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Energy Fuels (UUUU 17.87%) stock, involved in mining both uranium and rare-earth metals, soared 18% through 10:35 a.m. ET Monday after China threatened to throttle rare-earth exports to the United States.

President Donald Trump reassured investors that China isn’t serious, and everything “will all be fine.” Not everyone seems 100% convinced, however, and shares of pretty much every stock having anything to do with rare-earth materials — Energy Fuels included — is rising on elevated risk to the supply chain.

Image source: Getty Images.

Bad news for US is good news for UUUU

London’s Financial Times reports that the U.S. Defense Department will build a $1 billion stockpile of critical minerals to ensure supply chain continuity for defense systems.

Jamie Dimon, CEO of investment bank JPMorgan Chase (JPM 2.36%), is adding fuel to the fire. He commented that it is “painfully clear that the United States has allowed itself to become too reliant on unreliable sources of critical minerals, products and manufacturing — all of which are essential for our national security,” and the JPM CEO says his bank plans to invest $10 billion, in loans and direct investments, over the next decade, to support several critical sectors: defense and aerospace, artificial intelligence and quantum computing, energy technology, and supply chain and advanced manufacturing.

Is Energy Fuels stock a buy?

Dimon’s prediction aligns well with news last week that Energy Fuels is raising $700 million in convertible debt. Even with $115 million in annual cash burn, Energy Fuels’ move last week gives the company six extra years to grow its rare-earth and uranium businesses and reach profitability.

Valued at more than 200 times next year’s earnings, Energy Fuels isn’t a buy just yet, but the picture is at least getting clearer.

One of the great things about equity markets is that excellent stocks can be had at almost any price, making them accessible to most people. Even with $100, it’s possible to find outstanding, growth-oriented companies to invest in. Of course, what qualifies as “the smartest” stock to buy with any amount of money will differ from one investor to the next, depending on factors such as risk tolerance, goals, and investment horizon.

One growth stock trading for well below $100 that can meet many investors’ demands is Novo Nordisk (NVO -2.96%). Here is why the Denmark-based company is an excellent stock to buy right now.

Image source: Getty Images.

A wonderful contrarian opportunity

Quality growth stocks tend to be highly sought after. There is often a higher demand for shares of these companies than are available. That’s why their prices rise. Sometimes, though, these otherwise excellent companies encounter challenges that lead to a sell-off, providing investors with a wonderful opportunity to pick up their shares at a discount.

In my view, that’s what we have with Novo Nordisk. True, the company has faced some challenges, and it has paid for them as shares have remained southbound for over a year. Its financial results haven’t been as strong as expected. It hit a series of surprising clinical setbacks while losing market share to its rival, Eli Lilly.

However, Novo Nordisk’s prospects remain very strong. Novo Nordisk’s claim to fame is that it has been a major player in the diabetes drug market for decades. That remains the case. As of May, it had a 32.6% share of the diabetes market and a 51.9% share of the GLP-1 space. While its hold in these fields declined compared to last year, it remains a dominant force in both.

Novo Nordisk also continues to post competitive financial results for a pharmaceutical giant. The company’s sales for the first half of the year increased by a strong 16% year over year to 154.9 billion Danish kroner ($24.2 billion).

Further, the diabetes and obesity drug markets are rising fast due to several factors. Both conditions have skyrocketed in recent decades, and drugmakers are now developing highly innovative therapies to address them. Novo Nordisk is still at the forefront of this race. Even if the company has a smaller slice of the pie, that’s not a significant problem if the pie is substantially larger.

Can Novo Nordisk continue to launch innovative medicines and stay ahead of most of its peers, excluding Eli Lilly? The company’s pipeline suggests that it can, and could even catch up with its eternal rival. Consider Novo Nordisk’s potential triple agonist (a medicine that mimics the action of three gut hormones), UBT251.

In a 12-week phase 1 study, UBT251 resulted in an average weight loss of 15.1% at the highest dose. The usual caveats regarding early-stage studies apply. Still, UBT251 looks promising, especially since there is no single triple agonist approved for weight loss yet. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Novo Nordisk has several other exciting candidates through all phases of clinical development. And those that have already passed phase 3 studies, such as CagriSema, should generate massive sales for the drugmaker.

According to some projections, CagriSema could rack up $15.2 billion in revenue by 2030. Ozempic and Wegovy, Novo Nordisk’s current bestsellers, should also remain among the top-selling medicines in the world through the end of the decade. So, Novo Nordisk’s medium-term outlook seems promising.

There are more reasons to buy

Novo Nordisk appeals to growth-oriented investors, but it is also a great pick for dividend seekers and bargain hunters. For those seeking income stocks, the Denmark-based drugmaker is a great choice, given its strong track record. The company’s forward yield is not exceptional at 2.9% — although that’s much better than the S&P 500‘s average of 1.3% — but Novo Nordisk has consistently increased its dividends over the past decade.

NVO Dividend (Annual) data by YCharts

Finally, Novo Nordisk’s shares are trading at 14 times forward earnings, whereas the average for the healthcare industry is 17.3. Even with the challenges it has faced recently, Novo Nordisk’s strong pipeline and lineup, solid revenue growth, and excellent prospects in diabetes and weight management make the stock highly attractive. The company’s shares are changing hands for about $59, so $100 can afford you one of them.

Artificial intelligence (AI) stocks may have gotten most of the attention from investors over the last few years, but some of the period’s top-performing stocks don’t hail from the AI space — at least, not directly.

Instead, they represent emerging technologies like quantum computing, electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, small modular nuclear reactors, and rockets and satellites. The artificial intelligence boom has provided a halo effect to other emerging technologies, as growth investors have become particularly keen to find those that might power the next breakout trend. Investing early in the company that may launch the next ChatGPT would produce huge returns, the thinking seems to go.

Thanks to the speculative optimism about their potential, many of these tech stocks have delivered returns of more than 1,000%, outperforming even Nvidia. However, few hot growth stocks have beaten AST SpaceMobile (ASTS -5.49%), which is building a satellite-based broadband network.

While it has yet to generate meaningful revenue, excitement around the business and its potential have surged recently as it has forged new agreements with customers. 

ASTS data by YCharts.

Over just the last 18 months, a $1,000 investment in AST SpaceMobile would have grown into a stake worth more than $35,000. But with that climb behind it, is it too late to buy the stock? 

What is AST SpaceMobile?

