Track market-moving stories before they get noisy

Key Takeaways IBM has fallen 21% YTD as AI disruption, macro challenges and competition pressure its legacy businesses.AI coding tools could reduce demand for IBM's labor-intensive modernization projects.Hybrid cloud, Red Hat, HashiCorp and watsonx could support IBM's long-term growth. International Business Machines Corporation (IBM - Free Report) has declined 21% year to date against the industry’s growth of 100.3% due to macroeconomic challenges and the evolving dynamics in the artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem that threaten its core legacy businesses. The stock has lagged peers like Microsoft Corporation (MSFT - Free Report) and Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN - Free Report) . While Microsoft has gained 4.9%, Amazon has rallied 12.6% over this period.

YTD IBM Stock Price Performance

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

IBM Hurt by AI-Led Disruption in Legacy ServicesIBM faces a potential threat from AI-driven legacy modernization tools. Anthropic’s Claude Code can automate tasks such as COBOL code analysis, documentation, refactoring and security assessment, potentially reducing enterprises’ dependence on specialized modernization providers like IBM.

IBM has historically benefited from the complexity of COBOL-based mainframe environments, which support mission-critical workloads across banks, airlines, retailers and government agencies. High migration costs, operational risks and a shortage of skilled developers have helped protect IBM’s mainframe and consulting businesses from competitive disruption.

However, AI-powered coding tools could gradually erode this moat. If Claude Code lowers the cost and complexity of modernizing legacy applications, enterprises may require fewer specialized consulting resources and could accelerate migration initiatives.

This trend could weigh on IBM’s Consulting business by curbing demand for labor-intensive modernization projects and intensifying pricing pressure. Although the long-term impact remains uncertain, growing AI-led disruption in legacy application modernization adds another risk to IBM’s growth prospects and warrants investor caution.

Pricing Pressure Adds to IBM WoesIBM is facing competition from Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. Increasing pricing pressure is eroding margins, and profitability has trended down over the years, barring occasional spikes. Weaknesses in its traditional business and foreign exchange volatility remain significant concerns.

IBM’s frequent acquisitions have also increased integration risks. Buyouts have negatively impacted the company’s balance sheet, resulting in high levels of goodwill and net intangible assets. Moreover, a highly leveraged balance sheet has been troubling IBM over time.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Estimate Revision TrendEarnings estimates for IBM for 2026 have moved down 0.3% to $12.33 over the past 60 days, while the same for 2027 has decreased 1.6% to $13.22. The negative estimate revision portrays bearish sentiments about the stock’s growth potential.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Can Solid Hybrid Cloud Demand Turn the Tables?IBM’s expanding hybrid cloud and AI capabilities remain key pillars of its long-term growth strategy. Healthy enterprise spending on cloud modernization, automation and AI should continue to support the Software and Consulting segments, while productivity initiatives and a favorable business mix are expected to aid margins. Continued investments in higher-growth areas could further strengthen IBM’s earnings profile over time.

Enterprises are increasingly managing a complex mix of on-premise infrastructure, public clouds and cloud-native applications. The rapid adoption of generative AI is adding another layer of complexity by increasing computing, data-management and security requirements. This trend is encouraging organizations to adopt flexible, cloud-agnostic architectures that allow workloads to operate securely across multiple environments.

IBM stands to benefit from this shift through its hybrid cloud portfolio. Red Hat OpenShift provides a common platform for deploying and managing applications across heterogeneous IT environments, helping enterprises modernize operations without becoming overly dependent on a single cloud provider. Rising demand for interoperability, automation and security across multi-cloud environments should therefore remain a key growth catalyst.

Additional TailwindsThe acquisition of HashiCorp further strengthens IBM’s hybrid cloud proposition. HashiCorp’s infrastructure automation and lifecycle-management tools complement Red Hat’s capabilities and enhance IBM’s ability to help customers provision, secure and manage workloads across increasingly complex cloud environments. The combination could also create cross-selling opportunities across IBM’s enterprise customer base.

The watsonx platform remains central to IBM’s push into enterprise AI. The platform enables organizations to build, deploy and govern AI applications and foundation models while improving productivity and operational efficiency. Growing adoption of generative AI solutions, coupled with IBM’s established enterprise relationships and hybrid cloud footprint, could support incremental demand for watsonx. Successful execution in these areas, along with improving operating leverage, could help offset pressure from mature businesses and strengthen the company’s long-term growth trajectory.

End NoteIBM has invested heavily in its own AI capabilities, including watsonx, and could incorporate generative AI into its consulting workflows to improve efficiency rather than lose relevance. A strong emphasis on quantum computing and hybrid cloud is driving value for customers.

However, IBM’s growth is dented by high operating costs and stiff competition that reduce its profitability. The company faces a potent threat from Anthropic and needs to fine-tune its business model to remain competitive. The declining earnings estimates further portray that the stock is witnessing a negative investor perception. With a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), IBM appears to be treading a middle-of-the-road path, and new investors may be better off trading with caution. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Salesforce Looks Overbought, But the Rally May Be Far From OverSalesforce NYSE: CRM said its artificial intelligence product adoption is expanding across its customer base, with management highlighting growing demand for agentic workflows, consumption-based offerings and industry-specific AI applications during its Q2 fiscal 2027 investor webinar.

Conor Marsden, Salesforce’s President of Sales and Chief Consumption Officer, said the company has restructured its platform around four elements needed for successful AI agents: trust, action, agency and interface. He said Salesforce combines a data and trust layer, its established applications and workflows, AI agents, and interfaces including Lightning, Slack, Microsoft Teams and the newly announced Claude-related offerings.

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AI Adoption and Customer Examples The SaaSpocalypse Trade Is Cracking, and These 5 Stocks Are Leading HigherMarsden said more than 10,000 customers are using at least one Salesforce AI product, while the number of customers with Salesforce AI products in production has roughly doubled since February. He said the company is increasingly seeing customers add second, third and fourth AI solutions after initial deployments.

Salesforce reported that Agentforce and data annual recurring revenue rose more than 200% to $3.9 billion, while Agentforce ARR increased 200% to $1.5 billion. The company also said agentic work units, or AWUs, rose 97% to $7 billion. Marsden characterized AWUs as a measure of work being conducted on the platform.

Salesforce Turns the Corner as AI Fears Start to FadeManagement cited several customer deployments as examples of adoption:

SharkNinja launched service and shopper agents and reported a 6% increase in conversion. Its custom “unboxing agent” for espresso machines achieved a 93% resolution rate, with 7% of interactions escalated to a human, according to Marsden. Dell uses Salesforce for supply-chain requests across 19,000 employees, saving roughly 30 hours per week per team, Marsden said. Live Nation deployed an agent for its BottleRock festival within 30 days, handling 37,000 guest interactions, with plans to expand the capability to additional festivals. Wyndham deployed a contact-center agent that produced a 25% decrease in average handle time, according to Salesforce. Marsden said Salesforce has approximately 600 “builders,” employees embedded with sales teams to help customers deploy AI products, and plans to more than double that investment by year-end. He said out-of-the-box agents can be deployed in 30 to 45 days, while AI coding tools have improved the speed of Salesforce environment configurations by 40%.

He also said a global retailer that had received an internal estimate of 35 weeks for a custom contact deployment instead went live with Salesforce in six weeks.

Pricing Shifts Toward Outcomes and Flexibility Bill Patterson, Salesforce’s President and Chief Commercial Officer, said the company is simplifying its AI pricing after iterating through multiple models. The company is emphasizing outcome-based pricing for certain agents, along with Flex Credits, pay-as-you-go options and broader enterprise agreements.

Under outcome-based pricing, Patterson said help agents such as Casey are priced based on resolutions delivered. “If they do not resolve the issue, you do not pay for the offering,” he said.

Patterson said Salesforce does not want customers focused on token consumption or AWUs. Instead, the company wants pricing to reflect business outcomes such as leads processed, orders managed or customer cases resolved. He said Salesforce expects to expand outcome-based pricing across sales, service and other areas of its platform.

The company is also packaging work capacity into “headless” add-ons, which are designed to provide users access to AI-powered workflows outside of the traditional full Salesforce application interface. Those add-ons can be included with higher-tier Agentforce, sales, service and industry offerings, according to Patterson.

Marsden said the pricing structure is intended to address customer concerns over unpredictable AI costs. Flex Credits can be used across data products and agents, while unlimited agreements can provide more predictable spending for organizations using multiple Salesforce products, he said.

Slack, Claude and Model Choice Salesforce executives described Slack as a key interface for AI adoption and said the company expects Slackbot to be monetized through Slack’s per-user subscription model. Patterson said users will receive included Slackbot capacity, with additional capacity available through Flex Credits for heavier usage.

Salesforce’s recently announced partnership with Anthropic and its Claudeforce initiative will not limit Slack’s revenue opportunity, Patterson said. Rather, he said, integrating external AI models and productivity systems into Slack should increase user engagement, retention and platform usage.

Valmik Desai, Salesforce’s senior director of investor relations, said Slack posted its strongest net-new annual contract value performance since Salesforce acquired the company during the second quarter. He also said upgrades have tripled since Slackbot became generally available.

On model selection, Patterson said customers can bring their own models to Agentforce and choose models for particular prompts or workflows. Salesforce plans to continue selecting what it considers the best initial models for use cases while allowing customers to override those choices, he said.

Marsden said Salesforce is working with frontier-model providers and open-source models, with the goal of abstracting model complexity for customers. The company’s focus is on using the appropriate model to achieve a desired outcome at the appropriate cost, he said.

Industry Clouds and Sales Motion Management also pointed to opportunities in industry-specific products, particularly financial services, health care, consumer goods and life sciences. Patterson said Life Sciences Cloud, introduced less than a year ago, has become one of Salesforce’s fastest-growing industry clouds.

Marsden said Salesforce is seeing a major upgrade cycle in life sciences and described the market as largely greenfield for the company. He said Salesforce can offer data, workflow, agency and interface layers together rather than solely a standalone application.

Finally, Marsden said Salesforce is changing its sales approach by linking a portion of frontline seller compensation to consumption and deployment. The objective is to encourage customers to realize value from their initial purchases before expanding into additional applications and AI agents.

About Salesforce (NYSE:CRM)Salesforce, founded in 1999 and headquartered in San Francisco, is a global provider of cloud-based software focused on customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise applications. The company popularized the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model for CRM and has built a broad portfolio of products designed to help organizations manage sales, service, marketing, commerce and analytics through a unified, cloud-first platform.

Core offerings include Sales Cloud for sales automation, Service Cloud for customer support, Marketing Cloud for digital marketing and engagement, and Commerce Cloud for e-commerce.

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

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Rising Treasury yields are hitting debt-heavy AI builders where it hurts most, and Oracle's balance sheet puts it squarely in the crosshairs. Here is what the bond market is saying about the cost of building the AI future.

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A global bond selloff that lifted the 10-year Treasury yield to a recent high is landing hardest on balance sheets carrying the heaviest debt-funded AI capital expenditure. Oracle (NYSE:ORCL | ORCL Price Prediction) sits at the front of that queue, and its stock is repricing on the higher cost of the borrowing that funds its buildout.

Oracle stock is down 4% to $142.82 in Tuesday afternoon trading, extending a slide that had already left Oracle stock down 23% year to date through Monday’s close. Meanwhile, Nebius Group (NASDAQ:NBIS) stock is slipping in sympathy, down 3% to $200.45 as another AI infrastructure builder financing its expansion through debt and equity issuance.

The First Trust Cloud Computing ETF (NASDAQ:SKYY) is down 2% to $161.76. Broader tech is holding up better, with the Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ:QQQ) down 0.9% to $710.30. Cloud infrastructure and software are selling harder than large-cap technology overall, and Oracle stock is falling harder than the cloud group it belongs to.

Bond Selloff Reprices the Cost of Building Yields on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 4.78% Tuesday morning. Rising long-term rates directly lift the cost of the borrowing that funds hyperscale data-center construction. Among mega-cap AI infrastructure names, Oracle carries a relatively high leveraged balance sheet, which is why the same rate move produces a bigger price reaction here than in the broader cloud complex.

Oracle’s fiscal 2026 capital expenditure totaled $55.7 billion, up from $21.2 billion the prior year, producing a cash outflow $23.7 billion greater than the business generated. Oracle covered that gap by raising $43 billion in debt markets and a further $5 billion by selling stock. A buildout funded that way reprices directly when the cost of borrowing rises, and this can help to explain why Oracle stock is trading below its 200-day moving average of $170.66.

