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Is the Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF a Safe Dividend Play for Retirees?

Key Points

If you're looking for ETFs, a good first stop is typically an S&P 500 index fund.

After all, the benchmark index includes 500 of the largest American companies across every industry, and it has a track record of delivering an annual average return of 9% over its history. However, retirees often need more stability than what the S&P 500 offers, which is why they tend to seek out lower-risk investments such as dividend stocks and bonds.

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One popular choice among dividend investors is the Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF (NYSEMKT: SCHD). The fund's goal is to track as closely as possible the Dow Jones U.S. Dividend 100 Index, which offers a high yield and quality screen that should be very attractive to retirees.

An ETF key against a digital background.

Image source: Getty Images.

What's in the Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF?

With net assets of $68 billion, the Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF is one of the larger ETFs available to investors. It has a low expense ratio of just 0.06% and holds 100 stocks as of this writing.

The biggest sector in the ETF is energy, which makes up 21.1%, followed by consumer staples at 19.1% and healthcare at 15.7%. Companies in all three of those sectors are well known for often paying dividends.

Currently, the top three holdings are Texas Instruments, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips. Each stock represents about 4.3% of the fund as of this writing, and they're are solid dividend payers. Texas Instruments offers a 2.6% dividend, while ConocoPhillips and Chevron pay 3.5% and 4.8%, respectively. The Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF itself pays a dividend yield of 4.0%, which is significantly better than the S&P 500's 1.2%.

How has the Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF performed historically?

The Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF has a solid track record of generating positive returns, but it has underperformed the S&P 500 since its inception in 2011, as you can see in the chart below.

SCHD Chart

Data by YCharts.

However, the chart also shows how the Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF is less volatile than the S&P 500. In 2022, when the S&P 500 suffered through a bear market, the Schwab ETF experienced a more muted pullback because it lacks exposure to the high-profile tech stocks that soared during the pandemic and then crashed in 2022.

This reduced volatility is yet another reason for more conservative investors and retirees to consider the Schwab ETF.

Is SCHD right for you?

For retirees and others looking for a safe dividend ETF, the Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF looks like a good bet.

There are other dividend ETFs available, but SCHD has emerged as one of the most popular choices thanks to its diversification across sectors and a track record of growth balanced with stability. Add to that the high yield and low expense ratio, and it becomes clear why this Schwab ETF is a great starting point for retirees.

Should you invest $1,000 in Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF right now?

Before you buy stock in Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF, 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 Schwab U.S. Dividend Equity ETF wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $694,758!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $998,376!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,058% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 180% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of July 7, 2025

Jeremy Bowman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Chevron and Texas Instruments. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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5 Top Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks Ready for a Bull Run

Key Points

  • Nvidia and AMD should continue to be AI infrastructure winners.

  • Alphabet and Pinterest are using AI to drive advertising revenue growth.

  • Salesforce is looking to create an AI agent workforce.

While there is still uncertainty surrounding the implementation of tariffs by the Trump administration, at least one sector -- artificial intelligence (AI) -- is starting to regain its momentum and could be set up for another bull run. The technology is being hailed as a once-in-a-generation opportunity, and the early signs are that this could indeed be the case.

With AI still in its early innings, it's not too late to invest in the sector. Let's look at five AI stocks to consider buying right now.

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Nvidia

Nvidia's (NASDAQ: NVDA) stock has already seen massive gains the past few years, but the bull case is far from over. The company's graphics processing units (GPUs) are the main chips used for training large language models (LLMs), and it's also seen strong traction in inference. These AI workloads both require a lot of processing power, which its GPUs provide.

The company captured an over 90% market share in the GPU space last quarter, in large thanks to its CUDA software platform, which makes it easy for developers to program its chips for various AI workloads. In the years following its launch, a collection of tools and libraries have also been built on top of CUDA that helps optimize Nvidia's GPUs for AI tasks.

With the AI infrastructure buildout still appearing to be in its early stages, Nvidia continues to look well-positioned for the future. Meanwhile, it has also potential big markets emerging, such as the automobile space and autonomous driving.

AMD

While Nvidia dominates AI training, Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD) is carving out a space in AI inference. Inference is the process in which an AI model applies what it has learned during training to make real-time decisions. Over time, the inference market is expected to become much larger than the training market due to increased AI usage.

AMD's ROCm software, meanwhile, is largely considered "good enough" for inference workloads, and cost-sensitive buyers are increasingly giving its MI300 chips a closer look. That's already showing up in the numbers, with AMD's data center revenue surging 57% last quarter to $3.7 billion.

Even modest market share gains from a smaller base could translate into meaningful top-line growth for AMD. Importantly, one of the largest AI model companies is now using AMD's chips to handle a significant share of its inference traffic. Cloud giants are also using AMD's GPUs for tasks like search and generative AI. Beyond GPUs, AMD remains a strong player in data center central processing units (CPUs), which is another area benefiting from rising AI infrastructure spend.

Taken altogether, AMD has a big AI opportunity in front of it.

The letters AI on a concept illustration of a computer chip.

Image source: Getty Images.

Alphabet

If you only listened to the naysayers, you would think Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) (NASDAQ: GOOG) is an AI loser, whose main search business is about to disappear. However, that would ignore the huge distribution and ad network advantages the company took decades to build.

Meanwhile, it has quietly positioned itself as an AI leader. Its Gemini model is widely considered one of the best and getting better. It's now helping power its search business, and it's added innovative elements that can help monetize AI, such as "Shop with AI," which allows users to find products simply by describing them; and a new virtual try-on feature.

Google Cloud, meanwhile, has been a strong growth driver, and is now profitable after years of heavy investment. That segment grew revenue by 28% last quarter and continues to win share in the cloud computing market. The company also has developed its own custom AI chips, which OpenAI recently began testing as an alternative to Nvidia.

Alphabet also has exposure to autonomous driving through Waymo, which now operates a paid robotaxi service in multiple cities, and quantum computing with its Willow chip.

Alphabet is one of the world's most innovative companies and has a long runway of continued growth still in front of it.

Pinterest

Pinterest (NYSE: PINS) has leaned heavily into AI to go from simply an online vision board to a more engaging platform that is shoppable. A key part of its transformation is its multimodal AI model that is trained on both images and text. This helps power its visual search feature, as well as generate more personalized recommendations. Meanwhile, on the backend, its Performance+ platform combines AI and automation to help advertisers run better campaigns.

The strategy is working, as the platform is both gaining more users and monetizing them better. Last quarter, it grew its monthly active users by 10% to 570 million. Much of that user growth is coming from emerging markets. Through the help of Google's strong global ad network, with whom it's partnered, Pinterest is also much better at monetizing these users. In the first quarter, its "rest of world" segment's average revenue per user (ARPU) jumped 29%, while overall segment revenue soared 49%.

With a large but still undermonetized user base, Pinterest has a lot of growth ahead.

Salesforce

Salesforce (NYSE: CRM) is no stranger to innovation, being one of the first large companies to embrace the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model. A leader in customer relationship management (CRM) software, the company is now looking to become a leader in agentic AI and digital labor.

Salesforce's CRM platform was built to give its users a unified view of their siloed data all in one place. This helped create efficiencies and reduce costs by giving real-time insights and allowing for improved forecasting.

With the advent of AI, it is now looking to use its platform to create a digital workforce of AI agents that can complete tasks with little human supervision. It believes that the combination of apps, data, automation, and metadata into a single framework it calls ADAM will give it a leg up in this new agentic AI race.

The company has a huge installed user base, and its new Agentforce platform is off to a good start with over 4,000 paying customers since its October launch. With its consumption-based product, the company has a huge opportunity ahead with AI agents.

Should you invest $1,000 in Nvidia right now?

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 when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $694,758!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $998,376!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,058% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 180% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of July 7, 2025

Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Geoffrey Seiler has positions in Alphabet, Pinterest, and Salesforce. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Alphabet, Nvidia, Pinterest, and Salesforce. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Prediction: Buying Lucid Group Stock Today Could Set You Up for Life

Key Points

If you want to add significant upside potential to your portfolio, check out electric car stocks. In 2021, electric vehicles (EVs) represented just 3.4% of all vehicle sales in the U.S. By 2030, however, nearly 30% of all vehicle sales are expected to be electric.

As Tesla stock has proven, big gains are possible by investing early. While plenty of risks remain, Lucid Group (NASDAQ: LCID) could very well be the next Tesla, potentially generating huge wealth for your portfolio in the process. Right now, there are two reasons in particular to believe Lucid shares are a compelling "buy it for life" investment.

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1. Lucid is ready to tap the mass market

One of the biggest drivers of growth in an EV maker's journey is the launch of so-called "mass market" vehicles. These are cars that are affordable to the masses, with price tags typically under $50,000. Yet again, Tesla provides clear proof of how valuable the launch of mass market vehicles can be. Today, its two most affordable models -- the Model 3 and Model Y -- account for more than 90% of its vehicle sales. Without these two models, Tesla would arguably be just a fraction of its current size.

Right now, Lucid is far from achieving Tesla's size and scale. Last year, the company had just one model on the market: The Lucid Air, a sedan that can easily cost more than $100,000 depending on options. In early 2025, Lucid doubled its lineup with the launch of its Gravity SUV platform. Analysts believe that this will help sales grow by 72% this year, with another 97% growth expected in 2026. But the Gravity SUV can also cost upwards of $100,000 depending on options, limiting its appeal to a wide audience.

By the end of next year, however, Lucid expects to start production of two mass market vehicles: a sedan and a crossover, both priced under the critical $50,000 threshold. These vehicles will essentially compete head to head with Tesla's Model 3 and Model Y. "Lucid does not exist to be a niche luxury manufacturer," the company's former CEO, Peter Rawlinson, stressed in February.

Critically, Rawlinson departed Lucid abruptly a few weeks after those comments were made, putting his optimistic timeline in jeopardy. If the launch timeline is maintained, however, we could see Lucid's growth rise exponentially in 2027, following what are expected to be banner years in both 2025 and 2026.

The impending launch of two new mass market vehicles should get investors excited. But there's another growth opportunity that could arguably be even more lucrative in the long term.

Person riding in self-driving vehicle.

Image source: Getty Images.

2. Lucid's biggest growth opportunity won't be making EVs

Rawlinson wasn't shy about his expectations for the company. "We want Lucid to be huge," he said earlier this year before his departure. He wanted the company to produce more than a million cars every year by the early 2030s. Beyond that, he thought Lucid's future might be to simply sell its technology to other automakers -- an arguably more profitable business with greater scaling potential.

Lucid's transition toward this future has already begun. In 2023, it announced a partnership with Aston Martin. The deal made it so that Aston Martin could gain access to Lucid's proprietary powertrain technology, which will be implemented in upcoming Aston Martin EVs.

In December 2024, Lucid teased that it was talking with "a couple" of other manufacturers about similar deals. "It would be lovely if we could supply technology to a traditional car company to help them on their way to sustainability," Rawlinson commented. "Perhaps we can leverage economies of scale with their parts bin and other aspects of the business."

