The Xero Ltd (ASX: XRO) share price is moving with gusto this morning after releasing its full-year results for FY24.
An hour into trade, the cloud-based accounting software company shares are up 7.6% to $133.49. The move starkly contrasts the 1.02% slump in the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) after the US Federal Reserve revealed it had contemplated more interest rate rises.
So, what about Xero’s results enable its share price to perform while the rest of the market is struggling?
Profitable growth sparks Xero share price
Xero shareholders are celebrating this morning amid the company’s latest result. Here’s a look at the key numbers driving today’s excitement:
Operating revenue up 22% year-on-year to NZ$1.71 billion
Subscribers grew by 419,000 to 4.16 million
Average revenue per user (ARPU) up 14% to NZ$39.29
Xero’s ability to balance revenue growth and profitability in FY24 is significant after years of lacking the latter. Importantly, the company has now achieved the Rule of 40 — a metric that implies a software company’s revenue growth and free cash flow margin should be 40% or more for a healthy business.
The company noted that it focused on balancing subscriber additions with ARPU during FY24. This might explain the 11% reduction in net subscriber additions compared to FY23. However, the positive is that Xero’s gross margin is improving while it manages its cost to serve customers.
Furthermore, Xero implemented price changes during FY24, boosting ARPU. Despite increasing prices, the 0.99% monthly churn rate is a positive indicator of product stickiness.
What did management say?
Xero CEO Sukhinder Singh Cassidy touted the full-year result, stating:
This result shows we’re doing what we said we’d do. We’ve delivered a strong and profitable FY24 result and Rule of 40 outcome, demonstrating our commitment to balancing growth and profitability.
We have a clear and focused strategy to win on purpose, and Xero is positioned well as we move into FY25.
Australia and New Zealand continue to be strong markets for the accounting platform. Xero achieved 22% revenue growth across the two countries, growing its subscriber count in the region to 2.4 million.
Meanwhile, revenue in its international markets (the United Kingdom, North America, and the Rest of the World) rose 24% to NZ$734.9 million. The company has 1.8 million subscribers in these expanding markets.
The road ahead
No light was shed on future earnings or revenue estimates for FY25. However, Xero expects total operating expenses as a percentage of revenue to be approximately 73% in the next financial year.
Product design and development costs are also forecast to be a larger portion of revenue.
Xero share price in review
The Xero share price is up 20% over the past 12 months. However, it was a considerably different story towards the end of last year.
Shares in the software company fell as low as roughly $70 apiece. Yet, positive sentiment has since returned to the technology sector.
Should you invest $1,000 in Xero Limited right now?
Before you buy Xero Limited shares, consider this:
Motley Fool investing expert Scott Phillips just revealed what he believes are the 5 best stocks for investors to buy right now… and Xero Limited wasn’t one of them.
The online investing service heâs run for over a decade, Motley Fool Share Advisor, has provided thousands of paying members with stock picks that have doubled, tripled or even more.*
And right now, Scott thinks there are 5 stocks that may be better buys…
Motley Fool contributor Mitchell Lawler has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has positions in and has recommended Xero. The Motley Fool Australia has positions in and has recommended Xero. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.
The Origin Energy Ltd (ASX: ORG) share price is marching higher today.
Shares in the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) energy provider closed yesterday trading for $10.16. In morning trade on Thursday, shares are changing hands for $10.23 apiece, up 0.7%.
For some context, the ASX 200 is down 0.9% at this same time.
This outperformance comes after Origin announced that the Eraring Power Station will keep producing electricity for much longer than previously targeted.
What’s happening with Eraring?
The Origin share price is in the green after the ASX 200 utility reported it has agreed to delay the retirement of Eraring by two years.
The agreement with the New South Wales government is intended to support the security of the state’s electricity supply through the ongoing energy transition.
The freshly inked Generator Engagement Project Agreement (GEPA) will see Eraring remain operational until at least 19 August 2027.
Eraring commenced full scale power generation in 1984. Origin had previously targeted closing the 2,880 MW black coal plant as early as August 2025, subject to market conditions.
The Origin share price could be getting some support with the company reporting New South Wales could offer compensation to help cover operating costs. Origin could recover a portion of any Eraring operating losses over the extension period, capped at $225 million a year.