AST SpaceMobile is sometimes lumped together with other space and rocket companies like Rocket Lab, Planet Labs, and SpaceX and its Starlink subsidiary, but the company says its technology can be used with existing unmodified smartphones and operates within the low- and mid-band spectrum used by mobile network operators. That contrasts with existing space-based telecom services that are intended for low-data-rate applications, such as emergency service.

The company is building the first global cellular broadband network to connect with everyday smartphones. It intends for the technology to be used for commercial and government purposes, and is designed to reach places that are not covered by terrestrial cell towers.

It is deploying a constellation of low-Earth-orbit satellites and partnering with other telecoms to provide service to users. Founded in 2017, AST SpaceMobile launched its first test satellite in 2019 and now has a total of six satellites in orbit. It aims to have 45 to 60 satellites in orbit by 2026, serving the U.S., Europe, Japan, and other markets.

AST SpaceMobile has signed partnership deals with several global telecom companies, including AT&T, Vodafone, and Rakuten, and the stock just jumped on news that it had its expanded partnership with Verizon, adding to an earlier $100 million commitment from the telecom giant. According to the new agreement, Verizon will integrate AST SpaceMobile’s satellite network with Verizon’s 850 MHz spectrum across the country, allowing Verizon’s service to reach remote areas it doesn’t currently cover.

Image source: AST SpaceMobile.

Is AST SpaceMobile a buy?

The company expects to start booking meaningful revenues in the second half of the year. Management forecasts $50 million to $75 million in sales in the second half of 2025 as it deploys intermittent service in the U.S. That will soon be followed by service coming online in other markets like the U.K., Japan, and Canada.

Management hasn’t given a forecast for 2026, but investors expect its financial momentum to continue to build as new satellites go into service. The Wall Street consensus now predicts $254.9 million in revenue in 2026.

The company’s momentum, partnerships, and satellite deployments all sound promising, but much of its expected future success is already baked into the stock price.

AST SpaceMobile’s market cap has already soared to $31 billion, a huge number for a company that has yet to generate significant revenues. Notably, it also competes in an industry — internet connectivity — with notoriously low valuations. Verizon has a market cap of $172 billion, even though it generated nearly $20 billion in profits over its last four quarters. Internet service providers carry similarly underwhelming valuations. For example, broadband and cable service provider Charter Communications has a market cap of $36 billion, and it brought in $5 billion in net income over the last year.

The size of AST SpaceMobile’s total addressable market isn’t fully clear, though management says the global wireless services market produces over $1.1 trillion in annual revenue.

AST SpaceMobile is competing globally, which differentiates it from domestic services like Verizon. However, as it’s currently structured, the satellite company essentially aims to be a subcontractor for larger telecoms, and the telecom industry is decidedly unexciting, according to investors. As long as it’s beholden to that low-valuation ecosystem, it’s difficult to picture how the company could deliver the kind of blockbuster returns that investors seem to expect, especially considering that telecom is a mature industry.

At $31 billion, AST SpaceMobile’s market cap seems to have gotten well ahead of the reality of the business, especially as commercialization could present unforeseen challenges. In the near term, the stock could move higher if it signs more partnerships or announces other promising news, but given the sky-high valuation, the stock now looks overheated.

With AST SpaceMobile, investors are playing with fire at this point. Eventually, they’ll get burned.

Ford (F -0.65%) impressed investors when it reported that U.S. unit sales jumped 8.2% year over year in the third quarter (ended Sept. 30). Key models are doing very well, like the F-Series pickup trucks, Mustang Mach-E, Expedition, and Bronco. The momentum is partly why shares have done well this year, rising 15% (as of Oct.10).

But can this auto stock beat the market for buy-and-hold investors? History provides a clear answer.

Image source: Getty Images.

Investors shouldn’t expect outsized long-term returns from Ford

In the past 10- and 20-year periods, Ford shares have generated total returns of 33% and 150%, respectively. These gains failed to exceed that of the S&P 500 index. And it’s not even close.

The disappointing performance likely won’t reverse course as we look to the next 10 or 20 years. Low growth, weak margins, huge capital expenditures, and cyclicality describe Ford’s business. It’s not controversial to say that this isn’t a high-quality company.

Ford shares might always trade at a cheap valuation

Ford’s valuation is dirt cheap. The market is offering the stock at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 9, which makes the dividend yield hefty at 5.26%. This might look like a compelling opportunity.

However, there’s no reason to assume that the market will expand Ford’s valuation in the years ahead. Fast growth, wide margins, capital-light business models, and durable demand trends are traits that investors reward. Ford just doesn’t fit the bill.

Paramount, backed by billionaire Larry Ellison and his family, has officially opened the bidding for rival Warner Bros. Discovery — a potential massive merger that would dramatically change Hollywood.

Warner Bros. Discovery’s board rejected Paramount’s initial bid of about $20 a share, but talks are continuing, according to two people close to the companies who were not authorized to speak publicly.

One of the knowledgeable sources said Paramount was preparing a second bid.

Warner Bros. Discovery owns HBO, CNN, TBS, Food Network, HGTV and the prolific Warner Bros. movie and television studio in Burbank.

Ellison, one of the world’s richest men, is committed to helping his 42-year-old son, David, pull off the industry-reshaping acquisition and has agreed to help finance the bid, two people close to the situation said.

The younger Ellison, who entered the movie business 15 years ago by launching his Skydance Media production company, was catapulted into the major leagues this summer with the Ellison family’s purchase of Paramount’s controlling stake.

Since then, David Ellison and his team have made bold moves to help Paramount shake more than a decade of doldrums. Buying Warner Bros. Discovery would be their most audacious move yet. The merger would lead to the elimination of one of the original Hollywood film studios, and could see the consolidation of CNN with Paramount-owned CBS News.

Representatives for Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery declined to comment.

CNBC reported Friday that two companies have been in discussions for weeks following last month’s news that Paramount was planning a bid. Bloomberg reported Saturday that Warner Bros. Discovery had rejected Paramount’s bid of about $20 a share.

Industry veterans were stunned by the speed of Paramount’s play for Warner Bros. Discovery, noting that top executives had begun working on the bid even as they were putting finishing touches on the Paramount takeover.

One of Paramount’s top executives is a former Goldman Sachs banker, Andy Gordon, who was a ranking member of RedBird Capital Partners, the private equity firm that has teamed up with the Ellisons and has a significant stake in Paramount.

Paramount’s interest prompted stocks of both companies to soar, driving up the market value for Warner Bros. Discovery.

