Earnings

GLOBAL reported its second-quarter 2026 results, with sales of 8.17 billion baht, roughly flat versus a year earlier. Although same-store sales growth remained negative at 3.98% amid weak purchasing power, net profit hit a record high of 947 million baht, up 82.5% year on year, while EBITDA rose 50.4% to 1.55 billion baht. The main driver was gross profit margin, which reached a record 31.59%, up from 25.42% in the second quarter of 2025, helped by a higher share of Private Brand products, which rose to 27.5% of sales and carry gross margins of roughly 40 to 45%, as well as effective product mix management and cost control. Although the benefit from lower-cost old inventory will gradually fade in the third quarter of 2026, the company expects gross margin in the second half of 2026 to remain at no less than 27 to 28% and above the prior-year level. Full-year sales may be close to last year, with same-store sales growth still slightly negative but showing signs of recovery, giving second-half profit a chance to grow year on year. This comes alongside a stronger financial position, with Net Debt to EBITDA down to 1.18 times, a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48 times, and free cash flow of 3.75 billion baht to support store expansion and future growth. Under its 2026 plan, the company will open five new stores in Thailand, in Phon Phisai, Wang Thong, Trakan Phuet Phon, Ban Phue, and Chiang Kham, bringing the domestic total to 101 stores as planned, and will renovate another eight stores to adjust product assortment and the customer experience. Overseas, it has a network of 41 stores through partners in Laos, Myanmar, Indonesia, and Cambodia, and plans to keep expanding, with one to two more stores in northern Laos, two more in Indonesia this year, and further new store openings planned in Myanmar. In Thailand, it still has land to support about 18 more locations. On valuation, the current price trades at a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.7 times, below peers DOHOME at 16.7 times and HMPRO at 13.9 times. The average target price from the IAA Consensus is 8.63 baht. On sentiment, the easing of the flood situation could bring back demand for home repair and restoration. GLOBAL derives revenue directly from construction materials, which account for roughly 30 to 35% of sales, including tiles, sanitary ware, paint, tools, and home improvement products, so it stands to benefit from replacement and repair demand after water levels recede, especially at its upcountry branches, which could help same-store sales growth recover late in the year and continue into 2027.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. reported $58.0 billion in second-quarter 2026 revenue, up 27% from a year earlier, with net income jumping 41% to $21.2 billion and earnings per share of $7.70. Average loans grew 10% and deposits increased 7%, while return on tangible common equity reached 29%. The bank raised its quarterly dividend from $1.50 to $1.65 per share, an annualized $6.60 starting in the third quarter of 2026, and approved a new $50 billion share-repurchase program. The stock trades at about 13.5x forward earnings, roughly 10% below its average forward P/E of about 15x over the previous five quarter ends, with a forward dividend yield of around 1.99% and a payout ratio of about 26%.

Grab Holdings Limited reported record second-quarter results, with revenue rising 22% year-over-year to $997 million and On-Demand gross merchandise volume up 21% to $6.5 billion. Monthly transacting users increased 17% to 53.9 million, adjusted EBITDA climbed 54% to $168 million with margin expanding to 16.9% from 13.3%, and operating profit rose to $19 million from $7 million. Management raised its full-year 2026 guidance to revenue of $4.1 billion to $4.15 billion and adjusted EBITDA of $720 million to $740 million, and authorized another $750 million share repurchase program, bringing cumulative repurchase authorization since 2024 to $1.75 billion. Financial Services revenue grew 59% to $134 million while its gross loan portfolio reached $2.3 billion, up 197%, though the segment posted negative adjusted EBITDA of $15 million, and total incentives reached $706 million in the quarter. On September 15, the company agreed to acquire a 60% controlling stake in Atome Financial for $1.49 billion in cash, with the deal expected to close by the third quarter of 2027, and it raised its 2028 targets to $1.7 billion in adjusted EBITDA and more than 30% annual revenue growth from 2025 to 2028.

