tiero/iStock via Getty Images Enterprise Products Partners ( EPD ) is a natural gas-focused midstream platform and as such may not necessarily be on the radar for companies that want to get exposure to the artificial intelligence boom. However, Enterprise Products Partners, as a leading midstream enterprise, is going to be a major winner of the current Data Center expansion as demand for Cloud com...
tiero/iStock via Getty Images Enterprise Products Partners ( EPD ) is a natural gas-focused midstream platform and as such may not necessarily be on the radar for companies that want to get exposure to the artificial intelligence boom. However, Enterprise Products Partners, as a leading midstream enterprise, is going to be a major winner of the current Data Center expansion as demand for Cloud compute escalates and places new strains on the energy system. Since Enterprise Products Partners is responsible for a large share of natural gas transportation in the United States, EPD is set to be a major beneficiary of growing energy demand. Investors that want to avoid the volatile AI sector but gain exposure to the AI growth opportunity may want to consider a conservative midstream platform like Enterprise Products Partners for cash flow and distribution growth. Data by YCharts Previous rating I rated shares of Enterprise Products Partners a ‘Strong Buy’ in September 2025 -- Acquisitions, Growth And Yield -- because of the stability of the distribution and the predictability with which EPD raised its distribution. Further, the partnership strengthened its natural gas business with the acquisition of a gathering system from Occidental which added to EPD's Permian footprint. With AI data centers facing unprecedented demand and escalating investment spending, however, I believe the midstream platform could be seen as more than just an income vehicle. EPD, as a critical energy infrastructure player, is set for robust expansion of the U.S. energy market, with escalating compute demand being a primary catalyst. Therefore, EPD may become an energy growth play for investors, benefiting handsomely from accelerating AI data center buildouts in the years ahead. Strong AI Data Center demand set to drive midstream growth In SpaceX’s recent IPO presentation for retail investors, the technology company pointed to the significance of the AI growth opportunity for its business. According...
hapabapa Data analytics and artificial intelligence software company Databricks is in talks to raise funding at a valuation above $165B, The Information reported . The funding round could start next month, the news outlet added, citing people familiar with the matter. Databricks did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Seeking Alpha. In December, Databricks, which competes with Sn...
hapabapa Data analytics and artificial intelligence software company Databricks is in talks to raise funding at a valuation above $165B, The Information reported . The funding round could start next month, the news outlet added, citing people familiar with the matter. Databricks did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Seeking Alpha. In December, Databricks, which competes with Snowflake ( SNOW ), raised more than $4B in its Series L investment round, valuing the company at $134B. Databricks has been a beneficiary of the AI boom. The company has announced deals with AI giants OpenAI and Anthropic to help sell AI services. CEO Ali Ghodsi said recently that Databricks will eventually become a public company but that 2026 is "a terrible year to go public." More on Snowflake Snowflake Inc. (SNOW) Analyst/Investor Day Transcript Snowflake Inc. (SNOW) Analyst/Investor Day - Slideshow Snowflake: Escalating Agentic AI Catalyst What’s next for Snowflake after its massive Q1 earnings beat? Snowflake falls despite announcing key partnerships, product features at Summit 26
S&P Global lowered its issuer credit rating on JetBlue Airways Corporation ( JBLU ) to CCC+ from B-. The ratings action pushed JetBlue ( JBLU ) deeper into junk status in terms of credit. The ratings agency noted that its downgrade reflects expectations for materially weaker cash flow generation this year due to sharply higher jet fuel prices, further delaying recovery in credit measures. S&P now ...
S&P Global lowered its issuer credit rating on JetBlue Airways Corporation ( JBLU ) to CCC+ from B-. The ratings action pushed JetBlue ( JBLU ) deeper into junk status in terms of credit. The ratings agency noted that its downgrade reflects expectations for materially weaker cash flow generation this year due to sharply higher jet fuel prices, further delaying recovery in credit measures. S&P now projects a significantly wider free cash flow deficit of about $1B in 2026, nearly double the prior forecast. Negative free cash flow is anticipated to continue into 2027 for the airline company. "While liquidity remains sufficient today ($2.8 billion including cash and short-term investments and $600 million undrawn revolver), we anticipate it will decline to about $2 billion by the end of the year. Following the $500 million debt financing in April, we assume about $500 million of incremental debt raise (including $250 million accordion draw) this year to maintain a target liquidity position of about 17% of revenue," updated S&P. JetBlue (BLUE) was noted to have ample borrowing capacity based on the considerable size of its unencumbered asset base, but an increasing debt service burden was highlighted as exacerbating an already pressured cost structure. S&P views further debt issuance as likely if fuel prices remain elevated or if JetBlue's ( JBLU ) ability to raise fares does not materialize as expected. "In our view, the company’s capital structure appears to be unsustainable in the long term based on its significant leverage (several years at double-digit levels), and it is now increasingly dependent on much stronger earnings and cash flow in 2027," warned S&P. S&P noted that it could raise the ratings on JetBlue (JBLUE) if it achieves material margin improvement such that the ratings agency no longer expects a sustained free cash flow deficit and if the capital structure is no longer viewed as unsustainable based on an expected path to sustainably lower leverage. More...
tuachanwatthana/iStock via Getty Images CECO Environmental ( CECO ) up 13.6% pre-market Tuesday after updating FY 2026 guidance following the completion of its acquisition of Thermon Group Holdings, which closed June 1 . CECO ( CECO ) said it expects full-year revenue of $1.275B-$1.375B, well above the $968.2M FactSet analyst consensus estimate, and adjusted EBITDA of $195M-$225M, up ~20% and ~25%...
