Iranian government hackers are using Telegram as a way to steal data from hacked dissidents, opposition groups, and journalists who oppose the regime around the world, according to an FBI alert published on Friday. In the first stage of the attack, the hackers contact their targets and pretend to be a known contact or tech support, and are tricked into accepting a link to a malicious file masquera...
Iranian government hackers are using Telegram as a way to steal data from hacked dissidents, opposition groups, and journalists who oppose the regime around the world, according to an FBI alert published on Friday. In the first stage of the attack, the hackers contact their targets and pretend to be a known contact or tech support, and are tricked into accepting a link to a malicious file masquerading as legitimate apps, such as Telegram and WhatsApp. Once the target installs the malware, the second stage of the attack connects the infected victim with Telegram bots that allow the hackers to remotely command and control the victim’s computer. This allows the hackers to gain remote control of the victims’ devices to steal files, take screenshots, and record Zoom calls, according to the FBI. Using Telegram as a way to remotely control a victim’s device is a common technique by hackers to hide malicious activity among legitimate network traffic, which makes it harder for cybersecurity defenders and anti-malware products to identify. According to the FBI, the hackers responsible for these attacks are allegedly working for Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS). The FBI said these attacks are an example of Iranian government hackers’ attempts to push the regime’s “geopolitical agenda.” Contact Us Do you have more information about Handala, or other Iran-linked hacking operations? From a non-work device, you can contact Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai securely on Signal at +1 917 257 1382, or via Telegram, Keybase and Wire @lorenzofb, or Do you have more information about Handala, or other Iran-linked hacking operations? From a non-work device, you can contact Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai securely on Signal at +1 917 257 1382, or via Telegram, Keybase and Wire @lorenzofb, or by email . In the alert, the FBI mentioned the pro-Iranian and pro-Palestine fake hacktivist group Handala, although it’s not clear if the attacks referenced in the alert were carried out ...
The earnings shortfall was not due to revenue weakness alone. Adjusted EBITDA tumbled 57% year over year, a staggering decline management attributed to the company's aggressive push into Quick Commerce — Alibaba's on-demand delivery service — alongside elevated spending on user experience and technology. Quick Commerce's segment-adjusted EBITA fell 78% year over year, indicating the business is co...
The earnings shortfall was not due to revenue weakness alone. Adjusted EBITDA tumbled 57% year over year, a staggering decline management attributed to the company's aggressive push into Quick Commerce — Alibaba's on-demand delivery service — alongside elevated spending on user experience and technology. Quick Commerce's segment-adjusted EBITA fell 78% year over year, indicating the business is consuming capital at a pace that scale efficiencies have yet to offset. Sales and marketing expenses expanded substantially in the quarter, underscoring the fierce competitive intensity of China's e-commerce landscape. Even as the Cloud Intelligence Group offered a rare bright spot — with revenues accelerating 36% and AI-related products delivering triple-digit growth for the 10th consecutive quarter — this performance alone cannot compensate for the broader profitability deterioration across the business. Management's forward-looking ambition compounds the concern rather than alleviating it. During the earnings call, Alibaba outlined a five-year goal to surpass $100 billion in combined cloud and AI external revenues, while signaling capital expenditure commitments exceeding $55 billion through fiscal 2028. These projections confirm that investment headwinds are far from receding. The company expects its Model-as-a-Service business to eventually become the Cloud Intelligence Group's largest revenue product, but meaningful monetization remains a future proposition rather than a present financial reality. Investors seeking near-term earnings recovery will find little comfort in guidance that defers profitability improvement to a distant horizon while sustaining heavy near-term spending. Adding to concerns, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for fiscal 2026 earnings is pinned at $5.72 per share, implying a 36.51% year-over-year decline, underscoring the depth of the profitability challenge Alibaba faces as it continues to fund Quick Commerce expansion and AI infrastructure investment ...