Arista Networks raised its 2026 revenue guidance to US$12.60 billion, including at least US$3.50 billion from AI-related business, after reporting second-quarter fiscal 2026 revenue of US$3.00 billion, a 37.7% year-over-year increase. The higher outlook underscores how AI-driven cloud networking has become a central revenue pillar for the company, shaping its growth mix across hyperscale and enterprise customers. Arista was also added to the S&P 100 in September 2026, a move that reflects its growing weight in large-cap U.S. equity indices just as management ties more of its outlook to AI-related revenue. The company's longer-range narrative projects US$21.4 billion in revenue and US$8.2 billion in earnings by 2029, requiring 26.6% yearly revenue growth and an earnings increase of about US$4.2 billion from US$4.0 billion today. Some of the lowest-ranked analysts had already assumed about US$18.6 billion of 2029 revenue and US$6.9 billion of earnings before this guidance, illustrating how differently Arista's AI exposure and long-term supply commitments can be read.

Jim Cramer said he expects Chipotle Mexican Grill to bounce off its recent level, telling a caller on Mad Money that the stock has been at this price before and he thinks it will do so again. The comments came as the company reported quarterly revenue of $3.3 billion, up 9.3% year-over-year and ahead of consensus, with comparable restaurant sales up 2.2% on a 1% rise in transaction volume and a 1.2% increase in average check size. Digital sales accounted for 38.3% of total food and beverage revenue, and the company opened 100 new restaurants during the quarter, including 80 with the Chipotlane drive-thru format. Restaurant-level operating margins stood at 25.2%, compressed by wage inflation, higher utility expenses and expanded marketing costs, while management targets at least 7,000 restaurants across North America. Insider Monkey data showed 63 hedge funds held the stock at the end of the second quarter, down from 68, with Arrowstreet Capital the largest tracked holder after raising its position 29% to 21.24 million shares, and short interest at 3.6% of the public float.

Chalach Chinthammit, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Khon Kaen Sugar Industry Public Company Limited, or KSL, said that world sugar prices, which have risen to around 18.94 cents per pound, a roughly 17-month high, will be a positive factor for next year's crushing season, since all sugar to be sold this year has already been forward-contracted. For the 2026/2027 crushing season, which runs from December 2026 through no later than April 2027, KSL expects sugarcane crush volumes to grow from the previous season's estimate of about 8.3 million tonnes, driven by larger sugarcane output reaching the market and water availability for cultivation that remains consistently favorable. The recent weakening of the baht, averaging around 33.64 baht per US dollar, is an additional positive factor, since about 70% of KSL's revenue comes from exporting sugar products overseas. For the 2026 fiscal year, the company expects full-year results to swing to a profit, compared with a loss of 660 million baht in 2025, because this year there is no provision for expenses related to projects in neighboring countries, and the first nine months of this year already showed a profit of about 358 million baht.

Global Securities, or GBS, says King Gen Public Company Limited, or KGEN, is entering a turnaround phase, raising its stake in Omoda & Jaecoo Manufacturing (Thailand) Company Limited, which operates the electric vehicle plants for the OMODA JAECOO and CHERY brands, from the current 43.7% to 51% in early July, and then to 60% in late July to early August. This will shift revenue recognition from the share of profit of an associate to full consolidation of both revenue and profit. Management expects that after the stake increase, revenue will grow significantly year on year to 25 billion baht, with a net profit margin of 2.5-3.0%, or roughly 600-700 million baht. Previously, KGEN reported second-quarter 2026 profit of 37 million baht, up 171% quarter on quarter and 152% year on year, after losses in the first quarter of 2026 and the second quarter of 2025. The main driver was the share of profit from its investment in that associate, whose production line began operating on 20 April 2026, while revenue from sales and services grew to 227 million baht, up 8% quarter on quarter and 36% year on year. Bookings for JAECOO and OMODA electric vehicles at the Big Motor Sale 2026, held from 21-30 August 2026, totaled 5,028 units, with deliveries scheduled for September to October 2026, an additional factor supporting revenue and profit growth. The current share price still cannot be assigned a P/E ratio because the company has posted continuous losses from 2022 through the first six months of 2026, though earnings are expected to turn around from 2026 onward. The stock trades at a P/BV ratio of 2.58 times, above its one-year, two-year and three-year averages of 2.56, 2.30 and 2.10 times respectively.

