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VOO Hits Record High, Joins QQQ in Full Recovery

VOO Hits Record High, Joins QQQ in Full Recovery

Yahooa day ago

The S&P 500 surged to all-time highs on Thursday, completing a full rebound from the correction it experienced in March and early April.
Midday, the benchmark index traded as high as 6,146.52—slightly above its previous record close of 6,144.15 set on February 19. It also inched closer to its intraday record of 6,147.43 established that same day.The index closed the session at 6,141.02, just a few points short of the all-time highs.
With this move, the S&P 500 joins the Nasdaq-100, which hit a new record high of its own earlier this week. The tech-heavy Nasdaq index is tracked by the widely held Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ), while the S&P 500 is mirrored by some of the largest ETFs in the world, including the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO), the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) and the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV).
Both indexes have now fully shaken off the steep declines sparked by trade war tensions and tariff fears earlier this year. At its lowest point, the S&P 500 had dropped 18.9% on a closing basis and more than 20% intraday—flirting with bear market territory, though it never officially entered one.
The index was down as much as 15% year to date as of April 8. Today, it's up more than 5% for the year.
As with the Nasdaq-100, the recent gains have been led by a handful of mega-cap tech names. Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) and Broadcom Inc. (AVGO) have all hit record highs in recent days, helping drive the rebound.
However, the rally hasn't been evenly distributed. The Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF (RSP), which assigns the same weight to each of the index's constituents, is still 4% below its peak and up only 3.6% year to date. Unlike the traditional S&P 500, RSP is far less influenced by the performance of the largest stocks.
Meanwhile, not all tech giants are sharing in the gains. Apple Inc. (AAPL), currently the third-largest U.S. company by market cap, remains 23% below its highs amid concerns over its exposure to China and growing investor anxiety that it's falling behind in the AI race. Tesla Inc. (TSLA) is down even more—32% off its December highs—as the company grapples with a rocky rollout of its robotaxi initiative in Austin this week.Permalink | © Copyright 2025 etf.com. All rights reserved

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Is Travel Powerhouse Stock BKNG Running Out of Runway?
Is Travel Powerhouse Stock BKNG Running Out of Runway?

Business Insider

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Is Travel Powerhouse Stock BKNG Running Out of Runway?

