JHVEPhoto Warner Bros. Discovery ( WBD ) will report its results for the fourth quarter on Thursday, before market opens. Wall Street expects the company to post earnings per share of $0.04, on a revenue of $9.33 billion, representing a year-over-year decline of about 7%. Over the quarter, Warner Bros. moved through a sequence of takeover approaches that developed into a competitive bidding proces...
JHVEPhoto Warner Bros. Discovery ( WBD ) will report its results for the fourth quarter on Thursday, before market opens. Wall Street expects the company to post earnings per share of $0.04, on a revenue of $9.33 billion, representing a year-over-year decline of about 7%. Over the quarter, Warner Bros. moved through a sequence of takeover approaches that developed into a competitive bidding process. In October, the company was reported to have rejected an early takeover approach from Paramount while continuing to explore strategic options amid rising deal interest. As the quarter progressed, bidders prepared proposals, and discussions around a potential sale or separation gathered pace. November then saw the company receive first-round offers from Paramount, Comcast, and Netflix, with parties asked to submit improved bids. Reports indicated Netflix had put forward a leading offer for key assets, prompting Paramount to revise and sweeten its proposal, while competing bids and shareholder reactions continued through mid- to late December as the board weighed rival approaches and the process moved toward the new year. According to Alpha’s Quant Rating system, WBD is rated Hold with an overall score of 3.46 out of 5, reflecting grades of A+ in terms of profitability and momentum, but a D- in growth. Over the past three months, EPS estimates have seen one upward revision and no downward revisions, while revenue estimates have seen no upward revisions and five downward revisions. An analyst said Warner Bros. faces pivotal outcomes tied to its merger process involving Paramount and Netflix, noting, “the most likely outcome is still that either Paramount or Netflix closes this deal,” and adding, “the real stories with Warner now are the merger, the spinoff, streaming, and the movie slate.” More on Warner Bros. Discovery Warner Bros. Discovery: The New Offer Is Unlikely To Be The Last Warner Bros. Discovery Merger: How To Play The Three Scenarios Netflix And Warner Bros. Dis...
Samsung Electronics on Thursday launched its flagship Galaxy S26 smartphones with higher prices for some models in the United States and South Korea, testing demand as soaring memory chip costs pressure margins. The rollout, which integrates Perplexity's AI features along with Google's Gemini and an upgraded Bixby, follows Samsung's loss of smartphone leadership last year to Apple, which benefi...
Samsung Electronics on Thursday launched its flagship Galaxy S26 smartphones with higher prices for some models in the United States and South Korea, testing demand as soaring memory chip costs pressure margins. The rollout, which integrates Perplexity's AI features along with Google's Gemini and an upgraded Bixby, follows Samsung's loss of smartphone leadership last year to Apple, which benefited from strong iPhone demand in China and India. A global push by firms such as Meta, Google and Microsoft to build AI infrastructure has absorbed much of memory supply, lifting prices as chipmakers prioritise higher-margin data centre components such as high-bandwidth memory chips over consumer devices.
Anthropic's Tuesday event positioned its products as additive — rather than threatening — to existing software providers. Wall Street sees that helping some stocks in the space. The buzzy artificial intelligence startup announced updates to its Claude Cowork tool aimed at improving office workers' productivity. Companies can now connect Cowork to platforms such as Google Drive, Gmail and Docusign ...
Anthropic's Tuesday event positioned its products as additive — rather than threatening — to existing software providers. Wall Street sees that helping some stocks in the space. The buzzy artificial intelligence startup announced updates to its Claude Cowork tool aimed at improving office workers' productivity. Companies can now connect Cowork to platforms such as Google Drive, Gmail and Docusign under the enhancements. The undisruptive nature of Tuesday's announcement has allowed software stocks to regain some ground lost following prior rollouts. The iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (IGV) added nearly 2% in Tuesday's session following Monday's drop of more than 4%. Still, the fund has tumbled 24% in 2026. "Anthropic's announcement is evidence that domain expertise and data assets are crucial in building industry specific AI," Wells Fargo analyst Jason Haas wrote in a Wednesday note to clients. IGV 5D mountain IGV, 5-day chart Given that take, Haas listed Fair Isaac , Moody's , S & P Global , Verisk Analytics , Equifax and Thomson Reuters as companies that can benefit. That's because they offer sector-specific data sets that "are difficult, if not impossible, to replicate," the analyst said. "They operate in concentrated markets and are regarded as industry standards, with minimal displacement risk," Haas said. "We see AI as a tailwind that will drive more usage for their data and build differentiated capabilities." If anything, Tuesday's event showed Anthropic can't drive software companies to extinction because it relies on their products, according to RBC's Matthew Hedberg. Hedberg said traders should view Anthropic as "embracing" the software-as-a-service ecosystem. He pointed to CrowdStrike , Datadog , MongoDB , Cloudflare , Palo Alto Networks and Snowflake . "Ultimately, we believe the event highlighted Anthropic's need/willingness to partner with existing software companies, rather than a rip-and-replace scenario, which remains underappreciated by i...
