Meta launches a new AI coding model with 'very aggressive' pricing, CEO Mark Zuckerberg says By You're currently following this author! Want to unfollow? Unsubscribe via the link in your email.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC Meta could spark a price war in the booming AI coding market.
The tech giant announced its latest AI model, Muse Spark 1.1, on Thursday, saying it performs well on industry tests for coding and AI agents. It's Meta's first AI model that it charges users for.
In comments on X, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the model has a "very low price," though the company hasn't announced the cost yet. He also called out other AI companies for pricing their chatbots at "very extreme" levels in comments to Bloomberg. He told Bloomberg that the model outperformed Google's Gemini in several categories, including agents, coding, and other capabilities.
"We think that there's a real ability to be able to offer frontier or very high-level intelligence at a much more affordable cost," Zuckerberg told the outlet.
The model, which isn't fully available to developers yet, marks the latest milestone for Meta's AI efforts — and shows the company intends to compete on price.
If Meta's new AI models can compete with widely-used coding tools from rivals like Anthropic, OpenAI, and Cursor, that could represent a huge new source of revenue. Meta's stock was up nearly 2% on Thursday.
The cost of using AI has become a growing concern for companies as employees incorporate the technology into more of their day-to-day work. Companies have been throttling their employees' use of AI in recent months as vibe coding takes off. Coinbase, for example, now limits its engineers' weekly AI spending to $500 to $5,000 a week.
Meta quoted one of its customers, AI coding startup Cline, saying that the new AI model's price point makes it easy to run heavy AI coding tasks at scale.
"That combination is rare, and it's exactly why we wanted Cline developers to have access early," Saoud Rizwan, the Cline CEO, said on Meta's website.
Meta is spending massive amounts of cash on AI, raising its capital expenditure guidance for this year to $125-$145 billion, up from a previous estimate of $115-$135 billion. Meta remains highly dependent on its ads business, which accounts for about 98% of its total revenue, according to its first-quarter earnings results.
"We believe Meta is well positioned to generate ample revenue to support its spending, driven by monetization of its own AI initiatives, advertising share gains, incremental subscription revenue, an optionality of cloud offering, and fees for external use of its AI models," BNP Paribas Equity Research senior analyst Nick Jomes wrote in a note to investors on Thursday.
Meta is also working on a coming AI model codenamed "Watermelon," which its AI chief Alexandr Wang says has caught up to one of the latest versions of OpenAI's ChatGPT.
The model uses "an order of magnitude" more computing power than Meta's previous model, Wang told staff last week, Business Insider reported earlier.
Meta didn't respond to a request for comment.
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Charles Rollet is BI's tech correspondent in San Francisco. Prior to joining BI, Charles worked at TechCrunch covering startups and VC. Charles is based in the Bay Area, where he enjoys hiking with his dogs. You can contact Charles securely on Signal at charlesrollet.12 or +1-628-282-2811.
It's Thursday, 2 p.m., and do you know where the Nasdaq is?
It's up a respectable 1.2% -- but the Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3X Shares ETF (SOXL +13.09%) is up much, much more, surging past 14.1% on some billion-dollar-plus news items in semiconductors today.
Image source: Getty Images.
Micron boosts the market The first news comes from Micron (MU +7.10%) stock, which is surging nearly 8% after announcing it's investing up to $3 billion "to strengthen the U.S. semiconductor supply chain ecosystem," including by loaning GlobalWafers Co., Ltd. $500 million to help build its 300mm raw silicon wafer manufacturing facility in Sherman, Tex., and its signing a 10-year deal to buy the wafers GlobalWafers churns out.
In related news, Reuters is reporting that Meta Platforms (META +2.07%) has signed a multi-year supply agreement to source NAND flash memory for its data centers from Sandisk (SNDK +12.30%), and is also buying DRAM from Samsung, and fiber optic cables from Sumitomo Electric, and Iris artificial intelligence chips from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM +0.83%) -- with Broadcom (AVGO +4.51%) doing the chip design work.
It's all part of a Meta plan to spend $145 billion building out AI infrastructure this year alone.
3x the risk, 3x the gain Think all the above might be enough to get semiconductor investors excited? Today it is, for sure. And several of the companies making headlines today -- Micron, Broadcom, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing -- are components of the Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3X Shares ETF, too.
Their share price gains directly translate into upwards momentum for the ETF, and once 3x'ed... well, that's how you take a 1.2% Nasdaq gain, and parlay it into a 14.1% skyrocket for this heavily leveraged bet on semiconductor stocks.
Rich Smith has positions in Meta Platforms. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Broadcom, Meta Platforms, Micron Technology, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta plans to design its own artificial intelligence chips in-house starting in September – part of an industry-wide effort by the biggest names in AI to start making their own chips amid ongoing high demand.
Zuck’s initiative, known internally as “Iris,” centers on developing custom silicon to supercharge the AI systems behind Facebook and Instagram, Reuters reported Thursday.
The social media giant — which expectes to spend up to $145 billion on AI infrastructure this year — is working with Palo Alto, Calif.-based Broadcom on design and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing on production.
Meta wants to use custom chips to supercharge its social platforms, including Instagram. ink drop – stock.adobe.com Meta joins a growing list of technology companies seeking to handle more of their chip development internally to cut costs and reduce dependence on Nvidia, which has dominated the AI chip business with its ultra-powerful semiconductors.
Even as Meta and other companies are launching their foray into chip building, the semiconductor industry remains under tremendous demand strain, and AI companies’ efforts to become more autonomous provides no silver bullet to the supply chain conundrum.
Demand for manufacturing, packaging and other chip production resources continues to outpace supply, while several specialized chip-making processes are controlled by a small number of companies already operating at capacity even as they invest mountains of capital to expand.
Meta’s latest project builds on a long-running effort to develop its own chips. Its Training and Inference Accelerators program, launched more than five years ago, has focused on in-house chip development, though progress has been slow.
Development of the new chip has reportedly moved much more rapidly. Testing took just six weeks and faced no major problems, according to Reuters. Meta plans to introduce a new chip roughly every six months through 2027, compared with the typical annual-or-longer release cycle for AI chips.
Meta is aiming to double its computing infrastructure in 2027, according to Reuters.
The custom product is intended to complement the large number of graphics processing units, or GPUs, that Meta buys from Nvidia and AMD for AI workloads.
Mark Zuckerberg’s chip initiative is intended to reduce Meta’s reliance on Nvidia and cut costs. CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images But bringing the newest GPUs online at Meta’s scale “has been a heavy lift, and it has cost us time,” according to a company memo reviewed by Reuters.
Developing custom chips can potentially lower costs and diversify supply chains, Axios noted.
“I want something in my pocket when I’m sitting across the table from Jensen negotiating,” Bernstein senior analyst Stacy Rasgon told the outlet, referring to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.
In addition to Meta, Amazon, Google and Microsoft all have in-house chip programs. OpenAI recently introduced its first custom inference chip with Broadcom, while Anthropic is reportedly in talks with Samsung about developing its own chip.
Nvidia, led by Jenson Huang, dominates the AI chip industry. Getty Images Apple announced this week that it plans to spend more than $30 billion with Broadcom over the next five years, helping the chipmaker expand a manufacturing facility in Fort Collins, Colo.
The consumer tech giant already designs its own chips for the iPhone, iPad and Mac, and is reportedly developing separate processors for AI servers.
Samsung manufactures advanced chips for both its own products and outside customers, while Intel is working to expand its contract manufacturing business after its production technology fell behind in recent years, Axios noted.
Showing the complexity of attaining chip autonomy, those manufacturers rely on lithography equipment from Dutch company ASML — the only supplier of the most advanced machines used to produce AI chips, per the news site.
The Post has sought comment from Meta, Broadcom and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing.
Key features of SFYI-Invests in the 50 most widely held U.S.-listed stocks across SoFi Invest self-directed brokerage accounts.
-Employs an actively managed options strategy, including covered calls and call spreads, to seek monthly income distributions alongside growth potential.
-Offers a lower capital barrier, as investors can access an options-based income strategy through a single ETF instead of owning at least 100 shares required for traditional covered call strategies.
-Provides access to complex options strategies through a convenient ETF structure.
-Applies its options strategy across a diversified portfolio rather than a single stock.
-Builds on the existing SoFi Social 50 ETF (NYSE:SFYF), which tracks the platform’s 50 most widely held stocks.
-Carries a gross expense ratio of 0.73%.
The launch comes as investors increasingly look beyond traditional fixed-income strategies amid an uncertain interest-rate environment and elevated market volatility.
According to SoFi, SFYI simplifies options-based income investing by embedding professionally managed covered calls and call spreads into a single ETF, eliminating the need for investors to build and manage their own options positions.
“Income-seeking investors are being challenged to rethink their traditional playbook,” said Brian Walsh, SoFi’s head of Advice and Planning, adding that the fund is designed to provide exposure to the platform’s most widely held stocks while pursuing monthly income and potential capital appreciation.
Photo: PJ McDonnell / Shutterstock
This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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SummaryTesla, Inc. remains my top long-term holding, driven by dominant Q2 deliveries and a robust multi-segment ecosystem.Q2 deliveries hit a record 480,126 vehicles (for any Q2), signaling a turnaround in core EV operations and potential for earnings beats.My Q2 estimates—$28.28B revenue, $0.51 EPS—are near the high end of consensus, with upside if margins outperform.I maintain a 12-month price target for TSLA stock of $550–$600, citing Tesla’s leadership in EVs, FSD, energy, and AI, and other segments, but highlight execution and valuation risks.Looking for a helping hand in the market? Members of The Financial Prophet get exclusive ideas and guidance to navigate any climate. Learn More » Getty Images
You know, I've been bullish on Tesla, Inc. (TSLA) for a long time. In fact, the first time I bought into the stock was back in October 2013, which seems like ages ago. Nonetheless, my investment in Tesla has been
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I am long a diversified portfolio with hedges.
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Google is rolling out a new feature aimed at helping people understand when an ad they’re seeing was made using AI technology.
AI makes it easier for businesses to create ads, place their brand’s products in various settings, and save money on real-world e-commerce photography. But it can also be misleading if consumers don’t know that what they’re looking at isn’t a real product photo. While Google prohibits misleading and deceptive ads, an ad can still leverage AI to create some type of synthetic or digitally altered content. Until now, that’s something Google only required election ads to disclose.
ScreenshotImage Credits:Google The tech giant said the new consumer-facing feature will be introduced to the “My Ad Center” panel, which anyone globally can access by clicking the three-dot menu or on the info icon on the ads they come across via Google Search, YouTube, and Google Discover.
This panel already lets users block or report ads, learn more about the advertiser or why the ad was shown, among other things. Now, users also see an option that says “how this ad was made,” which will indicate if the ad was created or edited with AI.
Google says that when advertisers use its own generative AI advertising tools to create ads, the disclosure will be automatically enabled.
However, if the ad is created elsewhere, the advertiser will need to use a new control to indicate if AI was involved in its creation — Google will not perform its own check to determine if that’s the case. In some markets, the ad may also be labeled as AI if local law requires it.
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BRECKENRIDGE, Colo., July 09, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Breckenridge Distillery, one of the most-awarded craft distilleries in the U.S., and a subsidiary of Tilray Brands, Inc. (NASDAQ: TLRY and TSX: TLRY), announced the launch of Breck Vodka Seltzer today, a bold new entry into the ready-to-drink category that captures the spirit of the Colorado Rockies in every can. Available in four vibrant flavors, Breck Vodka Seltzer is crafted for those who live for bright days, fresh air, and laid-back mountain culture vibes.
Born in the Rockies and built for the outdoors, Breck Vodka Seltzer blends crisp tartness with a touch of natural sweetness, delivering a clean, easy-drinking experience at 5% ABV. Each flavor bursts with ripe fruit character, the kind of refreshment that keeps pace with wherever the day takes you.
“Our new Vodka Seltzer is crafted for anyone looking for real flavor, balanced from nose to finish,” said Bryan Nolt, Founder of Breckenridge Distillery. “Born in the Rockies and inspired by mountain culture, it’s an easy drinking seltzer you can take anywhere, made with the same quality as our award-winning Breckenridge Vodka.”
Breck Vodka Seltzers are now available in four flavors, lime, grapefruit, peach and tropical in 4-pack individual flavors and 8-pack variety formats in Colorado retailers, coming to national retailers Fall 2026. 4-pack $11-13.99 MSRP and 8-pack variety $18.99-19.99 MSRP.
Flavors include:
Lime Breck Vodka Seltzer: Bright, refreshing aromas of fresh lime zest lead the nose. The palate opens with crisp, vibrant lime, balanced by a smooth touch of sweetness. It finishes clean and invigorating, with light, tingly lime juice notes that leave you reaching for another sip.
Grapefruit Breck Vodka Seltzer: Juicy, refreshing grapefruit aromas greet the senses. On the palate, bright grapefruit juice delivers a gentle tartness, balanced by a lingering sweetness. The finish carries a fresh grapefruit retro nasal note that remains pleasant on the breath.
Tropical Breck Vodka Seltzer: A sun‑drenched blend of vibrant citrus and lush island fruit. Aromas of ripe orange and sweet pineapple set a breezy, beach‑day tone, rounded by a smooth trace of coconut. The palate is juicy and well‑balanced; it’s bright, fruity, and effortlessly smooth, offering a tropical escape in every sip.
Peach Breck Vodka Seltzer: Inviting aromas of ripe peach and peach ring candy, with a creamy, dessert-like character. The palate showcases sweet, juicy peach layered with cream and a subtle vanilla note. The finish is smooth and lingering, tapering to a clean, crisp peach and vanilla close.
For more information about Breckenridge Distillery, visit www.breckenridgedistillery.com and click here to find retailers near you. Follow Breckenridge Distillery on Instagram @breckdistillery and become a fan at facebook.com/BreckDistillery. Age 21+. Always enjoy responsibly.