Where Demand Meets the Funding Cost Co-CEO Clay Magouyrk said on Oracle’s most recent earnings call that customer demand for AI computing capacity has outpaced available supply, citing $553 billion in contracted but unrecognized revenue. Oracle posted 17% revenue growth in fiscal 2026, and its cloud infrastructure segment expanded 77%. That backlog gives Oracle unusual visibility into future revenue, and management has consistently characterized supply as the binding constraint on the business.

Oracle’s total liabilities reached $218.7 billion at fiscal year-end, against shareholder equity of $42.5 billion, with long-term debt alone at $122.3 billion. Higher long rates lift both refinancing costs on that stack and the incremental cost of the next dollar raised, which is the arithmetic doing the work on Oracle’s price today.

The tension in Oracle’s setup is that the demand signal and the funding cost are both real at the same time. A stock already down 23% year to date reflects the discount rate applied to that demand while bookings continue to grow. Nebius carries a related profile, funded through convertible notes, treasury share sales, and a first senior secured debt facility of approximately $775 million, which makes Nebius stock a natural sympathy trade on days when the long end of the curve sells off.

The Economic Times reported that Oracle is eliminating roughly 3,000 positions in India, and Oracle declined to comment on the India reductions. Oracle’s headcount shrank by 21,000 over the fiscal year ending May 31, a 13% decline, to about 141,000, and Oracle recorded $1.8 billion in restructuring charges for the year under its 2026 Restructuring Plan, with total anticipated charges of as much as $2.1 billion. These cuts read as cost discipline consistent with the funding strain, and Oracle stock rose on earlier layoff news, so today’s headlines aren’t a reliable read on the day’s direction.

What to Watch Next Traders can watch for whether the 10-year Treasury yield continues to hover near the 4.8% level, since Oracle stock now trades with tighter sensitivity to long-end rates than to the cloud group as a whole. Investors sizing their exposure to debt-funded AI infrastructure should consider keeping their position sizes modest while the funding backdrop resets.

Nebius offers a lower-scale read on the same theme, and Nebius stock tends to move in the same direction on rate-driven days. Market watchers could look for signs that funding costs stabilize before either name attempts a durable bounce off current levels.

Analyst coverage on Oracle remains constructive on the underlying business, with 8 strong-buy and 29 buy ratings against 6 holds and one sell, and an average analyst target price of $244.12. That gap between price and target is where the funding-cost debate now sits.

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

Block, Inc. (NYSE: XYZ) today announced that it will open the Cash App Score to external lenders for the first time, with Nova Credit as a distribution partner. The partnership will make Cash App's proprietary, cash flow-based credit score available to lenders through Nova Credit's Cash Flow Intelligence Platform, embedding it directly into the underwriting workflows lenders already use, with no new consumer credentialing required.

Cash App Score, which has begun rolling out to customers, draws on millions of real-time, first-party signals from across the Cash App ecosystem, including spending, saving, repayment behavior, paycheck deposits, and peer-to-peer activity, to form a detailed, near real-time picture of a person's financial health. And, unlike traditional credit scores, Cash App Score doesn’t look back exclusively at credit history - instead it reflects a customer’s broader financial behavior including historical and current activities, reflecting changes in near real-time.

Within Cash App, customers can see their score on the Money Tab, understand what drives it, and take concrete steps to improve it. Early engagement is strong - within 30 days, 551 percent of customers return to check their score. Cash App customers will set their own preferences for whether and how their score will be shared with third-party lending partners, with Cash App managing notifications and consent directly and no third-party logins required.

"At Block, we believe people should be able to use their own financial history to unlock opportunity, on their terms," said Juan Hernandez, Head of Credit and Underwriting at Block. "We built Cash App Score to see the financial activity of millions of people the traditional credit system misses, and it's now the same technology at the center of how we manage credit across Block, where we use it to understand risk in near real-time. Partnering with Nova Credit lets us put that capability in the hands of lenders through infrastructure they already trust, so more of those consumers can be reached responsibly, while they stay informed and in control of their data."

The technology behind Cash App Score powers underwriting across all of Block's consumer lending products. In Cash App Borrow, where the technology has been running longest, it approves 38 percent more customers at the same loss rate compared with traditional credit scores1. Roughly 70 percent of active Borrow customers have FICO scores below 580, the population conventional models underserve, at a target repayment rate. Block's analysis across additional categories indicates the potential to approve 30 percent more auto loans and 28 percent more credit card applications at comparable loss rates versus traditional methods.

The technology does more than assess individual creditworthiness - it tracks consumer financial health in aggregate and in near real-time, giving Block a continuous read on how macroeconomic conditions are affecting its portfolio. This allows Block to model scenarios and adjust credit policy dynamically rather than relying on lagging indicators.

For lenders, this means the Cash App Score is not a static signal - it is built on infrastructure that continuously adapts to economic conditions, the same infrastructure Block relies on to manage its own portfolio.

A richer view for lenders, across verticals

Through Nova Credit's network, lenders will be able to incorporate the Cash App Score into their underwriting across verticals including credit cards, auto lending, device financing, personal lending and tenant screening, all areas where Cash App does not compete, delivered through the same Cash Flow Intelligence Platform they rely on today. The Cash App Score will provide lenders with a comprehensive, near real-time view of a consumer's ability to pay. Used alongside Nova Credit's Cash Atlas, lenders will gain an additional layer of cash flow context through a single integration.

Beyond distribution, Nova Credit brings deep experience deploying cash flow-based scores, along with the consumer-reporting infrastructure, FCRA-compliance framework, and established lender network that together turn a powerful score into a solution lenders can adopt with confidence.

"By bringing the Cash App Score into Nova Credit's Cash Flow Intelligence Platform, we're giving lenders a unique tool to develop a richer, near real-time view of tens of millions of credit-seeking Americans," said Misha Esipov, Co-founder and CEO of Nova Credit. "Our joint goal is to help Americans put their best financial foot forward, using the apps they already rely on every day."

Nova Credit and Block will share more about the partnership at the Cash Flow Intelligence Summit, the annual gathering of consumer lending leaders, in New York City on September 10, 2026. Apply to attend.

About Block

Block builds technology to increase access to the global economy. Each of our brands unlocks different aspects of the economy for more people. Square makes commerce and financial services accessible to sellers. Cash App is the easy way to spend, send, and store money. Afterpay is transforming the way customers manage their spending over time. TIDAL is a music platform that empowers artists to thrive as entrepreneurs. Bitkey is a simple self-custody wallet built for bitcoin. Proto is a suite of bitcoin mining products and services. Together, we're helping build a financial system that is open to everyone. Block.xyz

About Nova Credit

Nova Credit is the industry's leading cash flow intelligence platform, enabling businesses to unlock the power of cash flow data in how they operate. The company leverages its industry-leading data infrastructure, intelligence layer, and FCRA-compliance to boost underwriting approvals, fight fraud, drive responsible growth, and more. Nova Credit supports over 7,000 businesses including organizations such as Chase, HSBC, SoFi, AppFolio, and Yardi, with a growing suite of products. Learn more at www.novacredit.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260901321398/en/

Over the last year, artificial intelligence (AI) memory stocks have been on fire. Expanding model sizes and more sophisticated agentic AI use cases are fueling a parallel boom between graphics processing units (GPUs) and the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) layered on top of these accelerators.

With its shares up by 697% over the last year, Micron Technology (MU -1.62%) has been one of the clearest beneficiaries of this memory boom. While the stock's parabolic ascent has been tough to ignore, some investors can't help but wonder when the memory trade will fade. After all, memory has historically been a highly cyclical market.

Well, Nvidia (NVDA -0.80%) may have just quietly signaled a tell about when Micron's business -- and its stock -- may peak and then begin to decline.

Image source: Micron Technology.

How to interpret Nvidia's supply and capacity commitments In conjunction with its second-quarter earnings report, Nvidia's CFO commentary included a table outlining future supply and capacity commitments. "Our commitments increased from $119 billion last quarter to $279 billion, primarily related to the procurement of memory," she wrote.

Per Nvidia's forecast, the company has committed to lay out money for memory and other supplies along the following time frame:

Remainder of fiscal 2027: $92 billion. Fiscal 2028: $87 billion. Fiscal 2029: $88 billion. Fiscal 2030: $6 billion. Fiscal 2031: $5 billion. Fiscal 2032+: $1 billion. Investors can see that Nvidia is budgeting $267 billion on memory through the company's fiscal 2029 (which ends January 2030). Let's make one thing clear: Nvidia's purchase orders do not all translate into revenue for Micron. First, some of these funds will go toward other types of components and supplies. But in the tight memory market specifically, Nvidia works closely with the other two major players in the space, SK Hynix and Samsung, both of which are leading producers of HBM and DRAM.

What Nvidia's commitments schedule underscores is that memory suppliers now demand multiyear visibility and commitments from large buyers. For now, Nvidia has given them roughly three years of it. Fiscal 2030 is where Nvidia's leverage as a customer could become more evident. What I mean by that is Nvidia may not need to lock in HBM purchases for 2030 at today's premium prices; hence, the company has not yet outlined meaningful spending deals beyond fiscal 2029.

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Understanding fiscal year timelines Nvidia's fiscal years end in January, while Micron's end in August. Nvidia's last certain year of meaningful memory spend will happen between February 2028 and January 2029. This period straddles the back of Micron's fiscal 2028 and the early part of its fiscal 2029.

One important thing to understand is that shipments lag commitments. This means Micron can still package products in the middle of 2029 against orders Nvidia already placed. With all of that said, it's fair to say Nvidia will still need memory beyond 2029. A lean order book is not concrete evidence that memory demand is destined to fall off a cliff by 2030.

Processors bought during the current data center build-out will eventually need upgrades and be replaced by new architectures. In turn, these AI accelerators will continue to require HBM stacks. That level of demand is what's not showing up in Nvidia's supply and capacity commitments right now.

This is the trap to be aware of: Micron's revenue can -- and probably will -- look fine while its underlying demand trends are potentially headed for a slowdown. Starting in February 2029, the memory story may hinge more on negotiations over volume and price than it does today. If HBM is still in short supply relative to demand, then Micron will have the negotiating power. If not, then Nvidia will be able to spend less even as it keeps designing new, more powerful processors with greater memory demand.

When could Micron stock begin to see some pressure? Remember, markets are forward-looking. Investors are not going to wait until 2030 to assess whether the supply-and-demand dynamics have actually changed. With that said, markets also do not look three years ahead while earnings are still compounding, like they are for Micron. This is why the stock could continue to rise throughout 2027 and 2028 even though Nvidia's commitment table is already public knowledge. As of now, the memory supercycle still has years of contracted shipments locked in.

February 2029 is the moment Nvidia's low-commitment year moves inside the window where the market could actually change how it prices Micron. If Nvidia does in fact scale back its purchase orders, investors will stop applying a scarcity premium to the AI memory market. My prediction is that Micron stock could peak somewhere between December 2028 and January 2029 unless Nvidia ratchets up its commitments well ahead of fiscal 2030.

Ultimately, Nvidia's memory commitments -- and the lack of them after 2029 -- do not tell us for sure that the memory market will dry up by 2030. But unless Nvidia makes it explicit that it will need more HBM going into the next decade, and that it's paying shortage prices for that HBM, I'd expect a de-rating in Micron stock. More specifically, smart investors could start trimming their positions between December 2028 and January 2029, leaving the rest of the market holding the bag and fueling a sharper drawdown thereafter.

Key Takeaways Intuitive Surgical is prioritizing R&D over near-term leverage to support long-term growth.AI/ML, robotics, imaging and software are key areas of its R&D investment strategy.ISRG is expanding into GI, cardiac and lung procedures to broaden its clinical reach. Intuitive Surgical (ISRG - Free Report) is deliberately prioritizing research and development to fuel long-term growth, offsetting near-term challenges from macroeconomic uncertainty, healthcare policy changes and international competitive pressures.

In the second quarter, management said R&D expenses are growing faster than SG&A, a trend expected to continue through the remainder of 2026. The strategy reflects a long-term objective — using innovation to reach more patients, expand into new disease areas and strengthen the company's competitive differentiation rather than focusing on near-term operating leverage.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are central to this investment strategy. Intuitive Surgical is directing R&D resources across AI/ML, robotics, instrumentation, imaging and advanced materials, while continuing to develop software capabilities around its robotic platforms. Management views these investments as tools to improve reliability, usability, efficiency and throughput, ultimately creating differentiated solutions and reducing the total cost of care.

