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, /PRNewswire/ -- Paramount Skydance Corporation (NASDAQ: PSKY) ("Paramount") today announced the extension of the Expiration Dates in connection with the previously announced (i) offers to purchase (the "Tender Offers" and each, a "Tender Offer") for cash, upon the terms and subject to the conditions set forth in the related offer to purchase (the "Offer to Purchase"), any and all of the identified notes in each series of the Existing Tender Offer Notes (defined by reference to the table set forth below) issued by Discovery Global Holdings, Inc. (formerly WarnerMedia Holdings, Inc.) (the "DGH Issuer") and Discovery Communications, LLC (the "DCL Issuer" and together with the DGH Issuer, each a "WBD Issuer" and collectively the "WBD Issuers"), as applicable, and (ii) offers to exchange (the "Exchange Offers" and each, an "Exchange Offer" and, together with the Tender Offers, the "Offers" and each, an "Offer"), upon the terms and subject to the conditions set forth in the related exchange offer memorandum (the "Offering Memorandum"), any and all of the identified notes in each series of the Existing Exchange Offer Notes (defined by reference to the table set forth below) (together with the Existing Tender Offer Notes, the "Offer Notes") issued by the applicable WBD Issuer for notes to be newly issued by Paramount.

The Expiration Dates for the Tender Offers and Exchange Offers (as defined in each of the Offer to Purchase and Offering Memorandum, respectively) have been extended to 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on August 7, 2026, unless further extended. The Settlement Dates for the Tender Offers and Exchange Offers (as defined in each of the Offer to Purchase and Offering Memorandum, respectively) will occur promptly after the Expiration Date and are currently anticipated to occur in the third quarter of 2026. Paramount anticipates extending the Expiration Date for such Tender Offers and Exchange Offers until such time that would result in the Settlement Dates occurring on or promptly following the closing date of the proposed acquisition (the "Acquisition") by Paramount of Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. ("WBD"). Tenders of the Offer Notes in the Offers may be withdrawn at any time prior to the Expiration Date. The aforementioned extensions further extend the Expiration Dates previously extended by Paramount on June 12, 2026, June 26, 2026, July 13, 2026, and July 17, 2026.

As of 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on July 23, 2026, approximately 66.17% and 76.38% of the aggregate principal amount of the Existing Tender Offer Notes and Existing Exchange Offer Notes, respectively, have been validly tendered in the applicable Offers. As Paramount previously announced that it anticipates extending the Offers to align with the closing date of the Acquisition, Paramount does not view these figures to be representative of the final results of the applicable Offers.

Information about each series of Offer Notes eligible to participate in the Offers is summarized below.

Type of Offer

Offer Notes to be Tendered
or Exchanged, as
Applicable

Issuer of Offer Notes

CUSIP No. / Common Code 
/ ISIN Eligible to
Participate in the Offers (1)

Aggregate Principal
Amount of Offer Notes
Eligible to Participate in the
Offers (2)

Tender Offer

3.950% Senior Notes due 2028

DCL Issuer

25470D CP2

US25470DCP24

$1,234,458,000

Exchange Offer

4.125% Senior Notes due 2029

DCL Issuer

25470D CQ0

US25470DCQ07

$655,825,000

Exchange Offer

3.625% Senior Notes due 2030

DCL Issuer

25470D CR8

US25470DCR89

$914,183,000

Exchange Offer

5.000% Senior Notes due 2037

DCL Issuer

25470D CS6

US25470DCS62

$453,281,000

Exchange Offer

6.350% Senior Notes due 2040

DCL Issuer

25470D CT4

US25470DCT46

$438,102,000

Exchange Offer

4.950% Senior Notes due 2042

DCL Issuer

25470D CU1

US25470DCU19

$130,366,000

Exchange Offer

4.875% Senior Notes due 2043

DCL Issuer

25470D V91 CV9US25470DC

$141,584,000

Exchange Offer

5.200% Senior Notes due 2047

DCL Issuer

25470D W74 CW7US25470DC

$3,161,000

Exchange Offer

5.300% Senior Notes due 2049

DCL Issuer

25470D X57 CX5US25470DC

$247,860,000

Tender Offer

3.755% Senior Notes due 2027

DGH Issuer

254948 AH5

US254948AH58

254948 AN2

US254948AN27

U25483 AA3

USU25483AA38

$1,189,336,000

Exchange Offer

4.054% Senior Notes due 2029

DGH Issuer

254948 AJ1

US254948AJ15

254948 AP7

US254948AP74

U25483 AB1

USU25483AB11

$1,353,828,000

Exchange Offer

4.279% Senior Notes due 2032

DGH Issuer

254948 AK8

US254948AK87

254948 AQ5

US254948AQ57

$2,691,764,000

Exchange Offer

5.050% Senior Notes due 2042

DGH Issuer

254948 AL6

US254948AL60

254948 AR3

US254948AR31

U25483 AD7

USU25483AD76

$4,104,687,000

Exchange Offer

5.141% Senior Notes due 2052

DGH Issuer

254948 AM4

US254948AM44

254948 AS1

US254948AS14

$949,883,000

Exchange Offer

4.302% Senior Notes due 2030

DGH Issuer

XS3393993285

339399328

€234,382,000

Exchange Offer

4.693% Senior Notes due 2033

DGH Issuer

XS3393994507

339399450

€316,641,000

1

No representation is made as to the correctness or accuracy of the identifiers listed in this press release or printed on the Offer Notes. Such identifiers are provided solely for the convenience of the holders.

2

Represents the aggregate principal amount of Offer Notes outstanding that are eligible to participate in the Offers.

The Exchange Offers are being made pursuant to an exemption from the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), and the rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") promulgated thereunder, and are also not being registered under any state or foreign securities laws. Any securities offered pursuant to the Exchange Offers may not be offered or sold in the United States or to any U.S. persons (as defined below) except pursuant to an exemption from, or in a transaction not subject to, the registration requirements of the Securities Act. The Exchange Offers will only be made, and the securities offered pursuant to the Exchange Offers are only being offered and issued, to holders of applicable Existing Exchange Offer Notes who are (a) reasonably believed to be "qualified institutional buyers" as defined in Rule 144A under the Securities Act or (b) not "U.S. persons," as defined in Rule 902 of Regulation S under the Securities Act (such holders, "Eligible Holders"), and only Eligible Holders who have completed and returned the eligibility certification are authorized to receive or review the Offering Memorandum or to participate in the Exchange Offers. The eligibility certification is available electronically at: https://gbsc-usa.com/eligibility/paramount.

General

Each Offer is a separate offer, and each may be individually consummated, amended, extended, terminated, or withdrawn, subject to certain conditions and applicable law, at any time in Paramount's sole discretion, and without also consummating, amending, extending, terminating, or withdrawing any other Offer with respect to any other series of Offer Notes. Paramount may terminate an Offer if any of the conditions of such Offer described in the Offer to Purchase or Offering Memorandum, as applicable, are not satisfied or waived by the applicable Expiration Date, subject to applicable law. In addition, Paramount may waive the conditions to an Offer without extending such Offer in accordance with applicable law.

The Offers are being made solely by Paramount and are not being made by WBD or the WBD Issuers. None of Paramount, WBD, the WBD Issuers, the Dealer Managers, the Exchange Agent (as defined below), the Information Agent (as defined below), the trustees under each of the indentures governing the Offer Notes, the trustee or collateral agent under the indenture that will govern the notes to be issued in the Exchange Offers, or any affiliate of any of them makes any recommendation as to whether any holder of Offer Notes should tender or refrain from tendering all or any portion of the principal amount of such holder's Offer Notes for cash or notes to be issued in the Exchange Offers. No one has been authorized by any of them to make such a recommendation. Holders must make their own decision whether to tender Offer Notes in any Offer and, if so, the amount of Offer Notes to tender.

Only Eligible Holders may receive a copy of the Offering Memorandum and participate in the Exchange Offers. Paramount has engaged Global Bondholder Services Corporation to act as the exchange agent (in such capacity, the "Exchange Agent") and information agent (in such capacity, the "Information Agent") for the Offers. Questions concerning the Offers, or requests for additional copies of the Offer to Purchase or Offering Memorandum or other related documents, may be directed to Corporate Actions by telephone at (855) 654-2014 (U.S. toll-free) or (212) 430-3774 (banks and brokers) or by email at [email protected]. Holders should also consult their broker, dealer, commercial bank, trust company or other institution for assistance concerning the Offers. The Exchange Offer documents and the Tender Offer documents can be accessed at the following link: https://gbsc-usa.com/paramount.

Paramount has engaged BofA Securities and Citigroup as dealer managers (in such capacity, the "Dealer Managers") for the Offers. Holders with questions regarding the Offers should contact BofA Securities, Inc. at +1 (888) 292-0070 (toll-free) or +1 (980) 388-3646 (collect) or [email protected] or Citigroup Global Markets Inc. at +1 (800) 558-3745 (toll-free) or +1 (212) 723-6106 or [email protected]. Latham & Watkins LLP is serving as legal counsel to Paramount and Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP is serving as legal counsel to the Dealer Managers.

This press release is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any security, and does not constitute an offer, solicitation, or sale of any security in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation, or sale would be unlawful.

About Paramount, a Skydance Corporation

Paramount, a Skydance Corporation is a next-generation global media and entertainment company, comprised of three business segments: Studios, Direct-to-Consumer, and TV Media. PSKY's portfolio unites legendary brands, including Paramount Pictures, Paramount Television, CBS, CBS News, CBS Sports, Nickelodeon, MTV, BET, Comedy Central, Showtime, Paramount+, Pluto TV, and Skydance Animation, Film, Television, Interactive/Games, and Paramount Sports Entertainment.

PSKY-IR

Cautionary Note Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

This communication contains "forward-looking statements" regarding the Acquisition and the other transactions referred to herein. The reader is cautioned not to rely on these forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations of future events. If underlying assumptions prove inaccurate or known or unknown risks or uncertainties materialize, actual results could vary materially from the expectations and projections of Paramount. Risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: the risk that the closing conditions for the Acquisition will not be satisfied, including the risk that clearances under applicable antitrust or regulatory laws will not be obtained or will be obtained subject to conditions that are not anticipated; the possibility that the transactions described herein will not be completed in the expected timeframe or at all; the occurrence of any event, change or other circumstances that could give rise to the termination of the Acquisition; potential adverse effects to the businesses of Paramount or WBD during the pendency of the Acquisition, such as employee departures or distraction of management from business operations; negative effects of the announcement or the consummation of the Acquisition on the market price of WBD or Paramount stock; the risk of stockholder litigation relating to the Acquisition, including resulting expense or delay; the potential that the expected benefits and opportunities of the Acquisition, if completed, may not be realized or may take longer to realize than expected; risks related to the streaming business of the post-Acquisition combined business (the "Combined Company"); the adverse impact on the Combined Company's advertising revenues as a result of changes in consumer behavior, advertising market conditions, and deficiencies in audience measurement; risks related to operating in highly competitive and dynamic industries; the unpredictable nature of consumer behavior, as well as evolving technologies and distribution models; risks related to the Combined Company's decision to invest in new businesses, products, services, and technologies, and the evolution of the Combined Company's business strategy; the potential for loss of carriage or other reduction in, or the impact of negotiations for, the distribution of the Combined Company's content; damage to the Combined Company's reputation or brands; losses due to asset impairment charges for goodwill, content and long-lived assets, including finite-lived intangible assets; liabilities related to discontinued operations and former businesses; increasing scrutiny of, and evolving expectations for, sustainability initiatives; evolving business continuity, cybersecurity, privacy and data protection and similar risks; challenges in protecting and maintaining the Combined Company's intellectual property rights; domestic and global political, economic and regulatory factors affecting the Combined Company's business generally or the Acquisition; the inability to hire or retain key employees or secure creative talent; disruptions to the Combined Company's operations as a result of labor disputes; risks and costs associated with the integration of, and Paramount's ability to integrate, the businesses of Paramount Global, Skydance Media, LLC, and WBD successfully and to achieve anticipated synergies, including in the amounts or on the timelines anticipated to realize such synergies; litigation related to the Acquisition and other matters or transactions; risks associated with the Combined Company's holding company structure, including its dependence on distributions from its subsidiaries to meet tax obligations and other cash requirements; risks related to our indebtedness, including our substantial outstanding debt obligations, our ability to incur substantially more debt and our ability to meet the financial and other covenants contained in the agreements governing the indebtedness of Paramount, WBD, or the Combined Company. A further list and description of these risks, uncertainties and other factors and the general risks associated with the respective businesses of Paramount and WBD can be found in Paramount's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025, filed with the SEC on February 25, 2026, including in the sections captioned "Cautionary Note Concerning Forward-Looking Statements" and "Item 1A. Risk Factors," Paramount's most recently filed Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2026, filed with the SEC on May 4, 2026, including in the sections captioned "Cautionary Note Concerning Forward-Looking Statements" and "Item 1A. Risk Factors," and Paramount's subsequent filings with the SEC, and in WBD's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025, filed with the SEC on February 27, 2026, including in the section captioned "Item 1A. Risk Factors," WBD's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2026, filed with the SEC on May 6, 2026, and WBD's subsequent filings with the SEC. Neither Paramount nor WBD undertakes to update any forward-looking statement as a result of new information or future events or developments, except as required by law.