About Breckenridge Distillery
Founded in Colorado in 2008, Breckenridge Distillery is the “World’s Highest Distillery,” and is best known for its award-winning blended bourbon whiskey, a high-rye mash American-style whiskey.
One of the most highly awarded distilleries in the U.S., the Breckenridge Distillery is proudly a 3x Icons of Whisky and 10x winner of Best American Blended winner at the World Whiskies Awards by Whisky Magazine and a 4x winner of Colorado Distillery of the Year by the New York International Spirits Competition. Most recently, Breckenridge Port Cask Finish was named World’s Best Finished Bourbon at the 2024 World Whiskies Awards, joining Breckenridge High Proof, named World’s Best Blended Whiskey and Breckenridge Gin, named World’s Best Compound Gin at the World Gin Awards by Gin Magazine. Breckenridge spirits have been awarded 6 Double Golds at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition.
The Breckenridge Distillery is more than award-winning spirits, offering an immersive guest experience. Named as one of the country’s Top Visitor Attractions by Whisky Magazine, guests can dine at their award-winning restaurant, enjoy show-stopping cocktails, learn about their highly awarded spirits with an in-depth tasting, and get an inside look at their active production facility. New to the distillery, guests have the opportunity to blend their own whiskey as they learn the inner workings of whiskey production.
Breckenridge Distillery is a subsidiary of Tilray Brands, Inc. (NASDAQ: TLRY and TSX: TLRY), a leading global cannabis-lifestyle and consumer packaged goods company inspiring and empowering the worldwide community to live their very best life.
To learn more about Breckenridge Distillery, visit www.breckenridgedistillery.com. Keep up with Breckenridge Distillery on Instagram by following @breckdistillery and become a fan at facebook.com/BreckDistillery.
For more information about Tilray Brands, visit www.tilray.com and follow @tilray on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
About Tilray Brands
Tilray Brands, Inc. (“Tilray”) (Nasdaq: TLRY; TSX: TLRY), is a leading global lifestyle and consumer packaged goods company with operations in Canada, the United States, Europe, Australia, and Latin America that is leading as a transformative force at the nexus of cannabis, beverage, wellness, and entertainment, elevating lives through moments of connection. Tilray’s mission is to be a leading premium lifestyle company with a house of brands and innovative products that inspire joy and create memorable experiences. Tilray’s unprecedented platform supports over 40 brands in over 20 countries, including comprehensive cannabis offerings, hemp-based foods, and craft beverages.
For more information on how we are elevating lives through moments of connection, visit Tilray.com and follow @Tilray on all social platforms.
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements in this communication that are not historical facts constitute forward-looking information or forward-looking statements (together, “forward-looking statements”) under Canadian and U.S. securities laws and 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, that are intended to be subject to the “safe harbor” created by those sections and other applicable laws. Forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as “forecast,” “future,” “should,” “could,” “enable,” “potential,” “contemplate,” “believe,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “plan,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “project,” “will,” “would” and the negative of these terms or similar expressions, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Certain material factors, estimates, goals, projections, or assumptions were used in drawing the conclusions contained in the forward-looking statements throughout this communication. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding our intentions, beliefs, projections, outlook, analyses, or current expectations. Many factors could cause actual results, performance, or achievement to be materially different from any forward-looking statements, and other risks and uncertainties not presently known to the Company or that the Company deems immaterial could also cause actual results or events to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements contained herein. For a more detailed discussion of these risks and other factors, see the most recently filed annual information form of Tilray and the Annual Report on Form 10-K (and other periodic reports filed with the SEC) of Tilray made with the SEC and available on EDGAR. The forward-looking statements included in this communication are made as of the date of this communication and the Company does not undertake any obligation to publicly update such forward-looking statements to reflect new information, subsequent events, or otherwise unless required by applicable securities laws.
Despite being a key player in the artificial intelligence (AI) space, NVIDIA NVDA is now trading at one of its lowest valuation levels in years, per a Yahoo Finance article. The company's forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio has fallen to 22.22x, its lowest level since at least 2019, according to Yahoo Finance AlphaSpace data.
Long the leading light of the industry, Nvidia has had a bad couple of months. Bloomberg has the ugly details, but the upshot is that the company’s stock price has fallen 15% since its peak in May, even as projected revenue continues to grow. Compared with expected earnings, the company is now cheaper than the S&P average; investors are paying less per dollar of Nvidia’s projected profit than they do for the typical large American company.
Money is still flooding into AI infrastructure stocks, but it’s mostly going into memory companies. Over the same period, Micron — one of the world’s largest makers of DRAM, the standard type of memory chip found in computers and servers — has nearly tripled in value, establishing memory as the new bottleneck for data centers and the hot new AI trade. The basic reason is simple: The GPU shortage that looked so alarming last year has eased off a bit. At the same time, data centers need all the memory money can buy.
For anyone who appreciates Nvidia’s technological accomplishments, this can feel a bit deflating. There’s a lot of genuinely impressive technology behind Nvidia’s rise, both in developing CUDA, its widely adopted programming platform that made Nvidia GPUs the default engine for AI research, and in pushing the pace of GPU development to a speed few thought possible. Nvidia’s success is the kind of thing you can write whole books about, and the GPUs themselves are among the most complex devices ever produced, right at the bleeding edge of human capability.
For memory companies like Micron, the story is much simpler. They build high-bandwidth memory chips — specialized components designed to move data in and out of processors as fast as possible — which have been getting incrementally better for 20 years. Without the chips or the companies changing too much, the service they provide suddenly became very valuable — and since demand is growing faster than anyone can scale up supply, they have been able to increase prices tenfold over the past year.
This, via Datatrack, is what the spot price for DRAM — the price buyers pay for chips on the open market, as opposed to long-term contract rates — looks like since 2023:
Image Credits:Datatrack (screenshot) You might think there was some amazing technical breakthrough in the summer of 2025, but no, the industry as a whole just vastly underestimated how much memory it would need for the data center buildout.
In comparison, this (via the compute marketplace Ornn) is how the spot price for an hour of time on an Nvidia H100 GPU has changed over the last year:
Image Credits:Ornn (screenshot) Just like Nvidia’s stock price, there’s a peak in May (around $3.20 an hour) and then a steady drop-off. For better or worse, Nvidia’s value as a company is tied to the price of compute and that price is falling. Micron and its cohort are tied to the price of DRAM, and that price keeps rising.
When I talked to Ornn co-founder and CTO Wayne Nelms about the forces driving that disparity, he framed it as a simple issue of supply and demand. Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and even OpenAI have launched their own custom processors to lessen their dependence on Nvidia; even if those chips aren’t as good as the latest model from Nvidia, they’re good enough to drive down the price of compute.
“More GPU and accelerator players are entering the market. Everyone wants to make their own silicon, but no one is making their own DRAM,” Nelms told me. “Until there’s a major technological breakthrough on HBM [high-bandwidth memory], a shift in supply and demand, or someone new [enters the market in memory], I think things will more or less persist as we see today.”
It’s a frustrating state of affairs for Nvidia, and largely a product of its own success. Having proven how valuable compute can be, the company finds itself at the center of a market everyone wants to be in — while simpler technologies and less interesting companies get rich on the sidelines.
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Russell Brandom has been covering the tech industry since 2012, with a focus on platform policy and emerging technologies. He previously worked at The Verge and Rest of World, and has written for Wired, The Awl and MIT’s Technology Review. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Signal at 412-401-5489.
So far this year, Nvidia (NVDA 0.08%) stock has exhibited an unusually muted performance. As of this writing (July 7), Nvidia stock has gained just 5% in 2026 -- a result that stands in sharp contrast to the parabolic surges that have defined the company's trajectory in recent years.
This pause is prompting investors to reassess both the near-term price action of a company that has spent the last few years at the center of the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, and their longer-term expectations for it.
Image source: Nvidia.
What's wrong with Nvidia stock? After reaching a series of all-time highs between 2023 and 2025, Nvidia stock has traded within a relatively narrow range in 2026.
That consolidation in Nvidia stock has coincided with a period of broader weakness across large-cap technology names, where frothy valuations have increasingly been met with questions about the pace of spending on generative AI infrastructure. As investors' capital rotates out of big tech, attention is shifting toward other semiconductor companies that are perceived to offer more immediate upside or to possess underappreciated exposure to AI supply chains.
Memory specialist Micron Technology, storage and flash-memory players such as Sandisk, and connectivity-focused names including Marvell Technology have all drawn incremental interest during this rotation. The net effect has been a redistribution of inflows, leaving Nvidia stock without the concentrated buying pressure seen in earlier phases of the AI supercycle.
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Is Nvidia's business maturing? Some may see Nvidia as a company transitioning from hypergrowth to a more measured, mature phase. This characterization, however, doesn't mesh with several concrete developments inside the business.
Revenues from Nvidia's data center segment -- the primary engine of the business -- set a record in the first quarter. Moreover, management guided for further revenue growth acceleration for the second quarter. This is particularly meaningful because the company's data center segment sales had previously shown signs of plateauing.
Management has also articulated roughly $1 trillion in revenue visibility for its Blackwell and Vera Rubin processors across 2026 and 2027, anchored by multiyear commitments from hyperscalers and large enterprise customers.
At the same time, the company is quietly pursuing a deliberate strategy of extending its reach across the full AI infrastructure stack. Strategic investments and partnerships involving Nokia in networking, Coherent and Lumentum in optical components, and Marvell in complementary silicon have positioned Nvidia to participate in every major layer of the AI value chain -- from training and inference chips to high-speed interconnects and power delivery.
Nvidia stock is set up for explosive gains In the chart below, investors can see trends in Nvidia's forward price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple over the past four years. Nvidia's current valuation profile illustrates a clear compression from elevated levels that accompanied the company's most rapid growth phases.
NVDA PE Ratio (Forward) data by YCharts.
This suggests that premiums that once reflected investors' expectations of sustained revenue and earnings acceleration have normalized to levels more typical of a maturing business. In effect, the market appears to be pricing Nvidia as though its best growth opportunities are behind it.
This is not the first time such a rerating has occurred with Nvidia. In earlier instances when Nvidia's forward P/E contracted amid consolidation or shifting sentiment, subsequent evidence of accelerating revenue and profitability triggered multiple expansions. This pattern is consistent: Once operational results confirm that the company's AI-driven growth is continuing, investors eventually reengage, and the valuation rerates higher.
With Nvidia now showing renewed momentum in its data center business and laying the foundation for added gains across adjacent layers of the AI chip stack, I think that sequence is likely to repeat. Patient investors who recognize that Nvidia's recent price action reflects investor caution rather than a fundamental deterioration of its thesis can position themselves to benefit from meaningful share price appreciation as the chip giant continues to execute.
Nvidia stock (NVDA) slipped on Thursday, giving back some of the previous session's gains even as semiconductor stocks broadly rallied, underscoring investors' continued preference for other parts of the artificial intelligence supply chain. Shares were down 1.1% at $201.76 in midday trading after jumping 3.7% on Wednesday.
The Number SemiAnalysis, the semiconductor research firm that AI hardware investors track obsessively, pegs NVIDIA’s (NASDAQ:NVDA | NVDA Price Prediction) Data Center compute revenue at roughly $203 billion for the back half of Fiscal 2027, about 20% above Wall Street consensus of about $169 billion.
That gap is the anchor of this story. If SemiAnalysis is right, the sell-side model that currently underwrites Nvidia valuation math is materially low on the company’s largest business unit.
What It Means Data Center is the engine. Last quarter, Data Center revenue hit $75.246 billion, up 92% year over year, split between Data Center Compute at $60.4 billion (up 77% YoY) and Data Center Networking at $14.8 billion (up 199% YoY). Roughly 50% of Data Center revenue comes from hyperscale customers, and NVIDIA has already locked in $119 billion of total supply-related commitments and $30 billion of multi-year cloud service commitments.
SemiAnalysis carries weight because its estimates are stitched together from the full supply chain: wafer starts, HBM availability, server integrator shipments, hyperscaler build plans. That is grittier input than the sell-side models that lean on company guidance. The firm attributes the upside to a large Rubin ramp after earlier HBM4 issues that are now resolved and front-end wafer supply that has been built up.
There is a wrinkle. SemiAnalysis also flagged that NVIDIA’s Kyber NVL144 rack-scale system may slip from 2027 to 2028 due to a PCB midplane manufacturing challenge, a claim NVIDIA disputed by saying its roadmap is intact. That debate concerns a 2028 product. The bullish revenue call is about the 2H FY2027 ramp already in flight, so the two threads do not collide.
Market Reaction Shares closed at $204.12 on July 8, 2026, up 3.65% on the day. Year to date the stock is up 9.58%, and it is up 27.74% over the past year. Prediction markets on Polymarket assign an 83% probability NVDA closes July above $208, with the crowd showing a 75.5% historical accuracy on NVDA markets.
Bull Case The valuation math is the point. NVDA trades near $204, with a forward P/E around 35. If the largest business unit earns 20% more than consensus expects in the back half of FY2027, forward EPS moves higher and the multiple compresses on its own. The stock becomes cheaper without doing anything.
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The trailing evidence supports the direction. Q1 FY2027 delivered non-GAAP diluted EPS of $1.87 versus a $1.77 estimate, a 5.42% beat, on revenue of $81.615 billion, up 85.23% YoY and 3.16% ahead of consensus.
That was the twelfth consecutive quarterly EPS beat. Margins told the same story: non-GAAP gross margin expanded to 75% from 60.8% a year ago, while net income rose 210.63% and operating income rose 147.42% year over year.
