buy

If you’re hesitant to put $1,000 into a new trade in any of the stock market’s most popular picks right now, you’re not crazy. The S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) is now priced at a frothy 25 times its trailing earnings, while data from Yardeni Research indicates the “Magnificent Seven” stocks that have led the market higher since 2023 sport an average forward-looking price/earnings ratio of more than 30. That’s a lot, leaving them — along with the overall market — vulnerable to weakness. Factor in the tariff wars that don’t appear to be cooling off, and it’s easy to justify staying on the sidelines.

The situation doesn’t require you to sit out altogether, though. It just means you should make a point of investing that $1,000 in growth companies with few (if any) direct ties to the United States, and stocks with more reasonable valuations relative to their potential growth.

One name worth a $1,000 investment comes to mind above all the rest.

What’s MercadoLibre?

If you’ve ever heard of MercadoLibre (MELI -3.18%), then there’s a good chance you’ve heard it called the “Amazon (AMZN -1.34%) of Latin America.” And it’s not an unfitting description. It isn’t a perfectly accurate one, though. Yes, MercadoLibre helps companies sell goods online. Unlike Amazon, though, this company also operates a major digital payments business that looks more like PayPal‘s, yet also manages a logistics arm that supports its e-commerce, provides a range of banking and bank-like services to merchants, and even helps brick-and-mortar stores handle inventory and payments. It’s a proverbial soup-to-nuts business.

And it’s growing. Last quarter’s revenue growth of 34% carried its top line to nearly $6.8 billion, accelerating long-established bigger-picture uptrends, and pumping up profits by almost as much.

Data source: Simply Wall St. Chart by author.

All of it’s just happening in Latin America, with the bulk of its business taking shape in Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina.

The thing is, this is exactly where you’d want one of your holdings to focus right now in the way MercadoLibre is positioning itself for the future.

Plugging into the continent’s connectivity revolution

Getting straight to the point, where North America’s internet connectivity industry was 20 years ago is in many ways where South America’s is now. Although the internet has existed there since its infancy, it’s only now becoming commonplace. For perspective, whereas Pew Research says 96% of U.S. adults now have access to broadband internet, Standard & Poor’s reports that less than 60% of Latin American and Caribbean households are likely to even have the option of fixed broadband service before the end of this year.

There’s a geographically unique nuance worth noting, however. That is, a wide and growing swath of the region’s population uses their smartphones as their primary — and sometimes only — point of access to the World Wide Web. GSMA Intelligence suggests Latin America’s 2023 count of 418 million mobile internet users should reach 485 million by 2030. Even then, though, there’s room for continued growth. At 485 million, that would still only be a penetration rate of 72% of the region’s population.

And just like here, it’s not taking South America’s consumers very long to figure out that their handheld devices are great tools for shopping online, and even making digital payments. Industry research outfit Payments and Commerce Market Intelligence expects the continent’s e-commerce industry to grow 21% year over year in 2025, en route to nearly doubling in size between 2023 and 2027. Simultaneously, the research outfit reports 60% of consumer spending in Latin America is now facilitated by digital and electronic payments, led by Brazil — where MercadoLibre is a force.

The company is simply riding this growth trend. Analysts expect MercadoLibre’s top line to more than double between last year and 2027, more than doubling its bottom line with it.

Just focus on the bigger picture

There is some drama. Investors keeping tabs on this company may recall that shares tumbled in early August in response to the company’s disappointing Q2 profit. Despite the strong sales growth, per-share earnings of $10.39 fell short of analysts’ estimates of $11.93, falling 1.6% from the year-ago comparison. Blame free shipping, mostly. Taking a page out of Amazon’s playbook, MercadoLibre spent more on free shipping in Brazil than investors were anticipating.

Now, just take a step back and look at the bigger picture that most investors seem to be seeing again, nudging the stock higher as a result. The free shipping strategy worked out all right for Amazon. It might work out even better for MercadoLibre in the long run, given just how fragmented the region’s e-commerce market currently is. In this vein, eMarketer says MercadoLibre’s market-leading share of the region’s e-commerce business still only accounts for about one-third of the industry’s total sales, with no other player accounting for more than 5% of the regional market’s online shopping.

In other words, there’s an opportunity for an enterprise that’s willing and able to act on it. MercadoLibre seems to be that enterprise. Current and interested investors are just going to need to be patient, as the world was with Amazon.

This might help: Despite the added expense of free shipping that’s likely to linger for a while as a means of turning consumers into regular customers, the analyst community isn’t dissuaded. The vast majority of them still rate MercadoLibre stock as a strong buy, maintaining a consensus target of $2,920.91, which is 17% above the ticker’s present price. That’s not a bad tailwind to start out a new trade with if you have $1,000 available to invest.

It has been a rollercoaster year for Lucid Group (LCID 2.68%), with shares of the electric vehicle (EV) maker gyrating between $16 and $35. But one Wall Street analyst remains unfazed. He has a price target of $70 for Lucid stock. If you’re tracking electric car stocks, you’ll want to understand his thinking.

3 Reasons this Wall Street analyst loves Lucid Group stock

Mickey Legg is an analyst at Benchmark Company who has covered the EV space for several years. One of his top picks right now is Lucid Group. His $70 price target implies nearly 200% in potential upside. There are three factors right now that get him excited.

First, he believes electric vehicle sales in the U.S. will accelerate in 2025 and 2026. There are a few problems with this prediction. EV sales growth decelerated heavily from 2023 to 2024. In 2023, 1.2 million EVs were sold nationwide, a 46% increase versus the year before. But last year, just 1.3 million EVs were sold, a growth rate of only 7%. Additionally, the elimination of EV tax credits may hamper demand in the back half of 2025 through 2026 and beyond. Predicting an acceleration in EV sales, therefore, is a very bullish take.

But Legg’s thesis rests on more than just higher industrywide sales. He notes Lucid’s “advanced technology” as well as its “highly integrated manufacturing capabilities.” For years, Lucid has been pushing back against its positioning as a car manufacturer, instead pitching its capabilities as a technology provider. “I’d love it to be 20-80. Twenty percent doing cars, 80% licensing,” Lucid’s former CEO said earlier this year.

Lucid’s deal with Uber Technologies to supply it with 20,000 vehicles that will power its robotaxi division lends credence to this vision. Uber required high-tech vehicles to enable autonomous driving, and out of all the global manufacturers, it chose Lucid, investing $300 million directly into the company as well. So, while I don’t agree with Legg’s bullishness on EV sales, there is something to say about Lucid’s differentiated technology moving forward.

Another factor that Legg is excited about is Saudi Arabia’s huge stake in Lucid. The country’s sovereign wealth fund has repeatedly provided financing to keep Lucid afloat. The country also intends to take delivery of 100,000 Lucid vehicles from 2022 to 2032. This is a double-edged sword, however. As a majority investor, Saudi Arabia’s influence on Lucid is huge, and the country’s goals may not always align with what investors wish to see.

