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DKM Loads Up on QQQ With 7,900 Shares Worth $4.8 Million

On October 10, 2025, DKM Wealth Management, Inc. disclosed a new position in Invesco QQQ Trust, Series 1, acquiring 7,935 shares for an estimated $4.76 million in Q3 2025.

What happened

According to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission dated October 10, 2025, DKM Wealth Management, Inc. initiated a position in Invesco QQQ Trust, Series 1 (QQQ -3.46%), purchasing approximately 7,935 shares in Q3 2025. The estimated transaction value is $4,763,936 in Q3 2025. This brings the fund’s total QQQ position to $4.76 million, with no prior holding reported last quarter.

What else to know

This is a new position for the fund, now accounting for 3.8% of DKM Wealth Management, Inc.’s $124.58 million in reportable U.S. equity assets in Q3 2025.

Top holdings after the filing:

  • (NASDAQ:TBLD): $18.72 million (15.0% of AUM) in Q3 2025
  • (NYSEMKT:TCAF): $14,341,015 (11.5113% of AUM) as of September 30, 2025
  • (NYSE:SOR): $12.86 million (10.3% of AUM) in Q3 2025
  • (NYSEMKT:GRNY): $9.22 million (7.4% of AUM) in Q3 2025
  • (NYSEMKT:ITOT): $7,186,455 (5.7685% of AUM) as of September 30, 2025

As of October 9, 2025, shares of Invesco QQQ Trust, Series 1 were priced at $610.70, up 23.84% for the year through October 9, 2025, outperforming the S&P 500 by 8.38 percentage points

Company overview

Metric Value
AUM $385.76 Billion
Price (as of market close 2025-10-09) $610.70
Dividend yield 0.48%
1-year total return 23.84%

Company snapshot

The investment strategy seeks to track the performance of the NASDAQ-100 Index®.

The portfolio is periodically rebalanced to maintain alignment with the index.

The fund is structured as a trust.

Invesco QQQ Trust offers investors targeted exposure to the NASDAQ-100 Index. The fund’s strategy uses periodic rebalancing to closely mirror index composition and weights.

Foolish take

DKM Wealth Management opened a new position in Invesco’s popular QQQ Trust in Q3 2025, to the tune of $4.8 million and over 7,900 shares. Because QQQ tracks the NASDAQ-100, it gives DKM Wealth Management and other investors a more balanced exposure to tech stocks without nearly as much risk as would be present in investing in individual technology companies.

This has pros and cons, since any individual tech holding can suddenly become a hot commodity and its value balloon dramatically in the current market environment. However, by selecting a basket of tech giants, investors can largely avoid the dramatic ups and downs involved with this sector, and are protected from the more serious losses that can also be present here.

QQQ is an ETF that’s frequently and sometimes aggressively traded, more preferred by active traders than its very similar cousin, QQQM.  QQQ also has higher liquidity, which may be preferred by DKM if the fund feels that this is a shorter term investment, rather than a permanent portfolio balancing move. It can certainly be held long term like QQQM typically is, but it has a higher expense ratio and a higher per share price. Don’t expect this to be a long-term move.

Glossary

13F reportable assets: Assets that U.S. institutional investment managers must disclose quarterly to the SEC on Form 13F.
Assets under management (AUM): The total market value of investments managed on behalf of clients by a fund or firm.
Position: The amount of a particular security or investment held by an investor or fund.
Trust (fund structure): An investment fund organized as a legal trust, often holding assets on behalf of investors.
Periodic rebalancing: Adjusting a portfolio’s holdings at set intervals to maintain target asset allocations or index alignment.
Dividend yield: The annual dividend income from an investment, expressed as a percentage of its current price.
Total return: The investment’s price change plus all dividends and distributions, assuming those payouts are reinvested.
NASDAQ-100 Index®: A stock market index comprising 100 of the largest non-financial companies listed on the NASDAQ exchange.
Outperforming: Achieving a higher return than a benchmark index or comparable investment over a given period.
Market value: The current total value of a holding, calculated as the share price multiplied by the number of shares owned.

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Why EOS Energy Soared Again This Week

The company is strengthening its product offerings by getting closer to a peer.

According to data compiled by S&P Global Market Intelligence, EOS Energy (EOSE -5.60%) cruised to a nearly 10% gain this week. This was the second week in a row the stock managed an outsized gain for its shareholders, with much of the increase coming on the back of a new business partnership it signed.

United with Unico

That tie-up, announced Monday morning, gave EOS a nice lift across the subsequent trading days. EOS and high-performance power electronics manufacturer Unico divulged that they have formalized their collaboration by signing a multiyear partnership arrangement.

Person placing hundred-dollar bills in the hands of another person.

Image source: Getty Images.

EOS, which specializes in next-generation battery energy storage systems (BESS), will use Unico’s latest power conversion products in its systems.

In the press release touting the collaboration, EOS’s senior vice president of storage systems engineering Pranesh Rao was quoted as saying that Unico’s technology in EOS’s offerings would provide clients with “one of the safest, most scalable, efficient, and sustainable energy storage options available.”

Good timing

That news came amid generally positive sentiment for the energy storage systems segment. Especially with the precipitous rise of artificial intelligence (AI) functionalities, there is a sharply growing need for energy generation and storage improvements. It seems apparent that EOS, with this partnership, is actively seeking to bolster the technology it can offer in the effort.

Eric Volkman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Why Protagonist Therapeutics Stock Skyrocketed by Almost 30% Today

The company could soon be swallowed by a very large peer — which also happens to be a business partner.

Clinical-stage biotech Protagonist Therapeutics (PTGX 29.76%) was all the rage on the stock market Friday. The company’s share price closed a dizzying 29.8% higher on the day, thanks to intense takeover speculation. That leap was particularly notable considering it was quite a downbeat day for stocks overall, with the S&P 500 (^GSPC -2.71%) sliding by almost 3%.

Sale in the works?

That speculation was fired that morning by The Wall Street Journal, which reported healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson was in discussions to acquire Protagonist. Although it gleaned this from unidentified “people familiar with the matter,” the financial newspaper had few details to report about the apparent negotiations.

Two people in white lab coats looking at a computer display.

Image source: Getty Images.

Protagonist is well known to Johnson & Johnson, as the two companies collaborate on the development of a drug that combats immune disorders such as ulcerative colitis. If and when the medication is developed successfully and comes to market, Johnson & Johnson will hold its exclusive commercialization rights.

If the report is accurate, the would-be acquirer wouldn’t be snapping up Protagonist at a bargain. Thanks largely to positive results in clinical trials for several of its pipeline drugs, the biotech’s share price had risen in excess of 70% year to date — and that was before Friday’s monster pop.

Mum’s the word… for now

Neither Protagonist nor Johnson & Johnson has yet commented on the WSJ report, which is par for the course in early stages of such events. I should stress that this has to be considered speculation at this point, although I would advise investors of either company (or both) to keep a sharp eye on how the apparent deal might shape up.

Eric Volkman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Johnson & Johnson and Protagonist Therapeutics. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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The Smartest Growth Stock to Buy With $200 Right Now

This growth stock is a no-brainer buy if you have $200 to spare right now.

Buying and holding solid growth stocks for a long time is a tried and tested way of making money in the stock market. This philosophy not only allows investors to capitalize on disruptive and secular growth trends but also helps them benefit from the power of compounding.

Nvidia (NVDA -4.84%) is a classic example of what a smart growth stock can do for your portfolio. Anyone who bought just $200 worth of this semiconductor stock five years ago is now sitting on massive gains, as that investment is now worth $2,700. Nvidia is still a solid investment despite such outstanding growth in recent years.

Shares of Nvidia are now trading under $200 each (at around $185 as of this writing), thanks to the stock splits executed by the company in recent years. So if you have just $200 in investible cash, buying Nvidia with that money could turn out to be a smart move. Let’s look at the reasons why.

Nvidia’s AI-fueled growth isn’t going to stop anytime soon

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been the single most important catalyst for Nvidia’s surge. As the world was wowed by the abilities of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in November 2022, Nvidia’s graphics processing units (GPUs) were working behind the scenes to train the large language model (LLM) powering the chatbot.

Since then, LLMs have been deployed for building not just chatbots, but also for other tasks such as language translation, text generation, text summarization, image generation, writing code, automating workflows, and content creation, among other things. Businesses and governments are using the help of AI models to improve their efficiency and productivity.

Nvidia is at the center of this AI revolution because its GPUs have been the go-to choice for hyperscalers and cloud infrastructure providers looking to tackle AI workloads. This is evident from Nvidia’s commanding share of 92% in AI data center GPUs. Of course, competition from the likes of Broadcom and AMD could be a thorn in Nvidia’s side in the future, but there is ample opportunity for all the players in the AI chip market to make a lot of money in the coming years.

Citigroup estimates that AI infrastructure spending by major technology companies is likely to exceed $2.8 trillion through 2029, with half of that spending expected to take place in the U.S. itself. That’s a big jump from the investment bank’s earlier forecast of $2.3 trillion. This massive spending is going to be fueled by the growth in AI compute demand.

The enterprise and sovereign demand for AI compute has been robust. According to a survey conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, workers using generative AI applications are 33% more productive each hour. 

Cloud computing capacity available at major hyperscalers and other infrastructure providers is greatly outpaced by demand. Oracle, Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet, and others are sitting on massive revenue backlogs of more than $1 trillion. So it can be safely said that AI spending over the next four years has the potential to hit Citigroup’s $2.8 trillion mark.

Nvidia is expected to generate $206.4 billion in revenue in the current fiscal year, an increase of 58% from the previous year. So the company still has a lot of room for growth considering that the annual AI spending over the next five years is likely to clock a run rate of $560 billion, according to Citigroup’s estimates. Analysts have therefore become more bullish about Nvidia’s potential growth in the coming fiscal years.

NVDA Revenue Estimates for Current Fiscal Year Chart

NVDA Revenue Estimates for Current Fiscal Year data by YCharts

The valuation makes the stock a no-brainer buy

The above chart tells us that Nvidia can keep growing at healthy rates despite having already achieved a high revenue base. Not surprisingly, the company’s bottom-line growth is expected to exceed the broader market’s.

For instance, Nvidia’s projected earnings growth rates of 50% for the current fiscal year and 41% for the next fiscal year are much higher than the S&P 500 index’s expected earnings growth rates of 9% and 14%, respectively. Given that Nvidia is now trading at 30 times forward earnings, investors are getting a good deal on this AI stock. It is available at a slight discount to the tech-heavy Nasdaq-100 index’s earnings multiple of 33.

All this makes Nvidia a smart growth stock to buy with just $200, as this company has the potential to witness a significant jump in its market cap over the next five years that could help multiply that investment substantially.

Harsh Chauhan has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Oracle. The Motley Fool recommends Broadcom and recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Could Buying $10,000 of This Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) ETF Make You a Millionaire?

This exchange-traded fund is loaded with potential generative AI winners.

Some of the biggest winners in the stock market over the last three years have been companies riding the rising wave of generative artificial intelligence.

Palantir (PLTR -5.39%), with its artificial intelligence platform, has seen its stock rise by over 2,000% in three years. Nvidia (NVDA -4.84%), the poster child for AI chipmakers, is up by more than 1,300% in the same period. And neo-cloud providers like Nebius Group (NBIS -2.37%) and CoreWeave (CRWV -3.32%) have soared by triple-digit percentages since their IPOs.

If you had invested $10,000 in any one of these big winners ahead of their surges, you’d be well on the way to having a million-dollar holding in the long term, even if they produce merely average returns from here on out. But identifying which companies will be a new technology’s big winners ahead of time is difficult. If it were easy, everyone would be rich.

If you’d like to profit from the ongoing growth of AI, you could put a little bit of money into a lot of different AI stocks, or you could buy an ETF that specializes in finding generative AI opportunities. That’s what the Roundhill Generative AI & Technology ETF (CHAT -5.03%) does. Investors who are still trying to strike it rich with generative AI stocks may find it a compelling alternative to attempting to pick individual AI stocks themselves.

A person holding a phone displaying a login screen for an AI chatbot.

Image source: Getty Images.

Looking under the hood

The Roundhill team is focused on building a portfolio of companies that are actively involved in the advancement of generative AI. Its holdings include companies developing their own large language models and generative AI tools, companies providing key infrastructure for training and inference, and software companies commercializing generative AI applications.

Since it’s an ETF, investors can see exactly what the fund holds. Here are the largest holdings in the portfolio as of this writing.

  • Nvidia
  • Alphabet
  • Oracle
  • Microsoft
  • Meta Platforms
  • Broadcom
  • Tencent Holdings
  • Alibaba Group Holdings
  • ARM Holdings
  • Amazon

There aren’t a lot of surprises in the list. Perhaps the biggest standout is Arm, which is relatively small compared to the other tech giants with large weightings in the portfolio. Still, its market cap comes in at a healthy $165 billion.

In total, the ETF holds 40 stocks and several currency hedges for foreign-issued shares as of this writing. That diversification gives it a good chance of holding a few companies that will be big winners from here, which may be all it takes to produce market-beating returns. Indeed, the portfolio includes some of the best-performing stocks of 2025, including Palantir.

Since its inception in 2023, the Roundhill Generative AI & Technology ETF has returned an impressive 148% compared to a 66% total return from the S&P 500. And that’s factoring in the drag of the ETF’s 0.75% expense ratio.

Could $10,000 invested make you a millionaire?

In order to turn $10,000 into $1 million, the ETF would have to increase in value 100-fold. That may be difficult, considering the current sizes of its top holdings.

Nearly one-third of the portfolio is invested in companies with market caps exceeding $1 trillion, and the larger a company becomes, the more raw growth it takes to move the needle on its size on a percentage basis. For Nvidia to grow by even 25% now would be the equivalent of creating a whole new trillion-dollar business. And while such growth is certainly possible for some of those megacap companies, there’s still a finite amount of money in the global economy.

Meanwhile, there are only a handful of relatively small businesses in the ETF’s portfolio that could reasonably be expected to multiply in size significantly.

Additionally, many stocks in the portfolio have high valuations. Palantir shares trade for a forward P/E ratio of 280. Nebius trades for 54 times expected sales. Even CoreWeave’s sales multiple of 12.5 looks expensive, given its reliance on debt to continue growing. That said, some of the best performers of the last few years also looked expensive a few years ago (including Palantir and Nvidia). Still, the expected return of stocks with such high valuations isn’t going to be as high as those offering more compelling values.

As such, it seems unlikely the Roundhill Generative AI & Technology ETF will produce returns strong enough to turn $10,000 into $1 million over a reasonable time frame. That doesn’t mean that it’s not worth owning. For investors looking to gain exposure to the generative AI trend without going all in on one or two stocks, buying the Roundhill Generative AI & Technology ETF is a simple way to do that.

Adam Levy has positions in Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms, and Microsoft. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, Oracle, Palantir Technologies, and Tencent. The Motley Fool recommends Alibaba Group, Broadcom, and Nebius Group and recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Why MP Materials Rallied Today

Rare-earth elements and China are in the news today, and that’s a good thing for this strategic domestic asset.

Shares of MP Materials (MP 8.69%) rallied on Friday, up 13% as of 12:53 p.m. ET.

MP Materials has become a highly strategic company in the U.S., especially after July, when the U.S. Department of Defense directly invested $400 million in the rare-earth elements miner, while also committing to purchasing future output at certain price floors.

Rare-earth elements are critical materials used in a variety of industrial and military electronics applications, so MP Materials has since moved higher whenever geopolitical tensions rise and the subject of critical materials comes to the forefront.

That’s what happened today.

Shipping containers with U.S. and Chinese flags slamming into each other.

Image source: Getty Images.

Trump threatens China over new rare-earth elements restrictions

On Friday, President Trump took to his social media platform, Truth Social, to excoriate China. President Trump threatened to greatly increase the already-substantial tariffs on Chinese imports into the U.S., and even threatened to cancel his upcoming meeting with President Xi Jinping.

The bellicose reaction came as a response to China apparently instituting new export controls on rare-earth elements yesterday. On Thursday, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said foreign countries must obtain a license to export rare-earth products sourced from China. Of note, China controls roughly 70% of global rare-earth products, especially on the refining side, so this move threatened to cut off or slow these supplies to the rest of the world.

The new tensions were a disappointing step backward from the ongoing trade talks that investors hoped were improving since April’s “Liberation Day” salvo.

Still, certain stocks benefit from geopolitical tensions, and MP Materials — along with other miners of critical minerals — rallied today in response to the back and forth. If rare-earth element imports are delayed or cut off, MP Materials’ U.S.-based rare-earth mining operations would only see that much more demand.

Plays on geopolitical tensions have rallied this year

Strategic U.S. assets, whether in rare-earth elements, uranium, semiconductors, or others, as well as the price of gold, have risen this year. This has been due to the increasingly protectionist stance of the U.S. government, and the increasing inflationary pressure resulting from U.S. attempts to wean itself off cheaper foreign materials and goods to become more self-sufficient.

These trends don’t appear to be slowing down any time soon, so while many of these stocks are up a lot and trade at very high valuations, it may be prudent for investors to secure some “strategic” U.S. companies as part of their diversified portfolios today.

Billy Duberstein and/or his clients have no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends MP Materials. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Why SES AI Stock Jumped 75% This Week

Is SES AI the next investment target for the U.S. government?

SES AI (SES 2.01%) stock exploded this week, soaring 77.7% at its highest point in trading in the week through 1:30 p.m. ET Friday, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence.

While the little-known company was busy with the launch of an advanced artificial intelligence (AI)-powered software for discovery of battery materials, investors couldn’t stop piling into its shares in anticipation of a potential investment by the U.S. government.

A happy person holding cash and throwing some in the air, depicting a lot of money.

Image source: Getty Images.

SES AI has big hopes from its new launch

SES AI uses AI to discover electrolyte materials and builds lithium-metal and lithium-ion batteries. These batteries have extensive usage, including in electric vehicles (EVs). battery energy storage systems, drones, robotics, and urban air mobility.

