It goes without saying that Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) has been an elite asset in the past. Its trailing 10-year return of 16,900% would have grown a starting $10,000 investment into $1.7 million today (as of April 28). That's a remarkable performance, which makes it understandable why market participants have largely viewed the world's most valuable cryptocurrency as a tool for trading and financial s...
It goes without saying that Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) has been an elite asset in the past. Its trailing 10-year return of 16,900% would have grown a starting $10,000 investment into $1.7 million today (as of April 28). That's a remarkable performance, which makes it understandable why market participants have largely viewed the world's most valuable cryptocurrency as a tool for trading and financial speculation. Who doesn't want that kind of return in their own portfolio ? While this perspective might still influence the narrative today, Bitcoin has evolved into a more widely adopted treasury asset. Here's why that matters. Continue reading
US president’s threat comes after Germany’s Friedrich Merz suggests Trump team is being outplayed in its negotiations with Iran The US may reduce its number of troops deployed in Germany, Donald Trump has announced, days after the country’s chancellor said America was being “humiliated” by Iran. In a post on his Truth Social platform, the US president said his administration was “studying and revi...
US president’s threat comes after Germany’s Friedrich Merz suggests Trump team is being outplayed in its negotiations with Iran The US may reduce its number of troops deployed in Germany, Donald Trump has announced, days after the country’s chancellor said America was being “humiliated” by Iran. In a post on his Truth Social platform, the US president said his administration was “studying and reviewing the possible reduction of troops in Germany, with a determination to be made over the next short period of time”. Continue reading...
Meta Platforms on Wednesday evening reported a truly impressive first quarter, but the stock sank on the one metric that mattered most to Wall Street. Revenue in the first quarter rose 33% year over year to $56.3 billion, crushing the LSEG-compiled analyst consensus estimate of $55.45 billion. Notably, this was the strongest revenue growth for Meta in 5 years. Adjusted earnings per share increased...
Meta Platforms on Wednesday evening reported a truly impressive first quarter, but the stock sank on the one metric that mattered most to Wall Street. Revenue in the first quarter rose 33% year over year to $56.3 billion, crushing the LSEG-compiled analyst consensus estimate of $55.45 billion. Notably, this was the strongest revenue growth for Meta in 5 years. Adjusted earnings per share increased 62% to $10.44, significantly ahead of the $6.79 expected, according to LSEG. META YTD mountain Meta Platforms YTD Nonetheless, higher capital expenditure guidance knocked Meta shares down roughly 6.5% in after-hours trading. The stock had been making a comeback, but a loss of this magnitude by Thursday's close would knock it back into the red year to date. Bottom line Coming into the print, it was first-quarter spending and spending guidance that had investors on the edge of their seats. Capex in Q1 came in below expectations — clearly a positive, however, investors want to see where the puck is going, not where it's been. And, unfortunately, chasing the holy grail of technology, artificial intelligence, is going to cost more than previously expected. While reaffirming full-year total expense guidance, it raised the outlook for the capital expenditures part by $10 billion at the midpoint, with much of that increase attributable to higher component costs, particularly the rise in memory costs. That might have been forgivable, considering Meta's strong quarterly revenue, margins, EPS, and operating cash flow that AI investments to date have helped to deliver. But, a 5% quarter-over-quarter slide in daily active people (DAP) in its Family of Apps unit — which includes Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp — was a step too far. Even a nearly 4% year-over-year DAP increase to 3.56 billion was little consolation. On the call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said, "We saw a small decrease in total family dailies due to internet outages in Iran and blocks in Russia, but otherwise trend...
Earnings Call Insights: Silgan Holdings (SLGN) Q1 2026 Management view “We’re pleased to have delivered first quarter results that were at the high end of our estimated range, and we remain confident in our outlook for the balance of the year despite the evolving macroeconomic and geopolitical environment.” (President, CEO & Director Adam Greenlee) “We delivered another quarter of double-digit org...
Earnings Call Insights: Silgan Holdings (SLGN) Q1 2026 Management view “We’re pleased to have delivered first quarter results that were at the high end of our estimated range, and we remain confident in our outlook for the balance of the year despite the evolving macroeconomic and geopolitical environment.” (President, CEO & Director Adam Greenlee) “We delivered another quarter of double-digit organic volume growth in our fragrance and beauty products…with the Weener portfolio now fully integrated…we see ample runway to continue to deliver organic growth well in excess of the market for many years to come in this business.” (President, CEO & Director Adam Greenlee) “Our Metal Containers business started the year strong with volume 2% higher than the prior year as pet food products increased by 11%…[and] the strength we experienced in pet food in the first quarter was partially offset by the expected impact of prebuy-related volumes for fruit and vegetable markets.” (President, CEO & Director Adam Greenlee) “We are raising our 2026 earnings estimate to reflect the operational outperformance in the first quarter and our volume expectations for the remainder of the year remain largely unchanged.” (President, CEO & Director Adam Greenlee) “Net sales of $1.6 billion increased 6% from the prior year period…Total adjusted EBIT for the quarter of $152 million was 4% below the prior year…Adjusted EPS of $0.78 decreased $0.04 from the prior year period.” (Executive VP & CFO Shawn Fabry) Outlook “We are providing an estimate of adjusted earnings in the range of $0.92 to $1.02 per diluted share…Second quarter interest expense is anticipated to be in the range of $50 million with a tax rate of 25% to 26%.” (Executive VP & CFO Shawn Fabry) “Based on the current resin market, we are expecting approximately $50 million of incremental cost in the segment during the quarter…anticipated to impact adjusted EBIT by approximately $10 million in the second quarter.” (Executive VP & CFO Fa...
