HJBC/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Russia's Vladimir Putin authorized TotalEnergies ( TTE ) to sell its 10% stake in the U.S.-sanctioned Arctic LNG 2 export project to Nordline LLC, Bloomberg reported Wednesday, in a rare approval that allows the French company to exit a project strangled by western restrictions. If finalized, TotalEnergies ( TTE ) would still hold an indirect stake in the p...
HJBC/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Russia's Vladimir Putin authorized TotalEnergies ( TTE ) to sell its 10% stake in the U.S.-sanctioned Arctic LNG 2 export project to Nordline LLC, Bloomberg reported Wednesday, in a rare approval that allows the French company to exit a project strangled by western restrictions. If finalized, TotalEnergies ( TTE ) would still hold an indirect stake in the project, as it owns 19.4% of Russian LNG company Novatek. The $21B Arctic LNG 2 was sanctioned by the U.S. in late 2023 in an effort to curb Russia's ability to expand liquefied natural gas exports; the facility began shipping the fuel via shadow fleet vessels the following year and has slowly ramped up output, even though it is operating well below the intended capacity. TotalEnergies ( TTE ) was among a handful of major Western energy companies that retained stakes in strategic Russian projects after the invasion of Ukraine. More on TotalEnergies TotalEnergies: Oil's War Premium Won't Last Forever (Downgrade) TotalEnergies: Nearing Or At A Cyclic Peak (Rating Downgrade) TotalEnergies Has Future Growth Potential
Spotify (NYSE:SPOT) just delivered a quarter that should have settled the bear case. Premium subscribers hit 293 million, free cash flow surged 54.6% to $824 million, and operating income climbed 40.47%. Yet shares trade at $507.76, down 12.56% year to date. The streaming leader is firing on every operational cylinder, but the stock keeps slipping. ... Spotify Stock Will Trade at This Price In a Y...
Spotify (NYSE:SPOT) just delivered a quarter that should have settled the bear case. Premium subscribers hit 293 million, free cash flow surged 54.6% to $824 million, and operating income climbed 40.47%. Yet shares trade at $507.76, down 12.56% year to date. The streaming leader is firing on every operational cylinder, but the stock keeps slipping. ... Spotify Stock Will Trade at This Price In a Year
Hidden inside Meta's (META) massive advertising machine is a product suite already at a $20 billion annual revenue run rate. This value optimization suite, adopted by businesses for its performance, has more than doubled in the last year. It represents a powerful new layer of monetization, scaling quietly beneath the surface of the core social apps.
Hidden inside Meta's (META) massive advertising machine is a product suite already at a $20 billion annual revenue run rate. This value optimization suite, adopted by businesses for its performance, has more than doubled in the last year. It represents a powerful new layer of monetization, scaling quietly beneath the surface of the core social apps.
Alphabet boosted the size of its big stock sale to $84.75 billion from $80 billion, as it prepares to ramp up its investment in artificial-intelligence infrastructure amid surging demand. The Google parent also released details on its common stock and convertible preferred offerings that were priced after Tuesday’s market close. Alphabet sold about $18 billion of common stock, divided almost equal...
Alphabet boosted the size of its big stock sale to $84.75 billion from $80 billion, as it prepares to ramp up its investment in artificial-intelligence infrastructure amid surging demand. The Google parent also released details on its common stock and convertible preferred offerings that were priced after Tuesday’s market close. Alphabet sold about $18 billion of common stock, divided almost equally between its class A and C shares.
VersaBank (NASDAQ:VBNK) reported record second-quarter fiscal 2026 credit assets and revenue, while management said results were affected by non-core costs tied to its planned corporate reorganization and the sale of its only physical bank branch. President David Taylor said the
VersaBank (NASDAQ:VBNK) reported record second-quarter fiscal 2026 credit assets and revenue, while management said results were affected by non-core costs tied to its planned corporate reorganization and the sale of its only physical bank branch. President David Taylor said the
jittawit.21/iStock via Getty Images Quanta Services, Inc. ( PWR ) is a high-quality company. Quanta Services helps build the infrastructure needed to keep data centers running. After all, AI requires a lot of power. The US has an outdated power grid, and utilities need to invest heavily because data centers are demanding increasingly more capacity. Quanta has scale, but above all, the combination ...
jittawit.21/iStock via Getty Images Quanta Services, Inc. ( PWR ) is a high-quality company. Quanta Services helps build the infrastructure needed to keep data centers running. After all, AI requires a lot of power. The US has an outdated power grid, and utilities need to invest heavily because data centers are demanding increasingly more capacity. Quanta has scale, but above all, the combination of skilled professionals, customer relationships, and supply chain control makes the company difficult to copy. At the end of Q1 2026 , Quanta had a total backlog of $48.5 billion and updated its outlook for 2026, aiming for an adjusted EPS of $21.60 to $26.75 towards 2030. But this is also where the problem begins. The share price is hovering around $700. Based on the raised 2026 adjusted EPS guidance of $13.55 to $14.25, you are already paying approximately 50 times this year's earnings. Even if Quanta reaches the upper end of the EPS target ($26.75) in 2030, you are still paying approximately 26 times that future profit today. That is not a bargain, and there must also be substantial growth remaining after 2030. Quanta is an excellent company. But I find the stock less attractive at this price level. I would view the stock as a hold rather than a buy . The AI Boom Is Actually A Problem For The Energy Infrastructure AI is growing, causing data centers to require a lot of power, and Quanta is building that power infrastructure. In doing so, AI is also exposing an old problem: the power grid is lagging behind. Significant TAM Expansion Requires New Solutions (Quanta 2026 Investor Day) Management estimates the total market towards 2030 at approximately $2.4 trillion. Of that, about $1.5 trillion comes from utilities and about $885 billion from large load facilities. Within that large load market, data centers are the largest category at approximately $565 billion. That is substantial. The Technology & Load Centers segment accounts for about 10% but is expected to grow by 1...
Elon Musk ’s xAI has paused hiring for professionals to train its Grok chatbot on a range of specialized skills, according to people with knowledge of the matter, marking a potential shift in how the artificial intelligence firm develops its technology. Since the start of the year, xAI has pushed to recruit accountants, finance experts, scientists and even comedians to teach Grok to be better at e...
Elon Musk ’s xAI has paused hiring for professionals to train its Grok chatbot on a range of specialized skills, according to people with knowledge of the matter, marking a potential shift in how the artificial intelligence firm develops its technology. Since the start of the year, xAI has pushed to recruit accountants, finance experts, scientists and even comedians to teach Grok to be better at everything from taxes to humor in a bid to broaden the chatbot’s appeal. That approach differs from rivals who typically rely heavily on armies of contractors from third-party firms for training and refining their AI models. XAI’s decision to halt hiring for these positions, referred to internally as AI tutors, is at least partly due to concerns that the company’s human resources department is overwhelmed and often unable to process new candidates, said some of the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private information. The pause is temporary and the company could decide to ramp up again at a later date, the people said. However, it follows ongoing turbulence on xAI’s human data team, which includes hundreds of AI tutors in the US and other markets working to improve Grok’s responses on various subjects, the people said. Musk’s company laid off a number of AI tutors in the fall, many of whom were generalists, some of the people said. XAI then sought to pursue more specialists for data-labeling work. Another round of layoffs took place in early March alongside staffing cuts to other teams, the people said. Representatives for xAI did not respond to a request for comment. In the four months since xAI merged with Musk’s SpaceX , the artificial intelligence firm has raced to rebuild its operations and bolster revenue ahead of the rocket company’s expected Wall Street debut this month. As part of that effort, xAI has worked to recruit bankers and private credit lenders to make Grok better at finance strategy and more marketable for Wall Street firms. Diego Pas...
Beneath the surface of buoyant credit markets, a shakeout is building for leveraged deals made years ago, as well as for direct-lending funds that are grappling with an extended period of investor withdrawals. Time and again, that was a theme hit on by industry heavyweights on Wednesday at the Bloomberg Global Credit Forum in New York. Holly Kim , co-founder of Glendon Capital Management, said the...
Beneath the surface of buoyant credit markets, a shakeout is building for leveraged deals made years ago, as well as for direct-lending funds that are grappling with an extended period of investor withdrawals. Time and again, that was a theme hit on by industry heavyweights on Wednesday at the Bloomberg Global Credit Forum in New York. Holly Kim , co-founder of Glendon Capital Management, said there’s a “day of reckoning” that has to come for cable and broadband providers with some $230 billion of debt that have seen their valuations plummet. Meanwhile, private credit firms enjoyed virtually non-stop growth in recent years without many losses, but now the tide is turning. Simply put, said Suzanne Gibbons , head of research at Davidson Kempner: Some capital structures out there, formed during the ultra-low rate period of 2020 and 2021, “don’t make sense today.” Follow live: Bloomberg’s Global Credit Forum Kicks Off in New York: TOPLive Company sponsors in recent years have turned to strategies such as so-called liability management exercises in an effort to stave off more formal restructuring in or out of court. But investor appetite for that kind of maneuver is waning, said Brett Klein , global head of corporate credit at Sculptor Capital. The investor experience in LMEs, for the most part, “has been bad ,” he said. Now they’re saying “no more, this has gone too far.” Instead, Klein said, they’re increasingly saying: “Why don’t you just file the company for bankruptcy?” Stagflation Risk Panels at the conference, held at Bloomberg’s New York headquarters, included distressed-debt investing in the wake of high-profile blowups like First Brands Group , Tricolor Holdings and Market Financial Solutions. Others focused on navigating leveraged lending at a time of tight public markets and ahead of what could be another stretch of elevated redemptions from private credit funds. Read more: Why Private Credit Is Facing a Sudden Investor Exodus: Explainer A survey of attendees...
Wells Fargo shares are trading at a discount as concerns about its business swirl, but with the stock likely to rebound, it provides "an attractive buying opportunity," according to Bank of America. The bank has a buy rating on Wells Fargo, with a $95 price target on shares, which implies 20% upside from Tuesday's close. "Today, valuation … likely reflects rising skepticism around execution," Ebra...
Wells Fargo shares are trading at a discount as concerns about its business swirl, but with the stock likely to rebound, it provides "an attractive buying opportunity," according to Bank of America. The bank has a buy rating on Wells Fargo, with a $95 price target on shares, which implies 20% upside from Tuesday's close. "Today, valuation … likely reflects rising skepticism around execution," Ebrahim Poonawala said Wednesday in a note to clients. Wells Fargo shares have fallen nearly 16% in 2026. The decline comes as investors weigh the bank's exposure to the private credit and leveraged loan markets, which have come under considerable pressure this year. "Our analysis suggests that the path to 18% [return on tangible common equity] (potentially by 2028) is more achievable than current sentiment implies, and the degree of de-rating appears disproportionate to underlying fundamentals," the analyst said. Wells Fargo is trading at 10.1x price to earnings ratio based on 2027 estimates, he said. It is also trading at 1.7x price to tangible book value, or well below the 2.2x ratio hit in December "when the market was more than pricing in management's 17% to 18% ROTCE target," according to Poonawala. WFC YTD mountain Shares are down roughly 16% in the year to date. Bank of America expects Wells Fargo shares could rebound as fears over credit prove overblown. "Recent credit concerns tied to a handful of larger exposures appear idiosyncratic rather than systemic; while a few clean quarters may be needed to rebuild confidence, we do not view this as warranting a structural valuation discount," Poonawala wrote. Bank of America's call is in line with consensus on the Street. Of the 25 analysts covering Wells Fargo, 18 have a buy or strong buy on the stock, LSEG data shows.
jetcityimage/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Shares of Ollie's Bargain Outlet Holdings, Inc. ( OLLI ) have been a poor performer over the past year, losing about 30% of their value. The discount retailer has faced some challenges in results over the past few months as lower-income consumers face the pressure from elevated inflation, crimping discretionary spending. An expensive multiple also lef...
jetcityimage/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Shares of Ollie's Bargain Outlet Holdings, Inc. ( OLLI ) have been a poor performer over the past year, losing about 30% of their value. The discount retailer has faced some challenges in results over the past few months as lower-income consumers face the pressure from elevated inflation, crimping discretionary spending. An expensive multiple also left little room for error, which is why I rated Ollie’s a “sell” when I last covered shares in September . That call has played out with OLLI losing 37% while the market has rallied nearly 20%. The company delivered solid Q1 results, thanks to store count growth, sending shares up 4% in early trading. With updated financials and such significant underperformance, now is a good time to revisit shares. Seeking Alpha In the company’s fiscal first quarter , Ollie’s Bargain Outlets earned $0.91, which beat estimates by $0.04 as revenue grew 14% to $650 million. This growth was primarily due to the fact that it now operates 672 stores, up 15% from a year ago. Results over the past year have been flattered by Big Lots’ bankruptcy. This bankruptcy filing not only removed a key competitor, helping to drive more traffic to OLLI; Ollie’s also took the opportunity to acquire some of Big Lots’ leases in bankruptcy, enabling its store count growth. Same-store sales were up a more modest 1.7%, primarily due to higher prices. In this retail environment, I view 1-2% same-store sales growth as a solid outcome. Members of its loyalty program increased 13% to 17.5 million. With its new store openings, Ollie’s is reaching new potential customers. While current affordability conditions may pressure spending from its existing buyers, the company can offset this pressure as other consumers look to “trade down,” which increases the resilience of the company’s earnings power. Gross margins increased 80 bps to 41.9%, thanks to lower supply chain costs. Most retailers are facing higher costs here, espec...