Cash generation is doing the work in the background. Free cash flow reached $48.554 billion in Q1, up 85.41% YoY. Management responded by raising the quarterly dividend from $0.01 to $0.25 and authorizing an additional $80 billion share repurchase with no expiration. Wall Street’s read is aligned: an analyst target price of $301.62 with 10 strong buy, 48 buy, 2 hold, and 1 sell ratings.
Q2 guidance from the company itself calls for $91 billion in revenue plus or minus 2%, gross margin of 75.0% plus or minus 50 bps, and excludes any China Data Center compute revenue. SemiAnalysis is layering a higher ramp on top of an already high bar.
Bottom Line For a retirement-focused investor, the real question is whether the denominator in that P/E is right, not the sticker multiple. SemiAnalysis says it is too low by roughly 20% in the biggest revenue line, driven by a Rubin ramp that is already staged.
The risks are real: the estimate is a research firm’s, not company guidance, consensus expectations are already elevated, and any execution or demand hiccup pressures a mega-cap at scale. The next hard data point is the Q3 FY2027 earnings report on August 26, 2026, after the close. Until then, the anchor number is $203 billion.
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AI chip startup Positron is seeking about $750 million in financing as investor demand continues to build around companies trying to challenge Nvidia (NVDA), th
NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA | NVDA Price Prediction) has maintained its status as the world’s most valuable company for most of the past two years. Now trading at a valuation of a little more than $4.7 trillion, Nvidia has seen roughly $4 billion of market capitalization added over the past five years, as this chip giant has seen its market capitalization soar on the back of the AI revolution.
What It Means A four-plus trillion dollar valuation would be a curiosity if the underlying business did not keep pace. It does. In the most recent quarter (Q1 FY27, reported May 20, 2026), NVIDIA posted revenue of $81.61 billion, up 85.2% year over year, beating the consensus estimate of $79.12 billion by 3.16%. Net income landed at $58.32 billion, up 210.63% from a year earlier. Non-GAAP EPS came in at $1.87 against a $1.77 estimate.
The company’s Data Center segment did the heavy lifting, generating $75.25 billion in the quarter, up 92% year over year. Data Center Networking alone climbed to $14.8 billion, a 199% jump. Non-GAAP gross margin sat at 75.0%, up from 60.8% a year prior. Free cash flow totaled $48.55 billion. Companies at this scale are not supposed to grow this fast at this margin.
Market Reaction Shares closed at $221.54 on the day of the Q1 FY27 8-K filing (May 20, 2026). Since then the stock has drifted lower, ending July 2 at $194.83, down 12.46% over the past month while remaining up 24.06% over the past year and 854.24% over five years. Over the past decade, NVIDIA shares are up 16,930.86%. Again, over the past five years, that gain for investors is around 850%.
Bull Case The rules of tech investing used to say that companies could not compound at hypergrowth rates once they crossed a few hundred billion in market value. NVIDIA is testing that assumption in real time. Q2 FY27 revenue guidance is $91.0 billion, plus or minus 2%, and that figure excludes China Data Center compute revenue entirely. Nvidia’s management team has committed to $119.0 billion in supply-related purchases, a signal about how deep the order book actually runs.
Capital return has scaled with the business. The board approved an additional $80.0 billion in buyback authorization in May 2026, on top of the $38.5 billion that remained under the prior program. NVIDIA returned about $20 billion to shareholders in Q1 through repurchases and dividends, and raised the quarterly dividend from $0.01 to $0.25 per share, declared May 18, 2026 and paid June 26, 2026.
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CEO Jensen Huang framed the setup in the quarter: “The buildout of AI factories, the largest infrastructure expansion in human history, is accelerating at extraordinary speed.” He added that “Agentic AI has arrived, doing productive work, generating real value and scaling rapidly across companies and industries.” Roughly 50% of Data Center revenue comes from hyperscalers, with sovereign AI demand adding another leg. Blackwell 300 is ramping. The Vera Rubin platform has been announced.
Right now, I think Nvidia’s valuation supports a bull case, rather than stretches it. Currently, this stock trades at an otherwise reasonable (given its long-term run rate) multiple of 30x trailing earnings and a 23x forward PE, with an operating margin of 65.6% and return on equity of 114.3%. Of 61 covering analysts, 58 rate the stock a Buy, with an average target price of $301.62.
Bottom Line The reason Nvidia’s $4.72 trillion market cap is rewriting the rules is that the company’s growth arithmetic behind it still works. Revenue almost doubled year over year at a 75.0% gross margin, and the forward guide of $91.0 billion raises the bar again while explicitly leaving China out of the number.
For long-term holders, the next test is the Q2 FY27 earnings report, where investors will see whether the Blackwell 300 ramp and sovereign AI demand can carry the model past the size where every prior tech leader stalled. On the current numbers, NVIDIA keeps compounding at a rate that bends the historical pattern for companies of its size.
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Have you been searching for a stock that might be well-positioned to maintain its earnings-beat streak in its upcoming report? It is worth considering Johnson & Johnson (JNJ - Free Report) , which belongs to the Zacks Large Cap Pharmaceuticals industry.
When looking at the last two reports, this world's biggest maker of health care products has recorded a strong streak of surpassing earnings estimates. The company has topped estimates by 1.18%, on average, in the last two quarters.
For the last reported quarter, Johnson & Johnson came out with earnings of $2.7 per share versus the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.67 per share, representing a surprise of 1.12%. For the previous quarter, the company was expected to post earnings of $2.43 per share and it actually produced earnings of $2.46 per share, delivering a surprise of 1.23%.
Price and EPS Surprise
With this earnings history in mind, recent estimates have been moving higher for Johnson & Johnson. In fact, the Zacks Earnings ESP (Expected Surprise Prediction) for the company is positive, which is a great sign of an earnings beat, especially when you combine this metric with its nice Zacks Rank.
Our research shows that stocks with the combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) or better produce a positive surprise nearly 70% of the time. In other words, if you have 10 stocks with this combination, the number of stocks that beat the consensus estimate could be as high as seven.
The Zacks Earnings ESP compares the Most Accurate Estimate to the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the quarter; the Most Accurate Estimate is a version of the Zacks Consensus whose definition is related to change. The idea here is that analysts revising their estimates right before an earnings release have the latest information, which could potentially be more accurate than what they and others contributing to the consensus had predicted earlier.
Johnson & Johnson currently has an Earnings ESP of +2.11%, which suggests that analysts have recently become bullish on the company's earnings prospects. This positive Earnings ESP when combined with the stock's Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) indicates that another beat is possibly around the corner. We expect the company's next earnings report to be released on July 15, 2026.
Investors should note, however, that a negative Earnings ESP reading is not indicative of an earnings miss, but a negative value does reduce the predictive power of this metric.
Many companies end up beating the consensus EPS estimate, though this is not the only reason why their shares gain. Additionally, some stocks may remain stable even if they end up missing the consensus estimate.
Because of this, it's really important to check a company's Earnings ESP ahead of its quarterly release to increase the odds of success. Make sure to utilize our Earnings ESP Filter to uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they've reported.
As the nicotine industry shifts toward smoke-free alternatives, investors face a choice between legacy giants and nimble mid-cap players. Altria Group (MO 0.95%) and Turning Point Brands (TPB 0.32%) represent two distinct paths.
Altria dominates the traditional U.S. cigarette market while aggressively expanding its footprint in vapor and oral nicotine products. Turning Point Brands focuses on specialty accessories, such as rolling papers and niche tobacco products, that appeal to specific consumer segments. Comparing these two reveals a trade-off between massive cash distributions and high-growth potential.
The case for AltriaAltria sells cigarettes, cigars, and oral nicotine products primarily to adult consumers in the United States. Its core operations include iconic brands like Marlboro and Copenhagen, while it builds out newer segments like NJOY in the e-vapor market. The company also maintains a joint venture with Japan Tobacco to market heated tobacco products, diversifying its portfolio beyond traditional combustion products.
In FY 2025, revenue reached nearly $20.1 billion, a slight decline of approximately 1.5% from the previous year. Despite this dip, the company reported net income of nearly $6.95 billion for the period, indicating the business remains highly profitable despite volume challenges in the traditional cigarette market.
As of its December 2025 balance sheet, the debt-to-equity ratio, which compares total debt to shareholder equity, was -7.3x. This negative value indicates that total liabilities exceed shareholders’ equity. Free cash flow for the fiscal year was nearly $9.1 billion, calculated by subtracting capital expenditures from operating cash flow.
Turning Point Brands markets and distributes alternative smoking accessories and tobacco products like Zig-Zag rolling papers and Stoker's chewing tobacco. It operates through about 220,000 retail locations in North America and manages critical supply agreements with partners like Philip Morris International (PM 2.51%) subsidiary Swedish Match. The company is a niche player among tobacco stocks, focusing on high-growth accessories and specialty tobacco.
For the period ending in FY 2025, the company reported revenue of approximately $463.1 million, a substantial 28% year-over-year increase. Net income was close to $58.2 million, which shows the company is successfully scaling its higher-growth brands.
Based on the December 2025 balance sheet, Turning Point Brands has a debt-to-equity ratio of nearly 0.9x. This ratio compares total debt to shareholders’ equity, indicating a moderate level of borrowing relative to shareholders’ equity. Free cash flow, or cash from operations minus capital spending, reached approximately $43.9 million for the year.
Risk profile comparisonAltria faces regulatory hurdles, specifically with the FDA's review process for e-vapor products and enforcement against illicit flavored disposables. Litigation remains a concern, including a certified class action lawsuit related to its past investment in the vaping company Juul Labs. Furthermore, traditional tobacco volumes are declining as consumer preferences shift and price gaps between premium and discount brands widen.
Turning Point Brands is vulnerable to supply chain disruptions because it relies on a small number of third-party suppliers, such as Swedish Match. Failure to renew these licensing and supply agreements would severely restrict its market access. Additionally, the company faces intense competition from larger firms like Altria that have significantly more capital to influence retail distribution and pricing strategies.
Valuation comparisonTurning Point Brands carries a higher Forward P/E based on future earnings estimates, while Altria provides a lower P/S ratio for value-conscious investors.
MetricAltriaTurning Point BrandsSector BenchmarkForward P/E13.0x62.9x287.6xP/S ratio6.0x3.5xSector benchmark uses the SPDR XLP sector ETF.
Valuation metrics sourced from Financial Modeling Prep (FMP) and may differ from other data providers.
Which stock would I buy in 2026?Altria is facing significant headwinds in its main market, the U.S., due to declining smoking rates. Smoking as a habit is declining globally and has hit its lowest level in the U.S., at under 10% of all adults, down from a peak of about 46% in the mid-1960s. Altria is finding some difficulty replacing revenue from the loss of traditional smokers because of the number of e-cigarette competitors taking share in the grey market outside regulatory approval. Wall Street estimates it will take Altria about five years to grow its revenue by just 5% from 2025 levels. Still, management is finding ways to boost profits, with net income seen rising 25% to $9.3 billion in 2026 on essentially flat revenue.
Turning Points Brands should see sales rise 13% this year to about $525 million, with net income of $58 million. That’s a 45% jump in profits. Nicotine pouch sales in the U.S. as a category grew 500% last year and are expected to remain strong this year. Still, there is a risk around pouches being hit by more regulations, and the fact that oral tobacco in the past was deeply criticized for contributing to oral cancers.
So which is the better buy? The difference here is Altria’s excellent dividend payments, with the stock trading at a forward dividend yield of nearly 6%, while Turning Point Brands is at less than 1%. Coupled with its lower forward P/E ratio, MO is the stock to pick.
Key Takeaways XOM expects higher liquids prices to add about $3.5-$3.9 billion to Q2 earnings versus Q1 2026. ExxonMobil sees Energy, Chemical and Specialty Products margins boosting second-quarter earnings. Middle East disruptions hurt production, but supportive prices may still aid XOM's upstream profitability. Exxon Mobil Corporation (XOM - Free Report) , a U.S. oil and gas giant, has an integrated business model spanning upstream operations, refining and trading. The majority of its earnings are generated by its upstream segment. While the exploration and production business is vulnerable to fluctuations in oil and gas prices, the current business environment seems favorable for XOM’s upstream activities.
The conflict in the Middle East has disrupted global oil and gas flows, causing a major spike in crude prices, with the West Texas Intermediate benchmark surpassing the $100 per barrel mark in May 2026. In its latest 8-K filing, ExxonMobil has provided an update regarding its second-quarter results. The company indicated that higher crude prices and the impacts of the Middle East disruptions are expected to boost its second-quarter earnings compared with the first quarter. In fact, XOM estimates changes in liquids prices to add approximately $3.5-$3.9 billion to its earnings compared with first-quarter 2026.
Moreover, the company mentioned in its filing that the Energy Products and Chemical Products segments are expected to benefit from changes in margins. The Energy Products segment is expected to gain between $2 billion and $2.4 billion, while the Chemical Products segment is expected to witness an increase between $1 billion and $1.2 billion. The Specialty Products segment is forecasted to add approximately $300-$500 million to its earnings compared with first-quarter 2026. The gains in refining and chemicals margins likely reflect stronger industry margins in the second quarter. However, ExxonMobil noted that the ongoing conflict in the Middle East has caused production disruptions and operational shutdowns, partially offsetting these benefits. ExxonMobil is scheduled to release its second-quarter results on July 31.
The current market conditions, however, have changed significantly, and crude prices have retreated from the war-premium highs seen previously. Nevertheless, the current pricing environment remains supportive for ExxonMobil. Recent developments related to the conflict between the United States and Iran have again resulted in heightened uncertainty in global energy markets. The escalating geopolitical tensions may push oil prices higher in the near term, thereby supporting ExxonMobil’s upstream business. The company is well positioned to generate attractive upstream earnings and sustain its profitability, supported by its portfolio of low-cost, high-return advantaged assets in the Permian Basin and Guyana.
