Shares of Meta Platforms NASDAQ: META have faced a notable degree of volatility in 2026. The stock started off the year hot, being up around 12% near the end of January. The company’s impressive Q4 2025 earnings report drove an over 10% single day gain. However, a convergence of pressures then hit the stock. This included artificial intelligence (AI) spending fears, legal losses, and the U.S.-Iran...
Shares of Meta Platforms NASDAQ: META have faced a notable degree of volatility in 2026. The stock started off the year hot, being up around 12% near the end of January. The company’s impressive Q4 2025 earnings report drove an over 10% single day gain. However, a convergence of pressures then hit the stock. This included artificial intelligence (AI) spending fears, legal losses, and the U.S.-Iran conflict that drove down the market as a whole. Near the end of March, Meta was down 20% on the year. Get Meta Platforms alerts: Sign Up Meta Platforms, Inc. (META) Price Chart for Thursday, May, 21, 2026 The stock has recovered considerably since that point, now down less than 10% in 2026. Meta’s return has hovered near this level since the end of April, after shares took a 8.6% hit following its Q1 2026 earnings report. Meta is making moves to fight against the biggest headwind to its performance: increasing AI capital expenditure (CapEx) forecasts. The firm is undertaking some of its largest layoffs in recent memory, aimed at offsetting AI investment. However, markets don’t appear to be buying the story. Meta Initiates 10% Layoff—But for Much Different Reasons Than in the Past Meta Platforms Today META Meta Platforms $606.59 +1.53 (+0.25%) 52-Week Range $520.26 ▼ $796.25 Dividend Yield 0.35% P/E Ratio 22.02 Price Target $840.19 Add to Watchlist In mid-May, reports emerged that Meta is laying off 8,000 employees. These job reductions account for approximately 10% of Meta’s total employee base. The move marks the company’s most significant workforce shake-up since its “Year of Efficiency,” which took place between 2022 and 2023. This initiative cut 21,000 jobs. However, there are significant differences between these recent cuts and the Year of Efficiency reductions. Somewhat counterintuitively, Meta undertook one of its most aggressive hiring sprees ever from 2020 to 2022, during the height of the COVID pandemic. By the end of 2022, Meta’s employee count had nearly doubl...
AMD (AMD +8.04%) reported an excellent first quarter, but the real reason the chipmaker has performed so well is because of investors' expectations for the future. In this video, I look beyond the numbers and discuss five of the most important quotes from CEO Lisa Su's remarks on the company's earnings call. *Stock prices used were the morning prices of May 20, 2026. The video was published on May...
AMD (AMD +8.04%) reported an excellent first quarter, but the real reason the chipmaker has performed so well is because of investors' expectations for the future. In this video, I look beyond the numbers and discuss five of the most important quotes from CEO Lisa Su's remarks on the company's earnings call. *Stock prices used were the morning prices of May 20, 2026. The video was published on May 21, 2026.
The S-1 IPO registration statement for Elon Musk’s rocket company SpaceX arrived late Wednesday afternoon. SpaceX is going after what it describes as a $28.5 trillion addressable market “to build the systems and technologies necessary to make life multiplanetary, to understand the true nature of the universe, and to extend the light of consciousness to the stars.” The IPO is expected to raise a re...
The S-1 IPO registration statement for Elon Musk’s rocket company SpaceX arrived late Wednesday afternoon. SpaceX is going after what it describes as a $28.5 trillion addressable market “to build the systems and technologies necessary to make life multiplanetary, to understand the true nature of the universe, and to extend the light of consciousness to the stars.” The IPO is expected to raise a record amount of money, valuing Elon Musk’s company at roughly $2 trillion—enough to turn the world’s richest person into a trillionaire.
Nvidia (NVDA) getting more generous with its cash payouts to shareholders could be great news for the stock, just like it was for another tech titan: Apple (AAPL). The news: Nvidia said on Wednesday it would expand its capital return program. It hiked its dividend to $0.25 per share from $0.01. It also announced a new $80 billion stock buyback program on top of an existing $39 billion program left...