Within the online travel agency space, by a significant margin, no one connects as many travelers around the world as Booking Holdings (BKNG) does. Booking's investment thesis is anchored in its unparalleled global reach and its leadership position in the online travel industry. Despite operating in a highly cyclical sector, the company's extensive geographic diversification and its high-margin, asset-light business model give it a degree of defensiveness uncommon in the space—qualities that arguably support its premium valuation. Confident Investing Starts Here: BKNG's stock price has grown 13% year-to-date and almost 200% over the past three years, suggesting an almighty up-trend is here to stay. That said, Booking's stock is expensive, and this remains a key hurdle to a more consistently bullish outlook. Given the company's strong track record and the market's high expectations, the investment case becomes increasingly sensitive to even modest disappointments. Results that fail to meet or exceed the upper end of guidance could undermine confidence in the near term. While I continue to view Booking as a structurally sound, long-term outperformer due to its ability to consistently generate value, the current valuation suggests the stock may be vulnerable to a short- to mid-term pullback. With limited near-term upside, a Hold rating appears appropriate at this time. Booking and Travel Experience Parallel Rebound Taking a step back to a broader view, the travel sector has rallied in line with the overall market. However, some fundamental headwinds are beginning to re-emerge. This is especially true for airlines, particularly in the U.S., where carriers had been actively cutting capacity in anticipation of softer demand. Hotel average daily rates (ADR) have also shown volatility for some industry players, pressured by weaker consumer spending and a more devalued dollar, especially for companies with less international exposure. In contrast, Booking has performed well, mainly because it's significantly less reliant on the U.S. domestic market compared to many of its peers. According to TipRanks market data, the stock has outperformed the S&P 500 (SPX) in the past three months, supported by solid fundamentals that have remained in line with guidance. One of the highlights of the quarter was the company reporting 319 million room nights in Q1, a strong result in a challenging environment, up 7% year-over-year from 300 million, although slightly below the high end of guidance. Gross bookings also grew 7% YoY to $46.7 billion, thanks to Booking's highly diversified global footprint. On the bottom line, adjusted EPS came in at $24.81, reflecting a solid 22% increase year-over-year. Free cash flow followed a similar trajectory, reaching $3.2 billion, up 23% from the prior year. This strong profitability reflects Booking's ability to drive high volumes of transactions at robust operating margins, currently at 22.3%. As an asset-light platform business with strong operational efficiency, Booking consistently converts a large share of its profits into free cash flow, ultimately translating into more long-term value for shareholders. Why BKNG's Capital Efficiency Stands Out When evaluating a company with a high and steadily growing capacity to generate free cash flow, much of that strength can be attributed to Booking's consistently impressive return on invested capital (ROIC). Using the traditional ROIC formula—NOPAT (the net operating profit after tax) divided by invested capital—we get a clear picture. Based on the $7.89 billion in EBIT generated over the last twelve months, and applying a tax rate of 19.4%, Booking's NOPAT comes out to $6.36 billion for the period. Now, considering invested capital, which refers to the total capital committed to the company's core business, even as an asset-light company, Booking operates with a notably negative operating net working capital of approximately $11 billion. This significantly lowers its capital base. Adding back the other long-term operating assets (such as property, plant, and equipment and intangibles), we arrive at an invested capital figure of approximately $11.1 billion. Combining these numbers yields an ROIC of approximately 57%—an exceptionally high return. To put that in perspective, if we assume a weighted average cost of capital (WACC) of around 8%, Booking is generating returns far above its cost of capital. That means the company isn't just covering its cost of capital, but it's creating substantial economic value for shareholders. While this is hardly breaking news to anyone following the stock, it strongly reinforces the bullish, value-oriented case for BKNG. Quality Commands a Premium Valuation Naturally, a business with this level of operational quality comes at the cost of trading at arguably stretched valuation multiples. For example, compared to Expedia (EXPE) —which operates a similar OTA (online travel agency) model but is smaller in scale—Booking trades at a forward P/E of 25x, more than double Expedia's 11x based on Fiscal 2025 estimates. Even relative to its own historical average, Booking is trading about 17% above its five-year average multiple, reflecting, in my view, a premium tied to the perception of lower risk and higher execution consistency. It's a high bar for a high-quality company, and the market seems to be pricing in very few chances of underperformance. Another useful complementary metric in Booking's case—especially given its clean capital structure and net cash position—is earnings yield based on enterprise value. Since the company has little to no net debt, its enterprise value is essentially equal to its market capitalization, which means the operating earnings yield serves as a good proxy for the return on capital from another perspective. For instance, over the last twelve months, Booking's earnings yield stood at 4.5%, based on $7.8 billion in operating profit and an enterprise value of $179.4 billion. That yield is well below the company's estimated WACC, reinforcing the idea that Booking is far from cheap and that near-term upside appears limited. In that sense, there's a low margin of safety in going long at these levels, even though the business remains structurally excellent. What is the Stock Market Prediction for BKNG? The market consensus on BKNG remains mostly bullish, with 18 out of 28 analysts rating the stock a Buy, while the remaining ten maintain a Hold. That said, valuations don't exactly scream 'cheap' at current levels. In fact, the average price target of $5,489.22 implies a modest 2.5% downside from the latest share price. Booking's Pricey Levels Have the Stock on Edge Booking is currently priced for perfection, and that sets a high bar that could limit the upside from here, especially in a sector as cyclical as travel. Even so, Booking remains the most defensive name among its peers, thanks to its global scale, asset-light model, and strong execution. For now, supportive macro rebound trends and the company's highly efficient metrics help sustain the bullish momentum. Still, at current levels, I don't see much of a margin of safety to justify going long with greater confidence.

M&A News: OpenAI Acqui-Hires Crossing Minds amid Meta Poaching Spree
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M&A News: OpenAI Acqui-Hires Crossing Minds amid Meta Poaching Spree

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It's Time to ‘Pump the Brakes,' Says Analyst on Tesla Stock (TSLA)
It's Time to ‘Pump the Brakes,' Says Analyst on Tesla Stock (TSLA)