SOURCE Paramount Skydance Corporation

The U.S. Department of Justice has charged two Volkswagen engineers with securities fraud for an alleged insider-trading scheme connected to the German automaker’s joint venture with Rivian.

The indictment, unsealed Friday by the U.S. District Attorney for the Southern District of New York, alleges that Michael Stamp and Marcus Plank made more than $300,000 by using confidential insider information. Stamp and Plank allegedly bought Rivian stock and options after learning that the EV maker and Volkswagen planned to form a joint venture — internally codenamed “Project Climb” — but before the companies made any public announcements.

Rivian and Volkswagen announced plans for the joint venture on June 25, 2024, which would focus on developing electric vehicle architecture and software. Volkswagen initially committed to invest $5 billion in Rivian, with the capital to be released as the companies achieve certain milestones. The joint venture has since grown to $5.8 billion, and Volkswagen is now Rivian’s largest shareholder.

Rivian’s stock price rose 23% following the initial announcement in June. Stamp and Plank then allegedly sold their Rivian positions, with Stamp realized about $250,000 in profits, Plank realizing about $50,000, and Plank’s close family member realizing about $12,000, as detailed in the indictment.

“Michael Stamp and Marcus Plank’s alleged exploitation of their employer’s confidential information allowed them to make more than $300,000 in illegal profits,” U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said in a statement Friday.  “When people misuse confidential information for their own financial gain, they undermine the principles that allow our markets to function fairly and efficiently.  Insider trading is a crime that New Yorkers want pursued with vigor. Its effects ripple through the financial system, harming ordinary investors and eroding public confidence. Today’s charges underscore the commitment of this Office and our law enforcement partners to protecting the integrity of our markets and holding accountable those who choose to violate the law.”

Investigators allege the two engineers understood their actions were illegal. Eight days prior to the joint venture was announced, Stamp searched “statute of limitations insider trading,” and Plank’s close family member searched, in German, “how is insider trading prosecuted?,” according to the indictment.

The pair, who both live in San Jose, were arrested Friday and will appear in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.  The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla. Stamp and Plank face up to 25 years in prison if convicted of federal securities fraud.

TechCrunch has reached out to Rivian and Volkswagen for comment and will update the article if either company responds.

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

Kirsten Korosec is a reporter and editor who has covered the future of transportation from EVs and autonomous vehicles to urban air mobility and in-car tech for more than a decade. She is currently the transportation editor at TechCrunch and co-host of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast. She is also co-founder and co-host of the podcast, “The Autonocast.” She previously wrote for Fortune, The Verge, Bloomberg, MIT Technology Review and CBS Interactive.

You can contact or verify outreach from Kirsten by emailing [email protected] or via encrypted message at kkorosec.07 on Signal.

Key Takeaways COHR's AI infrastructure focus drives 41% YoY growth in its data center segment.Multi-year cloud commitments transition COHR away from traditional hardware cycles.COHR outperforms peers like LITE and FN with strong demand and growth visibility. Coherent’s (COHR - Free Report) transformation is increasingly being driven by the rapid expansion of AI infrastructure, positioning the company as a key supplier to one of the fastest-growing segments of the technology industry. As hyperscale cloud providers and enterprises continue investing heavily in AI computing, demand for high-speed optical connectivity has accelerated, strengthening Coherent’s role within next-generation data center networks.

The company's Datacenter & Communications segment has emerged as its primary growth engine, contributing 75% of third-quarter fiscal 2026 revenues while delivering impressive 41% year-over-year growth. This reflects the growing importance of optical transceivers, networking components, and photonic technologies that enable AI clusters to transfer massive volumes of data with low latency and high efficiency.

More importantly, this shift is changing the nature of Coherent’s business. Hardware manufacturers have traditionally faced cyclical demand, fluctuating orders and short product lifecycles that often resulted in uneven financial performance. Coherent is increasingly benefiting from a different dynamic. Its products are becoming integral to long-term AI infrastructure projects, where investments are supported by multi-year cloud expansion plans rather than short-term replacement cycles.

This transition provides greater visibility into future demand and improves the quality of the company’s revenue base. As AI deployments continue scaling, customers are making longer-term commitments to critical networking infrastructure, reducing the uncertainty typically associated with hardware businesses.

With AI infrastructure spending expected to remain a strategic priority for cloud providers and enterprise customers, Coherent appears well positioned to benefit from sustained demand. Its growing exposure to this structural trend could support more durable revenue growth while strengthening its long-term investment appeal.

Coherent Continues to Outperform Key Peers

Compared with optical networking peers Lumentum (LITE - Free Report) and Fabrinet (FN - Free Report) , Coherent continues to benefit from stronger exposure to AI infrastructure investments and increasing demand for high-speed optical connectivity. While LITE and FN are well-positioned to capitalize on data center upgrades, Coherent has strengthened its competitive standing through manufacturing expansion, long-term customer commitments, and improved backlog visibility.

The company is also demonstrating an ability to translate robust demand into profitable growth while maintaining confidence in future expansion. As AI infrastructure spending continues to accelerate, Lumentum, Fabrinet and Coherent are all expected to benefit. However, Coherent currently combines superior growth visibility, expanding production capacity and a more attractive post-correction valuation, making it stand out among its optical networking peers.

COHR’s Price Performance, Valuation and Estimates

The stock has surged a massive 70% year to date against the industry’s 7% decline.

                                                            Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

From a valuation standpoint, COHR trades at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 35.93X, well above the industry’s 21.2X. It carries a Value Score of C.

                                                                    Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the company’s fiscal 2026 earnings has declined over the past 60 days.

COHR currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

A 3D-printed Meta logo and word "AI" are seen in this illustration taken July 20, 2026. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

July 24 (Reuters) - Meta (META.O), opens new tab is rolling out new features for its Meta AI service in select markets, allowing ​the chatbot to complete certain tasks autonomously, ‌the company said on Friday.

The updated Meta AI, powered by the company's new Muse Spark 1.1 model, is designed ​to understand user context and execute tasks ​without constant prompting.

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Meta said new ⁠upgrades to its AI will help deliver ​daily briefings by summarizing calendar events and can be ​set up for recurring tasks such as weekly meal plans or trend updates.

The company is initially releasing these capabilities ​in select markets via the Meta AI app ​and meta.ai, with plans to expand to more regions and ‌platforms ⁠including WhatsApp.

The Facebook parent said users retain control over how they interact with the AI and incognito chats remain available for private conversations.

"This is our ​next step toward ​personal superintelligence: ⁠an AI that knows your context, is there for you whenever you ​need it," Meta said in a blog ​post.

Separately, ⁠the company on Friday launched a new app called "Seller" to offer dedicated selling tools to merchants using ⁠the company's ​Facebook Marketplace platform.

Meta is scheduled ​to report second-quarter results after market close on July 29.

Reporting ​by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ:AMD, XETRA:AMD) saw its price target raised to $600 from $450 by Wedbush following the chipmaker’s Advancing AI 2026 event, with the analysts writing that new partnerships and improving supply chain conditions increased confidence in the company’s data center AI growth trajectory.

AMD hosted its Advancing AI 2026 event on Wednesday and Thursday, featuring a keynote presentation from CEO Lisa Su and management followed by an investor roundtable. Wedbush noted that management avoided discussing near-term financial performance ahead of AMD’s second-quarter 2026 earnings report, leaving the event focused primarily on the company’s broader AI strategy.

The analysts wrote that AMD is increasingly positioning itself as an “end-to-end compute franchise” spanning GPUs, CPUs, networking, software, client computing and physical AI, while highlighting a broad group of enterprise and frontier AI partners.

“Net, we came away incrementally more constructive on AMD's competitive trajectory,” Wedbush wrote, adding that conversations with server vendors and supply chain participants around the event pointed to continued acceleration in AI infrastructure investment and opportunities across the broader ecosystem.

Wedbush wrote that newly announced agreements with Microsoft and Anthropic provided greater confidence that AMD’s data center AI silicon and systems revenue will “substantially accelerate” in the second half of 2026 and through 2027.

The analysts also highlighted improving supply conditions, writing that AMD appears to be making progress in addressing constraints and meeting elevated customer demand for data center compute. Based on the event and industry checks, Wedbush increased its assumptions for AMD’s data center CPU and GPU revenue growth in 2026 and 2027, lifting its revenue and earnings expectations.

Wedbush also pointed to AMD’s partnership with Cerebras, writing that the collaboration combines Cerebras’ Wafer Scale Engine technology with AMD systems to target ultra-low-latency AI inference workloads. Initial deployments are expected later this year through Cerebras Cloud.

The analysts wrote that the relationship is likely to be revenue accretive compared with prior expectations for Cerebras and represents further validation of the company’s approach to delivering high-speed AI inference capabilities.

Wedbush also highlighted VAST Data as a potential beneficiary of AI infrastructure spending, writing that the privately held company appears to have emerged as a significant supplier of data management solutions for neocloud and AI model-building customers.

While the analysts noted that VAST’s software licenses can represent a meaningful cost for customers, they wrote that users highlighted benefits including improved storage efficiency, ease of use and faster returns on cloud infrastructure investments.

On Super Micro Computer, Wedbush wrote that industry conversations supported the view that the company’s recent margin expansion could be partly sustainable, potentially driven by a shift toward higher-value deployments and tight supply conditions. However, the analysts noted they would have greater confidence in the margin outlook with additional feedback on changes within Super Micro’s business.

Wedbush said continued AI infrastructure investment should support further growth across the sector, citing conversations with neocloud providers, data center builders, server vendors and component suppliers that pointed to ongoing acceleration in data center expansion.

The analysts also highlighted memory demand tied to AMD’s AI products, noting that newer Instinct offerings are expected to require significantly more high-bandwidth memory. Wedbush wrote that tight NAND and DRAM availability could continue until additional supply comes online in 2028, with price increases potentially starting at 20% in the third quarter and exceeding 30% in some cases.

Shares of AMD are up more than 150% so far this year, trading hands at $538 on Friday afternoon.

© RichVintage / E+ via Getty Images

I keep hitting the buy button on NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA | NVDA Price Prediction) because every quarter AI capex grows larger, and NVIDIA collects at each layer. Hyperscalers order racks, sovereigns order factories, enterprises order runtime. That is the conviction.

The Thesis in One Sentence NVIDIA monetizes today’s hardware cycle at rack scale while building the software and networking tollbooth for the next one. Jensen Huang framed it plainly on the last call: “The buildout of AI factories, the largest infrastructure expansion in human history, is accelerating at extraordinary speed.” The custom thesis is the same one management executes: turnkey Blackwell racks proprietary NVLink interconnects capture today’s capex, then NIM microservices, CUDA, and NVLink Fusion fabric licensing turn one-time hardware sales into structural, compounding cash flow.

Three Reasons the Money Keeps Going Here First, operating leverage is delivering. Fiscal 2026 revenue landed at $215.9 billion, up from $130.5 billion the year prior, with net income of $120.1 billion and operating margin of 60.4%. SG&A fell from 9.0% of revenue in FY2023 to 2.1% in FY2026. Companies do not scale like this without pricing power.

Second, the current quarter confirms the story. Q1 FY2027 revenue hit $81.615 billion, beating consensus by 3.16% on non-GAAP EPS of $1.87, a fourth straight beat. Data Center revenue reached $75.246 billion, up 92% year over year, with networking growing 199%. Gross margin came in at 75.0%. Q2 guide points to $91.0 billion in revenue.

Third, valuation remains reasonable. Forward P/E sits at 23 with a PEG of 0.559. Return on equity is 114.3%. Management authorized an $80.0 billion repurchase and lifted the dividend from $0.01 to $0.25 per share. Retirement accounts get paid to wait.

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

Why Not the Obvious Alternatives The two names I get asked about are Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) and Marvell Technology (NASDAQ:MRVL). Broadcom’s CEO targets over $100 billion in AI revenue by 2027. That is a 2027 aspiration. NVIDIA already printed $75.2 billion in Data Center revenue in a single quarter. Marvell trades at 47x forward earnings, roughly double NVIDIA’s 23 forward multiple, for slower growth. I would rather own the platform every custom silicon design still has to interconnect with.

The Risk I Refuse to Wave Off China is the real risk. Huang called it out directly: “Losing access to the China AI accelerator market, which we believe will grow to nearly $50 billion, would have a material adverse impact on our business.” The company took a $4.5 billion H20 inventory charge and shipped zero H20 units to China in Q1 FY2027. That is real money. It has not changed my thesis because NVIDIA grew Data Center 92% year over year with China effectively zeroed out, and total supply commitments now stand at $119.0 billion. The rest of the world is absorbing the capacity.

