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. On Thursday, Avantor (AVTR)'s Director, Gregory L. Summe, made a $940,000 purchase

A study of analyst recommendations at the major brokerages shows that Synchrony Financial (Symbol: SYF) is the #29 broker analyst pick among those stocks screened by The Online Investor for strong stock buyback activity. To make that list, a stock must have repurchased at least

imaginima On Tuesday, Mississippi regulators will host a public hearing over plans by xAI ( X.AI ) to develop a gas-fired power plant to power its Colossus II data center, Reuters reported. The AI startup faces a lawsuit threat by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, or NAACP, accusing the company of violating federal law by installing and operating gas turbines without air permits, the report added . NAACP, acting on behalf of the largely African American local community living near the existing Colossus I facility in Memphis, Tennessee, noted that xAI started illegally installing and then operating 27 gas turbines at a site in Southaven, Mississippi, to power Colossus II, sited across the state line in Memphis, the report noted. The organization said that this was being done without properly receiving the required preconstruction or operating air permits under the Clean Air Act. xAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Seeking Alpha. "Pollution from these turbines is worsening and will continue to worsen the already poor air quality in Southaven, Mississippi and the Memphis metropolitan area," said the NAACP in a letter declaring its intent to sue xAI, according to the report. The NAACP noted that the turbines have the potential to release a significant amount of smog-forming nitrogen oxides (NOx), above the Clean Air Act’s “major source” threshold, and other pollutants, including fine particulate matter and carcinogenic formaldehyde, harming largely African American local communities, the report added. The Clean Air Act requires plaintiffs to indicate their intent to sue 60 days in advance. Elon Musk's xAI has been building its Colossus supercomputer, which is being used to train the company's AI chatbot Grok in Memphis and expanding to Southaven. It is currently in phase 2 and is looking to start a third phase soon, the report noted. Following the Southern Environmental Law Center, or SELC, which is representing th...

In trading on Tuesday, shares of Precigen Inc (Symbol: PGEN) touched a new 52-week high of $5.46/share. That's a 391.89% rise, or $4.35 per share from the 52-week low of $1.11 set back on 04/07/2025. That means at today's intraday high, any investor who purchased PGEN stock any

More than two years after Broadcom took over VMware, the virtualization company’s customers are still grappling with higher prices, uncertainty, and the challenges of reducing vendor lock-in. Today, CloudBolt Software released a report, " The Mass Exodus That Never Was: The Squeeze Is Just Beginning, " that provides insight into those struggles. CloudBolt is a hybrid cloud management platform provider that aims to identify VMware customers’ pain points so it can sell them relevant solutions. In the report, CloudBolt said it surveyed 302 IT decision-makers (director-level or higher) at North American companies with at least 1,000 employees in January. The survey is far from comprehensive, but it offers a look at the obstacles these users face. Broadcom closed its VMware acquisition in November 2023, and last month, 88 percent of survey respondents still described the change as “disruptive.” Per the survey, the most cited drivers of disruption were price increases (named by 89 percent of respondents), followed by uncertainty about Broadcom’s plans (85 percent), support quality concerns (78 percent), Broadcom shifting VMware from perpetual licenses to subscriptions (72 percent), changes to VMware’s partner program (68 percent), and the forced bundling of products (65 percent). Read full article Comments