Tesla's third-quarter deliveries beat company-compiled analyst expectations by 5.3%, though they declined 2.1% from a year earlier, a drop partly cushioned by Q3 2025's tax credit boost. Seeking Alpha analyst Oliver Rodzianko said the biggest takeaway is that traditional EV demand remains resilient as Tesla pivots toward autonomous taxi services and humanoid robotics as its dominant operating models, while energy storage deployment numbers missed expectations. Rodzianko noted that Chinese rival BYD saw its battery-electric passenger-car sales rise 30.9% year-over-year in the third quarter, underscoring fierce competition in China. Analyst Alexander Grover argued the delivery number is a distraction, since Tesla's valuation assumes unsupervised self-driving at scale, and flagged that Alphabet's Waymo is running more than 500,000 paid driverless rides a week across 15 U.S. metros with LiDAR in its stack, while Tesla still does not disclose how many of its robotaxis run without a safety monitor.

Costco Wholesale Corporation closed fiscal 2026 with total revenue of $276.4 billion, up 8.1% year over year, as the warehouse retailer reported net sales of $93.87 billion, up 11.2%, and net income of $2.998 billion in its September 24 earnings call. Membership remains the engine of the business, with 84.1 million paid members, including 42.3 million Executive tier members, a group that grew 9.4% and pushed that tier's share of the base to a new high, while renewal rates rose to 92.3% in the US and Canada and 89.8% worldwide. Membership fee income climbed 7.3% to $1.849 billion, and management plans 33 openings in fiscal 2027 as it works toward 30 net new warehouses a year, with digitally enabled sales topping $33 billion on growth above 20%. The quarter was not spotless, as reported gross margin slipped to 11.02% from 11.13% a year earlier and the LIFO charge jumped to $152 million from $43 million, tied to pricier memory in electronics and Middle East conflict costs for gas, motor oil, and resins, while tariff refunds added $0.15 per share and the $184 million received covers only about a third of the expected recovery. With the stock trading near historical valuation highs at a forward P/E of 40.32 and hedge fund ownership slipping to 104 funds from 107, the debate now centers on whether membership loyalty and the expansion plan can keep earnings growing into a premium that leaves little room for a stumble.

Scholastic reported a first-quarter net loss of $71.2 million, or $3.77 per share, on revenue that slipped 4% to $216.8 million, while management left its full-year targets untouched. The quarter is the quietest stretch of Scholastic's year, making up only 14% of full-year revenue last year, so the real test is the fall, where Book Fairs bookings and fair counts are both running ahead of last year and the company is reaching new school communities including Christian schools. Content catalysts are stacking up: an HBO adaptation of Harry Potter arrives this Christmas, a new Dog Man title lands in November alongside a Hunger Games film, and entertainment revenue rose 48% to $20.1 million on heavier production activity. The balance sheet improved as net debt fell to $86.8 million from $242.8 million a year earlier, largely on sale-leaseback deals completed in December 2025, and the company bought back $25.8 million of its own stock during the quarter. Still, education revenue fell $9.7 million to $30.4 million amid higher district staffing costs and the end of ESSER pandemic relief funding in March, overhead climbed $5 million to $23.3 million, and free cash use for the quarter was $110.8 million, worse than last year's $100.2 million, leaving full-year adjusted EBITDA targets of $135 million to $145 million and free cash flow of $35 million to $40 million to be built on top of a first-quarter adjusted EBITDA loss of $63.6 million.