Why the Buy Button Stays Active Analyst consensus is 58 buys to 1 sell with a $302.31 target. This works as long as AI factories keep growing, software attach keeps rising, and NVLink remains the fabric everyone standardizes on. Every quarter so far, that is exactly what has happened. Until that pipeline changes, my money keeps going in.

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.

Qualcomm logo is displayed at the company’s booth at the 8th China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai, China, November 5, 2025. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

July 24 (Reuters) - Smartphone chipmaker Qualcomm (QCOM.O), opens new tab has told customers it would raise prices by ​a percentage in the double digits ‌due to rising costs, Bloomberg News reported on Friday, citing a letter sent to ​clients.

The San Diego, California-based company ​did not immediately respond to a ⁠Reuters request for comment. Its shares ​were trading down more than 1%.

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The company sent the letter to customers on Friday, informing them that the price ​hike will go into effect ​for products shipped after September 1, the report ‌said.

Reuters ⁠could not independently verify the report.

Qualcomm told customers that it could no longer absorb rising supplier costs and had ​sought alternative ​components ⁠from new suppliers, the report said.

The report comes as Qualcomm ​grapples with mounting pressure in the ​smartphone ⁠market, squeezed by a memory chip shortage as investment is redirected toward AI ⁠infrastructure.

Qualcomm ​is set to report ​its third-quarter results on July 29.

Reporting by Anhata ​Rooprai in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

Key Takeaways Intel is expanding beyond PCs with AI, enterprise, edge computing, foundry and autonomous driving businesses.Intel's foundry utilization, yields and factory output improved, with narrower operating losses.INTC's growing AI adoption through Xeon, AI PCs, networking, packaging and cloud and enterprise partnerships. Intel Corporation (INTC - Free Report) is reshaping its business around artificial intelligence, enterprise infrastructure and advanced manufacturing as it reduces its reliance on the traditional PC market. The company's long-term investment case increasingly depends on its ability to execute across these strategic priorities while strengthening its manufacturing leadership.

Recent results suggest Intel is making progress. Stronger demand for AI infrastructure, improving foundry execution and expanding customer adoption across multiple product categories are helping reinforce confidence in its turnaround strategy.

Intel Expands Beyond the PC MarketIntel has steadily diversified beyond its legacy PC business by focusing on data-centric markets that include AI infrastructure, enterprise computing, edge computing and autonomous driving. Its operating structure now reflects this transition, with dedicated businesses serving client computing, data center and AI, manufacturing, networking and Mobileye's autonomous driving platform.

A major strategic shift has been the adoption of Intel's internal foundry operating model. By separating product development from manufacturing operations, the company aims to improve transparency, accountability and cost discipline while increasing manufacturing efficiency. The structure also supports Intel's broader ambition to become a leading foundry serving both internal products and third-party customers.

INTC Builds Momentum Across AI PlatformsArtificial intelligence has become a key growth driver across Intel's portfolio. Demand for Xeon processors continues to strengthen as enterprises and hyperscale customers expand AI infrastructure beyond graphics processors into CPUs, networking and purpose-built silicon. The company has also broadened its AI offerings with AI PCs, Arc Pro graphics solutions, networking products and advanced packaging technologies.

Intel is expanding customer adoption through partnerships spanning cloud providers, enterprise customers and industry-specific AI deployments. Continued investment in purpose-built silicon, physical AI and advanced packaging should further strengthen its position across data center, edge and enterprise workloads.

Competition remains intense from Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD - Free Report) , which continues expanding its presence in data center processors and AI accelerators. NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA - Free Report) also remains a dominant force in AI infrastructure through its GPU ecosystem, underscoring the importance of Intel's differentiated CPU, networking and manufacturing strategy.

Intel Foundry Becomes a Strategic Growth EngineIntel Foundry has become one of the company's most important long-term growth initiatives. The business reported improving factory utilization, better manufacturing yields and significantly higher factory output, while operating losses narrowed as production efficiency improved.

Management also highlighted meaningful reductions in Panther Lake wafer costs, continued progress on Intel 18A manufacturing and development milestones for Intel 14A. External customer engagement continues to expand alongside growing demand for advanced packaging services, reinforcing Intel's effort to establish foundry services as a meaningful long-term revenue driver.

INTC Faces Execution and Competitive RisksDespite encouraging progress, Intel still faces significant execution challenges. Manufacturing leadership depends on successfully ramping advanced process technologies while maintaining cost discipline and meeting customer commitments.

The competitive landscape also remains challenging across CPUs, GPUs, application-specific integrated circuits, networking and custom silicon. Elevated capital expenditures, ongoing industry supply constraints and geopolitical uncertainty could continue creating operational and financial headwinds as Intel scales its manufacturing investments.

How Intel's Rating Fits the Current ThesisIntel's long-term outlook increasingly depends on consistent execution across AI products, manufacturing and foundry services. Continued progress in these areas could strengthen its competitive positioning as enterprise AI adoption expands.

The stock currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), reflecting improving earnings momentum. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. However, its VGM Score of D suggests its overall combination of value, growth and momentum characteristics remains relatively weak. That weaker composite score largely reflects a Value Score of F and Growth Score of C, although the Momentum Score of B indicates comparatively stronger price and earnings momentum. Together, these measures suggest that while earnings expectations have improved, investors may still want to balance Intel's improving momentum against its more modest value and growth characteristics before making investment decisions.

American Express Company (AXP) Q2 2026 Earnings Call July 24, 2026 8:30 AM EDT

Company Participants

Kartik Ramachandran - Senior VP & Head of Investor Relations
Stephen Squeri - Chairman & CEO
Christophe Le Caillec - Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Sanjay Sakhrani - Keefe, Bruyette, & Woods, Inc., Research Division
Ryan Nash - Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., Research Division
Donald Fandetti - Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division
Craig Maurer - Financial Technology Partners LP
Richard Shane - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division
Mark DeVries - Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division
Terry Ma - Barclays Bank PLC, Research Division
Robert Wildhack - Autonomous Research US LP
Darrin Peller - Wolfe Research, LLC
Bill Carcache - Piper Sandler & Co., Research Division
Mihir Bhatia - BofA Securities, Research Division

Presentation

Operator

Welcome to the American Express Q2 2026 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, today's call is being recorded.

I will now turn the call over to Kartik Ramachandran, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Kartik Ramachandran
Senior VP & Head of Investor Relations

Thank you, Dana, and thank you all for joining today's call. Today's discussion contains forward-looking statements about the company's future business and financial performance. These are based on management's current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from these statements are included in today's presentation slides and in our reports on file with the SEC.

Today's discussion also contains non-GAAP financial measures. Comparable GAAP financial measures are included in this quarter's earnings materials as well as the prior period earnings materials discussed today. All of these are posted on our website at ir.americanexpress.com. We will begin today with Stephen Squeri, Chairman and CEO; followed by Christophe Le Caillec, Chief Financial Officer. After their remarks, we'll move to Q&A.

With that, I'll turn it

This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY | LLY Price Prediction) has accelerated despite its $1 trillion scale. Revenue grew 55.5% in Q1 2026, management raised full-year guidance by $2 billion, and the FDA cleared Foundayo, the first any-time-of-day oral GLP-1.

Our 24/7 Wall St. price target for Eli Lilly is $1,365.51, implying roughly 15% upside from the current $1,186.85. We rate LLY a buy with high (90%) confidence.

24/7 Wall St. Price Target Summary Metric Value Current Price $1,186.85 24/7 Wall St. Price Target $1,365.51 Upside ~15.1% Recommendation BUY Confidence 90% Foundayo Reset the Growth Story LLY is up 8.59% year-to-date and 50.84% over the trailing year, recovering from an April low of $903.99.

Q1 2026 delivered $19.80 billion in revenue, beating the $17.80 billion consensus, with non-GAAP EPS of $8.55 versus the $6.79 estimate. Mounjaro revenue jumped 125% to $8.66 billion and Zepbound climbed 80% to $4.16 billion.

Recent headlines mixed bullish coverage of the $6.3 billion Centessa acquisition and a $6.5 billion Houston manufacturing plant against a fresh Novo Nordisk lawsuit alleging deceptive GLP-1 comparison ads.

The Case for $1,429 and Higher Bulls argue Foundayo unlocks an oral obesity market that injectables never fully addressed. CEO Dave Ricks noted the drug can reach “over 1 billion people around the world with obesity and related conditions” with regulatory reviews underway in over 40 countries. Early launch data showed 80% of prescriptions were new-to-class.

Retatrutide, the next-gen triple agonist, delivered up to 37 pounds of weight loss in Phase 3. Morningstar flagged LLY as positioned for “industry-leading growth”. Our bull-case scenario carries the stock to $1,429.03, roughly 12.5% above current levels.

What Could Go Wrong Pricing pressures loom. Q1 realized prices fell 13%, offsetting a 65% volume gain, and Mounjaro’s inclusion on China’s National Reimbursed Drug List will pressure international prices. Novo Nordisk’s false-advertising lawsuit and emerging generic semaglutide competition add legal and competitive headwinds.

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Q1 carried $584 million in IPR&D charges plus $279 million in litigation and restructuring. Most charges reflect deliberate M&A spend (Centessa, Orna, Kelonia, Ajax) that expands the pipeline. Our bear scenario prices LLY at $1,123.10, an 11.6% drawdown.

How Eli Lilly Compares to Merck and Novo Nordisk Merck (NYSE:MRK) is the value counterpoint. Merck guided FY2026 revenue of $65.8 billion to $67 billion and non-GAAP EPS of $5.04 to $5.16, with Q1 growth of just 4.87%. That is a fraction of Lilly’s 55.5% pace, explaining why Lilly commands a forward P/E of 33x while Merck trades at mid-teens multiples. Growth still wins.

Novo Nordisk (NYSE:NVO) is the direct GLP-1 rival. Novo’s Q1 underlying adjusted sales fell 4% at constant currency, and management guided full-year growth to -4% to -12% CER after slashing Wegovy list prices by roughly 50% effective January 2027. Against that peer set, our LLY target looks reasonable.

Eli Lilly Price Prediction 2026-2030 Our 24/7 Wall St. price target of $1,365.51 reflects a buy rating with 90% confidence. Foundayo converts a large injectable-averse population into addressable demand.

The setup looks constructive if the Foundayo launch tracks to plan into Q3, and more cautious if realized prices deteriorate past mid-teens headwinds. Growth of this quality at this scale is rare.

Year 24/7 Wall St. Price Target 2026 $1,365.51 2027 $1,470 2028 $1,565 2029 $1,640 2030 $1,711.70 These projections assume Lilly executes on Foundayo, retatrutide, and pipeline acquisitions. Significant upside or downside could result from GLP-1 pricing regulation, Novo Nordisk competition, or acceleration of oral obesity adoption globally.

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Key Takeaways AON is expected to post Q2 revenue growth, led by Commercial Risk Solutions and Health Solutions.AON's four straight earnings beats and favorable retention rates point to potential upside this quarter.Higher compensation, IT and other costs, plus weaker Wealth Solutions demand, may weigh on results. Leading global insurer Aon plc (AON - Free Report) is set to report second-quarter 2026 results on July 29, 2026, before the opening bell. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the to-be-reported quarter’s earnings is currently pegged at $3.77 per share on revenues of $4.26 billion.

The second-quarter earnings estimate has witnessed two upward revisions and five downward movements over the past 60 days. The bottom-line projection indicates a year-over-year increase of 8%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for quarterly revenues suggests year-over-year growth of 2.6%.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

AON beat the consensus estimate for earnings in each of the last four quarters, with the average surprise being 3.1%.

Q2 Earnings Whispers for AONOur proven model predicts a likely earnings beat for the company this time around as well. 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 precisely the case here.

AON has an Earnings ESP of +0.24% and a Zacks Rank #3. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

What’s Shaping AON’s Q2 Results?The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the Commercial Risk Solutions line’s revenues indicates 5.3% growth from $2.18 billion a year ago, whereas our model predicts a 5% increase. We expect the unit to witness 5% organic revenue growth in the quarter under discussion.

The consensus mark for the Health Solutions line’s second-quarter revenues suggests nearly 6% growth from the year-ago level, while our model estimate indicates an 8% increase. The segment is likely to have been supported by new business growth, strong retention rates and positive market impact.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Reinsurance Solutions' revenues indicates growth of 4.4% from $688 million recorded a year ago, while our model estimate suggests a 7% increase. Favorable retention rates, new business generation and facultative placement growthare expected to have benefited the unit.

The factors mentioned above are expected to have contributed to the company's year-over-year growth, positioning it for an earnings beat. However, the positives are likely to have been partially offset by high expenses due to significant investments in priority areas for long-term growth, coupled with an uptick in certain discretionary and other costs.

