Solstice Advanced Materials a Element Solutions jednají o fúzi, která by mohla vytvořit chemickou firmu s hodnotou kolem 27 miliard USD včetně dluhu. Dohoda by měla být převážně akciová s částí v hotovosti.
SummaryCompaniesDeal could come together as soon as this week, FT reportsMerger likely to be mostly stock-based with some cash, FT reportsJuly 6 (Reuters) - Honeywell (HON.O), opens new tab spinoff Solstice Advanced Materials (SOLS.O), opens new tab is in talks to merge with Element Solutions (ESI.N), opens new tab in a deal that could create a chemicals company valued at about $27 billion including debt, the Financial Times reported on Monday.
The talks happen as both companies seek to capitalize on growing demand for specialty chemicals used in AI data centers and semiconductor manufacturing.
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Solstice and Element Solutions are discussing a merger of equals and a deal, likely to be mostly stock with some cash, could come together as soon as this week, the FT report said, citing people familiar with the talks.
No formal agreement had been reached and the discussions could still fall apart, the report said.
Neither company responded to Reuters requests for comment outside regular business hours.
Solstice, which was spun off from Honeywell last year, makes specialty chemicals and materials used in industries, including semiconductor, refrigeration, nuclear power and healthcare.
The company said in May that increasing demand for its thermal management and refrigerant products in AI-driven data centers, as well as the growing need for advanced computing solutions in semiconductor electronic materials, was helping growth.
Element Solutions, which primarily supplies specialty chemicals for electronics manufacturing, reported more than 40% growth in first-quarter revenue this year, driven mainly by AI-related demand.
Solstice has a market value of about $12.73 billion, while Element Solutions is valued at $10.63 billion, according to LSEG data.
Their shares have risen sharply this year, with Element Solutions up nearly 75% and Solstice up about 65%.
Reporting by Sumedha Mukherjee and Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab
SoFi Technologies v 1. čtvrtletí zvýšila očištěné čisté tržby o 41 % a počet nových členů dosáhl rekordních 1,1 milionu. Akcie ale po reportu short-sellera zůstávají pod tlakem.
SoFi Technologies (SOFI 1.06%) stock dropped 32% in the 2026 first quarter, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence. A short-seller report that put the market on edge, and investors have been scrutinizing the digital bank's performance with a fine-tooth comb.
Most things are going right It's curious how low SoFi stock has fallen, considering how fast it's growing. In the 2026 first quarter, adjusted net revenue growth accelerated to 41% year over year. Its core business, lending, is driving the growth, with a 53% increase in adjusted net revenue. Lending products increased by 33%, and contribution profit was up 60%. Loan originations increased 68%, with healthy growth in all of its categories -- 51% in personal loans, 119% in student loans, and 137% in home loans, which is even more impressive as interest rates remain high.
Image source: Getty Images.
SoFi is onboarding new members at a rapid pace, with record add-ons of 1.1 million in the first quarter. The cross-selling strategy is strong, and cross-buy accelerated to 43%. SoFi has expanded into a complete digital financial app, and its financial services segment, which includes non-lending products like investing tools and bank accounts, is also growing fast. Revenue was up 41% year over year in the first quarter, and contribution profits increased 32%.
Management sees an enormous opportunity to attract new customers and convert them to new products. It's constantly adding new features and services to the platform, with many based around cryptocurrency, and it recently acquired artificial intelligence (AI) investing tool, Composer.
What's going wrong In March, Muddy Waters put out a short-seller report alleging misleading accounting practices. SoFi vigorously denied the claims, but the damage had been done.
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But it's more than that. SoFi stock is expensive, and carrying a premium valuation makes it susceptible to falling if there are any errors. While the company as a whole is demonstrating robust performance, it's not flawless. For example, its third segment, Tech Platform, has been a bit of a bust. Management likens it to the Amazon Web Services (AWS) of financial infrastructure, and it has highlighted how the technology has helped it release new features quickly. But it has been growing at mediocre rates at best, and sales were down 27% from the prior year in the first quarter.
At the current price, SoFi stock trades at 41 times trailing 12-month earnings, which is still expensive, but reasonable considering the company's future opportunity.
Meta Platforms zvažuje vlastní cloudový byznys a prodej přebytečné výpočetní kapacity, což má zmírnit obavy z vysokých výdajů na infrastrukturu. Minulý kvartál jí tržby vzrostly o 33 % na 56,3 miliardy USD.
Meta Platforms (META 4.80%) has been one of the best companies at applying artificial intelligence (AI) to its core business to drive growth. However, the stock has nonetheless struggled amid investor concerns about its high spending on data center infrastructure.
The company helped allay investors' fears when it was announced that the social media giant planned to sell excess computing power and launch its own cloud business. The move would put it into the same business as Amazon, Microsoft, and Alphabet.
Like all three of those companies, Meta has a strong, growing core business that generates substantial operating cash flow. However, it has been their cloud computing units that have driven growth for these companies, as demand for both AI infrastructure services and solutions has been insatiable.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
Moving to the cloud According to Bloomberg, Meta is still deciding whether to sell access to its computing infrastructure or host large language models (LLMs) in its data centers. Meta has developed its own LLMs, and many cloud providers offer their customers third-party AI models like those from Anthropic and OpenAI.
Regardless of which route it goes, the move into cloud computing demonstrates that there is currently so much demand for these services that it is difficult to overbuild your own AI infrastructure, since you can just rent it out to someone else. This is also something that Elon Musk's Space Exploration Technologies (a.k.a. SpaceX) has done, getting strong rates from other players in the field that need the capacity.
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For the stock, it should let investors focus on Meta's core business, which has been hitting on all cylinders. Last quarter, the company saw its revenue growth accelerate, climbing 33% to $56.3 billion.
The growth was driven by a combination of increased ad impressions, which jumped 19% year over year, and higher ad prices, which climbed 12% year over year. Meta is using AI to improve its recommendation algorithm, which keeps users on its apps longer and allows it to serve more ads to them. At the same time, AI is helping advertisers better target and convert users, which is driving up ad prices.
Despite its strong and accelerating revenue growth, Meta trades at a forward price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) of only 18 times this year's analyst estimates. That's cheap for a leading company with that type of growth.
With the move into cloud computing helping ease concerns about overspending and bolstering its strong core business, Meta is one of my favorite AI stocks to own right now for the long term.
Geoffrey Seiler has positions in Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta Platforms. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms, and Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
By all accounts, the stock should be up. Deliveries and production of its electric vehicles (EVs) were both up sequentially and year over year, handily topping analysts' expectations.
Yet Tesla (TSLA 7.35%) shares tumbled on Thursday after its report showed it delivered 480,126 EVs during the three months ending in June while also manufacturing 451,758 automobiles. Most analysts were only looking for deliveries of a little over 400,000.
Data source: Tesla. Chart by author.
Importantly, strong deliveries cleared out Q1's concerning inventory buildup. The strong numbers confirm that the company can not only consistently make automobiles in large numbers but also that its brand still enjoys a certain marketability cache. It just wasn't enough to satisfy investors.
But there's more to the story.
Several stumbling blocks, all of which may have tripped the stock up There are a handful of theories about this stock's setback. And all of them are reasonable. All of them may have contributed to the sell-off, too.
The prevailing explanation is that American automakers Ford Motor Company and General Motors both suffered severe drop-offs in their U.S. electric vehicle businesses in Q2, which has obvious bearish implications for Tesla as well.
Image source: Getty Images.
It's not necessarily doing as well as it seemingly should be overseas, either. Although the company doesn't divulge regional unit data, the China Passenger Car Association reports that over half of Tesla's Q2 deliveries were made in China, where Tesla is doing well but not as well as its top EV rival BYD (BYDDY +3.68%). BYD delivered nearly 400,000 new-energy vehicles within China in June alone, versus only 89,091 Tesla-made EVs. Moreover, after a catastrophic drop in BYD's global deliveries in Q1 -- to levels below Tesla's -- the Chinese company bounced back last quarter, delivering a Tesla-beating 557,090 units worldwide.
Then there's the simple possibility that this is nothing more than a "buy the rumor, sell the news" event, where good news is already priced into a stock. Once the news is reported, there's nothing else new to price in. The next move from that ticker's recent buyers is an exit. To this end, Tesla shares had rallied 12% in just the three days leading up to Thursday's report, setting the stage for profit-taking.
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Or, maybe investors were simply trying to clean up their portfolios before U.S. exchanges closed for a three-day holiday weekend.
Don't overthink it Regardless of the reason, Thursday's sizable sell-off doesn't necessarily mean much and certainly doesn't change the stock's overarching investment thesis. Tesla has always been a volatile ticker, pushed and pulled by an ever-changing global EV market, energy storage market, and soon, the AI robot market. You own this name for the long haul because it's a leading brand and has the greatest potential to capitalize on these industries' ongoing growth. That's also why you pay a premium for it.
To this end, all the post-report noise and chatter aside, Tesla's second-quarter delivery and production numbers are precisely the sort of progress and resiliency the bulls want to see ... at least on the EV front.
Boeing v pondělí spustí čtvrtou montážní linku 737 MAX v Everettu, aby zvýšil výrobu při silné globální poptávce. Linka North Line zatím nepřispěje k navýšení z 42 na 47 letadel měsíčně před začátkem roku 2027.
The Boeing logo on the doors to the Boeing factory in Renton, Washington, U.S., April 15, 2026. REUTERS/Genna Martin/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
EVERETT, July 6 (Reuters) - Boeing (BA.N), opens new tab plans to begin operating a fourth 737 MAX assembly line on Monday at its Everett, Washington, factory.
The new line, known inside Boeing as the North Line, is part of the U.S. planemaker's long-term plans to significantly increase output of its popular single-aisle jetliner to keep up with historically high global demand for jets.
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Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said in June the company would "load" the first aircraft onto the Everett line on July 6. He described the line as a copy of the three 737 final assembly lines in Boeing's Renton plant, south of Seattle.
The start comes as Boeing ramps 737 production from 42 to 47 jets a month after consulting with the Federal Aviation Administration. The North Line is not expected to contribute to any rate increases before early 2027, when Boeing aims to increase 737 output to 52 jets a month.
The company is studying increasing the 737 production rate to as much as 70 jets per month.
Boeing needs to increase 737 output to help regain its financial footing after years of production disruptions, safety crises and supplier strains.
The FAA imposed limits on Boeing's 737 production after a January 2024 midair blowout of a door plug on a nearly new Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9. The incident intensified scrutiny of Boeing's manufacturing controls and forced the company to slow output while it addressed quality lapses.
The Everett plant is the world's largest building by volume. It once housed production lines for the 747, 767, 777 and 787, but it has considerable available factory space after the end of 747 production and the consolidation of 787 assembly in South Carolina.
The 737 MAX competes with Airbus' (AIR.PA), opens new tab A320neo family in the high-volume single-aisle market, where airlines are waiting years for new aircraft.
Reporting by Dan Catchpole in Seattle; Editing by Jonathan Oatis
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab
BlackRock spustí iShares Bitcoin Premium Income ETF, který má sledovat bitcoin a zároveň vyplácet výnos pomocí opční strategie. Roční výnos má činit 12,5 %.
Bitcoin (BTC 0.04%) is taking it on the chin. The dominant cryptocurrency currently trades 51% off its all-time record (as of July 2).
This bear market hasn't stopped BlackRock (BLK +1.57%) from continuing to expand its related product suite. With the January 2024 launch of the iShares Bitcoin Trust, the massive asset manager already has a stake in Bitcoin's success. Even with record net outflows in June, this exchange-traded fund (ETF) currently has $44 billion in total assets.
BlackRock isn't done. It just launched the iShares Bitcoin Premium Income ETF (BITA +2.19%) on June 9. Is this new investment vehicle a buy?
Image source: Getty Images.
Generating income from a no-yield asset The iShares Bitcoin Premium Income ETF "seeks to track the performance of bitcoin while generating premium income through an actively managed options strategy," according to its website. The ETF, which comes with an expense ratio of 0.65%, uses a covered call strategy. The portfolio's holdings consist of Bitcoin and the iShares Bitcoin Trust.
This ETF is different from BlackRock's previous Bitcoin offering. The iShares Bitcoin Trust owns the underlying cryptocurrency and a tiny amount of cash. Its sole purpose is to track the digital asset's price movements.
The iShares Bitcoin Premium Income ETF provides access to Bitcoin in a unique way. It caps exposure to Bitcoin's upside, since the options strategy forces the ETF to sell its positions if the crypto's price rises above a certain threshold. If its price is surging higher, these investors won't capture the entire gain.
However, the ETF provides better downside protection. If Bitcoin is volatile but continues to trade sideways, there's a nice income stream. Based on the ETF's upcoming July 8 distribution of $0.52 per share, the annual yield amounts to 12.5%.
Bitcoin doesn't produce income. The iShares Bitcoin Premium Income ETF is structured to provide investors with a way to earn a yield. Some market participants will find this extremely valuable.
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Built for a specific investor BlackRock offers 487 different ETFs to its client base. The investment firm has a front-row seat at the assets, themes, and exposures that the investment community desires. It can leverage its vast resources to create and distribute these products.
Therefore, I suspect there will be demand for the iShares Bitcoin Premium Income ETF, even though its asset base of $43 million is tiny right now. Bitcoin is in a bear market. Disappointed by the lack of any gains, investors are starved for yield. Leave it to a colossal Wall Street entity to engineer a product that can generate fee revenue, while targeting investors who are interested in a unique approach to Bitcoin.
Only buy this ETF if you expect the cryptocurrency's price to grow at a slow pace in the future. If you're extremely bearish, then stay away.
Bitcoin bulls, on the other hand, won't find this ETF attractive for their portfolios. To them, buying the digital asset outright and holding it in cold storage is still the best course of action.
Neil Patel has positions in iShares Bitcoin Trust. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin, BlackRock, and iShares Bitcoin Trust. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Bristol Myers Squibb má dividendový výnos 4,3 % a podle článku je zatím bezpečný, protože zisk pokrývá dividendu. Rizikem zůstává patentový útes v roce 2028, kdy Eliquis a Opdivo ztrácejí patentovou exkluzivitu.
Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY +3.98%) belongs to an elite group. Only two other large-cap healthcare stocks offer higher dividend yields. Bristol Myers Squibb's juicy yield of 4.3% is absolutely grabbing the attention of many income investors.
The drugmaker has paid a dividend for an impressive 94 consecutive years. Bristol Myers Squibb has increased its dividend for 17 straight years. But is its dividend safe now? Here's what investors need to know.
Image source: Getty Images.
The coverage, the cliff, and the catalysts Let's start with some good news. Bristol Myers Squibb's dividend payout ratio currently stands at 70%. While a lower ratio is preferable, the pharma giant's earnings are more than sufficient to cover its dividend right now.
Sure, Bristol Myers Squibb didn't generate enough free cash flow in the first quarter of 2026 to fund its dividend program. However, this reflected the negative impact of lower Eliquis pricing that should be largely offset later this year by lower rebate payments.
The bad news for Bristol Myers Squibb's dividend, though, is the company's looming patent cliff. Blockbuster drugs Eliquis and Opdivo lose patent exclusivity in 2028. These two products generated roughly half of Bristol Myers Squibb's total revenue last year.
However, the patent cliff is only part of the story. Bristol Myers Squibb's growth portfolio now represents the majority of the company's total revenue. Sales for newer products, including cancer immunotherapies Breyanzi and Opdualag, autoimmune disease drug Sotyktu, and schizophrenia therapy Cobenfy, are growing rapidly. The drugmaker's pipeline also features around 50 programs in development, several of which hold the potential to be growth catalysts.
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The verdict My take is that Bristol Myers Squibb's 4.3% dividend yield is safe, at least for the next couple of years. What about beyond that point? I'm cautiously optimistic.
I expect that Bristol Myers Squibb's growth portfolio will generate enough revenue that the company will be able to avoid cutting its dividend later this decade. It wouldn't surprise me, though, if the streak of dividend increases comes to a screeching halt.
That said, it's still possible that the patent cliff could hurt Bristol Myers Squibb worse than I'm anticipating. The drugmaker's debt also totaled $44.5 billion at the end of the first quarter of 2026. That's manageable but coud become problematic if the growth portfolio and pipeline don't deliver as I think they will.
I wouldn't completely rule out a dividend cut in the future. However, I still view this pharma stock as a good pick for income investors over the near term (and potentially over the long term, too).
On July 2, cybersecurity leader CrowdStrike (CRWD +0.52%) underwent a 4-for-1 stock split, reducing its share price to $193. The day before, the stock closed around $773 per share, and each stockholder of record received four shares for each share they held.
The price rose after the split took effect, up about 2% to $196 during the trading day. That's not unusual -- splits generally result in the stock price popping, both before and shortly after the split.
Since the split was announced on June 3, CrowdStrike's stock is up about 8%. This is because investors wanted to buy in to get the split, and they anticipate it getting a lift from its new, more accessible stock price.
Image source: Getty Images.
