In 2003, I picked up a 1965 Porsche for $12,500. It is now insured for $125,000. In 2009, I bought an $18,000 Rolex Daytona for $9,000 and sold it days later for $12,000.
In 2010, when the housing market fell apart, I bought four condos at $40,000 each, collected $12,000 a year per condo for twelve years, then sold them for three to four times what I paid.
My father taught me this.
He was not a rich man, but he knew the value of a dollar, and he knew that everything in life is negotiable.
That lesson followed me into the stock market, and it has made me more money over 46 years than every car, watch, and condo deal combined.
I call the strategy a phantom bid.
Here is how it works. A company you want to own is trading at $44 a share.
You tell the market you will only buy it at $30. The moment you make that offer, the market pays you cash upfront just for showing up.
From there, one of two things happens.
If the stock never drops to $30, your offer disappears, and you keep every dollar the market paid you. If the stock drops to $30, you buy a world-class company at a price nobody else got, and you still keep the cash you collected upfront.
Either way, you win.
You either walk away with the premium or you walk away with the stock at your price, plus the premium on top of it.
The offer disappears like a phantom. The cash does not.
On Wall Street, this is known as selling a put.
The name alone has kept most investors away from it for decades. I have been doing it for my entire investing career.
My record stands at 161 wins out of 169 trades. The losses on the eight trades I did not win were capped at exactly what I risked going in.
Nothing more.
SPONSORED
Wall St. Insider Warns: This Could Leapfrog Elon’s SpaceX IPO
Elon Musk could take SpaceX public in 2026, at an estimated $1.75 trillion valuation.
The IPO would include Elon’s AI model, Grok.
But according to Louis Navellier, a radical new AI model will launch this year… over 1,000 times more powerful than Elon’s.
And the company behind it could outperform SpaceX in the process.
Warren Buffett has been using phantom bids for decades. In 1993 he sold puts on Coca-Cola and collected $7.5 million in premium. The puts expired worthless.
He kept every dollar without buying a single share. When asked about it, he described it as getting paid to agree to buy something you want at a price you want to pay.
The average Iranian earns only $80 a month. One gram of gold in Iran costs $110.
And guess what… they’re still buying more of it. Not because they want to. Because they have no choice. Their currency is worthless. Tragic for them.
But this isn’t about buying gold. It’s about using Iran’s panic-buying to acquire the world’s best gold assets for up to 50% less than what everyone else is paying. It’s a strategy I’ve used 169 times and won 161 times.
You are receiving this email because you subscribed to Trade of the Day. To unsubscribe from Trade of the Day, click here.
Questions? Check out our FAQs. Trying to reach us? Contact us here. Please do not reply to this email as it goes to an unmonitored inbox.
To cancel by mail or for any other subscription issues, write us at: Trade of the Day | 14 West Mount Vernon Place | Baltimore, MD 21201 North America: 800.507.1399 | International: +1.443.353.4977 Website | Privacy Policy Keep the emails you value from falling into your spam folder. Whitelist Trade of the Day.
Nothing published by Monument Traders Alliance should be considered personalized investment advice. Although our employees may answer your general customer service questions, they are not licensed under securities laws to address your particular investment situation. No communication by our employees to you should be deemed personalized investment advice. We allow the editors of our publications to recommend securities that they own themselves. However, our policy prohibits editors from exiting a personal trade while the recommendation to subscribers is open. In no circumstance may an editor sell a security before subscribers have a fair opportunity to exit. The length of time an editor must wait after subscribers have been advised to exit a play depends on the type of publication. All other employees and agents must wait 24 hours after publication before trading on a recommendation.
Any investments recommended by Monument Traders Alliance should be made only after consulting with your investment advisor and only after reviewing the prospectus or financial statements of the company.
Protected by copyright laws of the United States and international treaties. The information found on this website may only be used pursuant to the membership or subscription agreement and any reproduction, copying or redistribution (electronic or otherwise, including on the world wide web), in whole or in part, is strictly prohibited without the express written permission of Monument Traders Alliance, LLC, 14 West Mount Vernon Place, Baltimore, MD 21201.
Editor’s Note: I have a message for you from Matt Insley at Paradigm Press. I thought you might find it interesting – check it out here or read more below.
– Jonathan Rodriguez, Senior Managing Editor
GOLD SHOCK COMING
Dear Reader,
White House, Pentagon, and CIA insider Jim Rickards is widely considered to be among the top gold experts in the world…
He even wrote the definitive book on gold, titled The New Case for Gold – which was praised by The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and more.
You are receiving this email because you subscribed to Liberty Through Wealth. Liberty Through Wealth is published by The Oxford Club.
To stop receiving special invitations and offers from Liberty Through Wealth, please click here. Please note: This will not impact the fulfillment of your subscription in any way.
Questions? Check out our FAQs. Trying to reach us?Contact us here. Please do not reply to this email as it goes to an unmonitored inbox.
Nothing published by The Oxford Club should be considered personalized investment advice. Although our employees may answer your general customer service questions, they are not licensed under securities laws to address your particular investment situation. No communication by our employees to you should be deemed personalized investment advice. We allow the editors of our publications to recommend securities that they own themselves. However, our policy prohibits editors from exiting a personal trade while the recommendation to subscribers is open. In no circumstance may an editor sell a security before subscribers have a fair opportunity to exit. The length of time an editor must wait after subscribers have been advised to exit a play depends on the type of publication. All other employees and agents must wait 24 hours after publication before trading on a recommendation.
Any investments recommended by The Oxford Club should be made only after consulting with your investment advisor and only after reviewing the prospectus or financial statements of the company.
