|
Monday, August 31, 2026
AI investors should get ready for a BIG surprise
Vulcan power
|
Whitney Tilson explains why Berkshire's new leadership may signal a major shift in America's energy future ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
Unsubscribe |
Editor's Note: Why did Warren Buffett hand the keys of Berkshire Hathaway to a man who cut his teeth at a tiny, little-known power company in the California desert? Whitney Tilson — who's studied Buffett for more than 25 years and attended 23 straight Berkshire annual meetings — believes the answer points to possibly the biggest energy story of the decade. And he's connected all the dots in a new presentation. Watch "Buffett's Last Big Bet" below.
Dear Reader,
Did Warren Buffett just tip his hand one last time?
Before stepping back this year, Buffett handed the keys of Berkshire Hathaway to a man who cut his teeth at a tiny power company in the California desert.
Whitney Tilson — who has studied Buffett's every move for more than 25 years — calls the strategy behind it "Project Vulcan."
And here's what makes it so remarkable:
The power source at its center runs 24 hours a day, in any weather... needs no fuel deliveries... and President Trump just locked in its tax credits through 2033, – even as wind and solar's were gutted.
In other words:
It may be the only clean energy source built for the AI era.
And here's why Whitney believes some of the companies positioned around it could be about to soar...
In Q4 this year – possibly as soon as October – the first commercial-scale plant supplying this power goes officially live.
And the moment this event happens, Whitney expects this niche corner of the energy market to go mainstream... and get flooded with institutional money.
Click here to get Whitney's 3 best plays to potentially profit.
Sincerely,
Matt Weinshenck
Publisher and Director of Research, Stansberry Research
P.S. Berkshire's new CEO started his career as a financial controller in a company that was acquired by Buffett over 25 years ago...
And this company was one of the earliest pioneers in mining this remarkable fuel.
Now he's the leader of Berkshire Hathaway – at a time when arguably the biggest investment opportunity in the world is discovering the energy source that can power AI technology.
Coincidence?
Whitney thinks that's unlikely.
And although Buffet and his successor got there early, there's still a window of opportunity to get in on this for yourself...
But the window is closing fast.
Click here now to get 3 of Whitney's best investment ideas.
Intuit’s Earnings Reset May Be More Pivot Than Plunge
By Jeffrey Neal Johnson. Article Posted: 8/28/2026.
Key Points
- Intuit beat fiscal fourth-quarter expectations, but its fiscal 2027 guidance signaled slower revenue growth.
- Intuit’s lower TurboTax pricing, new QuickBooks entry points and Mailchimp reporting change are part of a broader customer-growth reset.
- Intuit’s mid-market momentum, artificial intelligence adoption and capital returns provide support as investors reassess the stock’s valuation.
- Special Report: Forget SpaceX. Buy the company Musk can't replace.
When a deeply entrenched market leader sheds nearly half its value in a matter of months, the broader market often starts pricing in a structural breakdown. For software giant Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ: INTU), a year-to-date decline approaching 48% has left many investors questioning the durability of its flagship accounting and tax franchises.
Following a soft fiscal 2027 guidance update, Wall Street rushed to adjust price targets, citing competition in the do-it-yourself tax space and a sluggish outlook for Mailchimp. Looking beyond the headline, however, the pessimism reveals a different story.
Here’s Why Trump Won’t End The Iran War (Ad)
Trump has called an Iran deal close 38 times since the war began, yet the fighting keeps flaring back up.
One day it's a ceasefire, the next it's bombs again. The back and forth may be masking a bigger story most investors are missing.
See the real reason this conflict may never fully end.
Uncover the real reason Trump may never end this warManagement is executing a deliberate, near-term operational reset designed to recapture top-of-funnel market share and realign its core accounting businesses. While this pivot is weighing on the valuation today, underlying double-digit growth in the mid-market ecosystem, combined with aggressive share repurchases and structural margin protection, suggests the market may be overdiscounting Intuit's fundamental durability.
Wall Street May Be Reading Intuit’s Reset Too Harshly
Navigating a corporate transition requires distinguishing between a broken business model and a misunderstood strategic pivot. Intuit recently closed out its fiscal 2026 with strong fourth-quarter results, delivering $4.35 billion in revenue and adjusted earnings of $4.03 per share, easily clearing consensus estimates.
The market reaction, however, was anchored entirely to the fiscal 2027 outlook. Management guided for top-line revenue growth of 9% to 10%, a notable deceleration from the 14% growth achieved in the prior year. The resulting sell-off dragged Intuit stock down to a forward price-to-earnings ratio near 16.4, a contraction for a company that has historically commanded a premium software multiple.
Valuation compression of this magnitude often implies permanent market share loss or deteriorating cash flows. Yet analyzing the mechanics of the newly issued guidance provides a different picture: management appears willing to accept short-term optical pain to secure long-term ecosystem dominance.
Intuit Takes the Short-Term Hit to Rebuild the Funnel
A significant portion of the earnings reset stems from a fundamental accounting realignment rather than a deterioration in cash flow. Intuit is no longer excluding stock-based compensation from its non-GAAP profitability metrics.