We haven't received any updated commentary from new CEO Marc Winterhoff. But long term, Lucid's car manufacturing business should simply be a way to showcase its technology. If that's true, we could see Lucid transitioning to this business model entirely, since tech licensing typically generates higher profit margins and greater scaling opportunities. As EV penetration takes off, Lucid could essentially sell its technology to the winners, rather than needing to compete directly itself.

While there remains plenty of execution risk, this makes Lucid a promising investment that could generate immense wealth over a multi-decade holding period.

Should you invest $1,000 in Lucid Group right now?

Before you buy stock in Lucid Group, 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 Lucid Group wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $694,758!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $998,376!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,058% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 180% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of July 7, 2025

Ryan Vanzo has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Tesla. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

  •  

Three Strategic Moves Powering Intuit's Next Decade of Growth

Key Points

  • Intuit is well-positioned to expand the reach of its core services.

  • The next step is to upsell and grow the ecosystem over time.

  • The company is expanding beyond its core markets.

Intuit (NASDAQ: INTU) has come a long way from being just a tax software provider. Today, it's a deeply embedded financial platform powering small businesses, self-employed workers, consumers, and marketers. With flagship products like TurboTax, QuickBooks, Credit Karma, and Mailchimp, the company has built a sticky, interconnected ecosystem.

But what comes next? At its fiscal 2025 Investor Day, Intuit outlined three major growth levers: expanding its core services, increasing revenue per customer beyond its tax products, and expanding globally. Together, they form a durable growth playbook designed to sustain long-term performance.

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Business owner on her phone.

Image source: Getty Images.

1. Expand its core services and increase penetration

Intuit's first growth lever is obvious: to deepen its presence in its core verticals -- tax, accounting, personal finance, and marketing -- by increasing penetration across both existing and underserved customer segments.

In the U.S., millions of small businesses, solopreneurs, and gig workers still don't use professional software to manage their accounting and finances. However, Intuit is providing a compelling reason for them to consider its suite of products, particularly as it integrates artificial intelligence (AI) into QuickBooks and TurboTax to simplify processes and minimize manual input. The goal is to make the first-time experience effortless -- whether that's auto-categorizing expenses or surfacing personalized tax deductions.

Moreover, the company has recognized that midmarket businesses will be a key growth category in the coming years, marking a shift from its previous focus on individuals and small businesses. Here, it leverages its years of experience and investment in its platforms, including QBO Advanced and Intuit Enterprise Suite, to help mid-market customers run and grow their businesses.

To put the opportunity size into perspective, the total addressable market (TAM) for its core services across its platform is $71 billion. Another way to look at it is that there is a TAM of 47 million small businesses and 242 million consumers who Intuit can target, leaving a long runway for converting non-digital or partially served users into full-paying customers.

Besides recruiting new customers, Intuit can expand its presence within already penetrated segments by encouraging customers to utilize more tools that are already available to them. For example, the company can encourage customers who have started with the bookkeeping function to eventually adopt adjacent tools, such as invoicing, payments, and payroll.

Needless to say, the opportunity is massive!

2. Upsell and grow the ecosystem

Getting customers started with the company, whether in QuickBooks or Mailchimp, is just the beginning point. The next crucial step is to get them to embark on a journey of adopting additional services within the ecosystem.

This effort could involve bundling TurboTax with QuickBooks for self-employed users, integrating Mailchimp into QuickBooks to streamline customer outreach, and utilizing Credit Karma insights to help businesses and consumers make more informed financial decisions. The idea is to provide an end-to-end solution to its customers, making it the sole trusted platform for customers to run their businesses.

Here, an important enabler is the use of AI. For instance, the rollout of Intuit Assist -- its generative AI assistant -- across all its products is meant to help businesses do more with less. Whether it's automating cash flow forecasts, resolving support queries, or surfacing personalized tax tips, AI isn't just enhancing the product; it's also improving the overall user experience, making it more compelling for customers to adopt new products.

Another key initiative is connecting customers to human experts. Through TurboTax Live and QuickBooks Live, Intuit is combining AI-powered tools with professional advice to support customers with their needs. These expert networks also create an upsell path for users who require more in-depth guidance while expanding Intuit's revenue streams beyond DIY software.

Similarly, by combining TurboTax and Credit Karma, Intuit is targeting the tax and financial solution industry, which has a TAM of $135 billion. Particularly, by leveraging data to match users with products such as loans, credit cards, insurance, and other financial products, Intuit is building a financial marketplace that could become the next leg of its growth story.

3. Expand globally

Intuit's third growth lever is international expansion. The logic is straightforward: Small businesses are prevalent everywhere, and most still lack access to modern financial software. The company is focused on replicating its U.S. playbook in markets such as Canada, the U.K., and Australia, starting with core accounting tools and layering on tax, payroll, and marketing as trust is built.

What makes this compelling is the company's ability to leverage its ecosystem model. Once a customer adopts one product, they're far more likely to use another. The more tools they adopt, the stickier they become. For perspective, expanding globally adds more than $300 billion in TAM for the company.

If successful, international could be the next long-term revenue engine, complementing Intuit's more mature U.S. operations.

What it means for investors

Intuit isn't just reinventing itself; it's scaling what already works. With its ecosystem strategy, growing use of AI, and expanding addressable market, the company is positioning itself to compound value for years to come. For long-term investors, this is a business worth keeping a close eye on.

Should you invest $1,000 in Intuit right now?

Before you buy stock in Intuit, 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 Intuit wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $694,758!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $998,376!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,058% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 180% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of July 7, 2025

Lawrence Nga has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Intuit. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

  •  

The No. 1 Mistake People Make With Car Insurance


A white sports car with a black and dark orange

Too many drivers treat car insurance like a set-it-and-forget-it expense. You find a policy once, set up autopay, and renew each year without a second thought. But this habit can quietly cost you hundreds of dollars a year.

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A 2024 survey by Consumer Reports found that just 30% of drivers switched insurance providers in the past five years -- but those who did saved a median of $461 per year. That's a big payoff for a small amount of effort.

If you haven't reviewed your policy or compared quotes in a while, there's a good chance you're overpaying. Here's what to know.

Car insurance rates change often

Even if nothing has changed on your end, your insurance company may change your rate. And your personal situation might have shifted in ways that can affect your premium:

  • You've gotten older or improved your credit score
  • You moved to a different ZIP code
  • You drive less
  • You added safety features to your car
  • You've had an accident or a traffic violation

All of these factors can affect how much you pay, and not all insurers weigh them the same way. One company might see you as a lower risk, and charge you a lower premium, than another.

You can even set a yearly calendar reminder to review your policy and compare some quotes. Then you'll know you're not missing an easy opportunity to save money.

With our free tool, you might be able to save hundreds of dollars per year just by switching car insurance -- and it only takes a few minutes to find out. Check it out to compare rates from the top companies today.

What to check when you compare

When shopping around for a new policy, make sure you're comparing apples to apples. Don't just look at the monthly premium. Dig in to the details and ask questions like:

  • Are the liability limits the same?
  • Is the deductible the same?
  • Are you getting the same add-ons, like roadside assistance and rental reimbursement?

You might be able to get discounts, too. Some insurers offer savings for bundling with home or renters insurance, having a clean driving record, being a student with good grades, or even paying in full up front.

Make your policy fit your needs

If your life situation has changed, a car insurance policy that made sense three years ago may no longer be a fit. Maybe you now work from home and drive half as much. Maybe you moved to a lower-crime area. Or maybe your teen driver is away at college and isn't on your policy.

Do an annual review to update your insurer on any changes and check that your current coverage would still protect you in a real emergency.

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  •  

This Magnificent High-Yield Dividend Stock Continues to Pump More Cash Into Its Investors' Pockets

Key Points

  • Enterprise Products Partners is boosting its distribution by another 1.9%, compared to last quarter.

  • The MLP can easily afford to continue giving its investors raises.

  • The midstream giant has lots of fuel to continue growing its payout in the coming years.

Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE: EPD) continues to be an income-generating machine for its investors. The master limited partnership (MLP) recently declared its latest distribution payment. It's paying $0.545 per unit ($2.18 annualized), up from $0.535 last quarter ($2.14 annualized).

This hike continues the steady upward trend in the distribution, which has increased for 26 consecutive years. At its recent unit price, the midstream giant's distribution yield is approaching 7%.

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The MLP should have plenty of fuel to continue increasing its payout in the coming years. That makes it an excellent option for those seeking to generate passive income, as long as they're comfortable receiving the Schedule K-1 Federal Tax Form that the MLP sends to investors each year.

A person putting another coin in a jar.

Image source: Getty Images.

The raises keep coming

Enterprise Products Partners is hiking its distribution payment by 1.9%, compared to the first quarter, putting it 3.8% above the year-ago payment level. That continues its long history of distribution increases, which is now well into its 26th straight year.

The MLP can easily afford this higher distribution level. The pipeline company generated $2 billion in distributable cash flow during the first quarter, representing a 5% increase from the year-ago level. That was enough cash to cover its quarterly payment by a super comfy 1.7 times.

As a result, Enterprise Products Partners retained $842 million in excess free cash flow in the period. It returned an additional $60 million of that money to shareholders via unit repurchases and reinvested the rest into growing its operations.

Enterprise Products Partners' conservative payout ratio has enabled it to maintain a strong balance sheet. The MLP ended the first quarter with a low 3.1 times leverage ratio. This level supports the strongest balance sheet in the midstream industry, as Enterprise has A-rated credit (A-/A3).

Ample fuel to continue growing its payout

Enterprise Products Partners has grown its payout by expanding its integrated midstream network. It still has a lot of growth ahead.

The midstream company had $7.6 billion of major growth projects in its backlog at the end of the first quarter. The bulk of those projects ($6 billion) are on track to come online by the end of this year, including two more gas processing plants and some additional export capacity. The remaining projects (another gas processing plant and additional export capacity additions) should enter commercial service by the end of 2026.

As a result, the company's free cash flow is on track to surge. In addition to the increased cash flow from its new projects, the company's capital spending is on track to decline from a range of $4 billion-$4.5 billion this year to $2 billion-$2.5 billion in 2026.

The incremental free cash flow will provide Enterprise Products Partners with the flexibility to return more money to investors through distribution increases and unit repurchases. The MLP can also make additional growth investments (organic expansions and acquisitions).

The company has several more expansion projects under development, including additional gas processing capacity. Enterprise also has a long history of making accretive deals that enhance its growth and profitability.

For example, last year, it bought Pinon Midstream for $950 million. The company expected the deal to add $0.03 per unit to its distributable cash flow this year. Additionally, it came with built-in opportunities to expand Pinon's treating capacity, which would also enable Enterprise to expand its gas processing capacity.

A top choice for a steadily rising passive-income stream

Enterprise Products Partners pays a high-yielding distribution backed by a rock-solid financial profile. It has an exceptional record of increasing its payout, which should continue in the coming years. These factors make the MLP a compelling investment option for those seeking to generate stable and growing passive income.

Should you invest $1,000 in Enterprise Products Partners right now?

