exposure. FMC Corporation (FMC - Free Report) , with its crop protection focus, offers a cleaner read on chemical demand and pricing conditions.

CTVA Seed Pricing Strengthens Revenue QualityCorteva’s Seed business delivered 9% organic sales growth in the first quarter of 2026. Price and product mix improved 3%, with gains across all regions, reflecting demand for differentiated technologies and value-based pricing.

This is not simply an acreage story. Brevant retail brand growth, licensing momentum, productivity savings and lower royalty costs are improving revenue quality. Seed operating EBITDA increased 23%, and segment margin expanded about 310 basis points.

Royalty economics are becoming a clearer earnings lever. Corteva recorded a roughly $30 million reduction in net royalty expense in the quarter and now expects Seed to become royalty positive in 2026, ahead of its earlier royalty-neutral target.

Corteva’s Crop Protection Volumes Offset Price PressureCrop Protection showed a different pattern. First-quarter revenues rose 10%, while organic sales increased 4%. Volumes improved 6%, with gains in every region, supported by demand for new products and spinosyn insecticides.

Pricing remains the offset. Segment price declined 2%, mainly due to competitive market dynamics in Latin America and Asia Pacific. Management expects low-single-digit Crop Protection pricing pressure to continue through 2026.

The volume picture still supports the segment’s role in Corteva’s portfolio. Herbicide sales increased 19%, insecticide revenues rose 12% and fungicide sales improved 10% in the quarter. Sustained margin improvement will still depend on mix, productivity and cost control.

CTVA's Cost Savings Expand the Earnings RunwayCorteva’s cost actions are extending the earnings runway beyond volume recovery. Operating EBITDA increased 21% year over year to $1.44 billion in the first quarter, while operating EBITDA margin expanded about 240 basis points to more than 29%.

The company generated roughly $70 million of combined productivity and input-cost benefits across Seed and Crop Protection. Lower Seed royalty costs added another tailwind, helping offset higher selling, general and administrative expenses.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Management reaffirmed its 2026 operating EBITDA outlook of $4.0 billion to $4.2 billion, representing growth of about 7% at the midpoint. The company is also running ahead of its prior three-year, $1 billion cost-reduction plan.

Corteva’s Buy Signal Meets Mixed Style ScoresThe bottom line is that Corteva’s two-engine model gives investors both technology-led Seed growth and Crop Protection volume leverage. The planned separation may sharpen that view by allowing the market to evaluate Vylor and the future Corteva separately.

CTVA currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), which points to favorable near-term earnings estimate trends. That is a constructive signal for investors who rely on earnings estimate revisions over the next one to three months. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

The Style Scores are more mixed. CTVA has a Value Score of D, Growth Score of D and VGM Score of D, suggesting the stock does not screen well across those factors. Its Momentum Score of A aligns with recent outperformance, but the weaker Value, Growth and VGM scores argue for a balanced view.

Key Takeaways Medifast likely continued to face pressure from GLP-1 adoption and fewer active earning coaches.MED's lower sales volumes may have continued to weigh on gross profit and margin performance.MED is likely to benefit from stronger coach productivity and ongoing cost structure improvements. As Medifast, Inc. (MED - Free Report) prepares to unveil its second-quarter fiscal 2026 results on Aug. 03, after market close, investors are eager to see if the company can beat market expectations.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenues is pegged at $78.4 million, implying a 25.8% decline from the prior year. Meanwhile, the consensus mark for earnings has moved from a loss of 68 cents to a loss of 67 cents per share in the past seven days. This indicates a substantial decline from the year-ago period’s earnings of 4 cents. MED has a trailing four-quarter negative earnings surprise of 635.6%, on average.

Key Factors to Note for MED's Q2 EarningsMedifast likely continued to face headwinds from the rapid adoption of GLP-1 medications, which have been reshaping the traditional weight-loss market. The company has previously indicated that this shift is reducing demand for conventional weight management programs, placing continued pressure on coach participation and overall business performance. These industry dynamics are likely to have remained a meaningful headwind during the to-be-reported quarter.

The decline in the number of active earning coaches might have created pressure on revenue trends. The company has previously attributed weaker sales performance to the contraction in its coach network, and this trend is likely to have continued to weigh on overall business performance in the second quarter.

Profitability also likely remained challenged as softer sales volumes continued to pressure gross profit and margins. Management had previously noted that lower revenue reduced the company's ability to leverage fixed costs efficiently, resulting in margin compression. These factors might have continued to weigh on earnings performance during the quarter.

However, Medifast is also likely to have benefited from continued improvements in coach productivity. Management had previously highlighted that this key leading indicator of future growth had reached its highest level in many years and was expected to maintain positive momentum. In addition, the company's ongoing cost structure realignment likely supported operating performance by improving efficiency, generating cost savings and preserving profitability, while allowing continued investment in long-term growth initiatives. These efforts might have helped mitigate some pressure from the challenging operating environment.

What the Zacks Model Says About MEDOur proven model predicts an earnings beat for MED this time. The combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) increases the odds of an earnings beat, which is the case here.

MED has an Earnings ESP of +2.26% and a Zacks Rank #3. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they are reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

Other Stocks With Favorable CombinationHere are three other companies you may also want to consider, as our model shows that these too have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat this season:

The Kraft Heinz Company (KHC - Free Report) currently has an Earnings ESP of +3.08% and a Zacks Rank of 2. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for second-quarter 2026 earnings per share is pegged at 53 cents, implying a 23.2% year-over-year decline. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for quarterly revenues is pegged at $6.2 billion, which indicates a decrease of 3% from the figure reported in the prior-year quarter. KHC has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 10.2%, on average.

US Foods Holding Corp. (USFD - Free Report) currently has an Earnings ESP of +1.10% and a Zacks Rank of 2. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for second-quarter fiscal 2026 earnings per share is pegged at $1.37, implying a 15.1% year-over-year decline.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for quarterly revenues is pegged at $10.5 billion, which indicates growth of 3.8% from the figure reported in the prior-year quarter. USFD has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 1.4%, on average.