Paramount’s offer of $20 a share for Warner Bros. Discovery was less than what some analysts and sources believe the company’s parts are worth, leading the Warner Bros. Discovery board to rebuff the offer, sources said.

But many believe that Paramount needs more content to better compete in a landscape that’s dominated by tech giants such as Netflix and Amazon.

Paramount has reason to move quickly.

Warner Bros. Discovery had previously announced that it was planning to divide its assets into two companies by next April. One company, Warner Bros., would be made up of HBO, the HBO Max streaming service and the Burbank-based movie and television studios. Current Chief Executive David Zaslav would run that enterprise.

The other arm would be called Discovery Global and consist of the linear cable television channels, which have seen their fortunes fall with consumers’ shift to streaming.

The Paramount bid was seen as an attempt to slip in under the wire because other large companies, including Amazon, Apple and Netflix, may have been interested in buying the studios, streaming service and leafy studio lot in Burbank.

However, Netflix’s co-chief executive Greg Peters appeared to downplay Netflix’s interest during an appearance last week at the Bloomberg Screentime media conference. “We come from a deep heritage of being builders rather than buyers,” Peters said.

Some analysts believe Paramount’s proposed takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery could ultimately prevail because Zaslav and his team have made huge cuts during the past three years to get the various businesses profitable after buying the company from AT&T, which left the company burdened with a heavy debt load. The company has paid down billions of dollars of debt, but still carries nearly $35 billion of debt on its books.

Others point to Warner Bros.’ recent successes at the box office as evidence that Paramount is offering too little.

Despite the tumult at the corporate level, Warner Bros.’ film studio has had a successful year. Its fortunes turned around in April with the release of “A Minecraft Movie,” which grossed nearly $958 million worldwide, followed by a string of hits including Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners,” James Gunn’s “Superman” and horror flick “Weapons.”

Meanwhile, Paramount has been on a buying spree.

Just in the last two months, Paramount made a $7.7 billion deal for UFC media rights and closed two deals that will pay the creators of “South Park” more than $1.25 billion over five years to secure streaming rights to the popular cartoon.

Last week at Bloomberg’s Screentime media conference, Ellison declined to comment on Paramount’s pursuit of Warner Bros. or even whether his company had already made a bid. But he did touch briefly on consolidation in Hollywood, saying, “Ironically, it was David Zaslav last year who said that consolidation in the media business is important.”

“There are a lot of options out there,” he added, but declined to elaborate.

After news of Paramount’s interest surfaced, Warner Bros. Discovery‘s stock jumped more than 30%. It climbed as much as $20 a share, but closed Friday at $17.10, down 3.2%.

Paramount also has seen its stock surge by about 12%. Shares finished Friday at $17, down 5.4%

Warner Bros. Discovery is now valued at $42 billion. Paramount is considerably smaller, worth about $18.5 billion.

Brookfield Corporation (BN -4.28%) completed a three-for-two stock split earlier this week. The global investment firm split its shares to make them more accessible to individual investors and to enhance the trading liquidity of its stock.

Over the past 30 years, the company has completed several stock splits as a result of delivering a total return exceeding 27,000%. Brookfield has consistently outperformed the broader market, with a 19% annualized total return over the last three decades compared to 11% for the S&P 500. Looking forward, Brookfield expects to continue delivering strong growth, which could triple the value of its shares by 2030

Image source: Getty Images.

Brookfield: The wealth-creating machine

Despite its impressive returns, many investors aren’t too familiar with Brookfield. The Canadian company is a leading global investment manager with three businesses:

• Asset management: The company owns a 73% interest in Brookfield Asset Management, a leading global alternative investment manager with over $1 trillion in assets under management (AUM).
• Wealth solutions: Brookfield Wealth Solutions is an investment-led insurance company that offers annuities, as well as property, casualty, and life insurance.
• Operating businesses: It owns interests in four global operating platforms focused on infrastructure (Brookfield Infrastructure), renewable energy (Brookfield Renewable), private equity (Brookfield Business), and real estate (Brookfield Property).

These businesses generate significant and rapidly growing operating cash flows, enabling Brookfield to return capital to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases, while also allocating funds to enhance shareholder value.

Over the last five years, Brookfield has grown its distributable earnings at a 22% compound annual rate, raising them from $2 billion in 2020 to an expected $5.3 billion this year. This growth puts the company’s intrinsic value at $102 per share (pre-split), well above the recent pre-split stock price of less than $70 a share. Over the past year, Brookfield has returned $1.5 billion to investors ($1 billion for share repurchases and $500 million in dividends), while retaining the remaining capital for reinvestment.

The plan leading to 2030

Brookfield expects to continue growing rapidly over the next five years. The company aims to deliver annualized total distributable earnings-per-share growth of 25% during this period. Within this, its core businesses should generate 20% annualized growth, with an additional 5% growth anticipated from capital allocation activities. As a result, Brookfield estimates its share value could increase at an annual rate of 16%, potentially rising to $210 (pre-split) by 2030 — a projected increase of over 200% from current levels.

The investment firm anticipates that its wealth solutions business will be a significant growth driver through 2030, accounting for over one-third of its anticipated total growth. Management’s goal is to grow its insurance assets from $135 billion currently to $350 billion by 2030, which it expects would more than double the platform’s earnings in the next five years. Brookfield has been expanding this platform through acquisitions, most recently announcing an agreement to acquire Just Group for $3.2 billion, expanding its reach to the UK pension risk market.

Brookfield also sees robust future growth for its asset management business. The company anticipates capitalizing on growing investor demand for alternative investments, which typically offer higher returns and lower volatility compared to traditional asset classes. Many individual investors have relatively low exposure to alternatives, representing a major market opportunity given that they hold $40 trillion in wealth.

Finally, Brookfield generates significant free cash flow, providing capital to grow shareholder value. The company estimates that by 2030, it will produce $25 billion in cumulative surplus free cash flow after dividend payments and current capital commitments, which it can allocate to acquisitions, fund investments, and other opportunities.

A top stock-split stock to buy now and hold for the next five years

Brookfield Corporation has consistently demonstrated a remarkable ability to grow shareholder value over the years. As a result, it has had to split its stock several times, including earlier this week. More stock splits seem likely, given the company’s robust growth profile. That makes it a great stock to buy post-split, as shares could triple in value from here by 2030.