Before you buy stock in Enterprise Products Partners, 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 Enterprise Products Partners wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $694,758!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $998,376!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,058% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 180% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of July 7, 2025

Matt DiLallo has positions in Enterprise Products Partners. The Motley Fool recommends Enterprise Products Partners. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

  •  

Dinosaurs Roar for Comcast; CoreWeave Goes Shopping

In this podcast, Motley Fool Chief Investment Officer Andy Cross and senior analyst Jason Moser discuss:

  • Jurassic World Rebirth delivers for Comcast.
  • CoreWeave finally gets it done for Core Scientific.
  • Oracle makes a deal with the federal government.
  • Two stocks to look at if the market pulls back: Samsara and Howmet Aerospace.

To catch full episodes of all The Motley Fool's free podcasts, check out our podcast center. When you're ready to invest, check out this top 10 list of stocks to buy.

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Continue »

A full transcript is below.

Should you invest $1,000 in Comcast right now?

Before you buy stock in Comcast, 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 Comcast wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

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This podcast was recorded on July 07, 2025.

Andy Cross: Dinosaurs roar for Comcast while CoreWeave makes an acquisition. Motley Fool Money starts now. Welcome to Motley Fool Money. I'm Andy Cross, joined by Motley Fool's Senior Analyst and advisor Jason Moser. Jason, happy Monday.

Jason Moser: Happy Monday, AC. Good to see you.

Andy Cross: Good to see you. Thanks for being here. We got confirmation today that CoreWeave is buying another AI Data Center company, and Oracle is cutting cloud prices for Uncle Sam. We'll also talk about two companies we're keeping an eye on if the price is right. But, Jason, let's start with the summer movies, Universal's Jurassic World Rebirth reportedly brought in more than 300 million globally this weekend, giving a nice wind to Comcast, the parent owner of Universal. This continues that strong summer at the box office that included how to train your dragon also from Universal and Apple's F1. Jason, is this good news for long suffering Comcast shareholders like me?

Jason Moser: [laughs] It's not bad news. Most certainly it's not bad news. Now, Comcast content and experiences studio segment brought in $11 billion in revenue in 2024, along with about $1.4 billion in operating profits. This isn't something from the revenue side that is a tremendous needle mover, but maybe it's a needle mover to the extent that we would say the same thing for Disney. This is the content space that can be very lumpy some years are better than others. If you look at the same segment, the content and experience, the studio segment, we talked about $11 billion in revenue in 2024. That was $12.3 billion in 2022. It ebbs and flows. But this is terrific news. I'm amazed. The original Jurassic Park came out back in 1993. They have pulled a Disney to an extent and have really expanded and stretched out this IP library. I think that is a good sign for Comcast shareholders.

Andy Cross: Jason, 100%. I see this again, this Comcast stock has not done that well over the past couple of years. It now yields about 3.7%. Of course, we have the spin off, the spin out of the media properties called Versant later this year, where they're going to spin off CNBC and USA, MSNBC, the Golf Channel, and a few other properties. I think that's got a lot of investors interested in Comcast, at least for me, those of us who own it. But this is the seventh film franchise of the Jurassic franchise, and that franchise is worth about $6 billion. It is a Disney play, Jason, because they're using that in their IP. They're using the theme parks. I saw promotions all around the world, all around the cable properties for the Jurassic rebirth movie. They were showing older Jurassic movies on some of those cable properties this weekend. I think from that perspective, it does help build that franchise out, and it's going to be a very competitive summer. Disney itself has its fantastic four coming out this summer. We have the much anticipated Superman movie from Warner Brothers coming out this year, but I think it does help build out that franchise that has become more and more valuable to those universal theme parks, including the one that just opened up this year.

Jason Moser: No question. This also plays into that summer blockbuster. We always look to see what the summer blockbusters are going to be. I just think it's noteworthy these results, particularly given the tepid reviews that the movie's gotten. I haven't seen it, and I take criticisms with a grain of salt, but 51% on rotten tomatoes and a cinema score of B from the opening weekend audience. That's not lighting the world on fire from a critics perspective, but clearly the audience loved it.

Andy Cross: Also, Jason, interesting notes over the weekend that Netflix, with its 300 million subscribers, they said at the Anime Expo in Los Angeles this weekend that more than half its subscribers now watch Japanese anime. I found that interesting just because it continues to show the power of the Netflix globally as a brand, and one reason why they're along with YouTube, one of the most valuable media properties out there.

Jason Moser: We've always said they do such a good job with that data. Personally, I'm not an anime consumer, but I think this is a great example for investors, where it's not necessarily wise to extrapolate one personal taste into a potential idea, just because it's not something that you like or eat or watch, it doesn't mean there isn't an opportunity there, and that 50% number globally, really does tell us something impressive about Netflix's market position.

Andy Cross: 100%. When Motley Fool Money returns, CoreWeave goes shopping.

AI infrastructure company CoreWeave announced that it will buy Core Scientific for around $9 billion in an all stock deal. That's about $20 per share based on CoreWeave stock. Now, shares of Core Scientific Jason are down around 20% today to about 15, so the market's sensing something here.

Jason Moser: This is an arms race like we haven't seen in some time. Companies are just rushing to build out their AI capabilities, and this is just another sign of that. But I think it's really noteworthy that Core Scientific shares being down so much today. There can be a number of reasons why something like that might happen. Investors don't think that it will go through, perhaps another bidder comes in. But, AC, I wonder if this doesn't have something to do with the deal structure itself and what it's saying about the market's perspective on CoreWeave, because that nine billion number that's being bandied about, let's make sure we understand. That's just based on the July 3rd share price. Core Scientific shareholders are going to receive 0.1235 shares of CoreWeave for each share of Core Scientific that they hold. But as noted in the release, and this is important. The final value will be determined at the time of the transaction closed. That's not until later in Q4, so I don't know. Do you think this is like a glass half empty view on CoreWeave and whether they can hold their valuation? Because the stock has been on fire since it went public.

Andy Cross: It went public just this year, and the stock's done just fantastically well, and Core Scientific has done very well, although it has a little spotted history. It's one of those sparks back in 2021 that when it came public out there was about $4 billion, and it basically lost almost 100% of its value, had to declare bankruptcy, defile from the markets, came back to the public markets in January 2024. Actually, CoreWeave tried to buy them last year for about $6 per share. Now they're paying far more for that. It does give CoreWeave the vertical integration, Jason, that I think that they need to build out. They're going to add 9 or 10 AI data centers of Core Scientifics give them massive gigawatts of capacity. As CoreWeave is trying to build out its own AI data centers, it does need to continue to build out that capacity. CoreWeave is Core Scientific's largest tenet, so it makes sense from a vertical integration perspective. But I think the market is just saying with a share issuance, so soon after CoreWeave became public, there are some doubts about at what price they're going to have to get Core Scientific into the CoreWeave family.

Jason Moser: Exactly. I certainly understand the market's enthusiasm around CoreWeave. When you're selling yourself as the AI hyperscaler. There is something to that, and this is clearly a company that's playing a big role in the space. They just reported revenue growth, 420% in this most recently reported quarter. But again, and you're right, vertical integration, this is going to be something that really gives CoreWeave more power over its platform and to that power. This is a power play. Through this acquisition, CoreWeave is going to own approximately 1.3 gigawatts of gross power, along with the opportunity of one plus gigawatts of potential gross power available for expansion. A gigawatt is a lot of power, AC. That power is a medium sized city, and you think about the Hoover Dam. Hoover Dam, one of our biggest hydroelectric generators here in the country. That's responsible for about two gigawatts of capacity. You can see how this could really impact CoreWeave if it goes through.

Andy Cross: Prediction time, do you think it's going to go through? Do they have to lower the price, readjust the deal terms? You think, Jason?

Jason Moser: I think it's going to go through. I think that probably the market's enthusiasm is going to remain for Core. You think the stock will ebb and flow here a little bit. My suspicion is it'll go through. Probably not going to end up at that $9 billion valuation at the end of the day because that is pretty extreme for a company like Core Scientific. That's like 18 times full year revenue in 2024. We might see some change in the price there, but my suspicion is it'll go through.

Andy Cross: There's definitely some synergies there and some cost savings, but I think it'll go through, too, but I do think they'll have to readjust the terms.

Jason Moser: [laughs] Exactly.

Andy Cross: Next up on Motley Fool Money, Oracle gives Uncle Sam a deal. Let's move over to news that Oracle is cutting cloud service prices for the US government by as much as 75% as reported this weekend by the Wall Street Journal. Jason, who's a winner here? Is this an Oracle beneficiary, a US federal government beneficiary or a little bit of A, a little bit of B?

Jason Moser: I'm going to walk the fence here and say a little bit of A, a little bit of B. It does feel like both win somewhat here. This feels a bit like taking a page out of the book of Bezos. He was always known for driving down those prices in so many cases. He's got that quote, "Your margin is my opportunity." He's taking that Uber long-term view. AC, I think for federal agencies, they're under this mandate to modernize while also managing tighter budgets at the same time. So the old saying cash is king, I think, in this case, it seems maybe cost is king, and we're seeing other cloud providers follow the same lead, Salesforce has done the same thing in regard to Slack, Google, Adobe. This isn't anything necessarily new. But then I think for Oracle, these discounts can help lock in really multi year contracts. That offers more stability for their business model and revenue prediction. If they can extend those relationships, then you can start talking a bit about maybe exercising a little bit more pricing power down the road if they do a good job. I can see both parties benefiting from that.

Andy Cross: I thought this was a little bit more beneficiary for Oracle when I first started studying it. But then I think the GSA, the General Services Administration is starting to shake their big stick here to try to get some pricing out of some of these big players. It is interesting to me that this is for the licensees, not really for the subscription, and it goes through November. The pricing option goes through November of this year. It does give Oracle a foot in. It's really the first deal the GSA cut for government wide solutions, including lots of areas where Oracle and other cloud titans provide some of those services and compete very heavily. I think it's just more evidence of CFO Safra Catz, becoming more and more competitive, trying to push Oracle into markets. Clearly Oracle has had some nice beneficiaries here in the markets and in their business as the stock is gone really well. It's up 60% the past year or 40% year to date, Jason. It's north of a $600 billion company. Thirty five times earnings. That's almost two times its five year average. What do you think about Oracle, the stock going forward?

Jason Moser: I'm glad you brought that up. It does seem like a little bit of a richer valuation, but going back to Safra Catz, he's looking at fiscal 2026 targets here, cloud revenue growth projected to grow from 24% to over 40%. Then that IAAS, that infrastructure as a service. That growth there is projected to hit about 70%. Anytime you see valuations like that, you have to just step back and say, why is the market doing that? Where's the growth? I think that's where they're seeing some of that growth. Now they just have to deliver.

Andy Cross: I think so, too. I do, again, like this licensing play because as they continue to push more subscription, this does get into the core part of what Oracle has done for so long and done so well for so many years. I think it is a nice foothold for Oracle. I guarantee that GSA is going to be issuing lots of different pricing asks of lots more providers as they continue to manage their own footprint as they push toward to be a little bit more technological savvy at the federal government. Finally, today, Jason, stocks are down a little bit, but passed through all time highs last week. Let's end things with two stocks that we're keeping fresh on our watch list if the prices are right. What are you looking at?

Jason Moser: Everybody loves stock ideas, AC?

