Track market-moving stories before they get noisy

CrowdStrike's CEO just warned that newly discovered flaws in the software powering most of the internet will trigger a wave of break-ins, and the stock market rewarded that forecast immediately. Whether investors are buying a real threat or a vendor's…

On Friday, October 23, 2026, CrowdStrike (NASDAQ:CRWD | CRWD Price Prediction) chief executive George Kurtz gave a television interview. He said newly disclosed flaws in PHP, the programming language behind nearly 70% of websites, will lead to a surge of break-ins. “You’re going to see a lot of breaches happening in the coming months from this,” he said, adding, “This is part of the long tail of these vulnerabilities that we see.”

Investors read the warning as a sales forecast. CrowdStrike rose $19.63, or 8.25%, to $257.57, valuing the company at $264.30 billion. Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) gained $25.63, or 7.22%, to $380.55.

What the PHP Flaws Actually Put at Risk
The federal cyber agency’s October 21 alert covered two critical PHP flaws, each rated 9.2 on the CVSS severity scale (a 0 to 10 danger score). Either one lets an attacker who has not logged in run code remotely on a web server, and PHP also disclosed a third remote-code-execution flaw.

The agency told operators to “Apply the patch immediately, prioritizing internet-facing systems” and to take unpatchable systems offline. Its October 23 revision reported no observed exploitation in the wild, though millions of hacking attempts followed while websites worldwide went offline as operators struggled, and SoftBank suspended its emergency alert system for mobile users.

Kurtz said tens of millions of servers are exposed and that AI-powered attacks CrowdStrike tracked doubled every month from July through September, while he put no figure on damage and named no company at risk.

Who Gets Paid When a Server Flaw Spreads
A flaw turns into revenue through emergency patching, incident response, managed detection and, eventually, platform consolidation. A long tail spreads that demand over months, so booking timing is uncertain.

CrowdStrike protects endpoints and cloud workloads, the layer closest to a compromised server, and sells incident response. Professional services revenue hit a record $71 million last quarter, a small slice of $1.47 billion in total revenue.

Palo Alto’s strength is the network. Chief executive Nikesh Arora said its firewalls can push protections for new flaws in under four hours, versus a 55-day standard patch time, which suits attacks arriving from the internet.

Okta (NASDAQ:OKTA) rose 5.82%, and Datadog (NASDAQ:DDOG) gained 4.62%, as traders bought shares across the sector.

Why a Vendor’s Warning Deserves a Discount
A security CEO forecasting breaches has a commercial interest in that forecast. Arora made the same pitch in September, predicting “some major breaches in the coming years” and calling that “a tailwind for the industry as a whole.”

Much of that story is likely priced in, because CrowdStrike is up 119.79% year to date and Palo Alto 106.6%, although CrowdStrike still closed about 10% below its $286.99 52-week high.

Palo Alto’s intraday high of $381.49 sat about 12% under its $432.33 peak. If the attempts don’t turn into confirmed breaches, investors are likely to discount further warnings, and the one-day gains may fade.

What Could Move CrowdStrike Before Its December Report
CrowdStrike’s one-day spike ran ahead of the evidence. The business is strong, with ARR of $5.84 billion growing 25%, but a forecast added 8.25% without one confirmed breach.

A TV investing club reduced its stake to 4.25% of its portfolio the same day, locking in about 187% in profits.

Palo Alto’s network layer fits server-side attacks, and it reports first, on Wednesday, November 18. It guided to revenue of $3.300 billion to $3.310 billion, non-GAAP EPS of $0.96 to $0.98, and Next-Generation Security ARR of $9.54 billion to $9.56 billion.

The trigger is a federal alert revision confirming exploitation, or PHP-linked breach disclosures, before CrowdStrike’s estimated December 1 report. Without either, CrowdStrike is likely to give back much of the $19.63.

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

Bitcoin is approaching a make-or-break weekend. After failing to hold $83,000, the cryptocurrency is now facing a more uncomfortable level at $80,000.

Analyst Benjamin Cowen warns that a weekly close below $83,000 on October 25 would strengthen his bearish outlook for the rest of 2026. His warning comes as Bitcoin faces pressure well beyond its own price chart.

Why Bitcoin’s $80,000 Level MattersThe latest failed rally has already punished bullish traders. During one four-hour selloff, long positions accounted for $91.19 million of $95.22 million in crypto liquidations.

More concerning, Glassnode estimates that companies holding Bitcoin on their balance sheets paid about $80,000 per coin on average.

Falling below that level would put the average corporate treasury position into a loss. It would not automatically force companies to sell, but it could weaken confidence.

A plausible path to consider (in order).

Becomes void if Bitcoin gets and holds back above $83k

-Bitcoin weekly close below $83k (again)
-Fakeout confirmed (Oct 25)
-Fed does not raise rates (Oct 28)
-PCE comes in hot (Oct 29)
-Oil spikes over the Iran war (~$120)
-Long end…

— Benjamin Cowen (@benjamincowen) October 24, 2026 A separate BeInCrypto analysis identifies $77,876 as the next downside level if selling persists, followed by a support zone between roughly $76,700 and $72,500.

US spot Bitcoin ETFs also lost about $322 million on October 22, suggesting institutional buying has weakened.

What Happens to Bitcoin Next Week?The calendar offers little relief. The Federal Reserve meets October 27–28, with Cowen expecting interest rates to stay unchanged. September inflation data follows on October 29.

Oil adds another complication. Brent settled at $116.72 on Friday as Middle East supply fears intensified. Expensive energy could keep inflation elevated, while rising Treasury yields make speculative investments less attractive.

Bitcoin’s Extreme Volatility in OctoberHistory also gives bears ammunition. Binance Research puts Bitcoin’s average decline during previous US midterm election years at 56%. But that record covers only three Bitcoin cycles, making it a warning rather than a reliable prediction.

There is also a clear way for Bitcoin to break Cowen’s bearish scenario.

For now, the immediate test is whether buyers defend $80,000. A sustained recovery above $83,000 would weaken the bearish case.

Losing $80,000 could expose Bitcoin to another wave of selling just as November’s US midterm elections approach.

Bilanol/iStock via Getty Images

In a previous article we showed that at private timberland values, Weyerhaeuser’s (WY) 9.74 million owned acres are worth $26.2B which demonstrates a substantial gap between asset value and WY’s valuation.

Since then, new data has come out showing that timberland values have continued to rise while WY’s stock price has continued to fall. It has created a historically wide disconnect between public and private pricing with WY trading at 50% of net asset value.

We shall begin by showing the disparate movement of underlying asset value with WY’s stock price and follow with a look at what a 50% discount to NAV means in this asset class with WY’s capital structure.

Value up – price down Timberland value is best measured by actual transactions that take place. FRC and Fastmarkets compiled transaction data to show average transaction price per acre over time.

Forest Resource Consultants

Source

Transaction values generally rose from about $1,800 per acre in 2018 to just over $2,500 per acre in 2025.

That is roughly what one would expect in an inflationary period. Timberland values have continued to rise in 2026. NCREIF reports timberland appreciation of 3.28% year-over-year in 1Q26 and another 0.61% in 2Q26

NCREIF

In 2026 timberland values have been rising at a pace slower than inflation. This is likely due to rising interest rates which mathematically pull down the value of long duration assets.

Nonetheless, timberland values are up in 2026. Contrast that with WY’s stock price down 20%.

SA

WY was already steeply discounted to asset value in 2025. I thought it was a great deal buying it at 66% of NAV.

So far, I have been quite wrong on the stock price. However, I have mostly been right on the fundamentals. Key earnings metrics are showing excellent current year and future growth.

Below are the consensus estimates of Wall Street analysts covering WY:

S&P Global Market Intelligence

2026 is coming in substantially higher than 2025 in FFO, AFFO, revenue and EBITDA. Growth is forecast to accelerate into 2028 with FFO rising 83% from 2025 levels. 2028 EBITDA is roughly 70% higher.

Good things are happening at the company. They have innovative products like TimberStrand and operate mills and timberlands with superior efficiency to competitors.

Mill curtailments across Canada and smaller operators in the U.S. are materially reducing competition which has kept lumber prices stable despite the slowdown in housing driven by high mortgage rates.

Tradingeconomics

7.5% mortgage rates are a tough operating environment for the entire housing industry. It seems the market has painted the industry with a broad bearish brush, selling nearly all participants in unison.

The selloff has been agnostic to valuation and agnostic to individual company fundamentals. In my opinion, WY selling down an additional 20% in 2026 from an already highly discounted level has taken it to an absurd discount.

Profound mispricing

WY’s consensus NAV is $37.16

S&P Global Market Intelligence

At today’s $18.84, it is trading at 50.7% of NAV.

REITs historically trade mostly between 90% and 105% of NAV. Occasionally, something slips through the cracks or has underlying problems that can result in substantially deeper discounting.

We have observed 50% of NAV magnitude of discounting primarily in the following types of companies:

Microcaps Extremely high leverage (80%+ capital structure is debt/preferred) Misaligned management (RMR companies, Ashford companies) Troubled asset class (office and malls) WY stands out because it distinctly doesn’t have the problems above.

Market share leader as the largest timberland owner in the U.S. Large cap Investment grade balance sheet (BBB) Respected management that outperforms on key operating metrics Perhaps the market is viewing and pricing timberland as a troubled asset class. I think there is a big difference between a cyclical downturn and structural damage.

Lumber is absolutely in a cyclical downturn, but I haven’t heard any legitimate talk of it being a permanently impaired industry. Eventually, houses will have to be built as there is already a housing shortage.

50% of NAV in a historical context In order for the discount at which WY trades to make sense there would have to be legitimate risk that timberland values could drop enough to close the gap in that direction.

Timber/lumber is a highly stable industry that has been around for centuries and through dozens of business cycles. I want to examine what a 50% discount means in a stable industry, so we shall look at some of the most severe downturns in history to see what happened to asset values.

Housing bubble – home prices declined 18.9% peak to trough.

FRED

Prices peaked at an indexed level of 380 in 2007 and dropped to a 308 trough in 2012. That is an 18.9% decline from peak to trough.

The USDA documents the largest agricultural land value decline of the century at 37% and it happened during the Great Depression which hit simultaneously with the physical damage of the Dust Bowl.

“Agricultural land values saw the largest percentage declines of the century in the early 1930s, the beginning of the Great Depression. Agricultural land values dropped 37 percent over a period of 3 years and remained between $30 and $33 per acre throughout the 1930s.”

In both cases, asset values rebounded sharply and sustainably after the trough.

I posit that what WY is dealing with is a run-of-the-mill housing recession brought on by a sharp rise in mortgage rates.

It is nowhere near the severity of the housing bubble popping in the Great Financial Crisis or the Dust Bowl amidst the Great Depression.

Even in such severe cases, the 50% discount at which WY trades would be enough to more than offset the drawdowns in asset value. Note that timberland values have actually risen so far in 2026. They may not decline at all in this cycle as land tends to be a great asset class in a higher than target inflation environment.

When the housing cycle eventually turns, WY will be the largest operator in an environment where competition has been substantially shrunk due to curtailments. It takes years for those competing mills to come back online, and WY did not have to shut down operations due to higher operating margins. WY has been strongly EBITDA positive through the entire downturn, positioning it to capture significant market share.

Risks to WY I think there is a decent chance WY misses estimates in 3Q26 due to the timing of changes in interest rates. Through the first half of 2026, interest rates and mortgage rates were stable.

Suddenly, in 3Q26, mortgage rates shot up to 7.5%

Tradingeconomics

This likely had an acute depressive impact on housing activity.

WY and analysts were forecasting a somewhat weak environment, but I don’t think guidance was anticipating the sharp rise in rates. Lumber prices held up, but volume suffered.

In terms of overall valuation, I don’t think a weak 3Q26 is all that impactful. However, a miss could cause further damage to WY’s stock price in the near term.

The bottom line

WY is trading at profoundly cheap levels that don’t make sense for a company of its caliber. While it is difficult to predict the cadence of recovery in stock price, I think buying at these levels will eventually be rewarded with strong returns as the stock price eventually moves toward NAV.

SummaryExlService is rated a Strong Buy, as AI adoption accelerates revenue growth and the disruption narrative has compressed its valuation to 18x forward P/E.EXLS's data- and AI-led business, now 61% of revenue, is growing at 30% YoY, offsetting a purposeful decline in legacy digital operations.EXLS addresses sovereignty and liability barriers in regulated industries, enabling enterprise AI integration and driving outcome-based revenue with high retention.My projections suggest EXLS could double by end-2027 if AI-led growth persists and the multiple re-rates, while the bear case downside is -32%. sitox/E+ via Getty Images

Investment Thesis Over the first half of 2026, the market priced ExlService (EXLS) as a severe AI casualty. If we take a look at this chart, we can see it tells a story of two parts: in February 2026, the whole consulting/data management

341 Followers

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

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

Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in Marvell Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRVL – Free Report) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 90,891 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,014,000. Marvell Technology makes up about 0.6% of Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 25th largest holding.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Sterling Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Marvell Technology during the third quarter worth approximately $25,467,000. TSA Wealth Managment LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Marvell Technology during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $287,000. Atlatl Advisers LLC bought a new stake in shares of Marvell Technology in the 3rd quarter valued at $4,719,000. WASHINGTON TRUST Co acquired a new position in shares of Marvell Technology during the 3rd quarter valued at $552,000. Finally, Washington Trust Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Marvell Technology by 88.5% during the 3rd quarter. Washington Trust Advisors Inc. now owns 147 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $39,000 after acquiring an additional 69 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 83.51% of the company’s stock.

Marvell Technology Stock Up 2.3% Shares of NASDAQ MRVL opened at $228.51 on Friday. Marvell Technology, Inc. has a one year low of $70.68 and a one year high of $329.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 3.17 and a quick ratio of 2.62. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $242.98 and its 200-day moving average price is $220.77. The stock has a market capitalization of $200.38 billion, a PE ratio of 75.42, a P/E/G ratio of 6.66 and a beta of 2.26.