Eaton Corporation (ETN -2.15%) has garnered significant investor interest due to its exposure to the rapidly growing data center infrastructure market, and rightly so. Still, is it enough to justify the current valuation, and what do investors need to assume about the company’s growth prospects to buy the stock? Here’s the lowdown.

A valuation change

The change in investor sentiment toward Eaton is expressed in the chart below. Traditionally, electrical and power products companies were viewed as mature and relatively low-growth entities that struggled to expand beyond the confines of low-single-digit gross domestic product growth. As a rough rule of thumb, such companies in the industrial world are accorded a ratio of enterprise value (market cap plus net debt) to earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) of about 11 and/or a price-to-free-cash-flow ratio of about 20.

As you can see in the following chart, these valuations are mainly consistent with what Eaton previously traded at. However, in recent years, there has been a significant increase in the valuation investors are willing to pay.

ETN EV to EBITDA data by YCharts.

Why investors view Eaton more favorably

The increase in valuation is due to the increase in its growth rate — in 2019, its three-year average revenue growth rate was 2.7% compared to 8.2% in 2024 — and the potential for growth stemming from its exposure to data centers, particularly in North America. The need for data centers is being largely driven by the increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI). The table below breaks out Eaton’s revenue by segment, illustrating the significant contribution of the Electrical Americas segment over the past few years.

Data source: Eaton SEC filings.

The growth in the Electrical Americas segment is expected to be driven by data centers in the near term, as they have now become Eaton’s second-largest end market by sales, with management estimating that data centers will be responsible for 17% of total revenue in 2025. Moreover, it’s reasonable to argue that its second-fastest growing end market, utilities (11% of revenue), is at least in part driven by demand for power from data centers.

In addition, Eaton is a beneficiary of the “electrification of everything” megatrend, with solid end demand from defense and aerospace (estimated to account for 6% of 2025 sales). It also has growth prospects in commercial aerospace (9%), given Boeing and Airbus‘ backlogs and plans to ramp up production.

Image source: Getty Images.

Is Eaton Stock a buy?

The growth case is compelling, and Wall Street analysts expect Eaton’s revenue to grow at a 9% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) to 2027, with earnings growing at a near 14% annual rate.

That being said, there are a few key considerations to keep in mind. First, data centers and utilities are expected to account for a combined 28% of revenue in 2025, and there’s no guarantee that the torrid rates of growth in AI-led data center spending will continue.

Second, as the table above indicates, its eMobility business (components for electric vehicles) is not currently profitable. Since management expects to grow at a double-digit rate to 2030, the vehicle business (internal combustion engine components) is only expected to grow by low single digits to 2030; it’s hard to see how this relative shift in automotive-related revenue won’t result in some margin pressure.

Third, the company’s valuation relative to non-pure play data center peers appears high. A stock like Vertiv might be a better fit for investors seeking a pure-play data center stock.

ETN EV to EBITDA data by YCharts.

Trading at an EV/EBITDA of 19 using estimates for 2027 and at a price-to-free-cash-flow of 28.6 using 2027 estimates, Eaton looks like a fully valued stock because it will need more than a ramp-up in data center spending expectations before the stock seems like a good value.

If I could only own one stock for the next decade, it would be Alphabet (GOOGL -2.05%) (GOOG -1.99%). The company has dispelled fears that artificial intelligence (AI) is a threat, while its biggest risk around its antitrust case is now behind it. Meanwhile, it probably has one of the best long-term growth setups of any stock out there.

Alphabet’s dominance starts with search. Google remains the front door to the internet for billions of people, and that’s not changing anytime soon due to the huge distribution advantage the company has. It controls both the world’s leading smartphone operating system and web browser in Android and Chrome, respectively, while its search revenue-sharing deal with Apple makes it the default search engine for Safari.

Image source: Getty Images.

Meanwhile, Alphabet is now incorporating AI throughout Google to make its offering even stronger and help drive query growth. With new features like Lens and Circle to Search, Alphabet has found new ways to help people search instead of just typing in text. This is driving more queries, many of which have a shopping intent that feeds into its massive ad network. Meanwhile, AI Overviews and its new AI Mode, which lets users toggle between traditional results and chatbot-style answers, are also driving more engagement.

Google’s data advantage also shouldn’t be underestimated. The company has decades of user data, as well as videos through YouTube, that it can use to make its Gemini AI models better. Alphabet’s strength in multimodal AI is another area of strength that gets overlooked. The Gemini chatbot app has been taking off, largely due to Nano Banana, its newest AI image editor and creator, while Google Veo 3 is a video AI leader.

Alphabet has also spent decades creating one of the most wide-reaching ad networks on the planet. It can handle anything from global campaigns to local merchants. Creating great search and AI products is just half the battle; you need to be able to monetize them, and Alphabet’s unmatched ad network puts it light-years ahead of any emerging competition.

To the clouds and beyond

While search is Alphabet’s biggest business, it is far from a one-horse pony. Cloud computing has become the company’s fastest-growing business. Last quarter, Google Cloud revenue jumped 32% to $13.6 billion, while operating income more than doubled to $2.8 billion. Demand is so strong that Alphabet raised its 2025 capital expenditure (capex) budget by $10 billion to $85 billion to expand data center capacity. Unlike many peers, Google Cloud is vertically integrated from top to bottom. Google is the only company with its own world-class AI model and its own custom chips, called Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), that it’s using at scale. Those TPUs provide both cost and performance advantages, especially as workloads shift toward inference rather than training.

Alphabet is also taking AI deeper into the enterprise with its new Gemini Enterprise and Gemini Business subscriptions. These offerings let companies build and deploy AI agents without writing code. The launch includes pre-built agents and access to partner-built ones, all backed by enterprise-grade security features like Model Armor. This positions Google to compete directly with Microsoft and OpenAI for corporate AI spending, and early adopters such as Gap and Virgin Voyages are already reporting measurable productivity gains.

Behind all this, Google Cloud benefits from technology that’s hard to replicate. It developed Kubernetes, which is now the standard for containerized apps, and it owns one of the largest private fiber networks in the world, delivering low-latency performance on a global scale. Its pending acquisition of Wiz, meanwhile, will add a best-in-class cloud security platform. Google Cloud may be the third-largest cloud provider by market share, but its technology stack and integration with Gemini give it a differentiated position that could drive outsize growth over the next decade.

In addition to cloud computing, Alphabet also has some promising emerging bets. The one furthest along is Alphabet’s robotaxi unit Waymo, which is already operating in multiple U.S. cities and expanding rapidly. If it can lower costs, it could eventually become a huge profit driver for the company. The company’s quantum computing team, meanwhile, is also making real progress with its Willow chip, which has shown reduced error rates as it scales.