XOM’s Zacks Rank and Key PicksXOM currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Some better-ranked stocks from the energy sector are Cenovus Energy (CVE - Free Report) , Par Pacific Holdings (PARR - Free Report) and FuelCell Energy (FCEL - Free Report) . While Cenovus Energy and Par Pacific currently sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) each, FuelCell Energy carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks Rank #1 stocks here.
Cenovus Energy Inc. is a Canadian integrated energy company with operations spanning the upstream, midstream and downstream sectors. The company is involved in exploration and production from its low-cost oil sands and heavy oil assets in Canada. The strategic MEG Energy acquisition is expected to boost Cenovus Energy's production levels in 2026.
Par Pacific Holdings operates an integrated downstream energy business across the United States, with fuel retail operations in Hawaii, Washington, and Idaho, refining operations in Hawaii, Wyoming, Washington, and Montana, and a supporting logistics network. Its refineries have a combined crude oil throughput capacity of 219,000 barrels per day and produce gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, marine fuels, asphalt, and other petroleum products.
FuelCell Energy is a clean energy company that offers scalable, reliable, low-carbon power solutions. It produces power using flexible fuel sources such as biogas, natural gas and hydrogen. The company’s proprietary molten carbonate fuel cell systems generate electricity through an electrochemical process instead of burning fuel, reducing carbon emissions and minimizing the environmental impact of power generation. FCEL is anticipated to play a crucial role in the energy transition by enabling industries and communities to shift from traditional fossil fuels to low-carbon alternatives.
Key Takeaways GE's Defense & Propulsion Technologies revenues rose 19%, with orders jumping 67% in Q1.GE secured defense contracts with Boeing Defence UK and a multi-year partnership with Palantir.GE expects mid-to-high single-digit 2026 revenue growth for its Defense & Propulsion Technologies segment. GE Aerospace (GE - Free Report) is benefiting from persistent strength in its Defense & Propulsion Technologies segment. After experiencing growth of 11% in 2025, revenues from the segment increased 19% year over year in first-quarter 2026. The surge in revenues was driven by the growing popularity for GE’s propulsion & additive technologies, critical aircraft systems and aftermarket services in the defense sector.
Some of the notable contracts secured by the company include a deal from Boeing Defence UK for the extension of support services for T700-GE-T701D engines. GE will be responsible for providing logistics management, repair, maintenance and technical support services for these turboshaft engines. Also, it entered into a multi-year partnership with Palantir Technologies Inc. (PLTR - Free Report) to improve the fleet management and operational readiness of the U.S. Air Force’s military aircraft.
The strong pipeline of projects boosted the Defense & Propulsion Technologies segment’s orders, which surged 67% in the first quarter on a year-over-year basis. The segment’s operating profit grew 17% to $379 million.
It's worth noting that the fiscal year 2026 Defense Appropriations Act was signed into law in February 2026, providing a strong budgetary allocation for defense. Such robust provisions set the stage for GE Aerospace, which remains focused on its defense business.
Backed by favorable geopolitical developments and consistent government support, the company’s Defense & Propulsion Technologies segment is well-placed for growth in the quarters ahead. For 2026, GE expects revenues from the Defense & Propulsion Technologies segment to increase in the mid-to-high single-digit range.
GE's Peers in the Defense MarketHowmet Aerospace Inc. (HWM - Free Report) is benefiting from strong momentum in its defense aerospace market. After experiencing growth of 21% in 2025, revenues from the defense aerospace market increased 10% year over year in first-quarter 2026. The surge in revenues was driven by the solid demand for engine spares, particularly related to the F-35 program, and an increase in orders for legacy fighter jet spares.
Northrop Grumman’s (NOC - Free Report) defense market is playing an important role in driving its overall growth. In first-quarter 2026, revenues from Northrop’s Defense Systems segment climbed 5.2% year over year to $1.90 billion. This improvement was driven by the continued ramp-up of the Sentinel program, as well as the higher volume of tactical solid rocket motor programs and the Integrated Battle Command System portfolio.
GE's Price Performance, Valuation and EstimatesShares of GE Aerospace have gained 9.8% in the past six months against the industry’s 6.2% decline.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
From a valuation standpoint, GE is trading at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 43.97X, above the industry’s average of 33.75X. GE Aerospace carries a Value Score of D.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for GE’s 2026 and 2027 earnings has increased over the past 60 days.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
The company currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Have you been searching for a stock that might be well-positioned to maintain its earnings-beat streak in its upcoming report? It is worth considering Verizon Communications (VZ - Free Report) , which belongs to the Zacks Wireless National industry.
This largest U.S. cellphone carrier has seen a nice streak of beating earnings estimates, especially when looking at the previous two reports. The average surprise for the last two quarters was 3.87%.
For the most recent quarter, Verizon was expected to post earnings of $1.22 per share, but it reported $1.28 per share instead, representing a surprise of 4.92%. For the previous quarter, the consensus estimate was $1.06 per share, while it actually produced $1.09 per share, a surprise of 2.83%.
Price and EPS Surprise
For Verizon, estimates have been trending higher, thanks in part to this earnings surprise history. And when you look at the stock's positive Zacks Earnings ESP (Expected Surprise Prediction), it's a great indicator of a future earnings beat, especially when combined with its solid Zacks Rank.
Our research shows that stocks with the combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) or better produce a positive surprise nearly 70% of the time. In other words, if you have 10 stocks with this combination, the number of stocks that beat the consensus estimate could be as high as seven.
The Zacks Earnings ESP compares the Most Accurate Estimate to the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the quarter; the Most Accurate Estimate is a version of the Zacks Consensus whose definition is related to change. The idea here is that analysts revising their estimates right before an earnings release have the latest information, which could potentially be more accurate than what they and others contributing to the consensus had predicted earlier.
Verizon has an Earnings ESP of +2.75% at the moment, suggesting that analysts have grown bullish on its near-term earnings potential. When you combine this positive Earnings ESP with the stock's Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), it shows that another beat is possibly around the corner. The company's next earnings report is expected to be released on July 24, 2026.
With the Earnings ESP metric, it's important to note that a negative value reduces its predictive power; however, a negative Earnings ESP does not indicate an earnings miss.
Many companies end up beating the consensus EPS estimate, but that may not be the sole basis for their stocks moving higher. On the other hand, some stocks may hold their ground even if they end up missing the consensus estimate.
Because of this, it's really important to check a company's Earnings ESP ahead of its quarterly release to increase the odds of success. Make sure to utilize our Earnings ESP Filter to uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they've reported.
Shares of PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP | PEP Price Prediction) slipped after Wednesday’s Q2 filing, opening today near $136.11 after closing at $142.51. The pullback opens an entry point. Our 24/7 Wall St. price target for PepsiCo is $169.51, implying 24.54% upside over the next 12 months.
Our recommendation is buy, with confidence rated high at 90%. The setup: a dividend aristocrat trading at a mid-teens forward multiple with organic volume growth at multi-year highs.
Metric Value Current Price $136.11 24/7 Wall St. Price Target $169.51 Upside 24.54% Recommendation BUY Confidence Level 90% The Post-Earnings Reset PEP is down 4.49% today after Q2 results, though the stock is still up 9.69% over the past year and 1.23% year to date. The 52-week high sits well above today’s price, with the low at $128.66. Q2 core EPS came in at $2.20 on revenue of $24.18 billion, a 6.4% YoY gain and the fourth straight EPS beat.
International segments led the quarter, with Latin America Foods +15%, Asia Pacific Foods +12%, International Beverages Franchise +11%, and EMEA +10%. PepsiCo Foods North America slipped 2% on softer pricing, and core operating margin contracted 40 basis points.
CEO Ramon Laguarta noted that “PepsiCo’s global organic volume has increased at the highest rate since 2022”, and management reaffirmed 2-4% organic revenue growth and 4-6% core constant currency EPS growth for FY2026.
Why Bulls See a Breakout The bull case rests on international acceleration and the productivity flywheel. Bulls point to Q1 2026 operating margin expansion of 210 basis points and management’s guidance for a “record year on productivity.” poppi integration, functional hydration wins at Gatorade and Propel, and the 2026 World Cup “No Lays No Game” campaign add commercial tailwinds.
Capital returns are massive: $8.9 billion in 2026 cash returns, a 54th consecutive dividend hike to $5.92 annualized, and a fresh $10 billion buyback authorization through 2030. Our bull-case scenario points to $176.32, a 29.54% return. The Street’s high analyst target sits at $165.55 on 8 buy ratings.
The Risks Worth Watching The bear case rests on North America. PFNA revenue fell 2% in Q2, core operating margin compressed 40 basis points, and global minimum tax regs are trimming EPS growth by 1-2 percentage points. FY2025 operating income fell 19.57% on $1.993 billion in Rockstar and Be & Cheery impairments.
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Bulls counter that impairments are non-recurring and the margin dip reflects reinvestment in affordability initiatives already driving share gains. Our bear-case target is $153.40, still 12.70% above today’s price. Bearish analyst sentiment is only 4%, with just 1 sell rating.
How PepsiCo Compares to Coca-Cola and Mondelez Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) is the closest global beverage comp. Coke posted Q1 2026 organic revenue growth of 10% with operating margin at 35.0%, well above Pepsi’s Q1 2026 16.5%. At a $352 billion market cap versus Pepsi’s $186 billion, Coke carries the premium multiple. Pepsi looks cheap on a relative basis, supporting our $169.51 target.
Mondelez (NASDAQ:MDLZ) is the pure-play global snacks peer to Frito-Lay. Mondelez beat Q1 2026 EPS by 10.22% but adjusted operating margin fell 310 basis points to 11.7% on cocoa inflation, and FY2026 guidance calls for only flat to 2% organic revenue growth. PepsiCo’s diversified snacks-plus-beverages model with a 53% gross margin looks more resilient, further supporting our target.
The Dip in Context The 24/7 Wall St. price target of $169.51 with 24.54% upside and 90% confidence points to buy. Valuation is the tipping factor: a mid-teens forward multiple on a business with reaccelerating international volumes and a fortress balance sheet.
The setup rewards investors with a two-year holding horizon while North America snacks stabilize. The picture changes if commodity and tariff pressure force another guidance cut in Q3.
Here is where our model projects PEP could trade, assuming current growth trajectories and the reaffirmed 4-6% long-term EPS algorithm hold.
Year 24/7 Wall St. Price Target 2026 $149.60 2027 $168.43 2028 $197.86 2029 $222.43 2030 $243.39 These projections assume Pepsi continues executing its productivity and international growth playbook. Significant upside or downside could come from faster margin recovery in North America or sustained commodity and tariff headwinds.
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Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have a beneficial long position in the shares of VICI either through stock ownership, options, or other derivatives. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
Seeking Alpha's Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.
On Thursday, July 9, PepsiCo released its Q2 2026 earnings. Given how many remain worried how inflation and gas prices would affect consumer spending, this earnings call was closely watched.
Key Takeaways: PepsiCo released its Q2 2026 earnings, to mixed but relatively positive results. Earnings per share were slightly under expectations, but revenue jumped in part due to global volume growth. However, volume growth was absent in the United States, due to the impact of inflation and gas prices. PepsiCo’s earnings showcase why gaining diversified access to the company through the ETF wrapper can pay off, limiting one’s exposure to sectors damaged by inflation. Overall, PepsiCo’s earnings statement was mixed, but leaned towards the positive side. Earnings per share came in one cent below expectations at $2.20, but revenue outpaced expectations at $24.18 billion.
Net revenue increased by 6.4% for the quarter and 7.3% year to date. Meanwhile, global volume increased by 3% for PepsiCo’s foods and 2% for its beverages.
However, it’s crucial to note that much of the volume growth was coming from countries outside the United States. Domestically, food volume remained unchanged, and beverage volume actually dropped by 4%.
See More: The Inflation Impact: 3 ETF Approaches for Managing Risk
That being said, this is likely less reflective of PepsiCo as a whole and more a symptom of shifting consumer sentiment. With Americans increasingly worried about inflation and prices at the pump rising, they may be skimping out on buying snacks and soft drinks.
“Our second quarter results featured strong organic volume and net revenue growth for the global convenient foods and global beverages businesses,” said PepsiCo Chairman and CEO Ramon Laguarta. “Year-to-date, PepsiCo’s global organic volume has increased at the highest rate since 2022 – aided by the strength of the international business and the continued evolution of the portfolio to offer more choices through portion control varieties, diverse ingredients, functional benefits such as hydration, protein and fiber, energy and zero sugar beverage varieties.”
Domestic Worries Make The Case for Diversification PepsiCo’s earnings could encourage investors and advisors to play exposure to the company in a few ways. Yes, the company struggled in North America, but its global results were certainly impressive. As such, maintaining balanced exposure that doesn’t tip too much into consumer staples could pay off in the long run.
See More: Tackle Market Uncertainty With This Consumer Staples ETF
As just one example, take a look at the First Trust Morningstar Dividend Leaders Index Fund (FDL). FDL provides exposure to a variety of large-cap companies with storied track records for generating dividends.
PepsiCo is among the top five holdings for this fund, as of July 8, 2026. 4.99% of the fund’s assets are allocated towards the company.
Crucially, FDL provides noticeable sector diversification as well. While consumer staples is the top sector of the fund, it only accounts for 24.60% of the portfolio, as of July 8, 2026. This illustrates how investors can maintain disciplined exposure to PepsiCo without needing to tilt into the consumer staples sector too aggressively.
For more news, information, and analysis, visit the Equity ETF Content Hub.
PepsiCo says high prices at the pump are keeping consumers from heading into the store to buy snacks.
The food and beverage giant reported earnings Thursday (July 9) revenues of $24.2 billion for the quarter, climbing 6.4% from the same period last year. However, this growth came from the company’s international business, with North American food volumes flat and beverage volume down 4%.