So, while the country has been a valuable partner thus far, there is structural risk in investing alongside an influential entity that may not have your priorities in mind.

Image source: Getty Images.

Don’t invest in Lucid Group before understanding this challenge

There is one final challenge Lucid Group faces that every investor should understand. And that is a lack of clarity when it comes to the introduction of affordable electric models.

Nearly 70% of U.S. buyers are looking to spend less than $50,000 on their next vehicle purchase. With zero models priced under $50,000, Lucid is missing out on tens of millions of potential buyers. The company believes it can get an affordable model to market by the end of 2026, but numerous questions remain about its ability to finance and scale the required infrastructure to do so. Competitors like Rivian Automotive and Tesla, meanwhile, will both have several affordable models on the market by the end of next year.

This is the challenge with Lucid right now. Even if EV sales accelerate like Legg predicts, the company simply doesn’t have the right models to take advantage of such growth. While its technology is exciting, it won’t see mass adoption until costs come down. So while some analysts remain bullish on Lucid stock, I’m remaining on the sidelines for now.

Taiwan Semiconductor (TSMC) (TSM 1.50%) will release earnings for the third quarter of 2025 on Oct. 16. The company produces the majority of the world’s most advanced semiconductors. Since many of the advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) are not possible without its manufacturing capabilities, the stock is likely to remain a market beater over the long term.

Nonetheless, TSMC stock is at an all-time high, and anticipated growth is often not enough of a reason to buy a stock. With an earnings report looming, should investors buy shares of the stock now or stay on the sidelines and hold out for a lower price?

The bull case in TSMC stock

As previously mentioned, TSMC faces a few threats to its long-term bull case. It is the world’s largest semiconductor foundry company, and as of the second quarter of 2025, its market share now exceeds 70%, according to TrendForce. This is up from 67% in the previous quarter.

Additionally, Grand View Research forecasts a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for AI of 32% through 2033. These combined factors make it highly likely that TSMC’s rapid growth will continue.

For now, it has exceeded that growth rate, and that rapid growth is on track to continue. In the first half of 2025, revenue increased by 40% to $56 billion compared to the same period the previous year. It also stated on its Q2 earnings call that it expects between $31.8 billion and $33 billion in revenue during Q3, representing a 38% rise at the midpoint.

Investors should note that the company beat revenue estimates in each of the previous four reports. Thus, if it beats estimates like it has in previous quarters, the 40% revenue growth rate from the first two quarters of the year could continue into Q3.

Moreover, investors should watch for sales of the most advanced chips, namely those in the 2nm – 5nm size range that power the most advanced AI functions. This is the area where TSMC stands out above competing foundries, since Samsung is the only other chip producer that can manufacture these smaller chips.

Areas of danger

Additionally, even if it is likely to beat earnings estimates, TSMC faces significant challenges.

One is simply keeping up with demand. It allocated almost $20 billion to capital expenditures (CapEx) in the first half of the year, and much of that will go to foundries in Arizona, where it plans to allocate $165 billion to building six advanced manufacturing facilities. Even though that is a considerable sum, it will likely have to maintain or increase that spending to match demand.

Another factor is that the majority of production takes place in Taiwan, which faces considerable geopolitical tensions because of its proximity to China. Investors differ on the danger level, as China can probably not afford to have the supply of chips disrupted by geopolitical events.

Still, investors should also remember that Warren Buffett forced Berkshire Hathaway to sell its TSMC stake for this reason. Hence, investors must remain aware of this concern.

That issue may also be the reason for TSMC’s relatively low valuation. It has traded at an average P/E ratio of 25 over the last five years, far below its key clients such as Apple and Nvidia.

Also, while its current 33 P/E ratio is low for a company with 40% revenue growth, the earnings multiple has rarely exceeded 40 in recent years. That could increase the danger of paying a relative premium for TSMC.

Should investors buy TSMC stock before earnings?

Under current conditions, no obvious factor is pushing investors to either delay or accelerate purchase decisions before the earnings report.

Indeed, nobody knows how TSMC stock will react once the company releases Q3 earnings. Still, some risk-averse investors may feel apprehensive about the report amid the rising P/E ratio.

If that is the case, one strategy is to do both, allocate half of one’s funds to this stock now and wait for the report to spend the additional half. Shareholders who dollar-cost-average into this stock are likely already employing this strategy, and with this near-term outcome unknown, that approach could also work for other investors.

Ultimately, barring the aforementioned geopolitical risks, TSMC stock should remain on a bull trend as it struggles to meet the demand for AI chips. For this reason, time in TSMC is almost certainly more critical to winning with the stock than the timing of one’s purchase decisions.

Rivian Automotive (RIVN 0.85%) is expected to announce earnings in early November. If you’ve been eyeing this electric vehicle stock, now may be a key moment to buy it at a discount. That’s because Rivian is about to reach an important growth catalyst. This will perhaps be the biggest in its history. Let’s learn what that is and whether now it a good time to invest in the EV maker. 

Expect important updates to arrive in early November

What exactly should investors expect to be revealed next month? Most importantly, we should get our clearest update yet on Rivian’s upcoming affordable models: The R2, R3, and R3X.

I’ve written before how important it is for an electric car company to introduce affordable models. A big majority of car buyers are looking to spend less than $50,000 on their next vehicle purchase. And now that U.S. federal tax credits have been eliminated for EV purchases, offering low-cost models is more important than ever.

Right now, Rivian has just two models on the market, both of which can easily cost $100,000 or more with certain options. This high price point dramatically reduces the company’s total addressable market. But the upcoming models — the R2, R3, and R3X — are all expected to cost less than $50,000, making Rivians accessible to tens of millions of new buyers.

When Tesla introduced its affordable models — the Model 3 and Model Y — growth exploded. I expect the same to occur for Rivian. That’s great news for investors, since Rivian’s revenue growth rates have essentially flatlined over the last 18 months. This has caused the company’s price-to-sales ratio to fall to just 3.1. Tesla, for comparison, trades at nearly 17 times sales. If Rivian’s new models follow the growth trajectory of Tesla’s affordable models, this valuation gap could narrow quickly.

Earlier this year, Rivian management reaffirmed that the R2 would begin production in early 2026 as planned. That was an important update, since the EV manufacturing industry has historically been overly optimistic about production timelines. Last week, hundreds of Rivian R2 test vehicles were spotted on public roads, with the company noting that these vehicles were generating real-world data and validating charging capabilities ahead of launch.

It’s possible that the Rivian R2 will begin production before the first earnings announcement of 2026, which should occur sometime next February. If so, that means this upcoming announcement in November could generate clear guidance from management that adds momentum to the stock. But there’s one other reason to buy ahead of next month’s earnings call.

Image source: Getty Images.

Can Rivian stay profitable without key subsidies?

Unlike Tesla, Rivian has yet to achieve net profitability. But this year, the company did achieve positive gross margins for the first time. This signaled to the market that, long term, the company is capable of producing vehicles at a profit. There’s just one problem. A lot of this gross profit was realized through selling automotive regulatory credits — credits earned from the U.S. government for producing low-emissions vehicles that can essentially be sold at a 100% profit.