Andy Cross: Of course.

Jason Moser: One that I just continue to keep my eye on is a company called Samsara. Ticker is IOT. It's now a $22 billion company, and Samsara operates its Connected Operations Cloud, which is a software platform that connects all of the devices that a company has and its buildings, its equipment, its cards, and other facilities. The platform then establishes this massive network of data and information specific to that company. Now the company's still working its way to profitability. Technically, it's cash flow positive, but stock-based compensation more than eats that up, which isn't uncommon for a company at this stage of its life cycle. It's around 14 times forward sales projections today. Now, when I wrecked this company in the trend service back in the beginning of 2023, it was at 13 times. It's been a bit of a bumpy ride, and the stock has pulled back a little. But when you look at the fundamentals of this business, they just reported first quarter results that exceeded all targets that leadership set a quarter ago, revenue up 32% annualized recurring revenue up 31%. They have 2,638 customers with ARR over $100,000. That's up 35% from a year ago. It is a company that continues to grow and establish a fairly dominant position in its market is what it seems. It really does seem like this is becoming the top dog at its space. I think it's also a company that possesses a lot of those hidden gems traits.

Those principles that our CEO Tom Gardner loves, he's so fond of. You get reasonable, remarkable growth into expanding markets, check. Led and owned by true long-term believers in the company, check. This is a company that is led by co-founders Sanjit Biswas and John Bicket. They own almost 70% of the voting power in a relentless curiosity toward bold technical exploration. That is a double check for a company like this. If we ever see any material pullback in this one, I certainly would be very tempted to add it to my portfolio.

Andy Cross: Jason, do you have any thoughts on these cute ticker names, IOT? [laughs] Does that tend to scare you away from a company?

Jason Moser: Not really. I never would recommend a company on the ticker alone, but you just made me think of core scientific and its ticker cores. It's like the smoky and the bandit ticker. It's funny to see those sometimes.

Andy Cross: Jason, I'm looking at Howmet symbol HWM. It's formerly part of Alcoa. Its history is steeped into high precision metalworking, 90%. It provides 90% of all structural and rotating aero engine components for the aerospace, transportation, and energy markets. These are really super high end precision airfoils and forging, forge wheels and chassis for the commercial trucking and auto space. The stock has doubled over the past year, and it's up almost 50% since the Rule Breakers team over in Stock Advisor, we recommended it just this year. It has these really serious competitive advantages that we love to see. Its patents, manufacturing, the history behind it, its core clients. You don't really want to mess around with replacement parts for these kinds of really high precision manufactured items. It does have some opportunities in the energy space because it provides the blades for the engine turbines that power a lot of the energy that goes into supporting data centers. I do love this business.

It's just the stock has done so well, and while the Stock Advisor team, as well as our Rule Breakers team love buying into strength, I just want to see, I'm not going to criticize anybody for adding this great business to their portfolio. But for me, I'm just looking for a little bit of maybe a market breather before I start looking at Howmet symbol HWM just a wonderful business, $73 billion. It's not small, and it has a lot of room to grow in the aerospace market.

Jason Moser: Plenty of examples in my investing life where patience tends to pay off.

Andy Cross: 100%. [laughs] There you have those two high quality companies in Samsara and Howmet that we're watching. If the markets go on a little bit of a tailspin here in the dog days of summer, maybe they go added to our portfolio. That's a rap for us today here at Motley Fool Money. Jason Moser, thanks for joining me here.

Jason Moser: Thanks for having me.

Andy Cross: Here at the Motley Fool we love hearing your feedback, to be part of that feedback or to ask a question, email us at [email protected]. That's [email protected]. As always, people on the program may have interest in the stocks they talk about and the Motley Fool may have formal recommendations for or against. Don't buy or sell stocks based solely on what you hear. All personal finance content follows Motley Fool Editorial standards and is not approved by advertisers. Advertisements are sponsored content and provided for informational purposes only. To see our full advertising disclosure, please check out our show notes. For all of us here at Motley Fool Money, thanks for listening, and we'll see you tomorrow.

Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Andy Cross has positions in Adobe, Alphabet, Apple, Comcast, Netflix, Salesforce, and Warner Bros. Discovery. Jason Moser has positions in Adobe and Alphabet. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Adobe, Alphabet, Apple, Netflix, Oracle, Salesforce, and Warner Bros. Discovery. The Motley Fool recommends Comcast, Howmet Aerospace, and Samsara. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

  •  

Midyear Check-In: Are These 3 Money Mistakes Costing You?


A young adult calculates their personal finances at the kitchen table using a tablet.

Image source: Getty Images

Somehow I blinked, and it's July?! That means we're halfway through 2025.

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If your finances haven't exactly been front and center lately (relatable), now's the perfect time to check in. You probably don't need an overhaul -- just a few smart tweaks to set yourself up for a stronger second half of the year.

Here are three slip-ups I see all the time, and a few ways I've personally turned them into upgrades.

1. Letting your savings sit in a low-interest account

I used to keep most of my savings in a big-name bank that barely paid any interest. My balance sat there earning less than a dollar a month.

Eventually, I switched to a high-yield savings account, and the difference was immediate. My money started earning meaningful interest, and I didn't have to change anything else.

If your money hasn't gotten a raise lately, it's time to look at better options. Some of the best accounts right now are paying over 4.00% APY -- no fees, no fuss, just more money in your pocket. Check out this list of high-yield savings accounts that actually pay.

2. Overpaying for car insurance

Car insurance rates are up this year, but that doesn't mean you're stuck paying more. I recently helped a friend compare quotes, and she ended up saving over $400 annually -- with the same level of coverage -- just by switching providers.

When it comes to your insurance company, loyalty rarely pays off. It's worth shopping around even if you think you're getting a good deal.

It takes five minutes and could put a chunk of change back into your budget for road trips, concerts, or literally anything more fun than auto insurance. Take a look at what other providers are offering -- you might be surprised.

3. Earning nothing (or paying too much) on your credit card

If your credit card isn't doing anything for you, you're probably missing out.

Whether it's cash back, travel points, or a long 0% intro APR, there are cards that reward you just for using them. And many come with welcome bonuses that are worth hundreds of dollars.

If your current card isn't pulling its weight, it's time for an upgrade. Check out our top credit card offers and find one that works harder for you.

Small moves, big payoff

These aren't major money moves -- just low-effort upgrades that can add up fast. And the sooner you make them, the more time they have to work in your favor.

So here's your friendly nudge: Do a quick midyear money check-in today. Your future self (and your December bank account) will thank you.

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We're firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers. Motley Fool Money does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from Motley Fool Money is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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This Personal Loan Mistake Could Cost You Thousands in 2025


A light blue calculator and silver credit card against hot pink background.

Right now, the average personal loan interest rate is 12.65%, according to Bankrate. But what if there was a way to get a 0% interest rate for almost two full years instead?

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Before taking out a personal loan, see if you can qualify for a 0% intro APR credit card. In many cases, you can accomplish the same goals -- like consolidating high-interest debt or financing a large purchase -- without paying any interest at all.

This strategy isn't talked about enough, but it could save you thousands in 2025. Let's break down how it works.

What is a 0% intro APR credit card?

A 0% intro APR credit card lets you avoid interest charges for a promotional period, often 12 to 21 months.

The no-interest period can be for either:

  • New purchases (useful for big expenses you want to split into payments)
  • Balance transfers (good for consolidating and paying off existing high-interest debt)

Some cards offer both.

During the 0% APR promo window, every dollar you pay goes toward your actual balance, not toward interest. It's like hitting "pause" on the cost of borrowing.

This can be an amazing tool for people who are stuck with a mountain of existing credit card debt. Pausing interest gives them breathing room to pay down principal, and get out of debt faster with less interest.

If you're looking for a longer 0% APR period, check out this card that we recommend. It offers nearly two years of 0% intro APR for both new purchases and balance transfers. That's a huge window of time to make payments and pay no interest.

Why personal loans aren't always the best choice

I get why people like personal loans. They're great for bigger projects and payoff timeframes stretching multiple years. They're also predictable, structured, and can be easier to qualify for with fair credit.

But here's the problem. The interest starts immediately, and the rates aren't exactly cheap.

For example, let's say you take out a $10,000 personal loan at 11% APR for two years. Your total interest paid would be over $1,185.

Now compare that to putting that same $10,000 on a 0% intro APR card and paying it off over 21 months. You could pay zero in interest if you're disciplined.

When using a 0% intro APR card makes sense

Credit cards aren't magic. They can be a double-edge sword which can either help your finances or hurt them.

Here's when 0% intro APR credit cards make sense:

Paying off high-interest credit card debt

Balance transfer cards let you move your existing balance(s) to a new card with 0% APR for a set period.

Making a large one-time purchase

Got an unexpected car repair or medical bill? Instead of financing it with a personal loan, a 0% intro APR card can let you pay it off gradually over a lengthy promo period.

You have good-to-excellent credit

Most of the top 0% intro APR cards require good credit or higher (typically 670+). So definitely check your score first before applying.

What to watch out for

Two quick gotchas that you should be aware of:

  1. Balance transfers come with a fee. This is usually 3% to 5% of whatever balance you transfer over. This isn't too bad though, as it's usually more than offset by the interest you can save.
  2. The 0% intro APR period eventually ends. And when it runs out, the normal APR for the credit card will kick in (and it's likely super high!). So if you anticipate needing a loan for two years or longer, a personal loan may be a better fit.

Using a 0% intro APR credit card instead of a personal loan could save you hundreds (or even thousands) of dollars over the next couple years.

I've seen folks use these cards to escape debt faster, tackle emergencies, or finally feel in control again. It's a tool, not a shortcut -- but the right tool can make all the difference.

Looking for an interest-free alternative to a short-term personal loan? Explore the top 0% intro APR cards with up to 21 months of no interest

Alert: highest cash back card we've seen now has 0% intro APR into 2026

This credit card is not just good – it's so exceptional that our experts use it personally. It features a 0% intro APR for 15 months, a cash back rate of up to 5%, and all somehow for no annual fee!

Click here to read our full review for free and apply in just 2 minutes.

We're firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers. Motley Fool Money does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from Motley Fool Money is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Battle of the Billionaires: Bill Ackman Has 14% of Pershing Square's Portfolio Invested in This Dirt Cheap "Magnificent Seven" Stock, Which Coatue Management's Philippe Laffont Thinks Is Headed for Further Pressure

Key Points

  • Ackman holds Alphabet stock and cites the AI trend as a major catalyst for its search and cloud businesses.

  • Laffont questions how dominant Google Search will still be in the face of competition from generative AI.

  • Alphabet is leveraging OpenAI as a strategic partner, potentially mitigating the risks that concern Laffont.

Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman's approach to portfolio management is rather simple. The founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management keeps its portfolio concentrated in a small number of large-cap stocks that he buys when they are arguably trading below their intrinsic values.

Coatue Management founder Philippe Laffont has a different philosophy. Coatue's portfolio boasts a number of high-growth stocks that appear poised to dominate emerging trends.

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Continue »

One company that Ackman and Laffont seem to have different views on is "Magnificent Seven" member Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) (NASDAQ: GOOG).