tuachanwatthana/iStock via Getty Images CECO Environmental ( CECO ) up 13.6% pre-market Tuesday after updating FY 2026 guidance following the completion of its acquisition of Thermon Group Holdings, which closed June 1 . CECO ( CECO ) said it expects full-year revenue of $1.275B-$1.375B, well above the $968.2M FactSet analyst consensus estimate, and adjusted EBITDA of $195M-$225M, up ~20% and ~25% Y/Y at the midpoint of the range, respectively; the company also forecast free cash flow to generate at least 55% of adjusted EBITDA. "O ne week after closing our acquisition of Thermon, the initial integration phase is on track and delivering immediate benefits," CECO Environmental ( CECO ) Chairman and CEO Todd Gleason said, reiterating that he is "very confident in our ability to generate $40M or more in cost synergies" from the deal. More on CECO Environmental CECO Environmental Presents at Craig-Hallum 23rd Annual Institutional Investor Conference - Slideshow CECO Environmental: Building Conviction After The Thermon Deal CECO Environmental Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript
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JuSun/iStock via Getty Images After such a large rally, the rational follow-up would be to ask: Why invest in Applied Optoelectronics ( AAOI ) here, instead of waiting for another pullback? Simply put, the reason is that the story is now more likely to be one of future earnings rather than multiple expansion. After all, Nvidia ( NVDA ) extended the demand runway for 800G and 1.6T optics at its GTC...
JuSun/iStock via Getty Images After such a large rally, the rational follow-up would be to ask: Why invest in Applied Optoelectronics ( AAOI ) here, instead of waiting for another pullback? Simply put, the reason is that the story is now more likely to be one of future earnings rather than multiple expansion. After all, Nvidia ( NVDA ) extended the demand runway for 800G and 1.6T optics at its GTC 2026 conference. Furthermore, the company is in the middle of an incredible order flow with hundreds of millions of dollars in orders, while demand appears to be stronger than capacity into at least mid-2027. All it takes is solid execution to see today's price justified extremely quickly. Nvidia Has Extended AAOI's Runway Some of the major takeaways that were derived from Nvidia's GTC 2026 include the fact that Nvidia reaffirmed pluggable optics' importance as part of their tech lineup for sure up to 2027. The worries about optics with respect to CPO and possible disturbance for AAOI, for instance, have turned out to be rather overrated because Nvidia explicitly said that copper remains the king of scale-up networking. This is key since the hyperscalers still need immense amounts of 800G and 1.6T transceivers to build their next generation of AI factories. Already, AAOI has disclosed more than $324 million in orders and sees its revenues surpassing $1.1 billion in 2026 . Perhaps even more interestingly, management has mentioned that customer demand exceeds manufacturing capacity into mid-2027. Applied Optoelectronics Website Second-half 2026 looks like an extremely strong period for AAOI, especially as its financial profile becomes increasingly more impressive. The company continues to deliver on revenue, as Q1 revenues jumped to a record $151.1 million (+51% YoY), while data center revenue grew by 154% to $81.4 million . The most important takeaway from the revenue figures, however, is that 800G revenue accounted for only $4.6 million, despite the shipments starting. In ...
Pakorn Supajitsoontorn/iStock via Getty Images A patient waits for a favorable entry into a business that delivers a strong data-model moat, rides the AI tailwinds, yet shows significant risk-reward balance, and seems to be turning finally in favor of Tempus AI, Inc. ( TEM ). I have been covering the stock since July 2025. It started with a Hold , called a Sell in October on valuations, and revert...
Pakorn Supajitsoontorn/iStock via Getty Images A patient waits for a favorable entry into a business that delivers a strong data-model moat, rides the AI tailwinds, yet shows significant risk-reward balance, and seems to be turning finally in favor of Tempus AI, Inc. ( TEM ). I have been covering the stock since July 2025. It started with a Hold , called a Sell in October on valuations, and reverted to a Hold again in December. The stock is down by another ~28% since, while visibility of stable, high-margin, durable revenues has improved. Investors can finally start accumulating Tempus AI at the current risk-reward setup. Valuations are finally well below the levels we had in July last year (indicated forward EV/Revenue multiples in the coverage chart below), while the business looks far more ready to deliver on its product strength, which was always promising. Analyst's Ratings and EV to forward revenue at each call - TEM (Seeking Alpha) Multiple Compression, Business Expansion Since my Hold call in December, the multiple compression (forward EV to revenue terms) has been as stark as during the length of my earlier Sell call. Currently at ~5.7x forward revenue, that compression seems like a true valuation normalization given that revenue revisions have not been drastically negative in the past 6 months. The expected revenue for 2026 is ~$1.59b, backed by management's own guidance of ~$1.59-$1.6b for the full year. Reading Past Obvious Weaker Numbers One of the potential reasons why the valuations have compressed and the stock remains lackluster could be a couple of headline weaknesses seen in the Q1 numbers. First, revenue seems to have fallen sharply from 75-90% YoY growth ranges seen in the prior quarters to the mid-thirties. This is easier to explain given the comps—the 2025 prints were not organic; they were inflated by the Ambry consolidation and by hereditary share gains. Even as per the Q1 commentary, oncology's headline ~54% Q1 growth falls to ~7% once Ambr...