Track market-moving stories before they get noisy

Jabil (JBL - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $305.26, moving +1.26% from the previous trading session. This change outpaced the S&P 500's 0.33% loss on the day. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 0.7%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 0.12%.

The electronics manufacturer's stock has dropped by 4.32% in the past month, falling short of the Computer and Technology sector's gain of 7.52% and the S&P 500's gain of 3.87%.

The upcoming earnings release of Jabil will be of great interest to investors. The company is expected to report EPS of $4.05, up 23.1% from the prior-year quarter. Alongside, our most recent consensus estimate is anticipating revenue of $9.61 billion, indicating a 16.51% upward movement from the same quarter last year.

For the annual period, the Zacks Consensus Estimates anticipate earnings of $12.74 per share and a revenue of $34.97 billion, signifying shifts of +30.67% and +17.33%, respectively, from the last year.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Jabil. These latest adjustments often mirror the shifting dynamics of short-term business patterns. Consequently, upward revisions in estimates express analysts' positivity towards the business operations and its ability to generate profits.

Our research suggests that these changes in estimates have a direct relationship with upcoming stock price performance. To utilize this, we have created the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model that integrates these estimate changes and provides a functional rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, which varies between #1 (Strong Buy) and #5 (Strong Sell), carries an impressive track record of exceeding expectations, confirmed by external audits, with stocks at #1 delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has remained steady. As of now, Jabil holds a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

With respect to valuation, Jabil is currently being traded at a Forward P/E ratio of 23.66. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 25.02, which means Jabil is trading at a discount to the group.

One should further note that JBL currently holds a PEG ratio of 0.83. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. As of the close of trade yesterday, the Electronics - Manufacturing Services industry held an average PEG ratio of 0.72.

The Electronics - Manufacturing Services industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. Currently, this industry holds a Zacks Industry Rank of 7, positioning it in the top 3% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Remember to apply Zacks.com to follow these and more stock-moving metrics during the upcoming trading sessions.

In the latest trading session, Chewy (CHWY - Free Report) closed at $23.80, marking a +2.32% move from the previous day. The stock's change was more than the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.33%. On the other hand, the Dow registered a loss of 0.7%, and the technology-centric Nasdaq decreased by 0.12%.

Coming into today, shares of the online pet store had gained 2.92% in the past month. In that same time, the Retail-Wholesale sector gained 2.78%, while the S&P 500 gained 3.87%.

The upcoming earnings release of Chewy will be of great interest to investors. The company's earnings report is expected on September 9, 2026. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.36, up 9.09% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the latest consensus estimate predicts the revenue to be $3.32 billion, indicating a 6.83% increase compared to the same quarter of the previous year.

For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $1.53 per share and revenue of $13.49 billion, which would represent changes of +20.47% and +7.06%, respectively, from the prior year.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for Chewy. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the business and profitability.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, stretching from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has a noteworthy track record of outperforming, validated by third-party audits, with stocks rated #1 producing an average annual return of +25% since the year 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.31% lower within the past month. Chewy is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that Chewy has a Forward P/E ratio of 15.25 right now. This signifies a discount in comparison to the average Forward P/E of 17.22 for its industry.

It's also important to note that CHWY currently trades at a PEG ratio of 0.62. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. As the market closed yesterday, the Internet - Commerce industry was having an average PEG ratio of 1.24.

The Internet - Commerce industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 101, which puts it in the top 42% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank evaluates the power of our distinct industry groups by determining the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks forming the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.

Hims & Hers Health, Inc. (NYSE: HIMS), the leading global health and wellness platform, today announced it is now serving customers in Australia, marking the company's first-ever presence in the Asia-Pacific market. The entry follows Hims & Hers' acquisition of Eucalyptus earlier this year and begins with the rebrand of Pilot, Eucalyptus' men's health platform, marking the first Eucalyptus brand to transition to the Hims brand.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260831983529/en/

Australia represents a meaningful growth opportunity for Hims & Hers' international business. The country's telehealth sector is projected to grow to USD $2.56 billion by 2034. We expect the Australian market to play an important role in helping us reach $1B in international annual revenue within the next three years. That opportunity is underscored by unmet demand: nearly 30% of Pilot's patients live in regional and rural Australia, where getting care for some of the most important health issues men face has too often meant a long drive, a long wait, or going without. Pairing Pilot's local trust and clinical expertise with Hims & Hers' proven digital platform is designed to convert that need into durable growth.

Effective today, Pilot becomes Hims. Customers will keep the treatment plans and provider relationships they rely on, now backed by the world's largest consumer health platform.

"Eucalyptus started in Australia, and it feels right that our journey with Hims starts here too," said Tim Doyle, founder and former CEO of Eucalyptus, now Senior Vice President of International at Hims & Hers. "Pilot proved that Australian men want a different model of healthcare: one that’s proactive, personal, and built around their lives. Responding to that demand is the next step of our journey. We’re taking everything we learned in Pilot’s first years and using it to help even more men get the care they need, in Australia and beyond."

"As a practising GP, I've seen how often men wait too long to act on something that was manageable if caught early," said Matt Vickers, FRACGP, MBBS, BMedSci, AICGG, Chief Medical Officer of Hims Australia. "This launch doesn't trade clinical rigor for convenience — every treatment plan is grounded in the same evidence-based standards I'd want for my own patients, just delivered in a way that fits into a man's life instead of asking him to work around it. That's how we actually move the needle on men's health outcomes here, not just access to it."

To best serve Australian customers, Hims is investing in localized leadership and specialized medical expertise. Tim Doyle will oversee the Australian market alongside Gus Wood, General Manager of Australia. Dr. Matt Vickers, FRACGP, MBBS, BMedSci, AICGG, will serve as Chief Medical Officer of Hims Australia, ensuring care is grounded in local clinical standards.

About Hims & Hers Health, Inc.

Hims & Hers is the leading global health and wellness platform on a mission to help the world feel great through the power of better health. We believe how you feel in your body and mind transforms how you show up in life. That’s why we’re building a future where nothing stands in the way of harnessing this power. Hims & Hers normalizes health & wellness challenges—and innovates on their solutions—to make feeling happy and healthy easy to achieve. No two people are the same, so the Company provides access to personalized care designed for results. For more information, please visit hims.com.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This communication includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology, including the words “anticipates,” “expects,” “intends,” “plans,” “decides,” “may,” “will,” “likely,” “potential,” “future,” “over time,” “coming,” “hope,” or “should,” or, in each case, their negative or other variations or comparable terminology. There can be no assurance that actual results will not materially differ from expectations. Such statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding Hims & Hers' expansion into Australia, our long-term financial targets, revenue expectations with respect to the Australian market, the transition from Pilot to Hims, including available offerings, and assumptions relating to the foregoing. These statements are based on management's current expectations, but actual results may differ materially due to various factors.

Forward-looking statements are neither historical facts nor assurances of future performance. Instead, the forward-looking statements contained in this communication are based on our current expectations, assumptions and beliefs concerning future developments and their potential effects on us. Future developments affecting us may not be those that we have anticipated. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties (some of which are beyond our control) and other assumptions that may cause actual results or performance to be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, uncertainties relating to our ability to successfully integrate Eucalyptus and rebrand Eucalyptus’ brands; uncertainties relating to the transition from Pilot to Hims, including our ability to retain Pilot's existing patients and provider relationships through the transition; our ability to achieve anticipated revenue, growth, and other benefits from our expansion into Australia and other international markets; competitive dynamics in the Australian men's health market; our ability to achieve our long-term financial targets; risks associated with international operations; changes in the application, interpretation and enforcement of healthcare, consumer protection, privacy or other laws and regulations applicable to our business; and other factors described in the Risk Factors and other sections of our most recently filed Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, our most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K, and other current and periodic reports we file from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should any of our assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary in material respects from those projected in these forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this communication are made only as of the date of this communication. We undertake no obligation (and expressly disclaim any obligation) to update or revise any forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that may or may not occur in the future. We caution you that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and that our actual results may differ materially from those made in or suggested by the forward-looking statements contained in this communication.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260831983529/en/

Nvidia announced a program to collect revenue on the same chip twice, once at sale and again through ongoing cloud profits, then paused it weeks later after internal warnings about antitrust exposure. The retreat raises a question the market has…

NVIDIA’s (NASDAQ:NVDA | NVDA Price Prediction) $96.22 billion quarter and 105.85% revenue growth would normally end the conversation. Instead, management disclosed a plan to earn a second time on every chip sold to smaller cloud providers. Days later, parts of the initiative had been paused less than two months after its announcement, with some employees warning internally about potential antitrust scrutiny.

NVIDIA still runs the most profitable franchise in semiconductors, but the speed of the retreat is the story worth examining.

How the Same Chip Was Supposed to Pay Twice The mechanism is unusual. NVIDIA would guarantee or rent unused capacity from a smaller cloud provider, which gave lenders the certainty needed to finance the hardware purchase.

CFO Colette Kress described it directly on the call: “NVIDIA provides a take or pay commitment on a portion of the facility’s capacity, a minimum revenue guarantee that gives lenders the confidence to underwrite the project, and in exchange, we share in a portion of the Neocloud’s revenue earned above that floor.”

Above the guaranteed floor, NVIDIA would collect 50% of cloud revenue. Management summarized the economics without euphemism: “In this model, we get paid twice, once on the hardware sale and again through the share of rental revenue.”

A capital-starved cloud provider gets financeable, NVIDIA books the sale, and then rides the utilization curve on hardware it already sold. The structure effectively converts a one-time transaction into a recurring revenue stream tied to compute usage, without requiring NVIDIA to operate the infrastructure itself.

Why the Math Was Too Good to Ignore NVIDIA does not need this program to justify its $5.25 trillion market cap. Data Center revenue was $89.023 billion last quarter, up 117%.

But the second revenue stream would layer recurring economics onto a transactional business. Management said it could “drive billions in revenue over the medium to long term.”

It also unlocks a customer tier that hyperscalers cannot serve. Jensen Huang argued the non-hyperscaler market is “half of the picture” and largely invisible to investors.

NVIDIA’s $108.5 billion in guarantee obligations and a partnership with Apollo, BlackRock, Blackstone, Brookfield, Goldman Sachs, and KKR to mobilize over $500 billion in third-party capital show the scale of ambition. Kress said balance-sheet-supported labs would account for “roughly a quarter of our business next year.”

