South African Treasury Warns Against Changing SARB Ownership
While full ownership of the central bank by the state may be desirable, 'it will potentially have huge cost implications and require significant trade-offs, including a negative impact on investment and on economic growth,' Chris Axelson, the Treasury's deputy director-general for tax and the financial sector, told lawmakers in Cape Town on Wednesday.
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Forbes
6 minutes ago
- Forbes
Palantir Stock Down 20%. May Fall 74% More As AI's Payoff Stays Low
Palantir stock has recently shed 20% since peaking at $190 a share earlier this month, according to Google Finance. Does this make Palantir a bargain? Despite a strong second quarter financial report featuring expectations-beating growth and a bullish outlook, there are many reasons to expect the stock to decline further: To overcome these challenges, Palantir must grow faster by persuading more companies to adopt its platform. That could be difficult because the company's culture is rooted in the defense and intelligence sectors, noted Erika Barker. Enterprises may prefer to buy from more culturally-aligned rivals such as Microsoft and Databricks which offer simpler, more accessible platforms, Medium reported. Palantir is bullish about the future. 'We're planning to grow our revenue … while decreasing our number of people,' Palantir CEO Alex Karp told CNBC. 'This is a crazy, efficient revolution. The goal is to get 10x revenue and have 3,600 people. We have now 4,100.' I have contacted Palantir to request comment and will update this post if I receive a response. Palantir's Second Quarter Performance And Prospects Palantir stock peaked days after the company reported second quarter results – which exceeded investor expectations and featured an increase in the company's forecast for the current quarter, according to CNBC. Palantir's revenue and profit were up sharply in the second quarter. Revenue jumped 48% to $1 billion – $60 million more than the LSEG consensus. Meanwhile, the company's net income soared 144% to $327 million – yielding an impressive net margin of 32.6%, CNBC reported. Palantir's guidance for the third quarter was ahead of estimates. The Denver-based software analytics company estimated revenue in a range – the midpoint of which is $1.085 billion – $102 million more than the analysts consensus, according to CNBC. Demand for Palantir's services appears strong. The total value of the company's contracts grew 140% to $2.27 billion and in July, the U.S. Army signed a $10 billion software and data contract with Palantir, wrote CNBC. Artificial intelligence has helped propel this growth. 'It has been a steep and upward climb — an ascent that is a reflection of the remarkable confluence of the arrival of language models, the chips necessary to power them, and our software infrastructure,' Karp wrote in a letter to shareholders. Short Seller Report Concluding Palantir Stock Is Overvalued Analyst opinion is divided on Palantir's prospects. But short-seller Citron Research is extremely bearish – seeing Palantir's shares as 74% overvalued. Wedbush is a Palantir bull. "Palantir remains one of our top tech names to own in 2025 and this deal represents another opportunity for PLTR to capitalize on while continuing to generate unprecedented traction for its entire portfolio across the federal and commercial landscapes," Wedbush analyst Dan Ives wrote in an August 4 note to investors featured by CNBC. RBC considered the stock very pricey before the Q2 earnings release. 'We cannot rationalize why Palantir is the most expensive name in our software coverage,' RBC Capital Markets analyst Rishi Jaluria wrote in a note to clients. 'Absent a substantial beat-and-raise quarter elevating the near-term growth trajectory, valuation seems unsustainable.' On August 18, Citron Research – which recently initiated a short position – declared Palantir's stock worth $40.12 a share. In the report, short seller Andrew Left of Citron Research shared his belief that the stock --which sports a price-to-revenue multiple of about 114, according to GuruFocus – has become 'detached from fundamentals,' reported Investopedia. Citron's report arrived at this conclusion by comparing Palantir to OpenAI. Based on Bloomberg consensus projections, if Palantir was trading at 17 – the same price-to-revenue multiple as the ChatGPT maker – Palantir stock would trade closer to $40, noted Investopedia. However, "even that price would leave Palantir among the most expensive software as a service names names in history," Left said. Palantir Insider Stock Sales Palantir's insider stock sales could also be contributing