Latest news with #Berg
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Analysts Applaud UiPath's AI Traction, But Net New ARR Slide Sparks Caution
UiPath, Inc. (NYSE:PATH) shares are trading higher after the company reported better-than-expected first-quarter results, issued second-quarter sales guidance above estimates, and raised its FY26 guidance. On Thursday, the company reported revenue of $356.62 million, versus estimates of $332.87 million, and adjusted EPS of 11 cents, exceeding the estimates of 10 cents. The company raised its fiscal 2026 forecast from a range of $1.52 billion to $1.53 billion to a new range of $1.549 billion to $1.554 billion versus estimates of $1.53 analysts raised the price forecast on the stock following the results. RBC Capital analyst Matthew Hedberg maintained a Sector Perform rating and raised the price target from $13 to $15. After a challenging initial FY26 guide and miss to end last year due to public sector issues, UiPath showed encouraging progress in that vertical through proactive engagement, said the analyst. According to the analyst, the Federal renewals met expectations, with some agencies even outperforming, though budget finalizations still present some pressure. UiPath is seeing early success with agentic initiatives, including over 250,000 agent runs on Agent Builder and 11,000 process instances powered by Maestro since their preview releases, Hedberg remarked in an analyst note. The analyst said that despite ongoing macroeconomic variability, management expressed continued prudence in their FY26 guidance, which was nonetheless raised across the board. Hedberg highlighted the company's optimism about its agentic AI opportunities and early customer interest, though significant revenue contributions from this area are not anticipated until FY27. Needham analyst Scott Berg reiterated a Hold rating. In an analyst note, Berg observed that UiPath posted a solid upside in revenue and operating income versus low Street expectations, primarily driven by strong license revenue that exceeded their estimate by 24%. However, net new ARR came in at $27 million, a 39% year-over-year decrease (compared to a consensus of +$22.6 million), which the analyst attributes to lingering impacts from go-to-market (GTM) changes and execution improvements from FY25. Berg pointed out that the current guidance indicates an increasingly second-half weighted performance, with 76% of net new ARR expected in the second half versus 57% in FY25, suggesting a moderately more challenging ramp-up. The guidance comes despite continued declines in key metrics, including Net Revenue Retention (NRR), which dropped to 108% in the quarter, Berg added. KeyBanc analyst Jason Celino retained a Sector Weight rating on the stock. The analyst revised the FY26 estimates to account for the first quarter results and updated the outlook, expecting revenue of $1.552 billion (vs. $1.528 billion prior & consensus of $1.522 billion) for FY26. While the analyst finds the improved results and advancements within the public sector encouraging, he maintained the rating due to the early stage of the agentic AI opportunity and ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty. Truist analyst Terry Tillman raised the price forecast from $12 to $13 while maintaining a Hold rating. In an analyst note, Tillman underscored that the company surpassed their estimates, with particularly strong beats in total revenue and non-GAAP operating income. Positive traction appears to be building from agentic solutions, the new partner program, and the recently acquired Peak, among other initiatives, which led the analyst to raise the estimates based on the improved outlook. In particular, Tillman now sees revenue of $1.547 billion (vs. $1.527 billion earlier) compared to a consensus of $1.522 billion for FY26. The analyst emphasized the company's narrative is still a work in progress concerning the improvement of its annualized renewal run rate (ARR) and the return of net new ARR to a trajectory of robust growth. Price Action: PATH shares are trading higher by 1.20% to $13.10 at last check Friday. Read Next:Photo by Ian Dewar Photography via Shutterstock Date Firm Action From To Jan 2022 Macquarie Upgrades Neutral Outperform Jan 2022 Macquarie Upgrades Neutral Outperform Jan 2022 Oppenheimer Upgrades Perform Outperform View More Analyst Ratings for PATH View the Latest Analyst Ratings Up Next: Transform your trading with Benzinga Edge's one-of-a-kind market trade ideas and tools. Click now to access unique insights that can set you ahead in today's competitive market. Get the latest stock analysis from Benzinga? UIPATH (PATH): Free Stock Analysis Report This article Analysts Applaud UiPath's AI Traction, But Net New ARR Slide Sparks Caution originally appeared on © 2025 Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. 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
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Needham Endorses Salesforce's (CRM) Informatica Deal, Keeps $400 Target