But does it really change anything for the stock beyond this short-term spike?
CrowdStrike stock is not cheap The stock has had a good year, up about 66% year to date on a split-adjusted basis.
It has been fueled by excellent performance. In the latest quarter, revenue rose 26% to $1.39 billion, and CrowdStrike posted net income of $28 million, up from a $104 million loss the same quarter a year ago. Its net new annual recurring revenue (ARR) jumped 32%, and it posted record free cash flow.
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Management raised its revenue and earnings guidance for fiscal 2027 and lifted its outlook for net new ARR by 520 basis points.
The company has great momentum, and the stock split should make it more accessible to more investors who can now more easily buy full shares.
But the concern is its valuation. CrowdStrike has a sky-high price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) of 401 but a more reasonable forward P/E of 39. I do think the stock is a buy, but it might be wise to wait for the split spike to subside and buy at a lower price.
Dave Kovaleski has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends CrowdStrike. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Ryan Specialty Underwriting Managers dokončila sérii konsorciálních smluv u Lloyd’s pro své globální syndikované portfolio delegovaného upisování. Šest syndikátů převezme dohromady 15% podíl a zapojení začne při obnovách od 1. srpna.
CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Ryan Specialty Underwriting Managers (“RSUM”), the underwriting management division of Ryan Specialty (NYSE: RYAN), is pleased to announce the completion of a series of Lloyd’s of London consortium stamps that will attach to its global syndicated P&C delegated underwriting portfolio. The consortium stamps are supported by six leading Lloyd’s syndicates and will take a combined 15% share on all classes, lines and geographies (except for a partial share of Velocity Risk Underwriters, RSUM’s critical CAT managing general underwriter). The consortium stamps will begin joining facilities at their natural renewals starting August 1st.
Miles Wuller, CEO of RSUM, commented, “We are proud of both the continued interest in our portfolio and our ability to transform our diverse, highly curated, well-performing family of businesses into an accessible specialty insurance asset. Moreover, we are pleased to contribute broad-based data and structural efficiency to the specialty marketplace.
“I would like to highlight the forward-looking investment Ardonagh has made in Axiiem, its technology-enabled digital exchange, which will serve as the facilitation agent for the structure,” Miles added. “We appreciate Lloyd’s constructive support throughout the process, helping bring together market-leading expertise and capacity. Additionally, we would like to thank Markel for their cornerstone support, and all the new and existing syndicate stakeholders that brought this transaction to life.”
About Ryan Specialty Underwriting Managers
Ryan Specialty Underwriting Managers is an industry leader in delegated authority underwriting services. Our family of managing general underwriters and national programs have the expertise and authority to design, underwrite, bind, and administer a diverse portfolio of risks. Our value proposition originates with our 1500+ industry professionals who are empowered by centralized technical support and policy lifecycle administration, coupled with a broad distribution network of retail and wholesale brokers. We have been diligently servicing our valued clients and trading partners since our establishment in 2010 and now have operations in North America, the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific. To learn more, please visit rsum.com.
HomeIndustriesComcast to pay $1.6 billion in cash upfront as well as contribute a studio arm to ITVJuly 6, 2026, 3:21 a.m. ET
ITV is selling its broadcast unit to Comcast's Sky. Photo: paul ellis/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesJust a week after Comcast announced a plan to spin off NBCUniversal, the Philadelphia media-and-broadband conglomerate said it’s buying a British broadcaster.
Comcast’s CMCSA Sky division says it will pay £1.2 billion ($1.6 billion) in cash and up to £200 million more, depending on advertising performance, to ITV in return for the U.K. company’s media and entertainment business, which comprises its free-to-air television, pay TV and streaming unit.
About the Author
Steven Goldstein is based in London and responsible for MarketWatch's coverage of financial markets in Europe, with a particular focus on global macro and commodities. Previously, he was Washington bureau chief, directing MarketWatch's economic, political and regulatory coverage. Follow Steve on Twitter: @MKTWgoldstein.
Český zbrojař Michal Strnad vyjednává o koupi 14procentního podílu v italském výrobci pneumatik Pirelli od jeho největšího akcionáře čínské státní firmy Sinochem. S odkazem na své zdroje o tom informuje agentura Bloomberg a další média. Italský deník Corriere della Sera v pátek přinesl s odkazem na zdroje zprávu, že odkoupit část podílu v Pirelli se spolu se Strnadem chystá i podnikatel Pavel Tykač.
Koupí menšinového podílu v Pirelli by Strnad expandoval mimo svou hlavní oblast podnikání. Případná úspěšná transakce by zásadně změnila rozložení sil v Miláně, uvádí web Börse Global.
Hodnota případné transakce by výrazně přesáhla miliardu eur (24 miliard Kč). Po takovém obchodu by Sinochem ve společnosti Pirelli držel již jen zhruba 20 procent.
Řím přísně omezuje vliv společnosti Sinochem na správní radu. Příchod Strnada by dále posílil evropskou vlastnickou strukturu společnosti Pirelli, zdůrazňuje agentura. Tykač, který byl do vyjednávání zapojen na začátku, už z nich odstoupil, uvádějí zdroje Bloombergu.
Podle informovaných zdrojů již byly dohodnuty základní podrobnosti týkající se kupní ceny. K uzavření obchodu by podle nich mohlo dojít již koncem července. Transakci musí schválit čínští regulátoři.
Finanční trhy na plány reagují citlivě. Akcie společnosti Pirelli v Miláně krátkodobě vzrostly o více než čtyři procenta. Akcie Strnadovy Czechoslovak Group (CSG) uzavřely páteční obchodování na hodnotě 14,59 eura, což představuje týdenní nárůst o více než jedenáct procent. Akcie této zbrojařské společnosti nicméně zůstávají pod tlakem. Jejich cena se pohybuje téměř 60 procent pod rekordním maximem z ledna.
Úspěšné uzavření transakce by výrazně diverzifikovalo Strnadovo investiční portfolio. Společnost CSG zároveň dále rozšiřuje aktivity v oblasti obranného průmyslu ve Spojených státech a v Evropě. V roce 2022 získala 70procentní podíl v italské společnosti Fiocchi Munizioni a v loňském roce odkoupila i zbytek tohoto výrobce munice.
Britská nízkonákladová letecká společnost easyJet v zásadě souhlasí s vylepšenou nabídkou na převzetí od americké investiční společnosti Castlelake. Ta nabízí 6,90 libry za akcii, uvedly firmy v nedělním společném oznámení. Nejnovější nabídka aerolinky oceňuje na 5,23 miliardy liber (zhruba 147 miliard Kč), uvedla agentura Bloomberg. Vedení easyJet je nyní připraveno doporučit nabídku akcionářům.
Aerolinky dosud čtyři nabídky odmítly, většinou se zdůvodněním, že podmínky transakce neodrážejí skutečnou hodnotu firmy. V červnu však easyJet ve snaze udržet jednání o převzetí při životě oznámil, že umožní firmě Castlelake omezený přístup k vybraným obchodním údajům. Tím naznačil zájem pokračovat v jednáních. Předchozí nabídka činila 6,50 libry za akcii, což aerolinky ocenilo na 4,93 miliardy liber.
Obě strany se zároveň dohodly na prodloužení lhůty podle britských pravidel pro převzetí. V té době musí Castlelake předložit závaznou nabídku, nebo od záměru ustoupit. Nový termín připadá na 3. srpna v 17:00 londýnského času (18:00 SELČ).
"Nelze zaručit, že bude učiněna závazná nabídka, a to ani v případě, že budou splněny nebo prominuty všechny předběžné podmínky,“ uvádí se v prohlášení. Společnost Castlelake zároveň uvedla, že chová k easyJetu i jeho zaměstnancům mimořádný respekt a hodlá podporovat další růst letecké společnosti i její program modernizace flotily.
Protože pravidla Evropské unie vyžadují, aby většinu letecké společnosti vlastnili občané EU, Castlelake už dříve navrhl vlastnickou strukturu, která splní tyto požadavky. Plán předpokládá, že firma uzavře partnerství se dvěma občany EU, kterými jsou bývalý provozní ředitel easyJetu Peter Bellew a konzultant leteckého odvětví Mark Breen. Ti budou vlastnit společnost se sídlem v EU, která bude mít většinovou kontrolu nad leteckou společností.
Společnost EasyJet patří mezi největší letecké společnosti v Evropě. Loni firma přepravila více než 90 milionů cestujících a provozuje přes 1200 linek ve 38 zemích. Založil ji v roce 1995 britsko-kyperský podnikatel Stelios Haji-Ioannou. Ten je stále největším investorem, se svou rodinou vlastní v aerolinkách zhruba 15procentní podíl. Castlelake sídlí v Minneapolisu a je významným investorem v leteckém odvětví. Spravuje aktiva zhruba za 38 miliard USD (přes 803 miliard Kč).
Indická vláda varovala Meta kvůli placené reklamě s materiály o sexuálním zneužívání dětí na Instagramu a požaduje okamžité stažení obsahu, který takové zneužívání propaguje. Firma musí do sedmi dnů vysvětlit situaci.
The Indian government has warned of action against two of Meta's three major platforms, WhatsApp and Instagram, within a week, underscoring the growing regulatory risks the U.S. social media giant faces in a key market.
On Saturday, India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology issued a "stern notice to Meta over the presence of Child Sexual Exploitative & Abuse Material (CSEAM) in paid advertisements on Instagram," according to a report by Indian state broadcaster DD News.
The government has directed Instagram to "immediately disable all advertisements and content that promote" child abuse and has sought a detailed explanation from Meta within seven days, the report said.
The regulatory warning to Meta came after an investigation by the BBC revealed on Friday that Instagram was running paid advertisements promoting child sexual abuse material in India.
Meta has a "Zero tolerance policy" for child abuse-related content, a spokesperson for Meta told CNBC in an email. The company is using "AI technology to proactively detect violating content and individuals, but we are in a constant battle with criminals who hide among our 3.5 billion users and try to evade our detection," it added.
Earlier this year, the European Commission found that the social media giant was violating EU law by failing to prevent children below 13 from accessing its platforms. Though Meta had disagreed with the preliminary findings, it could face fines of up to 6% of its total worldwide annual turnover if the findings are confirmed.
The U.S. company is not facing an immediate risk of a fine in India, but has come under sharp regulatory scrutiny in its biggest market. The country has the largest audience base for Instagram, with more than 480 million users, more than double the U.S. as of 2025, as per data from Statista. It also has more than 400 million Facebook users, the most globally.
Neil Shah, vice president of research at Counterpoint Research, said this was a "wake-up call for Meta to tighten its compliance and control for its platforms" as the Indian government is keen "to tighten the leash over these massive digital platforms."
Last week, Meta's messaging app, WhatsApp, which has over half a million users in India, was also issued a warning over the roll-out of its username feature. The government claimed the feature could increase cybercrime incidents and has directed the platform to pause its plans.
Meta defended the introduction of usernames, calling it a "major privacy feature" designed to help people stay connected without giving away phone numbers.
"I would describe India as a more demanding regulatory market rather than a hostile one," Reema Bhattacharya, head of Asia research at Verisk Maplecroft, told CNBC. Given India's importance as a key digital market, she added that companies should expect regulators to engage more actively on "issues ranging from online safety to data governance."
VeriSign (VRSN +0.48%) runs the plumbing of the modern internet, ensuring user requests reach the right destination reliably. Thanks to its exclusive regulatory agreements, the company operates the core registry infrastructure for all .com and .net domains, a monopoly position that comes with pricing power and nearly zero marginal costs.
This is a capital-light tollbooth that collected $1.1 billion in free cash flow on just $1.7 billion in revenue last year. Yet, for a business of this quality, the stock has been stuck in neutral, underperforming the broader market by around 30% over the past year.
The fundamentals of the business remain as strong as ever, but the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots has changed how users navigate the internet, and the upcoming renewal of its core contract creates an overhang for the stock.
Image source: Getty images.
Growth today, disruption tomorrow? For now, the adoption of AI has been a net positive for VeriSign. Management reports that new AI-powered tools are lowering the barrier to creating websites, helping drive a rebound in registration growth after a period of stagnation.
The domain base grew 3.7% year over year in the first quarter of 2026, and Domain Name System (DNS) traffic on its network has roughly tripled over the past three years. But this near-term tailwind is just the initial stage of a much larger transformation.
The risk is that AI eventually changes how people use the internet, potentially reducing the value of a web address.
If we increasingly interact with AI agents that browse and transact on our behalf, the .com address could become less relevant. Management's counterargument is that these agents will still need a trusted, stable identifier to verify content.
A regulatory moat intact, though the terms remain up for debate Compounding the AI uncertainty is the renewal of VeriSign's .net and .com contracts with internet regulators, which expire in 2029 and 2030, respectively. While the company has a presumptive right of renewal and has successfully navigated this process for decades, there are risks, particularly around pricing.
The company has long been seen as a "utility-like" tech company, but long-term investors will eventually begin to weigh the risk associated with its regulatory moat, especially as critical renewals approach. The marginal buyer of the stock, who is needed to push the stock higher, may stay on the sidelines until there is more clarity.
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For a company with mid-single-digit revenue growth, the stock is not cheap. At around 27 times forward earnings, the likelihood of a favorable outcome in which the monopoly remains intact is already being priced in.
The result is a high-quality company with clouds lingering overhead. We should have a much better grasp of AI's impact on the web well before its key agreements expire.
For now, it's a great business to admire, but a tough stock to buy.
Nike má dividendový výnos 3,7 %, ale volný peněžní tok za posledních 12 měsíců klesl o 65 % na něco přes 1 miliardu USD. Firma sice drží 7,5 miliardy USD v hotovosti, přesto je krytí dividendy slabší.
Nike's (NKE +2.39%) iconic global brand is not delivering the steady growth investors are used to. The stock has been in a downward spiral since hitting an all-time high during the COVID-19 pandemic and has fallen another 32% year to date.
The discount has brought the dividend yield up to 3.7%, more than three times the S&P 500 average. Is this yield too good to pass up? Let's first assess Nike's dividend payout health before determining whether this is the smartest dividend stock to buy in 2026.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
Dividend coverage is weakening Nike is still navigating challenging macroeconomic headwinds, including inflation and higher energy prices, which are hurting consumer spending. It reported flat revenue for fiscal 2026, which ended in May, with fourth-quarter revenue down 1% year over year.
The weak top-line growth and investments to turn things around have caused Nike's trailing-12-month free cash flow to plummet 65% year over year to just over $1 billion. This doesn't leave enough room for the dividend. The company paid out nearly $2.4 billion in total dividends to shareholders over the last year.
Nike generated $3.1 billion in net income over the last year. With over $7.5 billion in cash on the balance sheet, the dividend is unlikely to be cut. Still, the elevated payout ratio to free cash flow raises this risk for investors unless there is a material recovery in profitability.
The good news is that management has made progress in tightening inventory to better manage costs. It is prioritizing margins over maximizing near-term revenue growth, with gross margin expected to improve starting this quarter.
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Nike's turnaround will take time Nike sportswear and Jordan streetwear remain weak, and together account for about half of Nike's total revenue. The only bright spot appears to be running, which has delivered five consecutive quarters of double-digit growth.
Management is actively working to reduce discounting to boost margins and adjust its product mix to drive sales growth. Over 150 stores have refreshed their inventory with performance-based products, which are seeing stronger demand than lifestyle products. Nike is also introducing a dozen new footwear styles later this year. However, management expects these efforts to take time to generate consistent results.
The turnaround is progressing, but probably not as quickly as Wall Street anticipated. Management is confident in its actions to improve margins. Still, the elevated dividend payout to free cash flow doesn't make the stock the safest choice for income investors.
I wouldn't call Nike the "smartest" dividend stock to buy right now. There are more durable consumer brands, such as Coca-Cola, that offer high yields but don't carry the execution risk associated with a major turnaround effort. Investors who buy Nike shares will need to closely monitor its quarterly earnings to ensure the company is on track to recover margins and free cash flow, which is crucial for sustaining and growing the dividend.
SemiAnalysis uvedla, že klíčová racková architektura Kyber od NVIDIA se kvůli výrobním potížím s PCB deskou odkládá z roku 2027 na 2028. Zpoždění může dát prostor konkurenci AMD a Google.
NVIDIA's next marquee product — the Kyber rack-scale architecture designed to house its 2027 Rubin Ultra chips — has been delayed by more than 12 months to 2028, according to research firm SemiAnalysis, the latest in a string of reported setbacks raising questions about the AI giant's product roadmap.
Kyber is a server cabinet that packs 144 of Nvidia's most powerful chips into a single unit so they can work together as one giant computer, providing the horsepower AI companies need to train and run their most advanced models.
The design mounts graphics processing units in compute trays that sit vertically instead of horizontally to boost density and reduce latency, and had been slated to debut with Vera Rubin Ultra, Nvidia's next-generation rack-scale system, in 2027.
The setback stems from difficulties manufacturing a key circuit board at the heart of the system, SemiAnalysis said in a post on Monday.