Marvell Technology (NASDAQ:MRVL – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 27th. The semiconductor company reported $0.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.93 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $2.74 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.72 billion. Marvell Technology had a net margin of 27.93% and a return on equity of 13.57%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 36.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.67 earnings per share. Marvell Technology has set its Q3 2027 guidance at 1.050-1.150 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Marvell Technology, Inc. will post 3.05 EPS for the current year. Marvell Technology Announces Dividend The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 29th. Investors of record on Friday, October 9th will be issued a $0.06 dividend. This represents a $0.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.1%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 9th. Marvell Technology’s payout ratio is presently 7.92%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets MRVL has been the subject of several recent research reports. Raymond James Financial restated a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Marvell Technology in a report on Tuesday, October 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Marvell Technology from $305.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 7th. Craig Hallum restated a “buy” rating and set a $380.00 price objective on shares of Marvell Technology in a report on Wednesday, October 7th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Marvell Technology from $310.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 7th. Finally, Roth Capital reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $350.00 price objective on shares of Marvell Technology in a research note on Thursday, August 20th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty have assigned a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $327.36.

Get Our Latest Stock Report on MRVL

Insider Activity at Marvell Technology In other Marvell Technology news, CEO Matthew Murphy sold 7,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $223.39, for a total transaction of $1,675,425.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 775,686 shares in the company, valued at $173,280,495.54. The trade was a 0.96% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CAO Justin Scarpulla sold 1,100 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $273.59, for a total transaction of $300,949.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 909 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $248,693.31. This trade represents a 54.75% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 57,285 shares of company stock worth $12,837,063 over the last quarter. 0.12% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Key Marvell Technology News Here are the key news stories impacting Marvell Technology this week:

Positive Sentiment: Semiconductor shares, including Marvell, are recovering as broader technology stocks regain ground. Investor focus has returned to Marvell’s exposure to custom AI chips, optical connectivity and data-center switching solutions. What Is Going On With Marvell Technology Stock on Friday? Positive Sentiment: Marvell expanded its revolving credit facility, providing additional liquidity and financial flexibility as it invests to capture demand for AI infrastructure. The move is supportive of its growth strategy, though it is not an immediate earnings catalyst. Marvell Expands Revolving Credit Facility to Bolster Liquidity Positive Sentiment: An analyst raised the firm’s FY2028 earnings-per-share estimate slightly to $6.12 from $6.10, while the reported average price target also increased. These revisions indicate continued confidence in Marvell’s longer-term AI growth prospects, although Erste Group maintained a Hold rating. Neutral Sentiment: Marvell’s record AI design wins and multibillion-dollar Google partnership strengthen its growth narrative. However, investors are weighing whether those wins will translate into attractive margins as competition intensifies. Negative Sentiment: Taiwanese custom-chip designers and Arm’s ready-made chip blueprints could give hyperscalers lower-cost alternatives, potentially limiting Marvell’s pricing power and margins in custom silicon. Marvell Technology Faces a Multi-Front War Against Taiwan’s Custom Silicon Ecosystem Negative Sentiment: Supply-chain bottlenecks and a warning from a semiconductor-equipment supplier recently triggered a sector-wide AI sell-off, highlighting the risk that production constraints could delay Marvell’s growth. The stock also remains volatile and trades at an elevated valuation. Marvell Technology Company Profile (Free Report)

Marvell Technology, Inc (NASDAQ: MRVL) is a semiconductor company that develops infrastructure solutions for data centers, telecommunications networks, enterprise systems, automotive applications and other connected markets. Its products are designed to support the movement, processing, storage and security of data across complex computing and communications environments.

The company’s portfolio includes data-processing and networking processors, custom application-specific integrated circuits, Ethernet switches and controllers, storage controllers, connectivity products, and electro-optics solutions.

See Also Five stocks we like better than Marvell Technology Spotify Soars After Earnings as the Company Touts AI Benefits and Moderating Costs Lockheed Martin’s Record $292 Billion Backlog Comes With a Delivery Test Palantir’s Next Big Test Isn’t a Partnership—It’s the Numbers Kinder Morgan’s $4.7 Billion Pipeline Bet Could Be Bigger Than Its Earnings Beat

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MP Materials (MP -0.67%) has ample long-term growth potential, but can it become a "millionaire maker?" Trading at a nearly $7 billion valuation, the company has grown very far, very fast, making it questionable whether a small investment can grow into a $1 million position.

Yet while MP Materials stock may not make you a millionaire, growth investors may want to consider it a speculative buy, given its potential to make big moves on news about its efforts to further develop its Mountain Pass rare-earth production site in California.

Image source: Getty Images.

MP Materials and recent results
While its shares are down 22.7% since January, lately MP Materials has made significant commercialization progress. Back in August, alongside beating expectations with its second-quarter 2026 results, the company also provided bullish commentary on its prospects for processing and selling rare-earth magnets to industrial end users. That is, MP Materials announced plans to make major shipments to General Motors and Apple during Q4 2026 and Q1 2027, respectively.

$38.30-$0.26 (-0.67%)

NYSE · As of 4:00 PM ET 10/23/26

This is on top of MP Materials successfully scaling up production of Neodymium-Praseodymium (NdPr), the underlying rare-earth metal derived from its Mountain Pass facility. Last quarter, NdPr production totaled 840 metric tons, up 41% year over year, with NdPr sales increasing 127% from the prior-year quarter, to 1,006 metric tons.

The next big move, though perhaps a modest one
Based on its brief post-earnings surge, the next move for MP Materials could be just around the corner. On Nov. 5, MP Materials will report earnings. A big move could happen if results and guidance once again prove promising.

Still, with so much of its future potential value already reflected in its stock market valuation, and forecasts that MP Materials will only hit the billion-dollar sales mark two years out, forget about "millionaire maker." Even becoming a multibagger stock could prove a stretch.

Moreover, any hiccup in production expansion, or in its GM and Apple rare-earth magnet orders, could cause a new pullback. With this, consider a small speculative position. Even if investors react bullishly to the next earnings release, execution risk will persist.

Howland Capital Management LLC trimmed its position in shares of Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA – Free Report) by 14.5% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 45,476 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock after selling 7,709 shares during the period. Howland Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Tesla were worth $16,135,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Brookstone Capital Management increased its stake in shares of Tesla by 0.6% in the third quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 109,061 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $38,696,000 after purchasing an additional 628 shares during the period. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Tesla by 1.8% during the third quarter. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC now owns 18,192 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $6,455,000 after buying an additional 314 shares during the last quarter. NBT Bank N.A. bought a new stake in shares of Tesla during the third quarter valued at approximately $402,000. Root Financial Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Tesla by 11.2% during the third quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 24,769 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock valued at $8,788,000 after buying an additional 2,497 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Carter Financial Group INC. boosted its position in shares of Tesla by 17.1% during the third quarter. Carter Financial Group INC. now owns 6,343 shares of the electric vehicle producer’s stock worth $2,251,000 after buying an additional 928 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 66.20% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets In other Tesla news, CFO Vaibhav Taneja sold 2,606 shares of Tesla stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $360.13, for a total transaction of $938,498.78. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 25,972 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,353,296.36. The trade was a 9.12% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders own 19.90% of the company’s stock.

Tesla Price Performance NASDAQ TSLA opened at $372.22 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $364.01 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $377.22. The company has a current ratio of 1.74, a quick ratio of 1.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. The company has a market cap of $1.47 trillion, a PE ratio of 409.04, a PEG ratio of 23.78 and a beta of 1.92. Tesla, Inc. has a 1 year low of $297.38 and a 1 year high of $498.83. Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA – Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 21st. The electric vehicle producer reported $0.48 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.46 by $0.02. Tesla had a net margin of 3.11% and a return on equity of 3.03%. The company had revenue of $28.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $28.06 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.50 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down .2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Tesla, Inc. will post 0.71 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In A number of brokerages recently issued reports on TSLA. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $425.00 price objective (up from $391.00) on shares of Tesla in a report on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Tesla from $415.00 to $430.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. CLSA upgraded Tesla from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $310.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Tesla in a research report on Thursday, October 1st. Finally, Tigress Financial initiated coverage on Tesla in a research note on Thursday. They issued a “buy” rating for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-four have assigned a Buy rating, twenty have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Tesla has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $408.61.

Read Our Latest Report on Tesla

Trending Headlines about Tesla Here are the key news stories impacting Tesla this week:

Positive Sentiment: Tesla beat third-quarter adjusted earnings expectations, reporting $0.48 per share versus the $0.45 consensus estimate, and generated approximately $1.5 billion in positive free cash flow. Tesla Surpasses Q3 Earnings and Revenue Estimates Positive Sentiment: Paid Full Self-Driving adoption exceeded 75% of North American deliveries, with subscriptions increasing 67% year over year. Investors view FSD, robotaxis, Optimus robots, and Megapack energy storage as potential long-term growth engines. Tesla’s FSD Subscriptions Surge Positive Sentiment: European sales reportedly strengthened, while Tesla is expanding its Cybercab robotaxi program beyond Austin and developing AI-based mapping from fleet data. These developments support the company’s autonomy narrative, although commercialization remains early. Tesla Europe Sales Surge Neutral Sentiment: Elon Musk called a SpaceX-Tesla merger a “good idea,” and both companies reportedly formed special committees to study a combination. Potential benefits include shared work in AI, chips, robotics, connectivity, and energy, but no transaction is certain. SpaceX-Tesla Merger Chatter Neutral Sentiment: Analysts remain divided: Morgan Stanley raised its target to $410 with an equal-weight rating, while RBC maintained an outperform rating and a $480 target. Bullish forecasts depend heavily on successful autonomy and robotics execution. Negative Sentiment: Revenue was essentially flat year over year at about $28 billion, automotive revenue fell 3%, energy-generation and storage revenue declined 16%, and GAAP operating income dropped 56%. Refunds and other factors also clouded the reported margin improvement. Tesla Automotive and Energy Revenue Results Negative Sentiment: Tesla reduced its 2026 capital-expenditure outlook from more than $25 billion to approximately $20 billion after third-quarter spending trailed expectations. Investors worry the pullback could delay AI, robotics, and robotaxi ambitions. Tesla Spending Pullback Negative Sentiment: Tesla will refund Cybertruck deposits in Australia and New Zealand, signaling reduced regional ambitions for the troubled vehicle. Regulatory scrutiny of the Cybercab and delays in unsupervised FSD add further execution risk. Negative Sentiment: The broader Nasdaq sell-off, renewed doubts about AI spending returns, higher oil prices, and geopolitical tensions have pressured high-valuation technology stocks, including TSLA. About Tesla (Free Report)

Tesla, Inc is an electric vehicle and clean energy company headquartered in Austin, Texas. Founded in 2003, the company designs, manufactures and sells electric vehicles, including the Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y and Cybertruck. Tesla also develops vehicle software, driver-assistance features and related services intended to support the operation and ownership of its vehicles.

Beyond automobiles, Tesla produces energy storage products for residential, commercial and utility-scale applications, including the Powerwall and Megapack.

See Also Five stocks we like better than Tesla Spotify Soars After Earnings as the Company Touts AI Benefits and Moderating Costs Lockheed Martin’s Record $292 Billion Backlog Comes With a Delivery Test Palantir’s Next Big Test Isn’t a Partnership—It’s the Numbers Kinder Morgan’s $4.7 Billion Pipeline Bet Could Be Bigger Than Its Earnings Beat

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Alphabet has been sued for securities fraud after its stock price fell 4% because Alphabet allegedly misrepresented the progress of development of its Gemini 3.5 Pro AI model.

New York, New York--(Newsfile Corp. - October 24, 2026) - Leading securities law firm Bleichmar Fonti & Auld LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) and certain of the company's senior executives for securities fraud after a significant stock drop resulting from potential violations of the federal securities laws.

If you invested in Alphabet, you are encouraged to obtain additional information by visiting: https://www.bfalaw.com/cases/alphabet-class-action-lawsuit.

Key Details of the Alphabet ($GOOG, $GOOGL) Class Action:

Lead Plaintiff Deadline: December 1, 2026Alleged Misconduct: Securities fraud alleging Alphabet misrepresented the progress of development of its Gemini 3.5 Pro AI model.Stock Drop: July 16, 2026 – 4.4% Stock DropCourt: U.S. District Court for the Northern District of CaliforniaAction: Contact BFA Law to discuss your rightsInvestors have until December 1, 2026 to ask the Court to be appointed to lead the case. The complaint asserts securities fraud claims under Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 on behalf of investors in Alphabet securities. The class action is pending in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. It is captioned Stewart v. Alphabet Inc., et al., No. 26-cv-11290.

Why is Alphabet Being Sued for Securities Fraud?

Alphabet has been sued for securities fraud following a significant stock drop resulting from alleged violations of the federal securities laws. The decline in Alphabet's stock price caused significant losses to investors.

Alphabet is a large technology company. Recently, Alphabet has made significant investments in its AI platform.

According to the complaint, on May 19, 2026, Alphabet announced that it would launch its highly anticipated new AI offering, Gemini 3.5 Pro, in June 2026.

As alleged, Defendants misrepresented the progress of development of Gemini 3.5 Pro.

Why did Alphabet's Stock Drop?

On July 16, 2026, during market hours, Bloomberg reported that Google is "months behind schedule on delivering Gemini 3.5 Pro, its most powerful flagship AI model" due to the Company's ongoing coding efforts. Specifically, "[l]ate last month, Google updated the data being used to train Gemini in an attempt to improve [its] skills, but the results were disappointing."

On this news, the price of Alphabet's Class A shares dropped $16.46 per share, or 4.4%, from a closing price of $370.92 per share on July 15, 2026, to $354.46 per share on July 16, 2026.

Click here for more information: https://www.bfalaw.com/cases/alphabet-class-action-lawsuit.

What Can You Do?

If you invested in Alphabet, you may have legal options and are encouraged to submit your information to the firm.

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

Submit your information by visiting:

https://www.bfalaw.com/cases/alphabet-class-action-lawsuit

Why Bleichmar Fonti & Auld LLP?

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

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

BFA's notable successes include a recovery of over $900 million in value from Tesla, Inc.'s Board of Directors, as well as $420 million from Teva Pharmaceutical Ind. Ltd.

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

https://www.bfalaw.com/cases/alphabet-class-action-lawsuit

Attorney advertising. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/320506

Source: Bleichmar Fonti & Auld

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Nvidia (NVDA -0.59%) has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution that began four years ago, with shares of the semiconductor giant up by almost 1,700% over this period.