If Eraring turns a profit rather than running at a loss, Origin will pay the NSW government 20% of that profit, capped at $40 million a year.
The coal-fired power plant could potentially remain in operation through to April 2029, the final closure date.
Commenting on the extended operations, Origin CEO Frank Calabria said:
We believe this agreement strikes the right balance, with an extension to operations enabling Eraring to continue supporting security of electricity supply in New South Wales through the energy transition, while making compensation available to Origin in the event economic conditions for the plant are challenging…
Importantly, today we can give our Eraring employees, our suppliers and the local community greater certainty around the future of the plant as we transition towards its retirement.
With a nod to the potential environmental impact, Calabria added, “Origin does not shy away from the need to exit coal generation as soon as there is sufficient renewable energy, firming and transmission capacity available.”
The ASX 200 utility has committed to constructing a large-scale battery at Eraring. The first phase of the project consists of a 460 MW two-hour battery located next to the power station. The battery is planned to begin operating in late 2025.
Origin share price snapshot
With today’s intraday moves factored in, the Origin share price is up 24% in 12 months.
Should you invest $1,000 in Origin Energy Limited right now?
Before you buy Origin Energy Limited shares, consider this:
Motley Fool investing expert Scott Phillips just revealed what he believes are the 5 best stocks for investors to buy right now… and Origin Energy Limited wasn’t one of them.
The online investing service heâs run for over a decade, Motley Fool Share Advisor, has provided thousands of paying members with stock picks that have doubled, tripled or even more.*
And right now, Scott thinks there are 5 stocks that may be better buys…
Motley Fool contributor Bernd Struben has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.
Jensen Huang presents at Nvidia's GTC conference in 2024
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said the company's newest AI chip will start shipping next quarter.
The Blackwell chip is twice as fast Nvidia's current Hopper chip.
Huang made the announcement during a Wednesday earnings call.
Nvidia's new era of computing is already well underway.
In a gangbusters earnings call on Wednesday, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang laid out an accelerated timeline for the deployment of Blackwell, the company's newest AI chip that is twice as fast as Nvidia's current iteration and boasts five times the AI performance.
Huang unveiled the Blackwell chip earlier this year in March, but the company has been working on its production for some time now, he said this week.
During the question-and-answer portion of the quarterly call, Huang said production shipments of Blackwell will start in the second quarter and ramp up in Q3. According to Huang, customers should have data centers up and running by the fourth quarter.
"We will see a lot of Blackwell revenue this year," Huang said during the call.
The company's hot streak doesn't appear to be slowing anytime soon. Nvidia stock surged to record highs on Wednesday afternoon following first-quarter earnings results, which saw the chip maker report a 262% surge in year-over-year revenues.
"We are poised for our next wave of growth," Huang said, citing the Blackwell platform.
But even as Huang offered a bullish perspective on Blackwell, excitement for the coming chip doesn't seem to be killing demand for Nvidia's current hardware.
"We see increasing demand of Hopper through this quarter," Huang said, adding that he expects demand to outstrip supply for "some time" as Nvidia transitions to Blackwell.
Blackwell systems have been designed to be "backwards compatible" with Hoppers for an easy transition from one to the other, Huang said Wednesday.
The next-generation graphics processor will cost between $30,000 and $40,000 per unit, Huang said back in March.
Fortescue Ltd (ASX: FMG) shares are often seen as a passive income option due to the large dividend yield. Could the ASX mining share continue its large payouts or is it a dividend trap?
The idea of a dividend trap is that a stock seems to offer a good yield based on the last dividend payments, but the upcoming dividends are likely to be much smaller â the historical yield is a mirage.
Let’s first look at what the miner is actually distributing to shareholders.
How big is the Fortescue dividend yield right now?
Despite the Fortescue share price being up by 33% in the past year, as seen on the chart below, the trailing yield is still very high.
The last two dividend payments from the ASX mining share amount to $2.08 per share, which equates to a grossed-up dividend yield of 10.9%.
Fortescue’s latest dividend, the HY24 payment of $1.08 per share, was the biggest six-month payment since 2022 and 44% higher than the HY23 payout.
Could Fortescue shares be a dividend trap?
