Latest news with #Valuations
Wall Street Journal
17 hours ago
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
Heard on the Street Wednesday Recap: AI Trade Down
Technology stocks sell off again. Two days don't make a trend, but investors seem to have second thoughts on the market's AI-fueled upswing. All eight tech companies with market values over $1 trillion closed another day in the red. Apple led the pack with a nearly 2% drop. Valuations are still high. The selling pressure over the last two days has only taken off a bit of froth. The megacaps most exposed to AI sentiment—Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon, Broadcom, Meta and Alphabet—ended Wednesday with an average multiple of 29.6 times projected earnings. That's down only slightly from their peak of 31 times at the end of July, according to FactSet data.
South China Morning Post
a day ago
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong's stock rally still has room to run on ‘reasonable' valuations, Templeton says
Hong Kong stocks remain favourable, as attractive valuations and easing tariff uncertainty have enhanced the predictability of corporate earnings on the city's stock market, according to US fund manager Franklin Templeton. Advertisement The firm, which manages US$1.5 trillion of assets worldwide, was 'constructive' on Hong Kong and mainland China's stock markets, as the valuations remained reasonable and Beijing had introduced supportive policies, said Ferdinand Cheuk, portfolio manager at Templeton Global Equity Group, on Wednesday in a briefing. While the city's benchmark Hang Seng Index had surged more than 25 per cent so far this year, outperforming major indices globally, the momentum could be maintained through stock selection and positioning in certain sectors, he said. The average price-to-earnings ratio among Hong Kong stocks stood at around 10.8 times, slightly above the 10-year average of 10.4 times, Cheuk said. By comparison, the constituents of the Standard & Poor's 500 index traded at an average of 25 times, while Nasdaq stocks averaged 35 times, according to Bloomberg's data. Ferdinand Cheuk Siu-yuen, Senior Vice-President and Portfolio Manager at Templeton Global Equity Group, during the Franklin Templeton press conference on January 16, 2019. Photo: Tory Ho In addition, the decreasing uncertainty from the US-inflicted trade tensions would be helpful for fund managers and investors to predict companies' earnings, Cheuk said. Advertisement 'We believe it is fair to say that the risks from Trump's current trade war and trade policies will diminish in the future,' said Christy Tan, investment strategist at Franklin Templeton Institute, at the same briefing. Tan added that the US tariffs on China's imports were largely expected to be below 40 per cent.
Bloomberg
a day ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Investors Question Valuations in AI Trade
The tech sell-off continues as investors question AI valuations. Grenadilla Advisory founder and CEO Anna Rathbun joins Caroline Hyde on 'Bloomberg Tech.' (Source: Bloomberg)
Forbes
a day ago
- Business
- Forbes
Top accountant Kevin Yeanopolis, CPA, focuses on helping others.
Kevin R. Yeanoplos, CPA Title: Founder Firm: Brueggeman and Johnson Yeanoplos, P.C. Location: Tucson, Arizona Forbes Ranking: America's Top CPAs in Valuations 2025 'We can change the world by choosing our words wisely to inspire, to dream, to do, to become and to lead.' Kevin Yeanoplos' rise to the Hall of Fame of CPAs providing valuation services has taken many turns—and has imbued him with the diversity of experience that informs the best of the profession. A 1983 Magna Cum Laude graduate of the University of Utah (BS) and 2021 graduate of the University of Denver (MBA), Yeanoplos is not just a Certified Public Accountant Accredited in Business Valuation (CPA/ABV) and Accredited Senior Appraiser in the Business Valuation, he is a university professor, author, expert witness, lecturer, singer/songwriter and active volunteer for his profession. At the University of Denver's Daniels School of Business, Yeanoplos teaches graduate level courses in advanced business valuation. His area of expertise has grown far beyond that, to include valuing diverse intangibles and businesses for various purposes, including litigation, financial reporting and M&A. He has served as an expert witness and court-appointed neutral in state and Federal courts, mergers and acquisitions. His firm has grown as well, now boasting offices in Tucson and Seattle. It's all part of a larger plan. 'Knowledge is meaningless unless it is shared,' says Yeanoplos, the former chair of the AICPA's ABV Credential Committee, where he helped the ABV designation become recognized as one of the premier business valuation credentials. As former AICPA Chair Marvin Strait said, 'But for Kevin's leadership, commitment and incredible passion, the ABV would be a mere shadow of its present stature, if it were to exit at all, and our profession would have conceded to others its influential role in this important and growing client service. Our CPA profession owes Kevin a deep debt of gratitude.' It's far from his only meaningful role. As a Regional Captain for the Advocacy Committee for the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, which oversees the Grammys, Yeanoplous sharpened his expertise in valuations of song catalogs and