Sysco Corporation (SYY - Free Report) currently has an Earnings ESP of +0.56% and a Zacks Rank of 3. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fourth-quarter fiscal 2026 earnings per share is pegged at $1.51, implying a 2% year-over-year increase.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for quarterly revenues is pegged at $21.9 billion, which indicates an increase of 3.7% from the figure reported in the prior-year quarter. SYY has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 2.1%, on average.

Grayscale, the crypto asset manager overseeing more than $35 billion in assets under management (AUM), has disclosed that CEO Peter Mintzberg plans to sell 2,611 shares of the company’s XRP ETF.

The filing comes as XRP trades near $1.09, raising questions about investor demand and the ETF’s weaker position in the market.

Grayscale CEO Peter Mintzberg filed a Form 144 notice with the SEC to sell 2,611 shares of the Grayscale XRP Trust ETF, trading under the ticker GXRP. Based on the filing value of about $53,395, the shares are worth roughly $20.45 each.

Mintzberg acquired the shares on Oct. 3, 2024, through a private purchase from the trust, well before GXRP became a listed spot XRP ETF.

The proposed sale would be handled on NYSE Arca through Cantor Fitzgerald. 

Meanwhile, Mintzberg is also not the first Grayscale insider to reduce exposure to GXRP. Digital Currency Group founder Barry Silbert and Grayscale Chief Legal Officer Craig Salm filed notices to sell their pre-listing GXRP shares in January 2026, when the ETF was trading near $37.

While Mintzberg’s proposed sale is small, the wider movement in GXRP shares is more important for investors.

Regulatory filings from January showed GXRP had approximately 5.79 million shares outstanding. However, more recent filings indicate that figure has declined significantly. 

Since ETF share redemptions typically require the fund to sell its underlying XRP holdings and reduce the number of outstanding shares, the drop may reflect weakening investor demand.

At the same time, GXRP is facing growing competition from newly launched U.S. spot XRP ETFs. While the broader XRP ETF market has grown to more than $971 million in net assets, Grayscale now holds only about 6% of the market, according to the Soso value data. 

Even so, investor interest in XRP remains strong overall, with cumulative inflows across U.S. XRP ETFs surpassing $1.5 billion.

XRP Price Faces Key $1.12 ResistanceDespite the filing news, XRP price continues to rise 2.57% in 24 hours to around $1.09.

However, the technical picture remains cautious. XRP is trading below its 30-day and 200-day moving averages, while RSI sits near 40 and MACD is close to a bearish crossover.

A daily close above $1.12 could strengthen the recovery and put $1.50 back in focus. If XRP fails to break higher, continued ETF redemptions and weaker momentum could keep the token under pressure.

Story Ends Here

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U.K. asset manager Aviva Investors has announced the launch of its first tokenized fund in partnership with crypto firm Ripple. This follows the partnership that both firms struck earlier this year to advance tokenization on the XRP Ledger (XRPL)

Aviva Investors Tokenizes USD Fund On XRP Ledger In a press release, the asset manager announced the successful launch of a tokenized share class of its USD Liquidity Fund on the XRP Ledger. “This marks the first tokenisation of an Aviva Investors fund, and follows the announcement of the partnership between the firm and Ripple early in the year,” the release read.

As CoinGape reported, Ripple partnered with Aviva Investors earlier this year to advance tokenization on the XRP Ledger. This is notably Ripple’s first partnership with a European investment firm to tokenize real-world assets (RWA) at scale.

Aviva Investors revealed that crypto custodian Komainu and digital platform company Licuido both supported the launch of the tokenized share class. Meanwhile, the asset manager also received approval from the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) for the launch of this tokenized fund.

Coincidentally, the launch of this tokenized fund comes as the Ripple-backed XRP Ledger fix amendment goes live. The network’s developers have continued to push upgrades in a bid to boost the network’s institutional adoption.

How The Fund Works Aviva Investors noted that the fund targets low-risk returns and daily liquidity by offering investors exposure to high-grade US dollar-denominated short-term debt instruments. The asset manager further mentioned that the new share class will be available to eligible investors with digital wallets.

Meanwhile, BNY Mellon, the fund’s custodian, will be responsible for holding the assets for these tokenized shares. “The structure has been designed to operate within existing regulatory frameworks, providing a scalable foundation for future innovation in fund distribution and market infrastructure,” the asset manager added.

The XRP Ledger continues to see increased activity in terms of tokenization. RWA.xyz data shows that the total tokenized value on the network currently stands at just over $4.3 billion. The RWA holders on the network are notably up over 17% in the last month.

For more on tokenization, please check out our page on Best Platforms to Trade Tokenized Stocks

Ethereum Institutional has announced the completion of its inaugural ecosystem funding round, securing support from more than 100 organizations and prominent industry figures to accelerate institutional adoption of Ethereum.

The fundraising effort is backed by BitMine, SharpLink, Ethereum co-founders Joe Lubin and Mihai Alisie, as well as a wider network of crypto-focused institutions and ecosystem participants. The organization did not reveal the size of the round.

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The initiative aims to convert years of institutional engagement into greater adoption of Ethereum-based financial infrastructure, with a focus on tokenized assets, stablecoins, collateral systems and onchain market infrastructure.

Its supporter coalition includes major names across the Ethereum ecosystem such as 21Shares, Anchorage Digital, Arbitrum, Circle, Consensys, Fireblocks, Galaxy, Ledger, MetaMask, Robinhood, Securitize, Uniswap Labs and zkSync, alongside dozens of other projects and contributors.

Ethereum Institutional said it will now expand outreach to traditional financial institutions, including banks, asset managers, custodians, market infrastructure providers and sovereign entities evaluating blockchain adoption.

