gettinthere/iStock via Getty Images Have you ever had a burning question that you wished could be answered by someone with expertise and knowledge? This is a massive benefit of investing groups on Seeking Alpha. It gives you access to analysts and experts from all walks of life who can answer questions often in real time or answer questions you have in short order. Last week, we had a question in ...
gettinthere/iStock via Getty Images Have you ever had a burning question that you wished could be answered by someone with expertise and knowledge? This is a massive benefit of investing groups on Seeking Alpha. It gives you access to analysts and experts from all walks of life who can answer questions often in real time or answer questions you have in short order. Last week, we had a question in Dividend Kings from one of our members about drone warfare and how it will impact the established defense industry within the United States. Warfare is Changing, but Not the Goals It's no secret that the United States, as well as many European countries, has increased its defense spending in the last number of years. Russia's military action in Ukraine brought to light the shortfall of many countries' defense spending. They were wholly unprepared for any sort of military action to occur in the world, let alone so close to the doorstep of Europe and their own countries. The United States has been involved in two wars recently, first in Iraq and then in the 20-year-long military conflict in Afghanistan. While both of these had a high human cost, there wasn't the same prevalence or reliance on drone usage within those military engagements. The United States military used technological superiority, such as night vision and thermal vision, and vehicles on the ground to heavily crush forces that lacked the same equipment. The Taliban was using equipment from the Cold War or the end of World War II; Mosin-Nagant rifles were used as sniper rifles to shoot at American infantrymen . America had control of night warfare because of its technology. A large number of drones, missiles, and bombs were not used throughout the engagement. Iraq was not a strong military force to combat against the United States, either. Both of those military engagements switched quickly from two capable armies fighting against each other into an insurgency where the military was trying to root out resistance...
adventtr/E+ via Getty Images By Jon Vacko, CFA, and Joe Wysocki, CFA The convertible market enters the second quarter navigating a complex investment landscape. Conflict in the Middle East, private equity valuation pressures, and the accelerating disruption that AI is introducing to software and knowledge-based businesses each present their own set of risks. The Middle East conflict has the broade...
adventtr/E+ via Getty Images By Jon Vacko, CFA, and Joe Wysocki, CFA The convertible market enters the second quarter navigating a complex investment landscape. Conflict in the Middle East, private equity valuation pressures, and the accelerating disruption that AI is introducing to software and knowledge-based businesses each present their own set of risks. The Middle East conflict has the broadest implications, with the potential to influence the path of inflation, economic growth, and monetary and fiscal policies. Even if current geopolitical tensions subside quickly, fall midterm elections are approaching and carry significant fiscal policy implications. Because convertibles combine attributes of stocks and fixed-income securities, we believe they can continue to provide attractive strategic benefits in an environment characterized by hard-to-predict and rapidly moving geopolitical and macro crosscurrents. However, disciplined monitoring, portfolio flexibility, and active management focused on fundamentals will be essential for navigating this environment. Our overall focus remains on identifying resilient thematic growth trends, bottom-up company selection, and active rebalancing of security-specific risk/reward tradeoffs across the portfolio. We maintain our preference for convertible structures that provide favorable asymmetric payoff profiles - that is, offering attractive levels of upside equity participation with less exposure to downside moves. We continue to emphasize companies with improving margins and free cash flow, accelerating returns on invested capital, and attractive equity valuations. Information technology and industrials are CICVX’s two largest sector allocations and represent the fund’s most significant relative overweights. Within these sectors, we are investing in companies at the forefront of AI data center construction and power delivery, as well as the connectivity infrastructure that supports them. This is a structural, multiyear inves...
In this video, I will discuss five stocks that are flying under the radar right now. These companies are growing fast, trading at reasonable valuations, and are almost entirely undercovered. Watch the short video to learn more, consider subscribing, and click the special offer link below. *Stock prices used were from the trading day of April. 6, 2026. The video was published on April. 6, 2026. Con...
In this video, I will discuss five stocks that are flying under the radar right now. These companies are growing fast, trading at reasonable valuations, and are almost entirely undercovered. Watch the short video to learn more, consider subscribing, and click the special offer link below. *Stock prices used were from the trading day of April. 6, 2026. The video was published on April. 6, 2026. Continue reading
When investors think of dividend stocks, they usually think of boring companies that deliver single-digit stock returns and pay a few percentage points in dividends. This provides a bit more return security, as the companies are paying out a certain amount of profits each year rather than having to deal with whatever returns the market delivers. However, there is a segment of artificial intelligen...