Protected by copyright laws of the United States and international treaties. The information found on this website may only be used pursuant to the membership or subscription agreement and any reproduction, copying or redistribution (electronic or otherwise, including on the world wide web), in whole or in part, is strictly prohibited without the express written permission of The Oxford Club, LLC, 105 West Monument Street, Baltimore, MD 21201.
SMX Emerges as a Critical Shield for U.S. National Security as Conflict Threatens Rare Earth Flows
The strategic importance of rare earth minerals has skyrocketed amid the rising confrontation between the United States and Iran, as these materials underpin the technology, defense, and energy sectors that power national security.
Australia, a leading producer of rare earths, faces pressure to provide secure, verifiable, and compliant supply chains to meet U.S. demands. SMX (Security Matters) Public Limited (NASDAQ: SMX) offers a transformative solution: a molecular identity platform that embeds an indelible, verifiable signature into each mineral, enabling precise origin tracking from mine to market.
By converting supply chains into intelligent, self-verifying networks, SMX addresses vulnerabilities that can otherwise be exploited during geopolitical instability, including counterfeiting, tampering, and unauthorized diversion of critical resources.
Operating from Singapore and leveraging Southeast Asia’s stable environment, SMXdelivers a globally neutral, resilient, and scalable platform for supply-chain security.
Its technology not only verifies materials but strengthens regulatory compliance, industrial accountability, and defense readiness.
In times of conflict, such as the current Iran-U.S. tensions, this capability becomes indispensable: it ensures that essential rare earths are authenticated, traceable, and shielded from interference.
For governments, multinational enterprises, and defense partners, SMX represents more than innovation—it is a safeguard against uncertainty, a reinforcement of national security, and a commitment to transparency in a world where trust is fragile.
The Nasdaq’s Historic Rally Doesn’t Mean the Risk Is Gone
Authored by Bridget Bennett. Article Posted: 4/19/2026.
Key Points
Chaikin Analytics rates software and cybersecurity stocks as sectors to sell into this rally, citing AI disruption from models like Claude Mythos as a structural headwind for legacy names.
Seven stocks across semiconductors, construction and engineering, optical networking, and mining earn bullish ratings, though Chaikin recommends waiting for pullbacks before buying.
The S&P 500 is approaching all-time highs after a historic Nasdaq 100 rally, but Strait of Hormuz uncertainty could trigger a reversal.
The S&P 500 has pushed to a new all-time high, and the Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ: QQQ), which tracks the Nasdaq 100, has logged its longest winning streak on record in terms of consecutively higher closes. Investors everywhere are asking the same question: Is it safe to buy?
Marc Chaikin, founder of Chaikin Analytics and creator of the Power Gauge stock rating system, says the answer depends on where you look. The rally is real, but so are the risks still lurking beneath the surface.
Because my research has led me to believe we’re risking World War 3 with Iran for a completely different reason.Click here to find out what it is.
Chaikin sees a market running on hope that could stumble at the first sign of disappointment.
A Rally Built on Ceasefire Hopes—Now Getting a Reality Check
The catalyst for the market’s V-shaped recovery was last week’s announcement of ceasefire negotiations tied to the Iran conflict. That news pushed the S&P 500 through its 50-day and 200-day moving averages in a single session, clearing resistance that had capped prices for weeks.
At the time of Chaikin’s analysis, neither pillar of the bull case was firmly in place—no agreed-upon ceasefire existed, and the Strait of Hormuz remained effectively closed to normal commercial traffic. Since then, the situation has shifted: an Israel-Lebanon ceasefire took effect, and Iran’s foreign minister declared the Strait “completely open” for commercial vessels for the duration of the ceasefire.
Whether that progress holds remains an open question. Chaikin’s broader point still applies: markets that climb on optimism tend to be vulnerable when the details disappoint. The Strait may be open today, but the underlying conflict is far from resolved.
2 Sectors Worth Trimming: Software and Cybersecurity
Rather than chasing the rally, Chaikin views this as an opportunity to prune weak positions—and two sectors top his sell list.
Software stocks, which once made up about 16% of the S&P 500, now represent roughly 8%. Names like Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), Atlassian (NASDAQ: TEAM), and Adobe (NASDAQ: ADBE) have underperformed the broader market for more than nine months. The Power Gauge labels many of these names bearish, and Chaikin’s proprietary money-flow data shows persistent institutional selling. The cause is structural: advances in AI—from Anthropic and OpenAI to Google and Meta—are putting real pressure on the SaaS business model that powered these companies for two decades.
Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) doesn’t escape scrutiny. The stock carries a neutral Power Gauge rating and remains more than 20% below its October peak despite rallying from under $360 to above $400. Chaikin sees Microsoft and the rest of the Magnificent Seven as legacy beneficiaries now facing competitive headwinds from the next wave of AI innovation.
Cybersecurity is the other sector Chaikin would trim. Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ: PANW) has been in a clear downtrend, and the bearish case extends beyond technicals. Anthropic’s Claude Mythos Preview—announced earlier this month—demonstrated the ability to discover thousands of zero-day vulnerabilities across major operating systems and browsers, exposing flaws in infrastructure that legacy cybersecurity firms had certified as secure. That kind of disruption creates a credibility problem for incumbents. If AI can uncover back doors that existing platforms missed, the market will eventually reprice who deserves the cybersecurity franchise.
Semiconductors: Bullish, But Buy the Pullback
The semiconductor space has been the backbone of this rally, and Chaikin remains constructive on the group—with a caveat. These names have run too far, too fast to chase at current levels.
NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) is recovering after a sharp drawdown, and Chaikin acknowledges it as the dominant force in AI chips. Still, the more compelling opportunities may sit further down the supply chain.
Lam Research (NASDAQ: LRCX) is critical to chip manufacturing, holding near-duopoly positioning in etch and deposition equipment. The stock has rallied sharply, but a pullback toward its moving averages could offer a cleaner entry.
