SpaceX's town in Texas warns residents may lose property rights
Then, last month, more than 200 people — many of them SpaceX employees — voted to turn Pompa's parcel of land and parts of unincorporated Boca Chica Village into a city named Starbase. Weeks later, the disabled Vietnam War veteran received a letter from the newly created city informing him that he is at risk of losing the 'right to continue using your property for its current use' as the city reviews its zoning.
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Yahoo
18 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Royal Caribbean Cruises Jumps Into the Top 100 Stocks to Buy. Should You Bite?
The shortened trading week due to the Fourth of July holiday on Friday started strong on Monday, with the S&P 500 closing at a record high, generating a 10.57% return in the second quarter. One of the stocks benefiting from the index's 0.52% gain yesterday was Royal Caribbean Cruises (RCL), one of the world's largest cruise operators. RCL stock was up 1.2% on the day, jumping into Barchart's Top 100 Stocks to Buy, in the 87th spot. Elon Musk's Tesla Makes History With 'First Time That a Car Has Delivered Itself to Its Owner' This Defense Stock Could Be the Next Palantir. Should You Buy It Now? Cathie Wood Is Pounding the Table on AMD Stock. Should You Buy Shares Now? Markets move fast. Keep up by reading our FREE midday Barchart Brief newsletter for exclusive charts, analysis, and headlines. In the past year, Royal Caribbean's stock has gained over 100%, hitting 52-week highs on 46 occasions. As I write this on Tuesday morning, RCL stock is trading above $316, poised to set an all-time high. Times have changed significantly since hitting a 10-year low of $19.25 in March 2020, driven entirely by a global shutdown in travel due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I've been a long-time bull when it comes to cruise stocks generally--and Royal Caribbean Cruises specifically. I like the way it operates its business. I don't see cruising slowing down without an outside economic or health-related situation slowing it down. That said, it has never traded higher, and while it has significant momentum—up 21% in the past month alone—its valuation is moving into nosebleed territory. The FOMO (fear of missing out) on RCL is high. Should you bite and buy some of its stock? Here are the pros and cons of doing so. In one word: Valuation. It ain't cheap. Analysts expect it to earn $15.42 a share in 2025 and $17.66 in 2026. At its current share price of $316.99, it trades at 20.6 times its forward 2025 EPS and 17.9 times its forward 2026 EPS. The bullish argument you can make is that this multiple isn't excessive compared to the S&P 500, which currently trades at 21.9x its 2026 forward earnings. Before the pandemic, RCL stock had never traded above $150, with a forward EPS multiple no higher than 15.36x (as of the end of 2017), according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. How do analysts feel about RCL stock? Of the 24 covering RCL, 19 rate it a Buy (4.54 out of 5), so it's highly regarded by Wall Street. However, the mean target price is $275, 13% lower than its current share price. Another potential negative aspect of RCL stock beyond valuation is the price of oil. It's been relatively benign over the past few years, with a barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) hitting a five-year high of $114.84 in May 2022. Since then, it has fallen to $62.50 as of May. Adjusted for inflation, it's fallen by half. Oil prices account for a significant chunk of every cruise line's operating expenses. In 2022, Royal Caribbean paid out $1.07 billion for fuel, representing a 178% increase from the amount paid in 2021. In 2024, it paid out $1.16 billion, which isn't a substantial increase considering the additional revenue generated. However, in 2024, fuel accounted for 7.0% of its revenue, compared to over 12% in 2022. That was the difference between an operating margin of 24.9% in 2024 and -8.2% in 2022. While it doesn't look like the Iran/Israel/US situation is going to spin out of control, if it does, oil prices are sure to rise over $100 in no time. That's never good news for cruise stocks. If oil prices hit $100 a barrel, you can be sure Royal Caribbean's ability to deliver $17.66 in earnings per share in 2026 won't be doable. As Clint Eastwood said in Dirty Harry, 'Do ya feel lucky, punk? Well, do ya?' The trend remains your friend, and I'm not talking about the stock's momentum, but rather the ongoing demand for cruising. It's off the charts. Back in June 2023, I suggested that cruise stocks remained a Buy. 'If the demand keeps up for the next 12-24 months and it gets its operating margins back to where they were pre-pandemic, $94 will appear very cheap for RCL stock,' I wrote in 2023. 'Whether you're looking at RCL, CCL, or NCLH, their stocks have more room to run in the second half of 2023.' Royal Caribbean's stock has gained 237% in the 24 months since, suggesting I wasn't the only one who felt the cruise operator's stock had room to run. And run it did. Is it too late to buy? Maybe. However, barring a major flare-up in the Middle East, the demand for cruising remains high, as does profitability. The company reported strong Q1 2025 earnings at the end of April, including an upward revision to its annual guidance. It now expects to grow its earnings per share to $15.05 at the midpoint of its guidance, from a 3.5% increase in net yield. The net yield is revenue generated per available cruise day, after accounting for commissions, transportation, and other cruise-related expenses. The 3.5% increase is in addition to an 11.6% increase in 2024. 'Bookings for 2025 have remained on track, cancellation levels are normal, and we continue to see excellent close-in demand," said Jason Liberty, Royal Caribbean's CEO, in the company's April 29 press release. If you do buy a cruise stock, Royal Caribbean is the best option among them. If you need the money in a year for your kid's college education, I wouldn't risk it. However, if you are willing to put aside some dry powder to buy more should RCL stock hit a rough patch in the next year, it's one of the best S&P 500 stocks to own for the long haul. I write a fair bit about options. They're an inexpensive way to bet on RCL's stock moving higher over the next 6-12 months. The simplest move would be to buy a call deep OTM (out of the money) like the June 18/2026 $410, which will cost you $19.50, or 6.12% of its stock price. If the share price at expiration is above $429.50 (38.55% higher), you'll, at worst, break even on the bet, and if it closes much higher than that, you'll profit nicely from the difference between the share price and the lower strike price. Worst-case scenario, its share price goes nowhere, and it expires worthless. However, should it move higher, but not quite to the breakeven point of $429.50, you could sell the option before it expires to recover some of your net debit, thereby reducing your loss on the trade. Will RCL stock be over $429.50 by next June? I'd be shocked if it were, despite my belief that it's an excellent long-term investment. On the date of publication, Will Ashworth did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. This article was originally published on