Our model predicts total operating expenses for the second quarter at above $3.3 billion, attributed to increased costs related to higher compensation and benefits and information technology. Specifically, the estimate for other general expenses is set at more than $400 million, while compensation and benefits costs are pegged at nearly $2.4 billion.

Moreover, the consensus estimate for second-quarter revenues in the Wealth Solutions segment suggests a 15.2% decrease from the previous year’s $519 million, whereas our model indicates a 15% decline. The unit is likely to have been affected by weaker advisory demand in the United States.

How Did AON’s Peers Perform?Several insurance companies, including Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. (MRSH - Free Report) , AMERISAFE, Inc. (AMSF - Free Report) and RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. (RNR - Free Report) , have already reported their financial results for the June quarter of 2026. Here’s how they performed:

Marsh reported second-quarter 2026 adjusted earnings per share of $2.96, which surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 2.8%. The bottom line advanced 8.8% year over year.Its strong quarterly results benefited from solid growth in the Risk and Insurance Services and Consulting units. However, the upside was partially offset by Marsh’s elevated operating expenses, primarily due to increased compensation and benefits.

AMERISAFE reported second-quarter adjusted earnings per share of 44 cents, missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 17%. The bottom line also declined 17% year over year. The quarterly result was affected by higher expenses and weaker underwriting margins, with additional pressure from lower investment income. AMSF’s strong premium growth partly offset these headwinds.

RenaissanceRe reported second-quarter 2026 operating income of $12.92 per share, which surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 12.9%. The bottom line also improved 5.1% year over year. The quarterly earnings benefited from lower expenses, higher net investment income and an improved total combined ratio. However, the upside was partly offset by lower net premiums earned, weaker underwriting results in RNR’s Casualty & Specialty segment and lower fee income.

AI’s Power Crunch Fuels a Pivot for These 2 Oilfield StocksSLB NYSE: SLB reported second-quarter revenue of $9 billion, up 3% sequentially, as growth in Latin America, Europe and Africa, U.S. land and Asia more than offset disruptions in the Middle East. Adjusted earnings per share were $0.55, up $0.03 from the prior quarter but down $0.19 from a year earlier, according to Chief Financial Officer Stephane Biguet.

The company said Middle East revenue declined 13% sequentially to $1.66 billion amid conflict-related operational disruptions. SLB took temporary cost actions to limit the earnings impact, and Biguet said the resulting effect on earnings per share was slightly below the low end of the company’s previously indicated $0.06 to $0.08 range.

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MarketBeat Week in Review – 05/04 - 05/08Despite those disruptions, SLB said its pre-tax segment operating margin increased 49 basis points sequentially and adjusted EBITDA margin rose 83 basis points.

Production Systems and Digital Lead Growth Chief Executive Officer Olivier Le Peuch said growth outside the Middle East was broad-based, supported by higher offshore activity in Brazil, Guyana, Mexico, Scandinavia, Nigeria, China, Indonesia, India and Australia. U.S. land activity also improved, with higher demand for production chemicals, artificial lift and valves.

SLB’s Tough Quarter Masks a Powerful Long-Term ShiftProduction Systems was the company’s largest division in the quarter, with revenue rising 7% sequentially to $3.8 billion. The increase was driven by OneSubsea, artificial lift, valves, surface production systems and completions. Pre-tax operating margin improved 138 basis points to 15.5%, aided by better profitability in OneSubsea and artificial lift, as well as contributions from ChampionX’s Production Chemicals and Artificial Lift businesses.

Le Peuch said Production Systems adjusted EBITDA margins returned to above 20%. He added that ChampionX delivered sequential margin expansion for a third consecutive quarter despite inflation in chemicals.

Digital revenue increased 9% sequentially to $697 million, while pre-tax operating margin rose 683 basis points to 27.8%. Digital adjusted EBITDA margin reached 34.7%, up 860 basis points sequentially, driven by exploration data licenses and transfer fees in Brazil and Indonesia, along with improved profitability in digital operations, platforms and applications. SLB said digital annual recurring revenue increased 15% year over year.

Reservoir Performance revenue declined 2% sequentially to $1.6 billion, and Well Construction revenue also fell 2% to $2.7 billion, primarily because of Middle East disruptions. Well Construction margin was essentially flat as lower profitability in the Middle East was offset by improved profitability in North America and Latin America.

Middle East Recovery Remains Uneven Management said activity resumed in several Middle Eastern countries during the quarter, though operations in Iraq remained constrained by security concerns. Le Peuch said recovery will vary by country, customer and operating environment, and a return to full activity will take time.

During the question-and-answer session, Le Peuch said customer engagement had increased as operators plan to restore shut-in wells, expand capacity and deploy production-recovery solutions. He said activity had been restored and was strengthening in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and, to some extent, Saudi Arabia, while Iraq remained more constrained.

SLB expects initial recovery work to include well intervention, production chemicals, coiled tubing and other ChampionX-related production and recovery offerings. Management also said the disruption could accelerate interest in digital tools to optimize existing wells and operations.

For the third quarter, SLB’s base case assumes a gradual Middle East recovery and calls for global sequential revenue growth of 3% to 4%, with approximately 75 basis points of adjusted EBITDA margin expansion. Core-division revenue is expected to rise in the low- to mid-single digits, while Digital revenue is projected to increase in the low single digits.

The company also outlined a downside scenario in which renewed escalation prevents remobilization efforts and leaves Middle East revenue flat sequentially. In that case, third-quarter revenue would be about $150 million below its base case and adjusted EBITDA would face an approximately $75 million headwind, primarily in Well Construction and Reservoir Performance.

Deepwater Activity and Fourth-Quarter Outlook Le Peuch said the market is beginning to show characteristics of an upcycle, citing the need to replenish inventories and strategic reserves, diversify supply, develop domestic resources and rebuild spare capacity. He said third-party reports indicate final investment decisions for long-cycle projects could increase about 30% year over year in 2026.

SLB expects stronger exploration spending and deepwater capital investment during the second half of 2026, led by Africa, with a more meaningful impact in 2027 across Latin America, the Mediterranean and Asia. Management also highlighted continued activity in Brazil, Guyana, Suriname, the North Sea and the Gulf of America.

The company reiterated its ambition for OneSubsea bookings to reach $9 billion over two years. Le Peuch said SLB is expanding its subsea portfolio, including trees, manifolds, umbilicals, processing and boosting solutions, while pursuing life-of-field service capabilities and alliances with customers and partners.

For the fourth quarter, SLB expects Middle East revenue of $2.1 billion to $2.2 billion, or roughly 95% of the level achieved in the fourth quarter of 2025. Assuming that recovery, continued deepwater momentum and typical year-end Digital product sales, the company expects fourth-quarter revenue to exceed $10 billion, representing about 5% year-over-year growth. Adjusted EBITDA margin is expected to be about 24%.

Data Center Business Expands SLB said its data center solutions revenue grew 33% sequentially and 80% year over year. The business added hyperscaler customers and expanded from equipment manufacturing into data center design, engineering and system integration.

Le Peuch said SLB uses off-site fabrication to produce modular equipment for server infrastructure and cooling systems, aiming to provide customers with shorter delivery times and scalable deployment. The company said its backlog is already sufficient to support an annualized revenue run rate exceeding $2 billion by the end of 2027.

Biguet said the data center business is not currently accretive to SLB’s overall margins, but it is accretive to revenue and earnings growth and has strong free-cash-flow characteristics because of its capital-light business model and contract terms.

SLB generated $1.4 billion in cash flow from operations and $716 million in free cash flow during the quarter. It ended the period with net debt of $8.7 billion, repurchased $648 million of stock, and maintained its full-year target to return more than $4 billion to shareholders through dividends and buybacks.

About SLB (NYSE:SLB)SLB NYSE: SLB, historically known as Schlumberger, is a leading global provider of technology, integrated project management and information solutions for the energy industry. Founded by Conrad and Marcel Schlumberger in 1926, the company develops and supplies products and services used across the exploration, drilling, completion and production phases of oil and gas development. Its offerings are intended to help operators characterize reservoirs, drill and complete wells, optimize production and manage field operations throughout the asset lifecycle.

SLB's product and service portfolio spans reservoir characterization and well testing, wireline and logging services, directional drilling and drilling tools, well construction and completion technologies, production systems, and subsea equipment.

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

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A logo of Blackstone is pictured in Manhattan, New York City, U.S. July 29, 2025. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

SummaryCompaniesBidding for MarineMax has moved into third roundDonerail, Blackstone, Centerbridge among interested partiesInvestment firm Donerail began pushing for a sale last yearNEW YORK, July 24 (Reuters) - Investment firms ​Blackstone (BX.N), opens new tab and Donerail are among the final bidders to acquire MarineMax (HZO.N), opens new tab, two people ‌familiar with the matter said on Friday, as the recreational yacht retailer explores selling itself.

The two, as well as private equity firm Centerbridge, are in the final round of bidding for the Clearwater, Florida-headquartered ​company, said the sources who are not permitted to discuss private deliberations.

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MarineMax, which ​has a market value of around $725 million, caters to a wealthy clientele through ⁠its 65 marinas and storage locations and 70 dealerships, mostly in the U.S. It ​has attracted significant interest at a time the marina business has become a popular investment ​area.

Donerail began pushing MarineMax to sell itself or replace its chief executive officer last year, intensifying pressure on the company after Levin Capital in 2024 urged management and the board to evaluate strategic alternatives.

Representatives for MarineMax, ​Blackstone, and Donerail declined to comment. A representative for Centerbridge did not immediately respond ​to a comment request.

The company has made some changes aimed at addressing concerns of disgruntled investors, including replacing ‌board directors, ⁠but has never publicly acknowledged running a sales process including on Thursday when it reported quarterly earnings.

Reuters reported in February that Donerail submitted an all-cash offer which valued MarineMax at around $1 billion. Donerail subsequently raised its offer, while other buyout firms including Blackstone jumped into ​the mix as ​the company formally solicited buyer ⁠interest from April onwards.

Marinas and superyacht services have seen significant dealmaking in the last 18 months, with investment firms being particularly active.

Lower interest ​rates have supported high-end consumers' spending on luxury items like yachts ​even as ⁠other economic brackets are forced to tighten their belts.

Blackstone, through its infrastructure arm, bought Safe Harbor Marinas in 2025 for $5.7 billion. Fellow infrastructure investor Stonepeak acquired marina owner and operator Southern ⁠Marinas in ​April.

MarineMax was trading around $33.30 per share around midday on ​Friday, putting year-to-date gains around 37%. However, it is still trading at roughly half the value of its lifetime ​high hit in May 2021.

Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss; Editing by David French and Sanjeev Miglani

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

Key Takeaways CROX has outperformed peers recently but faces tariff, margin and HEYDUDE-related growth challenges.Crocs is investing in international expansion, marketing and inventory discipline to support long-term growth.CROX trades below the industry P/E but above its historical median valuation despite recent share gains. Crocs, Inc. (CROX - Free Report) has seen its shares rally 28.1% in the past three months, outperforming the industry’s growth of 5.6%. The stock has also outperformed the broader sector’s 4.7% decline and the S&P 500 Index’s 4% increase over the same period.

CROX Stock’s 3-Month Performance
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

In the past three months, CROX has trailed the performance of Vince Holding Corp. (VNCE - Free Report) while outperforming G-III Apparel Group, Ltd. (GIII - Free Report) and Columbia Sportswear Company (COLM - Free Report) . In the same period, shares of VNCE, GIII and COLM have increased 31.5%, 8.8% and 1%, respectively.

CROX’s Share Price Performance VS Peers
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Closing at $132.47 in the last trading session, CROX stock stands 5.7% below its 52-week high of $140.42 reached on July 17, 2026. CROX is trading above its 50-day simple moving average of $120.99 and its 200-day simple moving average of $95.95, indicating a strong technical setup.

CROX Trades Above 50 & 200-Day SMA
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Crocs Drives Growth Through Global ExpansionCrocs remains optimistic about its international business, expecting strong growth across its international markets for the remainder of the year and seeing a multiyear runway for expansion in key markets. Management highlighted particularly robust performance in Japan and China, noting that both continue to deliver very strong growth and reinforce the company's long-term global opportunity.

To support future growth, the company is also investing in marketing across both brands to drive demand for new product launches. At the same time, Crocs is maintaining a disciplined approach to inventory and supply chain management, using lean inventory levels to improve productivity and enhance financial flexibility.

Crocs Reports Margin Pressure and Weak Brand PerformanceDespite these long-term growth opportunities, the company is facing the impact of the Middle East conflict and expects these impacts to create several challenges for the Crocs brand. Management identified three potential areas of impact: lower revenue from its Middle East distributor business, which has already been incorporated into its annual guidance; higher raw material and transportation costs associated with elevated oil prices; and the possibility of broader macroeconomic disruptions, the extent of which remains uncertain. These factors could create additional headwinds for the business going forward.