Where the Antitrust Problem Starts The problem is control. If NVIDIA decides which providers get guaranteed capacity, it also decides which providers can borrow, build, and compete.

Management preempted the criticism: “We recognize the scale of this support, and we know some will call this circular financing. We see it differently.”

Seeing it differently is not the same as regulators seeing it differently. Internal warnings about antitrust exposure preceded any external agency review, which is telling.

Huang leaned on fungibility as the risk answer: “The NVIDIA Compute platform is fungible and durable and can be redeployed to support other customers.”

That defends NVIDIA’s downside but does not defend against the argument that the company is picking winners in the downstream compute market it already dominates on the supply side. Regulators tend to focus on gatekeeping power rather than on whether the gatekeeper can find alternative buyers, and that distinction is where the program becomes vulnerable.

What the Pause Actually Signals Pausing a program within weeks of announcing it is the kind of decision a legal team forces on a strategy team. The initiative is not dead. It could be redesigned, narrowed, or folded into the broader third-party capital platform.

Shares closed at $217.55, up 14.49% over the past month. Analysts have an average target of $305.79, with 48 buy ratings and 2 holds.

The market is not pricing regulatory risk here, which is itself a position worth questioning at 26x forward earnings. Riding an AI rally is fine as long as you have thought through the exit, and we made the case for both halves in a free bubble survivor’s handbook.

NVIDIA found a genuinely clever way to unlock demand that would not otherwise exist, but the design pushed control one step further than a dominant supplier can comfortably go. Watch whether the revenue-share language returns in narrower form, or whether the $500 billion third-party capital vehicle quietly absorbs what the direct guarantees were meant to do.

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

BlackRock is facing a new lawsuit alleging it stiffed a former worker out of $12.4 million – and the case could force the asset manager to reveal its secretive pay package structure, The Post has learned.

Neal Dignum, a former director in BlackRock’s Long Term Private Capital fund, is accusing BlackRock of failing to pay a single cent of the carried interest it promised him as part of his pay package, according to documents filed in New York State Supreme Court Monday.

During his time at the company, from November 2021 to February 2023, BlackRock deliberately never put pen to paper to create a promised compensation agreement with Dignum, his lawyers alleged.

BlackRock is facing a new lawsuit alleging it stiffed a former worker out of $12 million. AP “Mr. Dignum has for years now been deprived of the compensation BlackRock promised to pay him,” Lauren Zimmerman, partner at Benesch Friedlander Coplan & Aronoff LLP, told The Post in a statement.

“BlackRock decided it did not want to keep its end of the bargain it struck, even after aggressively courting my client for months. We look forward to fully and openly vindicating his rights in Court.”

BlackRock did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.

The complaint in the case contains an offer letter and a term sheet from BlackRock that broke down the details of the carried interest the firm promised to pay him, “as a means of inducing him to accept the Firm’s offer,” according to a memorandum.

Carried interest is a share of an investment fund’s profits that is typically paid to hedge fund managers as a performance incentive. 

It often makes up the bulk of their salary, accounting for at least 84% of managing partners’ total compensation on average, according to a 2021 survey by Heidrick & Struggles. Among partners at larger firms, that share can jump to well over 90%.

The complaint is currently sealed because Dignum fears BlackRock will file a retaliatory counterclaim against him, citing the firm’s “signature aggression,” since he signed a stringent NDA as part of his employment agreement, court filings alleged.

BlackRock, which is based in New York City, is the world’s largest asset manager with over $15.3 trillion in assets under management. AP BlackRock’s employee NDA is “extremely broad in scope,” his lawyers argued in the filing.

Dignum wants the details of his lawsuit to be made public, so he is requesting BlackRock be ordered to come to court if it wants anything permanently sealed or redacted, the memorandum said.

To keep the complaint permanently sealed from the public, BlackRock would need to argue that it contains “trade secrets, confidential business information, or proprietary information,” the filing said – and if it fails to do so, its compensation structure could be revealed in court.

BlackRock has been in possession of a draft of Dignum’s complaint for nearly three months and has yet to respond in any way, the filings alleged.

The sealed complaint also contains information about “the approximate growth of the LTPC fund during Mr. Dignum’s tenure,” the filing said. The fund began winding down in 2024, so the details should not be held from the public, it argued.

BlackRock, which is based in New York City, is the world’s largest asset manager with over $15.3 trillion in assets under management.

Additional reporting by Peter Senzamici

The latest earnings season has been a solid one for artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor companies, as healthy demand for data center infrastructure has driven impressive growth among chipmakers and chip designers.

This explains why the latest quarterly reports of Nvidia (NVDA +1.49%) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD +1.10%) exceeded expectations. However, the market's attention will now turn to Micron Technology (MU +2.77%), which will release its fiscal 2026 fourth-quarter results on Sept. 30. While there is still some time to go before Micron releases its quarterly report, I think that this semiconductor stock could be the biggest mover among AI companies in September.

Let's look at the reasons why.

Image source: Micron Technology.

Nvidia and AMD's results clearly indicate that the AI trade is alive The past couple of months have been turbulent for Micron stock investors. It has dropped 11% since releasing its fiscal Q3 results on June 24. However, recent results from AMD, Nvidia, and other semiconductor companies clearly indicate that AI infrastructure demand remains robust.

Premium Feature

Moneyball Superscore

91/100

Today's Change

(

2.77

%) $

25.87

Current Price

$

958.73

Nvidia reported a 106% year-over-year increase in revenue for the second quarter of fiscal 2027. What's more, the semiconductor bellwether notes that its revenue growth could land at a healthy 70% in fiscal 2028, well above the consensus estimate of 44%. However, Nvidia's growth could be stronger than that, as the company notes its forecast accounts for supply chain constraints.

AMD, on the other hand, posted a year-over-year jump of 50% in Q2 revenue. It projects a 41% increase in revenue for the current quarter. Importantly, AMD management believes that its long-term revenue could "grow substantially above our prior target of greater than 35%, and we expect to significantly exceed our $20 annual EPS target within our strategic timeframe."

AMD management also added that demand for high-performance computing could grow at an annual rate of 40% over the long term, presenting a $2 trillion revenue opportunity for chipmakers in 2030.

These sunny forecasts from AMD and Nvidia bode well for Micron. After all, Micron sells a critical component that helps the AI chips designed by Nvidia and AMD to perform tasks seamlessly. The dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips that Micron manufactures help transport massive amounts of data rapidly to AI accelerators while maintaining low power consumption.

So, Nvidia and AMD's chips don't have to sit idle and wait for data, thanks to Micron's chips. Not surprisingly, these chip designers are packing large amounts of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) into their chips. Nvidia's NVL72 rack-scale server system carries more than 20 terabytes (TB) of HBM. AMD, on the other hand, is offering 31 TB of HBM on its Helios rack-scale system.

Strong shipments of these AI server racks should ensure that the demand for Micron's memory remains solid, especially because manufacturing HBM requires nearly 4x more wafer capacity over traditional memory chips. Also, Nvidia noted on the latest earnings call that the capital expenditures of the top five U.S. hyperscalers could increase from $800 billion this year to $1.3 trillion in 2027.

As such, the stage seems set for a strong rally in Micron stock in September, ahead of its earnings report. A big reason that's likely to be the case is its extremely attractive valuation.

Micron's valuation suggests that the stock is poised for a breakout in September Micron is priced like a value stock even though it has been clocking exponential growth. Analysts are expecting its revenue to jump by a whopping 348% year over year in fiscal Q4 to $50.8 billion. Earnings per share, meanwhile, could increase by more than 10x year over year to $31.28.

However, Micron's price-to-earnings ratio is just 21, suggesting the market isn't pricing in its tremendous growth potential. The forward earnings multiple of 6 is even cheaper. For a company that's expected to clock triple-digit earnings-per-share growth over the long run, Micron's valuation clearly suggests that it could make a parabolic move.

Moreover, Micron is expected to clock significantly faster growth than Nvidia and AMD, and it is way cheaper than both.

Data by YCharts

All this makes Micron a top AI stock to buy right now, as September could bring about a turnaround in its fortunes.

 | Source: Stryker Corporation

Portage, Mich., USA, Aug. 31, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

Stryker has signed a definitive agreement to acquire ZuriMED, developer of the FiberLocker System, a commercialized technology that provides a novel approach for rotator cuff augmentation designed for increased biomechanical strength.The acquisition strengthens Stryker’s shoulder portfolio, enhancing its ability to support specialists across the continuum of care.The FiberLocker System is a soft tissue augmentation technology designed to reduce the occurrence of a key clinical failure mode in rotator cuff repair, one of the fastest-growing segments in sports medicine.
Stryker (NYSE:SYK), a global leader in medical technologies, announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire ZuriMED, a privately held company and developer of the FiberLocker® System. This commercialized technology provides a novel approach for rotator cuff augmentation with increased biomechanical strength to address a key clinical failure mode in rotator cuff repair.

Rotator cuff augmentation is one of the fastest-growing areas in sports medicine and represents a significant opportunity within shoulder care.1 The acquisition will enhance Stryker’s ability to support shoulder specialists across both sports medicine and arthroplasty, strengthening its portfolio in rotator cuff augmentation.

“ZuriMED has developed a differentiated technology that addresses an important clinical need within shoulder care,” said Andy Pierce, Group President, MedSurg and Neurotechnology, Stryker. “We are excited about the opportunity to add the FiberLocker System to Stryker’s portfolio. This acquisition reflects our continued commitment to advancing innovation and improving patient outcomes.”

This transaction is subject to customary closing conditions. Stryker and ZuriMED will continue to operate as separate entities and proceed with business as usual until the transaction closes.

About Stryker        
Stryker is a global leader in medical technologies and, together with our customers, we are driven to make healthcare better. We offer innovative products and services in MedSurg, Neurotechnology and Orthopaedics that help improve patient and healthcare outcomes. Alongside our customers around the world, we impact more than 150 million patients annually. More information is available at www.stryker.com.

Contacts
For investor inquiries:
Nick Mead
Vice President, Investor Relations
[email protected]

For media inquiries:
Kim Montagnino
Vice President, Chief Communications Officer
[email protected]

References

Mordor Intelligence. Rotator Cuff Treatment Market Size and Share Analysis – Growth, Trends, and Forecasts (2026–2031). Mordor Intelligence report.