The organization also plans to increase investment in institutional education, market intelligence, ecosystem promotion and collaborative initiatives involving layer 2 networks, application developers and infrastructure providers.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

Cover image via U.Today Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by our writers are their own and do not represent the views of U.Today. The financial and market information provided on U.Today is intended for informational purposes only. U.Today is not liable for any financial losses incurred while trading cryptocurrencies. Conduct your own research by contacting financial experts before making any investment decisions. We believe that all content is accurate as of the date of publication, but certain offers mentioned may no longer be available.

The Cardano community is marking 6 years since the historic Shelley upgrade that brought staking to the network.

Shelley is the successor to the Byron era, in which the Cardano mainnet was launched in September 2017 along with the ADA cryptocurrency. The Shelley era comprised the critical initial steps in Cardano's journey to optimize decentralization.

The Cardano community X account shared this milestone in a recent post, highlighting key statistics that define the network and the features introduced by the Shelley upgrade.

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"Byron hard forked into Shelley. Stake pools, decentralised block production and staking rewards became a thing. The chain hasn't stopped since," the Cardano community X account wrote.

6 years ago today:
439 epochs
9.25M blocks
190M slots

Byron hard forked into Shelley. Stake pools, decentralised block production and staking rewards became a thing.

The chain hasn't stopped since. https://t.co/VYnjq2c4pC

— Cardano Community (@Cardano) July 29, 2026 Cardano started as a federated network with just a few nodes. Early 2020 saw the Byron reboot pave the way for decentralization, with a new node implementation built from scratch within a modular design to support future upgrades.

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The Shelley upgrade in July 2020 then introduced stake pools and delegation. The Shelley development theme introduced a decentralized ledger, which created a new economic system.

In Q1 2021, the stake pool operator (SPO) community began producing 100% of new blocks. Currently, there are 2,882 pools with 21.56 billion ADA in live stake, according to data from Cexplorer.

Cardano eyes biggest scaling upgradeFast forward six years, and Cardano is eyeing its biggest scaling upgrade: Ouroboros Leios, which has launched on a public testnet named the Musashi Dojo.

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Ouroboros Leios runs through five phases named after chapters of Musashi's Book of Five Rings: Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, and Void, moving from basic protocol validation through adversarial testing to final mainnet preparation.

Input Output targets an initial five to twenty times increase in Cardano's base layer throughput capacity through Ouroboros Leios, with a mainnet hard fork planned for later in 2026.

The Van Rossem hard fork, which went live this July, lays the foundation for the Dijkstra era hard fork, which will introduce Ouroboros Leios to Cardano.

S&P Downgrades 5 Banks: What Does It Mean For The Market?UMB Financial NASDAQ: UMBF reported second-quarter 2026 net income of $271.8 million, or $3.56 per diluted share, as loan growth, fee income expansion and investment gains supported results. The company posted an operating return on tangible common equity of 20.3% and an operating efficiency ratio of 48.1%.

Chairman and CEO Mariner Kemper said average loan balances increased at a 12.6% annualized rate from the first quarter, supported by a record $2.6 billion in gross loan production. Commercial and industrial loan balances grew at a nearly 22% annualized pace, with activity led by markets including St. Louis, Utah, Texas and Arizona.

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Kemper said the company’s loan momentum reflected market-share gains more than changes in the broader economy. “It’s business as usual,” he said, adding that growth was occurring across regions and verticals and that the next 90 days appeared similar to the prior 90 days.

Credit Quality and Margin Performance Credit metrics remained strong during the quarter. Net charge-offs were 16 basis points of average loans, while nonperforming loans declined to 31 basis points of loans from 38 basis points in the first quarter.

Reported net interest margin was 3.32%, including a 23-basis-point benefit from purchase-accounting adjustments. Excluding that impact, core net interest margin was 3.09%, up four basis points sequentially. Chief Financial Officer Ram Shankar attributed the improvement primarily to a favorable shift in earning-asset mix toward loans and changes in liquidity levels.

The company recorded $35.9 million of net interest income from purchase-accounting adjustments, including $10.9 million of accelerated accretion tied to early payoffs of acquired loans. UMB expects approximately $46 million of contractual accretion during the remainder of 2026 and $77 million in 2027.

For the third quarter, Shankar said UMB expects core margin to remain relatively flat compared with the second-quarter adjusted margin. The outlook will depend on demand deposit account growth, excess liquidity, SOFR movements and lending and funding mix shifts.

Deposit Trends and Balance-Sheet Flexibility Average deposits were flat from the first quarter. Growth in commercial and asset-servicing deposits was offset by seasonal declines in public funds and lower investor-solutions balances. The average cost of interest-bearing deposits was also roughly unchanged.

Kemper said the third quarter is typically a seasonal low point for deposits, particularly because of public-fund flows, but management expects stronger activity in the second half of the year. He emphasized that the company views deposits over longer periods rather than focusing on quarterly changes because institutional client activity can create episodic swings.

UMB’s off-balance-sheet deposits increased 3.6% sequentially to $23.7 billion. Kemper said the company could bring a portion of those client deposits onto the balance sheet at market rates if needed, without affecting fee income. The company also had nearly $1.5 billion of excess cash and $2.3 billion of securities scheduled to mature or roll off over the next 12 months.

Management did not provide a target for its loan-to-deposit ratio, instead pointing to the company’s historical ability to produce steady deposit growth. Kemper said core deposits remain central to the company’s balance-sheet value and have remained a priority throughout his tenure as CEO.

Fee Income Gains and Expense Outlook Noninterest income rose $40.7 million, or nearly 20%, from the first quarter to $245.5 million. The increase included $27.1 million in net gains from private investment holdings, primarily related to Beacon Communications and SpaceX Technologies, as well as higher 12b-1 and money-market income and continued strength in fund services and corporate trust.

