President issues fresh ultimatum despite US claims of progress in stalled negotiations Middle East crisis – live updates Donald Trump has issued a fresh ultimatum, telling Iran to accept a deal to end the war or face a new wave of US bombing “at a much higher level and intensity than it was before”. The social media announcement on Wednesday was the latest in a rapid series of dramatic and often c...
President issues fresh ultimatum despite US claims of progress in stalled negotiations Middle East crisis – live updates Donald Trump has issued a fresh ultimatum, telling Iran to accept a deal to end the war or face a new wave of US bombing “at a much higher level and intensity than it was before”. The social media announcement on Wednesday was the latest in a rapid series of dramatic and often contradictory changes in policy and came amid reports the US was claiming progress in stalled negotiations between Tehran and Washington. Continue reading...
Jinda/iStock via Getty Images Sunbelt Rentals ( SUNB ) is not a bad proposition. The model is attractive. Much like Herc Holdings ( HRI ), they rent equipment, mainly but not exclusively for the construction industry. The operation's objective is to keep equipment rented out as much as possible, meaning intelligent footprint growth and inroads into chosen geographic markets where there is deep dem...
Jinda/iStock via Getty Images Sunbelt Rentals ( SUNB ) is not a bad proposition. The model is attractive. Much like Herc Holdings ( HRI ), they rent equipment, mainly but not exclusively for the construction industry. The operation's objective is to keep equipment rented out as much as possible, meaning intelligent footprint growth and inroads into chosen geographic markets where there is deep demand. There is a bit of a trend from owning to renting which plays well in their end markets too, and megaprojects including data centre development remain a possible demand sink. The issue for us is that the valuation isn't outstanding. So we aren't jumping on it, but we like these sorts of industrial services models. The company They have an NA and UK market. The NA market is split between specialty and general. General tool is equipment rather geared towards the construction industry while specialty isn't, and might include things like lighting equipment, HVAC, etc. There is megaproject demand. Things like infrastructure but also data centre construction, to the extent that it is happening in Sunbelt's markets. The company is doing a decent inorganic growth push. Here is the quantum of it from 10-K quotes: We aim to add 300 to 400 greenfield locations in North America during Sunbelt 4.0, of which 70 had been added... Sunbelt Rentals North America operated 1,392 stores across all 50 U.S. states and eight provinces in Canada, of which 800 were North America – General Tool stores (including one store in the Bahamas) and 592 were North America – Specialty stores... In the latest quarter, the scale of the expansion was as follows: In addition to that, we've opened 30 greenfields in North America, of which 14 were General Tool and 16 were Specialty. Alexander Pease Chief Financial Officer of Sunbelt Rentals Q3 Earnings Call So evenly split between general and the smaller specialty, at around a 3% rate in terms of growth. Based on the latest revenue growth, it implies that most ...
Earnings Call Insights: Uber Technologies, Inc. (UBER) Q1 2026 Management View "Uber had an exceptional start to 2026, driven by strong execution and a continued focus on product innovation" (CEO & Director Dara Khosrowshahi). "Despite a complex backdrop marked by war and weather, we delivered top line and profitability at or above the high end of our guidance." "Gross bookings were up 21% year-on...