Scott Berg, an analyst at Needham, gave Salesforce Inc.'s (NYSE:CRM) acquisition of Informatica a thumbs-up on May 28, reiterating his Buy rating and keeping his price target intact at $400. Berg believes the acquisition makes strong strategic sense, as Informatica's data integration platform will strengthen Salesforce's ecosystem of data and AI offerings. While he acknowledges that the deal appears expensive on several valuation multiples, the analyst argues that the price paid will be justified if the company can integrate it and capitalize on what Informatica offers, especially to enhance its Agentforce strategy. Pixabay/Public Domain He expects Informatica to give Salesforce a competitive edge. However, he notes Salesforce's mixed track record of executing acquisitions (for example, Slack), which remains a concern for this deal as well. Nevertheless, Salesforce collects and organizes massive amounts of customer data for purposes such as analytics, predictions, and visualizations. Berg views Informatica as instrumental in expanding Salesforce's Agentic software capabilities, particularly in handling large datasets. Based on these factors, the analyst remains optimistic on Salesforce stock. Salesforce Inc. (NYSE: CRM) is a cloud-based software company that specializes in customer relationship management (CRM) solutions. The company offers a comprehensive suite of cloud-based applications for sales, service, marketing, and analytics, enabling businesses to connect more meaningfully with their customers. While we acknowledge the potential of CRM as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than CRM and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock. READ NEXT: The Best and Worst Dow Stocks for the Next 12 Months and 10 Unstoppable Stocks That Could Double Your Money. Disclosure: None.
Business Insider
4 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
Wells Fargo Reaffirms Their Buy Rating on Braze (BRZE)
Wells Fargo analyst Michael Berg maintained a Buy rating on Braze (BRZE – Research Report) yesterday and set a price target of $40.00. The company's shares closed yesterday at $35.89. Confident Investing Starts Here: According to TipRanks, Berg is a 3-star analyst with an average return of 4.1% and a 57.89% success rate. Berg covers the Technology sector, focusing on stocks such as Braze, and CSG Systems International. Currently, the analyst consensus on Braze is a Strong Buy with an average price target of $49.79, which is a 38.73% upside from current levels. In a report released on May 22, Goldman Sachs also reiterated a Buy rating on the stock with a $50.00 price target. BRZE market cap is currently $3.75B and has a P/E ratio of -34.03. Based on the recent corporate insider activity of 106 insiders, corporate insider sentiment is negative on the stock. This means that over the past quarter there has been an increase of insiders selling their shares of BRZE in relation to earlier this year. Earlier this month, Pankaj Malik, the CAO of BRZE sold 3,405.00 shares for a total of $122,171.40.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
To succeed in your career, play it like a game, career coach explains in new book
In her new book 'Secrets of the Career Game: 36 Simple Strategies to Win in the Workplace,' career coach Kendall Berg reveals a range of strategies for taking control of our careers that combine pushing for bigger promotions, titles, and paychecks, but also finding work that fulfills. Her take has sparked more than half a million followers across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube who are trying to get ahead at work and be happy. I asked Berg to share some insights. Here are edited excerpts of our conversation. Kerry Hannon: What's the key to success in the career game? Kendall Berg: It's choosing intentionally and strategically where you want to play the game, how you want to play, and when to not play the game. There are times in our career when it might be more beneficial to do something for our progression, but it crosses a value line that we have, or a boundary that we have. How is a career a game? It's a lot like chess, where there are moves and counter moves, rules and no rules. When my husband and I first got married, he decided to teach me to play chess. He conveniently left out a lot of the rules that would've helped me win. Your career operates similarly, where there are some rules that you're told: Here's your job description. Here are the expectations for you to be successful. Here are the deliverables. Here are your deadlines. But there's a whole other set of rules that you only learn by playing, which is not how hard you work. It's who you are building relationships with, how you advocate for yourself, how you talk about the work you do. If you take the first job offer that you get every time you are searching, regardless of how it matches your passions, skills, or values, the only person who gets held back is you. If you stay loyal to a company that doesn't promote you or give you opportunities for growth, the only person who ends up stuck is you. There's one crucial rule that's common to both chess and the career game: Even when you start off as a pawn, it's possible to become the queen — the most valuable piece on the board. You write that career progression rarely depends on merit all by itself. Elaborate on that. Most of us think that our careers are going to be a straight meritocracy. We're going to go to work, do our tasks, and that alone is going to be enough for us to get promoted. But it's not true. Progressing in your career is not about the merit of doing your core job, it's about developing the right soft skills to be an effective leader. We have tunnel vision. I see it all the time: Individuals who are working hard on a million different projects, increasing their mental load and stress levels exponentially, only for their leadership to be blissfully unaware. Even if your boss is paying attention, odds are they don't have time to understand the intricacies of the work you're doing, the level of detail, the collaboration that it requires, the amount of time that it requires. So if you're not advocating for