Amazon has cut jobs in its artificial general intelligence (AGI) group, Reuters reported Wednesday (July 22).
The move follows Amazon’s consolidation of AGI work into part of a larger group that also includes silicon development and quantum computing in December 2025, the departure of AGI-focused executive Rohit Prasad at the end of 2025, and the departure of AGI lab leader David Luan in February, according to the report.
It’s also one of a series of smaller workforce reductions Amazon has made since a much bigger round of layoffs in January, the report said.
Employees reported being impacted by the cuts in the AGI group in posts on online forums Wednesday, but the scope of the cuts is not clear, per the report.
Asked about the reports by Reuters, an Amazon spokesperson said: “We’ve been building large AI models for several years, and it remains one of the most important things we’re working on. We’re sharpening our focus on the initiatives that matter most for customers, so we can move faster on what counts. That focus means some difficult decisions, including eliminating some roles within parts of our AGI organization.”
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy announced in a Dec. 17, 2025 message that the AGI team was being included in a newly formed organization that brought together the company’s AI models, silicon development and quantum computing, and is led by Peter DeSantis.
Jassy also said in the message that Prasad, who led the creation of the AGI organization over the previous two years, had decided to leave Amazon.
“The path ahead is full of opportunity,” Jassy said in the message. “With the foundation that’s been built, the traction we’re seeing, and Peter’s leadership bringing unified focus to these technologies, we’re well-positioned to lead and deliver meaningful capabilities for our customers. I’m excited about what this team will build and how these foundational technologies will help shape Amazon’s future.”
AGI refers to the development of intelligent machines that can think, learn and perform any intellectual task that a human can, PYMNTS reported in April 2024. Unlike AI systems that are designed to excel at specific tasks, AGI aims to create machines that can think and reason like humans, adapt to new challenges and learn from experience.
Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) reports second-quarter earnings on July 30, and Bank of America is raising the bar ahead of the print, arguing AWS is accelerating faster than the Street expects.
BofA now projects second-quarter revenue of $198.8 billion and operating profit of $24.1 billion, both above consensus of $196.8 billion and $23.6 billion.
The upside case centers on AWS: the bank raised its growth estimate to 33% year over year, up from 31%, a 5-point acceleration from the first quarter.
The driver is surging demand from AI model providers, with Anthropic-related revenue and OpenAI models on Bedrock cited as key contributors.
AWS margins should expand year over year to 34% on strong capacity utilization and pricing, though they'll contract sequentially as stock-based compensation rises.
Retail looks steadier. Bank of America card data shows online spending accelerated 2 points sequentially, consistent with Street expectations for North American retail growth to reach 14% year over year, even as the Prime Day bump appeared more modest than in prior years. BofA also thinks Amazon could raise its 2026 capex outlook to $210 billion on higher memory costs.
For the third quarter, BofA expects revenue guidance of $200.5 billion to $205.5 billion, a midpoint just below the Street's $204 billion. That outlook bakes in a roughly $1 billion sequential decline in North American retail tied to Prime Day timing, offset by international growth and AWS accelerating to 36%, adding an estimated $3.8 billion sequentially.
On profit, BofA expects a guidance range of $21.5 billion to $26.5 billion, with a $24 billion midpoint, flattish sequentially and slightly below the Street's $25 billion. Amazon typically guides conservatively, but AWS acceleration should still drive sequential profit growth.
BofA's broader thesis is that results will showcase Amazon's improving AI positioning, including AWS acceleration, an expanding backlog reportedly including $100 billion tied to Anthropic, positive Bedrock datapoints, and margin benefits from Amazon's Trainium chips.
As of 11:31 AM ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI +0.13%) is up 0.24% to 52,351.14, the S&P 500 (^GSPC +0.01%) has gained 0.07% to 7,514.29, and the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC -0.31%) has slipped 0.15% to 25,798.97 as tech stocks come under pressure.
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Gold prices have climbed 1.98% to $4,154.42 as of 11:39 AM ET, while the 10-Year Treasury yield is trading up 0.02% at 4.65%. Utilities and energy stocks are leading sector gains, while technology and communication services are falling.
Today's biggest movesThe Magnificent Seven are in focus this morning, with quarterly results due from Alphabet (GOOGL -0.13%) (GOOG +0.00%) and Tesla (TSLA -0.92%) after the bell. Microsoft (MSFT -2.28%), Amazon (AMZN -1.85%), and Meta Platforms (META -2.69%) all dropped in early trading. Super Micro Computer (SMCIP +17.60%) soared over 24% after the company said it expects its 2026 gross margins to double.
What this means for investorsIt has been a mixed morning of trading as oil prices continued to increase, fueling renewed inflation concerns and pressuring global markets. WTI crude rose over 2% to more than $86 a barrel. Traders are concerned about further supply restrictions as tensions in the Middle East show no signs of de-escalation.
A research note from Goldman Sachs Group highlighted the eye watering level of debt issuance to fund artificial intelligence (AI) build-outs. It said around $489 billion in AI-related debt had been issued this year, with hyperscalers such as Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta accounting for 40% of the debt. As markets brace for Alphabet and Tesla earnings later today, investors will be looking for signs that this intensive spending is driving revenue growth.
Emma Newbery has positions in Amazon. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Goldman Sachs Group, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, and Tesla. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
by Mary Jo Foley on Jul 22, 2026 at 9:36 amJuly 22, 2026 at 9:53 am
Nearly 20 years ago (!), in 2007, I published my first and only book: Microsoft 2.0. It focused on changes I expected at the company in the “Post-Gates” era. What would remain the same and what likely would be different once co-founder and CEO Bill Gates had left the building?
CEO Satya Nadella has not exited the company (yet). But there’s no question that Microsoft and its mission have morphed considerably in the past year or two. I’m not quite ready to christen this the Microsoft 3.0 era, even though Nadella handed the reins of Microsoft’s dominant commercial business to Judson Althoff nearly a year ago.
That decision resulted in Nadella moving into more of a “founder mode” role, allowing him to focus less on the day-to-day work of running the business. (Microsoft historians may recall that Gates made a somewhat similar move back in 2000 when he became Microsoft’s chief software architect.)
While it might not yet be time for Microsoft 3.0, we arguably could be in the “Microsoft 2.5” era. Windows and Office are still around and still play a big role. Microsoft still builds and sells developer tools and databases. But there’s no question that the cloud and all things AI are at the top of the pecking order now.
I’m embarking on a series here at GeekWire that will focus on what matters to Microsoft and, by extension, to its customers, partners, investors, and employees these days. Who are some of the people shaping and leading the company? What are their opportunities and challenges right now?
Over the next few weeks, I will be profiling various Microsoft execs working on plans for Microsoft’s ongoing evolution. Some are company veterans; some are newcomers. I’ll be talking with top execs from Microsoft’s Security, Copilot, Windows + Devices, Xbox, GitHub, and more.
I’m interested in their strategies for Microsoft’s key products and technologies and how they plan to try to turn Microsoft’s ambitious vision into reality. What are their teams building? What do they see as their biggest challenges and opportunities? And where do they see the technologies in their respective areas heading?
I feel like many of us who’ve been keeping track of the biggest tech companies (myself included) have fallen into the trap of blaming or attributing everything a company does to AI. Layoffs? AI is the culprit. Price increases? It’s all thanks to AI. Changing sales strategies? Chalk it up to AI …
But upon further reflection, I believe Microsoft’s strategy is more nuanced than “AI or bust.” There’s no question that Microsoft’s AI ambitions are shaping its goals and tactics. But Microsoft, as a heavily enterprise-focused entity, can’t simply stop supporting products that aren’t built from the ground up with AI (as much as it might like to do so). Nor can it just leave behind customers who aren’t 100% onboard with its AI moves.
Couple those enterprise hurdles with some not-so-popular consumer decisions, like axing 3,200 people in the gaming unit, and Microsoft’s approach to turning the ship looks a lot trickier.
Our Microsoft 2.5 series kicks off Thursday. Stay tuned.
BENSALEM, Pa., July 22, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Law Offices of Howard G. Smith reminds investors that class action lawsuits have been filed on behalf of shareholders of the following publicly-traded companies. Investors have until the deadlines listed below to file a lead plaintiff motion.
Investors suffering losses on their investments are encouraged to contact the Law Offices of Howard G. Smith to discuss their legal rights in these class actions at (215) 638-4847 or by email to [email protected].
Erasca, Inc. (NASDAQ: ERAS)
Class Period: January 14, 2025 – April 26, 2026
Lead Plaintiff Deadline: August 10, 2026
The complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period the defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) ERAS-0015’s preclinical data was based on improper comparisons to RevMed and placed Erasca at risk of violating patent and trade secret protections; and (2) as a result, Defendants’ positive statements about the Company’s business, operations, and prospects were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis at all relevant times.
Nano-X Imaging Ltd. (NASDAQ: NNOX)
Class Period: March 31, 2025 – April 17, 2026
Lead Plaintiff Deadline: August 11, 2026
The complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period the defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) Defendants overstated purported efficiency gains achieved in Nano-X’s operations, as well as the purported increased demand for its products; (2) in reality, Nano-X’s production and manufacturing operations were poorly aligned with demand for the Company’s products; (3) as a result, Nano-X was experiencing significantly increased operating expenses and cash burn; (4) the foregoing significantly increased the likelihood that Nano-X would be forced to take disruptive remedial measures with respect to its manufacturing operations, entailing significant restructuring and impairment charges; and (5) as a result, Defendants’ positive statements about the Company’s business, operations, and prospects were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis at all relevant times.
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT)
Class Period: May 1, 2025 – January 28, 2026
Lead Plaintiff Deadline: August 11, 2026
The complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period the defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose: (1) that Microsoft’s Copilot family of products had experienced significant brand positioning, user experience, usage, data siloing, computational capacity, organizational, and interoperability problems; (2) that Microsoft’s flagship proprietary AI model ranked well below competitors on a number of benchmark tests; (3) that Microsoft needed to increase by billions of dollars its capital expenditures and divert GPU and CPU capacity away from fulfilling demand for its profitable Azure services in order to improve the competitive positioning of its critical Copilot family of products and increase its AI-related R&D; (4) that, as a result of the foregoing, Microsoft had failed to convert a significant percentage of its commercial Microsoft 365 users to paid Copilot subscriptions and the Company’s Copilot offerings had lost market share to rival products, a trend that was increasing; and (5) as a result, Defendants’ positive statements about the Company’s business, operations, and prospects were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis at all relevant times.
Black Rock Coffee Bar, Inc. (NASDAQ: BRCB)
Class Period: September 12, 2025 – May 12, 2026
Lead Plaintiff Deadline: August 17, 2026
The complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period the defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose: (1) Black Rock Coffee’s new store openings were leading to a cannibalization of its existing services and revenue; (2) Black Rock Coffee overstated the manner in which its expansion strategy was tailored to avoid “sales transfer”; (3) as a result of “sales transfer,” the Company’s financial results were materially impacted; and (4) that, as a result of the foregoing, Defendants’ positive statements about the Company’s business, operations, and prospects were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis.
To be a member of these class actions, you need not take any action at this time; you may retain counsel of your choice or take no action and remain an absent member of the class action. If you wish to learn more about these class actions, or if you have any questions concerning this announcement or your rights or interests with respect to these matters, please contact Howard G. Smith, Esquire, of Law Offices of Howard G. Smith, 3070 Bristol Pike, Suite 112, Bensalem, Pennsylvania 19020, by telephone at (215) 638-4847 or by email to [email protected], or visit our website at www.howardsmithlaw.com.
This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules.
Contacts
Law Offices of Howard G. Smith
Howard G. Smith, Esquire
215-638-4847
888-638-4847 [email protected]
www.howardsmithlaw.com
Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have no stock, option or similar derivative position in any of the companies mentioned, and no plans to initiate any such positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
Seeking Alpha's Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.
Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN | AMZN Price Prediction) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) both reported quarters shaped by one question: how do you feed AI enough electricity?
I keep hitting the buy button on Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT | MSFT Price Prediction) because I am buying three relationships that no other Mag 7 name can replicate, and the market just handed me a chance to load up while the stock sits down 16.45% year to date and down 20.49% over the past year.