Nvidia stock's stunning surge has made it the world's largest company by market cap. The important thing to note is that Nvidia is still growing at a healthy pace. However, the stock has underperformed the broader market this year. The 19% jump in Nvidia stock in 2026 is lower than the 62% gains clocked by the PHLX Semiconductor Sector index.

Nvidia's tepid returns this year have made the stock extremely cheap. I will take a closer look at Nvidia's valuation in this article and look back to see what happened when it was this cheap last time.

Image source: The Motley Fool.

Nvidia is trading well below its five-year average valuation Nvidia is trading at 23 times fiscal 2027 earnings, according to YCharts. That's lower than the company's five-year average forward earnings multiple of 33.4, according to Morningstar. Nvidia's forward earnings multiple, based on its projected earnings per share for fiscal 2028, is even lower at 13.6.

NVDA Nvidia$210.96-$1.25 (-0.59%)

NASDAQ · As of 4:00 PM ET 10/23/26

We will have to go back to 2018 to find a forward earnings multiple below 20 for Nvidia, according to Morningstar. The company exited calendar 2018 with a forward earnings multiple of 18.7. The metric has been significantly higher in the years that followed, driven by a solid surge in the company's stock price. As it turns out, this semiconductor stock has jumped by more than 6,500% since the beginning of 2019.

The stunning rally can be justified by Nvidia's outstanding growth trajectory over the past eight years, fueled by multiple catalysts, including the cryptocurrency boom, the incredible demand for gaming hardware during the pandemic, and the advent of AI toward the end of 2022. Importantly, Nvidia isn't done growing yet.

The company's revenue in the first half of fiscal 2027 increased by 96% year over year to $177.8 billion. The bottom-line growth has been stronger, with non-GAAP earnings per share increasing 130% year over year to $4.09. It is worth noting that Nvidia's earnings are growing faster than the broader market.

The S&P 500 index's earnings, for example, are anticipated to increase by 33% this year. Analysts expect a 16% increase in the index's earnings next year, while Nvidia's bottom line is projected to jump by 71%. So, Nvidia shouldn't be trading at a discount to the S&P 500 index's forward earnings multiple of 19. In fact, the company's attractive valuation and solid growth prospects indicate it could resume its bull run, as it did last time when it traded at less than 20 times forward earnings.

The stock is poised for a major breakout Nvidia's 12-month median price target of $320 suggests a potential jump of 44% from current levels. What's more, almost all the 72 analysts covering Nvidia rate this tech stock as a buy. However, I won't be surprised to see Nvidia exceeding Wall Street's median price target over the long run, primarily due to its above-average earnings growth rate.

The following chart suggests that Nvidia's earnings per share will increase in the mid-30% range even in fiscal 2029, following the solid jumps projected for the current and the next fiscal year.

Data by YCharts

Let's say Nvidia trades at 30 times earnings at the end of fiscal 2029 (a slight discount to its five-year average forward earnings multiple of 33), and its earnings per share reach $21.34 (based on the consensus estimate seen in the chart above), the stock could soar to $640. That's almost 3x Nvidia's current stock price.

Now, there are several reasons why Nvidia can indeed sustain its impressive growth.

First, the company's dominance in the AI chip market, where it reportedly holds 80% share, will be the primary catalyst for its growth. McKinsey predicts that AI-driven growth in semiconductors will push the overall chip market's revenue to a whopping $2.3 trillion in 2030. That's well above the $1.6 trillion estimate offered by the consulting giant last year.

McKinsey notes that prices of cutting-edge chips are rising, with further upside expected. Nvidia is reportedly charging $7-$8.8 million for a server rack based on its latest Vera Rubin chips. That's well above the $2.8-$6.5 million range that prior-generation Blackwell server racks used to cost, depending on configuration.

Second, Nvidia has also entered the lucrative server processor market. It expects this space to contribute substantially to its top line. So, the company's focus on unlocking new growth opportunities should ensure that it indeed outperforms the broader market over the long run.

As such, investors looking to buy a potential multibagger trading at an attractive valuation can consider Nvidia, as it won't be surprising to see history repeat itself and the stock surge higher once again, just as it did the last time it was this cheap.

Putting aside $200 to invest every month is not something everyone can do. Yet for those who can and do, the potential rewards are real.

If you start next month and continue through December 2035, you'll have put aside $22,000 in contributions alone. But along the way, if you put that money into the right investments -- for example, Nvidia (NVDA -0.59%) -- those contributions could grow into a much larger nest egg.

But what's a realistic return to expect from that strategy over the next nine years, especially given how much Nvidia stock has already grown recently?

The answer starts with Nvidia's business model and ends with how much investors are willing to pay for its future.

Image source: Getty Images.

How Nvidia can keep growing as AI becomes commonplace
Imagine it's 2035. Artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots have moved from the fringes to everyday use.

Scheduling an appointment? You'll almost certainly be talking to an AI chatbot. At the drive-thru? An AI chatbot might take your latte order. Have a question about your taxes? There will likely be an AI chatbot for that.

In short, AI isn't going anywhere. In fact, as the systems improve, organizations will rely more on AI-powered tools to stay competitive and meet consumer expectations for speed, accuracy, and 24/7 availability.

To power these applications, AI hyperscalers will need a far greater number of expensive graphics processing units (GPUs), the brains of the latest and greatest AI applications. Or as Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang recently said, "AI has reached its inflection point."

What Huang means by this is that AI systems are increasingly moving from learning about the world (training) to problem-solving (inference). As we move forward, these systems will be able to handle increasingly difficult tasks, often independently once they've received their initial instructions.

Based on that, we can expect AI to follow a path similar to the ones previously charted by technologies such as electricity, telecommunications, and the internet: evolving from a novelty we marvel at to an engine of rapid growth, and ultimately becoming an essential utility.

NVDA Nvidia$210.96-$1.25 (-0.59%)

NASDAQ · As of 4:00 PM ET 10/23/26

How $200 a month in Nvidia stock could grow
Putting aside $200 per month adds up to $2,400 per year. Do that for just over nine straight years (110 months), and you end up with $22,000 just from contributions.

To plot what that might turn into over time, let's look at several paths forward, running from bearish to bullish.

MonthsTotal ContributionsNegative 5% Annualized Growth5% Annualized Growth10% Annualized Growth20% Annualized Growth12$2,400$2,346$2,456$2,513$2,63324$4,800$4,577$5,037$5,289$5,84336$7,200$6,699$7,751$8,356$9,75848$9,600$8,717$10,603$11,745$14,53160$12,000$10,637$13,601$15,487$20,35272$14,400$12,463$16,753$19,622$27,44984$16,800$14,200$20,066$24,190$36,10496$19,200$15,852$23,548$29,236$46,658108$21,600$17,423$27,209$34,811$59,527110$22,000$17,677$27,837$35,795$61,931
At the low end, if Nvidia endures a negative 5% annualized return, you'd end up with a position worth $17,677. On the other hand, the total skyrockets to more than $61,930 with a 20% annualized return. For context, Nvidia has averaged an eye-popping 63% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the last 10 years. But given that it's now the world's largest company, accounting for about 7% of the value of the entire U.S. stock market all by itself, it's unreasonable to think that it could repeat that type of performance over the next decade. 

What could derail Nvidia's growth?
There are two obvious threats that could put hurdles in the way of Nvidia's growth. First, regardless of demand, the company might not actually be able to source enough components or production capacity to deliver fully on that demand. On the latest earnings call, Huang noted that "our entire supply chain is challenged." Ultimately, Nvidia can only grow as fast as its suppliers and foundry partners allow, and if the supply chain begins to bend and creak under the enormous weight of the AI revolution, that could slow Nvidia's growth.

NVDA Revenue (Quarterly YoY Growth) data by YCharts.

Second, Nvidia's customers and competitors (which in some cases are the same companies) might alter their courses. AI hyperscalers are spending enormous amounts of money building out AI infrastructure at breakneck speed. If one or more were to pull back on spending, Nvidia's top line could take a hit.

Similarly, rising competition could begin to erode Nvidia's margins. Direct rivals like AMD are gaining ground with new products, and even Nvidia's largest customers like Alphabet, Amazon, and Microsoft are investing heavily in developing their own AI chips in partnership with players like Broadcom and Marvell Technology.

A monthly Nvidia investment: Is it worth it?
For argument's sake, let's say that Nvidia could deliver a 10% annualized return over the next 110 months. At that rate, the total value of your position would grow to just over $35,000.

This growth rate assumes Nvidia will face continued supply chain challenges, but not catastrophic ones. It also assumes that, even as competition continues to increase, Nvidia will maintain a significant competitive advantage in data center processors.

In summary, the $200/month habit is entirely controllable; the results are not. Nonetheless, a person who consistently invests is already paying their future self and is likely to be rewarded. Even if Nvidia falls well short of its recent returns, a market-matching 10% return would still deliver significant benefits.

Axxcess Wealth Management LLC lessened its stake in Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ – Free Report) by 44.1% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 50,379 shares of the company’s stock after selling 39,667 shares during the period. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Johnson & Johnson were worth $13,337,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Outlook Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Johnson & Johnson during the second quarter valued at $28,000. Matrix Trust Co raised its position in shares of Johnson & Johnson by 56.2% in the second quarter. Matrix Trust Co now owns 150 shares of the company’s stock worth $38,000 after acquiring an additional 54 shares during the period. Montgomery Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of Johnson & Johnson in the second quarter worth about $43,000. Polaris Financial Partners purchased a new stake in shares of Johnson & Johnson during the 3rd quarter worth about $56,000. Finally, Bullseye Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Johnson & Johnson during the 2nd quarter worth about $63,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 69.55% of the company’s stock.

Johnson & Johnson Price Performance Shares of JNJ opened at $264.13 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $635.85 billion, a PE ratio of 40.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 0.21. Johnson & Johnson has a 1-year low of $184.66 and a 1-year high of $281.07. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $265.64 and a 200 day moving average price of $250.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 0.81.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ – Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 13th. The company reported $2.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.53 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $25.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.38 billion. Johnson & Johnson had a net margin of 16.20% and a return on equity of 31.64%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.80 earnings per share. Johnson & Johnson has set its FY 2026 guidance at 11.050-11.150 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Johnson & Johnson will post 11.12 EPS for the current year. Johnson & Johnson Announces Dividend The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 8th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 24th will be paid a dividend of $1.34 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 24th. This represents a $5.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.0%. Johnson & Johnson’s dividend payout ratio is 81.21%.

Insider Activity In other Johnson & Johnson news, EVP Elizabeth Forminard sold 15,918 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $257.00, for a total value of $4,090,926.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 16,994 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,367,458. This represents a 48.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Jennifer L. Taubert sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $263.36, for a total transaction of $3,950,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 194,451 shares in the company, valued at approximately $51,210,615.36. The trade was a 7.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 64,515 shares of company stock worth $17,271,766 in the last 90 days. 0.16% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Key Stories Impacting Johnson & Johnson Here are the key news stories impacting Johnson & Johnson this week:

Positive Sentiment: The United Kingdom approved J&J’s oral psoriasis treatment, expanding the company’s commercial opportunity in a major market and strengthening its immunology pipeline. UK approves J&J’s oral psoriasis pill Positive Sentiment: J&J reported first real-world data for its VARIPULSE Pro platform and 12-month outcomes for the OMNYPULSE platform in atrial-fibrillation treatment. The results could support adoption of its MedTech portfolio and help offset weakness in other device businesses. J&J reports VARIPULSE Pro and OMNYPULSE data Positive Sentiment: J&J has benefited from investor rotation into defensive healthcare and consumer-staples companies amid broader large-cap weakness, reinforcing demand for its relatively stable earnings and dividend profile. Defensive stocks attract buyers Neutral Sentiment: J&J’s implied fair value was raised from $270.59 to $279.41 per share, but analyst views remain divided. Supporters cite earnings resilience and the drug pipeline, while others point to valuation, MedTech execution risk and possible dilution from recent deals. J&J fair value adjustment Negative Sentiment: A proposed combination involving J&J’s orthopedics business and Smith & Nephew reportedly collapsed over a leadership dispute. The development removes potential strategic benefits and may raise questions about execution, although Smith & Nephew declined to comment. Orthopedics merger reportedly collapsed Negative Sentiment: J&J reclaimed its 50-day moving average, but falling earnings estimates, a premium valuation and weakness in MedTech are limiting the bullish technical signal. Erste Group also downgraded the shares to “Hold,” adding to near-term investor caution. J&J stock outlook and valuation concerns Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades JNJ has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on Johnson & Johnson from $294.00 to $292.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 15th. Raymond James Financial set a $280.00 price target on Johnson & Johnson in a research report on Monday, August 3rd. Johnson Rice downgraded Johnson & Johnson from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Argus set a $300.00 price target on shares of Johnson & Johnson in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. Finally, Freedom Capital upgraded shares of Johnson & Johnson from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have given a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $275.92.

View Our Latest Research Report on Johnson & Johnson

Johnson & Johnson Company Profile (Free Report)

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) is a global healthcare company headquartered in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Founded in 1886, the company develops and markets products and services for patients, healthcare professionals and institutions worldwide.

Johnson & Johnson operates through two principal segments: Innovative Medicine and MedTech. Innovative Medicine focuses on pharmaceuticals for areas such as immunology, oncology, neuroscience, infectious diseases and cardiovascular conditions.

Further Reading Five stocks we like better than Johnson & Johnson Spotify Soars After Earnings as the Company Touts AI Benefits and Moderating Costs Lockheed Martin’s Record $292 Billion Backlog Comes With a Delivery Test Palantir’s Next Big Test Isn’t a Partnership—It’s the Numbers Kinder Morgan’s $4.7 Billion Pipeline Bet Could Be Bigger Than Its Earnings Beat Want to see what other hedge funds are holding JNJ? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ – Free Report).