royalties, often lobbying in Washington, D.C. and various congressional offices within Arizona and New Mexico on the need for royalty reform. For 40 years, he has also assisted clients nationwide on the valuation of a diverse array of intangibles including patents, trademarks and song catalogs, whether for divorce or other litigation, financial reporting, gift and estate taxes, mergers and acquisitions or ESOP's, among others. The diversity extends to Yeanoplos' extensive business valuation experience, with a partial client roster that includes healthcare companies, high tech companies, aircraft parts manufacturers, biomedical companies, construction companies, professional practices and automobile dealerships. As both an expert witness and court-appointed neutral in state and Federal courts across the country, Yeanoplos has assisted triers of fact in understanding a variety of complex valuation, financial analysis and damages issues. Yeanoplos lectures throughout the United States on the topics of valuation, applied finance and financial analysis, has been a faculty member for the AICPA's National Business Valuation School for close to 25 years and is currently on the faculty of the ABA Family Law Trial Advocacy Institute. An author, Yeanoplos contributed to Valuing Professional Practices & Licenses , Forensic Accounting in Matrimonial Divorce, Financial Valuation: Application and Models, Guide to Personal v. Enterprise Goodwill , The Comprehensive Guide to Economic Damages , and Reasonable Compensation: Application and Analysis for Appraisal, Tax and Management Purposes, and recently co-authored the Financial Expert Guide for Family Law Judges and Attorneys . He is a former member of the AICPA's Accredited in Business Valuation (ABV) Examination Task Force, which is responsible for developing the exam that must be passed by those that hope to earn the ABV credential. He has been a faculty member for the AICPA's National Business Valuation School for almost 25 years, and in 2006, the AICPA named him their 2006 Business Valuation Volunteer of the Year and inducted him into the AICPA Business Valuation Hall of Fame. Above all those many accomplishments, though, Yeanoplos has devoted himself to helping others find their way and extending his influence beyond the CPA profession. 'My experiences imbued me with a deep sense of empathy. I fully realized that by changing myself, I could change the world, even if only one person at a time. That small impact will change the world in ever increasing ripples of love and compassion.' For the full list of America's Top CPAs in Valuations, click here . For questions about this list, please contact cpalist [at] Steel Rose, CPA is a senior editor who covers accounting, with a frequent focus on recognizing the top practicing CPAs in America in addition to investigating stories about audit failures.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
3 No-Brainer Growth Stocks to Buy With $250 Right Now
Key Points Growth stocks have been the driving force behind the bull market, pushing valuations extremely high. These companies are all seeing strong customer retention rates driving steady revenue growth with potential operating leverage. Their stocks all offer great value when looking at their price-to-sales multiple. 10 stocks we like better than Datadog › The S&P 500 has continued its strong performance in 2025. The benchmark index is up 10% year to date as of this writing, following back-to-back gains in excess of 20% in 2023 and 2024. For many stocks, prices have climbed even faster than their earnings. In fact, the index now trades at a forward P/E above 22, significantly higher than its 30-year average of 17. Growth stocks have been the biggest drivers of the S&P 500's performance over the last two and a half years. And many have earnings multiples well above the index average. But investors just getting started can still find great growth stocks to buy in the current market, even if they only have $250 to invest. The following three stocks are great opportunities for those looking for companies with excellent growth potential still trading at a fair price. 1. Datadog Datadog (NASDAQ: DDOG) provides real-time monitoring for IT systems with a particular focus on cloud computing. The company is in a great position to benefit from continued growth in AI spending in two ways. First, as a leading cloud observability solution, it benefits from growing cloud spending for artificial intelligence (AI) training and inference. All three of the biggest public cloud platforms have noted that demand for their AI services continues to outpace their ability to supply it. Since Datadog uses consumption-based pricing, growing cloud spending also means growing revenue for Datadog. Additionally, Datadog is releasing AI tools of its own. It's released several AI agents that autonomously investigate and fix code before bugs become an issue. It's also released its own large language models for use on its observability platform. As a result, Datadog saw revenue growth accelerate to 28% last quarter. It also saw customers using more of its products with 52% using four or more and a 120% dollar-based net retention rate. On the other hand, heavy AI spending has weighed on profitability, with adjusted operating margin contracting 4 percentage points last quarter. But accelerating revenue growth more than justifies the upfront costs