The Three Relationships That Keep Pulling Me Back First, the OpenAI model and API relationship. Satya Nadella spelled it out plainly on the last call: “We have a frontier model royalty-free with all the IP rights that we will have access to all the way to ’32, and we fully plan to exploit it.” Microsoft owns roughly 27% of OpenAI valued near $135B, and OpenAI has contracted an incremental $250B in Azure services. That is a customer, a supplier, and a partner in one seat.
Second, the AMD Helios rack-scale co-development. On July 20, 2026, Microsoft confirmed it will integrate AMD’s Helios AI platform and next-generation EPYC processors into Azure across new HDv2, HXv2, and ND MI455X v7 virtual machines. Microsoft is designing the rack alongside Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD), not renting one.
Third, the Copilot+ PC silicon standard and the enterprise seat base behind it. Microsoft now has over 20 million Microsoft 365 Copilot paid seats, seat adds up 250% year over year, and Accenture alone at 740,000 seats. That is the client-edge lock.
The Data That Makes It Cheap The AI business now runs at a $37B annualized rate, up 123% year over year. Commercial remaining performance obligations sit at $627B, up 99%. Q3 FY26 delivered EPS of $4.27 against $4.09 estimated, the fourth consecutive beat, on revenue of $82.89B, up 18.3%. Operating margin holds at 45.62%, ROE at 33.28%, and debt to equity at 0.176 with interest coverage of 53.89x. At a trailing P/E of 23 and a forward P/E of 20, I am paying a market multiple for one of the highest-quality balance sheets in the market.
Why Not the Obvious Alternatives The names a reader reaches for first are Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) for AWS and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) for Google Cloud. Neither one owns a royalty-free IP license to a frontier model through 2032. Neither one shows me a $627B RPO backlog that grew 99%. Neither one is running 17 exabytes of enterprise context in a WorkIQ layer that gets stickier every day. Azure grew 40% off a base that crossed $75B in annual revenue in FY25. My money keeps going here because the moat is specific and measurable.
The Real Risk CapEx. Q3 alone hit $30.88B, up 84.39%, and management guided calendar 2026 CapEx near $190B. Free cash flow fell 3.32% in FY25. If AI returns do not materialize, payback stretches. What keeps me steady: roughly two-thirds is short-lived GPU and CPU capacity, with the rest supporting 15-plus year monetization, and operating cash flow climbed 26.01% to $46.68B in a single quarter.
Forward Conviction Analysts carry a $558.21 target with 54 buys and zero sells. I need the three relationships to keep compounding, the dividend of $3.56 per share to keep growing, and management to keep returning capital like the $12.7B they sent shareholders in Q2 alone. As long as OpenAI, AMD, and 20 million Copilot seats pull in the same direction, my buy button stays warm.
Wall Street’s smart money is decisively bullish on data center infrastructure, with TD Cowen’s latest supply chain checks describing record hyperscaler leasing led by Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META | META Price Prediction), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), and Alphabet‘s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google, while Morgan Stanley has warned clients that the memory shortage will intensify into 2027 and 2028. That view lands after weeks of selling in data center names, creating a contrarian setup. The gap between institutional conviction and current tape is the story.
What the Checks Actually Show TD Cowen serves up a slew of data this week:
Our checks indicate a record ~9.6GW of 2Q26 DC leasing led by META, MSFT, and GOOG, with a record ~12.5GW leasing pipeline as 1) OpenAI upsizes its roadmap to 30GW by 2030, 2) Anthropic ramps +1GW intl. requirements, and 3) Meta leasing continues unabated.
Moreover, the Wall Street Journal reports that OpenAI now plans to spend $750 billion on data centers through 2030, up from a prior plan of $600 billion.
Morgan Stanley, in a note relayed by commentator Tae Kim on X, also conducted their due diligence:
But we spent last week talking to several of our purchasing contacts in the data center space, and the intensity of the shortages in that part of the business show no signs of abating. We see prices up at least 25% on a like-for-like basis from 2q to 3q, above our estimates and above 3rd-party estimates. As importantly, the longer-term concerns that the memory shortage will intensify in 2027 and again in 2028 are still as strong as ever.
That undercuts the AI-bear thesis that hyperscaler spend is peaking.
Analyst price targets reinforce the bullish framing. Vertiv (NYSE:VRT) stock carries a mean target of $379.20 against 22 buy or strong-buy ratings. Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) stock shows a consensus price target of $1,491.95 across 40 buy or strong-buy ratings. Equinix (NASDAQ:EQIX) stock shows a mean price target of $1,199.66, with Morgan Stanley recently raising its own target to $1,075.
The Gap Between Targets and Tape Every name on this list has recently pulled back. Vertiv stock is down 9% over the past month, Equinix stock is off 6%, and Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR) stock has fallen 5%. Micron stock sold off 14% on the month before rebounding this week.
Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Microsoft didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today.
In any case, the fundamentals have held up. Vertiv reported Q1 2026 revenue of $2.649 billion, up 30% year over year (YoY), with a $15 billion backlog and organic orders up 252%. Digital Realty booked a 200-megawatt AI inference lease, the largest hyperscale deal in its history. Micron delivered Q3 FY2026 revenue of $41.456 billion, up 346% YoY, with gross margins of 85% and guided Q4 revenue of $50 billion.
Moreover, Equinix logged record annualized gross bookings of $474 million, with 60% of its largest deals AI-driven. For a retail investor deciding today, the setup is a compression of price against improving fundamentals and hardening analyst conviction.
Names That Could Be Interesting Vertiv is the picks-and-shovels play on power and cooling. The Global X Data Center & Digital Infrastructure ETF (NASDAQ:DTCR) bundles Equinix and Digital Realty with chip names for diversified exposure, with Equinix at 14% and Digital Realty at 13% of the fund; single-sector concentration is the tradeoff.
Equinix and Digital Realty are the landlords capturing leasing demand directly, with Digital Realty running roughly 3.0 gigawatts in place and about 6.3 gigawatts buildable. Micron is the sharpest expression of Morgan Stanley’s memory-shortage call. CoreWeave (NASDAQ:CRWV) rents AI compute against a $99.4 billion revenue backlog, though a widening net loss, $7.7 billion in Q1 CapEx, and a securities fraud class action make it the highest-risk name here; CoreWeave stock has slid 26% in a month.
The evidence behind TD Cowen’s leasing figures and Morgan Stanley’s memory checks is quantitative, current, and consistent with what these companies are reporting themselves. The bear case is that these remain analyst projections that might not fully play out, valuations are stretched, and these names remain volatile. No matter how you slice it, investors should consider keeping their position sizes modest and treating this sector as ideas worth researching rather than sure things.
Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Microsoft didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today.
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) struck a multibillion-dollar deal with Anthropic that includes an investment of up to $5 billion in the AI developer, contingent on
Anthropic's latest compute deal with AMD is another sign that the AI infrastructure race is accelerating. Franklin Equity's Sara Araghi joins Bloomberg to discuss why demand for AI compute is still outpacing supply and why she believes concerns over AI have become overstated.
Bloomberg's Ed Ludlow breaks down the news of OpenAI's advanced AI models unexpectedly hacking Hugging Face's system during testing, raising fresh concerns about AI safety. Plus, AMD is making a big bet by investing up to $5 billion in Anthropic.
Nvidia (NVDA +3.05%) was the undisputed chip design champion during the first phase of the AI megatrend, when workloads centered on the training of frontier large language models (LLMs). Its powerful graphics processing units (GPUs) were ideal for this task, and it benefited even more from the wide moat provided by its CUDA software platform, which was where most foundational AI code was written. The chipmaker sold vast numbers of its GPUs, and continues to.
However, in the next phase of the AI trend, the center of gravity is shifting toward inference and agentic AI workloads, and with that, there could be a shift in the marketplace. The big winner of this phase looks like it may be Advanced Micro Devices (AMD +2.19%). While it is highly unlikely to unseat Nvidia as the leader in processors for AI model training or surpass its market cap, AMD's stock looks poised to outperform its larger rival over the next few years.
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Poised for explosive growth There are two powerful tailwinds forming that bode well for AMD. The first is the shift toward AI inference -- applying AI to real-world problems -- which is eventually expected to become a much bigger market than LLM training. As an ongoing expense, there is much more emphasis on cost-per-inference, and these processes tend to revolve much more around access to memory than raw compute power. AMD is addressing this in two ways.
First, its chiplet design allows its GPUs to be packaged with more memory than Nvidia's, making them ideal for inference workloads. Meanwhile, it recently acquired memory optimization company MEXT, which will allow it to incorporate its software into complete systems. MEXT's technology uses AI to offload infrequently used data to flash memory and restore it to DRAM just before it is needed, essentially expanding memory capacity virtually without meaningfully impacting performance, and helping reduce costs. AMD already has a few large GPU deals in place, which should help drive tremendous revenue growth.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
In addition to its opportunity in inference, AMD will enjoy another potent growth driver thanks to the coming rise of agentic AI. While prior types of AI workloads had to be handled primarily by powerful parallel processors -- i.e., GPUs and application-specific integrated circuits -- AI agents require more central processing units (CPUs) to handle sequential processes, and as such, the proportion of CPUs to GPUs in data centers optimized for agentic AI will grow meaningfully. Whereas in data centers built for inference, the average ratio recently was around 1 CPU for every 8 GPUs, for agentic AI, Intel predicts that ratio will shift to 1 CPU for 1 GPU.
AMD has long been a leader in high-performance data center CPUs, so that transition opens up a big market opportunity for it. The company has already brought out high-core CPUs designed specifically to handle AI agents, which should position it to continue to gain market share from Intel, which has been its primary rival in that niche.
With AMD riding two of the most powerful trends in AI infrastructure, expect the stock to continue to outperform in the years ahead, and to be a top AI stock to own.
The "Magnificent Seven" tech stocks led the S&P 500 higher in recent years amid excitement about their involvement in the high-growth field of artificial intelligence (AI). But over the past several months, many of these players have lost some momentum -- and this has brought down their valuations.
For the strongest of companies, I see this as a temporary move as the long-term AI story remains intact. And that means right now is an excellent time to go bargain hunting and pick up shares of my two favorite discount "Magnificent Seven" stocks: Nvidia (NVDA +3.05%) and Microsoft (MSFT -2.33%).
Image source: The Motley Fool.
1. Nvidia Nvidia dominates the AI chip market, selling the graphics processing units (GPUs) that power crucial AI tasks. This has propelled the company to record revenue levels and double- and triple-digit growth in recent years. In the latest full year, for example, revenue climbed 65% to $215 billion.
The tech giant also has maintained high profitability on sales -- gross margin has exceeded 70% quarter after quarter over the past couple of years.
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Meanwhile, Nvidia's commitment to innovation should keep it ahead of rivals. Nvidia has pledged to launch chip or system updates on an annual basis, and the next one is just ahead. The company is on track to ship the Vera Rubin system later this year. At the same time, it's important to note that companies across the AI market have steadily spoken of strong demand, so the overall environment looks bright.
All of this means Nvidia is a smart buy today at 22x forward earnings estimates.
2. Microsoft Microsoft stock has struggled in recent times as investors worried that advancements in AI could replace software. But I don't think this will happen, at least not to a great extent. While AI may replace certain software, it's unlikely to upset platforms that are profoundly integrated into companies' operations -- like Microsoft's offerings.
It's also important to note that Microsoft has incorporated AI into its software suite -- you may be familiar with Copilot -- so as AI's capabilities advance, Microsoft's software also should benefit.
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At the same time, Microsoft's cloud business offers its customers a variety of AI products and services, and this is driving tremendous growth. In the recent quarter, the AI business reached annual recurring revenue of $37 billion. So AI has been a big opportunity for Microsoft, and this is likely to continue as AI is more often applied to real-world problems.
Today, Microsoft is trading at 20x forward earnings estimates, making it the second-cheapest "Magnificent Seven" stock after Meta Platforms. At this level, it's a no-brainer discount buy.
