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Luke Kawa

Accenture rises after announcing partnership with Anthropic, adding to its recent series of AI collaborations

Accenture is rising after the consulting giant announced a multiyear partnership with Anthropic to become “a premier AI partner for coding with Claude Code.” This includes a joint offering for AI-enabled software development with a focus on regulated industries including finance, healthcare, life sciences, and the public sector.

It comes on the heels of Accenture’s partnership with OpenAI earlier this month to utilize ChatGPT Enterprise in its consulting work. It’s also recently invested in AI-powered customer research platform WEVO and expanded its collaboration with cloud-based data company Snowflake to better utilize data using AI tools.

As Sherwood News’ Hyunsoo Rim recently flagged, the consulting business has hit an AI-shaped wall, with employment in the industry peaking shortly after the launch of ChatGPT.

Charitably, Accenture’s management is eagerly embracing how the consulting business may be radically altered in a world where corporate AI adoption is ubiquitous, and reacting accordingly. Uncharitably, it’s the best “training your replacements” company out there.

The emphasis on regulated industries as potential customers for this partnership is noteworthy. Jordi Visser of 22V Research recently discussed at length how GenAI tools that enable “vibe coding” reduce barriers to entry for software development, prompting a need to focus on industries where quality and safety are paramount.

“Where software is mostly a polished UI on CRUD, vibe coding is existential,” he wrote. “Where software is inseparable from life, safety, or regulated liability, AI deepens the moat.”

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Enphase drops as guidance and results fail to impress investors

Enphase Energy fell in after-hours trading Tuesday as uninspiring Q2 guidance overshadowed better-than-expected numbers in its Q1 earnings report. The maker of solar power and battery equipment reported:

  • Sales of $282.9 million vs. the $282.3 million FactSet expectation.

  • Non-GAAP diluted earnings per share of $0.47 vs. the $0.43 consensus estimate.

  • Q2 guidance for revenue between $280 million and $310 million ($295 million at the midpoint) vs. the $294.9 million forecast.

Enphase was a sometimes popular retail trade of the Covid era, when federal tax credits and low interest rates led to a burst of activity for rooftop solar installation. Between the end of 2019 and 2022, the shares rose more than 1,000%.

But as interest rates rose — driven, in part, by both Fed hikes and worries the increases wouldn’t be enough to quell price growth — and Republicans stripped out key tax credits and subsidies for the solar sector from the federal budget, the shares tanked. They’ve lost nearly 90% of their value since peaking in December 2022, and have emerged as a favorite of short sellers. Roughly 20% of the company’s public float is now in the hands of bearish traders.

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Bloom Energy surges after reporting huge Q1 revenue beat, big guidance hike

Fuel cell maker and momentum trading favorite Bloom Energy surged late Tuesday after reporting Q1 earnings and revenue that trounced Wall Street expectations while ratcheting guidance higher. Here are the numbers:

  • Q1 adjusted earnings per share of $0.44 vs. the $0.12 expected by analysts, according to FactSet.

  • Revenue of $751.1 million vs. the $539.9 million consensus forecast.

  • Full-year EPS guidance of between $1.85 and $2.25 vs. previous guidance of between $1.33 and $1.48 and Wall Street expectations for $1.42.

Bloom Energy shares have been ripping in 2026. They’ve doubled this year, and were up sharply in April after the company announced that it was expanding a deal to supply its fuel cells to Oracle’s data centers. (Oracle also received warrants in April to buy Bloom stock as part of a previous deal.)

The rise of the stock — it’s up more than 1,200% over the last 12 months — has been driven by a simultaneous rise in market sentiment and expectations for business results. Analysts have lifted their full-year 2026 earnings expectations for Bloom by about 30% since the start of the year.

But even accounting for those improving fundamentals, the stock is still quite highly priced by conventional metrics, trading at a multiple of almost 120x earnings over the next 12 months and about 17x expected sales.

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Seagate soars on strong quarterly numbers, guidance far above expectations

Seagate Technology Holdings ripped late Tuesday after the maker of hard disk drives, relatively cheap data storage devices, reported better-than-expected quarterly numbers and guidance in its earnings report. Seagate reported:

  • Revenue of $3.11 billion vs. the $2.96 billion expectation from Wall Street analysts, per FactSet.

  • Adjusted earnings per share of $4.10 vs. the $3.51 anticipated on the Street.

  • EPS guidance of between $4.80 and $5.20 (midpoint $5.00) for the current quarter — which ends in June — vs. the $3.99 expectation.

  • Sales guidance of between $3.35 billion and $3.55 billion ($3.45 midpoint) for the current quarter vs. Wall Street’s expectation for $3.16 billion.

The sudden explosion of Seagate shares — and those of its disk-making rival, Western Digital — has been one of the more surprising outgrowths of the AI boom.

A little over a year ago, on April 8, 2025, Seagate shares had been essentially flat for over a decade. (They ended that day up 0.1% since the end of 2014.) Since then, they’re up roughly 800%, as the reality of seemingly endless AI-related demand for data storage has become plain.

Perhaps most impressive is that the pace of the gains is quickening. If the after-hours gains hold, Seagate is on track for April to be its the best month since October 2011.

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