Anthropic and the Pentagon are clashing over AI use in autonomous weapons and surveillance, raising high-stakes questions about national security, corporate control, and who sets the rules for military AI.
Anthropic and the Pentagon are clashing over AI use in autonomous weapons and surveillance, raising high-stakes questions about national security, corporate control, and who sets the rules for military AI.
One Punch/iStock via Getty Images I won’t look a gift horse in the mouth, and PRA Group’s ( PRAA ) better-than-expected fourth-quarter results were certainly welcome after another bout of meaningful weakness in the share price. Double-digit growth in revenue and cash collections were both positive, as was a year-over-year improvement in cash efficiency, but significant performance gaps remain, and...
One Punch/iStock via Getty Images I won’t look a gift horse in the mouth, and PRA Group’s ( PRAA ) better-than-expected fourth-quarter results were certainly welcome after another bout of meaningful weakness in the share price. Double-digit growth in revenue and cash collections were both positive, as was a year-over-year improvement in cash efficiency, but significant performance gaps remain, and management must find ways to improve key yield metrics to drive a sustained recovery in the share price. As of Friday morning, PRA Group shares are down about 7% since my last update, with a major post-earnings move helping counter a steep decline in late January. Rival Encore Capital ( ECPG ) has done considerably better over that period, and the discrepancy between these two companies across multiple metrics remains stark. The bull argument for PRA Group remains that there is a pool of assets here that can be managed better and generate substantially higher financial returns, and when those improvements come through, they should drive a substantial rerating. The main bearish counterpoint remains the fact that it really is not a “when” and is very much an “if”—there are no guarantees that the new CEO and the latest operational restructuring will meaningfully close what has been a growing operational gap with Encore over several years. A Stronger Fourth Quarter Helps The Turnaround Thesis I’ll go into the drivers of PRA Group’s current predicament a little later, but suffice it for now to say that the issues here cannot and will not be fixed in a matter of quarters. Even so, good results are good results, and fourth-quarter performance should improve sentiment and confidence around the near-term trajectory of the business. Revenue rose about 15% this quarter, beating expectations by about 13%. Portfolio income (the more reliable revenue driver and the one more tied to core operating performance) rose more than 14%, while expected recoveries rose 16%, helped by 14% growth i...
Trump Media & Technology Group, founded by U.S. President Donald Trump, is considering spinning off its social media platform Truth Social into a publicly traded company. TMTG is in discussions with TAE Technologies and Texas Ventures Acquisition III about the proposed transaction, the company said on Friday. Under the proposal, shares in the spun-off company will be distributed to eligible TMT...
Trump Media & Technology Group, founded by U.S. President Donald Trump, is considering spinning off its social media platform Truth Social into a publicly traded company. TMTG is in discussions with TAE Technologies and Texas Ventures Acquisition III about the proposed transaction, the company said on Friday. Under the proposal, shares in the spun-off company will be distributed to eligible TMTG shareholders, after which the new entity will merge with a special purpose acquisition company.
Earnings Call Insights: Delek Logistics Partners, LP (DKL) Q4 2025 Management View Avigal Soreq, President and CEO, highlighted a record adjusted EBITDA of $536 million for 2025 and emphasized strong execution across natural gas, crude, and water businesses. Soreq noted, "We continued to advance our key initiatives across our natural gas, crude and water businesses, increasing our position as a pr...
Earnings Call Insights: Delek Logistics Partners, LP (DKL) Q4 2025 Management View Avigal Soreq, President and CEO, highlighted a record adjusted EBITDA of $536 million for 2025 and emphasized strong execution across natural gas, crude, and water businesses. Soreq noted, "We continued to advance our key initiatives across our natural gas, crude and water businesses, increasing our position as a premier full service provider in the Permian Basin." Soreq discussed the successful commissioning of the Libby 2 processing plant, increasing capacity to around 160 million scf per day, and the expansion of acid gas injection and sour gas handling solutions. He stated, "We are very excited about providing this comprehensive capability to our customers, further supporting long-term oil and gas production growth in the Delaware Basin." The integration of H2O and Gravity was described as largely complete, with the combined offering strengthening DKL's competitive position. Soreq announced 2026 EBITDA guidance of $520 million to $560 million and the 52nd consecutive quarterly distribution increase to $1.125 per unit. Reuven Spiegel, EVP of Special Projects, noted, "In 2026, we expect approximately 80% of our run rate EBITDA will come from third parties. This is an extraordinary achievement for the partnership and its increased independence will allow us to be more nimble." Spiegel addressed the ramp-up of the sour gas solution, stating, "While our ramp-up has been slower versus our initial expectations, the need for sour gas solution is urgent, and we expect to see a step change in our utilization once our AGI and sour gas gathering infrastructure is fully complete." Robert Wright, EVP and Deputy CFO, stated, "We ended 2025 in a strong financial position with approximately $940 million available liquidity under our credit facilities." Outlook Management provided a 2026 EBITDA guidance range of $520 million to $560 million, reflecting anticipated growth opportunities while managin...
