Earnings season spotlight: Berkshire braces for numbers, IBM rides the AI wave, Boston Scientific earns analyst love, and Stryker stays steady. Dive into what’s driving these stocks and why they’re on every investor’s radar.
A number of stocks fell in the morning session after a surprisingly weak July jobs report and the announcement of sweeping new tariffs fueled fears of an economic slowdown and an impending interest rate cut.
The Oracle of Omaha has sent more than 401 million shares of Bank of America to the chopping block in favor of a company that's dominated its industry for decades.
Wall Street has issued downbeat forecasts for the stocks in this article.
These predictions are rare - financial institutions typically hesitate to say bad things about a company because it can jeopardize their other revenue-generating business lines like M&A advisory.
Berkshire Hills Bancorp delivered results in line with Wall Street’s revenue expectations for the second quarter, while reporting notable improvement in profitability. Management pointed to successful execution of its cost reduction initiatives and steady loan growth as key factors supporting the quarter’s performance. CEO Nitin Mhatre highlighted that Berkshire’s digital deposit program has gained traction, bringing in over $100 million in new deposits. The ongoing focus on expense management enabled improved operating leverage, with operating expenses declining 7% year-over-year. Management also noted that asset quality metrics remained stable with low net charge-offs and nonperforming loans.
Wall Street is overwhelmingly bullish on the stocks in this article, with price targets suggesting significant upside potential.
However, it’s worth remembering that analysts rarely issue sell ratings, partly because their firms often seek other business from the same companies they cover.
Should investors follow Buffett's $466 million footsteps in POOL stock? This little-known name has big-time tailwinds behind it that could drive growth.
Shares of domain name registry operator Verisign (NASDAQ:VRSN) fell 8.5% in the morning session after news that major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway sold a significant portion of its stake in the company at a discount. Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway announced it sold 4.3 million shares of the company in a secondary offering. The shares were priced at $285 each, representing a discount of nearly 7% to VeriSign's previous closing price. The sale, which raised approximately $1.23 billion for Berkshire, reduced its ownership stake in VeriSign from 14.2% to 9.6%. The move was primarily motivated by regulatory reasons, as dropping below the 10% ownership threshold allows Berkshire to avoid stricter reporting requirements from the Securities and Exchange Commission. VeriSign itself did not sell any shares in the offering and received no proceeds from the transaction.