Onto Innovation (NYSE: ONTO) specializes in quality control for semiconductor manufacturing and has carried a bullish Power Gauge rating since last August. Shares have surged from around $100 to above $280, but Chaikin says a retreat toward the stock’s 21-day average would make it attractive again. B. Riley recently raised its price target on the stock to $310.
The AI Buildout’s Picks and Shovels
Beyond chips, Chaikin is focused on the physical infrastructure powering AI—the construction, cooling, and data-transport layers of the buildout.
Quanta Services (NYSE: PWR) has been building power plants and clearing land for electric utilities for decades. With AI data centers demanding enormous new power capacity, Quanta sits at the intersection of energy infrastructure and AI demand. The stock recently hit an all-time high near $596, so patience for a pullback is warranted.
Comfort Systems USA (NYSE: FIX) handles the cooling and HVAC systems that keep data centers operational—a constraint that only tightens as compute density rises. The company has delivered 35% quarterly revenue growth and shows strong profitability relative to peers.
Inside data centers, moving information at speed is the next bottleneck. Optical networking stocks have been on fire, and Chaikin recently took a quick 15% profit in Coherent (NYSE: COHR) after a two-week hold. The stock has continued climbing, recently hitting an all-time high above $310 after being added to the S&P 500 in March.
Ciena (NYSE: CIEN) is another name in this space, with first-quarter revenue up 33% year over year and raised full-year guidance to as much as $6.3 billion. Both are stocks Chaikin would consider re-entering on a pullback.
Copper, Not Silver, Fuels the Wiring
Finally, raw materials matter. Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE: FCX) is the world’s largest publicly traded copper miner, and copper is essential for the fiber-optic wiring and internal infrastructure of data centers.
The stock has carried a bullish Power Gauge rating since last year and recently set a new all-time high near $70 before pulling back.
Freeport also has a major mine offline that is expected to return to production this fall—a potential catalyst that could add meaningful supply to a copper market already running tight.
Stay Disciplined as the Market Tests New Highs
The setup is compelling: AI demand is real, the infrastructure buildout could last five years or more, and these names are positioned at critical points along the supply chain. But with the S&P sitting at all-time highs on ceasefire optimism while the Strait of Hormuz remains contested, Chaikin’s message is clear—don’t chase the rally. Identify the stocks doing differentiated work, wait for pullbacks, and let discipline do the heavy lifting.
This message is a paid advertisement for SMX (NASDAQ: SMX) from Equiscreen and Interactive Offers. MarketBeat Media, LLC receives a fixed fee for each subscriber that clicks on a link in this email, totaling up to $14,000. Other than the compensation received for this advertisement sent to subscribers, MarketBeat and its principals are not affiliated with either Equiscreen or Interactive Offers. MarketBeat and its principals do not own any of the stocks mentioned in this email or in the article that this email links to. Neither MarketBeat nor its principals are FINRA-registered broker-dealers or investment advisers. The content of this email should not be taken as advice, an endorsement, or a recommendation from MarketBeat to buy or sell any security. MarketBeat has not evaluated the accuracy of any claims made in this advertisement. MarketBeat recommends that investors do their own independent research and consult with a qualified investment professional before buying or selling any security. Investing is inherently risky. Past-performance is not indicative of future results. Please see the disclaimer regarding SMX (NASDAQ: SMX) on Interactive Offers’ website for additional information about the relationship between Interactive Offers and SMX (NASDAQ: SMX).
If you need help with your subscription, please feel free to email MarketBeat’s South Dakota based support team at contact@marketbeat.com.
What analysts are saying, who’s running it, what’s actually innovative, and how earnings expectations are shifting into 2026
Vertiv isn’t just “picks and shovels” for AI. It’s closer to a scheduler – not in software, but in physics. The rack roadmap is being set by power delivery, heat removal, and how fast you can commission a site without embarrassing outages. When those constraints loosen, AI capacity shows up. When they don’t, it doesn’t. Vertiv sits right on that choke point.
That’s why the stock doesn’t trade like a normal industrial supplier anymore. It’s trading like a company that sells time – shorter build timelines, fewer do-overs, faster “ready for load.” And yes, that’s a little squishy. But it’s also how budgets actually get approved in this cycle.
Vertiv in one sentence: it’s the “physical layer” vendor that keeps AI data centers upright – power delivery, thermal management (increasingly liquid), modular deployments, and a growing services/software layer – and the market is pricing it like that’s a multi-year constraint, not a one-year capex cycle.
Also: this is one of those names where the narrative can outrun execution. The part people skip is lead times, commissioning, and whether backlog turns into shipped product on schedule (and on margin). Management is basically telling you: we’re expanding capacity as fast as we responsibly can, because customers are trying to compress timelines.
Banking. Cars. Rockets. The Internet itself. Each time, the same pattern: Elon targets an industry the world says can’t be disrupted, the experts call him crazy, the short sellers pile in… and then he does it. Now he’s preparing for his biggest takeover yet.
Vertiv sells the infrastructure around compute: UPS and power management, switchgear/busbar, thermal (CRAC/CRAH and now liquid cooling), racks/integrated systems, plus monitoring and lifecycle services.
In a “normal” cloud cycle that’s already important. In an AI cycle, it becomes existential because power density and heat flux are the limiting factors. The data hall doesn’t care about your TAM slide – it cares about watts, coolant flow, redundancy, and whether the thing can be maintained without drama.
The company’s own framing (and you can feel the product strategy behind it) is shifting from “components” to system-level architecture – treating the data center as a single unit where power + cooling + compute are designed together. That’s not just marketing; it’s how you sell larger contracts and lock in services.
Small tangent, but it matters: the “manufacturing/logistics/operational excellence” seat being prominent is basically the tell. This cycle is not won by who has the fanciest slide deck – it’s who can actually build, ship, commission, and service the stuff while everyone is fighting for the same skilled labor and components.
