Ratana21/iStock via Getty Images "Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.” — Charles Mackay In a year in which trillions of dollars have poured into giant tech stocks in search of AI’s promise, scores of well-run, already profitable, and attractively priced businesses have been begging for a...
Ratana21/iStock via Getty Images "Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.” — Charles Mackay In a year in which trillions of dollars have poured into giant tech stocks in search of AI’s promise, scores of well-run, already profitable, and attractively priced businesses have been begging for attention. Yet we are confident the mega-cap momentum party won’t last forever and encouraged by the fact that interest in small value is building as the market is broadening out. In the fourth quarter, the Russell 2000® Value Index returned 3.26%, outpacing the 2.66% gains for the S&P 500. As a result of the year-end rally, small stocks nearly pulled even with large caps in 2025, marking their best relative performance since the pandemic. Part of this is due to strengthening fundamentals and earnings. Profit growth for small companies is on track to surpass that of large caps for the first time in 13 quarters. We believe this trend is likely to continue as the Federal Reserve lowers interest rates and as the regulatory backdrop improves — both factors that have historically benefited emerging businesses more than giant multinationals. In 2025, the total cost of regulations, as a percentage of GDP, fell by 0.24% after climbing consistently over the past two decades, according to data compiled by the American Action Forum. Another factor contributing to the broadening market is valuations. There are signs that investors are finally beginning to appreciate how attractively priced small stocks are. In the past quarter, for example, four of our Strategy’s holdings were taken private, raising our take-out total to 14 over the past year. However, just 10% of companies account for more than 75% of the market’s overall capitalization, so concentration is likely to persist (see the chart below). But this reminds us of the observations of the 19th century Scottish writer Charles Macke...
Maximusnd/iStock via Getty Images The following segment was excerpted from the Baron Opportunity Fund Q4 2025 Shareholder Letter. P ortfolio Structure We invest in secular growth and innovative businesses across all market capitalizations, with the bulk of the portfolio landing in the large-cap zone. Morningstar categorizes the Fund as U.S. Large Growth. As of the end of the fourth quarter, the la...
Maximusnd/iStock via Getty Images The following segment was excerpted from the Baron Opportunity Fund Q4 2025 Shareholder Letter. P ortfolio Structure We invest in secular growth and innovative businesses across all market capitalizations, with the bulk of the portfolio landing in the large-cap zone. Morningstar categorizes the Fund as U.S. Large Growth. As of the end of the fourth quarter, the largest market cap holding in the Fund was $4.5 trillion and the smallest was $500 million. The median market cap of the Fund was $46.3 billion, and the weighted average market cap was $1.4 trillion. To end the quarter, the Fund had $1.8 billion of assets under management. We had investments in 46 unique companies. The Fund’s top 10 positions accounted for 61.6% of net assets. Top 10 holdings Quarter EndMarket Cap($B) Quarter EndInvestment Value($M) Percent ofNet Assets(%) NVIDIA Corporation 4,532.0 229.4 12.8 Space Exploration Technologies Corp. 800.0 158.4 8.8 Microsoft Corporation 3,594.4 122.8 6.8 Broadcom Inc. 1,641.0 114.3 6.4 Amazon.com , Inc. 2,467.5 112.1 6.2 Tesla, Inc. 1,495.7 107.6 6.0 Spotify Technology S.A. 121.1 76.9 4.3 Meta Platforms, Inc. 1,664.1 72.3 4.0 Eli Lilly and Company 1,016.0 63.5 3.5 X.AI Holdings Corp. 230.0 50.3 2.8 Click to enlarge Recent Activity Top net purchases for the quarter Quarter EndMarket Cap ($B) Net AmountPurchased ($M) Axon Enterprise, Inc. 44.8 17.1 On Holding AG 15.3 14.7 HeartFlow, Inc. 2.5 9.8 Oracle Corporation 626.8 8.1 Spotify Technology S.A. 121.1 5.7 Click to enlarge We recently initiated a position in Axon Enterprise, Inc. ( AXON ) , a leading public-safety technology company providing taser, body camera, drone, and other hardware solutions alongside robust cloud, digital evidence management, real-time operations, and AI-driven software offerings. Founded by current CEO Rick Smith in 1993, Axon started as a taser company and now has a near monopoly on the product across law enforcement officers nationally. Step by step, Ri...