Samsung Electronics Co. unveiled its Galaxy S26 lineup of smartphones, with an emphasis on artificial intelligence features and real-world privacy over major design changes. The new devices, announced Wednesday at an event in San Francisco, include the extra-large Galaxy S26 Ultra ($1,300), the Galaxy S26 Plus ($1,100) and the more standard-sized Galaxy S26 ($900) — with prices that put Samsung in...
Samsung Electronics Co. unveiled its Galaxy S26 lineup of smartphones, with an emphasis on artificial intelligence features and real-world privacy over major design changes. The new devices, announced Wednesday at an event in San Francisco, include the extra-large Galaxy S26 Ultra ($1,300), the Galaxy S26 Plus ($1,100) and the more standard-sized Galaxy S26 ($900) — with prices that put Samsung in direct competition with Apple Inc. ’s iPhone 17 line. While the Ultra costs the same as its predecessor, the Plus and S26 are both $100 more expensive than last year’s models, an increase that may partially be explained by the ongoing memory chip crunch . The South Korean company also announced two pairs of earbuds, the $249 Galaxy Buds 4 Pro and the $179 Galaxy Buds 4. All of the new Galaxy products are available for pre-order immediately and will arrive in stores March 11. With Samsung’s new handsets, design and camera upgrades mostly take a backseat to AI software additions. That’s a risky gambit when many consumers choose to hold off on trading in their phone until there’s a new model with meaningfully different hardware. It’s no coincidence, for example, that Apple’s record sales last quarter coincided with the release of the iPhone 17 series, which brought a fresh look and new color options. Still, with the new Galaxy S26 lineup, Samsung is making the case that it can persuade customers to upgrade without many significant exterior changes. Galaxy S26 Ultra There is at least one exception to that: The high-end Galaxy S26 Ultra introduces what Samsung calls a “Privacy Display.” When this mode is activated, the phone’s 6.9-inch screen becomes much harder to view from the side, above or below. The effect is similar to using a third-party screen protector, but Samsung has built the privacy measure directly into the Ultra by turning off the pixels that would normally make the device more visible off angle. The Privacy Display can be left on at all times if a user wants. Al...
Samsung Electronics unveiled its latest series of flagship smartphones on Wednesday, with two of the models costing $100 more than their predecessors as the industry tries to recover from a global shortage of memory chips. Samsung is touting improved AI and a privacy display in its new models against a backdrop of industry-wide memory chip shortages brought about by the rapid scaling of AI infrast...
Samsung Electronics unveiled its latest series of flagship smartphones on Wednesday, with two of the models costing $100 more than their predecessors as the industry tries to recover from a global shortage of memory chips. Samsung is touting improved AI and a privacy display in its new models against a backdrop of industry-wide memory chip shortages brought about by the rapid scaling of AI infrastructure. The average selling price of smartphones in 2026 was expected to rise 6.9% as a result of the memory crunch, Counterpoint Research said in a note in December. The starting price has stayed flat on the highest end model, the S26 Ultra, compared to last year's S25 series . The S26 and S26+ saw a $100 rise compared with their S25 predecessors: Galaxy S26: $899 Galaxy S26+: $1,099 Galaxy S26 Ultra: $1,299 Ben Wood, chief analyst at CSS Insight, told CNBC the chip shortage was "not a short-term issue." He added: "We expect the global shortage of memory chips to persist well into 2027, primarily driven by the rapid expansion of AI infrastructure, which is diverting supply away from smartphones, PCs, and other consumer electronics." Samsung S26 Ultra. New specs The S26 series is the third of "AI phones" by Samsung, following the S24 release two years ago. The company says the new models' processing chips are faster than those of previous generations. It added they use AI tools to help with things like photo editing and document scanning. Samsung's S26 series does take some "positive steps forward" in making AI features easier to use for consumers, said Wood. But, he added: "I fear that consumers will still question how much value it really offers at this juncture." Wood added the "stand-out feature" on the S26 Ultra is its privacy display, which controls how pixels disperse light, limiting what those viewing from side angles can see. The company says this feature is a world first. Samsung S26 Ultra. Memory crunch Memory prices in segments such as smartphones have doubled ...
Kirpal Kooner/iStock via Getty Images We live in an era of instant gratification, and that parlays into expectations for quick returns on growth stocks. That notion comes with fallacies, as the recent "SaaSpocalypse" plays out, with many once high-flying names now trading at lows on AI fears. At the same time, fairly valued stocks with hard assets have given downside protection and continue to chu...