What analysts are saying (the tone, not just the rating)
Most “Street” commentary right now clusters around a few recurring points:
Demand visibility looks unusually high for an industrial-ish company – highlighted by the step-change in backlog and order strength exiting 2025.
Margins are expanding with volume(operational leverage) while management is also calling out tariff impacts and mitigation.
Capacity expansion becomes the swing factor: capex stepping up as they try to convert backlog to revenue.
Valuation is the pushback: the more bullish the “AI infrastructure bottleneck” framing gets, the more the stock trades like a momentum compounder, not a cyclical equipment supplier.
Concrete example of the “tone shift” post-print: Morgan Stanley raised its price target to $350(from $285) and kept an Overweight rating on April 23, 2026.
One thing to watch: public “consensus” pages can disagree (number of analysts, average target, etc.). Treat them as directionally useful, not source-of-truth. Different data providers can show different snapshots depending on feed timing and included brokerages.
What Vertiv is doing that’s actually “innovative” (not just incremental)
Vertiv’s innovation story is less “a single breakthrough product” and more a stacking of capabilities that lets them sell higher-density deployments, faster deployments, and more services over time.
Liquid cooling: moving from niche to default for AI racks.
Vertiv has been building out liquid cooling in two ways: technology (CDUs/manifolds/secondary fluid networks) and the ugly-but-essential services layer (commissioning, fluid quality, lifecycle maintenance). It has also used acquisitions to broaden both product and services capabilities in liquid cooling.
Digital twins + “unit of compute” thinking:treating the facility as an integrated machine.
Vertiv has been leaning into designing/operating the site as a single system, and has highlighted digital twins as a way to simulate, monitor, and optimize performance across the lifecycle (before and after build). This is one of those ideas that sounds like buzzwords until you realize it can reduce rework and shorten commissioning.
Energy autonomy themes: the power constraint is real, so the solution set is widening.
Power availability is turning into a gating factor. Vertiv’s framing is that operators are increasingly forced toward hybrid on-site generation + storage + microgrid-like approaches as a bridge while grid capacity catches up. That’s not a near-term revenue line item on its own, but it shapes what products/services win the next wave of projects.
Earnings: what happened, and what changed for 2026
Q4 2025 (reported Feb 11, 2026):
Net sales: $2.88B (+23% YoY; 19% organic).
Organic orders: +252% YoY; book-to-bill about 2.9x.
Backlog: $15.0B (up 109% YoY).
Adjusted diluted EPS: $1.36 (+37% YoY).
Initial FY 2026 outlook at the time: net sales $13.25B–$13.75B; adjusted diluted EPS $5.97–$6.07.
Q2 2026 guide: net sales $3.25B–$3.45B; adjusted diluted EPS $1.37–$1.43.
That guidance raise is the real event. Not the beat, not the margin line. It’s management saying: “the ramp is here and we’re leaning into it.”
Future estimates: what to track (and what can break the model)
Near-term numbers matter, but the “real” forecast inputs for Vertiv in 2026–2027 are more about mechanics:
Backlog conversion cadence: AI projects can be lumpy; a quarter with monster orders can be followed by one that looks “slow” just because of timing.
Capacity expansion and capex: 2026 capex is expected to step up as they add manufacturing/technology capacity to ship into demand.
Mix shift to liquid + services: if liquid cooling penetration accelerates, it’s not just incremental revenue – it can reshape attach rates, commissioning services, and longer-duration maintenance work (which tends to be stickier).
Tariffs / supply chain / project delays: margins can get choppy if the company eats cost to keep timelines, or if timing slippage changes quarterly mix.
If you want a single anchor point for “future estimates” right now, start with the company’s updated FY 2026 guide: adjusted EPS $6.30–$6.40 and net sales $13.5B–$14.0B. Everything else is basically the market arguing about 2027 operating leverage and how long the AI buildout stays “too fast.”
Apr 23, 2026: Morgan Stanley raised its price target (Overweight maintained) after the Q1 update.
Feb 11, 2026: Q4 2025 results highlighted massive order growth and a sharp step-up in backlog, setting the tone for 2026.
Dec 2025: completion of the PurgeRite acquisition (about $1B) to expand liquid cooling services for high-density compute.
One more industry context point: the “AI data center” buildout is pushing toward bigger, more power-dense designs, which is accelerating the shift toward liquid cooling, modular deployment, and more sophisticated monitoring/predictive maintenance.
My takeaway (and the two risks I’d respect)
The bull case is straightforward: Vertiv is positioned where AI capex has to go no matter who “wins” the model war – because the chips still need power and they still generate heat. Backlog + guidance raises imply the demand is not theoretical; it’s booked and being delivered.
Risk #1: timing games. If big projects slip, quarterly optics can get weird fast, even if the multi-year story is intact.
Risk #2: execution under compression. When customers demand “faster deployment, greater reliability, comprehensive services,” that sounds great… right up until it becomes warranty expense, expedite costs, or margin give-backs to keep schedules. Management is aware of it, but the tape doesn’t always wait.
– Stock Report
This content is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial advice. Investing involves risk.
Stock Report is a publication of Investing Media Solutions, LLC.
What analysts are saying, who’s running it, what’s actually innovative, and how earnings expectations are shifting into 2026
Vertiv isn’t just “picks and shovels” for AI. It’s closer to a scheduler – not in software, but in physics. The rack roadmap is being set by power delivery, heat removal, and how fast you can commission a site without embarrassing outages. When those constraints loosen, AI capacity shows up. When they don’t, it doesn’t. Vertiv sits right on that choke point.
That’s why the stock doesn’t trade like a normal industrial supplier anymore. It’s trading like a company that sells time – shorter build timelines, fewer do-overs, faster “ready for load.” And yes, that’s a little squishy. But it’s also how budgets actually get approved in this cycle.