monsitj/iStock via Getty Images Nvidia Corporation ( NVDA ) may outperform in its upcoming Q4 ’26 earnings release on February 25, 2026, after the market closes. Looking at the upcoming earnings release from a broader scope, the hyperscalers released a substantial increase to their capital outlays for 2026, underpinned by a substantial expansion to their respective backlogs for cloud computing. With demand remaining robust, I believe Nvidia remains in a position of strength with eFY27 growth remaining elevated to support the growing demand for AI accelerators, despite more custom silicon being used for AI training. Given the upbeat outlook, I am reiterating my Strong Buy rating for NVDA shares with a price target of $416/share at 18.06x eFY28 price/sales. Corporate Filings Nvidia Investment Rationale The Q4 ’25 earnings season has been quite eventful, particularly for the AI trade. With 4 of the 5 major hyperscalers having reported this quarter’s earnings, we captured a glimpse of the future of the data center investment landscape. Between Microsoft ( MSFT ), Amazon ( AMZN ), Alphabet ( GOOG ), and Meta Platforms ( META ), I’m forecasting a cumulative capital outlay of $666b for 2026, roughly 76% higher than the previous year. Corporate Filings What’s even more robust than the capital budget is the cumulative backlogs amongst the cloud services providers. In total, these 4 CSPs, which include Oracle Corp. ( ORCL ) and exclude Meta Platforms, have a cumulative backlog of $1.63T. Given that Oracle reports earnings on March 10, 2026 , we’ll be using stale data for this company. Sequentially, the three CSPs’ backlogs (excluding Oracle) increased by 47%. Corporate Filings With the market supporting increased investments in cloud computing capacity and the hyperscalers dedicating hundreds of billions of dollars to expanding capacity, investments in advanced chips appear to only be strengthening. Adding to the case, the Semiconductor Industry Association forecasts semicond...

Nvidia: Closing Out FY26 With A Robust Growth Opportunity (Earnings Preview) (NASDAQ:NVDA) Seeking Alpha

SRTX Inc. , the struggling Canadian company known for making resilient pantyhose called Sheertex, found another apparel business in the Montreal region to buy it, months after announcing a strategic review. A.Y.K. International Inc. , which owns the Secret and Silks pantyhose brands, is making the offer, according to a statement Tuesday that didn’t disclose a price. A.Y.K. also makes socks, gloves, hats and bags. “We have long admired Sheertex — not only for its innovation, but for its deep commitment to its craft and its customers,” Dan Abitan, A.Y.K.’s chief executive officer, said in a statement. The transaction will preserve the Sheertex brand and its proprietary technologies, SRTX said. It plans to seek court approval for the deal using a proposal under Canada’s Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act. SRTX’s difficulties came to light a year ago, when it put 40% of its then-350 employees and contractors on temporary leave, citing the expected effects of US tariffs as well as the impending removal of an exemption that allowed low-value packages to be shipped duty-free to US customers. Katherine Homuth founded SRTX in 2017 with the backing of Y Combinator, and investors included Sweden’s Hennes & Mauritz AB , Investissement Quebec and the Canadian government’s export development agency. Homuth, who left the company in March 2025 when it accepted $40 million in fresh capital, said in October she had submitted a proposal to take back the firm.

CHARTCHAI KANTHATHAN/iStock via Getty Images The last time I spoke about Ocular Therapeutix ( OCUL ) was regarding a Seeking Alpha article entitled " Ocular Therapeutix: Diabetic Retinopathy Data Q2 2024 And Wet AMD Advancement ." I noted that the company was in the process of advancing its drug in several ocular disorders. One in particular was the development of AXPAXLI [OTX-TKI] for the treatment of patients with wet age-related macular degeneration [Wet-AMD]. The company was in the process of evaluating the use of this axitinib hydrogel implant in the phase 3 SOL-1 Superiority trial. I will be going over more about this study below, but the point is that the company proved that its therapy achieved superiority over a low dose [2 mg] of EYLEA [aflibercept]. The importance of this is that this is the first therapy of its kind to achieve such superiority in the targeting of patients with Wet-AMD. Other positives with this program are less frequent injection burdens and the fact that about two-thirds of the patients ended up being rescue-free. If this data was released, why is the stock price trading lower? It is because it brings into question the durability of data and also the need to digest the data. It is not fully clear if the company will be able to compete well against Regeneron Pharmaceuticals ( REGN ) EYLEA. Still, I believe it is important to maintain a "Buy" rating on the promise that has been established thus far. Not only that, but this positive data sets up two critical catalysts for investors to keep an eye on during this year. The first of which is that the company plans to have formal discussions with the FDA to discuss this data from the phase 3 SOL-1 study. Should the discussion outcome be positive here, then this would be one major catalyst that could potentially boost shareholder value. Secondly, if given the green light to do so, then the company believes that it might be allowed to file a New Drug Application [NDA] of AXPAXLI to the FDA for t...