yourself, sharing all of those details, communicating the value of the work you're doing, they're not going to have a case to promote you. That's why a lot of people get stuck. Maybe you're capable of operating at the next level, but you're not talking about it. Why should we run our career like our own business? If I run my career like a business, then I'm thinking like a CEO. I'm thinking, do I want to take this client on— which is the company you choose to work for versus feeling desperate to be employed by a client. I'm constantly selling myself and my business. Here's what I'm good at. Here's the value it brings your company. Here's why it's important. I'm thinking about the impact that my business has. Anybody who's been a solo entrepreneur, started a side hustle or a business, knows you're in sales 99% of the time. You're out there saying, here's the value of the work I'm bringing. Here's the impact it has on your bottom line. When you start to shift into a CEO mindset, you're constantly building relationships so that your business can grow, so that you have more opportunities in the future. Otherwise, you're just a cog in the machine who's taking a salary. You're not going to see that same upward mobility and trajectory that you may want. Kendall, you write about the importance of self-development, let's discuss. When we hit 40, our self-development basically craters. We start to get to this mindset where we think we know everything. I've been doing this for 20 years. I've seen a thing or two, The reality is our landscapes are constantly changing. If you're not investing in yourself, if you're not learning AI, new technologies, there is somebody who is, and that person is going to get the promotion. What's your list of 11? The 11 list is a homegrown tool that I've built over the last eight years of coaching that is intended to help you understand who you are and how you want to show up at work. It's five things you want to be known for at work, five things you don't want to be known for at work, and one personal brand statement. We're really hard on ourselves. And having a rubric of self-evaluation can help us really measure a good day versus a bad day. It helps us to see if we are growing in the direction we want to be known for at work, or are we starting to slip into bad habits the way we don't want to be known for. Once you understand yourself as you are, not as you would like to be, you can begin to better articulate the value that you bring to your advice would you give someone who has recently been laid off? Getting laid off sucks. There are a lot of emotions that go into being laid off that make you feel really uncomfortable, really unvalued. They can be very detrimental to your confidence. You feel it's a setback. It's an emotional grieving process post-layoff. You have to give yourself time and space to feel those things, but not too much. You've got two weeks. Feel all your feelings. Cry it out, if that's your personality type. Go to Aruba. Sit with it, then you've got to get back in the game relatively quickly. Meet with anybody and everybody who you've ever worked with, who you liked, or who works at a company that you like. These can be in person or virtual for 15 minutes to catch up, but in person is better. These are not "can you please refer me" calls. Then write down your 11 list, your passion statements, your personal brand statement, and start to identify jobs you want to target. Your personal brand is going to be how you talk about yourself in interviews, how you talk about yourself on your resume, how you talk about yourself in a coffee chat. Start applying for jobs only after investing in warming up your network, creating that right resume, creating that right story, creating that right passion question assessment Then go out to the job marketplace. It could take three to nine months to get hired, but be intentional and connect with people because most jobs are being filled by referrals. Kerry Hannon is a Senior Columnist at Yahoo Finance. She is a career and retirement strategist and the author of 14 books, including the forthcoming "Retirement Bites: A Gen X Guide to Securing Your Financial Future," "In Control at 50+: How to Succeed in the New World of Work" and "Never Too Old to Get Rich." Follow her on Bluesky. 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Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Yahoo
Summer air travel could be a ‘recipe for frustration'
US air travel has seen a very bumpy year filled with safety incidents, fatal accidents and an air traffic control meltdown that has expedited plans for a complete overhaul of the system. 2025 started with a tragedy in Washington, when 67 people died in a midair collision between a commercial jet and an Army helicopter. Heightened anxieties stirred national attention to close calls between commercial jets and go-around maneuvers performed by pilots to prevent accidents. To top it off, an air traffic control meltdown plagued Newark Liberty International Airport for weeks after staffing shortages and technology outages caused hours-long delays. All this raising the question: What will summer look like for air travelers in the US? Prepare for disruptions, experts say. The kickoff to the summer travel season starts with Memorial Day weekend, when United Airlines alone is expected to fly 300,000 more passengers than last year. The Federal Aviation Administration is expecting record-high travel over the holiday weekend and its busiest summer in 15 years, with the peak at the end of July. The agency has said it's prepared for the high volume, but travel industry experts warn that understaffing and infrastructure breakdowns could complicate operations. There are plans in the works from the Department of Transportation and the FAA to address these issues at airports and air traffic control facilities, but a complete revamp of the air traffic control system will take at least the next three to four years. If you're traveling this summer, be sure to plan for a possible disruption. Disruptions are 'always worse in the summer,' said Hayley Berg, lead economist at travel booking and price tracking company Hopper. 