The company is simultaneously expanding beyond its established procedures. Its next-generation flexible robotic endoscope is being developed for gastrointestinal applications, with a foundational noncommercial system recently submitted for FDA 510(k) clearance. This could provide Intuitive Surgical with a pathway into GI robotics and additional high-volume procedures over time.

Cardiac and lung interventions represent other important areas of R&D optionality. Cardiac procedures accelerated 39% in the second quarter, as Intuitive Surgical continues developing cardiac-specific instruments to support broader adoption. On the lung side, Ion procedures increased 36% to 48,000, with cumulative procedures exceeding 400,000. Development of the ROSE and EBUS programs, alongside expansion into 12 countries outside the United States, could broaden Ion's clinical utility and international opportunity.

The financial rationale is therefore centered on long-term benefits. Intuitive Surgical is effectively sacrificing some near-term expense leverage to build a broader technology and clinical moat. With more procedures, new indications and differentiated capabilities, the company can expand its addressable market while strengthening its ecosystem. Management's willingness to increase R&D spending despite macroeconomic headwinds signals that it views innovation, rather than cost cutting, as the more important driver of durable growth.

Peer UpdatesEdwards Lifesciences (EW - Free Report) is maintaining substantial R&D investment to extend its structural-heart leadership and create multiple future growth platforms. In the second quarter, R&D expense was $279 million, or 16% of sales, up from $276 million a year earlier, with management expecting R&D to account for 17% of 2026 sales.

The spending is focused on expanding the structural-heart portfolio, including next-generation SAPIEN X4S, PASCAL with Capture Clarity, EVOQUE and SAPIEN M3. Edwards is also generating clinical evidence to support new indications, including moderate and asymptomatic aortic stenosis. Management views these investments as multiyear opportunities capable of supporting roughly 10% long-term annual sales growth and strengthening its competitive moat through differentiated technology, evidence and indication expansion.

Glaukos (GKOS - Free Report) is channeling its strong revenue growth into R&D and clinical development to expand its ophthalmology pipeline and reinforce its competitive advantage. CFO Alex Thurman noted that R&D increased $8 million sequentially in the second quarter, with management continuing to prioritize investment in clinical programs even as operating leverage improves.

The pipeline spans five novel therapeutic platforms, 13 publicly disclosed programs and additional undisclosed assets, including Phase IIb/III development of next-generation iDose TREX, Phase IIIb work on iDose TRIO, a corneal-health screening device, customized third-generation iLink therapy and other programs. Management said the objective is to maximize both near- and long-term top-line growth while supporting two transformational commercial drivers, iDose TR and Epioxa. This sustained clinical investment could create successive product cycles, expand treatment categories and reinforce Glaukos' differentiated technology moat.

ISRG’s Price Performance, Valuation and EstimatesShares of ISRG have lost 34.2% so far this year compared with a 7.3% decline of the industry.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

From a valuation standpoint, Intuitive Surgical trades at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 32.64X, above the industry average. However, it is significantly lower than its five-year median of 68.4X. ISRG carries a Value Score of D.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Intuitive Surgical’s 2026 earnings implies a 20.3% rise from the year-ago period’s level.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

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

I've been wrong about Philip Morris International (PM +1.03%) for years. I avoided the stock on the premise that it wasn't a particularly safe ticker given the industry it operates in. But the company has adapted remarkably well, with a growing portfolio of products beyond traditional tobacco, and the numbers are becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.

The stock closed near $192 recently, and has delivered a 137% total return over the past five years, compared with 71% for the S&P 500.  Here's what's changed about the company.

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What I got wrong My thesis was simple and lazy. Cigarette volumes have been declining in developed markets, regulators keep tightening, and a tobacco company can't outrun that math. I treated the company as a yield trap that would grind lower while paying me to wait.

What I missed is that Philip Morris wasn't defending cigarettes. It was funding a replacement with cash from cigarette sales. In 2020, smoke-free products made up 24% of total revenue. By the first half of 2026, that figure hit 42%, and management targets more than two-thirds by 2030. More growth is forecast by 2030, but the direction is settled either way.

Image source: Getty Images.

The quarter that changed my read Second-quarter net revenue crossed $11 billion for the first time, up 10.4% reported and 7.6% organically, beating the $10.64 billion consensus by 5.2%. Adjusted EPS came in at $2.20, up 15.2%, topping the $2.05 estimate by 7.4% and marking a fifth consecutive quarterly beat. Adjusted operating income reached $4.8 billion, up 12.4%.

The mix is what convinced me. International smoke-free net revenue grew organically by 13.7% in the first half, with gross profit up 16.9%. That segment's gross margin reached 70%, expanding 190 basis points. These are software-like margins on a physical product, and they now sit on nearly half the revenue base.

What the company is up to IQOS is the engine for the company. Adjusted in-market sales volume grew 5.1% in the quarter, or 10.2% excluding Japan and Poland, where an April excise increase and a flavor ban created transitory drag. IQOS holds roughly 76% of the global heated tobacco category it created, and HTU share stayed stable at 31.8%. Smoke-free products are now available in 108 markets.

ZYN got a regulatory unlock. The FDA granted marketing authorization for 20 ZYN variants during the quarter. United States shipments reached 2.9 billion pouches, up 25% sequentially, with the brand holding 57.1% retail value share. International modern oral shipments grew 32%, excluding the mature Nordic markets. PMI also launched ZYN ULTRA with 9mg and 11mg moist variants.

VEEV is the quiet third leg of the company. E-vapor volume surged 55.1% in the quarter. Total shipments of 205.2 billion units grew 2.5%, and cigarette volumes actually rose 1.1%, which was ahead of expectations.

I think it's time to stop watching from the sidelines with Philip Morris. Management raised 2026 EPS growth guidance to 11% to 13% and reaffirmed 5% to 7% organic revenue growth with 7.5% to 9.5% currency-neutral EPS growth. The company is increasing U.S. investment in ZYN ahead of intensifying competition and preparing the IQOS ILUMA launch.

Three years of 104% returns and five years of 137% didn't happen because of financial engineering. They happened because the company built a higher-margin business within a declining one and reached the point where the new business drives growth. That's a pivot I didn't think was possible, and I was wrong.

At $191.89, the stock is no longer cheap, and some analysts peg total upside near 20.4%, or a 6.6% annualized return, which falls short of what equity risk usually demands. So I'm changing my mind about the business, not claiming the stock is a bargain. Those are different admissions, and only the first one was my mistake.

, /PRNewswire/ -- S&P Global (NYSE: SPGI) today announced the completion of the divestment of its geoscience and petroleum engineering software portfolio to Schlumberger (SLB), a global technology company driving energy innovation across more than 100 countries.

As part of the transaction, S&P Global Energy will continue to distribute its leading proprietary data through the divested geoscience and petroleum engineering workflow tools. 

"With this transaction complete, S&P Global Energy's upstream business will remain sharply focused on delivering world-class data and insights to global energy markets," said Dave Ernsberger, President, S&P Global Energy. "Our strategic alliance with SLB means our customers can continue to access S&P Global Energy data through the tools they use every day, and the launch of Titan, our AI-powered upstream data platform, will set a new standard for how the industry discovers, analyzes, and acts on data."

The transaction, originally announced in April 2026, establishes a strategic alliance that ensures customers will continue to benefit from S&P Global Energy's comprehensive data and insights within the workflows they rely on daily.

Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed, and the divestiture is not expected to have a material impact on the financial results of S&P Global, or the Energy division.

Media Contacts:

Josh Goldstein
S&P Global Energy
+1 954-254-4900
[email protected] 

Orla O'Brien
S&P Global
+1 857-407-8559
[email protected]

About S&P Global
S&P Global (NYSE: SPGI) enables businesses, governments, and individuals with trusted data, expertise and technology to make decisions with conviction. We are Advancing Essential Intelligence through world-leading benchmarks, data, and insights that customers need in order to plan confidently, act decisively and thrive in a rapidly changing global landscape.

From helping our customers assess new investments across the capital and commodities markets to navigating the energy expansion, acceleration of artificial intelligence, and evolution of public and private markets, we enable the world's leading organizations to unlock opportunities, solve challenges and plan for tomorrow – today. Learn more at www.spglobal.com.

About S&P Global Energy
At S&P Global Energy (formerly S&P Global Commodity Insights), our comprehensive view of global energy and commodities markets enables our customers to make superior decisions and create long-term, sustainable value. Our four core capabilities are: Platts for pricing and news; CERA for research and advisory; Horizons for energy expansion and sustainability solutions; and Events for industry collaboration. S&P Global Energy is a division of S&P Global (NYSE: SPGI). Learn more at www.spglobal.com/energy.

About SLB
SLB is a global technology company that has driven energy innovation for 100 years. With a global presence in more than 100 countries and employees representing almost twice as many nationalities, we work each day on innovating oil and gas, delivering digital at scale, decarbonizing industries, and developing and scaling new energy systems that accelerate the energy transition.

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains "forward-looking statements," as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements, which express management's current views concerning future events, trends, contingencies or results, appear at various places in this press release and use words like "anticipate," "assume," "believe," "continue," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "future," "intend," "plan," "potential," "predict," "project," "strategy," "target" and similar terms, and future or conditional tense verbs like "could," "may," "might," "should," "will" and "would." For example, management may use forward-looking statements when addressing topics such as: the outcome of contingencies; future actions by regulators; changes in the Company's business strategies and methods of generating revenue; the development and performance of the Company's services and products; the expected impact of acquisitions and dispositions; the Company's effective tax rates; and the Company's cost structure, dividend policy, cash flows or liquidity.

Forward-looking statements are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in forward-looking statements include, among other things:

worldwide economic, financial, political, regulatory, and geopolitical conditions (including slower GDP growth or recession, restrictions on trade (e.g., tariffs and disruptions to shipping in connection with the military conflict in the Middle East), instability in the banking sector and inflation), and factors that contribute to uncertainty and volatility (e.g., supply chain risk), geopolitical uncertainty (including military conflict), natural and man-made disasters, civil unrest, public health crises (e.g., pandemics), and conditions that result from legislative, regulatory, trade and policy changes, including from the U.S. administration; the volatility and health of debt, equity, commodities and energy markets, including credit quality and spreads, the composition and mix of credit maturity profiles, the level of liquidity and future debt issuances, equity flows from active to passive, fluctuations in average asset prices in global equities, demand for investment products that track indices and assessments and trading volumes of certain exchange traded derivatives; the demand and market for credit ratings in and across the sectors and geographies where the Company operates; the Company's ability to maintain adequate physical, technical and administrative safeguards to protect the security of confidential information and data, or protect against a system or network disruption that results in regulatory penalties and remedial costs or improper disclosure of confidential information or data; the outcome of litigation, government and regulatory proceedings, investigations and inquiries; concerns in the marketplace affecting the Company's credibility or otherwise affecting market perceptions of the integrity or utility of independent credit ratings, benchmarks, indices and other services; the level of merger and acquisition activity in the United States and abroad; the level of the Company's future cash flows and capital investments; the effect of competitive products (including those incorporating artificial intelligence ("AI")) and pricing, including the level of success of new product developments and global expansion; the impact of customer cost-cutting pressures; a decline in the demand for our products and services by our customers and other market participants; our ability to develop new products or technologies, to integrate our products with new technologies (e.g., AI), or to compete with new products or technologies offered by new or existing competitors; the introduction of competing products (including those developed by AI) or technologies by other companies;  our ability to protect our intellectual property from unauthorized use and infringement, including by others using AI technologies, and to operate our business without violating third-party intellectual property rights, including through our own use of AI in our products and services; our ability to attract, incentivize and retain key employees, especially in a competitive business environment; our ability to successfully navigate key organizational changes; the continuously evolving regulatory environment in Europe, the United States and elsewhere around the globe affecting each of our businesses and the products they offer, and our compliance therewith; the Company's exposure to potential criminal sanctions or civil penalties for noncompliance with foreign and U.S. laws and regulations that are applicable in the jurisdictions in which it operates, including sanctions laws relating to countries such as Iran, Russia and Venezuela, anti-corruption laws such as the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the U.K. Bribery Act of 2010, and local laws prohibiting corrupt payments to government officials, as well as import and export restrictions; the Company's ability to make acquisitions and dispositions and successfully integrate the businesses we acquire; consolidation of the Company's customers, suppliers or competitors; the ability of the Company, and its third-party service providers, to maintain adequate physical and technological infrastructure; the Company's ability to successfully recover from a disaster or other business continuity problem, such as an earthquake, hurricane, flood, civil unrest, protests, military conflict, terrorist attack, outbreak of pandemic or contagious diseases, security breach, cyber attack, data breach, power loss, telecommunications failure or other natural or man-made event; the impact on the Company's revenue and net income caused by fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; the impact of changes in applicable tax or accounting requirements on the Company; the ability of the separation of Mobility Global to qualify for tax-free treatment for U.S. federal income tax purposes; any disruption to the Company's business in connection with the separation of Mobility Global; and any loss of synergies from separating the businesses of Mobility Global and the Company that adversely impact the results of operations of both businesses, or the companies resulting from the separation of Mobility Global not realizing all of the expected benefits of the separation. The factors noted above are not exhaustive. The Company and its subsidiaries operate in a dynamic business environment in which new risks emerge frequently. Accordingly, the Company cautions readers not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the dates on which they are made. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances arising after the date on which it is made, except as required by applicable law. Further information about the Company's businesses, including information about factors that could materially affect its results of operations and financial condition, is contained in the Company's filings with the SEC, including Item 1A, Risk Factors in our most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K.