Total fee income from institutional banking businesses increased 6% sequentially and 19.6% from a year earlier. Asset servicing and corporate trust each posted fee-income growth of more than 20% year over year. Excluding investment gains and mark-to-market effects related to company-owned life insurance, core fee income was about $210 million.

Kemper said UMB expects trust and securities-processing revenue to maintain its general growth rate, potentially with upside, citing strong pipelines and market-share gains. He said fund services has shifted over the past decade toward larger and more complex client relationships, while the company has also benefited from platforms expanding access to alternative investments.

Operating noninterest expense totaled $398 million, up 6% from the first quarter. The increase included merit-related salary and benefit expenses, higher deferred compensation expense and $4.1 million of operational losses. Shankar said UMB expects third-quarter operating expenses of approximately $390 million, in line with consensus expectations.

Capital Actions and Outlook UMB’s common equity Tier 1 ratio increased 29 basis points during the quarter to 11.45% as of June 30. The company raised its quarterly common dividend 16.3% to $0.50 per share and repurchased approximately 38,000 shares for $5 million.

Management said its first capital priority remains supporting organic loan growth. Shankar said a preliminary assessment of potential new capital rules suggests a possible net benefit of 50 to 60 basis points after including accumulated other comprehensive income, depending on changes to risk-weighted assets.

The company expects to maintain positive operating leverage for full-year 2026, despite the effect of lower expected contractual accretion income. Its effective tax rate was 20.8% in the second quarter, and management expects a 2026 tax rate between 20% and 22%.

About UMB Financial (NASDAQ:UMBF)UMB Financial Corporation NASDAQ: UMBF is a diversified financial services holding company headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri. Through its principal banking subsidiary, UMB Bank, N.A., the company provides a full suite of commercial and consumer banking services. Key offerings include deposit accounts, commercial and consumer lending, treasury and cash management, as well as online and mobile banking solutions designed to serve businesses, individuals and municipalities.

In addition to its core banking operations, UMB Financial delivers wealth management and trust services, investment advisory, asset management and retirement planning to high-net-worth individuals, families and institutions.

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].

Should You Invest $1,000 in UMB Financial Right Now?Before you consider UMB Financial, you'll want to hear this.

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The AI boom extends far beyond the biggest tech names. Discover 10 companies supplying the memory, storage, networking, semiconductor manufacturing, and power infrastructure that make AI possible. Learn where the next wave of AI investment opportunities may emerge—and the key risks investors should watch as the global AI buildout accelerates.

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TRX is now available for both spot trading and perpetual contracts on Backpack Exchange, the Dubai-registered trading platform built by former FTX and Alameda Research employees. TRON DAO made the announcement on July 29, marking another expansion milestone for a blockchain network that has quietly become one of crypto’s most heavily used rails.

The token was trading between $0.32 and $0.33 at the time of the listing.

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Backpack’s post-FTX playbook Backpack Exchange was founded by people who had front-row seats to one of the industry’s most spectacular implosions. The platform is registered in Dubai, emphasizes regulatory compliance, and has been rolling out state-by-state access for eligible jurisdictions.

The exchange launched its native BP token back in March 2026, with a total supply of 1 billion tokens. Of that, 25% was allocated for initial distribution through an airdrop.

TRON’s quiet dominance problem The network reports hundreds of millions of accounts and processes billions in daily transfer volume.

The bulk of that activity comes from stablecoin transfers, particularly USDT. Tether’s decision years ago to make TRON a primary settlement layer turned the network into crypto’s unofficial remittance highway.

Justin Sun founded the network in 2017, and its mainnet went live in 2018.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

BNY is adding blockchain technology to its transfer agency business as the bank expands digital asset services beyond custody and stablecoin support.

BNY Moves Fund Records to Blockchain BNY is launching a digital transfer agency platform to process fund transactions and maintain shareholder records on-chain. The system will create a shared ownership ledger for tokenized funds while the bank keeps its traditional transfer agency in place.

The bank safeguards more than $59 trillion in client assets and services about $8.6 trillion through its transfer agency business. The new platform aims to reduce repeated checks between intermediaries that support fund administration.

BNY Chief Product and Innovation Officer Carolyn Weinberg said the bank is modernizing a function behind fund transactions by bringing the “books and records onchain.” The platform will give asset managers a digital record of ownership for tokenized products.

The bank expects traditional systems to remain active for years. BNY Global Head of Asset Servicing Emily Portney said “trillions and trillions of dollars” in funds will continue using existing rails.

Tokenized Fund Rollout Starts With Major Clients Baillie Gifford will become the first client to use the platform for a fully native U.K.-regulated tokenized fund. BNY’s Dreyfus division and BlackRock are also expected to use the same infrastructure for planned tokenized products.

The platform places BNY inside the growing market for tokenized funds. These products can hold traditional assets, while investor ownership is recorded through blockchain-based tokens.

BNY is also preparing tokenized U.S. Treasuries and pilot transactions on its private blockchain before the end of 2026. A client letter said the bank already executed after-hours Treasury transactions with stablecoin issuers earlier this year.

The bank expects blockchain records to support faster settlement and round-the-clock market operations. Shared records can also reduce manual reconciliation between banks, fund managers, custodians, and other service providers.

BNY Builds on BTC ETH and USDC Services BNY has been expanding digital asset services for several years. The bank created its Digital Assets unit in February 2021 to support multi-asset custody and related infrastructure.

The bank launched Bitcoin and Ethereum custody services in October 2022. That made BNY one of the first large custodian banks to support custody for both assets.

BNY also expanded its work with Circle in June 2026 to support minting and burning for USDC. The move connected the bank more closely with stablecoin settlement and reserve operations.

In May, BNY announced a strategic collaboration with Finstreet Limited and ADI Foundation to offer crypto custody in the Abu Dhabi Global Market. The agreement added another regulated market to BNY’s digital asset push.

BNY’s blockchain transfer agency platform extends that strategy into fund administration. The bank is not replacing its older systems but adding new rails for tokenized funds and blockchain-based ownership records.

