Broadcom (NasdaqGS:AVGO) has released VMware Cloud Foundation 9.1, an AI and Kubernetes native private cloud platform aimed at enterprise AI workloads. The new version focuses on intelligent resource optimization, advanced memory and storage tiering, and automated scaling for production AI deployments. VCF 9.1 introduces a zero trust security architecture, multi vendor GPU and CPU support, and gov...
Broadcom (NasdaqGS:AVGO) has released VMware Cloud Foundation 9.1, an AI and Kubernetes native private cloud platform aimed at enterprise AI workloads. The new version focuses on intelligent resource optimization, advanced memory and storage tiering, and automated scaling for production AI deployments. VCF 9.1 introduces a zero trust security architecture, multi vendor GPU and CPU support, and governance features to address AI infrastructure cost, security, and compliance concerns. For...
Former prime minister Gordon Brown was appointed UK special envoy on global finance as part of Keir Starmer ’s attempt to patch up the rival factions in his Labour Party after it suffered dismal local election results. Brown, who served as Labour chancellor and then premier from 1997 until 2010, is set to develop new international finance partnerships to support defense and security-related invest...
Former prime minister Gordon Brown was appointed UK special envoy on global finance as part of Keir Starmer ’s attempt to patch up the rival factions in his Labour Party after it suffered dismal local election results. Brown, who served as Labour chancellor and then premier from 1997 until 2010, is set to develop new international finance partnerships to support defense and security-related investment with a particular focus on European ties, Starmer’s office said. That includes establishing multilateral finance mechanisms — something Chancellor Rachel Reeves has been pursuing with limited success in recent months. The appointment is part of Starmer’s efforts to signal to both his ruling Labour party and the wider public that he wants to unite the party, after around 30 MPs called for him to set out a timetable for his departure. Some named Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham as their preferred successor and called for him to be allowed to stand for parliament. Another influential Labour grandee, Harriet Harman , was appointed Starmer’s adviser on women and girls on Saturday. Read more: Starmer Rivals Plot Slow-Motion Takeover After Election Rout While both Harman and Brown are highly respected among the Labour parliamentary party, reaching for the old guard in an effort to signify change is likely to have limited impact. A number of Labour MPs privately criticized the decision to the BBC. It will also be seen as an attempt to stave off any leadership challenge — party grandees have often played a pivotal role in ousting and electing leaders across the political spectrum. Brown has already been influential in pushing the government to introduce measures to alleviate child poverty. Labour is on course to lose more than 1,400 of the roughly 2,500 council seats it was defending across England as a result of a surge in support for Nigel Farage ’s Reform UK. Labour also lost support in Wales, Scotland and saw many London seats fall to the Greens. Starmer plans further ...
A wanted member of the overseas opposition group “Hong Kong Parliament” has been arrested in Thailand for overstaying her visa, and is reportedly set to be deported to mainland China. The opposition group said on Friday that Zhang Xinyan, who took part in what it called a parliamentary election and was sworn in as a member last year, was recently arrested in Thailand for overstaying her visa. It w...
A wanted member of the overseas opposition group “Hong Kong Parliament” has been arrested in Thailand for overstaying her visa, and is reportedly set to be deported to mainland China. The opposition group said on Friday that Zhang Xinyan, who took part in what it called a parliamentary election and was sworn in as a member last year, was recently arrested in Thailand for overstaying her visa. It was not immediately clear what type of visa Zhang held. In a reply to the South China Morning Post on...
Getty Images Introduction We last published an article on NNN REIT, Inc. ( NNN ) in March 2025 entitled “NNN REIT: No Obvious Reason To Jump In Right Now” and submitted a hold recommendation on the stock. In this article, we revisit our valuation employing an updated framework and reaffirm our hold recommendation on the stock. While investment spreads continue to be central to our framework, we no...