"Kyber NVL144 rack architecture has been delayed to 2028 as the PCB midplane remains challenging from a manufacturability standpoint," the firm said, referring to a specialized, multi-layer printed circuit board that connects electronic modules within a system.
NVL576 — a larger system linking eight racks via optical connections — is also likely delayed or limited to small volumes, the research firm said.
Nvidia did not respond to CNBC's request for comment.
The reported delay adds to mounting strains across Nvidia's product lines, underscoring concerns that Nvidia's breakneck annual release cadence is colliding with manufacturing limits.
A backup plan — bolting two of Nvidia's current-generation racks together for similar power — has also been scrapped after cloud customers rejected the design as awkward and costly to operate. "It has since been cancelled due to heavy pushback from CSPs [cloud service providers] and hyperscalers over its odd design and heavy operational burden," SemiAnalysis said.
That leaves Nvidia with "no proven solution to expand the scale-up world size for Rubin Ultra," SemiAnalysis said, predicting that could give rivals Advanced Micro Devices and Google, whose in-house chips are already winning business from top AI labs, a rare technical opening at the high end of the market.
Nvidia's current-generation Rubin systems are in full production and begin shipping this fall to eight cloud partners, including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud. SemiAnalysis also projects Nvidia's data-center compute revenue will run 20% above Wall Street consensus in the second half of fiscal 2027.
Shares of Nvidia fluctuated in premarket trading, last down less than 0.1% at $194.79.
Palantir tento týden vzrostl o 14 % po zprávě o spolupráci s Nvidií na využití open-source AI pro americkou vládu. Analytik D.A. Davidson navíc zvýšil doporučení na koupit a cílovou cenu na 175 USD.
Shares of Palantir Technologies (PLTR +2.99%) rose 14% this past week, following news of a potentially lucrative collaboration with an artificial intelligence (AI) giant and a bullish analyst note.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
A powerful alliance Palantir is teaming up with Nvidia (NVDA 1.39%) to make it easier for the U.S. government to reap the benefits of open-source AI models.
By combining Palantir's sovereign AI operating system with Nvidia's Nemotron open models and accelerated computing infrastructure, government agencies could achieve gains in cost, safety, and customization while preserving data security.
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The partnership could provide a boost to Palantir's already fast-growing government division. Revenue in this segment soared 84% year over year to $687 million in the first quarter.
A new Palantir bull D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria sees more reasons to be bullish on Palantir's stock.
Luria believes it makes more sense for companies to build on Palantir's platform, which offers access to a wide range of AI models from nearly all major providers, rather than directly on the models developed by the likes of OpenAI and Anthropic.
He highlighted Anthropic's confrontation with the Trump administration last month, which forced it to temporarily disable access to its models. A business that solely relied on Anthropic's model could have faced "catastrophic" disruptions, according to Luria.
On the other hand, companies that used Palantir's platform would have faced minimal downtime as it quickly shifted to alternative models.
In turn, Luria upgraded Palantir's stock from neutral to buy on Thursday and placed a $175 price target on its shares.
Joe Tenebruso has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Nvidia and Palantir Technologies. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Citi zvýšila cílovou cenu TSMC na NT$3,800 z NT$2,875 a očekává zrychlující se poptávku po AI čipech před výsledky 16. července. Banka zároveň vidí širší a trvalejší AI cyklus.
TSMC stock is hovering near its 52-week high as analysts grow more confident that the world’s most important contract chipmaker still has room to run.
Taiwan-listed shares recently traded around NT$2,445-NT$2,465, close to their 52-week high of NT$2,535.
The latest push comes after Citi Research raised its price target to NT$3,800 from NT$2,875 and reiterated a Buy rating, citing accelerating AI chip demand ahead of TSMC’s July 16 earnings report.
Citi’s argument is no longer just that TSMC is riding the AI chip boom, but the boom is becoming broader, more durable and harder for rivals to match.
The brokerage said demand for TSMC’s advanced process technologies is spreading beyond AI graphics processors into custom AI chips, cloud TPUs, networking silicon, optical interconnects and CPUs.
That matters because it makes the AI cycle less dependent on one product line, one customer or one phase of data-centre spending.
Citi also expects TSMC to raise its 2026 revenue growth outlook and long-term growth targets when it reports quarterly earnings later this month.
The stronger visibility into AI-related demand supports a more optimistic earnings view ahead of the company’s July 16 analyst meeting.
The latest note also puts more weight on pricing power. Citi expects wafer prices to keep rising into next year as demand strengthens for TSMC’s N2 and N3 process technologies.
That should help support margins, even as depreciation costs rise because of heavy investment in new capacity.
The bigger point is that TSMC’s advantage is increasingly about scale, not just technology.
Citi said the company’s combined leading-edge node capacity could approach 350,000 to 400,000 wafers per month by the end of 2028, supporting higher utilisation and giving customers more confidence that TSMC can meet the next wave of AI demand.
Advanced packaging is becoming a bigger part of TSMC’s bull case as AI chips become more complex and harder to scale.
For customers building AI accelerators, making the processor is only one part of the challenge.
These chips also need to be packaged with high-bandwidth memory and other components in a way that allows them to move huge amounts of data quickly and efficiently.
That makes packaging capacity almost as important as wafer capacity.
Citi’s latest note puts that shift at the centre of TSMC’s investment case.
The brokerage said TSMC’s advantage is increasingly coming from the combination of leading-edge manufacturing scale and advanced packaging leadership, rather than process technology alone.
That is important because AI demand is no longer limited to GPUs.
Citi expects the cycle to keep broadening into custom AI chips, cloud TPUs, networking silicon, optical interconnects and CPUs.
Each of those areas increases demand not just for advanced nodes such as N2 and N3, but also for the packaging technologies needed to turn those chips into usable AI systems.
TSMC is therefore spending heavily to stay ahead of the bottleneck.
UBS analyst Sharon Lin also lifted the firm’s TSMC target to NT$3,400 from NT$3,000 and raised capex forecasts for 2026 through 2028, arguing that higher investment commitments should help ease customer concerns about limited supply and second-source diversification.
That captures why TSMC’s valuation story is changing. Investors are no longer looking only at how many advanced chips the company can manufacture.
They are also asking whether TSMC can provide the packaging scale, capacity visibility and long-term supply assurance that AI customers need before committing to the next wave of spending.
Defense heavyweight Lockheed Martin is leading the race to buy naval defense group Ultra Maritime, CNBC has learned.
The deal to acquire Ultra is roughly $3.5 billion, and Guggenheim and JPMorgan are advising on the sell side, according to sources close to CNBC.
Ultra is owned by private equity firm Advent International, and specializes in anti-submarine technology. The company makes radar and electronic warfare systems, as well as torpedo defense countermeasures.
A Financial Times report last week said that talks were still ongoing and a deal could be announced as early as this week.
Advent was reportedly put up for sale earlier in 2026 for more than 3 billion pounds, or $4 billion.
Lockheed Martin is one of the world's largest defense firms, producing planes such as the F-35 Lightning II fighter jet and munitions like the Patriot air defense missile.
Defense stocks have enjoyed a bumper year in 2026, as conflicts from Ukraine to Iran increase demand for munitions worldwide.
In April, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said global defense outlays in 2025 climbed to a staggering $2.89 trillion, led by massive spending by European nations.
McDonald's ve čtvrtek vyskočil asi o 4 %, zatímco Nasdaq klesl o 0,8 %. Řetězec má 49 let po sobě rostoucí dividendu a čtvrtletní výplatu 1,86 USD na akcii.
On a day when investors sold their technology winners, they went shopping for shelter -- and found the golden arches. McDonald's (MCD +4.08%) jumped about 4% on Thursday while the Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.8%, marking one of the sharpest single-day gaps between the burger giant and the tech-heavy index this year.
One strong session doesn't settle much on its own. McDonald's shares are still down about 8% in 2026 as of this writing, and they sit nearly 18% below their 52-week high. But the rotation raises a fair question: If nervous money is hunting for defensive dividend payers, does this one deserve the bid?
Image source: Getty Images.
A reliable royalty stream The case for McDonald's as a defensive holding starts with what the company actually sells -- and it mostly isn't hamburgers. Of the 45,356 McDonald's restaurants at the end of 2025, about 95% were franchised. The company's income arrives largely as royalties and rent from those franchisees, payments that keep flowing even when a franchisee's own margins get squeezed.
The company's own accounts show how lopsided the economics are. In 2025, franchised locations generated $13.9 billion in margin dollars, against $1.4 billion from company-operated restaurants -- more than 90% of the restaurant margin pool, flowing from the fee-collecting side of the business.
That structure is why the stock attracts money in anxious markets. It's also why the dividend record runs so deep: McDonald's has raised its payout for 49 consecutive years, a streak dating to its first dividend in 1976.
The dividend stock's quarterly payout now stands at $1.86 per share, for a dividend yield of about 2.7% at the current price. If the pattern holds, this fall's increase would be the 50th in a row -- a milestone very few public companies ever reach.
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Lagging stock, steady business If the model is this durable, why has the stock lagged all year? Because steady isn't the same as exciting. In the first quarter, global comparable sales rose 3.8%, and earnings per share came in at $2.78 -- up 7%, though just 2% in constant currencies. Growth like that looks slow next to what technology stocks have been delivering, and the market priced it accordingly. U.S. comparable sales rose 3.9% in the quarter, and consolidated operating income grew 12%.
"Our 6% global Systemwide sales growth shows how we executed with discipline, proving that we can drive results even in a challenging environment," said CEO Chris Kempczinski in the company's first-quarter earnings release.
Under the surface, though, the quarter carried more momentum than the headline suggests. Global systemwide sales -- the sales of the whole restaurant network, franchised and company-owned alike -- grew 11%, to more than $34 billion. And the loyalty program has quietly become enormous, with members spending over $9 billion in the quarter across 70 markets.
Those loyalty numbers matter for the defensive case. A customer who orders through the app tends to come back, and tens of millions of them give McDonald's pricing and promotion levers that most restaurant chains can't match in a weak consumer economy. In a downturn, fast food also tends to catch customers trading down from pricier meals, which is part of why the stock attracts defensive buyers in the first place.
The risks are the quiet kind: a value war that squeezes franchisees, a consumer trade-down that even loyalty can't fully offset, and a payout that already consumes about 60% of earnings, which caps how fast the dividend can grow from here.
So, is the Dividend Juggernaut back? The better answer is that it never left -- the stock just spent six months out of style. Thursday's pop reflected the market's mood, not a change in the business, and moods reverse without warning.
What matters for buyers today is the price of that durability. At about $281 per share, McDonald's trades at about 23 times earnings -- a discount to where several defensive consumer names have been bid this year, for a royalty-style business with half a century of dividend growth behind it.
For income investors, I think that's a reasonable entry -- not because of one rotation-day pop, but because the yield is decent and sustainable, and the valuation doesn't require anything spectacular. As a dividend stock, McDonald's earns its place the boring way. I'd just buy it for the royalties, not the rally.
Shares of Robinhood Markets (HOOD +3.75%) climbed 14% this past week after the financial services company unveiled an array of new product innovations.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
Going global With roughly 28 million customers in 38 countries, Robinhood's financial platform already possesses impressive scale and reach. Yet it continues to expand into new markets.
Robinhood's acquisition of digital asset services provider WonderFi in June gave it a beachhead in Canada. The fintech platform also plans to launch crypto trading and brokerage services in the U.K. and Singapore.
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In addition to entering new international markets, Robinhood launched its new stock tokens in over 120 countries. The tokenized debt securities are designed to offer economic exposure to popular stocks and ETFs. They're tradable 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Robinhood also expanded its popular perpetual futures offering in European markets to include commodities, ETFs, and foreign currencies.
Agentic trading Investors were perhaps most intrigued by Robinhood's plans to integrate more artificial intelligence (AI)-powered features into its platform. Robinhood wants to become a hub for agentic AI trading by enabling its customers to use AI agents to buy and sell stocks, options, and cryptocurrencies on their behalf.
Many of these products and services will be enabled by the fintech's new blockchain platform, Robinhood Chain. The Layer 2 blockchain is built on the Arbitrum Platform and integrates with leading decentralized finance networks like Chainlink and Uniswap.
Joe Tenebruso has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Chainlink and Uniswap Protocol Token. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
SummaryMatch Group remains a Buy, with valuation still implying a significant discount even after a 20% rally.MTCH posted strong Q1 results: 4% revenue growth, a 42% net income increase, and a 25% higher Adj. EBITDA, despite a 5% decline in payers.Tinder's user decline is offset by price hikes, but Hinge's 15% YoY growth and international expansion are key future drivers while they work on their pillar's turnaround.Solid balance sheet, robust cash flow, and ongoing turnaround efforts position MTCH well for industry growth despite macro and competitive risks.Jonathan Kitchen/DigitalVision via Getty Images
Introduction During my last coverage of Match Group (MTCH), I upgraded it to a Strong Buy, initiating a position not long afterwards as the re-rating setup was too compelling to ignore at that point, with
3.17K Followers
Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have a beneficial long position in the shares of MTCH 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.
Revolution Medicines letos vzrostla téměř o 140 % díky pozitivním výsledkům pozdní klinické studie a blíží se podání žádosti o regulační přezkum. Daraxonrasib u metastatického karcinomu slinivky prodloužil přežití na 13,2 měsíce oproti 6,7 měsíce u standardní chemoterapie.
Revolution Medicines (RVMD +0.92%) spent most of its history as a publicly traded company -- that's since 2020 -- trading for less than $50 a share. The company offers a new approach to oncology treatment, aiming for targets once thought to be "undruggable." In recent months, Revolution has clearly demonstrated the potential of its technology and is rapidly approaching the finish line. So, it's no surprise that investors have been taking notice.
In fact, they've taken so much notice that the stock price has soared nearly 140% this year. This is amid positive late-stage clinical trial results and optimism about potential revenue ahead. Considering the full picture and after its triple-digit gain, is this hot biotech stock still a buy? Let's find out.
Image source: Getty Images.
Making the "undruggable" protein "druggable" We'll start off by taking a look at Revolution's technology and pipeline progress. The company focuses on treating cancers linked to the activity of RAS proteins. RAS proteins have generally been called "undruggable" because potential therapeutics can't bind to their surfaces. But Revolution, using its tri-complex inhibitor platform, has found a way, producing "druggable" sites -- the investigational therapeutics then go on to block cancer signaling.
Revolution is exploring its candidates in cancers in which RAS proteins play a key role, and the company recently reported solid results from a phase 3 trial of previously treated metastatic pancreatic cancer. Daraxonrasib delivered a survival rate of 13.2 months versus a survival rate of 6.7 months for patients treated with the standard care of chemotherapy.
The company said these results are considered final, and it's submitting them to support a request for regulatory review. Revolution is also advancing another candidate, zoldonrasib, in phase 3 trials for the same indication.
Revolution has phase 3 trials ongoing for daraxonrasib in non-small cell lung cancer, and zoldonrasib as a combination therapy with standard of care is entering phase 3.
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Results just ahead And the biotech company is conducting earlier-stage trials in colorectal cancer and aims to share results of these combination studies -- with standard of care or investigational approaches -- this year.
Meanwhile, Revolution doesn't yet have products on the market, so it isn't generating revenue -- and due to this period of heavy investment in research and development, the company's loss in the recent quarter doubled from the year-earlier period to more than $453 million. The cash position at $1.9 billion and the $2.1 billion in net proceeds from financing should help support ongoing R&D.
The company clearly has developed an interesting approach to cancer treatment and has made significant progress in pancreatic cancer -- a key area where better treatments are needed. The fact that the company's lead candidate is approaching the finish line is positive, too, as that suggests a revenue stream may be right around the corner. So, if all goes smoothly, Revolution could be very close to becoming a commercial-stage biotech. This could reduce risk as a potential regulatory nod represents a vote of confidence for the technology that's used throughout the pipeline -- and would open the door to revenue and eventually profit.
And speaking of the financial picture, it's not worrisome to see the company's R&D costs climb right now -- this is a standard pattern across biotech companies in the clinical development stage.
Now, let's consider whether the stock is a buy. If you're a cautious investor, it's best to focus on biotech players that already have at least one product on the market and either are profitable or have made steps toward profitability. Biotech companies that aren't yet commercial-stage represent a certain amount of risk.
But, if you're a growth investor who can handle this risk, Revolution, even after its big gain, represents a compelling buy. This is because the company has shown the strength of its technology and may be very close to potential product approval. A regulatory nod and revenue growth to follow could result in significant gains, and Revolution's strong pipeline could lead to more strength down the road. All of this means that, over time, the stock may have plenty of room to run.
Netflix čeká 16. července výsledky za 2. čtvrtletí; investoři budou sledovat růst reklamního byznysu, který míří na 3 miliardy USD v roce 2026. Důležitý bude i vývoj marží po silném prvním pololetí.
Earnings season brings out a lot of noise. Most of it is guesswork dressed up as analysis. But when Netflix (NFLX +4.77%) reports results for the second quarter of 2026 on July 16, there are three specific things I think could tell investors whether the next chapter of this company's growth story is actually playing out or just being promised.