wildpixel/iStock via Getty Images Viking Therapeutics ( VKTX ) has already completed enrollment of its VANQUISH-1 study of VK2735 in obesity, and its VANQUISH-2 study in type 2 diabetes/obesity is set to complete enrollment this quarter. Those studies will take 78 weeks to reach their primary endpoint, however, so a nearer-term readout comes from a maintenance dosing study in Q3'26. In October 202...
wildpixel/iStock via Getty Images Viking Therapeutics ( VKTX ) has already completed enrollment of its VANQUISH-1 study of VK2735 in obesity, and its VANQUISH-2 study in type 2 diabetes/obesity is set to complete enrollment this quarter. Those studies will take 78 weeks to reach their primary endpoint, however, so a nearer-term readout comes from a maintenance dosing study in Q3'26. In October 2025, I rated VKTX a hold, noting the delay to VANQUISH results created a bit of a catalyst drought , and noted the company could choose to raise cash, even though it had the cash to make it to the readout from its VANQUISH studies. This article looks at the road ahead for VKTX, including the oral maintenance study results that help break the drought. VKTX2735 maintenance study VKTX's maintenance study involves ~180 adults with a body-mass index of 30 or higher first being dosed weekly with VK2735 subcutaneously (SC) or a placebo for 19 weeks. After that, participants either stay on weekly SC dosing, switch to monthly or every-other-week SC dosing, or receive placebo SC dosing. In the oral arms, patients still start on VK2735 SC at 17.5 mg weekly but then switch to weekly oral dosing or daily oral dosing or switch to placebo. VKTX Corporate Presentation, March 2026 Notably, this design will provide us with insights on the efficacy of VK2735 SC at doses beyond the 17.5 mg dose used in the ongoing phase 3 VANQUISH trials (both VANQUISH studies include 7.5 mg, 12.5 mg, and 17.5 mg VK2735 SC dose groups). Further, it will provide data on the efficacy of those regimes at 19 weeks, whereas previous phase 2 VENTURE data had an endpoint at week 13. Since one of the arms of the study involves staying on SC VK2735 weekly, it will provide efficacy data from 31 weeks of continuous dosing, which we haven't seen before. Such a result might be important for seeing how the VANQUISH studies could perform on weight loss at 78-weeks, since 15 mg SC VK2735 showed no plateau in weight loss at 13 w...
Hello and welcome to the newsletter, a grab bag of daily content from the Odd Lots universe. Sometimes it’s us, Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway, bringing you our thoughts on the most recent developments in markets, finance and the economy. And sometimes it’s contributions from our network of expert guests and sources. Whatever it is, we promise it will always be interesting. If you like chatting ...
Hello and welcome to the newsletter, a grab bag of daily content from the Odd Lots universe. Sometimes it’s us, Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway, bringing you our thoughts on the most recent developments in markets, finance and the economy. And sometimes it’s contributions from our network of expert guests and sources. Whatever it is, we promise it will always be interesting. If you like chatting with us, check out the Odd Lots Discord , where you can hang out and talk with us and with other listeners 24/7. Here’s what Tracy’s thinking about... Clearly there’s still a lot of uncertainty about what’s happening with the Iran War. Just this morning, President Donald Trump appeared to back off his earlier ultimatum, citing productive talks with the Iranians. Fast forward a few hours, however, and now there’s a big question mark over whether the talks even happened, after Tehran denied any such contact had taken place. Since no one is really sure what the US’s goals are in the region, no one can really gauge how the war is proceeding. All investors can do is parse the back-and-forth between the different sides, and that back-and-forth has been pretty chaotic so far. That said, there is one certainty I want to zero in on here. Regardless of what happens in the short- to near-term, it seems very clear that the Iran conflict has set off another reckoning for the global economy — a ‘Come to God’ realization on a par with what we experienced in the 2020 pandemic. Back then, I called this realization the “ chokepoint economy ,” and argued that governments would take a more activist role in directing capital to resolve shortages exposed by the pandemic. It’s worth remembering here that the great Covid shock wasn’t just a collapse in economic activity. It was also the recognition that flows matter more than stocks. You can have ample capital, robust GDP, healthy balance sheets, all that good stuff, etc., but if capital and productive capacity are directed toward the wrong places...