If you want global financial firms to protect assets and meet rules, institutional crypto custody solutions are essential.

Altcoins

29 July 2026 | 12:12 Zcash fell through the support cluster at $470 and $472 little after activating Ironwood, the network's most consequential upgrade in years, trading near $461 at the time of writing

Key Takeaways Ironwood closes a supply-verification gap. Spot and futures flows remain negative. The nearest support sits at $450. Losing $450 would expose $419. The Flaw Ironwood Was Built to Close Developers found a soundness flaw in the zero-knowledge circuit behind Orchard, Zcash’s shielded pool. In theory it allowed counterfeit ZEC to be created without detection. The patch shipped in June, and no evidence of exploitation surfaced.

Proving that turned out to be the harder problem. Orchard’s privacy guarantees, the reason the pool exists, also made its recorded supply impossible for users to audit independently. A shielded pool that nobody can inspect cannot demonstrate that nobody exploited it.

Ironwood answers that by introducing a new shielded pool and version 6 transactions while closing Orchard to new deposits. Funds leaving the old pool pass through a turnstile that caps outflows at the total that previously went in. As balances migrate, the supply becomes verifiable.

This is real engineering work on a real problem. It creates no reason for anyone to buy the token today.

The Market Had Already Moved On ZEC climbed towards $560 earlier in July, then began printing lower highs and lower lows. By activation day on July 28 the token was trading inside a falling channel and approaching the $470 cluster from above.

Daily Zcash/USD technical chart with Fibonacci retracement levels and indicators. That sequence could be the whole explanation. Ironwood was announced, documented and discussed for weeks, giving anyone who wanted exposure ample time to take it. Traders holding into the event had their catalyst; those arriving afterwards found a chart that had already turned.

Price action cannot identify individual sellers or their motives. What it establishes is that a successful upgrade landed without generating enough demand to interrupt a decline already underway.

Flow Data Points the Same Way Coinglass recorded net negative spot flows across every window on its dashboard. The 12-hour balance showed $10.2 million in and $12.81 million out, for a net of minus $2.6 million. Eight hours ran to minus $1.65 million, four hours to minus $935,000, and the most recent hour to minus $329,000 on $1.18 million in against $1.5 million out.

Futures told a similar story at the longer horizons: $148.5 million in against $155.6 million out over 12 hours, a net of minus $7.1 million, with eight hours at minus $2.98 million. The shorter windows flipped positive, adding $418,000 over four hours and $213,000 over one.

Those late positive readings show derivatives traders returning around current prices. Their direction is unknowable from flow balances alone, and their size leaves the 12-hour imbalance untouched.

One caveat applies throughout. These are Coinglass flow balances, and the dashboard does not define whether each movement represents an exchange transfer, a completed trade or another accounting category. They indicate direction, not executed buying and selling.

Where the Levels Sit Now The 0.382 Fibonacci retracement near $470 and the 50-day moving average at $472 sat close enough together to function as a single support zone. ZEC now trades beneath both, which converts the area into resistance: traders who bought there may sell a rebound to exit nearer break-even, while others treat it as a fresh entry for shorts.

Today’s high of $470 stopped just next to the Fibonacci level. A daily close above $472 would reclaim both, and the 100-day average at $484 sits immediately beyond, making three technical hurdles inside $14.

Below, $450 is the first support, an area that absorbed trading recently and sits near the falling channel’s lower boundary. A close beneath it opens the 0.236 retracement around $420, which shaped price through the May and June swings.

Verified Scarcity Still Needs a Buyer Ironwood arrived weeks after more than 80% of all ZEC entered circulation. As covered in our analysis of Zcash’s 80% supply milestone, future issuance now represents a shrinking share of maximum supply, which steadily reduces dilution from mining.

The two developments reinforce each other. Less new issuance tightens the supply picture, and Ironwood lets the market confirm that migration from Orchard adds nothing beyond what the turnstile permits.

Scarcity works on the supply side of the equation. The demand side is what the flow data measures, and it has yet to respond. Zcash spent this month fixing what it could control and discovering that the market was looking elsewhere.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. Network upgrades, technical indicators and flow data do not guarantee future price performance. Methodology: The analysis uses the ZEC/USD daily chart dated July 29, 2026, Fibonacci retracements, moving averages, RSI and Coinglass Spot Flows and Futures Flows dashboards. Because the dashboards do not define the accounting methodology behind each flow category, the figures are presented as directional net-flow balances rather than direct evidence of buying, selling or exchange inventory changes. Author

Kosta has reported on cryptocurrency markets and blockchain infrastructure since 2020, bringing over six years of hands-on experience in the crypto industry built through daily tracking of markets, trends, and emerging blockchain developments. Specializing in Bitcoin on-chain analysis, institutional ETF flows, and digital asset price action, his work at Coindoo has been cited by other news agencies and consistently covers market developments with a focus on data-driven reporting across Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and XRP. Over the years, Kosta has contributed to multiple crypto media outlets in different regions, authoring over 6,000 articles across the sector. His reporting spans cryptocurrency markets and the broader fintech industry, tracking not only price action but also the technological and regulatory forces shaping the ecosystem. To support his analysis, Kosta actively leverages on-chain data and metrics from leading platforms such as Santiment, Glassnode, and CryptoQuant, enabling deeper, evidence-based market insights. He believes in the power of transparency and the data that underpins the blockchain ecosystem. His academic background in Marketing Management from Denmark further complements his analytical approach, adding a strong understanding of communication strategy and content positioning to his work.

