Devrimb/iStock via Getty Images Ahead of the release of February’s job data, skepticism about the Bureau of Labor Statistics will rise. In January, the BLS posted a 130,000 increase in employment. The unemployment rate of 4.3% was little changed. In contrast, layoffs.fyi reported a 24,818 job loss that same month. How do readers reconcile the discrepancy between the high-level job gains from the B...
Devrimb/iStock via Getty Images Ahead of the release of February’s job data, skepticism about the Bureau of Labor Statistics will rise. In January, the BLS posted a 130,000 increase in employment. The unemployment rate of 4.3% was little changed. In contrast, layoffs.fyi reported a 24,818 job loss that same month. How do readers reconcile the discrepancy between the high-level job gains from the BLS and the latter? Tech Layoff News Accelerated In January, the economy added 82,000 jobs in health care. Ambulatory health care services (+50,000), hospitals (+18,000), and nursing and residential care facilities (+13,000) accounted for nearly 65% of the job growth. That differs from the technology sector. Amid the epicenter of the AI boom, tech firms aggressively sought efficiency gains. They cut more staff in January at levels not seen since April 2025: layoffs.fyi After markets closed on Thursday, Block ( XYZ ) cut an astounding 40% of its staff . Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey claimed that "we're already seeing that the intelligence tools we’re creating and using, paired with smaller and flatter teams, are enabling a new way of working that fundamentally changes what it means to build and run a company. And that's accelerating rapidly." The cut will cost Block 20 weeks of salary per person, plus $5,000. At 4,000 jobs, that is, fortunately, a generous payout for staff. Unfortunately for XYZ shareholders, executives did not give any details on how AI achieved the claimed efficiencies. Fintech and credit card payment stocks are in a bear market. Mastercard ( MA ) and Visa ( V ), which are both attractive investments, trade at a 52-week low. Conversely, investors do not like SoFi ( SOFI ) spending to acquire more customers. Rumors that Stripe would buy PayPal ( PYPL ) fell through. Seeking Alpha Bank stocks did not fare well in the last week. Wells Fargo ( WFC ) fell by around 9%, while Citigroup ( C ) and Bank of America ( BAC ) also traded lower. Their declines sugg...
Sundry Photography/iStock Editorial via Getty Images The last time I wrote to you about Visa Inc. ( V ) was June 2025 , when shares appeared somewhat dear on valuation. Since then, the stock has “come in,” whereby I'm giving consideration to adding to a longstanding position. In this article, we will walk through the company's current fundamental position, explore issues apparently holding down th...
Sundry Photography/iStock Editorial via Getty Images The last time I wrote to you about Visa Inc. ( V ) was June 2025 , when shares appeared somewhat dear on valuation. Since then, the stock has “come in,” whereby I'm giving consideration to adding to a longstanding position. In this article, we will walk through the company's current fundamental position, explore issues apparently holding down the price, and perform a renewed valuation exercise. Visa remains a powerhouse fintech stock. Along with Mastercard Inc. ( MA ), the two service about 90%, excluding China, of the world's global credit/debit card volume. A Fundamental Overview Visa sports outstanding top and bottom line growth, free cash flow, margins, and returns. Debt is quite manageable. Operational metrics are strong. Revenue and Net Income A picture tells a thousand words. The FAST Graph below highlights 10-year revenue and GAAP net income. fastgraphs.com Results are remarkably consistent. With the exception of 2020, the pandemic year, Visa's management guided the company to increasing top and bottom lines. Through the period, sales revenue CAGR has been 11.2%, and net income has grown at a 12.1% clip. For FY2026, management guided to “low double digit” top line and bottom line growth. See slide 13 via the link above. Familiar story, right? Free Cash Flow The company's business model requires little capital. Typically, capex runs just ~3.5% of gross revenue. Therefore, most operating cash flow drops right to free cash flow. Another 10-year FAST Graph depicts Visa' cash flow trajectory. fastgraphs.com It's a star chart. Over ten years, operating cash flow and free cash flow recorded a ~13% compound annual growth rate. Few companies achieve that sort of sustained improvement. Visa is a serial cash generation machine. Indeed, I seek companies that “earn their profits in cash.” This means I advocate businesses that consistently generate cash flow comparable to profits. In the case of Visa Inc., investors enj...
New research from IDC forecasts that the global smartphone market will shrink 13% due to the crunch in memory chip supplies. Nabila Popal, senior research director at IDC, joins Caroline Hyde on “Bloomberg Tech.” (Source: Bloomberg)
New research from IDC forecasts that the global smartphone market will shrink 13% due to the crunch in memory chip supplies. Nabila Popal, senior research director at IDC, joins Caroline Hyde on “Bloomberg Tech.” (Source: Bloomberg)
Paramount Skydance Corp. has paid the $2.8 billion breakup fee owed to Netflix Inc. after the streaming company dropped its planned deal to buy parts of Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. , according to people familiar with the move. Warner Bros. is expected to announce later Friday that it formally signed an agreement to be acquired by Paramount, said the people, who asked to not be identified because t...