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The advertising business is no longer a side project When Netflix first launched its ad-supported tier, the skeptics were loud. Ads felt off-brand for a company built on the idea of uninterrupted streaming. That conversation is over now.
Netflix's ad-supported tier reached 250 million global monthly active viewers as of its Upfront presentation in 2026, up from 190 million in late 2025. The company is on track to double its advertising revenue to $3 billion in 2026, after already doubling it to $1.5 billion in 2025. More than 80% of ad-tier members watch weekly, which is the kind of engagement stat that keeps advertisers coming back.
What I'll be watching on July 16 isn't the headline revenue number, but rather whether Netflix gives any updated signal on its path to $9 billion in ad revenue by 2030. That figure is the one that reframes how the market should think about this company's long-term earnings power. If management tightens that guidance or adds color on advertiser retention, this stock could move.
Image source: Getty Images.
Live sports is giving the ad business real leverage Netflix's live sports push isn't just about subscriber acquisition anymore. It's also an advertising play. The company is testing dynamic ad insertion technology with WWE programming and plans to roll it out across its NFL Christmas Day games. It also expanded NFL coverage in 2026 with an international regular-season game and added the Westminster Dog Show to its live events lineup.
Live programming changes the economics of streaming advertising because it's the one format where viewers don't skip and advertisers will pay a premium for it. Walt Disney and Comcast have known this for years through ESPN and NBC Sports. Netflix is now in that conversation in a way it wasn't 18 months ago. The Q2 report will be the first time investors can start to see whether live content is moving the needle on ad pricing.
The margin setup heading into the second half is underappreciated Netflix entered 2026 warning investors that content spending would be front-loaded into the first half of the year. The company reported a 32.3% operating margin in Q1 -- solid, but management guided for 32.6% in Q2. The full-year operating margin target is 31.5%.
Here's the math that I think matters: If content spend is weighted toward the first half and the company hits or exceeds its first-half margin targets, the back half of the year should show margin expansion. Netflix generated $12.25 billion in revenue in Q1, up 16% year over year. If that rate holds through Q2 while costs flatten in the second half, the operating leverage could be more visible than the current stock price reflects.
Netflix no longer reports quarterly membership numbers, which makes it harder to independently verify growth claims. And a business growing this fast attracts competitive pressure -- Amazon, Apple, and others are not sitting still. If ad revenue growth disappoints or management's second-half cost narrative doesn't hold, July 16 could go the other way.
The three catalysts above are real. But earnings are always a two-sided event, and Netflix has trained investors to expect a lot. What makes Netflix different to me this time around is that most of the streaming investments aren't just about the scale of content, but rather whether the company can keep finding new revenue layers inside a business most people thought was already mature. I think Netflix has that piece. That's a rare thing, and July 16 is a chance to see how much further it can go.
Micah Zimmerman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Walt Disney. The Motley Fool recommends Comcast. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Nike (NKE +2.39%) desperately wants to get back in shape financially, but its "Win Now" turnaround campaign is being held back for one main reason: China. While the retailer's fourth-quarter results actually beat Wall Street's expectations, revenue in Greater China fell a whopping 17% in the quarter and 13% in fiscal year 2026.
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"Win Now" is, however, showing signs that it's beginning to work in other capacities. Nike's running business has grown by double digits for five consecutive quarters. Nike is also rebuilding its wholesale relationships.
Wholesale revenue grew 4% year over year in the fourth quarter. Nike Running also gained market share in both Western Europe and North America. The brand also believes margin expansion could begin this quarter, earlier than the company's original projection.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
China remains Nike's biggest challenge. There's increasing competition within the country, and consumers there have shifted preferences. It doesn't seem like Nike has a real answer to this significant headwind yet.
Shares of Nike are down almost 31% this year and over 72% in the past five years. Investors hoping for a turnaround will, unfortunately, need even more patience as CEO Elliott Hill and his team navigate a tricky global market.
I still believe Nike will make its comeback, but it won't be easy against a defiant Chinese market. Nike needs a stronger strategy in China, as the brand has lost its prestige and cool factor in the market. Current and prospective investors should recognize that this will be a multiyear effort and that the turnaround of a massive global brand will be slower than expected.
Catie Hogan has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Nike. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Analytici zvýšili cílovou cenu Micron Technology na 1 500 USD, tedy asi o 45 % nad současnou cenu. Firma těží z boomu kolem AI, který žene poptávku i ceny paměťových čipů.
Even with its impressive 740% return over the past 12 months, some analysts believe Micron Technology (MU 5.68%) could still go higher. Three analysts recently raised their price targets for the stock to $1,500, representing a 45% increase from its current price, as of this writing.
Here's why this bull case for Micron stock is rooted in reality and why now could be a good time to buy shares despite their recent volatility.
Image source: Getty Images.
Here's why Micron has a chance of reaching $1,500 Investors have been wondering when the boom in artificial intelligence (AI) might fizzle out and if some stocks are currently in an AI bubble. And while some are certainly benefiting from the technology without having a strong foundation in it, that's not the case for Micron.
Consider the huge AI supercycle currently underway, which is driving sales of its memory processors. This year alone, some of the leading technology companies will have $750 billion in capital expenditures, mostly for AI.
That's a huge amount of AI spending, and it may not slow down anytime soon. Alphabet has already said it will spend up to $190 billion this year and added, "And next year, we expect it to significantly increase compared to 2026."
All of this spending is doing two very important things for Micron: It's driving huge sales of its memory chips and causing its processor prices to skyrocket due to demand.
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The results speak for themselves. Sales rose 345% in the 2026 third quarter to $41.5 billion, and adjusted earnings per share spiked more than 1,300% to $24.67 in the quarter. Management said recently that the run rate for its data center revenue (where sales of its memory chips live) is $100 billion for 2026.
In short, demand is high, allowing Micron to charge more for its memory processors and resulting in skyrocketing profits. So when analysts and investors look at the current data center boom and the company's soaring profits from it, it's not hard to imagine investors continuing to drive up its share price as AI infrastructure investments continue.
Some volatility is inevitable along the way The stock could reach $1,500, but it's also worth noting that some investors are questioning some of the AI spending from tech companies, which has led to market volatility.
Micron stock isn't immune to this, and some investors were disappointed when management didn't raise its full-year AI chip guidance recently, prompting some to sell. If investors continue to take an overly skeptical view of AI spending, it could impact the company's share price in the short term.
But Micron is highly profitable, its sales are expanding, and it's benefiting from a unique demand environment for its memory processors that could last for the next few years. When you add it all together, it's not unrealistic to think the stock could reach $1,500.
There are plenty of artificial intelligence (AI) stocks grabbing investors' attention these days, and many of them are semiconductor designers and manufacturers. But while the AI data center boom is driving many chip stocks higher, there are other ways to play the artificial intelligence supercycle.
Arista Networks (ANET 3.78%) is a prime example. The company's networking equipment and software help the biggest tech companies run their AI data centers -- and it could benefit from infrastructure spending for years to come.
Image source: Getty Images.
Why Arista stands out in the AI crowd Arista Networks sells data center networking hardware and software that enables tech companies to manage their data center systems. That's become a very good business to be in, considering that the largest technology players are spending an estimated $750 billion on AI infrastructure this year alone.
While Arista has most of its business tied to a handful of large companies -- including Microsoft and Meta -- it's somewhat protected from this concentration. Once a company begins using Arista's hardware and software, it becomes difficult to switch. AI data center systems are complex and costly, and hardware and software upgrades are expensive.
What's more, most of its customers don't want to switch, with independent data showing that 94% of them are strongly positive about Arista.
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Arista is in great financial shape Arista reported its first-quarter 2026 results in May, and investors were initially disappointed by the management's gross margin guidance of between 62% to 64% for 2026. Arista's gross margins for 2025 were 64.1%, but investors were hoping they would expand further.
The slight margin decline comes as memory prices have skyrocketed over the past few years due to a supply shortage driven by AI data centers. Arista uses memory in its hardware systems, so it's feeling the pricing pressure too. It's worth noting that this isn't an Arista-specific issue. Apple just raised prices on many of its devices due to rising memory costs.
The bigger picture -- and what potential investors should focus on -- is how Arista is benefiting from surging AI data center demand. The company's sales jumped 35% to $2.7 billion in the first quarter, and non-GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) earnings per share rose nearly 32% to $0.87.
What's more, Arista has no debt, it generated $1.64 billion in free cash flow in the first quarter, and management expects sales to rise 28% in 2026 to $11.5 billion.
In short, Arista is in great financial shape and continues to benefit from a rapidly expanding AI market.
If there's one concern for potential buyers of Arista Networks, it's that its stock currently has a trailing price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 56, above the tech sector average of about 41.
But with strong sales and earnings growth, high gross margins, and strong free cash flow, there's little to worry about with Arista.
Chris Neiger has positions in Apple. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Apple, Arista Networks, Meta Platforms, and Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
e.l.f. Beauty v červnu vyskočila o 32 % díky refundaci cel a novému šestiproduktovému portfoliu péče o vlasy. Pilotní test měl 96% pozitivní ohlas a 65 % zákazníků bylo pro e.l.f. nových.
E.l.f. Beauty (ELF 2.96%) stock soared 32% in June, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence. Since it has high exposure to tariffs, it's benefiting from tariff refunds. It also announced a new product line that opens up its addressable market.
Not your grandmother's makeup E.l.f. has disrupted the traditional mass-market cosmetics industry with its faux-luxury products that are eco-friendly and a marketing strategy that's social-media literate. It's growing quickly, and it has already displaced some legacy products as the no. 1 product in several categories.
In the 2026 fiscal fourth quarter (ended March 31), sales increased 35% year over year to $449 million. However, Investors have been worried about its high exposure to tariffs, which have been weighing heavily on its margins. The tariff rate in fiscal 2026 was 55%, more than double the previous year. Gross margin increased 1.3 percentage points in the fourth quarter to 73%, but it came from price hikes, which it's had to implement to offset the negative impact of tariffs. However, the company is working on getting a $58.5 million refund.
Image source: Getty Images.
Otherwise, much is going right. The company changed its growth strategy last year when it acquired the luxury brand Rhode, founded by model Hailey Bieber. The cult favorite has been a massive hit, and it adds new growth potential for e.l.f.
In June, it also announced that it's entering the hair care category, with a six-product line. A pilot run received 96% positive sentiment on social media channels, and 65% of buyers were new to e.l.f.
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There's a good chance that this effort will capture market share. E.l.f.'s makeup line gained 9.2 percentage points in dollar share rank over the past seven years, the most of any brand by far, according to Nielsen, and its skincare line went from no. 25 in 2021 to no. 11 in 2026.
Is the market loving e.l.f. again? Even with this increase, e.l.f. stock is about flat year to date and 65% off its all-time high. It trades at a P/E ratio of 171, but that's misleading, since the net loss accounted for the Rhode acquisition. It trades at only 20 times forward, 1-year earnings.
Patient investors who have a long-term horizon can feel comfortable starting a position in e.l.f. stock right now. As it keeps growing and launching new products, it should reward investors over time.
Alphabet ve 1. čtvrtletí zvýšil tržby o 22 % na 109,9 miliardy USD a provozní zisk o 30 %. Tahounem byl Google Cloud, jehož tržby vzrostly o 63 % a backlog se téměř zdvojnásobil na více než 460 miliard USD.
A year ago, Alphabet (GOOG 0.48%)(GOOGL 0.23%) traded under $180 per share and carried a market value less than half of today's. As of this writing, the stock sits at about $360 -- a clean double in 12 months, achieved by a company that was already one of the largest in the world when the run began.
A move like that leaves two groups of investors uneasy: those who own the stock and wonder whether to take profits, and those who don't and wonder whether they missed it. With shares about 12% below their 52-week high after an early July wobble in artificial intelligence (AI) trades, the question is worth asking properly. Is it too late to buy?
Image source: Getty Images.
It's not just the stock that's soaring The important thing about Alphabet's run is that it wasn't only the stock that soared. The earnings power underneath it transformed, too.
In the first quarter of 2026, Alphabet's revenue rose 22% year over year to $109.9 billion -- the company's 11th consecutive quarter of double-digit growth. Profits came with one caveat: earnings per share soared 82%, but a large slice of that jump reflected unrealized investment gains rather than operations. The cleaner signal was operating income, which rose 30% as operating margin expanded 2 percentage points to 36.1%.
The main engine behind the stock's run, however, is Google Cloud.
"Google Cloud revenues grew 63% with backlog nearly doubling quarter on quarter to over $460 billion," said CEO Sundar Pichai in the company's first-quarter earnings release.
A backlog isn't guaranteed revenue, and converting it will take years. But it gives Alphabet's growth a visibility few businesses this size can claim -- customers have effectively reserved hundreds of billions of dollars of cloud computing and AI infrastructure work in advance.
The quarter also showed a strong consumer business. Alphabet said paid subscriptions, led by YouTube and Google One, have reached 350 million -- and management called it the company's strongest quarter ever for its consumer AI plans.
And the core business has seen impressive momentum, too. Google Search and other revenue grew 19% last quarter, quieting the fear that hung over the stock through 2025 -- that AI chatbots would erode search advertising. So far, the opposite appears true, with search usage climbing alongside the new AI features.
Is there still room? A doubled stock naturally raises the suspicion that the price ran ahead of the business. The numbers, however, suggest something more balanced is happening. At about 26 times forward earnings, Alphabet trades near the valuation multiples many slower-growing defensive names command -- while compounding revenue at a 20%-plus rate. That isn't cheap in absolute terms, because nothing growing this fast is. But it's far from the valuations attached to the market's more speculative AI names.
Still, buyers today should keep three risks in view.
First, the growth requires staggering investment. Alphabet has lifted its planned 2026 capital spending to as much as $190 billion, and management expects the figure to rise significantly again in 2027. Returns on that capital could take years to prove out.
Second, the bar is high. After cloud revenue accelerated significantly in Q1 to an impressive 63% year-over-year rate, investors will likely expect further acceleration throughout the year. And the same cloud backlog that gives investors visibility also means they have high expectations.
Third, a stock that doubles in a year can retrace sharply on sentiment alone. Alphabet's own 12% slide from its high in recent weeks is a mild preview of what a broader AI-spending scare could do.
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So, is it too late?
I don't think so -- with an adjustment to expectations. The next double will almost certainly take far longer than 12 months, because the market has already repriced Alphabet from doubted search company to AI infrastructure leader. What remains is the slower, steadier compounding of a dominant business still growing faster than almost anything else its size.
For investors who watched the run from the sidelines, Alphabet, at 26 times forward earnings with accelerating growth, arguably beats most defensive names trading at similar multiples with single-digit growth. Starting a position here and building it gradually -- in case the AI trade's summer volatility offers better prices -- still looks reasonable for a long-term portfolio. The stock's rerating is likely over. But the compounding probably isn't.
These may be the last days of Amazon’s Mechanical Turk.
An announcement on the Mechanical Turk website says that on July 30, 2026, the crowdsourcing service will close to new customers. Amazon Web Services says the decision was made after “careful consideration,” adding, “Existing customers can continue to use the service as normal. AWS continues to invest in security and availability improvements for Mechanical Turk, but we do not plan to introduce new features.”
In other words, Amazon isn’t completely pulling the plug, but the service is very much on life support.
First launched in 2005, Mechanical Turk was a marketplace where people were paid tiny amounts to perform simple tasks that resisted full automation — things like completing CAPTCHA challenges or identifying the basic sentiment in a sentence.
In its heyday, the service was at the center of debates around the ethics of crowdsourced labor, and it even played a small role in the early stages of the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Beginning in 2018, Amazon also began billing it as a way for companies to annotate data to train neural networks as part of its SageMaker AI service.
Less overtly, Mechanical Turk has also been described as the hidden enabler for companies taking a fake-it-till-you-make-it approach to AI, where products marketed as Ai are actually being performed by the Mechanical Turk workforce — all the more fitting since the original Mechanical Turk was itself a hoax, with a hidden human chess player pretending to be a chess-playing machine
Over time, the relationship between Mechanical Turk and AI models grew even more complicated. In a snake-eating-its-own-tail irony, a 2023 analysis found that between 33% and 46% of workers on the platform were using large language models to complete their tasks, raising questions about the reliability of data annotated on the platform and also about whether humans needed to be in the loop at all.
This week, after Amazon’s decision became public, one Reddit user suggested the platform died “years ago,” with workers and researchers abandoning it due to bots and fraud. The user predicted, “Someone at Amazon is going to decide keeping the Mturk servers running is a waste of time and resources and pull the plug entirely.”
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Anthony Ha is TechCrunch’s weekend editor. Previously, he worked as a tech reporter at Adweek, a senior editor at VentureBeat, a local government reporter at the Hollister Free Lance, and vice president of content at a VC firm. He lives in New York City.
You can contact or verify outreach from Anthony by emailing [email protected].