Lennox International Inc. (LII) Q2 2026 Earnings Call July 29, 2026 9:30 AM EDT

Company Participants

Chelsey Pulcheon - Director of Investor Relations
Alok Maskara - CEO, President & Director
Michael Quenzer - Executive VP & CFO

Conference Call Participants

Ryan Merkel - William Blair & Company L.L.C., Research Division
Thomas Moll - Stephens Inc., Research Division
Noah Kaye - Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., Research Division
Jeffrey Hammond - KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc., Research Division
Jeffrey Sprague - Vertical Research Partners, LLC
Stephen Volkmann - Jefferies LLC, Research Division
Christopher Snyder - Morgan Stanley, Research Division
Nicole DeBlase - Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division
Nigel Coe - Wolfe Research, LLC
Deane Dray - RBC Capital Markets, Research Division
Brett Linzey - Mizuho Securities USA LLC, Research Division

Presentation

Operator

Welcome to the Lennox 2026 Second Quarter Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this call is being recorded.

I will now turn the call over to Chelsey Pulcheon from Lennox Investor Relations. Chelsey, please go ahead.

Chelsey Pulcheon
Director of Investor Relations

Thank you, Madison. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us as we share our 2026 second quarter results. Joining me today is CEO Alok Maskara; and CFO, Michael Quenzer. Each will share their prepared remarks before we move to the Q&A session.

Turning to Slide 2. A reminder that during today's call, we will be making certain forward-looking statements, which are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties as outlined on this page. We may also refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures that management considers relevant indicators of underlying business performance. Please refer to our SEC filings available on our Investor Relations website for additional details, including a reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP measures. The earnings release, today's presentation and the webcast archived link for today's call are available on our Investor Relations website at investor.lennox.com.

Now please

It's that time of summer again. With August on the doorstep, companies are busy announcing financial results. Like many other businesses, Parsons (PSN -37.11%) posted quarterly earnings before the bell today -- and investors are clearly unhappy with what the company reported -- though it has more to do with what management offered on 2026 guidance.

As of 12:58 p.m. ET, shares of Parsons, a specialist in defense, intelligence, and critical infrastructure solutions, are down 38.1%.

Image source: Getty Images.

Beating bottom-line expectations isn't enough to outshine a less auspicious outlook for 2026 Reporting second-quarter adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $0.86, Parsons exceeded the $0.76 adjusted EPS that analysts had anticipated. Investors aren't impressed, though.

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Instead, they're focusing on management's downwardly revised 2026 outlook. The company now projects 2026 revenue of $6.2 billion to $6.5 billion, down from the original sales forecast of $6.5 billion to $6.8 billion. Similarly, management revised profitability expectations. Whereas it had originally projected 2026 adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA), including non-controlling interest, of $615 million to $675 million, it now projects $500 million to $560 million.

Parsons also revisited cash flow expectations. Paring back its original 2026 operating cash flow guidance of $470 million to $530 million, management now projects $430 million to $490 million in cash from operations.

According to Matt Ofilos, the company's CFO, the downwardly revised guidance doesn't reflect something materially wrong with the business. It stems from the company's divestitures and the timing of new awards.

Does today's sell-off represent a buying opportunity? While the market is thoroughly disappointed with the company's new outlook for 2026, there's reason to believe that the future remains bright for Parsons as the company reported a 4% year-over-year increase in its total backlog. For those able to see past the market's immediate reaction to the company's earnings report, now might be a good time for patient investors to pick up shares of this tech stock.

It's been a fantastic past 12 months for Vertiv (VRT -16.38%) shareholders. Even with the stock's pullback from its mid-May record-breaking peak, it's still up about 96% from where it traded at this time last year.

Veteran investors know such a big run-up in such a short period of time is a tough act to follow, of course. Some are even anticipating more pullback. And maybe that's what's in the cards.

The analyst community, however, remains more optimistic about this ticker's foreseeable future.

Image source: Getty Images.

Vertiv is reporting plenty of growth The company makes equipment used in data centers, by the way. Not processing chips like those supplied by Nvidia, or networking hardware like that made by Broadcom. Rather, Vertiv manufactures power systems, cooling solutions, and the specialized racks and enclosure frames that make it possible to integrate this equipment with the usual data center tech.

Yes, the rapid rise of artificial intelligence is proving very good for business. Vertiv's first-quarter top line of $2.65 billion was up 30% year over year, and is expected to grow about as much for the entirety of 2026. Analysts are looking for comparable growth next year as well. Moreover, the company is profitable. Last year's bottom line of $4.20 is expected to reach $6.48 per share this year, en route to $8.83 in 2027.

This fantastic growth course begs one question: Why has the stock been sinking since May's high, falling 24% from that peak?

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Valuation may have a little something to do with it. At its peak, VRT was trading at more than 58 times this year's projected profits, and over 40 times next year's expected bottom line. That's a steep price to sustain, no matter how compelling your growth story is. It's even tougher to sustain when investors start to doubt artificial intelligence's long-term future.

Curiously, though, analysts aren't deterred.

Wall Street is (mostly) still on board with Vertiv OK, a handful of analysts are doubters. Two of the 33 covering this stock rate it as underweight. The lowest price target is $255, 11% below the stock's current price.

The vast majority of the analyst crowd watching this stock, however, is firmly bullish. Indeed, 22 of the 33 analysts covering it consider VRT a strong buy, while the consensus price target stands at $377, more than 31% above Vertiv shares' present price. It's a target, of course, that rightfully doesn't reflect too much concern about a rich valuation.

What are these analysts seeing that others aren't? It's not what they're seeing. Rather, it's all the noise they're looking past. The AI industry's stocks may be losing ground because growing infrastructure spending may or may not pay off soon enough to suit investors. But there's no denying that artificial intelligence will feature prominently in the future, once its key players refine their businesses and meet actual needs.

In this vein, a Precedence Research outlook indicates that the worldwide AI infrastructure market is poised to grow at an average annualized rate of nearly 22% through 2035. Vertiv is well positioned to win at least its fair share of this growth.

Just bear in mind that not even analysts expect VRT shares to reach their consensus target in a straight line.

