Warren Buffett’s conglomerate has added another zero to its haul from a months-long selling spree of Bank of America Corp. stock.
In its 14th round of disposals, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. eclipsed $10 billion of total proceeds from whittling its stake in the second-largest US bank, a regulatory filing on Monday shows. Buffett, 94, began paring the massive investment in mid-July, putting pressure on the stock’s price ever since.
In the latest batch, Berkshire reaped $383 million over three trading days, as it unloaded fewer shares than in many previous rounds. Buffett’s selling has tended to trickle off when the stock’s price falls toward $39, his company’s filings show. The shares closed at $39.96 on Monday.
Berkshire’s remaining 10.1% stake is worth about $31.4 billion at that price.
(Reuters) -Super Micro Computer reported quarterly adjusted gross margin below estimates on Tuesday, as high costs tied to the production of servers with the latest AI chips weighed on profits, sending its shares down 14% and dragging chipmakers.
Its shares, which have more than doubled this year on expectations of booming AI computing demand, swung wildly after announcements of the results and a stock split. They initially jumped 12% in extended trading before reversing course.
Nvidia shares, which rose 3% in trading after the bell, reversed course and fell 2%. Shares of Arm Holdings and AMD fell 2.1% and 1.2%, respectively, while those of rival Dell Technologies were down about 5%.
AI-related stocks have come under immense pressure following a relentless rally for most of this year, amid worries about the high cost of building new data centers and other infrastructure to power the new technology.
The company also forecast profit below Wall Street targets but estimated first-quarter and annual sales above estimates.
“The initial aftermarket reaction was better than I thought it would be,” Running Point Capital Chief Investment Officer Michael Ashley Schulman said.
“The focus must have been on the higher-than-expected 2025 estimates, but as you dig through the numbers, all the actual misses and especially the much lower-than-expected gross margin may make portfolio managers question whether management can effectively and efficiently scale to handle the growth.”
CEO Charles Liang said on a conference call with analysts that margins would return to a normal range before the end of fiscal 2025. The company reiterated its gross margin target of a range of 14% to 17%.
The company’s fourth-quarter adjusted gross margin was 11.3%, compared with analysts’ average estimate of 14.1%, according to LSEG data.
Competitive pricing also impacted gross margin, CFO David Weigand said on the call. The company has resorted to lowering prices for its servers to stave off competition from rivals like Dell and HP Enterprise .
Super Micro expects adjusted profit between $6.69 to $8.27 per share for the first quarter, the midpoint of which is below estimates of $7.58.
Analysts have questioned the company’s hefty spending on supporting new generation of AI chips, such as those sold by Nvidia.
The company is also grappling with higher supply chain costs and a tight supply of key components, CFO Weigand said.
Super Micro expects net sales between $6 billion to $7 billion for the first quarter, compared to analysts’ average estimate of $5.46 billion, according to LSEG data.
Analysts also peppered executives with questions over potential delays in shipments of Nvidia’s latest Blackwell processors. CEO Liang said the overall impact from a possible delay “should not be too much.”
(Reporting by Arsheeya Bajwa in Bengaluru, additional reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru and Noel Randewich in Oakland, California; Editing by Anil D’Silva)
MicroStrategy is the latest company to announce a 10-for-1 stock split as its shares hit $1,340.
Record-high prices for stocks popular with investors have driven a stock-split boom this year.
A market expert told BI that a handful of companies with shares above $500 could be candidates for split.
It’s been a big year for stock splits.
MicroStrategy became the latest company to announce a split on Thursday, with a 10-for-1 share split set to go into effect in early August as its shares hover around $1,340.
So, why are so many firms splitting their stock? Simply put, they want to attract more investors. Many stocks that split this year are household names, like Nvidia, which has become nearly synonymous with AI. The pricier and more popular the stock, the more likely it is to split, one expert said.
“The market is up — a lot — and the most popular stocks among individual investors are among those leading the charge. The rise in the market means that more stocks are now expensive enough to justify a split while the popularity with individuals is what prompts managements to consider splits,” Interactive Brokers chief strategist Steve Sosnick told Business Insider.