Let's start by exploring what drives Ackman's conviction in the megacap artificial intelligence (AI) stock. From there, I'll detail a major risk factor that Laffont recently called out for the stock. Lastly, I'll provide my own breakdown of Alphabet and whether or not the stock could be worth a look right now.

Why does Bill Ackman like Alphabet?

Pershing Square's position in Google parent Alphabet makes up about 14% of the value of its portfolio, based on the fund's most recent 13F filing. In its latest annual investor presentation, the firm identified Alphabet as an "underappreciated" opportunity in the AI landscape.

It went on to highlight new opportunities in digital advertising and cloud computing as catalysts for Alphabet that could drive accelerated revenue growth and profit margin expansion.

For example, Google's search responses now highlight AI-crafted summaries. So far, this feature has shown some encouraging metrics such as higher user engagement trends among those who use the summaries. This puts Google in an advantageous position when it comes to enticing advertisers to its platform.

In addition, Alphabet's cloud computing business has made meaningful investments in cybersecurity tools over the last few years. The integration of AI-powered cybersecurity services into the Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is a major differentiator from peers such as Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services (AWS). Moreover, it also opens the door to another enormous addressable market and provides Alphabet with more direct ways to compete with the likes of CrowdStrike and other leading cybersecurity players.

GOOGL Net Income (TTM) Chart

GOOGL Net Income (TTM) data by YCharts.

Over the past year, Alphabet generated more net income than its closest cloud infrastructure peers. Yet it's trading at a forward-price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple of just 18.4 -- roughly half the ratios of Amazon and Microsoft. Given Alphabet's discounted valuation and the potential value to be gained from integrating AI and cybersecurity across its vast ecosystem, I can see why the company earned a position in Pershing Square's portfolio.

Laffont just called out a major risk factor for Alphabet investors

During a recent panel discussion on CNBC's Squawk Box, Laffont detailed his thoughts on Alphabet. The billionaire was bullish on some of its businesses, such as video platform YouTube and autonomous driving company Waymo. However, Laffont expressed concern over the outlook for Google Search. He believes that the rise of OpenAI could pose a threat to Google's search business.

Google logo.

Image Source: Getty Images.

Is Alphabet stock a buy right now?

I completely understand Laffont's stance, and I would go as far as to say that his opinion is rooted in reality. Some search trends have already been indicating that Google is losing some of its momentum, likely due to the rise of OpenAI and competing large language models (LLMs).

With that said, I'd like to call out an interesting development between Alphabet and OpenAI. The two companies recently formed a strategic partnership under which OpenAI will leverage Google Cloud's network.

As Ackman's thesis shows, Alphabet has some creative ways to grow its budding cloud infrastructure business relative to the competition. Considering OpenAI's closest ally throughout the AI revolution has been Microsoft, I see the expansion of its relationship with Google Cloud as an incredibly savvy deal and potentially lucrative opportunity for Alphabet.

Furthermore, if OpenAI does begin to meaningfully take business from Google Search, then Alphabet appears to have identified a new way to offset that headwind while monetizing the very company that potentially threatens it.

Although I understand Laffont's view, I think the bearish sentiment surrounding Alphabet is more academic than reality. Moreover, I think the potential downside is baked into Alphabet's stock at this point, considering the steep discount and wide disparity in valuation multiples it trades at relative to its near peers (despite being the most profitable of the three).

I see Alphabet stock as a dirt-cheap, no-brainer opportunity right now.

Should you invest $1,000 in Alphabet right now?

Before you buy stock in Alphabet, 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 Alphabet wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $694,758!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $998,376!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,058% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 180% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of July 7, 2025

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. Adam Spatacco has positions in Alphabet, Amazon, and Microsoft. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, CrowdStrike, and Microsoft. The Motley Fool 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.

  •  

Is Amazon Stock the Best Prime Day Deal?

In this podcast, Motley Fool host Anand Chokkavelu and contributors Jason Hall and Matt Frankel discuss:

  • The Aug.1 tariffs.
  • This year's four-day Prime Day (and whether Amazon stock is a deal).
  • Elon Musk's political party and Tesla.
  • Bold predictions.

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Should you invest $1,000 in Amazon right now?

Before you buy stock in Amazon, 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 Amazon wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $694,758!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $998,376!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,058% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 180% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of July 7, 2025

This podcast was recorded on July 08, 2025.

Anand Chokkavelu: What are you buying today? Motley Fool Money starts now. I'm Anand Chokkavelu and I'm joined by two of my favorite Fools, Matt Frankel and Jason Hall. They we're talking Amazon's Prime Day. It's more like a prime week at this point, the latest on Tesla and Elon Musk, and we'll make some bold predictions. But first, let's update ourselves on tariffs. What's going on there, Matt?

Matt Frankel: Well, the tariff news seems to be changing so quickly. We're only recording this a few hours before it's being published, and I'm worried, if I'm being honest. The president announced a whole new round of tariffs yesterday, set to begin on August 1st for 14 countries, and that includes Japan and South Korea, which are our Number 4 in six trading partners, actually. Those both got 25% tariff rates. Some of the announced rates were as high as 40%. The president also said that the August 1st date is not set in stone. He said, "It's firm, but not 100% firm." I really think this is more noise than news at this point. Remember the initial Liberation Day tariff rates with the thing that looked like the cheesecake factory menu, [laughs] and then the pause that was announced until July 9th? This might be an effective negotiation tactic to get better trade deals. To be fair, it looks like it might be. But until anything actually goes into effect and is actually finalized and signed by both parties, it's noise. But in other tariff news, there is a good possibility that we're going to see a European Union trade deal soon. Each of the countries in the union are small trading partners, but collectively, they actually would make up our number one trading partner in terms of both imports and the trade deficit we have. It's definitely worth watching.

Jason Hall: From an investing perspective, maybe the Taco trade's real and still alive? I don't know. We've got another extension, another delay here, so there is a group that are going to say it's another chicken out moment. But I don't know if that's really investable for most of us. But thinking about the broad economic impact, I do think that for our trading partners, they're in a tough position. There's the tension between continuing to delay and avoid substantial tariffs because it seems like they keep getting kicked down the curb. But also, all of their industry and government spending, they still have to plan, too. All of the uncertainty weighs in there. But if you look at the markets, it seems like the markets are just shrugging this off is what's become business as usual. Maybe it's this fall before we really find out if litigation continues to play out, and eventually this ends up at the Supreme Court, it might have been a whole lot of work for the Supreme Court to say, hey, Congress, you guys need to do something. The president can't do this. We'll see.

Anand Chokkavelu: Jason, today's Amazon's Prime Day. We all know the deal. This is Amazon's once brilliant move to juice sales during the summer doldrums, maybe pull forward some of that back to school shopping, taking a little market share. It's grown to four days long now. It's doubled from last year. Any takeaways for investors? You know what? Is Amazon's stock priced as a Prime deal at this?

Jason Hall: You're not including the early days, the pre-Prime days deals that they do for people that can't hold off and wait for the four whole days. My wife may or may not have changed my Amazon password as an Amazon shopper. I'll tell you, there are some things that I'm looking at, for sure, but there's not much of an investing takeaway from that. It has become an event. It's become a retail event. But if we start looking at the business, the e-commerce business has really bounced back. There was some much needed restructuring a couple of years ago of expenses after the massive expansion during the pandemic. But that added scale, it's really, really paying off. It's e-commerce- revenue since 2019, so clean before the pandemic is up 77%. They've added $110 billion in e-commerce sales on a trailing 12 month basis.

Here's another interesting data point. Third party services revenue, that's also up by over $100 billion. Amazon's role as a giant in fulfillment has also exploded along with its own sales. But on AWS is still the big profit driver. Generates more than half of operating income, but only off of 17% of revenue over the past four quarters. Now, the stock, is it a Prime day deal? Maybe. Trades for less than 21 times operating cash flow. If you look back over the past decade, that's cheap. Here's the problem. They put about 85% of that operating cash flow right back into the business. But they need to right now, especially building up the tech infrastructure and R&D spending, but only time is going to tell if it can start converting those investments into free cash flow.

Matt Frankel: AWS is definitely the biggest profit driver for now. You also didn't mention the advertising that they're building out. That's one of the faster growing parts of their revenue, which is technically reported under the e-commerce platform. But it's a higher margin type of revenue than it gets elsewhere. Amazon certainly is not as cheap as it was just a few months ago, but it still looks very attractively valued, considering the recent progress with both efficiency and profitability of the business and all that growth you mentioned.

Anand Chokkavelu: Well, you got to raise the price right before you do the discount. [laughs] It's just a little stock trick. Speaking of those deals, any top prime deals for your household, Jason?

Jason Hall: I have to admit I'm eyeing a robot lawnmower. But I'm not convinced just yet, but since it's not Prime Day, it's Prime Week, like you said, I got a little time to think about it.

Matt Frankel: In the past few years, we've bought the kids the new Fire tablets because they're so cheap on Prime Day. I haven't looked yet, but I'm sure my wife has and has a plan. I like it when she does the shopping, because then when a bunch of packages show up and it's like Christmas.

Anand Chokkavelu: We've got a kid who never brushes his teeth and has destroyed his previous electric toothbrush, but we still waited a week to see if there are any deals. Spoiler alert, no deals on the specific toothbrush [laughs] we wanted. We also looked at Walmart and Target who do similar Remora to the Amazon Shark sales. But we'll see. I'm sure we'll be buying a bunch of stuff.

Jason Hall: Well, Anand, do you know what you call a kid that won't brush their teeth?

Anand Chokkavelu: What?

Jason Hall: A kid.

Anand Chokkavelu: [laughs] Exactly. But this is where he's beyond the normal distribution.

Matt Frankel: I was going to say you've won, too. [laughs]

Anand Chokkavelu: Right. At least versus his brother and all of his cousins. Let's move on to the boy who may have cried wolf on focusing less on politics and more on Tesla. What's up with Elon Musk today, Matt?

Matt Frankel: Oh, I assume you're talking about the new political party that he's starting the American Party, because there's a lot that's up with Elon Musk. Between Tesla, between SpaceX, between xAI, between all the other things, there's a lot that's up with Elon Musk. He wanted to add one more thing to his plate by creating his own [laughs] political party. To be fair, he ran a poll on X, formerly Twitter, asking who would want a third party. Overwhelmingly from millions of votes and not just like his own followers, through millions of votes 80% or so said yes. One of the party's stated goals is to get Republicans out of office who voted for Trump's bill. We all saw the big public fallout between him and the president. That's really what led to this. He describes the party as a tech centric, budget conscious, pro energy, and centrist party with the goal of drawing both disaffected Democrats and Republicans. Now, this is easier said than done.

This is not the first attempt to create a third party. There are actually like four or five of them already in existence that don't have any traction. It's very difficult to gain any traction as a third party. You would essentially have to set up a political party in all 50 states because all the local rules and things like that, it's all different. You need a lot of money, which fortunately he has. How much he wants to spend on this is another issue. But he has the resources to do it if he wants to.