SAN MATEO, Calif., July 29, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Freshworks Inc. (NASDAQ: FRSH) announced today that it has been named by Gartner as a Leader in the 2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for IT Service Management Platforms. The evaluation was based on specific criteria analyzing the company’s overall Completeness of Vision and Ability to Execute. Freshworks attributes this recognition to its rapid customer growth and the depth and scale of its unified service operations platform.

According to Gartner, “The ITSM platforms market reached nearly $9 billion in 2025, growing 13.74% year over year and remains the largest segment of the IT operations value management market.” The report later notes, “Asset visibility has evolved toward a unified data fabric that connects ITSM, asset and operational data, becoming a prerequisite for effective automation and AI-driven decision making.”

Historically, IT and operations have run on a single linear trigger: something happens, and a human responds. A laptop is requested, so a ticket gets created for manual provisioning. An alert fires, so an onsite engineer investigates. Many leaders have been promised zero touch autonomous service, yet the core blockers to modernization are not a lack of ambition; they’re disconnected data, missing context, and AI that acts as more of a consulting project instead of an accelerator.

“Service and operations leaders don't just want a faster ticketing system, they want an AI-powered platform that unifies service, operations, assets and knowledge together on a shared data layer," said Dennis Woodside, Chief Executive Officer & President of Freshworks. "We believe our positioning as a Leader by Gartner highlights a clear shift in the market. We’re focused on giving agile enterprises the depth and scale they need, alongside domain-specific AI so they can move at the speed of their business while staying firmly in control.”

Companies like Amerisure, McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 Team and New Balance already trust Freshservice to run that way. Our customer base experiences a CSAT of 97.8% and an average first contact resolution of 75%.

Freshworks drives service transformation across three core areas:

Unified ServiceOps Platform: Brings together IT Service (ITSM), Operations (ITOM), Asset (ITAM), and Enterprise Service Management (ESM) on a single platform with a common data and context model. Our one service delivery model serves IT, HR, Finance, and other business teams - not separate tools stitched together - meaning a single common layer of insights, analytics and integrations.Trusted, Domain-Specific AI: Deploys intelligent agents across critical workflows - including IT and HR requests, incident triage, and multichannel self-service - to automate routine resolutions. Freshworks has built Freddy AI for the problems tens of thousands of customers have today, with a foundational understanding of over a decade of experience, workflow, and service domain solutioning to make Freddy AI more accurate, reliable and effective.Rapid Impact: Built for short implementation cycles that deliver immediate value without consultant overhead and no-code setup. On average, Freshservice customers go live in under 90 days, delivering a 168% ROI and a six-month payback period (read The 168% ROI behind switching to Freshservice).
"One of the benefits is that we started with IT, and now we bring in a bunch of other workspaces, such as facilities, loss prevention, HR, and all the other business departments," said Markus Gaulke, Platform Manager for New Balance.

To access the full Gartner Magic Quadrant report, visit here.

About Freshservice
Freshservice by Freshworks is an AI-powered ServiceOps platform that unifies IT Service (ITSM), Asset (ITAM), Operations (ITOM) and Enterprise Service Management (ESM) on a single platform with a shared data layer. It gives IT, HR, finance, and facilities teams full visibility across services and infrastructure without the complexity of stitched-together tools. Freshservice comes with a natively embedded AI layer called Freddy AI that helps agents resolve issues faster, automates employee service requests, and gives leaders the insights they need to make better decisions. The result is resilient, proactive service delivery that scales across the entire organization.

About Freshworks
Freshworks is the AI-powered, unified service operations platform that is fast to deploy, intuitive to use, and enables every employee to be more productive. We offer powerful governance and scale, without the operational drag of legacy platforms. Organizations including Bridgestone, New Balance, S&P Global, and Sony Music trust Freshworks to deliver quality employee and customer service and manage efficient technology operations. For the latest updates, visit freshworks.com and follow Freshworks on LinkedIn, X, and Facebook.

© 2026 Freshworks Inc. All rights reserved. Freshworks, Freshservice, and Freddy AI and their associated logos are trademarks of Freshworks Inc. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners. Nothing in this press release should be construed to the contrary, or as an approval, endorsement or sponsorship by any third party of Freshworks Inc. or any aspect of this press release.
Gartner Source Citation
Gartner, Inc., Magic Quadrant for IT Service Management Platforms, Rich Doheny, Jen Lichucki, 27 July, 2026.

Gartner Disclaimer
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in our research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally, and MAGIC QUADRANT is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

Press Contact
[email protected]

Key Takeaways Datadog's RPO jumped 51% to $3.48 billion as multi-year contracts and longer terms improved visibility.DDOG raised 2026 revenue guidance to $3.225-$3.245 billion, citing demand and execution confidence.Enterprise clients adopting 10-plus products, strong retention and AI deployments support recurring growth. Datadog (DDOG - Free Report) is making its revenue growth more predictable as momentum in multi-year customer agreements improves revenue visibility and reinforces the durability of its subscription-based business model. During the first quarter of 2026, the company reported a 51% year-over-year increase in remaining performance obligations (RPO) to $3.48 billion, with management attributing the growth partly to a higher mix of multi-year contracts and longer contract durations. This expanding backlog provides greater visibility into future revenues, strengthening the predictability of recurring subscription revenues while reducing reliance on short-term renewals.

Datadog continues to win large enterprise expansion deals, with several customers expanding their usage across 10 or more Datadog products. Higher multi-product adoption, coupled with gross retention in the mid-to-high 90% range and net revenue retention in the low 120% range in the first quarter of 2026, supports longer-term customer commitments, increases switching costs and strengthens recurring revenue growth. AI-driven deployments are further contributing to larger enterprise engagements, expanding the company's long-term revenue opportunity.