Southwest Airlines just fell harder than every major carrier and the entire sector fund combined, and the reason traces back to one strategic decision the airline made long before oil prices turned ugly.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV | LUV Price Prediction) stock has emerged as the sector’s biggest laggard over the past month, and the reason pertains to a single strategic decision made well before crude oil turned higher this summer.

Southwest Airlines shares are down 2% to $38.67 in Monday midday trading, and the stock has fallen 14% over the past month. That trails the main U.S. carriers and a well-known airline sector fund.

The U.S. Global Jets ETF (NYSEARCA:JETS) is down 9% to $28.50 over the past month, so the entire group repriced together. Southwest Airlines stock simply fell the most, and the gap between Southwest Airlines and the fund is what this article has to explain.

Fuel Repricing Hit the Whole Group The peer moves confirm a broad sector event. Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) stock is down 11% over the past month. American Airlines Group (NASDAQ:AAL) stock is down 12% over the past month.

United Airlines Holdings (NASDAQ:UAL) stock is down 11% over the past month. Crude oil strengthened through the month, and U.S. strikes on Iranian targets pushed WTI crude oil above $86 in the current session. Jet fuel is an airline’s largest variable cost, which is why the whole group fell together.

Why Southwest Airlines Fell Hardest Southwest Airlines discontinued its fuel hedging program, leaving it fully exposed to price swings that hedged peers can absorb more gradually. That’s the cleanest available explanation for Southwest Airlines underperforming three larger carriers and the sector fund at the same time.

The guidance reset amplified the pressure. On July 23, Southwest Airlines replaced its prior full-year 2026 adjusted EPS guidance of at least $4 with a range of $3.25 to $4.25, reflecting the forward fuel curve as of July 17 and an estimated year-to-date fuel headwind of $1.33 per share. That lowered the earnings bar just before this month’s decline.

The bull side is genuinely strong. Southwest Airlines’ second-quarter 2026 adjusted EPS reached $0.94, up 120% year over year, with adjusted operating revenue setting a record of $8.7 billion on capacity growth of just 0.2% and adjusted operating margin expanding to 6.7%. CEO Bob Jordan stated on the second-quarter 2026 call, “While fuel prices have remained volatile and elevated, industry recapture has been swift and pricing has remained sticky.” Southwest Airlines’ managed business revenue grew 30% year over year and Southwest Airlines ended the quarter with $5.3 billion of liquidity.

The bear side is equally direct. The operating improvement is real, yet fuel is outrunning it, and with no hedges Southwest Airlines has no buffer if crude oil keeps climbing. Southwest Airlines also guided fourth-quarter capacity up 4% to 4.5% year over year, its largest sequential third-to-fourth-quarter increase, adding seats into a market where costs are rising.

What to Watch Next Investors can watch for the next monthly jet fuel print and any Southwest Airlines commentary on whether industry pricing continues to recapture the fuel move. If crude oil holds above $86, the fuel curve embedded inside the $3.25 to $4.25 EPS range gets meaningfully harder to hit, and the same math applies to Delta Air Lines, American Airlines Group and United Airlines Holdings.

Cautious position sizing should be considered with airline stocks now, including LUV stock. With no hedge program to smooth results, Southwest Airlines carries more single-variable risk than Delta Air Lines or United Airlines Holdings on any given fuel move, so anyone weighing a starter position should size to that volatility rather than to the second-quarter headline. The next scheduled catalyst is Q3 2026 earnings, when management could narrow or refresh the full-year range and either validate the transformation thesis or confirm that fuel has taken over the story.

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., Aug. 31, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ARRAY Technologies (NASDAQ: ARRY) (“ARRAY” or the “Company”), a leading global provider of solar tracking technology and fixed-tilt products, foundation solutions, software systems and services, today announced the successful completion of its acquisition of Affordable Wire Management, LLC (“AWM”), a leading provider of wire management, cable protection, and balance-of-system solutions for utility-scale solar and energy storage projects.

The strategic acquisition broadens ARRAY’s portfolio of complementary balance-of-system solutions, strengthens its ability to serve utility-scale solar and distributed generation customers, and is expected to create new growth opportunities in battery energy storage and datacenter infrastructure.

“This is an important milestone for ARRAY and another step in our strategy to provide customers with a more comprehensive, integrated portfolio of solutions,” said Kevin G. Hostetler, Chief Executive Officer of ARRAY. “AWM brings innovative products, strong engineering capabilities, a reputation for quality and customer service, and an experienced and proven leadership team. Together, we believe we are better positioned to simplify project design and installation, improve system performance, and deliver greater value across solar, storage, and datacenter markets.”

AWM’s products organize, secure, and protect electrical wiring to improve system reliability, safety, installation efficiency, and long-term performance. Its proprietary designs are engineered to provide greater durability, enhanced thermal management, and lower resistive losses than conventional solutions.

“We are incredibly excited for AWM’s future as we officially join ARRAY,” said Scott Rand, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of AWM. “ARRAY’s scale, customer relationships, and global reach provide a strong platform to accelerate our growth and bring AWM’s solutions to more customers. Our teams share a culture of innovation and a relentless focus on the customer, and we look forward to the opportunities ahead.”

“Combining AWM’s wire management and balance-of-system products with ARRAY’s tracking, fixed-tilt, and foundation platform creates compelling opportunities to deliver integrated solutions engineered to work together,” said Dan Smith, Chief Technology Officer and co-founder of AWM. “We believe this combination will enable us to simplify design, improve installation, and reduce costs for customers.”

The acquisition is expected to be at least high single digit accretive to ARRAY’s Adjusted EPS in the first year before synergies.

For more information about ARRAY Technologies and its industry-leading solar tracking solutions, visit www.arraytechinc.com.

Advisors & Additional Resources

Jefferies LLC acted as exclusive financial advisor, Jones Day acted as legal advisor, and Edelman Smithfield acted as strategic communications advisor to ARRAY. First Liberties Financial acted as exclusive financial advisor, and Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C. acted as legal advisor to AWM.

Additional information regarding the transaction will be included in a Current Report on Form 8-K to be filed by ARRAY with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”).

About Affordable Wire Management, LLC
Affordable Wire Management, LLC is a provider of wire management, cable protection, and balance-of-system solutions for the solar and energy storage industries, serving utility-scale and distributed generation customers across North America and select international markets.

About ARRAY Technologies 
ARRAY Technologies (NASDAQ: ARRY) is a leading global provider of solar tracking technology and fixed-tilt systems to utility-scale and distributed generation customers who construct, develop, and operate solar photovoltaic sites. With solutions engineered to withstand harsh weather conditions, ARRAY’s high-quality solar trackers, fixed-tilt systems, software platforms, foundation solutions, and field services combine to maximize energy production and deliver value to our customers for the entire lifecycle of a project. Founded and headquartered in the United States, ARRAY is rooted in manufacturing and driven by technology – relying on its domestic manufacturing, diversified global supply chain, and customer-centric approach to design, deliver, commission, train, and support solar energy deployment around the world. For more news and information on ARRAY, please visit www.arraytechinc.com. 

Forward Looking Statement 
This press release contains forward-looking statements that are based on our management’s beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to our management. Forward-looking statements include statements that are not historical facts and can be identified by terms such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “seek,” “should,” “will,” “would,” or similar expressions and the negatives of those terms. These include statements regarding the acquisition of AWM, including the anticipated benefits and synergies, the anticipated impact on the Company’s business and future financial and operating results, and the timing of expected synergies and returns from the transaction. Our actual results and the timing of events could materially differ from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements as a result of risks and uncertainties, including without limitation: the Company’s ability to integrate AWM’s operations successfully and in the expected time period; the Company’s ability to achieve the strategic and other objectives relating to the transaction; risks relating to any unforeseen liabilities of AWM; changes in growth or the rate of growth in demand for solar energy projects; factors outside of our control affecting the variability and demand for solar energy, including but not limited to, the retail price of electricity, availability of in-demand components like high-voltage breakers, various policies related to the permitting and interconnection costs of solar plants, and the availability of incentives for solar energy and solar energy production systems, which makes it difficult to predict our future prospects; competitive pressures within our industry, competition from conventional and renewable energy sources; a loss of one or more of our significant customers, their inability to perform under their contracts, or their default in payment; a drop in the price of electricity derived from the utility grid or from alternative energy sources; fluctuations in our results of operations across fiscal periods, which could make our future performance difficult to predict and could cause our results of operations for a particular period to fall below expectations; any increase in interest rates, or a reduction in the availability of tax equity or project debt capital in the global financial markets, which could make it difficult for customers to finance the cost of a solar energy system and reduce the demand for our products; existing electric utility industry policies and regulations, and any subsequent changes or new related policies and regulations, including as a result of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which may present technical, regulatory and economic barriers to the purchase and use of solar energy systems and may significantly reduce demand for our products or harm our ability to compete; the interruption of the flow of materials from international vendors, which could disrupt our supply chain, including as a result of the imposition of new and/or additional duties, tariffs and other charges or restrictions on imports and exports; changes in the global trade environment, including the continuation or imposition of import tariffs or other import restrictions; geopolitical, macroeconomic and other market conditions unrelated to our operating performance including but not limited to a pandemic, the Ukraine-Russia war, attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and Straight of Hormuz, conflict in the Middle East, changing trade policies, and inflation and interest rates; our ability to convert our orders in backlog into revenue; the reduction, elimination or expiration, or our failure to optimize the benefits of government incentives for, or regulations mandating the use of, renewable energy and solar energy, particularly in relation to our competitors, which could reduce demand for solar energy systems; failure to, or incurrence of significant costs in order to, obtain, maintain, protect, defend or enforce, our intellectual property and other proprietary rights; delays in construction projects and any failure to manage our inventory; significant changes in the cost of raw materials; disruptions to transportation and logistics, including increases in shipping costs; defects or performance problems in our products, which could result in loss of customers, reputational damage and decreased revenue; delays, disruptions or quality control problems in our product development operations; our ability to retain our key personnel or failure to attract additional qualified personnel; additional business, financial, regulatory and competitive risks due to our continued planned expansion into new markets; cybersecurity or other data incidents, including unauthorized disclosure of personal or sensitive data or theft of confidential information and the use of artificial intelligence by cyber threat actors; a failure to maintain an effective system of integrated internal controls over financial reporting, which may impair our ability to report our financial results accurately; our substantial indebtedness, risks related to actual or threatened public health epidemics, pandemics, outbreaks or crises; changes to laws and regulations, including changes to tax laws and regulations, that are applied adversely to us or our customers; our ability to successfully integrate AWM into our existing operations, realize the anticipated benefits or synergies of the acquisition, and achieve strategic or other objectives relating to the acquisition; risks related to any unforeseen liabilities of AWM; and other factors listed and described in more detail in the section captioned “Risk Factors” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K, our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and our other documents on file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, each of which can be found on our website, www.arraytechinc.com.