In May, for example, Rivian posted a $206 million gross profit. Roughly half of that gross profit, however, included regulatory credit sales. With those credits eliminated for 2026, it will be very interesting to track Rivian’s gross profit levels. In August, the company slipped back into negative gross profits.

It’s possible that good news on the R2 production front will be offset by a negative update regarding profitability. But if we get positive news on both factors, we could finally see Rivian shares move significantly higher following more than two years of share price stagnation.

QuantumScape (QS 11.29%) stock doesn’t look like much of a bargain at first glance. After all, it’s zoomed nearly 140% in price this year. That’s over 10 times the percentage rate increase of the benchmark S&P 500 index. Yikes!

But there are very good reasons for the rally, and I think QuantumScape remains a buy thanks to a future that could be — pardon the expression — very electric. Read on for more.

The people’s battery?

For the uninitiated, QuantumScape is a next-generation battery developer focused on the electric vehicle (EV) market. It specializes in solid state power packs, which have numerous advantages over the models currently packed into most EVs. Its batteries charge quickly, for one (in under 15 minutes, per the company’s literature), and are relatively safer and longer-lasting.

Image source: Getty Images.

There are plenty of businesses, both publicly traded and privately held, that are busy developing the next whiz-bang technology for the EV space. QuantumScape accelerated past many of these in 2024. Back then it struck a deal with joint-venture partner Volkswagen for the big global automaker’s PowerCo subsidiary to license its battery technology.

The deal stipulates that when and if PowerCo produces QuantumScape-designed batteries that find their way into Volkswagen vehicles, the latter company will collect — presumably many — milestone payments and royalties from the undertaking.

Setting the stage

Meanwhile, QuantumScape batteries aren’t just fancy ideas or impressive-looking renderings in a brochure. In early September, the first real-life demonstration of one of its products was held at an international auto show in Germany. A racing motorcycle from Ducati (a Volkswagen-owned brand) powered by a QuantumScape battery was driven across the event’s main stage.

All this indicates that Volkswagen has chosen QuantumScape to be at least one key battery supplier for its future. More will surely follow, as the company’s technology has proven in a series of tests — plus that live demonstration — to be robust. So even if the company’s stock looks expensive now, its business is only at the start of a journey that’s long and likely prosperous.

St. Louis Financial Planners Asset Management, LLC initiated a new stake in AbbVie (ABBV -1.04%), acquiring 14,630 shares for an estimated $3.39 million in Q3 2025.

What happened

According to a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing dated October 02, 2025, St. Louis Financial Planners Asset Management, LLC disclosed a new position in AbbVie(ABBV -1.04%). The firm acquired 14,630 shares, bringing its quarter-end holding to $3.39 million. The position accounted for 2.1842% of the fund’s $155,093,822 in reportable U.S. equity assets across 37 positions.

What else to know

This new position represents 2.2% of the fund’s 13F assets as of 2025-09-30

Top holdings after the filing:

• NYSEMKT:BIL: $36.73 million (23.7% of AUM as of 2025-09-30)
• NYSEMKT:TFLO: $17.27 million (11.1% of AUM as of 2025-09-30)
• NASDAQ:BSCP: $10.45 million (6.7% of AUM as of 2025-09-30)
• NASDAQ:PLTR: $9.23 million (6.0% of AUM as of 2025-09-30)
• NASDAQ:AVGO: $5.16 million (3.3% of AUM as of 2025-09-30)

As of October 1, 2025, AbbVie shares were priced at $244.38, up 24.08% over the past year and outperforming the S&P 500 by 11.71 percentage points

Company Overview

Company Snapshot

AbbVie generates revenue primarily through the development, manufacturing, and sale of branded pharmaceuticals, including key products such as HUMIRA, SKYRIZI, RINVOQ, IMBRUVICA, and BOTOX Therapeutic.

The company operates a research-driven business model, focusing on innovation and the expansion of its drug portfolio across multiple therapeutic areas.

AbbVie serves a global customer base, including healthcare providers, hospitals, and government agencies, with a focus on advanced therapies for autoimmune diseases, oncology, and specialty care.

AbbVie discovers, develops, manufactures, and sells pharmaceuticals worldwide, including products for autoimmune diseases, oncology, and other conditions. Its diversified portfolio and commitment to research support its competitive position in the healthcare sector.

Foolish take

AbbVie is one of the top pharmaceutical companies on the market right now, despite its relatively recent loss of patent for Humira, which was a blockbuster drug for the company. Despite this, its dividend remains strong and its drug pipeline robust. Several new drugs are in the works for fields like immunology, oncology, and aesthetics.

Since its acquisition of Allergan, maker of Botox, AbbVie has been burdened with a higher debt load than usual, but equally high cash flows have kept balance sheets healthy. However, a dependence on a few successful drugs does create serious risk should regulation or pricing pressures become a more significant factor in the near term. Higher interest rates could also become a problem, should the company need to refinance the debt it acquired in 2019 with the purchase of Allergan.

Even so, AbbVie is still a solid Wall Street Buy recommendation, with 5 Strong Buys and 13 Buys for October, as well as 9 Hold recommendations. It continues to beat on analysis estimated EPS this year, showing that it can, in fact, pivot despite the loss of a major income stream.

Glossary

Stake: The ownership or investment a firm holds in a particular company or asset.
Reportable AUM: Assets under management that must be disclosed in regulatory filings, such as the SEC’s 13F report.
13F assets: U.S. equity securities managed by institutional investment managers, reported quarterly to the SEC on Form 13F.
Top holdings: The largest investments in a fund’s portfolio, typically ranked by market value.
Dividend yield: Annual dividends paid by a company as a percentage of its current share price.
Outperforming: Achieving a higher return than a benchmark index or comparable investment.
TTM: The 12-month period ending with the most recent quarterly report.
Branded pharmaceuticals: Prescription drugs sold under a trademarked brand name, as opposed to generic versions.
Autoimmune diseases: Medical conditions where the immune system mistakenly attacks the body’s own tissues.
Oncology: The branch of medicine focused on the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.

It’s hard to believe that Warren Buffett’s time as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway is coming to an end. The legendary investor took the holding company from a textile manufacturer in 1965 to become one of the largest companies on the planet today, owning more than 100 businesses and with an equity portfolio worth more than $300 billion.

Berkshire Hathaway stock has wildly outperformed the market over these past few decades, delivering a total gain of 5,502,284% in per-share market value vs. 39,054% for the S&P 500. Today, Berkshire Hathaway has joined the ranks of the $1 trillion market cap club, and investors everywhere follow Buffett’s trades and guidance to become more successful investors.

Most Buffett holdings are the antithesis of the hot growth stock. Buffett is known for his value approach to investing, and he steers clear of high-risk stocks or technology that he’s not familiar with. But at least one stock that the broader investing community and Warren Buffett can agree upon is Amazon (AMZN 0.82%).