Reflecting this momentum, management raised its full-year 2026 revenue outlook to $3.225-$3.245 billion from $3.175-$3.195 billion, underscoring confidence in customer demand and execution. While longer-duration contracts enhance revenue visibility and improve growth predictability, Datadog's ability to sustain this momentum will depend on continued customer renewals, platform expansion and healthy enterprise IT spending.

How Do Datadog's Rivals Stack Up?Dynatrace (DT - Free Report) emphasizes large enterprise platform standardization over maximizing RPO, unlike Datadog's expanding multiyear contracts. Dynatrace wins bigger end-to-end observability deals, records $1 million-plus ACV contracts in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026 and broader platform adoption through DPS subscriptions. Dynatrace focuses on durable ARR expansion, enterprise consolidation and long-term consumption while benefiting from strategic AI-driven platform commitments rather than emphasizing deferred revenue metrics.

Snowflake (SNOW - Free Report) competes more directly with Datadog through rising RPO and multiyear enterprise commitments. In the first quarter of fiscal 2027, Snowflake reported 38% RPO growth, a new five-year AWS agreement and increasing $10 million-plus customers, supporting long-term revenue visibility. While Datadog benefits from larger multiyear observability contracts, Snowflake leverages AI-driven data platform expansion and enterprise consumption, making the company a formidable long-duration subscription competitor.

DDOG’s Share Price Performance, Valuation & EstimatesShares of DDOG have surged 68.5% over the past year, outperforming the broader Zacks Computer and Technology sector's growth of 22.8%.

DDOG’s Price Performance
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

From a valuation standpoint, DDOG appears overvalued, trading at a trailing 12-month price-to-sales ratio of 24.92X, above the industry’s 5.27X. DDOG has a Value Score of F.

DDOG’s Valuation
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

The Zacks Consensus Estimate projects earnings of $2.41 per share for 2026 and $2.88 for 2027, reflecting year-over-year growth of 17.56% and 19.29%, respectively.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Datadog stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Key Takeaways HIW beat Q2 FFO and revenue estimates as leasing activity and higher in-place rents supported growth.Highwoods raised 2026 FFO guidance after improving leverage and maintaining strong leasing momentum.HIW advanced developments, completed asset sales and expects occupancy to rise in the second half of 2026. Highwoods Properties, Inc. (HIW - Free Report) reported second-quarter 2026 funds from operations (FFO) of 90 cents per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 4.7%. The figure increased 1.1% from the year-ago quarter.

Rental and other revenues rose 7.9% year over year to $216.38 million and surpassed the consensus mark of $210.96 million. Robust leasing, higher in-place rents and positive rent spreads supported the quarter. Same-property cash net operating income (NOI) increased 0.3%.

In response to the above results, HIW shares were trading close to 4% higher in the early hours of today’s market session.

HIW's Leasing Volume Remains RobustHighwoods signed 1.07 million square feet of second-generation leases, up from 923,000 square feet in the prior-year quarter. The total included 326,000 square feet of new leases, while the dollar-weighted average lease term was 6.4 years.

Second-generation leases generated GAAP rent growth of 20.9% and cash rent growth of 3.2%. Net effective rents were 8% above the previous five-quarter average, indicating that the company maintained healthy leasing economics despite elevated tenant improvement and leasing commission requirements.

Highwoods Improves Occupancy and In-Place RentsQuarter-end in-service occupancy was 85.7% compared with 85.6% a year earlier. On properties owned throughout the second quarter, occupancy increased 110 basis points sequentially. The in-service leased rate stood at 89.6%, leaving a meaningful backlog of signed leases that have not yet commenced.

Average cash rental rates for in-place leases increased 2.6% year over year to $34.45 per square foot. Management expects occupancy to continue trending higher during the second half of 2026 as tenants begin occupying previously leased space.

Highwoods Advances Its Development PipelineThe company placed Midtown East in Tampa into service during the quarter. Highwoods owns a 50% interest in the 143,000-square-foot development, which was 94.9% leased and 39.5% occupied. Its share of total investment was $41.5 million.

The active development pipeline totaled $230 million at Highwoods’ share and was 93% leased, with only $28 million left to fund. The company also signed 63,000 square feet of first-generation leases, lifting the 642,000-square-foot 23Springs project to 93% leased well ahead of its projected stabilization.

HIW's Asset Sales Strengthen LiquidityHighwoods sold the 513,000-square-foot, fully occupied Bridgestone Tower in Nashville for $255 million. It also sold its 50% joint venture interest in a 10-acre land parcel for $4 million at its share.

The company expects to complete another $73.5 million of non-core dispositions during the third quarter. Including these pending transactions, announced and completed 2026 sales would total about $375 million. The additional proceeds increase financial flexibility but also create near-term earnings dilution because management does not assume reinvestment during the second half.

Highwoods Reduces Leverage and Raises OutlookNet debt to adjusted EBITDAre improved to 6.24X from 6.72X in the first quarter. Highwoods ended the quarter with $145.38 million of cash and no borrowings under its $750 million revolving credit facility.

Management raised its 2026 FFO guidance to $3.46-$3.70 per share from $3.40-$3.68. The outlook assumes same-property cash NOI growth between negative 1% and positive 1%, and year-end occupancy of 86.5%-88.5%.

HIW's Zacks RankHighwoods currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Performance of Other Office REITsBXP, Inc. (BXP - Free Report) reported second-quarter 2026 FFO of $1.78 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.71. FFO rose 4.1% from the year-ago period. Results reflected higher occupancy and same-property NOI growth, which supported the FFO beat. Total portfolio occupancy climbed 100 basis points sequentially to 88.4%.

SL Green Realty Corp. (SLG - Free Report) delivered second-quarter 2026 FFO of $1.43, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.19 by 20.17%. However, FFO declined 12.3% from $1.63 in the year-ago quarter. The results reflected stronger Manhattan leasing, higher occupancy and growth in same-store cash NOI.

Note: Anything related to earnings presented in this write-up represents funds from operations (FFO), a widely used metric to gauge the performance of REITs.