Earnings Call Insights: Uber Technologies, Inc. (UBER) Q1 2026 Management View "Uber had an exceptional start to 2026, driven by strong execution and a continued focus on product innovation" (CEO & Director Dara Khosrowshahi). "Despite a complex backdrop marked by war and weather, we delivered top line and profitability at or above the high end of our guidance." "Gross bookings were up 21% year-on-year" and "our audience growing 17%" (CEO & Director Khosrowshahi). He also said "Mobility gross bookings accelerated to 20% with record margins," "Delivery grew 23%, led by grocery and retail," and "freight returned to growth for the first time in nearly 2 years." "Non-GAAP EPS increased 44% year-over-year" and "returned a record $3 billion to shareholders through buybacks this quarter" (CEO & Director Khosrowshahi). "We've now surpassed 50 million Uber One members and 10 million drivers and couriers globally" (CEO & Director Khosrowshahi). On product expansion, "we've got 700,000 hotels available on Uber as we speak" and "Uber One members get 10% Uber credits" (CEO & Director Khosrowshahi). On autonomy, "we now have more than 30 autonomous partners across Mobility and Delivery" and "AV Mobility trips grew more than 10x year-on-year" (CEO & Director Khosrowshahi). He added, "we remain on track to be live in up to 15 cities by the end of the year." "We expect to see hundreds of millions of dollars of savings in our insurance line this year" (Chief Financial Officer Balaji Krishnamurthy). "This will be the first year since COVID where we expect to see good leverage on our insurance cost line for the U.S. Mobility business." Outlook "Looking ahead, our guidance reflects continued momentum, disciplined capital allocation and a clear focus on durable, profitable growth" (CEO & Director Khosrowshahi). The prepared remarks in this transcript did not include explicit revenue or EPS guidance figures, so no comparison to analyst estimates is included. "We expect to see this transla...
Google launched its Gemma 4 open models this spring, promising a new level of power and performance for local AI. Google's take on edge AI could be getting even faster already with the release of Multi-Token Prediction (MTP) drafters for Gemma. Google says these experimental models leverage a form of speculative decoding to take a guess at future tokens, which can speed up generation compared to t...
Google launched its Gemma 4 open models this spring, promising a new level of power and performance for local AI. Google's take on edge AI could be getting even faster already with the release of Multi-Token Prediction (MTP) drafters for Gemma. Google says these experimental models leverage a form of speculative decoding to take a guess at future tokens, which can speed up generation compared to the way models generate tokens on their own. The latest Gemma models are built on the same underlying technology that powers Google's frontier Gemini AI, but they're tuned to run locally. Gemini is optimized to run on Google's custom TPU chips , which operate in enormous clusters with super-fast interconnects and memory. A single high-power AI accelerator can run the largest Gemma 4 model at full precision, and quantizing will let it run on a consumer GPU. Gemma allows users to tinker with AI on their hardware rather than sharing all their data with a cloud AI system from Google or someone else. Google also changed the license for Gemma 4 to Apache 2.0, which is much more permissive than the custom Gemma license Google employed for previous releases. However, there are inherent limitations in the hardware most people have to run local AI models. That's where MTP comes in. Read full article Comments
The owners of Solor Bioenergi are weighing a sale of the renewable energy supplier, which could be valued at around €4 billion ($4.7 billion), people with knowledge of the matter said. Nordic Infrastructure AG and Polhem Infra are working with advisers on the potential divestment, according to the people. The investors are seeking to gauge interest in the asset from infrastructure funds, the peopl...
The owners of Solor Bioenergi are weighing a sale of the renewable energy supplier, which could be valued at around €4 billion ($4.7 billion), people with knowledge of the matter said. Nordic Infrastructure AG and Polhem Infra are working with advisers on the potential divestment, according to the people. The investors are seeking to gauge interest in the asset from infrastructure funds, the people said. Deliberations are at an early stage and Nordic Infrastructure and Polhem could decide to keep Solor Bioenergi for longer, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private. A representative for Polhem declined to comment. Representatives for Nordic Infrastructure and Solor Bioenergi couldn’t be reached for comment. Stockholm-based Solor Bioenergi produces biofuels from waste from the forest industry to generate district heating, steam and electricity. It runs 110 district heating plants and 175 local heating plants across Sweden and Norway, its website shows. Elsewhere in Sweden, state-owned utility Vattenfall AB is about to kick off a sale of its district heating business in the country. Bloomberg News reported last year that Vattenfall is working with Danske Bank A/S on the potential sale, which could value the district heating business at around €1.5 billion.
Zorica Nastasic/E+ via Getty Images Introduction Back when I last covered Global Payments Inc. ( GPN ), I reiterated their Strong Buy rating, highlighting their solid fundamentals, the Worldpay acquisition, and strong guidance for 2026 combined with double-digit yields planned for 2026 and 2027. Following a strong first quarter as a combined company, GPN remains a Strong Buy, with the valuation st...