Vertiv in one sentence: it’s the “physical layer” vendor that keeps AI data centers upright – power delivery, thermal management (increasingly liquid), modular deployments, and a growing services/software layer – and the market is pricing it like that’s a multi-year constraint, not a one-year capex cycle.
Also: this is one of those names where the narrative can outrun execution. The part people skip is lead times, commissioning, and whether backlog turns into shipped product on schedule (and on margin). Management is basically telling you: we’re expanding capacity as fast as we responsibly can, because customers are trying to compress timelines.
Banking. Cars. Rockets. The Internet itself. Each time, the same pattern: Elon targets an industry the world says can’t be disrupted, the experts call him crazy, the short sellers pile in… and then he does it. Now he’s preparing for his biggest takeover yet.
Vertiv sells the infrastructure around compute: UPS and power management, switchgear/busbar, thermal (CRAC/CRAH and now liquid cooling), racks/integrated systems, plus monitoring and lifecycle services.
In a “normal” cloud cycle that’s already important. In an AI cycle, it becomes existential because power density and heat flux are the limiting factors. The data hall doesn’t care about your TAM slide – it cares about watts, coolant flow, redundancy, and whether the thing can be maintained without drama.
The company’s own framing (and you can feel the product strategy behind it) is shifting from “components” to system-level architecture – treating the data center as a single unit where power + cooling + compute are designed together. That’s not just marketing; it’s how you sell larger contracts and lock in services.
Small tangent, but it matters: the “manufacturing/logistics/operational excellence” seat being prominent is basically the tell. This cycle is not won by who has the fanciest slide deck – it’s who can actually build, ship, commission, and service the stuff while everyone is fighting for the same skilled labor and components.
What analysts are saying (the tone, not just the rating)
Most “Street” commentary right now clusters around a few recurring points:
Demand visibility looks unusually high for an industrial-ish company – highlighted by the step-change in backlog and order strength exiting 2025.
Margins are expanding with volume(operational leverage) while management is also calling out tariff impacts and mitigation.
Capacity expansion becomes the swing factor: capex stepping up as they try to convert backlog to revenue.
Valuation is the pushback: the more bullish the “AI infrastructure bottleneck” framing gets, the more the stock trades like a momentum compounder, not a cyclical equipment supplier.
Concrete example of the “tone shift” post-print: Morgan Stanley raised its price target to $350(from $285) and kept an Overweight rating on April 23, 2026.
One thing to watch: public “consensus” pages can disagree (number of analysts, average target, etc.). Treat them as directionally useful, not source-of-truth. Different data providers can show different snapshots depending on feed timing and included brokerages.
What Vertiv is doing that’s actually “innovative” (not just incremental)
Vertiv’s innovation story is less “a single breakthrough product” and more a stacking of capabilities that lets them sell higher-density deployments, faster deployments, and more services over time.
Liquid cooling: moving from niche to default for AI racks.
Vertiv has been building out liquid cooling in two ways: technology (CDUs/manifolds/secondary fluid networks) and the ugly-but-essential services layer (commissioning, fluid quality, lifecycle maintenance). It has also used acquisitions to broaden both product and services capabilities in liquid cooling.
Digital twins + “unit of compute” thinking:treating the facility as an integrated machine.
Vertiv has been leaning into designing/operating the site as a single system, and has highlighted digital twins as a way to simulate, monitor, and optimize performance across the lifecycle (before and after build). This is one of those ideas that sounds like buzzwords until you realize it can reduce rework and shorten commissioning.
Energy autonomy themes: the power constraint is real, so the solution set is widening.
Power availability is turning into a gating factor. Vertiv’s framing is that operators are increasingly forced toward hybrid on-site generation + storage + microgrid-like approaches as a bridge while grid capacity catches up. That’s not a near-term revenue line item on its own, but it shapes what products/services win the next wave of projects.
Earnings: what happened, and what changed for 2026
Q4 2025 (reported Feb 11, 2026):
Net sales: $2.88B (+23% YoY; 19% organic).
Organic orders: +252% YoY; book-to-bill about 2.9x.
Backlog: $15.0B (up 109% YoY).
Adjusted diluted EPS: $1.36 (+37% YoY).
Initial FY 2026 outlook at the time: net sales $13.25B–$13.75B; adjusted diluted EPS $5.97–$6.07.
Q2 2026 guide: net sales $3.25B–$3.45B; adjusted diluted EPS $1.37–$1.43.
That guidance raise is the real event. Not the beat, not the margin line. It’s management saying: “the ramp is here and we’re leaning into it.”
Future estimates: what to track (and what can break the model)
Near-term numbers matter, but the “real” forecast inputs for Vertiv in 2026–2027 are more about mechanics:
Backlog conversion cadence: AI projects can be lumpy; a quarter with monster orders can be followed by one that looks “slow” just because of timing.
Capacity expansion and capex: 2026 capex is expected to step up as they add manufacturing/technology capacity to ship into demand.
Mix shift to liquid + services: if liquid cooling penetration accelerates, it’s not just incremental revenue – it can reshape attach rates, commissioning services, and longer-duration maintenance work (which tends to be stickier).
Tariffs / supply chain / project delays: margins can get choppy if the company eats cost to keep timelines, or if timing slippage changes quarterly mix.
If you want a single anchor point for “future estimates” right now, start with the company’s updated FY 2026 guide: adjusted EPS $6.30–$6.40 and net sales $13.5B–$14.0B. Everything else is basically the market arguing about 2027 operating leverage and how long the AI buildout stays “too fast.”
Apr 23, 2026: Morgan Stanley raised its price target (Overweight maintained) after the Q1 update.