SOURCE S&P Global

Key Takeaways Plug Power generated $54.1 million in electrolyzer revenues in the first half of 2026.Plug Power secured major electrolyzer projects in Australia and the United Kingdom.Rising electrolyzer demand and the Quantum Leap project are expected to support long-term growth. Plug Power Inc. (PLUG - Free Report) ’s electrolyzer product line remains one of its primary growth drivers. In the first half of 2026, the company generated $54.1 million in electrolyzer revenues, in line with the prior-year period, reflecting continued demand for its green hydrogen production solutions despite project timing differences.

Demand for Plug Power’s GenEco proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzers continues to rise across industrial and energy sectors globally. The company’s electrolyzers enable customers in refining, chemicals, steel, fertilizer and commercial refueling to generate hydrogen on site. Healthy demand for electrolyzers continues to be supported by strong policy backing in Europe, where government investments and faster project timelines are accelerating green hydrogen adoption.

It is worth noting that in July 2026, Plug Power secured a 50-megawatt (MW) GenEco electrolyzer order for Orica’s Hunter Valley Hydrogen Hub in Australia, which became the country’s largest renewable hydrogen project to reach final investment decision (FID). Also, in May 2026, the 30-MW Barrow Green Hydrogen Project in the United Kingdom reached FID, with PLUG set to supply six 5-MW GenEco PEM electrolyzers for the renewable hydrogen facility. These projects strengthen the company’s position as a leading provider of large-scale green hydrogen solutions.

Despite ongoing challenges, including negative gross margins, operating losses and cash outflows, which are likely to affect PLUG’s near-term performance, rising demand for electrolyzers in the green hydrogen market and the Quantum Leap project are expected to support the company’s long-term growth prospects.

Snapshot of Plug Power’s PeersAmong its major peers, Flux Power Holdings, Inc. (FLUX - Free Report) reported revenues of $8.2 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026 (ended June 2026). Flux Power’s total revenues increased 25% sequentially in the same period, driven by increased customer orders. Flux Power continues to expand its lithium-ion energy storage solutions and SkyEMS software platform.

In the second quarter of 2026, another peer of PLUG, Bloom Energy Corporation’s (BE - Free Report) product revenues surged 215.4% year over year. Bloom Energy’s total revenues surged 165.5% year over year. The growth was fueled by robust demand for Bloom Energy’s solid oxide fuel cell systems and expanding adoption of hydrogen-capable solutions.

The Zacks Rundown for PLUGShares of Plug Power have gained 19.3% in the past six months compared with the industry’s growth of 6.4%.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

From a valuation standpoint, Plug Power is trading at a forward price-to-sales ratio of 3.26X compared with the industry average of 12.49X. PLUG carries a Value Score of F.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for PLUG’s bottom line for third-quarter 2026 has decreased in the past 60 days.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

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

The S&P 500 (^GSPC -0.65%) is hovering near a record high, but the ongoing geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, the rising odds of an interest rate hike, and the upcoming midterm congressional elections in November could disrupt what has been an incredible (nearly) four-year bull market.

The S&P 500 is currently trading at a Shiller Cyclically Adjusted Price-to-Earnings (CAPE) ratio of 41.8, its second-highest valuation in history, behind only the dot-com bubble peak in 2000. Even if the index were to plunge into a technical bear market by suffering a 20% decline from its recent peak, it would still be expensive by historical standards.

But the broader market has always trended higher over the long term, so sell-offs can be a great opportunity for investors to scoop up bargains. One stock that could be a great buy at a discount is Corning (GLW -3.34%), which has become a key player in the global artificial intelligence (AI) data center build-out. Here's why.

Image source: Getty Images.

An industrial powerhouse since 1851 Corning has been one of America's leading glass manufacturers for the last 175 years. It was the main supplier of glass for Thomas Edison's original lightbulb in 1880, and today, it makes the glass for all of Apple's iPhones. But the company's biggest opportunity currently lies in manufacturing fiber-optic connectivity solutions for data centers that accelerate processing speeds for AI workloads.

The typical Nvidia NVLink 72 data center rack includes 72 graphics processing units (GPUs), 36 central processing units (CPUs), and several networking components, all connected with 2 miles of copper cables. However, there is an ongoing shift toward fiber-optic cables instead, because they can transmit data significantly faster and with greater energy efficiency.

Corning recently developed a product called Multicore Fiber (MCF), which packs four cores into a single 125-micron strand of optical fiber. This enables data center operators to achieve the same level of performance as a single-core solution with 75% fewer cables, which will be a game changer as GPU clusters grow larger over time.

Corning says when clusters expand to more than 130,000 GPUs, they will require an extra optical layer, which means adding roughly 50% more fiber content. Products like MCF will help data center operators keep costs down and maximize processing speeds.

In January, Corning announced a multiyear deal to sell $6 billion in optical connectivity solutions to Meta Platforms, and it followed that up by signing a similar deal with Amazon in June. The company will expand its optical connectivity manufacturing capacity tenfold to meet this surge in demand, and it has partnered with Nvidia to access the funding and technological support to do so.

Corning's AI-related revenue is surging Corning generated $4.7 billion in total core revenue during the second quarter of 2026 (ended June 30), a 17% jump from the year-ago period. The optical communications segment contributed $2.1 billion and grew at a much faster rate of 32%. AI-related sales, specifically, almost doubled.

The optical communications business also produced $438 million in net income, a whopping 77% increase from the year-ago period. The soaring demand for fiber-optic data center solutions is giving Corning an unprecedented ability to dictate prices, which is significantly boosting its profit margins.

Looking ahead, Corning expects to reach a $20 billion annual revenue run rate by the end of 2026, and it believes that figure could double to $40 billion by 2030 due to AI-related demand.

Corning stock isn't cheap, but put it on your watch list Based on Corning's adjusted (non-GAAP) trailing 12-month earnings of $2.87 per share, its stock is trading at a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 51.9. Considering Nvidia -- the undisputed leader in AI semiconductor hardware -- has a P/E ratio of just 27.5, Corning certainly isn't cheap.

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If Corning manages to double its annual revenue by 2030, as management's latest forecast suggests, its earnings will likely grow at a similar rate, so its stock might actually be cheap on a forward basis. However, I think the stock will struggle to deliver further upside in the near term, especially as the broader market navigates so many headwinds.

I think investors are better off waiting until Corning's valuation is at a more reasonable level. If the S&P 500 suffers a correction that pushes Corning stock down to around $100, then its P/E ratio will fall to around 34.7 (and potentially even lower with further quarterly earnings growth). That might be a more palatable level, particularly given the company's strong long-term growth prospects.

Key Takeaways HomeGoods comp sales rose 7% in fiscal Q2 2027, while net sales climbed 10% to $2.51 billion.A higher average basket led comp growth, while customer transactions also increased across banners & regions.First-half HomeGoods comps rose 8%, with net sales up 10% to $5.01 billion from $4.54 billion. The TJX Companies, Inc. (TJX - Free Report) continues to see strong momentum at its HomeGoods division, which operates the HomeGoods and Homesense banners in the United States. The business offers a wide range of home merchandise across decorative, seasonal, kitchen, textile and giftware categories, combining replenishable products with its treasure-hunt shopping format.

HomeGoods delivered a solid second-quarter fiscal 2027 performance, with comparable sales rising 7%, up from 5% growth in the prior-year quarter. HomeGoods’ net sales increased 10% to $2,507 million from $2,286 million. The comp gain was primarily driven by a higher average basket, while customer transactions also increased. Performance was strong across both banners, all regions and income demographic bands.

Product demand was well spread across the assortment. Replenishable consumables helped support steady traffic, while decorative and higher-ticket categories, including lighting and wall merchandise, also performed well. Kitchen gadgets, linens, towels, sheets, giftware, gourmet food and seasonal decor were among the other areas highlighted.

The strength was also evident over the first six months of fiscal 2027. HomeGoods comparable sales increased 8%, compared with 5% a year earlier, while net sales rose 10% to $5,013 million from $4,540 million.

Overall, HomeGoods’ recent performance has been supported by strength across a broad range of merchandise, with both a higher average basket and increased customer transactions contributing to comparable-sales growth. With the recent gains extending across categories, banners and regions, HomeGoods’ sales momentum remains an important trend to watch as the year progresses.

TJX and Peers See Home Category StrengthRoss Stores (ROST - Free Report) also saw notable strength in Home during the second quarter of fiscal 2026. Home was one of Ross Stores’ strongest businesses and outpaced its average. Decorative home and housewares were particularly strong, posting mid-teens growth across Ross and dd’s. With comparable-store sales up 10%, primarily driven by traffic, Ross Stores’ Home performance contributed to broad-based sales strength.

Burlington Stores, Inc. (BURL - Free Report) saw improving performance in Home during the second quarter of fiscal 2026. The company’s Home business started to outperform the chain as it began lapping last year’s tariff-related assortment pressure. In July, Burlington Stores’ Home grew faster than the chain, with that trend continuing into August amid strength in home furnishings, kitchen essentials and toys. Burlington Stores noted that second-quarter comp growth was primarily driven by a higher basket.

TJX’s Price Performance, Valuation and EstimatesShares of The TJX Companies have fallen 15% in the past month compared with the industry’s decline of 4.6%.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

From a valuation standpoint, TJX trades at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 24.30X, down from the industry’s average of 29.40X.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for The TJX Companies’ fiscal 2027 and 2028 earnings per share has inched up 1 cent to $5.21 and $5.73, respectively, in the past seven days.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

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

Key Takeaways RKLB leverages acquisitions to expand its spacecraft component manufacturing and engineering capabilities.RKLB supplies spacecraft components to commercial and government customers beyond its missions.RKLB's component portfolio spans reaction wheels, star trackers, radios, batteries and optical systems. Rocket Lab Corporation (RKLB - Free Report) is expanding its space system business by developing and manufacturing a broader range of spacecraft components for its platforms and the wider space market. Its portfolio includes reaction wheels, star trackers, radios, separation systems, solar solutions, command and control software, high-voltage space-grade batteries and optical systems. This expanding product base allows Rocket Lab to participate in spacecraft development beyond launch services.

The company's component strategy is supported by a series of acquisitions that have added specialized manufacturing and engineering capabilities. Rocket Lab has integrated businesses, including Sinclair Interplanetary, Planetary Systems, SolAero Technologies, Advanced Solutions and GEOST, into its broader space system platform. These acquisitions have expanded its ability to manufacture critical spacecraft components and provide related software and services.

Rocket Lab is also targeting the broader merchant spacecraft market rather than limiting these products to its missions. Its vertically integrated capabilities enable the company to manufacture components at scale while supporting spacecraft programs across commercial and government customers. This approach can create opportunities to supply multiple spacecraft platforms without requiring Rocket Lab to provide the launch service itself.

A broader spacecraft component portfolio could provide Rocket Lab with additional avenues for growth as satellite programs become more complex, and demand for specialized space hardware increases. By combining component manufacturing, spacecraft development and mission services, the company is building a larger role within the space supply chain while diversifying beyond its traditional launch business.

Companies Expanding Spacecraft Component CapabilitiesGrowing satellite deployments are driving demand for specialized spacecraft hardware and integrated systems. Companies like Redwire Corporation (RDW - Free Report) and Karman Holdings Inc. (KRMN - Free Report) are also developing and supplying technologies used across spacecraft and aerospace platforms.