Zorica Nastasic/E+ via Getty Images Introduction Back when I last covered Global Payments Inc. ( GPN ), I reiterated their Strong Buy rating, highlighting their solid fundamentals, the Worldpay acquisition, and strong guidance for 2026 combined with double-digit yields planned for 2026 and 2027. Following a strong first quarter as a combined company, GPN remains a Strong Buy, with the valuation still implying a very high level of risk that’s not justified, while the company delivers solid results and massive shareholder returns. Strong Start After The Deal Global Payments IR GPN reported a strong Q1, beating the market’s EPS (up 10%) and revenue estimates by quite a bit, advancing on the Worldpay integration ($200 million revenue and $600 million expense synergies expected) and AI initiatives mentioned before, winning notable clients such as Aldi, Subway, and Abercrombie & Fitch ( ANF ) while delivering $544 million in Adj. FCF, planning to continue their global expansion and introduce Genius Mobile in the U.S. over the following couple of quarters. Global Payments IR For 2026, GPN continues to expect a ~5% normalized constant currency adj. net revenue growth rate and a 150 bps normalized adj. operating margin improvement, for a normalized adj. EPS of $13.80 to $14.00, while assuming about $1 billion in CAPEX (~8% conversion from adj. net revenue) and a >90% Adj. FCF conversion rate, as well as a decline in FCF as the transformation concludes and the integration progresses. Global Payments IR Financially, based on GPN’s latest report , we can see near-term pressure from their deal while being committed to reach a ~3.0x net leverage target by the end of 2027, which is indeed needed given the elevated level of debt they have now. GPN returned a very strong ~$550 million in buybacks during Q1 plus $68.25 million in dividends (~1.44% annualized yield), which is part of their >$2 billion capital return plans in 2026, including an accelerated $500 million buyback program ...
While many stocks are soaring today thanks to companies reporting strong quarterly financial results, shares of nuclear powerhouse Oklo (NYSE: OKLO) are soaring for a different reason altogether. The company's path to regulatory approval of its Aurora Powerhouse small modular reactor appears much clearer, and investors are charged up about the news. As of 11:22 a.m, ET, shares of Oklo are up 5%, r...
While many stocks are soaring today thanks to companies reporting strong quarterly financial results, shares of nuclear powerhouse Oklo (NYSE: OKLO) are soaring for a different reason altogether. The company's path to regulatory approval of its Aurora Powerhouse small modular reactor appears much clearer, and investors are charged up about the news. As of 11:22 a.m, ET, shares of Oklo are up 5%, retreating from an earlier 8% rise. Image source: Getty Images. Continue reading
Earnings Call Insights: Titan America SA (TTAM) Q1 2026 Management view "The first quarter is usually the weakest quarter of the year... affected by continued softness in the residential market and harsh winter weather in our Mid-Atlantic region" (President, CEO & Director Vassilios Zarkalis), and he added that "the conflict in Iran exacerbated the geopolitical uncertainty, triggered inflationary ...
