New investments land in Kurdistan
Iraqi Kurdistan is tapping into its cultural and natural wealth to grow its tourism sector. CNN explores how it is marketing itself to international visitors and investors.
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Yahoo
34 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Thinking About Buying Newsmax Stock? Read This First.
Newsmax stock has been extremely volatile since its initial public offering in March. The conservative-leaning news network is struggling to translate its strong viewership into consistent profitability. A pricey valuation with shares trading at 11 times sales makes Newsmax a speculative bet as it faces numerous financial uncertainties. 10 stocks we like better than Newsmax › Investors in Newsmax (NYSE: NMAX) have quickly learned why initial public offerings (IPOs) are notoriously risky, often experiencing dramatic swings in share price in the first few months of trading. The conservative-leaning media outlet went public on March 31 at an IPO price of $10 per share, skyrocketing 2,550% to a high of $265 by the next day. Those gains proved short-lived as the stock has since crashed to under $15 and is down more than 90% from its recent highs as of this writing. Yet, despite the extreme volatility, Newsmax is generating solid business growth, with a promising long-term outlook. Does the recent sell-off make the stock a compelling buy-the-dip opportunity? Here's what you need to know before rushing out to buy shares of Newsmax. Newsmax has emerged as a content juggernaut, capitalizing on a growing appetite for cable news and political commentary across its robust media ecosystem. A focus on traditional family values with an America-first editorial direction has appealed to a large segment of the U.S. population, particularly conservative voters amid Donald Trump's political rise. The company says it now has more than 33 million viewers on its television news channel and a streaming audience numbering 15 million. It also has a broader presence, with online and print publications, radio, and podcasting -- all leveraging its unique brand and loyal following. Newsmax sees a significant opportunity to capture market share from legacy cable news giants such as CNN (a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery) and Fox, which have struggled with ratings in recent years. The company's success from here will be measured by its ability to keep viewers engaged and monetize its expanding reach. The first-quarter update from Newsmax underscored its impressive operating momentum with a record 33.6 million viewers, up 50% from the same period last year, reaffirming its claim as "America's fastest-growing news network." On the other hand, the financial trends are messier. Revenue of $45.3 million increased by 11.5% year over year for the period ended March 31, but marked a deceleration compared to the 26% annual increase for full-year 2024. Even as Newsmax has managed to drive core advertising sales higher while posting growth in its ancillary businesses -- such as subscriptions and affiliate program revenue -- profitability remains elusive. The first-quarter net loss of $17.5 million added to the $72.2 million net loss in 2024. Management cited costs associated with the IPO and expenses related to special coverage of President Trump's inauguration in January. Newsmax ended the quarter with $127 million in cash on its balance sheet, which provides ample near-term liquidity but may require added financing in the coming years to support its expansion strategy. Ultimately, the company has a lot of work to do to achieve consistently positive net income, as financial uncertainties are reflected in a volatile stock price. Following the breakout year for Newsmax in 2024, leading up to the recent IPO, its main challenge will be maintaining rapid audience growth while navigating a highly competitive media landscape. Historically, election years are a boon for television news coverage and related advertising, which means Newsmax will face tough year-over-year comparisons over the next several quarters. More pressing for investors is the need to reconcile Newsmax's lofty valuation. With a current $1.7 billion market capitalization, shares are trading at a price-to-sales ratio (P/S) of 10.7, representing a large premium to the broader market and its larger media rivals, including Fox at a P/S of 1.4 and Warner Bros. at 0.6. It seems like the market has baked in Newsmax's growth potential far into the future. Investors will need to balance the risk that future results underwhelm, forcing a reset of expectations and opening the door for a deeper sell-off. With its unique profile, Newsmax is an exciting addition to the stock market and media landscape. Nevertheless, the company still has a lot to prove, and shares may be too expensive to buy with conviction today. I expect the stock to remain under pressure until there are clear signs of an improving earnings trajectory. Investors should be able to find better opportunities with a superior combination of growth and value elsewhere. Before you buy stock in Newsmax, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Newsmax wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $649,102!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $882,344!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 996% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 174% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 9, 2025 Dan Victor has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Warner Bros. Discovery. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Thinking About Buying Newsmax Stock? Read This First. was originally published by The Motley Fool Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
