Many companies go public before they’re able to fully earn a profit. Selling shares to the general population spreads around the risk, and allows a company to raise capital to fund operations. Once a company goes public, moving to profitability is key. The past few years saw a surge of early-stage companies going public, but many failed to grow and become profitable. Of those that have moved to profitability, chances are shares can move higher in the years ahead. One such company becoming profitable this year isUber (UBER). The ride-share giant reported a record number of drivers thi...

Investors have plenty of ways to play a seasonal rally for stocks. The past few weeks have seen stocks get hit hard to the downside, then surge higher. Highly volatile stocks have led the way in both directions. Going into the end of the year, companies that are disliked tend to perform best. That may be because they’ve gotten more oversold than other stocks, or are more prone to being squeezed higher. Either way, investors can buy disliked stocks for a stronger rally. One example is media giantParamount (PARA). Shares just got a double downgrade as the company has been reticent to s...

The reverberations of the AI trend are still being felt throughout the economy. Investors have clamored into hardware plays, with some interest in software plays. But there are ripple effects that have yet to be felt. As those effects play out, investors may have a chance to profit from a trend that was popular a few years back before fizzling out. That trend? The standby of all of today’s technology, the personal computer. That’s because computers have more processing power than a smartphone. And they’re inexpensive enough to provide connectivity to the cloud and the latest AI techn...

Rising interest rates and falling bond prices have hit some stocks particularly hard. That includes utilities and telecoms, as well as consumer goods companies. These firms tend to act as defensive stocks, holding up well in down markets while still moving higher in rallying markets. Some of these stocks may have formed a bottom in recent weeks. But with the potential for an economic slowdown in the next year, these stocks could still be a bargain. Should interest rates move lower, they’ll look more attractive than bonds. One company that looks interesting now isClorox (CLX). Shares ...

This year, the stock market may have had its rally almost entirely thanks to the interest in AI. It’s pushed many big-cap tech stocks higher. Thanks to their high weighting, in turn, that’s helped stock indices rise. That trend may not be over, given the long-term opportunities as AI moves out of its early stages. If so, many companies that can benefit from the trend may be a long-term buy as the market moves out of correction mode. One example is with chipmakerAdvanced Micro Devices (AMD). The company provided weak guidance on its AI chips, but shares soared anyway. Meanwhile, th...

This quarter’s earnings season has shown that investors are less interested in AI, at least as far as big tech names are concerned. Instead, the concern is how those companies are managing their major cash cow, cloud services. Yet that’s a space where AI tools could enhance returns in the future. And investing with companies that can provide AI tools specifically for cloud services could see big gains outside the well-known big tech names. The leading player for this intersection of trends isArista Networks (ANET). Their work in developing software for data centers puts them at th...

The market’s selloff in the past few months has largely occurred between earnings seasons. The past few weeks, we’ve seen companies report solid earnings. The market hasn’t been in a position to reward those earnings yet, but could in the weeks ahead as stocks form a base and look to move off their current prices into the end of the year. Picking through today’s earnings winners could lead to solid returns in the months ahead. For investors who are still cautious about markets, considerMcDonald’s (MCD). The company reported a big jump in same-store sales, a key metric for the industr...

Companies can do a lot of things with the profits they make. They could continue to expand the business, but after a certain size, most companies start to pay a dividend or buy back shares to reward shareholders. A handful of great companies are able to continually grow their cash flows, and from there reward shareholders with growing dividend payouts, on top of being able to further grow the business. That’s the case withExxonMobil (XOM). The energy production company is making progress on its projects to keep production growing for years to come. And thanks to strong energy prices,...

With interest rates at their highest levels in 15 years, companies can’t just rely on cheap debt as an option when making decisions. The companies that will fare best will be those that have strong cash flows and are run efficiently. That should keep profit margins high, and provide the capital to benefit from new opportunities as they emerge. The more efficiently a company can operate, the more resilience it will have in the years ahead. One company that’s been working on getting leaner by aggressively cutting costs isMeta Platforms (META). It’s taken a step back from a focus on...

Earnings season can create some big swings in share prices. And they can create some counterintuitive moves. Companies that beat earnings can sell off. Companies that miss on earnings can see shares rally. And then there come the moves from any forward guidance. Over time, earnings drive a company’s share price. So even if a company misses the mark for some reason in a given quarter, if its earnings are improving, shares will likely trend higher in time. The market punishedAlphabet (GOOG), better known as Google, for its slowing cloud business. However, earnings grew by double-digits...