Earnings Call Insights: Pebblebrook Hotel Trust (PEB) Q1 2026 Management view “We had an exceptional first quarter with results well above the high end of our outlook across key earnings metrics.” (Co-President, CFO, Treasurer & Secretary Raymond Martz) “Same-property hotel EBITDA increased 27.6% to $82.2 million… Adjusted EBITDA was $73.3 million… Adjusted FFO per diluted share doubled year-over-...
Earnings Call Insights: Pebblebrook Hotel Trust (PEB) Q1 2026 Management view “We had an exceptional first quarter with results well above the high end of our outlook across key earnings metrics.” (Co-President, CFO, Treasurer & Secretary Raymond Martz) “Same-property hotel EBITDA increased 27.6% to $82.2 million… Adjusted EBITDA was $73.3 million… Adjusted FFO per diluted share doubled year-over-year to $0.32… Same-property occupancy increased 550 basis points… RevPAR increased 11.8% and total revenue increased 10.1%.” (Co-President, CFO, Treasurer & Secretary Martz) “San Francisco was exceptional… RevPAR increased a robust 44.5% and hotel EBITDA more than tripled from a year ago, climbing by $11.6 million.” (Co-President, CFO, Treasurer & Secretary Martz) “Los Angeles also recovered sharply… with RevPAR climbing 31.5%… occupancy… to 74.6%.” (Co-President, CFO, Treasurer & Secretary Martz) “We also completed the April 1 rebranding of Mondrian Los Angeles into the Valorian Los Angeles, Curio Collection by Hilton.” (Co-President, CFO, Treasurer & Secretary Martz) “We believe this strategic change has and will create value for the property… and we made this change in no cost as franchise-related key money funded the changeover.” (Co-President, CFO, Treasurer & Secretary Martz) “Our net debt-to-EBITDA ratio declined to 5.5x from 5.9x at the end of last year.” (Co-President, CFO, Treasurer & Secretary Martz) “Since the start of the year, we've repurchased over 400,000 common shares at an average price of $12.11 per share.” (Co-President, CFO, Treasurer & Secretary Martz) Outlook “We expect April RevPAR and total RevPAR to grow in the 3% to 5% range versus last year.” (Chairman & CEO Jon Bortz) “May appears to be our weakest month… weighed down by… San Diego… along with softer convention calendars in both Boston and San Francisco compared to last year.” (Chairman & CEO Bortz) “We have reflected the significant Q1 beat in our hotel performance assumptions. But we've left ...
Earnings Call Insights: MediaAlpha (MAX) Q1 2026 Management View "We're off to a strong start in 2026, delivering record results across all of our key financial metrics," said "First quarter transaction value came in above the midpoint of our guidance range," and "These dynamics drove a favorable mix shift to our open marketplace, pushing both revenue and adjusted EBITDA above the high end of our ...
Earnings Call Insights: MediaAlpha (MAX) Q1 2026 Management View "We're off to a strong start in 2026, delivering record results across all of our key financial metrics," said "First quarter transaction value came in above the midpoint of our guidance range," and "These dynamics drove a favorable mix shift to our open marketplace, pushing both revenue and adjusted EBITDA above the high end of our guidance" (Co-Founder, CEO, President & Director Steven Yi). "While not yet material to our results, our strong first quarter P&C traffic growth suggests that consumers who are starting their insurance shopping experience on LLMs are driving incremental referrals to our marketplace," and "we were pleased to see a significant strategic shift by a leading LLM to place greater emphasis on advertising monetization" (CEO Yi). "As a trusted partner to carriers and a leader in AI-powered insurance distribution, we recently launched autoinsurance.net, a ChatGPT-powered shopping experience," adding, "This is an early proof-of-concept product" (CEO Yi). "Revenue was $310 million," "Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $31.4 million, up 7% year-over-year," and "We completed the refinancing of our credit facilities during the quarter" (CFO & Treasurer Patrick Thompson). Outlook "For Q2, we expect revenue of $290 million to $310 million," "Contribution of $45.5 million to $48.5 million," and "Adjusted EBITDA of $28 million to $30.5 million" (CFO Thompson). "We will be changing how we present guidance. We will be guiding to contribution and we will no longer report transaction values as we think contribution is a more relevant metric for investors evaluating the company's performance relative to our publicly traded peers" (CFO Thompson). "Looking at the remainder of 2026, we are entering a more normalized growth environment in P&C," and "we expect growth rates to moderate in the back half of 2026 as we lap increasingly strong prior year comparisons" (CFO Thompson). "For the year, we expec...
(RTTNews) - The Malaysia stock market headed south again on Wednesday, one day after snapping the two-day slide in which it had fallen almost 5 points or 0.3 percent. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index now sits just above the 1,720-point plateau and it may extend those losses on Th
(RTTNews) - The Malaysia stock market headed south again on Wednesday, one day after snapping the two-day slide in which it had fallen almost 5 points or 0.3 percent. The Kuala Lumpur Composite Index now sits just above the 1,720-point plateau and it may extend those losses on Th