CNN
35 minutes ago
- CNN
Trump's agenda faces a $22 billion test from markets
Standard, boring bond auctions are drawing the attention of investors around the globe. The Treasury Department on Thursday will sell $22 billion worth of 30-year government bonds, in what will serve as a gauge of investors' appetite for US debt. All eyes are on whether there is weak demand, particularly from foreign investors. The Treasury auction, which is a regularly scheduled event, has become a closely watched barometer for how Wall Street is feeling about the Trump administration's policy agenda. A poor auction could reignite jitters about America's debt burden, President Donald Trump's 'One Big, Beautiful Bill Act' and the ability for lawmakers to get the country's finances in order. If there is weak demand for 30-year bonds at Thursday's auction, that would push yields higher. Bond yields and prices have an inverse relationship. When there is strong demand for bonds, prices rise and yields fall. Vice versa, when there is weak demand for bonds, prices fall and yields rise. Higher yields would squeeze the government with higher borrowing costs. Treasury yields are also benchmark interest rates for the economy, and higher yields can mean higher borrowing costs for consumers on everyday items including auto loans and credit cards. Long-term US debt, which is usually considered the safe, risk-free corner of the market, has come under scrutiny as Trump's tax bill is set to add to the federal debt burden. 'The idea that the US fiscal position is unsustainable over the long run has been frequently noted for years, but it has taken the current set of circumstances to get market participants to begin pushing back,' John Canavan, lead US analyst at Oxford Economics, said in a Wednesday note. Yields on 30-year Treasury bonds have soared this year as investors have demanded more compensation for what is looking like a riskier long-term loan to the US government. These concerns were exacerbated in May after Moody's downgraded the US, stripping the nation of its last perfect credit rating. 'The Moody's downgrade occurred as the ability to easily finance growing deficits increasingly comes into question,' Canavan said. 'Trump's tariff decisions are likely to raise inflation over the near term, while lowering economic growth and leading foreign investors to question the safe-haven allure of Treasury debt.' This is the first 30-year Treasury auction since Wall Street has begun focusing on the details of Trump's mega bill and the deficit, making it an important gauge of sentiment, Collin Martin, a fixed income strategist at Charles Schwab, told CNN. 'There's a concern that yields might need to rise to attract more and more investors to keep buying,' Martin said. 'If it's a weak auction, we'll probably see yields rise relatively sharply, because that might spook investors,' Martin added, 'and on the flip side, if it ends up being a pretty good auction, that would probably allow the markets to kind of breathe a sigh of relief that, okay, there is enough demand.' There is robust demand for shorter-term Treasuries like 10-year bonds, according to Chip Hughey, managing director for fixed income at Truist Advisory Services. An auction for 10-year Treasuries on Wednesday saw strong demand both for domestic and global investors. Yet investors have shown hesitancy about longer-duration bonds like the 30-year bond, Hughey said. Investors are increasingly uncertain about the long-term outlook for the US debt burden, giving them pause about the risk associated with loaning money to the government over a longer period. 'There certainly is a little bit of hesitancy about taking on a great deal of duration, just given the uncertainty around trade policy and deficits, and also what that would mean for your future debt supply,' Hughey said. 'The 30-year reflects the uncertainties around those more structural questions around budget deficits and the US debt load going forward.' In May, the 30-year yield spiked to its highest level since 2023 after a Treasury auction for 20-year bonds that saw weak demand. Pacific Investment Management Company, a global fixed income firm, said in a Tuesday report that bonds still look relatively attractive and affordable compared to stocks. However, Pimco expects to focus and be 'overweight' to 5- and 10-year bonds, while being less focused and 'underweight' to longer-term bonds. Martin at Charles Schwab said that while concerns about the deficit linger, investors are also assessing factors like inflation and the path of potential Federal Reserve rate cuts. The latest data showed that consumer prices cooled more than expected in May. Fixed income assets like bonds can become more appealing when inflation is cooling. 'We still find yields pretty attractive, and our outlook on the safety of US Treasuries hasn't changed,' Martin said. Elsewhere in markets, US stocks opened lower on Thursday. The Dow was lower by 250 points, or 0.6%. The broader S&P 500 fell 0.3% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite slid 0.25%. The S&P 500 is hovering near an all-time high, but has stalled in recent trading and is coming off a day in the red. The US dollar broadly weakened on Thursday as investors wrestle with continued tariff uncertainty. The US dollar index, which measures the dollar's strength against six major foreign currencies, tumbled almost 1% and fell to its lowest level since 2022. This is a developing story and will be updated.