Adria Cimino has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Meta Platforms, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Nvidia NVDA shares rose over 3% on Wednesday as investors looked ahead to Alphabet's quarterly earnings for fresh insight into artificial intelligence spending, a key driver of demand for the chipmaker's processors.
The gains followed a 2% rally on Tuesday that lifted the broader semiconductor sector.
Advanced Micro Devices and Broadcom also traded about 2% higher on Wednesday.
The broader US market was little changed as rising oil prices tempered investor sentiment.
The S&P 500 edged up 0.1%, the Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.1%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 152 points, or 0.3%.
Although Nvidia shares have gained nearly 25% over the past year, the stock has underperformed several other semiconductor companies as investors weigh concerns over growing competition and the sustainability of elevated AI chip pricing.
The earnings season is expected to provide a clearer picture of whether major technology companies plan to maintain their current pace of investment in AI infrastructure.
Investor attention has shifted to earnings from major technology companies, beginning with Alphabet's results after Wednesday's market close.
The report is expected to provide additional clarity on artificial intelligence investment plans that could influence demand for Nvidia's chips.
Companies including Microsoft, Meta Platforms, and Amazon are scheduled to report quarterly results this month, with investors closely monitoring capital expenditure guidance as an indicator of future AI infrastructure spending.
Beyond overall spending levels, investors are also expected to scrutinize commentary on the mix of AI hardware purchases.
Large technology companies have increasingly explored custom-designed processors, often developed with partners such as Broadcom, for certain workloads.
While those chips may not match the performance of Nvidia's graphics processing units, they could reduce dependence on third-party suppliers for specific applications.
Bank of America Research maintained a Buy rating and a $350 price target on Nvidia, arguing that the company's recently introduced Vera central processing unit expands its position in artificial intelligence infrastructure.
The bank estimates the server CPU total addressable market could reach $170 billion by 2030, roughly four times current levels.
According to analyst Vivek Arya, the launch of Vera marks the beginning of a direct competition with AMD over how agentic AI workloads should be measured and monetized.
"The key question for investors is whether agentic AI is primarily constrained by time-to-complete an agent or number-of-agents-per-rack," Arya wrote.
Nvidia's Vera architecture is designed around the former approach.
The processor combines 88 custom Olympus Arm-based cores with 1.2 terabytes per second of memory bandwidth and 3.4 terabytes per second of on-die fabric bandwidth.
Vera is intended to operate as part of an integrated AI platform that includes Nvidia's Rubin graphics processing unit, NVLink interconnect, Spectrum networking switches, and BlueField networking and storage interface cards.
Bank of America said its bullish view is based on Nvidia's ability to offer a co-designed AI system rather than a standalone processor.
Jim Cramer has said that the stock for the largest company globally by market capitalization, Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA), ‘is on fire’.
On July 22, Cramer told his mass social media following that Nvidia stock is heating up despite a lack of specific reason.
“Remember the largest stock in this market is on fire… and we don’t know why… NVDA,” Cramer noted.
Over the past 24 hours, Nvidia stock price surged nearly 4%, trading at about $213.66 at press time. As such, the company had a market capitalization of more than $5 trillion at the time of publication.
NVDA 24-hour chart. Source: Finbold After being trapped in a correction phase between mid May 2026 and late June, Nvidia stock has rallied over 9.6 % so far in July, up from $194.83 on July 2.
Why is Nvidia stock going up today? Nvidia stock surged today partly due to positive sentiment from Vivek Arya, an analyst at Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC). On Wednesday, BofA said it sees the CPU (Central Processing Unit) market reaching $170 billion by 2030.
Consequently, Arya reiterated a Buy rating for NVDA stock, and set a 12-month price target of $350, signaling a potential upside of more than 63%. In the AI infrastructure news, Arya pointed to growing competition between Nvidia’s Vera CPU and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NASDAQ: AMD).
Meanwhile, Nvidia stock could have gained uptrend momentum today following bullish sentiment from Wall Street analysts. Specifically, 37 Wall Street analysts surveyed by TipRanks have issued a Strong Buy rating for Nvidia stock and set an average 12-month price target of $309.94.
NVDA analyst ratings. Source: TipRanks The company has also made notable investments to increase its revenue in the long haul. For instance, Nvidia disclosed an ownership of 22.2 million shares in Nebius Group N.V. (NASDAQ: NBIS).
As a result, Nvidia owns 10% of the full-stack AI cloud infrastructure. Earlier today, Nvidia launched the Medical Physics Simulation framework, a major healthcare AI news.
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AT&T (T) shares are on the rise following the release of its Q2 earnings report, which revealed an adjusted EPS of $0.65, surpassing the FactSet consensus of $0
AT&T Inc. (T) Q2 2026 Earnings Call July 22, 2026 8:30 AM EDT
Company Participants
Brett Feldman - Senior Vice President of Finance & Investor Relations
John Stankey - CEO, President & Chairman
Pascal Desroches - Senior EVP & CFO
Conference Call Participants
Sean Diffley - Morgan Stanley, Research Division
John Hodulik - UBS Investment Bank, Research Division
David Barden - New Street Research LLP
Craig Moffett - MoffettNathanson LLC
Michael Rollins - Citigroup Inc., Research Division
Samuel McHugh - BNP Paribas, Research Division
Peter Supino - Wolfe Research, LLC
Presentation
Operator
Good morning, and welcome to AT&T's Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference call over to our host, Brett Feldman, Treasurer and Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Brett Feldman
Senior Vice President of Finance & Investor Relations
Thank you, and good morning. Welcome to our second quarter call. I'm Brett Feldman, Treasurer and Head of Investor Relations for AT&T. Joining me on the call today are John Stankey, our Chairman and CEO; and Pascal Desroches, our CFO. Before we begin, I need to call your attention to our safe harbor statement. It says that some of our comments today may be forward-looking. As such, they are subject to risks and uncertainties described in AT&T's SEC filings. Results may differ materially. Additional information as well as our earnings materials are available on the Investor Relations website.
With that, I'll turn things over to John.
John Stankey
CEO, President & Chairman
Thanks, Brett, and good morning, everyone. I do appreciate you joining us today. Earlier this year, we provided an outlook for accelerated growth and execution of our strategy, and that's exactly what we delivered in the second quarter. We gained more than 1 million advanced connectivity subscribers from fiber, fixed wireless and postpaid phones, with all 3
If you were hoping for a repeat of Tuesday's chip-fueled rally, Wednesday had other plans.
The major indexes are moving in different directions on Wednesday morning as an oil price spike and anticipation of key earnings reports create a split market. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI +0.13%) is up 0.2%, gaining support from traditional blue chip stocks. The S&P 500 (^GSPC +0.01%) is barely positive at 0.1%, caught between strength in industrials and weakness in technology. The Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC -0.31%) is down 0.1%. The tech-heavy index is taking a breather after the proverbial Silicon Valley carried the market yesterday.
The morning started rough. All three indexes opened lower, with the Nasdaq briefly dipping 0.6% before lunch. But the Dow found its footing early, climbing as high as 0.5% around 10:00 a.m. ET. The Nasdaq clawed its way back from the depths, even briefly turning positive before settling into negative territory again. As of this writing, it's a narrow 0.3% spread from the Dow's gains to the Nasdaq's drop.
^DJI data by YCharts
Middle East tensions send energy prices soaring Rising oil prices and elevated interest rates are creating headwinds for growth stocks today, particularly in the technology sector. Brent crude is hovering near $94 per barrel, up about 4%, after President Trump threatened to target Iranian infrastructure every time Iran attacks a ship in the Strait of Hormuz.
The energy shock is bringing back inflation worries and keeping the 10-year Treasury yield stuck at 4.6%, which is exactly what growth stocks don't need right now. Many tech companies would love easy access to low-interest loans and other funding right now, in order to invest in AI computing infrastructure. That's just not on the menu.
Image source: Getty Images.
But some stocks are bucking the downtrend. Super Micro Computer (SMCI +20.94%) is having a fantastic day, up 17.5% after raising guidance due to record AI server orders. AT&T (T +2.25%) gained 3.6% after beating quarterly profit estimates and announcing a $10 billion accelerated share repurchase program for 2026.
Nvidia (NVDA +3.09%) is up 2.6%, single-handedly lifting both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq. Chipmaking partner Wistron is opening a new assembly facility in Texas, boosting Nvidia's domestic manufacturing capacity. On the other hand, Microsoft (MSFT -2.33%) is a drag on all three indexes with a 2.1% price drop. Macroeconomic concerns weigh on the software titan today.
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What's next? The third earnings season of this calendar year is in full swing with many heavyweights slated to release results over the next couple of weeks. Magnificent 7 reports are likely to move the top indexes, starting with Tesla (TSLA -0.92%) and Alphabet (GOOG +0.00%) (GOOGL -0.13%) after the closing bell tonight. The remaining Magnificent 7 names are slated for next week, apart from Nvidia's late-August update. By the end of July, investors will have a better idea of how the AI boom is working out for operators at different steps of the supply chain.
Meanwhile, Wall Street keeps wobbling in the short term. The Iranian conflict adds a thick layer of economic uncertainty. The market is stuck in wait-and-see mode, split between old-economy resilience and new-economy jitters.
Anders Bylund has positions in Alphabet and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
2 ETFs to Access the World's Best-Performing Stock Markets In 2026AT&T NYSE: T reported faster growth in service revenue, adjusted EBITDA and adjusted earnings per share in the second quarter of 2026, with executives pointing to gains in fiber, fixed wireless and postpaid phone subscribers as the main drivers of the quarter’s performance.
Chairman and CEO John Stankey said the company added more than 1 million “Advanced Connectivity” subscribers across fiber, fixed wireless and postpaid phones, with all three categories posting higher net additions than a year earlier. He said the quarter marked AT&T’s best-ever second quarter for fiber net additions and a record quarter for combined fiber and fixed wireless net additions.
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Travelers Stock Surges 10% as Earnings Beat Reveals Underwriting Discipline“Earlier this year, we provided an outlook for accelerated growth and execution of our strategy. That’s exactly what we delivered in the second quarter,” Stankey said.
Revenue and Earnings Growth Accelerate CFO Pascal Desroches said consolidated revenue rose 2.3% year-over-year in the second quarter, driven by 2.7% growth in service revenue. Adjusted EBITDA increased 5.2%, and adjusted EBITDA margin rose 110 basis points to 39.1%.
MarketBeat Week in Review – 07/13- 07/17Adjusted earnings per share were $0.65, up more than 20% from $0.54 in the prior-year period. Desroches attributed the increase primarily to adjusted EBITDA growth and lower depreciation expense.
The company reiterated its full-year outlook for consolidated service revenue growth in the low-single-digit range, adjusted EBITDA growth of 3% to 4%, and adjusted EPS of $2.25 to $2.35.
Free cash flow rose by roughly $300 million year-over-year to $4.7 billion, exceeding the company’s guidance range of $4 billion to $4.5 billion. AT&T maintained its expectation for more than $18 billion in full-year free cash flow and $23 billion to $24 billion in capital investment.
Fiber, Wireless and Convergence Remain Central AT&T’s Advanced Connectivity segment, which Desroches said contributes more than 90% of service revenue and nearly all adjusted EBITDA, continued to lead growth. Segment service revenue increased 5.1% year-over-year, while EBITDA rose 8%.
Wireless service revenue grew 3.3%, supported by customer growth, including 432,000 postpaid phone net additions, and pricing actions that took effect during the quarter. Desroches said AT&T added 147,000 consumer postpaid wireless accounts, its best result in more than three years.
Advanced home internet service revenue increased more than 27% year-over-year, driven by fiber net additions, accelerated fiber deployment, converged offers and the acquisition of fiber assets from Lumen in the first quarter. Fiber ARPU declined 1.3% from a year earlier, which Desroches said primarily reflected the full-quarter impact of the Lumen transaction, as those subscribers have lower ARPUs. Excluding customers in the acquired Lumen footprint, fiber ARPU was approximately flat.
Stankey said 42.5% of AT&T’s advanced home internet customers also had a postpaid wireless account at the end of the quarter. Excluding customers in the acquired Lumen footprint, the convergence rate was 45%.
“When customers consolidate their internet access with us, we see lower churn, outstanding brand affinity, higher lifetime values,” Stankey said.