The company faced margin pressure in the first quarter of fiscal 2026, with enterprise adjusted gross margin declining 90 basis points year over year to 56.9%. The decrease was primarily driven by a 100-basis-point impact from incremental tariffs, along with an unfavorable product mix. These headwinds were only partially offset by a favorable brand mix, resulting in an overall decline in gross margin in the first quarter.

Crocs reported weaker performance across both of its key brands in the first quarter of fiscal 2026 while continuing to execute initiatives to return both brands to growth. Sales at the Crocs brand declined 2%, while the HEYDUDE brand recorded a steeper 13% decrease. Both brands reported lower adjusted gross margins in the quarter. Adjusted gross margin for the Crocs brand declined 120 basis points to 59.5%, while the HEYDUDE brand experienced a steeper contraction of 210 basis points, bringing its adjusted gross margin to 44.5%.

Crocs issued a cautious outlook, expecting second-quarter revenues to decline slightly at prevailing currency rates, with continued weakness at the HEYDUDE brand and margin pressure from tariffs. For 2026, the company projects muted enterprise revenue growth between down 1% and up 1%, while HEYDUDE is still expected to post a 5% to 7% sales decline despite an improved outlook.

How Estimates Are Shaped Up for CROX?The Zacks Consensus Estimate for CROX’s current quarter earnings per share has been revised up by 2 cents to $4.32 in the past seven days. The consensus mark for the current year earnings per share has been revised down by a penny to $13.66, reflecting a challenging outlook for the year.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

CROX is currently trading at a forward 12-month P/E multiple of 9.29X, lower than the industry average of 15.70X and well below the S&P 500 multiple of 20.80X. However, the stock is trading above its 12-month median P/E of 7.11X, suggesting potential overvaluation relative to its historical valuations.

Crocs’ Valuation Picture
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

How to Play CROX Stock?Although Crocs continues to see attractive long-term opportunities in international markets, the business is facing mounting near-term challenges that could weigh on financial performance and investor sentiment. Weakening brand momentum and pressure on profitability reduce visibility into the pace of any meaningful recovery, while ongoing macroeconomic uncertainties create additional pressures. Given these risks, existing investors may consider reducing exposure, while prospective investors may prefer to remain on the sidelines until there is clearer evidence of sustained improvement in operating performance and a more favorable business environment. At present, CROX carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Key Takeaways Xylem is expected to post higher Q2 revenues and earnings, led by infrastructure and water solution demand.XYL may benefit from smart metering demand, backlog execution and contributions from the Vacom acquisition.Xylem faces margin pressure from higher material, labor, freight and strategic investment costs. Xylem Inc. (XYL - Free Report) is scheduled to release second-quarter 2026 results on July 28, before market open.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for XYL’s second-quarter revenues is pegged at $2.33 billion, indicating growth of 1.2% from the prior-year quarter’s number. The consensus mark for earnings is pinned at $1.34 per share, which has been stable in the past 60 days. The figure indicates an increase of 6.4% from the year-ago quarter’s figure.

The company’s earnings surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate thrice in the trailing four quarters and matched the mark in one, the average surprise being 5.9%.

Let’s see how things have shaped up for Xylem this earnings season.

Factors Likely to Have Shaped XYL’s Quarterly PerformanceStrength in the transport application business, aided by increased infrastructure projects in the United States, is likely to have supported the Water Infrastructure segment’s performance. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the Water Infrastructure segment’s revenues is pegged at $664 million, indicating 2.2% growth from the year-ago figure.

An increase in demand for advanced metering infrastructure solutions, like smart and energy metering, and strong backlog execution are likely to have augmented the performance of the Measurement & Control Solutions (M&CS) segment. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the M&CS segment’s revenues is pinned at $538 million, almost in line with the year-ago quarter’s figure.

Strength in the Applied Water segment, supported by higher demand for commercial building solutions applications, including pumps, valves and dispensing equipment, is likely to augment the segment’s results. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the Applied Water segment’s revenues is pegged at $492 million, indicating 1.9% growth from the year-ago figure.

Recovery in Xylem’s dewatering applications business across utility and power end markets is likely to augment the Water Solutions and Services segment’s results. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the Water Solutions and Services segment’s revenues is pegged at $636 million, indicating 1.3% growth year over year.

The company’s acquisition of Vacom Systems (in April 2025), a wastewater treatment company, enhanced its capabilities in providing sustainable water solutions. This buyout is expected to bolster the company’s top-line results in the to-be-reported quarter.

However, XYL’s bottom line is likely to have reflected the impact of high raw material costs, labor, freight and overhead costs in the second quarter. Also, increased spending on strategic investments is expected to have hurt its margins.

Earnings WhisperOur proven model does not conclusively predict an earnings beat for Xylem this time around. 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 not the case here, as elaborated below.

Earnings ESP: Xylem has an Earnings ESP of -0.34%. You can uncover the best stocks before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

Zacks Rank: XYL presently carries a Zacks Rank of 3. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Stocks to ConsiderHere are some companies, which according to our model, have the right combination of elements to beat on earnings in this reporting cycle.

Crane Company (CR - Free Report) has an Earnings ESP of +4.73% and a Zacks Rank of 2 at present. The company is scheduled to release second-quarter 2026 results on July 28.

Crane’s earnings surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the preceding four quarters, the average surprise being 11.3%.

Ingersoll Rand Inc. (IR - Free Report) has an Earnings ESP of +0.61% and a Zacks Rank of 3 at present. The company is slated to release second-quarter 2026 results on July 30.

Ingersoll Rand’s earnings surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in two of the trailing four quarters while matching the mark in two, the average surprise being 2.4%.

Illinois Tool Works Inc. (ITW - Free Report) has an Earnings ESP of +0.31% and a Zacks Rank of 3 at present. The company is slated to release second-quarter 2026 results on July 28.

Illinois Tool’s earnings surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 2.8%.

Perpetual decentralized exchange (DEX) Hyperliquid’s weekly trading volume in tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) exceeded that of all other asset categories combined for the first time.

RWAs generated $25.1 billion in trading volume from July 13 to July 19, accounting for 52% of Hyperliquid’s total weekly volume of $48.2 billion, according to Blockworks data.

“Hyperliquid’s RWA market alone was larger than the combined crypto perpetual volume of every other DEX,” wrote ARK Invest’s research director for digital assets, Lorenzo Valente, in a Thursday X post.

The milestone reflects growing demand for tokenized assets on Hyperliquid. Over the past month, RWA holders grew by 32% to 1.25 million users, while the total value of tokenized RWAs rose by 3.5% to $36.7 billion, according to data aggregator RWA.xyz.

Hyperliquid generated $7.6 million in revenue over the past week, according to DefiLlama. The perp DEX ranked third among crypto applications by weekly revenue, behind stablecoin issuers Tether and Circle, which generated $112 million and $45 million, respectively.

Hyperliquid: Perpetual Futures Volume, 2-year chart. Source: Blockworks

Major “structural shift” for crypto markets: Circle co-founderCrypto-native firms and traditional financial institutions have expanded tokenized asset offerings as they bring more financial assets onto blockchain networks. In March, the NYSE partnered with tokenization platform Securitize to develop blockchain-based stock trading infrastructure with 24/7 trading and settlement.

Circle co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire said growing RWA trading on Hyperliquid marks a “major structural shift” in crypto markets, moving “away from speculating on endogenous digital commodities,” in a Friday X post.

Earlier in July, Pantera Capital said perpetual futures could become a dominant trading instrument beyond crypto, as perps offer structural advantages over traditional derivatives, including 24/7 trading, no contract expiries, simpler position management and continuous price discovery.

Hyperliquid’s growth has drawn attention from Wall Street institutions, including NYSE parent Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), whose CEO, Jeffrey Sprecher, urged regulators to create a “level playing field” for launching 24/7 onchain perpetual futures contracts.

Magazine: How Hong Kong is turning tokenized bonds into real market infrastructure

Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

In brief Strategy published new and updated investor metrics, saying its shift from convertible debt toward preferred-equity "digital credit" requires fresh yardsticks. The centerpiece, "net Bitcoin per share," measures the Bitcoin left for common shareholders after $22.3 billion in debt and preferred claims The firm also redefined mNAV under a new metric that restored it to its 1.0x par and recast "amplification" as a roughly 1.5x equity multiplier. Strategy has overhauled the metrics it uses to value its Bitcoin, rolling out a set of new "net" measures that strip out debt and preferred-stock claims to show how much of its stash actually belongs to common shareholders.

New and updated market metrics are live at https://t.co/yIv7IimRdf. As Digital Credit becomes a larger portion of our balance sheet, we've sharpened our precision based on investor feedback. This video walks through what's new and why.
00:00 - Intro to Strategy's new and updated… pic.twitter.com/ndCoDc9PDW

— Strategy (@Strategy) July 23, 2026

In a 30-minute video posted to its investor site, the company's head of investor relations Chaitanya Jain said the metrics had to "evolve" as the business moved "from an era of convertible debt to now a focus on digital credit," and pointed to investor demands for clarity. Executive chairman Michael Saylor put it more grandly, tweeting that, "Bitcoin Capital Markets require a new financial language."

The centerpiece is "net reserve," about $35 billion—what is left after subtracting $22.2 billion in senior claims ($15.5 billion of preferred stock and roughly $6.8 billion of out-of-the-money convertible debt) from Strategy's $57 billion Bitcoin pile (843,775 BTC) and $3.2 billion of cash. Dividing that residual by a new fully diluted share count gives "net Bitcoin per share," which the firm says has risen from $13 (44,000 sats) at the end of 2020 to $95 (143,000 sats)—a 43% compound annual growth rate, against Bitcoin's 16%.

The company also redefined mNAV as MSTR's share price divided by net Bitcoin per share, with the accretion threshold now fixed at 1.0x, and recast "amplification" as an equity multiplier—Bitcoin reserve over net reserve—of about 1.5x. New credit gauges frame the debt-fueled model's sustainability, with a "hurdle rate" of about 10.8% marking Strategy's effective cost of credit, a break-even rate near 3.2%, and a "flow rate" of about −11% that estimates how far Bitcoin could fall before reserves stopped covering debt and dividends.

The overhaul arrives with MSTR under pressure: the stock traded around $93 on Friday, down slightly on the day and far below its 2024 peak, days ahead of second-quarter earnings on July 30. Under the new formula, its mNAV reads right at 1.02x. Measured the old way—against Strategy's gross Bitcoin per share—the stock had looked to trade at a discount; dividing instead by net Bitcoin per share, after the roughly $22 billion of senior claims is stripped out, lifts the same share price to parity. It is Strategy's latest guidance tweak during a bear market that began last October; its flagship preferred share, STRC, still trades below its $100 “par value.”

The firm’s "digital credit" framing traces to a late-June pivot, when Strategy approved a framework for "active capital management" that, for the first time, authorized selling up to $1.25 billion of Bitcoin to top up its cash reserve, cover preferred dividends, and fund buybacks—a formal break from Michael Saylor's long-held "never sell" stance. In the weeks since, the firm has raised cash by selling MSTR stock rather than Bitcoin, sparing its 843,775 BTC stack while diluting common holders.

For now, Strategy's own math says the structure holds—as long as Bitcoin, currently around $64,000 and about 50% below its high, doesn't fall more than roughly 11% a year through the early 2030s.

Daily Debrief NewsletterStart every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.

Key Takeaways Unum is expected to benefit from favorable persistency and stronger sales across its insurance businesses. UNM's key operating segments are likely to see growth from voluntary benefits, life and disability products. Unum is expected to face higher expenses, while continued share buybacks may support earnings. Unum Group (UNM - Free Report) is expected to register an improvement in its bottom line but a decline in the top line when it reports second-quarter 2026 results on July 28, after the closing bell.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for UNM’s second-quarter revenues is pegged at $2.95 billion, indicating a 12.6% decline from the year-ago reported figure.

The consensus estimate for earnings is pegged at $2.14 per share. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for UNM’s second-quarter earnings has moved south by 0.4% in the past 30 days. The estimate suggests a year-over-year increase of 3.3%.

What the Zacks Model Unveils for UNMOur proven model does not conclusively predict an earnings beat for Unum Group this time around. This is because a stock needs to have the right combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy), or 3 (Hold). This is not the case, as you can see below:

Earnings ESP: Unum Group has an Earnings ESP of -0.89%. This is because the Most Accurate Estimate of $2.13 is pegged lower than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.14. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they are reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

Zacks Rank: Unum Group currently carries a Zacks Rank #3.

Factors Likely to Shape Q2 Results of UNMFavorable persistency and better sales in the operating segments are likely to have favored premiums in the second quarter. Our estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate for premium income are both pegged at $2.6 billion.

Net investment income is likely to have increased due to higher invested assets and higher miscellaneous investment income. Our estimate for investment income is pegged at $297.3 million, suggesting a 47% decrease from the year-ago quarter. The Zacks Consensus Estimate is pegged at $269 million.