Earnings Call Insights: Titan America SA (TTAM) Q1 2026 Management view "The first quarter is usually the weakest quarter of the year... affected by continued softness in the residential market and harsh winter weather in our Mid-Atlantic region" (President, CEO & Director Vassilios Zarkalis), and he added that "the conflict in Iran exacerbated the geopolitical uncertainty, triggered inflationary pressures with increasing fuel and energy costs" (President, CEO & Director Zarkalis). "Titan America once again delivered a solid first quarter performance with year-over-year improvement" (President, CEO & Director Zarkalis), including that "First quarter revenue increased by 1.5%, while adjusted EBITDA was 3.4% higher than the same quarter of last year" (President, CEO & Director Zarkalis). "On May 1, we completed the acquisition of the Keystone Cement Company" (President, CEO & Director Zarkalis), and he said Keystone "expanded our geographic reach in the markets of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Delaware and Maryland" (President, CEO & Director Zarkalis). "In 2025, Keystone generated revenue of approximately $97 million with an EBITDA margin of approximately 10%" (President, CEO & Director Zarkalis), and he said, "We believe that we can deliver game-changing synergies for the acquired Keystone assets" (President, CEO & Director Zarkalis). "In April, we announced the grand opening of the Titan America Innovation Hub in Miami" (President, CEO & Director Zarkalis), describing it as "designed to accelerate the development and scale-up of advanced materials, digital technologies and construction solutions" (President, CEO & Director Zarkalis). "For the quarter, we delivered revenue of $398 million" and "Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $83 million" (Chief Financial Officer Lawrence Wilt), while also reporting "Net income for the quarter was $33 million" (Chief Financial Officer Wilt). "Operating cash flow for the quarter was $62 million" and "Free cash flow was $30 million in Q1 20...
Earnings Call Insights: Steven Madden, Ltd. (SHOO) Q1 2026 Management view "We got off to a solid start to the year in Q1 with healthy underlying demand across our brands" (Chairman & CEO Edward Rosenfeld), while highlighting Steven Madden brand momentum: "Online searches for Steven Madden increased 27% in the quarter" and "global DTC comp sales rose 6% or 10%, excluding our stores in the Middle E...
Earnings Call Insights: Steven Madden, Ltd. (SHOO) Q1 2026 Management view "We got off to a solid start to the year in Q1 with healthy underlying demand across our brands" (Chairman & CEO Edward Rosenfeld), while highlighting Steven Madden brand momentum: "Online searches for Steven Madden increased 27% in the quarter" and "global DTC comp sales rose 6% or 10%, excluding our stores in the Middle East" (Chairman & CEO Rosenfeld). Kurt Geiger was positioned as the largest upside driver, with (Chairman & CEO Rosenfeld) stating, "Revenue for the Kurt Geiger brand increased 23% on a pro forma basis" and "we have increased our forecast and now expect mid-teens pro forma revenue growth in the Kurt Geiger brand for the year," alongside expansion actions including, "We signed a new franchise and distribution agreement with Reliance Brands to bring Kurt Geiger to India beginning in Q4" (Chairman & CEO Rosenfeld). Management flagged near-term pressure points despite brand demand: "We saw, as expected, a decline in organic revenue driven by softness in private label and lower Steven Madden handbag revenue in the U.S. wholesale channel" and "SG&A pressure from the normalization of incentive compensation and increased warehouse expenses resulted in an earnings decline for the quarter" (Chairman & CEO Rosenfeld). "In the first quarter, consolidated revenue was $653.1 million" and "consolidated gross margin was 46.3%" (CFO & Executive VP of Operations Zine Mazouzi). Mazouzi also reported "operating income for the quarter was $46.3 million" and "net income attributable to Steven Madden Limited for the quarter was $32.1 million or $0.45 per diluted share" (CFO & Executive VP Mazouzi). Outlook "We are raising our revenue outlook and now expect revenue to increase 10% to 12%, up from our prior guidance of 9% to 11%" (CFO & Executive VP Mazouzi), and "we are also introducing EPS guidance for the year and expect earnings per share to be in the range of $2 to $2.10" (CFO & Executive VP Ma...
Earnings Call Insights: Qualys (QLYS) Q1 2026 Management View Sumedh Thakar (President, CEO & Director) tied product strategy to faster exploitation cycles, saying, "the number of detections is going to go up significantly while the exploit window is going to shrink dramatically" and positioning ETM as "the ETM enterprise TruRisk Management platform, which implements an AI ROC Risk Operation Cente...
