cmannphoto/iStock via Getty Images Investment Thesis For Gray Media: Political Ad Revenue To Support Deleveraging Effort In my previous write-up about Gray Media ( GTN )( GTN.A ) from November 2025, titled " Gray Media's Deleveraging Challenge ", I laid out an investment thesis for the Gray Media shares that had deleveraging through debt reduction at the core. Gray Media can generate substantial v...
cmannphoto/iStock via Getty Images Investment Thesis For Gray Media: Political Ad Revenue To Support Deleveraging Effort In my previous write-up about Gray Media ( GTN )( GTN.A ) from November 2025, titled " Gray Media's Deleveraging Challenge ", I laid out an investment thesis for the Gray Media shares that had deleveraging through debt reduction at the core. Gray Media can generate substantial value for shareholders by paying down debt. In this follow-up article, I wanted to first recap the thesis and then highlight the important role of political advertising revenue. Currently, Gray Media has a high total debt, amounting to over $5.5B in total per Q3 2025. The maturities are spread over the period from 2028-2033 (see image below). Gray Media debt profile (IR) At the same time, Gray Media's GTN shares, constituting the bulk of outstanding common stock, trade near multi-year lows, as the graph below shows. The other common stock, the GTN.A shares currently deviate somewhat to the upside from the GTN shares, but GTN.A is only a small percentage of the common stock outstanding. Data by YCharts At the current low share prices, Gray Media has a market cap of ~$0.5B, which is very small in comparison with the total $5.5B debt on the Gray Media balance sheet. Gray Media is thus highly leveraged, and the thesis is now that if Gray Media uses the substantial net income that the company generates to pay down debt, the value of the equity could rise significantly. For example, if Gray Media pays down $0.5B of debt at some point, it would constitute a repayment of less than 10% of the debt, but it could potentially increase the total value of the equity by the same absolute amount, from $0.5B to $1B, which would mean a doubling or 100% rise of the share price. This assumes that Gray Media's enterprise value, i.e., the sum of the market cap and the debt, remains the same. Of course, the mechanics are not so direct in real life. A repayment of debt doesn't normally result in an...
hirun/iStock via Getty Images Buying more Energy Transfer ( ET ) units in early January was a good move because it delivered me a total return of 13.4% while the S&P500 Index declined by 1%. The company's Q4 earnings are around the corner, and we are likely to see solid revenue performance due to both organic and inorganic factors. On the other hand, I have some concerns about the company's abilit...
hirun/iStock via Getty Images Buying more Energy Transfer ( ET ) units in early January was a good move because it delivered me a total return of 13.4% while the S&P500 Index declined by 1%. The company's Q4 earnings are around the corner, and we are likely to see solid revenue performance due to both organic and inorganic factors. On the other hand, I have some concerns about the company's ability to exercise strong operating leverage further, which might lead to a negative EPS surprise. Meanwhile, ET's valuation is currently not as attractive as it was in the very beginning of 2026. I am not selling ET because it is one of my favorite dividend plays, but I prefer to stop buying at this point due to stretched valuation and mounting macroeconomic uncertainty. Therefore, I prefer to downgrade ET to 'Hold'. ET Q4 earnings preview The company is set to release Q4 earnings next week, on February 17th pre-market . Analysts forecast a 20.5% year-over-year revenue growth to $23.5 billion and a 17.3% year-over-year EPS growth to $0.34. An aggressive 20.5% revenue is rare for a mature midstream company. The company has not disclosed separate effects from organic and inorganic growth so far, but we know that notable part of the expected revenue growth acceleration is explained by the fact that ET was quite aggressive in terms of M&A endeavors in 2024 ( WTG Midstream , NuStar Energy via Sunoco ) and now these projects are fully integrated into ET's infrastructure and directly affect financials. Besides inorganic growth, I think that ET's organic growth was also strong in Q4 due to the increasing energy demand from data centers and the United States breaking new records in hydrocarbons production during Q4 2025 . Therefore, I expect strong Q4 revenue dynamic from ET. SA - ET's recent earnings revisions record However, I see a few warning signs from the bottom line viewpoint. Analysts are becoming more cautious with their 5 downward EPS revisions over the last few months. The fa...