The performance of Unum U.S. and Colonial Life — two of the largest operating segments — is likely to have been driven by stable overall persistency in the voluntary benefits and dental and vision product lines, and higher prior period sales in the voluntary benefits product line, improved benefit experience across life, accident, sickness, and disability product lines, and in-force block growth.

Better performance in life and group disability is likely to aid Unum U.S. results.

Our estimate for Unum U.S. operating revenues is pegged at $2 billion, while the same for Colonial Life is pinned at $516.5 million.
Favorable results at group long-term disability, Group Life and Supplemental are likely to have favored Unum UK. This, combined with in-force block growth, sales and favorable overall persistency at Unum Poland, is likely to have benefited Unum International. Our estimate for Unum International’s operating revenues is pegged at $336.1 million.

Expenses are likely to have increased because of higher policy benefits, commissions, interest and debt expense, amortization of deferred acquisition costs and other expenses.

Continued share buybacks are likely to have contributed to the bottom line.

Stocks to ConsiderSome insurance stocks with the right combination of elements to deliver an earnings beat this time around are:

Aflac Incorporated (AFL - Free Report) has an Earnings ESP of +0.34% and a Zacks Rank #3 at present. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for second-quarter 2026 earnings is pegged at $1.77, indicating a year-over-year decrease of 0.5%. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

AFL’s earnings beat estimates in two of the last four reported quarters and missed in the other two.

The Allstate Corporation (ALL - Free Report) has an Earnings ESP of +2.59% and a Zacks Rank #2 at present. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for second-quarter 2026 earnings is pegged at $5.61, indicating a year-over-year decrease of 5.5%.

ALL’s earnings beat estimates in each of the last four reported quarters.

Axis Capital Holdings Limited (AXS - Free Report) has an Earnings ESP of +3.82% and a Zacks Rank #3 at present. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for second-quarter 2026 earnings is pegged at $3.23, indicating a year-over-year decrease of 1.8%.

AXS’s earnings beat estimates in each of the last four reported quarters.

Eight months ago the XRP ETFs launched faster than any product since Ethereum. The bid has since decayed 99%, from $200 million weeks to zero-flow days, leaving $1.49 billion invested, $997 million remaining, and a recovery thesis outsourced entirely to a Senate vote. Here is the full autopsy of a bid, and what its flatline actually prices.

Summary

US spot XRP ETFs launched in November with $667 million in their first month, reaching $1 billion faster than any crypto product since Ethereum’s funds, on an eight-week inflow streak that ran even while Bitcoin funds bled. The bid then decayed by roughly 99%: weekly flows fell from above $200 million to low single-digit millions, the streak ended July 13, and July’s tape shows zero-flow days punctuated by one $7.29 million outflow, the largest since March. The wreckage is precise: $1.49 billion in cumulative inflows now marks against roughly $997 million in net assets, an unrealized deficit near $493 million, with 82% of assets concentrated in three funds and several products flatlined entirely. The one institutional trophy, Goldman Sachs’s $153.8 million position across four funds, is a December-dated 13F snapshot that Bloomberg analysts read as trading-desk facilitation, inside a complex that remains 84% retail-held. The flows have now stabilized at approximately nothing, which the optimistic read calls a floor, and the recovery case has converged on a single external event: the CLARITY Act vote whose odds trade near a coin flip this week. There is a specific moment in the life of every investment product when its story stops being about demand and starts being about anatomy, and for the US spot XRP ETFs that moment can be dated: Monday, July 13, when the daily flow printed zero and an eight-week inflow streak, the product class’s last living narrative, quietly ended. What launched in November as the fastest-growing crypto fund complex since Ethereum’s, $667 million in month one, a billion dollars faster than anyone forecast, institutional validation in fund form, now trades as a case study. The buyers did not rotate, rebalance, or pause. They stopped: from weeks above $200 million to weeks near $2 million, from streak to zero-days, from launch euphoria to a July whose single best session, $6.78 million, amounts to one percent of the early pace. What remains is $1.49 billion of invested capital marking against $997 million of assets, three funds carrying 82% of everything, and a recovery thesis that no longer references the product at all, only a Senate vote. This piece is the full anatomy: how the bid died, what the wreckage precisely looks like, what the lone institutional trophy in the filings actually shows, and what the flatline, honestly read, prices for the asset underneath it.

The decay curve, dated The complex’s eight months divide into three phases so distinct they could belong to different products.

Phase one, the launch bid, ran from November into the winter: $667 million in the first month across seven issuers, the fastest accumulation to $1 billion since Ethereum’s funds, weekly prints above $200 million, and the statistic the marketing decks will never retire, an inflow streak that persisted through weeks when Bitcoin ETFs bled, which was read at the time as evidence of a distinct, durable XRP allocator base. The reading had support: the products launched into the afterglow of the SEC’s surrender, the commodity classification, and the first wave of bank-desk research initiating coverage with conditional price targets in the double digits.

Phase two, the decay, occupied the spring: weekly flows stepped down from nine figures to eight to seven, May still collected over $100 million for the month, and by June the run-rate had thinned to low single-digit millions per week, a decline of roughly 99% from peak that no single event explains and one variable tracks perfectly, the token’s price, which fell from above $2.40 in January to the $1.10s, converting every earlier allocation into a loss and every allocator’s quarterly review into an uncomfortable meeting. Fund flows follow performance with a lag in both directions; the launch streak was the up-lag, and the decay was the down-lag arriving on schedule.

Phase three, the flatline, is July: six sessions of exactly zero flows in the month’s first half, a $7.29 million single-day outflow on July 9, the largest since March, the streak’s formal end on July 13, then a stretch from July 10 through July 20 of zeros and small positives, crowned by the month’s best day, $6.78 million on July 16, driven by two issuers’ desks. The freshest coverage frames the stabilization as survival, the product has not seen an outflow day since July 9, and the framing is technically true and proportionally absurd: the bid that defined the launch is not resting, it is absent, and its absence has become stable. That is what the anatomy shows. The interesting questions are in the tissue.

The wreckage, itemized Four numbers, current as of this week’s data, describe the complex more honestly than any narrative.

$1.49 billion against $997 million. Cumulative net inflows since launch stand near $1.49 billion; total net assets stand near $997 million, roughly 1.45% of XRP’s market capitalization, with about 971 million XRP in custody. The gap, approximately $493 million, is the unrealized loss the allocator base collectively carries, the arithmetic consequence of buying a token averaging well above $1.50 that now trades near $1.10. Every future flow decision the complex’s holders make is made against that deficit, which is the single most important fact in any forecast of the flows resuming: the marginal buyer is being asked to average down into a product whose existing buyers are 33% underwater on invested capital.

82% in three funds. Bitwise holds $312.8 million in assets on $498.3 million of cumulative inflows; Canary $253.2 million on $467.0 million; Franklin $252.2 million on $415.6 million. Together, the top three hold roughly 82% of complex assets, which means the seven-fund complex is functionally a three-fund market with a long tail of products printing zeros. Category-level flow headlines obscure this: an inflow day increasingly means one or two distribution desks had a decent Thursday, and a diversified institutional bid, the launch thesis, would not produce this shape.

84% retail-held. The complex’s ownership base, per the issuer-side analysis that accompanied the spring’s institutional reporting, remains 84% retail, against 48.8% institutional participation in the comparable Solana products, a gap that quantifies how much of the launch narrative, the institutions are here, was distribution, not description. Which frames the trophy correctly.

The Goldman position, read properly. Goldman Sachs’s 13F disclosed $153.8 million across four XRP funds, roughly $40 million in Bitwise, $38.5 million in Franklin, $38 million in Grayscale, $36 million in 21Shares, making it the largest disclosed institutional holder, accounting for 73% of the top 30 institutions’ combined $211 million. The number did real narrative work all spring, and its caveats are the anatomy lesson: it is a December 31 snapshot, disclosed in March, of positions that may not exist today; Bloomberg’s analysts read the four-fund construction as consistent with trading-desk facilitation and client positioning instead of proprietary conviction; and as this publication’s own guide to how to read the Goldman position argues, the form is a rear-view mirror with a 45-day delay, structurally incapable of showing whether the bank held, added, or exited through the subsequent drawdown. The largest institutional XRP position on record is, read strictly, evidence that Goldman’s clients wanted exposure in December. The flows since are evidence of what everyone wanted after.

The geography of the remaining bid One more layer of the anatomy deserves its own examination, because the aggregate US flow numbers conceal a compositional fact with real information in it: through the American flatline, the marginal bid for exchange-traded XRP exposure migrated abroad.

Through the spring decay, European venues carried a share of global XRP product flows out of proportion to their size, with Swiss and broader European ETP wrappers at times representing the substantial majority of weekly net inflows worldwide while the US complex printed its zeros. The absolute sums are modest, European crypto ETPs are an older, smaller, steadier market, but the composition matters for what it falsifies and what it suggests. It falsifies the strongest form of the exhaustion reading: if the asset’s entire allocator universe were fully purchased, the European bid would have flatlined alongside the American one, and it did not. And it suggests where the marginal buyer actually lives: in jurisdictions where the asset’s legal status was never contested, where MiCA-era frameworks settled classification questions years earlier, and where the products consequently trade as ordinary alternatives allocations, not as bets on a Senate calendar.

Read that way, the geographic split becomes the cleanest natural experiment available on the outsourced thesis. The American flows died in the jurisdiction where the asset’s status remains hostage to legislation; the European flows persisted, modestly, in jurisdictions where it does not. If legal permanence is truly the binding constraint on institutional allocation, the CLARITY experiment has already run abroad, and its result, steady but unspectacular demand, prices the upper bound of what passage realistically unlocks: not the JPMorgan-forecast flood, but a normalization to the European pattern, mid-single-digit millions weekly, compounding quietly, unheroically, forever. That is a real bull case, and it is a fraction of the one being marketed.

The alternative reading restores the American market’s exceptionalism: US wealth-management distribution is an order of magnitude deeper than Europe’s, the RIA channel that turned Bitcoin’s ETFs into a $52 billion complex has no European equivalent, and the launch month’s $667 million showed what that distribution can move when it has a story to sell. On this reading, Europe measures the floor of post-CLARITY demand and America’s launch month measured the ceiling, and the truth, as usual, books a room between them. Either way, the geographic ledger deserves a place in every flow analysis this complex receives, because it is the one dataset showing what XRP demand looks like when Washington is not the variable, and it has been quietly reporting that answer, in Swiss francs, all year.

The regulated-channel counterpoint One dataset complicates the pure decay story, and honesty requires it: while the spot complex flatlined, the regulated derivatives channel set records.

CME’s XRP futures built to a peak of $1.4 billion in open interest with 29 large open-interest holders, a record for the venue, even as total XRP derivatives open interest across all venues collapsed from its $10 billion peak by margins reported between 75% and 96%, a deleveraging that wiped out the offshore, retail-levered complex. The split matters because the two channels answer different questions: aggregate open interest tracks speculative leverage, which is gone, while CME positioning tracks the institutions that clear through Chicago, which grew through the wreckage. The honest synthesis is narrower than either headline: the levered retail market deflated, a smaller regulated market matured, and neither flow bought spot tokens, which is why the ETF shelf and the price both starved while the derivatives venue celebrated. Institutional infrastructure and institutional demand are different things, a distinction this asset’s whole history keeps teaching. For the underlying distribution picture, crypto.news has also mapped the supply map under the products.

What the flatline prices Strip the anatomy to its meaning and three readings compete, with the tape currently endorsing the bleakest.

The floor reading, the optimists’ case, holds that the shakeout is complete: outflows never cascaded, the post-July 9 tape shows zero net redemption, the deficit is carried rather than capitulated, and a stabilized base at $1 billion of assets is the platform a catalyst builds on. Its evidence is real, the complex genuinely did not unwind the way GBTC-era products did, and its weakness is that a floor with no bid above it is just a ledge.

The exhaustion reading holds that the launch consumed the entire natural buyer base: the crypto-native allocators, the RIA early adopters, and the bank desks servicing client curiosity all bought in the first two quarters, at prices 40% above the current market, and no second cohort exists at any price the first cohort’s losses will allow advisers to recommend. On this reading the flatline is not a floor but a completed distribution, and the zero-days are what a fully-sold product looks like.

And the outsourced reading, the one the complex’s own defenders now lead with, holds that the flows return when Washington acts: legal permanence unlocks the institutional allocation the launch never actually contained, the 84% retail share inverts, and the JPMorgan-style first-year forecasts the complex undershot get a second life under a market-structure law. This is the reading that matters, because it is the one being priced, and its honest form is uncomfortable: it concedes the product failed to generate durable demand on its own and converts the entire recovery case into a claim about one bill, whose cloture count stands unresolved this very week, whose passage odds trade near a coin flip, and whose own conditional structure, as this publication’s analysis of the conditional targets riding these flows showed, was already the load-bearing wall under every double-digit XRP forecast. The ETF complex, the price targets, and now the flow-recovery thesis have all converged on the same single point of failure. That is not diversification of catalysts. It is concentration, in a legislature, measured at 41% on Polymarket, and the flatline is what an asset looks like while it waits on it.