involved with capturing the massive opportunity with AI. Shares of Datadog currently trade for around $128 as of this writing. That price is about 12 times sales expectations for the next year, which is appealing for a company growing revenue in the high-20% rate. While AI spending is weighing on profits, the path toward bigger profits is a lot easier with a much bigger revenue base. So, it's worth picking up a couple of shares with your $250 right now. 2. Atlassian Atlassian (NASDAQ: TEAM) is an enterprise software provider focused on improving collaboration among workforces. Its flagship Jira and Confluence platforms boast over 300,000 customers, a growing number of which are large enterprises. Management said it doubled the number of deals worth more than $1 million last quarter. Unlike most enterprise software companies, Atlassian doesn't have a big sales team driving revenue. Instead the focus is on improving the product and charging consumption-based pricing. As such, great product improvements will help drive revenue through more usage and higher pricing tiers. That's evident in Atlassian's move to include its AI capabilities in its premium and enterprise subscriptions. The newest effort is its AI agent Rovo, which can automate tasks across its software suite. There's a clear demand for AI capabilities, with premium and enterprise recurring revenue growth of 40% year over year last quarter. That's well ahead of its overall revenue growth of 22%. As Atlassian grows its revenue, it should see strong operating leverage thanks to its small sales team. Indeed, last quarter's adjusted operating margin of 24% increased 5 percentage points. Management expects fiscal 2026 operating margin in line with that number, expanding to 25% in 2027. Despite strong sales growth, shares of Atlassian have fallen to about $167. That puts its price-to-sales multiple at just 8.4, and just 4.4 on a forward looking basis. That's an extremely attractive price as the company looks to have a lot of operating leverage and plenty of revenue growth ahead of it. The software stock could be a great buy with your $250 right now. 3. The Trade Desk The Trade Desk (NASDAQ: TTD) has seen its stock take a wild ride over the last year. Shares fell earlier this year after operational challenges weighed on its fourth-quarter revenue. Specifically, the company was slow to transition customers to its new AI-powered Kokai ad-buying platform. As a result, the company missed its own revenue outlook. The stock recovered, but it dropped again following the release of its second-quarter results. The culprit this time was its outlook for the third quarter coming in well below expectations. That said, the second-quarter results were strong, and investors may have been overreacting to management's muted outlook. Management's forecast for just 14% revenue growth in the third quarter is a marked slowdown from the 19% growth it just posted. Part of the blame is on the political advertising landscape in a non-election year, which makes the comparable quarter tough. Management also blamed macroeconomic factors like tariffs, which could weigh on overall ad spending. Still, analysts were expecting stronger numbers after seeing positive outlooks from big advertising companies like Meta Platforms, Alphabet, and Amazon. The Trade Desk separates itself from those so-called walled gardens by offering ad placement across a variety of sources ranging from connected TV to podcasts to retail sites and more. It gathers data from multiple partners, which helps improve its programmatic ad placements to ensure high-quality targeting and measurement. As a result, it's slowly gained share of digital ad spend over the last decade. That trend doesn't seem to be slowing down despite the weak outlook for the third quarter. And with its Kokai transition finally on the right track (75% of customers were using it as of the end of the second quarter), it should be able to cater to more customers' needs. It may even push into the small and medium-sized business segment dominated by Meta, Alphabet, and Amazon. Moreover, as a dominant force in connected-TV advertising, The Trade Desk still has a lot to gain in more ad spend transitioning to streaming from linear television, catching up with actual view time. With shares trading at just $54 after the post-earnings sell-off, shares look extremely attractive. Investors can pay less 8.5 times forward sales estimates for the company. It could be a nice addition to any portfolio of growth stocks. Should you invest $1,000 in Datadog right now? Before you buy stock in Datadog, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Datadog 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 $668,155!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,106,071!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,070% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 184% 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 Annie Dean, a Vice President at Atlassian, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Adam Levy has positions in Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta Platforms. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Atlassian, Datadog, Meta Platforms, and The Trade Desk. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. 3 No-Brainer Growth Stocks to Buy With $250 Right Now 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