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Tesla initiates temporary shutdown that will impact 2 popular models — here's what's happening
Tesla is pausing Model Y and Cybertruck production at its Austin, Texas, facility. This is the automaker's third shutdown, and it will begin the first week of July. Observers are noting the potential impact on customers awaiting vehicles. According to Business Insider, Tesla's weeklong shutdown is for production line maintenance. The company intends to ramp up production in the future. It did not specify which lines would increase output. During the pause, employees can use paid time off or opt for training and cleaning tasks. The halt aligns with its robotaxi launch, which kicked off June 22, as CEO Elon Musk stated that the first rides will be in Model Ys. For customers, production pauses can lead to delayed vehicle deliveries or vehicle unavailability. Common auto industry concerns include parts shortages and inventory management. Tesla paused Cybertruck production for three days in December and reduced production in April because of a battery supply issue. While perhaps necessary for long-term efficiency, pauses can create short-term uncertainty. Downturns in manufacturing may create environmental risks, too, including with e-waste disposal, metal contamination, and chemical runoff. Consistent, growing production of electric vehicles is accelerating the transition from gas-powered cars. Significant shutdowns in EV manufacturing could impede this shift, which reduces transportation-based pollution. Though Tesla reported a 13% year-over-year drop in deliveries in the first quarter, it will continue to play a major part in EV adoption. The automotive giant's goal is to improve production lines and increase output. Automakers such as Ford and GM have also paused production, a standard industry practice. Still, under the Inflation Reduction Act, manufacturers are incentivized to produce clean-energy EVs, batteries, and solar panels. EV consumers should always research availability and wait times of different brands. The market is evolving as manufacturers offer competing products. If you were to install home solar panels, which of these factors would be your primary motivation? Energy independence Lower power bills Helping the planet No chance I ever go solar Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
USA Today
an hour ago
- USA Today
These are Nvidia's top customers. Long-term investors should be paying attention
Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) doesn't disclose its exact customer list. However, the company is the leading supplier of data center chips for artificial intelligence (AI) workloads, and we know Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG)(NASDAQ: GOOGL), Meta Platforms and Oracle are some of the biggest buyers of that hardware based on their public filings. Those data center chips are called graphics processing units (GPUs), and you won't believe the eye-popping amount of money their customers are spending on these chips. Read on. Becoming a leader in the AI race isn't cheap There are two primary AI workloads: Training, which involves feeding truckloads of data into AI models to make them "smarter," and inference, which is the process by which AI models use that data to formulate responses or make predictions. These two workloads are processed in enormous data centers filled with thousands of GPUs, which cost billions of dollars to build. Companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet and Meta have the financial resources to build AI infrastructure to develop their own AI models. Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet and Oracle also build AI data centers and rent out the computing power to smaller developers for profit, which has become a very lucrative business practice because demand for capacity continues to far exceed supply. Here's how much money the top AI companies are spending on AI data centers overall at the moment, based on their public filings: That list doesn't include companies like OpenAI, Anthropic and Elon Musk's xAI, which are privately held, so they don't openly disclose as much information. Not all of that money will flow to Nvidia, but each of the above companies has publicly acknowledged its commercial relationship with the chip giant. Nvidia's GPUs and networking equipment account for a large chunk of AI data center spending, but other major costs include land acquisition, construction, power infrastructure, cooling systems and staffing. Competition is also a factor — Oracle, Meta and Microsoft have purchased GPUs from Advanced Micro Devices as well, and some hyperscalers like Alphabet are working with Broadcom to design their own chips. Nvidia thinks data center spending has plenty of room to grow Nvidia's Hopper GPU architecture was at the foundation of the most powerful AI chips in 2023 and for most of 2024, including the popular H100. But in the two years since H100 sales ramped up, Nvidia has launched two new architectures called Blackwell and Blackwell Ultra. The latter platform can deliver a staggering 50 times more performance than Hopper in certain GPU configurations. Blackwell Ultra GPUs like the GB300 are designed for the current crop of AI "reasoning" models, which spend more time thinking in the background before generating responses compared to traditional large language models (LLMs), leading to more accurate outputs. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says some reasoning models require between 100 times and 1,000 times more computing power than their predecessors, which should support growing demand for GPUs and other hardware for years to come. Nvidia plans to launch another new architecture called Rubin next year, which could be 3.3 times faster than Blackwell Ultra, translating to a staggering performance improvement of 165 times over Hopper. The constant hunt for more computing power is the reason Huang predicts AI data center spending will top $1 trillion by calendar year 2028, which should support continued growth for Nvidia's business. As a result, Nvidia stock might be a great buy right now, even though it's trading near a record high. John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Anthony Di Pizio has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia and Oracle. The Motley Fool recommends Broadcom and recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. The Motley Fool is a USA TODAY content partner offering financial news, analysis and commentary designed to help people take control of their financial lives. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY. Should you invest $1,000 in Nvidia right now? Offer from the Motley Fool: Before you buy stock in Nvidia, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Nvidia wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider whenNetflixmade this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation,you'd have $689,813!* Or when Nvidiamade this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation,you'd have $906,556!* Now, it's worth notingStock Advisor's total average return is809% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to175%for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you joinStock Advisor. See the 10 stocks »