The classic moat

There are several features Buffett loves in a great stock, and one of them is a moat. An economic moat ensures that the business has a product or service that stands out and a leg up on the competition. Amazon’s size and name give it a competitive edge, so even though it’s not the classic Buffett stock, it has some clear features that fit the mold.

Its core business is of course e-commerce, and it has almost 40% of the market share in the U.S. That’s a massive amount of market share for any business, and Amazon can do so much to keep its share because it’s so large and has so many resources. It hasn’t reported the number of Prime members it has in a while, but it’s estimated at 220 million to 240 million. These members rely on it for their everyday essentials and more, and the membership model generates loyalty and repeat purchases.

It also drives growth in its advertising business, since advertisers get access to Amazon’s hundreds of millions of Prime members where they’re already shopping and ready to make a purchase. More recently, Amazon has developed a robust video ad business for its Prime streaming platform, and it’s also expanding the business outside of the Amazon platform.

Amazon’s market share lead isn’t quite as big in cloud computing, but it’s still hefty at 30% of the global market, well ahead of Microsoft Azure’s 20%.

Opportunities in AI

Amazon is in constant growth mode to stay on top of its game in all of its categories. Its greatest opportunities today lie in generative artificial intelligence (AI) through its cloud business, Amazon Web Services (AWS). Amazon is investing hundreds of billions of dollars in developing the most competitive generative AI capabilities to meet every kind of demand, from the small business through its large enterprise clients.

Its signature AI service is called Bedrock, which provides access to a plethora of large-language models (LLM) for clients to customize, but it also has tools for developers to build their own LLMs and for small businesses to use ready-made solutions.

The AI business already has a $123 billion run rate, and CEO Andy Jassy pointed out, “How often do you have an opportunity that’s $123 billion of annual revenue run rate where you say it’s still early?”

Indeed, independent sources point to a massive long-term opportunity. According to Grand View Research, the AI market is expected to reach $3.5 trillion by 2033, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 31.5%. What we see today continues to grow at a pace that’s hard to keep up with as generative AI moves from wonky results to near-human content creation.

Amazon and its peers are using enormous loads of data to access new levels of training, inference, and reasoning, reaching new capabilities that could further revolutionize daily life. The way it’s going, AI could eventually take over as Amazon’s larger business and launch its stock into new territory.

A great time to buy

Despite its immense size, Amazon’s revenue is still growing by double digits — 12% in the second quarter. That’s quite a feat, and with the potential for the AI business, it could keep that up for a while. However, there’s some uncertainty in the business due to tariffs and lawsuits, and the market has soured on Amazon stock recently; it’s roughly flat this year, despite the ongoing opportunities.

At the current price, Amazon stock trades at 29 times forward, 1-year earnings, which is an attractive entry point for new investors. If you’ve been on the fence, now could be a fantastic time to take a position in this no-brainer stock.

BigBear.ai‘s (BBAI 4.16%) stock has been on a volatile ride on the market so far in 2025, but it still managed to clock impressive gains of 57% as of this writing. It’s worth noting that the stock is down 28.5% from the 52-week high it achieved in mid-February. For a company that is compared to Palantir Technologies thanks to their very similar business models, investors may now be wondering if the slide in BigBear.ai stock can be treated as a buying opportunity.

Let’s take a closer look at what BigBear.ai does and check if its prospects and valuation make it worth buying in the wake of its share price pullback.

Image source: Getty Images.

BigBear.ai stands to gain from a massive end-market opportunity

Just like Palantir, BigBear.ai is in the business of providing artificial intelligence (AI) software solutions to customers so that they can improve the efficiency of their operations and enhance productivity. It provides various kinds of tools related to data analytics, cybersecurity, enterprise IT solutions, digital twins, and digital identity.

The good part is that the demand for these AI software solutions is on track to grow rapidly. IDC projects that the AI software platforms market could generate a whopping $153 billion in revenue in 2028, up from $27.9 billion in 2023. The bad part is that BigBear.ai has been unable to make the most of this fast-growing opportunity.

The company’s recent results clearly indicate that it is missing the AI software opportunity. Its revenue was down by 18% on a year-over-year basis to $32.5 million. The gross margin shrank as well, which explains why its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) loss more than doubled to $8.5 million in Q2.

Of course, BigBear.ai reported a $380 million revenue backlog at the end of Q2 — up by 43% from the prior-year period — but it comes with a lot of caveats. The primary concern with BigBear.ai is that it gets the majority of its revenue from government contracts. That probably explains why a huge chunk of its revenue backlog is unfunded, or is up to customers’ discretion whether they want to purchase its services or not.

Just 4% of BigBear.ai’s backlog is funded, which refers to the remaining value of existing contracts that it has yet to fulfill. The remaining backlog is either unfunded or unexercised. So, despite reporting a healthy backlog, BigBear.ai doesn’t have solid revenue visibility going forward. Throw in the fact that BigBear.ai has reduced its full-year revenue forecast by 19%, and there is a good chance that the stock will remain under pressure until and unless there is a substantial turnaround in its fortunes.

The good part is that there have been some silver linings for BigBear.ai investors of late. The stock jumped recently on the news that it will support the U.S. Navy in a maritime exercise, giving investors hope that it could win more business. Additionally, BigBear.ai’s enhanced passenger processing (EPP) solution has been deployed at Nashville International Airport.

However, it remains to be seen if these developments are going to have a positive impact on the company’s financial performance.

Analysts aren’t upbeat about the stock’s prospects

BigBear.ai’s median 12-month share price target of $6 points toward a potential drop of 7% from current levels. That’s not surprising, as the company’s growth estimates have taken a big hit.

Data by YCharts.

Moreover, BigBear.ai stock isn’t exactly cheap right now. It trades at 12 times sales. That’s well above the Nasdaq Composite index’s price-to-sales ratio of 5. With the company’s sales set to decline in double digits this year as per its updated guidance, its rich valuation isn’t justifiable. All this tells us that this AI stock isn’t worth buying even after its recent pullback, which is why investors would do well to take a closer look at other names that are clocking healthy growth and are trading at attractive valuations.

Rising 30% so far in 2025 and now a $120 billion company, Latin American e-commerce and fintech juggernaut MercadoLibre (MELI 2.89%) may have investors feeling like they missed their opportunity to buy.

However, despite the company’s immense size, one key attribute makes it worthy of buying today: its growth optionality.

MercadoLibre’s seemingly endless ways to grow

Growth optionality, or a company’s flexibility to expand into new markets, is one of the most powerful forces for a stock. And MercadoLibre has growth optionality in spades.

Image source: Getty Images.

Expanding to all of Latin America

MercadoLibre is home to 71 million monthly active buyers who purchased over $15 billion worth of products in the last quarter. Yet Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico account for 96% of the company’s total sales, leaving a long growth runway as it expands into new countries.

As a whole, Latin America has 50% more people than the United States. Still, the region’s e-commerce penetration rate is only half that of its neighbor to the north, highlighting the vast opportunity that remains.

