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Rani Molla

Google soars after analysts charmed by developer conference

Wall Street analysts were generally impressed with Google’s two-hour developer conference yesterday, in which execs crammed its Gemini AI into basically everything.

Today the stock is up more than 5%. Here are some comments from a few of their notes:

JPMorgan: “We come away from Google I/O incrementally positive as we believe Google is leading in many areas of AI with Gemini at the top of foundational model leaderboards, AI Mode bringing Gemini into Search and incorporating agentic capabilities from Astra, Mariner, & Deep Research, and Gemini becoming widely available across numerous platforms (iOS & Android) & device types (smartphones, wearables, & auto). Importantly, Google’s product innovation is accelerating — the company is shipping faster than ever — and AI Mode in Search is rolling out to US users just 1 year after AI Overviews were introduced. We believe Google’s ‘total reimagining of search’ is taking shape as AI Mode integrates what have been somewhat disparate AI products.”

Morgan Stanley: “I/O showed how GOOGL intends to make search more AI-enabled, personalized, and agentic in ’25. Next gen (subscription, diffusion and devices) tools are improving too but for now we are most optimistic on the free pipeline of products to come.”

Bank of America: “We think the catch-up phase for Google’s LLM capabilities is coming to an end... We see this as Google’s ‘Reels moment,’ taking on a growing and well-funded competitor in OpenAI by integrating a directly competitive product [AI Mode].”

Evercore ISI: “We don’t believe there will be only one AI winner, but we think Google has successfully proven that it will remain a leader in the AI race.”

Baird: “It’s a tough and competitive landscape, but Google’s global scale, infrastructure, and suite of apps are meaningful competitive advantages.”

Rosenblatt Securities: “While impressive, the event was also a reminder that Google is stretching to parry huge strides by rivals that were nowhere just a couple of years ago.”

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Claire Yubin Oh

Starbucks beats Q2 estimates, raises 2026 guidance

Starbucks shares ticked up as much as 6% in premarket trading on Wednesday after the coffee chain raised its full year outlook and reported its second consecutive quarter of traffic growth.

CEO Brian Niccol, who joined from Chipotle in a high-profile deal in 2024, commented that the latest quarter “marked the turn in our turnaround as our Back to Starbucks plan drove both top and bottom line growth.”

During his tenure, Niccol has focused on addressing a range of customer complaints to improve its performance, from long waits, to a lack of seating. And after seeing its first positive quarter of same-store sales since the start of 2024 in Q1 2026, same store sales jumped 7.1% in North American stores and 2.6% internationally also for the quarter that ended March 29, driven by higher customer traffic, per the company’s press release. In North America, that blew past consensus expectations for 4% growth.

For the fiscal full year, Starbucks now expects its global and US same-store sales to increase by at least 5%, up from its previous guidance of a 3% growth. The company also hiked its adjusted EPS outlook to a range of $2.25 to $2.45 from $2.15 to $2.40 per share. Brian Niccol also noted that, whilst higher gas prices are yet to change the behavior of Starbucks customers, the higher full year guidance came with caution about the uncertainty and inflationary consequences of the war.

For the fiscal full year, Starbucks now expects its global and US same-store sales to increase by at least 5%, up from its previous guidance of a 3% growth. The company also hiked its adjusted EPS outlook to a range of $2.25 to $2.45 from $2.15 to $2.40 per share. Brian Niccol also noted that, whilst higher gas prices are yet to change the behavior of Starbucks customers, the higher full year guidance came with caution about the uncertainty and inflationary consequences of the war.

markets
J. Edward Moreno

Booking dives after slashing its guidance as Iran war weighs on its business

Booking Holdingsfell as much as 5% in early trading on Wednesday after it slashed its Q2 and full-year guidance as the war in Iran weighs on its business.

The company — which owns brands like Booking.com and Kayak — expects fewer people to book travel accommodations through its sites this year than it previously forecasted, as the war in Iran leaves travel plans uncertain and jet fuel prices remain elevated.

It now expects to report 2026 gross bookings growth in the “high single digits to low double digits,” compared to its previous guidance of “low double digits.” It also forecasts annual adjusted earnings per share growth in the “low to mid-teens,” rather than the “mid-teens.”

For the last quarter, Booking reported adjusted EPS of $1.14, ahead of Wall Street estimates for $1.07, with revenue 0.5% higher than forecast, too. However, the company also reported room nights — a critical measure of hotel occupancy — that came in bellow expectations. The company attributed that miss to more more people canceling trips and fewer people booking new ones.

Booking also expects the current quarter to be even more impacted by the war than the last. It expects revenue growth of 4% to 6% in Q2, compared to the 11% analysts polled by FactSet were expecting.

“The thing we absolutely are very certain of is this will end,” Booking CEO Glen Fogel told analysts. “We don't know when, but it will. We do know travel will normalize. Now, how quickly? That also an unknown thing.”

The report also brought down its competitor, Expedia, by about 2%.

markets
Claire Yubin Oh

NXP Semiconductors leaps after strong beat and guidance

NXP Semiconductors is up more than 15% in premarket trading on Wednesday after the chipmaker reported upbeat results for Q1, with strong guidance to match.

For its first fiscal quarter of the year, NXP Semiconductors reported:

  • Revenue of $3.18 billion, up 12% year-over-year and above analyst estimates of $3.15 billion (compiled by Bloomberg).

  • Adjusted EPS of $3.05, topping Wall Street expectations of $2.99.

With the company’s CEO noting that “the momentum we have built is expected to accelerate through the remainder of 2026, with progress increasingly extending across the core of our business.,” in its press release, management also released better-than-expected guidance for the second quarter. The company now expects revenue to be between $3.35 billion to $3.55 billion, with the lower end of the range ahead of the average analyst estimate of $3.27 billion.

The chipmaker derived most of its revenue from its automotive (largest division) and industrial segments — markets that have been recovering from an industry-wide slump as customers clear out excess inventory from pandemic times. Texas Instruments, which also has similar end-markets, also recently provided a strong forecast for the full year.

markets
Matt Phillips

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.

markets
Matt Phillips

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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