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Tesla (TSLA) is one of the most popular stocks among both Wall Street and retail investors, and understandably so, as the stock has generated phenomenal returns over the years, yielding a total return of 1,854% over the past decade. Confident Investing Starts Here: Easily unpack a company's performance with TipRanks' new KPI Data for smart investment decisions Receive undervalued, market resilient stocks right to your inbox with TipRanks' Smart Value Newsletter It has also captured the public's imagination with its forays into exciting fields like robotics and self-driving cars, as evidenced by this week's Robotaxi launch, which caused shares to surge 8% on Monday but have since pared gains to now trade ~2% lower. Despite this rally driven by Robotaxi enthusiasm, the stock is down nearly 30% from its 52-week high, which may lead some investors to look for the opportunity to 'buy-the-dip' on this popular name. However, the stock hardly appears to be a bargain at this point in time and may decline further. TSLA's Extreme Valuation Raises Eyebrows While Tesla (TSLA) is an intriguing self-driving stock, and the limited Robotaxi launch is generating considerable investor excitement, the stock is incredibly expensive from a valuation perspective. Shares of Tesla trade at an astronomical valuation of 169x 2025 earnings estimates. It's hard to understate how frothy this valuation is, but to put it into perspective, it's over eight times as expensive as the S&P 500 (SPX), which trades for 21x forward earnings estimates (and keep in mind that this is in and of itself a historically above-average valuation for the index). You can make the case that Tesla should be worth more than the 'average' company in the S&P 500, as the company and the rest of the Magnificent Seven stocks are some of the most dominant and innovative companies in the world. But not only is Tesla more expensive than the average stock in the S&P 500, it's also considerably more expensive than all of its magnificent seven peers, as TipRanks data shows. For comparison, Microsoft (MSFT) trades at 36x 2025 earnings estimates, while Amazon (AMZN) and Nvidia (NVDA), which have long been derided by many value investors for their lofty valuations, trade at similar valuations of 34x forward estimates for 2025 and 2026, respectively. Meta Platforms (META) and Apple (AAPL) both trade for roughly 27x 2025 estimates. Alphabet (GOOGL) is currently the cheapest stock in the Magnificent Seven, trading for just 18x 2025 estimates. TSLA is Priced for More Than Perfection When a stock is trading at such elevated valuation levels, it's often said to be 'priced for perfection.' But in this case, it's difficult to argue that everything is unfolding perfectly—significant risks remain. Elon Musk is widely regarded as a visionary CEO and brilliant engineer, but his tendency to court controversy is unparalleled, and it's increasingly cutting across political lines. While alienating one side of the political spectrum might be manageable—potentially offset by support from the other—Musk has managed to provoke backlash from both the left and the right in a relatively short period of time. His public support for Donald Trump during the presidential election alienated many on the left, while his subsequent high-profile dispute with Trump has also drawn criticism from the right. Although the details have been widely reported, the broader concern is that this bipartisan controversy could ultimately affect consumer sentiment and impact sales. When you pair this with the stock's lofty valuation, the potential downside risk becomes more pronounced. If Robotaxis are Overhyped, TSLA Could be in Trouble Let's take a closer look at Tesla's Robotaxi initiative, which has been driving the stock's momentum this week following a high-profile launch event in Austin. While the event generated significant media buzz, the substance of the launch was more modest. According to Reuters, only a small number of Teslas—each with a human safety monitor in the front seat—provided rides within a tightly geofenced area of Austin. Importantly, this was a private, invite-only event aimed at investors, influencers, and brand enthusiasts, rather than a public rollout. Many attendees posted their ride experiences on social media, adding to the event's visibility. That said, the launch was limited in both scale and scope. Even within this controlled environment, there were reported issues. The Verge noted an incident in which a Model Y briefly drove the wrong way down a street, while Tesla critic Ed Niedermeyer highlighted another case where a vehicle abruptly braked in traffic in response to a stationary object outside its path. These and similar reports have already prompted regulatory attention, with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reaching out to Tesla shortly after the event. It's also worth noting that Tesla is not alone in the autonomous vehicle space, and some competitors appear to be significantly further along. Alphabet's (GOOGL) Waymo, for instance, is already operating at scale, providing over 250,000 rides per week across cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Phoenix. Having recently surpassed the 10-million ride mark, Waymo is quietly leading in real-world deployment, despite receiving far less media attention than Tesla. In this context, while Tesla's ambitions are noteworthy, its current progress in the Robotaxi space still lags behind established players. Is Tesla a Buy, Sell, or Hold? Turning to Wall Street, TSLA carries a Hold consensus rating based on 14 Buys, 12 Holds, and nine Sell ratings assigned in the past three months. The average TSLA stock price target of $291.31 implies 10.5% downside potential over the coming year. Sky-High Valuation Leaves Little Room for Error in Tesla's Stock While shares of Tesla have regained momentum based on robotaxi excitement, it's likely a good time to pump the brakes on this enthusiasm. The limited nature of the launch, strong competition already in place (and further ahead of Tesla), and the regulatory attention the company is already facing illustrate the challenges ahead. Robotaxis aside, Musk has demonstrated a remarkable ability to make enemies on both sides of the U.S. political divide, which has already led to a consumer backlash and could further harm sales. Despite these developments, the stock remains priced for perfection, trading at a sky-high price-to-earnings multiple—approximately 8.5x higher than the S&P 500 average—and at a premium well above any of its peers in the so-called 'Magnificent Seven.' The average analyst price target implies a potential 10% downside, and the consensus Hold rating underscores the elevated risk associated with the current valuation.

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