Advertising

The company grew its share of the Latin American digital ads market from 1.5% in 2019 to 6.7% in 2024. This market share makes it the third-largest advertiser in the area.

This burgeoning segment grew sales by 38% in the second quarter. With the Latin American retail media market expected to triple in size between 2024 and 2028, MercadoLibre’s rapid growth here should persist.

Business-to-business (B2B)

MercadoLibre recently launched its B2B offering, with 4 million users enabled to make wholesale purchases.

Management estimates this market is roughly four times the size of the company’s existing consumer marketplace. Any success here could be a major multiplier over time.

Fintech and credit

Home to 68 million monthly active fintech users, MercadoLibre is well positioned to disrupt the largely underbanked and cash-payment-heavy nature of most Latin American countries.

Furthermore, the company now has 35 million users in its credit portfolio — 60% of whom had no credit offers before.

Still growing sales by more than 30% quarter after quarter, MercadoLibre’s growth story is far from over.

Oct. 2 (UPI) — Berkshire Hathaway will purchase Occidental’s chemical business, OxyChem, for $9.7 billion, the two companies announced Thursday.

Berkshire Hathaway and Occidental said they expect to close on the all-cash deal in the fourth quarter of 2025. It represents the largest deal by Berkshire Hathaway since 2022 when it purchased insurer Alleghany for $11.6 billion, CNBC reported.

As part of the deal, Occidental said it plans to use $6.5 billion to reduce its debt. The company hopes to hit a target of less than $15 billion in debt.

Vicki Holly, Occidental’s president and chief executive officer, said the deal “strengthens our financial position.”

“OxyChem has grown under Occidental into a well-run, safely operated business with best-in-class employees, and we are confident the business and those employees will continue to thrive under Berkshire Hathaway’s ownership,” she said in a statement.

Greg Abel, Berkshire’s vice chairman of non-insurance operations, said the purchase is another addition to the company’s “robust portfolio.”

“We look forward to welcoming OxyChem as an operating subsidiary within Berkshire,” he said. “We commend Vicki and the Occidental team for their commitment to Occidental’s long-term financial stability, as demonstrated by their plan to use proceeds to reinforce the company’s balance sheet.”

WITH winter approaching there’s a simple step you can take to attract robins to your garden.

Santa’s little helper will be drawn to your outdoor space with this budget buy.

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Adding this one plant to your garden will boost the wildlife, particularly robins.

As Britain’s favourite bird, robins provide ecological benefits to your space.

This includes acting as a natural pest controller and aiding in seed dispersal.

While you can try to attract these birds with food, providing nest material can also be a huge draw.

Ivy benefits

According to the experts at Woodland Trust, robins are drawn to nest boxes if they’re under a natural cover.

This makes ivy or other climbing plants ideal additions to your garden set-up.

And you can now pick up pots of Ivy Mix for just £1.99 each from Wilko.

Available in classic green or with white detailing on the leaves, this budget plant makes the perfect autumn addition to your garden.

According to the product description, this “vigorous climbing foliage” can be “wonderful for creating dense coverage to create shade, cover structures, or act as a backdrop to other plants”.

It is also versatile and hardy, making it ideal for even the most inexperienced of gardeners.

Role of robins

Like all birds, robins can prove useful for tackling insects and creepy crawlies in your garden.

And with the decline in insects during the colder weather, robins are known to forage more on the ground.

This can help to aerate the soil in your garden throughout autumn and winter.

Meanwhile, their droppings can help to act as a natural fertiliser in your garden.

And since the species mainly feed on fruits and seeds, they can also help with seed dispersal.

October gardening jobs

The Sun’s Gardening Editor, Veronica Lorraine, has shared the jobs you need to tackle in October.

“It’s a good time to trim deciduous hedges – like box, yew, hawthorn, hornbean and beech – plus hedge trimmers are a great upper body workout!

Make leafmould – gather up all the fallen leaves and fill either bin bags or plastic carrier bags. Seal the top, stick a few small holes in the bag – and then store for a year or more. Free compost!

It’s unlikely you’ll get any more red tomatoes so have one final harvest and chuck the plants on the compost. See if you can get the green ones to ripen by putting in a drawer (some say with a banana). Also keep the seeds from a couple – and plant again next year if they went well.

Finish getting in your spring bulbs. Ideally you’d have done daffs and alliums, but tulips are better in the ground when the soil temperature gets a bit colder. 

It’s good to leave some plant litter in the ground – it adds to the nutrients as it rots down, and provides shelter and food for insects. But remove the manky brown bits collapsing all over the lawn/winter structure. 

Mulch – it not only suppresses weeds, but keeps the soil warm, improves water retention and adds a little winter duvet to your outside space. 

October’s a good month for carrots, peas, asparagus, broad beans, and rhubarb.”

More on garden tips

A gardening pro revealed the £1.99 Lidl plant that is the secret to filling outside space with colour all autumn.

Plus, the best flowers to add to your garden for 10 months of colourful blooms.

You can also stop weeds growing all autumn and winter with this quick gardening task.

And a £2.49 item you need to sprinkle on your patio or driveway to banish weeds for good.

Plus, the exact date you should store your outdoor furniture away for winter.

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Reddit (RDDT -11.84%) is one of the most visited websites in the world. And its focused subreddits can make it incredibly easy for advertisers to target specific types of users, without having to track them via cookies. If someone’s on a particular subreddit, that’s a good indicator that they are interested in that particular topic.

The monetization opportunities are massive for Reddit and the company has been producing some fantastic growth. In return, investors have rewarded it with a skyrocketing valuation. In just the past 12 months, Reddit’s stock has soared by more than 260% (returns as of Sept. 29), propelling it to a market cap of $45 billion.

But has it risen too fast too quickly and is it too late to invest in Reddit? Or can this still make for a great growth stock to add to your portfolio today?

Image source: Getty Images.

Reddit’s fundamentals look terrific

Not only has Reddit been generating strong revenue and user growth, but its margins and overall earnings have also looked incredibly impressive. In its most recent quarter, which ended on June 30, its revenue rose by 78%, totaling $500 million. And its daily active unique visitors increased by 21% to 110.4 million. Its strong gross profit margin was just under 91% of revenue, which enabled the business to post a solid profit margin of around 18%.

The company’s excellent margins could make it easy for the business to grow its bottom line in the future, which could be crucial for the stock to continue rising in value. That’s because while its valuation may rise higher, it can still be cheap with respect to earnings. Currently, however, its price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple doesn’t look all that low, and that could scare off investors who are worried about inflated valuations in the market right now.

The stock is trading at more than 100 times its trailing earnings

The risk with investing in a fast-growing stock is that you often need to pay a significant premium for it, and Reddit is no exception. Right now, its P/E multiple is over 100, and that’s steep when you compare it to other social media stocks such as Meta Platforms and Pinterest, which trade at multiples of 27 and 12, respectively.