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AMG Asset Management Group Inc. increased its holdings in Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ – Free Report) by 172.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 3,852 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,436 shares during the quarter. AMG Asset Management Group Inc.’s holdings in Johnson & Johnson were worth $1,020,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Jupiter Topco LLC bought a new stake in shares of Johnson & Johnson in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,967,399,000. Diamant Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Johnson & Johnson by 24,436.5% during the first quarter. Diamant Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,473,008 shares of the company’s stock valued at $109,338,000 after acquiring an additional 4,454,778 shares in the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LP raised its holdings in shares of Johnson & Johnson by 127.3% during the second quarter. Corient Private Wealth LP now owns 6,060,922 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,539,292,000 after acquiring an additional 3,393,981 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in Johnson & Johnson by 12.5% in the second quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 22,588,696 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,736,851,000 after acquiring an additional 2,513,321 shares during the period. Finally, Amundi boosted its holdings in Johnson & Johnson by 17.5% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 13,406,820 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,277,163,000 after acquiring an additional 2,001,139 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 69.55% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Johnson & Johnson Here are the key news stories impacting Johnson & Johnson this week:

Positive Sentiment: The United Kingdom approved J&J’s oral psoriasis treatment, expanding the company’s commercial opportunity in a major market and strengthening its immunology pipeline. UK approves J&J’s oral psoriasis pill Positive Sentiment: J&J reported first real-world data for its VARIPULSE Pro platform and 12-month outcomes for the OMNYPULSE platform in atrial-fibrillation treatment. The results could support adoption of its MedTech portfolio and help offset weakness in other device businesses. J&J reports VARIPULSE Pro and OMNYPULSE data Positive Sentiment: J&J has benefited from investor rotation into defensive healthcare and consumer-staples companies amid broader large-cap weakness, reinforcing demand for its relatively stable earnings and dividend profile. Defensive stocks attract buyers Neutral Sentiment: J&J’s implied fair value was raised from $270.59 to $279.41 per share, but analyst views remain divided. Supporters cite earnings resilience and the drug pipeline, while others point to valuation, MedTech execution risk and possible dilution from recent deals. J&J fair value adjustment Negative Sentiment: A proposed combination involving J&J’s orthopedics business and Smith & Nephew reportedly collapsed over a leadership dispute. The development removes potential strategic benefits and may raise questions about execution, although Smith & Nephew declined to comment. Orthopedics merger reportedly collapsed Negative Sentiment: J&J reclaimed its 50-day moving average, but falling earnings estimates, a premium valuation and weakness in MedTech are limiting the bullish technical signal. Erste Group also downgraded the shares to “Hold,” adding to near-term investor caution. J&J stock outlook and valuation concerns Wall Street Analyst Weigh In Several research analysts have commented on the stock. Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating and issued a $287.00 price objective on shares of Johnson & Johnson in a report on Wednesday, October 7th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Johnson & Johnson from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b+)” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 8th. UBS Group set a $270.00 price target on shares of Johnson & Johnson in a research report on Wednesday, October 14th. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $270.00 price target on shares of Johnson & Johnson in a research note on Thursday, October 15th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $282.00 price objective on shares of Johnson & Johnson in a report on Thursday, July 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have assigned a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $275.92. Check Out Our Latest Research Report on Johnson & Johnson

Insider Buying and Selling at Johnson & Johnson In other news, EVP Jennifer Taubert sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $263.36, for a total transaction of $3,950,400.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 194,451 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $51,210,615.36. This represents a 7.16% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Elizabeth Forminard sold 15,918 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $257.00, for a total value of $4,090,926.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 16,994 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,367,458. This trade represents a 48.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 64,515 shares of company stock worth $17,271,766. Insiders own 0.16% of the company’s stock.

Johnson & Johnson Price Performance JNJ opened at $264.13 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a current ratio of 1.02. The stock has a market capitalization of $635.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.02, a P/E/G ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 0.21. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $265.64 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $250.21. Johnson & Johnson has a 52-week low of $184.66 and a 52-week high of $281.07.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 13th. The company reported $2.59 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.53 by $0.06. Johnson & Johnson had a net margin of 16.20% and a return on equity of 31.64%. The firm had revenue of $25.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.38 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.80 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. Johnson & Johnson has set its FY 2026 guidance at 11.050-11.150 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Johnson & Johnson will post 11.12 EPS for the current year.

Johnson & Johnson Announces Dividend The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 8th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 24th will be given a $1.34 dividend. This represents a $5.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 24th. Johnson & Johnson’s payout ratio is 81.21%.

Johnson & Johnson Profile (Free Report)

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) is a global healthcare company headquartered in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Founded in 1886, the company develops and markets products and services for patients, healthcare professionals and institutions worldwide.

Johnson & Johnson operates through two principal segments: Innovative Medicine and MedTech. Innovative Medicine focuses on pharmaceuticals for areas such as immunology, oncology, neuroscience, infectious diseases and cardiovascular conditions.

Featured Stories Five stocks we like better than Johnson & Johnson Spotify Soars After Earnings as the Company Touts AI Benefits and Moderating Costs Lockheed Martin’s Record $292 Billion Backlog Comes With a Delivery Test Palantir’s Next Big Test Isn’t a Partnership—It’s the Numbers Kinder Morgan’s $4.7 Billion Pipeline Bet Could Be Bigger Than Its Earnings Beat Want to see what other hedge funds are holding JNJ? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ – Free Report).

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Carderock Capital Management Inc. decreased its holdings in The Home Depot, Inc. (NYSE:HD – Free Report) by 42.2% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 11,579 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock after selling 8,453 shares during the quarter. Carderock Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Home Depot were worth $3,294,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Yousif Capital Management LLC increased its position in Home Depot by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 106,645 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock valued at $30,339,000 after acquiring an additional 474 shares during the period. Seven Mile Advisory lifted its position in shares of Home Depot by 5.0% during the 3rd quarter. Seven Mile Advisory now owns 1,031 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock valued at $293,000 after acquiring an additional 49 shares during the last quarter. River Street Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Home Depot by 3.3% during the third quarter. River Street Advisors LLC now owns 5,446 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock valued at $1,549,000 after buying an additional 174 shares in the last quarter. Patrick M Sweeney & Associates Inc. grew its position in Home Depot by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Patrick M Sweeney & Associates Inc. now owns 3,756 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock worth $1,069,000 after purchasing an additional 62 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Boomfish Wealth Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Home Depot by 1.8% in the third quarter. Boomfish Wealth Group LLC now owns 2,441 shares of the home improvement retailer’s stock worth $694,000 after purchasing an additional 42 shares in the last quarter. 70.86% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

More Home Depot News Here are the key news stories impacting Home Depot this week:

Positive Sentiment: Home Depot is developing the “Orange Exchange,” a supplier initiative intended to connect the retailer with more small businesses. The effort could improve product quality, assortment and availability while supporting long-term customer demand. Home Depot’s latest move is good for customers and the U.S. economy Positive Sentiment: Recent coverage highlights potential support from lower interest rates, which could gradually stimulate home sales, remodeling activity and larger renovation projects. Home Depot stock rebounds as rate cuts stir home-improvement demand Positive Sentiment: Analyst earnings and revenue estimate revisions, along with the company’s growing distribution capabilities, have renewed attention on Home Depot’s valuation. The latest quarterly results also exceeded consensus expectations, with earnings of $4.92 per share and revenue of $47.86 billion. Positive Sentiment: Several major institutional investors increased their Home Depot holdings during the latest reported quarter, while the median analyst price target cited by Quiver Quantitative is $375, implying potential upside from recent trading levels. Neutral Sentiment: The Home Depot Foundation pledged $1 billion through 2032 for veteran housing and related causes. The announcement strengthens the company’s social-impact profile but is unlikely to materially affect near-term earnings. The Home Depot Foundation Pledges $1 Billion to Veteran Causes by 2032 Negative Sentiment: Risk-off trading, higher oil prices and persistently elevated mortgage rates are weighing on housing activity and economically sensitive retailers. Soft home sales and affordability concerns could delay big-ticket renovation demand. Negative Sentiment: Reported insider activity showed four sales and no purchases over the past six months, a potentially cautious signal, although the transactions do not necessarily indicate a change in the company’s fundamentals. Home Depot Price Performance Shares of HD opened at $319.73 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $318.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.37, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a 50 day moving average of $309.69 and a 200-day moving average of $323.89. The company has a quick ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.64. The Home Depot, Inc. has a twelve month low of $277.15 and a twelve month high of $397.63. Home Depot (NYSE:HD – Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, August 18th. The home improvement retailer reported $4.92 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.73 by $0.19. Home Depot had a net margin of 8.41% and a return on equity of 106.42%. The business had revenue of $47.86 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $47.24 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $4.68 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. Home Depot has set its FY 2026 guidance at 14.690-15.278 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that The Home Depot, Inc. will post 15.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Home Depot Dividend Announcement The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 17th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 3rd were given a dividend of $2.33 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 3rd. This represents a $9.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.9%. Home Depot’s dividend payout ratio is currently 65.22%.

Insider Activity In other news, EVP Michael F. Rowe sold 710 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $336.76, for a total value of $239,099.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 6,838 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,302,764.88. This represents a 9.41% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Kimberly R. Scardino sold 675 shares of Home Depot stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $305.95, for a total transaction of $206,516.25. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 8,189 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,505,424.55. This represents a 7.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders sold 9,829 shares of company stock worth $3,339,314. 0.08% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In A number of equities analysts recently commented on HD shares. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price objective on Home Depot from $343.00 to $342.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 19th. Mizuho upped their price objective on Home Depot from $385.00 to $390.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 19th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Home Depot from $360.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Home Depot in a research report on Friday, October 2nd. Finally, Melius Research set a $397.00 price target on Home Depot in a research note on Tuesday, October 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $375.93.

Check Out Our Latest Stock Analysis on HD

Home Depot Company Profile (Free Report)

The Home Depot, Inc is a home improvement retailer serving do-it-yourself customers, professional contractors, and other building and maintenance professionals. The company sells a broad selection of building materials, hardware, tools, appliances, paint, plumbing and electrical supplies, flooring, lighting, lawn and garden products, and home décor.

In addition to merchandise, Home Depot offers services such as product delivery, tool and equipment rental, credit services, and installation for selected products.

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PepsiCo (PEP -2.20%) stock has reached a critical juncture, presenting an opportunity for investors. The company's struggles have led to a falling stock price and, by extension, a rising dividend yield.

More importantly, recent events have aligned in a way that could lead to a long-awaited stock price recovery. Also, its rising profits bode well for its continued dividend growth.

Here is what happened that turned PepsiCo around and how it can benefit stock investors.

Image source: The Motley Fool.

PepsiCo's value as an income stock
As conditions stand now, new PepsiCo shareholders will earn a 4.3% dividend return. That is far above the 3.2% average yield of the last five years, and well above the 1.1% S&P 500 (^GSPC -0.52%) average.

That return stems from its $5.92-per-share annual dividend. Moreover, since the company has amassed a 54-year record of annual payout hikes, PepsiCo is a Dividend King.

The Dividend King status is critical because a company must raise its payout for at least 50 consecutive years to achieve it. Such a status makes a stock attractive to certain dividend funds. It also likely means that ending the increases would undermine confidence in the stock, a compelling incentive for PepsiCo to maintain the current pace of payout hikes.

Furthermore, free cash flow for the trailing 12 months was $10.8 billion. Since dividend costs are on track to reach about $8 billion for the fiscal year, the company can likely afford to maintain and increase the payout.

Why the income (and stock price) growth is likely to continue
Additionally, dividend funding is likely to improve.

Until recently, PepsiCo appeared destined for stagnation or possibly decline. Consumers had increasingly turned against the unhealthy beverages and packaged foods that define most of the company's product lineup.

In recent years, PepsiCo has responded. The company selectively cut prices and cut some of its products. It then offered health-conscious products and put healthier ingredients in others. It also acquired Siete Foods, a brand focused on healthy ingredients, to build on these initiatives.

Consequently, in the first nine months of fiscal 2026 (ended Sept. 5), revenue of $69 billion climbed 7% annually from year-ago levels. In contrast, revenue increased by less than 1% annually in the first three quarters of 2025.

Expenses climbed at a slower pace, meaning the $8.4 billion in net income for the first nine months of 2026 was up 47% over the same period.

PEP PepsiCo$135.77-$3.06 (-2.20%)

NASDAQ · As of 4:00 PM ET 10/23/26

Unfortunately, the stock has not responded, and it is down for the year. Nonetheless, that drop has taken its P/E ratio to 17, a level near multiyear lows. Such a valuation arguably adds to the draw when income investors know they can earn 4.3% in dividend returns.

Investing in PepsiCo stock
As conditions stand now, new PepsiCo investors can buy a high-yielding, stable, and rising income stream at a discounted valuation.

Indeed, PepsiCo had struggled to adapt to shifting consumer tastes. However, it has adjusted its product lines to address that change, and sales have risen as a result.

Assuming that trend continues, PepsiCo investors should benefit from a generous dividend at a discounted price, possibly making it an undervalued dividend stock you can buy and hold forever.

Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE:IBM – Free Report) by 10.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 33,726 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,319 shares during the period. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in International Business Machines were worth $7,417,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Harborfront Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of International Business Machines during the second quarter worth about $27,000. Hara Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of International Business Machines in the 2nd quarter worth about $28,000. Bare Financial Services Inc grew its holdings in shares of International Business Machines by 114.6% during the second quarter. Bare Financial Services Inc now owns 103 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. Portus Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in International Business Machines in the first quarter worth $26,000. Finally, Caitlin John LLC bought a new stake in shares of International Business Machines during the second quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 58.96% of the company’s stock.

International Business Machines Trading Up 0.6% Shares of NYSE IBM opened at $253.69 on Friday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $233.06 and a 200-day simple moving average of $243.70. The company has a market cap of $239.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.63, a P/E/G ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 0.73. International Business Machines Corporation has a 12 month low of $199.19 and a 12 month high of $332.46. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.57.

International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM – Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 21st. The technology company reported $2.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.85 by $0.10. International Business Machines had a return on equity of 34.37% and a net margin of 15.99%. The firm had revenue of $17.10 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.82 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.65 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that International Business Machines Corporation will post 12.34 EPS for the current year. International Business Machines Dividend Announcement The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 10th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 10th will be given a $1.69 dividend. This represents a $6.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 10th. International Business Machines’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 57.63%.

Insider Buying and Selling at International Business Machines In other news, SVP Robert Thomas sold 25,000 shares of International Business Machines stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $230.32, for a total transaction of $5,758,000.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 47,800 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,009,296. The trade was a 34.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.27% of the company’s stock.