ServiceNow čelí klíčovému riziku: AI může v podnicích zrušit více workflow, než jich vytvoří, a tím zmenšit jeho dlouhodobý trh. Firma přitom ve 1. čtvrtletí 2026 zvýšila tržby o 22 % meziročně.
ServiceNow (NOW +0.23%) has made a solid comeback of late, despite the ongoing pessimism in the software-as-a-service (SaaS) industry.
The company recently delivered strong results, investors have embraced its growing portfolio of artificial intelligence (AI) products, and many now see ServiceNow as a potential winner in the next phase of enterprise AI.
The bullish argument is straightforward. As businesses deploy more AI agents, they will need a way to manage, monitor, and coordinate all the work those systems create. ServiceNow hopes to become the platform that handles those workflows.
It is an appealing vision. But before investors buy into that story, they should consider one important question: Will AI create more workflows than it eliminates? The answer could have a major impact on ServiceNow's long-term prospects.
Image source: Getty Images.
The traditional software model may be changing Historically, businesses purchased software to help employees perform specific tasks.
A company might use one application for customer support, another for human resources, and another for approving expenses or managing inventory. ServiceNow built a highly successful business by enabling systems to communicate with one another through automated workflows.
The model worked because software applications often work independently. Someone needed to coordinate information between departments and systems.
But artificial intelligence may change how employees interact with software altogether. Instead of opening multiple applications and following predefined workflows, employees may increasingly rely on AI assistants that can perform tasks on their behalf.
Consider a simple example. Today, a new employee joining a company might trigger a series of workflows. A manager submits a request; IT prepares a laptop; human resources creates employee records; security grants system access; and finance updates payroll information.
Tomorrow, a manager may simply tell an AI assistant: "Prepare everything for our new employee starting next Monday." The AI could automate much of the process behind the scenes, coordinating tasks across multiple systems with little direct human involvement.
If that happens on a large scale, businesses may require fewer traditional workflows than investors currently expect. For a company that relies on managing the ever-more-complicated workflow for its customers, that is a risk it cannot ignore.
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ServiceNow believes it is part of the solution To be fair, ServiceNow's management sees the future very differently.
The company argues that AI agents will still require governance, security controls, approvals, compliance checks, and monitoring. In other words, even if AI handles more work, organizations will still need a system to determine what actions AI agents can take and how those actions are tracked.
That is the opportunity ServiceNow is pursuing. The company is investing heavily in becoming an AI-native business, embedding AI into every product, feature, and interaction on its platform. It also aims to become the AI Control Tower, helping customers manage ever more complex AI-driven workflows.
So far, customers appear receptive to that strategy, which explains the company's ongoing revenue growth -- up 22% year over year in the first quarter of 2026. Particularly, its Now Assist (AI service) customers spending over $1 million in annual contracts grew 130% year-over-year in the same period.
In short, the company's growth remains strong, suggesting that AI is currently acting as a tailwind rather than a threat.
Investors should watch one key question The debate on whether AI is an enabler or destroyer of ServiceNow's business model ultimately comes down to the same question: Will AI generate more workflows than it eliminates?
If the answer is yes, ServiceNow could emerge even stronger than it is today. Every AI agent would create actions, approvals, decisions, and processes that require oversight. ServiceNow's platform could become increasingly valuable as organizations deploy thousands of AI-powered workers.
However, if AI eventually becomes capable of managing many of those processes independently, the long-term opportunity may prove smaller than investors expect. And that's what investors should recognize: the biggest risk facing ServiceNow isn't a recession, competition, or slowing demand.
It's the possibility that AI changes enterprise software in ways that are difficult to predict today.
What does it mean for investors? ServiceNow has built one of the highest-quality software businesses in the market. Its recurring revenue, high switching costs, and expanding product portfolio have created tremendous value for shareholders over time.
The company's next chapter may be even larger if it succeeds in becoming the control center for enterprise AI.
But that future is not guaranteed. If AI gradually reduces the number of workflows within organizations, it may shrink ServiceNow's addressable market.
And that's the biggest risk that investors should watch closely in the coming years.
Meta Platforms může v roce 2026 podpořit růst díky AI brýlím Reality Labs, které už mají 85% podíl na trhu s AI brýlemi. Meta Glasses firma uvedla v červnu s cenou od 224 USD.
Meta Platforms (META 4.80%) has been a jarring growth stock over the past year. It's down by 15% year to date, but its fundamentals continue to improve. The stock only trades at a price-to-earnings ratio of 20 and has solid growth rates already, so a single catalyst could result in a meaningful rally.
Reality Labs could be the catalyst. It's the AI hardware part of Meta Platforms' business that includes Quest headsets and Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses. Here's what investors should know.
Image source: Getty Images.
Meta Glasses can become a major hit Meta Glasses are an innovative technology that let you take pictures, speak with AI tools, make and receive calls, and type on virtual surfaces just by wearing them. You don't have to pull out a smartphone to do any of those things anymore.
Meta Platforms debuted Meta Glasses in June with prices starting at $224. Payment plans are available starting at $19 per month, which lasts for two years at 0% APR. These prices are well within the ballpark of what many people can pay, including the $19 monthly plan. This technology is no longer science fiction, and just as importantly, it's more accessible to the average consumer.
While Meta Platforms released smart glasses a few years ago that had a relatively muted reception, those smart glasses were technologically limited and had no AI capabilities. They just let you take pictures using your glasses instead of taking out your smartphone. They were pretty much cameras with no other features. These current AI glasses are far more advanced, which can help them generate more traction.
The company has a massive head start compared to competitors in this new industry. It controls 85% of the AI glasses industry and already has 3.56 billion daily active users on its family of apps, which is a 4% year-over-year increase. Meta Platforms can promote its AI Glasses to its vast user base to get quick momentum and preserve its comfortable lead over competitors.
Having control over a high-potential industry remains compelling. Grand View Research projects a 24.2% CAGR for the smart glasses market through 2033, but the research company also estimates that the smart glasses market is only worth $3.2 billion. If it gets anywhere close to the smartphone market's $556.4 billion total valuation, this early start will be massive.
The success of Meta's AI Glasses should make it much easier for the company to sell other consumer hardware, similar to how Apple sells iPhones and MacBooks. The AI Glasses segment may be a sleeping giant, and the stock's 20 P/E ratio leaves a lot of room for upside momentum if that proves to be the case.
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Meta Platforms is already delivering high growth rates Even though Meta Platforms' stock has been stuck in the mud for more than a year, it continues to gain market share in the online advertising industry. Revenue surged by 33% year over year in Q1, with operating income rising by 30%. Meta Platforms closed out the first quarter with a robust 41% operating profit margin, which makes the current valuation even more baffling.
Meta Platforms' vast amount of capital and high profits make it easier to invest heavily into projects like AI Glasses until they become profitable. AI Glasses can also give Meta Platforms' advertising revenue a boost by creating more ad impressions.
Meta AI Glasses don't have to make up a big portion of total revenue right now. Just an announcement in the upcoming Q2 earnings release that shows meaningful momentum in this segment, combined with results investors have become accustomed to, may be enough to trigger a rally.
Visa a další členové 140členného konsorcia spustili Open USD, stablecoin se sdíleným výnosem pro partnery. Tím tlačí na model Circle, který žije hlavně z úroků z rezerv USDC.
The financial plumbing of the global economy is undergoing a rewrite. For the better part of a decade, the issuance of stablecoins, digital dollars living on blockchain networks, was largely monopolized by crypto-native firms. Traditional payment processors appeared to be watching from the sidelines, occasionally announcing small-scale pilot programs. That dynamic was shattered this week.
The launch of Open USD by a 140-member consortium marks the aggressive institutional capture of decentralized payment infrastructure. By redistributing reserve interest directly to network partners, traditional financial processors are weaponizing shared-yield tokenomics against early market entrants. Legacy networks are successfully scaling the digital dollar while actively dismantling the proprietary moats of pure-play crypto issuers.
Get Visa alerts:
The GENIUS Act and the Green Light for Legacy CapitalTo understand the magnitude of this shift, look back to the July 2025 passage of the GENIUS Act. This regulatory framework provided the federal compliance structure that traditional finance demanded.
Visa Today
V
Visa
$361.31 -0.82 (-0.23%)
As of 07/2/2026 03:59 PM Eastern
This is a fair market value price provided by Massive. Learn more.
52-Week Range$293.89▼
$362.13Dividend Yield0.74%
P/E Ratio31.47
Price Target$397.96
Legacy players like Visa Inc. NYSE: V and Mastercard NYSE: MA have never ignored the blockchain space. They were waiting for the legal green light to deploy capital at scale without risking entrenched legacy businesses.
With regulatory clarity secured, the broader fintech ecosystem moved rapidly. Stripe laid the operational groundwork by acquiring the stablecoin platform Bridge for $1.1 billion, placing seasoned operators at the helm of a new standard.
The result is the Open Standard consortium, a massive alliance featuring Visa, Stripe, BlackRock NYSE: BLK, Alphabet NASDAQ: GOOGL, and Coinbase NASDAQ: COIN. This is not a defensive maneuver by traditional finance. It is an aggressive, calculated infrastructure upgrade designed to own the rails of cross-border money movement.
Tokenomics 2.0: Siphoning the Crypto YieldLet us take a moment to unpack the structural evolution introduced by Open USD, as it directly attacks the core business model of first-generation stablecoins. When an institution mints a legacy stablecoin, they hand over fiat currency, and the issuer deposits those funds into short-term U.S. Treasuries. The issuer then keeps the yield generated by those reserves. When interest rates are high, this model prints exceptional cash flow.
Open USD operates on a shared-yield architecture. Instead of hoarding treasury interest at the issuer level, the Open Standard consortium redistributes that yield back to the network partners who facilitate transactions. They also eliminated minting and redemption fees. This creates a zero-friction, yield-generating asset for enterprise partners, instantly rendering proprietary, closed-loop stablecoin models uncompetitive.
A Leaky Moat: Circle's Margin Compression CrisisCircle Internet Group Today
CRCL
Circle Internet Group
$64.56 -0.06 (-0.10%)
As of 07/2/2026 03:59 PM Eastern
This is a fair market value price provided by Massive. Learn more.
52-Week Range$49.90▼
$262.97Price Target$117.38
This architectural shift presents an existential threat to companies heavily reliant on the legacy model. Circle Internet Group NYSE: CRCL generates roughly 99% of revenue from the interest earned on the reserves backing the USDC stablecoin. When the core product is commoditized by a consortium offering better economics to distributors, the resulting margin compression is rapid and severe.
The most glaring signal of this structural vulnerability is the defection of primary ecosystem partners. Coinbase previously served as a massive distribution hub for USDC. In 2024 alone, Coinbase extracted $908 million from Circle in distribution and revenue-sharing agreements.
With the launch of Open USD, Coinbase has joined the Open Standard alliance. The economic incentive is clear. Rather than taking a negotiated cut from a third-party issuer like Circle, exchange networks and payment processors can utilize Open USD to internalize the reserve yields directly. This supply chain defection forces Circle into an impossible corner. To retain enterprise distributors, Circle must either slash fees to zero or give up reserve yield. Both options eviscerate profitability.
$20 Billion Buybacks and Unstoppable MarginsCircle Internet Group Stock Forecast Today12-Month Stock Price Forecast:
$117.38
81.82% Upside
Hold
Based on 24 Analyst Ratings
Current Price$64.56High Forecast$190.00Average Forecast$117.38Low Forecast$55.00Circle Internet Group Stock Forecast Details
The market is already pricing in the collapse of the proprietary stablecoin moat. Shares of Circle Internet Group have faced severe downward pressure, currently trading near $62 after dropping nearly 21% since the start of the year. Circle recently reported quarterly earnings that reflect the strain, with earnings per share (EPS) missing estimates by 6 cents and net margins languishing at negative 2.76%.
Institutional sentiment is rapidly souring on the pure-play crypto issuer. Short interest in Circle rose to 45.4% month over month, now representing 10.06% of the public float.
A short squeeze requires an underlying bullish catalyst, but the structural degradation of the business model provides exactly the opposite. Internal confidence appears equally shaken. Insiders have executed zero open-market purchases over the last six months, instead heavily distributing shares, dumping over $158 million in stock over the past 90 days. Wall Street analysts are aggressively revising valuation models, with Compass Point aggressively slashing its price target on Circle from $97 down to $55.
As capital flees the vulnerable pure-play issuers, it is rotating heavily into the legacy networks, leading the Open USD charge. Visa is one of the primary beneficiaries of this institutional capture. Visa is currently trading near $351 and boasts a market capitalization exceeding $630 billion.
Visa is demonstrating exactly how to leverage an entrenched market position to capture new technology. Integrating Open USD into globally ubiquitous payment rails neutralizes the threat that decentralized finance will disrupt cross-border revenue.
Visa Stock Forecast Today12-Month Stock Price Forecast:
$397.96
10.14% Upside
Buy
Based on 26 Analyst Ratings
Current Price$361.31High Forecast$450.00Average Forecast$397.96Low Forecast$350.00Visa Stock Forecast Details
The fundamentals backing Visa are pristine. Visa recently posted $3.31 EPS, easily beating consensus estimates of $3.10, driven by a 17.1% year-over-year revenue expansion. Profitability metrics remain exceptional, featuring a 51.68% net margin and a massive 65.00% return on equity. A forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 26.84 is entirely reasonable for a network poised to capture the next generation of digital payments.
Analysts are taking note of the expanded moat. Piper Sandler recently upgraded Visa from overweight to a strong buy, citing confidence in its cross-border transaction strategy and resilient consumer discretionary spending.
While Circle faces insider distribution, the Visa board is signaling confidence in the current valuation and future cash flows. Visa recently initiated a $20 billion share repurchase program. This authorization acts as a massive macro tailwind for Visa, providing structural support to the share price while management executes the digital asset expansion. Share buybacks of this magnitude tell you exactly how Visa leadership views its own strategic positioning.
Plugging the Leaks in Your Crypto PortfolioThe era of digital assets existing in a silo outside the traditional financial system is over. The 140-member consortium behind Open USD proves that legacy payment processors possess both the capital and the strategic foresight to absorb disruptive technologies. By weaponizing shared-yield economics, Visa and other legacy giants are capturing the multi-trillion-dollar stablecoin market while systematically dismantling the business models of early crypto-native pioneers.
Investors navigating the shifting payments sector might consider evaluating the durability of revenue streams. Portfolios heavily weighted toward single-product crypto firms reliant on proprietary yield models face significant structural risk. Conversely, adding exposure to entrenched, highly profitable networks executing large volume share repurchases offers a compelling way to capture the upside of the digital dollar's global expansion.
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Intel v červnu vzrostl o 21,8 % poté, co trh zareagoval na možné partnerství se společností Apple pro výrobu čipů v USA. Další podporu dává rostoucí význam CPU při inferenci v AI.
Shares in Intel Corporation (INTC 5.61%) soared by 21.8% in June, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. There are probably two reasons for the increase, and both speak to the business's longer-term growth potential.
Intel and Apple make an agreement? While its important to note that neither company has confirmed reaching an agreement, in mid-June President Trump announced that Apple (AAPL +4.88%) amd Intel had reached an agreement that they would design and manufacture chips in the U.S. The deal, if confirmed, would be good news for Intel's foundry business as it tries to build scale and better compete with market leader Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM 2.15%).
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A deal would also be in line with the Trump administration's determination to encourage domestic manufacturing, and particularly with key technology providers like Apple. For example, the administration invested and entered into a public-private partnership with rare-earth company MP Materials in July of last year, which was closely followed by a $500 million long-term supply agreement for rare earth magnets between MP Materials and Apple. Given that the Trump administration also invested in Intel in 2025 (acquiring 10% of the company), it's reasonable to expect more pressure for an Apple/Intel deal.
Intel's core business has growth prospects Intel's core business of making central processing units (CPUs) is often seen as secondary to the AI data center build-out, as graphics processing units (GPUs) from Nvidia and others have grabbed attention. GPUs are specialized for building and training large language models (LLMs) and are therefore essential to the buildout of AI infrastructure. Meanwhile, CPUs are used relatively more for inference, such as the AI applications that agents actually run.
Image source: Getty Images.
Indeed, Intel CFO David Zinsner noted on the April earnings call that the GPU-to-CPU ratio in training solutions was up to 8:1, but could drop to 3:1 in inference. He expounded on those remarks in June at a Bank of America technology conference, stating, "the ratio of CPUs to GPUs is growing meaningfully as we get from training to inference, inference to agentic and multiagent and reinforced learning. So it's just going to drive a lot of CPU requirements."
As the market's recognition of the longer-term growth potential in inference AI spending crystallizes, Intel's role in CPU manufacturing will likely be better recognized.
Where next for Intel An Apple deal would be good news, and its confirmation would probably be good news for the stock. Meanwhile, the ongoing recognition of the growing importance of inference spending should also create upside potential for the stock.
