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GE Vernova Earnings Stock Move
A GE Vernova gas turbine (China News Service/Getty Images)

Guidance hike helps GE Vernova to best day ever

Markets are forward-looking!

Matt Phillips

GE Vernova posted its best ever day in the markets after a strong earnings report and an upgrade of its guidance for full-year 2025 sales, operating margin, and cash flow underscored its view that the AI investment supercycle has room to run.

The stock closed up roughly 14.6% on Wednesday, its best performance since it was spun off — along with GE Aerospace and GE HealthCare — from the old-line industrial conglomerate in spring 2024.

During the day, GE Vernova hit a new all-time high of $633.72 and ended with a gain of nearly 0.8% as the third-largest contributor to the S&P 500, which also hit new records.

As we reported earlier, the numbers — both the top and bottom lines — were strong in its Q2 report posted before the open. But subsequent notes from analysts highlighted excitement about the guidance that GE Vernova, which makes capital equipment for the power generation industry, such as turbines for power plants, offered to the Street.

“Net revenues are trending towards the high end of the $36-37 billion prior range,” Barclays analysts wrote.

And Jefferies analysts wrote that “robust” free cash flow guidance was “the primary positive surprise” in the report: GE Vernova now expects between $3 billion and $3.5 billion versus the $2 billion and $2.5 billion it projected last quarter.

Such upgrades to guidance suggest that the company is willing to go on record and align its financial outlook with CEO Scott Strazik’s assertion that the US is “at the beginning of an investment supercycle.”

Strazik added, “Our near-term results are improving, but more importantly, our long-term potential is accelerating faster.”

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Florida-based construction company surges on $1.5 billion merger with drone maker Xtend in pact backed by Eric Trump

Florida-based construction company JFB Construction Holdings climbed 14% in premarket trading on Tuesday following an announcement that it will merge with Israeli drone maker Xtend in a $1.5 billion deal.

The shares were halted for news pending Tuesday morning, per a Bloomberg trading notice.

JFB said the deal is backed by investments from Eric Trump. Unusual Machines, a drone tech company linked to Donald Trump Jr., is also listed as a strategic investor.

Xtend has marketed some of its drone products as “low cost‑per‑kill” and in November announced it won a multimillion-dollar Pentagon contract.

markets

ServiceNow CEO steps up with $3 million stock purchase announcement as executives cancel stock-selling plans

ServiceNow’s executives have banded together to try to restore confidence in the struggling software company’s stock.

A filing released this morning showed CEO Bill McDermott entered into an agreement to purchase $3 million in company stock on February 27.

In addition, the CEO, CFO Gina Mastantuono, and three other executives ended their 10b5-1 trading plans (in which company stock is typically divested by an insider’s broker according to a preset schedule).

Shares were up about 3% in early trading before paring much of those gains.

ServiceNow was one of many software stocks to struggle this earnings season despite reporting better-than-expected results and rosy near-term guidance, as investors worry about the potential for industry-wide disruption by AI tools.

McDermott had attributed the slide in the stock to acquisitions announced in December. During the conference call following the company’s Q1 earnings report in late January, he told investors, “The worry is gone, you can give us back the market cap.”

markets

Netflix has granted Warner Bros. a 7-day waiver to resume deal talks with Paramount to hear out its best and final offer

Warner Bros. Disney will resume talks with Paramount Skydance to hear out its best and final offer after Netflix granted a limited weeklong waiver, according to a statement released Tuesday morning.

The Warner Bros. Discovery board, per the statement, continues to unanimously back the merger with Netflix, while the streamer will retain its rights to match or exceed any forthcoming offer from Paramount. This fresh negotiation period ends on February 23.

Shares of Warner Bros. Discovery rose on the news, up 2.6% as of 7:46 a.m. ET. Netflix shares also gained about 1% following the press release — suggesting that investors think the streaming giant might be overpaying at the originally agreed-upon price, and that losing out to Paramount could be a blessing in disguise.

Warner Bros. Discovery also confirmed that a Paramount representative told the company it would be willing to pay $31 per share “pending engagement” — that would be up about 3% from the current $30-per-share offer and also doesn’t constitute PSKY’s “best and final” proposal, per the representative.

The headline offer price had, up until now, proved a sticking point for both sides of the Paramount/Warner deal, while a clause covering the $2.8 billion breakup fee with Netflix in PSKY’s most recent offer could also prove enticing.

WBD shareholders will vote on the proposed Netflix merger on March 20. Interestingly, though the WBD board continues to “unanimously recommend” taking the Netflix deal, some prediction markets have now swung to place Paramount as the favorite in the acquisition battle.

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

Shares of Warner Bros. Discovery rose on the news, up 2.6% as of 7:46 a.m. ET. Netflix shares also gained about 1% following the press release — suggesting that investors think the streaming giant might be overpaying at the originally agreed-upon price, and that losing out to Paramount could be a blessing in disguise.

Warner Bros. Discovery also confirmed that a Paramount representative told the company it would be willing to pay $31 per share “pending engagement” — that would be up about 3% from the current $30-per-share offer and also doesn’t constitute PSKY’s “best and final” proposal, per the representative.

The headline offer price had, up until now, proved a sticking point for both sides of the Paramount/Warner deal, while a clause covering the $2.8 billion breakup fee with Netflix in PSKY’s most recent offer could also prove enticing.

WBD shareholders will vote on the proposed Netflix merger on March 20. Interestingly, though the WBD board continues to “unanimously recommend” taking the Netflix deal, some prediction markets have now swung to place Paramount as the favorite in the acquisition battle.

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

markets

Norwegian Cruise Line jumps after the WSJ reports that activist Elliott has built a more than 10% stake in the company

Norwegian Cruise Line rose as much as ~12% in premarket trading on Tuesday after The Wall Street Journal reported that Elliott Investment Management has built a more than 10% stake in the company and plans to push for a turnaround at the cruise operator.

Citing people familiar with the matter, the Journal detailed that the activist hedge fund aims to engage with the company to “try to help fix its underperformance” and “make changes to catch up to its rivals.” Per the report, Elliott also privately approached Adam Goldstein, the former president and COO of competitor Royal Caribbean — a company that Elliott sees as having been successfully improving its financial performance and guest experience — as a potential board member nominee for the company.

Indeed, NCLH has seen its stock drop more than 20% in the past year, lagging behind rivals like Royal Caribbean, which is projecting strong demand for the full year driven by affluent customer demand.

Last Thursday, Norwegian appointed former Subway CEO John Chidsey as its new chief executive. Shares fell more than 7% on Friday after the late evening news.

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