Earnings Call Insights: Qualys (QLYS) Q1 2026 Management View Sumedh Thakar (President, CEO & Director) tied product strategy to faster exploitation cycles, saying, "the number of detections is going to go up significantly while the exploit window is going to shrink dramatically" and positioning ETM as "the ETM enterprise TruRisk Management platform, which implements an AI ROC Risk Operation Center so customers can get their risks remediated instead of relying on dashboard tourism with siloed products." Thakar highlighted exploit validation and remediation automation, stating, "Agent Val, is now Generally Available" and that ETM runs a closed loop that "detects vulnerabilities, validates exploit, quantifies real risk, automate remediation and revalidates the exploit." Thakar emphasized patching scale and reliability, citing "over 150 million patches deployed and over 40 million of these delivered autonomously in the last year" and adding that TruRisk Eliminate includes "our new AI-powered Patch Reliability Score" with "less than [ 0.10 % ] rollback rate." Thakar disclosed go-to-market and partnership developments, including "nearly 2 dozen certified mROC partners" and partnerships "with OpenAI in their Trusted Access for Cyber program and with Anthropic in their Cyber Verification Program," plus "a new strategic partnership with Converge Insurance" tied to Qualys ETM for premium reduction qualification. Joo Mi Kim (CFO & Principal Accounting Officer) reported, "Revenues grew 10% to $175.6 million" and said partner-led motion continued with "52% of total revenue" from channel, as "Revenues from channel partners grew 17%, outpacing direct, which grew 3%." Outlook The analysts estimates JSON provided in the prompt does not match the required fiscalQuarter formatting (Q1-Q4) and is not used for any comparisons in this summary. Kim raised full-year revenue guidance, stating, "For the full year 2026, we now expect revenues to be in the range of $721 million to $727 millio...
Earnings Call Insights: Genworth Financial (GNW) Q1 2026 Management view "In the first quarter, we continue to execute across our strategic priorities, Enact once again generated strong shareholder value. We advanced our long-term growth strategy through CareScout, and we further strengthened the self-sustainability of our Closed Block." (President, CEO & Director Thomas McInerney) "Going forward,...
Earnings Call Insights: Genworth Financial (GNW) Q1 2026 Management view "In the first quarter, we continue to execute across our strategic priorities, Enact once again generated strong shareholder value. We advanced our long-term growth strategy through CareScout, and we further strengthened the self-sustainability of our Closed Block." (President, CEO & Director Thomas McInerney) "Going forward, we will report Genworth's consolidated adjusted operating income, excluding the Closed Block." (President, CEO & Director McInerney) He also said the company reported "net income of $47 million" and "adjusted operating income, excluding the Closed Block of $109 million," with Enact delivering "adjusted operating income of $140 million" and holding company liquidity of "$166 million of cash and liquid assets." (President, CEO & Director McInerney) "Since the initial authorization of our current buyback program, we have bought back a total of $875 million worth of shares at an average price of $6.38 as of April 30." (President, CEO & Director McInerney) "By the end of 2026, we anticipate having more than 1,000 home care locations and approximately 2,000 senior living communities as part of the CQN." (President, CEO & Director McInerney) He added, "We facilitated approximately 1,500 matches between care seekers and providers in the first quarter" and said the company remains on track for "approximately 7,500 matches in 2026 compared to 3,255 matches in 2025." (President, CEO & Director McInerney) "As Enact announced yesterday, it has increased its quarterly dividend and continues to expect to return approximately $500 million of capital to its shareholders in 2026." (Executive VP & CFO Jerome Upton) Outlook "Based on our approximate 81% ownership position, we continue to expect to receive around $405 million from Enact for the full year." (Executive VP & CFO Upton) "For the full year 2026, we now expect to allocate between $195 million and $225 million to share repurchases." ...
Earnings Call Insights: Royalty Pharma (RPRX) Q1 2026 Management View "I am happy to report a strong start to 2026 as we execute towards our goal to be the premier capital allocator in life sciences, with consistent compounding growth." (Founder, Chairman of the Board & CEO Pablo Legorreta) "We delivered 10% growth in portfolio receipts, our top line and 13% growth in royalty receipts, which are o...