Redwire provides spacecraft structures, solar arrays, avionics and other space infrastructure technologies.

Karman Holdings develops structural components for launch vehicles and satellites, including composite structures and other space infrastructure components.

Earnings Estimates for RKLB StockThe Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2026 and 2027 earnings per share suggests year-over-year growth of 81.48% and 240%, respectively.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

RKLB Stock Is Trading at a PremiumRocket Lab is trading at a premium relative to the industry, with a forward 12-month price-to-sales of 32.02X compared with the industry average of 7.81X.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

RKLB Stock Price PerformanceOver the past year, RKLB shares have rallied 30% compared with the industry’s 3.6% growth.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

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

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board acquired a new stake in Associated Banc-Corp (NYSE:ASB – Free Report) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 43,600 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $1,342,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of ASB. IAG Wealth Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Associated Banc by 4,250.0% during the first quarter. IAG Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,218 shares of the bank’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 1,190 shares during the last quarter. Eurizon Capital SGR S.p.A. purchased a new position in Associated Banc in the 4th quarter valued at $33,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Associated Banc by 345.5% during the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,350 shares of the bank’s stock worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 1,047 shares during the period. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Associated Banc in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $51,000. Finally, Global Retirement Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Associated Banc in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $56,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.98% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes Several analysts have weighed in on ASB shares. Barclays upped their target price on Associated Banc from $33.00 to $34.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. Raymond James Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Associated Banc from $31.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. Truist Financial increased their price objective on shares of Associated Banc from $32.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 4th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Associated Banc from $32.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, August 10th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Associated Banc in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $32.00.

Check Out Our Latest Research Report on ASB Associated Banc Stock Performance NYSE ASB opened at $30.58 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 0.93 and a quick ratio of 0.93. Associated Banc-Corp has a 1-year low of $23.86 and a 1-year high of $32.46. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.69, a P/E/G ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 0.77. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $31.00 and its 200-day simple moving average is $28.56.

Associated Banc (NYSE:ASB – Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The bank reported $0.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.72 by $0.01. Associated Banc had a net margin of 19.66% and a return on equity of 10.64%. The firm had revenue of $454.54 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $438.01 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.65 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Associated Banc-Corp will post 2.94 EPS for the current year.

Associated Banc Dividend Announcement The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 1st will be given a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 1st. Associated Banc’s dividend payout ratio is 33.57%.

Insiders Place Their Bets In other Associated Banc news, EVP Gregory Warsek sold 16,300 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.01, for a total value of $521,763.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 13,809 shares in the company, valued at $442,026.09. The trade was a 54.14% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Randall J. Erickson sold 43,561 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.04, for a total value of $1,395,694.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 56,091 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,797,155.64. This represents a 43.71% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 87,524 shares of company stock valued at $2,746,671. Company insiders own 0.71% of the company’s stock.

Associated Banc Company Profile (Free Report)

Associated Banc-Corp, through its primary subsidiary Associated Bank, N.A., is a regional financial services company headquartered in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The bank operates more than 200 branches across the Midwest, offering community-focused banking solutions for individuals, small businesses and commercial clients. Its emphasis on personalized service and regional decision-making supports long-standing customer relationships.

On the consumer side, Associated Bank provides checking and savings accounts, residential mortgages, home equity lines of credit, auto financing and credit card products.

Featured Stories Five stocks we like better than Associated Banc Securing AI: 5 Most-Upgraded Stocks From the Q2 Reporting Season Insiders Are Betting Big on These 3 Healthcare Stocks 3 Stocks for Investors Who Still Believe Cash Is King Dollar General and Dollar Tree Are Recovering, But Not for the Same Reason Want to see what other hedge funds are holding ASB? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Associated Banc-Corp (NYSE:ASB – Free Report).

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Cadence Subsystem for PCIe 6.0 Architecture Achieves First-Pass PCI Express Specification Compliance Cadence (Nasdaq: CDNS) today announced that its PHY and controller IP for the PCI Express® (PCIe®) 6.0 specification, implemented in the TSMC N3 process, achieved first-pass success at the recent PCI-SIG® compliance workshop held in late July. The workshop marked the industry’s first official event for PCIe 6.0 specification compliance testing, with Cadence’s x8 subsystem solution tested at the full PCIe 6.0 specification speed of 64 GT/s.

The complete Cadence subsystem solution, comprising both PHY and controller, successfully passed all official PCIe 6.0 compliance specification tests and is on PCI-SIG’s Integrators List.

“PCI Express is a crucial scale-up interconnect for AI/HPC data centers and AI factories, and Cadence’s subsystem for the PCIe 6.0 specification delivers best-in-class performance with among the lowest power in the industry,” said Marc Loinaz, vice president of research and development for high-performance PHY, Silicon Solutions Group at Cadence. “This first-pass compliance success validates our complete PHY and controller solution and gives customers confidence that our technology is fully interoperable and ready for production.”

The milestone underscores the importance of early ecosystem collaboration in bringing new standards to market. Cadence worked closely with PCI-SIG, test equipment providers, and industry partners in the months leading up to the official compliance workshop, conducting interoperability testing to identify and resolve potential issues before the formal evaluation.

“As PCIe 6.0 technology enables the next wave of AI and high-performance computing systems, rigorous compliance and interoperability testing are essential for ecosystem success,” said Brig Asay, General Manager, Network Data Center, Keysight Technologies. “Cadence’s first-pass compliance achievement reflects both the quality of its PCIe 6.0 subsystem implementation and the effectiveness of comprehensive validation using Keysight’s test and measurement solutions. We are pleased to support industry leaders in accelerating PCIe 6.0 technology deployment with confidence.”

“Cadence is a long-standing PCI-SIG member helping to further PCIe technology adoption,” said Al Yanes, president and chairperson of PCI-SIG. “Cadence’s PCIe 6.0 compliance milestone plays a role in the continued advancement of PCIe technology architecture.”

PCIe 6.0 technology addresses growing demand for high-bandwidth connectivity in AI and high-performance computing systems, where the standard is used for accelerator cards, network interfaces, and storage devices. The interface is expected to see wide adoption in data center and AI infrastructure, with broader deployment in automotive and enterprise systems following as the ecosystem matures.

“Positron AI has licensed Cadence’s SerDes IP for the PCIe 6.0 specification for our AI inference accelerator chip,” said Thomas Sohmers, CTO at Positron AI. “Cadence’s complete PCIe 6.0 subsystem built in silicon and robust interoperability testing give us confidence that our PCIe 6.0 interface will meet the high-bandwidth connectivity demands of our transformer workloads.”

Key features of Cadence’s PCIe 6.0 technology solution include:

Complete subsystem solution with PHY and controller built in siliconADC and DSP-based equalizationFirmware-optimized SerDes operationMulti-protocol flexibility and supportOptimized for low power, including support for the latest PCI-SIG engineering change notices (ECNs)Certification for x8 configuration on TSMC N3 processPCI-SIG has continued to advance the PCIe standard to meet the needs of advanced HPC and AI workloads. Cadence offers a broad portfolio of PCIe technology solutions up to the PCIe 7.0 specification.

Cadence’s complete subsystem solution for PCIe 6.0 technology, including PHY and controller, is available now for SoC providers to design in. For more information on Cadence IP for PCIe 6.0 technology, visit the Cadence PCIe 6.0 and CXL PHY product page or download the Design IP brochure.

About Cadence

Cadence is a market leader in AI and digital twins, pioneering the application of computational software to accelerate innovation in the engineering design of silicon to systems. Our design solutions, based on Cadence’s Intelligent System Design™ strategy, are essential for the world’s leading semiconductor and systems companies to build their next-generation products from chips to full electromechanical systems that serve a wide range of markets, including hyperscale computing, mobile communications, automotive, aerospace, industrial, life sciences and robotics. In 2025, Cadence was recognized by Fortune as one of the world’s top 100 best companies to work for. Cadence solutions offer limitless opportunities.

Category: Featured

© 2026 Cadence Design Systems, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. Cadence, the Cadence logo, and the other Cadence marks found at www.cadence.com/go/trademarks are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cadence Design Systems, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

PCI-SIG, PCI Express, and PCIe are trademarks or registered trademarks of PCI-SIG. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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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.

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Credo Technology Group Holding Ltd. (NASDAQ:CRDO) shares are in the spotlight Tuesday, with earnings on deck today, key growth metrics in focus, a technical setup showing a cooling trend and Edge Rankings all drawing attention.

Credo shares are retreating from recent levels. Why is CRDO stock falling? Earnings Preview & HistoryCredo is scheduled to report first-quarter fiscal-year 2027 earnings today after market close. Analysts estimate EPS of $1.17 along with revenue of $471.77 million. For the prior quarter, Credo reported EPS of $1.16, beating the consensus estimate of $1.03. The company also posted revenue of $437.00 million, exceeding consensus expectations of $432.05 million.

What to Watch: Credo’s $600M Optical Targets, Hyperscaler MixInvestors will be closely tracking progress toward Credo’s optical revenue targets, with management projecting more than $600 million for fiscal 2027, split roughly evenly across ZeroFlap optics, silicon photonics, and optical DSPs, though the most significant acceleration isn’t expected until the second half of the year. Hyperscaler customer concentration will also be in focus, since four hyperscalers each contributed more than 10% of total revenue last quarter, alongside continued momentum in Credo’s active electrical cable and retimer products, including its Blue Heron 200-gig-per-lane offering.

Gross and operating margin trends should draw additional attention, given last quarter’s non-GAAP gross margin of 68.3% and operating margin of 49.6%, along with any commentary on the integration of Credo’s recently completed DustPhotonics acquisition.

A Cooling Trend Meets a “Hold or Fail” DecisionCredo is trading about 10.8% below its 20-day SMA ($240.06) and about 9.5% below its 50-day SMA ($236.55), which tells you the near-term trend has cooled and rallies are meeting supply sooner. It’s also about 2.2% below the 100-day SMA ($218.89), putting the stock right around an area where trend followers often look for a "hold or fail" decision.

Momentum-wise, MACD is below its signal line and the histogram is negative, which points to fading upside pressure versus the prior upswing. In plain terms, when MACD sits under the signal line, it often means buyers need a fresh push to regain control rather than relying on the prior trend.

The bigger-picture trend is still constructive: the stock remains about 22.3% above its 200-day SMA ($175.05), and the 50-day SMA is still above the 200-day SMA (the golden cross that occurred in May). Key levels traders tend to watch here include:

Key Support: $211.50 — a nearby level where buyers previously stepped in, close to current price and a logical spot for dip-buyers to defend

Key Resistance: $241.00 — a nearby rebound-stall zone that lines up closely with the 50-day/20-day moving-average area overhead

Benzinga Edge RankingsBelow is the Benzinga Edge scorecard for Credo Technology Group Holding Ltd Ordinary Shares, highlighting its strengths and weaknesses compared to the broader market:

Momentum: Bullish (Score: 95.83) — Even with today’s drop, the longer trend has been strong versus the broader market. Value: Weak (Score: 4.58) — The stock screens as expensive, which can make pullbacks sharper when sentiment cools. Growth: Bullish (Score: 99.69) — The market is still treating CRDO as a top-tier growth story, which supports upside when risk appetite returns. The Verdict: Credo Technology Group Holding Ltd Ordinary Shares’s Benzinga Edge signal reveals a classic High-Flyer setup—elite Growth and Momentum paired with a very weak Value score. That mix can work well in uptrends, but it also means the stock may stay volatile when Technology is the market’s weakest pocket.

Read Next

Credo Shares DropCRDO Price Action: At the time of publication, Credo shares are trading 5.07% lower at $214.72, according to data from Benzinga Pro.

Image via Shutterstock

This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

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

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board purchased a new position in Elanco Animal Health Incorporated (NYSE:ELAN – Free Report) during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 51,700 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,272,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. NewEdge Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Elanco Animal Health by 133.7% in the fourth quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 1,096 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 627 shares in the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in Elanco Animal Health in the 2nd quarter worth about $38,000. Root Financial Partners LLC increased its holdings in Elanco Animal Health by 50.7% in the 4th quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 1,759 shares of the company’s stock worth $40,000 after buying an additional 592 shares in the last quarter. Uniplan Investment Counsel Inc. purchased a new position in Elanco Animal Health in the 4th quarter worth about $41,000. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its stake in Elanco Animal Health by 33.2% during the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 2,105 shares of the company’s stock valued at $50,000 after acquiring an additional 525 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.48% of the company’s stock.