During the question-and-answer session, Stankey said AT&T is focused on growing average account revenue and service revenue, rather than maximizing ARPU for individual products. He said the company is willing to use discounts strategically when they help create converged customer relationships that typically have lower churn and higher lifetime value.
Lumen Integration and Fiber Expansion Progress Stankey said 2026 will be AT&T’s largest year ever for fiber expansion, with plans to reach 8 million new locations, including more than 4 million locations acquired from Lumen.
He said AT&T has spent the past six months standing up operations in the acquired Lumen footprint to support growth, network deployment and the branded rollout of AT&T Fiber. Stankey said June converged gross additions in those territories were up 45% compared with February, a figure he later clarified referred to AT&T’s ability to pair broadband sales with wireless service, not overall broadband sales volume.
Stankey said AT&T is converting infrastructure, branding, support systems, technician processes and customer equipment market by market in the acquired footprint. He said the company is nearing the point where it can “put a little more gasoline on the fire” and increase sales volumes under the AT&T brand.
Buybacks Raised as EchoStar Deal Nears Close AT&T returned $4.1 billion to shareholders in the second quarter, including approximately $2.2 billion of share repurchases. Desroches said the company is on pace to repurchase nearly $1 billion of stock in July and now expects to buy back approximately $10 billion of shares in 2026, up from a prior target of $8 billion.
Desroches said the updated repurchase plan represents a pull-forward of planned buybacks through 2028. Combined with expected dividend payments, shareholder returns are expected to total approximately $18 billion this year, essentially matching the company’s full-year free cash flow outlook.
AT&T ended the quarter with net debt to adjusted EBITDA of 2.68 times, essentially flat with the first quarter. Desroches said AT&T expects leverage to rise to the 3.2 times range after closing its planned acquisition of spectrum licenses from EchoStar, which the company expects by the end of July, and then return to its target range of about 2.5 times within approximately three years.
Stankey said the board remains actively engaged on capital allocation and that the company’s decision to increase repurchases reflected what management sees as a gap between AT&T’s operating fundamentals and its stock valuation.
Copper Retirement, AI Traffic and Network Strategy Stankey said AT&T made progress exiting inefficient copper-based services, helped by recent Federal Communications Commission actions. He said the FCC gave AT&T permission to discontinue legacy copper voice service at about 60% of its wire centers in California. Nationwide, AT&T has approval to discontinue legacy services in more than 30% of its wire centers, effective by late 2026.
Desroches said legacy segment service revenue declined 26% year-over-year, while EBITDA declined about 46% as AT&T accelerates the process of powering down its legacy copper network and migrating customers to more advanced voice and internet services.
Stankey also used the call to outline AT&T’s view of AI-driven network demand. He said agentic AI is changing network traffic in “volume, shape, symmetry, and criticality,” citing industry research showing AI agents can generate up to 450% more total traffic per task than a human performing the same work. He said agentic adoption is projected to drive approximately nine times growth in enterprise traffic and approximately seven times growth in consumer traffic by 2035.
Stankey said AT&T’s fiber and spectrum investments position the company to handle future demand for low-latency, high-bandwidth and uplink-optimized connectivity. In response to analyst questions, he said the company’s planned EchoStar spectrum acquisition and 600 MHz spectrum position should help support stronger wireless uplink performance.
AT&T also discussed leadership transition plans following the announcement that Desroches will retire at the end of the year. Stankey said Jennifer Biry will return to the company as CFO and described the transition as “deliberate and carefully planned.”
About AT&T (NYSE:T)AT&T Inc is a global telecommunications company that provides a broad range of communications and digital entertainment services. Its core activities include consumer and business wireless services, broadband and fiber internet, and network infrastructure. The company operates branded wireless services through AT&T Mobility and deploys fixed-line and fiber networks to deliver high-speed internet and related home services.
AT&T's product and service portfolio spans mobile voice and data plans, smartphones and device sales, home internet (including fiber-to-the-home where available), and managed connectivity solutions for enterprise customers.
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].
Should You Invest $1,000 in AT&T Right Now?Before you consider AT&T, you'll want to hear this.
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AT&T Inc. delivered strong Q2 earnings, with EPS beating estimates by over 10% and rising 20% year-over-year. Core Advanced Connectivity business grew revenues 4% and expanded EBITDA margin by 150 bps to 42%, offsetting legacy copper network declines. Free cash flow reached $4.7B in Q2, supporting a 12% FCF yield, a 5% dividend, and accretive T share repurchases at sub-10x earnings.
AT&T Chairman and CEO John Stankey appeared on a Wednesday, July 22, CNBC interview tied to the company’s Q2 earnings call to push back against the narrative that satellite operators like SpaceX’s Starlink pose an existential threat to legacy telecom carriers.
He believes that decades of terrestrial infrastructure investment, combined with a fiber-plus-wireless convergence strategy, have built a moat that a satellite entrant cannot economically replicate.
AT&T Beats Earnings as Fiber and Wireless Add 1 Million Accounts AT&T (NYSE:T | T Price Prediction) delivered adjusted EPS of $0.65 against a $0.5871 consensus, a 10.71% beat and the company’s fifth consecutive quarterly earnings beat. Revenue reached $31.558 billion, up 2.3% year over year, slightly below the $31.81 billion estimate. Net income climbed 11.96% to $5.038 billion.
Stankey cited over a million new strategic accounts, the most in three years, alongside nearly 370,000 new fiber additions and 430,000 postpaid voice additions. Fixed wireless subscribers via AT&T Internet Air grew 77.4% year over year to 2.611 million connections, and consumer wireline broadband revenue rose 27.3% to $2.926 billion. Full-year guidance was reiterated at $2.25 to $2.35 adjusted EPS, with EBITDA and EPS lifted to the upper end of the range.
AT&T’s CEO Says Starlink Cannot Replicate Its Infrastructure Moat On the product itself, Stankey said: “We have the best broadband product that’s out there that’s built on a foundation of fiber. Our wireless business gets stronger and stronger. We bolstered the performance of that business with some really important and strategic spectrum acquisitions.”
On Starlink’s positioning, he argued: “They’re coming to the game very late, after this industry has been established. They have to catch up with substantial amounts of infrastructure investment that’s been going on for decades inside hospitals, on university campuses, in stadiums, in tall buildings.” He added that AT&T “handles 98%+ of the traffic on a converged customer” already today, with partnerships expected to cover remaining edge cases by next year.
Rather than pursuing a wholesale Starlink deal, AT&T is co-buying satellite capacity through a JV consortium alongside T-Mobile and Verizon for coverage gaps. As Stankey framed it: “I don’t feel a need right now that I need to have a satellite partner as a main distribution vehicle for me, because I don’t think it addresses a part of the market that I can’t get to on my own.“
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AT&T’s CEO Says Its Current Multiple Is Too Cheap Stankey acknowledged the disconnect between operating momentum and share price: “I do believe our multiple right now is probably suppressed based on what this business is going to do and perform moving forward. When the cash shows up, eventually the valuation dynamic takes care of itself.“
The stock is up 55% over three years but down 16% over the past year. $T trades at a trailing P/E of 7 and a forward P/E of 9, with an EV/EBITDA of 5 and an average analyst price target of $29.03, slightly above the stock’s current price of $22.81.
AT&T is accelerating repurchases to approximately $10 billion in 2026, part of a $45+ billion capital return plan through 2028. Free cash flow is guided to $18 billion in 2026, $19 billion in 2027, and $21 billion in 2028. Fiber locations reached 38.6 million, targeting 40 million by year-end 2026 and 60 million by 2030.
Wall Street Still Sees Starlink and Cash Flow Risks CEO Stankey’s confidence collides with skepticism from parts of the Street. Bernstein and Scotiabank have cut price targets citing Starlink competition, and TechStock² flagged that AT&T needs to generate $11.0 to $11.5 billion in free cash flow in the second half to hit guidance.
Jim Cramer has said he does not want to own AT&T or Verizon (NYSE:VZ) due to Starlink. Verizon is up 10.09% over the past year, having closed its Frontier fiber acquisition in January.
The next test will be whether AT&T can meet its second-half-of-the-year cash flow targets and convince investors that satellite competition does not threaten its long-term growth.
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AT&T (NYSE: T | T Price Prediction) just posted its fifth consecutive earnings beat, with management accelerating buybacks to roughly $10 billion for the year.
Our 24/7 Wall St. price target for the next 12 months is $27.91, implying 21.81% upside from the current $22.91 quote. Confidence in this call is high at 90%, and the recommendation is a buy.
24/7 Wall St. Price Target Summary Metric Value Current Price $22.91 24/7 Wall St. Price Target $27.91 Upside 21.81% Recommendation BUY Confidence Level 90% A Record Quarter Sets the Stage AT&T reported Q2 2026 adjusted EPS of $0.65 against a $0.5871 consensus, a 10.71% beat. Revenue of $31.56 billion came in 0.79% light of estimates but grew 2.3% year over year. Operating income climbed 7.45% and net income rose 11.96% to $5.04 billion. Subscriber trends were strong: 432,000 postpaid phone net adds, 367,000 fiber net adds, and postpaid phone churn of just 0.86%.
Shares are up 6.21% over the past week and 4.04% over one month, though T remains down 5.76% year to date. The stock sits well below its 52-week high of $28.75 and above the $19.63 low.
The Case for $30 and Above The bull scenario points to $30.20, a 31.8% total return. Advanced Connectivity service revenue is up 5.1% with operating income surging 20.3% to $7.34 billion. Fiber locations reached 38.6 million, tracking a 40 million year-end target and 60 million by 2030. Fixed wireless subscribers jumped 77.4% to 2.611 million.
CEO John Stankey told investors, “We are accelerating the pace of our planned share repurchases this year to approximately $10 billion, reflecting our confidence in our market position.” Combined with $45 billion+ in total shareholder returns targeted through 2028, this supports a re-rating toward the $29.03 analyst consensus and beyond.
The Risks Worth Watching The bear scenario lands at $24.84. Legacy copper revenue fell 25.9%, net debt to EBITDA of 2.68x exceeds the 2.5x target, and interest expense rose 13.8%.
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Regulatory delays on the pending EchoStar spectrum deal could weigh on sentiment. Bulls counter that capex jumped 16.4% to $5.70 billion to fund fiber and spectrum investments driving out-year free cash flow to $21 billion+ by 2028.
How AT&T Compares to Verizon and T-Mobile Verizon (NYSE: VZ) trades at a forward P/E of 9x with a 6.36% dividend yield and an analyst target of $51.12. AT&T’s forward P/E of 10x is slightly richer, but T’s fiber footprint and stronger EPS growth trajectory justify the premium.
T-Mobile US (NASDAQ: TMUS) trades at a forward P/E of 19x with an analyst target of $252.73, reflecting faster subscriber growth. Against that peer, AT&T’s implied 12x forward multiple at our target leaves substantial room, making our 24/7 Wall St. price target look conservative.
Company Forward P/E Dividend Yield AT&T 10x 5.06% Verizon 9x 6.36% T-Mobile 19x 2.01% Our Bottom Line The 24/7 Wall St. price target of $27.91 and buy rating, backed by 90% confidence, reflects a business generating record profits at an attractive multiple. The setup remains constructive so long as the fiber build stays on pace toward 40 million locations by year-end.
The thesis weakens if net debt to EBITDA drifts further above 2.5x or the EchoStar spectrum deal stalls. On balance, the risk-reward at $22.91 skews positive.
Year 24/7 Wall St. Price Target 2026 $27.91 2027 $31.50 2028 $35.00 2029 $38.25 2030 $41.54 These projections assume AT&T executes on its 60 million+ fiber location target by 2030 and its double-digit EPS CAGR guidance holds. Upside or downside could come from EchoStar spectrum integration, copper decommissioning by 2029, or interest rate shifts affecting the $144 billion debt load.
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3M Company (NYSE:MMM) on Tuesday reported better-than-expected second-quarter results and raised its full-year guidance.
The company posted adjusted earnings of $2.40 per share, beating the analyst consensus estimate of $2.25. Revenue rose 2.4% year over year to $6.50 billion, topping expectations of $6.41 billion.
