8vFanI/iStock via Getty Images Thesis Runway Growth Finance Corp. ( RWAY ) is a business development company with a $315 M market capitalization. Late last year the company announced the acquisition of SWK Holdings Corporation ( SWKH ): MENLO PARK, Calif., Oct. 09, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Runway Growth Finance Corp. ( Nasdaq: RWAY ) ("Runway Growth" or the "Company"), a leading provider of flexib...
8vFanI/iStock via Getty Images Thesis Runway Growth Finance Corp. ( RWAY ) is a business development company with a $315 M market capitalization. Late last year the company announced the acquisition of SWK Holdings Corporation ( SWKH ): MENLO PARK, Calif., Oct. 09, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Runway Growth Finance Corp. ( Nasdaq: RWAY ) ("Runway Growth" or the "Company"), a leading provider of flexible capital solutions to late- and growth-stage companies seeking an alternative to raising equity, today announced that it has entered into a definitive merger agreement to acquire SWK Holdings Corporation (Nasdaq: SWKH) ("SWK"), a life science focused specialty finance company that provides minimally dilutive financing to small- and mid-sized commercial-stage healthcare companies. The acquisition has not closed yet, scheduled for March 2026 as per the latest projections. In today's article we are going to cover the latest balance sheet developments for RWAY, as well as the origination of a new baby bond for the company. Debt re-financing Prior to the most recent balance sheet re-shuffling the company had the following debt structure: Leverage (Company Preso) The 7.5% 2027 Notes trade under the ticker RWAYL, while the 8% 2027 Notes trade under the ticker RWAYZ. Please also note the April 2026 maturity for roughly $25 M in bonds. The BDC placed $100 M of new notes which have generated proceeds necessary to redeem the April maturity as well as refinance expensive debt: MENLO PARK, Calif., Jan. 27, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Runway Growth Finance Corp. today announced that it has priced an underwritten public offering of $100.0 million aggregate principal amount of notes due 2031 (the "Notes"), which will result in net proceeds to the Company of approximately $97.0 million after payment of underwriting discounts and commissions. The Notes will mature on February 3, 2031 and may be redeemed in whole or in part at any time or from time to time at the Company's option on or after F...
Philippe TURPIN/Photononstop via Getty Images Company Description Morgan Stanley Direct Lending ( MSDL ) is a business development company whose objective is to achieve attractive risk-adjusted returns by investing primarily in directly originated senior secured term loans issued by U.S. middle market companies. MSDL invests primarily in companies backed by leading private equity sponsors with str...
Philippe TURPIN/Photononstop via Getty Images Company Description Morgan Stanley Direct Lending ( MSDL ) is a business development company whose objective is to achieve attractive risk-adjusted returns by investing primarily in directly originated senior secured term loans issued by U.S. middle market companies. MSDL invests primarily in companies backed by leading private equity sponsors with strong track records, as they believe that being a sponsored company has potential advantages. The company is the 11th largest BDC by market cap at $1.4B and among the largest in terms of total assets ($3.8B at fair value as of 9/30/25). Investment Thesis and Recommendation As with all BDCs, MSDL is predominantly used as an income investment with the possibility of some capital appreciation. MSDL invests primarily in first lien senior secured loans to non-investment-grade companies (96% of the portfolio). The majority of these companies are private equity portfolio companies (often called "sponsored companies"). As a result of the income focus, the primary focus of analysis is the portfolio income generated and the quality of the underlying portfolio. To this end: Portfolio quality has declined (albeit modestly) sequentially (0.7% > 1.2%) and year-over-year in terms of non-accrual loans (from 0.2% to 1.20% on a cost basis), Portfolio yield has fallen due mainly to a decline in SOFR as well as some spread compression (10.4% to 9.70% yield at cost), The $0.50 dividend was covered by net investment income ($0.50), which resulted in no supplemental dividend. NII dividend coverage has dropped from 114% to 100% since 12/31/24. While MSDL has been one of the more conservative firms in the private credit/BDC space, I would not be surprised to see a dividend cut in cards. In their last reported quarter, the firm’s NII covered the dividend at 100%, leaving little room for error. While MSDL has $0.82 in spillover they can apply to “plug” a shortfall, there is only so much they will use o...
hapabapa/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Adobe's ( ADBE ) stock has been selling off significantly over the past two years due to the 'AI fear trade'. The idea behind the AI fear trade is that artificial intelligence could replace traditional software applications. The fear also comes from the idea that AI disruption could lead to an increase in competition for similar applications. Another fear...