“In the U.S., we’re seeing the consumer changing behaviors, basically an acceleration of some of the behaviors we saw in the past,” CEO Ramon Laguarta said during an earnings call. “Probably some channels, more the impulse channels, have been impacted, where there is more of a correlation with the price of gas. Certain convenience stores … we’re seeing a slowdown of the conversion of traffic into purchases. We’re seeing that. Now, will it change in the coming months? It all depends on the price of gas, clearly that’s something that is beyond our control.”
“We need to see some improvement in the convenience and gas channel,” Steve Schmitt, the company’s chief financial officer, said later in the call. “Hopefully we’ll get some tailwinds from gas prices to do that. We’ll continue to push the productivity side.”
The earnings come as American consumers continue to find ways to stretch their budgets. As PYMNTS reported Thursday, that includes adopting the practice of cash stuffing, or dividing currency into envelopes labeled for things like groceries, rent or utilities.
It has become one of the more notable finance trends on social media, but it is actually one of the oldest methods of household budgeting.
“For decades, payday followed a familiar routine. Workers visited their bank to cash a paycheck, carried home paper currency and sorted it into envelopes reserved for the month’s expenses,” PYMNTS wrote. “Rent had its envelope. Groceries had another. Utility payments had another. When bills came due, consumers either returned to the bank for a money order, wrote checks from their accounts or paid companies directly. The envelopes served as a household ledger long before budgeting software existed.”
Research from PYMNTS Intelligence highlights how and why Generation Z is keen to follow in older generations’ footsteps on this front. Although this age group is commonly portrayed as rewriting the rules of commerce and banking, the research tells a different story.
“Strip away the smartphones and mobile apps, and Gen Z wants what previous generations wanted: to save money, build financial security, shop efficiently and maintain control over household finances,” the report added.
A sharp sector rotation has knocked down some of the market’s steadiest names, and Jim Cramer told CNBC viewers this week that the dislocations are exactly the kind of setup patient investors should welcome. On the July 6 episode of Mad Money, Cramer framed the pullback this way: “These rotations create dislocations that seem to come out of nowhere. And sometimes those dislocations can give you incredible opportunities to high quality companies at a discount that shouldn’t even exist. And it wouldn’t if it weren’t for the rotation.”
Cramer named three specific dip-buy candidates on the following night’s show.
Walmart: Fuel Fears Fade as the Stock Slides On the July 7 Mad Money, Cramer said “Walmart’s down nearly 18% from its recent highs. I think you’re getting an incredible buying opportunity here because the stock’s been getting pummeled right as Walmart’s biggest worries have started to fade away.” His thesis centers on gasoline: “Six weeks ago, everybody was terrified that Walmart and many other retailers would be laid to waste in a world where consumers had to spend fortunes at the pump. That world is gone, people.”
Walmart (NYSE:WMT | WMT Price Prediction) trades around $113.19, off 6.17% over the past month against a 52-week high of $135.16. The fundamentals came through in the Q1 FY27 report: revenue of $175.68 billion grew 6.1% year over year, global eCommerce jumped 26%, and Walmart Connect ad revenue rose 44% excluding VIZIO. Management reaffirmed full-year adjusted EPS guidance of $2.75 to $2.85 and authorized a fresh $30 billion buyback in February.
Johnson & Johnson: A Pure-Play Pharma Cramer Says Was Sold by Mistake Cramer’s July 6 pitch on Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ): “Johnson & Johnson is now a pure-play pharma business with no consumer exposure. It already spun off its over-the-counter business and it’s parting with Orthopedics. Even though they’re being taken down by mistake, that’s why I think you have to pounce.”
The stock rebounded 14.81% over the past month to around $266.13. Q1 2026 revenue rose 9.91% to $24.062 billion, marking a fourth straight EPS beat. Growth drivers include DARZALEX at $3.964 billion (up 22.5%), TREMFYA at $1.608 billion (up 68.3%), and MedTech Cardiovascular up 13.0%. Management raised full-year adjusted EPS guidance to $11.45 to $11.65 and pushed the quarterly dividend to $1.34, extending a 64-year streak of annual increases. Forward P/E sits at 23.
Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Walmart didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today.
PepsiCo: A 4% Yield Ahead of Thursday’s Report On the same July 6 show, Cramer said of PepsiCo (NASDAQ:PEP): “PepsiCo dropped nearly a buck, sinking to a level where it sports a dividend yield north of 4%. I think the rotation has given you a terrific place to start a position ahead of Thursday’s report.”
Well, earnings are now out, and PesiCo shares are down 3.3% to $137.73. After June’s quarterly bump to $1.48, PepsiCo’s 54th consecutive annual raise. For income-focused readers, our team has flagged similar setups in the 10 Dividend Kings to Buy Now and Hold Forever report.
A Selective, Stock-Specific Call Cramer has been cautious in other market pockets this summer, so these three ideas should be read as targeted, stock-specific dip-buying calls tied to a rotation. They are his opinions delivered on Mad Money and reported here for context, not endorsed as recommendations. Readers should weigh valuation, position sizing, and their own timelines before acting.
The Throughline The connective thread across Cramer’s three picks is defensive quality with rising cash returns: Walmart compounds retail dominance with high-margin advertising, Johnson & Johnson leans into a pharma pipeline, and PepsiCo defends a yield near 4% while international volumes accelerate. Whether the rotation is truly a gift will show up in the next earnings reports and in how quickly the market rewards fundamentals over sentiment.
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1:55pm: Micron goes on a run Micron Technology Inc (NASDAQ:MU) (Micron Technology Inc (NASDAQ:MU)) shares rose 7% on Thursday after the company announced plans to invest up to $3 billion to strengthen the U.S. semiconductor supply chain and support future manufacturing capacity.
The investment includes $500 million in strategic financing support for GlobalWafers to advance development of its GlobalWafers America 300mm raw silicon wafer manufacturing facility in Sherman, Texas.
The companies also plan to enter into a 10-year supply agreement that would provide Micron with access to additional raw silicon wafer capacity.
The news also lifted shares across the broader semiconductor sector, with Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ:AMD, XETRA:AMD) (Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ:AMD, XETRA:AMD), Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ:AMD, XETRA:AMD)) gaining 7%, Qualcomm Inc (NASDAQ:QCOM, XETRA:QCI) (Qualcomm Inc (NASDAQ:QCOM, XETRA:QCI), Qualcomm Inc (NASDAQ:QCOM, XETRA:QCI)) rising 4%, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (ADR) (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (ADR) (NYSE:TSM)) advancing 3%, Broadcom Inc (NASDAQ:AVGO, XETRA:1YD) (Broadcom Inc (NASDAQ:AVGO, XETRA:1YD), Broadcom Inc (NASDAQ:AVGO, XETRA:1YD)) up 2% and Applied Materials Inc (NASDAQ:AMAT, XETRA:AP2) (Applied Materials Inc (NASDAQ:AMAT, XETRA:AP2), Applied Materials Inc (NASDAQ:AMAT, XETRA:AP2)) climbing 6%.
12:30pm: Little drama Stocks are bouncing back from yesterday’s losses, though the recovery remains cautious, according to Chris Beauchamp, Chief Market Analyst at online trading and investing platform IG.
“While the attacks in the Middle East appeared to intensify overnight, there has been little dramatic rhetoric today, leading to hopes that any renewed conflict can be avoided," Beauchamp noted.
"But the weekend is not far off, and the US has shown a preference for strikes over a weekend, leading to some caution in markets despite a stronger open for the US."
11:05am: Oil upside may be limited US crude prices have climbed about 13% since last week’s lows, testing the $75-per-barrel level and its 200-day moving average, with the possibility of a move above $80 growing, according to Ipek Ozkardeskaya, Senior Analyst at Swissquote. Brent crude briefly traded above $80 per barrel, though both benchmarks eased slightly on Wednesday as markets continued to weigh geopolitical risks.
Ozkardeskaya said the immediate upside pressure on oil may be less severe than during the early stages of the conflict, as markets have become more accustomed to disruptions around the Strait of Hormuz and the initial shock has faded. Several vessels have also continued transiting the key shipping route, while Saudi Arabia has cut oil prices for Asian buyers to support demand.
She noted that the oil market has recently shifted quickly between supply shortages and surpluses, meaning a restoration of Hormuz traffic could quickly bring supply back into balance. China’s significant reserves and cautious approach to replenishment could also limit a sharp price spike.
However, Ozkardeskaya warned that prolonged tensions could create renewed supply concerns. A sustained disruption, attacks on Gulf energy infrastructure, or further depletion of global oil inventories could quickly eliminate the existing supply cushion and push prices significantly higher.
10am: Chipmakers help Nasdaq rally continue Chipmakers and other AI stocks have led Wall Street to a positive open, with another bout of rotation back into the semiconductor sector.
The Nasdaq rolled 0.7% higher in initial trades, with the S&P 500 up 0.4%. After an initial wobble in the red, the Dow edged 0.1% higher, held back by losses in heavyweight technology and consumer names including IBM, Salesforce and Microsoft, as well as consumer giants like Coca-Cola, Disney and Procter & Gamble.
On the Nasdaq and S&P, semis dominated the leaderboard, with Lam Research, Applied Materials and KLA all jumping more than 7%.
Micron buzzed up over 6% after plans mentioned below to invest up to $3 billion in the US semiconductor supply chain, while Arm, AMD, Marvell and Western Digital also posted strong gains as the AI infrastructure trade is in investors' good books again.
8.15am: Mixed session expected as oil volatile after Iran strikes continue US stock futures pointed to another mixed Wall Street session on Thursday, as investors weighed fresh developments in the Middle East against signs that chip stocks could extend their recent rally.
Dow Jones futures were down 0.1%, while S&P 500 futures rose 0.2% and Nasdaq 100 futures climbed 0.8%.
This comes a day after the Dow fell 577 points or 1.1%, the S&P declined or 0.3% to 7,483, while the Nasdaq gained 0.2% to finish at 25,871.
Asian and European markets traded mostly higher in the early hours, with London's FTSE an exception as it was hit by a large fall for AstraZeneca on the back of a failed drug trial.
Oil prices remained volatile, as more strikes and words were exchanged between the US and Iran.
WTI crude, which topped $75 a barrel on Wednesday, briefly dropped below $72 before recovering to around $74.
The latest moves came as the US said it had struck another 90 Iranian targets, taking the total to 170 over the past 48 hours, while Iran launched retaliatory attacks on US military sites in Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait.
President Trump was reported as saying Iran had been in touch with the US and "want to make a deal", although he questioned whether Tehran would honour any agreement.
The White House was reported by Axios to be preparing for the possibility of fighting around the Strait of Hormuz lasting days or even weeks.
Kathleen Brooks at XTB said markets were "normalizing to the latest flare up of tensions in the Middle East".
"Although the events of recent days are another sign that the path to a long-term peace will have many twists and turns, the market seems well placed to absorb the current tensions," Brooks added.
She noted that despite the angst about the Iran war, there was a rotation out of broader tech stocks and back into chip stocks.
"Ahead today, we could see a continued rally in chip stocks. SanDisk and Nvidia are pointing to further gains today, while the hyperscalers like Microsoft and Alphabet are declining in the pre-market, suggesting that the rotation within the AI trade continues," she said.
In economic data, initial jobless claims and existing home sales are scheduled.
Key Takeaways Qualcomm automotive revenues reached a record $1.33B in Q2 FY26, up 38% year over year.QCOM plans fifth-gen Snapdragon Digital Chassis shipments by FY26-end with major performance gains.Qualcomm expects automotive revenue growth to accelerate to about 50% year over year in Q3 FY26. Qualcomm Incorporated (QCOM - Free Report) is benefiting from strong traction in the automotive business. Automotive revenue reaches a record $1.33 billion in the second quarter of fiscal 2026, up 38% year over year. There are several factors driving this growth.
Growth is being fueled by its fourth-generation Snapdragon Digital Chassis, which integrates multiple vehicle technologies into one platform, including connectivity, telematics, digital cockpit and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). Qualcomm reported that more than 1 million vehicles are already operating using Snapdragon Ride processors for ADAS and autonomous driving. The company expects continued share gains in fiscal 2027, particularly in ADAS. It boasts a worldwide client base that includes leading automakers and technology companies like Volkswagen Group, Toyota, Hyundai Mobis, Leapmotor, Li Auto and several other OEMs.
By the end of fiscal 2026, Qualcomm plans to begin commercial shipments of its fifth-generation Snapdragon Digital Chassis. Compared to prior generations, the platform will offer 3x higher CPU performance, 3x higher GPU capability and 12x higher NPU performance.
Qualcomm’s automotive revenue exceeded an annualized run rate of $5 billion for the first time. It expects to exit fiscal 2026 at a run rate above $6 billion. Third quarter fiscal 2026 automotive revenue is expected to grow approximately 50% year over year, faster than the 38% growth reported in the second quarter.
How Are Competitors Faring?The company faces competition from NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA - Free Report) and Intel Corporation (INTC - Free Report) in this domain. NVIDIA continues to build a longer-duration growth option in automotive, robotics and other physical AI applications. In 2026, NVIDIA announced multiple automotive and mobility partnerships at the GTC 2026, with BYD, Geely, Isuzu, Nissan, Hyundai Motor Company and Kia adopting or expanding use of its DRIVE Hyperion platform to develop Level 4 and next-generation autonomous vehicles, alongside broader robotaxi ecosystem collaborations.
The acquisition of Mobileye has helped the company to rapidly penetrate the autonomous car technology market, currently dominated by the likes of NVIDIA and Qualcomm. With the buyout, Intel has gained access to Mobileye’s technologies related to cameras, in-car networking, sensor chips, roadway mapping, cloud software, machine learning and data management. This has increased its customer base and augmented its top-line growth.
