zhengzaishuru/iStock via Getty Images For better or worse, the key question with RPM International Inc. ( RPM ) remains what it has long been – how much of a premium should investors pay for a company that offers above-average quality, but arguably not as quality as commonly thought. RPM has strong brands and an enviable track record of consistency, but metrics like tangible book value growth, ROI...
zhengzaishuru/iStock via Getty Images For better or worse, the key question with RPM International Inc. ( RPM ) remains what it has long been – how much of a premium should investors pay for a company that offers above-average quality, but arguably not as quality as commonly thought. RPM has strong brands and an enviable track record of consistency, but metrics like tangible book value growth, ROIC, and FCF conversion don’t stand out as particularly special, particularly in light of a multiple that has expanded relative to its peers over the last two decades. RPM shares are up a bit since my last update , thanks to a strong rally after fiscal third quarter earnings. Even with that pop, though, the shares have lagged the broader industrial space, as well as peers like Sherwin-Williams ( SHW ) and PPG Industries ( PPG ), while Sika ( SXYAY ) has continued to perform poorly. I’m reluctant to overpay for RPM, but I do think the story is improving. RPM has shown it can generate better organic growth than many peers despite a difficult market environment, and I like the company’s ongoing pivot toward value-added “solutions” (vs. discrete products), as well as ongoing margin and capital efficiency efforts. I can argue for 10% to 15% near-term upside, but I’m still cautious about paying a high premium for a company that has lagged the S&P 500 ( SP500 ) over the long term and not shown sustained improvement in key quality metrics. A Strong Rebound In Fiscal Q3 While RPM did underperform in fiscal Q2, as I previewed in that earlier piece, the third quarter saw a nice rebound with real evidence of positive incremental margins and organic growth despite modest pricing activity. Revenue rose 3% in organic terms, with pricing contributing about a point. This was good for a 4% beat versus Street expectations. The Consumer business saw about 2% organic contraction, a small beat, with a weak DIY market and ongoing product rationalizations weighing on results. The Construction segmen...
Here are the names making headlines in midday trading. Simply Good Foods — The maker of Atkins diet meals tumbled 19% after reported fiscal second quarter revenue and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, and fiscal third quarter guidance for revenue and EBITDA, fell far short of Wall Street consensus estimates, according to FactSet data. Brown-Forman — The maker...
Here are the names making headlines in midday trading. Simply Good Foods — The maker of Atkins diet meals tumbled 19% after reported fiscal second quarter revenue and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, and fiscal third quarter guidance for revenue and EBITDA, fell far short of Wall Street consensus estimates, according to FactSet data. Brown-Forman — The maker of Jack Daniel's whiskey surged 12% after The Wall Street Journal reported that Sazerac approached the spirits company for a potential deal. The report comes two weeks after Brown-Forman confirmed it was in talks with Pernod Ricard about a merger of equals. GitLab — The digital workshop for building software slid nearly 7%. GitLab was cut to neutral from buy at Guggenheim, which highlighted AI risk, a lack of near-term catalysts, and slower net revenue retention, according to FactSet. Software stocks — Software stocks suffered declines for a second day on the heels of Anthropic's rollout of Claude Managed Agents, a platform for deploying AI agents. The iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (IGV) dropped nearly 4%. Cloudflare tumbled 11%, while Okta shed more than 7%. CrowdStrike fell 5%. Marvell Technology — The semiconductor maker jumped 5% and reached a 52-week high after Barclays upgraded Marvell to overweight from equal weight. The bank also raised its price target on the stock to $150 from $105, suggesting gains of 31% from Wednesday's close. Meta Platforms — The tech giant saw shares rising 4% after its first major new AI model in over a year landed this week. Meanwhile Meta has committed to spending an additional $21 billion on AI cloud infrastructure from CoreWeave, which comes on top of a prior arrangement of $14.2 billion. Amazon — Shares jumped 5% after the e-commerce giant announced its pharmacy division will distribute Eli Lilly's oral GLP-1 pill Foundayo via its same-day delivery service in more than 3,000 cities. Amazon said it expects that total to grow...
Tesla recently reported that in the first quarter of 2026 it produced over 408,000 vehicles, delivered 358,023, and deployed 8.8 GWh of energy storage, while separate reports indicate it is working on an all-new, smaller and cheaper compact electric SUV initially focused on China with potential expansion to the US and Europe. At the same time, Intel confirmed it is joining Elon Musk’s Terafab AI c...
Tesla recently reported that in the first quarter of 2026 it produced over 408,000 vehicles, delivered 358,023, and deployed 8.8 GWh of energy storage, while separate reports indicate it is working on an all-new, smaller and cheaper compact electric SUV initially focused on China with potential expansion to the US and Europe. At the same time, Intel confirmed it is joining Elon Musk’s Terafab AI chip project with Tesla, SpaceX and xAI, highlighting Tesla’s push to secure advanced...
The dollar index (DXY00 ) is down by -0.24% today and just above Wednesday's 4-week low. Weaker-than-expected US economic news today is weighing on the dollar. Q4 GDP was unexpectedly revised lower, Feb personal income and spending rose less than expected, and weekly jobless claims rose more than expected to...