3M increased its 2026 adjusted earnings forecast to a range of $8.80 to $8.95 per share from its prior outlook of $8.50 to $8.70. The new range is above the Wall Street consensus estimate of $8.75.
The company also updated its full-year revenue outlook to a range of $23.19 billion to $25.37 billion, compared with analysts’ estimate of $25.15 billion.
3M shares fell 2.5% to trade at $168.72 on Wednesday.
These analysts made changes to their price targets on 3M following earnings announcement.
RBC Capital analyst Deane Dray maintained the stock with an Underperform rating and raised the price target from $123 to $132. Citigroup analyst Andrew Kaplowitz maintained the stock with a Neutral and raised the price target from $166 to $183. Considering buying MMM stock? Here’s what analysts think:
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Investors seek growth stocks to capitalize on above-average growth in financials that help these securities grab the market's attention and produce exceptional returns. However, it isn't easy to find a great growth stock.
By their very nature, these stocks carry above-average risk and volatility. Moreover, if a company's growth story is over or nearing its end, betting on it could lead to significant loss.
However, the Zacks Growth Style Score (part of the Zacks Style Scores system), which looks beyond the traditional growth attributes to analyze a company's real growth prospects, makes it pretty easy to find cutting-edge growth stocks.
Walmart (WMT - Free Report) is on the list of such stocks currently recommended by our proprietary system. In addition to a favorable Growth Score, it carries a top Zacks Rank.
Research shows that stocks carrying the best growth features consistently beat the market. And for stocks that have a combination of a Growth Score of A or B and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or 2 (Buy), returns are even better.
While there are numerous reasons why the stock of this world's largest retailer is a great growth pick right now, we have highlighted three of the most important factors below:
Earnings GrowthArguably nothing is more important than earnings growth, as surging profit levels is what most investors are after. For growth investors, double-digit earnings growth is highly preferable, as it is often perceived as an indication of strong prospects (and stock price gains) for the company under consideration.
While the historical EPS growth rate for Walmart is 6.4%, investors should actually focus on the projected growth. The company's EPS is expected to grow 9.4% this year, crushing the industry average, which calls for EPS growth of 8.9%.
Cash Flow GrowthCash is the lifeblood of any business, but higher-than-average cash flow growth is more beneficial and important for growth-oriented companies than for mature companies. That's because, high cash accumulation enables these companies to undertake new projects without raising expensive outside funds.
Right now, year-over-year cash flow growth for Walmart is 6.5%, which is higher than many of its peers. In fact, the rate compares to the industry average of 0.6%.
While investors should actually consider the current cash flow growth, it's worth taking a look at the historical rate too for putting the current reading into proper perspective. The company's annualized cash flow growth rate has been 5.8% over the past 3-5 years versus the industry average of 4.8%.
Promising Earnings Estimate RevisionsSuperiority of a stock in terms of the metrics outlined above can be further validated by looking at the trend in earnings estimate revisions. A positive trend is of course favorable here. Empirical research shows that there is a strong correlation between trends in earnings estimate revisions and near-term stock price movements.
There have been upward revisions in current-year earnings estimates for Walmart. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year has surged 0.1% over the past month.
Bottom LineWalmart has not only earned a Growth Score of B based on a number of factors, including the ones discussed above, but it also carries a Zacks Rank #2 because of the positive earnings estimate revisions.
You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
This combination positions Walmart well for outperformance, so growth investors may want to bet on it.
The marketing clearance encompasses multiple general surgery procedures.
The medical technology giant will initiate a commercial rollout with select U.S. facilities, prioritizing initial customer success while working to expand regulatory approvals and procedural indications globally.
An additional U.S. clinical study evaluating the platform for inguinal hernia procedures is currently underway.
Architecture And Space-Saving DesignBuilt to support modern operating room workflows, OTTAVA incorporates four robotic arms directly into the operating table.
The setup reduces the system’s physical footprint by 30% to 50% compared to conventional boom- or cart-mounted robotic systems, giving surgical personnel more space to move, communicate, and deliver care.
Advanced software controls coordinate the table-integrated arms to allow automated procedural setups.
A synchronized feature known as twin motion coordinates table and arm movements simultaneously, enabling patient repositioning and multi-quadrant surgical access without extensive manual adjustments.
Surgical Instruments And Digital EcosystemThe platform includes updated surgical instrumentation, featuring monopolar curved scissors designed for complete cuts and a specialized two-in-one needle driver engineered to minimize accidental suture damage.
To support clinical teams, the system links to the secure Polyphonic digital ecosystem, which consolidates learning materials, media, and data-driven insights.
Additionally, a comprehensive training framework combining virtual, immersive, and hands-on instruction will assist clinicians in adopting the technology safely and effectively.
JNJ Stock Price Activity: Johnson & Johnson shares were up 2.00% at $255.61 at the time of publication on Wednesday, according to Benzinga Pro data.
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Altria Group remains a 'hold' as its resilient business model and robust dividends continue to appeal, despite top-line stagnation. MO's adjusted EPS grew over 7% last quarter, outperforming expectations and supporting ongoing dividend increases and share buybacks. While MO's valuation is higher than historical levels, it trades in line with BTI and at a discount to PM. It reflects improved risk perception, not a risk.
The second-quarter earnings season for the Zacks Transportation sector kicked off on July 10, with Delta Air Lines (DAL - Free Report) exceeding bottom-line estimates. A couple of other S&P 500 components — United Airlines (UAL - Free Report) and J.B. Hunt Transport Services (JBHT - Free Report) — have also reported quarterly numbers since Delta. A host of transportation companies are due to report their respective financial numbers shortly.
Per the Earnings Preview report dated July 17, while the transportation sector’s earnings for second-quarter 2026 are expected to decline 4.5%, revenues are likely to grow 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. We have identified — with the help of the Zacks Stock Screener — a few transportation players that are set to outshine the Zacks Consensus Estimate with respect to the bottom line this earnings season.
These include Union Pacific Corporation (UNP - Free Report) , Norfolk Southern Corporation (NSC - Free Report) , Old Dominion Freight Line (ODFL - Free Report) and United Parcel Service (UPS - Free Report) . Before we discuss the companies, let’s take a look at the factors shaping the quarterly performance.
Factors at PlayThe transportation market held up better than many expected in the second quarter of 2026. Despite geopolitical tensions and elevated fuel prices, factors like buoyant air-travel demand and the improving freight scenario seem to have supported the transportation companies. It seems that most people have adapted to the still-high inflation, high interest rates and policy uncertainty, choosing to adjust their budget accordingly.
Following a prolonged period of downturn, things appear to be brightening as far as freight demand is concerned.Highlighting the brightening freight demand scenario, the Cass Freight Shipments Index improved 3% month on month in May 2026. This measure has improved month on month in four of the past five months, which confirms the improving scenario. The 1.2% year-over-year May decrease with respect to the Cass Freight Shipments Index was the smallest reduction in the past 18 months, further attesting to the improvement. Moreover, many watchers expect freight rates to increase in the current year.
In a bid to improve efficiency, companies are investing big time in AI, thereby reducing the cost structure and promoting safety. Cost optimization and automation are helping protect profitability. Increased efficiencies through cost-reduction measures are likely to have boosted the bottom-line performance in the June quarter.
Additionally, second-quarter performance of most shipping stocks in the sector is likely to have been boosted by the resilience displayed by the dry bulk sector owing to factors like rising Chinese demand for minor bulk and high vessel utilization.
Picking Potential WinnersWhile it is not possible to be sure about which companies are well-positioned to beat earnings estimates, our proprietary methodology — Earnings ESP — makes it relatively simple. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.
The combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) increases the odds of an earnings beat. Earnings ESP shows the percentage difference between the Most Accurate Estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate.
Our research shows that for stocks with the abovementioned combination, the chances of an earnings beat are as high as 70%.
For investors seeking to apply this proven model to their portfolio, we have highlighted four Transportation stocks that are poised to beat second-quarter earnings estimates.
Headquartered in Omaha, NE, Union Pacific operates a rail network spanning 23 states across the western two-thirds of the United States, serving as a vital component of the global supply chain. The railroad operator currently has an Earnings ESP of +0.34% and a Zacks Rank of 3. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
The company is scheduled to report its second-quarter 2026 results on July 23. Union Pacific’s efforts to reward its shareholders through dividends and share buybacks are commendable. With the freight scene on the mend, the company’s performance is likely to have been aided. The company’s earnings surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three of the last four quarters (missing the mark on the other occasion), with the average beat being 2.3%.
Norfolk Southern is another railroad operator. The company currently has an Earnings ESP of +0.21% and a Zacks Rank of 3. Cost cuts and an improving freight scenario should aid its second-quarter results.
The company is scheduled to report its second-quarter 2026 results on July 23. Norfolk Southern’s efforts to reward its shareholders through dividends and share buybacks are commendable. The company’s earnings surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the last four quarters, with the average beat being 6.5%.
Old Dominion Freight Line is a leading less-than-truckload or LTL company. The trucking company is based in Thomasville, NC. The company has an Earnings ESP of +1.02% and a Zacks Rank of 2.
Old Dominion, whose second-quarter results are likely to be aided by the brightening freight environment, is scheduled to report its second-quarter 2026 results on July 29. Old Dominion’s efforts to reward its shareholders through dividends and share buybacks are commendable. The company’s earnings surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three of the last four quarters (missing the mark once), with the average beat being 3.7%.
United Parcel Service’s second-quarter results are likely to reflect its focus on improving profitability over sheer volume. Under the cost-cutting initiatives, UPS has substantially reduced its U.S. operational workforce and closed daily operations at multiple leased and owned buildings. Moreover, UPS has been focusing on increasing automation in sorting and operations, and leveraging AI for logistics planning to boost efficiency.
The shift in focus toward higher-margin areas such as small and medium-sized businesses, or SMBs and healthcare logistics from low-margin volumes is expected to be reflected in UPS’ second-quarter results, scheduled to be released on July 28, and to aid its per-package revenues. The company’s earnings surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three of the last four quarters (missing the mark once), with the average beat being 10.6%. The company has an Earnings ESP of +1.06% and a Zacks Rank of 3.
Joby Aviation (JOBY) shares climbed nearly 7% in Wednesday trading after the electric air taxi developer finalized a multiyear commercial agreement with Virgin
Eric S. Yuan, Chief Executive Officer of Zoom Communications, Inc. (ZM -4.52%), reported a sale of Class A Common Stock on July 13, 2026 and July 14, 2026. SEC Form 4 filing
Transaction summaryMetricValueShares traded (indirectly held)57,824Transaction value$5.3 millionPost-transaction shares (indirectly held)22,998Post-transaction value$2.1 millionTransaction value based on SEC Form 4 weighted average sale price ($91.47); post-transaction value based on July 14, 2026 market close ($91.15).
Key questionsWhat were the specific mechanics of this transaction?
The transaction involved the exercise of 57,824 options that were immediately sold as shares. These sales were executed in multiple tranches at weighted-average prices ranging from $88.93 to $93.10. The activity was conducted via the 2018 Yuan and Zhang Revocable Trust, for which Eric S. Yuan and his spouse serve as cotrustees.How does this sale impact the insider's total economic interest?
While the sale reduced the CEO's Class A common stock position by 72%, it represents a small fraction of his total beneficial ownership. Beyond the remaining 22,998 shares of Class A stock, the insider retains a significant interest through 41.4 million indirect derivative securities, which include Class B Common Stock convertible into Class A Common Stock.What is the recent performance context for the company?
The transaction occurred after a period of positive momentum, with the stock delivering a 22% one-year total return as of the July 14, 2026 transaction date. With a market capitalization of $26.7 billion and trailing twelve-month net income of $2.1 billion, the company maintained a robust financial profile at the time of the sale.Does this transaction signal a change in management's outlook?
