Latest news with #AmericanInvestors
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Why Weibo Stock Popped by Over 11% Today
Key Points The durable Chinese social media site topped expectations for its second quarter. It made sure to mention that artificial intelligence (AI) technology was helping to boost its performance. 10 stocks we like better than Weibo › One of China's largest and most important social media companies, Weibo (NASDAQ: WB), was a real hit with American investors on Thursday. The company's American Depositary Shares (ADSes) closed that trading session almost 11% higher in price, thanks to a very well-received quarterly earnings report. This made Weibo quite the outlier, as the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) essentially traded flat that day. Grateful for a double beat Reporting in U.S. dollars, Weibo said its second-quarter net revenue was just under $445 million, for a 2% year-over-year increase. Much of this derived from that classic social media revenue stream, advertising and marketing -- this also rose 2%, to slightly over $383 million. Value-added services went in the opposite direction, sinking by 2% to $61 million and change. In terms of operating metrics, Weibo's average daily active users figure was 261 million in June. The monthly active user (MAU) number was 588 million. Both were up, if not spectacularly, from the respective 256 million and 583 million in the same month of 2024. On the bottom line, non-GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) adjusted net income rose more compellingly. It totaled slightly over $143 million ($0.54 per ADS) for a 13% improvement over the year-ago quarter. Both headline figures were comfortably above the average analyst estimates, a major reason for the double-digit share price bounce on Thursday. Those pundits were collectively modeling less than $440 million on the top line, and $0.43 per ADS for adjusted net income. Artificial intelligence boosts real growth Investors also surely liked what they heard about Weibo's continuing dive into artificial intelligence (AI)-enhanced offerings. The company quoted CEO Gaofei Wang as saying that "our user community of AI-powered intelligent search grew robustly, which further drove the increase of the overall search needs of users." Should you buy stock in Weibo right now? Before you buy stock in Weibo, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Weibo 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 $649,544!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,113,059!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,062% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 185% 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 13, 2025 Eric Volkman 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 Weibo Stock Popped by Over 11% Today was originally published by The Motley Fool
Gizmodo
06-07-2025
- Business
- Gizmodo
TikTok's Escape Plan May Be a Brand New App
TikTok's time in the U.S. may be running out, but the company has a dramatic plan to save itself. The social media giant is reportedly building a completely new version of its app for users in the United States, according to a report from The Information on Sunday, which cited anonymous sources. This new app, reportedly codenamed 'M2,' is being developed ahead of a planned sale of TikTok's U.S. operations to a group of American investors. According to the report, the company has a tentative plan to launch M2 in U.S. app stores as early as September 5. If the plan goes forward, TikTok's 170 million American users would eventually have to download the new M2 app to continue using the service. The current version of the app would continue to operate alongside the new one until it is expected to cease functioning in March 2026, though the report notes this timeline is subject to change. This move appears to be a direct response to immense political pressure. Last month, President Donald Trump extended the deadline for TikTok's China based parent company, ByteDance, to sell its U.S. assets to September 17. On Friday, Trump signaled a deal was close, stating he would begin final talks on Monday or Tuesday and that an agreement had 'pretty much' been reached with a 'group of very wealthy people' ready to buy. Any sale, however, remains complex. An earlier deal to create a new U.S. based company majority owned by American investors was torpedoed after China indicated it would not approve the sale. Trump has acknowledged that the U.S. would likely still need Beijing's approval for any new agreement to proceed. The reported plan would have a group of non Chinese investors, including tech giant Oracle, acquire TikTok's U.S. operations, with ByteDance retaining a minority stake. The Wall Street Journal also reported that the General Services Administration recently announced a 'first of its kind' cloud infrastructure deal with Oracle, giving the entire federal government a massive 75% discount on its software. Despite the geopolitical turmoil, TikTok remains a powerhouse in the United States. According to the analytics website Appfigures, it is currently the second most downloaded app on Android phones in the country, trailing only ChatGPT. TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.