The ASX mining share’s profit is highly dependent on the strength of the iron ore price. Mining costs don’t typically change much in the shorter term, so any extra revenue for its production can largely translate into extra net profit.
However, the reverse can happen when the iron ore price falls â it largely cuts into net profit, and the dividend suffers too. The Fortescue annual payout decreased in FY22 and FY23 partly because of a lower iron ore price.
With the iron price currently sitting around US$117 per tonne, analysts have forecast that Fortescue’s annual dividend per share will increase in FY24 compared to FY23.
The estimate on Commsec suggests the FY23 annual payout could be $1.94 per share, which would be a rise of 10.7% year over year. However, the FY24 final payment may be lower than the FY23 final payment, leading to the FY24 grossed-up dividend yield being projected to be 10.1%.
However, analysts don’t think the iron ore price will stay this high for long, which could lead to Fortescue’s profit falling in FY25 and FY26, causing the Fortescue annual dividend payout to drop to $1.47 per share in FY25 and $1.09 per share in FY26.
Those projections would mean Fortescue shares could have a grossed-up dividend yield of 7.7% in FY25 and 5.7% in FY26. If those projections come true, it would suggest Fortescue shares are a bit of a dividend trap because the future yield could be materially lower than what it pays in FY24.
However, the iron ore price has been very difficult to predict because of the uncertainty of Chinese demand. It’s possible that the iron ore price could be materially stronger or weaker than analysts expect. Over the last three years, we’ve seen the extremes – the iron ore price has been above US$210 per tonne and below US$90 per tonne.
Would I invest today?
I own Fortescue shares, but I’m not looking to invest right now, as the share price is not far off its all-time high. I prefer to invest when the market is fearful about iron ore miners. But, I’m planning to be a long-term shareholder because of the green energy efforts of the business.
Should you invest $1,000 in Fortescue Metals Group right now?
Before you buy Fortescue Metals Group shares, consider this:
Motley Fool investing expert Scott Phillips just revealed what he believes are the 5 best stocks for investors to buy right now… and Fortescue Metals Group wasn’t one of them.
The online investing service heâs run for over a decade, Motley Fool Share Advisor, has provided thousands of paying members with stock picks that have doubled, tripled or even more.*
And right now, Scott thinks there are 5 stocks that may be better buys…
Motley Fool contributor Tristan Harrison has positions in Fortescue. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.
This article was originally published on Fool.com. All figures quoted in US dollars unless otherwise stated.
Recent developments in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) have captured the public imagination over the past year or so. One of the byproducts of this trend has been the surging stock prices of companies at the forefront of this paradigm shift in technology. Nowhere is this more apparent than with chipmaker Nvidia(NASDAQ: NVDA), whose graphics processing units (GPUs) have become the gold standard for AI.
The company’s consistent execution and unrivaled business performance have fueled its meteoric ascent. Nvidia stock has gained 540% since early last year, driven by triple-digit revenue and profit growth resulting from surging demand for AI. Yet that’s just the beginning. Since Nvidia’s IPO in early 1999, the stock has soared from a split-adjusted price of $0.25 to more than $939, representing eye-popping gains of 375,500%.
On Wednesday, in conjunction with the release of the company’s quarterly results, Nvidia announced plans to split its stock for the first time since July 2020. The stock has gained more than 800% in the nearly four years since, which is likely the catalyst for the split. This revelation is sparking a fresh wave of interest in an already well-followed stock. Let’s review the mechanics of a stock split and what it means for investors.
The stock-split details
Nvidia announced that its board of directors had approved a 10-for-1 forward stock split. This will result from an amendment to the company’s Restated Certificate of Incorporation, which Nvidia says “will result in a proportionate increase of the number of shares of authorized common stock.”
As a result of this split, shareholders of record as of June 6, 2024, will receive nine additional shares of stock for each share they own after the market close on Friday, June 7. The stock is expected to begin trading on a split-adjusted basis on June 10.
Nvidia investors won’t need to take any steps in order to receive the additional shares of stock. Brokerage firms and investment banks handle the particulars, with the adjustments being handled behind the scenes. The stock-split shares will simply appear in investor accounts with no further action necessary. The timing can vary from brokerage to brokerage, so investors shouldn’t worry if the newly issued shares aren’t there immediately on June 7, as it can take hours, or in some cases days, for the additional shares to make an appearance.