Bank of America is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Lee Samaha has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Apple, Intel, MP Materials, Nvidia, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Shares of Bloom Energy (BE 6.47%) are up more than 250% so far this year. That quick rise may make some investors cautious, but there are plenty of solid reasons for the stock's ascendance. The company is at the nexus of renewable energy and artificial intelligence (AI), as its fuel cell energy solutions are increasingly used by hyperscalers to address bottlenecks in powering new data centers.
Are there risks to the stock? Most definitely. It trades at more than 140 times forward earnings, as investors have largely priced in its backlog. Even so, here are three reasons why Bloom Energy is worth buying -- and why the stock should continue to generously reward investors.
Image source: Getty Images.
Bloom's solid oxide fuel cells can be deployed quickly Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta Platforms, and Oracle are spending billions on next-generation AI data centers, but traditional electrical grids are severely bottlenecked. Expanding a localized grid or waiting on a nuclear plant can take years.
Bloom's solid oxide fuel cells generate on-site electricity and can be deployed and operational in as little as 90 days. By bypassing traditional power grids, tech companies ensure their high-dollar AI chips don't sit idle waiting for power.
These fuel cells use renewable natural gas, biogas, or hydrogen, converting it to electricity without combustion and with minimal carbon dioxide emissions.
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It has a huge backlog with big tech Bloom's growth is no longer a speculative story; it is backed by concrete, massive commercial contracts. As of the end of 2025, the company said it had a backlog of $20 billion, including a product backlog of $6 billion.
In April, Bloom expanded its agreement with Oracle to support up to 2.8 gigawatts (GW) of fuel cell capacity. This includes Project Jupiter, a massive, multigigawatt AI data center campus in New Mexico that runs entirely on Bloom fuel cells rather than traditional gas turbines or diesel generators.
In May, Bloom secured a 328-megawatt (MW) deployment deal with AI infrastructure company Nebius, providing deep multiyear visibility for revenue generation.
It has reached a financial turning point Historically, fuel cell companies have struggled to turn a profit despite rising revenue. Bloom is actively breaking out of that mold, showcasing real operating leverage. In its first-quarter earnings release, Bloom reported a record $751.1 million in revenue, a massive 130.4% year-over-year increase.
Driven by manufacturing-scale benefits, its gross margin expanded beyond 30%, allowing the company to report net income of $70.6 million, up from a loss of $19.1 million in the first quarter of 2025. Earnings per share (EPS) were $0.23, compared to an EPS loss of $0.10 in the same quarter a year ago, while adjusted EPS was $0.44.
The earnings were a surprise to some analysts, who had predicted revenue of $539.94 and adjusted EPS of $0.12. The numbers were strong enough to prompt management to raise its full-year revenue guidance to $3.4 billion to $3.8 billion, an increase of 80% at the midpoint, and to raise adjusted EPS to between $1.85 and $2.25, up 170% at the midpoint.
Things to look out for Bloom has a few issues, but they're mostly good concerns. The company will have to spend to double factory capacity from 1 gigawatt to 2 gigawatts by the end of 2026. It also faces competition from Plug Power and FuelCell Energy.
The premium attached to Bloom Energy is massive and introduces considerable valuation risk, but it is supported by triple-digit revenue growth and positive cash generation, whereas Plug Power is an improving turnaround play with tight cash constraints, and FuelCell Energy remains trapped in a pattern of shrinking revenue and widening losses.
In the long run, given the push for renewable energy and the way AI is driving the need for more data centers, Bloom is in a good spot to benefit from long-term trends.
Regal Rexnord těží z poptávky po datových centrech pro AI; objednávky v segmentu Automation and Motion Control vzrostly o více než 34 % a firma zvýšila celoroční výhled tržeb o zhruba 4,5 %.
This is a fair market value price provided by Massive. Learn more.
52-Week Range$127.96▼
$247.80Dividend Yield0.64%
P/E Ratio50.79
Price Target$237.80
Regal Rexnord NYSE: RRX has spent decades making motors and power-transmission components for factories.
It still does. But it also makes automation and motion-control components for data centers. And its stock is up about 50% this year as orders flood in.
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Analysts rate the company a Moderate Buy by consensus, with most suggesting a Buy.
But a rich multiple, rising short interest, and leadership transition do not make this recent winner necessarily low-risk.
AI Data Centers Are Driving DemandAt its core, Regal Rexnord is a maker of industrial powertrain systems, motion control technology, and power management solutions. In other words, it makes the mechanical and electrical components that move, control, and regulate energy inside machines.
For years, its products went into factories, HVAC systems, agricultural equipment, and commercial infrastructure. More recently, though, cloud companies and AI developers began building data centers at a breakneck pace, and they needed the precision power components that Regal Rexnord specializes in.
Cooling systems require motion control. Power distribution requires conversion technology. The infrastructure behind an AI data center is, at its core, an industrial engineering problem, and Regal Rexnord is one of the companies solving it.
Strong Orders Point to Sustained GrowthThe first quarter of 2026 provided the evidence. The company reported sales of $1.48 billion, up 4.3% year-over-year, and above analysts’ expectations. GAAP net income rose 11.8% to $64.3 million from $57.5 million in the prior year. Adjusted diluted earnings per share climbed to $2.17 from $2.15, also above what analysts expected.
While those top figures were solid, the number that attracted the most attention was found in the order data. Daily orders rose 8.5% from the prior year, and backlog grew 6.7% quarter-to-quarter at the enterprise level.
In particular, it was Regal Rexnord's Automation and Motion Control (AMC) segment where orders tied to data-center applications surged. Total AMC segment orders were up more than 34% compared with the prior year, and even when data-center demand is removed, the remaining AMC orders still grew 28%. Overall, net sales for the unit were $457.1 million, up 15.3% from the year-earlier period.
The company also said it expects orders to continue increasing. “We’re still very, very bullish,” the company’s CEO said in the quarterly conference call with analysts. “This is a market where we’re nicely positioned.”
Strong Results Extend Beyond AI Data CentersThe details are telling, as the data center buildout powers serious demand while the rest of the business is also strengthening, with aerospace, defense, and medical applications all contributing.
The company’s industrial powertrain solutions saw net sales rise 5.8% to $648.2 million. Its power efficiency solutions operations, hurt by a weakness in residential HVAC sales, saw a decrease of 8.6% to $373.8 million.
Management responded by raising its full-year 2026 sales growth expectation to about 4.5%, an increase of roughly 150 basis points from the prior outlook. Its adjusted diluted earnings per share guidance range of $10.20 to $11 for the year stayed level, compared with $9.65 for 2025.
Wall Street Sees Limited Upside After Big RallyThe stock's performance this year reflects how dramatically the market's perception of Regal Rexnord has shifted.
Currently trading at about $212 per share, shares are up about 51% from $140.48 at the start of this year.
The 10 analysts who follow the stock have a consensus rating of a Moderate Buy, though the 12-month price target they collectively predict is $237.80, just 310% higher than recent trading prices. With a quarterly dividend of just 35 cents and a dividend yield below 1%, the stock's potential for appreciation is the key driver.
Seven of the analysts rate the stock a Buy, while three have tagged it a Hold. The highest price target is $265 per share, and the lowest is $160.
Short interest is also something to watch. As of the middle of June, the company had a short interest of 3.35 million shares sold short, about 5% of the outstanding float. That’s more than twice the level from the middle of March.
Margins and New Leadership Pose RisksThe caution that is evident in some of these numbers is not unsupported.
Regal Rexnord competes in markets where Rockwell Automation NYSE: ROK, Eaton NYSE: ETN, and Emerson Electric NYSE: EMR are also pursuing electrification and digital-infrastructure spending. And though the company has attractive specialties and technological advantages, industrial demand can soften quickly.
Despite beating expectations with revenue and earnings, the company also spooked the market as its earnings report showed its margin on adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) dropped to 20.6% from 21.8% in the year-earlier period. With tariffs and higher material costs, that margin could also be hit further.
Leadership transition adds another variable. Earlier this year, the company announced it had appointed a new CEO. A new president of the company’s Industrial Powertrain Solutions has also been named.
A New Industrial Growth Story Is EmergingRegal Rexnord is not an easy call. The surge in stock price followed by an influx of short sellers makes it clear there are two ways to view the company.
For investors, it’s a genuinely interesting opportunity in the industrial sector. The company is not a traditional value stock, nor is it a dividend stock. It is a company that is possibly undergoing a real transformation from a legacy industrial company to an AI-boosted supplier. If the infrastructure buildout is just getting started, Regal Rexnord's position, assuming new management can execute, could be in the formative stages.
A serious dip in the sector, though, could see its growth unfulfilled. Watch for margins and order flow when it reports its next quarter.
Regardless of what happens, Regal Rexnord is no longer easy to ignore.
Should You Invest $1,000 in Regal Rexnord Right Now?Before you consider Regal Rexnord, you'll want to hear this.
MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. MarketBeat has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on... and Regal Rexnord wasn't on the list.
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The AI boom is creating opportunities across semiconductors, cloud computing, enterprise software, infrastructure, cybersecurity, and automation.
Inside this report, you’ll find 10 companies positioned to benefit as artificial intelligence moves from hype to real-world deployment and becomes a core growth driver for corporate America.
Akcie USA Rare Earth v červnu klesly o 23 % poté, co firma podala registrační dokument pro možný prodej 93,8 milionu akcií. Trh znervózněla také čínská omezení a spor s MP Materials.
Shares in USA Rare Earth (USAR 4.15%) fell by 23% in June, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. There are probably three unrelated reasons for the stock's decline this month. The first relates to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that might concern investors worried about a potential flood of selling by investors who had acquired their stock at lower levels. The second concerns the blacklisting of the company as part of China's export controls, and the third is a legal matter.
An overhang of shares for sale? On June 5th, the company filed an S-3/A registration statement with the SEC covering the potential resale of 93,822,662 shares, representing 35.2% of the company's issued and outstanding common stock on a diluted basis.
The selling stockholders include shares acquired at much lower prices than the current stock price via business combinations, the conversion of preferred stock and warrants, share purchase agreements, and private investment in public equity (PIPE) transactions.
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It's important to stress that there's nothing unusual about the filing, and the company was legally obligated to file it. Still, the potential overhang of shares for sale in such a large amount is bound to cause investor concern, particularly for a company that clearly needs investment to build magnet production and ultimately develop the Round Top mine in 2028.
China blacklists USA Rare Earth Toward late June, China added USA Rare Earth and its peer MP Materials to its list of companies with restricted access to Chinese technology. While neither company buys or sells directly from China, the export restrictions also cover Chinese components used in final products that could be sold to USA Rare Earth and MP Materials. Consequently, they may need to reassess their supply chains, which could affect both companies at a time when they are looking to ramp up magnet production and acquire rare-earth processing technology.
MP Materials lawsuit against USA Rare Earth Finally, MP Materials is taking legal action against USA Rare Earth, alleging that "USA Rare Earth Inc. stole its proprietary technology through a former employee," according to a Bloomberg report. While lawsuits are, unfortunately, not uncommon among peers in the U.S, the legal challenge is a distraction in the future.
Image source: Getty Images.
Where next for USA Rare Earth The events in June highlight that, as exciting as the company's long-term prospects are, there's still a long way to go, with plenty of execution risk ahead, the potential for further shareholder dilution, and the risk of concerted selling pressure taking its toll on the stock.
That said, the company is one of the solutions to the challenge of securing a domestic supply of rare earth materials and magnets, and while that remains the case, it's likely to find favor among the government and investors.
The first half of 2026 is one that Microsoft Corporation NASDAQ: MSFT shareholders would just as soon forget. The stock is down approximately 20% as of July 1. As recently as June 24, MSFT hit a 52-week low of $349.20.
It hasn’t all been downhill. But every time it looked like MSFT was getting ready to recover, something happened to knock it back. Nevertheless, both fundamental and technical signs, starting with a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 22.9x, suggest that Microsoft is due for a reversal. That could make MSFT the best big tech trade for the second half of 2026.
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When a Strength Became a WeaknessThe size and scope of Microsoft’s business have worked against it as investors have found multiple reasons for concern. In late 2025, investors were concerned that a hyperscaler like Microsoft would pause or reverse course on its data center capital expenditures.
Instead, the company doubled down on its spending and now plans to spend $190 billion in this calendar year. Of course, that turned into a concern that Microsoft and other hyperscalers are now spending too much money, which will either hit their free cash flow or show up on the balance sheet as debt—neither of which is positive for earnings growth.
Then, the "SaaSpocalypse" hit. The concern was that the emergence of open-source models like Anthropic and OpenAI would reduce demand for Microsoft’s Copilot. However, in its most recent earnings report, the company noted that Copilot had over 20 million paid seats.
One of the latest issues facing the company is the cost of memory. That acutely impacts Microsoft’s gaming division and popular Xbox. It also reminds investors of how interconnected all of these technology companies are, particularly as it relates to the artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure trade.
That’s a lot of noise for investors to drown out. But for those that can, there’s a strong case for growth in the second half of 2026.
The Numbers Behind the NoiseLet’s start with the fundamentals. Microsoft’s Q3 2026 earnings report undercut the bear case. Revenue grew 18% year-over-year to $82.9 billion, and diluted earnings per share (EPS) rose 23% to $4.27, beating estimates on both lines. The bull case went beyond the headline numbers:
Microsoft Cloud revenue climbed 29% to $54.5 billion, with Azure growing 40% year-over-year, an acceleration from the prior quarter.
Total AI annualized revenue run rate surpassed $37 billion, up 123% from a year ago.
Operating income rose 20% to $38.4 billion.
The company returned $10.2 billion to shareholders through dividends and buybacks.
None of that sounds like a company in trouble, yet the stock kept sliding after the report. However, that disconnect between accelerating fundamentals and a falling share price is exactly what value-oriented traders look for. It suggests the market is pricing in a worst-case scenario that isn’t backed up by the numbers.
MSFT Shows Signs of a Tepid RecoveryThe chart backs up the reversal thesis. MSFT fell from a 52-week high near $555 in October to the June 24 low of $349.20, a decline of roughly 37%.
The RSI sits at roughly 47, climbing back from oversold territory below 30 in April. That April dip marked the stock's sharpest capitulation, followed by a rally above $460 in May before renewed selling pressure returned.
Some of that selling pressure is due to a slowdown in institutional buying. To be clear, institutional buying outweighs selling by over 3:1. But it slowed down in the first two quarters of the year, which has given sellers the upper hand.
That shows up in the Chaikin Money Flow (CMF) indicator. This quantifies money flowing into or out of a security over a set period, typically 20 or 21 trading days. The reading of -0.04 is essentially neutral after spending most of April through June in a downtrend. A shift into positive CMF readings would confirm institutional money is rotating back into the stock.
Shares jumped 3% on July 1, closing at $384.28 on volume of 47.23 million shares, a sign of renewed interest after weeks of drifting lower. A close above the $400 level, which has capped rallies since March, would be the clearest signal yet that the reversal is underway.
The Bear Case Still Deserves a HearingNo trade is without risk. Capital expenditures, including finance leases, hit $31.9 billion in the quarter, up 49% year-over-year, and free cash flow fell 22% to $15.8 billion as a result. If AI demand growth slows, that spending will make MSFT more of a margin story than it already may be.
Plus, the rising memory prices may not be critical, but they are squeezing the More Personal Computing segment, where Xbox hardware revenue fell 33%. If costs remain elevated into the holidays, that pressure could spread further, despite the company’s recent layoff announcement aimed at addressing some of that inefficiency.
Why the Setup Favors Patient BuyersInvestors need to weigh the risks against the valuation. Through that lens, Microsoft still looks attractive. A forward P/E near 23x sits below the stock's five-year average and well under high-flying peers like NVIDIA NASDAQ: NVDA and Palantir NASDAQ: PLTR, despite Microsoft posting some of the most durable growth in the group.
For investors willing to look past near-term volatility, the combination of accelerating AI revenue, a 20-million-seat Copilot business, and a technical setup stabilizing after a brutal correction makes MSFT worth watching closely as the second half of 2026 gets underway.
Should You Invest $1,000 in Microsoft Right Now?Before you consider Microsoft, you'll want to hear this.
MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. MarketBeat has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on... and Microsoft wasn't on the list.
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Robotics and automation are rapidly becoming essential infrastructure across healthcare, manufacturing, logistics, and many other industries.
"Physical AI" is coming to the United States, and there are four ways that investors can gain exposure to this new robotics revolution. Plus, learn which seven companies are most positioned to benefit as intelligent robots enter the workforce.
Nike ve 4. čtvrtletí překonala odhady: tržby klesly o 1 %, hrubá marže stoupla na 49,2 % a EPS vyskočil na 0,72 USD. Management ale snížil krátkodobý výhled.
Nike (NKE +2.44%) shareholders have been suffering over the past few years as the company has dealt with problem after problem.
There were some glimmers of hope in the fiscal 2026 fourth-quarter (ended May 31) report released this past week, but management cut near-term guidance and doesn't expect meaningful progress over the next six months. So why is Nike stock rising?
Image source: Nike.
