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Kelly Cloonan

American soda guzzlers fuel Keurig Dr Pepper’s sales and earnings beat

Keurig Dr Pepper delivered a modest beat on both the top and bottom line last quarter as consumers drank more of its beverages at higher prices, sending shares up 2% in premarket trading.

The coffee and soda maker reported adjusted earnings per share of $0.58 for the fourth quarter ahead of market open on Tuesday, exceeding estimates by a penny. Sales, meanwhile, rose 5% from the year before to $4.07 billion, coming in above the $4.01 billion consensus estimate of analysts polled by Bloomberg. In short, the results — and the market reaction — look a lot more like Coca-Cola than PepsiCo.

The sales beat was fueled by strong growth in its US beverages segment, which includes brands like 7UP, Crush, Snapple, and its namesake Dr Pepper, plus its recent bet on energy drinks with partner brands Electrolit, C4, and a recent acquisition of Ghost for over $1 billion. Sales in the segment rose over 10% to $2.4 billion, driven by higher volumes and prices. International sales also rose, up 1% from a year before to $499 million.

The company’s US coffee segment, meanwhile, continued to decline as expected, with sales falling over 2% as unfavorable prices more than offset a slight rise in K-Cup pod shipments. Coffee companies have been in fierce competition for inflation-weary customers in recent quarters, trying to win market share with discounts and coupons while dealing with rising input costs of their own. But after prices cuts weighed on its coffee revenue in Q3, the company had said it planned to raise prices in early 2025.

Going forward, management said they expect adjusted earnings per share growth in a high-single-digit range and net sales growth in a mid-single-digit range for 2025, with headwinds from currency fluctuations causing a 1 to 2 percentage point drag on full-year top- and bottom-line growth.

Kelly Cloonan is a journalist who has written for Business Insider and Fast Company.

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Luke Kawa
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Software slump resumes after high-profile companies issue underwhelming outlooks

The nascent recovery in software stocks has become unglued thanks to negative news both foreign and domestic.

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markets
Max Knoblauch

Electric aircraft maker Beta surges as Amazon discloses 5.3% stake, Jefferies upgrades stock to “buy”

Beta Technologies, the electric aircraft maker that went public in November, is soaring in early Wednesday trading. The stock climbed before markets opened following an upgrade from Jefferies from “hold” to “buy” with a $30 price target, reflecting a nearly 80% climb from its price as of Tuesday’s close.

Jefferies believes Beta shares are attractive after recent risk-off trading — the stock is down 40% since the beginning of the year.

Also appearing to boost optimism in Beta is an SEC filing on Tuesday that indicated Amazon owns a 5.3% stake in the company. The stake isn’t new: Amazon was listed as a 5% or greater shareholder in Beta’s November IPO.

markets
Matt Phillips

Analysts give mixed reviews on Robinhood’s Q4 results

Robinhood Markets remained down in premarket trading after delivering Q4 results Tuesday that fell short of some of Wall Street’s expectations, partly due to a slide in crypto trading.

Here’s what analysts had to say about the print:

Barclays: “Q4 came in softer than expected as lower take rates in options and crypto impacted transaction revenues, and lower [securities] lending in particular impacted [net interest income].”

Mizuho: “Prediction Markets were strong, but overall mixed quarter.”

Piper Sandler: “Bottom line, despite these ST headwinds which we laid out in our note last week, our LT thesis remains intact. If you can stomach the volatility, HOOD is the best way to play secular growth in retail trading and the closest FinTech platform we’ve ever seen to achieving ‘super app’ status.”

Zack’s Investment Research: “Crypto trading revenue fell 38% year over year in Q4, and January data showed another 57% decline in app-based crypto volumes. Unfortunately, that’s not a seasonal blip, that’s a structural slowdown in one of Robinhood’s historically highest-margin engagement drivers.”

Citizens JMP: “Slight revenue shortfall for Robinhood Markets but better expense performance, broadening business contribution, and a full roadmap should support strong growth again in 2026; reiterate our Market Outperform rating.”

markets
Luke Kawa

Job growth crushes estimates in January, unemployment rate unexpectedly dips to 4.3%

The American labor market, ladies and gentlemen.

The January jobs report was a blockbuster, with nonfarm payrolls growth of 130,000.

Economists polled by Bloomberg expected nonfarm payroll growth of 65,000 for the month. Heading into this release, the event contracts trading closest to a coin flip were “above 50,000” and “above 60,000,” suggesting the masses were less optimistic than Wall Street.

(Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.)

The unemployment rate dipped to 4.3%, while economists had anticipated it would hold steady at 4.4%.

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF extended gains in premarket trading following this release.

The employment gains were very narrowly focused on an industry basis: healthcare accounted for a whopping 123,500, or 95%, of the net job growth.

markets
Luke Kawa

Unity Software craters after Q1 sales and earnings guidance fall short of estimates

Both pillars of Unity Software’s business are under pressure from AI tools and new entrants, and its internal AI capabilities don’t seem to be keeping up.

Shares of the gaming engine and ad tech company are off more than 20% in premarket trading. Its solid Q4 results were overshadowed by weak Q1 guidance, with management calling for revenues to range from $480 million to $490 million with adjusted EBITDA from $105 million to $110 million. Wall Street’s estimates were $494 million and $112 million, respectively.

The company’s outlook suggests “a slower than expected ramp-up in its AI-powered ad-technology tool, Vector,” Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Mandeep Singh and Nathan Naidu wrote. “Slow uptake of Unity 6 subscriptions, with guidance seeing flat growth in 1Q, could drag on top-line gains.”

Unity was among the stocks that cratered in late January after the release of Google’s Project Genie, which was able to recreate knockoffs of popular games.

Separately, Unity and peer AppLovin have suffered amid fears that their ad divisions will be disrupted by startups utilizing AI agents.

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