Given these uncertainties, you should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Also, forward-looking statements represent our management’s beliefs and assumptions only as of the date of this press release. You should read this press release with the understanding that our actual future results may be materially different from what we expect. Except as required by law, we assume no obligation to update these forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future.

Non-GAAP Financial Information

This press release references certain financial measures that are not presented in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, including ARRAY’s Adjusted EPS. We define Adjusted net (loss) income as net (loss) income to common stockholders plus (i) amortization of intangibles, (ii) amortization of developed technology and backlog, (iii) amortization of debt discount and issuance costs, (iv) Series A preferred stock accretion, (v) equity-based compensation, (vi) change in fair value of contingent consideration, (vii) certain legal expenses, (viii) acquisition-related expenses, and (ix) income tax expense adjustments. We define Adjusted net (loss) income per common share as Adjusted net (loss) income divided by the basic and diluted weighted average number of shares outstanding for the applicable period.

Media Contact 
Steven Kirsch
+1 505-738-6923
[email protected]  

Investor Relations Contact 
ARRAY Technologies
Investor Relations
[email protected] 

Super Micro Computer Investigation Initiated: Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC Investigates the Officers and Directors of Super Micro Computer, Inc. - SMCI Former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., Esq., a partner at the law firm of Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC (“KSF”), announces that KSF has commenced an investigation into Super Micro Computer, Inc. (“Super Micro” or the “Company”) (NasdaqGS: SMCI).

On March 19, 2026, post-market, the U.S. Department of Justice announced the unsealing of an indictment against three individuals associated with the Company, Yih-Shyan Liaw (the Company’s co-founder, director, and Senior Vice President of Business Development), Ruei-Tsang Chang (“a general manager in the [Super Micro’s] Taiwan office),” and Ting-Wei Sun (“a third-party broker and fixer”), for engaging in a “scheme to divert massive quantities of servers housing U.S. artificial intelligence technology to customers in China” violating U.S. export control laws, in order to “drive sales and generate revenues in violation of U.S. law” and enabled the sale of “approximately $2.5 billion worth of servers” between 2024 and 2025.

Thereafter, the Company and certain of its executives were sued in a securities class action lawsuit, charging them with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period in violation of federal securities laws, which remains ongoing.

KSF’s investigation is focusing on whether Super Micro’s officers and/or directors breached their fiduciary duties to its shareholders or otherwise violated state or federal laws.

If you have information that would assist KSF in its investigation, or have been a long-term holder of Super Micro shares and would like to discuss your legal rights, you may, without obligation or cost to you, call toll-free at 1-833-538-3606 or email KSF Managing Partner Lewis Kahn ([email protected]), or visit https://ksfcounsel.com/cases/nasdaqgs-smci/ to learn more.

About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

KSF, whose partners include former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is one of the nation’s premier boutique securities litigation law firms. This past year, KSF was ranked by SCAS among the top 10 firms nationally based upon total settlement value. KSF serves a variety of clients, including public and private institutional investors, and retail investors - in seeking recoveries for investment losses emanating from corporate fraud or malfeasance by publicly traded companies. KSF has offices in New York, Delaware, California, Louisiana, Chicago, and a representative office in Luxembourg.

TOP 10 Plaintiff Law Firms - According to ISS Securities Class Action Services

To learn more about KSF, you may visit www.ksfcounsel.com.

CONNECT WITH US: Facebook || Instagram || YouTube || TikTok || LinkedIn

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260831189520/en/

Disclosures I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and have no plans to buy any new positions in the stocks mentioned within the next 72 hours.

Click for the complete disclosure

SANTA CRUZ, Calif., Aug. 31, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- West Coast Community Bancorp (the “Company”) (OTCQX: WCCB), the parent company of West Coast Community Bank, today announced that it has filed a Registration Statement on Form 10 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) to register its common stock under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”).

The filing of the Registration Statement follows the Company’s application to list its common stock on the Nasdaq Capital Market (“Nasdaq”).

Filing the Form 10 marks an important milestone for the Company. Upon the effectiveness of the Registration Statement, the Company will be subject to the reporting requirements of the Exchange Act, which will provide shareholders with enhanced disclosures about the Company that it believes will increase transparency. The Company also believes the proposed SEC registration and uplisting from the OTCQX Best Market to Nasdaq will increase visibility within the investment community and improve access to capital and liquidity for shareholders.

The Registration Statement has not been declared effective by the SEC. The Registration Statement will become effective following the formal conclusion of the SEC's review. An effective Registration Statement is a required step of the Nasdaq uplisting process. The Company’s common stock will continue to trade on the OTCQX under the ticker symbol "WCCB" until the Company is able to uplist to Nasdaq.

ABOUT WEST COAST COMMUNITY BANK AND WEST COAST COMMUNITY BANCORP

Founded in 2004, West Coast Community Bank is the wholly owned subsidiary of West Coast Community Bancorp, a bank holding company. The Bank is a top-rated, locally operated and full-service community bank headquartered in Santa Cruz, Calif. with branches in Aptos, Capitola, King City, Monterey, Salinas, San Jose, San Luis Obispo, Santa Cruz, Scotts Valley and Watsonville. West Coast Community Bank is distinguished from "big banks" by its relationship-based service, problem-solving focus and direct access to decision makers. The Bank also is an SBA Preferred Lending Partner. As a full-service bank, West Coast Community Bank offers competitive deposit and lending solutions for businesses and individuals; including business loans, lines of credit, commercial real estate financing, construction lending, asset-based lending, agricultural loans, SBA and USDA government guaranteed loans, credit cards, merchant services, remote deposit capture, mobile and online banking, bill payment and treasury management. True to its community roots, West Coast Community Bank supports regional well-being by actively participating in and donating to local nonprofit organizations. Visit www.wccb.com for more information.

Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains forward-looking statements, including statements regarding the expected effectiveness of the Company’s Registration Statement on Form 10 and uplisting of the Company’s common stock to the Nasdaq Capital Market and the potential benefits of such registration and listing. Words such as “believe,” “expect,” “estimate,” “project,” “forecast,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “plan,” “may,” “will,” “could,” “should,” “predicts,” “continue” and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements; however, the absence of these words does not mean the statements are not forward-looking. Forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, estimates and assumptions and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ include, but are not limited to, market conditions, the Company’s ability to secure effectiveness of the Form 10 and satisfy, or continue to satisfy, Nasdaq listing requirements and successfully uplist to Nasdaq, regulatory developments, economic conditions, interest rate changes, and competitive pressures and other risks described in the Company’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including those discussed in the Company’s Registration Statement on Form 10. Any anticipated benefits of the uplisting of the Company’s common stock to the Nasdaq Capital Market are subject to market conditions and other factors outside of the Company’s control and no assurance can be given as to the effect that the uplisting may have on the price or trading volume of its common stock or on the liquidity of an investment in its common stock. Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. West Coast Community Bancorp undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements except as required by law.

MEDIA CONTACTS
Krista Snelling, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Cecilia Situ, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
[email protected]

TEMPE, Ariz.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dutch Bros Inc. (NYSE: BROS) ("Dutch Bros" or the "Company"), one of the fastest-growing brands in the U.S. quick-service beverage industry, today announced that it elected not to increase its total offer for the previously announced site acquisition of up to 65 Salad and Go™ locations across Arizona, Nevada, Oklahoma and Texas.

“New shop growth is one of the most important drivers of our long-term strategy, and we remain highly confident in our path to 2,029 shops in 2029,” said Christine Barone, Chief Executive Officer and President of Dutch Bros. “We’ve always been disciplined in how we allocate capital. While we have chosen not to increase our original offer, we remain engaged in the process and will continue to evaluate opportunities where the total investment provides the appropriate return.”

Looking ahead, Dutch Bros will remain focused on its long-term strategy of investing in its people, delivering exceptional customer experiences, and thoughtfully expanding its presence across the country.

About Dutch Bros Inc.

Dutch Bros Inc. (NYSE: BROS) is a fun-loving, mind-blowing drive-thru specialty beverage leader dedicated to making a massive difference, one cup at a time. It was founded in Grants Pass, Oregon, in 1992 and now shares its vibrant culture and fully customizable drinks at 1,225 locations as of June 30, 2026. Dutch Bros Coffee serves a wide variety of unique, handcrafted beverages such as its exclusive Dutch Bros Rebel® energy drink, Myst Energy Refresher™, specialty coffee, nitrogen-infused cold brew, tea, lemonade, soda and more.

Dutch Bros Coffee is wholeheartedly focused on radiating kindness and sharing the Dutch Luv®. In addition to its mission of speed, quality and service, the Dutch Bros Foundation® is passionate about giving back to the communities it serves. Through local giving and annual nation-wide initiatives, the Dutch Bros Foundation makes impactful contributions to causes across the country.

To learn more about Dutch Bros, visit www.dutchbros.com, follow Dutch Bros Coffee on Instagram, Facebook, X, and TikTok, and download the Dutch Bros app to earn points and score rewards!

Forward-Looking Statements

In addition to historical information, this press release contains a number of “forward-looking statements” as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements regarding: receipt of applicable approvals and consummation of the proposed site acquisitions, and the timing and anticipated benefits of the proposed site acquisitions. These statements are based on Dutch Bros’ current expectations and beliefs, as well as a number of assumptions concerning future events. Such forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other important factors, many of which are outside Dutch Bros’ control that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements, including those related to Dutch Bros’ inability to recognize the anticipated benefits of the site acquisitions, Dutch Bros’ ability to hire and retain employees in connection with the site acquisitions or otherwise, any problems that may arise in successfully integrating acquired sites and assets, which may result in Dutch Bros not operating as effectively and efficiently as expected, or general economic conditions, and other risks, including those described in Dutch Bros’ Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on February 13, 2026, Dutch Bros’ Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2026, filed with the SEC on August 5, 2026, and in our future reports to be filed with the SEC. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of this date, and Dutch Bros undertakes no duty to update such information except as required under applicable law.