The use of a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan, adopted more than a year prior on June 20, 2025, suggests this was a routine portfolio management decision rather than a response to recent market developments or near-term internal projections. Such plans are designed to allow insiders to diversify their holdings at predetermined intervals to avoid concerns regarding material non-public information.Company OverviewMetricValueShare Price (as of market close 2026-07-14)$91.15Market Capitalization$26.7 billionRevenue (TTM)$4.9 billionNet Income (TTM)$2.1 billionCompany SnapshotZoom Communications provides a comprehensive unified communications platform that enables video conferencing, messaging, and collaboration services, generating revenue primarily through subscription-based licensing models and cloud services.The company operates on a software-as-a-service (SaaS) business model, monetizing its platform through tiered subscription plans for individual users, small businesses, and enterprise customers seeking integrated communication solutions.Zoom serves a diverse customer base spanning individual professionals, small and medium-sized enterprises, and large multinational corporations across all major geographic regions including the Americas, Asia Pacific, and Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.Zoom Communications represents a leading global provider of unified communications and collaboration solutions with a market capitalization of $26.7 billion and TTM revenues of $4.9 billion. The company maintains a significant competitive advantage through its user-friendly platform architecture, extensive integration ecosystem, and strong brand recognition established since its 2011 founding. With 7,438 employees and operations across three primary geographic regions, Zoom has demonstrated substantial profitability, generating $2.1 billion in net income on a TTM basis, reflecting the scalability and operational efficiency of its cloud-based business model.
What this transaction means for investorsOn the surface, Yuan’s sale of Zoom shares looks like a routine exercise of shares. As a sale performed under the Rule 10b5-1 plan, this was a pre-planned transaction rather than a sale driven by concerns about the stock.
As previously mentioned, Yuan still owns 41.4 million indirect derivative securities, so the 67% reduction in his common stock holdings is probably not as meaningful as it might appear.
Moreover, investors should remember that Yuan is the founder and CEO. Hence, any explicit sign of him turning bearish on the SaaS stock could lead to a massive share sale.
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Nonetheless, the stock price has traded in a range since its massive pullback after the post-pandemic surge in 2020. This means it has dramatically underperformed the S&P 500, and knowing that, one might wonder whether Yuan is truly bullish on Zoom stock.
Since Yuan is unlikely to speak out against his company’s stock, the best thing that investors can do is watch his behavior. If investors keep seeing more filings, it might be a sign to not buy shares of Zoom stock.
Will Healy has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Zoom Communications. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
A Ford assembly worker who says he was fired after being wrongfully accused of stealing less than $8 worth of Doritos and Ritz crackers is calling on his former employer to “do what’s right” and hire him back.
Nick Nabozny — one of the latest workers to claim Ford and its food-services vendor Aramark wrongly branded him a snack thief — told The Post his firing has drained his savings, but he’s willing to let bygones be bygones.
“I have no hatred towards Ford Motor Company or the [United Auto Workers],” he said Wednesday. “I just want them to do what’s right.”
Ford worker Nick Nabozny says he was fired after an Aramark self-checkout kiosk allegedly failed to process payment for less than $8 worth of Doritos and Ritz crackers. Courtesy Nick Nabozny Nabozny, 38, remains unemployed nearly months after his firing and said he cashed out his 401(k), receiving about $78,000 after taxes and penalties, to support his wife and two young sons while he waits for Ford and the UAW to act.
After putting in nearly nine years with a spotless attendance record, he wishes his union bargaining representative had prevented the firing in the first place, Nabozny said.
“My union rep should have stood up and did their job,” he said. “They should have never let me go.”
Nabozny, who counted at least four others from his division who have been fired over alleged theft of snacks, said the firing came in April, after he stopped at the self-service marketplace following an overtime shift.
Nabozny (pictured with his wife and their two young boys) says he believed he had paid for a bag of Doritos and Ritz crackers before Ford accused him of theft and fired him. Courtesy Nick Nabozny “[Surveillance footage] showed me talking to someone and then when I was done speaking, it shows me grabbing a Milky Way off the shelf, looking at the ingredients, and putting it back,” he told The Post.
“I grabbed two different snacks, Doritos and Ritz Crackers with cheese. Then it shows me going to the kiosk and scanning those two items. It shows me pulling my debit card out of my pocket, tapping it and waiting for it to register.”
More than two weeks later, after returning from a family trip to Honduras, Nabozny said he was ordered to report to Ford’s labor office.
Nabozny, who says he had a perfect attendance record, hopes Ford will reinstate him. Courtesy Nick Nabozny His union rep delivered the news.
“He said, ‘This is not good. The company wants to terminate you,'” Nabozny recalled.
“I said, ‘For what?’ He said, ‘For theft.'”
After reviewing the surveillance video, Nabozny said a company representative acknowledged it appeared he had attempted to pay but told him the transaction timed out after he walked away from the kiosk.
Nabozny provided records of previous purchases he made from the Aramark-run mini-mart. Courtesy Nick Nabozny “Even though it looks like you purchased it after you left, the process timed out, so it’s considered theft,” Nabozny said he was told.
Unlike another Ford worker whose case drew national attention, Nabozny said his bank records did not show the purchase because the transaction was never completed. He maintains he had no reason to believe anything had gone wrong.
“I was not aware that the transaction did not go through until the 27th [of April],” he said.
Such a petty theft wouldn’t make sense, Nabozny added.
Last year, Nabozny received a $100 gift card from Ford as a reward for perfect attendance. Courtesy Nick Nabozny “I’ve spent thousands of dollars in this store. I have two little kids. I’m married. I’ve worked there for nine years,” he said. “I’m not going to jeopardize my livelihood and my ability to take care of my family over two bags of chips.”
The Nabozny firing was first reported by journalist Phoebe Wall Howard in her Substack newsletter Shifting Gears.
The Detroit Free Press recently reported that at least three Michigan Assembly workers who were fired over alleged snack thefts been reinstated since investigations cleared them.
Neither Ford nor Aramark has commented on the specific cases.
Ford’s Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne, Mich., where several workers have been fired over alleged snack thefts involving Aramark self-checkout kiosks. Bloomberg via Getty Images Ford told the Post it has invested in upgrading self-serve kiosks operated by Aramark.
“We are aware there have been some issues raised regarding the kiosk functionality in some limited cases, and we are working with Aramark to review these situations,” a spokesperson said.
Aramark previously said the company is “reviewing the instances in question” and remains focused on operating “with integrity and accountability.”
Former Ford electrician Kurt Kromm is taking a different tack from the workers who have come back.
Former Ford electrician Kurt Kromm says he was fired over a $1.95 package of cookies before proving he had paid and turning down the company’s offer to return. He said he was fired after a kiosk appeared to show he failed to pay for a $1.95 package of Grandma’s Chocolate Chip Cookies that he bought during an overnight shift while treating low blood sugar caused by diabetes.
Kromm later found the $1.95 charge on his bank statement, convinced Ford he had paid and was reinstated with roughly $33,000 in back wages. He declined to return to the company.
Cars are pictured at the Ford factory in Almussafes near Valencia, Spain June 15, 2018. REUTERS/Heino Kalis/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
CompaniesLISBON/MADRID, July 22 (Reuters) - Ford Motor (F.N), opens new tab and China's Geely (0175.HK), opens new tab have struck a landmark deal under which the U.S. automaker will sell part of its Almussafes plant near Valencia, paving the way for Geely to manufacture electric vehicles in Spain, ABC newspaper reported on Wednesday.
Citing sources familiar with the matter, ABC said the announcement is expected during a visit to the Almussafes plant on Thursday by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Ford Europe President Jim Baumbick.
Stay up to date with the latest news, trends and innovations that are driving the global automotive industry with the Reuters Auto File newsletter. Sign up here.
Ford and Geely did not immediately respond to requests for comment emailed outside regular business hours.
ABC said the deal would give Geely, owner of brands including Volvo, Polestar and Lotus, a manufacturing base inside the European Union, helping it to avoid EU tariffs on electric vehicles imported from China while providing direct access to the European market.
For Ford, the deal would cut fixed costs through the shared use of factory infrastructure while helping to safeguard jobs and production at Almussafes, the future of which has been clouded by the phasing out of several models and its dependence on its Kuga model.
The newspaper said the agreement would allow Geely to produce its EX2 electric vehicle at Almussafes.
Reporting by Sergio Goncalves and Victoria Waldersee Editing by David Goodman
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab
General Motors (GM +3.21%) reported its second-quarter earnings, and the results beat expectations on both the top and bottom lines. In an interview on CNBC, CFO Paul Jacobson called the company's stock a "bargain," even though the share price has risen by more than 40% over the past year.
Is he right? There are certainly some good reasons to believe GM is extremely cheap right now, but there are also a few not-so-positive things to keep in mind. Here's a rundown of GM's second-quarter results, the case for why the stock is an incredible bargain, and the important things to watch going forward.
Image source: Getty Images.
An extremely solid quarter In the second quarter, GM generated $48 billion in revenue, about a billion dollars more than analysts had expected, and adjusted earnings per share (EPS) beat by a wide margin. Automotive free cash flow of about $5 billion was 78% higher than a year ago. One particularly impressive statistic Jacobson pointed out in the conference call was that "Our first-half earnings per share is 25% higher than the first half at any time in our history."
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Plus, the automaker increased its full-year guidance for adjusted EPS, automotive free cash flow, and several other profitability metrics. Adjusted EBIT margin expanded by 2.5 percentage points year-over-year, and GM's margins have notably expanded at the same time its peer group has seen margins fall. The company has a dominant lead in the high-margin full-size pickup market, and the software and services side of the business, which includes products like OnStar and Super Cruise, continues to grow impressively. In addition, GM's insurance business has rapidly scaled from being in just three states in 2024 to 21 states now. And last but certainly not least, GM's defense business has excellent momentum, and management is hopeful this segment will turn profitable this year.
Thanks to its strong cash flow, GM continues to buy back stock at an aggressive pace. In the second quarter alone, the company spent $2 billion to repurchase about 25 million shares. The outstanding share count has declined by 8% over the past year and 35% over the past three years, which could continue to drive EPS higher going forward.
It's not all good news GM certainly reported a strong quarter, but it wasn't a perfect one. While it beat expectations on adjusted EPS, this excludes a $2.3 billion one-time charge related to scaling back the company's EV strategy. On a GAAP basis, GM's net income actually declined by about 31% year-over-year.
Market share is arguably the biggest concern. A year ago, GM had 17.4% of the U.S. market, which has since declined to 16.6%. To be fair, there were some good reasons, such as the strategic decision to discontinue certain models and the reduction in EV incentives that had disproportionately helped GM. But this is worth keeping an eye on.
Finally, although it came in above expectations, GM's revenue grew by less than 2% year-over-year. It's important for investors to understand that this quarter was about earnings quality, not overall business growth.
Is GM a bargain at a sub-$80 stock price? In full disclosure, General Motors is one of the largest stock investments in my portfolio, and it's a company I truly believe in as a long-term holding. Over the past decade or so, the company has done a great job of innovation, becoming more efficient, and of allocating capital in shareholder-friendly ways. Having said that, the stock isn't without risk, and it's important to realize this is a cyclical business and not all the numbers look perfect.
Even so, GM trades for a ridiculously cheap valuation of just 6.3 times forward earnings, and there's a lot to like about the company's current trajectory. I'm planning to continue to build my position at these levels, and I'm excited to see what comes next.
Buried in the company’s prepared remarks was a figure that has quietly grown into a multibillion-dollar asset: $6.3 billion in deferred revenue. That growing backlog reflects what CFO Paul Jacobson called GM’s “highly profitable software and services revenue,” a business that continues to expand through connected vehicles, subscriptions and digital services rather than one-time vehicle sales.
The number offers perhaps the clearest sign yet that GM wants investors to think beyond vehicles and begin valuing the company as a recurring revenue business.
GM’s Software Business Is Quietly Getting BiggerAccording to Jacobson, GM expects “more than $3 billion of software and services revenue” in 2026 while ending the year with “$6.3 billion of deferred revenue on our balance sheet.” He also said the company expects “over 1 million new software subscriptions” this year, underscoring the growing contribution of connected vehicle services.
Unlike vehicle sales, which are recognized immediately, deferred revenue represents money that will be recognized over time as customers continue paying for software-enabled features and services. Every new subscription adds to a backlog of future revenue that is already under contract.