International Business Machines News Summary Here are the key news stories impacting International Business Machines this week:

Positive Sentiment: IBM reported third-quarter revenue of $17.1 billion, up 4.7% year over year, while adjusted EPS of $2.95 exceeded analyst expectations. Software growth accelerated to 9% at constant currency, infrastructure demand improved, and operating pretax margins expanded by 70 basis points. IBM Beats Q3 Earnings Estimates on Software, Infrastructure Growth Positive Sentiment: Management raised its full-year free-cash-flow outlook, supported by stronger software performance, Red Hat demand and enterprise AI activity. Transaction-processing revenue also rose 10%, suggesting improving demand in key recurring-revenue businesses. IBM: 3 Key Takeaways for Long-Term Investors Positive Sentiment: Several analysts raised their earnings estimates or price targets following the results. Erste Group increased its FY2027 EPS forecast to $13.40 from $13.13, while JPMorgan, RBC and Stifel reiterated positive ratings and lifted targets. IBM Analyst Estimates and Ratings Neutral Sentiment: IBM’s updated FY2026 revenue guidance of $70.2 billion to $70.9 billion broadly brackets the $70.4 billion consensus estimate. The outlook was not meaningfully raised, leaving investors focused on whether the software rebound can continue. Neutral Sentiment: IBM declared a quarterly dividend of $1.69 per share, or $6.76 annualized, reinforcing its appeal to income-oriented investors. A separate dividend-stock article highlighted IBM’s decades-long record of payout increases. IBM Declares $1.69 Dividend Negative Sentiment: Investors remain concerned that roughly half of the software growth benefited from the Confluent acquisition and that management’s unchanged revenue outlook implies slower growth later in the year. IBM’s comments that lower-cost, open-weight AI models can deliver comparable performance also raised questions about pricing power and AI monetization. Why Isn’t IBM’s Stock Bouncing Back After Strong Earnings Results? Negative Sentiment: Some analysts view IBM’s valuation as demanding relative to its modest underlying growth, while slower Consulting performance, debt and uncertainty over the durability of the software rebound could limit further upside. Analysts Set New Price Targets Several research firms have recently issued reports on IBM. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on International Business Machines from $230.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $300.00 target price on shares of International Business Machines in a research note on Thursday. Evercore dropped their price target on shares of International Business Machines from $310.00 to $250.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of International Business Machines from $245.00 to $280.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on shares of International Business Machines from $270.00 to $280.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Twenty investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, International Business Machines has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $266.12.

View Our Latest Stock Analysis on IBM

(Free Report)

International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE:IBM), commonly known as IBM, is a global technology and consulting company that helps organizations modernize their information technology and business operations. Its offerings include hybrid cloud solutions, artificial intelligence software and services, enterprise software, IT infrastructure, cybersecurity, data analytics, and technology consulting.

IBM provides products and services to businesses, governments, and other institutions across industries and regions worldwide.

Featured Articles Five stocks we like better than International Business Machines Spotify Soars After Earnings as the Company Touts AI Benefits and Moderating Costs Lockheed Martin’s Record $292 Billion Backlog Comes With a Delivery Test Palantir’s Next Big Test Isn’t a Partnership—It’s the Numbers Kinder Morgan’s $4.7 Billion Pipeline Bet Could Be Bigger Than Its Earnings Beat Want to see what other hedge funds are holding IBM? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE:IBM – Free Report).

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Core Wealth Management Inc. decreased its position in NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE – Free Report) by 45.7% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 17,514 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 14,762 shares during the period. NextEra Energy comprises approximately 0.4% of Core Wealth Management Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 12th largest holding. Core Wealth Management Inc.’s holdings in NextEra Energy were worth $1,327,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of NEE. Legal & General Group Plc bought a new stake in shares of NextEra Energy during the second quarter valued at approximately $1,465,987,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its stake in shares of NextEra Energy by 5.8% in the second quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 16,302,084 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,430,834,000 after purchasing an additional 895,824 shares in the last quarter. Amundi raised its stake in shares of NextEra Energy by 46.5% in the second quarter. Amundi now owns 13,329,077 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,169,839,000 after purchasing an additional 4,231,814 shares in the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its position in NextEra Energy by 8.5% in the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 10,187,013 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $946,169,000 after purchasing an additional 799,546 shares during the period. Finally, Pictet Asset Management Holding SA lifted its position in NextEra Energy by 4.3% in the first quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 9,648,920 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $896,185,000 after purchasing an additional 394,898 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 78.72% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on NEE shares. Morgan Stanley set a $110.00 price target on shares of NextEra Energy and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 14th. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “hold” rating on shares of NextEra Energy in a research note on Thursday, October 8th. HSBC set a $103.00 price objective on shares of NextEra Energy in a report on Thursday. BMO Capital Markets set a $88.00 target price on shares of NextEra Energy and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of NextEra Energy to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, NextEra Energy presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $97.71.

Check Out Our Latest Research Report on NEE NextEra Energy Price Performance NextEra Energy stock opened at $82.15 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $80.55 and a 200 day simple moving average of $86.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.33, a current ratio of 0.53 and a quick ratio of 0.44. The company has a market capitalization of $172.29 billion, a PE ratio of 20.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 0.64. NextEra Energy, Inc. has a one year low of $74.41 and a one year high of $98.75.

NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 21st. The utilities provider reported $1.24 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.20 by $0.04. NextEra Energy had a return on equity of 12.27% and a net margin of 40.37%. The firm had revenue of $8.09 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.47 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.13 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that NextEra Energy, Inc. will post 4.00 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NextEra Energy Announces Dividend The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 27th will be paid a $0.6232 dividend. This represents a $2.49 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 27th. NextEra Energy’s payout ratio is currently 55.96%.

Key NextEra Energy News Here are the key news stories impacting NextEra Energy this week:

Positive Sentiment: Earnings beat and guidance reaffirmed: NextEra reported third-quarter earnings of $1.24 per share, above the $1.20 consensus estimate, on revenue of $8.09 billion. Management is targeting the high end of its 2026 earnings guidance and reaffirmed its long-term earnings and dividend-growth targets. Bull case following earnings beat Positive Sentiment: Renewables pipeline remains a growth driver: NextEra Energy Resources added 3.7 gigawatts to its renewables backlog, while the company secured $5.7 billion to support federal energy-hub projects. Strong demand from data centers and continued storage and renewable development support the long-term outlook. Federal energy hub funding Positive Sentiment: Analyst support and dividend maintained: Scotiabank initiated or reiterated a Buy rating, while Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed an Outperform rating. The board also declared a $0.6232 quarterly dividend, equal to approximately $2.49 annually and a 3.1% yield. Scotiabank Buy rating Neutral Sentiment: Dominion merger remains on track but carries risk: NextEra expects to close its Dominion Energy merger in the second half of 2027. However, regulatory approval, political opposition in Virginia and execution complexity could create uncertainty before completion. NextEra and Dominion merger risks Negative Sentiment: Rate sensitivity and valuation concerns remain: Investors continue to question whether NEE’s recent multiyear gains and current dividend yield justify a premium valuation, particularly while higher interest rates pressure utilities. Barclays cut its price target from $84 to $79 and kept an Equal Weight rating; HSBC also reduced its target, from $114 to $103. Barclays rating and price target About NextEra Energy (Free Report)

NextEra Energy, Inc is an energy infrastructure company headquartered in Juno Beach, Florida. Through its businesses, the company generates, transmits, distributes and sells electricity, with a focus on regulated utility operations and clean energy development.

Florida Power & Light Company, NextEra Energy’s principal regulated utility, serves customers across much of Florida. FPL operates electric generation, transmission and distribution infrastructure and provides retail electricity service to residential, commercial and industrial customers.

NextEra Energy Resources develops, owns and operates renewable energy and energy storage projects, including wind and solar facilities.

Featured Articles Five stocks we like better than NextEra Energy Spotify Soars After Earnings as the Company Touts AI Benefits and Moderating Costs Lockheed Martin’s Record $292 Billion Backlog Comes With a Delivery Test Palantir’s Next Big Test Isn’t a Partnership—It’s the Numbers Kinder Morgan’s $4.7 Billion Pipeline Bet Could Be Bigger Than Its Earnings Beat Want to see what other hedge funds are holding NEE? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE – Free Report).

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Brookstone Capital Management boosted its holdings in shares of Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU – Free Report) by 51.6% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 59,878 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock after acquiring an additional 20,369 shares during the period. Micron Technology accounts for about 0.6% of Brookstone Capital Management’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 29th largest holding. Brookstone Capital Management’s holdings in Micron Technology were worth $63,777,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of Micron Technology by 23.0% during the 3rd quarter. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,939 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock valued at $8,456,000 after purchasing an additional 1,482 shares during the period. Virtue Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Micron Technology by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Virtue Asset Management LLC now owns 1,115 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $1,187,000 after acquiring an additional 25 shares during the period. Legacy Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Micron Technology by 62.5% during the third quarter. Legacy Financial Group Inc. now owns 580 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $618,000 after purchasing an additional 223 shares during the last quarter. NBT Bank N.A. acquired a new position in shares of Micron Technology in the third quarter worth about $241,000. Finally, Root Financial Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Micron Technology by 8.7% during the 3rd quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 4,257 shares of the semiconductor manufacturer’s stock worth $4,534,000 after purchasing an additional 339 shares during the last quarter. 80.84% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Micron Technology Stock Performance MU opened at $877.55 on Friday. Micron Technology, Inc. has a 12-month low of $192.59 and a 12-month high of $1,255.00. The company has a quick ratio of 2.94, a current ratio of 3.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The business has a 50 day moving average of $983.61 and a 200-day moving average of $880.05. The stock has a market cap of $992.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.83, a PEG ratio of 0.15 and a beta of 2.22.

Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU – Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, September 30th. The semiconductor manufacturer reported $33.42 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $31.77 by $1.65. The company had revenue of $54.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $51.33 billion. Micron Technology had a net margin of 63.80% and a return on equity of 92.62%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 379.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.03 earnings per share. Micron Technology has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 37.150-39.150 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Micron Technology, Inc. will post 177.03 earnings per share for the current year. Micron Technology Dividend Announcement The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 29th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 14th will be paid a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 14th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.1%. Micron Technology’s dividend payout ratio is presently 0.81%.

Insider Activity at Micron Technology In other news, CEO Sanjay Mehrotra sold 40,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $968.90, for a total transaction of $38,756,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 264,503 shares in the company, valued at approximately $256,276,956.70. This represents a 13.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Scott J. Deboer sold 28,545 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $900.00, for a total value of $25,690,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 147,430 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $132,687,000. This trade represents a 16.22% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 83,545 shares of company stock worth $78,460,850 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets A number of brokerages have issued reports on MU. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Micron Technology from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 6th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $2,000.00 price target on shares of Micron Technology in a report on Thursday, October 1st. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $1,625.00 price objective (up from $535.00) on shares of Micron Technology in a report on Wednesday, September 23rd. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Micron Technology from $1,280.00 to $1,520.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 28th. Finally, ThinkEquity restated a “buy” rating on shares of Micron Technology in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, forty-one have assigned a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Micron Technology currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,407.88.

Read Our Latest Stock Analysis on MU

More Micron Technology News Here are the key news stories impacting Micron Technology this week:

Positive Sentiment: Improved industry sentiment: A broad rebound in semiconductor stocks lifted Micron, SK Hynix and SanDisk as investors returned to AI and memory names following a sharp pullback. Why are Micron, SK Hynix, and SanDisk stocks climbing on Friday? Positive Sentiment: Favorable supply dynamics: SK Hynix’s decision to abandon a planned U.S. IPO for its Solidigm flash-memory unit could reduce concerns about additional NAND supply entering the market, potentially benefiting Micron and SanDisk. Micron, Sandisk gain as SK Hynix scraps Solidigm IPO Positive Sentiment: Analyst and growth support: Erste Group raised its FY2028 EPS forecast to $201.26 from $199.05 and maintained a Buy rating. Analysts continue to point to Micron’s AI-driven HBM demand, improving margins and relatively low valuation as reasons for optimism. Micron earnings estimate update Neutral Sentiment: Strategic investment: Micron’s planned investment in U.S. critical-mineral processing supports its domestic supply-chain strategy, although the near-term financial impact is unclear. Micron critical-minerals investment Negative Sentiment: Technology execution risk: Micron’s next-generation memory architecture could improve data movement for AI processors, but placing more memory closer to computing units creates difficult cooling and heat-management challenges. Micron’s Next AI Memory Breakthrough Has a Cooling Problem Negative Sentiment: Insider selling and volatility: Recent filings show extensive insider selling with no reported open-market purchases, while technical commentary warns that the recovery remains fragile amid ongoing concerns about AI spending, interest rates and valuation. Micron Technology Company Profile (Free Report)

Micron Technology, Inc is a semiconductor company that develops and manufactures memory and storage products. Its portfolio includes dynamic random-access memory (DRAM), NAND flash memory, NOR flash memory, solid-state drives, memory modules, and other semiconductor solutions used in data centers, personal computers, smartphones, automotive systems, industrial equipment, and consumer electronics.

The company also provides high-bandwidth memory and other advanced memory technologies designed to support artificial intelligence, high-performance computing, networking, and graphics applications.

See Also Five stocks we like better than Micron Technology Spotify Soars After Earnings as the Company Touts AI Benefits and Moderating Costs Lockheed Martin’s Record $292 Billion Backlog Comes With a Delivery Test Palantir’s Next Big Test Isn’t a Partnership—It’s the Numbers Kinder Morgan’s $4.7 Billion Pipeline Bet Could Be Bigger Than Its Earnings Beat Want to see what other hedge funds are holding MU? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU – Free Report).