hapabapa/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Adobe's ( ADBE ) stock has been selling off significantly over the past two years due to the 'AI fear trade'. The idea behind the AI fear trade is that artificial intelligence could replace traditional software applications. The fear also comes from the idea that AI disruption could lead to an increase in competition for similar applications. Another fear is that AI could disrupt the demand for software-as-a-service [SaaS] subscriptions. I will explain in the article how AI is more likely to benefit Adobe rather than negatively impact the company. While I can't say for sure when the exact bottom will be in, I do think that Adobe's stock is bottoming as it reached a demand zone where the stock rallied from previously. The other issue for the stock has been the need for a re-valuation from an overvalued level. ADBE is now trading at attractive valuation levels. How Adobe Can Thrive In The AI Age Adobe is already integrating AI into its current applications . This can enhance the user experience while still providing highly professional results. By integrating AI into existing applications, Adobe can improve its offerings and make them more efficient. If Adobe is successful with its AI integration, it could help the company to maintain a high customer retention rate. It could also help drive the growth of new customers. Frankly, it doesn't make sense for other AI-based entities to create alternatives to Adobe Acrobat, Creative Cloud, GenStudio, Photoshop, Presenter or any of the company's other software applications via AI. It does make sense for AI to be incorporated into these existing applications by Adobe to improve them and to remain competitive. So, we will probably see more partnerships between traditional software companies like Adobe with AI-based companies. Adobe integration of AI is found in its Firefly offering. Adobe considers Firefly to be a commercially-safe application for generative AI output. Adobe partnered ...
anyaberkut/iStock via Getty Images Introduction The Vanguard Global ex-US Real Estate Index ETF ( VNQI ) is off to a strong start in 2026, benefiting from a decline in bond yields, as well as further weakness in the U.S. dollar ( DXY ). This has pushed the P/B ratio of VNQI to 1x, up from 0.9x when I last covered the ETF . While I anticipate the pace of VNQI gains to slow down from the stellar ret...
anyaberkut/iStock via Getty Images Introduction The Vanguard Global ex-US Real Estate Index ETF ( VNQI ) is off to a strong start in 2026, benefiting from a decline in bond yields, as well as further weakness in the U.S. dollar ( DXY ). This has pushed the P/B ratio of VNQI to 1x, up from 0.9x when I last covered the ETF . While I anticipate the pace of VNQI gains to slow down from the stellar returns achived in 2025 and 2026, I still see the ETF as an attractive risk-reward investment opportunity, confirming my previous Buy rating on the ETF. I estimate VNQI's potential return over the long term at about 7.78%, driven by: A relatively safe 4.27% current dividend yield. The potential to achieve roughly 3% dividend growth under baseline economic assumptions. A circa 0.5-0.75% tailwind from incremental U.S. dollar weakness post 2026. Investors not familiar with VNQI may want to check out the ETF Overview section in my previous article . Relative to September 2025, the ETF's allocation to the Pacific and Emerging markets is margnially lower, offset by an increase in "Other" regions. Valuation update After strong returns over the past year, international REITs held in VNQI now trade at a P/B of 1x. As a reminder, since international REITs generally prepare reports under IFRS (which requires regular revaluation of investment properties, usually every six months), P/B is a much more relevant metric to look at compared with U.S. REITs, which hold property at cost minus accumulated depreciation. Assuming an average of 40% debt in international REIT capital structures (a common benchmark for REITs seeking an investment-grade credit rating) and 2% inflation, we now see that valuation gains should drive a circa 3% capital gain for VNQI holders, down from the 3.7% I estimated when VNQI holdings were trading at a P/B of around 0.9x . The silver lining is that VNQI holdings' creditors now have a larger equity cushion in terms of market capitalization, potentially allowing VNQI ho...
Bastards, Worldwide Across much of the world, long-standing norms around marriage and family formation are changing. In many countries, having children outside of marriage has become increasingly common, while in others it remains rare. This visualization, via Visual Capitalist's Niccolo Conte, shows countries ranked by the share of children born outside of marriage using the latest available data...
