Earnings Call Insights: Assured Guaranty Ltd. (AGO) Q1 2026 Management View “Assured Guaranty began 2026 with a strong first quarter,” said Deputy Chairman, President & CEO Dominic Frederico, highlighting adjusted operating income per share of $2.50 and “$73 million of PVP, almost twice the PVP of last year's first quarter.” Frederico emphasized growth and diversification initiatives, saying the c...
Earnings Call Insights: Assured Guaranty Ltd. (AGO) Q1 2026 Management View “Assured Guaranty began 2026 with a strong first quarter,” said Deputy Chairman, President & CEO Dominic Frederico, highlighting adjusted operating income per share of $2.50 and “$73 million of PVP, almost twice the PVP of last year's first quarter.” Frederico emphasized growth and diversification initiatives, saying the company is “focused on building out our new annuity reinsurance business and managing our capital prudently and profitably to support the growth in these businesses while protecting our policyholders and rewarding our shareholders.” Chief Operating Officer Robert Bailenson reported U.S. municipal momentum and market position, stating, “Assured Guaranty, continues to guarantee the majority of insured municipal par issued at 53%,” and that the company “insured $4 billion of par in the primary and secondary markets on a close date basis.” Bailenson pointed to secondary-market activity and transaction cadence, saying, “In the secondary market, during the first quarter of 2026, we issued 227 policies compared to 144 policies in the first quarter of last year,” and highlighted structured finance’s faster earnings profile: “we earn the premiums much more rapidly and can recycle the capital more quickly, often within 1 to 2 years.” Chief Financial Officer Benjamin Rosenblum said, “I am pleased to report first quarter 2026 adjusted operating income of $115 million or $2.50 per share,” and cited two one-time items: “a $21 million after-tax benefit” from carried interest and “a $33 million onetime tax benefit” tied to U.K. Pillar Two legislation. Outlook Rosenblum linked near-term capital deployment to growth priorities: “we have decided to reduce our share repurchases over the next 3 months to a target of $30 million in order to use a portion of available capital to support our growth opportunities in our financial guaranty insurance and our new annuity reinsurance businesses in addit...
Guido Mieth/DigitalVision via Getty Images Hercules Capital, Inc. ( HTGC ) suffered a major sell-off in the first quarter as investors were shaken by AI disruption fears and the potential impairment of software-focused investment loans. All this drama, however, proved completely unwarranted as Hercules Capital delivered solid earnings results for its first quarter this week: the BDC generated reco...
Guido Mieth/DigitalVision via Getty Images Hercules Capital, Inc. ( HTGC ) suffered a major sell-off in the first quarter as investors were shaken by AI disruption fears and the potential impairment of software-focused investment loans. All this drama, however, proved completely unwarranted as Hercules Capital delivered solid earnings results for its first quarter this week: the BDC generated record total investment income, stable credit quality, and benefited from heavy origination momentum, lifting the portfolio value to close to $5.0B. Shares of Hercules Capital continue to trade below its historical P/NAV ratio amid lingering concerns about SaaS loan performance. I don't see a deterioration of Hercules Capital's financials at all and continue to recommend the private credit platform as a 'Strong Buy' for investors seeking predictable income and capital appreciation potential. Data by YCharts Previous Rating I rated shares of Hercules Capital a 'Strong Buy' in my last coverage in February -- 3 Reasons Why The Market Is Wrong -- due to what I believed was an irrational response on the part of investors relating to the company’s SaaS focus. Hercules Capital has exceptional balance sheet quality -- which was confirmed for the first fiscal quarter -- and supported its dividend fully with net investment income in Q1 '26. Maybe most importantly, Hercules Capital grew its portfolio through new originations, highlighting a healthy origination trend, and grew both its net investment income and total investment income at double-digit rates year-over-year. Strong BDC Value In A SaaS-Obsessed Market SaaS fears, which for the most part are related to the enterprise-wide rollout of AI-powered products and services, have been a defining theme for BDCs in 2026, including for Hercules Capital. HTGC is focused on the origination of loans that are made especially to the software technology sector, leading to the private credit platform having one of the highest SaaS percentages in ...
Thomas Shaknovsky botched the surgery of William Bryan, 70, who died on the operating table A Florida surgeon who is facing criminal charges after allegedly removing a patient’s liver instead of his spleen has said he is “forever traumatized” by that person’s death. In a deposition from November that was recently obtained by NBC , 44-year-old Thomas Shaknovsky described the death of 70-year-old Wi...