What to watch The weekly prints against the zero line. The complex has proven it can avoid outflows; the open question is whether anything above $10 million a week ever returns without a legislative trigger. Sustained mid-eight-figure weeks would falsify the exhaustion reading on their own.

The concentration ratio. Watch whether the three-fund share of assets rises above 82%, consolidation continuing, or whether the tail products show life, the only clean signal of a broadening buyer base instead of two sales desks working.

The CLARITY binary, and the day after. Passage would run the outsourced thesis’s experiment in real time: the flows either arrive within weeks, validating everything, or they do not, which would be the most damaging data point in the asset’s institutional history, because it would exhaust the last explanation. Failure of the bill runs the mirror experiment on the deficit’s holders. That is the event the recovery thesis waits on.

The Q1 13F cycle’s ghosts. The May filings covering the drawdown quarter will show whether Goldman and the top-30 cohort held through the decline. A largely intact institutional roster supports the floor reading; a vanished one completes the anatomy.

Eight months ago the XRP ETFs were the proof that institutional demand existed. The anatomy shows what they actually proved: that distribution existed, that a launch window monetized it, and that demand, the durable kind that buys drawdowns, was never located. The complex now holds $997 million, a $493 million scar, and one hypothesis left to test, scheduled for a Senate floor that has not yet set the time. Products usually die of redemption. This one’s fate is stranger: fully built, fully priced, and waiting, with the rest of its asset class, for Washington to tell it whether the buyers were ever real. For context, crypto.news has explained he flow machinery itself.

Frequently asked questions What happened to the XRP ETF inflows? They decayed roughly 99% from launch. The products drew $667 million in their first month from November and sustained an eight-week inflow streak, but weekly flows fell from above $200 million to low single-digit millions by summer. The streak ended July 13, July logged six zero-flow sessions and a $7.29 million outflow day, and the month’s best session brought just $6.78 million.

How much money is in the funds now, and what is the loss? Cumulative net inflows stand near $1.49 billion, while total net assets are roughly $997 million, about 1.45% of XRP’s market capitalization, with approximately 971 million XRP in custody. The gap of roughly $493 million represents unrealized losses on invested capital, reflecting purchases made at substantially higher token prices than the current $1.10 area.

Which funds dominate the complex? Three of seven: Bitwise with $312.8 million in assets, Canary with $253.2 million, and Franklin with $252.2 million, together roughly 82% of all complex assets. The remaining products frequently print zero daily flows, meaning category-level inflow headlines usually reflect activity at one or two distribution desks, not broad-based demand.

Does Goldman Sachs’s position change the picture? Less than headlines suggested. Goldman’s $153.8 million across four funds, disclosed in its Q4 2025 13F, made it the largest institutional holder, about 73% of the top 30 institutions’ combined exposure. But the filing is a December 31 snapshot published in March, Bloomberg analysts read the construction as trading-desk facilitation rather than directional conviction, and the complex overall remains 84% retail-held.

How does the CME futures record fit the story? As a counterpoint about a different market. CME’s XRP futures reached a record $1.4 billion in open interest with 29 large holders even as total XRP derivatives open interest collapsed as much as 96% from its $10 billion peak. The regulated channel matured while offshore leverage deflated, but neither development bought spot tokens, which is why the ETF flows and the price starved simultaneously.

Is the recent stabilization a positive signal? It is the debated question. Since the July 9 outflow, daily flows have been zero or slightly positive, no redemption cascade has occurred, and the deficit is being carried rather than capitulated, the floor reading. The skeptical reading calls the same tape exhaustion: the natural buyer base fully purchased during launch and no second cohort exists at current prices. The flatline is consistent with both until something moves.

Why does everything now depend on the CLARITY Act? Because every other catalyst has been consumed. The SEC resolution, the launches, and the bank coverage all occurred, and the flows died anyway, leaving legal permanence as the last untested explanation for why institutional allocation has not arrived. The recovery thesis for the flows, the analyst price targets, and the asset’s broader institutional case have converged on the same legislative binary, currently priced near a coin flip.

What should investors watch next? Weekly flows against the zero line, with sustained mid-eight-figure weeks as the falsifier of the exhaustion reading; the three-fund concentration ratio, for any sign of a broadening base; the Q1 13F filings covering the drawdown quarter, to see whether the institutional roster held; and the CLARITY vote itself, whose aftermath in either direction runs the decisive experiment on whether the buyers return. This is not investment advice.

Disclaimer: This article is for information and educational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. Flow figures and asset values change daily and reflect data available at the time of writing. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any asset or fund. Always do your own research. Information is accurate as of July 24, 2026.

The XRP ecosystem has welcomed over $800 million worth of distributed real-world assets this year amid the growing tokenization trend on the network.

The tokenization market has continued to grow in 2026, with its total value now exceeding $410 billion. Current data puts the market at $410.70 billion, made up of $36.72 billion in distributed asset value and $373.98 billion in represented asset value.

Growth has been especially strong in the distributed asset segment. At the beginning of the year, distributed asset value, excluding stablecoins, stood at $25.39 billion. It has since risen to $36.72 billion, as interest in tokenization has gained momentum throughout the year.

XRPL Adds Over $800 Million in Distributed RWA The XRP Ledger has also benefited from the growing interest in tokenized assets. As more attention has moved toward the sector, the network has expanded the value of assets issued directly on the ledger.

Data shows that the XRP Ledger now holds $1.319 billion in distributed asset value when stablecoins are included. Without stablecoins, the figure stands at just $323.18 million.

The network began 2026 with $518 million in distributed real-world assets. Since then, that figure has climbed to $1.319 billion, meaning the XRP Ledger has added exactly $801 million in distributed RWAs this year. The increase shows the network’s growing role in the broader tokenization market.

Distributed RWA on XRP Ledger RLUSD Leads the Growth Ripple’s stablecoin, RLUSD, has driven most of the increase in distributed assets on the XRP Ledger. At the start of the year, RLUSD had a market capitalization of $235 million. It has since grown to $896 million, adding $661 million in value during 2026.

Ripple has supported this growth by increasing RLUSD minting on the XRP Ledger while burning more of the stablecoin on Ethereum. As a result, RLUSD now makes up 67.96% of the XRP Ledger’s total distributed asset value.

The stablecoin ecosystem on the network has also continued to expand. Combined stablecoin market capitalization on the XRP Ledger has reached $995 million, bringing it close to the $1 billion mark. 

Alongside RLUSD, Braza USDB contributes $69.44 million, BBRL accounts for $12 million, and USDC adds $5.8 million, with several other stablecoins making up the remainder. These assets have played an important role in increasing the ledger’s distributed asset value.

Total RWA on XRP Reaches $5.35 Billion The XRP Ledger’s tokenized asset ecosystem extends beyond distributed assets. When represented asset value is included, the network now supports $5.35 billion in real-world assets, including stablecoins.

Several tokenized products account for much of that value. The largest is JMWH from Justoken, which is worth $2.229 billion. RLUSD follows with $876 million, while the Ondo Short-Term US Government Bond Fund contributes $222 million. The ASENA FIF – Single Tranche product also represents a significant share with $215.7 million.

These figures confirm how quickly the XRP Ledger’s tokenized asset ecosystem has expanded this year. RLUSD has led the growth in distributed assets, while several large tokenized financial products have strengthened the network’s represented asset value.

DisClamier: This content is informational and should not be considered financial advice. The views expressed in this article may include the author's personal opinions and do not reflect The Crypto Basic opinion. Readers are encouraged to do thorough research before making any investment decisions. The Crypto Basic is not responsible for any financial losses.

Ethereum (ETH) reserves are moving in different directions across major cryptocurrency exchanges. 

Gemini and Bitfinex have recorded significant outflows, while Binance’s holdings have remained mostly stable, according to CryptoQuant analyst Amr Taha.

658,600 Fewer ETH on Exchanges Data shared by Taha shows Gemini’s Ethereum reserve fell to 384,400 ETH on July 24. This marks its lowest level since March 2024.

Notably, the exchange has lost about 188,600 ETH, or 32.9%, since holding 573,000 ETH on April 23.

Meanwhile, Bitfinex has also seen a major decline. Its Ethereum reserve dropped from 2.71 million ETH on May 11 to 2.24 million ETH. That represents a reduction of roughly 470,000 ETH, or 17.3%.

Meanwhile, Binance’s Ethereum reserves have remained largely unchanged at around 3.8 million ETH during the same period.

Together, Gemini and Bitfinex now hold about 658,600 fewer ETH than before. At Ethereum’s current price of around $1,880, the reduction is worth approximately $1.24 billion.

Taha said that falling exchange balances reduce the amount of ETH immediately available for trading. However, reserve movements alone do not show investor intent or predict Ethereum’s future price direction.

Binance Ethereum Funding Rates Reach Six-Month High as Market Sentiment Improves In a separate market update, Arab Chain highlighted improving sentiment in Ethereum’s derivatives market.

The 30-day simple moving average (SMA) of funding rates for Ethereum perpetual contracts on Binance has risen to approximately 0.00339. This is the highest level in six months, with ETH trading near $1,920.

Funding rates represent the cost traders pay to maintain leveraged positions. A rising positive funding rate usually signals stronger demand for long positions and growing bullish sentiment.

According to Arab Chain, the indicator has reversed after declining for several months. The shift comes as Ethereum has recently recovered in price.

ETH is trading at $1,885, down 2.3% over the past day but remains up 2.56% over the past week. Moreover, the monthly chart shows ETH is up 13%.

Essentially, the move in the derivative markets suggests traders are willing to pay to hold long positions, reflecting expectations that ETH could continue moving higher.

However, Arab Chain noted that funding rates are still below the elevated levels that have historically appeared before major market corrections.

He added that continued increases could signal rising leverage in the market. This may increase the risk of widespread liquidations if Ethereum faces a sharp price decline.

DisClamier: This content is informational and should not be considered financial advice. The views expressed in this article may include the author's personal opinions and do not reflect The Crypto Basic opinion. Readers are encouraged to do thorough research before making any investment decisions. The Crypto Basic is not responsible for any financial losses.

Cardano (ADA) price is down by 3.74% today, July 24, to trade at $0.167 at the time of writing. This drop comes as Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson warns that President Trump’s ties to the crypto sector are delaying the passage of the CLARITY Act bill.

Besides Cardano, the rest of the crypto market remains down today, July 24, after the Senate Majority Leader John Thune said that the CLARITY bill might not pass before August.

Charles Hoskinson Sounds CLARITY Act Warning In a recent post on X, Hoskinson revealed that the debate around the CLARITY Act has been reduced to three talking points: crypto, Trump, and corruption.

He says that Trump’s ties to the crypto sector, including the recent disclosure that he made $1.4 billion in profit from crypto activities in 2025, will continue to push Democratic senators away from voting for the CLARITY Act and all other crypto bills.

“The process was mismanaged, and it led to this talking point. No progress can be made if crypto is partisan,” the Cardano founder said.

Hoskinson’s remarks come as Senator Elizabeth Warren asks Trump to disclose any profits that he has made from crypto since July 15. Warren says that the disclosure should come before Senate can vote on CLARITY Act.

Democratic Senators also argue that the White House concessions on ethics rules are not enough, saying that state Attorneys General, and not the DoJ, should ensure that the President does not issue digital assets.

Cardano Price Tests Ascending Channel Support Amid Selling Pressure The price of Cardano has been moving within a rising channel since July 14. This channel suggests that ADA has been on an uptrend for ten days.

But ADA is now testing the support at the lower boundary of the rising channel. If it closes below this support, it will suggest that ADA price is about to start a downtrend, and the price could drop to the psychological support of $0.15.

The RSI reading of 42 supports a bearish long-term Cardano price prediction. The RSI line is also creating a lower low on the four-hour chart, suggesting that the selling pressure is rising.

ADA/USDT: 4H Chart (Source: TradingView) The AO bars that are red and negative also suggest that bears are tightening their grip, and this further strengthens a bearish case of a move to $0.15.

Whales Scoop 30M ADA After Van Rossem Upgrade Whales have scooped 30 million Cardano tokens despite the recent decline in price, per analyst Ali Charts.

The purchases come after the Van Rossem hard fork went live on Cardano to pave the way for the Leios upgrade that will make the network 60 times faster.

Still, Hoskinson notes that Cardano and other blockchain networks need to improve their security and prevent hacks, failure to which the crypto industry could die within 15 years.

His remarks come after a recent hack on the Wanchain bridge that links Cardano to BNB Chain.

The SecondFi protocol is also shutting down after being hacked in June with this marking the third project on Cardano to shut down after TapTools and JPG Store.