Jabil reported fourth-quarter revenue up 29% year over year and core earnings per share up 34% to $4.40, and guided fiscal 2027 core EPS to $17.55, another gain of about 34%. The company generated $14.4 billion of AI-related revenue in fiscal 2026 and expects $22.1 billion in fiscal 2027, a 54% increase, with six customers in the segment expected to top $1 billion each in fiscal 2027. Jabil supported $36.0 billion of revenue in fiscal 2026 on just $470 million of net capital spending, lifting core return on invested capital to 59%, nearly triple the fiscal 2020 level, and buybacks absorbed about $1.1 billion of free cash flow during the year. On the risk side, chief supply chain officer Francis McKay said memory is being pulled toward AI and hyperscale buyers, squeezing other markets, and Connected Living is expected to shrink 15% to $2.3 billion, while healthcare fell short in the fourth quarter on equipment delays and a slipped customer program. Jabil is adding more than $8.5 billion of revenue in fiscal 2027, which management called unprecedented, and a second hyperscale customer is expected to pass 10% of total revenue, while net inventory days of 64 remain above the 55 to 60 day target.

AZZ is drawing investor attention ahead of its scheduled October 13, 2026 earnings release, with analysts projecting earnings per share growth of 17.42% versus the prior year and a forward P/E ratio below the industry average. The company recently extended and repriced its revolving credit agreement to May 2029, lowering interest margins and fees and giving it more financial flexibility as it ramps its St. Louis area greenfield plant and pursues acquisitions. AZZ's narrative projects $1.9 billion in revenue and $215.1 million in earnings by 2029, requiring 5.2% yearly revenue growth and a $102.2 million earnings decrease from $317.3 million, with a $161.67 fair value implying 16% upside to the current price. Some analysts hold a more optimistic view, assuming revenues around US$1.9 billion and earnings near US$212.9 million before this news. Risks remain, including prolonged weather related production losses, production disruptions, and execution at newer facilities.

Maple Leaf Foods Inc. will consolidate its U.S. plant protein production into a single Centre of Excellence in Indianapolis, winding down its Seattle and Turners Falls plants in phases through the fourth quarter of 2027. The move is part of the company's Fuel for Growth initiative, which aims to simplify its manufacturing footprint, enhance efficiency and support its plant protein brands more competitively. The consolidation update sits alongside Maple Leaf's recent first-quarter 2026 results, which showed CA$962.85 million in sales and CA$46.07 million in net income. Maple Leaf's narrative projects CA$5.6 billion in revenue and CA$467.3 million in earnings by 2028, requiring 4.2% yearly revenue growth and an earnings increase of about CA$372.7 million from CA$94.6 million today. Two fair value estimates from the Simply Wall St Community span CA$35.90 to CA$83.26, against a CA$35.90 fair value estimate that implies 45% upside to the current price.

Nvidia's board authorized an additional $150B for its existing share-repurchase program, bringing the remaining authorization to $235B, which the company said was the largest increase to a share-repurchase authorization in history. Micron Technology reported fiscal fourth-quarter results and guidance that topped Wall Street's expectations by a wide margin, earning an adjusted $33.42 per share as revenue soared 379.1% year-over-year to $54.23B, versus analyst expectations of $31.72 per share on $51.49B in revenue. Accenture shares rose after its Q4 beat expectations and it forecast upbeat fiscal 2027 revenue growth, reporting GAAP earnings of $3.29 per share, revenue up 6.3% year over year to $18.7B, and new bookings of $22.2B. MongoDB shares fell after CEO Chirantan Desai stepped down effective immediately to become the newly created Chief Enterprise Platform Officer at Meta, with the board appointing Dev Ittycheria as interim president and CEO. Summit Therapeutics shares surged after AstraZeneca announced a $2B equity investment in the U.S. biotech and a clinical collaboration to develop new cancer treatments, purchasing convertible preferred shares at a conversion price equivalent to $18.36 per common share, a 10% premium to Summit's five-day volume-weighted average price. For the week, the Dow fell 1.26%, the S&P 500 lost 0.27%, and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.45%.