Adding numbers can provide context regarding how the stock-split process plays out. For each share of Nvidia stock a shareholder owns — it’s currently trading for roughly $950 per share (as of this writing) — post-split, investors will hold 10 shares worth $95 each.
Is a stock split a good thing?
As the above example shows, the total value of ownership won’t change based on the split alone; it’s merely a different way of viewing the whole. Put another way, if you buy a pizza, it doesn’t matter if you cut it into eight slices or 16 slices — the total amount of pizza remains the same. By the same token, Nvidia stockholders will simply have a greater number of lower-priced shares.
There are those who believe that investor psychology will ultimately play a part, with excitement about the upcoming stock split driving up the share price. It’s also been suggested that the lower share price can increase demand for those shares among retail investors. Indeed, management notes in the announcement that the purpose of the split is to “make stock ownership more accessible to employees and investors.” While that’s frequently the case, that kind of temporary euphoria historically subsides, leaving investors to focus on what matters — the company’s operational and financial performance — which will ultimately drive the stock price higher or lower.
Is Nvidia stock a buy?
While the stock split alone isn’t reason enough to buy Nvidia, there are plenty of reasons the semiconductor specialist is a buy. Investors need to look no further than the company’s financial report for evidence to support that contention.
In its fiscal 2025 first quarter (ended April 28), Nvidia reported revenue that soared 262% year over year to a record $26 billion, marking an 18% quarter-over-quarter increase. This drove adjusted earnings per share (EPS) up 461% to $6.12.
For context, analysts’ consensus estimates were calling for revenue of $24.65 billion and EPS of $5.59, so Nvidia sailed past expectations with ease.
If there was any doubt, robust demand for generative AI fueled record data center revenue of $22.6 billion, up 427% year over year and representing 87% of Nvidia’s total sales.
Another important announcement for shareholders is that Nvidia increased its quarterly dividend by 150%, from $0.04 to $0.10 per share, or $0.01 on a post-split basis. The first increased dividend payment will be made on June 28. Even at the new, higher level, the yield will still be paltry, amounting to just four-tenths of 1%.
It’s still very early in the AI revolution, which is even more reason to be optimistic. The worldwide AI market clocked in at $2.4 trillion in 2023 and is expected to rise to $30.1 trillion — a compound annual growth rate of 32% — by 2032, according to Expert Market Research. As the gold standard for GPUs used in AI, Nvidia is well-positioned for future success.
Investors shouldn’t buy shares for the pending stock split. However, Nvidia’s long track record of consistently strong operating and financial results — and blistering stock price gains — show why it continues to be such a winning investment.
Some investors will balk at Nvidia’s valuation, but you get what you pay for. Despite four consecutive quarters of triple-digit revenue and EPS growth, Nvidia stock is selling for 37 times forward earnings. That’s a small price to pay for such robust growth.
That’s why Nvidia stock is a buy.
This article was originally published on Fool.com. All figures quoted in US dollars unless otherwise stated.
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Danny Vena has positions in Nvidia. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has positions in and has recommended Nvidia. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.
Millennials are more likely than other generations to take time off without telling their bosses, a new poll found.
Taiyou Nomachi/Getty Images
Millennials are "quiet vacationing" or taking time off without informing their employers.
A Harris Poll found that 38% of millennials have taken secret time off, more than Gen Zers and Gen Xers.
Many workers face pressure to be always available, which may be blurring lines between work and PTO.
Quiet quitting — coasting along at your job without actually leaving it or giving up your salary — became all the rage in the early years of the remote work era, but some workers have found another way to take a break from their jobs.
Rather than coast along indefinitely, some employees are opting to take time off without formally taking any paid time off, let alone informing their bosses.
It's called "quiet vacationing," and millennials, in particular, seem to love it.
Nearly four out of 10 millennials said they've taken time off work without actually informing their employer, according to a new survey of 1,170 employed Americans conducted by The Harris Poll. That's compared to 24% of Gen Zers and Gen Xers who reported doing the same. The survey was conducted online between April 26 and 28.