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Axxcess Wealth Management LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN – Free Report) by 81.9% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 7,304 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 33,097 shares during the period. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $1,339,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Alpine Bank Wealth Management increased its stake in shares of Accenture by 18.3% in the third quarter. Alpine Bank Wealth Management now owns 323 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $59,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Alliance Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Accenture by 2.9% during the third quarter. Alliance Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,819 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $334,000 after acquiring an additional 51 shares in the last quarter. Hibernia Wealth Partners LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 4.5% during the first quarter. Hibernia Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,354 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $269,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. GS Investments Inc. boosted its position in Accenture by 0.5% during the first quarter. GS Investments Inc. now owns 12,415 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $2,462,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Camelot Portfolios LLC grew its stake in Accenture by 1.4% in the second quarter. Camelot Portfolios LLC now owns 4,526 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $563,000 after purchasing an additional 62 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Trading Down 3.6% ACN opened at $249.42 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $147.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.53, a P/E/G ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a current ratio of 1.43, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. Accenture PLC has a 12 month low of $118.15 and a 12 month high of $291.09. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $196.03 and its 200 day simple moving average is $176.15.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN – Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 1st. The information technology services provider reported $3.29 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.18 by $0.11. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.53% and a net margin of 11.28%. The business had revenue of $18.68 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $18.03 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.03 earnings per share. Accenture’s quarterly revenue was up 6.2% on a year-over-year basis. Accenture has set its FY 2027 guidance at 14.390-14.810 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Accenture PLC will post 14.68 EPS for the current fiscal year. Accenture Increases Dividend The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 13th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, October 13th will be paid a $1.71 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, October 13th. This represents a $6.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.7%. This is an increase from Accenture’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.63. Accenture’s payout ratio is currently 50.44%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades Several analysts have commented on ACN shares. Susquehanna boosted their target price on shares of Accenture from $210.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 15th. Wolfe Research raised their price target on shares of Accenture from $165.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 25th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $242.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a research note on Thursday, October 15th. UBS Group set a $278.00 price objective on shares of Accenture in a report on Thursday, October 15th. Finally, Truist Financial increased their target price on shares of Accenture from $150.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, October 2nd. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, sixteen have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $219.52.

View Our Latest Stock Report on Accenture

Key Accenture News Here are the key news stories impacting Accenture this week:

Positive Sentiment: Accenture’s consensus price target reportedly increased 12.22% to $238.14, while a bullish analysis projects an additional 23% total return through December 2027. These updates suggest some analysts continue to see upside from the company’s AI and digital-transformation growth. Accenture consensus price target increased Accenture total return analysis Positive Sentiment: Accenture Federal Services is working with Google Public Sector on Gemini launchpads for U.S. federal agencies. The initiative could expand Accenture’s government AI pipeline and reinforce its position as a generative-AI implementation partner. Accenture federal AI push Positive Sentiment: The company’s latest quarterly results surpassed expectations, with earnings of $3.29 per share versus $3.18 expected and revenue of $18.68 billion versus $18.03 billion expected. Revenue grew 6.2% year over year, and Accenture also raised its quarterly dividend to $1.71 per share from $1.63. Neutral Sentiment: Accenture is reviewing options for its Greater China business, potentially including a divestiture. A sale could reduce geopolitical exposure and simplify operations, but the review introduces uncertainty about the region’s future contribution. Negative Sentiment: Robert W. Baird downgraded Accenture from Outperform to Neutral, citing the stock’s sharp rebound and concern that the valuation already reflects much of the expected growth. Baird maintained a $252 price target, offering limited upside relative to recent trading levels. Baird downgrade Negative Sentiment: CEO Ryoji Sekido sold approximately $1.43 million of stock, reducing his direct holdings by 83%, while Chief Accounting Officer Melissa Burgum sold $202,750 under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan. Planned sales do not necessarily signal weaker fundamentals, but the transactions may weigh on sentiment. Insider Activity In other Accenture news, CEO Ryoji Sekido sold 5,844 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $244.84, for a total transaction of $1,430,844.96. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,194 shares in the company, valued at approximately $292,338.96. This represents a 83.03% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 811 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.00, for a total transaction of $202,750.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 9,820 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,455,000. This trade represents a 7.63% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last three months, insiders have sold 19,173 shares of company stock valued at $3,758,527. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Profile (Free Report)

Accenture plc is a global professional services company that helps organizations transform their businesses through consulting, technology and managed services. Its work spans strategy and consulting, technology implementation, operations, and interactive customer experiences.

The company provides services in areas including cloud computing, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, data and analytics, digital engineering, enterprise software, systems integration and business process outsourcing.

See Also Five stocks we like better than Accenture Spotify Soars After Earnings as the Company Touts AI Benefits and Moderating Costs Lockheed Martin’s Record $292 Billion Backlog Comes With a Delivery Test Palantir’s Next Big Test Isn’t a Partnership—It’s the Numbers Kinder Morgan’s $4.7 Billion Pipeline Bet Could Be Bigger Than Its Earnings Beat

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Brookstone Capital Management lifted its position in Ross Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:ROST – Free Report) by 6,226.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 64,596 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock after buying an additional 63,575 shares during the quarter. Brookstone Capital Management’s holdings in Ross Stores were worth $15,077,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in shares of Ross Stores by 89.2% during the second quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 6,615,682 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock worth $1,408,148,000 after purchasing an additional 3,118,591 shares in the last quarter. United Capital Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Ross Stores in the 2nd quarter valued at $3,390,000. NewEdge Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Ross Stores by 40.6% in the 2nd quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 17,353 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $3,694,000 after purchasing an additional 5,012 shares in the last quarter. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board acquired a new position in Ross Stores during the second quarter worth $34,867,000. Finally, Elevation Point Wealth Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ross Stores by 459.5% in the first quarter. Elevation Point Wealth Partners LLC now owns 26,095 shares of the apparel retailer’s stock valued at $5,653,000 after purchasing an additional 21,431 shares during the period. 86.86% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ross Stores Price Performance Shares of NASDAQ:ROST opened at $229.30 on Friday. Ross Stores, Inc. has a 12 month low of $156.41 and a 12 month high of $257.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 1.61 and a quick ratio of 0.98. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $231.44 and its 200 day moving average price is $230.04. The stock has a market cap of $73.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.76, a PEG ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 0.83.

Ross Stores (NASDAQ:ROST – Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 20th. The apparel retailer reported $2.66 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.95 by $0.71. Ross Stores had a return on equity of 39.29% and a net margin of 10.85%. The business had revenue of $6.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.16 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.56 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 13.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Ross Stores, Inc. will post 8.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year. Ross Stores Announces Dividend The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 8th were given a dividend of $0.4450 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 8th. This represents a $1.78 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. Ross Stores’s payout ratio is 21.55%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Evercore set a $290.00 price objective on shares of Ross Stores in a research report on Friday, August 21st. Barclays increased their target price on Ross Stores from $260.00 to $298.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 21st. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Ross Stores from $231.00 to $234.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 21st. Telsey Advisory Group boosted their price target on Ross Stores from $265.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, August 14th. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on Ross Stores from $250.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, August 21st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $264.61.

View Our Latest Research Report on Ross Stores

Insider Transactions at Ross Stores In other news, insider Stephen C. Brinkley sold 6,424 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $229.66, for a total transaction of $1,475,335.84. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 51,665 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,865,383.90. This represents a 11.06% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO James Conroy sold 49,205 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $229.48, for a total value of $11,291,563.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 134,349 shares in the company, valued at $30,830,408.52. The trade was a 26.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 2.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

About Ross Stores (Free Report)

Ross Stores, Inc is an off-price apparel and home fashion retailer headquartered in Dublin, California. The company operates primarily through its Ross Dress for Less stores, which offer branded and designer apparel, accessories, footwear, and home merchandise at discounts to regular department and specialty store prices.

Ross Stores also operates dd’s DISCOUNTS, a chain focused on value-oriented apparel, accessories, footwear, and home products. Both retail formats generally purchase merchandise opportunistically from manufacturers, department stores, and other suppliers, allowing the company to offer changing assortments and discounted prices.

Founded in 1950, Ross Stores serves customers across the United States through its store network and e-commerce presence.

Featured Articles Five stocks we like better than Ross Stores Spotify Soars After Earnings as the Company Touts AI Benefits and Moderating Costs Lockheed Martin’s Record $292 Billion Backlog Comes With a Delivery Test Palantir’s Next Big Test Isn’t a Partnership—It’s the Numbers Kinder Morgan’s $4.7 Billion Pipeline Bet Could Be Bigger Than Its Earnings Beat Want to see what other hedge funds are holding ROST? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Ross Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:ROST – Free Report).

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Axxcess Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC – Free Report) by 947.2% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,613 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,268 shares during the quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Western Digital were worth $1,642,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Mowery & Schoenfeld Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Western Digital during the second quarter worth $28,000. Dunhill Financial LLC acquired a new position in Western Digital in the 2nd quarter valued at $29,000. Stonehage Fleming Financial Services Holdings Ltd bought a new stake in Western Digital in the 2nd quarter valued at $31,000. Gables Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital in the second quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, Ares Financial Consulting LLC grew its stake in shares of Western Digital by 45.5% in the 2nd quarter. Ares Financial Consulting LLC now owns 80 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $51,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares during the period. 92.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In
WDC has been the topic of several research analyst reports. BNP Paribas Exane increased their target price on Western Digital from $660.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Wedbush boosted their target price on Western Digital from $540.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, July 27th. TD Cowen lowered their price target on Western Digital from $540.00 to $430.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Summit Insights downgraded shares of Western Digital from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald cut their target price on shares of Western Digital from $900.00 to $625.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $584.00.

Get Our Latest Analysis on Western Digital
Key Western Digital News
Here are the key news stories impacting Western Digital this week:

Positive Sentiment: Western Digital reported fiscal Q1 2027 adjusted EPS of $4.64, above the roughly $4.09–$4.11 consensus, while revenue rose 55.5% year over year to $4.38 billion. Growth was driven by strong cloud and data-center demand, higher-capacity drives and improved pricing. Western Digital Q1 earnings and revenues beat estimates
Positive Sentiment: Management issued substantially stronger-than-expected fiscal Q2 guidance, calling for revenue of approximately $5.0 billion to $5.2 billion and adjusted EPS of $5.60 to $6.00, versus consensus estimates near $4.5 billion and $4.72, respectively. Western Digital forecasts strong second-quarter growth
Positive Sentiment: AI-related storage demand remains durable, with management citing growing requirements from inference, robotics and long-term data retention. Analysts and industry commentators expect HDDs to remain an important, cost-effective storage layer for data centers, potentially supporting demand visibility into 2030–2031. Western Digital CEO discusses durable AI storage demand
Positive Sentiment: Western Digital generated about $1.38 billion in free cash flow and increased its quarterly dividend 16.7% to $0.175 per share. JPMorgan also raised its price target to $650 and maintained an overweight rating. Western Digital Q1 revenue and dividend update
Neutral Sentiment: Other analysts remained bullish but reduced some price targets, reflecting elevated expectations and uncertainty around the pace of future growth. TD Cowen, for example, lowered its target to $430 while retaining a buy rating; Rosenblatt and Cantor Fitzgerald also cut targets but remained positive.
Negative Sentiment: The stock’s strong results were not enough to overcome a broad sell-off in AI, memory and technology shares. Investors are questioning whether hyperscaler capital spending can remain elevated and whether Western Digital’s unusually strong HDD pricing and margins are sustainable.
Negative Sentiment: Higher planned capital expenditures, possible industry supply increases, inventory concerns and execution risks surrounding the HAMR technology transition are weighing on sentiment. Management also acknowledged that HDD price growth could eventually moderate. Western Digital faces capex and supply concerns
Negative Sentiment: A disclosed insider sale of 807 shares worth approximately $306,660 added a modest sentiment overhang, although it was conducted under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan and represented only a small portion of the insider’s holdings. SEC insider transaction filing

Insider Buying and Selling
In other news, insider Vidyadhara K. Gubbi sold 1,795 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $459.87, for a total value of $825,466.65. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 80,571 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $37,052,185.77. This trade represents a 2.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of Western Digital stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $444.97, for a total value of $8,899,400.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 575,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $256,287,591.02. This represents a 3.36% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 25,436 shares of company stock worth $11,340,064. Company insiders own 0.20% of the company’s stock.

Western Digital Stock Performance
Shares of NASDAQ WDC opened at $343.67 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $432.18 and a 200 day moving average price of $479.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $128.64 billion, a PE ratio of 13.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 2.11. Western Digital Corporation has a 52 week low of $121.85 and a 52 week high of $799.87.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC – Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 22nd. The data storage provider reported $4.64 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.11 by $0.53. The firm had revenue of $4.38 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.14 billion. Western Digital had a return on equity of 56.91% and a net margin of 69.20%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 55.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.78 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Western Digital Corporation will post 19.69 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Increases Dividend
The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 17th. Investors of record on Friday, December 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.1750 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 4th. This is an increase from Western Digital’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. Western Digital’s dividend payout ratio is 2.48%.

Western Digital Company Profile
(Free Report)

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ: WDC) is a data storage technology company that develops and manufactures hard disk drives (HDDs) and related storage solutions. Its products are used in data centers, cloud infrastructure, enterprise systems, personal computers, gaming platforms and external storage devices.

The company offers HDD-based products for business and consumer applications, including high-capacity drives designed for hyperscale and cloud data centers, enterprise storage environments, network-attached storage systems and personal computing.

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Want to see what other hedge funds are holding WDC? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC – Free Report).

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Andrew Hill Investment Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Cheniere Energy, Inc. (NYSE:LNG – Free Report) by 310.8% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 22,350 shares of the energy company’s stock after purchasing an additional 16,910 shares during the period. Cheniere Energy accounts for 4.8% of Andrew Hill Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 5th biggest position. Andrew Hill Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Cheniere Energy were worth $6,013,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. First Horizon Corp raised its holdings in Cheniere Energy by 7.7% in the 1st quarter. First Horizon Corp now owns 517 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $147,000 after buying an additional 37 shares during the last quarter. Signal Advisors Wealth LLC lifted its stake in Cheniere Energy by 2.9% during the first quarter. Signal Advisors Wealth LLC now owns 1,497 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $425,000 after purchasing an additional 42 shares during the last quarter. Eagle Strategies LLC grew its position in Cheniere Energy by 4.0% during the 3rd quarter. Eagle Strategies LLC now owns 1,083 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $291,000 after acquiring an additional 42 shares during the last quarter. Titleist Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Cheniere Energy by 1.6% during the third quarter. Titleist Asset Management LLC now owns 2,867 shares of the energy company’s stock valued at $771,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Independence Bank of Kentucky raised its holdings in Cheniere Energy by 6.8% in the first quarter. Independence Bank of Kentucky now owns 725 shares of the energy company’s stock worth $206,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.26% of the company’s stock.