“Frankly, if a stock has little interest from individuals, then there is little reason for a company to consider splitting.”
According to Bank of America, stock splits can be rocket fuel for prices.
“Average returns one year later are 25% vs. around 12% for the broad market. Splits seem to be bullish across market regimes, something management teams might consider if shares look too expensive for buybacks,” Bank of America said in a note in May.
Bank of America
But according to Sosnick, stock splits can also have a “buy the rumor, sell the news” impact on the share price, at least in the short term.
“Because they don’t change the underlying value of the company, it is not uncommon to see a run-up in advance of the split, then a sell-off when no new demand arrives. [Chipotle] is a good recent example of this,” Sosnick said.
Shares of Chipotle have dropped 12% since its shares split 50-for-1 in late June. It represented one of the largest stock splits in the history of the New York Stock Exchange.
Iman Vellani is the kind of movie star whose enthusiasm, humor, and openness radiates off the screen and feels positively incandescent in person. The 21-year-old actress, best known for her role as Kamala Khan in 2022’s Ms. Marvel and 2023’s The Marvels,is unabashedly open in sharing her love of all things MCU-related, from playfully debating the finer points of canonical continuity with Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige to co-writing a Ms. Marvellimited series with Sabir Pirzada.
But Vellani has other passions beyond Marvel — her most recent being anime. Earlier this year at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards, Vellani shared with Polygon what convinced her to finally take the plunge into exploring Japanese animation.
“I was very intimidated by anime until very recently,” Vellani said. “I started watching anime about a year ago, so this is a new obsession for me, but I’m totally into it now. There’s just so much content, I didn’t know where to start. I mean, I can barely keep up with all the Marvel content that’s out there.”
Image: Wit Studio/Crunchyroll
Vellani attributes her nascent love of anime to Attack on Titan, which she was introduced to via family and friends and proudly names as her current favorite anime. “They just talk about it all the time,” Vellani said, “and Attack on Titan kept coming back up whenever they would talk about anime. I started watching it and was like, This is a story that seems like it’s about humanity. I think I can get into it.”
Of the entire ensemble of characters that appear in Attack on Titan, Vellani pointed out one in particular whose story resonated the most with her. “I love Mikasa Ackerman,” Vellani said. “The way that she kept Eren’s scarf at the end of the show, even though Eren told her to give it up and forget about him. Her being the only one who was able to kill Eren at the end to stop the Rumbling. That is a woman who — I don’t think I’ve seen many other female characters like her who have that authority, willpower, and determination to actually act on it. I recently cut my hair, and when I looked in the mirror, I was like, I know what my next cosplay is.”
Image: Wit Studio/Crunchyroll
Aside from Mikasa, Vellani also named one of the series’ other leading characters as one she especially enjoyed, going so far as to praise the voice actor responsible for their performance in Attack on Titan’s finale. “I like Armin because I always like to root for the nerdy characters,” Vellani said. “I watched the final half of the show with the English dub and, I don’t know who the actor who plays Armin is, but they deserve a raise because their performance in the final episode blew me away. He made me cry, his wailing and that flashback scene between him and Eren, it just hit me in all the right ways.”
After resisting anime for a while, Attack on Titan quickly became a show that stuck with her. “The ending was such a gut punch. It left me feeling so awful at the end, but it’s like one of those Succession-type endings where it’s not the ending you want, but it made sense. The ending made sense for the story, it made sense for the characters.
“I think they tied the knot so perfectly, and I can’t think of anything else I’ve watched recently that’s impacted me as much as that. I was crying in my bed watching it. My mom walked in on me and she was like, ‘It’s just an animation show!’ and I was like, ‘No, this is real!’”