A diverse earnings slate spanning consumer staples, beverages, travel, apparel and AI infrastructure is set for the week of October 5 to October 9, with PepsiCo, Constellation Brands, Lamb Weston, Levi Strauss and Tilray Brands offering reads on food, beverage and apparel spending while Delta Air Lines provides a key read on travel demand. Constellation Brands, the U.S. importer and marketer of Corona, Modelo Especial and Pacifico, reports fiscal Q2 FY2027 after Tuesday's close, with consensus EPS of $3.55 and revenue of $2.54B, as the stock sits near a 52-week low of $113.34. Levi Strauss reports fiscal Q3 2026 after Wednesday's close, with consensus EPS of $0.36 and revenue of $1.62B, after management guided to revenue growth of 4%-5% and adjusted EPS of $0.34-$0.36. PepsiCo reports Q3 2026 before Thursday's open, with consensus EPS of $2.30 and revenue of $24.97B, as the company plans to raise prices on select brands including Doritos and Ruffles by low-to-mid-single-digit percentages later this year or early next year, reversing price cuts of as much as 15% introduced earlier in 2026. Delta Air Lines reports Q3 2026 before Friday's open, with consensus EPS of $1.88 and revenue of $18.99B, as a dispute over its in-flight Wi-Fi strategy continues after Delta chose Amazon's LEO satellite network over SpaceX's Starlink for a rollout planned for 2028. Also reporting during the week are Saratoga Investment, Lamb Weston, RPM International, Apogee Enterprises, Tilray Brands, NOVAGOLD Resources, Helen of Troy, AngioDynamics, Richardson Electronics, Resources Connection, Penguin Solutions, Applied Digital and New Horizon Aircraft.

Endeavour Mining generated record free cash flow of about US$1.16 billion in fiscal 2025 and US$761 million in the first half of 2026, allowing it to maintain a net cash balance sheet. Those cash flows funded a record US$301 million returned to shareholders in the first half of 2026, including an interim dividend of roughly US$0.95 per share. The company's Assafou definitive feasibility study outlines a large, relatively low cost project in Côte d'Ivoire with a 16 year mine life, and the key question is whether future Assafou capex and any changes to Ivorian royalties or taxes could dilute the current dividend and buyback story. Endeavour's narrative projects US$6.2 billion in revenue and US$1.9 billion in earnings by 2029, yielding a CA$95.74 fair value and 18% upside to its current price, while some analysts had assumed revenue of about US$7.6 billion and earnings of roughly US$2.6 billion by 2029. Heightened West African royalty and tax discussions remain a risk to how much of the cash windfall reaches shareholders.

Micron beat sales and profit forecasts for its latest quarter, driven by voracious demand from the AI boom, with guidance also strong except for margin comments on the earnings call that may have caused a muted market reaction. The memory chipmaker added about $43 billion in sales during the most recent quarter compared to the year-ago quarter, and more than $13 billion in sales from the quarter reported three months ago. Operating margins exploded in all business segments, exceeding 80% in some segments. Micron executives signaled tight capacity and higher prices for its products until 2028, with D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria saying expectations for tightening supply-demand conditions through both 2027 and 2028 meaningfully extend the industry's runway for strong pricing and earnings growth. The stock trades on a single-digit forward P/E ratio.

Garrett Motion reported quarterly revenue of US$976 million, up 6.9% year on year, with EBITDA results and full-year guidance that topped analyst expectations. The stock rose 3.1% over the last day and 5.3% over the past week, though its 90-day share price return is down 18.4% after a softer 30-day stretch, while the 1-year total shareholder return stands at 103.8% and the 3-year total shareholder return at about 2.8x. The most followed narrative pegs fair value around $37.17, comfortably above the last close at $27.07, implying the shares are 27% undervalued. That narrative rests on ongoing innovation and proof of concept awards in zero emission technologies including E Powertrain, E Cooling, and fuel cell compressors, plus expansion in industrial and non automotive end markets. It also flags risks from Garrett Motion's reliance on internal combustion engine turbochargers and exposure to tariff and currency swings.