By Chris Prentice and Marisa Taylor WASHINGTON, March 23 (Reuters) - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's top enforcement official, who left abruptly last week, had clashed with agency leaders over the direction of its enforcement program, including the handling of cases with ties to President Donald Trump and his family, according to three people familiar with the matter. SEC Enforcement...
By Chris Prentice and Marisa Taylor WASHINGTON, March 23 (Reuters) - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's top enforcement official, who left abruptly last week, had clashed with agency leaders over the direction of its enforcement program, including the handling of cases with ties to President Donald Trump and his family, according to three people familiar with the matter. SEC Enforcement Division Director Margaret Ryan resigned last Monday after just over six months on the job, Reuters was the first to report. Her resignation email, seen by Reuters, did not say why she was leaving. Ryan declined to comment when reached by phone and text. Two of the people said Ryan wanted to be more aggressive in pursuing charges for fraud and other misconduct including in cases that touched the president's circle, but faced resistance from SEC chair Paul Atkins and other top Republican political appointees. A spokesperson for the SEC said that, under Atkins, the agency made enforcement decisions based on facts, the law, and policy, not on politics: "In every case, the Commission has faithfully applied the federal securities laws. Debate and discussion among our lawyers and other staff is common and encouraged." White House spokespeople did not immediately respond to a request for comment. One case that sparked tension involved cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun, a major backer of the Trump family's World Liberty Financial venture, and another involved Tesla boss Elon Musk, a big donor to Trump's campaign who briefly served as the president's special adviser, the two people said. Reuters granted the sources anonymity to discuss confidential matters related to regulatory enforcement. One of Sun's attorneys and a spokesperson for Musk's law firm, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, declined to comment. 'OUR MISSION IS TOO IMPORTANT' The tensions between Ryan and top SEC officials, which have not previously been reported, shed additional light on how the SEC is policin...
Oracle's stock experienced an upward movement today, reflecting strong investor confidence driven by recent positive financial disclosures and strategic advancements in its cloud and artificial intelligence sectors. The company recently reported robust third-quarter fiscal year 2026 financial results, which significantly surpassed market expectations for both earnings per share and revenue. This m...
Oracle's stock experienced an upward movement today, reflecting strong investor confidence driven by recent positive financial disclosures and strategic advancements in its cloud and artificial intelligence sectors. The company recently reported robust third-quarter fiscal year 2026 financial results, which significantly surpassed market expectations for both earnings per share and revenue. This marked a notable achievement with organic total revenue and non-GAAP earnings per share each growing substantially, a performance level not seen in over a decade and a half. A primary catalyst for the positive sentiment is Oracle's substantial remaining performance obligations (RPO), which reached an unprecedented level in the third quarter of fiscal year 2026. This extensive backlog, largely attributed to increasing demand for AI-related workloads, signals strong future revenue potential and long-term visibility for the company. Furthermore, the company updated its fourth-quarter 2026 earnings per share guidance, exceeding consensus estimates, and raised its total revenue guidance for fiscal year 2027, reinforcing an optimistic outlook for its growth trajectory. Oracle's aggressive expansion into cloud infrastructure and AI capabilities continues to fuel its growth, with cloud revenues demonstrating considerable year-over-year increases. Recent announcements highlighting expanded AI capabilities on its cloud infrastructure, alongside new product enhancements across its cloud offerings and Java platform, have underscored its commitment to enterprise AI adoption. Analyst sentiment has largely remained positive following these developments, with many firms reiterating favorable ratings and price targets, contributing to the stock's appreciation. Additionally, reports indicate increased positions in Oracle by various institutional investors. Intraday volatility observed could be attributed to investors weighing the strong growth prospects against ongoing discussions regarding t...