QCOM’s Price Performance, Valuation and EstimatesQualcomm shares have gained 17.1% over the past year compared with the industry’s growth of 75%.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Going by the price/earnings ratio, the company's shares currently trade at 17.1 forward earnings, lower than 32.39 for the industry.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Earnings estimates for fiscal 2026 have remained unchanged, and those for 2027 have increased over the past 60 days.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Qualcomm stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Meta (NASDAQ: META | META Price Prediction) and Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) both reported Q1 2026 results that sharpened a debate about who actually earns money from the AI buildout. Meta turned $19.00 billion in quarterly capex into ad growth. Intel spent aggressively on foundry capacity while absorbing a $4.07 billion restructuring charge tied largely to Mobileye.
Ad Engines Hum at Meta. Foundry Losses Weigh on Intel. Meta’s family of apps, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Threads, reached 3.56 billion daily active people, with ad impressions up 19% and average price per ad up 12% year over year. Advertising revenue reached $55.02 billion, a direct payoff from AI-driven ranking and targeting. Reality Labs still lost $4.03 billion, a reminder that the hardware bet remains unfinished.
Intel’s story is scrappier. Data Center and AI revenue rose 22% to $5.05 billion, helped by Xeon 6 being selected as the host CPU for NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA)’s DGX Rubin NVL8 systems. Intel Foundry pulled in $5.42 billion but still bleeds cash. CEO Lip-Bu Tan called the quarter a “deliberate reset”, cautious language that fits the numbers.
Cash Generator vs. Capital Sponge Lens Meta Intel Q1 Free Cash Flow $12.39B positive -$3.87B Operating Margin 40.6% TTM 6.88% TTM Core Bet Own AI models, own ads, own cloud reuse 18A ramp and foundry customers Balance Sheet Prop Internal cash flow CHIPS Act, NVIDIA, SoftBank Meta funds its $125 to $145 billion 2026 capex plan out of pocket. Intel leans on partners and Washington, with US government equity, a $5.00 billion NVIDIA investment, and CHIPS Act disbursements keeping cash at $17.25 billion. That is survival financing.
The Next Test Is Who Gets Paid for AI Meta trades at roughly 22 times trailing earnings with a forward multiple near 19, cheap for a business growing revenue 33.08%. Intel’s stock has run 226.15% year to date to $120.35, well above the $98.50 analyst target price, on trailing EPS of -$0.60. I want to see actual 18A external customer wins before treating that rally as sustainable. Zuckerberg’s “personal superintelligence” pitch, meanwhile, is already showing up in ad pricing.
Why I Lean Meta Over Intel Right Now If you want cash-generative AI exposure, I lean toward Meta. The advertising flywheel monetizes every incremental GPU, and the balance sheet absorbs the capex without dilution or government scaffolding. If you are a turnaround investor comfortable with binary outcomes, Intel could still work, but at 158x forward earnings and negative free cash flow, you are paying a full price for hope. The signal to watch is concrete foundry customer commitments, which would help determine whether the rally reflects fundamentals or narrative.
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A year ago, Intel (INTC +2.52%) stock was basically left for dead by investors. Nobody wanted anything to do with it, as its chip business was struggling to hold market share against rising competitors. Additionally, its foundry business was struggling to find any new customers. However, after a series of investments by the U.S. government and Nvidia, Intel seems to have gained new life and is up an incredible 400% over the past year.
With that kind of rise in a short time frame, investors must analyze the stock to determine if this is just the beginning of something new or if Intel's stock is overvalued and has reached its peak. Let's take a look at what's going on with Intel and see if there is more room to run.
Image source: Getty Images.
Intel has a lot of future success priced in already While the chip business has its issues, it's not the division that investors are expecting a turnaround in. Instead, they want to see the foundry business do better, as the current AI build-out landscape should be the perfect backdrop for the foundry division to be booming, but it isn't. During Q1, its foundry business grew only 16% to $5.4 billion. For reference, the top company in this space, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, saw $35.9 billion in revenue, up 41% year over year.
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But Intel could be taking market share from Taiwan Semiconductor in one form. President Trump announced that Apple and Intel have formed a partnership for Intel to act as another foundry, which could give Intel some important new business. That's the kind of announcements investors love to see, but is it enough to justify the stock's current price tag?
The reality is that Intel has a ton of success priced into the stock. It trades for a jaw-dropping 100 times forward earnings right now.
INTC PE Ratio (Forward) data by YCharts
That's pricey for any stock, let alone one undergoing a turnaround. However, because of Intel's woes, its profits aren't optimized, which could account for a lot of its apparent overvaluation. If Intel can return to a profit margin level of about 20% (its average prior to the decline in its business after 2022), then it could produce around $10.8 billion in profits. That would still value the stock at a pricey 51.5 times hypothetical earnings, but it's still better than the 100 times forward earnings it's trading at today.
The reality is that Intel has a ton of turnaround growth priced into its stock. It will have to undergo a major transformation in the next few years to justify its price tag, and I think investors should just stick with Taiwan Semiconductor instead. It's a proven company that doesn't need a turnaround to show that it's back. Instead, it's reasonably priced, growing rapidly, and doesn't have nearly the execution risk that Intel has.
Keithen Drury has positions in Nvidia and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Apple, Intel, Nvidia, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Intel (INTC) and Advanced Micro Devices AMD shares are extending gains on July 9th after the latter’s chief technology officer (CTO) pointed to a huge central processing unit (CPU) renaissance ahead.
Speaking at the “RAISE” summit in Paris, Mark Papermaster explicitly said the tech industry has missed a massive structural pivot: agentic AI requires significantly more CPUs, not just GPUs.
While Street remains hyper-focused on GPU clusters for training LLMs, the commercialization of autonomous AI agents is shifting the infrastructure bottleneck in 2026.
Running complex execution agents demands immense processing power for system orchestration, dynamic data movement, and parallel task execution – all of which could boost demand for Intel and AMD products.
Note that both Intel and AMD stock are already trading at roughly 2.5x their price at the start of this year (2026).
AMD is better positioned to capitalize on the CPU resurgence because its entire architecture stack is already built for the orchestration‑heavy workloads agentic AI demands.
EPYC’s extreme core density, superior memory bandwidth, and chiplet‑based scalability give AMD a structural advantage in environments where thousands of autonomous agents must coordinate tasks, move data dynamically, and execute parallel decision loops.
Crucially, AMD’s tight integration between EPYC CPUs and Instinct accelerators – unified under ROCm – creates a coherent execution fabric that hyperscalers can deploy without fragmentation.
Papermaster’s comments weren’t theoretical; they directly map onto AMD’s roadmap, making the company the most architecturally aligned beneficiary of a CPU‑centric AI shift.
On the flip side, Intel is well-positioned to ride rising CPU demand, but its architecture isn’t the best fit for agentic AI's orchestration-heavy workloads.
Xeon 6’s chiplet design uses a dense mesh interconnect built to make separate dies behave like one unified chip – a philosophy optimized for consistency, not the distributed, modular scaling agentic workloads reward.
AMD’s Infinity Fabric takes the opposite approach, treating chiplets as independently scalable units better suited to thousands of coordinating agents.
INTC’s 18A node may narrow the gap, but remains execution-dependent and unproven at scale.
More critically, Intel lacks a unified CPU-GPU software ecosystem comparable to ROCm, leaving agent-level coordination more fragmented than AMD's tightly integrated stack.
Investors should also note that Wall Street currently favors AMD shares over Intel as well.
The consensus rating on Advanced Micro Devices Inc currently sits at “Overweight”, with price targets going as high as $700, indicating potential upside of a little under 30% from here.
In comparison, analysts rate Intel Corp at “Hold” only, with the mean price target of about $107 actually signaling potential for further decline through the second half of this year.
Choosing between Novartis AG (NVS 0.66%) and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries (TEVA 2.00%) requires weighing the stability of an established innovator against the potential of a generic specialist undergoing a significant turnaround.
Novartis is a powerhouse in the drug development world, prioritizing high-margin innovative treatments for complex diseases. In contrast, Teva is a leader in the generic market and is currently pivoting toward biosimilars and specific innovative drugs to rebuild its profitability and reduce its heavy debt load.
The case for Novartis AGNovartis is an innovative medicines company focused on researching and marketing prescription treatments for complex diseases. The business prioritizes key therapeutic areas such as oncology, neuroscience, and cardiovascular health across 118 countries. With a workforce of approximately 77,000 employees, it targets global health needs through high-value medicine development.
As one of the prominent pharmaceutical stocks, Novartis saw revenue reach nearly $56.7 billion in FY 2025. This represented a revenue growth rate of nearly 10% compared to the previous year. The company reported net income of nearly $14 billion.
As of its December 2025 balance sheet, the debt-to-equity ratio is approximately 0.8x. This ratio compares total debt to shareholder equity, helping investors understand how much a company relies on borrowed money. The company generated free cash flow of nearly $17.7 billion, the cash remaining after paying for operating costs and capital expenditures. The current ratio is about 1.1x, indicating the ability to cover short-term obligations with assets such as cash and inventory.
The case for Teva Pharmaceutical Teva Pharmaceutical Industries is a global leader in both generic and innovative medicines, operating across 57 different markets. The company maintains a concentrated customer base, relying on a small group of large wholesalers and retail chains for a significant portion of its sales. Customer concentration like this adds a layer of risk to the business, as these buyers possess substantial bargaining power.
In FY 2025, revenue reached nearly $17.3 billion, reflecting a revenue growth rate of approximately 4.9%. After several years of reporting net losses, the company achieved a net income of $1.4 billion for the year.
Based on its December 2025 balance sheet, the debt-to-equity ratio is roughly 2.2x. This indicates a higher level of debt relative to shareholders’ equity than many industry peers. The current ratio is about 2x. Free cash flow for the year was approximately $1.2 billion, providing the company with some liquidity to fund its ongoing operations and debt obligations.
Risk profile comparisonNovartis AG faces the constant challenge of patent expirations, which allow cheaper versions of its drugs to enter the market. The company must also navigate the inherent uncertainty of clinical trials, in which failing to demonstrate a drug's safety or efficacy can lead to significant financial losses. Additionally, competition from other large innovators like Roche Holding creates pressure to maintain a high pace of research and development.
Teva faces material pricing pressures from the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act, which could impact the pricing of its key innovative assets. The company also remains involved in ongoing legal and compliance matters, including antitrust actions and financial obligations arising from past opioid litigation. Furthermore, executing its strategy to divest its active pharmaceutical ingredient business while competing with rivals such as Viatris (VTRS 0.81%) creates significant operational complexity.
Valuation comparisonTeva Pharmaceutical Industries appears more attractive for value seekers due to its lower P/S ratio, while the higher Forward P/E of Novartis AG reflects its superior profitability.
MetricNovartis AGTeva Pharmaceutical IndustriesSector BenchmarkForward P/E17.6x17.0x389.1xP/S ratio5.3x2.9xSector benchmark uses the SPDR XLV sector ETF.
Valuation metrics sourced from Financial Modeling Prep (FMP) and may differ from other data providers.
Teva reported first-quarter 2026 results that bested expectations, with revenue of almost $4 billion and net income of $369 million. Teva has some very well-selling generics, including Ajovy, a treatment for migraines; Uzedy, a schizophrenia treatment; and Austedo, which treats Huntington’s disease. As a group, they grew more than 40% in local currencies in the first quarter of 2026. Still, Wall Street sees Teva’s sales declining to $16.6 billion in 2026, while net income is projected to grow to $1.54 billion. Teva has a strong drug pipeline — it has had its own generic GLP-1 approved, similar to Novo’s Saxenda, and soon that will be joined by olanzapine, which treats schizophrenia. Those and other drugs are expected to get Teva back to top-line growth for 2027.
Novartis saw its first-quarter volume rise 14% to $13.5 billion with net income of almost $3.2 billion. Generics are clipping growth a little, but Novartis has a strong development pipeline, led by remibrutinib, a treatment for certain autoimmune disorders that could launch in late 2026 or early 2027. Remibrutinib is expected to be a blockbuster, with lifetime sales of perhaps $4 billion.
Each business is on the right track, but Teva is more attractive for long-term investors given its better price-to-sales and forward P/E ratios.
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--American Express today hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for its new global headquarters at 2 World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan. To celebrate the milestone, American Express executives and colleagues were joined by Lisa Silverstein, CEO of Silverstein Properties; Zohran Kwame Mamdani, Mayor of New York City; Kathryn Garcia and Kevin O'Toole, Executive Director and Chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey; and Gary LaBarbera, President, Building and.
Jim Cramer stared down a stock yielding 7% and sitting near its 52-week low, and still would not tell viewers to buy it. On the July 7 episode of CNBC’s Mad Money, a caller from Orland Park, Illinois pitched Pfizer as an income-and-value setup, and Cramer conceded the case looked tempting. He landed on a reluctant pass anyway, telling the caller, “It kills me to say that a stock that yields 7% that used to have a lot of growth is going to have growth again, but I can’t come up with where the growth is. I just can’t. I’m sorry.”
The Caller and the Setup After a friendly exchange about Cramer’s 2:47 AM wake-up habit and a shout-out to a staffer named Sean, the Orland Park caller framed the question plainly: “I’m looking at a pharmaceutical company. You’ve had the CEO on your show several times over the past few years. Pays a high dividend. Down near the 52-week low. What do you think about Pfizer, Jim?” It is the kind of pitch that usually gets a warmer response from a host who has hosted CEO Albert Bourla repeatedly.
Cramer’s Reasoning on Pfizer Pfizer (NYSE:PFE | PFE Price Prediction) drew a diagnosis rather than an endorsement. Cramer told the caller, “Okay, they do have earnings growth problems. They haven’t been able to make the Seagen acquisition work the way it should. The dividend is safe at 7%.” The Seagen deal, closed in December 2023 for roughly $43 billion, was supposed to seed Pfizer’s post-COVID oncology franchise. Padcev, one of the assets that came over, did grow 39% operationally in Q1 2026, but that has not been enough to offset a 59% drop in Comirnaty and a 63% operational decline in Paxlovid.