Anheuser-Busch InBev press release ( BUD ): Q4 Non-GAAP EPS of $0.95 beats by $0.07 . Revenue of $15.55B (+4.8% Y/Y) beats by $90M . Revenue increased by 2.5% in 4Q25 with revenue per hl growth of 4.0% and by 2.0% in FY25 with revenue per hl growth of 4.4%. Volumes declined by 1.5% in 4Q25, with beer volumes down by 1.9% and non-beer volumes up by 0.6%. Normalized EBITDA increased by 2.3% to 5 473...
Anheuser-Busch InBev press release ( BUD ): Q4 Non-GAAP EPS of $0.95 beats by $0.07 . Revenue of $15.55B (+4.8% Y/Y) beats by $90M . Revenue increased by 2.5% in 4Q25 with revenue per hl growth of 4.0% and by 2.0% in FY25 with revenue per hl growth of 4.4%. Volumes declined by 1.5% in 4Q25, with beer volumes down by 1.9% and non-beer volumes up by 0.6%. Normalized EBITDA increased by 2.3% to 5 473 million USD in 4Q25, with a margin contraction of 10bps to 35.2%. Net debt to normalized EBITDA ratio was 2.87x at 31 December 2025, compared to 2.89x at 31 December 2024. The AB InBev Board of Directors proposes a final dividend of 1.00 EUR per share, subject to shareholder approval at the AGM on 29 April 2026. 2026 Outlook (i) Overall Performance: We expect our EBITDA to grow in line with our medium-term outlook of between 4-8%. The outlook for FY26 reflects our current assessment of inflation and other macroeconomic conditions. (ii) Net Finance Costs: Net pension interest expenses and accretion expenses are expected to be in the range of 190 to 220 million USD per quarter, depending on currency and interest rate fluctuations. We expect the average gross debt coupon in FY26 to be approximately 4%. (iii) Effective Tax Rate ( ETR ): We expect the normalized ETR in FY26 to be in the range of 26% to 28%. The ETR outlook does not consider the impact of potential future changes in legislation. (iv) Net Capital Expenditure: We expect net capital expenditure of between 3.5 and 4.0 billion USD in FY26. More on Anheuser-Busch InBev Anheuser-Busch InBev: Strong Cash Flow And Growing Profitability Anheuser-Busch InBev: Waking Up After A Long-Term Hangover Wall Street Lunch: Craft Beers Enter 2026 On Choppy Waters Anheuser-Busch InBev Q4 2025 Earnings Preview Super Bowl LX ads: OpenAI vs. Anthropic, Meta’s glasses, and GLP‑1 buzz
AST SpaceMobile confirms the successful unfolding of BlueBird 6 to validate its technology and unlock commercial agreements with global network operators.
AST SpaceMobile confirms the successful unfolding of BlueBird 6 to validate its technology and unlock commercial agreements with global network operators.
Good morning . The US House voted to end Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canada as six Republicans crossed the aisle. Read about an alleged multi-million euro insider trade. And Jim Ratcliffe says the UK is “colonized” by immigrants. Listen to the day’s top stories . US President Donald Trump’s tariff agenda faced its biggest setback as the Republican-led House passed a bill targeting levies on Canadian...