Jason Hall: I think the investing take, if we circle back around to Tesla and is honored as you joked there at the beginning, the boy who cried wolf, clearly, Tesla shareholders, as much as from a political perspective, I'm sure there's a lot of people, no matter your political affiliation, that are so frustrated with the environment that support the idea of this. Tesla needs to figure out how to start selling more Teslas. They need the resources from selling more Teslas to pay for so many things. The company is at a major inflection point right now. Dan Ives talked about this with where they stand with trying to start bringing robotics to commercial use in the next few years. We've seen what's going on in Austin with autonomous driving. That's such a massive future part of the business. You got to start selling more Teslas and generate the cash flow to fund these things. There's even more headwinds now with some things in the spending bill that was passed that are going to gut a pretty important part of Tesla's profitability with emissions credits. There's a lot of reasons for investors to certainly be concerned about this wherever you stand as an engaged citizen.

Anand Chokkavelu: Elon Musk is famous for his bold predictions. After this break, we'll have some of our own.

Time for a segment we call bold predictions. Jason, start us off. What's your bold prediction?

Jason Hall: I'm going to stick with the theme from the show today, Anand, and talk about Tesla. I think Tesla's stock in the near term, it's probably going to rebound. But those robotics ambitions, the autonomous driving ambitions, I think they might be about as successful as the Solar Roof has been so far, and that's to say not very. At least not within the next five years' time. Now, a couple of reasons why. Number 1, I think we've seen some very ambitious, you talked about Musk's predictions about things. They've accomplished a lot of great things, but always years and years later. I think that's going to continue to play out.

But I think the concern that I have, and this is really at the heart of the prediction is that while the stock might rebound in the near term, I think the next few years are going to be really, really tough for Tesla and probably tough for Tesla shareholders because there's so much of those future prospects that are baked into today's price. I think as the realization comes out that those things are going to take longer and longer to monetize, and they might be harder to monetize if Tesla can't start selling more Teslas instead of less Teslas, then shareholders may be really in for a tough time in the next five years or so.

Matt Frankel: I'll make a very bold prediction, and I'm going to say that the Fed is going to surprise the market and cut rates this month when they meet at the end of July. The market's only pricing in about a 10% chance of that happening right now. But based on what the Fed governors have said, other than Jerome Pell, it's more likely than that to happen. I think there's a lot of economic data between now and then, a lot of trade deals that can be settled between now and then to calm the Fed's nerves. I think it's going to happen earlier than people think.

Jason Hall: That would be positive for Tesla.

Matt Frankel: True.

Anand Chokkavelu: Here at The Motley Fool, we live on feedback and Amazon gift cards. Be part of that feedback or to ask a question. Email us at podcast at fool.com. As always, people on the program may have interest in the stocks they talk about, and the Motley Fool may have formal recommendations for or against. Don't buy or sell stocks based solely on what you hear. All personal finance content follows Motley Fool editorial standards. It is not approved by advertisers. Advertisements are sponsored content and provided for informational purposes only. To see our full advertising disclosure, please check out our show notes.

Anand Chokkavelu: Jason Hall, Matt Frankel, the entire Motley Fool Money team, I'm Anand Chokkavelu. My bold prediction is that we'll see you tomorrow.

John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Anand Chokkavelu, CFA has positions in Amazon and Target. Jason Hall has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Matt Frankel has positions in Amazon. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon, Target, Tesla, and Walmart. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

  •  

If You'd Invested $10,000 in Apple Stock 20 Years Ago, Here's How Much You'd Have Today

Key Points

  • Apple stock provided steady growth from 1985 through 2005.

  • Over the past two decades, shares of Apple have performed exceedingly well as the company produced several tech innovations.

  • Those looking for tech exposure would be well advised to consider picking up shares of Apple.

Twenty years ago, life looked a little different. While cellphones were fairly common sights, it was nothing compared to what would happen in 2007 when Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) introduced the first iPhone. With the numerous iterations of the iPhone that followed, as well as other innovations including the iPad and AirPods, Apple grew to become the first company with a $1 trillion market cap.

Those who had the wherewithal to scoop up Apple stock a couple of years before the iPhone's debut -- and who have held their positions -- have similarly seen their investments flourish.

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Learn More »

A person uses a smartphone while sitting in a car.

Image source: Getty Images.

What a difference an iPhone could make

Those who were cautious about investing in initial public offerings (IPOs), but who were also attracted to Apple stock, likely took their time after the company appeared on public markets in 1980. If they had bought $10,000 in Apple stock in July 1985 and kept their position for the next 20 years, they'd have recognized an impressive 304% gain that resulted in a position worth about $40,000.

On the other hand, investors who first bought Apple stock in July 2005 and have not trimmed their positions have recognized extraordinarily impressive growth. An initial investment of $10,000 20 years ago would now be worth about $1.546 million.

Will the next two decades provide the same growth?

Implementing a walled-garden approach, Apple has developed an ecosystem that contributes to its formidable competitive advantage among tech stocks. This, along with its fierce customer loyalty, has resulted in Apple evolving into an industry stalwart over the past 20 years.

Whether the company has any transformative tech innovation waiting in the wings remains to be seen. Similarly, it will take another 20 years before we can look back and see if Apple stock was able to replicate the performance it provided from 2005 through 2025. What is certain, however, is that Apple stock remains a worthy consideration for any investor seeking tech exposure.

Should you invest $1,000 in Apple right now?

Before you buy stock in Apple, 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 Apple wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $694,758!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $998,376!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,058% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 180% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of July 7, 2025

Scott Levine has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Apple. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

  •  

Forget CDs, Even With Rates Over 4%. Here's Where to Put Your Money Instead


Five stacks of silver coins scaling from small to large in a row on yellow cream split background.

I've always thought of certificates of deposit (CDs) as a decent mid-term play. The rates are predictable. The risk is low. But they've never really clicked with me.

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That's because CDs don't do much for two key goals:

  • If I need short-term flexibility, a CD just ties my money up.
  • If I want long-term growth, CDs get left in the dust by higher investing returns.

Even now, with some CDs offering 4.00% APY, I'd rather keep my cash in accounts that give me more control, or grow it in assets with higher upside.

Here's where I'd put my money instead.

Short term: A high-yield savings account

If you're saving for something in the next year or two (like a vacation or new car) your money needs to stay safe, liquid, and ideally earn big interest.

That's where high-yield savings accounts (HYSAs) shine. Some top online banks are offering near 4.00% APYs, and your money remains fully accessible.

Here are of the top perks of HYSAs:

  • No early withdrawal penalties
  • FDIC insurance on balances (up to $250,000 per depositor, per bank)
  • Many online banks offer no fees, no minimum balances, and unlimited transfers.

I've personally kept my ~$25,000 emergency fund in an HYSA earning above 4.00% for the last couple years. And it's really paying off. I get nearly the same interest rate as some of the best 1-year CDs, but without any lockup.

Check out today's top HYSA rates and start earning more on your cash savings.

Long term: Low-cost index funds

CDs and savings accounts protect your money. But if you want your money to grow over the long term, investing is where the real power is.

Over the past 30 years, the S&P 500 has returned an average of about 10% annually. That's more than double today's top savings account and CD rates.

And when compounded over many years, the difference is mind-blowing.

Here's an example of how $10,000 would grow over decades at either a 4% or 10% average rate of return:

Time InvestedSavings (4%)Investing (10%)
5 years$12,166$16,105
10 years$14,802$25,937
20 years$21,911$67,275
30 years$32,433$174,494
Data source: Author's calculations.

Personally, most of my long-term savings are in index funds. I've always seen index funds as one of the most reliable ways to build wealth over time, especially low-cost funds that spread your money across hundreds of companies (like S&P 500 funds).

If you're already contributing to a 401(k) plan, chances are you're investing in a mix of highly-diversified mutual funds already. But if you want more flexibility or investing options outside of retirement accounts, opening a regular brokerage account is a great move.

Another great "set and forget" option is using a low-cost robo-advisor to build a diversified portfolio based on your goals and risk tolerance. Check out our top-rated robo-advisors here, perfect for beginners who want a hands off approach to investing.

I don't try to stock pick or outperform the market. I'm happy taking an average return and letting time and compound interest grow my wealth.

The bottom line

CDs aren't useless. But they only suit a narrow scope of financial goals.

If you need short-term access and flexibility, high-yield savings accounts offer similar 4.00% returns with way less restriction.

And for long-term goals, low-cost index funds have a proven track record of building serious wealth over time.

Want to get in on the stock market's high returns? Check out our list of the best stock brokers to open an account and start investing today.

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We're firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers. Motley Fool Money does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from Motley Fool Money is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

  •  

Prediction: This Artificial Intelligence (AI) and "Magnificent Seven" Stock Will Be the Next Company to Surpass a $3 Trillion Market Cap by the End of 2025

Key Points

  • The artificial intelligence trend will be a huge growth engine for Amazon's cloud computing division.

  • Efficiency improvements should help expand profit margins for its e-commerce business.

  • Anticipation of the company's earnings growth could help drive the shares higher in 2025's second half.

Only three stocks so far have ever achieved a market capitalization of $3 trillion: Microsoft, Nvidia, and Apple. Tremendous wealth has been created for some long-term investors in these companies -- only two countries (China and the United States) have gross domestic products greater than their combined worth today.

In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) and other technology tailwinds have driven these stocks to previously inconceivable heights, and it looks like the party is just getting started. So, which stock will be next to reach $3 trillion?

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Continue »

I think it will be Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), and it will happen before the year is done. Here's why.

The next wave of cloud growth

Amazon was positioned perfectly to take advantage of the AI revolution. Over the last two decades, it has built the leading cloud computing infrastructure company, Amazon Web Services (AWS), which as of its last reported quarter had booked more than $110 billion in trailing-12-month revenue. New AI workloads require immense amounts of computing power, which only some of the large cloud providers have the capacity to provide.

AWS's revenue growth has accelerated in recent quarters, hitting 17% growth year-over-year in Q1 of this year. With spending on AI just getting started, the unit's revenue growth could stay in the double-digit percentages for many years. Its profit margins are also expanding, and hit 37.5% over the last 12 months.

Assuming that its double-digit percentage revenue growth continues over the next several years, Amazon Web Services will reach $200 billion in annual revenue within the decade. At its current 37.5% operating margin, that would equate to a cool $75 billion in operating income just from AWS. Investors can anticipate this growth and should start pricing those expected profits into the stock as the second half of 2025 progresses.

A driver of an e-commerce truck sitting and pressing a button on the dashboard.

Image source: Getty Images.

Automation and margin expansion

For years, Amazon's e-commerce platform operated at razor-thin margins. Over the past 12 months, the company's North America division generated close to $400 billion in revenue but produced just $25.8 billion in operating income, or a 6.3% profit margin.

However, in the last few quarters, the fruits of Amazon's long-term investments have begun to ripen in the form of profit margin expansion. The company spent billions of dollars to build out a vertically integrated delivery network that will give it operating leverage at increasing scale. It now has an advertising division generating tens of billions of dollars in annual revenue. It's beginning to roll out more advanced robotics systems at its warehouses, so they will require fewer workers to operate. All of this should lead to long-term profit margin expansion.