The headline numbers still show a company that beats and guides steadily. Pfizer posted Q1 2026 revenue of $14.45 billion against a $13.80 billion estimate, adjusted EPS of $0.75 (a fifth consecutive beat), and reaffirmed FY2026 revenue guidance of $59.5 billion to $62.5 billion and adjusted EPS of $2.80 to $3.00, per the company’s 8-K filing. Net income of $2.687 billion was down 9.44% year over year, and operating income fell 31.44%. That is the growth gap Cramer is pointing at.
The Core Tension: Safe Yield, No Growth Cramer’s stance boils down to a simple test that a safe payout alone does not clear. Pfizer’s quarterly dividend of $0.43 was raised from $0.42 beginning with the January 2026 payment, extending a long streak of modest increases. FY2025 dividends paid totaled $9.8 billion, and management has signaled no buybacks in 2026 despite a $3.3 billion remaining authorization. Cash is going to the payout and to deals like the ~$7.0 billion Metsera acquisition in obesity/GLP-1 and a $1.35 billion charge to in-license a PD-1 x VEGF bispecific from 3SBio. Those bets could re-seed the pipeline. They have not yet moved the earnings needle in a way that satisfies Cramer.
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What the Market Says The market seems to agree, at least for now. Pfizer closed at $24.05 on July 8, down 6.13% over the past month and roughly flat year to date. The 52-week range runs from $21.97 to $28.28, and the trailing yield sits at 7.25%. Analyst consensus target is $29.00, with 16 Hold ratings dominating the board. Forward P/E of 8x tells you the market is pricing in the patent cliff around Eliquis and Vyndaqel, IRA Medicare Part D redesign pressure, and Most-Favored-Nation drug pricing risk.
For readers weighing this against other high-yield names, our ongoing Paycheck Portfolio coverage tracks how income investors are handling yield traps versus durable payers in 2026.
The Bottom Line Cramer’s take is Cramer’s take. Income investors who care most about a covered 7% payout may reasonably read the same facts and reach a different conclusion, especially with the stock sitting closer to the low end of its 52-week range. Growth investors hunting a catalyst will hear Cramer clearly. This is reporting on his opinion, and readers should treat it as such. Do your own research before acting.
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For today's Big 3, Dan Deming turns to three stocks he sees fitting the theme of a broadening market as investors rotate out of AI and offer strength for other sectors. He explains why he sees opportunities in UnitedHealth (UNH), Coca-Cola (KO), and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ).
REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA) today launched EA SPORTS™ College Football 27 worldwide on PlayStation®5, Xbox Series X|S and, for the first time ever, PC and mobile. Following the record-breaking return of the franchise, College Football 27 raises the bar once again, delivering the most authentic college football experience yet.College Football 27 is the definitive modern college football experience. Every major change happening in the sport — from NIL a.
SummarySentiment indicators in the energy sector are nearing a long-term buy signal but have not yet reached levels that triggered previous buying signals. Investors should wait for it before reentering.Recent put/call ratios for XLE, Chevron, and Exxon show investor pessimism is rising but not yet at contrarian bullish levels.The price of crude oil is bullish long-term because short positions by money managers remain elevated compared to historical norms.I maintain a constructive long-term outlook on energy, expecting a major uptrend once current market distortions subside. Torsten Asmus/iStock via Getty Images
Last December we recommended energy stocks long-term. The reason was detailed in this article (Both Crude Oil And Energy Stocks Are Headed Much Higher).
Then, on February 10, after the large, prewar rally in energy stocks, we reiterated our long-term view but warned against
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Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have no stock, option or similar derivative position in any of the companies mentioned, and no plans to initiate any such positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
Seeking Alpha's Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.
HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The board of directors of Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX) has declared a quarterly dividend of $1.27 per share on Phillips 66 common stock. The dividend is payable on Sept. 1, 2026, to shareholders of record as of the close of business on Aug. 18, 2026.
About Phillips 66
Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX) is a leading integrated downstream energy provider that manufactures, transports and markets products that drive the global economy. The company’s portfolio includes Midstream, Chemicals, Refining, Marketing and Specialties, and Renewable Fuels businesses. Headquartered in Houston, TX, Phillips 66 has employees around the globe who are committed to safely and reliably providing energy and improving lives while pursuing a lower-carbon future. For more information, visit phillips66.com or follow @Phillips66Co on LinkedIn.
Caterpillar (CAT) has become tied to the AI trade in recent months, with Jonathan Sakraida pointing out it has outperformed Nvidia (NVDA) and the overall tech sector in the last 12 months. He points to Caterpillar's ever-growing demand for AI data center construction as a reason key reason backing his bullish view on the stock.
Cruise stocks are staging a sharp rebound at midday Thursday. Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NYSE:NCLH | NCLH Price Prediction) is leading the group, up 8% to $20, while Carnival (NYSE:CCL) shares trade up 5% to $27 and Royal Caribbean Cruises (NYSE:RCL) shares are up 3% to $289.
The bounce follows a rough stretch for the group. NCLH stock had fallen 11% across five sessions, leaving the sector’s most-shorted name primed for a technical snapback. Carnival stock and Royal Caribbean stock also entered the session working off recent declines of 10% and 8%, respectively.
There isn’t one clean catalyst driving today’s move. It reads as an oversold bounce in beaten-down names, given a nudge by softer fuel prices and a couple of incremental analyst calls on NCLH.
Easing Oil and Analyst Nudges Spark the Bounce Fuel is one of the largest variable costs for cruise operators, and crude is cooperating. Per Yahoo Finance, WTI crude oil is down 2% over the past 24 hours to $72.05 a barrel, extending a broader retreat from the $99.76 peak on June 3. Lower fuel feeds directly into margin math for Norwegian, Carnival, and Royal Caribbean.
On the sell-side, Morgan Stanley raised its NCLH price target to $22 from $20 with an Equal Weight rating and said it expects Norwegian and Viking to post modest Q2 beats. BMO Capital Markets raised NCLH to Hold, a modest but notable shift after initiating the sector this week with Royal Caribbean as its top pick and a $370 target.
Norwegian Cruise Line also announced a management move earlier today, naming Lee D. Applbaum Chief Marketing Officer to strengthen premium branding. That’s incremental news, and not likely the main share-price driver.
The group is beaten down enough that trailing multiples look reasonable versus the broader market. Trailing P/E ratios stand at 16x for NCLH, 12x for Carnival, and 18x for Royal Caribbean. Royal Caribbean stock also carries a 1.77% dividend yield and screens with the strongest operating margin of the three.
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Bull and Bear Cases on Norwegian The bull case on NCLH stock rests on easing fuel costs, a reasonable multiple, today’s analyst target bumps, and a broader demand-recovery narrative. Insider action supports it too, with Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings CEO John Chidsey and board member Jonathan Z. Cohen making significant insider purchases on May 27.
The bear case is heavy, though. Norwegian carries $15.2 billion of total debt and net leverage of 5.3x. Moreover, the company’s management cut Norwegian’s full-year 2026 guidance to adjusted EPS of $1.45 to $1.79 with net yield down 3% to 5% in constant currency, citing Middle East disruption, higher fuel, and softer European summer demand.
Note that travel and leisure remain cyclical and volatile, particularly with University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment at 44.8 in May, well below the 80 neutral threshold. Today’s pop is largely technical, not a fundamental shift, so investors should consider keeping their position sizes modest given the volatility.
What to Watch The near-term test is whether NCLH stock stay near $20 into the close and whether Carnival and Royal Caribbean shares confirm the bounce with follow-through buying. Crude oil prices and any fresh commentary on European booking trends could set the tone into next week.
Carnival’s raised FY2026 outlook calling for adjusted EPS near $2.22 and adjusted EBITDA near $7.11 billion remains an operational anchor for the group. Investors can watch for whether Royal Caribbean’s July earnings update reinforces the sector’s demand story or exposes the softness that Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings flagged in May.
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KeyBanc Sees Limited Signs Of RecoveryKeyBanc analyst Jackson Ader downgraded Salesforce to Sector Weight from Overweight. The analyst said recent financial results and customer feedback do not point to a meaningful recovery.
Ader wrote that, aside from Salesforce’s valuation, there is little evidence to support the stock as an attractive buying opportunity, saying it is “difficult to find evidence” of meaningful future upside.
The analyst also said recent quarterly results have been disappointing. In addition, channel checks remain soft, while feedback from Agentforce customer events suggests the product still needs further development.
As a result, Ader said expectations for faster revenue growth, current remaining performance obligations (cRPO) and bookings appear difficult to support.
Salesforce Expands Defense BusinessThe downgrade came one day after Salesforce announced a new federal contract.
The company said the U.S. Air Force’s 441st Vehicle Support Chain Operations Squadron has adopted Salesforce Missionforce National Security to manage its $13.5 billion fleet of more than 84,000 vehicles.
Salesforce said the platform will modernize fleet management, streamline logistics and improve operational readiness, expanding the company’s presence in the defense sector.
The stock sits about 23% below its 200-day simple moving average and roughly 6% below its 50-day moving average. Although it is trading slightly above its 20-day moving average, that short-term strength has not changed the broader downtrend.
The relative strength index stands at 46.3, indicating neutral momentum. The reading suggests the stock is neither overbought nor oversold.
Traders are watching resistance near $187.50, while support is around $146.50, close to the stock’s 52-week low.
Salesforce Price ActionCRM Stock Price Activity: Salesforce shares were down 2.09% at $163.10 at the time of publication on Thursday, according to Benzinga Pro data.
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Jim Cramer used his July 9, 2026, CNBC Mad Dash segment to explain why Salesforce (NYSE:CRM | CRM Price Prediction) has been one of the most painful stocks to hold in enterprise software. The stock is down 36.79% year-to-date and 38.6% over the past year, and Cramer’s view is that cheap can still get cheaper when the growth engine stalls.
Why KeyBanc Turned Bearish on Salesforce Cramer built his segment around a call from KeyBanc analyst Jackson Ader, who downgraded Salesforce from Buy to Hold. KeyBanc downgraded the stock from “Overweight” to “Sector Weight,” citing soft customer feedback on Agentforce and a CIO survey that raised concerns about the company’s future business. Shares dipped 1.7% on the note.
As Cramer framed it: “This decline in software is being aided by Jackson going from difficult to find evidence of future upside… downgrading. He’s taking it from a Buy to a Hold.”
Agentforce Is Growing, But Investors Want More The tension is that Agentforce numbers still look large in absolute terms. Q1 FY27 Agentforce ARR reached $1.2 billion, up 205% year over year, with combined Agentforce and Data 360 ARR at nearly $3.4 billion and 3.8 billion Agentic Work Units delivered.
Agentforce ARR growth ran 330% in Q3 FY26, then 169% in Q4 FY26, then 205% in Q1 FY27. That is the “slowing adoption” Cramer described: “He sees slowing adoption in Agentforce, which is really… that was going to be the future.”
AI Budget Shifts Could Pressure Salesforce’s Business Model The second leg of the bear case is pricing. Cramer described a CIO conversation where budgets get redirected toward cheaper agent and analytics options: “The people who make the budget say, listen, let’s see if we can not spend as much money on a Salesforce, which they think is expensive, let’s see what we can come up with for Anthropic, say a dashboard versus a Tableau.”
The software sector is declining amid hardware weakness, with SanDisk and Micron cited as examples. Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) is down 8.07% over the past week even after posting Q3 FY2026 revenue of $41.46 billion, up 346% year over year. The AI infrastructure jitters are bleeding into the application layer, and Salesforce is the highest-profile casualty.
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Why Cramer Says Cheap Doesn’t Always Mean Buy Marc Benioff has responded by delivering capital returns. Salesforce funded a $25 billion accelerated share repurchase with 103 million shares delivered upfront, part of a $50 billion authorization, and management has anchored to an FY30 revenue target of $63 billion.
The trade-off is a balance sheet that now carries noncurrent debt of $39.3 billion, up from $10.4 billion, with total liabilities up 90.93% year over year. Jim Cramer’s read on the stock’s valuation was that there’s always a chance things can get worse before they get better: “The stock is cheap. But he’s just saying given the slower adoption it can get even cheaper.”
What to Watch Next Salesforce trades at a forward P/E near 12, well below the 200-day moving average of $211.54 and 52-week high of $271.70. Analysts’ consensus price target sits at $246.44 across 33 Buy and 6 Strong Buy ratings.
Bulls see a market leader trading at a historically inexpensive valuation, while bears argue slowing adoption and changing enterprise spending priorities justify lower multiples. The next Agentforce update could prove decisive, because if growth reaccelerates, today’s valuation may look compelling.
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Investors often flock to gold during economic uncertainty. Often, the best way to play the commodity is to buy a gold miner’s stock, but choosing between Agnico Eagle Mines (AEM +2.63%) and AngloGold Ashanti (AU +3.27%) requires looking past the shiny surface to the underlying operational data.
Agnico Eagle Mines focuses on low-risk jurisdictions and maintains a pristine balance sheet, whereas AngloGold Ashanti prioritizes global diversification and aggressive production growth across multiple continents. Both companies provide significant exposure to the gold market, yet they offer distinct risk and reward profiles for investors seeking to balance stability with growth potential in a changing economic landscape.
The case for Agnico Eagle MinesAgnico Eagle Mines is a prominent player among gold stocks, focusing on high-quality jurisdictions like Canada, Australia, Finland, and Mexico. It operates as a senior producer, focusing on low-risk regions to avoid the political and regulatory volatility often found in emerging markets. With over 18,000 employees and contractors, the company maintains a massive operational scale across its core mining and development projects.