Good morning . The US House voted to end Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canada as six Republicans crossed the aisle. Read about an alleged multi-million euro insider trade. And Jim Ratcliffe says the UK is “colonized” by immigrants. Listen to the day’s top stories . US President Donald Trump’s tariff agenda faced its biggest setback as the Republican-led House passed a bill targeting levies on Canadian imports. Though unlikely to survive a veto, the vote exposed GOP divisions and rising election-year anxiety over affordability and Trump’s weakening political grip. French President Emmanuel Macron renewed his “ Made in Europe ” push before a key EU meeting, urging priority for local content in strategic sectors. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz pushed back, warning against excessive protectionism and underscoring divisions over how to strengthen Europe’s competitiveness. UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves urged inclusion of partners like the UK, Norway and Canada. Europe must accelerate reforms and scale up efforts to strengthen its economy, European Central Bank Executive Board member Isabel Schnabel said. Trump told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu he will pursue Iran talks and prefers a deal , despite the country’s concerns about Washington’s diplomatic push. Crude oil edged higher as traders remain concerned about a potential escalation in tensions between the US and Iran. Middle East tensions aren’t rattling markets yet—but if oil flows get hit, inflation and central banks will feel it fast . Russia has moved to fully block WhatsApp its popular encrypted messaging service in the country as part of an effort to drive adoption of a new, state-sponsored app. Authorities are also moving to restrict Telegram as Moscow tightens control over foreign messaging platforms. London house prices are expected to rise for the first time in over a year, a RICS survey showed, signaling tentative improvement . While UK buyer enquiries picked up, overall activity remains subdued afte...
Huawei’s Ascend 384 supernode is displayed at the 2025 World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai on July 28, 2025. Photo: VCG Facing U.S. sanctions blocking access to advanced semiconductors, Chinese tech companies are increasingly relying on supernode technology that can integrate clusters of lower-performance chips into servers to achieve similar computing capacities. But systematic c...
Huawei’s Ascend 384 supernode is displayed at the 2025 World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai on July 28, 2025. Photo: VCG Facing U.S. sanctions blocking access to advanced semiconductors, Chinese tech companies are increasingly relying on supernode technology that can integrate clusters of lower-performance chips into servers to achieve similar computing capacities. But systematic complexity, high costs and insufficient demand cloud their large-scale application. Since mid-2025, many Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) chip designers, server manufacturers and cloud services providers have rolled out their own supernode products amid a surge in demand for training large language models (LLMs) that have been applied in a wide range of industries from education and health care to finance and marketing.
Astera Labs opened a new R&D and design center in Israel, focused on addressing memory and data bottlenecks in AI workloads. The company announced new partnerships with Microsoft, Intel, SAP, and Amazon to advance AI connectivity and CXL attached memory solutions. Astera Labs disclosed a multibillion dollar purchase agreement with Amazon tied to its AI and cloud infrastructure products. Astera Lab...
Astera Labs opened a new R&D and design center in Israel, focused on addressing memory and data bottlenecks in AI workloads. The company announced new partnerships with Microsoft, Intel, SAP, and Amazon to advance AI connectivity and CXL attached memory solutions. Astera Labs disclosed a multibillion dollar purchase agreement with Amazon tied to its AI and cloud infrastructure products. Astera Labs, listed as NasdaqGS:ALAB, is leaning into AI infrastructure at a time when attention on high...
A Toyota Motor ( TM ) group company said Thursday that it will extend the tender offer period for its acquisition of forklift maker Toyota Industries ( TYIDY ) ( TYIDF ) until March 2 to improve the likelihood of the bid’s success. The new deadline is March 2, and the offer price remains unchanged, Toyota Asset Preparatory, which is the entity through which the bid is being made, said in a filing....
A Toyota Motor ( TM ) group company said Thursday that it will extend the tender offer period for its acquisition of forklift maker Toyota Industries ( TYIDY ) ( TYIDF ) until March 2 to improve the likelihood of the bid’s success. The new deadline is March 2, and the offer price remains unchanged, Toyota Asset Preparatory, which is the entity through which the bid is being made, said in a filing. The offer period was previously slated to end Thursday. Toyota Industries shares rose after the disclosure, briefly rising as high as 20,000 yen, up from around 19,400 yen before. The stock was last up 1.2% at 19,910 yen. The deal faces strong opposition from U.S. activist Elliott Investment Management. More on Toyota Motor Toyota's Abrupt CEO Switch Signals Big Spending To Keep Up With AI And Chinese Rivals Toyota Motor: Confirmation Of A Long-Term Defensive Investment After Q3 Results Toyota Motor Corporation (TM) Discusses Executive Leadership Transition and Organizational Restructuring Transcript Toyota plans to retool its Kentucky plant to produce its first EV model in the U.S. Toyota appoints Kenta Kon as CEO; outgoing Chief Sato named Vice Chairman & CIO