When you’re paying such a high multiple for a stock, that leaves little to no margin of safety should it encounter headwinds that slow down its growth. And if that happens, that could lead to a sharp sell-off. Although there is a lot of enthusiasm around Reddit’s stock, the consensus analyst price target is around $202, which suggests there is a downside risk of 17% from where it trades today. Analyst price targets are by no means a definitive guide of where a stock is headed, but they can be useful in gauging just how overpriced or undervalued a stock is. And when you combine that downside risk with the extremely high P/E multiple at which Reddit trades, a strong case can be made that the stock is indeed wildly overpriced.

Is Reddit’s stock worth buying?

I really like Reddit’s stock but not at its current valuation. It has proven to be a highly volatile stock to own this year. It fell to around $80 when reciprocal tariffs were announced in April, which sent the overall market into a tailspin. With the economy still not looking all that strong and question marks about where it’s headed, my concern is that Reddit could be due for another sizable correction in the not-too-distant future.

If, however, you’re planning to invest for the long haul and are looking to hold onto the stock for at least five years, then Reddit can still be a good buy as its site has a lot of value for marketers and its growth potential looks promising in international markets. But in the short term, you should brace for the possibility of a correction.

Tech remains the market’s growth engine, and artificial intelligence (AI) is the theme driving the biggest dollars. With third-quarter earnings season beginning and enterprises locking in 2026 IT budgets, October is a crucial month for separating hype from execution. Investors want to see which companies can turn AI enthusiasm into lasting revenue streams and which have the balance sheets to weather volatility.

Three standouts look well positioned: Nvidia (NVDA 2.54%), the dominant force in AI chips powering data centers worldwide; Microsoft (MSFT 0.63%), the cloud and productivity leader weaving AI into every layer of enterprise software; and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD 0.31%), the challenger carving out share in the fast-growing accelerator market.

Image source: Getty Images.

Each offers a different way to invest in the next wave of technology adoption. Read on to find out more about these three dominant tech giants.

Riding the AI infrastructure wave

Nvidia remains the leading force in AI infrastructure, and its Q2 fiscal 2026 results underscore that dominance. The company reported $46.7 billion in revenue, up 56% year over year, with data center revenue reaching $41.1 billion, also up 56%.

In the same quarter, Nvidia benefited from a $180 million release of previously reserved H20 inventory, reflecting adjustments to past allocations. Over the first half of fiscal 2026, Nvidia returned $24.3 billion to shareholders through buybacks and dividends, demonstrating that even a high-growth company can deliver capital returns.

Momentum still looks strong. Nvidia’s ability to integrate hardware and software, plus its relationships with hyperscalers, provide a structural advantage that’s hard to replicate. As enterprises finalize 2026 budgets this October, any upward surprises in guidance — especially regarding next-generation architectures — could fuel further upside.

That said, risks remain: U.S. export controls, particularly on H20 chips, create uncertainty; inventory adjustments have already been part of recent quarters; and rivalry from AMD or cloud providers developing custom AI chips may erode margins over time.

The AI-infused cloud anchor

Microsoft offers one of the safest ways to invest in AI transformation. In Q4 fiscal 2025 (ended June 30, 2025), the company posted $76.4 billion in revenue, up 18% year over year, and net income of $27.2 billion. Across the full year, revenue reached $281.7 billion, growing 15%. Azure and other cloud services within the Intelligent Cloud segment grew 39%, showing strong AI-driven demand.

October is a key month because many enterprises finalize budgets for the next year. Microsoft’s Azure with AI integration is positioned to capture cloud and infrastructure spending. The breadth of Microsoft’s portfolio — spanning cloud, operating systems, productivity, and enterprise services — helps buffer volatility in any one area.

Embedding AI features across Office, Teams, and Dynamics further gives Microsoft the ability to monetize AI broadly, rather than focusing on a single niche. That said, expectations are steep: Any softness in cloud growth or regulatory scrutiny could significantly impact the stock.

A challenger with upside

AMD offers the contrarian play in AI chips. The company posted record Q2 2025 revenue of $7.7 billion with gross margins around 40%. On a non-GAAP basis, operating income hit $897 million with net income of $781 million. While these numbers pale next to Nvidia’s, that’s exactly the point: AMD trades at a fraction of Nvidia’s valuation despite pushing deeper into AI and data center accelerators.

As AMD’s strategy bears fruit, the market upside could be significant. Record Q2 revenue shows demand is real, not hype. If export restrictions ease or new products like the MI400 series gain traction, AMD could rerate as a legitimate infrastructure competitor. The company offers outsized return potential for positive surprises. But challenges remain: Margin pressure from write-downs, dependency on China regulatory clarity, and intense competition in AI accelerators all pose risks.

Three approaches to the AI boom

These three stocks represent the full spectrum of tech investing: Nvidia for pure AI dominance, Microsoft for diversified safety, and AMD for challenger upside. As Q3 earnings approach and 2026 budgets crystallize, October will reveal which companies can sustain their momentum.

The AI boom isn’t ending, but the easy gains are behind us. Winners from here will be those executing on real revenue, not just riding sentiment.

The stock market as a whole is starting to look expensive. The S&P 500, Nasdaq, Dow Jones Industrial Average, and many other key benchmark indices are within a few percentage points of all-time highs, and all look historically expensive by several valuation metrics, including average P/E ratios, price-to-book multiples, and more.

However, there are still some excellent long-term opportunities to be found, and that’s especially true when it comes to high-yield stocks. With interest rates still at a historically high level, dividend stocks can be a bright spot in the market where it’s still possible to find reasonable valuations for investments to buy and hold for the long haul.

With that in mind, here are two high-paying dividend stocks in particular that could be excellent investments right now if you’re a patient investor looking for great income and total returns.

Image source: Getty Images.

The best overall high-dividend stock in the market?

I’ve called Realty Income (O 0.39%) my favorite overall dividend stock in the market, and as one of the largest positions in my own portfolio, I’ve put my money where my mouth (or keyboard) is.

If you aren’t familiar with it, Realty Income is a real estate investment trust, or REIT (pronounced ‘reet’), and it invests in single-tenant properties. About three-fourths of its tenants are retail in nature, and it also has industrial, agricultural, and gaming properties. Its retail tenants are hand-picked for their recession resistance and/or their lack of vulnerability to e-commerce. Plus, tenants sign long-term leases with gradual rent increases built in, and agree to pay insurance, taxes, and most maintenance costs.

This model allows Realty Income to generate excellent total returns over the long run, and with less overall volatility than the S&P 500. And the proof is in the performance. Although Realty Income has underperformed (as would be expected) during rising-rate environments, since its 1994 IPO it has produced 13.5% annualized total returns for investors, well ahead of the S&P 500, and it has raised its dividend for the past 112 consecutive quarters.

Realty Income has rebounded nicely from its recent lows but still trades for about 25% below its all-time high. It has a 5.4% dividend yield and pays in monthly installments (Fun fact: Realty Income has a trademark on the phrase ‘The Monthly Dividend Company.’). In a nutshell, Realty Income offers a rare combination of a high yield, market-beating total return potential, and safety.