Indeed, its North American segment's operating margin has begun to expand already, but it still has plenty of room to grow. With growing contributions to the top line from high-margin revenue sources like subscriptions, advertising, and third-party seller services combined with a highly efficient and automated logistics network, Amazon could easily expand its North American operating margin to 15% within the next few years. On $500 billion in annual revenue, that would equate to $75 billion in annual operating income from the retail-focused segment.

AMZN Operating Income (TTM) Chart

AMZN Operating Income (TTM) data by YCharts.

The path to $3 trillion

Currently, Amazon's market cap is in the neighborhood of $2.3 trillion. But over the course of the rest of this year, investors should get a clearer picture of its profit margin expansion story and the earnings growth it can expect due to the AI trend and its ever more efficient e-commerce network.

Today, the AWS and North American (retail) segments combine to produce annual operating income of $72 billion. But based on these projections, within a decade, we can expect that figure to hit $150 billion. And that is assuming that the international segment -- which still operates at quite narrow margins -- provides zero operating income.

It won't happen this year, but investors habitually price the future of companies into their stocks, and it will become increasingly clear that Amazon still has huge potential to grow its earnings over the next decade.

For a company with $150 billion in annual earnings, a $3 trillion market cap would give it an earnings ratio of 20. That's an entirely reasonable valuation for a business such as Amazon. It's not guaranteed to reach that market cap in 2025, but I believe investors will grow increasingly optimistic about Amazon's future earnings potential as we progress through the second half of this year, driving its share price to new heights and keeping its shareholders fat and happy.

Should you invest $1,000 in Amazon right now?

Before you buy stock in Amazon, 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 Amazon wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $694,758!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $998,376!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,058% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 180% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of July 7, 2025

John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Brett Schafer has positions in Amazon. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool 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 4 Most Dangerous Words for Bitcoin Investors: "This Time It's Different"

Key Points

  • Bitcoin historically experiences four-year boom-and-bust cycles marked by tremendous volatility.

  • According to some investors, Bitcoin has outgrown these boom-and-bust cycles.

  • While some elements of the current cycle are different this time around, Bitcoin is not immune from experiencing a significant market correction.

Famed investor John Templeton once remarked, "The four most dangerous words in investing are: This time it's different." It's an acknowledgment that investing tends to follow certain timeless rules, and that investors often become too bullish about the prospects of any high-flying asset.

That's what has me so concerned about Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) right now. There's a growing sense that Bitcoin has somehow outgrown its historical boom-and-bust cycle, and that severe market corrections are now a relic of the past. But is that really the case?

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Learn More »

The four-year Bitcoin cycle

Long-time Bitcoin investors recognize that the world's most popular cryptocurrency tends to follow four-year cycles. Each cycle is further subdivided into four distinct phases. There's a period of accumulation, followed by a period of rapid growth, a bubble, and then a crash.

The timing of this cycle might seem arbitrary, except for the fact that Bitcoin has a halving event every four years. This halving, which cuts in half the rate of new Bitcoin creation, is what leads to the period of rapid growth. If you know the date of the halving, you can basically add 12 to 18 months, and that's when the "bubble" phase should be coming to an end.

The last Bitcoin halving took place on April 19, 2024. If history is any guide, the current period of Bitcoin growth should be coming to an end sometime around October of this year. If we're lucky, the price of Bitcoin could hold its ground until January 2026.

You can see where I'm going with this -- we're "due" for a market correction. If Bitcoin follows its historical pattern, then the four-year cycle should be wrapping up relatively soon. And that means a significant market correction (or something worse) could be incoming.

"This time it's different"

The typical response to this, of course, is: "This time it's different." This is the first cycle, for example, when the spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have existed. This is the first cycle when a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve has existed. This is the first cycle when the Bitcoin treasury company model has been in vogue. This is the first cycle when the U.S. government is supporting pro-Bitcoin policies. This is the first cycle when risk-averse institutional investors such as pension funds are buying Bitcoin.

A bear wearing pink sunglasses.

Image source: Getty Images.

You could probably list several more factors that are "different" this time around. But think back to what Templeton said decades ago. There are certain timeless truths about the financial markets that you simply can't ignore. And one of those is that financial assets can't defy gravity for long. What goes up must come down.

The Bitcoin bulls will reject this line of thinking, of course. Michael Saylor, the founder and executive chairman of MicroStrategy (NASDAQ: MSTR), recently told Bloomberg TV in an interview: "Crypto winter is not coming back. We're past that phase." Saylor discounts the chances of any significant pullback, and is confident that Bitcoin will continue to soar in value. Saylor's new price target for Bitcoin is a head-spinning $21 million per coin.

Ignore the history of Bitcoin at your own peril

For any investors new to Bitcoin, I would highly recommend familiarizing yourself with the four-year Bitcoin cycle. Take a good, hard look at the long-term chart of Bitcoin. You'll see that Bitcoin has had several drawdowns of 77% or higher throughout its history. Moreover, even bullish periods of the cycle have experienced significant market corrections.

In short, the price of Bitcoin has never gone straight up. During the previous crypto bull market cycle, the price of Bitcoin hit a (then) all-time high of $69,000 in November 2021. Twelve months later, the price of Bitcoin was $16,000, a decline of 77%. The price of Bitcoin later recovered, but some crypto investors were wiped out.

Admittedly, the volatility of Bitcoin is lower these days, and the pullbacks appear to be less extreme. Even when Bitcoin fell to $75,000 earlier this year, it quickly recovered. Over the long haul, I have no doubt that Bitcoin will continue to march higher. Maybe it will one day hit the mythical $1 million mark.

However, I'm still not convinced that Wall Street has figured out Bitcoin, and that it's up only from here on out. If you buy into the logic of "this time it's different," you may be setting yourself up for disappointment later.

Should you invest $1,000 in Bitcoin right now?

Before you buy stock in Bitcoin, 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 Bitcoin wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $687,764!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $980,723!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,048% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 179% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of July 7, 2025

Dominic Basulto has positions in Bitcoin. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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41 States That Don't Tax Social Security Benefits

Key Points

One of the most common questions I get asked from older friends and relatives is, "Will I have to pay taxes on my Social Security benefits?"

The short answer is "maybe." Some retirees have to pay federal income tax on a portion of their Social Security benefits, depending on their income level. However, the exact amount of tax you'll end up paying on your Social Security benefits depends not just on your income level, but where you live.

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The good news is that most states don't tax Social Security benefits at all. In more than 80% of all U.S. states, Social Security income is completely exempt from any state income taxes.

In this article, we'll take a closer look at the states that don't tax Social Security, the few states that still do, and a new tax break seniors are about to get that will help offset any tax burden.

Couple looking at a check.

Image source: Getty Images.

The 41 states that don't tax Social Security benefits

First, let's get to the list you've been waiting for. If you live in one of these 41 states (or D.C.), you won't pay any state income tax on your Social Security benefits in 2025.

  • Alabama
  • Alaska
  • Arizona
  • Arkansas
  • California
  • Delaware
  • Florida
  • Georgia
  • Hawaii
  • Idaho
  • Illinois
  • Indiana
  • Iowa
  • Kansas
  • Kentucky
  • Louisiana
  • Maine
  • Maryland
  • Massachusetts
  • Michigan
  • Mississippi
  • Missouri
  • Nebraska
  • Nevada
  • New Hampshire
  • New Jersey
  • New York
  • North Carolina
  • North Dakota
  • Ohio
  • Oklahoma
  • Oregon
  • Pennsylvania
  • South Carolina
  • South Dakota
  • Tennessee
  • Texas
  • Virginia
  • Washington
  • Wisconsin
  • Washington, D.C.
  • Wyoming

Note that this list has two types of states. There are those that don't have a state income tax at all, like Florida, and those that have provisions in their tax code that specifically exclude Social Security income (or all retirement income, in some cases).

The states that have Social Security income tax

There are only nine states that still tax Social Security benefits in 2025, and in alphabetical order, they are:

  • Colorado
  • Connecticut
  • Minnesota
  • Montana
  • New Mexico
  • Rhode Island
  • Utah
  • Vermont
  • West Virginia

There are a couple of key points to know, if your state is on this list.

First, the number of states that don't tax Social Security has increased in recent years and is likely to continue to do so. In fact, 2025 is the last year that West Virginia is going to tax Social Security.

Second, each of these states has its own tax framework for Social Security benefits, and they generally only apply to either higher-income households (significantly higher than the federal taxation thresholds) or to certain age groups, like Social Security beneficiaries under 65.

A special tax break for seniors

As a final thought, regardless of what state you live in, it's important to know that a special tax break is going into effect for tax years 2025 through 2028. President Trump campaigned on the elimination of taxes on Social Security altogether, but that isn't happening. However, the recent tax and spending plan included a senior bonus that should significantly lower any Social Security tax burden, especially on middle-income retirees.

The short version is that if you're 65 or older, you can qualify for a tax deduction of as much as $6,000 per person (so married couples can get twice that amount). It begins to phase out above income levels of $75,000 (single) and $150,000 (married), but if you qualify, you can use the deduction regardless of whether you choose to itemize on your tax return.

To be sure, this isn't likely to completely eliminate tax on Social Security benefits for many retirees, but it is certainly a valuable tax break worth knowing.

The $23,760 Social Security bonus most retirees completely overlook

If you're like most Americans, you're a few years (or more) behind on your retirement savings. But a handful of little-known "Social Security secrets" could help ensure a boost in your retirement income.

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View the "Social Security secrets" »

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Better AI Stock: C3.ai vs. CoreWeave

Key Points

  • C3.ai is growing again, but its business model still looks shaky.

  • CoreWeave is carving out a high-growth niche with its cloud-based GPUs.

  • The higher-growth company is still a better overall investment.

C3.ai (NYSE: AI) and CoreWeave (NASDAQ: CRWV) are both poised to profit from the expansion of the artificial intelligence (AI) market. C3 develops AI algorithms and standalone modules that can be plugged into an organization's existing software infrastructure. CoreWeave's data centers provide cloud-based GPUs for processing AI tasks.

C3 went public at $42 in December 2020, but it now trades at around $25. CoreWeave went public in March 2025 at $40, and it now trades at about $160. Let's see why the bulls embraced CoreWeave while shunning C3 -- and if the former remains a better buy than the latter.

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The shape of a brain made up of colorful digital lines.

Image source: Getty Images.

Why didn't C3 impress the market?

C3's revenue only rose 6% in fiscal 2023 (which ended in April 2023) as it grappled with tougher macro headwinds, faced intense competition in the AI space, and cannibalized some of its own subscriptions with its new consumption-based fees. It also faced an uncertain future as its joint venture with energy giant Baker Hughes, which regularly accounted for around 30% of its revenue, was set to expire at the end of fiscal 2025. All of those headwinds -- along with its declining gross margin and persistent losses -- drove away the bulls. Rising interest rates further compressed its valuations.

However, C3's revenue grew 16% in fiscal 2024 and 25% in fiscal 2025. That acceleration was sparked by its new generative AI modules, more federal contracts, and its strategic partnerships with Microsoft, Amazon, and McKinsey. It also recently renewed its joint venture with Baker Hughes for another three years. It expects its revenue to rise 15% to 25% in fiscal 2026, while analysts anticipate 19% growth.