Atlantic Council Non-Resident Senior Fellow and South Africa Youth Employment Service Co-Chairman Colin Coleman discusses the numerous effects the war in the Middle East is having on African economies, notably the 'devastating' short term impacts on African markets and the residual inflation shock. He talks with Katie Greifeld and Romaine Bostick on "The Close." (Source: Bloomberg)
Atlantic Council Non-Resident Senior Fellow and South Africa Youth Employment Service Co-Chairman Colin Coleman discusses the numerous effects the war in the Middle East is having on African economies, notably the 'devastating' short term impacts on African markets and the residual inflation shock. He talks with Katie Greifeld and Romaine Bostick on "The Close." (Source: Bloomberg)
Never miss an important update on your stock portfolio and cut through the noise. Over 7 million investors trust Simply Wall St to stay informed where it matters for FREE. Alphabet's drone delivery unit Wing is starting home deliveries in the San Francisco Bay Area. The rollout brings autonomous last mile logistics to a dense, high profile US urban market. The move expands Alphabet's presence in a...
Never miss an important update on your stock portfolio and cut through the noise. Over 7 million investors trust Simply Wall St to stay informed where it matters for FREE. Alphabet's drone delivery unit Wing is starting home deliveries in the San Francisco Bay Area. The rollout brings autonomous last mile logistics to a dense, high profile US urban market. The move expands Alphabet's presence in advanced mobility beyond its core AI and cloud services. For investors watching NasdaqGS:GOOGL, Wing's Bay Area launch puts a spotlight on Alphabet's efforts outside its core advertising and cloud operations. Drone delivery sits at the intersection of logistics, e commerce, and urban infrastructure, an area where large technology platforms and retailers are experimenting with how goods move the final few miles to the doorstep. This step also brings fresh attention to Alphabet's Other Bets segment, where many projects are long term in nature and closely watched for signs of commercial traction. Operating in a complex regulatory region like the San Francisco Bay Area could influence how authorities, consumers, and partners think about autonomous logistics in other major cities. Stay updated on the most important news stories for Alphabet by adding it to your watchlist or portfolio. Alternatively, explore our Community to discover new perspectives on Alphabet. NasdaqGS:GOOGL Earnings & Revenue Growth as at Mar 2026 📰 Beyond the headline: 1 risk and 4 things going right for Alphabet that every investor should see. Quick Assessment ✅ Price vs Analyst Target : At US$301, Alphabet trades about 20% below the US$376.75 analyst price target. ✅ Simply Wall St Valuation : Shares are described as trading 11.9% below an estimated fair value. ❌ Recent Momentum: The 30 day return sits at roughly a 4.4% decline. There is only one way to know the right time to buy, sell or hold Alphabet: head to Simply Wall St's company report for the latest analysis of Alphabet's Fair Value. Key Consideratio...
Make better investment decisions with Simply Wall St's easy, visual tools that give you a competitive edge. Ondas (NasdaqCM:ONDS) plans to acquire World View Enterprises to build a unified high altitude and multidomain ISR platform across balloons, drones, and ground systems. The company is deepening its partnership with Palantir to apply AI across this platform, targeting defense and critical inf...
Make better investment decisions with Simply Wall St's easy, visual tools that give you a competitive edge. Ondas (NasdaqCM:ONDS) plans to acquire World View Enterprises to build a unified high altitude and multidomain ISR platform across balloons, drones, and ground systems. The company is deepening its partnership with Palantir to apply AI across this platform, targeting defense and critical infrastructure use cases. The combination aims to address persistent surveillance gaps and reshape how ISR data is collected, processed, and delivered to customers. Ondas comes into this move with a current share price of $10.06 and a very large 1 year return, alongside a roughly 8x 3 year gain. That kind of swing will likely keep investor focus on whether this deal and the expanded Palantir relationship can support a durable, multidomain ISR platform rather than just a short term story. For readers tracking NasdaqCM:ONDS, the key question now is how effectively Ondas can integrate World View's high altitude systems with its existing drone and ground assets while putting Palantir's AI tools to work across the full stack. The scale and complexity of what the company is trying to build could have a meaningful influence on how investors view its long term role in defense and critical infrastructure intelligence. Stay updated on the most important news stories for Ondas by adding it to your watchlist or portfolio. Alternatively, explore our Community to discover new perspectives on Ondas. NasdaqCM:ONDS Earnings & Revenue Growth as at Mar 2026 We've flagged 3 risks for Ondas. See which could impact your investment. Quick Assessment ✅ Price vs Analyst Target : At US$10.06, Ondas trades about 45% below the US$18.38 consensus target. ✅ Simply Wall St Valuation : Simply Wall St estimates the shares are trading 50.3% below fair value. ✅ Recent Momentum: The 30 day return is roughly flat at 0.3%, which may give some room for the World View and Palantir news to reset sentiment. There is o...