More Cheniere Energy News
Here are the key news stories impacting Cheniere Energy this week:

Positive Sentiment: Large QatarEnergy contract strengthens long-term visibility: Cheniere agreed to supply QatarEnergy with 4 million metric tons of LNG annually through 2054—2 million tons each from its Sabine Pass and Corpus Christi facilities. The decades-long, take-or-pay-style demand commitment could support stable cash flows and reduce marketing risk. Cheniere Energy Boosts LNG Contract Backlog With QatarEnergy Deal
Positive Sentiment: Potential support for Sabine Pass expansion: The agreement helps underpin Cheniere’s planned capacity expansion, potentially improving utilization and creating additional long-term earnings and cash-flow opportunities. QatarEnergy is seeking U.S. LNG as geopolitical disruptions affect Middle Eastern supply routes. Cheniere signs LNG supply deals with QatarEnergy through 2054
Positive Sentiment: One analyst raised its valuation: JPMorgan increased its price target from $334 to $344 and maintained an “overweight” rating, indicating confidence in Cheniere’s contracted growth outlook.
Positive Sentiment: Related partnership continues returning cash: Cheniere Energy Partners, L.P. declared a quarterly cash distribution of $0.890 per common unit, highlighting ongoing cash generation from the associated LNG infrastructure. This distribution is made by the partnership rather than directly by Cheniere Energy.
Neutral Sentiment: Earnings expectations are favorable but unconfirmed: Analysts expect Cheniere to potentially exceed estimates in its upcoming report, though this is based on consensus indicators rather than reported results.
Negative Sentiment: Valuation and analyst views are mixed: Bernstein reaffirmed an “outperform” rating but set a $283 price target, below the current trading level. Investors may also weigh execution, financing, and construction risks associated with expansion projects.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In
LNG has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Raymond James Financial reiterated a “strong-buy” rating and set a $340.00 price target on shares of Cheniere Energy in a report on Monday. Argus set a $330.00 price objective on Cheniere Energy in a research report on Tuesday, August 18th. Scotiabank set a $311.00 target price on Cheniere Energy in a research report on Thursday, October 15th. Zacks Research lowered shares of Cheniere Energy from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. Finally, TD Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Cheniere Energy in a report on Friday, October 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $310.65.
Get Our Latest Analysis on LNG

Cheniere Energy Trading Up 4.1%
Shares of LNG stock opened at $298.80 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $278.86 and a 200-day simple moving average of $261.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.97, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.72. The company has a market cap of $61.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.62, a PEG ratio of 1.14 and a beta of 0.06. Cheniere Energy, Inc. has a 1-year low of $186.20 and a 1-year high of $300.89.

Cheniere Energy (NYSE:LNG – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 6th. The energy company reported $3.02 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.11 by ($0.09). Cheniere Energy had a net margin of 13.57% and a return on equity of 29.80%. The business had revenue of $5.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.92 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $7.30 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 23.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that Cheniere Energy, Inc. will post 16.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cheniere Energy Announces Dividend
The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 18th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 10th were given a $0.5550 dividend. This represents a $2.22 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 10th. Cheniere Energy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 16.53%.

Cheniere Energy Profile
(Free Report)

Cheniere Energy, Inc is an energy infrastructure company engaged primarily in the production and export of liquefied natural gas (LNG). The company purchases natural gas, processes it through liquefaction facilities, and delivers LNG to customers in international energy markets. Its operations also include natural gas procurement, transportation, storage, and LNG marketing.

Cheniere operates the Sabine Pass LNG facility in Cameron Parish, Louisiana, and the Corpus Christi LNG facility near Corpus Christi, Texas.

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The Bitget hacker has moved $19.48 million in 52 transfers, almost entirely in Bitcoin, as Arkham tracks fresh outflows from wallets linked to the exchange’s September breach.

Summary

Arkham tracked $19.48 million across 52 transfers, with Bitcoin accounting for $19.33 million. Hacker-linked wallets sent $78.01 million to new addresses between Oct. 15 and Oct. 23. Arkham valued remaining labeled holdings at $242.54 million, mostly held in Bitcoin. The latest transfers’ destinations remain unidentified, leaving potential laundering unconfirmed. Arkham put the transfers between 10:02 UTC on Oct. 21 and 02:48 UTC on Oct. 24, with Bitcoin accounting for $19.33 million and ETH making up the rest. Its thread said almost all the funds went to new addresses.

The blockchain intelligence firm framed its update as a question.

“Is the Bitget Hacker laundering the stolen funds?”

Arkham’s posts do not name an exchange, mixer, or over-the-counter desk receiving the latest transfers. The update documents money leaving labeled wallets, without establishing whether those assets were sold, cashed out, or recovered.

Bitget hacker movements total $78 million since Oct. 15 Across a longer reporting window, Arkham said the attacker had sent $78.01 million to new addresses since Oct. 15. Its daily breakdown showed $23.31 million moving on Oct. 15, followed by $8.68 million on Oct. 16 and $1.15 million on Oct. 17.

Another $10.51 million moved on Oct. 18. After no recorded movement on Oct. 19, the firm listed $15.13 million on Oct. 20, $11.74 million on Oct. 21, $184,160 on Oct. 22, and $7.3 million on Oct. 23.

The dates in Arkham’s opening post cover 64 hours and 46 minutes. A later post in the same thread described the $19.48 million as moving over “the past 48 hours,” leaving a mismatch between its shorthand description and the precise timestamps.

Using the firm’s rounded asset figures, Bitcoin represented approximately 99.2% of that $19.48 million. The implied ETH component was $150,000, although Arkham did not provide an exact token quantity in the opening post.

Arkham’s remaining balance uses a $350 million baseline In its thread, Arkham valued the hacker’s remaining labeled holdings at $242.54 million, including 2,960.01 BTC worth $241.99 million. It listed smaller balances on Ethereum, Hypercore, Solana and Tron.

The firm described that balance as 69% of a $350 million theft. Bitget’s own accounting puts the incident at approximately $387.5 million, after revising its initial $351.6 million estimate.

In its Sep. 25 recovery notice, the exchange said the revision included Zcash and TRON assets omitted from the first calculation. Bitget attributed the change to a more complete classification of the original transfers and said it did not represent further theft.

Against Bitget’s $387.5 million estimate, Arkham’s $242.54 million snapshot equals approximately 62.6%. Neither percentage establishes how much has been recovered, because the figures compare remaining labeled holdings with dollar estimates from the original incident.

Arkham data shows $239.34 million, including approximately 2,958 BTC valued at $238.79 million.

Source: Arkham Earlier tracing identified CoinJoin and cross-chain routes Fund movements linked to the attack began before October. As crypto.news previously reported, AMLBot traced roughly four BTC into CoinJoin in September, describing the activity as an apparent effort to obscure stolen funds.

AMLBot’s account followed assets from TRON into USDT, across to Ethereum through USDT0, and through ETH swaps and THORChain before they reached Bitcoin. The firm said approximately 4.59 BTC emerged from that route before the Bitcoin was split into smaller amounts.

Independent tracing by Bitquery documented other September conversions through THORChain and Chainflip. Its investigation matched 66 swaps to 126.71 BTC in payments by 14:38 UTC on Sep. 25, while identifying two swaps still waiting at that snapshot.

Those historical routes do not establish the destinations of Arkham’s latest transfers. The October screenshots contain transaction graphs but no readable transaction-level evidence connecting the new outflows to the same services.

Bitget says withdrawals have resumed while recovery continues Bitget’s incident explainer, updated Oct. 20, says its phased withdrawal restoration finished on Oct. 2 after BTC, ETH and USDT services reopened in September. The company says customer account balances remain unaffected and that it has identified no further unauthorized transfers following containment.

In the same explainer, Bitget attributed the breach to a vulnerability in a third-party security product. The company said the attacker obtained high-level internal credentials and submitted fraudulent withdrawal commands that bypassed existing risk controls. Bitget said the affected systems were isolated and the vulnerability was fixed.

Earlier coverage of the withdrawal reopening and reserves recorded CEO Gracy Chen’s statement that the Protection Fund had returned above $300 million on Sep. 30. Bitget has said the fund would absorb the financial loss from the breach.

The Sep. 25 notice names Mandiant and SlowMist as investigation partners and publishes receiving addresses across Ethereum-compatible networks, XRP Ledger, Zcash and TRON. Its recovery section says some assets had already been frozen through coordination with industry partners, but does not give an aggregate frozen amount in that notice.

The exchange’s recovery program offers separate 5% rewards for eligible voluntary actions that directly freeze or recover affected assets. Bitget excludes actions carried out under court orders, law-enforcement requests, or other legal processes, and retains discretion over eligibility and payment.

Franklin Templeton has added roughly $150 million in sgBENJI shares to the XRP Ledger (XRPL). The move nearly quadrupled the asset manager’s tokenized fund position on the ledger overnight.

On-chain data shows two separate $75 million cash subscription receipts recorded on Wednesday.

The matching share issuances followed on Thursday. Each batch delivered just over 72.18 million sgBENJI shares at a price of $1.039 per share.

Before the inflow, Franklin held roughly 48 million shares on the XRPL. That figure has now climbed to nearly 193 million shares. At current pricing, the position is worth approximately $200 million.

One Wallet, Eight Signers, What the Structure Means
The entire sgBENJI balance on XRPL sits inside a single wallet. That wallet shares the same eight signing addresses as Franklin’s issuing account.

Any two of those eight addresses can jointly approve a transaction. Franklin retains the right to freeze balances or recover tokens if needed.

This design is typical of regulated tokenized fund structures. Issuers use multi-sig accounts to enforce compliance controls while keeping assets on a public ledger.

Still, concentrating the full position in one wallet raises operational questions, particularly around who the end investor is. Franklin has not clarified whether the wallet is an omnibus account holding multiple clients or a single large allocation.

The move extends a broader institutional push on XRPL. Ripple’s partnership with DBS and Franklin Templeton, announced in September 2025, set the stage for this: it enabled DBS Digital Exchange clients to swap between sgBENJI and Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin and explore using the fund tokens as collateral.

Franklin’s commitment to XRPL is not incidental. Franklin Templeton’s digital assets head has publicly backed XRP for its practical utility, citing throughput, cost, and reliability as reasons institutions are choosing the ledger over alternatives.

XRPL’s RWA Market Grows, Franklin Now Ranks Second
RWA.xyz now ranks Franklin Templeton second among tokenized asset issuers on XRPL. Ripple’s RLUSD leads with roughly $930 million.

Ondo Finance sits third at $185 million. Franklin’s sgBENJI position at ~$200 million slots in between.

This ranking shift matters in context. XRPL’s real-world asset market cap hit $2.25 billion earlier this year, rising 124% in Q1 2026 alone. Franklin’s fresh inflow adds weight to that trend.

The asset manager has also been laying regulatory groundwork in parallel. It secured SEC clearance for its funds to hold tokenized assets and met with the SEC’s Crypto Task Force on 1940 Act issues to clarify how tokenized funds interact with the Innovation Exemption.

Beyond regulation, Franklin has been expanding utility for its tokenized shares. Its partnership with Bybit lets eligible clients pledge sgBENJI shares as collateral to secure stablecoin credit lines while still earning fund yield.

It also tapped HashKey to bring the tokenized fund to Asia, reaching professional investors through HashKey Exchange’s Earn channel.

Ripple, for its part, has continued deepening infrastructure on the ledger. Its strategic investments in ZILO and Licuido expand regulated token issuance and collateral services, building exactly the rails that institutions like Franklin now use.

For those exploring where to access real-world assets on-chain, leading crypto exchanges now offer RWA trading options as the sector grows.

Co-founder Zon's preliminary read points to a MoveVM flaw, while D2 Finance traced the payouts to LayerZero adapters on Ethereum.

Initia's chain stays halted after an attacker minted and bridged out tokens

Posted October 23, 2026 at 10:35 pm ET.

Anyone holding assets on Initia is waiting on a restart. Initia’s layer 1 and its rollups have been offline since 11:41 a.m. ET on Friday, when the team cited a “security incident,” and it had not said when they would come back as of 5:52 p.m. ET. Initia said in the same notice that it was working “to establish the full scope of any impact with security teams, validators, and exchanges.”

Co-founder Zon pointed to Initia’s own software, citing preliminary findings. He wrote that it was “a Day 0 bug related to Initia’s MoveVM on CosmosSDK that allowed the exploiter to mint additional tokens on the Initia L1 but does not apply to native INIT tokens.” The attacker managed to “mint and bridge out ~$2.7m worth of AUSD, ETH, and USDC before the chain was paused,” he added.

Pseudonymous researcher Spreek flagged the attack at 11:27 a.m. ET, 14 minutes before the halt, estimating $2.6 million cashed out.

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How the Funds Left D2 Finance, which published a breakdown of the transactions, said one transaction at 10:59 a.m. ET minted 2 million AUSD on the Initia side. By D2’s account, those unbacked tokens were burned and sent over LayerZero to Ethereum, where OFT adapters, lockbox contracts holding the real tokens behind Initia’s bridged versions, paid out. D2 wrote that “an OFT adapter cannot check whether burned tokens were ever backed.”

D2 said the attacker pulled 1.4 million AUSD, 71% of the AUSD adapter’s holdings, leaving about 576,000, plus 105 ETH, 96% of the native-ETH adapter. Another 1.08 million USDC arrived as new mints through Circle’s CCTP. In D2’s telling, $2.65 million had reached Ethereum within seven minutes and 21 seconds of the mint.

Agora Says AUSD Is Unaffected Agora, which issues AUSD, said at 12:57 p.m. ET that it “has no smart contracts deployed on Initia.” At 2:26 p.m. ET it added that “AUSD does not exist on Initia,” and that “AUSD is fully backed.” Agora’s statements indicate the token minted on Initia was a bridged representation rather than AUSD itself. D2 said the AUSD that left came from an Ethereum lockbox adapter backing that bridged token.

Onchain records show the 1.4 million AUSD sat in the attacker’s Ethereum address for about 84 seconds before it was traded away on the 1inch aggregator at 11:03 a.m. ET. Agora froze that address at 12:31 p.m. ET, roughly 89 minutes later and before its first statement, when the address held no AUSD.

The same address sent 1,135.5 ETH, which D2 valued at about $2.7 million, to a newly used wallet at 11:41 a.m. ET, the minute the halt took effect.

Initia’s own account has not confirmed Zon’s loss figure or published a post-mortem. It said it would post verified updates through its official channels.

Related Listen: Who’s to Blame for How KelpDAO’s DVN Was Set Up? KelpDAO or LayerZero?