Ocular: "Buy" As AXPAXLI Program For Wet-AMD Moves To Potential NDA Filing (NASDAQ:OCUL) Seeking Alpha

格隆汇2月18日｜美联储理事巴尔：低招聘、低解雇的就业市场缺乏活力，易受冲击。

QuantumScape (NASDAQ: QS) , a developer of solid-state batteries, is a speculative stock. It hasn't commercialized its batteries or generated any meaningful revenue, it's racking up steep losses, yet it already has a market capitalization of $4.6 billion. However, it might still generate millionaire-making gains if it successfully scales its business over the next decade. Image source: Getty Images. QuantumScape's QSE-5 solid-state batteries have an energy density of 844 Wh/L (watt hours per liter) and can be charged from 10% to 80% in 12.2 minutes. By comparison, most lithium-ion batteries for EVs have an average energy density of 300-700 Wh/L with a fast-charging time of 20 minutes to an hour. In theory, QuantumScape's solid-state batteries could make EVs more power-efficient -- but they're also more expensive and challenging to manufacture. Continue reading

mustafaU/iStock via Getty Images Introduction This report applies the sectoral balance, real estate cycle, and fiscal flows framework to assess how fiscal and monetary dynamics are shaping risk asset performance. With inflation cooling, unemployment rising, and the Federal Reserve signaling a shift in policy, the interplay between fiscal expansion and monetary restraint is increasingly consequential. Sectoral Balances Overview The following table tracks monthly changes in sectoral balances, velocity, and acceleration—metrics that help forecast market direction. US Treasury and Author Calculations Fiscal Flow Breakdown January is seasonally a weak month for fiscal flows, and this last one has been weaker than normal. The overall result is a net private sector surplus of $122+ billion, and this is positive for risk asset prices but down from last month, which brings negative velocity and lower acceleration effects. Going into detail: The $122+ billion private sector funds surplus came from a $97 billion injection of funds from the federal government. This injection was augmented by a healthy $100+ billion of credit creation by the banking sector and a debit of $-75 billion from the external sector. Bank credit growth within the various credit types is shown in the chart below. ANGtraders.com While credit is still rising and adding overall liquidity to the market there are signs of alarm now. The chart below shows that debt in default is trend up now. Federal Reserve Bank via Bloomberg The ascent in debt default has started into the recession of 2030 and is a repeat of the symptoms that accompanied the land led recession of 2006-2010. Expect defaults to rise from here and peak in 2030. External Sector Impact The external sector is projected to extract about $75 billion from the private domestic sector in exchange for imported goods and services. While recent trade policies have reduced the trade deficit, the net effect remains a drag on domestic liquidity, but the real...

“AI Recommendation Poisoning”: Microsoft Stock (NASDAQ:MSFT) Sinks on New Threat TipRanks

Key PointsDespite its already massive size, Costco continues to open new warehouses around the world.