More News From Dutch Bros Inc.

Key Takeaways SoFi saw 51 of new products opened by existing members in Q2, up from 35% a year earlier.SoFi's non-lending offerings now account for 87% of total products, supporting lower-cost engagement.SoFi's adjusted net revenues rose 40% year over year, while adjusted EBITDA increased 44%. SoFi Technologies (SOFI - Free Report) is increasingly moving beyond its roots as an online lender toward becoming a broad digital financial-services platform. The company’s strategy rests on attracting members through products such as checking and savings, investing and financial planning, and then encouraging them to use additional services across the platform. As that ecosystem expands, the opportunity to increase customer engagement and lifetime value also grows.

This approach differentiates SoFi from fintech peers with more concentrated business models. Upstart Holdings (UPST - Free Report) remains more closely tied to AI-driven lending, while Affirm Holdings (AFRM - Free Report) is primarily associated with buy-now-pay-later financing. In contrast, SoFi combines banking, investing, lending, payments and financial technology infrastructure under one umbrella.

Yet SOFI stock has struggled in 2026, declining sharply despite continued business expansion. Its performance has been broadly weak alongside Upstart Holdings, while Affirm Holdings has held up comparatively better. This disconnect between operating progress and share price performance makes SoFi’s improving product flywheel particularly important to the investment debate.

Year-to-date Stock Price Performance

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Cross-Buy Is Becoming Central to SoFi’s Growth StoryThe strongest part of SoFi’s strategy is no longer simply adding new members. The more important development is that existing customers are increasingly adopting additional products.

SoFi’s model starts with products that can attract users frequently and at relatively low acquisition costs, such as SoFi Money, Relay and Invest. Once customers enter the ecosystem, the company can introduce lending, credit cards, investing services and other offerings without having to spend as much to acquire that customer again.

Recent trends support this strategy. In the second quarter, 51% of new products were opened by existing members compared with 35% a year earlier. Management also said products per member have accelerated over the past two quarters, suggesting that the benefits of its “everything app” strategy are becoming more visible.

This matters because higher cross-buy can improve economics in several ways. It raises revenue per customer, spreads acquisition costs across more products and creates opportunities to build longer relationships. This gives SoFi a potential advantage over Upstart Holdings, where revenues remain more dependent on credit origination activity, and Affirm Holdings, whose growth is closely connected with merchant volumes and consumer financing demand.

SOFI’s New Products Are Giving Flywheel More FuelSoFi is also widening the number of ways members can interact with its platform. The relaunched SoFi Plus subscription is one example. More than 200,000 members had adopted the paid offering after one quarter, with most coming from SoFi’s existing customer base. A portion of those subscribers subsequently opened another SoFi product.

SoFi Coach represents another effort to deepen engagement by using customer financial data to provide personalized guidance. Meanwhile, the Invest platform continues to expand through new investment tools and broader asset access. Its August-announced private-market offerings from CAZ Investments and AngelList Asset Management add another dimension to the investing business and could help SoFi capture more customer assets over time.

These products are important because 87% of SoFi’s total products are now non-lending offerings. Such products tend to be used more frequently and generally carry lower acquisition costs than lending products, helping bring users into the ecosystem before they potentially adopt higher-value services later.

Diversification Could Make Earnings More Durable for SOFIAnother encouraging part of the story is SoFi’s attempt to reduce its dependence on traditional balance sheet lending. The Loan Platform Business allows the company to originate loans for partners and earn fee income without retaining all of the credit exposure.
SoFi is extending that model beyond personal loans into small-business lending and home-equity products. Management believes this can increase capital-light fee revenues while also bringing more members into the broader ecosystem.

At the same time, Financial Services and Technology Solutions are intended to become a larger portion of the revenue mix. This could gradually make SoFi less sensitive to lending cycles and funding conditions. Relative to Upstart Holdings and Affirm Holdings, SoFi offers a broader mix of revenue opportunities, although that diversification makes execution more complex.

Quarterly performance provides evidence that the strategy is progressing. Adjusted net revenues increased 40% year over year in the latest quarter, while adjusted EBITDA rose 44%. The more relevant takeaway is that SoFi is generating enough profitability to keep investing in new products without abandoning earnings discipline.

SOFI’s Estimate Revisions Depict an Improving OutlookOver the past 60 days, estimates for SOFI’s 2026 and 2027 EPS have been revised marginally upward. The consensus mark for 2026 and 2027 EPS suggests a year-over-year increase of 53.85% and 34.86%, respectively.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Valuation Keeps Expectations ElevatedSOFI trades at 4.24X forward 12-month price-to-sales versus 4.67X for AFRM and 1.65X for UPST.

The key issue is that investors already assign significant value to SoFi’s growth potential. Its valuation remains above UPST’s and closer to AFRM’s, meaning continued member growth, stronger cross-buy and improving margins are necessary to support the premium.

There are also execution risks. Technology Solutions still needs to become a stronger growth contributor, lending remains exposed to credit conditions, and rapid product expansion requires sustained investment. If cross-buy slows or customer acquisition costs rise, the economics of the flywheel could become less attractive.

Valuation

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

What Should Investors Do With SOFI Now?SoFi’s investment case is becoming more balanced as its product ecosystem begins to generate stronger cross-buy and deeper customer engagement. The combination of banking, investing, lending and newer subscription and advisory products gives it more growth paths than UPST and a broader financial-services model than AFRM. Greater fee-based revenues could also make earnings more durable over time.

Still, the current valuation assumes that much of this progress will continue, while execution and credit risks remain. Existing investors may consider retaining their exposure, while prospective investors could wait for a more attractive entry point or further evidence that the flywheel can sustain its pace.

At present, SOFI carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

-

HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Tidewater Inc. (NYSE: TDW) (the “Company”) today announced the completion of its acquisition of Wilson, Sons Ultratug Participações S.A. and its affiliate Atlantic Offshore Services S.A. (collectively, “WSUT”), effective August 31, 2026.

Quintin Kneen, Tidewater’s President and Chief Executive Officer, commented, “We are pleased to announce the closing of the WSUT acquisition, and we are excited to welcome our new employees to Tidewater. The WSUT fleet of 22 PSVs is an excellent complement to the Tidewater fleet and further expands our leading global market position in OSVs. We are excited about growing our presence in Brazil and remain optimistic about the long-term opportunities ahead of us in this market.”

About Tidewater

Tidewater owns and operates one of the largest fleets of offshore support vessels in the industry, with 70 years of experience supporting offshore energy exploration, production, generation and offshore wind activities worldwide.

Forward-Looking Statements

In accordance with the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, the Company notes that certain statements set forth in this communication are forward-looking statements which reflect our current view with respect to future events and future financial performance. Forward-looking statements are all statements other than statements of historical fact, including, without limitation, statements about the expected benefits of the WSUT acquisition and our ability to integrate its operations and business successfully. All such forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the control of the Company, and our future results of operations could differ materially from our historical results or current expectations reflected by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation: potential adverse reactions or changes to business relationships resulting from the completion of the transaction; the effects of disruption to our business; the effects of industry, market, economic, political or regulatory conditions outside of our control; transaction costs; our ability to achieve the benefits from the transaction, including the anticipated cash flow generation and customer relationships; our ability to promptly, efficiently and effectively integrate the vessels into our own operations; unknown liabilities; and the diversion of management time on integration-related issues. Other important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include: fluctuations in worldwide energy demand and oil and gas prices; fleet additions by competitors and industry overcapacity; limited capital resources available to replenish our asset base as needed, including through acquisitions or vessel construction, and to fund our capital expenditure needs; uncertainty of global financial market conditions and potential constraints in accessing capital or credit if and when needed with favorable terms, if at all; changes in decisions and capital spending by customers based on industry expectations for offshore exploration, field development and production; consolidation of our customer base; loss of a major customer; changing customer demands for vessel specifications, which may make some of our older vessels technologically obsolete for certain customer projects or in certain markets; rapid technological changes; delays and other problems associated with vessel maintenance; the continued availability of qualified personnel and our ability to attract and retain them; the operating risks normally incident to our lines of business, including the potential impact of liquidated counterparties; our ability to comply with covenants in our indentures and other debt instruments; acts of terrorism and piracy; the impact of regional or global public health crises or pandemics; the impact of potential information technology, cybersecurity or data security breaches; integration of acquired businesses and entry into new lines of business; disagreements with our joint venture partners; natural disasters or significant weather conditions; unsettled political conditions, war, civil unrest and governmental actions, such as expropriation or enforcement of customs or other laws that are not well developed or consistently enforced; risks associated with our international operations, including local content, local currency or similar requirements especially in higher political risk countries where we operate; interest rate and foreign currency fluctuations; labor changes proposed by international conventions; increased regulatory burdens and oversight; changes in laws governing the taxation of foreign source income; retention of skilled workers; enforcement of laws related to the environment, labor and foreign corrupt practices; increased global concern, regulation and scrutiny regarding climate change; increased stockholder activism; the potential liability for remedial actions or assessments under existing or future environmental regulations or litigation; the effects of asserted and unasserted claims and the extent of available insurance coverage; the resolution of pending legal proceedings; and other risks and uncertainties detailed in our most recent Form 10-K, Form 10-Qs and Form 8-Ks filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission. If one or more of these or other risks or uncertainties materialize (or the consequences of any such development changes), or should our underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results or outcomes may vary materially from those reflected in our forward-looking statements. Statements in this communication are made as of the date hereof, and the Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update publicly or revise such statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

More News From Tidewater Inc.

Back to Newsroom

A public valuation validates Tencent's chip investment while revealing how much strategic scarcity investors are already paying for. Summary

Tencent is simultaneously Enflame’s major shareholder and largest customer.

Tencent Holdings TCEHY, China's gaming, advertising and cloud-computing powerhouse, fell approximately 1.9% to $57.29 Monday as investors weighed the looming market debut of Tencent-backed Enflame. According to Reuters, the loss-making AI-chip developer priced its Shanghai offering at 142.18 yuan per share and expects to raise 6.1 billion yuan, or roughly $908 million.

The deal comes with a towering valuation. Enflame is set to list at 61.8 times 2025 sales—below the multiples exceeding 160 fetched by Chinese rivals Moore Threads and MetaX, but miles above the 25.4-times Nvidia benchmark cited in its filing. Tencent has real skin in the game. It is a major shareholder and Enflame's largest customer, making this far more than another venture-capital bet.