AI-assisted content: This article was produced with the assistance of AI tools and was reviewed, edited, and fact-checked by a member of the Unchained editorial team before publication.

In May 2023, the Ethereum blockchain faced its first inactivity leak, a mechanism designed to restore chain finalization amid prolonged network disruptions. This feature aims to reduce the voting power of validators who become unreachable, redistributing their power to active validators. Our investigation delves into the safety implications of this inactivity leak within the Ethereum blockchain. Through theoretical analysis, we explore how Byzantine validators might expedite the finalization of conflicting branches or reach a voting power exceeding the critical safety threshold of one-third. Additionally, we revisit the probabilistic bouncing attack, demonstrating how the inactivity leak might allow Byzantine validators to breach safety thresholds. This article uncovers how penalizing inactive nodes can undermine blockchain properties, especially when Byzantine validators can coordinate their actions.

I. Overview
Background
In September 2022, Ethereum transitioned from a proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism to a proof-of-stake (PoS) protocol. This change aimed to improve energy efficiency and scalability. The Ethereum PoS protocol is unique due to its hybrid nature, combining elements of classical Byzantine Fault-Tolerant (BFT) Consensus with the Nakamoto-style blockchain framework. In BFT blockchains, validators explicitly vote on block proposals, ensuring that once a block is added, it remains permanently incorporated. In contrast, Nakamoto-style blockchains allow forks but eventually reconcile to a single chain.

Motivation
The motivation behind this study stems from Ethereum's introduction of the inactivity leak, a penalty mechanism designed to address prolonged network disruptions. When validators become unreachable, their voting power is reduced and redistributed to active validators. While this mechanism aims to restore chain finalization and maintain liveness during network partitions, it raises significant concerns about its impact on the blockchain's safety. Specifically, the potential for Byzantine validators to exploit the inactivity leak to expedite the finalization of conflicting branches or gain a voting power exceeding the critical safety threshold of one-third necessitates a thorough investigation.

Contributions
This article is mainly based on the many sources, one of our main contents came from Byzantine Attacks Exploiting Penalties in Ethereum PoS from authors: Ulysse Pavloff, Yackolley Amoussou-Genou, Sara Tucci-Piergiovanni

This paper makes several key contributions:

Formal Analysis of the Inactivity Leak: They provide the first formal description of the inactivity leak, detailing its operational mechanics and its intended purpose within the Ethereum PoS protocol.

Impact on Safety: Our analysis explores various configurations and scenarios to understand how the inactivity leak influences the safety of the Ethereum blockchain, particularly under the influence of Byzantine validators.

Revisiting Known Attacks: We reexamine the probabilistic bouncing attack in the context of the inactivity leak, demonstrating how this attack can be leveraged to probabilistically breach safety thresholds.

Theoretical and Practical Insights: The findings offer valuable insights for both theoretical research and practical implementations of penalty mechanisms in PoS blockchains.

Organization of the Paper
The paper is structured to provide a comprehensive exploration of the inactivity leak and its implications. The organization is as follows:

Introduction: An overview of the motivation, contributions, and structure of the paper.

System Model and Ethereum Protocol: A detailed description of the Ethereum PoS protocol, including its safety and liveness trade-offs, Byzantine fault tolerance, and the inactivity leak mechanism.

Analysis of Safety Loss Scenarios: An in-depth analysis of scenarios where safety might be compromised, including conflicting finalization with honest validators and coordinated Byzantine attacks.

Revisiting the Probabilistic Bouncing Attack: A thorough reexamination of the probabilistic bouncing attack, assessing its impact in the presence of the inactivity leak and presenting simulation results.

Future Work: A discussion of the implications of our findings for Ethereum and other PoS blockchains, along with directions for future research.

Conclusions: A summary of our findings, emphasizing the importance of refining penalty mechanisms to ensure blockchain safety and stability.

II. System Model and Ethereum Protocol
Ethereum PoS Protocol Overview
Ethereum's shift to proof-of-stake (PoS) in September 2022 was a landmark event, transitioning from the energy-intensive proof-of-work (PoW) to a more sustainable and scalable consensus mechanism. The Ethereum PoS protocol combines elements of classical Byzantine Fault-Tolerant (BFT) Consensus with the Nakamoto-style blockchain, creating a hybrid model. In this system, validators are selected based on their stake to propose and validate new blocks, aiming to achieve consensus through voting. The protocol leverages a fork-choice rule to determine the canonical chain from a tree-like structure of blocks, ensuring that the blockchain can adapt and reconcile forks to maintain a single chain.

Safety and Liveness Trade-offs
In the context of blockchain protocols, safety and liveness are critical properties that need to be balanced. Safety ensures that the blockchain does not fork, meaning that once a block is finalized, it cannot be revoked. Liveness, on the other hand, ensures that the blockchain continues to grow and accept new transactions.

BFT Consensus: BFT blockchains achieve safety by using super-majority quorums to finalize blocks, preventing forks but potentially halting growth during network partitions or failures. This trade-off means that while the blockchain is safe, it may not always be live.

Nakamoto-style Blockchains: These blockchains are designed to remain live even during network disruptions, as they allow for the existence of multiple forks. Eventually, they reconcile to a single chain, but this means they can experience temporary forks, which poses a challenge to safety.

Ethereum PoS: Ethereum PoS aims to balance these trade-offs by maintaining a finalized chain alongside a forkable chain. The finalized chain is protected by BFT mechanisms, ensuring safety, while the forkable chain continues to grow, ensuring liveness.

Byzantine Fault Tolerance
Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) is a critical aspect of blockchain security, ensuring that the protocol can withstand malicious actions by up to one-third of the validators. In BFT systems, validators vote on proposed blocks, and a block is only considered finalized if it receives votes from a super-majority of validators. This mechanism ensures that even if some validators act maliciously or become unreachable, the blockchain can still achieve consensus and finalize blocks.

Inactivity Leak Mechanism
Definition and Purpose

The inactivity leak is a penalty mechanism introduced to handle scenarios where validators become inactive or unreachable due to network disruptions. When validators fail to participate in the consensus process for an extended period, their stake and voting power are gradually reduced. This reduction is intended to reallocate voting power to active validators, thereby restoring the blockchain's ability to achieve finalization and maintain liveness.

Impact on Voting Power

The inactivity leak directly affects the distribution of voting power among validators. By penalizing inactive validators, the mechanism ensures that the remaining active validators have increased influence in the consensus process. This reallocation is crucial for restoring liveness during network partitions, as it allows the blockchain to continue finalizing blocks despite the absence of some validators. However, this mechanism also introduces potential risks, particularly if Byzantine validators can exploit it to gain a disproportionate amount of voting power.

Restoring Liveness: During network partitions or disruptions, the inactivity leak helps maintain liveness by reducing the influence of inactive validators and empowering active ones to continue finalizing blocks.

Risks to Safety: The redistribution of voting power can create scenarios where Byzantine validators, through coordinated actions, may exploit the inactivity leak to increase their influence. This can lead to safety breaches, such as the finalization of conflicting chains or exceeding the critical one-third threshold of Byzantine voting power.

Ethereum's Unique Hybrid Model

Ethereum PoS's hybrid model of maintaining a finalized and non-finalized chain within a single data structure aims to offer the best of both BFT and Nakamoto-style blockchains. The finalized chain guarantees safety, ensuring that once a block is finalized, it remains unaltered. The non-finalized chain allows for continued growth and transaction processing, ensuring liveness even during adverse network conditions.

The Ethereum PoS protocol's innovative combination of BFT and Nakamoto-style elements, along with the introduction of the inactivity leak, represents a significant advancement in blockchain technology. However, this complexity also introduces new challenges, particularly regarding the balance between safety and liveness and the potential exploitation by Byzantine validators. Understanding these dynamics is crucial for ensuring the robustness and security of the Ethereum blockchain.

III. Analysis of Safety Loss Scenarios
Conflicting Finalization with Honest Validators
Network Partitions and CAP Theorem

Network partitions can disrupt the Ethereum blockchain's operation, potentially leading to conflicting finalization of blocks. The CAP theorem, which states that a distributed system can only achieve two out of three properties—consistency, availability, and partition tolerance—underlines the challenge of maintaining both safety and liveness during network partitions. In Ethereum PoS, this means that while efforts are made to maintain liveness by allowing the chain to continue growing, safety can be compromised if different parts of the network finalize conflicting blocks independently.

Independent Finalization on Different Chains

During network partitions, validators in different network segments may finalize different blocks independently. This situation arises when validators in one partition finalize one set of blocks, while validators in another partition finalize a different set. As a result, the blockchain can face conflicting finalization, where multiple chains claim to be the valid continuation of the blockchain. This scenario challenges the blockchain's safety guarantees, as transactions on conflicting branches may lead to inconsistencies and potential double-spending.

Coordinated Byzantine Attacks
Accelerated Conflicting Finalization

Byzantine validators can exploit network partitions and the inactivity leak to accelerate conflicting finalization intentionally. In scenarios where Byzantine validators strategically coordinate their actions, they can exploit the reduced influence of honest validators (due to network partitions or penalties from the inactivity leak) to finalize conflicting blocks quickly. This coordinated action undermines the blockchain's safety guarantees, as it introduces uncertainty about the true state of the blockchain.

Breaching the Safety Threshold

Another significant risk arises when Byzantine validators coordinate to exceed the critical one-third threshold of voting power. In Ethereum PoS, maintaining safety relies on ensuring that less than one-third of validators are Byzantine. However, if Byzantine validators can increase their influence through strategic actions during network disruptions or by exploiting the inactivity leak, they may collectively control more than one-third of the voting power. This breach of the safety threshold can lead to irreversible decisions and compromises the integrity of the blockchain.

IV. Revisiting the Probabilistic Bouncing Attack
Original Attack Description
The probabilistic bouncing attack is a known strategy in blockchain environments, particularly relevant in proof-of-stake (PoS) protocols like Ethereum. This attack exploits periods of network uncertainty or synchronization to delay block finalization intentionally. Validators participating in the consensus process strategically withhold their votes or propose conflicting blocks, leading to prolonged ambiguity about which chain should be considered the canonical one. By introducing delays in the finalization process, the attack undermines the blockchain's liveness guarantees, as transactions may remain pending or reversible for extended periods.

sources: arxiv.org

Impact of the Inactivity Leak
The introduction of the inactivity leak mechanism amplifies the effectiveness of the probabilistic bouncing attack. This penalty mechanism penalizes validators who become inactive due to network disruptions or strategic inactivity. As inactive validators lose stake and voting power over time, active validators gain a disproportionate influence in the consensus process. This redistribution of voting power alters the dynamics of the blockchain's security model, potentially creating opportunities for malicious actors to exploit.

In the context of the probabilistic bouncing attack, the inactivity leak exacerbates the impact during periods of network synchrony. Byzantine validators can strategically become inactive to avoid penalties and then coordinate attacks when network conditions are favorable. By delaying finalization through strategic inactivity and subsequent coordinated actions, malicious validators can prolong uncertainty about the blockchain's state, further compromising its liveness and integrity.

Conditions for Safety Threshold Breach
Our analysis identifies specific conditions under which the probabilistic bouncing attack, augmented by the inactivity leak, can breach the safety threshold of Ethereum PoS. These conditions include prolonged network partitions, strategic coordination among Byzantine validators to exploit penalties, and the operational mechanics of the inactivity leak itself. The combination of these factors creates a scenario where Byzantine validators can probabilistically control the blockchain's decision-making process, potentially leading to irreversible decisions or conflicting finalizations.

Simulation Results and Discussion
Simulation studies provide empirical evidence of how the probabilistic bouncing attack, enhanced by the inactivity leak, impacts Ethereum's safety and liveness properties. By modeling various attack scenarios and network conditions, we illustrate the potential vulnerabilities introduced by the inactivity leak and the strategies employed by Byzantine validators to exploit them. Discussions delve into the implications of these findings for blockchain security and propose strategies for mitigating the risks posed by such attacks.

source: arxiv.org

V. Future Work
Summary of Findings
Our study has highlighted significant vulnerabilities in Ethereum's proof-of-stake (PoS) protocol, particularly concerning the probabilistic bouncing attack and the inactivity leak mechanism. These findings underscore the importance of enhancing blockchain security while maintaining robustness in consensus mechanisms. We have identified critical areas where future research and development efforts can focus to address these challenges effectively.

Implications for Ethereum and Other PoS Blockchains
The implications extend beyond Ethereum to other PoS blockchains that utilize penalty mechanisms and face similar security challenges. Understanding these vulnerabilities provides a foundation for improving the design and implementation of future blockchain protocols. Key implications include:

Security Enhancements: Develop more resilient penalty mechanisms that mitigate the risks posed by Byzantine attacks and strategic network disruptions.

Consensus Protocol Optimization: Refine consensus algorithms to improve their ability to handle network partitions and maintain safety and liveness guarantees simultaneously.

Governance and Protocol Design: Implement governance structures that can adapt dynamically to emerging threats and vulnerabilities, ensuring continuous improvement and adaptation of blockchain protocols.

Directions for Future Research
Future research efforts should prioritize the following areas to advance blockchain security and resilience:

Enhanced Penalty Mechanisms: Investigate novel penalty mechanisms that discourage malicious behavior while incentivizing active participation and network stability.

Dynamic Governance Models: Explore governance frameworks that enable swift responses to security threats, including protocol upgrades and adjustments to consensus rules.

Formal Verification and Security Audits: Conduct rigorous formal verification and security audits of blockchain protocols to identify and mitigate potential vulnerabilities before deployment.

Cross-Chain Interoperability: Address interoperability challenges between different PoS blockchains to foster collaboration and enhance overall blockchain ecosystem resilience.

Related Work and References
Our study builds upon existing research in Ethereum PoS, Byzantine fault tolerance, and consensus algorithm design. Further exploration into related work can provide deeper insights and inspire innovative solutions to address current and future challenges in blockchain security.

Conclusion
Our exploration of the probabilistic bouncing attack and the inactivity leak in Ethereum PoS has underscored critical vulnerabilities that require immediate attention. By focusing on enhancing security mechanisms, optimizing consensus protocols, and fostering collaborative research, the blockchain community can strengthen the resilience of PoS blockchains against malicious actors and network disruptions. Through these efforts, we aim to contribute to the evolution of blockchain technologies towards more secure, efficient, and trustworthy decentralized systems.