China’s official military paper has revealed another incident in which PLA fighter jets radar-locked a foreign stealth aircraft, four months after state media reported a similar encounter. A social media account affiliated with the PLA Daily said in an article published on Wednesday that Eastern Theatre Command fighter jets locked their radar onto a foreign stealth aircraft at a distance of 800 me...
China’s official military paper has revealed another incident in which PLA fighter jets radar-locked a foreign stealth aircraft, four months after state media reported a similar encounter. A social media account affiliated with the PLA Daily said in an article published on Wednesday that Eastern Theatre Command fighter jets locked their radar onto a foreign stealth aircraft at a distance of 800 metres (2,624 feet). The article did not mention when or where the encounter took place. Military...
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi have met on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. The meeting comes as Washington and Beijing prepare for US President Donald Trump’s planned visit to China in April. The trip is expected to take place in early April, although the exact dates have yet to be confirmed. More to follow...
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi have met on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. The meeting comes as Washington and Beijing prepare for US President Donald Trump’s planned visit to China in April. The trip is expected to take place in early April, although the exact dates have yet to be confirmed. More to follow...
Atmus Filtration press release ( ATMU ): Q4 Non-GAAP EPS of $0.66 beats by $0.09 . Revenue of $447M (+9.8% Y/Y) beats by $24.94M . More on Atmus Filtration Atmus Filtration Technologies Inc. (ATMU) Presents at Goldman Sachs Industrials and Materials Conference 2025 Transcript Atmus Filtration Technologies: Resorting To M&A To Accelerate Growth Atmus Filtration upgraded at J.P. Morgan after Koch Fi...
Atmus Filtration press release ( ATMU ): Q4 Non-GAAP EPS of $0.66 beats by $0.09 . Revenue of $447M (+9.8% Y/Y) beats by $24.94M . More on Atmus Filtration Atmus Filtration Technologies Inc. (ATMU) Presents at Goldman Sachs Industrials and Materials Conference 2025 Transcript Atmus Filtration Technologies: Resorting To M&A To Accelerate Growth Atmus Filtration upgraded at J.P. Morgan after Koch Filter acquisition Atmus Filtration buys Koch Filter for $450 million Seeking Alpha’s Quant Rating on Atmus Filtration
Apollo Global Management Inc. is in early talks to partner with Revolut Ltd. and offer its funds to retail customers in Europe through the fintech’s platform. The alternative asset manager would be one of the private capital managers set to offer vehicles via Revolut’s private markets offering , which the fintech is expected to launch later this year, according to people with knowledge of the matt...
Apollo Global Management Inc. is in early talks to partner with Revolut Ltd. and offer its funds to retail customers in Europe through the fintech’s platform. The alternative asset manager would be one of the private capital managers set to offer vehicles via Revolut’s private markets offering , which the fintech is expected to launch later this year, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The funds would only be available in the European Union, one of the people said. Revolut could add other managers to its offering, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private information. The talks between Apollo and Revolut may not materialize in a deal, the people added. Representatives for Apollo and Revolut declined to comment. Any partnership between Revolut, which has more than 70 million users , and Apollo would be among the most high-profile examples yet of private market firms trying to tap individual investors for capital in an effort to seek new sources of funding. Separately, Revolut has been holding exploratory talks with Blackstone Inc. to offer funds to clients of the private banking service it’s developing. Wealth revenue at the London-headquartered fintech surged nearly 300% in 2024 to £506 million ($689 million), partly driven by crypto trading volumes. On Monday, Apollo said it drew $4 billion from its wealth channels in the fourth quarter. That brings the assets it manages for wealthy individuals globally to around $50 billion, and brings it closer to its goal of $150 billion by 2029. Apollo this week also announced a partnership with UK asset manager Schroders Plc to develop funds for wealth and pension clients. While many private capital managers have joined forces with firms catering to high-net-worth individuals, some are specifically targeting retail investors. German online broker Trade Republic last year teamed up with Apollo and EQT AB , while Robinhood Markets Inc. started launching a closed-end fund to give US retail inv...