Forbes
an hour ago
- Forbes
Red Alert: Beware False Dividend Stocks
Finance and money technology background concept of business prosperity and asset management . ... More Creative graphic show economy and financial growth by investment in valuable asset to gain wealth profit . Dividend stocks are not the safe-haven that investors think. Anyone thinking that dividend stocks are a good strategy to succeed in these turbulent markets needs to think twice and read on. I recently hosted a live training session warning investors about the dangers of fake dividend stocks. Fake Dividend Stocks might pay a nice dividend, but the risk of significant decline in stock price more than offsets any potential gains investors might expect from the dividend. In other words, if a stock pays a 5% dividend but drops 20%, then investors lose a lot of money on that stock despite the 5% dividend. In this report, I'm here to warn you of another type of bad dividend stock: False Dividend Stocks pay a dividend, but the company doesn't generate enough cash flow to afford the dividend. Therefore, the high risk of seeing the dividend cut along with the likely drop in the stock price due to the dividend cut more than offsets the potential gains investors might expect from a False Dividend Stock. Successful dividend investing is not about finding companies that pay dividends. It's about finding companies that can afford to keep paying and, hopefully, grow their dividend. A dividend is only good if the company generates the cash flows to afford it. You don't want your 'income stock' to stop paying dividends because the company can't afford it. Investors need to know if past dividends have been funded by taking on more debt or spending down cash balances. The only way to avoid False Dividend Stocks is with diligent fundamental research on cash flows. As I've proven many times, investors must do their homework to get the truth about cash flow. Below, I break down just how prevalent False Dividend Stocks are in the current market. To find False Dividend Stocks, I first screen my firm's entire coverage universe for stocks that pay a dividend. Of course, if a stock does not pay a dividend, it cannot be a False Dividend Stock. Of the ~3,300 stocks under coverage, 1,416 stocks, or 43%, pay a dividend. Only 44 stocks, or 1% of the universe qualify as Good Dividend Stocks because they earn a spot in one of my dividend model portfolios: Safest Dividend Yield Stocks and Dividend Growth Stocks. Figure 1: Dividend Paying Stocks in Coverage Universe – As of June 4, 2025 Dividend Paying Stocks In Coverage Universe As Of June 4 2025 After I've identified the dividend stock paying universe, I then parse out the False Dividend Stocks, i.e. companies with negative free cash flow (FCF) in the trailing-twelve-month (TTM) period. Per Figure 2, there are 344 dividend-paying stocks with negative FCF in the TTM period as of June 4, 2025. Figure 2: Dividend Stocks with Negative TTM FCF – As of June 4, 2025 Dividends With Negative FCF As Of June 4 2025 Below, I reveal three of the 344 riskiest False Dividend Stocks. These stocks earn my worst rating, very unattractive. Not only are the dividends false, but the stocks are also very expensive and overvalued. Worse yet, there's higher risk that these three companies will have to cut their dividend because their dividend payments exceed cash flows not just in the TTM but over the past five years. In other words, these companies have been burning cash to pay dividends for an extended period. These companies are digging themselves quite a hole here. See the last column in Figure 3, the Dividend Deficit as a % of TTM Revenue. This shows how much dividend payments have exceed cash flows over the past five years as a percent of revenue. This metric shows how high the risk that these companies will have to cut their dividend is because they do not have the revenues, much less