First Hawaiian NASDAQ: FHB executives said the bank delivered loan growth, wider net interest margin and continued solid credit quality in the second quarter of 2026, while preparing for its proposed combination with TriCo Bancshares.

Chairman, President and CEO Bob Harrison said the company was “very excited” about the TriCo transaction, which is expected to close near the end of the year. He said First Hawaiian is focused on the work required to complete the deal and does not have additional information beyond what was presented during its July 23 investor call.

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Hawaii economy and loan growth Harrison pointed to relatively stable economic conditions in Hawaii. The statewide employment rate was 2.5% in May, compared with a national unemployment rate of 4.3%. Total visitor arrivals through May rose 2.9% from a year earlier, driven primarily by visitors from the U.S. mainland and Japan, while year-to-date visitor spending reached $9.7 billion, up 7.5% from 2025 levels.

Hawaii housing prices also remained firm. The median Oahu single-family home sales price was $1.2 million in June, up 10.4% year over year, while the median condo price was $528,000, up 3.5%.

Total loans increased $137 million during the quarter, representing annualized growth of about 3.6%. Growth was led by commercial and industrial, or C&I, lending and commercial real estate lending. C&I balances increased $98 million, primarily because of dealer-flooring growth and expansion in the company’s Hawaii corporate portfolio.

Completed construction projects resulted in the conversion of $95 million in construction loan balances into commercial real estate loans. Construction loan payoffs and lower residential balances partly offset the broader growth, as residential payoffs exceeded new production.

Harrison said management continues to see a “very robust pipeline” in C&I and commercial real estate, with construction activity representing a meaningful portion of commercial real estate opportunities. The bank also is working with some new customer relationships, he said. Residential lending, however, is expected to remain slow because of the interest-rate environment.

Deposits, margin and earnings outlook Total deposits declined $623 million in the second quarter, largely due to expected public-deposit outflows. Chief Financial Officer Jamie Moses said retail deposits were essentially flat, while commercial deposits fell about $156 million because of seasonal volatility. Public deposits declined $467 million, mainly in operating accounts, and public time deposits decreased by $115 million. The remaining public time-deposit balance was $9 million.

Moses said the declines did not reflect lost customer relationships. Municipal partners found other ways to invest certain balances off the bank’s balance sheet, he said, while First Hawaiian expects retail and commercial deposits to increase in the second half because of seasonal patterns. The company’s noninterest-bearing deposit ratio was 32%, and its total cost of deposits declined two basis points from the first quarter.

Net interest income increased $3.5 million sequentially to $171 million. Net interest margin rose six basis points to 3.25%, helped by deposit mix and repricing, higher loan and securities yields, and lower cash balances.

Management revised its full-year net interest margin outlook to a range of 3.24% to 3.25%, based on market expectations for one rate increase later this year. First Hawaiian expects third-quarter margin of about 3.27%. Moses said the company assumed a rate increase early in the fourth quarter in its outlook.

The balance sheet remains asset-sensitive, according to Harrison. Moses said roughly $6 billion of assets would reprice immediately following a rate increase based on SOFR, while approximately $3.5 billion to $4 billion of liabilities would also reprice to some degree.

Cash balances declined in the quarter primarily because of public-deposit outflows. Management expects to keep cash around the quarter-end level, approximately $1 billion, through the rest of the year, even as it anticipates further loan growth.

Fees, expenses and credit quality Noninterest income totaled $60.3 million, aided by higher bank-owned life insurance income, an excise tax refund and increased swap fees. Moses said the BOLI contribution reflected a component of the portfolio that is sensitive to market movements rather than a death benefit.

First Hawaiian maintained its full-year noninterest income outlook of about $220 million. Moses said the company generally views approximately $55 million per quarter as a baseline, though one-time or market-related items can cause quarterly variation.

Noninterest expense was $130.4 million, including $4.2 million in costs related to the TriCo transaction. The company expects more transaction costs in the second half as it moves toward closing and integration. Excluding TriCo-related costs, First Hawaiian expects reported expenses of $515 million to $520 million for the full year.

Moses said higher second-half expenses will reflect continued hiring to support loan growth, along with project-related salary, professional-services and information-technology costs.

Chief Risk Officer Lea Nakamura said credit performance and credit metrics remained healthy. The allowance for credit losses declined both in dollar terms and relative to coverage, primarily because of a material reduction in classified assets.

The company reported a return on average tangible assets of 1.28% and a return on average tangible equity of 16.34% for the quarter. Its effective tax rate was 22.9%.

TriCo transaction and capital plans Harrison said First Hawaiian did not repurchase shares during the second quarter and is unlikely to conduct buybacks for the remainder of the year while the TriCo deal proceeds through regulatory review, though he said that could change. The company’s common equity tier 1 ratio remained above 13%, according to an analyst’s question during the call.

Management reiterated a target of 25% cost savings from the TriCo transaction. Moses said the company remains comfortable with that objective and expects to achieve it through a variety of measures, but did not provide further detail.

Harrison said three TriCo executives—Richard Smith, Dan Bailey and Peter G. Wiese—are expected to join First Hawaiian’s senior management team. He said First Hawaiian intends to retain much of TriCo’s management team, describing the California bank as a well-run institution that First Hawaiian plans to support while learning from its operations.

About First Hawaiian (NASDAQ:FHB)First Hawaiian, Inc is the oldest and largest bank in Hawaii, operating as the bank holding company for First Hawaiian Bank. Established in 1858, the company offers a full suite of financial services to individual, business and institutional clients. Its product portfolio includes consumer and commercial lending, deposit accounts, treasury and cash management, foreign exchange and trade finance, as well as wealth management and trust services.

First Hawaiian serves customers through an extensive network of branches, ATMs and digital channels across the Hawaiian Islands, Guam, Saipan and American Samoa.

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

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SouthState Bank Corporation (SSB) Q2 2026 Earnings Call July 24, 2026 9:00 AM EDT

Company Participants

William Matthews - Senior Executive VP & CFO
John Corbett - CEO & Chairman
Stephen Young - Senior Executive VP & Chief Strategy Officer

Conference Call Participants

Stephen Scouten - Piper Sandler & Co., Research Division
John McDonald - Truist Securities, Inc., Research Division
Hannah Wynn - Keefe, Bruyette, & Woods, Inc., Research Division
Michael Rose - Raymond James & Associates, Inc., Research Division
Sun Young Lee - TD Cowen, Research Division
Gary Tenner - D.A. Davidson & Co., Research Division
Anthony Elian - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division
Benjamin Gerlinger - Citigroup Inc., Research Division
David Chiaverini - Jefferies LLC, Research Division
David Bishop - Hovde Group, LLC, Research Division
Samuel Varga - UBS Investment Bank, Research Division

Presentation

Operator

Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us, and welcome to the SouthState Bank Corporation Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]

I will now hand the conference call over to Will Matthews, Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Matthews, please go ahead.

William Matthews
Senior Executive VP & CFO

Good morning. This is Will Matthews, and welcome to SouthState's Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Call.

I'm here with John Corbett, Steve Young and Jeremy Lucas. We'll follow our typical pattern of brief prepared remarks and then move into Q&A. And I'll refer you to the Investor Relations tab of our website for the earnings materials.

Before we begin our remarks, I want to remind you that comments we make may include forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws and regulations. Any such forward-looking statements we may make are subject to the safe harbor rules. Please review the forward-looking disclaimer and safe harbor language in the press release and presentation for more information about our forward-looking statements and risks and uncertainties, which may affect us.

Consumer-Driven Stocks Boost Buybacks, Including Visa's $20B PlanByline Bancorp NYSE: BY reported record second-quarter net income of $40.2 million, or $0.90 per diluted share, as revenue increased and expenses declined from the prior quarter. Adjusted earnings per share were $0.91, up 10% sequentially and 21% from a year earlier, President Alberto Paracchini said during the company’s earnings call.

The Chicago-based commercial bank posted a 1.63% return on average assets and a return on average common equity of just under 14.5%. Its pre-tax, pre-provision return on assets was 2.49%, marking the company’s 15th consecutive quarter above 2%, according to management.

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Could This Entertainment Stock be the Belle of the Gaming Ball?“We delivered net income of $40.2 million or $0.90 per diluted share,” Paracchini said. “Record net income and excellent profitability really stood out this quarter.”

Revenue Growth and Efficiency Improvement Revenue totaled $118 million, up 4.7% from the prior quarter, while non-interest expenses fell. The adjusted efficiency ratio improved to 46.5% from 49.8% in the first quarter, which Paracchini described as the company’s best result since becoming a public company in 2017.

Boyd Gaming stock: All signs point to a significant break higherNet interest income was $101 million, up modestly from the preceding quarter. Net interest margin declined 5 basis points to 4.28%, primarily reflecting higher funding costs associated with a maturing balance-sheet hedge and changes in earning-asset mix, CFO Tom Bell said.

Management emphasized that it prioritizes growth in net interest income dollars rather than managing to a particular margin target. Paracchini said the bank may accept lower spreads on high-quality, relationship-oriented business if it is accretive to earnings and supports long-term franchise value.

For the third quarter, Byline projected net interest income of $100 million to $102 million, non-interest income of $14 million to $15 million, and gain-on-sale revenue averaging about $5.5 million per quarter. The company maintained its full-year non-interest expense outlook of $59 million to $60 million per quarter.

Bell said second-half expenses are expected to rise due largely to employee-related costs, including health care benefits and commissions tied to production. Management also said potential opportunities to hire banking talent are included in its outlook.

Loans, Deposits and Rate Environment Total loans ended the quarter at $7.6 billion, increasing at a 4.2% annualized rate. New originations totaled $234 million, while payoffs were elevated at $339 million. Loan commitments rose slightly, and line utilization increased to 60% from 59% in the prior quarter.

Management expects full-year loan growth in the mid-single digits if payoff activity normalizes in the second half. Paracchini said the recent elevated payoff activity partly reflects the bank’s effort to recycle acquired loan portfolios into new customer relationships.

Total deposits reached $7.9 billion, rising at a 3.5% annualized rate. Growth in interest-bearing checking balances was partly offset by lower money-market balances. The loan-to-deposit ratio ended the quarter at 96%.

Byline said competition for both loans and deposits remains elevated. Paracchini said price competition has intensified in commercial real estate, particularly as larger institutions return to certain segments of that market. He cited multifamily and industrial properties as areas where more capital is competing for a reduced level of transaction activity.

Bell said the company remains focused on relationship deposits rather than more rate-sensitive funding. He added that commercial customers moving balances from money-market accounts to interest-bearing checking could indicate they anticipate uses for that capital.

Credit Trends Remain Favorable Credit costs were $7.2 million during the quarter, including $4.4 million of net charge-offs and a $2.8 million reserve build. Net charge-offs equaled 24 basis points of loans, down from 32 basis points in the first quarter.

Criticized loans declined to 3.9% of total loans from 4.5% both sequentially and from a year earlier. Nonperforming loans totaled $69.1 million, or 92 basis points of total loans, up marginally from the prior quarter and flat year over year. The allowance for credit losses rose to $112 million, or 1.48% of total loans.

Chief Credit Officer Mark Fucinato said the decline in criticized and classified loans reflected improved performance at several larger operating companies, as well as the resolution of a workout situation in which an operating company sold a mortgaged asset and repaid its exposure in full. The bank also recorded a recovery on a prior charge-off.

Paracchini said management’s near-term expectation for net charge-offs remains in the range of 30 to 40 basis points, although he expects that level may migrate lower over time as the SBA portfolio becomes a smaller part of Byline’s overall balance sheet.

Capital Returns and $10 Billion Threshold Byline ended the quarter with total assets of $9.9 billion. Tangible common equity rose to 11.4%, while the common equity tier 1 ratio reached 12.9%. Tangible book value per share increased 14% from a year earlier to $24.48.

During the quarter, the company repurchased about 275,000 shares for $9.1 million. Including dividends and buybacks, its total shareholder payout ratio was 36%.

The board also approved a 16.7% increase in the quarterly dividend to $0.14 per share. Paracchini said the increase reflects the company’s capital position and earnings profile.

Management said it continues preparing to cross the $10 billion asset threshold. Paracchini said the company is not currently constraining normal balance-sheet activity to stay below that level, but it could manage the balance sheet near year-end if doing so would delay the effects of the Durbin amendment until mid-2028.

On acquisitions, Paracchini described the environment for smaller-bank transactions as constructive. He said Byline would generally seek deals with tangible book value earn-backs within three years, while continuing to weigh acquisitions against organic growth, investments in the business and share repurchases.

About Byline Bancorp (NYSE:BY)Byline Bancorp, Inc is the bank holding company for Byline Bank, a full-service commercial bank headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Established under its current name in 2016, the company operates as a community-focused financial institution offering a broad array of banking products and services to corporate, professional and consumer clients.

On the commercial banking side, Byline Bancorp serves small and midsize businesses, real estate developers, professional services firms and nonprofit organizations.

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

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