While SES AI is building EV batteries and has shipped advanced samples to original equipment manufacturer (OEM) partners for testing, it has also launched an AI software called the Molecular Universe (MU) that can be used by companies to research and develop novel battery materials to address their battery challenges.

On Oct. 7, SES AI announced that it will launch an advanced version of the software, Molecular Universe 1.0 (MU-1) on Oct. 20. MU-1 covers a wider range of electrolytes and could help the company enter new markets like oil and gas, specialty chemicals, and personal care.

Most importantly, SES AI aims to grow into a subscription-based company by offering subscription plans for MU-1 to enterprise-level customers. During the Oct. 7 event, founder and CEO Qichao Hu said the company has received “tremendous response” for MU, has already generated revenue from two joint development customers, and is converting several of its enterprise-level customers to subscriptions. Hu expects these subscriptions to drive its revenue in the coming quarters.

Keep SES AI stock on your watch list

SES AI stock hit the bull’s-eye this week as the powerful combination of AI and lithium captivated the markets, boosted by the AI boom and President Donald Trump’s bold moves to acquire stakes in several critical materials companies, including lithium miner Lithium Americas.

While investors are also betting big on SES AI stock hoping it will also attract a strategic investment by the U.S. government, I see little chance for that given that the company mainly has operations outside of the U.S.

That said, the potential for recurring revenue from MU subscriptions and SES AI’s projection of almost 7 to 13 times growth in revenue this year are worth watching.

Neha Chamaria has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Osprey Adds to $15.4 Million JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) Position

On October 8, 2025, Osprey Private Wealth LLC disclosed a buy of 13,580 shares of JPMorgan Chase & Co.(JPM -0.63%), an estimated $4.04 million trade.

What happened

According to its SEC filing dated October 8, 2025, Osprey Private Wealth LLC acquired an additional 13,580 shares of JPMorgan Chase & Co. in the third quarter of 2025. The estimated value of the shares purchased is approximately $4.04 million, based on the average closing price for the quarter. The post-trade position stands at 48,910 shares, worth $15.43 million at quarter-end.

What else to know

The fund increased its JPMorgan Chase & Co. stake, now representing 5.6% of reportable assets.

Osprey’s top holdings after the filing:

  • Alphabet: $22.44 million (8.2% of AUM) as of September 30, 2025
  • Nvidia: $21.11 million (7.7% of AUM) as of September 30, 2025
  • JPMorgan Chase: $15.43 million (5.6% of AUM) as of September 30, 2025
  • Meta Platforms: $14.74 million (5.4% of AUM) as of September 30, 2025
  • Visa: $12.47 million (4.5% of AUM) as of September 30, 2025

As of October 7, 2025, shares were priced at $307.69, up 45.9% over the past year, outperforming the S&P 500 by 32.0 percentage points over the past year

Company overview

Metric Value
Net income (TTM) $56.2 billion
Dividend yield 1.8%
Price (as of market close October 7, 2025) $307.69

Company snapshot

JPMorgan Chase:

  • offers a comprehensive suite of financial products and services, including consumer banking, investment banking, commercial banking, asset and wealth management, and payment solutions.
  • serves a broad client base comprising individual consumers, small businesses, corporations, institutional investors, and government entities worldwide.
  • operates globally with significant scale across multiple banking segments.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. is one of the world’s largest and most diversified financial institutions, with significant scale across consumer, commercial, and investment banking segments. The company’s integrated business model and global reach enable it to capture a wide range of revenue streams and maintain a strong competitive position.

Foolish take

While Osprey’s addition of $4 million to its JPMorgan Chase position purchase may seem encouraging to investors, it may not be as big a deal as it looks.

Despite this hefty purchase, Osprey’s portfolio allocation to JPMorgan Chase actually dipped from 5.7% to 5.6%. This decline stems from the fact that the firm added to almost all of the investments it holds.

Ultimately, Osprey mostly holds niche-leading stocks that may prove hard to disrupt, so its 5.6% in JP Morgan Chase — making it the largest bank in the United States — fits this billing nicely.

Despite being the largest bank here in the states, JPMorgan Chase has grown its net income and dividend payments by 13% and 9% annually over the last decade.

This growth, paired with the company’s solid return on equity of 16%, reasonable price-to-earnings ratio of 16, and top-quality leadership, makes JPMorgan Chase a great steady-Eddie investment to consider — and why it looks like an excellent stock for Osprey to add to.

Glossary

AUM: Assets under management – The total market value of investments managed by a fund or firm.

Reportable AUM: The portion of a fund’s assets required to be disclosed in regulatory filings.

Stake: The ownership interest or amount of shares held in a particular company or asset.

Holding: A specific security or asset owned within an investment portfolio.

Outperforming: Achieving a higher return than a relevant benchmark or index over a given period.

Dividend yield: Annual dividends per share divided by the share price, expressed as a percentage.

Quarter-end: The last day of a fiscal quarter, used as a reference point for financial data.

Integrated business model: A company structure combining multiple business lines or services to create operational efficiencies.

Institutional investors: Organizations such as pension funds, insurance companies, or endowments that invest large sums of money.

TTM: The 12-month period ending with the most recent quarterly report.

JPMorgan Chase is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Josh Kohn-Lindquist has positions in Alphabet, Nvidia, and Visa. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, JPMorgan Chase, Meta Platforms, Nvidia, and Visa. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Why Levi Strauss (LEVI) Stock Shrank 14% Friday Morning

Levi Strauss beat on sales and earnings, but the stock still stumbled. Here is what the guidance and outlook really said.

Shares of Levi Strauss (LEVI -11.74%) faded on Friday, like a pair of bleached jeans. The apparel maker reported third-quarter results on Thursday evening, beating Wall Street’s estimates on both the top and bottom lines.

The stock still fell as much as 14% in the morning session due to modest management commentary and lofty expectations.

A pair of human legs dressed in blue jeans.

Image source: Getty Images.

Q3 2025 results and Q4 guidance

Q3 revenues rose 6.9% year over year to $1.54 billion. Levi Strauss saw double-digit growth in Asia and a weaker currency-adjusted increase of 3% in Europe. The analyst consensus had called for $1.50 billion.

On the bottom line, adjusted earnings rose from $0.33 to $0.34 per diluted share. Here, your average analyst would have settled for $0.30 per share.

Management also raised its full-year guidance targets across the board, but wrapped the increases in cautious caveats. Levi Strauss should achieve roughly Street-level guidance targets, but only if tariffs hold steady and consumers don’t face macroeconomic pressure in the upcoming holiday season.

On the earnings call, CFO Harmit Singh noted that organic revenue growth held flat in 2023, saw a 3% gain in 2024, and should rise to approximately 6% in the updated 2025 projections. That’s an impressive top-line acceleration.

Is Levi Strauss a good buy after the price drop?

This share-price cut took the edge off Levi Strauss’s recent gains. The stock has still risen 49% in six months, reflecting strong organic sales even in this unpredictable economy.

Trading at 18.7 times trailing earnings today, Levi Strauss shares are neither terribly expensive nor extremely cheap. If you thought the stock was overvalued yesterday, this could be a good time to pick up lower-priced shares, locking in the effective dividend yield at a generous 2.6%.

Anders Bylund has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Warren Buffett Recommends Most Investors Buy This 1 Index Fund — and It Could Turn Just $200 per Month Into $400,000 or More

Buffett believes investors don’t need to do extraordinary things to get great results.

Warren Buffett is well known for being perhaps the greatest stock picker of all time, and for good reasons. Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A -0.88%) (BRK.B -1.03%), the conglomerate Buffett has led since the mid-1960s, has delivered unbelievable returns for investors over the years, and a big reason is Buffett’s success with using Berkshire’s capital to invest in stocks.

What makes Buffett’s investing style so extraordinary is how simple it is. Buffett invests in great businesses (mostly ‘boring’ ones) that he believes trade for significantly less than their intrinsic value and holds them for as long as they remain great businesses.

He doesn’t chase technology stocks or try to get in on the ground floor of the ‘next big thing.’ He doesn’t trade short-term. And he uses fairly basic investment principles, which he often shares with everyday investors. In addition to being the most successful investor, he is also the most quotable.

Warren Buffett smiling.

Image source: Getty Images.

Buffett’s advice to the average investor

Yes, Warren Buffett has an extraordinary track record when it comes to choosing individual stocks to invest in. But it’s also important to know that he spends many hours (usually over 10 per day) researching and reading.

Of course, you don’t need to spend that much time, but the point is that being a successful individual stock investor requires time and knowledge. As Buffett says, “If you like spending six to eight hours per week working on investments, do it. If you don’t, then dollar-cost average into index funds.”

To be perfectly clear, Buffett doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with this option. In fact, he has directed that his own wife’s inheritance be invested in this way after he’s gone.

Buffett has specifically mentioned the S&P 500 as a great way to bet on American business. And he says that “American business — and consequently a basket of stocks — is virtually certain to be worth far more in the years ahead.”

Buffett is a big fan of this S&P 500 ETF

There are several excellent S&P 500 index funds in the market, but one that Buffett has owned in Berkshire Hathaway‘s portfolio is the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO -1.28%). This fund simply tracks the 500 stocks in the index, in their respective weights, and should mimic the performance of the benchmark index over time.

Buffett is a big fan of Vanguard, which pioneered the low-cost index fund years ago. The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF has a rock-bottom 0.03% expense ratio, which means that you’ll pay just $0.30 in annual investment fees for every $1,000 in assets. To be clear, this isn’t a fee you physically have to pay — it will just be reflected in the fund’s performance over time. But it’s so low that it will barely have any impact on your long-term results.

You might be surprised at the potential

One final Buffett quote I’ll leave you with is “it isn’t necessary to do extraordinary things to get extraordinary results.” And it certainly applies to index fund investing.

Over the long run, the S&P 500 has produced annualized returns of about 10% over long periods of time. Let’s say that you invest just $200 per month in the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF and that you achieve 10% returns going forward.

  • In 10 years, you’d have about $38,250.
  • In 20 years, you’d have $137,460.
  • In 30 years, you’d have nearly $395,000.
  • In 40 years, you’d have about $1.06 million.

The key is to invest consistently and hold for a long time. The magic of long-term compounding will do the heavy lifting for you. As you can see, if you’re not comfortable with picking individual stocks, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you can’t use the stock market to build extraordinary wealth over time.

Matt Frankel has positions in Berkshire Hathaway and Vanguard S&P 500 ETF. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Berkshire Hathaway and Vanguard S&P 500 ETF. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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UPS Stock Bull vs. Bear: Turnaround or High-Yield Trap?

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Levi Strauss (LEVI) Q3 2025 Earnings Transcript

Image source: The Motley Fool.

DATE

Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025, at 5:00 p.m. ET

CALL PARTICIPANTS

  • President and Chief Executive Officer — Michelle Gass
  • Chief Financial and Growth Officer — Harmit Singh
  • Head of Investor Relations — Aida Orphan

Need a quote from a Motley Fool analyst? Email [email protected]

RISKS

  • Tariff impact — Harmit Singh stated, “Our updated guidance reflects the latest tariff rate, which includes 30% for China and an increase to approximately 20% for the rest of the world, compared to 50 basis points previously,” and quantified a resulting 20 basis point impact on gross margin and a 2 to 3¢ reduction in adjusted diluted EPS.
  • Gross margin headwind in fiscal fourth quarter — Management forecasts a roughly 100 basis point contraction in gross margin for the fiscal fourth quarter ended Nov. 30, 2025, driven by tariffs and the absence of a fifty-third week.

TAKEAWAYS

  • Net revenue growth — Net revenue increased 7% in the fiscal third quarter ended Aug. 31, 2025, with international markets contributing approximately 75% of the growth and the US accounting for the rest.
  • Direct-to-consumer (DTC) channel — DTC sales rose 9%, with e-commerce up 16% and store comps delivering high single-digit growth in the fiscal third quarter; DTC now accounts for over 40% of the US business as of the fiscal third quarter.
  • Gross margin — Gross margin reached a record 61.7%, up 110 basis points, more than offsetting an 80 basis point tariff headwind in the fiscal third quarter; approximately 50 basis points of margin uplift came from foreign exchange in the same period.
  • Adjusted EBIT margin and EPS — Adjusted EBIT margin reached 11.8%, and adjusted diluted EPS was 34¢, both “ahead of our expectation” in the fiscal third quarter, according to Harmit Singh.
  • Wholesale channel — Global wholesale net revenues grew 5% on an organic, continuing operations basis in the fiscal third quarter, with signature business up double digits and women’s outperforming across key partners, while US wholesale rose 2%.
  • Regional trends — Asia net revenues accelerated 12% with double-digit DTC and wholesale gains; the Americas rose 7%, and Europe rose 3%, with UK performance described as “very strong,” based on organic net revenues in the fiscal third quarter.
  • Women’s and tops segments — Levi Strauss women’s business grew 9%, men’s grew 5%, and tops increased 9%, with men’s tops up 10% and women’s tops up 8%, all on an organic basis in the fiscal third quarter.
  • Shareholder returns — Returned $151 million to shareholders in the fiscal third quarter (up 118%), bringing year-to-date returns to $283 million and exceeding the annual payout target.
  • Inventory — Inventory dollars grew 12% and units increased 8% in the fiscal third quarter, driven by build-up ahead of the holiday season and higher product costs from tariffs; as of the fiscal third quarter, 70% of US holiday inventory was in place.
  • Guidance raised — Management now expects full-year reported net revenue growth of approximately 3% and organic net revenue growth of approximately 6%, with gross margin projected to expand 100 basis points and adjusted EBIT margin targeted at 11.4%-11.6% for the fiscal year ending Nov. 30, 2025.
  • Beyond Yoga — Beyond Yoga is expected to end the year up low teens versus the prior year, with new stores opening in Boston, Houston, and two more in Northern California, bringing the total store count to 14.
  • SKU productivity — The company reduced SKUs by about 15% compared to last year, achieved a 20% increase in productivity per SKU, and raised the proportion of globally common SKUs to 40% as of the 2025 season.

SUMMARY

Management reported four consecutive quarters of high single-digit organic revenue growth on a continuing operations basis, attributing broad-based performance to both DTC and wholesale channels, as well as geographic and gender diversification. Levi Strauss (LEVI -10.60%) maintained category leadership across men’s and women’s globally, with market share gains in youth premium and strong unit-driven growth. Pricing actions and reduced promotions were cited as gross margin drivers, while higher performance-based compensation and ongoing distribution center transitions weighed on SG&A in the fiscal third quarter. Upcoming tariff increases and the absence of a fifty-third week presented headwinds for the remainder of the year, although operational efficiencies and supply chain mitigation strategies were set to help offset pressures.

  • Harmit Singh indicated, “gross profit dollars are up $220 million, and SG&A is up $126 million” year-to-date, reflecting operational leverage.
  • Michelle Gass detailed that “tops grew 9% overall for the quarter, 10% year-to-date,” on an organic, continuing operations basis in the fiscal third quarter, with a strategic goal to move the tops-to-bottoms sales ratio closer to 1:1.
  • The company invested purposefully in inventory to support the holiday season and cited 70% readiness of required US inventory as of the fiscal third quarter call.
  • Harmit Singh confirmed customer and consumer demand remained resilient in the face of selective pricing increases, with no observable pullback thus far.
  • Growth in DTC and e-commerce channels is expected to continue, with the aim of expanding e-commerce to 15% of total business from the current 9% (as referenced in the company’s fiscal third quarter earnings call).

INDUSTRY GLOSSARY

  • DTC (Direct-to-consumer): Sales strategy where the company sells products directly to end customers through owned stores or digital channels, bypassing wholesale intermediaries.
  • UPT (Units per transaction): Operational metric tracking the average number of items sold per customer transaction.
  • AUR (Average unit retail): Average selling price per unit over a given period, excluding markdowns and promotions unless otherwise stated.
  • SKU (Stock keeping unit): Unique identifier for a specific product variant, used for inventory and productivity management.
  • Sell-in/Sell-through: ‘Sell-in’ refers to goods sold by Levi Strauss to its wholesale retail partners; ‘sell-through’ measures the rate at which those goods are sold by partners to end consumers.
  • ASR (Accelerated share repurchase): A program in which a company repurchases a large block of its own shares swiftly, often structured via agreement with a financial intermediary.
  • Red Tab / Blue Tab / Signature: Levi Strauss brand segmentation: Red Tab denotes Levi’s core denim, Blue Tab reflects the premium collection, and Signature targets value-focused consumers.

Full Conference Call Transcript

Aida Orphan: For our 2025. Joining me on today’s call are Michelle Gass, our President and CEO, and Harmit Singh, our Chief Financial and Growth Officer. We’d like to remind you that we will be making forward-looking statements based on current expectations, and those statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. These risks and uncertainties are detailed in our reports filed with the SEC. We assume no obligation to update any of these forward-looking statements. Additionally, during this call, we will discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures that are not intended to be a substitute for our GAAP results.

Definitions of these measures and reconciliations to their most comparable GAAP measure are included in our earnings release available on the IR section of our website, investors.levistrauss.com. Note that Michelle and Harmit will be referencing organic net revenues or constant currency numbers unless otherwise noted, and the information provided is based on continuing operations. Finally, this call is being webcast on our IR web, and a replay of this call will be available on the website shortly. Today’s call is scheduled for one hour, so please limit yourself to one question at a time to give others the opportunity to have their questions addressed. And now I’d like to turn the call over to Michelle.

Michelle Gass: Thank you, and welcome, everyone. What I’ll share today builds on the themes I’ve been emphasizing this year as we pivot to become a DTC-first, head-to-toe denim lifestyle retailer. The consistent execution of our strategic priorities is driving a meaningful inflection in our financial performance. And today, I’m pleased to share that we delivered another very strong quarter with upside across the P&L, giving us the confidence to raise our full-year revenue and EPS guidance. In Q3, we delivered our fourth consecutive quarter of high single-digit organic revenue growth. Strength was once again broad-based across our business, including DTC and wholesale, international and domestic, women’s and men’s, and tops and bottoms.