Tencent's latest results showed quarterly capital expenditure rocketing 176% to 52.8 billion yuan as the company poured money into AI infrastructure. Enflame offers a domestic chip alternative as access to advanced foreign hardware tightens, though the close supplier relationship creates concentration risk. Valuation provides a cushion: at $57.29, Tencent trades 17.13% below its GF Value™ estimate of $69.13, pointing to potential upside if that AI spending starts producing bigger profits.

Disclosures I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and have no plans to buy any new positions in the stocks mentioned within the next 72 hours.

Click for the complete disclosure

Key Takeaways SOUN signed a seven-figure healthcare deal and secured multiple expansions and renewals.A top-20 healthcare provider quadrupled its spending with SoundHound in the second quarter of 2026.OASYS can cut complex healthcare deployment times from months to minutes, supporting broader adoption. SoundHound AI’s (SOUN - Free Report) healthcare business is emerging as a potentially important growth driver as enterprises increasingly adopt conversational and agentic AI for complex customer-service workflows. In the second quarter of 2026, SoundHound signed a seven-figure deal with a nationally ranked healthcare system employing 30,000 people. It also added Champion Payer Solutions, expanded business with healthcare and electronic-health-record customers and secured several renewals across nursing, rehabilitation and biopharmaceutical organizations.

The expansion appears to extend beyond new customer wins. Management said that a top-20 healthcare provider quadrupled its spending with SoundHound during the second quarter of 2026, while five additional healthcare organizations expanded or renewed contracts. This traction is particularly encouraging because healthcare requires strong security, traceability and reliability for mission-critical workflows, areas where SoundHound believes its OASYS platform has an advantage.

OASYS could further strengthen this opportunity by reducing deployment times for complex healthcare applications from months to minutes. SoundHound is also preparing to move one of its largest healthcare customers onto its proprietary models after seeing improvements in cost, accuracy and latency.

Still, healthcare revenues are not separately disclosed, making its financial contribution difficult to quantify. SoundHound remains loss-making despite second-quarter 2026 revenues rising 45% to $61.9 million. Nevertheless, accelerating customer spending, renewals and larger contracts suggest healthcare could become a meaningful new growth engine if adoption continues to scale.

How SoundHound Compares With Healthcare AI PeersNICE (NICE - Free Report) is a relevant competitor as healthcare organizations increasingly automate patient engagement, contact-center workflows and customer service. NICE offers AI-driven customer experience and workforce solutions that can help providers manage high call volumes, improve routing and automate routine interactions. NICE also benefits from an established enterprise customer base and broad contact-center capabilities. However, SoundHound’s OASYS platform emphasizes conversational and agentic AI, proprietary voice models and faster deployment, potentially giving it an edge in complex voice-first healthcare use cases.

Five9 (FIVN - Free Report) is another key rival, providing cloud contact-center software and AI-powered automation across industries, including healthcare. Five9 helps organizations deploy virtual agents, automate customer interactions and improve agent productivity. Five9’s mature cloud platform and integrations strengthen its competitive position. Still, SoundHound’s healthcare momentum, growing customer spending and ability to build self-optimizing AI agents could differentiate it as healthcare providers seek more advanced automation.

SOUN’s Price Performance, Valuation & EstimatesSoundHound’s shares have lost 28.7% year to date (YTD), underperforming the industry, as shown below.

SOUN’s YTD Price Performance

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

From a valuation standpoint, SOUN trades at a forward price-to-sales (P/S) multiple of 12.65, slightly above the industry’s average.

SOUN’s P/S Ratio (Forward 12-Month) vs. Industry

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Over the past 30 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for SoundHound’s 2026 and 2027 loss per share has narrowed to 16 cents and 13 cents, respectively, as shown below. The expected loss for 2026 remains wider than the previous year’s loss of 13 cents per share.
 

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

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

IREN's co-CEO just made a bold claim about how the company funds its massive fiscal 2027 buildout without a big equity raise, and the market is reacting while peers like TeraWulf head in the opposite direction.

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

Shares of IREN (NASDAQ:IREN) are rising Monday afternoon after co-founder and co-CEO Daniel Roberts said the AI cloud operator‘s fiscal 2027 capital plan doesn’t require a large equity raise. IREN stock is up 4% to $36.76 at midday, extending a run that had shares up 21% over the past month through Friday’s close.

This move is company-specific. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSEARCA:SPY) is down 0.5% to $765.91, so the broad market is slightly lower even as IREN stock rises. Peer TeraWulf (NASDAQ:WULF) stock is down 2% to $15.09, while fellow miner-turned-AI-host Cipher Mining (NASDAQ:CIFR) isn’t participating, underscoring that today’s catalyst is IREN-specific funding news rather than a sector-wide bid.

Roberts Post Addresses the Dilution Worry In a post Monday, Roberts said IREN’s forecasted $25 billion to $30 billion of fiscal 2027 capital expenditures “isn’t an equity number.” He added, “Customer prepayments can cover about half the GPU capex. Lenders can fund most of the rest.” That speaks directly to investor anxiety that followed the fiscal 2026 fourth-quarter report, when the market questioned whether an at-the-market offering or more convertible notes would be needed to fund the plan.

Management said IREN entered fiscal 2027 with about $14 billion in cash, committed GPU financing and customer prepayments, and is targeting another $8 billion through GPU financing and prepayments. The rest is expected to come from data center financing, operating cash flow and corporate sources. Recent customer prepayments have covered 45% to 55% of associated GPU capital expenditures on new deals.

The financing stack has already scaled quickly. IREN arranged $3.6 billion of Microsoft-related GPU financing at a weighted average interest rate of 6%, and secured $2.8 billion for other deployments, including $2.4 billion at a 9% fixed rate for the Mackenzie expansion, while raising approximately $19 billion, with about $3 billion of that from equity over the past 12 months. Its entire data center portfolio remains unencumbered, including the four Horizon deployments at Childress, and no data center financing transaction has closed yet.

Roberts framed the mechanism as a “funding flywheel.” When customer prepayments cover roughly half of GPU cost and lenders finance 90% of the balance, the arithmetic can leave IREN with more cash than the compute itself required, freeing capital to seed the surrounding data center shell. GPU financing, once a private-credit product with mid-teens returns, now includes investment-grade paper in the 6% area.

Bear Case Still Sits in the Numbers The financials matter here. IREN’s net loss widened 176% sequentially to $684 million in the fiscal 2026 fourth quarter, with $450.4 million of impairments accounting for most of the shortfall. Mining revenue dropped 40% to $66.7 million as older rigs came out ahead of GPU installations.

Adjusted EBITDA also fell hard sequentially. IREN posted $19.2 million in adjusted EBITDA in the June quarter, versus $59.5 million the prior quarter, as costs across sales, R&D and site operations ran ahead of the AI Cloud ramp. Cash SG&A is guided up another $40 to $50 million sequentially in the September quarter.

The offset sits on the AI side. AI Cloud Services revenue reached $70.5 million in the June quarter, up from $33.6 million in March. The company has $4 billion in contracted annual recurring revenue tied to capacity expected online by year-end, which is what makes the funding math workable in the first place.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT | MSFT Price Prediction) is the anchor Horizon customer behind that ARR figure. The first 50-megawatt Horizon deployment was delivered in August, and Horizons 2 through 4 are targeted for the December quarter.

Peer Divergence Is the Signal TeraWulf stock is falling while IREN stock rises, even though both names sit in the same Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC)-mining-to-AI-infrastructure trade (we profiled seven of the picks-and-shovels names powering the AI buildout, from power to cooling, in a free report you can grab here).

Cipher Mining is quiet on the session. Today’s move separates the group by funding certainty and near-term delivery timeline rather than repricing everyone together.

What to Watch The near-term catalyst is any data center financing announcement. Roberts has described that layer as the “next frontier,” and IREN has confirmed no transaction has closed yet. A first close on an asset-backed deal against the unencumbered Horizon portfolio would validate the funding model Roberts sketched out Monday.

Investors should size their IREN share positions carefully given the execution stakes. The fiscal 2027 plan is large, delivery timelines are compressed, and hardware impairments are still weighing on the GAAP line. A gain on a single executive post is a sentiment shift, and the balance sheet claim underneath it can be tested only quarter by quarter.

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

Apple shares AAPL fell 1.8% on Monday as John Ternus prepares to take over as chief executive, succeeding Tim Cook after more than a decade at the helm.

Ternus will assume control of a company valued at nearly $5 trillion, making sustaining Apple's growth from its current scale one of his biggest challenges.

The incoming CEO inherits a business that has expanded significantly under Cook.

Apple sold about 72 million iPhones in the year Cook became CEO, while Counterpoint Research estimates the company will sell 255 million this year.

Cook's tenure has also been defined by disciplined capital allocation, regular product launches and a substantial expansion of Apple's services business. T

he company has returned more than $1 trillion to shareholders through dividends and buybacks.

However, investors are now looking for Apple's next major growth driver, particularly as artificial intelligence reshapes the technology industry.

One of Ternus's immediate priorities will be Apple's artificial intelligence strategy, particularly the development of Siri.

Futurum Group CEO Daniel Newman said Apple needs to identify the next major computing platform after the smartphone. "Apple needs to own this," Newman said in a CNBC interview, adding that he believes this is Ternus's "big job."

Newman argued that Apple currently occupies an important position as the "experience layer" for AI because consumers increasingly use services such as ChatGPT and Claude through Apple devices.

However, he said the company has yet to fully capitalize on that position.

Apple has announced software improvements designed to make Siri capable of completing more tasks.

Early tests of the Siri AI beta by the Wall Street Journal found that it could take longer than competing assistants, although Apple's use of Google technology on the backend has significantly improved its capabilities.

Newman said Apple's bigger challenge goes beyond Siri and concerns whether the iPhone itself will remain the central device for computing.

"Is the handset going to be the device of the future?" Newman asked.

He pointed to efforts by OpenAI and Meta to develop new devices that could change how consumers interact with technology.

Apple's valuation presents another challenge for Ternus.

The stock trades at 33 times next year's earnings, compared with about 20 times for the S&P 500, even though Apple's earnings are growing at roughly half the market's rate.

Craig Moffett of Moffett Nathanson said investors have been willing to pay a premium for Apple because it appears relatively safe amid uncertainty over returns from massive AI investments.