mesh cube/iStock via Getty Images In my last article, " Urgent Demand For Data Centers " I made the case that power availability has become the primary bottleneck of the AI buildout. Hyperscaler CAPEX has gone past $600 billion this year alone. The data center buildout is running headfirst into a power grid that physically cannot scale fast enough. Interconnection queues are 5 years, transformers ...
mesh cube/iStock via Getty Images In my last article, " Urgent Demand For Data Centers " I made the case that power availability has become the primary bottleneck of the AI buildout. Hyperscaler CAPEX has gone past $600 billion this year alone. The data center buildout is running headfirst into a power grid that physically cannot scale fast enough. Interconnection queues are 5 years, transformers are backordered for years, and gas turbines are sold out. In short, the conclusion of that piece was that Big Tech has a blank check and nowhere to plug it in. But it turns out there is a new, equally severe, and arguably more immediate problem basically hiding in plain sight: its memory (High Bandwidth Memory). As I've dug deeper into the supply chain over the past couple of weeks, I have realized something that I think the market still hasn't fully priced in. And if you have been following this hype around memory stocks like Sandisk ( SNDK ) and Micron Technology ( MU ), then you know that we are starting to have a memory shortage that pushed the memory prices through the roof for consumers. Those shortages are because the supply that was meant for consumers is being redirected towards AI data centers (specifically GPUs). High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) is the most important part that sits on every AI GPU, from Nvidia's Blackwell to AMD's MI series and every other. Without HBM, there is no AI chip. Everyone right now is talking about the memory shortage, and many of you may know there is a memory shortage, but I am not seeing many people talk about how big a problem it can be. Even if every hyperscaler on the planet secured all the power they needed tomorrow, they still could not build out 100 GW of AI compute by 2030. Because the world physically cannot manufacture enough memory by 2030. Now, in my last piece, I focused on where all that power would come from. Today I want to focus on what goes inside the building once you've got the power. Because every gigawatt of AI compu...
mesh cube/iStock via Getty Images In my last article, " Urgent Demand For Data Centers " I made the case that power availability has become the primary bottleneck of the AI buildout. Hyperscaler CAPEX has gone past $600 billion this year alone. The data center buildout is running headfirst into a power grid that physically cannot scale fast enough. Interconnection queues are 5 years, transformers ...
mesh cube/iStock via Getty Images In my last article, " Urgent Demand For Data Centers " I made the case that power availability has become the primary bottleneck of the AI buildout. Hyperscaler CAPEX has gone past $600 billion this year alone. The data center buildout is running headfirst into a power grid that physically cannot scale fast enough. Interconnection queues are 5 years, transformers are backordered for years, and gas turbines are sold out. In short, the conclusion of that piece was that Big Tech has a blank check and nowhere to plug it in. But it turns out there is a new, equally severe, and arguably more immediate problem basically hiding in plain sight: its memory (High Bandwidth Memory). As I've dug deeper into the supply chain over the past couple of weeks, I have realized something that I think the market still hasn't fully priced in. And if you have been following this hype around memory stocks like Sandisk ( SNDK ) and Micron Technology ( MU ), then you know that we are starting to have a memory shortage that pushed the memory prices through the roof for consumers. Those shortages are because the supply that was meant for consumers is being redirected towards AI data centers (specifically GPUs). High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) is the most important part that sits on every AI GPU, from Nvidia's Blackwell to AMD's MI series and every other. Without HBM, there is no AI chip. Everyone right now is talking about the memory shortage, and many of you may know there is a memory shortage, but I am not seeing many people talk about how big a problem it can be. Even if every hyperscaler on the planet secured all the power they needed tomorrow, they still could not build out 100 GW of AI compute by 2030. Because the world physically cannot manufacture enough memory by 2030. Now, in my last piece, I focused on where all that power would come from. Today I want to focus on what goes inside the building once you've got the power. Because every gigawatt of AI compu...