Getty Images Introduction We last published an article on NNN REIT, Inc. ( NNN ) in March 2025 entitled “NNN REIT: No Obvious Reason To Jump In Right Now” and submitted a hold recommendation on the stock. In this article, we revisit our valuation employing an updated framework and reaffirm our hold recommendation on the stock. While investment spreads continue to be central to our framework, we now incorporate a valuation approach that compares a premium to invested capital justified by the investment spread as opposed to a valuation approach that compares the total return with an unbiased measure of equity value. With the updated framework, we still do not find sufficient upside to the stock. We start our analysis by looking at the historical record of the implied cap rate for the Nareit Free Standing Retail sector, of which NNN is a part of, and the U.S. 10-year Treasury rate. We then look at NNN REIT’s stock performance relative to the sector and consider their business model and operating strategy. Next, we estimate the investment spread they are able to generate by quantifying the difference between the projected cap rate for their business for the remainder of 2026 and their current cost of capital. Finally, we enter our estimate of the investment spread into the value driver model we have adapted to generate a fair value estimate. Source: Valuation: Measuring and Managing the Value of Companies, Tim Koller, Marc Goedhart & David Wessels, published by John Wiley & Sons, First Edition, 1990 Macro Spread Please see Exhibit 1. Exhibit 1 (Nareit & Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis) From 2016 to 2025, the spread between the U.S. 10-year Treasury and the implied cap rate for the Nareit Free Standing Retail sector has been, on average, 319 basis points. For Q4 2025, the spread was 227 basis points, narrower than the average but still within one standard deviation. A narrower than usual spread implies that the sector is somewhat overvalued. Generally, investors requir...
A huge art work banner newly posted on the corner of Vali Asr Square depicts Iranian missiles with messages addressing Minab schoolgirls and victims of Epstein Island on March 17, 2026 in Tehran, Iran. = Kaveh Kazemi | Getty Images The U.S. is imposing sanctions on companies and individuals across the Middle East and China for allegedly helping Iran in its war efforts, the State Department said. T...
A huge art work banner newly posted on the corner of Vali Asr Square depicts Iranian missiles with messages addressing Minab schoolgirls and victims of Epstein Island on March 17, 2026 in Tehran, Iran. = Kaveh Kazemi | Getty Images The U.S. is imposing sanctions on companies and individuals across the Middle East and China for allegedly helping Iran in its war efforts, the State Department said. The moves target 11 entities and three individuals based in Iran, China, Belarus, and the United Arab Emirates, the department said in a statement late on Friday. "Included in today's actions are several China-based entities providing satellite imagery to enable Iran's military strikes against U.S. forces in the Middle East," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in the statement . "Additionally, we are designating entities and individuals enabling efforts by Iran's military to secure weapons, as well as raw materials with applications in Iran's ballistic missile and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) programs," Rubio said. Rubio said on Friday that the U.S. was expecting a response from Iran that day on the U.S.'s proposal to end the war. Iran said Thursday it is reviewing messages from the U.S. received via Pakistani mediators, but it has yet to reach a conclusion or deliver a reply, according to Iranian state media, which cited an Iranian official. Axios and other news outlets reported earlier this week that the countries were nearing a 14-point memorandum of understanding to put an end to the war and resume talks around Iran's nuclear program. Rubio's comments come amid confusion over whether a ceasefire between Iran and the U.S. is still in effect, as both have opened fire in the Strait of Hormuz , accusing the other of initiating attacks. President Donald Trump on Thursday insisted the ceasefire was still in effect, calling the strikes "just a love tap." Trump also said the Iranians wanted to "make a deal very much." "We've seen a report overnight that Iran has established, o...
The U.S. war against Iran continues to dominate headlines, even though it's apparently currently in ceasefire mode (aside from the occasional naval blockade or counterblockade). Two months into the conflict, with the guns having finally ceased blazing, Pentagon Comptroller Jay Hurst told Congress last week that the war cost U.S. taxpayers $25 billion. (This sounds like a lot, but it's actually a w...
The U.S. war against Iran continues to dominate headlines, even though it's apparently currently in ceasefire mode (aside from the occasional naval blockade or counterblockade). Two months into the conflict, with the guns having finally ceased blazing, Pentagon Comptroller Jay Hurst told Congress last week that the war cost U.S. taxpayers $25 billion. (This sounds like a lot, but it's actually a whole lot less than the $80 billion to $100 billion The Washington Post estimated last month , and much, much less than the $8 trillion spent to fund the 20-year-long Global War on Terror ( GWoT .) So is this the end? Just $25 billion and done? Or will peace talks fall apart and the Mideast conflict revive? Continue reading
China has built the world’s first dual core quantum computer, a development that could “significantly enhance” efficiency, official media has reported. The breakthrough signalled that Chinese quantum computing technology was “entering a new stage”, according to the official newspaper Science and Technology Daily. While other quantum computers rely on high energy consumption and need to be run in t...