This shift creates an optical hit of approximately $5.81 per share to the upcoming year's guidance. While including stock-based compensation lowers reported non-GAAP earnings, it provides a more transparent view of true operating costs. Intuit management is actively mitigating dilution concerns by committing to reduce stock-based compensation to about 8% of total revenue by fiscal 2030.
Beyond the accounting adjustments, Intuit is aggressively overhauling its consumer tax strategy. Pricing pressure from low-cost competitors has steadily siphoned away quality do-it-yourself tax customers. In response, leadership is deliberately sacrificing near-term average revenue per customer to rebuild the top of the sales funnel.
By lowering initial pricing thresholds, TurboTax revenue growth will likely remain muted at around 2% to 3% in the upcoming fiscal year. Sacrificing immediate margins to acquire customers is a classic software-as-a-service playbook, provided Intuit can monetize those users elsewhere.
Intuit is proving it can do just that. The number of Credit Karma members filing through TurboTax rose approximately 50% year over year, demonstrating strong cross-platform cooperation. Acquiring a do-it-yourself tax customer at a lower margin can be highly profitable when that same customer subsequently uses Credit Karma for personal loans or credit cards.
This top-of-funnel strategy also extends to the business segment. The recent rollout of QuickBooks Free and QuickBooks Lite generated roughly 20,000 active or upgraded users within its first month. By capturing entrepreneurs at the very beginning of their business lifecycle, Intuit locks them into an ecosystem that can scale alongside their operational needs.
At the same time, Intuit is spinning Mailchimp out into a standalone reporting segment and bracing for flat growth as it absorbs higher effective prices and persistent churn. This move effectively isolates the slower-growth unit from the core operations.
The Business Segment Still Supports the Bull Case
While the consumer tax segment undergoes a pricing reset and Mailchimp faces restructuring, the core business-to-business ecosystem remains robust. Global Business Solutions revenue, excluding Mailchimp, expanded by roughly 20% in the fourth quarter. The most compelling fundamental data point lies within the mid-market segment, where combined customer growth across QuickBooks Online Advanced and Intuit Enterprise Suite reached roughly 28%.
This growth is partially fueled by a planned migration of legacy desktop users to cloud-based platforms. Optically, a decline in desktop revenue can look like customer churn, but it actually reflects a structural upgrade in lifetime customer value as users transition to higher-tier, recurring-revenue software.
Intuit is also quietly building a substantial economic moat through artificial intelligence (AI). An estimated 75% of Intuit Enterprise Suite customers now interact with Intuit AI agents monthly. Embedding artificial intelligence into daily accounting, payroll, and invoicing workflows creates exceptionally high switching costs.
Competitors attempting to lure away these mid-market clients face the challenge of replacing a highly automated, deeply integrated financial operating system. This level of stickiness helps justify the strategic patience required while Intuit resets its lower-end consumer funnels.
Intuit's Aggressive Capital Defense
Transitioning a highly scaled software platform requires capital discipline, especially when deliberately slowing top-line growth to acquire market share. To protect operating margins during this reset, Intuit executed an approximate 17% workforce reduction. These efficiency gains provide the financial padding necessary to redeploy capital into targeted sales, marketing, and product innovation without eroding the bottom line.
Management's confidence in forward cash flow generation is evident in its capital return program. Intuit authorized and executed approximately $5.5 billion in share repurchases over the last fiscal year, representing an almost 96% increase from the prior period. Paired with a 15% increase in the quarterly dividend, which now yields nearly 1.40% at a sustainable 29% payout ratio, Intuit is providing tangible downside protection for shareholders as the strategic pivot takes root.
Filing the Final Return on Intuit's Growth Strategy
The upcoming September investor day serves as the next major catalyst for Intuit. Management will have the opportunity to map out the precise return-on-investment timeline for its top-of-funnel customer acquisition strategy and demonstrate the monetization roadmap for its expanding artificial intelligence capabilities.
Investors analyzing the current landscape might view the severe valuation discount as a compelling entry point, provided Intuit continues executing its mid-market and cross-platform growth initiatives. While Wall Street focuses on the immediate sting of guidance resets and accounting shifts, the underlying metrics suggest Intuit is working to fortify a durable, highly cash-generative ecosystem built to compete through the next cycle of financial software.
2 Biotech Stocks Shaping Up for Major Breakouts
Reported by Ryan Hasson. Publication Date: 8/22/2026.
Key Points
- Moderna's mRNA cancer vaccine, developed with Merck, succeeded in a late-stage melanoma trial, sending shares up 177% and boosting the broader biotech sector.
- Eli Lilly, the world's largest pharmaceutical company, is nearing a 52-week high driven by its GLP-1 franchise and new oral-drug pipeline catalyst.
- Natera has surged over 40% year to date on accelerating revenue growth and analyst support, though its rich valuation reflects a momentum-driven growth profile.
- Special Report: Forget SpaceX. Buy the company Musk can't replace.