Our growth was led by continued strong sales and profitability in our direct-to-consumer channel, up 9%, fueled by strong comp growth as well as solid performance in global wholesale. Our largest market, the US, grew 3%, and our international business was up 9%, led by an acceleration in Asia. And we continue to see robust performance in our core as well as outsized growth in our key focus areas like women’s and tops. The results we’ve delivered this quarter against an increasingly complex backdrop are yet another proof point that our strategies are working. Looking ahead, there are several factors that give me even more conviction that our momentum will continue.

First, our narrowed focus enables us to maximize the full potential of the Levi’s brand. We will continue to build momentum through impactful marketing campaigns, strategic partnerships, and innovative collaborations, ensuring that the brand remains firmly at the center of culture. Second, the total addressable market for denim is large and growing, as consumer preferences continue to shift towards casualization. As the definitive market leader, we are well-positioned to take advantage and drive growth. Third, our denim leadership puts us in a prime position to define and own head-to-toe denim lifestyle, further expanding our addressable market. As we drive this momentum forward, we’ll continue to deliver an innovative and robust product pipeline across genders and categories.

Fourth, our DTC-first strategy is bringing us closer to the consumer and generating consistent and significant growth, while we have also stabilized and grown our wholesale business. Both channels are seeing strong improvements in profitability. Fifth, while international already comprises nearly 60% of our total business, there are still untapped opportunities for us to grow, particularly in Asia, where our business has momentum, and the opportunity for continued expansion is considerable. Underpinning all of this is our culture of performance, with a sharpened focus on operating with rigor and executing with excellence, from go-to-market efficiencies and more productive store operations to end-to-end supply chain improvement.

I will now turn to highlights from the third quarter in the context of our strategies. All numbers that Harmit and I will reference are on an organic, continuing operations basis. Let’s start with our first strategy, being brand-led. Levi’s had another strong quarter of growth. In the quarter, we launched the final chapter of the reimagined campaign with Beyoncé. This campaign delivered as intended, fueling momentum across the business, specifically driving growth in our Levi’s women’s business, up 12% year-to-date. In August, we debuted our new global campaign starring Shabu, underscoring our relevancy and authenticity with men. The campaign showcases our most iconic products, the 501, the trucker jacket, and the western shirt.

And we’re pleased with how this campaign is being received by our fans. In addition, we also cultivated enthusiasm for the brand through a broad range of collaborations, including a joint collection with Nike, fusing Levi’s heritage denim craftsmanship with Nike’s athletic sneaker culture. Our collaborations generate brand heat and introduce Levi’s to new consumers. And just this week, we launched a special collection with Toy Story, in celebration of their thirtieth anniversary. Turning to product, our evolution to a head-to-toe denim lifestyle retailer continues to gain momentum, all while strengthening our position as the global authority in denim.

Our Levi’s women’s business continues to deliver outsized growth, up 9% in Q3, while our leading Levi’s men’s business grew a solid 5%. Driven by our diversified fit, we saw strong growth in our bottoms business, which was up 6%. We’re continuing to inject newness into the looser fit trend, with the new baggy utility silhouettes for him, and the launch of our baggy dad barrel for her. And we’re driving a revival in low rise with our low and super low collection of fits, which are delivering strong growth. As we evolve into denim lifestyle, we’re making meaningful progress on our seasonally relevant assortments as consumers look for more buy now, wear now products.

Following last year’s reset, tops continue to drive notable growth, up 9% with strength across women’s and men’s. For the quarter, our shorts business delivered strong growth across genders. We continue to infuse newness into the assortment through fit and fabric innovation, from our linen blend styles to the launch of the 501 curve. And with respect to our premiumization efforts, we began to roll out our elevated Blue Tab collection to Europe in early September, following a successful launch in Asia and the US earlier this year. Blue Tab merges Levi’s iconic aesthetic with a refined quality and thoughtful Japanese craftsmanship. Looking to the holiday season, we are well-positioned with the right merchandise assortment and the right marketing campaign.

We’re expanding the range of occasions and amplifying the many ways that fans can embrace our denim lifestyle assortment through elevated fabric, textures, and embellishments. We’re excited to showcase Levi’s through a fresh lens that reflects the season’s full spectrum of style. Now shifting to our strategy to be DTC-first. Global direct-to-consumer sales were up 9%, driven by strong performance in both our stores and online. We generated high single-digit comp growth fueled by higher UPT, AUR, and full-price selling as our expanded denim lifestyle assortment continues to resonate with our consumers around the world.

And as we continue to grow our DTC channel, we remain focused on doing so profitably, with our productivity initiatives resulting in more than 400 basis points of margin expansion in the quarter. We’re pleased with the strong results from our store optimization initiative, which have improved both the consumer experience and store productivity. We’ve enhanced our in-store lifestyle merchandising to make the environment more inspiring and shoppable, highlighting our broader assortment of head-to-toe looks. We’ve also been focused on improving our assortment planning and life cycle management, resulting in lower promotions and higher full-price selling. Additionally, we’re in the process of rolling out a new global selling model for our store team.

Which, coupled with our enhanced labor scheduling system, improving the consumer experience and delivering operational efficiencies. We had another quarter of very strong growth in e-commerce, up 16%, driven by an increase in traffic across all segments. We expect e-commerce to continue to be our fastest-growing channel on the path to comprising 15% of our total business, up from just 9% today. In our wholesale channel, net revenues were up 5%, reflecting growth across all segments. In the US, the Levi’s brands were up 2% as we continue to invest in top doors and expand and elevate our assortment.

Western Wear is core to who we are, and we’re pleased to have recently expanded our product assortment with Boot Barn and gained new distribution at Cavender’s. We also see opportunities to increase our penetration with premium and specialty accounts as we broaden and elevate our lifestyle assortment. Now turning to our third strategy, powering the portfolio. Our international business grew 9% in Q3. Asia accelerated in the quarter, driven by double-digit growth in key markets like India, Japan, Korea, and Turkey. I recently visited several stores across India, Korea, and Japan, and it is clear that consumers are responding to the work we’ve done to ensure the best expression of our denim lifestyle assortment.

Japan, in particular, is a market with a very high bar for denim. We’ve been investing in Japan over the past decade, transitioning the market from primarily a wholesale business to now close to 75% DTC. Walking our stores in Nagoya, Shinjuku, and Harajuku, some of our highest volume stores in the world, you’ll see the fullest and most premium expression of the Levi’s brand. Up almost 50% since 2019, and continuing to gain momentum, we remain optimistic about future opportunities in Japan, and we will replicate our successful playbook in this market across the globe. Beyond Yoga was up 2%, and DTC was up 23%, driven by comps, new doors, and e-commerce.

Growth in DTC was offset by a decline in wholesale as the team focuses on higher quality sales in the channel. Looking to Q4, we have additional stores opening in Boston, Houston, and two more stores in Northern California, bringing our total store count to 14. We expect Beyond Yoga to end the year up low teens versus prior year. In closing, we delivered another standout quarter with sales and earnings growth that positions us to increase our outlook for the year. We are fully prepared and well-positioned for holiday, as we enter the season with momentum despite an increasingly uncertain external backdrop.

We have several tailwinds that give me confidence in not only delivering a strong finish to 2025 but also another strong year in 2026. Finally, I’d like to thank our incredible, talented, and passionate team for driving our transformation into the world denim lifestyle leader and delivering outstanding service to our fans every day. And with that, I will turn it over to Harmit to provide a financial overview of the quarter and our expectations for the remainder of the year.

Harmit Singh: Thanks, Michelle. In quarter three, we delivered strong financial results, exceeding expectations across sales, gross margin, EBIT margin, and EPS. We remain focused on establishing a strong track record of consistent execution and results. The strategic transformation across our organization has enabled us to evolve into a higher-performing company with stronger revenue growth, expanded margin, improved cash flows, and higher returns on invested capital. Given the outperformance in quarter three and continued strong trend, we are also raising our revenue and EPS outlook for the year, despite incorporating higher tariffs than assumed in our previous guidance. Now turning to our quarter three results. Net revenue grew 7%, reflecting the power of our diversified business model.

International markets drove approximately 75% of our growth, and the US contributed 25%. This international strength reflects our continued expansion and brand resonance in key markets globally, while our US business maintains solid underlying momentum. By channel, growth was evenly balanced between wholesale and direct-to-consumer, each growing and contributing roughly 50% of our revenue increase. This balanced performance underscores the success of our DTC-first strategy while maintaining strong partnerships in wholesale. By gender, women’s contributed approximately 40% of our growth, with men’s accounting for the balance.

We continue to execute against our strategy to capture greater share in our underpenetrated, higher gross margin women’s segment, while a large men’s business continues to generate solid growth as we fuel momentum in the category. Turning to gross margin performance. We delivered another strong quarter with a quarter three record gross margin of 61.7% of net revenue, expanding 110 basis points versus the prior year, more than offsetting 80 basis points of tariff headwind. Three key drivers fuel the continued expansion. First, our structural business mix continues to evolve favorably with the accelerating shift towards higher margin DTC, international, and women’s category.

Second, targeted pricing actions we have taken across our assortment, as well as higher full-price selling and reduced promotional levels in our direct-to-consumer channel as consumers continue to gravitate towards newness. Third, approximately 50 basis points of the upside in gross margin was driven by foreign exchange. While we are judicially approaching pricing opportunities across our business, in quarter three, we saw a significant increase in units, demonstrating healthy underlying demand for our brand. I’m pleased to report that our adjusted SG&A performance came in line with our expectation, representing less than 50% of total revenue, over a 150 basis points improvement from our first half run rate.

The primary factors contributing to the increase in SG&A dollars include higher performance-based compensation, given the momentum in our business, costs associated with our store opening, as well as expenses associated with the transformation of our distribution network. The combination of robust gross margin and our disciplined approach to SG&A management delivered an adjusted EBIT margin of 11.8% and generated 34¢ of adjusted diluted EPS, both ahead of our expectation. Our focus on profitability as we accelerate growth has enabled us to grow both adjusted EBIT and adjusted diluted EPS up approximately 25% to prior on a year-to-date basis. Now let’s review the key highlights by segment. The Americas net revenues were up 7%.

Our US business was up 3%, delivering a fifth consecutive quarter of strong growth. DTC grew 6% and now represents over 40% of the US market. US wholesale net revenues were also up despite the challenges posed by the transition of our US distribution centers, driven by broad-based strength across the region. LatAm has seen several consecutive quarters of double-digit growth, including Q3, which was up 23%. America’s operating margin expanded 50 basis points, driven by gross margin and revenue leverage. Europe’s net revenues were up 3%. All key markets delivered growth, led by very strong performance in the UK.

While weather impacted footfall in June and July, we exited the quarter with strong performance in August, and we continue to expect mid-single-digit growth in Europe for the year. Operating margin grew 80 basis points versus the prior year from strong gross margin expansion. Asia’s net revenues accelerated to up 12%. The segment saw double-digit growth in both DTC and wholesale. Operating margin increased 50 basis points to prior year, Asia is up 8% on a year-to-date basis, and operating margin for the year is up 40 basis points to prior year. Turning to our shareholder returns program and the balance sheet. In the quarter, we returned $151 million to shareholders, a 118% increase versus last year.

We’ve also closed the first phase of the docket sale. And with the proceeds, we have implemented a $120 million accelerated share repurchase program and retired approximately 5 million shares, with the remaining shares to be settled by 2026. We have returned $283 million to shareholders year-to-date, which is substantially higher than our annual cash payout target. And for Q4, we declared a dividend of 14¢ per share, which is up 8% to prior year. We ended the quarter with reported inventory dollars up 12%, driven by purposeful investment ahead of the holiday and higher product cost than a year ago due to tariffs. In unit terms, inventory was up 8% versus last year.

As of today, we have 70% of the product in the US needed for holiday. Before turning to guidance, let me briefly share our updated assumptions around tariffs. Our updated guidance reflects the latest tariff rate, which includes 30% for China and an increase to approximately 20% for the rest of the world, compared to 50 basis points previously. However, given the Q3 results, we continue to expect only a 20 basis points impact to gross margin. This translates to a 2 to 3¢ impact to adjusted diluted EPS.

Unchanged from last quarter’s guidance. As respects to quarter four, this equates to an 80 basis point headwind to gross margin and a 3¢ impact to adjusted diluted EPS. Looking to 2026, we are continuing to take actions to offset the impact of tariffs. As a reminder, these mitigation initiatives include promotion optimization, targeted pricing action, vendor negotiation, and further supply chain diversification. Now I will turn to our outlook for Q4 and then cover the full year.

While we are taking a prudent approach to our outlook, given the complex macro environment, and the absence of the fifty-third week, which contributed four points to the top line in 2024, we remain confident in the underlying strength and momentum of our business. In quarter four, we expect organic net revenue growth to be up approximately 1%. And on a two-year stack, this equates to 9% organic growth. Reported net revenues are expected to be down approximately 3% because of noncomparable items, including the fifty-third week, denizen, and footwear, which are no longer included in the revenue base.

Gross margin is expected to contract approximately 100 basis points in quarter four, driven by tariffs as well as the impact of the fifty-third week. And we expect adjusted EBIT margin to be in the range of 12.4 to 12.6%. We expect the tax rate to be in the low twenties, higher than a year ago. And adjusted diluted EPS to be in the range of 36¢ to 38¢. For the full year, we are taking our revenues up by approximately a percentage point and EPS by 2¢. We now expect reported net revenue growth of approximately 3% for the year. And we have increased our expectations for organic net revenues to approximately 6% up from prior year.

We now expect gross margin to expand 100 basis points for the full year, up from the 80 basis points stated in our prior guidance, including the incremental drag from tariffs. We continue to expect adjusted SG&A as a percentage of revenue and adjusted EBIT margin to be in the range of 11.4 to 11.6%. by 2¢ to a dollar 27 to a dollar 32 for the full year. In closing, our four consecutive quarters of high single-digit growth and raised revenue expectations underscore the strength and resilience of our business. As we accelerate profitable growth, we are transforming into a best-in-class DTC-first denim lifestyle retailer, unlocking new opportunities and delivering greater value for our shareholders.

Our disciplined execution and agility have enabled us to deliver 14 consecutive quarters of DTC comp sales, expand margin, drive cash flow, and return significant capital to our shareholders, including the recent ASR. I will now open up the line.

Operator: Due to time constraints, the company requests you ask only one question. If you have an additional question, please queue up again. If at any point your question has been answered, you may remove yourself from the queue by pressing star 11 again. Our first question comes from the line of Laurent Vasilescu of BNP Paribas. Please go ahead, Laurent.

Laurent Vasilescu: Oh, good afternoon, Michelle and Harmit. Thank you very much for taking my question. I wanted to ask about your European momentum. We had a major US brand caution about the European marketplace the other week, again, around increased promotionality. Curious to hear what you’re seeing in this important marketplace. How do you how are your European pre-books look for next spring? And then, Harmit, just on the Q4 guide, the gross margin down 100 basis points. Can you maybe just unpack that a little bit more, what the fifty-third week impact on the GM? And what are the positive offsets? Thank you very much.

Harmit Singh: Sure. Laurent, thanks for calling in. So Europe was up 3% for the quarter. You heard in my prepared remarks about the weather impact. But as soon as the weather cooled, we saw Europe accelerate to double-digit growth, especially as we exited the quarter. There was some shifting in July and August, but September remained strong. We’ve seen growth in the quarter across both channels. DTC was up four, Wholesale was up 2%. Some key markets really performed. UK was up, you know, high mid-teen. And high single-digit growth in Germany and Italy. If you think across men and women, women continues to be strong in Europe.

And the consumer is gravitating towards a broader assortment, looser fit, 501, tops, which is our fastest-growing category. So our view is unlike the other major brands, that you mentioned, we expect to end the year up mid-single-digit, and this is accelerated substantially relative to a year ago. September is off to a good start. Our pre-book for spring is up mid-single-digit. Having said all that, our operating margins were also up 80 basis points. So I think that is working its way through it. On your question, I can broadly talk Q4 guidance, and then I’ll talk gross margins in a minute. But on Q4, we expect the momentum of our business to continue.

We do have an incremental headwind on tariffs. It’s impacting gross margin first unmitigated by 130 basis points and mitigated by about 80 basis points. And EPS by three ten. Had it not been for tariffs, our gross margins in quarter four would have been up. I mean, it’s pretty fractured. And then we’re just taking a conservative approach to the quarter given the complex macros, you know, the status and maybe potential impact on demand. We are not seeing it as we close out September. And the continued transformation of our distribution center. The way to think about it, folks, is we’re raising our full-year top-line guidance to 6% organic.

And you think of the last three years, 23 organic growth was flat, 24 was about over close to 3%. And this year, 6%. So as I said in the prepared remarks, the solidly on track to be a mid-single-digit growth company. And EBIT margins should end the year in the mid-eleven percent nine in 2023. They’re close to nine. So we’ve steadily improved that. Higher gross margin efforts on SG&A and flow through onto EBIT margin.

Laurent Vasilescu: That’s great. Well, yeah, best of luck with the holiday season.

Harmit Singh: Thanks. Thank you. Thank you.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Matthew Boss of JPMorgan. Your line is open, Matthew.

Matthew Boss: Great. Thanks. So, Michelle, could you elaborate on the momentum that you cited entering the season? Maybe what are you seeing in the denim category or from the consumer broadly? And then Harmit, so have you seen any material change in demand trends in September or October globally? Or is it just prudent planning for the remainder of the quarter that’s driving the moderation that’s embedded in your fourth quarter organically? Revenue guidance?

Harmit Singh: I’ll answer your second first because I’m sure it’s top of mind for folks. No. It’s just being the prudent guidance is just being, you know, conservatism on the max. We’re not seeing any underlying change in trends as that reflected. I think we’re really well set for holidays. And Michelle can give you a perspective on the category and the consumer.

Michelle Gass: Sure. So, Matt, thanks for the question. First, let me talk about the category. We’re really excited. I mean, the denim category is accelerating. Both here in the US and globally. And as the definitive market leader, we are very well positioned to take advantage of that. And of course, as the leader, we help fuel the growth, and we’re seeing that happen. Just to remind everyone, we are the market share leader across men’s and women’s globally, and we continue to maintain our number one share of position in the US as well for both men and women. I’d say most recently, we’re really thrilled to see that we’re gaining share in youth premium, and with our signature business.