Elanco Animal Health Stock Performance Shares of ELAN opened at $24.01 on Tuesday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $24.62 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $23.99. The company has a quick ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 2.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58. Elanco Animal Health Incorporated has a 52 week low of $17.11 and a 52 week high of $27.98. The stock has a market cap of $12.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -58.56, a PEG ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 1.67.

Elanco Animal Health (NYSE:ELAN – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.27 by $0.07. Elanco Animal Health had a positive return on equity of 8.13% and a negative net margin of 3.96%.The company had revenue of $1.37 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.31 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.26 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 10.2% on a year-over-year basis. Elanco Animal Health has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 0.190-0.220 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 1.100-1.160 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Elanco Animal Health Incorporated will post 1.12 EPS for the current year. Insider Activity In other news, Director Lawrence Erik Kurzius bought 40,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 20th. The shares were bought at an average price of $23.40 per share, for a total transaction of $936,000.00. Following the purchase, the director owned 188,647 shares in the company, valued at $4,414,339.80. This represents a 26.91% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Michael J. Harrington purchased 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 12th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $21.82 per share, with a total value of $109,100.00. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 131,451 shares in the company, valued at $2,868,260.82. This represents a 3.95% increase in their position. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. Over the last ninety days, insiders purchased 63,198 shares of company stock worth $1,473,109. 1.14% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In Several research firms have recently weighed in on ELAN. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of Elanco Animal Health from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Elanco Animal Health from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Weiss Ratings downgraded Elanco Animal Health from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “sell (d)” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 20th. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Elanco Animal Health in a report on Monday, June 29th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on Elanco Animal Health from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Elanco Animal Health currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $29.09.

Read Our Latest Research Report on Elanco Animal Health

Elanco Animal Health Profile (Free Report)

Elanco Animal Health Inc is a global leader in animal health dedicated to improving food and companion animal well-being. The company develops, manufactures and markets a range of products, including parasiticides, vaccines, antibiotics and feed additives designed to prevent and treat disease in livestock and pets. Elanco’s portfolio spans both food-producing animals—such as cattle, swine, poultry and aquaculture—and companion animals, with offerings that support parasite control, pain management and infectious disease prevention.

Originally founded as the animal health division of Eli Lilly and Company in the mid-20th century, Elanco was spun off into an independent publicly traded company in 2018.

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Benjamin Edwards Inc. lowered its position in shares of Teradyne, Inc. (NASDAQ:TER – Free Report) by 53.6% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 4,274 shares of the company’s stock after selling 4,929 shares during the quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc.’s holdings in Teradyne were worth $2,068,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in Teradyne during the second quarter valued at approximately $9,404,408,000. Andar Capital Management HK Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Teradyne in the 2nd quarter valued at $37,800,000. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Teradyne by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,078,635 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,370,141,000 after acquiring an additional 60,986 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Teradyne by 3.0% during the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 4,920,100 shares of the company’s stock valued at $442,413,000 after acquiring an additional 143,058 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in Teradyne by 18.6% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 4,203,546 shares of the company’s stock worth $813,640,000 after purchasing an additional 659,273 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades Several research analysts have commented on the company. Wall Street Zen lowered Teradyne from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday. UBS Group raised their target price on Teradyne from $440.00 to $500.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 20th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $550.00 price target on shares of Teradyne in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Teradyne from $365.00 to $525.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Finally, Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $420.00 target price on shares of Teradyne in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $396.80.

Get Our Latest Report on Teradyne Teradyne Stock Performance Shares of TER opened at $349.83 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $54.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 47.99, a P/E/G ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 1.78. Teradyne, Inc. has a one year low of $109.56 and a one year high of $487.91. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $378.22 and a 200 day moving average price of $357.57.

Teradyne (NASDAQ:TER – Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The company reported $2.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.09 by $0.38. Teradyne had a return on equity of 39.93% and a net margin of 25.77%.The company had revenue of $1.33 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.22 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.57 EPS. Teradyne’s revenue for the quarter was up 103.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Teradyne, Inc. will post 9.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Teradyne Announces Dividend The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 4th will be given a dividend of $0.13 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 4th. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.1%. Teradyne’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.13%.

Insider Activity In related news, CEO Gregory Stephen Smith sold 4,000 shares of Teradyne stock in a transaction on Monday, August 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $425.00, for a total value of $1,700,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 112,495 shares in the company, valued at approximately $47,810,375. The trade was a 3.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Company insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Teradyne Profile (Free Report)

Teradyne, Inc is a global supplier of automatic test equipment and related services principally used to test semiconductors, wireless products and complex electronic systems. Founded in 1960, the company is headquartered in North Reading, Massachusetts, and has a long history of developing capital equipment and software that help semiconductor manufacturers, electronics OEMs and contract manufacturers validate product performance and reliability during design and production.

The company’s product portfolio centers on automatic test equipment (ATE) and system-level test solutions that address chip- and board-level validation, burn-in and reliability screening.

Featured Stories Five stocks we like better than Teradyne Securing AI: 5 Most-Upgraded Stocks From the Q2 Reporting Season Insiders Are Betting Big on These 3 Healthcare Stocks 3 Stocks for Investors Who Still Believe Cash Is King Dollar General and Dollar Tree Are Recovering, But Not for the Same Reason Want to see what other hedge funds are holding TER? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Teradyne, Inc. (NASDAQ:TER – Free Report).

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Deutsche Bank AG purchased a new stake in Lithia Motors, Inc. (NYSE:LAD – Free Report) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 3,101 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $901,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Lithia Motors by 13.9% during the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 8,474 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,487,000 after purchasing an additional 1,032 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its position in Lithia Motors by 67.6% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 113,346 shares of the company’s stock valued at $33,272,000 after buying an additional 45,716 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC raised its stake in Lithia Motors by 16.8% during the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 93,170 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,349,000 after buying an additional 13,407 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc. boosted its holdings in Lithia Motors by 16.2% in the second quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 2,430 shares of the company’s stock worth $821,000 after acquiring an additional 338 shares in the last quarter. Finally, WINTON GROUP Ltd bought a new position in Lithia Motors in the second quarter worth approximately $651,000.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth Several equities research analysts have recently commented on LAD shares. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Lithia Motors from $350.00 to $417.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $490.00 target price on shares of Lithia Motors in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Lithia Motors from $360.00 to $415.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 19th. Benchmark upped their price objective on shares of Lithia Motors from $400.00 to $475.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Lithia Motors from $325.00 to $340.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 4th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Lithia Motors currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $436.33.

Get Our Latest Analysis on LAD Lithia Motors Stock Down 1.0% LAD stock opened at $366.72 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.06 billion, a PE ratio of 12.16, a P/E/G ratio of 0.78 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a quick ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.46. Lithia Motors, Inc. has a twelve month low of $239.78 and a twelve month high of $439.49. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $345.73 and its 200-day moving average is $301.93.

Lithia Motors (NYSE:LAD – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The company reported $10.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $8.73 by $1.30. Lithia Motors had a return on equity of 12.16% and a net margin of 1.88%.The business had revenue of $9.79 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.64 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $10.24 earnings per share. Lithia Motors’s revenue was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Lithia Motors, Inc. will post 36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Lithia Motors Increases Dividend The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 21st. Investors of record on Friday, August 7th were issued a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. This is a boost from Lithia Motors’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 7th. Lithia Motors’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.29%.

Lithia Motors declared that its board has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Tuesday, May 26th that allows the company to repurchase $500.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to repurchase up to 7.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Lithia Motors In other Lithia Motors news, Director Shauna Mcintyre sold 165 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $305.64, for a total value of $50,430.60. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 1,681 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $513,780.84. This represents a 8.94% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 1.08% of the company’s stock.

Lithia Motors Profile (Free Report)

Lithia Motors, Inc is an American automotive retailer headquartered in Medford, Oregon. Founded in 1946 as a small auto body and glass shop, the company has grown through organic expansion and strategic acquisitions to become one of the largest automotive retail networks in North America. Lithia operates dealerships across the United States and Canada, offering a broad portfolio of new and pre-owned vehicles from more than 40 different manufacturers.

The company’s core business activities include vehicle sales, financing, insurance, parts and service.

Featured Articles Five stocks we like better than Lithia Motors Securing AI: 5 Most-Upgraded Stocks From the Q2 Reporting Season Insiders Are Betting Big on These 3 Healthcare Stocks 3 Stocks for Investors Who Still Believe Cash Is King Dollar General and Dollar Tree Are Recovering, But Not for the Same Reason Want to see what other hedge funds are holding LAD? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Lithia Motors, Inc. (NYSE:LAD – Free Report).

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Canada Pension Plan Investment Board purchased a new stake in Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. (NYSE:CFR – Free Report) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 8,800 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $1,360,000.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Cullen/Frost Bankers in the second quarter worth approximately $1,133,453,000. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Cullen/Frost Bankers during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $92,904,000. William Blair Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Cullen/Frost Bankers in the second quarter worth about $89,425,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company bought a new stake in shares of Cullen/Frost Bankers in the second quarter valued at approximately $80,127,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new stake in Cullen/Frost Bankers in the 2nd quarter worth $79,846,000. 86.90% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Cullen/Frost Bankers In other news, EVP Carol Jean Severyn sold 837 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $148.29, for a total value of $124,118.73. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 12,712 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,885,062.48. This represents a 6.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 1.14% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth CFR has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Raymond James Financial reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Cullen/Frost Bankers in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Cullen/Frost Bankers from $155.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. TD Cowen upped their price target on Cullen/Frost Bankers from $169.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Cullen/Frost Bankers from $131.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 30th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of Cullen/Frost Bankers from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $161.75. View Our Latest Report on CFR

Cullen/Frost Bankers Trading Down 0.3% Shares of Cullen/Frost Bankers stock opened at $161.19 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. The business’s 50 day moving average is $161.58 and its 200-day moving average is $147.46. Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. has a 12-month low of $119.00 and a 12-month high of $170.80. The stock has a market cap of $10.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.24, a P/E/G ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 0.53.

Cullen/Frost Bankers (NYSE:CFR – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The bank reported $2.70 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.55 by $0.15. Cullen/Frost Bankers had a net margin of 23.34% and a return on equity of 15.55%. The company had revenue of $576.01 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $589.72 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.39 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. will post 10.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cullen/Frost Bankers Dividend Announcement The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 31st will be paid a dividend of $1.03 per share. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.6%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, August 31st. Cullen/Frost Bankers’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 38.94%.

(Free Report)

Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc is the holding company for Frost Bank, a Texas-chartered financial institution whose origins date back to 1868 in San Antonio. As one of the oldest banking organizations in the state, it offers a broad range of services to individuals, small and large businesses, and institutional clients. Core banking activities include commercial lending, deposit services, cash management and trade finance, while consumer products cover residential mortgages, personal lines of credit and home equity loans.

Beyond traditional banking, the company provides comprehensive treasury and equipment leasing solutions tailored to support working capital and capital expenditure requirements.

Featured Stories Five stocks we like better than Cullen/Frost Bankers Securing AI: 5 Most-Upgraded Stocks From the Q2 Reporting Season Insiders Are Betting Big on These 3 Healthcare Stocks 3 Stocks for Investors Who Still Believe Cash Is King Dollar General and Dollar Tree Are Recovering, But Not for the Same Reason

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The Justice Department just hit KKR with the largest premerger penalty in history, and the firm's lawyers may end up wishing the story ended there.

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KKR agreed to pay $250 million to settle Justice Department claims that it repeatedly ignored premerger filing rules, the largest penalty ever imposed under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act and more than 20 times the previous record.

The twist is that outside law firms will reimburse the entire penalty, meaning KKR expects no financial impact on the company, its funds, or investors. That makes the check a nonevent, even as the underlying finding still matters.

What Hart-Scott-Rodino Actually Requires HSR is the federal premerger notification regime, a filing rule that forces deal parties to hand competition regulators the paperwork behind a transaction before it closes. The idea is straightforward: give antitrust reviewers time and evidence to spot problems before a deal is consummated.

Filings include deal terms and, critically, the internal analyses executives prepared about competition, market share, and strategic rationale. Penalties escalate per day of noncompliance, which is how a paperwork rule can generate a nine-figure fine. For a firm like KKR (NYSE:KKR | KKR Price Prediction), which touches dozens of transactions a year, disciplined HSR compliance is table stakes.