Image: MAPPA/Crunchyroll
Shortly after finishing Attack on Titan, she dove into exploring other popular series suggested by her friends. “I finally started Jujutsu Kaisen and One Piece,” Vellani said. “One Piece was one that I did not want to get into initially because it’s like, what, a thousand episodes now, and that felt like too much. Grey’s Anatomy was more than enough for me, and I stopped at, like, season 10. But after the Netflix show came out I was so drawn to the characters, and after the heartbreak of Attack on Titan, I needed something lighter and funnier and that made me feel good. The characters are likable and I want to root for them all, so that’s a show I really like.”
And Vellani’s love for anime doesn’t stop at TV. “I watched Suzume just before coming to Japan and I loved it,” Vellani said. “That blew my mind. Truly a masterpiece. I also recently watched The Boy and the Heron and, as a 21-year-old, it really spoke to me and it reassured me that my inner child still exists.”
Image: Studio Ghibli via GKIDS/YouTube
When asked why she felt that her generation has embraced anime, and what it was about the medium that specifically spoke to her, Vellani cited the empowering roles and depictions of women and children, as well as the craftsmanship of studios like Studio Ghibli, as some of the reasons why anime is so popular among Gen Z audiences. “I just feel like anime feels so progressive with the way they depict women and children, especially in Studio Ghibli movies. All those movies are so good at showcasing youth and childhood and imagination in a way that’s encouraging children to keep that mindset.
“I feel like a lot of American cinema right now is just so depressing. It just wants to show the gritty real life of the world. I want to live in a world that makes me excited for the future, and I think anime does such a wonderful job in showcasing all the beauties of life. We went to the Ghibli Museum this morning and saw how they draw every single detail of the houses — the bricks, the walls, the windows — and you just realize how much people paid attention to these details when they drew it. Like, this is how they see the world, and that’s how I want to see the world, as something that’s full of life and joy.”
Shares of One 97 Communication, or Paytm, fell 10 per cent on January 13 to a record low, after brokerage firm Macquarie downgraded the entity highlighting concerns regarding its future viability.
“PayTM faces a serious risk of customer exodus, which significantly jeopardises its monetisation and business model,” said Macquarie in a note. It has increased loss estimates by 170 per cent over FY25 and 40 per cent over FY26, factoring 60-65 per cent decline in revenues due to lower payments and distribution revenues.
The firm also downgraded the rating on the stock to ‘underperform’, while sharply cutting the target price to ₹275 from ₹650. The stock fell 10 per cent to hit the lower band of ₹380 on the NSE.
Paytm has around 33 crore customers, 11 crore monthly transacting users and a subscription network of about 1.1 crore merchants.
“We assume a 50 per cent cash burn rate and 20x P/E multiple to normalised earnings from the distribution business,” it said, adding that transitioning to new banks will require KYC to be redone, indicating that migration within RBI’s February 29 deadline will be an “arduous task”.
Paytm has been in discussions with multiple banks to transition its nodal accounts for the wallet, FasTag, NCMC and other business verticals, which are currently backed by Paytm Payments Bank. Several banks such as HDFC and Axis have said they continue to work with Paytm in various aspects, but will await regulatory go-ahead before taking a call on any new business lines or initiatives.
“Lending partners might re-look their relationship with PayTM,” said the note, adding that this could lead to a decline in lending business revenues in case partners scale down or terminate their relationship with PayTM. Aditya Birla Capital, one of Paytm‘s largest lending partners, has already pared down their BNPL exposure to ₹600 crore from a peak level of ₹2,000 crore, and is expected to go down further.
A year ago, in February 2023, Macquarie had upgraded the rating on Paytm to ‘outperform’ from ‘underperform’, raising the target price from ₹450 to ₹800. According to Axis Burgundy-Hurun list of India’s most valuable private companies, Paytm was the 80th most valuable company with a market value of ₹58,527 crore in 2023, led by 42 per cent gains in its shares over the year.
However, the recent RBI action, wiped off ₹16,000 crore in value for Paytm in the first two days itself, when it hit the 20 per cent lower circuit on both days. On January 31, 2023, the day of regulatory action, the stock had closed at ₹761 on the NSE.