Key Points The S&P 500 features 500 of the highest quality companies listed on American stock exchanges. The index has delivered a compound annual return of 10.6% since its inception in 1957, but it's currently in the throes of a sell-off. The iShares Core S&P 500 ETF tracks the performance of the index, and history suggests now might be a great time to buy. 10 stocks we like better than iShares C...
Key Points The S&P 500 features 500 of the highest quality companies listed on American stock exchanges. The index has delivered a compound annual return of 10.6% since its inception in 1957, but it's currently in the throes of a sell-off. The iShares Core S&P 500 ETF tracks the performance of the index, and history suggests now might be a great time to buy. 10 stocks we like better than iShares Core S&P 500 ETF › The S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) stock market index closed at 6,506 on Friday, March 20, marking a 7% decline from its all-time high. Sell-offs of this magnitude are relatively common, but with economic uncertainty on the rise and geopolitical tensions raging in the Middle East, there is a risk of further downside from here. But throughout history, investors who treated periods of weakness as buying opportunities have reaped significant rewards over the long term. Purchasing an S&P 500 index fund is one of the simplest and most cost-effective ways to capitalize on the recent market sell-off, because it provides investors with exposure to some of the fastest-growing companies in areas like artificial intelligence (AI), alongside defensive companies in sectors like financials and healthcare. Will AI create the world's first trillionaire? Our team just released a report on the one little-known company, called an "Indispensable Monopoly" providing the critical technology Nvidia and Intel both need. Continue » The iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: IVV) is an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that directly tracks the index by holding the same stocks and maintaining similar weightings. Should investors buy it now? Recent volatility highlights the benefits of diversification The S&P 500 hosts 500 companies from 11 different sectors of the economy, and it has a very strict entry criteria. To qualify for selection, companies must be profitable, and they must maintain a market capitalization of at least $22.7 billion. But even after ticking those boxes, a special committee ha...
Key Events This Week: PMIs, Productivity And Consumer Sentiment As has become customary for Monday, we have seen a dramatic surge in risk assets (3rd Monday in a row) on what at least superficially appears to be de-escalation after Trump announced strikes against Iran's power plant would be delayed by 5 days as a result of talks with Iran, talks which at least Iran's domestic news sources have so ...
Key Events This Week: PMIs, Productivity And Consumer Sentiment As has become customary for Monday, we have seen a dramatic surge in risk assets (3rd Monday in a row) on what at least superficially appears to be de-escalation after Trump announced strikes against Iran's power plant would be delayed by 5 days as a result of talks with Iran, talks which at least Iran's domestic news sources have so far denied. And the market lurches from headline to headline, it feels somewhat trivial to focus on the week ahead data calendar, but there will nevertheless be interest in the global flash PMIs for March, due tomorrow. As DB's Jim Reid notes, these surveys cover the period through roughly the end of last week and should therefore be heavily influenced by developments in the conflict. Elsewhere, inflation indicators are due in the UK, Japan and Australia, although these will now be quite backward looking . The German IFO survey on Wednesday may provide another timely read on sentiment, and Lagarde’s speech the same day will also be closely watched. The week concludes with the final March reading of the University of Michigan US consumer sentiment survey, which incorporates an additional couple of weeks of responses from the initial reading. DB's economists expect a modest downward revision to 55.0 from the preliminary 55.5 as more respondents reflect heightened geopolitical uncertainty related to Iran. More important for policymakers, however, will be the inflation expectations components. Both one year and five to ten year expectations have historically tracked energy prices closely, making them particularly relevant in the current environment. Overall the data calendar is light in the US, and even if it were busier it would likely pale in significance relative to events in the Middle East. On the policy front, scheduled Fed appearances are limited, with only three officials due to speak. The first comes from Vice Chair Jefferson, who is set to deliver an outlook speech on...