Getting its game on Nike is still picking up the pieces from some major missteps, compounded over the past few years by high inflation and strong tariff exposure. The company was poorly positioned to handle the challenges when it cut out wholesale partnerships and let its innovation engine slip.
In its favor, it got a new CEO and mapped out a turnaround plan, and while external factors are still weighing on its progress, appears to have stemmed the rapid declines.
Here are some of the fourth-quarter highlights, which beat the top and bottom lines:
Revenue decreased 1% year over year, with wholesale up 4% and direct-to-consumer down 7%. Gross margin expanded 8.9 percentage points to 49.2%. Earnings per share (EPS) increased from $0.14 last year to $0.72 this year. While momentum had been building into the quarter, it stalled when the Iran war began and oil prices spiked, putting pressure on global consumers. Although that's been easing, management had to reshuffle orders and block too much inventory that could eventually pile up and have to be marked down for sale. Over the next six months, sluggish sales are expected.
Going on the offense One particular area where Nike is truly struggling is China, where sales dropped 17% for the full year. CEO Elliott Hill said Nike is doing a "comprehensive reset" in the region, going on the offense and working with local partners to see how it can win.
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But there were many positive updates. Performance sales were up mid-single digits for the full year, which marked the fifth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth in Nike Running.
Although China is struggling, North America is showing signs of recovery, and the wholesale business grew by double digits for the full year. So while the near term looks bleak, the recovery is possible.
In the meantime, Nike stock has fallen low enough to look like a strong value. It tanked after earnings, and its P/E ratio dipped below 20. At the current price, its dividend yields 3.8%. Value investors may have seen the opportunity, and long-term investors might be counting on a big recovery later this year.
Strategy zvýšila dividendu u STRC na 12 % ročně a spustila zpětný odkup za 1 miliardu USD, aby podpořila cenu preferenčních akcií STRC, které se obchodují kolem 88 USD.
Spot Bitcoin briefly fell below the critical $60,000 support level last week, triggering a wave of retail panic. Yet, shares of Strategy Inc. NASDAQ: MSTR rose over 12.6% intraday on volume exceeding 44.93 million shares. This easily outpaced the average of 2.86 million. Retail investors treating Strategy purely as a leveraged Bitcoin (BTC) derivative are left scratching their heads. Institutional capital is aggressively pricing in a profound structural shift.
Strategy has shifted from a mostly one-way Bitcoin accumulation model toward a more active capital-management framework. The company recently adopted its Digital Credit Capital Framework and reported a USD Reserve of approximately $2.55 billion, including expected cash proceeds from unsettled ATM sales. This reframes Strategy less as a passive Bitcoin proxy and more as an actively managed capital-structure story.
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Tactical Liquidity: Escaping the Margin TrapThe market is rewarding this operational pivot because it directly addresses the friction of the legacy treasury model. Trailing 12-month net income deficits of $3.85 billion and a net margin of -2,482% previously trapped Strategy in a restrictive capital structure.
The balance sheet itself remains highly solvent, boasting a current and quick ratio of 6.05 alongside a low debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. By monetizing a sliver of its digital assets to build a cash moat, Strategy is attempting to reduce near-term liquidity pressure while remaining highly exposed to Bitcoin price volatility. Institutional investors are rotating capital toward this de-risked framework, prioritizing active liquidity management over pure commodity exposure.
Strategy Arms Its Preferred SharesThe most actionable angle of this structural transition lies in Strategy's multi-class share structure. Management is deploying a highly targeted capital return program designed to exploit a specific net asset value arbitrage opportunity.
The focus rests heavily on Variable Rate Series A Perpetual Stretch Preferred Stock NASDAQ: STRC. The preferred equity currently trades near $88, representing a 12.8% discount to the stated $100 par corporate objective. To help encourage the trading price toward par, the board of directors increased STRC's regular dividend rate to 12% annually.
A higher dividend rate alone may not close a preferred-stock discount if investors remain concerned about liquidity, credit quality, or Bitcoin exposure. That is exactly why Strategy also authorized a $1 billion repurchase program specifically targeting Digital Credit Securities, including STRC, STRF, STRD, and STRK. The company currently expects STRC to be the initial priority.
The strategy here is straightforward. Strategy is using its newfound balance sheet flexibility to repurchase discounted preferred securities. As the company steps into the open market to execute these buybacks, the aggressive demand could help narrow the gap to the 12.8% discount. For investors, the play could support STRC if market confidence improves. Management is financially incentivized and authorized (but not obligated) to buy the preferred stock until it hits $100.
This structural confidence extends to other issuances across the corporate umbrella, including the 8% Series A Perpetual Strike Preferred Stock NASDAQ: STRK, but the immediate corporate crosshairs are fixed on compressing the STRC discount.
Strategy Builds a $3.8B Liquidity FrameworkA core component of the new framework is the BTC Monetization Program. The board authorized Strategy to sell up to $1.25 billion in Bitcoin to fund the USD reserve, execute accretive buybacks, and support dividend obligations.
Skeptics view any Bitcoin selling as a bearish capitulation. That interpretation misses the facility's actual scale and purpose. The $1.25 billion authorization equates to roughly 20,000 Bitcoin, which is a mere 2.5% of Strategy's total digital asset treasury. Any BTC monetization outside the authorized purposes or above the approved amounts would require additional board authorization, giving Strategy a defined framework for potential Bitcoin sales.
By monetizing a fraction of its holdings, Strategy expands its total preferred stock dividend liquidity coverage to an impressive 25.9 months. This means Strategy possesses $3.8 billion in total current preferred stock dividends and interest expense coverage against an expected annual obligation of $1.76 billion.
The 2.5% monetization ceiling helps insulate corporate dividend obligations and share repurchases from broader spot Bitcoin price deterioration. Whether the cryptocurrency trades at $60,000 or $40,000, Strategy has the internal liquidity to sustain its 12% preferred yield and execute its $1 billion buyback mandate without being forced into a fire sale of its primary reserve asset.
Strategy Insiders Deploy CapitalThe divergence between retail sentiment and institutional execution is widening. Several traditional financial institutions, including Citi and TD Cowen, recently lowered price targets for Strategy's common equity, citing weakness in spot Bitcoin and decelerating ETF demand. These analyst desks are adhering to the legacy thesis that Strategy is exclusively tied to crypto prices, completely overlooking the operational pivot.
The smart money is front-running the capital return mechanics. Alongside the preferred stock repurchase authorization, Strategy initiated a parallel $1 billion repurchase program for Class A common stock. This combined $2 billion buyback initiative could help protect common equity from dilution while fundamentally improving the corporate credit profile.
Insider transaction data poitns toward structural confidence. Chief Executive Officer Phong Le recently acquired 11,000 shares of preferred stock at an all-time low, executing the purchase just before the 12% dividend increase, and the targeted repurchase program went live. Leadership at Strategy is personally capitalizing on the arbitrage discount they are corporately engineering to close.
Strategy Secures the Structural WinThe passive accumulation era is officially closed. Although the company remains materially exposed to Bitcoin price volatility, Strategy has taken steps to reduce near-term liquidity pressure: pivoting toward active capital management, establishing a 25.9-month liquidity runway, and authorizing a $2 billion buyback authorization. Investors fixated on Bitcoin's slide below $60,000 are missing the mechanical value creation within Strategy's capital structure.
The dual buyback program and the 12% preferred yield operate independently of macro crypto headwinds. The priority for market participants is tracking the compression of the STRC discount. As Strategy deploys its $1 billion preferred authorization, the gap between the current trading price and the $100 par objective will could narrow, rewarding those who recognize the strategic pivot before the broader market catches up.
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Nuclear energy is entering a new growth cycle as rising power demand, expanding data centers, and renewed policy support bring the sector back into focus. After strong gains in recent years, the most impactful phase of nuclear investment may still be ahead. This report highlights seven nuclear energy stocks positioned across the value chain—combining near-term revenue with long-term upside as next-generation technologies scale. Click the link below to unlock the full list.
Tyler Technologies zvýšila cíle pro rok 2030 na roční opakované tržby 3,35 miliardy USD a volný peněžní tok 1,15 miliardy USD. Firma zároveň pokračuje v přesunu klientů do cloudu, který má zvyšovat opakované tržby.
For years, software specialist Tyler Technologies (TYL +5.28%) enjoyed a reputation as a company that was difficult to displace due to its niche public-sector focus. That changed last year, when investors fled from software names broadly in fear of the disruption the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) would have on their business models.
The once-resilient stock has now fallen by 51% from the high it touched in February 2025. That sell-off was understandable given the uncertainty software companies face. In Tyler's case, the market is worried that large language models will allow government agencies to build custom tools that can do what its products do, or adopt cheaper alternatives. This would erode Tyler's entrenched position and permanently alter its growth trajectory.
Despite the concerns, management recently raised its 2030 revenue target, and said it now expects to surpass $1 billion in free cash flow by the end of the decade. Given that its market cap is just $12 billion, and considering that the public sector is typically slow to adopt new technology, Tyler may be one software stock worth adding to your portfolio.
Image source: Getty Images.
Who needs agentic loops when you can do cloud "flips"? The optimism from leadership stems from Tyler's cloud "flip" initiative, which is shifting its government client from using software hosted on on-premises hardware to software-as-a-service (SaaS) subscriptions hosted in the cloud, turning lower-margin maintenance revenue into higher-margin recurring revenue.
On average, every on-premises client that migrates to the cloud generates 1.7 times more revenue for Tyler while adding to its multiyear contracted revenue stream. With an installed base of over 16,000 clients and a target to convert 85% of them by 2030, the runway is significant.
Management projects that its peak flip volumes will occur from 2027 through 2029. This shift should improve margins by reducing maintenance work on its legacy on-premises products and increasing cross-selling opportunities.
The company's average client currently uses about three of its products, a figure it aims to increase to 10 to 12 by selling additional modules like payments, fire prevention, and document automation.
Some risks are worth taking During its June investor day presentation, the software provider raised its 2030 targets to $3.35 billion in annualized recurring revenue (ARR) and $1.15 billion in free cash flow. To hit those targets would require ARR to grow at an average annual rate of around 10%.
The caution around the stock comes not only from the likelihood of a more competitive market but also from where its next leg of growth will come from once the majority of cloud flips are complete. Management points to its ability to cross-sell, but predicting customer demand for software that far into the future is more of a side note than an investing thesis.
While the company is not immune to the impacts of technology shifts, its customers are unlikely to abandon their court systems or property tax software for AI-driven alternatives anytime soon. Government procurement cycles are notoriously slow, which will give the company time to execute on its cloud strategy and adapt to the changing landscape.
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The stock is trading at roughly 25 times expected forward earnings, down from a five-year average in the mid-40s, and 21 times trailing free cash flow. As such, the expectations baked into the stock are far lower than they've been in the past. While the market is unlikely to bid up its shares in the near term, Tyler is priced at a level where patient investors can comfortably begin building a position.
Dutch Bros dosáhl 52týdenního maxima 74,65 USD po růstu tržeb o 31 % a zvýšení celoročního výhledu. Firma čeká růst tržeb o 25 % až 27 %, růst tržeb ve stejných pobočkách o 4 % až 6 % a otevření alespoň 185 nových poboček.
Investing in restaurant stocks at their early stages of expansion can be a simple and rewarding strategy for building wealth in the stock market. Dutch Bros fits the profile of a growth stock that famous investor Peter Lynch loved to find during his career managing Fidelity's Magellan Fund.
After consolidating for over a year, Dutch Bros' (BROS 1.57%) shares recently surged to a 52-week high of $74.65. The company's growth amid inflation and other economic headwinds is a testament to its brand strength. Here are three reasons the stock is a solid buy right now.
Image source: Dutch Bros.
1. Brand resilience The stock's recent surge followed another strong quarter. Revenue grew 31% year over year, driven by new shop openings and a healthy same-shop sales increase of 8.3%. This shows the brand driving balanced growth from existing and new locations.
What's more, management raised full-year guidance for revenue, same-shop sales, profitability, and new shop openings. It expects full-year revenue to be up 25% to 27%, to open at least 185 new locations, and to deliver same-store sales growth of 4% to 6%.
The first quarter marked the company's fifth straight quarter of transaction growth, which is a strong showing. Even iconic consumer brands like Starbucks and Nike have struggled to deliver meaningful growth to push their share prices higher. Dutch Bros' consistency in a challenging macroeconomic environment reflects a strong brand in the making.
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2. Passionate culture These results reflect strength in a highly competitive beverage-chain market. While its menu, which spans energy drinks, sodas, smoothies, and coffee, is certainly a draw for customers, management says the brand's biggest differentiator is its people.
The company emphasizes friendly interactions with customers, and this matters because Dutch Bros promotes new shop operators from within. And some of these operators are so passionate about the company that they have the brand tattooed on them.
These are intangible qualities that Wall Street analysts will overlook, but that can be vital to a company's long-term success. This is especially true in the restaurant industry, where making customers happy is fundamental to driving sales. Clearly, this company is run by incredibly passionate people. That's rare, and it says a lot about why Dutch Bros continues to post strong financial results.
3. Profitable expansion strategy Dutch Bros had 1,177 shops open as of March 31, 2026. That covers 25 states, leaving plenty of room for nationwide expansion. Management is targeting 2,029 shops by 2029. But investors shouldn't think that it is recklessly expanding for the sake of growth.
Management scouts each location carefully. Its strategy is to cluster locations in a market so consumers will build their daily routine around visiting a Dutch Bros shop. This lays the foundation for billions in annual revenue through high daily sales volume over the long term.
This detailed planning is starting to show up in profitability. The company operated at a small loss through 2022, but since mid-2023, net income has been steadily growing. It generated $118 million in net income on $1.75 billion in revenue over the trailing 12 months.
The stock isn't cheap, trading at a forward earnings multiple of 76. But the stock looks expensive on a price-to-earnings basis because it's still in the early stages of scaling the business and leveraging expenses.
The price-to-sales ratio is a more useful valuation metric for valuing this company in the early innings of its long-term expansion. On that measure, Dutch Bros shares trade at 5.3 times trailing revenue. That's more reasonable and consistent with the ranges that Starbucks and Chipotle historically traded.
Overall, Dutch Bros' momentum in a tough environment, its passionate workforce, and its expansion opportunities make it a solid growth stock to buy in July.
John Ballard has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Chipotle Mexican Grill, Dutch Bros, Nike, and Starbucks. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: short September 2026 $35 calls on Chipotle Mexican Grill. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Oklo v červnu získala klíčová schválení od DOE a partnerství v oblasti paliva, přesto akcie klesly o 21,8 %. Firma zatím nemá tržby a investoři se obávají ředění po nové emisi akcií.
Oklo (OKLO 0.17%) had what should have been a dream month in June 2026.
The nuclear energy start-up was racking up major wins left and right, including approvals from the Department of Energy (DOE) and a crucial partnership to secure the mission-critical uranium fuel needed to power Oklo's small modular reactors (SMRs) for a massive project.
Yet, Oklo stock slumped 21.8% in June, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence.
The disconnect comes down to a reality check on multiple fronts. But could the markets have overreacted, offering investors an opportunity to scoop up shares of a company with significant government collaborations amid a nuclear energy renaissance?
Image source: Getty Images.
Oklo's major recent wins Oklo stock sank after its first-quarter earnings in May and a $1 billion new equity offering. Oklo is still developing fast-fission nuclear power plants called Aurora powerhouses and has yet to commercialize its technology and generate its first revenue. Its spending, however, pushed Q1 net loss to $33 million. That massive share sale further hurt the stock price as investors feared dilution of their value.
June was, comparatively, a far more positive month for Oklo.
It won a crucial DOE safety approval for its Idaho National Laboratory (INL) plant under the DOE's Reactor Pilot Program.
The Auroral-INL will be Oklo's first fast-fission plant.
In mid-June, Oklo signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Standard Nuclear to collaborate on nuclear fuel recycling and advanced fuel manufacturing.
The U.S. government is keen to use surplus plutonium lying in its stockpile as nuclear fuel for reactors, and Oklo is among the few companies developing nuclear fuel recycling facilities. It is also advancing Pluto, a plutonium-fueled fast test reactor.
Oklo also locked down a massive strategic partnership with Centrus Energy to secure high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) supplies to power up to five Aurora powerhouses over the next few years. These reactors are for Oklo's planned 1.2 GW power campus in the Ohio region to support Meta Platforms data centers.
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Oklo closed out June by acquiring Creative Engineers to beef up their advanced reactor tech. Earlier in the month, it acquired ARMEC to strengthen its reactor manufacturing capabilities.
With everything lining up so perfectly, why did Oklo shares still fall?
Why Oklo stock could continue to be volatile First, the DOE threw a curveball into the SMR market when it announced a $17.5 billion loan program for traditional, large-scale nuclear reactors. Investors betting heavily on SMRs amid the artificial intelligence (AI) power boom were instantly spooked, triggering a broad sell-off that dragged Oklo stock with it.