However, he cautioned, "when valuation gets stretched, safety isn't safe anymore."

Apple is also dealing with pressure across its supply chain.

AI companies are competing for memory, storage and logic-chip capacity, potentially increasing Apple's costs and contributing to shortages. The company has passed some higher costs on to consumers.

Apple's continued dependence on China is another issue facing Ternus.

While Cook has largely managed tariff-related risks through political engagement, much of Apple's supply chain remains concentrated in China amid an ongoing US-China trade conflict.

The company's services business is facing pressure as well. A California judge's rulings have reduced Apple's ability to collect fees from some in-app purchases. Appfigures estimates that Apple's US App Store commission revenue fell 6% in the June quarter.

Despite these challenges, Apple enters the transition with several strengths.

The iPhone remains highly popular, with the iPhone 17 Pro benefiting from improvements including a better camera and stronger battery.

The Mac is also seeing renewed demand as Apple-designed chips prove capable of running large language models locally, contributing to product shortages.

A foldable iPhone is also expected to feature in Ternus's first iPhone launch event.

IDC estimates the device could capture 40% of the foldable smartphone market by the end of 2027.

Newman said Ternus also faces a high bar following Cook's tenure. He credited Cook with building Apple's global supply chain and strong unit economics, while noting that Ternus's background in hardware and engineering gives him a different skill set.

"We've seen the headsets kind of flop. Cars didn't work out. Apple's smart home never really became a thing," Newman said, highlighting Apple's difficulty in creating successful new product categories.

Apple's stock has gained more than 2,200% during Cook's tenure, although Newman said it has lagged several Magnificent Seven peers. He also estimated that Apple spent about $877 billion on share buybacks during that period.

For Ternus, the task is therefore not simply to maintain Apple's existing businesses, but to establish where the company's next phase of growth will come from as AI changes the technology landscape.

Apple CEO Tim Cook is stepping down from his role at the helm of one of the world's largest tech companies after a 15-year tenure that saw Apple become the first publicly traded U.S. company with a $1 trillion market cap and other notable milestones.

He announced in April that he would step down as Apple CEO at the end of August, and while he is leaving that role, he will remain with the company as the executive chairman. John Ternus, who most recently served as Apple's senior vice president of hardware engineering, will be Cook's successor.

Cook became CEO in August 2011 when Apple co-founder Steve Jobs resigned six weeks before his death. Jobs first met Cook in 1998 and convinced him to join Apple that year, starting his career at the tech giant as a senior vice president for worldwide operations.

"As you know, I am not leaving Apple. But I am stepping away from a role that I have loved deeply," Cook said in a memo emailed to all employees on his final day. "I will miss this work in ways I can only begin to imagine, even as I remain completely at peace with my decision."

APPLE POSTS RECORD JUNE QUARTER AS IPHONE SALES SURGE; COOK WEIGHS IN ON AI, CHINA

Apple CEO Tim Cook is stepping down from the role on Monday, Aug. 31, after leading the company to historic milestones during his tenure at the helm. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

"Together, we have created something far greater than any one of us could have imagined or accomplished alone. And that's the secret to our success. We bring out the best in each other. We lift each other up," Cook said.

"We have made it possible to leave our 'dent in the universe,' as Steve once described it, because of who we are and what we believe, because of what we value and how we see the world," he added.

Cook's tenure at Apple saw the tech giant move to compete in new product and service categories, building a broader consumer tech ecosystem off of the MacBook, iPhone and iPad.

APPLE CEO TIM COOK TO STEP DOWN IN MAJOR LEADERSHIP SHAKEUP, SUCCESSOR NAMED

Tim Cook served 15 years as Apple CEO and will remain as the company's executive chairman. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

In 2014, Cook and the company announced the Apple Watch as the company entered the wearable health tech market, while it also launched Apply Pay that year to build on its base of consumer device users to compete in mobile payments.

The next year, Apple Music marked the company's pivot from iTunes to a subscription-based model for consumers who stream their music, while 2016 saw the debut of Apple's AirPods which supercharged the growth of the company's wearables division. The company also launched Apple TV+ and Apple Card in 2019 as it continued to broaden its service offerings.

Apple also hit a number of major corporate milestones under Cook's leadership. It became the first U.S.-based publicly traded company to reach $1 trillion in market capitalization in 2018. 

Apple later reached the $2 trillion milestone in 2020, surpassed the $3 trillion market for the first time in 2022 during intraday trading, then crossed $4 trillion in October 2025. It briefly overtook Nvidia for largest market cap in July 2026.

WHO IS JOHN TERNUS, SET TO SUCCEED TIM COOK AS APPLE'S CEO?

Ticker Security Last Change Change % AAPL APPLE INC. 319.70 +5.12 +1.63% Over the years, Apple has vied with ExxonMobil, Nvidia and Microsoft for the title of most valuable publicly traded U.S. company, with the top spot regularly changing hands among those companies. Within that period, Apple ranked first for much of the 2013 to 2018 period.

Apple currently has a market cap of roughly $4.6 trillion, ranking second behind Nvidia's $5.25 trillion market cap while leading Microsoft's $3.79 trillion valuation.

Apple is planning to hold the first major event under new CEO John Ternus next week on Sept. 9, when it will unveil its newest iPhone and could potentially reveal the long-awaited foldable iPhone.

Cook said in his letter that he takes "enormous comfort in handing the helm to someone as brilliant and wonderful and capable as John," adding that few people "understand what it takes to build products that change the world the way John does and I could not be more excited for his leadership."

GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE

A report by Reuters noted that analysts expect Apple to launch a foldable iPhone, entering a new segment of the smartphone market to compete with Samsung in the growing device segment.

The EU handed Google an ultimatum that carried a penalty tall enough to erase tens of billions in revenue, and what Google gave up to make the threat disappear may cost it more than any fine would have.

Google changed how it enforces search rankings across the European Economic Area to head off a formal complaint under the Digital Markets Act, the EU’s competition law for large online platforms. Beginning August 30, Google will stop applying manual demotions for site-reputation abuse to users in the European Union, Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein.

The concession matters because a DMA violation can carry a maximum penalty equal to 10% of a company’s annual worldwide revenue. Against Alphabet’s (NASDAQ:GOOG | GOOG Price Prediction, NASDAQ:GOOGL) $402.84 billion in FY2025 revenue, that statutory ceiling implies tens of billions of dollars in theoretical exposure. No penalty of that size was assessed here, and none was formally calculated. Shareholders in Alphabet still had reason to want the risk taken off the table.

What Parasite SEO Actually Means Google calls it site-reputation abuse. In plain English, an established publisher rents out corners of its domain to outside partners who post commercial content, usually affiliate reviews or coupon pages, so those pages inherit the publisher’s search authority. The result ranks higher than it deserves.

Google’s manual demotions targeted that arrangement. European regulators, as the Wall Street Journal reported, argued the enforcement swept in legitimate publishers and cut their traffic without recourse. That framing turned a spam-fighting tool into a self-preferencing problem under the DMA.

A Statutory Ceiling Rarely Reached The 10% cap is a statutory ceiling regulators can reach, though they rarely impose the maximum. Actual DMA fines to date have landed far below that. The earlier $3.5 billion European Commission competition fine, disclosed in Q3 2025, is a useful benchmark for what real enforcement looks like.

Still, the ceiling framed the negotiation. Removing the possibility of a formal DMA finding, however remote a maximum penalty was, cheapens Alphabet’s cost of capital at the margin and clears an overhang analysts had begun pricing in.

Reading the Trade Google Just Made Alphabet came out ahead here, but not cleanly. Softer enforcement invites more parasite pages into European search results, which degrades Search over time in the region that most closely watches it.

The precedent matters more than the fine avoided. Once a regulator successfully argues that a ranking signal is anticompetitive, the next signal is easier to challenge. Google traded a durable enforcement tool for a quieter August.

What the Stock Is Telling You GOOGL closed Friday at $346.59, up 64.23% over the past year, on a trailing P/E of 17x. Analysts carry a mean target of $428.07 with 45 buys and 13 strong buys against six holds.

That setup already reflects 24% revenue growth and 82% Google Cloud growth in Q2 2026, with regulatory relief adding at most a marginal tailwind. The market treated the concession as housekeeping, which is roughly right.

This is unlikely to have a significant impact on Google’s financials since many users are now not even clicking on individual webpages and are receiving the content they want through Google’s own AI overviews. Moreover, Google’s foothold in search has been far stronger than anyone anticipated, with AI making its dominance even stronger.

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

The U.S. Federal Trade ​Commission on Monday sued Amazon.com (AMZN.O), with ‌more than 20 U.S. states joining the lawsuit, according to court records.

The agency planned ​to file a lawsuit, alleging Amazon ​manipulated prices for advertisements on its ⁠e-retail platform, the Wall Street Journal ​reported earlier in the day, citing ​FTC officials.

The lawsuit would allege that the company deceived advertisers by secretly raising the minimum ​price they had to pay to ​place ads promoting their products, WSJ had reported.

Advertisers ‌allegedly ⁠suffered billions of dollars in harm from higher ad prices, while the states could seek civil penalties and attempt ​to recover ​some of ⁠that money, according to the report.

The e-commerce giant in September ​last year agreed to pay $2.5 ​billion ⁠in fines and reimbursements to Prime subscribers to settle the FTC's allegations that it deceived ⁠its ​customers to generate subscriptions.

Amazon ​shares fell 3% in afternoon trading.

OpenAI just built an AI-designed chip that already beats Nvidia's best in early tests, and one macro investor has pinpointed exactly when Nvidia's most valuable competitive advantage disappears entirely.

Two days after the biggest quarter in semiconductor history, macro investor Jordi Visser told listeners on The Pomp Podcast that the scarcity holding up NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA | NVDA Price Prediction) has an expiration date. His argument separates near-term results from terminal value, laid out in a single line: OpenAI’s new Jalapeno silicon “a chip designed by OpenAI, by AI” and “is not going to disrupt their numbers this year, it’s not going to disrupt them next year.” Then the pivot: “Nvidia right now has scarcity, but at some point, five years from now, six years from now, it won’t have scarcity.” NVIDIA’s market cap of $5.31 trillion reflects future discounted cash flows. If the market decides GPUs are optional in a decade, that value contracts.