Bastards, Worldwide Across much of the world, long-standing norms around marriage and family formation are changing. In many countries, having children outside of marriage has become increasingly common, while in others it remains rare. This visualization, via Visual Capitalist's Niccolo Conte, shows countries ranked by the share of children born outside of marriage using the latest available data from the OECD Family Database . Latin America Leads by a Wide Margin Colombia leads with 87% of children born outside marriage, followed by Chile, Costa Rica, and Mexico—all above 70%. In much of the region, cohabitation has long been socially accepted and legally recognized, reducing the importance of formal marriage. Historical inequality and lower access to legal institutions have also played a role in shaping these patterns over time. Rank Country Children born outside marriage (%) 1 🇨🇴 Colombia 87.0 2 🇨🇱 Chile 78.1 3 🇨🇷 Costa Rica 74.0 4 🇲🇽 Mexico 73.7 5 🇮🇸 Iceland 69.4 6 🇳🇴 Norway 61.2 7 🇧🇬 Bulgaria 59.7 8 🇵🇹 Portugal 59.5 9 🇫🇷 France 58.5 10 🇸🇪 Sweden 57.5 11 🇸🇮 Slovenia 56.5 12 🇩🇰 Denmark 54.7 13 🇪🇪 Estonia 53.8 14 🇧🇪 Belgium 52.4 15 🇪🇸 Spain 50.0 16 🇳🇿 New Zealand 48.4 17 🇫🇮 Finland 48.4 18 🇬🇧 United Kingdom 47.6 19 🇨🇿 Czech Republic 47.1 20 🇳🇱 Netherlands 42.1 21 🇸🇰 Slovak Republic 41.6 22 🇮🇹 Italy 40.5 23 🇦🇹 Austria 40.0 24 🇺🇸 United States 40.0 25 🇦🇺 Australia 39.9 26 🇱🇺 Luxembourg 39.0 27 🇮🇪 Ireland 38.4 28 🇱🇻 Latvia 37.3 29 🇷🇴 Romania 33.9 30 🇩🇪 Germany 33.1 31 🇨🇦 Canada 29.0 32 🇵🇱 Poland 28.7 33 🇨🇭 Switzerland 27.7 34 🇱🇹 Lithuania 27.3 35 🇭🇷 Croatia 26.1 36 🇭🇺 Hungary 24.4 37 🇨🇾 Cyprus 21.2 38 🇬🇷 Greece 9.7 39 🇮🇱 Israel 8.6 40 🇰🇷 Korea 4.7 41 🇹🇷 Türkiye 3.1 42 🇯🇵 Japan 2.4 -- Dataset Average 42.3 Nordic Countries Redefine Family Norms Several Nordic countries also report high shares of non-marital births, including Iceland (69%), Norway (61%), Sweden (58%), and Denmark (55%). Unlike Latin America, these trends are closely tied to strong welfare states and le...
Michele Ursi/iStock Editorial via Getty Images The Roundhill PLTR WeeklyPay ETF ( PLTW ) is an actively managed exchange-traded fund designed to provide investors with exposure to the performance of Palantir ( PLTR ) shares while employing 1.2x leverage with the goal of providing income and growth. Using weekly swap derivatives, the fund intends on providing a weekly return that is equivalent to 1...
Michele Ursi/iStock Editorial via Getty Images The Roundhill PLTR WeeklyPay ETF ( PLTW ) is an actively managed exchange-traded fund designed to provide investors with exposure to the performance of Palantir ( PLTR ) shares while employing 1.2x leverage with the goal of providing income and growth. Using weekly swap derivatives, the fund intends on providing a weekly return that is equivalent to 1.2x the performance of the weekly total return of PLTR shares, imposing certain risks that investors should consider prior to investing in this strategy. Given the pricing mechanics, leveraged risk, and potential volatility of the strategy, I am recommending this fund with a conditional Hold rating to be used by sophisticated investors seeking amplified performance over PLTR shares. As a disclosure, I am long-term bullish on PLTR shares; you can review my most recent report covering the company here . Why Invest in PLTW Off the cuff, PLTW can provide amplified returns over PLTR share performance, targeting 1.2x the total return of the underlying shares over the course of a week. This can be an appealing feature for long-term investors that are seeking to amplify their returns on PLTR shares through an ETF wrapper, particularly given the weekly reset rather than the more common daily reset of most leveraged strategies. With the weekly reset, PLTW shares could potentially smooth out and elongate the compounding effect that is typically experienced in daily leveraged funds. Rather than daily compounding, PLTW may experience weekly compounding following the reset period at the end of each calendar week. Where this may be a benefit, weekly pricing could potentially create certain challenges for investors as trading and pricing may not be as dynamic as daily exposure. Theoretically, the swap positions will be priced at the beginning and end of each trading week rather than at the close of each trading day. Given that PLTW is actively trading on the market, shares have performed a...