Paramount Skydance Corp. has paid the $2.8 billion breakup fee owed to Netflix Inc. after the streaming company dropped its planned deal to buy parts of Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. , according to people familiar with the move. Warner Bros. is expected to announce later Friday that it formally signed an agreement to be acquired by Paramount, said the people, who asked to not be identified because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly. Netflix said on Thursday it was dropping out of the bidding to acquire the Warner Bros. studios and HBO Max streaming business, paving the way for Paramount to buy the whole company for $31 a share.
Bayer ( BAYRY ) said that phase 1 data on 225 Ac-PSMA-Trillium (BAY 3563254), a next-generation targeted alpha therapy, showed that the treatment led to an 83% disease control rate and no patients had dose-limiting toxicities. The overall response rate across all doses tested was 46%. PSA50 and PSA90 response rates were 58% and 36% overall, and 83% and 58% at the recommended dose for expansion. Th...
Bayer ( BAYRY ) said that phase 1 data on 225 Ac-PSMA-Trillium (BAY 3563254), a next-generation targeted alpha therapy, showed that the treatment led to an 83% disease control rate and no patients had dose-limiting toxicities. The overall response rate across all doses tested was 46%. PSA50 and PSA90 response rates were 58% and 36% overall, and 83% and 58% at the recommended dose for expansion. The German pharma said that the results support advancing the candidate into the next development phase. Bayer ( BAYZF ) noted that targeted alpha therapies such as 225 Ac-PSMA-Trillium are an "emerging class of radionuclide therapy" against multiple tumor types that can deliver "alpha particle radiation directly to the tumor inside the body." Bayer gained the asset through its 2021 acquisition of PSMA Therapeutics and Noria Therapeutics. More on Bayer Bayer Aktiengesellschaft (BAYRY) Discusses Roundup Class Settlement Agreement and Implications for U.S. Glyphosate Litigation Transcript Bayer Aktiengesellschaft (BAYRY) Discusses OCEANIC-STROKE Phase III Results and Asundexian in Secondary Stroke Prevention - Slideshow Bayer Aktiengesellschaft (BAYRY) Discusses OCEANIC-STROKE Phase III Results and Asundexian in Secondary Stroke Prevention Transcript Bayer says Xofigo/Xtandi combo shows overall survival benefit in prostate cancer Bayer sues Johnson & Johnson over prostate cancer drug claims
Jack Dorsey’s fintech company Block announced it was cutting nearly half of its workforce as it bets big on AI. But skeptics say investments in technology may not be the only reason for the layoffs. J.P. Gownder, vice president and principal analyst on the Future of Work team at Forrester Research, joins Caroline Hyde on “Bloomberg Tech.” (Source: Bloomberg)
Jack Dorsey’s fintech company Block announced it was cutting nearly half of its workforce as it bets big on AI. But skeptics say investments in technology may not be the only reason for the layoffs. J.P. Gownder, vice president and principal analyst on the Future of Work team at Forrester Research, joins Caroline Hyde on “Bloomberg Tech.” (Source: Bloomberg)
Stefan Sutka/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Seeking Alpha Back in January, I stated that Dell Technologies Inc. ( DELL ) stock was approaching bargain territory. With AI server demand being robust, their backlog growing in a strong manner, and a valuation that was well below the IT sector median, I believed the risk/reward was highly attractive. While the stock remained muted for a period after...
Stefan Sutka/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Seeking Alpha Back in January, I stated that Dell Technologies Inc. ( DELL ) stock was approaching bargain territory. With AI server demand being robust, their backlog growing in a strong manner, and a valuation that was well below the IT sector median, I believed the risk/reward was highly attractive. While the stock remained muted for a period after my update, Dell has soared after they reported their most recent earnings just yesterday (Feb 26th) after market close. As you can see on the right, this brings the stock's gains to over 20% since the publication of my previous article. Today I'll be providing an earnings review to see whether the current state of things still offers investor opportunity. In the below analysis, it is shown that Dell's results are generally strong even if there are some challenges and risks present. Guidance is shown to be solid, and with the forward P/E ratio having contracted since my previous article, I would say that Dell stock has in fact moved deeper into bargain territory despite the post-earnings rally. Therefore, I have decided to upgrade to a Strong Buy rating. FY2026 Q4 Overview Dell Q4 Presentation Let's start off with an overview of the company's financial performance for FY2026 Q4. Firstly, for the top line, Dell reported $33.4 billion in revenues, up 39% YoY. This is a clear improvement from the previous quarter's growth rate of just 11%, and so there has been a very meaningful pickup in business momentum overall. We'll go into more depth for their two segments later, but it should be noted that both Infrastructure Solutions Group and Client Solutions Group saw acceleration, and so there has been broad improvement in the company's trajectory. Lastly, note that Dell posted a monster beat of top line expectations as they surpassed estimates by $1.75 billion as a statement of outperformance in the quarter. Above, you can see that non-GAAP operating income grew slower than the to...