The strategy marks a notable shift for a company historically valued on vehicle deliveries and manufacturing scale. Instead, GM is increasingly generating recurring revenue long after customers leave the dealership through connected services, Super Cruise and other digital offerings.
The Bigger Story Isn’t Cars. It’s Recurring Revenue.GM reinforced that strategy elsewhere during the earnings call by expanding one of its flagship software products.
Barra said the company is “making Super Cruise standard on our High Country Silverado and Denali Sierra” while expanding availability across much of the pickup lineup. Beginning with the 2027 model year, she said the move is expected to add “approximately 160,000 incremental Super Cruise units annually.”
For investors, that announcement is about more than a premium driver-assistance feature. Every additional Super Cruise-equipped vehicle creates another opportunity for GM to deepen customer engagement and expand its recurring software business over time.
The deferred revenue balance, meanwhile, offers a tangible measure of that transformation. As Jacobson put it, “Our highly profitable software and services revenue continues to grow,” highlighting a business that is becoming an increasingly meaningful contributor to GM’s earnings profile.
Photo courtesy: Jonathan Weiss / Shutterstock.com
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[url="]HPE[/url] (NYSE: HPE) today announced it has been selected to participate in multiple key research and development (R&D) projects in the first phase of
PayPal Holdings, Inc. remains a Buy as its strategic positioning in stablecoins and AI-driven payments offsets current margin headwinds and lowball acquisition offers. PYPL's branded checkout faces structural pressure from frictionless card-linked wallets, driving up customer acquisition costs and compressing margins. With 440M active accounts and a dominant Venmo presence, PYPL's global scale and wallet infrastructure position it as a potential winner in the digital finance transformation.
Here are the earnings estimates, analyst ratings and key items to watch.
• Intel stock is trading at elevated levels. What should traders watch with INTC?
Intel Q2 Earnings EstimatesAnalysts expect Intel to report second-quarter revenue of $14.40 billion, up from $12.86 billion, according to data from Benzinga Pro.
The company has beaten analyst estimates for revenue in seven straight quarters and in eight of the past 10 quarters overall.
Analysts expect Intel to report 19 cents in earnings per share for the quarter, an improvement on a loss of 10 cents per share in last year’s second quarter.
The company has beaten analyst estimates for earnings per share in three straight quarters and in seven of the past 10 quarters overall.
Intel Analyst RatingsHere are some of the most recent analyst ratings on Intel stock and their price targets ahead of earnings:
Key Items to WatchIntel stock remains one of the best-performing large-cap names in 2026 with shares up 169.5%. The company’s earnings could showcase the overall strength of the semiconductor sector and put the sector on a high volatility watch depending on the figures, guidance and what the company says.
Intel is the fifth-largest holding in the iShares Semiconductor Sector Index ETF (NASDAQ:SOXX) at 5.54% of assets.
For investors of Intel, a strong earnings performance could highlight the company’s strong performance relative to peers.
INTC: +300.9% NVDA: +40.3% Over the 25 years in the index, Intel stock traded mostly flat or down, going from $39.16 to $26.43. Since being swapped out, the stock has had a resurgence and significantly outperformed the return of Nvidia stock by more than seven times.
Investors and analysts will be looking for signs of continued AI demand for Intel in management commentary.
Intel recently expanded its partnership with Google Cloud to accelerate the company’s enterprise transformation for AI. The company could discuss this and other partnerships as strengths and events that could help future revenue and backlog opportunities.
Layoffs could be another topic, with the company launching a downsizing that impacted employees in the Data Center and AI group. Given these are high-growth areas for the company and others, analysts could ask what the layoffs mean and if growth has slowed for the company.
Intel Stock Price ActionIntel stock is down 0.24% to $105.20 on Wednesday versus a 52-week trading range of $18.97 to $142.34. Intel stock is up 169.5% year-to-date in 2026, hitting new all-time highs last month.
Photo: Shutterstock
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Intel (INTC, Financials), the U.S. chipmaker and contract manufacturer, will report second-quarter results Thursday with investors looking for proof that its tu
HomeIndustriesComputers/ElectronicsEarnings OutlookEarnings OutlookIntel’s stock has fallen 25% from its June high, but remains a standout gainer in 2026July 22, 2026, 1:46 p.m. ET
Intel’s central processing units have become one of the hottest businesses on Wall Street this year, and artificial-intelligence demand for those chips could power the company to an earnings beat on Thursday.
Whether CPU momentum is enough to get Intel’s stock INTC back on track remains the bigger question, however. While Intel shares have surged 186% so far this year, they’ve struggled more recently, falling 25% from their closing high achieved on June 22.
Gloria Chen, EVP, Chief People Officer at Adobe Inc. (ADBE -3.47%), reported a common stock transaction on a July 15, 2026 SEC Form 4 filing.
Transaction summaryMetricValueShares sold1,607Transaction value~$360,868Post-transaction shares (total)51,101Post-transaction shares (directly held)50,434Post-transaction shares (indirectly held)667Post-transaction value$11.48 millionTransaction value based on SEC Form 4 weighted average sale price ($224.56); post-transaction value based on July 15, 2026 market close ($224.56).
Key questionsWhat was the primary driver for this disposition?
The transaction was non-discretionary and initiated solely to satisfy tax withholding obligations triggered by the vesting of restricted stock units on July 15, 2026.How does this impact the insider's long-term equity exposure?
Following the share surrender, Chen maintains a significant interest in the company via 50,434 direct shares and 31,662 derivative securities, including various tranches of unvested and vested equity awards.What is the status of the insider's indirect holdings?
Chen continues to maintain a stable indirect position of 667 shares through The John Kibarian and Gloria Chen Trust, for which she serves as a trustee.Company OverviewMetricValueShare Price (as of market close 2026-07-16)$235.31Market Capitalization$93.9 billionRevenue (TTM)$25.2 billionNet Income (TTM)$7.2 billionCompany SnapshotAdobe Inc. operates three primary business divisions—Digital Media, Digital Experience, and Publishing and Advertising—delivering a comprehensive suite of cloud-based software solutions that enable content creation, distribution, and amplification across enterprises, teams, and individual users.The company generates revenue through subscription-based software licensing models, including the cloud-native Document Cloud platform and creative applications, which provide recurring revenue streams from enterprise and consumer segments.Adobe serves a diverse customer base spanning creative professionals, enterprises requiring digital experience management solutions, and organizations leveraging publishing and advertising technologies across multiple industries.Adobe Inc. is a globally recognized software provider with a market capitalization of $93.9 billion and TTM revenue of $25.2 billion, positioning it as a market leader in digital content creation and experience management. The company's diversified business model, anchored in subscription-based cloud services, generates substantial profitability with TTM net income of $7.2 billion, reflecting strong operational efficiency and pricing power. Adobe maintains competitive advantages through its integrated product ecosystem, extensive customer relationships, and continuous innovation in artificial intelligence and digital transformation solutions.
What this transaction means for investorsChen’s sale of Adobe shares on July 16 carries no obvious meaning to investors. As previously stated, tax withholding obligations drove the sale, meaning the transaction would have happened regardless of the stock’s performance.
Nonetheless, Chen’s behavior toward this stock could imply continued faith in Adobe stock. As mentioned before, she maintains holdings of 50,434 direct shares and 31,662 derivative securities.
This continues despite a slide that has taken Adobe below its bottom in the 2022 bear market. SaaS stocks like Adobe have suffered amid concerns that AI is going to replace some of Adobe’s popular software packages.
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Nonetheless, Chen arguably has good reason to think she can sell her shares for more with some patience. Thanks to the sell-off, Adobe’s stock has fallen to a P/E ratio of 13 and a forward earnings multiple of just under 10! Such conditions likely leave the stock with little potential downside.
Hence, rather than emphasizing a modest sale driven by tax obligations, investors should probably focus on the shares Chen kept and the prospects for an Adobe recovery.
Will Healy has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Adobe. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2028 $330 calls on Adobe and short January 2028 $340 calls on Adobe. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Momentum investing revolves around the idea of following a stock's recent trend in either direction. In "long context," investors will be essentially be "buying high, but hoping to sell even higher." With this methodology, taking advantage of trends in a stock's price is key; once a stock establishes a course, it is more than likely to continue moving that way. The goal is that once a stock heads down a fixed path, it will lead to timely and profitable trades.
While many investors like to look for momentum in stocks, this can be very tough to define. There is a lot of debate surrounding which metrics are the best to focus on and which are poor quality indicators of future performance. The Zacks Momentum Style Score, part of the Zacks Style Scores, helps address this issue for us.
Below, we take a look at Travelers (TRV - Free Report) , which currently has a Momentum Style Score of B. We also discuss some of the main drivers of the Momentum Style Score, like price change and earnings estimate revisions.
It's also important to note that Style Scores work as a complement to the Zacks Rank, our stock rating system that has an impressive track record of outperformance. Travelers currently has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy). Our research shows that stocks rated Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and #2 (Buy) and Style Scores of "A or B" outperform the market over the following one-month period.
You can see the current list of Zacks #1 Rank Stocks here >>>
Set to Beat the Market? In order to see if TRV is a promising momentum pick, let's examine some Momentum Style elements to see if this insurer holds up.
Looking at a stock's short-term price activity is a great way to gauge if it has momentum, since this can reflect both the current interest in a stock and if buyers or sellers have the upper hand at the moment. It's also helpful to compare a security to its industry; this can show investors the best companies in a particular area.
For TRV, shares are up 8.87% over the past week while the Zacks Insurance - Property and Casualty industry is flat over the same time period. Shares are looking quite well from a longer time frame too, as the monthly price change of 16.62% compares favorably with the industry's 4.36% performance as well.
While any stock can see its price increase, it takes a real winner to consistently beat the market. That is why looking at longer term price metrics -- such as performance over the past three months or year -- can be useful as well. Over the past quarter, shares of Travelers have risen 19.23%, and are up 38.55% in the last year. In comparison, the S&P 500 has only moved 6.61% and 20.33%, respectively.
Investors should also pay attention to TRV's average 20-day trading volume. Volume is a useful item in many ways, and the 20-day average establishes a good price-to-volume baseline; a rising stock with above average volume is generally a bullish sign, whereas a declining stock on above average volume is typically bearish. TRV is currently averaging 1,815,762 shares for the last 20 days.
Earnings OutlookThe Zacks Momentum Style Score encompasses many things, including estimate revisions and a stock's price movement. Investors should note that earnings estimates are also significant to the Zacks Rank, and a nice path here can be promising. We have recently been noticing this with TRV.
Over the past two months, 10 earnings estimates moved higher compared to 2 lower for the full year. These revisions helped boost TRV's consensus estimate, increasing from $27.94 to $30.81 in the past 60 days. Looking at the next fiscal year, 7 estimates have moved upwards while there have been 1 downward revision in the same time period.
Bottom LineTaking into account all of these elements, it should come as no surprise that TRV is a #2 (Buy) stock with a Momentum Score of B. If you've been searching for a fresh pick that's set to rise in the near-term, make sure to keep Travelers on your short list.
Investors might want to bet on Travelers (TRV - Free Report) , as it has been recently upgraded to a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). An upward trend in earnings estimates -- one of the most powerful forces impacting stock prices -- has triggered this rating change.
The sole determinant of the Zacks rating is a company's changing earnings picture. The Zacks Consensus Estimate -- the consensus of EPS estimates from the sell-side analysts covering the stock -- for the current and following years is tracked by the system.
The power of a changing earnings picture in determining near-term stock price movements makes the Zacks rating system highly useful for individual investors, since it can be difficult to make decisions based on rating upgrades by Wall Street analysts. These are mostly driven by subjective factors that are hard to see and measure in real time.
Therefore, the Zacks rating upgrade for Travelers basically reflects positivity about its earnings outlook that could translate into buying pressure and an increase in its stock price.
Most Powerful Force Impacting Stock PricesThe change in a company's future earnings potential, as reflected in earnings estimate revisions, has proven to be strongly correlated with the near-term price movement of its stock. That's partly because of the influence of institutional investors that use earnings and earnings estimates for calculating the fair value of a company's shares. An increase or decrease in earnings estimates in their valuation models simply results in higher or lower fair value for a stock, and institutional investors typically buy or sell it. Their transaction of large amounts of shares then leads to price movement for the stock.