Thomas Shaknovsky botched the surgery of William Bryan, 70, who died on the operating table A Florida surgeon who is facing criminal charges after allegedly removing a patient’s liver instead of his spleen has said he is “forever traumatized” by that person’s death. In a deposition from November that was recently obtained by NBC , 44-year-old Thomas Shaknovsky described the death of 70-year-old William Bryan as an “incredibly unfortunate event that I regret deeply”. Continue reading...
mustafaU/iStock via Getty Images The last time I spoke about Artiva Biotherapeutics ( ARTV ) it was with a Seeking Alpha article entitled " Artiva: Natural Killer Cell Biotech With First Half Of 2025 Lupus Treatment Data ." With respect to this article, I mentioned that this company had completed its initial public offering [IPO] to raise approximately $167 million. The premise of this company was...
mustafaU/iStock via Getty Images The last time I spoke about Artiva Biotherapeutics ( ARTV ) it was with a Seeking Alpha article entitled " Artiva: Natural Killer Cell Biotech With First Half Of 2025 Lupus Treatment Data ." With respect to this article, I mentioned that this company had completed its initial public offering [IPO] to raise approximately $167 million. The premise of this company was that it was using its allogeneic, off-the-shelf, non-genetically modified, cryopreserved natural killer [NK] cell therapy AlloNK [also known as AB-101] for the treatment of patients with B-cell-mediated autoimmune disorders. However, it is key to note that this company didn't just develop this NK cell therapy to work alone in being able to treat these refractory autoimmune disorder patients. It instead wanted to test the combination of AlloNK in combination with either rituximab or obinutuzumab to treat them. The reason why is because the goal of AlloNK is to enhance the antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity [ADCC] that is achieved with anti-CD20 monoclonal antibodies like rituximab and obinutuzumab. With that said, the company released data showcasing that all 23 patients had achieved reduced peripheral CD19+ B-cells. More about this below, but the point is that this allowed the company to then want to zero in on its focus to specifically go after refractory [3rd-line] rheumatoid arthritis [RA] patients. Data from a phase 2a basket trial focused on these patients and noted that 21 patients benefited from treatment of AlloNK with rituximab. Even better, a certain group of patients with 6 months of follow-up had an ACR50 response. This specific efficacy endpoint is important because of two major reasons. The first is that Artiva Biotherapeutics came into alignment with the FDA that a single registrational randomized phase 3 study could be used to obtain marketing approval of AlloNK with rituximab to treat these refractory RA patients. Secondly, it was noted that thi...
Dario Amodei is not the kind of CEO who talks loosely about numbers. The Anthropic co-founder and chief executive, a former VP of research at OpenAI with a PhD in computational neuroscience from Princeton, has built a reputation for measured public statements — particularly around the financial performance of a company that, until recently, disclosed almost nothing about its business. So when Amod...
Dario Amodei is not the kind of CEO who talks loosely about numbers. The Anthropic co-founder and chief executive, a former VP of research at OpenAI with a PhD in computational neuroscience from Princeton, has built a reputation for measured public statements — particularly around the financial performance of a company that, until recently, disclosed almost nothing about its business. So when Amodei took the stage at Anthropic's Code with Claude developer conference on Wednesday and offered a genuinely striking piece of financial candor, the room paid attention. "We tried to plan very well for a world of 10x growth per year," Amodei said during a fireside chat with Anthropic's chief product officer, Ami Vora. "And yet we saw 80x. And so that is the reason we have had difficulties with compute." Anthropic had planned for tenfold growth. But revenue and usage increased 80-fold in the first quarter on an annualized basis, a rate Amodei described as "just crazy" and "too hard to handle." The number demands context. Annualized growth rates can overstate sustained performance — a single strong quarter, extrapolated across a full year, can paint a picture that doesn't hold. Amodei knows this. But the underlying trajectory is not a mirage. Anthropic has crossed a $30 billion annualized revenue run rate , up sharply from roughly $9 billion at the end of 2025, and that growth is being driven largely by enterprise demand. The company's revenue trajectory has been relentless: $87 million run rate in January 2024 , $1 billion by December 2024, $9 billion by end of 2025 , $14 billion in February 2026, $19 billion in March, and $30 billion in April. For context: Salesforce took about 20 years to reach $30 billion in annual revenue. Anthropic did it in under three years from a standing start. Claude Code became the fastest-growing product in enterprise software history The growth story at Anthropic is, to a remarkable degree, a single-product story. Claude Code , the company's agen...
Gold broke above an important short-term technical level on Friday — a sign that the precious metal may be starting to regain momentum after a sluggish stretch since the start of the Iran conflict.
Gold broke above an important short-term technical level on Friday — a sign that the precious metal may be starting to regain momentum after a sluggish stretch since the start of the Iran conflict.
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., May 08, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Meritage Hospitality Group Inc. (OTCQX: MHGU), one of the nation’s premier franchise operators, today reported financial results for the first quarter ending March 29, 2026.
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., May 08, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Meritage Hospitality Group Inc. (OTCQX: MHGU), one of the nation’s premier franchise operators, today reported financial results for the first quarter ending March 29, 2026.
So far this year, the energy sector has been the stock market's best-performing sector, and it hasn't been close. While investors greatly appreciate the recent gains, long-term returns ultimately matter more. If you're looking for an energy stock you can hold for the next decade, look no further than oil and gas giant Chevron (NYSE: CVX) . Image source: The Motley Fool. Continue reading
So far this year, the energy sector has been the stock market's best-performing sector, and it hasn't been close. While investors greatly appreciate the recent gains, long-term returns ultimately matter more. If you're looking for an energy stock you can hold for the next decade, look no further than oil and gas giant Chevron (NYSE: CVX) . Image source: The Motley Fool. Continue reading