Excellent long-term tailwinds

Another REIT, Prologis (PLD 0.24%) is another high-dividend stock to put on your radar. One of the largest REITs in the world, Prologis is the leading logistics real estate company, owning warehouses, distribution centers, and other properties all around the world. For example, if you’ve ever seen one of those massive Amazon (AMZN -1.09%) distribution centers, that’s an example of the type of property Prologis owns.

The company owns a staggering 1.3 billion square feet of leasable space, and nearly 3% of the world’s entire GDP flows through Prologis’ properties each year.

Recent results have been strong, after a period of weakening demand resulting from overbuilding during the pandemic years. In the most recent quarter, Prologis reported core funds from operations (Core FFO-the real estate equivalent of ‘earnings’) growth of 9% year-over-year, and management reported a strong pipeline of leasing activity and plenty of customers ready to grow.

The long-term tailwinds should be more than enough to give Prologis plenty of opportunities to grow. The global e-commerce market (which fuels much of the demand for logistics properties) is expected to more than double in size by 2030, according to Grand View Research. And the data center industry, which Prologis recently entered, is expected to grow just as fast.

Buy with the long term in mind

Both of these stocks are real estate investment trusts, or REITs, and these are an especially rate-sensitive group. As a result, if the Federal Reserve ends up pumping the brakes on further rate cuts, or if inflation unexpectedly picks up, it’s possible for these two stocks to be rather volatile in the short term.

Investors are bulled up on hypergrowth technology stocks right now, especially anything related to artificial intelligence (AI). I would guess that many readers have large exposure to these AI stocks that have been massive winners in the last few years.

There is nothing inherently wrong with allocating your portfolio to hypergrowth stocks. However, if you are an older or more conservative investor, now may be the perfect time to optimize your portfolio for performing through all market cycles. Hypergrowth AI stocks soar during bull markets, but when the inevitable bear market hits (like in 2022), they can crash. If you are not comfortable with 50% or higher drawdowns, more conservative dividend-paying stocks may be for you.

One ultra-high dividend-yielding stock that has done well so far in 2025 is Altria Group (MO 0.66%). The tobacco and nicotine giant has a dividend yielding over 6%. Does that make it the perfect stock to buy in preparation for a market crash?

Steady tobacco cash flows

Altria owns brands like Marlboro cigarettes, oral tobacco products, cigars, and electronic nicotine vapes. It also has a large investment in Anheuser Busch.

Usage of cigarettes in the United States — Altria’s core market — has been in decline for years. The company has optimized its profits despite these declines through price increases, cost cuts, and financialization of its cigarette business. This has driven consolidated free cash flow at the company to grow by 59% in the last 10 years, hitting $8.7 billion over the last 12 months.

In order to build its business for the future, Altria is slowly investing to move beyond cigarettes. Its cigars business is steady, while electronic vaping and nicotine pouches continue to grow. Its On! nicotine pouch brand reported 26.5% volume growth last quarter. To further expand into new nicotine categories, Altria just partnered with KT&G Corporation out of South Korea for exposure to new nicotine pouch brands and investments into the energy space. It is too early to tell what the effect of this partnership will be, but it shows where Altria is focused for the future of its operations.

Image source: Getty Images.

Steady dividend growth

Cigarettes keep providing Altria with steady cash flow, bolstered by price increases. The stock now has a dividend yield of 6.27%, with its dividend per share payout growing steadily in the past 10 years, up 87.6% over that timespan.

The company is generating free cash flow per share of $5.15, versus the current annual dividend per share of $4.24. This gap between free cash flow and dividend obligations should allow the company to keep growing its dividend payout to shareholders, even at a starting yield of over 6%. Along with share repurchases that reduced shares outstanding and therefore make it easier to raise the dividend per share, Altria has a clear path to keep growing its dividend per share over the next decade, just as it has in the last one.

MO Dividend data by YCharts.

Is Altria Group a buy to prepare for a market crash?

Unlike other trendy businesses such as AI infrastructure investments that may experience huge levels of volatility in a market crash or recession, tobacco businesses such as Altria remain steady through all market environments. In fact, volumes for tobacco and nicotine usage actually improve when the economy is in rough shape.

That makes the stock a perfect buy to balance out a portfolio of hypergrowth AI names. If you own steady dividend stocks like Altria, not only do you get 6%+ back on your investment every year in cash, you might have a stock that does well when the market inevitably crashes. That could give you a counterbalance in your portfolio to take advantage of any dips.

If you are worried about having too much exposure to AI growth stocks, Altria Group may be the perfect ultra-high dividend-yielding stock for you.

Shares of CoreWeave (CRWV 12.34%) jumped after the company filed an 8-K detailing a fresh order with Meta Platforms.

The agreement initially commits up to $14.2 billion of spend through Dec. 14, 2031, “with the option to materially expand its commitment through 2032 for additional cloud computing capacity”– sending the GPU-cloud provider’s stock higher as investors digested the scale and duration of the commitment. Shares climbed as much as 16.4%, but were up about 13% as of noon ET.

Image source: Getty Images.

Massive dealmaking

The new order sits under an existing master services agreement and provides Meta access to CoreWeave’s reserved artificial intelligence (AI) compute capacity. In plain English, Meta is locking in a lot of high-end GPU cloud for years, with room to grow. That should help CoreWeave diversify beyond its biggest ecosystem relationships and improve revenue visibility through 2031, with a possible step-up in 2032. It also signals that hyperscale AI buyers continue to secure multiyear capacity, a trend that can move shares quickly when deals are disclosed.

Importantly, this Meta news comes just days after CoreWeave and OpenAI expanded their own agreement by up to $6.5 billion. That Sep. 25 update increased OpenAI’s long-term commitments with CoreWeave and extended the relationship through 2031. Taken together, the two back-to-back announcements highlight how CoreWeave is steadily locking in multibillion-dollar, multiyear partnerships with the most important AI developers.

Valuation and the long view

The business clearly has momentum — and today’s Meta order strengthens the backlog and diversifies demand. That said, after a string of headline contracts and a sharp rebound in the share price, the stock appears priced for perfection. We’re talking about a cyclical company with a market capitalization of $68 billion that is still reporting losses.

Of course, we can’t rule out a scenario in which fundamentals do exceed expectations. But this will depend on the speed of future capacity ramps and market demand over the next five years — two very unpredictable factors.

Overall, in a capital-intensive, fast-moving market where supply chains, customer concentration, and hardware cycles can shift quickly, patience is probably a good idea. At a lower price, the stock might make sense. But after its recent run-up, it’s probably worth staying on the sidelines.

The U.S. market is huge, with a combined market cap of around $63 trillion. There are all sorts of different ways you can slice and dice the U.S. stock market, with the top ETFs offering plenty of variety. But if you are a dividend lover, you are only interested in about half of the total universe, which cuts your investable universe down to “just” $30 trillion or so.

If that’s still a little daunting (it should be), then you need to get to know Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF (SCHD -0.39%). Here’s why it could be the top dividend exchange-traded fund (ETF) for you to buy.