Feb 11, 2026: Q4 2025 results highlighted massive order growth and a sharp step-up in backlog, setting the tone for 2026.
Dec 2025: completion of the PurgeRite acquisition (about $1B) to expand liquid cooling services for high-density compute.
One more industry context point: the “AI data center” buildout is pushing toward bigger, more power-dense designs, which is accelerating the shift toward liquid cooling, modular deployment, and more sophisticated monitoring/predictive maintenance.
My takeaway (and the two risks I’d respect)
The bull case is straightforward: Vertiv is positioned where AI capex has to go no matter who “wins” the model war – because the chips still need power and they still generate heat. Backlog + guidance raises imply the demand is not theoretical; it’s booked and being delivered.
Risk #1: timing games. If big projects slip, quarterly optics can get weird fast, even if the multi-year story is intact.
Risk #2: execution under compression. When customers demand “faster deployment, greater reliability, comprehensive services,” that sounds great… right up until it becomes warranty expense, expedite costs, or margin give-backs to keep schedules. Management is aware of it, but the tape doesn’t always wait.
– Stock Report
This content is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial advice. Investing involves risk.
Stock Report is a publication of Investing Media Solutions, LLC.
Good morning! It’s Thursday. Here are today’s top stories:
A day after Virginians voted to redraw Congressional maps to favor Democrats, a state judge nullified the results. The judge ruled that the referendum, which bypassed a bipartisan redistricting commission, was unconstitutional. Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones vowed an immediate appeal.
Secretary of the Navy John Phelan is leaving the administration, the Pentagon said, without providing a reason for the departure. Under Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao will serve as acting secretary.
Who actually benefits from government subsidies for health care? Nearly all U.S. health care is government-subsidized through direct payments, assistance with premium payments, tax deductions, or tax exemptions. Our senior reporter, Lawrence Wilson, explains how taxpayers cover the cost of health care and breaks down who benefits from it.
▶️ Exclusive interview with Fidel Castro’s daughter, Alina Fernández. Fernández watched Cuba spiral into communism and suffering under her father’s tyrannical rule. After fleeing to Miami more than three decades ago, she’s been an outspoken critic of the regime.
🍵 Health: Generosity Isn’t About Kindness—It’s About Attention. The trait appears to be a skill that the brain can strengthen, not just a fixed characteristic.
A voter at a polling site during the redistricting referendum in Alexandria, Va., on April 21, 2026. (Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times)
A Virginia judge ruled on April 22 that the state’s redistricting referendum approved by voters a day earlier was invalid, nullifying the election results. Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones said he would immediately file an appeal.
“Virginia voters have spoken, and an activist judge should not have veto power over the People’s vote,” Jones said in an X post.
Tazewell Circuit Court Judge Jack Hurley entered an injunction blocking certification of the election.
Former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli said the legal fight was just beginning after language used in the ballot question raised a lot of interest among the opposition.
The question voters faced was the following: “Should the Constitution of Virginia be amended to allow the General Assembly to temporarily adopt new congressional districts to restore fairness in the upcoming elections, while ensuring Virginia’s standard redistricting process resumes for all future redistricting after the 2030 census?”
Cuccinelli expects the case to move quickly through the appeals process.
“The ‘yes’ folks probably are going to look back at Tuesday and think that was the easy part because they have so badly violated several constitutional provisions,” Cuccinelli told “The Scott Jennings Show.”
The referendum faces three legal challenges in addition to the one decided on April 22.
Three of the lawsuits challenge the referendum on procedural grounds, arguing that Democratic Party lawmakers didn’t follow the law regarding timing requirements and legislative steps when passing the measure to place it on the ballot.
The fourth argument is about how the electoral districts were drawn and challenges the maps on contiguity requirements.
Tens of millions of dollars were spent to pass the redistricting referendum as Democrats across the nation continue their quest to redraw congressional seats in favor of taking back the U.S. House.
Voters approved the new map by a thin margin—51.5 percent to 48.5 percent—making Virginia the latest state to gerrymander its congressional seats in favor of Democrats. The map is intended to give the Democratic Party 10 out of the 11 congressional seats in the state, a drastic shift from the current map, in which Republicans hold five districts. (More)
IRAN WAR
Iranian forces fired on three ships in the Strait of Hormuz. It seized two of them and escorted the vessels to Iranian shores, marking the first time Iran has seized ships since the start of the war. The White House said the seizures were not a violation of the ceasefire.
An Iranian regime spokesman said that the regime still has not decided on whether it would enter talks with the United States. This came hours after Trump extended the ceasefire indefinitely pending a “unified proposal” from Iran.
Trump said the Iranian regime agreed to no longer execute eight Iranian women. The Iranian judiciary disputed that any of them were on the verge of execution.
Trump has raised new concerns about Beijing’s possible role in supporting Tehran, pointing to a recently intercepted vessel he described as maybe carrying a “gift from China.”
POLITICS
Trump is dissatisfied with the Mexican government’s response to the deaths of two CIA agents in Mexico, the White House said. The comments came as Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said that no U.S. officials may operate in the country without the government’s approval.
Trump criticized recent Supreme Court decisions and accused some of the justices he nominated of misrepresenting themselves during the confirmation process.
The president’s recent executive order fast-tracks the review of psychedelic drugs, including ibogaine, for mental health treatments. Here’s more on what the order did and how it’s been received.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told senators that glyphosate, a key ingredient in herbicides like Roundup, causes cancer and that human consumption of the chemical should be minimized.
LATEST NEWS
The Department of Justice said it has settled a lawsuit filed by former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page over alleged surveillance abuses.
Seven U.S. Marines who manned a checkpoint in the face of an impending suicide bombing during the 2021 civilian evacuation from Afghanistan have had their valor awards upgraded.