A cheap stock with big growth ahead

Despite all this, Alphabet’s valuation still looks attractive. The stock trades at a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of roughly 22.5 times projected 2026 earnings, which is a clear discount to its mega-cap AI peers. So, despite the rally in the stock this year, it still is not fully getting the respect it deserves.

Given its valuation, wide moat, growth prospects, and the optionality of its emerging bets in robotaxis and quantum computing, Alphabet is the one stock I’d own if I could only own one stock.

On October 10, 2025, wealth management company Douglas Lane & Associates disclosed a purchase of Thermo Fisher Scientific valued at approximately $7.79 million, based on the average price for Q3 2025.

What happened

According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) dated October 10, 2025, Douglas Lane & Associates increased its position in Thermo Fisher Scientific (TMO -1.85%) by 16,745 shares during the quarter. The estimated transaction value was $7.79 million, based on the average closing price for the quarter. The fund now holds 216,276 shares after the trade.

What else to know

Following the purchase, Thermo Fisher Scientific represented 1.5% of the fund’s reportable assets under management as of September 30, 2025.

Top holdings after the filing are as follows:

• NASDAQ:NVDA: $312.46 million (4.4% of AUM) as of September 30, 2025
• NASDAQ:GOOG: $212.16 million (3.0% of AUM) as of September 30, 2025
• NYSE:JPM: $203.56 million (2.8% of AUM) as of September 30, 2025
• NASDAQ:MSFT: $184.79 million (2.6% of AUM) as of September 30, 2025
• NASDAQ:QCOM: $167.31 million (2.3% of AUM) as of September 30, 2025

As of October 9, 2025, Thermo Fisher shares were priced at $534.68, and were down about 12% over the trailing 12 months.

Company Overview

Company Snapshot

Thermo Fisher Scientific offers life sciences solutions, analytical instruments, specialty diagnostics, laboratory products, and biopharma services with revenue streams diversified across research, diagnostics, and pharmaceutical sectors.

The company operates a multi-segment business model, generating revenue through direct sales, e-commerce, and third-party distribution of proprietary products, consumables, and services. It serves pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, clinical and research laboratories, academic institutions, government agencies, and industrial customers globally.

IMAGE SOURCE: GETTY IMAGES.

Thermo Fisher Scientific is a global leader in scientific instrumentation, diagnostics, and laboratory services, with a broad portfolio that supports research, healthcare, and biopharmaceutical production. The company leverages scale and a diverse product offering to drive consistent revenue growth, and serve a wide range of end markets.

Foolish take

Douglas Lane upping its Thermo Fisher Scientific holdings is noteworthy in that the wealth management company already had a substantial stake. This move suggests Douglas Lane believes Thermo Fisher stock remains attractively valued, especially after its decline over the last 12 months.

Indeed, looking at Thermo Fisher stock’s price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio shows it’s lower than it was a year ago. This indicates shares are a better value now, although the earnings multiple is not as low as it was after President Trump’s new tariff policies caused the entire stock market to fall last April.

As far as its business performance, Thermo Fisher is doing well. It achieved 3% revenue growth to $10.9 billion in its fiscal second quarter, ended June 28. The company did an outstanding job managing its expenses, and combined with its sales growth, allowed Thermo Fisher to deliver a 6% year-over-year increase in fiscal Q2 diluted earnings per share (EPS) to $4.28. This continues the trend of rising EPS exhibited over the last couple of years.

On top of that, Thermo Fisher raised its 2025 fiscal guidance to sales of about $44 billion. This would be a jump up from the prior year’s $42.9 billion. With rising revenue and EPS combined with a reasonable P/E ratio, Thermo Fisher stock looks like a compelling buy.

Glossary

Assets Under Management (AUM): The total market value of investments managed by a fund or investment firm.
13F Reportable Assets: Securities that institutional investment managers must disclose in quarterly SEC filings if they exceed $100 million in assets.
Alpha: A measure of an investment’s performance relative to a benchmark index, often indicating excess return.
Quarter: A three-month period used by companies for financial reporting and performance measurement.
Proprietary Products: Goods or services owned and produced exclusively by a company, often protected by patents or trademarks.
Consumables: Products intended for single or limited use, requiring regular replacement in laboratory or industrial settings.
Direct Sales: Selling products or services directly to customers without intermediaries or third-party distributors.
Third-Party Distribution: The sale of products through external companies or intermediaries rather than directly from the manufacturer.
Dividend Yield: The annual dividend payment expressed as a percentage of the stock’s current price.
Biopharma Services: Specialized services supporting the development and manufacturing of biopharmaceutical drugs.
End Markets: The final industries or customer segments that purchase and use a company’s products or services.
TTM: The 12-month period ending with the most recent quarterly report.

The former Stolper Co is a financial management company that merged with another financial services business to form Wealth Oklahoma in 2025. It initiated a new position in Allison Transmission Holdings (ALSN -2.01%), acquiring 75,606 shares in the third quarter, an estimated $6.4 million trade based on the average price for Q3 2025, according to its October 10, 2025, SEC filing.

What happened

Wealth Oklahoma disclosed the purchase of 75,606 shares of Allison Transmission Holdings in its quarterly report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on October 10, 2025 (SEC filing). The new holding was valued at $6.4 million as of Q3 2025, with the transaction representing 1.9% of Stolper’s $330 million in reportable U.S. equity assets.

What else to know

This is a new position; the stake now accounts for 1.9% of Wealth Oklahoma’s 13F reportable assets as of September 30, 2025.

Top holdings after the filing are as follows:

• BRK-B: $18.96 million (5.75% of AUM) as of 2025-09-30
• JPM: $17.74 million (5.37% of AUM) as of 2025-09-30
• AAPL: $14.90 million (4.52% of AUM) as of 2025-09-30
• GOOGL: $11.92 million (3.6% of AUM) as of 2025-09-30
• COF: $10.73 million (3.25% of AUM as of Q3 2025)

As of October 9, 2025, Allison Transmission shares were priced at $81.02, down 18.4% over the prior year ending October 9, 2025 and underperforming the S&P 500 by 33.9 percentage points over the past year.

The company reported trailing 12-month revenue of $3.2 billion for the period ended June 30, 2025 and net income of $762 million for the period ended June 30, 2025.