China has built the world’s first dual core quantum computer, a development that could “significantly enhance” efficiency, official media has reported. The breakthrough signalled that Chinese quantum computing technology was “entering a new stage”, according to the official newspaper Science and Technology Daily. While other quantum computers rely on high energy consumption and need to be run in temperatures close to absolute zero, the design of this computer uses neutral atoms – which consume...
Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) and Novo Nordisk (NYSE: NVO) have been leaders in an area that's seen explosive demand over the past few years: the weight loss drug market. And growth is far from over. Analysts expect this market to expand to nearly $100 billion by the end of this decade. Novo was the first to enter, with semaglutide. Though this product was initially approved as Ozempic for type 2 diabetes...
Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) and Novo Nordisk (NYSE: NVO) have been leaders in an area that's seen explosive demand over the past few years: the weight loss drug market. And growth is far from over. Analysts expect this market to expand to nearly $100 billion by the end of this decade. Novo was the first to enter, with semaglutide. Though this product was initially approved as Ozempic for type 2 diabetes back in 2017, it won the OK as Wegovy for obesity soon afterward. Regulators also gave the nod to Lilly for its tirzepatide, sold as Mounjaro and Zepbound for those indications, respectively. These products are part of the hot class of drugs known as GLP-1, and they've been the talk of the town worldwide thanks to their ability to help people along the path to weight loss. Though Novo led the market in its early days, last year Lilly slipped ahead with 60% share in the U.S. market. At the time, both companies sold uniquely injectable GLP-1 drugs. Today, however, a new growth catalyst has emerged, and it's the GLP-1 pill. Both companies recently won approval for their oral drugs, and now the race is on to see which one emerges as the leader. With this in mind, is the following news from Novo a warning for Lilly shareholders? Let's find out. Continue reading
summerphotos/iStock via Getty Images Performance assessment Broadcom ( AVGO ) has undergone a period of correction and has only recently started to catch up to the market since my last update on the stock: Performance since HA's Last Article on AVGO (Seeking Alpha, HA's Last Article on AVGO) Elevator pitch Although AVGO has underperformed since my last 'Buy' call on the stock, I have increased con...
summerphotos/iStock via Getty Images Performance assessment Broadcom ( AVGO ) has undergone a period of correction and has only recently started to catch up to the market since my last update on the stock: Performance since HA's Last Article on AVGO (Seeking Alpha, HA's Last Article on AVGO) Elevator pitch Although AVGO has underperformed since my last 'Buy' call on the stock, I have increased confidence in my outlook: AI semiconductor revenue is set to ramp up in an explosive way Scaling up of AI racks will not erode gross margins Supply chain bottlenecks are a risk to monitor as they can delay revenue realization The stock has gotten cheaper; the business has gotten better Momentum is healthy after a low-volatility squeeze and breakout AI semiconductor revenue is set to ramp up in an explosive way Broadcom is on track to deploy nearly 10 GW (enough to power 7.5M homes) of compute capacity in 2027, driven by 6 large, multi-year partnerships with hyperscalers and AI foundational model companies Anthropic ( ANTHRO ) and OpenAI ( OPENAI ). This is primarily via AI XPUs: ...our collaboration with these 6 customers to develop AI XPUs is deep, strategic and multiyear. We bring to the partnerships, each of them, unmatched technology in SerDes, silicon design, process technology, advanced packaging and networking to enable each of these customers to achieve optimal performance for their differentiated LLM workloads. We have the track record to deliver these XPUs and high volumes at an accelerated time to market with very high yields. - CEO Hock Tan in the Q1 FY26 earnings call AI XPUs refer to custom AI accelerator chips that are co-designed with specific hyperscaler cloud environments such as Google's ( GOOGL ) ( GOOG ) TPUs and Meta's ( META ) MTAI SerDes is a circuit that converts parallel digital data into one serial stream for high-speed data transmission, then converts it back to parallel data at the receiving end. Ultimately, this is leading to a massive $100B AI re...