So when we think about our business from a segmentation standpoint, doing really well with Red Tab and for those consumers who are more value-oriented, we saw our signature business up double digits this quarter. What’s driving that for our business in terms of market share gains and again, as the leader, helping to fuel the momentum on the category overall, I mean, it starts with product. We’re bringing a lot of newness and innovation into our business through fits, fabrics, silhouettes. A lot of that’s still happening with boots and baggy. But we’re really seeing strength across the board.

And importantly, not only is it continuing to be the leader in denim bottoms, but we’re really expanding our addressable market as we think about going from denim bottoms to head-to-toe denim lifestyle. And, you know, we’re seeing that momentum in categories like tops. So when take a step back, I mean, we’ve been around many decades. We really built this business on denim, but we’re building our future on denim lifestyle. So feel good about the category, our position. Now more broadly, to your question on the consumer, I think kind of building on Harmit’s comments and mine, our consumer continues to be resilient, and we’re seeing that around the globe.

I mean, it starts with the business, our fourth consecutive quarter of high single-digit organic growth globally. And I think it’s important to make note that this for the quarter, this business was driven largely through unit growth. Right? So it’s unit growth that’s really fueling that momentum. And we saw broad-based strength across geographies, across categories, that’s both men’s and women’s tops and bottoms. And both DTC and wholesale. So consumers responding, our strategies are working. I mentioned the denim category accelerating. I mentioned really kind of being relevant across these various consumer cohorts. And we get that we’re operating in a complex environment here in the US. We’re staying close to it.

But when you think out about the Levi’s brand, in times of uncertainty, consumers turn to brands that they know and trust. And Levi’s certainly one of those brands. So we’re optimistic as we enter the fourth quarter. We expect the health and the momentum of our business to continue. We’ve been planning for holiday all year. And I would say we have our most robust lifestyle assortment we’ve ever brought to the consumer with lots of seasonally relevant product across really all categories. And again, we continue to make progress on this head-to-toe, so you’ll see lots of the fashion bottoms as well as tops and outerwear, third pieces.

And I think products that really go sort of from day to night at work to evening events, especially during that holiday season, but there’s a lot of newness and that will also be fueled by tremendous marketing. We’ve had a great year of marketing with Beyoncé. We got Shaboozy right now, and you can expect us to continue to connect in a relevant way during the holiday season.

Matthew Boss: That’s great color. Best of luck.

Michelle Gass: Thanks, Matt.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Ike Boruchow of Wells Fargo. Please go ahead, Ike.

Ike Boruchow: Hey. Thanks. Let me add my congratulations. Maybe, Harmit, just to focus on margins specifically, can you comment on two things? One, within the SG&A cost line, you a little bit about it earlier, but the distribution line is running around 7% of sales right now. I know can you remind us the moving pieces on the warehousing and DCs? You have going on? A year ago, it was around 6%. I think historically, it’s been 5%. How quickly does that margin start to benefit you guys as you go into next year?

And then to that point, are you comfortable, beginning to lay out a timeline on the return to 15% margin you guys kind of put back on the table several quarters ago as the momentum picked up. Thank you.

Harmit Singh: Cool. So let me Ike, I’ll start with gross margin and give you some color about what happened in Q3. So people and yourself understand. Then I’ll go quickly into SG&A and distribution. Think of gross margin in quarter three, up 110 basis points, higher than what we had expected when we talked about this a quarter ago. Three basic factors. One is the structural mix, which is higher women’s DTC and international that we think continues for a long, long time. The second is we have taken moderate pricing, and we’re driving higher full-price sale. And the third is the FX benefit, which we had called at about 50 basis points.

This more than offset about 80 basis points of headwind from the tariffs. And so that’s why, you know, a, we were ahead of last year and the over-delivery was affected. Difficult to predict. We haven’t predicted FX for quarter four as an example. And full price, you know, it’s something we’re focused on. It’s difficult to forecast that. So those are that’s gross margin. Then you think about SG&A. Our SG&A, you know, for the quarter, was below 50%. If you think the first half of the year, it was higher than 50% of revenue. Higher than you know? So the run rate was lower than the first half of the year, which was higher.

The way we think of SG&A, I mean, there are two ways to look at it. A, our gross profit dollars at a, you know, growing at a fast pace than SG&A. So if you think of year-to-date, our gross profit dollars are up $220 million, and SG&A up is up $126 million. So clearly driving high flow through. If you look at it just as a revenue to SG&A, SG&A up 6%, and revenue up 8%, so clear leverage. As we think we end the year, you know, if 6% is the revenue guidance organically, SG&A is probably in the mid-single digits of this year leverage. On that.

And this quarter, our, you know, SG&A, being up relative to a year ago, there’s performance comp, which is a big piece. We’re having a good year. Distribution cost, which I’ll come to in a minute, so I’ll answer your question. You know, we opened on a gross basis 14 new stores. I mean, you know, and that’s really, you know, the trifecta factor in DTC. Is driving the result. Especially as we market expenses, marketing expenses moved a little bit between Q4 and Q3. Launched the Shibuzi campaign and some foreign exchange headwind. Your question, Ike, about distribution, overall, as you know, we are remapping our distribution network to more of a hybrid network built for omnichannel.

From a manual network that is built for wholesale. So there are clear benefits that we will see over time. In the short term and transformations obviously have a short-term impact. Over the short term, you know, we’ve in the US, we’ve been running parallel DCs as we ramp up the new DC that’s run by a third party. If you think of distribution cost about 7%, and they’ve increased from a year ago, I would say about half of that is the reclass and distribution expenses from selling to distribution for e-commerce. And the other half is equally split between volume, which is driving, you know, more distributed expenses and the cost of parallel running.

Our expectation is that parallel running of DC because good news is there’s demand is pretty robust. So as we make this transformation, we have to do it in a way that we not only fulfill the demand for customers and consumers but also ramp up and close this DC. So our view is and it’s, you know, it’s art and science. So we’re working through that. But I think by the end of quarter one twenty-six, is when we probably ramp down parallel running of the DC. So early twenty-six. And when we report results, for quarter four. In early twenty-six, we’ll give you a perspective on distributed expenses.

But over time, long term, we should reduce cost per unit and the cost of running parallel DC. Does that help, Ike, answer your question?

Ike Boruchow: Yes. And I’m just curious timeline on the 15%. If there’s anything you can share.

Harmit Singh: Yeah. I think, you know, you’re asking for a quick review on to Investor Day or preview on that. But I think the way to think about that, I is you know, our EBIT margin should end the year about in the mid-eleventh. Right? And, you know, and they’ve grown nicely over the last couple of years. I think the basic building blocks are the following. The gross margin expansion continues. I mean, our view is that the structural piece continues, say and, you know, if you take probably a five-year period, you can say that 200 basis point you know, that should help EBIT.

The SG&A leverage if you have you know, as we get to mid-single-digit growth company, I think the SG&A leverage is about 200 basis points. We may amp up advertising a little bit, you know, given the wonderful programs, our chief marketing officer, and these are invoking. I think that helped drive the brand, make the brand stronger. And importantly, drive revenue. I think that’s probably a 50 odd basis points of headwind, and that will come with revenue. So I think that’s your building blocks. So you think of gross margin expansion SG&A leverage, and a little bit of reinvestment in advertising gets you to 15%.

Ike Boruchow: Got it. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Paul Kearney of Barclays.

Paul Kearney: Thanks for taking my question. Within the wholesale business growth, can you speak to how much was driven by maybe new points of distribution or expanded assortment versus like for like on stronger sell-throughs? And how would you categorize inventory levels within the retail channel, setting in the holidays? Thank you.

Michelle Gass: Sure. Paul, thanks for the question. So as we said in our earlier remarks, we’re quite pleased with the continued growth that we’re seeing in the channel. This is now four consecutive quarters with this quarter at 5%. We do expect the year to be slightly positive in the wholesale channel for the entire year, which was actually up from our prior expectation, which we had said previously flat to slightly up. We saw positive growth in this channel across all segments. We saw particular strength in US Wholesale. We saw it in Asia, Latin America, and in the signature business, which is more for that value consumer.

The growth is largely being driven with existing accounts as their consumers are responding to our fashion fits, women’s especially is outperforming, and lifestyle. So while we, yes, we are bringing in some new accounts like Western Wear, got new distribution, and Cavender’s were expanding in Boot Barn. The growth is largely coming from our execution with our existing partners.

Paul Kearney: Great. Thank you. Best of luck.

Michelle Gass: Yeah. Thank you.

Harmit Singh: Thank you.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Oliver Chen of TD Securities. Please go ahead, Oliver.

Oliver Chen: Thanks. Hi, Michelle. Hi, Harmit. Regarding Americas, the low single-digit growth, is your expectation that’s continues in Q4? And on the wholesale side, it’s been a little more challenging channel, but do you think it’ll remain sustainably positive, or will that be potentially volatile? Second, there’s a lot of great initiatives and partnerships with part of the thesis is also, like, amplify to simplify with inventory management. And SKU rationalization. So how do we reconcile those two in terms of where you are in that journey?

Michelle Gass: Sure. Thanks, Oliver, for the question. You know, as it relates to The Americas, or I can speak to the biggest part of the business, which is The US, we’re really proud about how the team has been executing in that market. This is our fifth consecutive quarter of growth. And because you all know, it’s our largest, most mature, most competitive market. And both channels, DTC was up 6%, wholesale up 2%, and we continue to see long-term growth opportunities in both those channels. So I think about the DTC business here in The US, we have the potential to even double our store count and further accelerate e-commerce on the back of the momentum we have.

And on wholesale, which I was just talking about more broadly, global wholesale, but wholesale in The US remains strong. And our key partners are responding and their consumers are responding to our expanded product pipeline across men’s, especially women’s, where we continue to be under-indexed, in particular in the wholesale channel, and then that head-to-toe lifestyle. As we look forward, I’ll just say that we as we look Q4 in The US and in The Americas, we expect the business to remain healthy against executing the same strategies we’ve been talking about. Leaning into DTC, you know, driving units per transaction, driving conversion, driving greater full-price sell-through.

As I was mentioning earlier, though, a lot of our growth is coming off of units. So while we are seeing that enhanced AUR, we’re also driving a lot of volume growth. But I will say as it relates to US wholesale, while we expect continued positive growth in DTC, for the fourth quarter, we do expect in US wholesale to be down given that we’re lapping a very strong quarter last year, and we had that fifty-third week. So as we lap last quarter’s fourth quarter, strong results, the fifty-third week, and just frankly, be continuing to be prudent as we think about this channel given the complex macro environment we’re operating in The US.

So Oliver, does that fully answer? And then you had part two of the question. Let me answer that, and I’ll come back and make sure I’ve fully answered. But then part two, I’m glad you asked the question about SKU rationalization because we continue to make really good progress there. So while we talk about expanded assortment, lifestyle, we are also at the same time reducing SKUs. And we’ve decreased our SKUs by about 15% compared to last year, and this has been an ongoing journey over the last eighteen months or so. So we’re continuing to raise the bar there. And what’s really enabling us to do that is through a tighter globally common or globally directed assortment.

So just for perspective, if we think about the season we’re in right now, the 2025, 40% of our SKUs are globally common. That’s up from a couple of years ago. Where it was under 10%. So that allows us to make sure, again, that we can get the breadth and the lifestyle where we’re getting significantly higher productivity per SKU. And that metric just for fun is up 20% on a SKU productivity. So, it really speaks to how the team is leaning in with a much stronger merchant mentality and operating like a retailer. That’s helping us drive those tailwinds that we’re seeing in the business overall and especially in DTC.

Oliver Chen: Yeah. Thanks, Michelle. That’s really helpful. This is quick. Harmit, are there any gross margin comparisons we should be aware of as we anniversary, them this year and think about next year?

Harmit Singh: So last year was fifty-third week. This year, I think the only piece will be, you know, we probably see tariff impact in the second half of this year. Next year, and the first half. The way we think about gross margin and I think you’re asking for high-level framework. For ’26. And it’s a good question. Let me just talk about it because as we build up plans for next year, the tailwinds that we think probably help gross margin accretion. One is we’re looking at pricing opportunities, again, targeted not only in The US but globally given that 60% of the business is global. Is outside The US. Structured improvements of DTC international women’s continues.

We continue to focus on full-price selling, and it’s not anywhere close to 100%. So there’s clearly opportunity there. The other piece is as we think about product cost, you know, Michelle talked about the simplification of SKUs. We’re looking at a shorter go-to-market calendar. And cotton commodity is in a better spot today than it was a year ago. We’ve broadly locked in product costing for the first half. We’re in the process. By the time we report and guide Q twenty-six, we’ll probably have locked in the second half. So stay tuned. And the headwind is largely tariffs. And so you’ve seen some impact in the second half of this year.

You offset the first the quarter three working you know, to try and do what we can for quarter four, but I’ve guided you the appropriate numbers. And so those are the tailwinds and the headwinds that you think about. Gross margin.

Michelle Gass: Thank you very much.

Paul Kearney: Thank you.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Dana Telsey of Telsey Advisory Group. Please go ahead, Dana.

Dana Telsey: Hi. Good afternoon, everyone. As you think about the lifestyle offering, Michelle, with tops and with bottoms, and jackets outfits, what did you see in the growth rates of the different categories? And given the marketing that you’ve been doing in the collaborations, how do you think of the AUR opportunities going forward? Thank you.

Michelle Gass: Great. Thanks, Dana, for the question. You know, we’re really pleased with the progress and the acceleration in our TOP business overall. And I like to say, while we’re pleased we’re not satisfied, and there’s a ton of upside because tops represent just currently 22% of our business. But as we shared earlier, our tops grew 9% overall for the quarter, 10% year-to-date, and we’re really seeing the strength across channels and genders. So if you double click underneath that, men’s up 10%, and we’re really seeing popularity in things like western tops, button downs, polos, wovens. You know, as we think about our top strategy and denim lifestyle, we do start closer to our core.

So, you know, really injecting light into, like, the western shirt, which is being advertised in our campaign right now with 20%. Similarly, women’s tops up 8%, seeing it across both channels. Denim tops, they’ll start there, up 12%. Wovens, including things like blouses, fashion, button downs, up 37%. And then the category we’re really expanding in to expand her closet, dresses and jumpsuits up nearly 20%. I think importantly, as we drive all this newness and excitement, in head-to-toe dressing, we’re seeing both growth in newness and in our core, which is really important, to continue to support both.

Kind of back to the opportunity, if you think about our business today, again, while we’re making progress, there’s so much upside. Our ratio of bottoms to tops is three to one. Now that’s up significantly from years ago where it was seven to one or five to one. But our goal is to get to one to one, and I’m very confident we will. And as we drive TOPS, it’s a UPT driver. It can be a traffic driver, and it really kind of completes this mission we’re on to have Levi’s stand for head-to-toe denim lifestyle. So hopefully that addresses your question, Dana.

Dana Telsey: Yes. Thank you.

Michelle Gass: Great. Thanks.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Aditya Kakani of UBS. Your line is open, Aditya.

Jay Sole: Hi. I think this is Jay Sole, and hopefully, you can hear me. But my question is that it sounds like you took some pricing in Q3. Harmit, I think you said one of the gross margin drivers Q3 was pricing. Was that in response to tariff in Q4? Sorry, before that, the consumer, it sounds like responded well to those price increases. Did you see any resistance in Q4? Do you plan on accelerating the price increases? And therefore, do you expect the consumer to react differently if you increase prices in the fourth quarter? Thank you.

Harmit Singh: So, Jay, we did. We took, you know, a little bit of pricing in Q3. It was not an MSRP because, you know, the goods are already been ticketed. This was in the sell-in to our customers. In The US. I’m talking about. And, you know, we do it thoughtfully. We have really great momentum, as you mentioned, driven by demand. But to answer your question, no impact on demand. We’re not seeing any impact on demand either from the customer or the consumer. The other piece that’s really working for us is our new products. Because and so as we think longer term, pricing through innovation is one lever.

We are also taking a hard look at our promotion, you know, and minimizing this as we focus on higher full-price selling. Will also, you know, be something that probably continues into ’26. So we’re thinking about pricing, it’s more important to think about what’s the price-value equation for our products relative, you know, to the marketplace, and that’s an important consideration set. The other piece that’s important, Jay, is the segmentation of a product. So if you think of the value consumer in The US, we offer signature product. It’s a great price point. It’s offered through Walmart. And it had a great quarter. It’s up double digits. We’ve just also introduced Blue Tab, which is a premium product.

It’s premium position. It’s one and a half times to two times the price of Red Tab product. And offers real value even when you benchmark that. It’s a limited offer. We hope to scale it. It’s doing really well. So that’s how one is thinking through it. And there’s a little bit of pricing in other parts of the world. But it’s not, you know, something that we’ve done globally. So when we talk about ’26 and guide ’26, we’ll give you a perspective on the pricing actions we have taken or our teams have taken around the world.

Jay Sole: Got it. Thank you so much.

Harmit Singh: Thanks.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Paul Lejuez of Citi. Please go ahead, Paul.

Tracy Kogan: Thank you. This is Tracy Kogan filling in for Paul. I just had a follow-up on the last question. I think you said, from what I understood, that you only raised prices on sell-ins to your partners. So have you actually had time to see the consumer response to these higher prices, or were you only saying that your partners haven’t had any hesitancy to buy at these higher prices? And then just more broadly, I was hoping you could comment on The US Wholesale business, how sell-ins are comparing to sell-outs. Thank you.

Harmit Singh: Generally, Tracy, good question. I think it’s a combination of both, you know, because, you know, the pricing initiatives have been now there through the quarter. You know? A, the customers are not we don’t see any demand contraction, you know, given the marginal pricing that has been taken or consumer reaction. The consumer generally resilient, you know, so far. And that’s how we’re approaching the pricing plus the full-price selling has been there for a while. And given that the product is very relevant and hitting the mark, you know, we’re not seeing any consumer pullback. I think that was your first question. What was the second one, Tracy, again?