ION Group’s founder Andrea Pignataro said investors are punishing the wrong companies after more than $2 trillion was wiped off the value of software firms in recent weeks. “The market is panicking about the wrong thing,” he wrote on his company’s website. “The correct panic is not whether AI can replace individual software tools. It is what happens when the institutions that invite AI into their language games discover they have been teaching it to play without them.” Anxiety about the outlook for software providers left markets in turmoil after artificial intelligence startup Anthropic PBC released a series of new tools that threaten businesses ranging from financial research to real estate services. Pignataro’s privately held fintech companies — including ION Platform — have been caught up in the selloff, with bond and loan prices tanking to near distressed territory. Read more: AI Fears Wreak Havoc Among Software Companies Pignataro joined other industry leaders in arguing that replacing software that helps manage complex tasks across an entire company is not like swapping tools because it’s deeply embedded in the organization. Instead, when businesses like consulting firms begin to use AI tools to remain competitive “they feed the very system that is learning to make them unnecessary,” he wrote in the commentary titled The Wrong Apocalypse. While “rational in isolation,” the collective result will be “catastrophic.” Revenue losses in the professional services sector could trickle through to other industries ranging from commercial real estate to business travel and the ecosystem surrounding venture capital, he said. That would eventually hit tax revenue and the fabric of the society. “The $2 trillion destroyed in software market value is not the extent of the damage,” he added. “It is the down payment.” Bloomberg LP, the parent of Bloomberg News, competes with ION in providing financial data.

Official rules say the government should keep gifts worth more than £140 unless ministers pay the value over that limit Keir Starmer bought a pair of personalised silver cufflinks which were given by Donald Trump and his wife, Melania, according to the latest transparency records . The cufflinks, which were worth more than £140, were an official gift from the Trumps during the US president’s historic second state visit last September. Continue reading...

bgwalker/iStock Unreleased via Getty Images Walmart ( WMT ) is scheduled to report its fiscal Q4 ’26 financial results on Thursday morning, February 19th, before the opening bell. (Walmart is on a fiscal year, and despite the year being just one month of results, the Q4 ’26 quarter about to be reported is fiscal year ’26, and the current year beginning Feb 1 ’26 is now fiscal ’27.) The sell-side consensus for WMT’s Q4 ’26 is expecting $0.73 on $712.8 billion in revenue (and operating income of $8.6 billion) for expected y-o-y growth of 10.6%, 5.4%, and 10.9%. If full-year consensus estimates are met exactly, full-year EPS will be $2.64 and full-year revenue will be $712.75 billion for actual y-o-y growth of 5% and 5%. For fiscal ’27, WMT is expecting 5% revenue growth and 12% EPS, and you’d have to think that with a 50x multiple on ’26 and a 45x multiple on fiscal ’27’s EPS estimate, the stock has outrun its reasonable valuation in calendar 2026. In fiscal Q3 ’26 (Oct ’25 quarter), the big story was e-commerce as WMT US e-commerce grew 28% and WMT International and Sam’s e-commerce grew +22%, with Sam’s e-commerce now profitable and International e-commerce also profitable or very close to it. In fiscal Q3 ’26, WMT grew revenue 6%, operating income 8%, and EPS 7% in the pre-holiday quarter. The two big stories for Walmart Although WMT is obviously reluctant to give numbers and detail in the conference call, the e-commerce revenue spoke of Walmart’s emerging revenue flywheel now turning profitable (although WMT isn’t saying by how much, and it’s not yet profitable in Walmart US), and advertising – another emerging spoke in the flywheel – is also growing. Per one source, Walmart advertising globally grew 53%, and Walmart US (Walmart Connect) grew 33% in fiscal Q3 ’26. Now that being said, Walmart is the only S&P 500 component (outside of Amazon ( AMZN ) today) that has eclipsed $700 billion in revenue, so while the y-o-y revenue percentage numbers look impressive and ...

Starting on Tuesday, WordPress users can edit their websites using the new AI assistant built into the platform's site editor and media library, TechCrunch reports. The AI has a sidebar in the WordPress site editor where users can ask it to edit and translate text, generate and edit images using Google's Nano Banana, and make adjustments to their sites like creating new pages or changing fonts. Users can also interact with the AI through the new block notes feature WordPress added in its 6.9 update in December, which allows users to leave comments in the site editor. By tagging the AI assistant with "@ai" in block notes, users can give it p … Read the full story at The Verge.