The dollar index (DXY00 ) is down by -0.24% today and just above Wednesday's 4-week low. Weaker-than-expected US economic news today is weighing on the dollar. Q4 GDP was unexpectedly revised lower, Feb personal income and spending rose less than expected, and weekly jobless claims rose more than expected to...
Every weekday, the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer holds a "Morning Meeting" livestream at 10:20 a.m. ET. Here's a recap of Thursday's key moments. 1. U.S. oil prices surged Thursday as traders questioned the "validity of the truce" between the U.S. and Iran, and "what it really means" for crude transport through the Strait of Hormuz, Jim Cramer said during the Morning Meeting. West Texas Inte...
Every weekday, the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer holds a "Morning Meeting" livestream at 10:20 a.m. ET. Here's a recap of Thursday's key moments. 1. U.S. oil prices surged Thursday as traders questioned the "validity of the truce" between the U.S. and Iran, and "what it really means" for crude transport through the Strait of Hormuz, Jim Cramer said during the Morning Meeting. West Texas Intermediate oil futures shot up 8%, back over $100 per barrel. The move follows Wednesday's 16% decline on the ceasefire announcement. "Even though oil has come back, I am quite surprised that the market holds up," Jim added, as the S & P 500 was flat Thursday. (The index turned green later in the session.) He noted there are a lot of stocks supporting the market, such as Club names GE Vernova , Amazon , and Corning . 2. Shares of Meta Platforms were also among our best performers on the day, rising more than 2.5%. The stock added 6.5% in the prior session after the company announced a new AI model, Muse Spark. On Thursday, Meta also made news, when CoreWeave announced an expanded AI infrastructure agreement with the Facebook and Instagram company worth $21 billion. Jim asked Jeff Marks during the meeting, "Is Meta back?" Jeff, who is the director of portfolio analysis for the Club, said the stock is still cheap despite back-to-back strong days. Jim and Jeff have played down concerns after Meta recently lost two social media addiction court cases. 3. Credit card giant Capital One got an upgrade to a buy-equivalent overweight rating at JPMorgan, with a price target of $213 per share. That PT implies 8% upside from current levels. This Club stock has been a tough one — down more than 20% year to date. The JPMorgan analysts see limited downside risk at current levels unless a new tailwind risk emerges. They also cited benefits from the continued integration of Discover. Jim acknowledged that Capital One is in a "crowded group" of consumer finance companies, including new-guard bu...
Readers respond to an article by Zoe Williams in which she argued the space race was pointless Zoe Williams speaks for many of us when she notes that the US space mission is pointless ( Let’s stop going into space. There’s nothing to see and no one to talk to, 7 April ). Unfortunately, it is worse than that. With a $100bn budget, the Artemis programme represents a truly spectacular misdirection of...
Readers respond to an article by Zoe Williams in which she argued the space race was pointless Zoe Williams speaks for many of us when she notes that the US space mission is pointless ( Let’s stop going into space. There’s nothing to see and no one to talk to, 7 April ). Unfortunately, it is worse than that. With a $100bn budget, the Artemis programme represents a truly spectacular misdirection of human creativity and resources. The UN World Food Programme, before it was cut back by Donald Trump’s massive reductions to USAID, was $10bn a year. This global programme, which benefits over 150 million people annually in more than 120 countries, could be fully funded for 10 years by the cost of the pointless Artemis programme alone. It is not a difficult choice to identify which of these two investments would deliver the most social, environmental and security benefits to the modern world. Robin Hambleton Emeritus professor of city leadership, University of the West of England Continue reading...
Mastodon is preparing to roll out "Collections" in the next few weeks, a feature that allows you to find and create lists of accounts worth following, according to an announcement on Thursday . Collections, which take inspiration from Bluesky Starter Packs , will come with the ability to add up to 25 accounts to a single list. If you're on a participating server, you'll be able to create a Collect...
Mastodon is preparing to roll out "Collections" in the next few weeks, a feature that allows you to find and create lists of accounts worth following, according to an announcement on Thursday . Collections, which take inspiration from Bluesky Starter Packs , will come with the ability to add up to 25 accounts to a single list. If you're on a participating server, you'll be able to create a Collection with a short description and topic. You can also mark them as "sensitive," which "hides the description and accounts behind a content warning." As mentioned by Mastodon last year , Collections - then called "Packs" - will come with the ability to … Read the full story at The Verge.
Readers respond to a letter by Andrew Copson in which he reflects on Gen Z’s search for meaning I read Andrew Copson’s letter with interest ( There is no revival of Christianity in Britain, 5 April ). But he implies a dichotomy that is questionable, and also that humanists and Christians have little or nothing in common. He writes “the search for meaning is not found in dogma, but in the humanist ...
Readers respond to a letter by Andrew Copson in which he reflects on Gen Z’s search for meaning I read Andrew Copson’s letter with interest ( There is no revival of Christianity in Britain, 5 April ). But he implies a dichotomy that is questionable, and also that humanists and Christians have little or nothing in common. He writes “the search for meaning is not found in dogma, but in the humanist values of reason, kindness and personal responsibility”. But that is what most, if not all, people who say they are Christian also believe. The last part of the sentence is at the heart of all Christ’s teaching. Another point is that many humanists are very good at that part. And indeed many of them are far more Christ-ian than many Christians are. Continue reading...