summerphotos/iStock via Getty Images Performance assessment Broadcom ( AVGO ) has undergone a period of correction and has only recently started to catch up to the market since my last update on the stock: Performance since HA's Last Article on AVGO (Seeking Alpha, HA's Last Article on AVGO) Elevator pitch Although AVGO has underperformed since my last 'Buy' call on the stock, I have increased con...
summerphotos/iStock via Getty Images Performance assessment Broadcom ( AVGO ) has undergone a period of correction and has only recently started to catch up to the market since my last update on the stock: Performance since HA's Last Article on AVGO (Seeking Alpha, HA's Last Article on AVGO) Elevator pitch Although AVGO has underperformed since my last 'Buy' call on the stock, I have increased confidence in my outlook: AI semiconductor revenue is set to ramp up in an explosive way Scaling up of AI racks will not erode gross margins Supply chain bottlenecks are a risk to monitor as they can delay revenue realization The stock has gotten cheaper; the business has gotten better Momentum is healthy after a low-volatility squeeze and breakout AI semiconductor revenue is set to ramp up in an explosive way Broadcom is on track to deploy nearly 10 GW (enough to power 7.5M homes) of compute capacity in 2027, driven by 6 large, multi-year partnerships with hyperscalers and AI foundational model companies Anthropic ( ANTHRO ) and OpenAI ( OPENAI ). This is primarily via AI XPUs: ...our collaboration with these 6 customers to develop AI XPUs is deep, strategic and multiyear. We bring to the partnerships, each of them, unmatched technology in SerDes, silicon design, process technology, advanced packaging and networking to enable each of these customers to achieve optimal performance for their differentiated LLM workloads. We have the track record to deliver these XPUs and high volumes at an accelerated time to market with very high yields. - CEO Hock Tan in the Q1 FY26 earnings call AI XPUs refer to custom AI accelerator chips that are co-designed with specific hyperscaler cloud environments such as Google's ( GOOGL ) ( GOOG ) TPUs and Meta's ( META ) MTAI SerDes is a circuit that converts parallel digital data into one serial stream for high-speed data transmission, then converts it back to parallel data at the receiving end. Ultimately, this is leading to a massive $100B AI re...
felixmizioznikov/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Introduction I last covered UMH Properties ( UMH ) in March 2026 , resuming coverage after almost 3 years. I had a “Buy” rating on the company. With the recent release of the company’s Q1 2026 results , I re-evaluate the company again. At its current share price of $16/share, the company remains a “Buy” for me, with a price target of $18/share. A ...
felixmizioznikov/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Introduction I last covered UMH Properties ( UMH ) in March 2026 , resuming coverage after almost 3 years. I had a “Buy” rating on the company. With the recent release of the company’s Q1 2026 results , I re-evaluate the company again. At its current share price of $16/share, the company remains a “Buy” for me, with a price target of $18/share. A Solid Q1 UMH Properties had a solid start to the year. The company reported $65.8 million in total income for the quarter, an 8% increase compared to Q1 2025. This was largely driven by a 9% increase in rental and related income to $59.5 million. Normalized Funds From Operations (FFO) came in at $19.4 million, a 2.8% increase year-on-year. However, on a per-share basis, normalized FFO remained the same at $0.23/share due to a 3.1% increase in share count over the year. Net income attributable to common shareholders was $2.6 million, a significant improvement on the net loss of $271,000 in Q1 2025. It should be noted that during the earnings call , management highlighted that results were affected by an unusually harsh winter during the quarter, leading to elevated maintenance costs and lower home sales. Looking ahead to the rest of the year, management tightened guidance for normalized FFO to between $0.98/share and $1.04/share (previously $0.97/share to $1.05/share), with the midpoint of $1.01/share representing a 6.3% increase on 2025 figures. An Exceptional Organic Growth Engine One of the most compelling aspects of UMH Properties is its multi-year organic growth runway. The company has 3,300 existing vacant lots to fill and over 2,300 vacant acres available for approximately 9,300 future lots. These assets have already been paid for, with the interest expense already included in the company’s profit and loss statements, meaning each additional occupied unit represents pure NOI growth. The company’s primary growth engine comes from its rental home program. Each new renta...