Allegations and KKR’s Response The Justice Department alleged that KKR evaded proper scrutiny across at least 16 transactions in 2021 and 2022 through omitted documents, altered materials, and failures to file. The Justice Department’s release laid out the alleged conduct in detail. KKR strongly disputes the government’s characterization and says its previous process reflected industry practice.

Both statements can be true at once: KKR may have followed a common workflow, and that workflow may still have fallen short of what the statute demands. Reimbursement by outside counsel constitutes a commercial resolution of a professional services dispute rather than an admission of wrongdoing.

Why the Reimbursement Makes This a Financial Nonevent KKR posted Q2 2026 revenue of $5.73 billion and net income of $660.053 million, so a $250 million penalty would not have threatened the balance sheet. With reimbursement, it does not touch it at all.

Shares closed at $108.68 on August 28, market cap sits near $100 billion, and the stock is up 9.67% over the past month. Investors treated the announcement as immaterial, and on the arithmetic, they were right. A forward multiple of roughly 17 reflects a business compounding fee-related earnings at 37% year over year.

Costs No Law Firm Can Reimburse For a private-markets firm, the durable risk lies in the regulatory relationship that governs every future deal. An HSR record now sits in the file, and reviewers who screen KKR filings will likely read them with sharper eyes and slower clocks. That friction has no line item, but it tends to show up as delayed closings, wider document requests, and marginal deals that never get done, which matters when $143 billion in dry powder needs to move.

Scott Nuttall told analysts that “the best response to pessimism is performance,” and the Q2 numbers back him up. The reimbursement neutralizes the headline while leaving the underlying finding intact, and thoughtful shareholders should track those two ledgers separately.

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

Key Takeaways On Holding's DTC sales rose 26% to CHF 388.4M, reaching a record 45.7% of second-quarter sales.A richer DTC mix and full-price discipline lifted gross margin by 390 bps to 65.4% despite U.S. tariffs.On Holding expects DTC to outpace wholesale in the second half and sees 2026 gross margin at least 65%. On Holding AG’s (ONON - Free Report) direct-to-consumer (DTC) momentum is reinforcing its premium business model. In second-quarter 2026, DTC sales climbed 26% year over year to CHF 388.4 million or 34.3% at constant currency. The channel accounted for a second-quarter record 45.7% of total sales, up from 41.1% a year earlier.

The strength extended across e-commerce and company-owned stores. Online growth exceeded management’s expectations in every region, while the share of full-price sales increased year over year. Higher traffic and transactions, alongside store expansion, supported DTC growth. Strong comparable-store sales and standout performances in Paris and Tokyo further underscored demand.

The shift toward On Holding’s highest-margin channel is supporting profitability. A richer DTC mix, full-price discipline and operational efficiencies helped lift gross margin by 390 basis points to 65.4%, despite higher U.S. import tariffs. Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded to 19.8% from 18.2%, supporting investment in innovation, digital capabilities and premium consumer experiences.

DTC outperformed wholesale in every region, highlighting the strength of On Holding’s direct consumer relationships. Wholesale sales grew 4.8%, reflecting softer demand for some everyday running franchises and deliberate shipment restraint. By limiting inventory buildup in a promotional marketplace, On Holding is protecting full-price positioning, which remains central to its premium strategy.

On Holding expects DTC sales growth to strongly outpace wholesale in the second half of 2026. Management raised its full-year gross margin outlook to at least 65%, while maintaining adjusted EBITDA margin guidance of 19.5-20%. Sustained direct-channel demand and disciplined distribution reinforce On Holding’s premium positioning and support profitable growth.

DECK & WWW’s DTC Picture vs. ONONDeckers Outdoor Corporation (DECK - Free Report) delivered strong DTC momentum in the first quarter of fiscal 2027, with total DTC sales increasing 13% year over year. The company’s DTC growth was led by HOKA, where global DTC revenues rose 17%, while UGG DTC increased 6%. DECK benefited from strong full-price demand, product innovation and disciplined inventory management, supporting higher gross margins. For fiscal 2027, Deckers expects to continue driving significant DTC growth, with management indicating no significant change in the channel’s trajectory. DECK views DTC as a key growth engine, supported by expanding international reach, new products and greater consumer engagement.

Wolverine World Wide (WWW - Free Report) saw DTC revenues remain approximately flat year over year in the second quarter of 2026, despite 8% wholesale growth. WWW is making DTC a significant focus, with Saucony showing good DTC growth while Merrell is being repositioned toward a higher full-price mix and less promotional activity. Wolverine is investing in stronger online storytelling and more targeted marketing across the consumer funnel. Management acknowledged that more work remains but is taking steps to improve DTC performance, particularly ahead of the holiday season.

ONON’s Price Performance, Valuation & EstimatesOn Holding’s shares have lost 25.6% over the past three months compared with the industry’s 7.2% decline.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

From a valuation standpoint, ONON trades at a trailing price-to-sales ratio of 2.12, above the industry’s average of 1.40. It has a Value Score of B.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for ONON’s fiscal 2026 earnings implies year-over-year growth of 78.4%, whereas the same for fiscal 2027 indicates an uptick of 16.1%. Estimates for fiscal 2026 have been revised upward by 1 cent, while those for fiscal 2027 have remained unchanged over the past seven days.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

On Holding currently carries a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell).

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

Key Takeaways PJM removed Oklo's 750-MW Ohio project from its current grid-connection review over application issues.Oklo says losing its current review position could delay the project at least 14 months and raise costs.FERC could restore Oklo's place in PJM's process; otherwise, a later review cycle may add uncertainty. Oklo Inc. (OKLO - Free Report) is facing a new hurdle for its planned Ohio energy project after PJM Interconnection, the regional organization that manages the power grid across parts of the eastern United States, removed the project from its current grid-connection review process. The 750-megawatt project combines 150 MW of advanced nuclear power, 300 MW of fuel cells and 300 MW of natural gas generation. PJM cited several shortcomings in OKLO’s application, including technical questions about how the project would perform during sudden grid-voltage problems.

The bigger concern for OKLO is not that the project will be canceled, but that it could face a lengthy delay. OKLO believes the issues raised by PJM can be fixed and has challenged how the grid operator handled the review. The company estimates that losing its current place in PJM’s study process could delay the project by at least 14 months and push up development costs. This matters because power projects generally must secure approval to connect to the regional electricity grid before commencing supply. OKLO had already been working on grid studies and transmission planning for its Ohio development.

For investors following advanced nuclear names such as NuScale Power (SMR - Free Report) and NANO Nuclear Energy (NNE - Free Report) , the dispute also highlights an important point: developing a reactor is only part of the challenge; projects must also secure timely access to the electricity grid.

What It Could Mean for SMR and NNE

Although NuScale Power and NANO Nuclear are not involved in this dispute, OKLO’s experience shows why grid access can become an important execution issue for emerging nuclear projects.

OKLO has asked FERC, or the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission — the federal agency that oversees interstate electricity markets and transmission — to restore the project to its original place in PJM’s review process. If that happens, the impact on the development schedule could be limited. If not, OKLO may have to enter a later review cycle, creating greater uncertainty around the Ohio project’s timing and costs. The dispute therefore puts the timing of OKLO’s Ohio project at risk until the grid-connection issue is resolved.

Investors watching NuScale Power and NANO Nuclear may therefore increasingly consider grid-connection progress alongside licensing, construction and other project milestones.

The Zacks Rundown on OKLO

Shares of OKLO have lost 43.5% so far this year, underperforming the industry's essentially flat performance.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

OKLO currently has an average brokerage recommendation of 1.96 on a scale of 1 to 5 (Strong Buy to Strong Sell), calculated based on the actual recommendations (Buy, Hold, Sell, etc.) made by 23 brokerage firms.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

See how the Zacks Consensus Estimate for OKLO’s earnings has been revised over the past month.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

The stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).

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

Planet Labs PBC (NYSE:PL) shares are in the spotlight, with earnings on deck, key growth metrics in focus and a technical setup showing the stock trading below every major moving average.

Earnings Preview & HistoryPlanet Labs is scheduled to report second-quarter fiscal-year 2027 earnings on September 3 after market close. Analysts estimate a loss of 2 cents per share along with revenue of $104.12 million. For the prior quarter, Planet Labs reported EPS of negative 3 cents, beating the consensus estimate of negative 4 cents by 25%. The company also posted revenue of $94.15 million, beating the consensus estimate of $89.85 million by 4.78%.

Backlog, Defense Growth, FY27 Guidance in FocusInvestors will be closely tracking backlog and remaining performance obligations, which stood at approximately $906 million and $816 million, respectively, at the end of the first quarter, up more than 70% year-over-year, as a key indicator of future revenue visibility. Defense and intelligence segment growth will also be in focus, given it grew more than 65% year-over-year last quarter and has become the company’s primary growth driver, alongside any updates on international contract wins and the pace of Pelican satellite deployments.

Commentary on full-year fiscal 2027 guidance, currently set at $425 million to $441 million in revenue with adjusted EBITDA between breakeven and $10 million, along with progress toward sustained positive free cash flow, should offer additional signals on whether Planet Labs can justify its valuation heading into the back half of the year.

Planet Labs Trades Below Every Major Moving AverageFrom a trend perspective, PL is still in a defensive posture: it’s trading 13.8% below its 20-day SMA, 19.6% below its 50-day SMA, 37.7% below its 100-day SMA, and 27.3% below its 200-day SMA. That "below all the key averages" setup typically means rallies can run into supply faster than they find follow-through.

The moving-average structure also leans bearish, with the 20-day SMA below the 50-day SMA and a death cross in August (the 50-day SMA below the 200-day SMA). In longer-term trend work, that combination often signals the stock needs time (and multiple closes back above key averages) before the trend picture improves.

MACD is the cleaner momentum lens right now: it’s below its signal line and the histogram is negative, which points to fading upside pressure versus the prior upswing. In plain terms, when MACD sits below its signal line, it usually means momentum is cooling unless buyers can push price back into a stronger uptrend.

Near-term levels are tight, which can make Tuesday’s open important if volatility picks up with the futures tone:

Key Resistance: $21.00 — a round-number area that can cap rebounds before the stock can work back toward its short-term moving averages Key Support: $19.50 — a nearby floor traders may defend, sitting right around the current trading area Read Next

Planet Labs Shares DropPL Price Action: At the time of publication, Planet Labs shares are trading 1.91% lower at $19.47, according to data from Benzinga Pro.

Image via Shutterstock

This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

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

Seagate has already handed investors gains that dwarf Nvidia's returns over the past year, and Wall Street analysts think the storage giant still has a long way to run before this AI trade exhausts itself.

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Seagate Technology (NASDAQ:STX | STX Price Prediction) has quietly become one of the loudest AI stories on the market. Shares are up 202.07% year to date and 385.3% over the past year, riding a wave of hyperscaler orders for mass-capacity hard drives.

CEO Dave Mosley told investors last month that “As AI accelerates data generation and its value, we see durable long-term demand for mass capacity storage,” and the numbers back him up. With shares near $829.76, the question is whether Seagate can push through to $1,000 in 2027.

Wall Street Sees Even More Upside From Here The Street is unusually aggressive on this storage name. The consensus 1-year price target sits at $1,125, with 18 Buy and 4 Strong Buy ratings against just 2 Hold calls. That implies analysts see roughly 36% upside from current levels, well above our $1,000 bull case.

Why the optimism? Fiscal 2026 revenue grew 34.06% to $12.20 billion, and net income more than doubled to $3.18 billion. Q4 revenue jumped 48.49% year over year to $3.63 billion, and non-GAAP EPS of $5.71 topped estimates by 12.11%. Seagate has now beaten EPS expectations for four consecutive quarters, which suggests forward numbers may still be too low.

Path to $1,000 Per Share in 2027 Trailing valuation looks eye-watering at 61x earnings, but the forward multiple tells the real story. Forward P/E stands at 24x, roughly in line with the S&P 500’s forward multiple near 22x.

Management guided fiscal Q1 2027 to non-GAAP EPS of $7.30 on revenue of $4.1 billion. If that quarterly run-rate sustains through fiscal 2027, annual EPS could clear $28 to $30. At $1,000, shares would trade around 33x to 36x forward earnings. Rich, but defensible for a business compounding revenue at a 20%+ target rate.