Earnings Call Insights: Royalty Pharma (RPRX) Q1 2026 Management View "I am happy to report a strong start to 2026 as we execute towards our goal to be the premier capital allocator in life sciences, with consistent compounding growth." (Founder, Chairman of the Board & CEO Pablo Legorreta) "We delivered 10% growth in portfolio receipts, our top line and 13% growth in royalty receipts, which are our recurring cash flows." (CEO Legorreta) "We had a busy quarter with $1.25 billion of announced transactions on 3 attractive therapies, while capital deployed was in excess of $0.5 billion." (CEO Legorreta) "We also repurchased 1 million shares for $50 million in the quarter and increased our dividend by 7%." (CEO Legorreta) "In the first quarter alone, we signed deals with J&J and Teva totaling $1 billion in announced value." (Chairman of Partnering & Investments Christopher Hite) "We provided $250 million upfront in return for 30% of their royalty on Jazz and BeOne's Ziihera, which translates to a low to mid-single-digit royalty for Royalty Pharma." (Executive Vice President of Research & Investments Marshall Urist) "Royalty receipts grew by 13% in the first quarter, reflecting the strength of our diversified portfolio." (Executive VP & CFO Terrance Coyne) Outlook "We are raising our full year 2026 financial guidance." (Executive VP & CFO Coyne) "We now expect portfolio receipts to be in the range of $3.325 billion to $3.45 billion, up from $3.275 billion to $3.425 billion previously." (CFO Coyne) "This assumes growth in royalty receipts of around 4% to 8%." (CFO Coyne) "Given these dynamics, we are providing guidance for the second quarter portfolio receipts, which we expect to be between $740 million and $760 million." (CFO Coyne) "This assumes" impacts including "the loss of exclusivity for Promacta" and "the launch of biosimilar Tysabri in the United States" plus "the potential impact of IRA." (CFO Coyne) Financial Results "Operating and professional costs were 3.9% ...
Moon Safari/iStock via Getty Images Alcon ( ALC ) declined more than 10% on Wednesday after posting a mixed first-quarter print where revenue missed analysts’ consensus by $10M. The stock was trading 10.58% lower at $66.25 during midday trading. The Swiss eye-care firm posted earnings of $0.85 per share and revenue of $2.7B. The company attributed the first-quarter performance to its new product l...
Moon Safari/iStock via Getty Images Alcon ( ALC ) declined more than 10% on Wednesday after posting a mixed first-quarter print where revenue missed analysts’ consensus by $10M. The stock was trading 10.58% lower at $66.25 during midday trading. The Swiss eye-care firm posted earnings of $0.85 per share and revenue of $2.7B. The company attributed the first-quarter performance to its new product launches, including Unity VCS and CS, PanOptix Pro, Tryptyr and Precision7. Surgical net sales, which include implantables, consumables and equipment/other, were $1.5 billion, representing a 10% year-on-year increase. Vision Care net sales, which include contact lenses and ocular health, came in at $1.2 billion, a 9% year-on-year jump. Operating income declined 38% to $292 million, while operating margin fell 8.2 percentage points. “The current year period included costs associated with efficiency initiatives, impairment charges related to an intangible asset, incremental tariffs, sales and marketing behind new product launches and increased research and development,” the company said. The company increased its core EPS growth outlook for 2026 in the range of 10% to 13%. It continues to see net sales growth between 5% and 7% and core operating margin growth within 70 bps to 170 bps. As per Seeking Alpha, the FY26 revenue consensus is $11.13B, while that for EPS is $3.44. Alcon also announced a buyback program under which it will repurchase up to $1.5 billion of the company’s common shares, par value of CHF 0.04 per share. More on Alcon Alcon And LENSAR: Why The Broken Merger Creates Two Different Buy Cases Alcon Buy Rating Reaffirmed, Despite Failed STAAR Merger, As Eyecare Portfolio Leads Alcon Inc. (ALC) Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript Alcon Non-GAAP EPS of $0.85 beats by $0.03, revenue of $2.7B misses by $10M Alcon Q1 2026 Earnings Preview