#valuation

#valuation

The current dynamics playing out in the stock market are really hard to describe right now. On the one hand, there are pockets of the economy that are red-hot, with hundreds of billions of dollars flowing into high-powered growth trends like AI that are clearly propping up valuations across the board. On the other hand, the vast majority of stocks in the overall market may already be in bear market territory. That's representative of a weakening consumer, and the view that valuations may have gotten a bit too distorted in the post-pandemic era.

Revolut has overtaken Barclays in valuation after securing a $75 billion price tag in a major secondary share sale backed by Nvidia, cementing its position as Europe's most valuable private tech company and the standout success story of Britain's fintech sector. The deal - largely involving staff selling portions of their holdings - marks a dramatic jump from Revolut's $45 billion valuation last year. It now exceeds the market capitalisation of Barclays (£55.7bn / $73bn), as well as other UK banking giants including Lloyds and NatWest.

As to whether Advanced Micro Devices will be able to clock in 35% in annualized revenue growth over the next five years (on the high end) remains the big question mark. If the next generation of MI300 accelerators sells well and corporate adoption of AI accelerates further, I think there's still a chance that sales will surprise to the upside.

YouTuber MrBeast said in a deposition last November that he owned "a little over half" of his company, which was valued at roughly $5 billion in its most recent funding round. By that math, the value of his ownership stake would have topped $2.5 billion. Beast Industries sought to raise up to an additional $200 million this year, according to investor materials viewed by Business Insider, as an extension to its $300 million Series C round referenced in the deposition.

Snap SNAP reported third-quarter revenue of $1.507 billion, up 10% year over year, due to strength in international markets. Adjusted EBITDA margin came in at 12%, up 200 basis points from a year ago, due to cost efficiencies and a greater mix of high-margin products like Sponsored Snaps and Spotlight. Why it matters: Despite persisting weakness in North American markets, advertising revenue from international markets continues to grow, driven by improved direct advertising monetization and increased demand from small and mid-sized businesses.

Revenue climbed 27% year-over-year to $3.45B, clearing the $3.36B consensus estimate by roughly $90M. That growth rate outpaced rival Uber's 18% quarterly expansion, signaling stronger order momentum in the core delivery business. The problem? Earnings per share came in at $0.55, missing the $0.68 estimate by 19%. GAAP net income of $244M also declined sequentially from $285M in Q2, a red flag that profitability may be plateauing after months of steady improvement.

Armis, a nine-year-old cybersecurity startup based out of San Francisco, intends to follow in these companies' footsteps. The company said on Wednesday that it has raised a $435 million pre-IPO round led by Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives. CapitalG made a significant investment in the round, and new investor Evolution Equity Partners also participated. The round values Armis at $6.1 billion, a meaningful jump from the $4.5 billion tender offer valuation the startup announced in August.

Vertex (NASDAQ: VERX) delivered a split result this morning that left investors parsing mixed signals. The tax technology provider beat on earnings per share but missed revenue expectations, landing at $0.17 versus $0.16 estimated and $192.1M versus $195.5M expected. The stock traded near $22.90 at the filing, down sharply from its 52-week high of $60.71 as the market continues to reassess the company's valuation after a brutal 61% decline year-to-date.

"This new funding is a testament to the strength of Oura business and the trust millions of members place in us every day. We're proud to be building not just a product, but a global movement toward proactive health-helping people understand their bodies, make better lifestyle decisions, and connect more effectively with their healthcare providers," CEO Tom Hale said in a statement.

Kids today don't know how easy they have it with those soft, malleable lunch boxes that squeeze easily into their bookbags. There was a time when we'd beg our parents for a cooler design on our lunch boxes, because the darn things were always stuck in our hands, too big and clunky to hide inside a backpack. The challenges of our early days were worth the struggle, though,

Electronic Arts has announced plans to go private in what will be the largest leveraged buyout in history. The $55 billion purchase of the entertainment giant behind franchises that include Madden NFL and Battlefield is set to close in the first quarter of fiscal year 2027. Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) will be, by far, the majority investor in EA, one of the largest third-party publishers of video games. Silver Lake and Affinity Partners (whose CEO is Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner) will own minority interests. CEO Andrew Wilson will continue to head EA.

In early January, 24/7 Wall St. selected South Korean memory producer SK Hynix (000660.KS) as one of our top picks for an AI stock that could double in 2025 . We singled out the stock for two primary reasons: it was cheap, and we believed SK Hynix could continue seeing astonishing growth rates in 2025 and beyond. How cheap was SK Hynix at the beginning of the year? The stock was trading for just 5.4X its next year's estimated profits.

On the other, there was a short period of time when Checkout.com was valued at a whopping $40 billion, as part of its $1 billion Series D round closed in 2022. By the end of that year, with the venture world crashing into a bear market, it had already internally slashed its valuation to $11 billion. So $12 billion represents a billion-dollar step up from that.

Earlier this year, CEO Paolo Ardoino revealed that Tether now holds over 100,000 BTC - worth more than $11 billion - alongside more than 50 tons of gold as part of its reserves. Those holdings make Tether one of the largest corporate owners of Bitcoin globally, a fact that further ties the fate of its business to the world's leading digital asset.

Conservative investors might prefer to own shares of traditional insurance companies like Allstate ( NYSE:ALL) and Progressive ( NYSE:PGR), and that's fine. However, if you're more adventurous, you might choose to look into modern disrupters like Lemonade ( NYSE:LMND), Trupanion ( NASDAQ:TRUP), Hippo ( NYSE:HIPO), and the subject of today's analysis, Root, Inc. ( NASDAQ:ROOT). There are risks to investing in high-tech insurance plays, but the potential rewards could be substantial.

On August 28, the S&P 500's price-to-earnings ratio reached a towering reading of nearly 30, the actual number that day was a whisker short at 29.85. Now it's official: Around 3 PM on Monday, September 22, the big cap index sailed beyond that historic barrier, gaining 32 points or 0.48%, a surge that pushed the multiple over the landmark to 30.09.