Here is what could push STX to $1,000:

Locked-in hyperscaler demand. Mosley told analysts that “Nearline capacity almost fully allocated through calendar 2027,” with build-to-order contracts covering pricing and configurations for the entire fiscal year. HAMR ramp accelerating. Mozaic HAMR drives are qualified with five of the world’s largest cloud customers, and Mozaic 4 delivers “up to 44 terabytes per drive,” “over 30% more capacity compared to the first generation” with minimal added cost. Margin expansion. GAAP gross margin hit 52.3% in Q4, up from 37.4% a year earlier. Value-based pricing and mix shift into higher-capacity drives should continue. Structural AI tailwinds. Mosley described a “period of structural growth,” citing autonomous vehicles producing “up to four terabytes per hour” and compliance retention stretching “five to 10 years.” Balance sheet cleanup. Seagate retired $1.40 billion in debt in fiscal 2026, freeing up capital that management said would likely return to share buybacks. Recent History Shows $1,000 Is Within Reach A move from $829.76 to $1,000 requires roughly 20% upside. That is well within STX’s demonstrated range. The stock has already returned 1,015.99% over five years and 3,605.64% over ten.

Even more telling, shares gained 8.55% in the past month alone, and the 52-week high of $1,144.18 shows the market has already priced STX above $1,000 this year. Getting back there is more of a re-rating than a leap.

Bottom Line on $1,000 Hitting $1,000 requires roughly 20% upside from here, a modest ask for a stock that has already tripled off its 2025 base. Wall Street’s $1,125 consensus, a four-quarter beat streak, exabyte capacity sold out through calendar 2027, and a Fitch upgrade to investment grade all point in the right direction.

Hyperscaler concentration and tariff risk remain real. Still, if the Mozaic ramp holds and cloud CapEx stays elevated, we’ve outlined the blueprint for how Seagate could see outsized returns in 2027. Storage is only one slice of the AI buildout, though. We profiled seven other suppliers powering the data-center boom, from cooling to networking, in a free report you can grab here.

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.

, /PRNewswire/ -- GFL Environmental Inc. (NYSE: GFL) (TSX: GFL) ("GFL" or the "Company") today announced that it has closed the acquisition of SECURE Waste Infrastructure Corp. ("SECURE") pursuant to the terms of the previously announced arrangement agreement between GFL and SECURE (the "Transaction").

The Transaction was financed through a combination of capacity under the Company's revolving credit facility, the issuance of 75,126,306 GFL subordinate voting shares (the "GFL Subordinate Voting Shares") and a new US$1 billion senior secured term loan ("Senior Secured Term Loan"). The Senior Secured Term Loan matures on or about August 28, 2033 and bears interest at SOFR +200 basis points or approximately 5.0% after giving effect to cross currency interest rate swaps entered into by the Company.

"We are excited to welcome the over 2,000 SECURE employees to the GFL family, including Allen Gransch and other SECURE management who are staying on to lead the SECURE business as both employees and shareholders of GFL," said Patrick Dovigi, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of GFL. "The acquisition of SECURE reinforces our goal of creating long-term equity value for our shareholders and is expected to significantly accelerate the achievement of the multi-year financial targets we outlined at our investor day in early 2025. Our significantly enhanced scale following the acquisition will allow us to materially increase our capital deployment capacity while maintaining our targeted year end Net Leverage1 in the mid 3s. We look forward to updating our 2026 guidance to include SECURE when we report our third quarter later this year."

Mr. Dovigi concluded, "The Senior Secured Term Loan transaction closed at the end of August and was significantly oversubscribed, a continued testament to our long-standing relationship with high-quality debt investors, many of whom have been with us for well over a decade. The loan transaction did not impact our credit rating, and we remain committed to pursuing a path to investment grade in the near-to-medium term."

It is expected that the SECURE common shares will be delisted from the Toronto Stock Exchange at the close of business on or about September 2, 2026. The GFL Subordinate Voting Shares received by the SECURE shareholders in connection with the Transaction will begin trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange on or about September 2, 2026 under the ticker symbol "GFL".

_____________________

(1)

A non-IFRS measure; see "Non-IFRS Measures" for an explanation of the composition of non-IFRS measures. Due to the uncertainty of the likelihood, amount and timing of effects of events or

circumstances to be excluded from these measures, GFL does not have information available to provide a quantitative reconciliation of such projections to comparable IFRS measures.

About GFL

GFL is the fourth largest diversified environmental services company in North America, providing comprehensive solid waste management services from its platform of facilities throughout Canada and 19 U.S. states. GFL has a workforce of more than 17,000 employees across its organization.

Forward-Looking Information

This release includes certain "forward-looking statements" and "forward-looking information" (collectively, "forward-looking information") within the meaning of applicable U.S. and Canadian securities laws, respectively, including statements relating to the expected financial and other benefits of the Transaction to GFL, GFL's expected credit rating profile, growth plans and leverage. Forward-looking information includes all statements that do not relate solely to historical or current facts and may relate to our future outlook, financial guidance and anticipated events or results and may include statements regarding our financial performance, financial condition or results, business strategy, growth strategies, budgets, operations and services. Particularly, statements regarding our expectations of future results, performance, achievements, prospects or opportunities and the markets in which we operate are forward-looking information. In some cases, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "targets", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "an opportunity exists", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "outlook", "forecasts", "projection", "prospects", "strategy", "intends", "anticipates", "does not anticipate", "believes", or "potential" or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might", "will", "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved", although not all forward-looking information includes those words or phrases. In addition, any statements that refer to expectations, intentions, projections, guidance, potential or other characterizations of future events or circumstances contain forward-looking information. Statements containing forward-looking information are not historical facts nor assurances of future performance but instead represent management's expectations, estimates and projections regarding future events or circumstances.

Forward-looking information is based on our opinions, estimates and assumptions that we considered appropriate and reasonable as of the date such information is stated, is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other important factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including but not limited to certain assumptions set out herein; our ability to obtain and maintain existing financing on acceptable terms; our ability to source and execute on acquisitions on terms acceptable to us; currency exchange and interest rates; commodity price fluctuations; our ability to implement price increases and surcharges; changes in waste volumes; labour, supply chain and transportation constraints; inflationary cost pressures; fuel supply and fuel price fluctuations; our ability to maintain a favourable working capital position; the impact of competition; the changes and trends in our industry or the global economy; changes to trade agreements, restrictions on trade, including sanctions, export controls, import duties, quotas, treaties, tariffs, trade wars, changes to trade and investment policies and other governmental actions; and changes in laws, rules, regulations, and global standards. Other important factors that could materially affect our forward-looking information can be found in the "Risk Factors" section of GFL's annual information form for the year ended December 31, 2025 and GFL's other periodic filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the securities commissions or similar regulatory authorities in Canada. Shareholders, potential investors and other readers are urged to consider these risks carefully in evaluating our forward-looking information and are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such information. There can be no assurance that the underlying opinions, estimates and assumptions will prove to be correct. Although we have attempted to identify important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors not currently known to us or that we currently believe are not material that could also cause actual results or future events to differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking information. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. The forward-looking information contained in this release represents our expectations as of the date of this release (or as the date it is otherwise stated to be made), and is subject to change after such date. However, we disclaim any intention or obligation or undertaking to update or revise any forward-looking information whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under applicable U.S. or Canadian securities laws.

Non-IFRS Measures

This release makes reference to certain non-IFRS measures. These measures are not recognized measures under IFRS and do not have a standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS and are therefore unlikely to be comparable to similar measures presented by other companies. Accordingly, these measures should not be considered in isolation nor as a substitute for analysis of our financial information reported under IFRS. Rather, these non-IFRS measures are used to provide investors with supplemental measures of our operating performance and thus highlight trends in our core business that may not otherwise be apparent when relying solely on IFRS measures. We also believe that securities analysts, investors and other interested parties frequently use non-IFRS measures in the evaluation of issuers. Our management also uses non-IFRS measures in order to facilitate operating performance comparisons from period to period, to prepare annual operating budgets and forecasts and to determine components of management compensation.

EBITDA represents, for the applicable period, net income (loss) from continuing operations plus (a) interest and other finance costs, plus (b) depreciation and amortization of property and equipment, landfill assets and intangible assets, plus (less) (c) the provision (recovery) for income taxes, in each case to the extent deducted or added to/from net income (loss) from continuing operations. We present EBITDA to assist readers in understanding the mathematical development of Adjusted EBITDA. Management does not use EBITDA as a financial performance metric.

Adjusted EBITDA is a supplemental measure used by management and other users of our financial statements including, our lenders and investors, to assess the financial performance of our business without regard to financing methods or capital structure. Adjusted EBITDA is also a key metric that management uses prior to execution of any strategic investing or financing opportunity. For example, management uses Adjusted EBITDA as a measure in determining the value of acquisitions, expansion opportunities, and dispositions. In addition, Adjusted EBITDA is utilized by financial institutions to measure borrowing capacity. Adjusted EBITDA is calculated by adding and deducting, as applicable from EBITDA, certain expenses, costs, charges or benefits incurred in such period which in management's view are either not indicative of underlying business performance or impact the ability to assess the operating performance of our business, including: (a) (gain) loss on foreign exchange, (b) (gain) loss on sale of property and equipment, (c) change in value on Call Option, (d) share of net (income) loss of investments accounted for using the equity method, (e) share-based payments, (f) transaction costs, (g) acquisition, rebranding and other integration costs (included in cost of sales related to acquisition activity), (h) Founder/CEO remuneration and (i) other. For the three and six months ended June 30, 2026, change in value on Call Option has been added back to EBITDA. We use Adjusted EBITDA to facilitate a comparison of our operating performance on a consistent basis reflecting factors and trends affecting our business. As we continue to grow our business, we may be faced with new events or circumstances that are not indicative of our underlying business performance or that impact the ability to assess our operating performance.

Acquisition EBITDA represents, for the applicable period, management's estimates of the annual Adjusted EBITDA of an acquired business, based on its most recently available historical financial information at the time of acquisition, as adjusted to give effect to (a) the elimination of expenses related to the prior owners and certain other costs and expenses that are not indicative of the underlying business performance, if any, as if such business had been acquired on the first day of such period and (b) contract and acquisition annualization for contracts entered into and acquisitions completed by such acquired business prior to our acquisition (collectively, "Acquisition EBITDA Adjustments"). Further adjustments are made to such annual Adjusted EBITDA to reflect estimated operating cost savings and synergies, if any, anticipated to be realized upon acquisition and integration of the business into our operations. Acquisition EBITDA is calculated net of divestitures. We use Acquisition EBITDA for the acquired businesses to adjust our Adjusted EBITDA to include a proportional amount of the Acquisition EBITDA of the acquired businesses based upon the respective number of months of operation for such period prior to the date of our acquisition of each such business.

Net Leverage is a supplemental measure used by management to evaluate borrowing capacity and capital allocation strategies. Net Leverage is equal to our total long-term debt, as adjusted for fair value, deferred financings and other adjustments and reduced by our cash, divided by Run-Rate EBITDA.

Run-Rate EBITDA represents Adjusted EBITDA for the applicable period as adjusted to give effect to management's estimates of (a) Acquisition EBITDA Adjustments (as defined above) and (b) the impact of annualization of certain new municipal and disposal contracts and cost savings initiatives, entered into, commenced or implemented, as applicable, in such period, as if such contracts or costs savings initiatives had been entered into, commenced or implemented, as applicable, on the first day of such period ((a) and (b), collectively, "Run-Rate EBITDA Adjustments"). Run-Rate EBITDA has not been adjusted to take into account the impact of the cancellation of contracts and cost increases associated with these contracts. These adjustments reflect monthly allocations of Acquisition EBITDA for the acquired businesses based on straight line proration. As a result, these estimates do not take into account the seasonality of a particular acquired business. While we do not believe the seasonality of any one acquired business is material when aggregated with other acquired businesses, the estimates may result in a higher or lower adjustment to our Run-Rate EBITDA than would have resulted had we adjusted for the actual results of each of the acquired businesses for the period prior to our acquisition. We primarily use Run-Rate EBITDA to show how GFL would have performed if each of the acquired businesses had been consummated at the start of the period as well as to show the impact of the annualization of certain new municipal and disposal contracts and cost savings initiatives. We also believe that Run-Rate EBITDA is useful to investors and creditors to monitor and evaluate our borrowing capacity and compliance with certain of our debt covenants. Run-Rate EBITDA as presented herein is calculated in accordance with the terms of our revolving credit agreement.

All references to "$" in this press release are to Canadian dollars, unless otherwise noted.

For further information:
Patrick Dovigi, Founder and Chief Executive Officer
+1 905-326-0101
[email protected]

SOURCE GFL Environmental Inc.