A Chinese college student has been arrested after federal authorities discovered that he had illegally photographed U.S. military planes near Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska.
A federal appeals court permanently blocked California from enforcing a new law requiring federal immigration officers to display ID when on duty in the state, ruling that it was unconstitutional.
The Southern Poverty Law Center faces federal fraud charges over an alleged scheme to defraud donors to fund informants in extremist groups. Here’s what prosecutors allege in the 11-count indictment.
CORRECTION: In the April 18 “Morning Brief,” we incorrectly stated the location of the Army’s Infantry Week. It was held in Fort Benning, Georgia. The Epoch Times regrets the error.
ADVERTISER’S NOTE:
Defending Education has identified 1,216 school districts nationwide with transgender policies affecting over 12 MILLION students.
The policies allow school staff to keep a student’s transgender status hidden from parents.
We are polling Epoch Times readers.
OFFICIAL POLL: Should local schools be allowed to enforce transgender bathroom policies that violate Title IX?
Defendants on video links as they attend the trial of 486 alleged members of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang, accused of more than 47,000 crimes committed between 2012 and 2022, at the Judicial Center Against Organized Crime in Soyapango, El Salvador, on April 21, 2026. (Jose Cabezas/Reuters)
WORLD
A mass trial of 486 alleged members of El Salvador’s most notorious gang, the Mara Salvatrucha or MS-13, is underway in the Salvadoran capital, San Salvador. It’s the biggest trial since Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele enacted emergency powers to take on the country’s organized crime groups.
Anyone born in 2009 or later will not be able to legally buy cigarettes in the UK after lawmakers approved new legislation on smoking. The effect is that people born on or after Jan. 1, 2009, face a lifetime ban.
Trump said that the United States was considering a currency swap with the United Arab Emirates to help the Gulf state financially.
Chinese state-run media outlets have recently pushed dramatic spy-catching stories into the public spotlight, including repeatedly amplifying a single, loosely detailed case across multiple platforms. Critics say the report bears signs of fabrication.
OPINION
It’s Time for Spring Cleaning—by Jeffrey A. Tucker (Read)
The Final Battle for Your Mind—by Casey Fleming (Read)
Why We Were Never Meant to Do This Alone—by Mollie Engelhart (Read)
Anthropic’s Most Dangerous Achievement—by Mike Fredenburg (Read)
A duck and her ducklings stroll through a fountain in Rome on April 22, 2026. (Tiziana Fabi/AFP via Getty Images)
📸 Day in Photos: Teotihuacan Reopens, Illegal Sand Quarries, and Youth Detention Center (Look)
🤝 Relationships: Why Being Ghosted Hurts More Than Rejection and Is Harder to Move on From (Read)
💸 Money: Take the 52-Week Money Challenge and Save (Read)
🎵 Music: Mozart’s Piano Trio (Divertimento) In B Flat (Listen)
📚(Sponsored) Defending Educationhas identified 1,216 school districts nationwide with transgender policies affecting over 12 MILLION students. POLL: Should local schools be allowed to enforce transgender bathroom policies that violate Title IX? Vote Now >>
MUSIC
The American premiere of Mahler’s “Symphony No. 8” with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski, 1916.
Gustav Mahler’s life swung between opposites: composer and conductor, Jew and Catholic, nature-lover and urbanite. One dichotomy characterized his entire composing career: symphony and song.
Song came first. Born to a large, lower-class family in Bohemia (now the Czech Republic) on July 7, 1860, Mahler wasn’t the child prodigy typical of classical music mythology. Neither a virtuoso pianist nor a composing wunderkind, Mahler tried his composing hand at age 16 with a rather perfunctory Piano Quartet that’s rarely played today. Chamber music wasn’t his strength.
He then switched emphasis to vocal music with “Das Klagende Lied” (“Song of Lamentation”) for vocal soloists, choir, and two orchestras—one onstage and one off, written between 1878 and 1880. The work presages his mammoth symphonies of later years. Then came a raft of lieder, or art songs: three lieder in 1880, a collection of five songs called “Lieder und Gesänge, Vol. I,” written 1880 to 1883, and four “Songs of a Wayfarer,” 1884–1885. All of this was, in a way, a prelude to what was coming.
Sometime in late 1887, Mahler embarked on composing his Symphony No. 1. Its instrumentation was like no other symphonic works of the time. The typical Beethoven-era orchestration consisted of woodwinds in pairs, four horns, two or three trumpets, sometimes trombones, two or three timpani played by one person, and maybe a pair of cymbals.
Contrast this with Mahler’s orchestra: four flutes, oboes, and clarinets, with numerous doublings; three bassoons, the third doubling contrabassoon; seven horns; five trumpets; four trombones; one tuba; six timpani played by two different timpanists; bass drum, cymbals, triangle; and tam-tam; harp; and the usual bowed strings—first and second violins, violas, cellos, and double basses. (More)
🎲 Games
Spot the Difference is our readers’ favorite. Play it here.
Our mailing address is: The Epoch Times, 129 West 29th Street, Fl 8, New York, NY 10001 | Contact Us
Our Morning Brief newsletter is one of the best ways to catch up with the news. Manage your email preferences here or unsubscribe from Morning Brief here.
From space systems to cybersecurity and advanced weapons, defense innovation is accelerating. These 3 stocks are tied to critical technologies shaping the future of global security.
The movement of basic materials stocks requires investors to keep a keen eye on the state of the economy to determine profitability. Raw materials such as plastic, steel, and lumber will always be in demand. Here are 7 stocks to take advantage of the growing demand!
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran, the United States and Israel reached a tentative, two-week ceasefire Wednesday in that tore across the Middle East and disrupted the global energy market, with U.S. President Donald Trump pulling back from his threats to destroy Iranian “civilization.” Continue Reading ➔
Information, charts, or examples contained in this email are for illustration and educational purposes only and not for individualized investment management. This message contains commercial elements, such as advertising and partner offers for which we may receive affiliate compensation. We only send these offers to those who have opted into our newsletter.