In FY 2025, revenue reached $11.9 billion, representing growth of roughly 44% over the prior year. The company reported net income of approximately $4.5 billion for the period, more than double that of 2024.
As of its December 2025 balance sheet, the debt-to-equity ratio was 0.0x, indicating the company has no total debt relative to its shareholder equity. Free cash flow for the year was close to $4.4 billion, representing cash from operations minus capital expenditures, providing significant capital for reinvestment or shareholder returns.
The case for AngloGold AshantiAngloGold Ashanti operates with a more geographically diverse footprint, spanning ten countries across four continents. Its extensive portfolio includes operational mines and exploration projects across South America, Africa, and Australia. This global reach, supported by more than 38,000 employees, provides exposure to diverse geological environments and mineral deposits worldwide.
For FY 2025, the company generated revenue of approximately $9.7 billion, a substantial increase of more than 70% compared to the previous year. Net income for the fiscal year reached about $2.6 billion, compared to about $1 billion in 2024.
Based on the December 2025 balance sheet, the debt-to-equity ratio is approximately 0.3x, showing that total debt is about 30% of shareholder equity. Free cash flow reached nearly $2.9 billion after accounting for capital expenditures, supporting the company's ongoing development projects in Colombia and the United States.
Risk profile comparisonAgnico Eagle Mines faces risks associated with operating in highly regulated environments, which can lead to increased compliance costs and operational hurdles. Environmental regulations and potential permitting delays in Canada or Finland could affect production schedules or increase costs. The company also competes for high-quality assets against larger peers like Newmont Corp (NEM +1.81%).
AngloGold Ashanti is exposed to significant geopolitical risks due to its operations in developing economies and various international jurisdictions. Changes in local tax laws, labor strikes, or political instability in regions like the Democratic Republic of Congo or Ghana could disrupt cash flow or asset security. It competes globally for talent and resources with firms such as Barrick Mining Corp (B +2.87%).
Valuation comparisonWhile both companies trade at a discount to the broader market, AngloGold Ashanti is the more affordable option based on its Forward P/E and P/S ratio. The Forward P/E compares share price to future earnings estimates, while the P/S ratio measures price against revenue.
MetricAgnico Eagle MinesAngloGold AshantiSector BenchmarkForward P/E11.0x10x25.5xP/S ratio5.4x3.7xSector benchmark uses the SPDR XLB sector ETF.
Valuation metrics sourced from Financial Modeling Prep (FMP) and may differ from other data providers.
One of the great aspects of gold mining stocks is that they add significant value to their bottom lines when the metal rallies, as evidenced by the net income jumps in 2025 for both Agnico and AngloGold.
AngloGold Ashanti believes its Arthur Field in Nevada is a ‘holy grail’ for a miner: a Tier 1 discovery in a low-risk jurisdiction with long life and strong growth potential. The company has already found more than 4 million ounces at the mine and expects to find many more. But it takes time for a mine to produce. Right now, the strong price of gold will continue to benefit AngloGold’s existing operations, with Wall Street expecting $13 billion in revenue and $4.8 billion in net income in 2026.
Agnico Eagle Mines is also seen as benefiting from a strong gold price in 2026. Analysts expect $16.4 billion in sales and nearely $6.9 billion in net income. Similar to AngloGold, management sees a long-term path to boosting gold proictiuon 30%, thanks to additional mines it is developing in Canada.
So, how to choose between them: one way is to see which has the lower cost of production, which means profitability is more sustainable if gold’s price retreats. In that case, Agnico Eagle is the winner, with an all-in cost per ounce of around $1,090, while AngloGold is more than $1,600. While AEM is pricier on its P/S and forward P/E, that’s an advantage worth paying up for.
Partners With IMSA Labs On Cloud Innovation StudioOracle disclosed its partnership with the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) as the founding partner of IMSA Labs, launching the Oracle Cloud Innovation Studio.
This initiative aims to assist startups in developing solutions using Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, leveraging real-time data from live race operations.
The solutions developed through Oracle Cloud Innovation Studio target challenges such as high-volume data processing, real-time decision-making, edge computing and distributed systems.
ORCL Technical Outlook: Momentum Weak Below Key AveragesThe stock’s current price of $141.30 is significantly below its moving averages, with the 20-day simple moving average (SMA) at $163.34, indicating a 9.7% gap. The moving average convergence divergence (MACD) is currently below its signal line, suggesting that momentum is fading, which could signal a potential reversal unless the stock can reclaim that baseline.
Oracle Earnings Preview and Analyst Price TargetsOracle is slated to provide its next financial update on Sept. 8 (estimated).
EPS Estimate: $1.67 (Up from $1.47) Revenue Estimate: $19.12 billion (Up from $14.93 billion) Valuation: P/E of 24.1x (Indicates fair valuation) Analyst Consensus & Recent Actions: The stock carries a Buy rating with a consensus price target of $268.79. Recent analyst moves include:
Bernstein: Outperform (Raises target to $325 on June 11) RBC Capital: Sector Perform (Maintains target to $190 on June 11) TD Cowen: Buy (Maintains target to $300 on June 11) How Oracle Ranks On Value, Growth and MomentumBelow is the Benzinga Edge scorecard for Oracle, highlighting its strengths and weaknesses compared to the broader market:
Value: 20.51 — Trading at a steep premium relative to peers. Growth: 81.73 — Strong growth potential indicated. Momentum: 7.54 — Stock is underperforming the broader market. The Verdict: Oracle’s Benzinga Edge signal reveals a growth-heavy profile, but with weak momentum indicators suggesting potential challenges ahead. Investors may want to consider these factors as they evaluate Oracle’s future performance.
Top ETFs Holding Oracle Stock (ORCL)Significance: Because Oracle carries such a heavy weight in these funds, any significant inflows or outflows for these ETFs will likely force automatic buying or selling of the stock.
ORCL Stock Trades Higher As Markets RiseORCL Stock Price Activity: Oracle shares were up 3.46% at $145.38 at the time of publication on Thursday, according to Benzinga Pro data.
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This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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Block (XYZ - Free Report) could be a solid addition to your portfolio given its recent upgrade to a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong 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.
Since a changing earnings picture is a powerful factor influencing near-term stock price movements, the Zacks rating system is very useful for individual investors. They may find it difficult to make decisions based on rating upgrades by Wall Street analysts, as these are mostly driven by subjective factors that are hard to see and measure in real time.
Therefore, the Zacks rating upgrade for Block 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, and the near-term price movement of its stock are proven to be strongly correlated. 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.
For Block, rising earnings estimates and the consequent rating upgrade fundamentally mean an improvement in the company's underlying business. And investors' appreciation of this improving business trend should push 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 BlockThis mobile payments services provider is expected to earn $3.90 per share for the fiscal year ending December 2026, which represents no year-over-year change.
Analysts have been steadily raising their estimates for Block. Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the company has increased 14%.
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 Block to a Zacks Rank #1 positions it in the top 5% of the Zacks-covered stocks in terms of estimate revisions, implying that the stock might move higher in the near term.
Investors interested in stocks from the Banks - Major Regional sector have probably already heard of U.S. Bancorp (USB) and BNY (BNY). But which of these two stocks offers value investors a better bang for their buck right now?
Looking for a stock that has been consistently beating earnings estimates and might be well positioned to keep the streak alive in its next quarterly report? United Parcel Service (UPS - Free Report) , which belongs to the Zacks Transportation - Air Freight and Cargo industry, could be a great candidate to consider.
This package delivery service has an established record of topping earnings estimates, especially when looking at the previous two reports. The company boasts an average surprise for the past two quarters of 5.05%.
For the last reported quarter, UPS came out with earnings of $1.07 per share versus the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.04 per share, representing a surprise of 2.88%. For the previous quarter, the company was expected to post earnings of $2.22 per share and it actually produced earnings of $2.38 per share, delivering a surprise of 7.21%.
Price and EPS Surprise
Thanks in part to this history, there has been a favorable change in earnings estimates for UPS lately. In fact, the Zacks Earnings ESP (Expected Surprise Prediction) for the stock is positive, which is a great indicator of an earnings beat, particularly when combined with its solid Zacks Rank.
Our research shows that stocks with the combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) or better produce a positive surprise nearly 70% of the time. In other words, if you have 10 stocks with this combination, the number of stocks that beat the consensus estimate could be as high as seven.
The Zacks Earnings ESP compares the Most Accurate Estimate to the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the quarter; the Most Accurate Estimate is a version of the Zacks Consensus whose definition is related to change. The idea here is that analysts revising their estimates right before an earnings release have the latest information, which could potentially be more accurate than what they and others contributing to the consensus had predicted earlier.
UPS currently has an Earnings ESP of +0.22%, which suggests that analysts have recently become bullish on the company's earnings prospects. This positive Earnings ESP when combined with the stock's Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) indicates that another beat is possibly around the corner.
Investors should note, however, that a negative Earnings ESP reading is not indicative of an earnings miss, but a negative value does reduce the predictive power of this metric.
Many companies end up beating the consensus EPS estimate, but that may not be the sole basis for their stocks moving higher. On the other hand, some stocks may hold their ground even if they end up missing the consensus estimate.
Because of this, it's really important to check a company's Earnings ESP ahead of its quarterly release to increase the odds of success. Make sure to utilize our Earnings ESP Filter to uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they've reported.
Key Takeaways Globe Life posted 12% operating EPS growth, supported by premium growth and disciplined underwriting. Sales momentum accelerated with health sales up 58% and life sales rising across all distribution channels. GL returned $225 million to shareholders and expects excess cash flow of $650-$700 million in 2026. Shares of Globe Life Inc. (GL - Free Report) have gained 48.7% over the past year, outperforming the industry, sector and the Zacks S&P 500 composite over the same period. The stock closed at $177.07 on Wednesday, just 2.7% below its 52-week high of $182.32, reflecting investor confidence.
Strong earnings growth, premium expansion, higher investment income and aggressive share repurchases have driven the rally. Improving investor sentiment following the easing of short-seller allegations has further supported the stock.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
GL has outperformed its peers, Aflac Incorporated (AFL - Free Report) and Unum Group (UNM - Free Report) , whose shares have risen 19.2% and 10.7%, respectively, in the past year, while AMERISAFE, Inc. (AMSF - Free Report) has lost 18.7%.
GL’s ValuationDespite the rally, Globe Life shares are trading at a discount compared to the industry. Its forward price-to-earnings multiple of 10.96X is lower than the industry average of 13.66X, the Finance sector’s 16.51X and the Zacks S&P 500 Composite’s 21.14X. Also, it has a Value Score of A.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Shares of other insurers, such as Unum Group, are also trading at a discount, while Aflac and Amerisafe are trading at a higher multiple than the industry average.
GL’s Growth Projection EncouragesThe Zacks Consensus Estimate for Globe Life’s 2026 earnings per share (EPS) indicates a year-over-year increase of 7.7%. The consensus estimate for revenues is pegged at $6.40 billion, implying a year-over-year improvement of 6.3%.
The consensus estimate for 2027 EPS and revenues indicates an increase of 6.4% and 6.7%, respectively, from the corresponding 2026 estimates.
The company’s earnings have improved 16.1% in the past five years, better than the industry average of 0.6%.
Optimistic Analyst Sentiment on GLThe company has witnessed four upward earnings estimate revisions for 2026 over the past 60 days, against no movement in the opposite direction. For 2027, it has witnessed three upward revisions and no downward movement. Thus, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2026 and 2027 earnings moved 1.4% and 0.1% north, respectively, over the last 60 days.
GL’s Return on Invested CapitalThe return on invested capital in the trailing 12 months was 12.5%, better than the industry average of 6.6%. This reflects the company’s efficiency in utilizing funds to generate income.
Key Points to Note for Globe LifeGlobe Life continues to deliver strong earnings growth, supported by disciplined underwriting, healthy premium growth and prudent capital management. In the first quarter of 2026, operating EPS increased 12% year over year, marking the seventh quarter of double-digit operating EPS growth in the past eight quarters. The company also benefited from higher premiums across its Life Insurance and Health Insurance segments, providing a solid foundation for sustained earnings expansion. In the first quarter, total premiums grew 6% year over year to $1.3 billion.
Moreover, net investment income continues to be another important driver of the company’s top-line growth and has been improving over the last few years, benefiting from higher portfolio yields and disciplined investment management. The company expects investment income to continue growing in 2026, supported by elevated reinvestment yields and its conservative, high-quality investment portfolio.
Improved agent productivity, expanding distribution and growth at the American Income, Liberty National, United American and Family Heritage divisions are expected to support continued sales growth in 2026. These efforts have fueled strong sales momentum, with health sales surging 58% in the first quarter of 2026 and life sales increasing 6% across all distribution channels.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is emerging as an important long-term growth driver for Globe Life. The company expects AI to improve underwriting, claims processing, customer service, agent productivity, lower administrative expenses and drive long-term margin expansion, strengthening Globe Life's competitive position.
The company has maintained a strong liquidity position with sufficient cash-generation capabilities. For 2026, GL anticipates excess cash flow to increase to approximately $650-$700 million. Globe Life has targeted a consolidated Company Action Level RBC ratio of 300-320% for 2026.
A strong capital position enables Globe Life to enhance its shareholder value via share buybacks and dividend payouts. The company returned approximately $225 million to shareholders during the first quarter of 2026. The insurer has continuously increased its dividend over the past five years, witnessing a CAGR of 8.9%.
ConclusionGlobe Life’s higher life and health sales, improved investment income, premium growth, AI initiatives, strong liquidity position and effective capital deployment position the company well for long-term growth.
Coupled with the impressive dividend history, cheaper valuation, solid growth projections, and higher returns, as well as the optimistic analyst sentiment, the time appears right for potential investors to bet on this Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) insurer. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