Kirpal Kooner/iStock via Getty Images We live in an era of instant gratification, and that parlays into expectations for quick returns on growth stocks. That notion comes with fallacies, as the recent "SaaSpocalypse" plays out, with many once high-flying names now trading at lows on AI fears. At the same time, fairly valued stocks with hard assets have given downside protection and continue to churn out income. This brings me to Mid-America Apartment Communities ( MAA ), which I last covered back in November, highlighting its attractive valuation combined with record low tenant turnover and strong ROI from renovations. MAA has since produced a respectable 3.2% total return since my last piece. At the current price of $134, MAA remains bargain-priced near the bottom of its 52-week range with a 15x forward P/FFO and a 4.6% dividend yield, as shown below. MAA Stock 1-Yr Trend (Seeking Alpha) In this article, I revisit MAA, including recent business results , and discuss why it’s currently a sound bargain for income and value investors, so let’s get started! Why MAA? Mid-America Apartment Communities is an S&P 500 ( SPY ) company and a leading multifamily REIT. It owns, acquires, and develops apartment communities across high-growth Sunbelt and Mid-Atlantic markets. At present, MAA has nearly 300 apartment communities across 16 states and Washington, D.C., covering 105K units. Its top markets include vibrant cities like Dallas, Atlanta, Tampa, Charlotte, and Phoenix. These cities have favorable migration and job growth trends. MAA has been in existence for over 25 years, and this includes having weathered multiple economic downturns. In each of those cases, MAA’s SSNOI (same store NOI) has declined only modestly and less than the peer average, as shown below. This makes MAA " battle-tested" with the ability to generate relatively steady cash flows in good and bad times alike. Investor Presentation MAA’s Core FFO per share was flat YoY at $2.23 for Q4 2025, due to supply...
A popular ETF that tracks the Nasdaq-100 Index has posted a loss over the trailing 50 days — something the fund seldom has done, according to DataTrek Research.
A popular ETF that tracks the Nasdaq-100 Index has posted a loss over the trailing 50 days — something the fund seldom has done, according to DataTrek Research.
Gemini can now prep a rideshare or grocery order, though you’ll have to submit the order yourself. | Image: Google Google's Gemini AI is getting one step closer to being more like an actual assistant. Starting with some Pixel 10 phones and the Samsung Galaxy S26 series, Gemini will be able to hail an Uber or put together a DoorDash order on its own. It's called task automation, and it starts with ...
Gemini can now prep a rideshare or grocery order, though you’ll have to submit the order yourself. | Image: Google Google's Gemini AI is getting one step closer to being more like an actual assistant. Starting with some Pixel 10 phones and the Samsung Galaxy S26 series, Gemini will be able to hail an Uber or put together a DoorDash order on its own. It's called task automation, and it starts with a prompt to Gemini - something like "Get me an Uber to the Palace of Fine Arts." Gemini then launches the app in a virtual window on your device and goes through the process step-by-step. You can watch it all happen, with options to stop the automation or take control if necessary, or just let it run in the background while Gemini does its thing. The assistant … Read the full story at The Verge.
The S26 Plus (left) and S26 (right) are mostly software updates. There's a cool new hardware feature debuting at Samsung's annual Unpacked event - but you won't find it on the Galaxy S26 or S26 Plus. While the Ultra model gets a new Privacy Display and avoids a price hike, Samsung's base models are largely software updates that cost more than the outgoing models. Don't get me wrong, some of those ...
The S26 Plus (left) and S26 (right) are mostly software updates. There's a cool new hardware feature debuting at Samsung's annual Unpacked event - but you won't find it on the Galaxy S26 or S26 Plus. While the Ultra model gets a new Privacy Display and avoids a price hike, Samsung's base models are largely software updates that cost more than the outgoing models. Don't get me wrong, some of those software updates are pretty neat. You can apply Audio Eraser to third-party apps to make voices easier to hear and filter out background noise. Google's Gemini AI will start doing agentic things - like booking an Uber for you - which is a step toward fulfilling the promise of an assistant that actually assists. … Read the full story at The Verge.
It’s kind of a Galaxy S26 Plus Plus. Maybe it's a reflection of just how slow hardware innovation has been, but the Galaxy S26 Ultra's new Privacy Display, which limits the screen's viewing angle to keep any would-be peepers away, left me totally impressed. It's not a brand-new technology - we've seen it before in laptops - and it was leaked thoroughly before Samsung's announcement. But seeing it ...
It’s kind of a Galaxy S26 Plus Plus. Maybe it's a reflection of just how slow hardware innovation has been, but the Galaxy S26 Ultra's new Privacy Display, which limits the screen's viewing angle to keep any would-be peepers away, left me totally impressed. It's not a brand-new technology - we've seen it before in laptops - and it was leaked thoroughly before Samsung's announcement. But seeing it work on the S26 Ultra for the first time was cooler than I expected, especially given that hardware thrills are hard to get these days. It's not just one of those special screen protectors; you can turn it on or off. There are two sets of pixels in the display: one that projects the … Read the full story at The Verge.