to investor nervousness. Karp has sold over $2 billion worth of stock in 2024-2025, representing 21% of his total holdings, noted Yahoo!Finance. This contrasts with other tech CEOs such as Elon Musk, who bought Tesla stock during its rise. Karp's selling continues under 10b5-1 plans, with Karp authorized to sell as many as 9.975 million additional shares, reported Yahoo!Finance. Investor Nervousness About AI Bubble Last September, generative AI was looking to me like a big dud. While people were using ChatGPT to help them draft emails and reports, there was no killer app – akin to what the iTunes store did for the iPod or the electronic spreadsheet did for personal computers, I wrote in the Boston Globe. This week, MIT reinforced this point with hard numbers. "Despite $30B-$40B in enterprise investment into generative AI, this report uncovers a surprising result in that 95% of organizations are getting zero return," according to a study – based on 150 interviews with professionals, a survey of 350 employees, and an analysis of 300 public AI deployments – from MIT's NANDA Institute featured by SeekingAlpha. The main problem appears to be integrating AI into the enterprise. "Just 5% of integrated AI pilots are extracting millions in value, while the vast majority remain stuck with no measurable profit and loss impact," noted the MIT NANDA Institute report. Do enterprises failure to earn a return on their investment in generative AI bode poorly for Palantir's future? It is possible companies will stop investing so much in AI if they don't get better at integrating AI into their operations. But I think the key is for companies to find ways to use AI to create new growth curves – something Palantir has succeeded in doing, I wrote in a Forbes post in February. Ironically, Palantir's ability to grow into its high valuation depends on being able to sell more services to enterprises. Companies may find rivals like Databricks and Snowflake to be a better fit – which could be profitable for Citron Research.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Why Oklo Stock Tumbled Today
Key Points UBS initiated coverage of Oklo stock at neutral today. The Swiss banker values Oklo at $65 a share, right where it trades today. Valuing Oklo is difficult, because the company has no earnings, no free cash flow, and no revenue, either. 10 stocks we like better than Oklo › Shares of Oklo (NYSE: OKLO), the nuclear start-up that wants to make small nuclear reactors a "thing," fell nearly 7% in morning trading Wednesday before clawing back some of its losses in the afternoon. As of 12:55 p.m. ET, Oklo stock remains down -- but only 1.4%. What spooked Oklo investors today? Blame UBS for the early sell-off. In a note on this morning, the Swiss megabanker initiated coverage of Oklo stock, but only with a neutral (i.e., not buy) rating, and with a price target of only $65 (which is about where Oklo trades right now). UBS says it's "cautiously optimistic" that President Trump's series of executive orders issued in May will help spark a nuclear renaissance in the U.S. and help to create a $75 billion market for nuclear power plants and nuclear fuel. However, UBS needs to see further progress commercializing the technology -- not just performing R&D -- before it's willing to buy. Is Oklo stock a sell? Mind you, UBS isn't saying to sell Oklo stock (although you really might want to consider that). But the analyst does observe drily that Oklo's stock seems "elevated," which seems to me a clue to why UBS is holding off on buying. The truth of the matter is it's very hard to say if Oklo's valuation is appropriate today. The company has no earnings on which to hang a P/E ratio. It has no free cash flow, either, nor even any revenue. Fact is, most analysts who follow Oklo don't expect the stock to do much of anything at all until 2027, when revenues might arrive, and earnings are as far away as 2030 in the best case. Oklo stock remains speculation, pure and simple. Unless you like gambling, it's best to stay away. Should you buy stock in Oklo right now? Before you buy stock in Oklo, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Oklo 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 $654,781!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,076,588!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,055% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 183% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of August 18, 2025 Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Why Oklo Stock Tumbled Today was originally published by The Motley Fool Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Is Chainlink Going to Be the Next XRP?