Dixi_/iStock via Getty Images Any time I mention U.S. tariff policy in an article, even if the primary subject of the article isn't tariffs themselves, I get comments about who is paying tariffs—an argument always ensues. There is a factual answer: customs duties are paid to the U.S. Treasury by the importing entity, which is always a domestic firm. What happens is that there are knock-on effects, but that is the factual answer to who is handing over the currency to cover the tariff dues: American importer firms. But the argument isn't about that, not really. The argument is about the knock-on effects and where the costs end up manifesting in end products. If the importer firms are profit-maximizing entities, they will seek leverage in the supply chain. To this end, they may demand lower prices from exporters or higher prices from end consumers. The obvious answer to those who understand just how nuanced the world is: both. The core argument that ends up being litigated and re-litigated about tariffs is whether the hit is primarily to the exporter or the consumer. While “both” is likely true, the aggregate may show us a split, and that split may favor one side or the other. Thankfully, there is new data coming in to settle the dispute and show us how the impact of the sudden change in U.S. tariff policy last year is really affecting corporate bottom lines, consumer wallets, and trade balances. Before we get into the meat of the article, folks should check out this link to the Bloomberg Tariff Tracker , because keeping track of the 500+ announcements around tariffs since Liberation Day is impossible. The Web of U.S. Tariff Policy (Bloomberg) The Tariffs Themselves As it has been made clear, the tariff policy changed a lot. This was especially true early on. What's also become clear is that the response from other major trading partners was also to raise tariffs of their own. Even the EU, which still sits at a much lower rate than the U.S., has a higher effective tari...

格隆汇2月18日｜据英国金融时报报道，特朗普政府加大了对美国消费者金融保护局（CFPB）的打击力度，称其试图解散的机构已因额外借贷成本使美国人损失数千亿美元。据媒体获得的白宫经济顾问委员会报告显示，该局施加的监管负担导致价格上涨、产品供给减少，估计已使消费者损失2370亿至3690亿美元。代理局长拉塞尔·沃特表示，CFPB“被征用来推进激进议程，其结果与左翼拥护者声称的截然相反，阻止了美国人获得信贷，使生活成本急剧上升”。沃特称希望“关闭”这个为在2008年金融危机后保护消费者而设立的机构。

Apple’s AI push welcomed by Wedbush analysts amid investor trepidation Proactive financial news

Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL, XETRA:APC) has seen its shares sell off over the past week amid investor concerns over potential delays to its much-anticipated AI features, particularly updates to Siri. Despite the recent volatility, Wedbush analysts maintained an ‘Outperform’ rating on the stock...

The market for AI-powered robots and autonomous machines has the potential to balloon into a trillion-dollar opportunity by 2035, orders of magnitude bigger than it is now, according to a team of Barclays analysts. Autonomous vehicles, which are already relatively advanced, will lead the way, followed by drones and then more complicated general-purpose humanoid robots, the analysts wrote in a report Tuesday titled “The Decade of the Robot.” “Advances in brains, brawn and batteries are pushing AI-enabled robotics to an inflection point, setting the investment agenda for the next decade,” wrote the team led by Zornitsa Todorova, head of thematic fixed-income research at Barclays. The development of robotics and other real-world, “physical AI” marks a paradigm shift from digital-focused AI, one that lays the foundation for a “value chain” that will be more diverse and deeper than the first wave of AI products, they said. While China currently dominates humanoid and industrial robot deployment , the Barclays analysts identified close to 200 public issuers that could be involved in the theme over the next decade, including 100 with at least one corporate bond outstanding. “We see automakers emerging as potential major participants, alongside growing deployment of robotic systems across warehousing, logistics and retail,” they wrote. Examples include Mercedes-Benz Group AG’s use of Nvidia Corp.’s Omniverse to “virtually retool factories with minimal disruption” and Tesla Inc.’s focus on robots during its fourth-quarter earnings call . The team highlighted the software and hardware underpinning the technology, including semiconductor and infrastructure providers such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Samsung Electronics Co. and Nvidia Corp. They also flag “robotic hardware and motion systems that perform physical tasks,” along with batteries, which “provide the energy backbone for these platforms,” citing Chinese manufacturers like EVE Energy Co. and Contemporary ...