'In the summer, there's more people flying,' Berg said. 'Airports are busier, I think we are certainly starting to see the impact of understaffing, as airlines are now in their second or third year of flying full capacity and air traffic and airport staffing are not back to the levels that we would need to support the volume.' Overall, she said, disruption rates are down for May compared to previous years, however, specific airports have had a bad month. Newark Liberty International Airport has dealt with four separate technology outages since April 28. Staffing is stretched thin at the facility that controls approaches and departures of flights, and a runway is still under construction. The FAA ordered airlines to decrease flights at Newark by about 25%, compared to the number of flights there in early April. After June 15, when runway construction is not ongoing, some flights can return – but the airport is still limited to fewer flights than before. Les Abend, a retired American Airlines Boeing 777 captain, said the problems that have been plaguing Newark recently could 'start leaking out of other facilities.' But he underlined that the US already has next-generation (NextGen) air traffic control capabilities. 'It's the infrastructure that supplies the data that's become the issue,' he said. Disruptions such as the air traffic control outages that happened at Newark can create a 'domino effect' on flights in other places. Add air traffic controller shortages and the time that it takes to train a controller at any given facility to that mix, plus typical summer storms that can slow operations, and 'Yeah, it can be a recipe for frustration for travelers. There's no doubt,' said Abend. 'The fact that we're seeing that our infrastructure is breaking down, to some extent — it's not going to collapse by any means — it's just going to be bits and pieces. And it's just going to create frustration as far as delays, cancellations, so on and so forth.' But he added that he wants to reassure the public. 'It's still a safe system. If you lose contact with air traffic control, we as pilots have a system and a protocol to do certain things,' Abend said. Abend said he's not anticipating system-wide disruption this summer. 'I would say the majority of times, you're going to get to where you want to go when you're scheduled to get there.' Summer is a hotspot at Newark Airport, which is an international hub for many flyers heading to Europe or many other transatlantic destinations, Berg said. 'Those passengers, I think, are certainly feeling some anxiety about what their travel plans are going to look like,' she said. Despite the natural hassle that comes with packed airports and crowded planes, most travelers will still take the trip, according to Tomasz Pawliszyn, CEO of AirHelp, an online service that helps travelers seek compensation when plans are disrupted. But he thinks many passengers have changed their attitudes towards Newark Airport. '(Travelers) are really cautious on what's going on and how they fly, and I think the media attention also brought up quite a lot of problems to the surface, that existed for years,' he said. Domestic airfare is down about 3% from the same time last year, which is the lowest level since 2021 at $265 per round trip ticket, Hopper's 2025 summer travel outlook reported. Fares to Europe are down about 8% from 2024. 'I'm expecting a business-as-usual summer, maybe a little less of a crowd on the busiest days as people try to travel on cheaper days of the week,' Berg said. However, a recent survey from Bankrate shows 54% of adults expect to spend less on travel, eating out or entertainment this year, compared to last year. Of those surveyed, 65% of Americans who are not traveling this summer say they can't afford it and another 23% say they're not interested. But United Airlines, which has a major hub at Newark, expects to serve more passengers this season. In June, July and August, United expects to fly nearly 50 million passengers, about a 3 million passenger uptick from last year's summer. So far, the busiest US air travel day this year was April 17 with over 54,000 flights, according to the FAA. The FAA expects six more days of over 54,000 flights through the end of August. While there are many things up in the air with travel this summer, experts say it's important to follow a few simple tips to try to have the least amount of disruption. Flying direct will help alleviate the stress of missing a connection at other airports, Pawliszyn said. He also recommends flying in the morning and avoiding the weekend. 'Until we stop hearing stories about Newark,' Abend said he would book New York-area flights through JFK or LaGuardia this summer. He also advised travelers to take a proactive stance on potential disruptions, keeping an eye on where the aircraft servicing their flight is coming from and what the weather is like there. If storms are likely to slow things down, passengers may want to change their flights. CNN's Marnie Hunter contributed to this report.
