Brand Industrial Services Inc. , a scaffolding and industrial services company that does business as BrandSafway, reported sharply lower first-quarter earnings as higher costs and spending on its push into data center construction weighed on results, according to people familiar with the matter. The company, controlled by private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice , reported a 20% year-over-year...
Brand Industrial Services Inc. , a scaffolding and industrial services company that does business as BrandSafway, reported sharply lower first-quarter earnings as higher costs and spending on its push into data center construction weighed on results, according to people familiar with the matter. The company, controlled by private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice , reported a 20% year-over-year decline in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, according to the people, who declined to be named because the results are private. That earnings measure fell to $71 million, one of the people said. The Atlanta-based company said the weaker results reflected higher costs and spending tied to its recent expansion into data center construction, the people said. The company’s loans and bonds have fallen from above 90 cents on the dollar since December. Its $1.5 billion term loan dropped about 2 points on Monday to 79.625, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, after the company released earnings last Friday. BrandSafway serves customers in oil and gas, power generation, civil infrastructure and commercial construction, according to its website. Its results add to signs that higher costs are pressuring construction and industrial companies. Representatives of BrandSafway and Clayton, Dubilier & Rice did not return calls seeking comment. On a call with debt holders earlier this week, the company said it expects its full-year 2026 profit to come in slightly above last year’s level as it passes higher costs on to customers through the rest of the year, according to one of the people. The company has also been spending heavily on its expansion into data center construction, the people said. It used more cash than expected, according to one of the people and a Jefferies analyst report earlier this week. Jefferies representatives also did not respond to a request for comment.
Apple (AAPL) stock is at an interesting point right now. It has strong momentum, and if you bet on it, you are betting on a company with strong margin, good cash flow, low-debt capital structure, and good tailwinds. But is that enough.
Apple (AAPL) stock is at an interesting point right now. It has strong momentum, and if you bet on it, you are betting on a company with strong margin, good cash flow, low-debt capital structure, and good tailwinds. But is that enough.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images News In my last article on Adobe Inc. ( ADBE ), my rating was a Buy. It has been almost a year, and during this period the stock has fallen 34%. I think it is fair to say that I was partially wrong, or at least that it was an analysis that was “too early,” I do not think I was completely wrong, precisely because the tone of the article was quite cautious, mentioning th...
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images News In my last article on Adobe Inc. ( ADBE ), my rating was a Buy. It has been almost a year, and during this period the stock has fallen 34%. I think it is fair to say that I was partially wrong, or at least that it was an analysis that was “too early,” I do not think I was completely wrong, precisely because the tone of the article was quite cautious, mentioning that I did not believe a high re-rating was very likely, and that AI could indeed be a long-term risk to Adobe's thesis. If that decline was not enough, ADBE stock is down 6% in the after-hours, and in my view, that makes the Adobe case even more asymmetric. Adobe's Q2 Earnings: Quietly strong Looking purely at the financials, Adobe's results were excellent. A beat on the main estimates and also a raise in guidance. Both revenue and adj. EPS for the quarter were a beat of ~2.5%. As for FY 2026, after the guidance raise, revenue is 2% above what the market was expecting, and EPS is 3.8% above consensus, using the high end of guidance . Seeking Alpha In other words, the financials were quite solid, and show that at least so far, Adobe is managing to deliver compounding in the top line. Note below that quarter after quarter Adobe continued delivering revenue growth, and more importantly, is maintaining annual recurring revenue growth close to low double digits. Adobe Data Sheet That alone might be enough to remove part of the market's perception that Adobe is a dying company. After all, what dying company can maintain so many consecutive quarters of ARR growth at this pace and still accelerate, delivering 12.5% in Q2? But unfortunately, reality is not that simple. Part of the Q2 ARR was inflated by the Semrush acquisition, which added $480 million. If we remove this effect, ARR growth goes from ~12.5% to something closer to 10%. Even more important than that are the expectations. Adobe mentioned that it is adopting a new strategy, sacrificing ARR to increase the number of monthl...