When investors think of dividend stocks, they usually think of boring companies that deliver single-digit stock returns and pay a few percentage points in dividends. This provides a bit more return security, as the companies are paying out a certain amount of profits each year rather than having to deal with whatever returns the market delivers. However, there is a segment of artificial intelligence (AI) stocks that pay a respectable dividend and are also growing at a fast pace. These three AI stocks pay you a dividend to wait and can provide market-crushing growth. This combination is fairly rare, but I think these three stocks are among the best buys in the market right now. Image source: Getty Images. Continue reading
Southwest General in Middleburg Heights, Ohio, is using Oracle Health Clinical AI Agent Clinical Note, an AI-powered, voice-enabled solution integrated with Oracle Health Foundation EHR, to help alleviate the burden of clinical documentation. Southwest General deployed the solution across 18 ambulatory specialties to help doctors spend more time on meaningful engagement with patients and less time...
Southwest General in Middleburg Heights, Ohio, is using Oracle Health Clinical AI Agent Clinical Note, an AI-powered, voice-enabled solution integrated with Oracle Health Foundation EHR, to help alleviate the burden of clinical documentation. Southwest General deployed the solution across 18 ambulatory specialties to help doctors spend more time on meaningful engagement with patients and less time on after-hours administrative tasks.
SAN FRANCISCO, April 07, 2026--Northbeam, the leader in marketing attribution, today announced the launch of Northbeam Incrementality, a fully automated solution designed to make incrementality testing faster, more reliable, and accessible to a broader range of advertisers.
SAN FRANCISCO, April 07, 2026--Northbeam, the leader in marketing attribution, today announced the launch of Northbeam Incrementality, a fully automated solution designed to make incrementality testing faster, more reliable, and accessible to a broader range of advertisers.
Hypersonic plane startup Hermeus Corp. raised $350 million in a funding round to scale up its efforts to build the fastest uncrewed aircraft ever for the US Department of Defense. The Atlanta-based company will use the new capital to build two more supersonic jets and ramp up its manufacturing capacity. Hermeus is in the process of building an unmanned plane that will eventually travel three times...
Hypersonic plane startup Hermeus Corp. raised $350 million in a funding round to scale up its efforts to build the fastest uncrewed aircraft ever for the US Department of Defense. The Atlanta-based company will use the new capital to build two more supersonic jets and ramp up its manufacturing capacity. Hermeus is in the process of building an unmanned plane that will eventually travel three times faster than the speed of sound for military purposes. “It’s got fighter jet payload capacity, but it’s unmanned, and it’s more affordable,” Zach Shore, president of Hermeus, said in an interview. Khosla Ventures led a funding round that also included Canaan Partners , Founders Fund, RTX Ventures LLC, Bling Capital and In-Q-Tel. Joining as new investors are Cox Enterprises and their venture fund Socium Ventures, Destiny Tech100, Georgia Tech Foundation , GS Backers, 137 Ventures and others. Hermeus has raised more than $500 million in total capital and said the latest capital infusion would value the company at $1 billion. The latest round of financing is comprised of $200 million in equity and $150 million in debt. Founded in 2018, Hermeus has flown test flights with its Quarterhorse aircraft and says supersonic flights are imminent. “The US is very far behind anything in Russia or China on hypersonic flight and weapons,” Vinod Khosla , the founder of Khosla Ventures, said in an interview. “So it becomes imperative that we have a strategy, and that’s what Hermeus is doing.”
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images News Google is adding some mental health support features to its AI service Gemini and announced $30M in funding worldwide over the next three years to help global hotlines. The Alphabet ( GOOG ) ( GOOGL ) unit said that when a conversation may signal a user may need information about mental health, Gemini will surface a redesigned "Help is available" module — deve...
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images News Google is adding some mental health support features to its AI service Gemini and announced $30M in funding worldwide over the next three years to help global hotlines. The Alphabet ( GOOG ) ( GOOGL ) unit said that when a conversation may signal a user may need information about mental health, Gemini will surface a redesigned "Help is available" module — developed with clinical experts — to provide more effective and immediate connections to care. Google added that when Gemini recognizes a conversation that indicates a potential crisis related to suicide or self-harm, a new, simplified "one-touch" interface will provide an immediate connection to crisis hotline resources, enabling a user to chat, call, text, or visit the crisis hotline website. The company noted that once the interface is activated, the option to reach out for professional help will remain clearly available throughout the remainder of the conversation. In addition, Google announced $30M in funding globally over the next three years to help global hotlines. The company said the funding will help effectively scale their capacity to provide immediate and safe support for people in crisis. Google is also expanding its partnership with ReflexAI to help social sector organizations scale their mental health support services. This initiative includes $4M in direct funding and the integration of Gemini into ReflexAI’s training suite. The company added that Google.org Fellows will provide free technical expertise to help evolve Prepare, a customizable platform that uses realistic, AI-powered simulations, to train staff and volunteers for critical conversations. Google said that people are interacting with Gemini in deeper, more complex ways, seeking information across many topics, including when they are experiencing mental health crises. The company noted that its clinical, engineering, and safety teams are focused on: prioritizing safety and human connection; designing...
Big Tech stocks have taken a battering lately—but investors should take the opportunity to buy the dip as the Iran war drags on, according to Goldman Sachs. Tech in 2026 has posted one of its worst periods of relative underperformance of the past 50 years amid a pivot to value stocks, analyst Peter Oppenheimer said in a research note on Tuesday. Facebook owner Meta Platforms IT company Microsoft a...