If you wish to no longer receive these offers, click on the unsubscribe link at the bottom of this email. Past performance is not indicative of future results. For these reasons, we strongly suggest trading in a DEMO/Simulated account.
The information provided by us is for educational and informational purposes only. We make no representations or warranties concerning the products, practices, or procedures of any company or entity mentioned or recommended in this email and have not determined if the statements and opinions of the advertiser are accurate, correct, or truthful.
If you use, act upon, or make decisions in reliance on information contained in this email or any external source linked within it, you do so at your own peril and agree to hold us, our officers, directors, shareholders, affiliates, and agents without fault.
2967 Dundas St. W. #990, Toronto, ON M6P 1Z2 | Phone Number: 917.672.7040
Big Bank Earnings Gave Financials a Lift, But Wall Street Is Still Cautious
Written by Jessica Mitacek on April 22, 2026
Key Points
Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, and JPMorgan all posted Q1 2026 earnings beats, signaling potential undervaluation across major financial stocks.
The financials sector has shed nearly 4% year-to-date in 2026 but has rebounded more than 7% over the past month amid strong bank earnings.
Analysts remain cautious despite the earnings beats, with mostly conservative price targets and low expectations for Federal Reserve rate cuts ahead.
Following a strong 2025 that saw it finish third in the index, the group has been the worst performer among the S&P 500’s 11 sectors so far in 2026, having posted a year-to-date (YTD) loss of nearly 4% (as measured by theFinancial Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSEARCA: XLF)).
But over the past month, financials have appeared to turn a corner after posting a gain of over 7%.
That momentum can, in part, be attributed to the lead-up to big banks’ earnings week, which kicked off on April 13 when Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) reported first-quarter results. For investors who have been monitoring the sector with an eye on a potential bounce, here’s what we have learned from the premier financial institutions.
Because my research has led me to believe we’re risking World War 3 with Iran for a completely different reason.Click here to find out what it is.
Goldman Sachs: Earnings Growth Hints at Undervalued Shares
Goldman Sach’s Q1 2026 results may be enough to finally help the 157-year-old investment bank break even for the year.
That would build upon recent momentum that has seen shares of GS gain more than 16% from their YTD low on March 13 as they rallied into last week’s earnings release.
The firm reported earnings per share (EPS) of $17.55, beating analyst expectations of $15.92, and revenue of $17.23 billion, beating analyst expectations of $16.66 billion.
While both figures were welcomed by shareholders, the revenue beat stood out as it showed a 14.4% year-over-year (YOY) increase.
The earnings beat marked the bank’s 11th consecutive quarter of exceeding estimates, with CEO David Solomon noting in his earnings call comments that EPS, revenue, and net income all were the second highest in the company’s history.
Notably, Goldman Sachs’ Global Banking & Markets segment and its Asset & Wealth Management segment reached record revenues and record assets under management, respectively.
Solomon did note near-term headwinds, though, including geopolitical unrest and a lack of clarity about how higher energy prices could impact growth. But the CEO said that the bank “is extremely well-positioned to navigate this current environment.”
Goldman Sachs’ earnings are forecast to grow nearly 11% over the next year, from $47.12 per share to $52.07 per share. The stock is looking increasingly undervalued given its current and projected earnings growth.
Big Banks Mirror Goldman’s Lead, Post Notable Earnings Beats
While only Wells Fargo missed on revenue, the bank saw top-line growth of 6.4% YOY, with revenue for JPMorgan and Citigroupposting YOY increases of 10% and 14.1%, respectively.
For each firm, the earnings beat marked the ninth consecutive quarter of EPS exceeding analyst expectations. But more importantly—as with Goldman Sachs—the Q1 beats are evidence of undervaluation, especially when those earnings are juxtaposed alongside each stock’s P/E multiple and forecasted earnings growth over the next year:
Wells Fargo: P/E 14.67, expected EPS growth of 16.64%
Citigroup: P/E 17.26, expected EPS growth of 25.5%
JPMorgan: P/E 17.31, expected EPS growth of 7.29%
Citigroup looks particularly undervalued after four of its five core businesses delivered double-digit revenue growth, and management sent investors a bullish signal after repurchasing $6.3 billion worth of shares in Q1 as part of a $20 billion buyback plan.
But like Solomon, Citigroup’s CEO Jane Fraser acknowledged that the Iran war’s fallout presents a situation wherein “inflation is now a greater risk to growth and will likely cause central banks to lean towards more restrictive monetary policies.”
Despite the earnings beats, analysts are showing tepid enthusiasm for those four bank stocks with mostly conservative price targets. Wells Fargo and Citigroup both carry consensus Moderate Buy ratings, but only the former carries an average 12-month price target that suggests a double-digit gain from current prices.
Expectations for additional rate cuts from the Federal Reserve are low, meaning banks will be able to continue improving their net interest margins as rates remain steady. Consumer spending remains strong, as cited in numerous banks’ earnings call comments. If the week concludes with a clean sweep of earnings beats, it very well could be the catalyst that financials need to change the narrative for the remainder of 2026.
Thank you for subscribing to DividendStocks.com’s daily newsletter for dividend and income investors that covers ex-dividend stocks, new dividend declarations, dividend stock ideas, and the latest market news.
If you have questions about your subscription, don’t hesitate to email our U.S. based support team at contact@marketbeat.com.
If you no longer wish to receive email from DividendStocks.com, you can unsubscribe.
.jpg)
News for you, Peter
Today’s game
Trending now1. 
Unlock powerful investment insights and strategies designed to accelerate your portfolio’s growth.
RJ Hamster 