Fundamentally speaking, rising earnings estimates and the consequent rating upgrade for Travelers imply an improvement in the company's underlying business. Investors should show their appreciation for this improving business trend by pushing the stock higher.
Harnessing the Power of Earnings Estimate RevisionsAs empirical research shows a strong correlation between trends in earnings estimate revisions and near-term stock movements, tracking such revisions for making an investment decision could be truly rewarding. Here is where the tried-and-tested Zacks Rank stock-rating system plays an important role, as it effectively harnesses the power of earnings estimate revisions.
The Zacks Rank stock-rating system, which uses four factors related to earnings estimates to classify stocks into five groups, ranging from Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) to Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive externally-audited track record, with Zacks Rank #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here >>>> .
Earnings Estimate Revisions for TravelersFor the fiscal year ending December 2026, this insurer is expected to earn $30.81 per share, which is unchanged compared with the year-ago reported number.
Analysts have been steadily raising their estimates for Travelers. Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the company has increased 10.7%.
Bottom LineUnlike the overly optimistic Wall Street analysts whose rating systems tend to be weighted toward favorable recommendations, the Zacks rating system maintains an equal proportion of "buy" and "sell" ratings for its entire universe of more than 4,000 stocks at any point in time. Irrespective of market conditions, only the top 5% of the Zacks-covered stocks get a "Strong Buy" rating and the next 15% get a "Buy" rating. So, the placement of a stock in the top 20% of the Zacks-covered stocks indicates its superior earnings estimate revision feature, making it a solid candidate for producing market-beating returns in the near term.
You can learn more about the Zacks Rank here >>>
The upgrade of Travelers to a Zacks Rank #2 positions it in the top 20% of the Zacks-covered stocks in terms of estimate revisions, implying that the stock might move higher in the near term.
While Alphabet (GOOGL) and Tesla (TSLA) will take up most oxygen on the earnings front after Wednesday's close, Andy Swan from @LikeFolio points to IBM Corp. (IBM) as another name to watch. He examines upward consumer demand trends for Big Blue, which he believes suggests its customer base remains strong long-term.
UnitedHealth Group (UNH - Free Report) could be a solid choice for investors given the company's remarkably improving earnings outlook. While the stock has been a strong performer lately, this trend might continue since analysts are still raising their earnings estimates for the company.
The rising trend in estimate revisions, which is a result of growing analyst optimism on the earnings prospects of this largest U.S. health insurer, should get reflected in its stock price. After all, empirical research shows a strong correlation between trends in earnings estimate revisions and near-term stock price movements. Our stock rating tool -- the Zacks Rank -- is principally built on this insight.
The five-grade Zacks Rank system, which ranges from a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) to a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive externally-audited track record of outperformance, with Zacks #1 Ranked stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 2008.
Consensus earnings estimates for the next quarter and full year have moved considerably higher for UnitedHealth Group, as there has been strong agreement among the covering analysts in raising estimates.
The chart below shows the evolution of forward 12-month Zacks Consensus EPS estimate:
12 Month EPS
Current-Quarter Estimate RevisionsThe earnings estimate of $3.90 per share for the current quarter represents a change of +33.6% from the number reported a year ago.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for UnitedHealth has increased 8.1% over the last 30 days, as four estimates have gone higher while one has gone lower.
Current-Year Estimate RevisionsFor the full year, the earnings estimate of $19.23 per share represents a change of +17.6% from the year-ago number.
The revisions trend for the current year also appears quite promising for UnitedHealth, with nine estimates moving higher over the past month compared to no negative revisions. The consensus estimate has also received a boost over this time frame, increasing 7.29%.
Favorable Zacks RankThanks to promising estimate revisions, UnitedHealth currently carries a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). The Zacks Rank is a tried-and-tested rating tool that helps investors effectively harness the power of earnings estimate revisions and make the right investment decision.
You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Our research shows that stocks with Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and 2 (Buy) significantly outperform the S&P 500.
Bottom LineUnitedHealth shares have added 6.6% over the past four weeks, suggesting that investors are betting on its impressive estimate revisions. So, you may consider adding it to your portfolio right away to benefit from its earnings growth prospects.
, /PRNewswire/ -- Lucky Hand Mining Game LLC, a subsidiary of Buscar Company (OTC: CGLD), today announced the completion of the initial development phase for its Lucky Hand Mining gaming platform. The project includes a full-featured Telegram Mini App, the official website at luckyhandmining.com, and a proprietary corporate CRM system for centralized project management. The platform has not yet launched, and its public release remains subject to successful testing, regulatory review, and the availability of resources.
The platform is now in comprehensive closed testing, with the team simultaneously finalizing a public White Paper. This document will detail the project's concept, game mechanics, ecosystem, development roadmap, in-game economy, technological infrastructure, and long-term strategy.
Over the past several months, the development team executed the complete software lifecycle — including technical architecture, user interface and game logic, server infrastructure, database, administrative tools, website, and full system integration into a unified digital ecosystem.
Development of the Telegram Mini App
The core gaming platform was built specifically for the Telegram Mini Apps environment. Players progress from novice gold prospector to owner of a large-scale virtual mining operation through resource gathering, equipment upgrades, infrastructure development, and empire expansion.
Key implemented features include:
Modern, intuitive game interface and user experience Telegram-based registration and authorization Resource mining mechanics, energy system with recovery, player levels, and progression In-game economy, equipment upgrades, quests, achievements, daily rewards, bonuses, ratings, events, and seasonal systems PvP mechanics and reward systems Telegram API integration, server-side backend, user database, administrative tools, analytics, data protection, and scalable infrastructure Emphasis was placed on usability, performance, stability, and extensibility.
Official Website: luckyhandmining.com
The newly launched website serves as the primary informational and presentation hub for players, partners, shareholders, investors, and the public. It features project details, game mechanics, development updates, corporate news, and future plans, forming a key part of the unified ecosystem.
Corporate CRM System
A custom multifunctional CRM was developed as the central operations hub. It integrates administrative, technical, analytical, and security tools, enabling real-time monitoring, user management, metrics tracking, and issue resolution while supporting future scaling.
Public White Paper in Preparation
The White Paper will provide a comprehensive overview, including the project mission, gameplay, mechanics, economy, infrastructure, security, scaling model, roadmap, Web3/blockchain plans, and long-term vision. It is grounded in the platform's actual implemented architecture and functionality and will be published on official channels following internal review.
Unified Digital Ecosystem
The Telegram Mini App delivers the core player experience, the website handles public information and presentation, and the CRM manages internal operations — all interconnected for efficient data processing, control, transparency, and growth without reliance on disparate third-party tools.
Transition to Testing and Next Steps
With core development complete, the team is now focused on rigorous testing, including security, resilience, load, game logic, algorithms, resource systems, user features, integrations, and overall performance optimization. The goal is maximum stability and reliability ahead of public launch.
Following testing, the company plans a public rollout of the Telegram Mini App, White Paper publication, and ongoing expansion with new mechanics, features, seasons, social elements, Web3 integrations, and enhanced infrastructure.
No Offer of Securities or Digital Assets
Nothing in this press release constitutes an offer to sell, or the solicitation of an offer to buy, any security, token, coin, digital asset, or other investment product, and no such offering is being made. Any references to Web3, blockchain, or in-game economy features describe plans that are aspirational, remain under evaluation, and have not been developed, finalized, or committed to. There can be no assurance that any such feature will be implemented.
About Lucky Hand Mining Game LLC
Lucky Hand Mining Game LLC, a subsidiary of Buscar Company (OTC: CGLD), is developing a gaming ecosystem that seeks to blend Telegram Mini Apps, strategy gameplay, educational mining industry insights, digital technologies, and community tools. The platform seeks to engage users through entertainment, progression, and ecosystem growth, although there can be no assurance as to the level of user adoption or commercial success.
Official website: luckyhandmining.com
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements regarding the completion of development, the timing and success of testing, the anticipated public launch, projected user adoption, and planned Web3, blockchain, and future feature development. Such statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected, including risks relating to the outcome of testing, the need for and availability of financing, regulatory developments (including those applicable to digital assets and crypto-related products), competition, technology and execution risk, and the risk that the platform may not launch or achieve commercial acceptance. To the extent the company is considered a penny-stock issuer, the statutory safe harbor for forward-looking statements may not be available. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. The company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, except as required by law.
For more information, contact:
Aleksandr Dekhtyar
Buscar Company, CEO
Email: [email protected]
If you watched Nvidia and the other semiconductor chip stocks soar and felt as if the artificial intelligence (AI) train left without you, take a breath. The thing about AI is that it doesn't run on software alone. It runs on a staggering amount of physical stuff: cooling systems, power controls, transmission lines, and the crews who install them all.
Some industrial companies supplying the backbone materials and services for AI haven't been bid up nearly as far as the marquee names, which means the door isn't closed. Here are three industrial stocks that still look worth a serious look.
Image source: Getty Images.
1. nVent Electric nVent Electric (NVT -1.09%) sits right in the sweet spot of one of AI's biggest headaches: excess heat. Packing thousands of scorching-hot chips into a data center requires advanced liquid cooling, and nVent has become a go-to supplier, having deployed more than 2 gigawatts of liquid cooling capacity already. Its momentum is real, with recent quarterly sales up more than 50% and its systems-protection business up even faster, and it was added to Nvidia's partner network, a stamp of approval that opens doors with the largest AI builders. With a next-generation cooling and power lineup rolling out in 2026, nVent is a direct play on data center growth that has flown under most investors' radars compared with the flashier cooling names.
Today's Change
(
-1.09
%) $
-1.76
Current Price
$
158.92
2. Emerson Electric Emerson Electric (EMR +0.27%) is the sleep-well option of the group. It makes the automation and power-management systems that keep complex facilities running, and data centers have become a booming market for it. Emerson was chosen to automate the on-site power generation for a massive 1.7-gigawatt AI data center, and orders for its flagship control platform recently jumped 74%, driven largely by these behind-the-meter power projects.
What I like here is the balance: Emerson is a Dividend King (a Dividend King is a company that's grown its dividend payment for at least 50 consecutive years. It has 69 straight years of payout increases and trades at a far more grounded valuation than pure AI plays. You get genuine AI exposure without paying a nosebleed price, plus a growing dividend while you wait.
Today's Change
(
0.27
%) $
0.37
Current Price
$
139.63
3. Hubbell Hubbell (HUBB -0.37%) is the quiet backbone of the group. It makes the unglamorous but essential electrical and grid gear, the connectors, enclosures, and utility hardware, that both power companies and data centers rely on to move electricity safely. As AI drives a surge in data center construction, Hubbell has leaned in hard: It recently lifted its 2026 profit forecast on strong demand from data centers and utilities, and it has been bolting on acquisitions, including DMC Power and a roughly $3 billion deal for NSI Industries, to deepen its reach into data-center power infrastructure. Both its electrical and utility segments are growing at double-digit rates. It's a silent leader in a market for data center electrical infrastructure worth tens of billions, and it typically trades at a friendlier valuation than the pure-play AI names.
Today's Change
(
-0.37
%) $
-1.77
Current Price
$
478.16
The catch worth naming Let me be honest, because "screaming buy" can be a dangerous phrase. None of these three stocks is dirt cheap now that the market has caught on to the AI-infrastructure story. They are more reasonably priced than Nvidia and the headline cooling and power stocks, but they aren't bargain-bin. All three also depend on having data center construction stay hot, so a pullback in that spending would hurt them all. These are relative values riding a powerful trend, not risk-free giveaways.
Here is the encouraging part: You didn't miss the whole AI trade, just the most obvious slice of it. The build-out still needs cooling, power, and grid connections for years to come, and nVent, Emerson, and Hubbell each sell something essential to that effort at prices friendlier than the stocks everyone already talks about. I would treat them as a second chance to invest in AI through the back door, buying gradually and keeping the data center cycle in mind. Sometimes the smartest way to catch a train you missed is to hop on at the next station.