Nvidia (NVDA) getting more generous with its cash payouts to shareholders could be great news for the stock, just like it was for another tech titan: Apple (AAPL). The news: Nvidia said on Wednesday it would expand its capital return program. It hiked its dividend to $0.25 per share from $0.01. It also announced a new $80 billion stock buyback program on top of an existing $39 billion program left over from a prior authorization. Executives said it plans to return 50% of its free cash flow to investors in calendar year 2026. The analysis: Evercore ISI analyst Mark Lipacis said Apple is a solid case study for identifying potential catalysts for a price-to-earnings ratio rerating after several years of compression. In the chart below, Lipacis showed that after five years of compression, Apple’s P/E ratio began to expand as its capital returns program increased. “We expect the same to occur for Nvidia,” Lipacis said, adding that the Jensen Huang-led AI chip darling could become even more generous with its returns program in 2027. As goes Apple buybacks and dividends, as goes the stock. · EvercoreISI Nvidia could track Apple amid greater dividend payouts and share buybacks. · EvercoreISI Don’t forget: Based on research this week from Bank of America analyst Vivek Arya, only 47% of Nvidia’s free cash flow from calendar years 2022 through 2025 has been allocated to dividends and stock buybacks, compared with peers that return around 80% of their free cash flow. Nvidia, instead, has plowed its cash into the artificial intelligence ecosystem, investing in tech partners such as OpenAI (OPAI.PVT) and Anthropic (ANTH.PVT), which Arya believes has been “unfairly” characterized as risky circular/vendor financing. “Boosting shareholder returns could expand ownership, close Nvidia’s valuation gap [relative to peers] and minimize circularity concerns,” Arya wrote. The bottom line: Nvidia’s stock is seeing a ho-hum response today to its earnings report as concerns about peak growth ...
Here are Thursday's biggest calls on Wall Street: Roth initiates SailPoint as buy Roth said the identity access cyber security company is a market leader. "We are initiating coverage of SAIL with a Buy and PT of $19. SailPoint is an Identity security company focused on IGA (Identity Governance and Administration)." Citizens initiates Brown & Brown as market outperform The firm said the insurance b...
Here are Thursday's biggest calls on Wall Street: Roth initiates SailPoint as buy Roth said the identity access cyber security company is a market leader. "We are initiating coverage of SAIL with a Buy and PT of $19. SailPoint is an Identity security company focused on IGA (Identity Governance and Administration)." Citizens initiates Brown & Brown as market outperform The firm said the insurance brokerage has plenty of upside. "We initiate coverage of Brown & Brown at Market Outperform with a $70 price target" JPMorgan upgrades Ameren to overweight from neutral JPMorgan said the utility company is a data center beneficiary. "We upgrade AEE to Overweight from Neutral following our bullish AGA meeting. With data center datapoints piling up, we have higher confidence in the company's growth outlook and see the potential for the EPS CAGR to inflect higher." Read more. Citizens initiates Regional Management as market outperform Citizens said the consumer finance company is firing on all cylinders. "We are buyers of shares of RM following the company's 1Q earnings release and recent announcement of its Column partnership, which drive more confidence that the business has a significant growth runway ahead as the new management team looks to build out on its vision of a national omnichannel platform." Goldman Sachs upgrades Occidental Petroleum to neutral from sell Goldman said it sees "improving efficiencies." "With this note we are updating Occidental Petroleum (OXY) to Neutral from Sell following (1) meaningful progress on lowering absolute debt following asset sales and higher oil prices, (2) continued execution strength and progress on reducing the company's capital intensity and operating cost structure," UBS upgrades GE Healthcare Technologies to neutral from sell UBS said the stock is in a "valuation reset." " GEHC shares have declined c.30% since January, which we attribute to concerns around new product execution, China exposure and inflationary pressures, leaving...
Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is launching a streaming series on Twitch, in which he’ll respond to questions the public have submitted via the chat, Polygon reports. The series is aptly titled “Talk with the People,” and kicks off later today at 4PM ET. “With the launch of ‘Talk with the People’ we’re brin...
Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is launching a streaming series on Twitch, in which he’ll respond to questions the public have submitted via the chat, Polygon reports. The series is aptly titled “Talk with the People,” and kicks off later today at 4PM ET. “With the launch of ‘Talk with the People’ we’re bringing City Hall to the platforms where New Yorkers already are — speaking directly with the people,” Mamdani told Polygon in a written statement. “By launching the country’s first recurring cross-platform stream hosted by an elected official, where I’ll answer New Yorkers’ questions live on Twitch, we’re opening up a direct line of conversation between our government and the people, especially younger generations who’ve been ignored for too long.” While it’s described as a “recurring” series, it’s unclear how often the show will actually air, or what its estimated run time will be. “Talk to the People” will also stream live on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X, and Bluesky, though questions will only be taken via Twitch chat. This is hardly the first time that a politician has joined Twitch, though we’ll have to see how Mamdani’s debut viewing figures stack up against Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s.
A Paris appeal court on Wednesday found Airbus and Air France guilty of corporate manslaughter over the 2009 Rio-Paris plane crash that killed 228 passengers and crew in France’s worst air disaster. The verdict is the latest milestone in a legal marathon involving two of France’s most emblematic companies and relatives of the mainly French, Brazilian and German victims. Relatives of some of the 2...
A Paris appeal court on Wednesday found Airbus and Air France guilty of corporate manslaughter over the 2009 Rio-Paris plane crash that killed 228 passengers and crew in France’s worst air disaster. The verdict is the latest milestone in a legal marathon involving two of France’s most emblematic companies and relatives of the mainly French, Brazilian and German victims. Relatives of some of the 228 passengers and crew who died when the Airbus A330 vanished in darkness during an Atlantic storm gathered to hear the verdict after their 17-year legal battle to pinpoint blame for France’s worst air disaster. Advertisement The court ordered the companies to pay the maximum fine for corporate manslaughter, €225,000 (US$261,720) each, following the request of prosecutors during the eight-week trial. In 2023, a lower court had cleared the two companies, both of which have repeatedly denied the charges. Pictures of the Air France flight 447 plane body (left) and wing, which rest on the ocean floor, are projected during a news conference in Paris in 2011. Photo: Reuters The maximum fines, amounting to just a few minutes of either company’s revenue, have been widely dismissed as a token penalty. But family groups have said a conviction would represent a recognition of their plight.
This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Nvidia (NVDA, Financials) gave investors another strong sales outlook, but the stock slipped after hours as Wall Street looked past the beat and focused on tougher competition. The company forecast second-quarter revenue of about $91 billion, above analysts' estimate of $86.84 billion. First-quarter revenue reached $81.62 billion, also ahead of expectation...
This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Nvidia (NVDA, Financials) gave investors another strong sales outlook, but the stock slipped after hours as Wall Street looked past the beat and focused on tougher competition. The company forecast second-quarter revenue of about $91 billion, above analysts' estimate of $86.84 billion. First-quarter revenue reached $81.62 billion, also ahead of expectations, while adjusted earnings came in at $1.87 per share. Data center revenue remained the engine of the business, rising to $75.2 billion. Demand is being fueled by large cloud companies and newer AI-focused cloud providers. CEO Jensen Huang also pointed to Nvidia's Vera central processor as a new growth driver. He said Vera gives the company access to a $200 billion market and could generate $20 billion in sales this fiscal year. Still, investors are watching rising competition from custom chips built by major tech companies, along with pressure from AMD and Intel. The next test is whether Nvidia can keep expanding supply and defend its AI lead as customers spend heavily but look for cheaper alternatives.