Shareholders at the 99th annual general meeting of Karnataka Bank approved distribution of ₹5 a share (that is 50 per cent) as dividend for the financial year 2022-23. The annual general meeting was held in Mangaluru on Tuesday through videoconferencing.
The bank informed stock exchanges that P Pradeep Kumar, Chairman of the bank, who chaired the meeting, addressed the shareholders regarding the developments that took place during the financial year 2022-23 and the progress made by the bank during the reporting financial year.
Divvying up an LLC can be tricky, especially when the definition of “economic interest” is … [+] stretched.
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Family businesses large and small, whether involving real estate or anything else, often use a limited liability company as the ownership vehicle for the business. The founder of the business will often maintain a controlling position in the LLC, while other family members receive only an “economic interest”—the right to receive money and enough information to file their taxes, but not much more.
When the founder dies and LLC interests go to the various family members, or if the founder gets divorced, it can become crucially important to define exactly who gets what types of rights in the LLC. If a surviving family member or spouse receives only an economic interest, then they cannot make decisions for the company or even know very much about what’s happening in the company. Most importantly, they cannot decide how much money the LLC should distribute to its members and when.
Instead, any holder of a mere economic interest just gets money—if and when the LLC management decides the time is right—and a bit of information. Often that’s precisely what the founder wanted. For example, the founder might not have confidence in the business judgment or sophistication of a particular family member or of future generations more generally. The founder might not want one family member to second-guess the decisions of another family member or group.
Recent litigation involving assets of the Bich family underscored the importance of these distinctions. A family LLC owned hundreds of thousands of shares in the Bic company, an international manufacturer of pens, lighters, and other products. Bruno Bich, husband and father, owned a 99% economic interest in the company. The LLC agreement also gave him the right to designate the manager of the company, i.e., the person who could manage and control the company and make all its decisions.
Bruno and his wife, Veronique, at some point entered into a post-nuptial agreement, an agreement between spouses who are already married but want to resolve future disputes about division of assets if they separate or divorce. That agreement said that if the parties separated, Bruno would transfer to Veronique his 99% “interest” in the LLC. It didn’t mention his right to designate the manager of the company.
Eventually, the parties did separate. After that, Bruno died. At some point along the way Bruno and his three sons, who owned the other 1% of the LLC, made an agreement transferring to the sons Bruno’s right to designate the manager of the LLC.
Veronique sued, demanding that she receive not only Bruno’s 99% economic interest, but also his right to appoint the manager of the LLC. Presumably, she would have used that right to appoint herself or a trusted third party to run the LLC, thus assuring that the LLC distributed money. This was a crucially important agenda item for her since she would receive 99% of those distributions as a 99% economic interest owner. On the other hand, if she couldn’t directly or indirectly control the LLC then it might never distribute a penny to her. She argued that the reference to Bruno’s “interest” ought to include all his rights under the LLC agreement as they existed when he signed the post-nuptial agreement or perhaps at some later point. Those rights would have included his right to designate the LLC’s manager.
The court rejected her broad reading of “interest,” concluding that she could recover only Bruno’s 99% economic interest, and had no claim to his right to designate the manager of the LLC and hence initiate distributions by the LLC.
As part of the basis for decision, the court noted that Delaware law governed the LLC. Delaware law defined “interest” in an LLC as nothing more than an economic interest. More generally, the court noted that the post-nuptial agreement referred only to Bruno’s 99% “interest,” specifying the percentage at issue. It said nothing about any of his other rights under the LLC agreement. As a result, the post-nuptial agreement didn’t require Bruno to transfer those rights to her. He could do whatever he wanted with them.
She ended up owning almost the entire LLC but without the ability to initiate distributions. The control of distributions resided indirectly with the happy couple’s three sons.
In negotiating any LLC agreement and planning for the death or divorce of any of the members, or any other transfers within the family, the Bich saga underscores the important of understanding exactly what rights exist within the LLC. Then the business understanding and the documents themselves must carefully distinguish between economic rights and managerial rights. Sometimes those rights should end up in the same place. Sometimes they shouldn’t.
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