MicroStockHub/iStock via Getty Images Investment Thesis This is my first time providing coverage of Monte Rosa Therapeutics, Inc. ( GLUE ), a Boston based biotech specializing in the development of a class of drugs known as molecular glue degraders ("MGDs"). As the company puts it in its Q1 2026 quarterly report / 10-Q filing : MGDs are small molecule drugs that employ the body’s natural protein d...
MicroStockHub/iStock via Getty Images Investment Thesis This is my first time providing coverage of Monte Rosa Therapeutics, Inc. ( GLUE ), a Boston based biotech specializing in the development of a class of drugs known as molecular glue degraders ("MGDs"). As the company puts it in its Q1 2026 quarterly report / 10-Q filing : MGDs are small molecule drugs that employ the body’s natural protein destruction mechanisms to selectively degrade therapeutically-relevant proteins. MGDs work by inducing the engagement of defined surfaces identified on target proteins by an E3 ligase, such as cereblon. We have developed a proprietary and industry-leading protein degradation discovery engine, called QuEENTM to enable our unique, and target-centric, MGD discovery and development and our rational design of MGD products. Protein degrader technology is being been developed by the likes of Kymera Therapeutics ( KYMR ), Arvinas ( ARVN ), and C4 Therapeutics ( CCCC ) and others, alongside several large Pharma companies, although only a handful of drugs with this mechanism of action ("MoA") have been approved to date. It is now recognized that lenalidomide and pomalidomide, marketed and sold as Revlimid and Pomalyst by Bristol-Myers Squibb Company ( BMY ) and indicated for multiple myeloma, are types of protein degrader drugs, as is the selective estrogen receptor degrader elacestrant, approved last January to treat breast cancer as Orserdu, and marketed and sold by Italian drugmaker Menarini, fulvestrant, another breast cancer drug marketed and sold by AstraZeneca ( AZN ) under the brand name Faslodex, and most recently Inluriyo (imlunestrant), developed by Eli Lilly ( LLY ), and also indicated for breast cancer. Monte Rosa completed its initial public offering ("IPO") in June 2021, raising ~$222m at $19 per share. At the time of writing, its stock trades at $16.8 per share, and its market cap valuation is $1.42bn. Stock is in fact up >220% on a 1-year basis. Its pipeline is illust...
A continuing rout of certain segments of the tech sector put some hurt on Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) stock on Thursday. Investors also digested a media report about a long-standing unit of the company reducing its workforce. By the end of the trading day, its equity had shed nearly 2% of its value. Much of the downbeat sentiment in the sector stemmed from Oracle 's latest earnings report , released ...
A continuing rout of certain segments of the tech sector put some hurt on Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) stock on Thursday. Investors also digested a media report about a long-standing unit of the company reducing its workforce. By the end of the trading day, its equity had shed nearly 2% of its value. Much of the downbeat sentiment in the sector stemmed from Oracle 's latest earnings report , released after the market close on Wednesday. At first glance, it was encouraging, with double-digit sales growth and top- and bottom-line beats. Image source: Getty Images. Continue reading
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), a leading software and cloud platform provider, closed Thursday’s session at $390.34, down 1.77%. The stock moved lower as Xbox restructuring headlines and sector-wide AI spending worries following an Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) cloud miss pressured sentiment, and
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), a leading software and cloud platform provider, closed Thursday’s session at $390.34, down 1.77%. The stock moved lower as Xbox restructuring headlines and sector-wide AI spending worries following an Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) cloud miss pressured sentiment, and
The ferocious fire that swept through a Hong Kong housing estate last year, killing 168 people and leaving about 5,000 homeless, raised many questions that need to be answered. Investigations immediately began into what happened at Wang Fuk Court and how the tragedy occurred. An ongoing independent public inquiry has already highlighted numerous areas of concern. Policies and laws are being change...
The ferocious fire that swept through a Hong Kong housing estate last year, killing 168 people and leaving about 5,000 homeless, raised many questions that need to be answered. Investigations immediately began into what happened at Wang Fuk Court and how the tragedy occurred. An ongoing independent public inquiry has already highlighted numerous areas of concern. Policies and laws are being changed in a bid to ensure lessons are learned and that a similar disaster can never happen...