Allison Transmission’s dividend yield stood at 1.3% as of October 10, 2025. Shares were 35% below their 52-week high as of October 9, 2025.

Company Overview

Company Snapshot

Allison Transmission designs and manufactures fully automatic transmissions and related parts for commercial, defense, and specialty vehicles. It also offers remanufactured transmissions and aftermarket support.

The company generates revenue primarily through product sales to original equipment manufacturers and aftermarket services, including replacement parts and extended coverage.

Allison Transmission serves a global customer base of OEMs, distributors, dealers, and government agencies, with a focus on commercial vehicle and defense markets.

Image source: Getty Images.

Allison Transmission is a leading provider of fully automatic transmissions for medium- and heavy-duty commercial and defense vehicles worldwide. The company leverages a broad distribution network and long-standing OEM relationships to maintain a strong position in the auto parts sector.

Foolish take

Founded in 1915, Allison Transmission is a veteran of propulsion systems technology. It’s the world’s largest manufacturer of medium and heavy-duty fully automatic transmissions, according to the company.

Allison Transmission’s sales are down slightly year over year. Through the first half of 2025, revenue stood at $1.58 billion compared to $1.61 billion in 2024.

This lack of sales growth is a contributor to the company’s share price decline, adding to its dismal 2025 outlook, which it slashed due to softness in demand in some of its end markets, such as for medium-duty trucks. Allison Transmission now expects 2025 revenue to come in between $3.1 billion to $3.2 billion, down from $3.2 billion to $3.3 billion.

With Allison Transmission shares hovering around a 52-week low, Wealth Oklahoma took advantage to initiate a position in the stock. This speaks to Wealth Oklahoma’s belief that Allison Transmission can bounce back. This might be the case, given Allison’s recent acquisition of Dana Incorporated, which provides drivetrain and propulsion systems in over 25 countries.

With a price-to-earnings ratio of 9, Allison Transmission’s valuation looks attractive, which also explains Wealth Oklahoma’s purchase. The stock certainly looks like it’s in buy territory.

Glossary

13F reportable assets: U.S. equity holdings that institutional investment managers must disclose quarterly to the SEC on Form 13F.
AUM (Assets Under Management): The total market value of investments managed on behalf of clients by a financial institution or fund manager.
Dividend yield: Annual dividend payments divided by the share price, expressed as a percentage, showing income return on investment.
Trailing twelve months (TTM): The 12-month period ending with the most recent quarterly report.
Original equipment manufacturer (OEM): A company that produces parts or equipment that may be marketed by another manufacturer.
Aftermarket services: Products and support provided after the original sale, such as replacement parts, maintenance, or extended warranties.
Stake: The amount or percentage of ownership an investor or institution holds in a company.
Quarterly report: A financial statement filed every three months, detailing a company’s performance and financial position.
Distribution network: The system of intermediaries, such as dealers and distributors, through which a company sells its products.
Defense market: The sector focused on supplying products and services to military and government defense agencies.

Welcome to the show! Ferrari (RACE -3.08%) gave investors a sneak peek at its upcoming first full-electric model last week, with an unveiling laser light show that might rival Las Vegas’ Sphere. Despite the light show and base-thumping heavy music, the unveiling failed to electrify investors as the stock promptly plunged nearly 16% on Thursday — its largest one-day drop since its IPO in 2015.

But not everything is as it seems. Let’s cover the details and ramifications of its upcoming full-electric EV supercar, as well as what really sent the stock tumbling.

Image source: Ferarri.

Rock and a hard place

Ferrari finds itself in an interesting and challenging position, currently. On one hand, Ferrari due to its intangible assets, brand moat, pricing power, and loyal consumer base, could likely churn out a full-electric supercar that maintains its impressive ultra-luxury-like margins — unlike traditional automakers that are losing money on electric vehicles (EVs) hand over fist.

On the other hand, Ferrari’s competitors are pushing back their own full-electric supercars due to lack of demand. While Ferrari is preparing to unleash its Elettrica onto a road filled with uncertainty, its competitors are pulling back. Ferrari rival Lamborghini said it would delay the launch of its first full-electric model to 2029, instead of 2028, while Porsche cut back its plans for battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) due to soft sales of its full-electric Macan and Taycan. Stellantis subsidiary Maserati canceled plans for its BEV version of its MC20 sports car.

Ferrari zigging while its competitors zag is a significant bet on the near-term future of not only EVs, but the direction of its supercar lineup. Ferrari plans to invest a significant 4.7 billion euros between 2026 and 2030 for electrification and the supercar maker expects BEVs to account for one-fifth of its sales by the end of this decade. Unbeknownst to many investors is that Ferrari is already somewhat electrified as roughly half of its vehicle shipments are hybrids.

“Luxury EVs are still a young and immature category,” says Brian Lum, an investment manager at Baillie Gifford, according to Barron’s. “It’s important to build that next generation of Ferraristi, and electrification should help them to do that.”

It’s also worth noting that while Ferrari’s brand has seemingly had impenetrable armor over the past decades, part of that is driven by the company continually innovating and producing state-of-the-art combustion engine supercars. If Ferrari’s first full EV doesn’t live up to performance heritage, or its niche consumers don’t buy into the idea of EVs, and it flops commercially, it could be the first chink in that brand armor perhaps ever.

What’s the problem?

The driving force behind Ferrari’s rare share price plunge wasn’t vehicle centric. In fact, so far the Elettrica is very Ferrari-like, and we’ll get more details and design clues over time. With 1,000 horsepower, it offers power output that rivals its combustion engine supercars, and the same goes for its top speed of more than 192 miles per hour. After a single charge, its range checks the necessary box of over 300 miles by an extra 29 miles, helping reduce consumer range anxiety.

The problem was that Ferrari also unveiled its financial projections for the rest of this decade, and they checked in lower than analysts expected. While Ferrari slightly raised its out look for 2025, now expecting a profit of 8.80 euros per share on revenue of 7.1 billion euros, its long-term guidance of 2030 adjusted earnings of 11.50 euros per share on revenue of 9 billion euros fell short of the 9.9 billion euros in revenue analysts expected, per FactSet.

While Ferrari’s full-EV (partial) unveiling was entirely overshadowed by slight long-term weakness, investors would be very wise to follow how the Elettrica’s launch goes in late 2026 — because a lot of the future hinges on its EV lineup striking a similar chord with its core enthusiasts as its combustion engine supercars have.