Tracy Kogan: I was hoping you could just comment more broadly on how the sell-in to your wholesale partners are comparing to the sell-outs. Are they being more cautious than maybe the end consumer might indicate or something like that?

Harmit Singh: No. The sell-throughs have been very consistent with the sell-in. And that’s why, you know, we are, you know, optimistic about ending the year strongly and then maintaining the momentum as we begin ’26.

Tracy Kogan: Gotcha. Thanks very much.

Harmit Singh: Thank you, Tracy.

Operator: Thank you. At this time, I’d like to turn the floor back over to Michelle Gass for any closing remarks. Madam?

Michelle Gass: Yes. Thank you, everyone, for joining the call, and we will look forward to talking to you at the end of Q4.

Operator: Thank you. This concludes today’s conference call. Please disconnect your lines at this time.

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Super Micro Stock Analysis: Buy or Sell This AI Stock?

Super Micro Computer (NASDAQ: SMCI) has taken investors on a roller-coaster ride over the past 18 months.

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*Stock prices used were the afternoon prices of Oct. 6, 2025. The video was published on Oct. 8, 2025.

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Parkev Tatevosian, CFA has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Parkev Tatevosian is an affiliate of The Motley Fool and may be compensated for promoting its services. If you choose to subscribe through his link, he will earn some extra money that supports his channel. His opinions remain his own and are unaffected by The Motley Fool.

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Intellect drives transformation certainty and business impact for global banks

Rajesh and Akash share how Intellect supports banks and financial institutions in achieving full digital transformation, navigating global uncertainties, improving cost efficiency, and staying on schedule.

GF: What specific challenges do banks face in their digital transformation initiatives?

Rajesh Saxena: When you look at digital transformation and large-scale transformation, I think the most important aspect is that it has to be driven right from the top – the board, the management and the CEO have to be totally vested in this for it to be successful. Sometimes we see a misalignment from that perspective and that leads to problems.

The second thing is that it involves a lot of legacy platforms, interfaces with external ecosystem and data migration. That could sometimes be a challenge.

The third thing we have noticed is that, in many cases, when the bank or the financial institution starts the transformation, they are looking to adapt, but as we go through the process, they want the new system to look exactly the same as the old one, and that can create issues.

Finally, banks have to realise that large-scale transformations require a dedicated team. Sometimes they don’t have a team, and sometimes they do, but that team is also doing other activities. That inadequate focus can also result in challenges.

Rajesh Saxena, CEO of Intellect Consumer Banking

GF: Could you provide us with specific examples of how Intellect has been able to help banks overcome challenges and implement their digital strategies?

Rajesh Saxena; Our delivery framework has really improved over the years. Our starting point is design thinking, first principles thinking, and systemic thinking. This helps us really understand the customer’s requirement, both stated and, more importantly, his unstated needs. Then our products are built on the latest architecture. We call it eMACH.ai which stands for events, microservices, API, cloud and headless – with artificial intelligence built into it. This underlying architecture allows banks to have composability, extensibility and integration via APIs.

We have also realised that when you’re doing a large transformation, you need a team of people very close to the customer and in the same location. So our model is local delivery with a team on the ground, while our factory stays in India. Recently, we successfully launched several projects: we went live with the Central Bank of Seychelles, implementing our eMACH.ai Core Banking system; we partnered with Faisal Islamic Bank of Egypt for the implementation of eMACH.ai DEP; and we collaborated with First Abu Dhabi Bank to implement our eMACH.ai  Lending solution. Those are just a few projects where we’ve been able to deliver business impact to the bank.

GF : You spoke about unstated needs. How can you identify and target the clients’ unstated needs?

Rajesh Saxena: Understanding the unstated needs of clients and the industry is crucial and requires deep domain expertise combined with a focus on human-centered solutions. Design thinking provides a structured approach to asking the right questions, allowing us to uncover these hidden needs. At Intellect, we have established a 30,000-square-foot design center at our headquarters in Chennai, India. We invite our prospects and clients to participate in various design thinking sessions held in this space. During these sessions, we encourage discussions, analyze patterns and anti-patterns, and apply prioritization theories to identify both the stated and unstated needs of our clients.

GF: How can Intellect’s distinctive delivery model ensure that digital transformation projects get delivered on time and within budget?

Akash Gupta: We have built our delivery model around two approaches which we call space and speed. Speed stands for Sprint-based eMACH enabled delivery while Space stands for Secure, Predictable, Assured, Complete, eMACH enabled delivery. These methods give us flexibility to match the execution style to what the bank really needs. Large transformational projects typically go through the space methodology, whereas the quick delivery models, or digital ones, will go through a speed execution model. In the speed model, we are not starting from scratch; we have a ready suite of offerings for the customer with a very flexible architecture, the eMACH.ai. Hence the development efforts are lower and the costs are also very predictable.

Akash Gupta, Global Delivery Head of Intellect Consumer Banking

We also keep our governance very tight with monthly, sometimes fortnightly, steering committee meetings. These meetings take place between the customers’ teams and our teams to ensure good progress and it allows for risks to be visible very early in the program.

On the execution methodology, we follow Agile and DevOps, so there is continuous integration and development. It’s a sprint-based approach, so we get a view of the delivery very early in the program, and things take place in an accelerated manner.

A very good example of this was a few years ago when we helped a new African digital bank go live on our core platform in just 16 weeks. Usually, it takes a bank a year to a year and a half.

Finally, I would say we continuously monitor cost, schedule, effort and risk.  This enforces discipline and helps us deliver projects in a timely manner and within budget. This ensures us to offer Delivery certainity to our customers from Time, Cost and quality perspective.

GF: You spoke about cost. How can Intellect manage cost controls while meeting overall project goals?

Akash Gupta: We are dealing with banks that must face global uncertainties, and to them, two things matter: cost visibility upfront and the support post “go-live”. So, we have a very transparent pricing methodology. We give the banks the pricing down to the feature level so they can choose and pick what they really need. They don’t have any hidden surprises.

But beyond pricing, really matters is the relationship. For us, it’s not just “deliver and walk away” and here I’ll give you an example: Last year we had a bank in Zimbabwe that was going to go live with our core banking transformation and four days before, the government announced a currency change. We were able to seamlessly migrate them to the new currency with no glitches. This is something even the established banks in that market were not able to achieve. It was like doing an open-heart surgery!  So, clear pricing and long-term relationship-based support are what keep us going with those kinds of uncertainties.

GF: Tell us about the continuity of operations, any examples from the advanced markets?

Akash Gupta: One of the largest e-commerce companies in Europe, offers short-term loans to its online customers. The company utilized our core banking and lending solutions, enabling the business unit to implement a comprehensive Credit Lifecycle Management system. This system features fully automated processes from loan origination to maturity, instant updates for customers and partners, flexible product configuration, and a scalable AWS EKS and Fargate infrastructure for cost-effective, on-demand scaling.

During Black Friday, the company processes close to a million loans in a single day, highlighting the importance of having scalable solutions to meet such high demand. They have achieved success year after year with our solution. This is just one of many examples of how our customers across Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and the Americas have transformed into secure, sustainable, and future-ready financial organizations.

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Why I’m Moving Money Out of High-Yield Savings in October 2025

I’ve been a big fan of high-yield savings accounts these past couple of years. Earning over 4.00% APY on completely safe, FDIC-insured cash has been a gift. But after the Federal Reserve’s September rate cut, and with another one likely coming at the end of this month, I’m starting to move a chunk of my money elsewhere.

Not because I don’t love high-yield savings accounts. I do. But because I hate watching my returns fall month after month when I could easily lock in today’s higher rates instead.

Savings account rates are heading south

When the Fed cuts rates, banks follow fast. That 4.00% APY you see on your savings account right now? It’ll probably be closer to 3.75% by November, and possibly under 3.50% by early next year if the Fed continues cutting rates.

And unlike a CD, there’s no way to “lock in” that rate. Your yield floats with the market. So while you might feel safe sitting in cash, your earning power is shrinking quietly in the background.

I’m not draining my savings completely. I still keep three to six months of expenses in a high-yield account for emergencies. But for the extra cash I won’t need soon I’m taking action before the next cut hits.

Where I’m moving the money

I’m shifting part of my savings into certificates of deposit (CDs). CDs let you lock in a guaranteed rate for a set period, typically anywhere from six months to five years.

To keep some flexibility, I’m using a CD ladder. That means splitting my money across multiple CDs with different maturity dates. A few months from now, one CD will mature, giving me access to some cash, while others keep earning higher locked-in yields. It’s a great balance between liquidity and security. Lock in a guaranteed 4.00%+ APY before the next Fed cut.

The math says it all

Let’s say you’ve got $20,000 parked in a savings account.

  • At 4.25% APY, that earns about $850 over the next year.
  • If rates slide to 3.50%, you’re suddenly earning just $700.

That’s $150 gone just for waiting. And the larger your cash balance, the more those small percentage drops sting.

Acting before the next cut

The Fed’s next meeting is scheduled for Oct. 28–29, and markets are already pricing in another 0.25% rate cut. Once that happens, banks won’t wait to slash their APYs.

That’s why I’m locking in my rates now. High-yield savings accounts have been incredible for the past two years, but this window of 4.00%+ returns is closing fast.

I’ll always keep my emergency fund in a liquid savings account. But for money I don’t need right away, I’d rather secure guaranteed returns than watch them disappear week by week.

Compare today’s top CD rates and lock in before they drop again.

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US rare earth stocks surge, European markets see mixed start


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Rare earth stocks climbed in the US after Beijing tightened its control over these critical materials, used in the vast majority of electronic devices, from smartphones and cars to ballistic missiles.

Across the Atlantic, European markets opened in a mixed mood while the Middle East peace deal progresses, brokered by US President Donald Trump.

With investors also watching political uncertainty in France, the pan-European STOXX 600 was up around 0.1% at 11.45 CEST, and Paris’ CAC 40 also gained 0.1%.

Frankfurt’s DAX and London’s FTSE 100 both slipped 0.1%, after an earlier rise for the DAX.

“The FTSE 100 was stuck in the mud as the rest of Europe ploughed ahead at the end of the trading week,” said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.

“Strength in consumer stocks and utilities was offset by weakness in miners and healthcare,” he said — adding: “it was also notable that defence stocks were being sold down, including Babcock, which has rocketed this year.”

In other news, oil prices were down on Friday morning. The US benchmark crude cost around 0.4% less than at the previous close, and traded at $61.26 per barrel at around 11.45 CEST. The international benchmark Brent lost 0.49% and cost $64.90 per barrel at the same time.

Gold prices also rose after hitting new records recently, trading at $4,018.00 on Friday morning in Europe.

US futures were up slightly, the euro gained against the dollar at $1.1575, and the greenback slipped against the Japanese yen, to ¥152.7950. The British pound also fell against the dollar and cost $1.3290.

Rare earths companies gained overseas

As mining stocks led losses in Europe on Friday amid developments in Beijing, the STOXX Europe Basic Resources index shed 0.78%.

This follows a rally in the US, where rare earth stocks rose considerably after China announced that it would tighten control over its exports of these materials.

The country is dominating the market for rare earths. The world’s second-largest economy accounts for 70% of the global supply of these assets that are hugely significant for defence and technological infrastructure.

Following the news, investors in the US placed their hopes on American alternatives. US rare earth and critical mineral miners’ share prices surged on Thursday, partially due to market speculation that Washington will invest more in building out a domestic supply chain.

Many of these companies have seen their prices increase for months now, with several doubling or tripling since the beginning of the year.

USA Rare Earth Inc., a firm building a domestic rare earth magnet supply chain, gained nearly 15% on Thursday. Since January, it has risen 151%.

MP Materials Corp, an American rare-earth materials company headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada, also gained more than 2.4% on Thursday, while it is up 341% since January.

Another company, Denver-based Energy Fuels Inc., gained 9.4%, bring its year-to-date rise to 284%.

NioCorp Developments, which benefits from Pentagon support, gained more than 12%, Rare Element Resources Ltd gained more than 10%, and Texas Mineral Resources Corp. gained 9.6% on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Australian rare-earth mining company Lynas Rare Earths lost nearly 3.8% in the Asian trade, and Australia’s Iluka Resources lost 3.22%.

Chinese Shenghe Resources, a partly state-owned rare earths mining and processing company listed on the Shanghai stock exchange, lost 5%.

Beijing’s measures mean that companies need to apply for a licence to export products containing certain Chinese-sourced rare earth metals.

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Is Broadcom the Next Nvidia?

Broadcom’s custom AI chips are growing in popularity.

Nvidia has been the face of the artificial intelligence (AI) race since it began in 2023. However, there’s another competitor that’s looking to take over Nvidia’s leadership role: Broadcom (AVGO -0.26%).

While Broadcom has its fingers in many parts of tech, its most promising segment is its AI chip business, and it’s growing rapidly. Broadcom is already a $1.6 trillion company, but could it find its way near the top and become the next Nvidia? Let’s take a look.

Broadcom’s custom AI accelerators are a GPU alternative

Broadcom’s AI semiconductor division gets its revenue from two primary sources: Custom AI accelerators and connectivity switches. Broadcom’s connectivity switches, like the Tomahawk3, are used in data centers to stitch workloads back together after they have been split up to be processed among multiple computing units. This makes Broadcom’s connectivity switches vital for data centers, regardless of what computing unit is being used.

This product line has seen strong growth, but it’s nothing compared to the potential of Broadcom’s custom AI accelerator chips, which it calls XPUs. Broadcom’s XPUs are designed in collaboration with end users to ensure the architecture is suited for the workloads it will see. By designing a custom chip around a specific workload for each client, XPUs can have greater performance than Nvidia’s graphics processing units (GPUs). Additionally, because the end user is working directly with Broadcom, these units are far cheaper than anything from Nvidia.

The combination of better performance at a lower cost is a no-brainer, and that’s why companies like Alphabet and Meta Platforms have allegedly (Broadcom doesn’t reveal who its XPU clients are) invested heavily in their XPUs. Additionally, it announced that a new client placed an order for $10 billion worth of XPUs. This has been linked to OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, giving Broadcom the status of providing computing units for nearly all of the top generative AI models.

So, is Broadcom set to replace Nvidia?

Nvidia still has more to gain from the AI buildout than Broadcom does

The reality is that these AI hyperscalers know what their AI workloads will look like. However, cloud infrastructure companies, like Alphabet, Amazon, and Microsoft, must continue purchasing Nvidia GPUs because clients want flexibility. Furthermore, if one of the AI hyperscalers wants to try something different to run workloads in a new way, they’ll need the flexibility of a GPU.

So, Nvidia isn’t going away, but I’d expect Broadcom’s chips to become far more popular over the next few years. We’re already seeing that now, as Nvidia’s data center revenue rose 56% year over year while Broadcom’s AI semiconductor revenue rose 63%. Broadcom will need to maintain that quicker growth pace if it is to rise to be in true competition with Nvidia, but with how rapidly demand for XPUs is growing, I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the case.

During its third-quarter fiscal year 2025 (ending Aug. 3) announcement, Broadcom predicted that it would generate $6.2 billion in AI semiconductor revenue during the fourth quarter, up from $5.2 billion in Q3. That’s rapid quarter-over-quarter growth, but it is still slower than Nvidia’s peak growth pace last year.

Time will tell how well Broadcom’s XPUs do, but I’d wager that Broadcom’s AI semiconductor division will grow faster than Nvidia for the foreseeable future. However, because Broadcom is far more diversified than Nvidia, it won’t deliver the same explosive growth. Despite its AI semiconductor revenue growing at a 63% pace, Broadcom’s overall revenue increased at a 22% pace during Q3. Nearly all of Nvidia’s revenue comes from data centers, and its 56% data center growth pace was identical to its overall revenue growth rate.

As a result, Nvidia still looks like the better stock pick here. It’s more exposed to the AI data center buildout trend, as long as that spending holds up. With AI hyperscalers all announcing record capital expenditure for 2026, I think it’s safe to assume that this trend will continue. Although Broadcom is an excellent pick, I still think Nvidia will outperform it through 2026.

Keithen Drury has positions in Alphabet, Amazon, Broadcom, Meta Platforms, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends Broadcom and recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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After Soaring 240% in 6 Months, Has Plug Power Stock Become a Good Buy?

Growing energy needs, a beaten-down valuation, and clean energy solutions have made Plug Power a hot stock to own this year.

A couple of years ago, things looked dire for Plug Power (PLUG 3.42%) stock. It was plunging in value and it even issued a going concern warning, which means that the business was concerned about its finances and that there were significant doubts about its ability to continue operating.

The company says that risk no longer exists. And not only are its financials stronger, but the energy stock has also been red hot of late. This year, share prices of the hydrogen company are up an incredible 95%. In just the past six months, its stock price has more than tripled in value.

Has this once-risky stock become a good, safe option for investors?

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Image source: Getty Images.

Why is there so much hype around Plug Power?

Energy has been a big investing theme this year, largely due to artificial intelligence (AI) and the need to power up large data centers. Plug Power has positioned itself as one of the leading companies in offering clean energy solutions with hydrogen fuel cells. Many investors likely see the zero-emission energy options that Plug Power offers as one of several potential solutions to rising energy needs in AI.

The more that tech companies invest in AI data centers, the greater the need may be for energy in the future. And it’s that potential growth that has many investors willing to look past Plug Power’s lack of profitability and shortcomings today — but doing so could be a perilous mistake.

Plug Power’s financials remain problematic

Plug Power may have removed the near-term going concern warning last year, but I have doubts about the company’s ability to survive in the long run. This is, after all, still a massive, cash-burning business. In the past six months, it has incurred net losses totaling $425.6 million, which was more than the revenue it generated over that time frame ($307.6 million). The business’s cost of sales was even higher at $435 million, resulting in negative margins and a loss before even factoring in overhead and other operating expenses.

It also burned through $297 million in cash over the course of its day-to-day operating activities during the past two quarters. Without a path to profitability or positive cash flow in the foreseeable future, there is plenty of risk for dilution and frequent share offerings in the stock’s future.