the income, to fund dividends. Figure 3: Three Very Unattractive Rated False Dividend Stocks Three Very Unattractive Rated False Dividend Stocks CTO Realty Growth earns its spot on the False Dividend Stocks list with -$189 million in FCF over the TTM period. CTO Realty Growth's Dividend Deficit (FCF minus Dividends) as a % of TTM Revenue is -438% as dividends paid ($160 million) exceeded FCF (-$419 million) by $579 million over the last 5 years. From 2020-1Q25, CTO Realty Growth's cumulative Dividend Deficit is -$661 million. See Figure 4. Figure 4: CTO Realty Growth's Dividend Deficit: FCF Minus Dividends: 2020-1Q25 CTO Dividend Deficit 2020-1Q25 The shareholder dilution required to fund this huge dividend deficit should make management blush. Specifically, CTO Realty Growth's total debt increased 116% from $273 million in 2020 to $603 million in the TTM ended 1Q25. The company's shares outstanding increased 86% from 17.7 million to 32.9 million over the same time. Making matters worse, CTO Realty Growth earns a low return on invested capital (ROIC) of just 1% and has a 2 yr avg free cash flow (FCF) yield of -10%. CTO's price-to-economic book value (PEBV) ratio is -1.4 due to its negative economic book value, or no growth value, of -$13/share. Furthermore, in the default scenario of my reverse discounted cash flow (DCF) model, CTO has a market-implied Growth Appreciation Period (GAP) of greater than 100 years. Poor fundamentals and an expensive stock price earn CTO a Very Unattractive Stock Rating. The AES Corp is also a False Dividend Stock due to its negative $719 million in FCF over the TTM. AES Corp's Dividend Deficit as a % of TTM Revenue is -88% as dividends paid ($2.1 billion) exceeded FCF (-$8.5 billion) by $10.6 billion over the last 5 years. From 2020-1Q25, AES Corp's cumulative Dividend Deficit is -$11.5 billion. See Figure 5. Figure 5: AES Corp's Dividend Deficit: FCF Minus Dividends: 2020-1Q25 AES Dividend Deficit 2020-1Q25 Similar to CTO Realty Growth, the shareholder dilution required to fund this huge dividend deficit is scary. The AES Corp's total debt increased 57% from $20.3 billion in 2020 to $31.9 billion in the TTM ended 1Q25. The company's shares outstanding increased 7% from 665.4 million to 711.9 million over the same time. The AES Corp also generates a ROIC of 2% and a 2-yr Avg FCF yield of -4%. The AES Corp's PEBV ratio is -0.7 with an economic book value of -$14/share. Furthermore, in the default scenario of my reverse DCF model, AES has a market-implied GAP greater than 100 years. Poor fundamentals and an expensive stock price earn AES a Very Unattractive Stock Rating. Edison International burned $1.1 billion in FCF over the TTM, and the cash burn is even worse over the past five years. Edison International's Dividend Deficit as a % of TTM Revenue is -60% as dividends paid ($5.6 billion) exceeded FCF (-$4.7 billion) by $10.4 billion over the last 5 years. From 2020-1Q25, Edison International's cumulative Dividend Deficit is -$12.1 billion. See Figure 6. Figure 6: Edison International's Dividend Deficit: FCF Minus Dividends: 2020-1Q25 EIX Dividend Deficit 2020-1Q25 As with the two stocks above, investors should note the shareholder dilution required to fund this huge dividend deficit. Total debt increased 35% from $37.3 billion in 2020 to $50.4 billion in the TTM ended 1Q25. The company's shares outstanding increased 2% from 378.9 million to 384.8 million over the same time. Edison International's earns a bottom quintile ROIC of just 3% while its 2 yr avg FCF Yield sits at -4%. Edison International's PEBV ratio is 3.5, with an economic book value of just $15/share. In the default scenario of my reverse DCF model, EIX has a market-implied GAP of 5 years, which indicates the stock may not be as overvalued as the two above. However, the company's poor fundamentals and high PEBV ratio still earn EIX a Very Unattractive Stock Rating.