Ferrari remains an absolute top stock pick by nearly any measure, with margins the automotive industry dreams of, competitive advantages that aren’t easily replicable, and a brand image that stands in an arena by itself. Its near 16% drop was just a brief and small buying opportunity, and investors should be optimistic about its future despite analysts being slightly disappointed.

Luminus Management disclosed the purchase of 87,120 shares of Kirby Corporation (KEX -2.17%), with an estimated transaction value of $8.8 million in an Oct. 3 SEC filing.

What happened

According to the Oct. 3 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Luminus Management increased its stake in Kirby Corporation by over 87,000 shares during the third quarter of 2025. The estimated trade value is $8.75 million, based on the average closing price for the quarter. Following the transaction, the fund holds 116,956 shares valued at $9.8 million as of September 30, 2025.

What else to know

Luminus Management’s increase in its Kirby stake means that stock now comprises 8.8% of reported AUM as of September 30, 2025.

Top holdings after the filing are:

• NYSE:CC: $27.96 million (25.1% of AUM) as of September 30, 2025
• NYSE:OI: $26.53 million (23.8% of AUM) as of September 30, 2025
• NYSE:SEE: $17.65 million (15.9% of AUM) as of September 30, 2025
• NYSE:KEX: $9.76 million (8.8% of AUM) as of September 30, 2025
• NYSE:KWR: $7.97 million (7.1603% of AUM) as of September 30, 2025

As of October 2, 2025, Kirby shares were priced at $83.71, down 31.8% over the past year, underperforming the S&P 500 by 49.3 percentage points over the past year.

Company Overview

Company Snapshot

Kirby Corporation is a leading U.S. marine shipping and services company with significant scale in tank barge transportation and industrial equipment distribution. Its integrated business model leverages a large fleet and technical expertise to support critical supply chains for energy and industrial customers. The company’s broad service offering and national footprint provide a competitive edge in reliability and operational reach.

Image source: Getty Images.

Kirby provides marine transportation of bulk liquid products, including petrochemicals, black oil, refined petroleum products, and agricultural chemicals. It also offers after-market services, parts, and equipment for engines, power systems, and oilfield applications.

The company generates revenue through barge and towing operations across U.S. inland and coastal waterways, as well as through distribution, servicing, and manufacturing of specialized industrial and energy equipment.

Kirby serves industrial customers in the petrochemical, oil refining, and agricultural sectors, along with U.S. government entities.

Foolish take

Luminus Management is an investment company focused on the energy and chemical sectors. Its stake in the Kirby Corporation aligns with this focus, since Kirby is a leading provider of marine transportation for the energy and petrochemical industries.

Luminus added to its existing Kirby position in a big way. The investment company previously held less than 30,000 shares. Now, that number is north of 116,000, demonstrating a belief the stock is destined for upside after Kirby shares dropped over 30% in the trailing 12 months. The stock hovers around a 52-week low as of Oct. 10.

The share price decline is understandable. Through the first half of 2025, Kirby’s sales of $1.6 billion were flat compared to 2024. Harsh winter weather conditions during the first quarter, and an uncertain macroeconomic environment on the trade policy front, cut into demand for the company’s services, resulting in lackluster sales.

However, Kirby management expects to end 2025 with a 15% to 25% year-over-year increase in earnings. Its net earnings through two quarters are up around 10%. If it misses this earnings goal, Kirby shares could sink further than it already has this year. So while the share price decline looks like a buy opportunity given Kirby’s leadership in the marine transport space, investing in the stock holds some risk.

Glossary

13F reportable AUM: Assets under management that must be disclosed by institutional investment managers in quarterly SEC Form 13F filings.
AUM (Assets Under Management): The total market value of investments managed on behalf of clients by a fund or firm.
Quarterly average price: The average price of a security over a specific three-month period, often used to estimate transaction values.
Post-trade position: The total holdings of a security after the most recent buy or sell transaction is completed.
Filing: An official document submitted to a regulatory authority, such as the SEC, disclosing financial or operational information.
Tank barge transportation: The movement of bulk liquid cargo using specialized flat-bottomed vessels on inland or coastal waterways.
Distribution (in industrial context): The sale and delivery of products, parts, or equipment to customers or service providers.
After-market services: Support, maintenance, and parts provided for equipment after its initial sale.
Integrated business model: A strategy where a company controls multiple stages of its supply chain or service process.
National footprint: The presence and operational reach of a company across multiple regions or the entire country.
TTM: The 12-month period ending with the most recent quarterly report.

What’s the most exciting initial public offering (IPO) of 2025? My vote would go to CoreWeave (CRWV -3.25%). Its IPO was the biggest for a tech stock since 2021.

Sure, CoreWeave had to lower its planned IPO share price. However, that was due more to broader market headwinds than anything related to the company itself. At any rate, CoreWeave stock has nonetheless performed exceptionally well. It ranks among the biggest large-cap winners of the year.

But that’s all water under the bridge now. Where will CoreWeave stock be in five years?

Image source: Getty Images.

CoreWeave’s future largely hinges on three key factors

To make an educated guess about CoreWeave’s prospects, we have to first understand its business. The company is one of a handful of artificial intelligence (AI) hyperscalers. Its sole focus is providing infrastructure designed to support the workloads of AI systems, especially generative AI applications.

The most important factor affecting where CoreWeave stock will be in 2030 is almost certainly how strong the demand for AI infrastructure will be through the rest of the decade. As of right now, the prognosis looks great. Exhibit A is that CoreWeave’s revenue more than tripled year over year in its latest quarter.

Next on the list, in my view, is how well CoreWeave can keep up with the demand. CEO and co-founder Michael Intrator said in the company’s Q2 update, “We are scaling rapidly as we look to meet the unprecedented demand for AI.” Such a massive buildout is expensive. That’s the main reason CoreWeave remains unprofitable.

Electricity supply could also be a constraint. Consulting giant Deloitte estimates that power demand from U.S. AI data centers could skyrocket more than 30x by 2035 to 123 gigawatts.

CoreWeave’s future hinges on a third factor, too: competition. The hyperscaler’s rivals include some of the biggest companies on the planet with exceptionally deep pockets. If AI infrastructure demand slows, the competitive threats could become more pronounced.

Potential scenarios

With those factors in mind, let’s explore a few potential scenarios for CoreWeave. I’ll start with the most optimistic one.