Record Quarter Priced Into Every Model NVIDIA’s Q2 FY2027 report delivered. Revenue landed at $96.22 billion, up 105.8% year over year, with Data Center revenue of $89.02 billion and non-GAAP EPS of $2.22. Supply commitments jumped to $279 billion, largely memory tied to Vera Rubin. See the Q2 FY2027 8-K exhibit for the full breakout.

Jensen Huang told analysts fiscal 2028 revenue should grow approximately 70% year over year, and that “at this moment, we have supply for 70%. We have more supply than 70%, but about 70%. Our demand is much higher than that.” The stock dropped 4.57% on Aug 28, 2026, from $227.98 to $217.55, though shares are up 16.79% year to date and trade at a forward P/E of 26.

Jalapeno Already Tests Better on TCO Chip analyst and 247 Wall Street contributor Eric Bleeker cited a SemiAnalysis headline reading “OpenAI Jalapeno better than Nvidia Blackwell,” noting initial tests point to superior total cost of ownership compared to Blackwell. Jim Cramer on CNBC added: “Nvidia invested 30 billion in OpenAI” and OpenAI is “downright gleeful about inventing this new chip, Jalapeno, that can compete with Nvidia’s.”

Chamath Palihapitiya made the structural case on All-In: “You’re going to look at these big companies in five years, they’re all going to have their own cloud, they’re all going to have their own models, they’re all going to have their own silicon, they’re all going to have their own data centers.”

Two Timelines Investors Must Reconcile Huang counters that OpenAI’s existing and planned commitments represent approximately 12 gigawatts of NVIDIA compute through 2030, and AI-lab demand should contribute roughly a quarter of NVIDIA’s business next year. Visser agrees on the near term, calling the current setup “the sweet spot of the infrastructure build out” with “another three to five years of needing a lot.”

The terminal value debate is where the fight lives. If custom silicon peels off even a quarter of hyperscaler workloads by 2031, the DCF supporting today’s price gets rewritten downward. If Vera Rubin’s economics of $40 billion per gigawatt keep expanding, the moat holds.

Where the AI Compute Dollars Are Landing Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY) cited a co-innovation AI lab with NVIDIA for drug discovery and posted $22.97 billion in Q2 revenue with EPS of $8.38, raising FY26 revenue guidance to $85.0 billion to $87.0 billion. LLY shares are up 61.49% over one year.

Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) shows the flip side: Q2 revenue fell 18.51% to $1.22 billion, and the stock is down 21% year to date even with prediction-markets revenue past $100 million annualized.

For NVIDIA investors, the forward question is direct. If Jalapeno and successors take even a slice of inference workloads by 2030, does the current multiple compress before fiscal 2028 growth arrives? Watch memory pricing, hyperscaler capex mix, and how quickly OpenAI’s chips move from tests to deployment.

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

Key Takeaways United Airlines is adding 10 international cities and three new routes across Europe and Asia.United Airlines plans new Osaka, Milan and Paris services, plus a San Francisco-Tel Aviv return.United Airlines' A321XLR will support 2027 growth with new routes and upgraded cabin features. In a bid to strengthen its network and expand globally, United Airlines Holdings, Inc. (UAL - Free Report) recently announced multiple major initiatives in its business. These include the addition of 10 new international cities and three new routes across Europe and Asia, marking UAL’s largest international network expansion in its history and the launch of the newest international aircraft in its fleet, the 'Born to Explore' A321XLR.

The aforesaid announcement was made public at an event at Newark Liberty International Airport, which was attended by UAL’s chief executive officer (CEO), Scott Kirby; chief commercial officer, Andrew Nocella and senior vice president of Global Network Planning and Alliances, Patrick Quayle.

UAL’s CEO, Scott Kirby, stated, "The creative and strategic way we've expanded our international network since the pandemic has made all the difference, not only for our customers and employees, but also as a way to differentiate United and build a brand focused on customers. We offer the most flights across the Atlantic and Pacific and Newark is the best Atlantic gateway in the country - so far this year, it's the most on-time airport in the New York City area. We're going to keep building on that momentum as we welcome the new A321XLR to our fleet and continue to elevate the travel experience for every customer who chooses United."

UAL’s Global Expansion Plans & New Fleet DetailsUAL plans to start flying to 10 new international cities as early as March 2027. United Airlines' 10 new destinations include San Francisco (SFO) – Okinawa (OKA); Washington, D.C. (IAD) – Toulouse (TLS); Newark (EWR) – Luxembourg (LUX); Newark (EWR) – Ljubljana (LJU); Newark (EWR) – Olbia (OLB); Newark (EWR) – Catania (CTA); Newark (EWR) – Ibiza (IBZ); Newark (EWR) – Valencia (VLC); Newark (EWR) – Marseille (MRS); and Newark (EWR) – Terceira (TER).  These 10 new international cities

UAL is also offering new international routes to destinations it already serves from three of its U.S. hubs. UAL plans to offer new daily service from Los Angeles to Osaka, Japan, thereby positioning itself as the only airline to serve Osaka from two continental U.S. cities. This route is slated to start on March 27, 2027, and is expected to boost UAL’s existing service from San Francisco and Guam.

From Washington, D.C., UAL plans to fly three times a week on a nonstop basis to Milan.  Effective from May 28, 2027, this route will become the only airline to connect the nation's capital to Milan nonstop.

From Denver, UAL plans to fly on a daily nonstop basis to Paris, starting from May 27, 2027. This new route shall enhance UAL’s existing service from Newark/New York, Washington Dulles, Chicago and San Francisco.

UAL is also gearing up to resume services from San Francisco to Tel Aviv on March 28.

Additionally, UAL plans to relaunch the new destinations for summer 2027 (which were added in summer 2026) with flights from Newark/New York to Split, Croatia; Bari, Italy; Glasgow, Scotland; and Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

UAL’s 'Born to Explore' Airbus A321XLR is expected to amplify its international growth in summer 2027 with service to new destinations in Ibiza, Luxembourg, Marseille, Toulouse and Valencia.

Airbus A321XLR’s onboard travel experience comes with features like a new United Polaris suite with a privacy door, free Starlink Wi-Fi for MileagePlus members, 4K OLED screens with Bluetooth connectivity, a snack bar in United Economy and the new Economy Plus seats with extra elbow room and access to a shared table across an open middle seat. The aircraft also offers 32 premium seats (which include 20 United Polaris suites and 12 United Premium Plus seats). The number reflects 16 more premium seats than the Boeing 757-200.

To ConcludeUnited Airlines has been constantly working hard to expand internationally. Since 2017, UAL has added 58 international destinations to its route map. The airline now flies to more than 160 international destinations. UAL carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Given that United Airlines’ goal is to be able to meet every traveler’s need, be it a business trip, a dream honeymoon, a bucket-list adventure, or a trip to hometown to see family, the latest announcements seem to be a strategic business step on UAL’s part. 

Stocks to ConsiderInvestors interested in the Zacks Transportation sector may consider Expeditors International of Washington, Inc. (EXPD - Free Report) and Seanergy Maritime Holdings (SHIP - Free Report) . 

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

EXPD has an expected earnings growth rate of 28.6% for 2026.  The company has an encouraging earnings surprise history. Its earnings outpaced the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the trailing four quarters, delivering an average beat of 17.15%.

Seanergy Maritime Holdings currently sports a Zacks Rank #1.

SHIP has an expected earnings growth rate of more than 100% for the current year. The company has an encouraging earnings surprise history. Its earnings topped the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the trailing four quarters, delivering an average beat of 38%.

Palantir Technologies Inc. (PLTR, Financials), the artificial intelligence and data analytics company, still has support from Baird even after its valuation climbed to roughly $448 billion.

The firm, after a small group of investors saw a technical presentation, repeated its Outperform rating and $200 price target.

Baird's optimism about Palantir's future rests on its ontology, agentic AI capabilities and its rising role in sovereign AI. The obvious tension is the valuation.

Palantir shares were selling at about $186, giving the business a market valuation of about $448 billion. That means investors are already paying a steep price for development down the road. But the growth is still unusually strong.

Revenue growth picked up to 93% and the company's 2026 revenue growth outlook is currently at 82%. Gross margin is roughly 85%.

Other analysts have also raised their objectives. UBS boosted its objective to $220 while Phillip Securities raised its aim to $215.

Palantir's contract with the Pentagon for the Maven Smart System is likewise on track to generate an annual revenue run-rate of about $1 billion.

The next question is whether Palantir can keep growing fast enough to warrant one of the wealthiest values in software.

Broadcom Inc (NASDAQ:AVGO) is scheduled to report its fiscal third-quarter results on Sept. 2.

Recent channel checks indicate that investor concerns around the company’s competitive position at Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) seem to be "overstated," according to JPMorgan.

• Broadcom stock is taking a breather. Where is AVGO stock headed?

The Broadcom Analyst: Analyst Harlan Sur maintained an Overweight rating and price target of $580.

The Broadcom Thesis: The stock has lagged the broader semiconductor group year to date, having risen only by 7% versus a 69% gain in the index, Sur said in the note.

Check out other analyst stock ratings.

He added that much of the underperformance in Broadcom’s shares stem from:

Concerns around potential share loss at Google longer-term. Management having reiterated their AI revenue guidance for fiscal 2027 to exceed $100 billion. Channel checks over the last 90 days indicate that the recent partnerships with Alphabet and Marvell Technology Inc (NASDAQ:MRVL), as well as noise around potential suppliers, "are more reflective of GOOGL bringing on more partners to support its internal COT team and to support TPU-attach opportunities," the analyst wrote.

No other company is likely to displace Broadcom’s position as Alphabet’s core TPU partner, given the terms of the agreement signed in early April, in which Alphabet committed to annually increasing TPU-related purchases at Broadcom and "anchored AVGO as the volume partner for the next four generations of TPU SKUs," he further stated.

Boss said he expects Broadcom to report "solid" results for the July quarter and announce better-than-expected guidance for the October quarter, with fiscal 2026 AI revenues of more than $56 billion.

AI revenues in fiscal 2027 are likely to be above management’s current guidance of over $100 billion, and could surpass $130 billion, considering potential industry supply constraints "as customer commitments, backlog and order momentum continue to build across ASIC/XPU and AI networking," the analyst added.

AVGO Price Action: Shares of Broadcom are up slightly at 0.41% to $370.22 at the time of publication on Monday.

Read Next

Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

© 2026 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

To add Benzinga News as your preferred source on Google, click here.