To be sure, the government isn't souring on small reactors. If anything, the massive loan program serves as a broad validation of the nuclear energy upcycle. The issue is that when a pre-revenue company begins trading like a high-flying stock, any perceived distraction can hit the stock hard.
Oklo eventually aims to generate electricity from Aurora powerhouses and sell it under long-term power purchase agreements. But because commercial operations are still years away, even a single mixed signal can prompt investors to do a reality check and take profits.
CoreWeave (CRWV 4.58%) stock suffered a double-digit pullback in this week's shortened trading, which saw the market closed on Friday in advance of the July 4 holiday. The company's share price fell 13.2% across the stretch.
While the S&P 500 gained 1.8% and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 2.1% this week, many artificial intelligence (AI) hardware stocks got hit with pullbacks. In addition to a general rotation trend out of AI hardware, CoreWeave stock saw valuation pullbacks in conjunction with news that Meta Platforms is entering the AI processing services market.
Image source: Getty Images.
CoreWeave stock sinks as Meta gears up for AI processing business Meta Platforms is getting ready to offer AI processing to third-party customers, effectively moving into direct competition with CoreWeave. In addition to CoreWeave facing a new competitive threat from a major tech giant, the move also caused concerns about the pricing outlook across the broader AI hardware tech stack.
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Meta's AI processing push has AI valuation implications Meta has been spending massively to build out AI infrastructure resources to compete with other leading technology players, including Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet. While the broader AI arms race between these companies is likely to continue, Meta's push to start offering AI processing as a service could be an indication that the company believes that expanding compute capacity for its own internal needs is starting to become less of a priority.
If that's the case, it could have big implications for CoreWeave's business. While demand for AI processing continues to look strong, the company has taken on huge debt in order to facilitate its AI infrastructure buildout. If demand growth for AI processing hardware starts to soften, it's possible that CoreWeave could see significant pricing-power contraction -- and that development could prove damaging to the bullish valuation case in conjunction with the company's heavy debt load.
Keith Noonan has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms, and Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Robinhood Markets v první polovině roku klesl o 11 %, ale za poslední tři měsíce už přidal 45 %. Pokles táhl hlavně propad kryptoměn, který zpomalil růst tržeb.
Robinhood Markets (HOOD +3.75%) stock fell 11% in the first half of the year, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence. It had been following the trajectory of Bitcoin, which was plunging, but it has started to climb back up.
More than cryptocurrency Robinhood is still a fairly small company, with $4.6 billion in trailing 12-month revenue, but it has already had a major impact on the markets. It introduced the fee-free trade, which is now standard for trading platforms, and it has been following that up with many fintech innovations.
Image source: Getty Images.
That hasn't been entirely positive for the company. Although it was reporting high growth, much of it was coming from cryptocurrency trading. The Bitcoin drop led to a contraction in growth. Some of its other innovations, like its Prediction Markets segment, are risky.
On the plus side, it was one of the trading platforms chosen for retail investor access to the Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) initial public offering (IPO), and it was recently approved to underwrite IPOs as well.
It's also introducing many traditional services in its bid to become a major financial player, including credit cards and bank accounts. These services provide stability and minimize the risk of other types of products.
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With cryptocurrency trading falling, revenue growth has been mediocre. Revenue increased 15% year over year in the 2026 first quarter, a huge slowdown from 50% last year. This included a 47% decrease in cryptocurrency trading revenue and 46% increase in equities trading revenue.
There were many positives in the quarter, though, including a 39% increase in platform assets and a 36% increase in Robinhood Gold subscribers, its membership program, for a total of 4.3 million. It added half a million funded accounts, and Robinhood banking grew fivefold sequentially.
Priced to buy? The 11% decrease in the first half of the year obscures the recent climb -- Robinhood stock is up 45% over the past three months. Investors are impressed with the company's new capabilities and future opportunities.
It also became much cheaper at the lower price. Robinhood stock had been priced for perfection, which made it susceptible to falling under pressure, and that's what happened.
It now trades at a P/E ratio of 55 and a price-to-sales ratio of 22, so it may be returning to premium levels. Risk-tolerant investors who have a long-term horizon might want to take a small position at this price, but as it gets more expensive, it gets back to becoming susceptible to another fall.
No stock has generated more buzz in recent weeks than Space Exploration Technologies (SPCX +2.69%), more commonly known as SpaceX. That's understandable, considering the space technology and artificial intelligence (AI) innovator conducted the largest initial public offering (IPO) in history.
But buzz doesn't always translate to great returns (as many who bought SpaceX shares after its post-IPO surge are finding out). While SpaceX gets the headlines, some smart investors are loading up on another stock instead -- Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX +6.13%).
Image source: Getty Images.
Greater market dominance than SpaceX One key reason investors have been attracted to SpaceX is its commanding position in the satellite internet services and rocket launch markets. However, Vertex arguably has greater market dominance in its core arena than SpaceX.
Only five therapies have been approved for addressing the underlying genetic cause of cystic fibrosis (CF), a rare genetic disease that affects an estimated 105,000 people worldwide. Vertex markets all of them, giving the drugmaker a virtual monopoly in the CF indication.
SpaceX will soon have a formidable competitor to its lucrative Starlink business from Amazon (AMZN +0.55%) Leo. Meanwhile, Vertex has little to worry about from challengers at this point. The most advanced experimental therapies that even have a shot at challenging Vertex's blockbuster CF franchise are only in Phase 2 clinical testing. No patent cliff is in sight that would open the door to serious generic threats, either. Vertex's key U.S. and European patents for its most powerful CF drug, Alyftrek, don't expire until 2039.
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CF isn't Vertex's only area of focus. The company has two other products gaining market momentum -- CRISPR gene-editing therapy Casgevy and non-opioid pain medication Journavx. These two therapies together generated roughly 25% of Vertex's product revenue growth in its latest quarter.
Importantly, Vertex's market dominance is much more profitable than SpaceX's. The big biotech company posted adjusted earnings of $4.7 billion last year, compared with SpaceX's net loss of $4.9 billion.
Transformative launches potentially on the way SpaceX completed 167 launches last year with its Falcon 9 rockets and Starship reusable spacecraft. However, Vertex has some potential launches of a different sort on the way that could be transformative.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is scheduled to make an approval decision for povetacicept in the treatment of immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN) by Nov. 30, 2026. IgAN affects around three times more patients in the U.S. and Europe alone than CF does worldwide. Vertex is also evaluating povetacicept in Phase 2 studies targeting primary membranous nephropathy and generalized myasthenia gravis, which together affect around three times as many patients in the U.S. and Europe as CF does worldwide.
Patient dosing in a late-stage study evaluating zimislecel in treating severe Type 1 Diabetes has resumed after a temporary delay while Vertex performed a manufacturing analysis. It seems likely that the company will file for global regulatory approvals of the therapy next year, assuming the Phase 3 results are positive.
Two other launches could be around the corner as well. Vertex expects to complete patient enrollment in two Phase 3 studies of suzetrigine (Journavx) in diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) by the end of this year. Eventual approval in treating DPN would open up an additional patient population of around 2.5 million for Journavx.
And that's not all. Vertex's pipeline features another late-stage candidate, inaxaplin, which targets APOL1-mediated kidney disease (AMKD). This disease affects around 250,000 people, and there aren't any approved treatments for it.
Risks vs. rewards Every investment comes with potential risks and rewards. Vertex's approved products and promising pipeline offer clear rewards over the next few years. However, the company faces several risks, notably the possibility of regulatory setbacks and clinical failures.
But many investors could reasonably conclude that Vertex's overall risk-reward proposition is more appealing than SpaceX's. That's especially true given each stock's valuation. SpaceX's shares trade at a whopping 56.7 times projected 2026 sales. Vertex's forward price-to-sales multiple is around 10x.
Investing in SpaceX is tantamount to placing a bet on a future that hasn't arrived yet, with that future already baked into the space stock's valuation. Buying Vertex Pharmaceuticals, on the other hand, is more like betting on a future supported by prior clinical results that inspire confidence, with a share price that reflects some uncertainty. The latter seems like the smarter wager.
Akcie ServiceNow v červnu klesly o 20 % kvůli obavám trhu z dopadu AI na SaaS. Firma ale dál hlásí silné výsledky: tržby z předplatného dosáhly ve 1. čtvrtletí 2026 3,7 miliardy USD, meziročně o 22 % více.
ServiceNow (NOW +0.49%) stock fell 20% in June, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence. It's been fairly volatile as the market weighs the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on its business and how it should be valued today, and the drop was on the heels of a 41% rebound in May.
Does AI help, or hinder? As a category, software-as-a-service (SaaS) stocks have been falling as the market recognizes that agentic AI can be used to accomplish many of the tasks they're used for for free or more inexpensively. The idea behind SaaS is that clients pay a monthly fee for services that include upgrades and customer support, but if developers can create AI agents that take care of the same work, the SaaS products can become obsolete.
Image source: Getty Images.
ServiceNow has been fighting this theory with an AI-included platform that management claims provides great value for its clients. Its Control Tower product, which was already in progress before agentic AI became the threat it is right now, supervises all of a client's operations, including agentic AI, unifying its management and keeping the business, and its AI tools, safe.
Based on the company's current performance, worries about an AI takeover are far overblown. The company is as strong as ever, with $3.7 billion in subscription revenue in the 2026 first quarter, a 22% increase year over year, and $27.7 billion in remaining performance obligations (RPO), up 25%. It's highly profitable, with strong cash flow, and it's guiding for similar performance for the rest of the year.
Its platform is embedded within its 8,500 clients' operations, a strong economic moat with high barriers to entry, and its focus on pre-emptive AI measures protects its business.
The view from the market The stock was propelled higher in May after a bullish analyst rating, but the market is still weighing the opportunity. On the one hand, it's in a healthy position and reporting outstanding results. On the other hand, the AI landscape continues to shift rapidly, and it's unclear how it will ultimately impact ServiceNow.
Adding to the mix, the company has a dominant position in its category and is growing at double-digit rates, but it's past its upstart phase. The valuation piece fits in there, too -- ServiceNow stock trades at a P/E ratio of 63 and a price-to-sales ratio of 8, which makes it expensive. It's reasonable to see the stock slide at this valuation, and even if it still has a bright future, it comes at a premium.
SoFi po získání národní bankovní licence výrazně zlevnila financování a vklady vzrostly z 1,2 miliardy USD na 40,2 miliardy USD. Čistý úrokový příjem se díky tomu zvýšil o 781 % z 252 milionů USD v roce 2021 na více než 2,2 miliardy USD v roce 2025.
SoFi Technologies' (SOFI 1.08%) operations were launched more than a decade ago. Back then, the company's sole activity was providing alumni-funded loans to recent grads.
Fast-forward to today, and SoFi has become a full-fledged digital financial services entity. Growth has been exceptional, as the business expanded its product and service offering. This helped to rapidly bring on new members.
In 2022, SoFi obtained a national bank charter that reshaped the company. Here's how this move could pay off for long-term investors.
Image source: Getty Images.
Taking deposits provides an advantage Before SoFi got a bank charter, its operations were funded by a mix of securitized debt, warehouse facilities, and convertible notes. These sources of capital had obviously helped the business reach that point.
The issue, though, is that this kind of funding can be expensive. And it's dependent on robust capital market conditions. This sets the bar higher. When originating loans, SoFi must aim to achieve a better return than what it pays on its funding capital to generate net interest income. This put it at a huge disadvantage relative to banking peers.
The company announced in January 2022 that it had received approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve to acquire Golden Pacific Bancorp, a community bank that was based in Sacramento, California. This deal, giving SoFi a national bank charter, was then closed in February of that year.
Since that seminal moment, SoFi has been completely transformed. It immediately started offering checking and savings accounts to customers. As of March 31, 2022, the business had $1.2 billion in total deposits. Exactly four years later, that figure had ballooned to $40.2 billion.
Of SoFi's $42.9 billion in total liabilities, 94% are represented by these deposits (up from 17% four years before). This supported SoFi's Q1 2026 net interest margin of 5.94%. Net interest income also jumped 781% from $252 million in 2021 to over $2.2 billion in 2025.
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Deposits are considered extremely sticky, as they establish a bank's direct relationship with where customers park their money. SoFi's savings account pays a standard annual percentage yield of 3.1%, well above the national average, which also attracts capital.
The fact that SoFi's deposit base is expanding so quickly is a sign of heightened demand from individuals for a tech-enabled platform with a superior user experience. This bodes well for the company's long-term success. Management expects adjusted earnings per share to increase at a compound annual rate of 40% (at the midpoint) over the next three years.
Without a national bank charter that drastically lowered its funding costs and opened up the capital floodgates, these profit gains would not be possible. An expanding earnings stream is just what this fintech stock's investors want to see.
Core Scientific přechází z těžby Bitcoinu na poskytovatele AI colocation; tržby z colocation v 1. čtvrtletí 2026 vyskočily na 77,5 mil. USD a tvoří už hlavní segment.
SummaryCore Scientific is transitioning from a volatile Bitcoin miner to a high-density AI colocation provider with long-duration, contracted revenue streams.Q1 2026 results show colocation revenue surged to $77.5M, now the dominant segment, with gross profit margins of 57% and a multi-gigawatt power pipeline.The expanded CoreWeave partnership validates CORZ’s AI infrastructure pivot, supporting $10B+ in contracted revenue and 590MW leased, with further upside from pipeline conversion.Despite high leverage and customer concentration risks, CORZ offers high-risk/high-reward exposure to scarce AI power infrastructure amid industry-wide supply constraints. JasonDoiy/iStock via Getty Images
Investment Thesis Core Scientific (CORZ) is one of the most interesting ways, as a public market participant, to gain exposure to the bottleneck that is at the center of the build-out for AI: energized land, contracted power, and the
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Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have no stock, option or similar derivative position in any of the companies mentioned, and no plans to initiate any such positions within the next 72 hours. 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.
MercadoLibre zůstává pod tlakem, protože agresivní investice stlačují marže, i když tržby dál rychle rostou. Celkové tržby v konstantní měně vzrostly o 46 % meziročně.
The market is soaring, but MercadoLibre (MELI +1.27%) is down 30% over the past year. Investors have soured on the Latin American financial technology and e-commerce player because of its aggressive investments, which are eroding profit margins.
It has been left for dead, with shares up only 10% over the last five years, while the broad market S&P 500 index is up close to 100% over the same timeframe. However, it's at this moment that MercadoLibre looks like a fantastic investment for anyone with a time horizon longer than next quarter. Here's why you should consider buying even more of MercadoLibre as the stock inches lower.
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Playing the long game MercadoLibre operates in two sectors with some strong overlap: financial technology and e-commerce. In e-commerce, it is building an "everything store" similar to Amazon in Latin American countries, investing in fast delivery, a wide selection, and a bundled subscription offering.
Its current crop of investments in free delivery for close to all orders in Brazil has temporarily reduced profit margins. At the same time, it has accelerated revenue growth in the country. In Q1 2026, total commerce revenue grew 47% year over year last quarter in constant currency, on top of 57% growth in the same quarter a year ago.
More buyers, more shopping volume, and more revenue are being spent on MercadoLibre's e-commerce marketplace. This will mean a short-term hit to margins, but it should also lead to a long-term competitive advantage for the business. The same can be said for its MercadoPago consumer finance segment. MercadoPago is accelerating its acquisition of credit card customers to deepen its relationship as a banking application and drive more spending on the MercadoLibre online marketplace.
When a credit card customer is acquired, it requires the bank -- in this case, MercadoLibre -- to allocate loan losses over the life of the customer relationship, which means an upfront hit to margins if many customers are acquired. With all these new credit card customers, MercadoLibre's fintech revenue grew 54% year over year last quarter.
Overall, MercadoLibre's revenue is growing 46% year over year in constant currency, making it one of the fastest-growing large-cap technology players today. However, investors are still not happy because of the short-term hit this accelerated growth has had on profit margins.
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Why MercadoLibre's stock is cheap today Last quarter, MercadoLibre's overall operating margin fell to 6.9%, and it may fall further in the quarters ahead due to the upfront investments discussed above. This has investors very nervous, but it should not be misconstrued as MercadoLibre losing its lead in e-commerce and consumer finance in Latin America.
Long-term, MercadoLibre should be able to regain or surpass its previous high profit margin of 16%, if not exceed it, due to increased scale, higher-margin fintech revenue, and faster-growing advertising revenue (which is growing faster than the overall business). Combined with a business with a long history of growing revenue at a fast, double-digit rate, it is plausible that the company's revenue of $31.8 billion could climb to $100 billion over the next five years or so. A 15% profit margin would equate to $15 billion in earnings for MercadoLibre five years from now.
Today, MercadoLibre's stock trades at a market cap of $88 billion. Assuming the stock trades at 20x earnings five years from now -- which is a reasonable level for a fast-growing stock, if not a discount -- then MercadoLibre will have a market cap of $300 billion within five years. Buying at today's market cap would deliver north of 20% annualized returns before dividends or buybacks, likely beating the market. This makes MercadoLibre an easy stock to buy on the dip right now.