I’d stay away from Plug Power stock

Investing in hydrogen energy is a long-term play, and it’s one that’s full of risks. While hydrogen can play an important role in addressing the world’s global energy needs, not everyone is convinced that it will be the case. Some critics point to the inefficiency and high costs that come with hydrogen energy production. And there are alternative energy sources that may be cleaner and better options in the long run.

It’s easy to get swept up in the AI-driver energy hype, and that’s what may be happening with Plug Power. But that doesn’t mean this is a safe stock to invest in. For a while, this stock was going nowhere but down; it declined by more than 50% in each of the past three years. Then, the energy stock craze took off, and so did Plug Power’s valuation.

While it may look like a cheap stock to own given its massive decline in recent years and the fact that it’s trading at just 4 times its trailing revenue, this is still a highly risky investment to hold in your portfolio. Until and unless its fundamentals drastically improve, you’re likely better off avoiding Plug Power as this is a speculative stock to own, with plenty of downside risk.

David Jagielski has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Why PayPal Stock Was Surging This Week

Investors liked what they heard about two new company initiatives.

Investors have been extremely willing to pay for PayPal (PYPL -0.49%) stock over the past few trading days. They were cheered by the announcement of not one, but two initiatives that, if managed well, will sharpen the company’s competitive edge. This helped push its stock up by over 9% week to date as of Thursday night, according to data compiled by S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Buy now, profit later

The first initiative was made public on Monday. PayPal announced that it was launching a 5% cash-back program for users taking advantage of its buy now, pay later (BNPL) service. This is to remain in force from that day until the end of this year.

Person on a bed wearing headphones and gazing happily at a smartphone.

Image source: Getty Images.

BNPL has become a go-to option for many American consumers feeling the strain of rising prices. PayPal’s offer seems well timed for the holiday season and should see a decent level of take-up.

The following day, the financial services company introduced a new service, this one targeting small businesses rather than consumers. Its PayPal Ads Manager allows such enterprises to hook into an advertising network and draw revenue from the activity.

2 more reasons to like the stock

While neither of these programs is going to power PayPal’s fundamentals into the stratosphere, they’re going to make the company’s platform at least a bit stickier (if only temporarily, in the case of the time-limited BNPL cash-back arrangement). Any added engagement is a positive, so investors were right to cheer the two news items.

Eric Volkman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends PayPal. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2027 $42.50 calls on PayPal and short December 2025 $75 calls on PayPal. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Park Aerospace (PKE) Q2 2026 Earnings Transcript

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Image source: The Motley Fool.

DATE

Thursday, October 9, 2025 at 5 p.m. ET

CALL PARTICIPANTS

Chairman & Chief Executive Officer — Brian Shore

President & Chief Operating Officer — Mark Esquivel

Need a quote from a Motley Fool analyst? Email [email protected]

TAKEAWAYS

Sales — $16,003,810 in sales for fiscal Q2 2026, slightly above Park Aerospace (PKE 0.97%)‘s previous estimate of $15 million to $16 million.

Gross profit — $5,001,160 in gross profit for fiscal Q2 2026, with a gross margin of 31.2%, despite pressures from low-margin C2B fabric sales and ongoing new plant expenses.

Adjusted EBITDA — Adjusted EBITDA was $3,401,000, at the top end of Park Aerospace’s prior estimate of $3 million to $3.4 million, resulting in an adjusted EBITDA margin of 20.8%.

C2B fabric sales impact — $1.65 million in C2B fabric sold at a small markup weighed on gross margin; $415,000 in ablative materials manufactured with C2B fabric, which command much higher margins, partially offset this effect.

Production vs. sales — Sales closely matched production value during the quarter, resulting in no impact on the bottom line from inventory imbalances.

Customer requalification of C2B fabric — Requalification resumed normal production on 90% of specifications; the remaining 10% is under test, a process estimated to take another nine to twelve months.

Missed shipments — $510,000 attributed to customer certification, and testing delays.

Tariffs — Net tariff impact was minimal at $1,700, with costs passed through, and future exposure is expected to remain limited under current arrangements, as discussed on the fiscal Q2 2026 earnings call.

MRAS LTA price increase — 6.5% weighted average price hike became effective January 1 for the MRAS LTA as stipulated in the long-term agreement.

GE Aerospace sales forecast update — Park Aerospace now forecasts $27.5 million to $29 million in GE Aerospace program sales for fiscal 2026, down from a previous estimate of $28 million to $32 million, with current figures based on updated backlog and booking data.

Q3 outlook — Park Aerospace estimates sales of $16.5 million to $17.5 million for fiscal Q3 2026 and adjusted EBITDA of $3.7 million to $4.1 million.

Expansion capital budget increase — Estimated capital expenditure for new manufacturing facilities rose to $40 million to $45 million due to added line requirements.

Cash and balance sheet — $61.6 million in cash and marketable securities reported at quarter-end after a $4.9 million transition tax payment.

No share repurchases — No shares were bought back during the quarter or to date in fiscal Q3 under the current buyback authorization.

SUMMARY

Management disclosed that customer-driven stockpiling of C2B fabric continues to distort product mix, temporarily compressing margins but likely supporting future high-margin material sales as demand converts. Strategic clarity was provided around the critical role of Park Aerospace’s proprietary materials in missile defense and aerospace programs, including the company’s sole-source position on the Patriot missile system’s ablative materials. Park Aerospace signaled intent to further expand U.S. manufacturing capacity for C2B fabric, highlighting both existing and planned investments via partnerships and new plant expenditures. Unlike the previous year, management emphasized that industry OEMs are increasingly collaborating with suppliers and ramping up production to meet robust underlying demand. Long-term sales targets for fiscal 2026 were not formally issued, but management stated that total sales should exceed $70 million, driven by growth in both defense and commercial aerospace programs.

Mark Esquivel stated, “We have approval at about 90% of the specification,” regarding C2B customer requalification, with the remainder expected to take up to twelve more months to resolve.

CEO Shore asserted, “That represents very significant revenue with Park. We’re sole source qualified in that program,” citing sole-source qualification and sharply rising production requirements.

Management described the company’s operational approach as centered on flexibility, urgency, and responsiveness, emphasizing these as Park Aerospace’s core value drivers for customer relationships.

Park Aerospace’s expansion timetable was clarified, with objectives to have plans finalized and implementation underway by year-end to address surging defense and aerospace demand.

INDUSTRY GLOSSARY

C2B fabric: A specialized ablative composite material distributed exclusively by Park Aerospace in North America, primarily for missile defense applications such as the Patriot missile program.

MRAS LTA: Long-term agreement with Middle River Aerostructure Systems (MRAS), under which Park Aerospace is the sole-source provider of composite materials for a range of GE Aerospace jet engine programs.

AOG: Aircraft on Ground; an operational situation where an aircraft is grounded due to technical or maintenance issues, relevant for customer experience and supply chain urgency.

FAL: Final Assembly Line; a manufacturing line where the major components of an aircraft are brought together for assembly and delivery.

Full Conference Call Transcript

Brian Shore: Thank you very much, operator. This is Brian. Welcome everybody to the Park Aerospace Fiscal 2026 Second Quarter Investor Conference Call. I have with me as usual Mark Esquivel, our President and COO. We announced our earnings right after the close. In the earnings release, there are instructions as to how you can access the presentation we’re about to go through. Either via link, and you also can link information in the news release and also on our website. You want to pick that up because we’re gonna go through it. It’ll be a lot more meaningful to listen to us if you have the presentation in front of you. So we have quite a few new investors.

Last quarter, they’ve come on board. And out of consideration for them, I think we should go through some of the legacy items more carefully. I think in the past, legacy items, we just kind of skim over on the assumption that most people already know, are familiar with them. Veteran investors, just please be patient with that. Another item I want to cover with you is that on Tuesday, I had some unplanned oral surgery, and I’m not really feeling that great. So hope you can bear with me. And if I need Mark to take over, I’m sure he’ll be very willing and able to do that.

Questions at the end after we’re done with the presentation, we’ll take questions. And please do ask them. We love questions. Actually, sometimes linked to questions are more meaningful in the presentation. We go through a presentation. We don’t know whether you’re liking it, not liking it, interested, or half asleep. You know, the questions are always more helpful because we then know what people are really interested in, what they’re thinking about. So why don’t we go ahead and get started with the presentation? Slide two is our forward-looking disclaimer language. We’re not gonna go through that. But if you have any questions about it, please let us know. Slide three, table of contents.

Starting on slide one is our Q2 investor presentation, we’re about to go through now. In appendix one, we have supplementary financial information. We’re not gonna go through that during the call, but if you have any questions about it, please let us know. It’s become our practice now or pattern, I guess, to feature James the James Webb Space Telescope in our table of contents. So what we’re talking about here, James Webb Space Telescope discovered cosmic dust which shouldn’t exist outside its galaxy. You know, but shouldn’t exist in quotes. Because I think we’re developing a common theme here. There’s so much that we believed about the universe and its origin, which just isn’t true. Sorry, folks.

Not true. James Webb saying, well, you could believe whatever you want, but these are what’s really going on. So here’s another one of those. Thank you, James Webb Space Telescope. The James Webb Space Telescope was produced with 18 prior Park proprietary Sigma stretch. Let’s go on slide four. Kind of more nitty-gritty stuff here. So quarterly results, let’s look at the right-hand column of the second quarter that we just announced. Sales, $16,003,810. Gross profit, $5,001,160. Gross margin, 31.2%. So we’re happy about gross margins over 30 or maybe I should say we’re unhappy when they’re not over 30.

And it’s good that they’re over 30 because there are a couple of things we’ll talk about in a second that drag down our margins. Adjusted EBITDA, $3,401,000. And adjusted EBITDA margin, 20.8%. What do we say about Q2 during our Q1 call on July 15? Set our sales estimate was $15 to $16 million, so we came a little bit above that. EBITDA estimate, $3 million to $3.4 million. So we came in kind of the top of the range of the EBITDA. I just want to remind you, especially for some of our new investors that we don’t this is not guidance. We don’t do guidance.

We give an estimate we’re saying to you, this is what we think is gonna happen. Now we could be wrong, but this is what we think. There’s I don’t know. Let’s call it practice. We have different terms for it, but let’s call it practice where everybody does it almost where, you know, let’s say it’s gonna be a hundred, they think it’s gonna be a 100. They go out with 90, you know, that’s their guidance. So then when they come out when they come back with a 100, they come out with a 100, then they’re heroes. And I don’t know. We think that’s not worthy of our time.

When we give you an estimate, we’re saying this is what we think is gonna happen. We’re not giving you a number which we plan to beat. Okay? Let’s go on to slide five. Q2 considerations. We always talk, well, always in the last few quarters, Erinn Group is as impact on a lot of things, including the quarter. So we entered into this business partner agreement with Aaron Group. It’s a very large aerospace company in France. Great company and they’re a JV between Airbus and Safran, I believe. And in January 22, we were we’ve been actually working for twenty years. They appointed us exclusive distributor of their Raycarb c two b fabric.

That fabric is used to produce ablative composite materials for XHANCE missile systems programs. Now, sold $1.65 million of that fabric in Q2. As we previously explained, we saw that fabric to our defense industry customers for a small markup. What’s going on here is the defense industry customers are stockpiling the c two b. We’re the exclusive distributor though, so they buy it from us. We buy it from we’re distributor, not a rep. We buy from area. And then we sell it or sell it, I should say, to the OEM.

But it’s of a strange thing because we keep the c two b fabric in our plant because the OEM eventually will ask us to produce prefabric with it. So even though we sell to them and it’s their product, it’s kept on the plan. The markup is small, so we have a significant amount of c two b fabric sales that’s gonna push down our margins. And we sold $415,000 with blade materials manufactured with c two b fabric in Q2. Now the margins on the later materials that we produce those fabric, very, very good. Very good. So that’s the offset.

But it’s still the ratio of sales of fabric to ablative materials manufactured with the CTB fabric are still at a balance. Right? So more fabric than materials, prefrac, let’s call it, What’s the reason? I already said it because the OEMs are stockpiling this product. A more normal kind of ratio would be forty sixty. So 40% would be the materials, and 60% would be the fabric. That’s not always gonna be exactly it, but just to give you a sense, So you see that the ratio is much more than forty sixty here, and that’s gonna drive down our margins. So let’s talk about let’s go on to Slide six rather.

Oh, we’re still on the topic of c two b fabric requalification by one of Park’s key customers of c two b fabric. This was kind of a it’s been a big deal for the last few quarters. Adam, Mark, I like, always give Mark the hard stuff to talk about. Can you help us with what’s going on with that recall?

Mark Esquivel: Yeah. So we actually do have an update this time. I think the last couple calls we said we’re waiting for approval. So do we do have approval. We don’t have full approval. We have approval at about 90% of the specification. I have to get too technical. There’s you know, there’s a requirement within the spec that you have to lower and then upper range. They were somewhere in the middle. They moved down closer to the commercial specification as we call it. Which gets us back into production at, you know, 90 plus percent of everything we have.

So, what we’re doing now is they’re currently testing that last 10% which will probably take another nine to twelve months. So, you know, we’ll continue to talk about know, when we get that approval. But as far as the program’s concerned, we’re back in business. We’re back running. You know, and we’re back to, I would say, you know, normal typical rates that we were running you know, prior to, you know, this I won’t say, issue coming up, but this recall coming up. So and we actually expect to see, you know, some upside, you know, in coming quarters, you know, and Brian will talk about some of that piece as well.

But I guess the story here, the message here is we’re pretty much back in business with, you know, running at our normal level.

Brian Shore: Okay. Thanks, Mark. Good news. Let’s keep moving here. Production versus sales. You bring this up because this has been an issue. Issue in prior quarters in terms of the impact on the bottom line. But in our Q2, our sales value production, we call it SCP, that’s not inventory value. That’s the value production. It’s a sales price. It was well matched with our sales. And that’s a good thing. That means it’s not that’s really very no meaningful, not no impact on bottom line. When our sales exceed our production, that is by a significant amount. That is a negative impact on the bottom line. But no impact in Q2.

And then last thing we’ll talk about in terms of bottom line impacts, significant ongoing expenses. This is something we had in our presentation for several quarters now. It’s not going away anytime soon. We’re operating our new manufacturing facility in Q2, including all these other expenses. And this act this is significant. So that’s why I was saying that the gross margin being over 31%, I think, that’s actually not bad because there’s two factors that hold it down. One is this the expenses related to new plant, the other is the let’s call, excess c two b fabric compared to the c two b material sales.

Total miss shipments, a little bit of surprise here. $510,000, that number is way up. But, you know, last few quarters, we keep talking about international shipping issues. That’s not the issue this time. This time, it’s something different. It’s customer certification, testing delays, a little bit of a new story here. It happens sometimes. You know, it just happens. Not it’s nothing we can do about it. It’s not our fault. Or anything like that, but sometimes it just delays insurance and certification and engineering work and testing delays. So that had a meaningful impact upon our shipments in Q2. So let’s go on to Slide seven, impact of tariffs and tariff split costs. You know what?

I should say net impact. I’m saying that to Mark earlier. It should say net impact the tariff and tariff related cost because we have tariffs. It’s just that the net impact takes into account the pass through. So very minimal in Q2. Hardly anything, but that’s the net impact. That’s not the total tariff. That’s a net impact because of the fact that we passed the tariff cost on. And then the future impacts, I think we’ll get back to that later Mark will talk through that later on in the presentation. Why don’t we go on to slide eight? So this is a slide we do every quarter, as you know.

Some of you veterans are probably tired of the top five, and it’s kinda usual suspects also. Like, alright. GKN, Kratos, MRAS, Tech. And. Tech is not well, you know, has it’s kind of a little bit of a new name for us, but the rest are usually suspects. The 7,500 that refers to Nordium, the h three two one n with XLR, that’s an that’s an MRAS program. Kratos, obviously, is Kratos, and the seven eight seven Dreamliner, that’s GKN. That’s for the Gen X one b engine. So it’s a it’s a g engine, but it’s not part of the MRAS LTA, which we’ll go into that later. Let’s go on slide nine.

So here we have our estimated revenues by air aerospace market segments. We call them our pie charts. I know about you, but I like to use it. Think they tell a bit of a story. Fiscal twenty one, that was the pandemic year where commercial aircraft was remember, there were airplanes, pictures of, like, seven thirty sevens not falling at all. Like, two people on them and they were, you know, basically, they were being parked. And then after that, the pie charts, you know, seem to be fairly stable.

Interesting what will be interesting is to see what will happen in the future because the commercial is gonna be accelerating because the program’s are on as those programs ramp up, but military will be accelerating a lot. This is probably it could go down as a percentage. We’ll see about that. Let’s go on to slide 10. Park Plus, niche military state programs. So we have a little pie chart here Radomes, missile systems, unmanned aircraft, all niche markets for us, some markets. But even aircraft structures are niche markets for us. So we actually changed we used to call it what, rocket nozzles, I think.

We changed the missile systems because the missile systems, we supply it to more than just the rock and nozzle other aspects of missiles that we supply it to. I think we used call unmanned aircraft drones, but I think more politically correct term is unmanned aircraft, but there’s no change in there. You know what? And other than nice pictures and you could see what the programs are, we really are not gonna talk about these programs anymore. It’s just not really appropriate. For us to say very much about the programs except understand, please, any picture we show you, that means it’s a program we’re on, not a program we like or a cool picture or something. Okay.

You got it. Let’s go on to slide 11. GE Aerospace and Engine programs. Again, a slide every quarter. But for the benefit of some of our new investors, let me try to explain quickly. So we have a firm LTA requirements contract for nineteen to twenty nine with MRAS Middle River Aerostructure Systems, a sub of ST Engineering Aerospace, You see we’re sole source for, you know, for composite materials. For all these programs, which are all GE programs. So what’s going on here? If you look at all the checked items below, they’re all GE engine programs.