Big Tech stocks have taken a battering lately—but investors should take the opportunity to buy the dip as the Iran war drags on, according to Goldman Sachs. Tech in 2026 has posted one of its worst periods of relative underperformance of the past 50 years amid a pivot to value stocks, analyst Peter Oppenheimer said in a research note on Tuesday. Facebook owner Meta Platforms IT company Microsoft and chip maker Nvidia are all fetching less than 20 times expected earnings for the next 24 months, the analyst noted.
Wall Street’s biggest ETF issuers are circling Invesco Ltd. ’s Nasdaq 100 franchise, threatening to end its near-exclusive hold on the index. Just a day after BlackRock Inc. filed a challenger to Invesco’s Nasdaq 100-tracking ETF, State Street Corp. followed suit. On Tuesday, it submitted paperwork to launch the State Street SPDR Nasdaq 100 ETF, which would be its first fund focused on the tech-he...
Wall Street’s biggest ETF issuers are circling Invesco Ltd. ’s Nasdaq 100 franchise, threatening to end its near-exclusive hold on the index. Just a day after BlackRock Inc. filed a challenger to Invesco’s Nasdaq 100-tracking ETF, State Street Corp. followed suit. On Tuesday, it submitted paperwork to launch the State Street SPDR Nasdaq 100 ETF, which would be its first fund focused on the tech-heavy gauge. The BlackRock and State Street funds would be among just a handful of US-listed ETFs to solely track the Nasdaq 100 — and the first ones to not be managed by Invesco, which has run the $379 billion Invesco QQQ Trust Series 1 fund (ticker QQQ ) since 1999. Exchange-operator Nasdaq has been historically selective about licensing out its namesake index, comprising the 100 largest non-financial companies listed on the Nasdaq exchange. While other ETFs that add derivatives to the Nasdaq 100 stocks trade stateside, Invesco has enjoyed virtually exclusive access to the pure Nasdaq 100 in the US market. That relationship has produced QQQ, one of the largest ETFs globally, as well as the $70 billion Invesco Nasdaq 100 ETF ( QQQM ). Some analysts posit that the new filings may be coming on the heels of news of an upcoming fast-tracking of new firms into the Nasdaq-100. Nasdaq said recently that it would enact a rule change designed to cut the time it takes for newly listed, large-cap companies to enter its main index, a move that will give shares of behemoths like SpaceX a faster route into funds that are pegged to the benchmark. “The Nasdaq 100 has become a cornerstone of sorts for investor portfolios, so issuers are doing what we’ve seen time and time again — imitating each other,” said Todd Sohn , chief ETF strategist at Strategas Securities. “On the other hand, though, I have to wonder if this is more about the potential IPOs coming down the pipeline and issuers wanting to have the Nasdaq 100 exposure ready for those interested.” Fees, which may ultimately help determi...
aluxum/iStock via Getty Images Background In late 2024, I recommended investors buy Energy Transfer LP ( ET ) for its reinvigorated balance sheet, growth potential, and well-supported distribution. Since then, ET's 36% total return was nearly double the 19% total return of the S&P 500 Index ( SP500 ). Many investors are rightfully thrilled; the company's distribution yield is still over 7%, and th...
aluxum/iStock via Getty Images Background In late 2024, I recommended investors buy Energy Transfer LP ( ET ) for its reinvigorated balance sheet, growth potential, and well-supported distribution. Since then, ET's 36% total return was nearly double the 19% total return of the S&P 500 Index ( SP500 ). Many investors are rightfully thrilled; the company's distribution yield is still over 7%, and the distribution is expected to increase 3-5% over the next year. Growth investors will be thrilled too; earnings grew more than 10% year over year, and the company plowed about $4.5B into growth CapEx in 2025. Leverage And Dilution Even while growth and increased distributions are broadly positive, the balance sheet counts too. Generally, limited partnerships like Energy Transfer can fund minimal growth with cash, but debt or dilution are often required for more aggressive growth. Aggressive growth is characteristic of Energy Transfer, and hopefully, investors will not be horribly shocked that the company chose to add substantial debt. Net debt and share counts are plotted over the last five quarters below. Author The good news is that dilution is minimal, with total units increasing by only about 0.5%. At the same time, net debt increased around 15%, from roughly $60B to about $69B. Ballooning debt could be problematic, especially given Energy Transfer's history and concerns around excessive leverage. However, let's allow that $9B in new debt could be fantastic news if invested and managed well. Or more specifically, if revenues, distribution coverage, and EBITDA are at least keeping pace with debt such that leverage and distribution coverage can reasonably be expected to improve over time. In other words, what kind of fool would not want to own a growing golden goose with expanding revenue, bigger distributions, lower leverage, and greater potential for price return? Just The Numbers, Please I think the narrative approach is well covered by the company's investor materials...