chameleonseye/iStock Editorial via Getty Images To be honest with you, one of the most confusing companies on the market right now has to be PayPal Holdings ( PYPL ). Although I acknowledge that some of the financial performance of the business has been mixed as of late, the overall trajectory of it is positive. Key metrics are expanding, and shares are trading at incredibly low levels on both an ...
chameleonseye/iStock Editorial via Getty Images To be honest with you, one of the most confusing companies on the market right now has to be PayPal Holdings ( PYPL ). Although I acknowledge that some of the financial performance of the business has been mixed as of late, the overall trajectory of it is positive. Key metrics are expanding, and shares are trading at incredibly low levels on both an absolute basis and relative to other similar enterprises. It is a major leader in the payments processing industry. And despite some of the volatility that the company has exhibited, management has been pretty consistent with margins while simultaneously returning capital to shareholders. And yet, the stock continues to drop. Since I reaffirmed it as a "Strong Buy" candidate back in December of last year, the stock has fallen 27.5%. Over the same period, the S&P 500 is down 1.9%. Lately, there have been some rumors about a potential buyout of the company. At its price, I think that would be a fantastic idea for any suitor. I don't necessarily expect that sort of catalyst. But when you add on top of how cheap the stock is the possibility that some other player could come in and snatch it up, it seems obvious to me that this is one of the most appealing prospects i n the market today. That's why I have no problem maintaining it as a "Strong Buy" candidate. And if the stock falls much further, I might be forced to step in and buy shares myself. A recipe for success The only new data that investors have regarding PayPal Holdings at this time would be data covering the final quarter of the company's 2025 fiscal year . During that time, revenue for the company came in at $8.68 billion. That represents an increase of 3.7% compared to the $8.37 billion that the company reported a year earlier. As revenue expanded, profitability improved nicely. The firm saw net income of $1.44 billion. That was well above the $1.12 billion that it reported a year earlier. But it is important to kee...
jejim/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Activist investor Elliott Investment Management taking a multibillion-dollar stake in Synopsys ( SNPS ) is likely a near-term positive for the company, according to Baird. Shares of Synopsys jumped about 5% on Monday. The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday that the company built a multibillion-dollar stake in Synopsys ( SNPS ) and planned to push for cha...
jejim/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Activist investor Elliott Investment Management taking a multibillion-dollar stake in Synopsys ( SNPS ) is likely a near-term positive for the company, according to Baird. Shares of Synopsys jumped about 5% on Monday. The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday that the company built a multibillion-dollar stake in Synopsys ( SNPS ) and planned to push for changes at the company. The report cited planned engagement with management “to help align operational execution, profitability, and monetization with its potential and importance to the semiconductor ecosystem,” while mentioning that Elliott sees room for sales and margins to approach that of Cadence Design Systems ( CDNS ). "Having an activist aligned with the long-time Synopsys 'bull case' is likely near-term positive, though we suspect sustained gains come down to execution," said analysts led by Joe Vruwink. On the merits of improving profitability and "financial performance to more fully reflect the value it delivers," the analysts said they agree that this remains relevant for all the major Electronic Design Automation, or EDA, vendors. The analyst noted that EDA salespeople are intimately familiar with the budget that customers have available, and increasing wallet share of that budget has been a gradual process. "AI capabilities could certainly be the catalyst to changing this framing altogether, and it is not a coincidence that there have been renewed discussions around 'value sharing' models, flexible spending accounts, and equipping one engineer with ability to use multiple simultaneous licenses," said Vruwink and his team. As to margin comparisons over the last 12-month time frame, the analysts said that Cadence, at 45%, is still the envy of the industry, with Synopsys (and initial Ansys inclusion) at 39%. However, the analysts believe a more apt comparison is Cadence at 45% versus Synopsys' DesignAutomation segment at 44%, revealing the size of opportunity that f...