Denis Linine/iStock Editorial via Getty Images It has been almost two years since I last wrote about the Swiss watch company, The Swatch Group AG ( OTCPK:SWGAY ) ( OTCPK:SWGAF ), of brands like Longines and Tissot. At that time, I had downgraded the stock to a Hold from the earlier Buy rating on account of the slowdown in the luxury market. The thesis held for a while, but 2026 is proving to be di...
Denis Linine/iStock Editorial via Getty Images It has been almost two years since I last wrote about the Swiss watch company, The Swatch Group AG ( OTCPK:SWGAY ) ( OTCPK:SWGAF ), of brands like Longines and Tissot. At that time, I had downgraded the stock to a Hold from the earlier Buy rating on account of the slowdown in the luxury market. The thesis held for a while, but 2026 is proving to be different for SWAGY. The stock is up by 22.6% YTD, which compares positively with the S&P Global Luxury Index ( SPGLGUN ) that has remained essentially flat (see chart below). Here, I assess what's making the stock tick and whether there's further upside to it. Price Returns (YTD): SWGAY and SPGLGUN (Source: Seeking Alpha) Why Is Swatch Rising? The stock was lackluster until the end of January 2026, when it started rallying following the release of the company's 2025 results . Even though the overall numbers for the year continued to see softness that first became apparent in 2024, signs of a potentially robust turnaround are here. With this as the background, here are four reasons why Swatch is rising and could continue to do so. #1. Expansion Seen In H2 2025 After a disastrous 2024, which saw the company's net sales contract by 14.6% at current exchange rates and by 12.2% at constant exchange rates, 2025 saw signs of improvement. Here's how: Net sales shrank once more, but to a far smaller extent. They dropped by 5.9% at current rates and by 1.6% in constant currency terms. The drop was saved by a pickup in H2 2025, which saw an increase of 4.7% YoY, with a particularly strong Q4 2025 that saw growth of 7.2% YoY. The company's important Watches & Jewelry segment, which brought in 95% of the sales last year, saw encouraging trends in particular. For example, in Q4 2025, its China (including Hong Kong and Macau) sales growth crossed the 10% YoY mark. The Americas saw a 20% increase in 2025, and growth was visible in Europe in H2 2025 as well. #2. Good Reasons For Margin Contr...
As the saying goes, there are many possible reasons for an insider to sell a stock, but only one reason to buy -- they expect to make money. So let's look at two noteworthy recent insider buys. At Texas Pacific Land, a filing with the SEC revealed that on Wednesday, Director D
As the saying goes, there are many possible reasons for an insider to sell a stock, but only one reason to buy -- they expect to make money. So let's look at two noteworthy recent insider buys. At Texas Pacific Land, a filing with the SEC revealed that on Wednesday, Director D
BING-JHEN HONG/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Listen below or on the go on Apple Podcasts and Spotify Is Nvidia in a trap of its own making? (0:25) Microsoft, IBM, Salesforce and AI moats (2:30) Week's biggest movers (8:00) Netflix bows out; Paramount and Warner Bros closer to deal (10:20) Transcript Rena Sherbill: Our last Wall Street roundup of February. Welcome back, Brian Stewart, Seeking A...
BING-JHEN HONG/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Listen below or on the go on Apple Podcasts and Spotify Is Nvidia in a trap of its own making? (0:25) Microsoft, IBM, Salesforce and AI moats (2:30) Week's biggest movers (8:00) Netflix bows out; Paramount and Warner Bros closer to deal (10:20) Transcript Rena Sherbill: Our last Wall Street roundup of February. Welcome back, Brian Stewart, Seeking Alpha's Director of News. Brian Stewart: Great to be here. Rena Sherbill: Talk to us, what are you looking at these days? Brian Stewart: I think we have to start with Nvidia ( NVDA ). The stock dropped about 5% yesterday after its earnings report. It was up initially in the post market, but then eventually ended the next day lower. Beat expectations, gave better expected guidance. On the surface, everything seemed fine. I think in terms of explaining why it's down, I think I would point listeners to a conversation that you had last week on Investing Experts. There was a good discussion about whether Nvidia might be kind of in a trap of its own making where even good results are never going to be good enough because there's just sort of this built in expectation that Nvidia is going to blow us away every time they report results. So I think it's really a sell on the news kind of situation. The stock was up six out of the seven days going into earnings. So there was this building anticipation for it. I think everybody thought results were fine, better than fine. But the narrative about the build out for AI infrastructure remains in place. There's no end in sight to the amount of money that these companies seem willing to spend in terms of buying chips. think really from a video's point of view, it's almost like a supply problem. I think filling all the demand that's out there is probably getting a little difficult. But when you look at the broader market, the stock has been in a range pretty much this entire year since November, really. So you're just having trouble for Nvidia...