From fiscal 2025 to fiscal 2028, analysts expect C3's revenue to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22%. It looks reasonably valued at 7.5 times this year's sales, but it won't break even anytime soon. In fiscal 2024, it abandoned its goal of turning profitable (on an adjusted basis) in favor of ramping up its investments in its generative AI modules.

While C3 is still growing, it hasn't proven its business model is sustainable yet. Its insiders also sold more than twice as many shares as they bought over the past 12 months, and that chilly insider sentiment suggests its upside potential is limited.

Why did CoreWeave's stock blast off?

CoreWeave was originally an Ethereum mining company, but it repurposed its mining GPUs to process AI tasks after the cryptocurrency crash of 2018. It subsequently opened more data centers, spent $100 million on Nvidia's H100 GPUs in 2022, and served up its processing power remotely through its cloud-based platform. It also leveraged its GPUs as collateral to secure more funding and scale up its business. It claims its dedicated cloud-based GPUs can process AI tasks roughly 35 times faster at 80% lower prices than traditional cloud platforms.

CoreWeave currently operates 33 data centers across the U.S. and Europe, up from just three centers at the end of 2022. It achieved that expansion with some big investments from Nvidia, Cisco, and PureStorage, and its top customers now include AI leaders like Microsoft and OpenAI.

From 2022 to 2024, its annual revenue soared from $16 million to $1.9 billion -- but its net loss widened from $31 million to $863 million as it opened more data centers, bought more GPUs, and grappled with higher energy costs. From 2024 to 2027, analysts expect its revenue to grow at a CAGR of 105% to $16.6 billion as it turns profitable in the final year. CoreWeave's stock still seems reasonably valued (but not cheap) relative to that growth trajectory at 16 times this year's sales.

But most of its expansion was funded by big debt offerings, and it ended its latest quarter with an alarmingly high debt-to-equity ratio of 9.9. However, its insiders bought 19 times as many shares as they sold over the past 12 months -- and that confidence suggests it could successfully scale up its business and narrow its losses.

The better buy: CoreWeave

C3.ai and CoreWeave are both still speculative AI plays. But if I had to pick one, I'd stick with CoreWeave because it's growing faster with a clearer path toward profitability than C3. C3 might keep expanding, but I'm not confident it can stabilize its business while staying ahead of its competitors in the crowded enterprise AI software market.

Should you invest $1,000 in C3.ai right now?

Before you buy stock in C3.ai, 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 C3.ai wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $687,764!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $980,723!*

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John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Leo Sun has positions in Amazon. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon, Cisco Systems, Ethereum, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Pure Storage. The Motley Fool recommends C3.ai 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.

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14 Million Retirees Are About to See Lower Social Security Taxes Under Trump's "Big, Beautiful Bill"

Key Points

  • President Donald Trump signed his landmark legislation, the "Big, Beautiful Bill," into law on July 4.

  • The bill includes a temporary new senior tax deduction intended for retirees that pay Social Security taxes.

  • Not all Social Security recipients would be eligible for the deduction, but millions will be.

President Donald Trump signed his landmark "Big, Beautiful Bill" into law on July 4. The legislation is a large budget reconciliation that implements trillions in tax cuts and allocates more funds for border security, along with many other provisions.

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While the bill does not outright eliminate Social Security taxes, as Trump had previously promised, it will indirectly eliminate them for the large majority of Social Security retirees. In fact, over 14 million retirees are about to see lower Social Security taxes under the bill that will materially boost their purchasing power.

Increasing the senior tax deduction

Legislation can be confusing, and this is going to be one of those times. For several months, President Trump has discussed the idea of outright slashing taxes on Social Security benefits to give more money back to retirees. Many argue that Social Security benefits have lost purchasing power in the 21st century. However, cutting Social Security taxes outright would have significantly exacerbated financial strain that Social Security is already experiencing -- the Social Security trust funds are set to run dry by 2034.

What's more, Republicans are using the budget reconciliation to speed up the legislative process for the "Big, Beautiful Bill." Under this legislative process, lawmakers aren't allowed to pass provisions that would impact the Social Security trust funds. So, Trump and the Republicans essentially used a workaround by increasing senior tax deductions.

Two people looking at tablet device.

Image source: Getty Images.

To be clear, these deductions impact all seniors, regardless of whether they receive Social Security benefits. However, it's specifically aimed at those that currently pay Social Security taxes.

The House initially passed a $4,000 bonus senior deduction for single seniors and $8,000 for married seniors. But the Senate increased that to $6,000 and $12,000, respectively, which is what went into the final version of the bill. The bonus deduction is only temporary and will expire in 2028. .

According to the White House, which cites data from the U.S. Treasury Department, under the existing tax code, 37.2 million U.S. citizens over 65 claim Social Security benefits and qualify for enough exemptions and deductions that exceed their taxable Social Security income. That is equivalent to 64% of Social Security recipients age 65 and over. With the $6,000 bonus senior tax deduction, the White House expects this number to jump to 51.4 million beneficiaries, or 88% of Social Security recipients age 65 and over.

Retirees that claim Social Security between the ages of 62 to 64 will not benefit from this deduction, and many recipients with the lowest incomes already don't pay Social Security taxes. Single filers would only qualify for the maximum $6,000 if they make no more than $75,000 per year, while joint filers can make up to $150,000. The deductions would be phased out once single filers make $175,000 and joint filers make $250,000.

How much in savings will the deductions provide?

People should also keep in mind that deductions don't eliminate taxes. Rather, they lower the income that will get taxed, resulting in a lower overall tax bill. According to The Wall Street Journal, a married couple that makes $100,000 per year would realize roughly $1,600 in savings from the $6,000 deduction.

This is certainly significant, considering the average monthly Social Security check for retirees in May was about $1,950, or $23,400 annually. The $1,600 in savings is equivalent to nearly 7% of the average annual benefit this year, and is much higher than the typical Social Security annual cost-of-living-adjustment (COLA).

The $23,760 Social Security bonus most retirees completely overlook

If you're like most Americans, you're a few years (or more) behind on your retirement savings. But a handful of little-known "Social Security secrets" could help ensure a boost in your retirement income.

One easy trick could pay you as much as $23,760 more... each year! Once you learn how to maximize your Social Security benefits, we think you could retire confidently with the peace of mind we're all after. Join Stock Advisor to learn more about these strategies.

View the "Social Security secrets" »

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Where Will Costco Stock Be in 3 Years?

Key Points

  • Costco stock has regularly outperformed the S&P 500 over three-year stretches.

  • The company’s membership model and low prices help it thrive in all kinds of markets.

  • The Kirkland store brand is another major driver of both value and loyalty.

Warehouse retailer Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ: COST) has been a fairly cyclical stock in the past. The stock chart often stays close to the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) index for a few years, followed by a couple of years with market-crushing returns. Taken together, this pattern has resulted in wealth-building shareholder returns over the long haul.

Where is Costco positioned in this cycle right now, and where should the stock go in the next three years? Let's take a look.

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Costco keeps running circles around the S&P 500

First, let me state the obvious. Nobody knows exactly what the next three years will look like. There could be another pandemic around the next corner, or perhaps a new technology that makes the artificial intelligence and quantum computing booms look small. Historians can only look backward, and unpredictable events can unravel any forward-looking prediction I make -- bullish or bearish.

That being said, Costco has a long history of outperforming the market in a wide variety of economic situations. I compared the stock's total return to the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) index over a handful of three-year periods.

COST Total Return Level Chart

COST Total Return Level data by YCharts

Starting with a 109% 3-year Costco return against a 67% gain in the market index as of July 7, 2025, all of my sample comparisons made Costco look good.

That includes the inflation-burdened span from the end of 2022 to Dec 31, 2024. The COVID-19 crisis, starting from January 2020, showed a 63% Costco gain in three years while the S&P 500 rose 25%.

There was a close call from 2015 to 2018, with Costco lagging behind the market for most of that period -- but the warehouse retailer still came back to a 35% vs. 20% victory in a period characterized by the Brexit and a slower pace of Chinese economic growth.

I kept going with a few more samples, but the results were incredibly consistent. I'm sure there are counterexamples out there, especially if you look at spans based on mid-year dates instead of full calendar years, but the pattern is clear. Costco rarely underperforms the S&P 500 in any given three-year period.

A staff member of a warehouse store, viewing the shelves through a VR headset.

Image source: Getty Images.

How Costco's secret sauce keeps working

Past performance should never be seen as a guarantee of upcoming results. Always in motion, the future is. Even so, Costco keeps proving that the company can deliver strong results in different markets.

There are many reasons for Costco's resilience. For example:

  • Low prices make Costco a popular shopping destination when budgets are tight.
  • The membership model lets Costco sell goods with very low gross profit margins, leaving the heavy bottom-line lifting to those annual fees. That revenue stream is pretty much pure profit, with very predictable annual and quarterly volumes.
  • The Kirkland store brand is more than just another cost-cutting supply chain adjustment. Costco puts in a lot of work to ensure that the Kirkland products are competitive with the best name-brand alternatives, and you won't see this brand in sections where the research and development team can't check all the right boxes. For example, co-founder Jim Sinegal turned down the idea of selling Costco-branded gas 8 times over several years. Now, the gas pumps account for a substantial portion of Costco's total sales.

That's just a handful of stabilizing qualities. Overall, Costco is an incredibly well-run business that can roll with lots of different punches. And that's why the stock keeps outperforming even the high-quality names of the S&P 500.

Why betting against Costco is usually a bad idea

Based on Costco's history of stellar and predictable returns, I'm confident that the stock should keep up with the market over the next three years as well. The business model is both flexible and robust -- a rare combination that spells success under most circumstances.

On the downside, Costco's top-notch business is no secret. You've seen the stock chart already, and shares are changing hands at the lofty valuation of 56 times earnings. I keep kicking myself for not picking up a few Costco shares years ago, when they were more affordable. Again, the stock price more than doubled since July 2022.

Chances are, there'll be more kicking to do in 2028 if I don't grab some Costco stock this summer. Truly great companies can be worth a premium price tag, and Costco belongs in this category.

Should you invest $1,000 in Costco Wholesale right now?

Before you buy stock in Costco Wholesale, 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 Costco Wholesale wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $687,764!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $980,723!*

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*Stock Advisor returns as of July 7, 2025

Anders Bylund has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Costco Wholesale. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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President Donald Trump Delivers Massive News to Stock Market Investors!

President Donald Trump announced a significant development in his trade war against the United States' trading partners.

*Stock prices used were the afternoon prices of July 6, 2025. The video was published on July 8, 2025.

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Should you invest $1,000 in Invesco QQQ Trust right now?

Before you buy stock in Invesco QQQ Trust, 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 Invesco QQQ Trust wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $687,764!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $980,723!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,048% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 179% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of July 7, 2025

Parkev Tatevosian, CFA has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Parkev Tatevosian is an affiliate of The Motley Fool and may be compensated for promoting its services. If you choose to subscribe through his link, he will earn some extra money that supports his channel. His opinions remain his own and are unaffected by The Motley Fool

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