Image source: Getty Images.

What does Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF do?

Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF tracks the Dow Jones U.S. Dividend 100 Index. Although the exchange-traded fund technically doesn’t do anything other than mimic the index, the index and the ETF are, in practice, doing the same things and can be discussed interchangeably. From here on out, the ETF will be discussed and not the index.

The first step in creating Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF’s portfolio is to winnow down the $30 trillion worth of dividend stocks to a more manageable number. To do this, only stocks that have increased their dividends for at least 10 years are examined for further consideration. Also eliminated are real estate investment trusts (REITs), because of their unique corporate structure that emphasizes dividends and avoids corporate-level taxation.

Once a core investable universe is created, Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF builds a composite score for each of the remaining companies. The score includes cash flow to total debt, return on equity, dividend yield, and a company’s five-year dividend growth rate. Essentially, the ETF is trying to find financially strong companies that are well run and that return material value to shareholders via regular, and growing, dividend payments. The 100 companies with the best composite scores are included in the ETF.

The ETF uses a market cap weighting approach, so the largest companies have the biggest impact on performance. And the list of holdings is updated annually. That’s a lot of work, but the expense ratio is a very modest 0.06%. At the end of the day, Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF is doing what most dividend investors would do if they bought stocks on their own at a cost that is very close to free by Wall Street standards.

Why you should buy Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF

Some caveats are important here. You can easily find higher-yielding ETFs. You can easily find ETFs that have had better price appreciation. Simply put, Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF isn’t a perfect investment choice for every investor. But it provides a very good balance between yield, price appreciation, and dividend growth over time.

SCHD data by YCharts

As the chart above highlights, the dividend and the ETF’s market price have both trended generally higher since its inception in October 2011. Now add in the well-above-market dividend yield of around 3.7% today, and the story gets even better. For reference, that’s just over three times greater than what you’d collect from an S&P 500 index (^GSPC 0.26%) tracking ETF like Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: VOO).

And since Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF’s portfolio is regularly updated, you don’t need to think about what’s in the portfolio. How it invests is more important than what it owns at any given moment. Its holdings will naturally shift along with the market over time. In other words, you just have to make one buy decision and let the ETF do the rest of the work for you.

A simple “one and done” ETF for dividend investors

There are a lot of public companies in the United States. And around half of those public companies pay dividends. Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF lets you cut through the $30 trillion worth of dividend noise to focus on just 100 of the best dividend stocks. And it basically picks dividend stocks the way a dividend investor would do it, looking for quality companies with growing businesses, attractive yields, and growing dividends. If you love dividends, Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF could easily be the top ETF for you.

Investment in computing infrastructure to support artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping the cloud computing market, and Oracle (ORCL -0.32%) might be the best cloud stock to bet on. Its focus on offering the greatest customer flexibility and processing speeds for AI applications is driving accelerating growth that could send the stock higher.

Image source: Getty Images.

World-class AI companies are choosing Oracle

Oracle’s cloud infrastructure (OCI) segment posted a revenue increase of 55% year over year last quarter, up from 52% in the previous quarter. Oracle signed deals with multiple tech giants, including ChatGPT’s OpenAI, sending its remaining performance obligations up 359% year over year to $455 billion.

These results show demand for AI training, inference, and data analytics is accelerating, and Oracle is in pole position. It has become the go-to cloud provider for AI workloads. Oracle’s customers can run its cloud services on other platforms from Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, providing the utmost flexibility.

The spike in remaining performance obligations shows Oracle’s ability to scale rapidly. Leading AI companies are choosing Oracle to train their AI models due to its ability to build large data centers that are faster and more cost-efficient than any of its competitors.

Analysts expect Oracle’s earnings to grow 15% annually in the coming years, but these estimates have been trending up. Management expects its cloud infrastructure business to reach $144 billion in revenue in four years, up from $18 billion this year. This should support more gains for Oracle investors.

If there is one thing that investors need to understand about the energy sector, it is that oil and natural gas prices are inherently volatile. But there’s a somewhat counterintuitive takeaway here. Sometimes the best investment opportunities arise when business in the oil space isn’t going so well.

Which is why investors might want to buy ConocoPhillips (COP -2.80%) today. Indeed, the company’s successful business overhaul is so obvious that it is hard not to notice (at least partly because the company is so happy to point it out).

Image source: Getty Images.

Not such a great quarter for sales and earnings

ConcoPhillips’ earnings in the second quarter of 2025 weren’t great when you compare it to the same quarter in 2024, with a drop from $1.98 per share last year down to just $1.56 this year. But that doesn’t even do justice to the energy company’s earnings decline, since pulling out a one-time gain in the second quarter of 2025 drops the total down to $1.42 per share. That’s the worst quarterly earnings outcome in over a year and down sequentially from even the first quarter.

But that’s kind of how things go in the energy sector, where oil and natural gas prices drive the top and bottom lines of the income statement. In fact, it isn’t even remotely unusual for ConocoPhillips’ earnings to be volatile from quarter to quarter. That said, the energy sector is, generally, not in the best place today relative to the highs achieved in the price rebound coming out of the coronavirus pandemic.

For example, ConocoPhillips’ share price has fallen around 25% from its late 2022 highs. For comparison, Brent Crude, a key international oil benchmark, and West Texas Intermediate Crude, a key U.S. oil benchmark, have both lost about a third of their value over the same span. This could actually be a good time for more aggressive investors to consider buying ConocoPhillips.

An obvious reason to like ConocoPhillips

Assuming you can stomach the uncertainty of a commodity-based business like ConocoPhillips, there are good things happening at the company. Notably, it has been integrating the acquisition of Marathon Oil and executing above expectations. For example, it added 25% more resources than projected when the deal was inked. Despite that, it also managed to reduce the number of rigs it was operating on the added properties by 30%. All in, it was able to double the business synergies it projected, saving $1 billion in costs annually. And management managed to set up $2.5 billion in dispositions in nine months, when it had previously been looking to shed $2 billion in assets over a two-year period.

The dispositions are a special consideration. ConocoPhillips isn’t looking to get big for the sake of getting big. It is attempting to optimize its portfolio of assets so it can focus on only its best properties. That, in turn, should help to improve profitability over the long term. To be fair, even the best properties won’t change the variability in energy prices. But wider profit margins means the company will make more money when times are good and have more downside leeway when times are bad. ConocoPhillips isn’t hiding its success, it is proudly telling investors all about what it has achieved. In other words, there are obvious improvements taking shape at the business.

This is the setup for better performance in the future

To state the obvious again, as an energy company, energy prices are going to dictate ConocoPhillips’ financial results. Conservative investors looking for consistent earnings or reliable dividends (the company pays a dividend regularly, but the amount of the dividend is highly variable) probably shouldn’t buy the stock.

But if you are looking for direct exposure to energy prices, ConocoPhillips could be a solid choice given management’s efforts to overhaul the business. When commodity prices take off again, the upgrades made to the portfolio will help supercharge ConocoPhillips’ financial results. And Wall Street will almost certainly reward the stock for that.