And then what’s going on here is that even we got on these programs with GE Aviation, even before 2019 when Ameres was owned by GE Aviation. Now GE Aerospace. We got on these programs even before that. They were predecessor LTAs before this nineteen to twenty nine LTA. And then I think about five years ago, GE sold MRAS to ST Engineering, which is a large Singapore aerospace company. So that’s the explanation there. I’ve done a factory, you know about that. You know, when I guess around 02/2019, g said to us, look. You know, Park we’re gonna put we’ll give you this ten year agreement for sole solar source and all this stuff.

All these great programs, wonderful programs, but, you know, we really are concerned about redundancy. So would you please build on the factory? And we said, yes. We checked that box. That’s been done. I’m not gonna go through the individual program, maybe except to get didn’t know to talk about the first five are really all eight through 20 neo family aircraft programs. Alright. Do you have any questions about the specific programs? Just let us know. Let’s go on to slide 12 just to keep moving along here. Item the first item on slide 12, we’re just continuing here.

It’s this is a little bit of a nuance here because this is this program is was mentioned in the prior slide, but this is a different component. This and this also is part of our GE Aerospace LTA not necessarily the not the MRAS LTA. So I’m probably gonna hang only the technical, not necessary. Fan case is something we should talk about for a second. This is with g nine x engine triple seven x airplane. This is produced with our AFP material and other composite materials or the major fire replacement. That’s what the AFP stands for. It’s a robotic way, method for producing composite structures.

And this is planned to be included in the LIFER program, MRC life of program agreement. Next item. We had a 6.5% weighted average price increase in our MRASLTA effective January 1. That was that was already built in the s LTA, you know, a long time ago. And next item, park the LTA was park MRSA LTA was meant to include three proprietary formulation products and those are now going undergoing qualification Then life of program agreement have requested by MRAS and STE So we’re still negotiating this, I guess, and I think there’s a meeting that’s being planned for next month. We’ll see what happens. As I said to you many times, we’re okay either way.

This is requested by SDE and MRAS. It’s something they want. They want the stability of long term supply. But either we’re okay either way. If we do it, that’s fine. If not, we’ll be fine. As well. And it’s still under negotiation. It I don’t wanna give you the wrong impression It’s all, like, actually negotiating. We it’s like we talk about it, then three months go by, and then, you know, so I think now we’re planning to have some get together in December to sorry, November to hopefully get through this. We’ll see. We’ll keep you posted.

Item page 13 rather, slide 13, So let’s talk an update on some of these GA change programs, age between a Neo family. That’s a wonderful, wonderful program that Park is on, sole source qualified. And let’s talk about that program. Everybody says a huge backlog of these airplanes, over 7,000 of them. That’s a lot of airplanes. A lot of airplanes. And let’s just talk about the well, whether the we can take a look at the aircraft, the A320neo family aircraft deliveries. We’re not gonna go through it here, but, you know, you can see what’s going on here.

With the amount of orders that Airbus has, we’ll get to in a second, they would be at a much higher rate. Than this. They’d be at 75 per month. What’s be what’s holding them back is issues with supply chain. So this year, year to date, we’re at 44, but don’t get fooled by that because they usually, kinda make their year in the last three months. And if you look at September, you could see what’s going on here. They’re already the Airbus is already ramping up 59. We’re delivered in ’59 is your 20 neo family aircraft delivered in September. Let’s keep going. Slide 14, just continuing here. The importantly, the engine supply bottleneck.

Remember I said that one of big issue is supply chain restrictions That’s what’s preventing Airbus from ramping up. To their target of 75, which gives it a minute 75 per month. CFM, they have another engine. Let’s just talk about CFM, the LEAP one a engine. Reportedly improving that it’s getting better. And I think that’s a deliberate focus by g and SCFM, which is a very good thing because that’s probably the most significant restriction to Airbus’s ability to ramp up to that 75. They it’d be up there now, they upon how many orders they have. So that’s that’s very good news actually.

As we already alluded to, Airbus is targeting a delivery rate of 75, eight H320neo family per month you could see that, you know, they’re still at, you know, 50 to 55, so they still have a way to go, quite a way to go. Two engines approved for the a three twenty neo aircraft. We’re on the CFM LEAP one a engine. We’re not on the we have nothing no content on the Pratt and Whitney GTF engine. And so I guess that covers the second bullet item. We supply into the h three twenty family aircraft using the LEAP-1A engine.

According to the second quarter, 2025 edition of Aero Engine News, which is kinda like a bible, for us anyway. The CFM LEAP one a’s market share with you know, compared to the Pratt market share, aforementioned orders, A320neo family, 20 neo family aircraft per month, that’s 64.7% market share translates into 1,165 LEAP engines per year. That’s a real lot of engines and, you know, lots of revenue per park at that point. Slide 15, As of June 30, 2025, few months ago, were a little over 8,000 firm LEAP one a engine orders. These are not These are LEAP one a engine orders where we’re sole source qualified. Over 8,000.

If you wanna look at slide 29, you get a feel for what our revenue per unit is due to, you know, get your pocket calculator out and do the math. You could see what that worth to us. Those are just the firm orders that are in the books now. So this is a big deal for Park. The Airbus h three twenty one XLR, and this is a variant. We’re still talking a three twenty family. Okay? We’re not off to a different aircraft. This is part of the a 20 family. This is recently introduced, supposedly changed the air map of the world. Why is that?

Because the payload and range capability of this aircraft are very unusual for a single aisle. So it allows a single aisle to compete against wide bodies, but obviously, at much lower cost. So that’s why it’s changing your map of the world. Qantas is you know, very involved in the program, American Airlines, Iberia Airlines. The reason I highlight this is a lot of lot of airlines are buying this airplane. Why am I highlighting this They call it a game changer. But what’s really, I think, very impressive to me is that they say they claim they’ve had almost no AOGs that’s aircraft on grounds after almost a year. That’s really a big deal.

Because normally, the first year or two, there’s all kind of bugs you have to get out of a new airplane, a new design, and the airplane sits on the ground a lot. And it’s kind of you just expect it. It’s not good because, you know, when the air airplane’s sitting on the ground, the airlines aren’t making any money. And you kind of expect that if you get a, you know, an airplane that’s been recently certified and delivered. But here you go, they’re they’re saying almost no way AOGs. I’ve never heard of anything like that. That’s quite impressive. Boeing has no response. To this aircraft. Let’s go on to slide 16.

Mark Esquivel: So still on a three twenty here, folks.

Brian Shore: Airbus plans to open a new a three twenty aircraft family final assembly lines, FALs, in The US and China this month. Know, this couple weeks. So these two new FALs in combination with the existing FALs, FALs in Germany and France will provide Airbus with the manufacturing capability to achieve a 75 h 20 neo aircraft per month delivery goal in ’27. So, you know, this is nice because Airbus is they’re putting your money more than mouth this year. These FALs are they’re they’re a big deal. So that’s good news. And then breaking news, October 7 oh, this is the day in my oral surgery, I think. Yeah. There are two big things happened on October 7.

That’s just two days ago. The a three twenty aircraft family became the world’s most liver commercial jet ever. Of course, that means it beat out the seven thirty seven Not just a max. This is the seven thirty seven family versus the a three twenty family. pretty big news, I guess. COMC nine one nine that’s a Chinese made aircraft. Comac is targeting oh, this airplane is designed to compete single aisle with They’re targeting a thirty nine one nine aircraft delivered in 25. But recent and confirmed reports saying they’re probably for sure for sure that this target. I can’t tell you I’m very surprised.

I probably would’ve you know, to be just totally candid about it, I would be more surprised if they met the target. I’m not gonna go into why, but it but I’m not I’m not surprised or really disappointed. Malaysian Airlines, AirAsia, has confirmed its advanced talks to purchase these airplanes. Why is that important? Why am I on that? Because there are a lot of air airlines that are buying this airplane. But the reason I’m focusing on is this is a non Chinese airline. This airplane is certified by the Chinese FAA, I think, called CAAC or something like that. So the thought was originally this Comac airplanes would be China only airplanes.

Well, that’s not what Comac wants. They’re still the airplane outside of China for operations outside of China. The plan to achieve reduction rate of 200 airplanes But what’s interesting here, they’re they delivered it to same kind of topic really. Laos Airlines, Air Cambodia, signed up. Again, what’s what’s the theme here? Non Chinese airlines. So, originally, you’re thinking the China the Comac airplanes are gonna be China only, but that’s obviously not what Comac wants. Triple seven x, Boeing triple seven x, we have slowed down a little bit talk, but this one, this is a, you know, important program for 1,500 out flights and nearly 4,100 out flight hours. That’s a lot. That’s good.

This picture was taken by a friend of mine a couple of few years ago when the triple seven x was doing cold weather testing in Fairbanks, Good place to go for cold weather testing. So let’s talk let’s go on slide 18. Sorry. Boner poorly 565 open orders for the airplane. Boeing had previously announced that the airplane program was on track for certification late twenty five and entry into service. 26. The Boeing CEO recently stated the certification program is falling behind schedule. The CEO further stated the aircraft and the engine did Gen X engines, the nine x range, g nine x engine are really performing quite well.

And that the potential delay in certification was being caused by increasingly deliberate FPA scrutiny. Get the sense there’s some tension there Boeing and the FAA. You I do anyway. A key gating item for is the receipt of the called the type inspection authorization from the FAA. Because as the CEO explains, you know, they can fly these airplanes. They need to have five airplanes to use for certification program, but those flights don’t really count, you know, towards certification. Till they get to the TIA. There’s a lot of boxes that have to be checked for airplane to be certified. So they can go fly the airplane, which is good.

They can learn a lot more about the airplane, but they can’t check those boxes until they get their TIA from the FAA. Boeing hasn’t announced any new targets for the certification and EIS, but speculations that they’d be pushed into next year at ’26. Let’s go on to slide 19. So let’s talk about big picture GE aerospace jet engine sales history forecast estimates. The top is the sales history. One go control history accepted the site and q $27,500,000.0. But a little higher than we forecast. GE Aerospace program sale forecast, sales forecast estimates, Again, not guidance estimates.

Two three, we’re estimating $7.5 to $8,000,000 And total for the year, got a slow down here a little bit, $27.5 to 29,000,000 Now in our prior presentation, we indicated that we’re looking at 28 to 32,000,000 for the year for fiscal twenty six. But as we explained to you, information called a bill plan from our customer. Wasn’t our forecast. It was their forecast. Now we have now the current forecast 27 and half to 29. That’s now part forecast based upon what? Based upon the backlog for Q3 and Q4. Q3 is already booked. Q4 is partially booked and what we expect, you know, based on lots of life experience to the additional bookings for Q4.

So now this is our number, 27 and a half 29,000,000. Let’s go on to Slide 20. Park’s financial performance history and forecast estimates. Estimate singular. So we just have the history up top. You already saw this just for perspective and context. Down below, our Q3 twenty six Q3 financial forecast estimates. Now plural Uh-oh. Sales of 16 and a half to 17 and a half million, Adjusted EBITDA, 3.7 to 4,100,000.0. That’s our estimate for Q3. You have any questions about that, just let us know. So let’s go on to slide 21. This is just history, and we’ve showed you the slide for the last several quarters.

We think it’s interesting just so you can see what’s going on here. Historically. You go from 17 to 20, like, every year. We increased by about 10,000,000, then we got stalled out. So we’re kind of at into fiscal twenty five, we’re pretty much where we were fiscal twenty. And, obviously, that’s because of the pandemic You know, the pandemic really had a very big impact on commercial aerospace. It wasn’t the pandemic so much, it’s how we responded to it, how the industry responded to it, especially with respect to supply chain issues that’s held back commercial aerospace. So just one other thing. We’re not giving you a forecast for fiscal twenty six this time.

But we believe that the number will be over 70,000,000 for fiscal twenty six. We’ll just give you that number. We’re not giving EBITDA, not giving details I think what’s going on here, though, is the industry is getting religion. And it’s not just an opinion. This is based on my life of input we received. Different kind of attitude on the part of the OEM in terms of ramp up to meet demand and also working with suppliers and supply chain in a much more productive and you know, a more, I know, more collaborative way. Sorry. Coming up trying to come up that word collaborative way. So it’s not just a little thing. It’s a big thing.

It’s it’s very palpable in the industry. Happens. But to us, it seems like there’s something really going on here. And we’re not we’re not alone in that opinion. We’re not alone in that opinion. So let’s see what happens. You know, just so you know, we’re probably looking about a little over 70,000,000 for fiscal twenty five. Let’s go on to slide 22. Okay. General park updates. Agreements with Arian. Okay. We gotta slow down with Arian again. We entered in that business partner agreement in January 22, wondering which Arian ported up. Pointed us as exclusive North American distributor. We already covered that. Okay?

But then on March 27, ’25, just early this year, Park and Aaron entered part they’re a great partner. They’re a wonderful partner. We love them. I entered into a new agreement under which Park will advance I don’t know. It’s probably about 5,000,000 for million, €587,000 against future purchases by Park of c two b fabric. These funds will be used by Erie to help finance the purchase of additional installation of new manufacturing equipment for Aireon’s production of the p c two fabric in France. And that was that should be paid to area in three installments the first of which is already paid about, you know, $1,000,303,176,000 euro. That’s about $1,500,000.

So that would affect our cash when we reported Q1. Let’s move to Slide 23 rather. The purpose newest of this new agreement is to provide additional c two b fabric manufacturing capacity to support the rapidly increasing demand for c two b in c two b fabric in Europe and North America. Just so you know, one of the big programs that uses c two b fabric is the Patriot Missile Program. Ariane Group recently asked to partner to partner again with them on a study related to the potential significant increase of c two b fabric manufacturing capacity presumably in The US. The study expected cost about €700,000.

We split it $50.50, so that’s probably about $410,000 Park, and we’ll record that when our Q3 is a special item. Just want to be aware of that. We’ll get back to this later on the presentation on the area study. Just continuing with general updates, our lightning strike protection material certified on the Passport 20 engine. Using the using the Bombardier Global 7,508,000 Bisinjet. Its revenue is about approximately 500,000 per year expected on our LSB material. We’re very happy about this. Our LSB is already qualified, approved, and used on the a three twenty and the nine one nine, but have not just getting it approved now.

On the s four twenty engine and also thought to get approved on what’s called the 10 a engine for the back nine zero nine. So and we expect that these revenues will start to kick in fairly soon, let’s say, in a couple of months. Slide 24, still updates. This is just something we covered already. We signed we entered into an LTA with Aerospace. And for calendar years twenty five to thirty. Parked and then another update. Parked discussion with two Asian industrial conglomerates relating to Asian manufacturing. Do inventors continue? We’ve been talking about this for a while. John Jamieson’s in Asia now working on this project along with one of our other guys.

So we’ll see what happens. Seems interesting, but we’ll see what happens. Okay, Mark. Your turn. Tariff, international trade issues, what’s the expected impact of tariffs going forward, you think?

Mark Esquivel: I don’t think much. I know this quarter alone, we had about $1,700, which, you know, we don’t like to take on any additional cost. But that was mostly, you know, nonmaterial. Items. So going forward, again, as I mentioned before, we got ahead of this pretty early. You know, we’re, we put controls in place to manage it. We’re, passing the cost along to our customers, whether it’s through you know, contracts or, you know, stuff like our POs or stuff like that or order confirmation. So I don’t expect you know, to see much. I mean, it’s obviously a dynamic situation. I don’t think all the tariffs are completely locked in.

It’s been a little quiet in the news lately. But where we’re at today and what we’ve seen so far, it’s it’s very impact to our business.

Brian Shore: K. Thanks, Mark. So let’s keep going here. Current MRAS supplier core scorecard or scores. What happened? We don’t have all hundreds. Here. We don’t have all hundreds. Does MRS still love us? Yeah. I think they do. I think I mentioned to you in prior quarters that told that most suppliers would be happy to get eighties. And Emirates finds it a little bit humorous that we ask, well, what happened? And what we doing what do we need to do to fix these tissues? It’s called technical issue in terms of what how we recorded something. So we take it seriously. We’re we’re a 100 company. We’re not a 99.7 country, company rather. So we take it seriously.

And, like I said, MRC I think, finds it a little amusing that we spent so much time talking about why we’re not on a what not why we didn’t get a 100 on when we reached scores. Let’s go on to slide 25. So making customers love us, this is still in our general updates, is central to what we call parks egg strategy. How do we make our customers love us? With our calling cards of flexibility, urgency, and responsiveness? By asking how high before our customers say jump. And we’re not kidding about this. We’ll go to customers and say, what else can we do? What else can we do? What else can we do?

Before they even ask us for anything. Making customers love us is a boiler room thing, not a boardroom thing. You know, the board’s on board. With a strategy. You know? We’ve certainly reviewed it with the board. But the strategy happens on the factory floor, not on the boardroom. That’s where the rubber hits the road. It’s up to all our people to make the strategy work. It’s a boiler room thing. So first, for this strategy to work, all of our people need to be bought into it and feel passionate about it. Making customers love us is the secret to our success.

You know, it’s a hidden plain sight secret You know, sometimes the most brilliant ideas are the most obvious ones. With a benefit of hindsight and the well, why didn’t I think of that? I don’t know. Why didn’t you think of So the secret is kind of hidden plain sight, but it’s a secret to our success. Slide 26, buyback authorization. We don’t have to spend a lot of time on this. Let’s just go down to the last two check items We did not purchase any shares, and in fiscal in our second quarter, and we don’t we’ve not purchased any shares so far in our third quarter date.

I don’t think we’ll be my feeling, my opinion is we probably won’t be purchasing too many shares in the near future, but we’ll see about that. Slide 27, again, this is just gonna review Park’s balance sheet cash and incredible cash dividend history. Long term debt, we don’t have any. We had reported $61,600,000.0 of cash and marketable securities. At the end of Q2. But we also made a final transition tax installment payment of $4,900,000.0 in Q2. And Q1, we recorded cash in into q 1 of $656,000,000. So if you take that $4,900,000.0 subtracted from $65.6 million, it gets you to that $61,600,000.0 number more or less. It explains the difference.