Key Points XRP and Chainlink are both cryptocurrencies targeted at financial institutions. That doesn't mean they look to solve the same problems for users. It also doesn't imply that one is competing with the other. 10 stocks we like better than XRP › Apples and oranges can't be directly compared, yet the fact that they're both considered to be fruits means that at least a few comparisons are inevitable, even if they lack rigor. At least in many conversations among investors on social media, that's what's going on with the cryptocurrencies XRP (CRYPTO: XRP) and Chainlink (CRYPTO: LINK). The gist of the online chatter is that Chainlink could be the next XRP in terms of its growth potential, due to its supposedly superior positioning. The comparison between these two coins is, much like talking about apples and oranges, quick to make -- but it isn't actually accurate. The right approach for investors isn't to think about picking a winner from two substitutes, but rather to understand how each asset earns its keep. Let's unpack a few details about both cryptocurrencies, to get a clearer idea about whether one coin could actually supplant the other. These coins have different niches Chainlink aims to be crypto's data and messaging plumbing by providing data oracles to blockchains, but it isn't a blockchain itself. In this case, you can think of data oracles as automated services that take information from the world outside of cryptocurrency, like stock or commodity prices, and then import it such that on-chain programs and smart contracts can use the data feeds for their own (also automated) purposes. This is why companies keep piloting with Chainlink -- for instance, to make mutual fund price data available in the blockchain world. Because oracles are digital infrastructure, the right metric is how much value their data touches or "secures." On that front, Chainlink leads the oracle market by total value secured (TVS) with $57.9 billion. That's a 61.5% share of the market. It's a sign that many protocols and institutions already rely on Chainlink. XRP is a very different beast, at least per the plans of its issuer, Ripple. The XRP Ledger (XRPL) and Ripple's products aim to be financial plumbing for cross-border money movement by financial institutions. That includes using XRP as a bridge asset, and also increasingly using stablecoins, including the Ripple USD (CRYPTO: RLUSD) issued by Ripple, as the main payment rail on the network. Ripple markets that entire service stack directly to institutional investors who want faster settlement times and lower working capital needs than what they're able to accomplish with legacy technology. The XRPL also bakes in compliance-friendly capital controls for asset issuers, including a few features that help institutions meet know-your-customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) obligations without the need to build any custom smart contracts. Furthermore, XRP operates at a dramatically larger scale than Chainlink. This is in part because it's a blockchain with a quickly growing ecosystem of projects, rather than being a single project like the other coin is. As of today, XRP's market cap is roughly an order of magnitude larger than Chainlink's, which underscores that these assets operate in different weight classes and appeal to different buyers. XRP's market cap is near $181 billion, whereas Chainlink's is $17 billion. Data oracles and cross-border settlement rails solve different problems for different customers, and these two coins are at very different points in their adoption curve. That means there is little reason to expect Chainlink to siphon meaningful capital away from XRP's institutional base. This is not a zero-sum match-up. Could Chainlink still make a big run like XRP did? Now, let's move on to the question of whether Chainlink's future could see it delivering gargantuan returns like XRP did, even if its growth will be derived from wholly different sources. For reference, over the last three years, XRP's price rose by 710%, whereas Chainlink's grew by 218%. In short, there is indeed a scenario where Chainlink rallies quite hard. In this scenario, it would continue to be the default interoperability and data layer as real-world assets (RWAs) become tokenized and migrate on-chain. If large financial organizations implement their tokenized asset programs by bringing data on-chain using Chainlink, it'd create a big influx of demand for the coin. Assuming asset tokenization keeps scaling, a larger and larger share of on-chain activity will depend on neutral data delivery. And that's exactly Chainlink's wheelhouse. So it's reasonable to expect it to continue to grow fairly rapidly, at least until there's evidence that one of its numerous competitors is starting to eat its lunch. So, given all of the above, what's the right way to think about the idea of Chainlink becoming the next XRP? You should see it as a category mistake. Chainlink is middleware for data and interoperability. XRP is payments and settlement infrastructure. One of these things is not like the other. Ignore the idea that Chainlink must cannibalize XRP, or the other way around. These coins can coexist, and both are worth owning. Do the experts think XRP is a buy right now? The Motley Fool's expert analyst team, drawing on years of investing experience and deep analysis of thousands of stocks, leverages our proprietary Moneyball AI investing database to uncover top opportunities. They've just revealed their to buy now — did XRP make the list? When our Stock Advisor analyst team has a stock recommendation, it can pay to listen. After all, Stock Advisor's total average return is up 1,055% vs. just 183% for the S&P — that is beating the market by 871.03%!* Imagine if you were a Stock Advisor member when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $654,781!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,076,588!* The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of August 18, 2025 Alex Carchidi has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Chainlink and XRP. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Is Chainlink Going to Be the Next XRP? was originally published by The Motley Fool Sign in to access your portfolio