Minerals 260 Limited reported full-year results for the period ended June 30, 2026, recording net income of A$83.48 million versus a net loss of A$11.52 million a year earlier, a swing that translated into positive basic and diluted earnings per share from continuing operations. The company's share price has been on the slide but might be dropping deeper into value territory, with the stock down 8.0% after the profitability turnaround. Two fair value estimates from the Simply Wall St Community span roughly A$0.41 to A$1.35 per share, highlighting how far apart individual views can be. The result does not resolve questions about how sustainable these earnings are given the high level of non-cash income, or how much future dilution or capital will be required to turn exploration and development assets, particularly Bullabulling and the broader WA portfolio, into cash-generating operations.

Arm Holdings is moving beyond designing processors for others by selling its own data-center CPU, a shift that could capture more revenue per system but changes its relationship with the customers that license its technology. In its fiscal 2027 first-quarter results released July 29, Arm reported $1.29 billion of revenue, with royalties of $715 million, up 22%, and licensing and other revenue of $574 million, up 23%, while data-center royalty revenue more than doubled. Arm said its AGI CPU had been delivered to initial customers and that it had secured capacity for a $1 billion revenue opportunity across fiscal 2027 and fiscal 2028, with management describing demand exceeding $2 billion over those two years, a figure it characterized as demand commentary rather than recognized revenue or a guaranteed order book. At a September 30 market-data snapshot, Arm traded at roughly 59 times enterprise value to trailing revenue and about 205 times trailing free cash flow, and the company had 15,521,694 shares sold short at the September 15 settlement with 3.9 days to cover. The bull case rests on Arm earning royalties from customers' processors while using its own product to accelerate adoption of its architecture, while the bear case is a gradual erosion of neutrality as customers grow reluctant to share roadmaps with a supplier competing for the same server budget.

Bank of America reiterated a Buy rating on Advanced Micro Devices and raised its price target to $720 from $620, citing the company's opportunity to capture a larger share of the rapidly expanding server CPU market. The firm expects the server market to grow from approximately $61 billion to $211 billion by 2030, with roughly $180 billion of that total tied to AI workloads, and sees agentic AI boosting demand for CPUs that coordinate workloads and manage data alongside GPUs. AMD's data center revenue rose 107% in the second quarter to $6.72 billion, driven by EPYC server CPUs and Instinct GPUs, while client business revenue climbed 23% year over year to $3.1 billion on Ryzen demand. The stock has gained more than 180% in 2026 and trades at a forward price-to-earnings multiple of 39X, roughly double Nvidia's 19X, though AMD's gross margin of 54% trails Nvidia's roughly 75%. Hedge fund participation increased to 164 funds holding AMD as of the second quarter, up from 134 in the first quarter, while short interest stood at approximately 39.98 million shares as of September 15, about 2.46% of the float.

Cenovus Energy reported stronger-than-expected second-quarter 2026 operating results, raised its 2026 production guidance to 970,000 to 1,010,000 BOE per day, trimmed Oil Sands operating cost expectations, and distributed about C$1.40 billion to investors through dividends and share repurchases. Alongside other major oil sands producers, Cenovus moved forward with the Pathways CCS initiative under a new federal-provincial-industry framework that ties future oil sands expansion to large-scale emissions reduction infrastructure. The company's narrative projects CA$54.9 billion in revenue and CA$6.1 billion in earnings by 2029, implying fairly flat yearly revenue growth and an earnings decrease of about CA$0.6 billion from CA$6.7 billion today. That forecast yields a CA$51.15 fair value, an 11% upside to the current price, while the most optimistic analysts had already assumed revenue growth toward about CA$56.8 billion and earnings near CA$6.9 billion by 2029. The biggest swing factor near term remains regulatory and fiscal clarity around carbon and project approvals rather than quarterly numbers.