The biotech sector just received the kind of catalyst that can define a cycle. On Wednesday, Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA) stunned the market when its personalized mRNA cancer vaccine, developed with Merck (NYSE: MRK), became the first such therapy to succeed in a late-stage trial, reducing the risk of melanoma recurrence.
The stock closed up an astonishing 177%, and the implications extend far beyond a single company. The result represents a landmark validation of the broader mRNA platform and a potential turning point for cancer treatment itself.
Here’s Why Trump Won’t End The Iran War (Ad)
Trump has called an Iran deal close 38 times since the war began, yet the fighting keeps flaring back up.
One day it's a ceasefire, the next it's bombs again. The back and forth may be masking a bigger story most investors are missing.
See the real reason this conflict may never fully end.
Uncover the real reason Trump may never end this warThe news landed as the sector was already surging. The iShares Biotechnology ETF (NASDAQ: IBB) is up about 25% year to date, with much of that growth coming in the last 30 days. During that period, the ETF hit a fresh 52-week high, demonstrating the kind of strength that tends to draw fresh money off the sidelines. With Moderna's breakthrough adding fuel to that momentum, biotech's leadership may only strengthen from here.
Two biotech names in particular have quietly built powerful uptrends throughout this run and now appear poised to break out: Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) and Natera (NASDAQ: NTRA).
Eli Lilly: The Pharma Giant Still Dominating Its Market
Eli Lilly is the world's largest pharmaceutical company by market capitalization, a $1.2 trillion healthcare titan anchored by its blockbuster GLP-1 franchise. Even at that scale, the stock continues to climb. It is up more than 15% year to date and jumped about 4% on Wednesday alone to close just below its 52-week high.
The freshest catalyst is Lilly's push into oral GLP-1 medications, a next-generation format that could dramatically expand the weight-loss and diabetes market beyond today's injectables. It could also open the door to hundreds of millions of new patients.
That opportunity builds on an already dominant foundation, as Lilly's existing treatments continue to outpace rival Novo Nordisk (NYSE: NVO) in sales growth. A company this size rarely has both entrenched market leadership and a genuine new growth vector at the same time, but Lilly has exactly that.
On the analyst front, Lilly holds a Moderate Buy consensus across 30 analysts, and its news sentiment score ranks among the strongest in large-cap healthcare. The stock hit a new 52-week high on Wednesday, breaking above a resistance level that had held firm for nearly three months. If the stock can hold above $1,250, a major prior resistance level, a significantly higher-timeframe breakout could be in the cards for this sector-leading giant.
Natera: The Genetic Testing Leader Firing on All Cylinders
Natera offers a very different profile: It is a fast-growing diagnostics innovator specializing in cell-free DNA testing across reproductive health, oncology and organ transplantation. Its Signatera cancer-monitoring assay has become a standout product, and the company sits directly in the path of the precision-medicine wave sweeping through healthcare.
Natera has soared more than 40% year to date, easily outpacing the sector benchmark. Since breaking out of its multimonth base in June, the stock has advanced powerfully on accelerating revenue growth, with annual sales now topping $2.3 billion.
The market is treating Natera as a genuine leader in its niche, and its status as a top-10 holding in the IBB underscores that standing.
Analysts remain constructive, with a Moderate Buy consensus from 22 analysts. Just last week, Citi reiterated a Buy rating on the stock and raised its price target from $315 to $365.
The one factor worth flagging is valuation. After such a run, Natera trades at a rich multiple of more than 20 times sales, making it a momentum-driven growth name rather than a value play. From a momentum perspective, however, the chart is shaping up for another potential breakout. Following its recent earnings report, the stock has spent several weeks consolidating near its 52-week high and building a tight base. If NTRA pushes through that high, it could signal a breakout, with further upward momentum potentially following as the uptrend continues to expand.
2 Leaders at a Pivotal Moment
What makes these two names compelling right now is timing. Both have already demonstrated strength through months of outperformance, and both enter this moment with sectorwide momentum at their backs following Moderna's historic breakthrough. Eli Lilly offers scale, dominance and a fresh oral-drug catalyst, while Natera brings explosive growth and leadership in precision diagnostics. With biotech breaking out as a group and these two stocks pressing against their highs, the setup is one worth watching closely. As always, the charts will tell the final story, but the fundamental and sector backdrop could hardly be more supportive.
This message is a paid advertisement sent on behalf of Stansberry Research, a third-party advertiser of InsiderTrades.com and MarketBeat.
This ad is sent on behalf of Stansberry Research, 1125 N Charles St, Baltimore, MD 21201. If you would like to optout from receiving offers from Stansberry Research please click here.
If you need help with your newsletter, feel free to contact our U.S. based support team at contact@marketbeat.com.
If you no longer wish to receive email from InsiderTrades.com, you can unsubscribe.
© 2006-2026 MarketBeat Media, LLC.
345 N Reid Place, Suite 620, Sioux Falls, S.D. 57103-7078. U.S.A..