Shares of Donaldson Company (NYSE: DCI) were up nearly 24% this year through mid-February. Investor sentiment waned as earnings approached, and the stock dropped 18.2% at its lowest point this week, soon after its earnings were released on the morning of Feb. 26. Donaldson delivered record numbers for its second quarter of fiscal 2026, but they fell short of analysts' estimates. Even projections o...
Shares of Donaldson Company (NYSE: DCI) were up nearly 24% this year through mid-February. Investor sentiment waned as earnings approached, and the stock dropped 18.2% at its lowest point this week, soon after its earnings were released on the morning of Feb. 26. Donaldson delivered record numbers for its second quarter of fiscal 2026, but they fell short of analysts' estimates. Even projections of a record year ahead couldn't save the stock price from falling. Here's why. Image source: Getty Images. Continue reading
Bloomberg's Bailey Lipschultz joins Matt Miller and Emily Graffeo on "Bloomberg Real Yield" to discuss CoreWeave, which is looking to raise about $8.5 billion to help finance a buildout of cloud computing capacity for Meta. (Source: Bloomberg)
Bloomberg's Bailey Lipschultz joins Matt Miller and Emily Graffeo on "Bloomberg Real Yield" to discuss CoreWeave, which is looking to raise about $8.5 billion to help finance a buildout of cloud computing capacity for Meta. (Source: Bloomberg)
The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), which is part of the Department of Homeland Security, is getting a new acting director, as reported by ABC , less than a year after Madhu Gottumukkala took charge of the agency as deputy director and acting director in May 2025. CISA's executive assistant director for cybersecurity, Nick Andersen, will become the agency's new acting d...
The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), which is part of the Department of Homeland Security, is getting a new acting director, as reported by ABC , less than a year after Madhu Gottumukkala took charge of the agency as deputy director and acting director in May 2025. CISA's executive assistant director for cybersecurity, Nick Andersen, will become the agency's new acting director while Gottumkkala will now be serving as director of strategic implementation at DHS. The leadership change comes just a month after reports that Gottumkkala uploaded sensitive documents to ChatGPT . Gottumkkala had requested special permiss … Read the full story at The Verge.
Editor's note: Seeking Alpha is proud to welcome Muhammad Ibrahim Ihsan as a new contributing analyst. You can become one too! Share your best investment idea by submitting your article for review to our editors. Get published, earn money, and unlock exclusive SA Premium access. Click here to find out more » Hispanolistic/E+ via Getty Images Introduction Consumer staples have started the year with...
Editor's note: Seeking Alpha is proud to welcome Muhammad Ibrahim Ihsan as a new contributing analyst. You can become one too! Share your best investment idea by submitting your article for review to our editors. Get published, earn money, and unlock exclusive SA Premium access. Click here to find out more » Hispanolistic/E+ via Getty Images Introduction Consumer staples have started the year with low expectations. After a difficult 2024 and 2025 due to weak consumer confidence, elevated food inflation, and high interest rates, investors seemed to have largely given up on the sector as they saw the average consumer struggle. These reasons led to underperformance, which ultimately led to consistent guidance and estimate cuts and multiple compression. Management teams and analysts are tired of continuously reducing estimates and have set the bar very low. The setup now looks asymmetric—sector estimates and valuations imply continued stress for consumers, meaning we don’t need a massive recovery for stocks in the sector to perform well; we just need conditions to stop getting worse. Background The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index ended the year in the low 60s, well below its long-term average near 80 and even below levels seen during the Global Financial Crisis. When sentiment is that depressed, expectations tend to skew heavily to the downside. This implies limited downside if things stay soft but meaningful upside if conditions stop getting worse / improve at the margin. Survey of Consumers, University of Michigan. After two years of cutting guidance and watching estimates move lower, expectations for 2026 are now extremely modest. According to Goldman Sachs (Consumer Staples 2026 Outlook published in January), staples earnings estimates were cut by roughly 5% over the course of 2025, driven by volume softness and elevated promotional activity. Management teams have responded by resetting the bar, aiming to avoid further guide-downs. The chart below sh...
Small modular reactor (SMR) stocks have soared in value in recent years. Since the start of 2024, for example, NuScale Power (NYSE: SMR) has surged in value by more than 400%. Competitor Oklo Inc (NYSE: OKLO) has seen its stock price rise by nearly 600% over the same time period. At one point in 2025, however, both stocks were up more than 1,000% since the start of 2024. Why the big pullback? The ...
Small modular reactor (SMR) stocks have soared in value in recent years. Since the start of 2024, for example, NuScale Power (NYSE: SMR) has surged in value by more than 400%. Competitor Oklo Inc (NYSE: OKLO) has seen its stock price rise by nearly 600% over the same time period. At one point in 2025, however, both stocks were up more than 1,000% since the start of 2024. Why the big pullback? The viability of each company's nuclear technology still seems like a reasonable bet to me over the long term. But right now, the market seems focused on each company's ability to execute its sales pipelines. Moving the technology from design to regulatory approval is hard enough. Now, SMR firms like Oklo and NuScale are being forced to validate their sales and execution strategy. As we'll see, there are some legitimate reasons to be worried about these efforts in 2026. Continue reading