Many top consumer goods companies are paying above-average yields right now. These are rock-solid companies that have been paying dividends for decades, suggesting the market may be undervaluing their prospects. Here are two standout dividend stocks that offer high yields and can deliver attractive returns over the next five years. Image source: Getty Images. Continue reading

⚽ Champions League updates from the first-leg matches ⚽ Live scores | Follow us over on Bluesky | And email Scott The big game of the evening is undoubtedly Benfica v Real Madrid. The absurd Keith Houchen-channeling antics of Anatoliy Trubin have seen to that … … though it’s low-level astonishing that these two famous old clubs, steeped in golden-age European Cup history having won the first seven stagings between them, had only ever met twice before last month’s match. Benfica won the 1962 final 5-3, then put Real out 6-3 on aggregate (5-1, 1-2) in the 1964-65 quarters. Eusébio helped himself to five goals over those three matches. All totted up, Benfica have won three and lost one, to the aggregate tune of 15-8. Not sure Real Madrid have had their trousers more frequently handed to them, freshly pressed and laundered, by any other club on the European scene. It’s not quite Dundee United’s genuinely side-splitting competitive hex on Barcelona (P4 W4) but it’s still something. Continue reading...

A tweak here, a twiddle there, and now possibly a 3% sweetener on the price. It’s all progress. But the billionaire Ellison family has yet to make an offer for Warner Bros Discovery Inc. that clearly beats the studio’s December deal with Netflix Inc. Now it’s time to see what tech luminary Larry and film producer son David can really deliver. On Tuesday Warner boss David Zaslav finally agreed to takeover talks with Ellison-backed Paramount Skydance Corp. — if only for a week. Netflix has consented. Despite persistent gaps in the rival suitor’s pitch, this was the right step by Warner. Paramount last week delivered high-level answers to objections to its then $30-a-share proposal, which valued the Hollywood firm at $108 billion including debt. Now the Ellisons are dangling $31 per share, taking it to about $111 billion. Zaslav would have had a tough job writing a credible rejection letter. And by agreeing to talks, he hasn’t conceded much negotiating leverage. Warner’s trump card remains the value to Paramount of securing an agreed deal. That would lay out a smoother path to ownership than having to make a hostile offer. Zaslav’s task is to extract the juiciest possible sweetener in return for his endorsement. Warner has outlined how Paramount can fix the remaining flaws in the fine print of its proposal. These broadly involve covering Warner’s costs if any Paramount tie-up fails to pass regulatory muster. Assuming the Ellisons mean what they say about backstopping these expenses, this should just be some extra work for the lawyers. A trickier issue is whether the Ellisons would inject more equity in the event their debt financing had to be scaled back. Larry is underwriting more than $40 billion of the price right now. He’s worth $213 billion even after a $35 billion hit to his wealth this year. Going higher doesn’t look too difficult. But can he make a cast-iron commitment? Paramount must address these potential objections to match Netflix when it comes to the what...

Image source: The Motley Fool. Tuesday, February 17, 2026 at 12:30 p.m. ET Need a quote from a Motley Fool analyst? Email pr@fool.com Continue reading

Innodata (NASDAQ: INOD) , which went public in 1993, was once considered a slow-growth provider of content digitization, digital publishing, and data enrichment services. But in 2018, it launched a suite of task-specific microservices that could efficiently annotate large amounts of high-quality data for AI applications . The market's demand for these services skyrocketed as the AI market expanded, and its stock soared 2,750% over the past six years. Image source: Getty Images. Investors might be wary of chasing Innodata's stock after those massive gains, but it could generate even bigger millionaire-making gains for three simple reasons. Continue reading