Yahoo
17-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
History Says the Stock Market Is About to Soar: 2 Brilliant AI Stocks to Buy Now
Investors became very bearish when the Trump administration announced tariffs, but extreme pessimism has historically been a contrarian signal. Amazon is leaning into artificial intelligence (AI) across its retail and cloud segments, and its multibillion-dollar AI business is growing at a triple-digit pace. CoreWeave has been recognized by independent analysts as the best GPU cloud on the market, and the company reported 420% revenue growth in the first quarter. 10 stocks we like better than Amazon › The S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) has advanced 2% year to date, but history says the index is headed much higher in the next year. A survey from the American Association of Individual Investors showed 61.9% of respondents were bearish during the week ended April 3, which means they expected the market to decline over the next six months. Bearish sentiment has only topped 60% in eight weekly surveys since 1987. In this case, the tariffs imposed by the Trump administration were responsible for the widespread pessimism, but all previous incidents have something in common: Stocks were always much higher a year later. In fact, the S&P 500 has returned an average of 27% in the 12 months after bearish sentiment readings above 60%. That may sound counterintuitive, but extreme pessimism is typically a contrarian signal because most situations are less dire than they first appear. In this scenario, the S&P 500 closed at 5,397 on April 3. If its performance matches the historical average, the index will advanced 27% to 6,854 by next April. That implies 13% upside from its current level of 6,040. Of course, past results are never a guarantee of future performance, but investors can still lean into historical trends provided they maintain a long-term mindset. Here's why Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and CoreWeave (NASDAQ: CRWV) are smart investments today. Amazon runs the largest e-commerce marketplace outside of China, and its market share in the United States is forecast to top 40% this year. It is the largest retail advertising company in the world with nearly 40% market share, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the largest public cloud with 29% market share in infrastructure and platform services. Amazon is using artificial intelligence (AI) to generate revenue and improve efficiency across its businesses. CEO Andy Jassy says the company is building 1,000 generative AI applications to streamline retail workflows, including tools for coding, customer service, inventory management, and last-mile delivery. Morgan Stanley recently called Amazon's retail business the "most underappreciated" generative AI beneficiary in the tech space. Meanwhile, Amazon is leaning into AI demand in its cloud business. The company designed custom chips for AI training and inference that offer better price performance than leading graphics processing units (GPUs), according to Andy Jassy. AWS also added a generative AI development platform called Bedrock, which complements its machine learning service SageMaker. "Our AI business has a multibillion-dollar annual revenue run rate, continues to grow triple-digit year-over-year percentages, and is still in its very early days," Andy Jassy told analysts on the first-quarter earnings call. Wall Street expects Amazon's earnings to increase at 10% annually through 2026. That makes the current valuation of 35 times earnings look expensive, but I think analysts are underestimating the company. Amazon beat the consensus estimate by an average of 21% over the last six quarters. Patient investors should feel comfortable buying a small position today. CoreWeave provides infrastructure and software services through its dedicated GPU cloud. While Amazon and Microsoft offer similar products, CoreWeave is differentiated in that its cloud platform is purpose-built to support AI tasks, such as training large language models and running inference on machine learning applications. CoreWeave has eight years of experience managing GPU-accelerated cloud infrastructure, and the company has become quite adept. It regularly reports best-in-class results at the MLPerf benchmarks -- objective tests that measure the performance of AI systems across various workloads. In turn, SemiAnalysis recently ranked the platform as the best GPU cloud on the market. CoreWeave reported impressive financial results in Q1. Revenue increased 420% to $981 million, and non-GAAP operating income (which excludes stock-based compensation and interest on debt) rose 550% to $162 million. Management also said its revenue backlog rose 63% to $25.9 billion due primarily to a deal signed with OpenAI in March. Investors should be aware that CoreWeave stock is particularly hot right now. Its share price has advanced about 285% since the company went public less than three months ago. Additionally, the current valuation of 29 times sales is rather expensive. But I think the premium is justified for a company that is not only growing sales at a triple-digit pace but has also achieved a 73% gross profit margin in the recent quarter. Before you buy stock in Amazon, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Amazon 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 $653,702!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $870,207!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 988% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 172% 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 John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Trevor Jennewine has positions in Amazon. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon and Microsoft. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. History Says the Stock Market Is About to Soar: 2 Brilliant AI Stocks to Buy Now was originally published by The Motley Fool
Wall Street Journal
15-06-2025
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
It's a Scary World, but Investing Abroad Has New Attractions
It's easy to think of Europe as the investment that time forgot. Even after this year's strong performance, European investments have lagged far behind the U.S. for the past decade and more. But it would be wrong to regard Europe as having been a disaster forever: Look backward, and it matched American stock returns for decades before the euro crisis and the rise of Big Tech in the U.S.
Wall Street Journal
26-05-2025
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
Investors Pile Into ETFs at Record Pace Despite Market Turmoil
This year's volatile, trade war-obsessed market didn't shake American investors' fondness for exchange-traded funds. In fact, it only made them love them more. Investors have plowed a record $437 billion into U.S. ETFs so far this year, unfazed by the wildest markets since Covid. And if inflows maintain the current pace—historically, they accelerate in the summer and fall months—it will mark the second straight record year for U.S. ETF flows.