Forty sec consecutive years of interrupted uninterrupted regular cash dividends, and we’ve now paid over $606,000,000 or going in $9 and cents per share in cash dividends since the beginning of fiscal two thousand five. This is our Park Founders. The run reason we placed a picture of our Park Founders here is because we started out with basically nothing. We’re two guys that started the company, I think, in 1954 with about $40,000 that they had saved from war duty. And, you know, here we are paying over $600,000,000 of cash dividends in last twenty years or so. Let’s go on to slide 28. Okay.

We can kind of skim through this because these three slides are exactly how the same slides that we showed you last quarter. I think the quarter before that. Financial outlooks for GE Aerospace change and Juggernaut, call it Juggernaut. It’s a timing. We’re not sure where to talk about yeah, the nine one nine is, you know, a little slow ramping up. And the triple seven x is having a little more difficult difficulty getting certified. So we don’t know. We don’t really spend a lot of time worrying about that. But the thing is that we say it’s a juggernaut. It’s coming. It can’t be stopped, and the key thing for us is we better be ready.

You go on to slide 29. There’s no change. Anything here that all the numbers are exactly the same. Like I said, the pre you know, relate to a previous slide, we feel that GE and CFM have kind of gotten a religion that they’re they’re really focused on ramping up production and working closely and collaboratively with the supply chain. Slide 30 is just footnotes related to the prior slides. We won’t go through those. If you have any questions, any of this, let us know. Okay. Let’s go on to slide 31, Warren Peace, Park Gingernaut. Peace for the Question War. These slides came from originated in the last quarter, although there’s some updates to them.

The first thing I wanna cover again though is we’re not providing any inside information on any of these programs. All every all this information in these slides is based upon publicly reported news and reports. We don’t give away inside information. Especially with defense programs. Unprecedented demand for missile systems. Missile systems stockpiles have been seriously depleted by the wars in Europe and Mideast there’s an urgent need to replenish the depleted missile system stockpiles. According to Wall Street Journal reporting, the Pentagon is pushing defense OEMs to double or even quadruple missile system production on a breakneck schedule quotes, partly in preparation for potential conflict with China.

List of Pentagon targeted missile systems, including PAC three missile system, the LRASM, and the s m six. The Patriot missile system is a particular priority. I think you should know the park is on all those programs, participates in all those programs, all three of them. Review and update of the PAC three Patriot missile system. The reason we spend more time talking about this is a lot of public visibility and information about it. Some of the other programs we’re on, it could be quite significant, but we’re not able to even mention what they are.

The largest deployment of PACS prepaid missile systems in history occurred in response to Iran’s ballistic missile strikes on our air base in Qatar. Going on to slide 32, What happened here, in anticipation of this, I guess we knew what’s gonna happen, We moved Patriot missile system to Qatar from South Korea and Japan knowing what was coming And we called it a shell game, you know, moving the systems one place to another. That’s not sustainable. The Department of War wants to very significantly increase patriot missile stockpiles in Asia to protect bases and allies in the Pacific region. So this is not working out very well at all, is it?

We take missile systems out of South Korea and Japan because we have this issue with Iran. And now we deplete their systems when the Department of War wants to significantly increase the patriot missile stockpiles in Asia. See the problem? So just public stuff. Israelis supply a patriot missile systems seriously depleted. Ukraine supply of patron missile systems. Seriously depleted. Other countries have been waiting for Patriot missile systems for years.

September 3225, Lockheed’s Missile and Fire Control division received its biggest contract in history, a $9.8 billion award from the US Army 1,970 Patriot missiles Patriot missiles According to the Wall Street Journal, the Department of War wants suppliers to ramp up to produce approximately 2,000 Patriot missiles per year which is almost four times the current production rate. Didn’t we say something about quadruple in the prior slide? We did. Four times production rate. So we’re talking about well, we’ll get to I’m gonna wait and wait. We’ll get to in a second because I thought you say park is all sorts qualified. We’ll get to that in a second. Let’s go on to slide 33.

Patriot missile systems are planned to be incorporated into the Golden Dome. As apparent from the reporting that The US plans to do much more than just replenish these depleted systems. So next hour item, parts ports, the patron missile system with specially ablated materials produced in areas of c two b fabric, And Parker sole source qualified for specially ablated materials on this program. So I was gonna say at the bottom of slide three two, there’s 2,000 missiles per year. That represents very significant revenue with Park. We’re sole source qualified in that program. Park, we’re back to slide 33. Sorry to bounce around on you here.

Parkers recently asked to increase our expected output of specially inflated materials for the program by significant orders of magnitude. We can’t really say how much but significant orders of magnitude, hopefully, that gives some kind of feel for what’s going on here. And we will fully support this request partly with the additional manufacturing capacity provided by our major facilities expansion, which we’ll discuss below. Remember that Park recently entered into this new agreement going back to area? With Arian for the purpose of increasing c two b fabric manufacturing capacity. Let’s go on to slide 34. But will that additional manufacturing capacity be enough? Considering what’s going on with the Patriot missile? No. I don’t think so.

As discussed above, park partnering with Aaron Group in a study related to potentially significantly increasing c two b fabric manufacturing capacity presumably in The US. This is a big deal. Let me just say this. Once we’re our we’re our partnership when a study is done, that’s not the end of the partnership. I don’t think anyway. That’s not what we’re talking about. I’m not gonna say anything more about it, but let me just say it’s a big deal. We covered the arrow three four missile systems last time, so we just kinda covered it again. Not too much here. Last item, updated parts involvement. Remember, we’re we were second source qualified in the r o three.

We weren’t really expecting orders. We got them. We already got them. Our four were sold source qualified on the hour four, which is expected to go into production, think relatively soon. Let’s go on to slide 35. This is really probably the most important slide this whole warrant piece section of the presentation. The above missile programs are just a small representation of critical missile programs parked is supporting or planning to support There are too many programs to iterate here, and many, probably most, are too confidential and sensitive to mention for national security or other reasons. But, you know, this is highlighted or bold whatever you an italics.

But please understand that certain of these programs represent very significant revenue for 36. Major expansions. So I’m just gonna give a quick update here. I know we’re running late, with time, but got a lot to cover here. And like I said, we got new investors, so we couldn’t just skim through things too much. A major new expansion, we talked about this in the of our manufacturing facility. We talked about this in the last February presentations, I believe. So we’re planning a major new expansion of our manufacturing facilities. It could be at Newton, or elsewhere. The plant expansion will include manufacture following lines elution treating, hot melt film, hot melt tape, hypersonic materials manufacturing.

A current estimated capital budget for new manufacturing plant equipment 40 to 45,000,000. That’s gone up. I mean, I forget what we said last quarter, maybe $30.35 to forty. Why’d it go up? Well, we know the line. That extra $5,000,000 is for another line because the requirements keep going up and up and up. It’s quite incredible, So new manufacturing slide three seven, just continuing new manufacturing, major new manufacturing major new expansion of parts manufacturing facilities. Why are we doing this? Are juggernauts required? We have a juggernaut for the aerospace. We have a juggernaut for defense and missile programs. Our long term business forecast requires it.

And the second bullet item under the that check item is that our forecast has increased since we talked to you on July 15. And also have manufacturing capacity needed for park to be parked. Or calling cards. Again, flexibility, responsiveness, urgency. We don’t run a business a mill, meaning that, okay, we campaign and you want something, well, we could figure when maybe a year from December. We don’t run our business that way. Urgency, responsiveness, flexibility. So it’d be really stupid for 38. We’re just continuing on the expansion We’re not sharing our long term business forecast this time. But opportunities for Park are significant. Timing is now.

We must take advantage of the opportunities We must not hesitate or we will squander the end quotes, once in a lifetime opportunities we have sacrificed so much over many years to develop. So this is kind of interesting. There was a board meeting last week and Mark was discussing with the board some of these missile programs and used the term once in a lifetime our opportunities. And the board was really got thought, well, let’s come from Mark. This must be really big. You know? Because Mark is not a guy who’s given to hyperbole. You know? He’s usually a skeptical guy, which is good. You know, you want your president to be skeptical of things.

That was his quote, went to lifetime and the board’s thought, wow. This must be a big thing then. Our objective is to have our expansion plan in place by the end of the calendar year and to be moving into implementation. The implementation phase by or a plan by then. Slide 39. How are doing at Park? Let’s change gears a little bit. I’m sorry. It’s gonna take you so long, but like I said, we’re trying to cover a lot of things here. So what are parks objectives? This is How do we measure success? I think there’s a lot of misunderstanding about this. So let’s talk about it. We measure success.

Our objectives are getting qualified sole source qualified whenever possible on chosen special aerospace programs. These are programs you wanna be on. These are the special programs, the wonderful programs. That’s our success. Once we get qualified on our chosen special programs, our objectives have been achieved. We’re done. Once we’re qualified in those children programs, in italics, all we need to do is support those programs with what? Extreme urgency, flexibility, responsiveness. That’s it. Other than that, it’s up to the program OEMs to determine the side of quickly their programs will ramp. That is not something over which we have control, and it’s not even our concern. We’re in the program. We achieved our objective.

Our objectives has been achieved. Some guy wrote something about you know, we’re shifting blame or mitigation plans, and it’s just kind of a total misunderstanding of how a park and our objectives and how we operate. Once we got in these programs, sole source qualified, our objectives have been realized. And we let’s talk about it. How we done with our objectives? If you ask me, we have been incredibly successful. We’ve gotten on wonderful aerospace programs, a special program that you want to be on. Most of which we can’t mention. You know, you know some of them already, a three twenty,

Mark Esquivel: Wow. Patriot. Wow.

Brian Shore: A lot of them we can’t mention. Slide 40. And we were nobodies when we came into the aerospace industry. We came from nowhere. You know, we welcomed into the industry with open arms. With the entrenched competitors, I don’t think so. They didn’t want us. I mean, they were brought polite and respectful Well, they clearly didn’t want they did not welcome us. We achieved what we achieved against great odds, incredible success, by getting on these programs that are the envy of the industry. From nowhere, nothing. Went into an industry where there’s in aerospace, there’s a lot of entrenchment. People kinda programs, they get very complacent sometimes. That’s not us. We don’t do that. Are we lucky?

If you ask me, we earned everything we got. Are we an overnight success? I don’t think so. There’s been a long and difficult row much sacrifice along the way. It’s a road we chose. Let’s go on to slide 41. I think that’s our last slide. Almost there, folks. Very fortunately for all of us, Park has the courage and conviction. This should be involved because it’s important to stay the course with our principles that are simple but elegant. X strategy in the face of sometimes unrelenting doubts, negativity, and skepticism. Very fortunate of all of us meaning, you know, investors too. Very fortunate that we stood our ground and our knees didn’t buckle.

We did what we thought was right, under know, quite a bit of pressure. Because if we didn’t do that, we wouldn’t be where we are now We wouldn’t be looking at these once in a life lifetime opportunities. Wouldn’t be. And we’d all be we’d all lose out. You know? We’ll lose out. So how are we doing at Park? We believe Park has done a remarkable job of positioning our company to capitalize our thank you, Mark, once in a lifetime opportunities we are now facing. These are unprecedented times. For Park. Okay, operator, so we’re done with our presentation, we have to take any questions at this time.

Operator: Thank you, Mr. Shore. We will now be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line has been You may press star 2 if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset pressing the star keys. I see we have a question coming from Nick Ripostella from NR Management. Your line is now live. Please proceed with your question.

Nick Ripostella: Hey. Good afternoon. Once again, nice presentation, nice quarter. And, just a couple of, easy questions. I’ve been thinking about Park and all the exciting things going on. How do you feel about, the need for additional sales personnel or are you feel that everything you have there is adequate? You’ve got so much going on. I’m just wondering, are you covered in that area? Sufficiently? And the second thing is I know you say you’re not prepared at this time to share the long term forecast. So do you think like, sometime next calendar year, you can kind of give people a longer term view of where this company could be and three to five years.

You know, there’s so many things that are blossoming. You know? You truly are a growth company, but and then the third thing is and I know this is not your primary function, obviously, but you must be on the radars of, firms out here to pick up research coverage. You know? There’s so much research out there now by niche firms, and you have such a great story. I was just wondering if anything’s happening in that regard. Thank you so much.

Brian Shore: Thanks, Nick. Thanks for your questions. So let’s take them in order. Additional salespeople, you know, I think Mark, you can chime in. We’ve learned a lot over the last twenty years, and I think our view on salespeople is a little bit skeptical. I couldn’t refer to have additional technical people, engineering people, in terms of getting more business. We certainly have our hands full of what we have already, but we’re always interested in new opportunities, new opportunities. They’re coming pretty fast and furious. But they’re not coming because of salespeople.

They’re coming because you know, it’s a small industry, particularly in the fence side, and we have close ties with a lot of the OEMs and the military as well. So the work gets out pretty quickly. The important thing is we have engineering people to support those activities rather than salespeople that go get those the business. And I’m not sure that really works anyway. I don’t think that I don’t know. Mark chime in. The typical OEMs really are that interested in you know, the guy bringing donuts and a slick salesman. More interested in what you can do, how you can help us.

And that’s gonna be more of an engineering discussion, or it could be a supply chain discussion. Okay. No. How can you support us in terms of providing a product to us? But the you know, I don’t know. I’m a little skeptical about whether additional salespeople are we wanna talk about at this point. Why don’t we Mark, why don’t you chime in? I’ll take the other two, questions, but why don’t you chime in if you have anything wanna add to that, my answer on that question.

Mark Esquivel: Yeah, Brian. I think you’re correct. I mean, we work really close with the technical and engineering folks and kinda goes back to our strategy too. They have priorities, and they need to get projects And, you know, we work directly with them and help them develop, you know, new programs and products. And that really helps us get business more so than the traditional, like you said, Brian, going to the supply chain people bringing donuts. A little different, you know, in our industry. It’s more technical, more engineering driven. And if you’re satisfying you know, those groups, you know, that’s how the business usually comes our way.

Brian Shore: Yeah. Good. Thank you. Yeah. I think a lot of times it come it comes to us rather than we go into it. You know? But, you know, is a real kinda small, close in industry, and people know where to find us. Long term forecast, I understand. Understand why you’re asking that. I think what we’ll try to do in Q3 is provide some information a little bit like, a little reluctant because I think the number is gonna be shocking. To our investors.

Nick Ripostella: I want some nice shopping.

Brian Shore: Yeah. Okay. Well, let’s see we can let’s see what we can do to give you more perspective, quantitative perspective. When we announce Q3. Okay? Would that be alright? And we’ll work on that. I’m not saying we’ll give you a hard, like, three or four year forecast, but there’s something that, you know, you could sink your teeth into a little bit more. And the research, you know, we’re here. I mean, they were know where to find us, so we’d be happy to be covered. Like I said, Nick, not really our principal focus, but we’d be happy to be covered. And, you know, if anybody’s interested, I’m happy to talk to them.

I think we are seeing a lot more visibility in the last few months or so. So we’ll see what happens. I don’t believe there’s anything imminent where somebody’s about to pick us up right now. We’re very open to pick to being covered. So, hopefully, those that is when

Nick Ripostella: when the revenue doubles from here, then they’ll come around. You know? That’s that’s the way it happens a lot. But Maybe

Brian Shore: Yeah. Maybe you’re right. Any other questions you have, Nick, or does that cover it?

Nick Ripostella: No. Thank you so much. And you know, it’s it’s glad to see that all the hard work, you know, the stock has caught lightning in the bottle after the last quarter, and it’s good. It’s night it’s a nice thing to see hard work appreciated and reflected in the value. You know? It must make all the employees and everybody feel good and the investors, obviously. But so thank you. Sure.

Brian Shore: It’s a good thing. Thank you very much for input, Nick. Operator, do we have any other questions?

Operator: Currently, there are no further questions at this time. Oh, I actually see one just popping in by Chris Showers. Private investor. Chris, your line will be unmuted. Please proceed with your question.

Chris Showers: Hi. Thank you. Brian, just, I guess, two questions. You mentioned the c two b material being a sixty forty lower to higher margin mix. When the Patriot missile gets ramped up, will that be constant, or can you get a higher mix there with the higher revenue converted material.

Brian Shore: So I’ll I’ll answer that. So what’s going on here is they’re stockpiling. Stockpiling. And that’s why there’s the ratio was not really balanced. At the end of the day, though, there will be a certain amount of c two b fab that’s required to make the c two b material. But at the end of the day, it all has kinda even out. You know? Right now, the OEMs are stockpiling Why? Because they’re nervous. They want as much as they can get. Because they see where the, you know, where the future is going, and they’re not stopping. You know. They’re gonna keep stockpiling, I think.

But eventually, you know, their plan is not to just have that stuff sitting in their factory, of course. It for us to produce the material that’s used to make the rockinized materials for the rock nozzle structures for the Patriot missile system.

Chris Showers: Okay. And is there timing on that where you think that might pick up? This calendar year?

Brian Shore: Yeah. I think as Mark alluded to, you know, we had this issue with the recall, and that was slowing down our a lot, you know, our ability to produce the materials, the c two b materials. The recall is pretty much complete now. So we think that’s gonna open things up quite a bit. Even in the next quarter. I mean I mean, even this quarter, I think. So we’ll see. We’ll see. You know, with aerospace, probably most industries, though, Chris, the demand is there, but you that the supply chain can’t turn everything on a dime.

We can, but there’s a lot of other, you know, steps along the way in the supply chain in order to be able to ramp up. Like with a three twenty, you know, we could support 75 airplanes a month at this point if they needed it, but and Airbus would like to be a 75 airplanes for a month. I’m quite sure of that. What’s holding you back is the supply chain. The supply chain is not able to turn on a dime.

Chris Showers: Okay. Thank you.

Brian Shore: Was there another question, Chris?

Chris Showers: No.

Brian Shore: Oh, good. Okay. Operator, anything else right now?

Operator: There are no further questions at this time. I would like to turn the floor back over to Mr. Shore for any closing comments.

Brian Shore: Okay. Well, Brian again here. Thank you very much for listening in. Sorry the call went so long. If you have any other questions, you wanna call us anytime. We’re happy to talk to you. Have a great day. Thank you. Bye.

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation. This does conclude today’s teleconference. Please disconnect your lines, and have a wonderful day.

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