An explosion in AI infrastructure demand fueled by AI advances

The AI demand we’ve seen thus far could be only the tip of the iceberg. Agentic AI remains in its early stages of adoption. Artificial general intelligence (AGI) and artificial superintelligence (ASI) aren’t the stuff of science fiction anymore. Major companies are investing heavily in developing these game-changing AI breakthroughs.

In this scenario, CoreWeave’s growth would be impressive. The company could probably generate revenue of over $200 billion in 2030. At the current average price-to-sales ratio of 8 for the internet services and infrastructure industry, that would translate to a market cap for CoreWeave of at least $1.6 trillion — a gain of roughly 23x in five years.

One wrinkle in this scenario, though, is that the biggest hyperscalers could view CoreWeave as an attractive acquisition target to boost their own capacity. The purchase price would depend on the timing of such a potential buyout: The earlier in the AI infrastructure explosion, the less expensive acquiring CoreWeave would be.

Solid AI infrastructure demand growth

In this scenario, AI infrastructure demand continues to grow at a robust (although not explosive) pace. We probably wouldn’t see AGI or ASI emerge over the next five years. However, agentic AI could gain more widespread adoption.

I think CoreWeave could realistically rake in revenue in the ballpark of $60 billion in this scenario. That number reflects an increase of around 12x from Wall Street’s consensus revenue estimate for 2025. Using the average industry P/S multiple of 8, that would put CoreWeave’s market cap at $480 billion or so. Its share price would need to grow nearly 7x to hit that mark.

Weak AI infrastructure demand growth

Now, let’s suppose AI infrastructure demand tapers off dramatically. This scenario would likely be devastating for CoreWeave. Its stock already has significant growth baked into the share price with a P/S ratio of 19.

If CoreWeave fell to the current industry average P/S multiple, its stock could plunge by at least 50%. However, I suspect that the average would itself decline quite a bit if AI infrastructure demand slowed to a crawl. A decline of 70% or more for CoreWeave’s share price probably wouldn’t be out of the question in this scenario.

A prediction for CoreWeave in 2030

The easiest prediction for CoreWeave in 2030 is to go with something along the lines of the middle-of-the-road scenario mentioned above. Even if that scenario is still overly optimistic, I could easily see CoreWeave being worth at least $200 billion by the end of the decade. A gain of almost 3x in just five years isn’t too shabby.

After a stock skyrockets by around 500% in just 12 months, as Rocket Lab (RKLB -3.21%) has, it’s only natural to wonder if it rose too quickly, and in so doing, has become too overvalued to safely invest in.

The aerospace company has been experiencing tremendous growth in recent years, and investors remain bullish about its potential for even more growth ahead due to its larger new Neutron rocket, which will open up more opportunities for the business in the long run. But with the company’s market cap now hovering around $28 billion, has too much expected growth been priced into the stock? Could shares of Rocket Lab be due for a big decline?

Image source: Getty Images.

Rocket Lab’s stock carries an incredibly high premium

Although Rocket Lab’s business has been growing in recent years, so too have its losses. From 2021 through 2024, its revenue rose from just $62 million to more than $436 million. Its losses didn’t increase at nearly as rapid a pace, but they did rise from $117 million to $190 million.

When a company is in a rapid-growth phase, it’s not usually worried as much about keeping costs in check — the priority is the top line. In that context, short-term losses can be justifiable. But with Rocket Lab, investors are also paying a massive premium; the stock trades at close to 60 times its trailing revenue and 40 times its book value. Paying high multiples for stock can be warranted when there’s low risk and a lot of future growth expected, but Rocket Lab is far from a safe buy given its current levels and its lack of profitability.

Back in 2021, when it first went public, there was plenty of hype around Rocket Lab’s business, but it wasn’t trading at the mammoth premium that it is today.

RKLB PS Ratio data by YCharts.

The company may not be out of growth catalysts just yet

Despite the stock’s high valuation, one factor could still drive it higher: the company’s Neutron rocket. It’s a partially reusable rocket that can carry significantly larger payloads than Rocket Lab’s current Electron rocket. A successful inaugural launch will be a huge milestone for the business, which could lead to even more excitement around this already scorching-hot stock — and unlock more contract opportunities.

That event could, however, also turn into a sell-the-news moment where investors buy up the stock amid the chatter leading up to the launch, and then sell shares right when they might be around their peak, which might happen if and when a successful launch takes place. This is one of the risks with buying speculative stocks — their movements are extremely difficult to predict.

According to analysts, the stock is already heavily overvalued. The consensus 12-month price target of a little more than $42 is 27% lower than the current price. However, a successful Neutron launch could spark a wave of price-target upgrades from analysts.

Rocket Lab is a high-risk, high-potential-reward stock

This week, Rocket Lab’s stock hit a new 52-week high, proving that it’s not running out of steam just yet. And it may hold its momentum as the excitement builds around the upcoming Neutron launch. The closer that gets, the more the stock may rally.

Rocket Lab’s fundamentals, however, don’t support its inflated valuation, and the danger is that with expectations being as high as they are, there is plenty of room for disappointment and for the stock to fall significantly in value. Although it may not have peaked just yet, that doesn’t mean it’s a good buy at its current price. Unless you have a high risk tolerance, you’d probably be better off investing in a more reasonably priced growth stock than Rocket Lab.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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%.

Was it a fluke or fundamental change?

A week after its monumental upset of Penn State, UCLA could get some answers about the trajectory of its season.

A road game against an opponent with plenty of its own urgency should tell the Bruins whether they’re on the road to redemption or merely picking up speed on a route to nowhere.

Michigan State (3-2 overall, 0-2 Big Ten) needs a win as badly as UCLA (1-4, 1-1) given that it’s staring up in the conference standings at a team that lost its first four games of the season.

Spartans coach Jonathan Smith, the Pasadena native and Glendora High graduate whose name has been among those linked to UCLA’s vacancy, might need to win this game just to help secure his future with his current team after compiling an 8-9 record almost midway through his second season.

Meanwhile, the stock of UCLA interim coach Tim Skipper and offensive coordinator Jerry Neuheisel — let’s dispense with the official yet insulting playcaller title, please — could reach new heights with a second consecutive victory.

Skipper equated Neuheisel’s success in his playcalling debut to giving players answers before a test, which was all the more impressive considering that Neuheisel had just a couple of days to install his new scheme after replacing departed offensive coordinator Tino Sunseri.

What might UCLA’s offense look like with a full week of prep work? Here are five things to watch when the Bruins face the Spartans at Spartan Stadium at 9 a.m. PDT in a game televised by Big Ten Network: