tarabird/iStock via Getty Images High Tide Inc. ( HITI ) reported the company’s fiscal Q1 results from the November-January period on the 17 th of March. The cannabis retailer and distributor is showing a promising recovery in the acquired Remexian business after a slow start, but the core Canadian retail business had a noticeably slower quarter due to a market slowdown. Overall, the High Tide sto...
tarabird/iStock via Getty Images High Tide Inc. ( HITI ) reported the company’s fiscal Q1 results from the November-January period on the 17 th of March. The cannabis retailer and distributor is showing a promising recovery in the acquired Remexian business after a slow start, but the core Canadian retail business had a noticeably slower quarter due to a market slowdown. Overall, the High Tide story remains on track after the report, but Canadian cannabis consumption has to be watched closely going forward. I remained at a Strong Buy rating in my previous January article on the stock, titled “ High Tide: Why The Market Is Wrong After Q4.” The stock has since returned 9%, while the S&P 500 has declined by -4%. My Rating History on HITI (Seeking Alpha) High Tide Q1 Review In my opinion, High Tide reported good, but not great, fiscal Q1 results . Revenues came in at C$178.3 million, up by 25% through the acquisition of Remexian as well as organic growth at Canna Cabana. Adjusted EBITDA reached C$11.5 million, up by 62% year-on-year through solid margin gains. Behind good overall surface-level financials, High Tide’s segment performance was more mixed as EBITDA did decline slightly from Q4. Author's Illustration Using TIKR Data The most important segment, brick-and-mortar retail, had a noticeably slower quarter after very strong momentum in the past. Same-store sales growth only came in at 0.5%, below inflation and compared to 4.1% in FY2025 and even faster growth in later quarters of the prior fiscal year. Canna Cabana’s store expansion still led total brick-and-mortar revenues to grow by 10% to C$149.7 million, but slower same-store sales are quick to pressure earnings. Despite a 10 basis point sequential gain in the gross margin, brick-and-mortar segment EBITDA came in at C$13.2 million, down by C$0.9 million sequentially through SG&A deleverage. Brick-and-mortar earnings were still up considerably year-on-year from thin Q1'FY2025 margins. HITI Q1 FY26 MD&A While the...
Fire and plumes of smoke rise from an oil facility in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates, Saturday, March 14, 2026. Altaf Qadri | AP Iran's strikes are pushing Gulf states toward a breaking point, forcing a choice between restraint and retaliation. Iran's Gulf neighbors have been repeatedly targeted and hit by Iranian drones and missiles as part of the Islamic Republic's retaliatory strikes against th...
Fire and plumes of smoke rise from an oil facility in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates, Saturday, March 14, 2026. Altaf Qadri | AP Iran's strikes are pushing Gulf states toward a breaking point, forcing a choice between restraint and retaliation. Iran's Gulf neighbors have been repeatedly targeted and hit by Iranian drones and missiles as part of the Islamic Republic's retaliatory strikes against the U.S. and Israel's bombardment since late February. The latest and perhaps most significant escalation in attacks on Iran's neighbors came this week when Tehran launched retaliatory missile attacks on Qatar's Ras Laffan liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal following Israel's attack on Iran's South Pars gas field. Gulf states — from Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to Bahrain, Oman and Kuwait — have responded to Iran's repeated attacks on their energy infrastructure by saying "a price must be paid" and that the attacks " cannot go unanswered ," but, so far, they have not retaliated. That diplomatic and defensive stance can't and won't last forever, analysts say, noting that the Gulf states are now likely weighing up when, where and how they might shift from a neutral stance to an offensive one. Patience among the Gulf states is obviously wearing thin, with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud warning early Thursday that tolerance of Iranian attacks on his country and neighboring Gulf states is limited. "I think it's important for the Iranians to understand that the kingdom, but also its partners who have been attacked and beyond, have very significant capacities and capabilities that they could bring to bear should they choose to do so," he said . "The patience that is being exhibited is not unlimited. Do they [the Iranians] have a day, two, a week? I'm not going to telegraph that," he added. CNBC has requested further comment from the foreign ministry. watch now VIDEO 2:49 02:49 Gulf energy escalation: key regional facilities come under a...
When Warren Buffett's hand-picked successor, Greg Abel, took the reins as chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA 1.60%) (BRKB 1.65%) this year, it was unclear how he would react to Berkshire's large positions in core holdings. In his Feb. 28 letter to shareholders, Abel wrote that investors should expect concentration in Apple, American Express (AXP 2.11%), Coca-Cola, and Moody's to c...
When Warren Buffett's hand-picked successor, Greg Abel, took the reins as chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA 1.60%) (BRKB 1.65%) this year, it was unclear how he would react to Berkshire's large positions in core holdings. In his Feb. 28 letter to shareholders, Abel wrote that investors should expect concentration in Apple, American Express (AXP 2.11%), Coca-Cola, and Moody's to continue with limited activity unless Berkshire sees "fundamental changes in long-term economic prospects." In other words, Berkshire is committed to holding these stocks over the long term. American Express has been one of Berkshire's greatest investments. The conglomerate owns 22% of the company at a cost basis of just $1.29 billion, compared to a market value at the time of the shareholder letter of $56.1 billion. Berkshire last year collected $479 million in American Express dividends -- meaning that less than three years of dividends exceed the cost basis on its entire American Express position. Here's why American Express is one of the top buys in the financial sector. American Express has a straightforward cost structure for delivering consistent growth American Express has an exceptional track record of managing the credit risk of the cards it issues, as evidenced by its relatively low net write-off rates -- essentially the sunk costs of debt that is unlikely to be repaid. In fiscal 2025, American Express collected almost $10 billion in net card fees, up 18% year over year.The figure will jump even more in fiscal 2026 -- the first year the $895 annual Platinum Card fee takes effect. Despite the high fees, cardholders are getting a great deal on points, as American Express spent a staggering $18.4 billion on card member rewards in fiscal 2025 -- nearly double what it collected in net card fees. Metric Fiscal 2025 Discount Revenue $37.4 billion Net Card Fees $10 billion Service Fees and Other Revenue $7.5 billion Net Interest Income $17.2 billion Total Provisions For C...
The short answer? No. Why do we say that? Let’s unpack. It’s a tug-of-war between one of the oldest commodities, oil, and one of the newest technologies, which is agentic AI. As we head into Q2 2026, three key factors are driving the market: $110 oil fueled by Iran-U.S./Israel tensions and a Fed leadership transition are keeping rates stable. The rapid rise of agentic AI. Previous AI systems mostl...
The short answer? No. Why do we say that? Let’s unpack. It’s a tug-of-war between one of the oldest commodities, oil, and one of the newest technologies, which is agentic AI. As we head into Q2 2026, three key factors are driving the market: $110 oil fueled by Iran-U.S./Israel tensions and a Fed leadership transition are keeping rates stable. The rapid rise of agentic AI. Previous AI systems mostly generated content. The latest agentic systems autonomously execute complex business workflows – and there is hope they could counter energy-driven inflation. Is that hope justified? The Oil Shock Iran has launched retaliatory strikes on key energy infrastructure across the Gulf, while escalating tensions have severely disrupted traffic through the Strait of Hormuz—a chokepoint that typically carries about 20% of global oil and significant LNG flows. Sure, the U.S. enters this crisis as a net energy exporter, but it is not shielded from the shock. Oil is a globally priced commodity. A barrel in Texas costs the same as a barrel in Rotterdam. Even with domestic production at record highs of over 13 million barrels per day, American consumers and businesses face immediate pain. There are two factors to watch here. First, there is cost-push inflation. Unlike demand-driven growth, this is a “supply-side” shock that increases the cost of producing and transporting everything from groceries to semiconductors. For the Fed, this is a challenge, since this is an inflationary spike that interest rate management can’t easily fix. Then there is the consumer squeeze: At $110, gasoline is averaging over $3.80/gallon nationally. For the average household, this represents a substantial annual “tax” on their budget. This could drain some of the discretionary spending that fueled the 2025 rally, potentially cooling the economy just as the Fed is forced to stay hawkish. Fed: Steady Rates, Rising Uncertainty The Federal Reserve held rates steady at 3.5%–3.75% on March 18, signaling a “wait-and...
Chart-topping US rapper Afroman has been cleared of wrongdoing after Ohio police filed a lawsuit against him, alleging defamation, emotional distress and invasion of privacy after the artist used footage from a police raid on his home in a series of mocking videos. In 2022, police searched the rapper’s home for evidence of drug possession and trafficking, and kidnapping. No evidence was found and ...
Chart-topping US rapper Afroman has been cleared of wrongdoing after Ohio police filed a lawsuit against him, alleging defamation, emotional distress and invasion of privacy after the artist used footage from a police raid on his home in a series of mocking videos. In 2022, police searched the rapper’s home for evidence of drug possession and trafficking, and kidnapping. No evidence was found and no charges were filed. His wife filmed the raid on her phone, and video recordings were also made on home security cameras. Afroman used this footage to make videos in which he taunted the officers and the judge who issued the warrant. He also alleged his property was damaged in the raid and that $400 in cash had been taken from his house. The videos referred to the officers as being from “Adams KKKounty” and made bawdy, coarse jokes about them, including questioning the gender and sexuality of a female officer. The video for the song Lemon Pound Cake – named after the cake an officer glances at in the raid footage – has been viewed 3.5m times on YouTube. The lawsuit claimed Afroman’s videos invaded officers’ privacy and were “willful, wanton, malicious”. It also alleged that his actions endangered the officers, who “suffered humiliation, ridicule, mental distress, embarrassment and loss of reputation”. View image in fullscreen Afroman, real name Joseph Foreman, in 2001. Photograph: Shawn Baldwin/AP During the three-day trial, a lawyer for the plaintiffs claimed Afroman “perpetuated lies intentionally, repeatedly, over three and a half years on the internet about these seven brave deputy sheriffs”. But Afroman and his legal team defended the videos as comedy, saying they could not be construed as statements of fact. “Some of it is a social commentary, but it is not fact. And everybody knows that,” said lawyer David Osborne Jr. One of the videos jokingly suggested that the wife of one of the officers, Randolph Walters Jr, had a sexual relationship with Afroman. “It’s caused ...
ArtMarie/E+ via Getty Images In recent months, a wide variety of B2B software companies have seen their stocks cut by 30%, 40%, 50%, 60%, or even 70%, as AI agents like Claude Code have disrupted the software engineering landscape and reduced the marginal cost of producing software to zero. In an environment like that, what separates winners from losers, and recurring revenue streams from disrupta...
ArtMarie/E+ via Getty Images In recent months, a wide variety of B2B software companies have seen their stocks cut by 30%, 40%, 50%, 60%, or even 70%, as AI agents like Claude Code have disrupted the software engineering landscape and reduced the marginal cost of producing software to zero. In an environment like that, what separates winners from losers, and recurring revenue streams from disruptable business models? Recently, I watched an interview with Gokul Rajaram and Harry Stebbings, where Gokul, an early employee of Google ( GOOGL ) ( GOOG ), Meta ( META ), Square ( XYZ ), and DoorDash ( DASH ), breaks down the actual competitive moats that he thinks will drive a business to succeed or fail through a period of AI disruption. I found the framework useful, and in this article (and a number of following articles), I'll break down a number of top B2B SaaS companies and rank them across this matrix. At this point, we all understand the attractiveness of software; it's a capital-light business with extremely high gross margins, strong recurring revenues, and a high level of predictability. What matters now - as AI agents develop - is whether or not these businesses can survive going forward and continue producing fast-growing, high-margin profit flows for investors. In this article, I'm going to be looking at Datadog ( DDOG ), the industry-leading monitoring platform that allows engineering teams to spot performance issues and rectify them via real-time software. The company counts OpenAI as its largest customer, and appears set to capitalize on potential adoption by a new wave of vibe-coded software products. But how will this firm actually rank? Is the stock worth buying? Today, I'll analyze Datadog's competitive moat, look at the business's financials and valuation, and give my take on whether or not the stock is worth buying for your portfolio. Sound good? Let's dive in. Defensibility As promised, let's take a look at Datadog through the lens of competitive moat...