Millennials were also more likely to say they have taken actions to make it appear like they are working when they really aren't: 38% of millennials said they've moved their mouse just to keep their status on messaging apps active compared to 30% of Gen Zers.
They even want to look like they're working when they're supposed to be off the clock, with 37% of millennials saying they've purposefully scheduled a message to send outside their usual hours to make it look like they're working overtime. Only 27% of Gen Zers said they've done the same.
"There's a giant workaround culture at play," Libby Rodney, The Harris Poll's chief strategy officer, told CNBC, adding, "It's not exactly quiet quitting, but more like quiet vacationing."
Millennials may be quiet vacationing more than other groups due to generational differences. Rodney told CNBC that Gen Z is more vocal about criticizing employers that don't have a good work-life balance, while millennials are more likely to find a quiet workaround "behind the scenes."
The Harris Poll also found that 78% of American workers reported not using all their PTO days, with nearly as many saying they wish they were able to take all of their available days off.
About a third of respondents said the biggest barriers to them taking more PTO was pressure to always be available and meet work demands, as well as a heavy workload.
More than half of employees said they had taken work-related calls while on vacation, while 86% said they'd check an email from their boss while on PTO, suggesting that work time and personal time may be bleeding into each other in both directions.
Have you taken time off without telling your employer? Have a news tip or story to share? Contact this reporter at kvlamis@businessinsider.com or through secure-messaging app Signal at 708-476-8802.
Win McNamee and Didem Mente/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Another OpenAI employee quit over safety concerns after two high-profile resignations.
Gretchen Kruger announced her resignation on X, echoing the concerns of Ilya Sutskever and Jan Leike.
Kruger said tech firms can "disempower those seeking to hold them accountable" by sowing division.
OpenAI faces more turmoil as another employee announces she quit over safety concerns.
It comes after the resignations of high-profile executives Ilya Sutskever and Jan Leike, who ran its now-dissolved safety research team Superalignments.
Gretchen Kruger announced in a thread on X on Wednesday that she quit the ChatGPT maker on May 14 and that it "was not an easy decision to make."
Kruger wrote, "I resigned a few hours before hearing the news about @ilyasut and @janleike, and I made my decision independently. I share their concerns. I also have additional and overlapping concerns."
She added that more needs to be done to improve "decision-making processes; accountability; transparency; documentation; policy enforcement; the care with which we use our own technology; and mitigations for impacts on inequality, rights, and the environment."
The former policy research worker said that people and communities share these worries and "influence how aspects of the future can be charted, and by whom" and that they shouldn't be "misread as narrow, speculative, or disconnected."
I resigned a few hours before hearing the news about @ilyasut and @janleike, and I made my decision independently. I share their concerns. I also have additional and overlapping concerns.
In another post, she wrote, "One of the ways tech companies in general can disempower those seeking to hold them accountable is to sow division among those raising concerns or challenging their power. I care deeply about preventing this."
Last week, chief scientist and cofounder Ilya Sutskever announced his resignation, followed by executive Jan Leike. The pair co-led its Superalignment team, which was tasked with building safeguards to prevent artificial general intelligence from going rogue.
Leike accused OpenAI of putting "shiny products" ahead of safety and claimed that the Superalignment team was "struggling for compute" resources and that "it was getting harder and harder to get this crucial research done."
The exits this and last week followed those of two other safety researchers, Daniel Kokotajlo and William Saunders, who quit in recent months over similar reasons. Kokotajlo said he left after "losing confidence that it [OpenAI] would behave responsibly around the time of AGI."
OpenAI didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Pool/Getty, Kym Illman/Getty, Chris Graythen/Getty, Tyler Le/BI
Testimony concluded Tuesday in the Trump hush-money trial in Manhattan.
The parties then argued over how the judge will instruct the jury on the law.
"Less is better," the judge has said. Still, the jury charge will be long and complex.
Lawyers in the Donald Trump hush-money trial spent Tuesday afternoon in a spirited battle over this question: what will the judge tell jurors right before they begin their deliberations next week?
The prosecution and defense fought for three hours over this, the so-called "jury charge," splitting hairs over what language New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan will use to instruct the seven-man, five-woman jury on the law.
The level of skill and fervor in these arguments was no surprise.
The jury charge is so important, so sacrosanct, that Merchan will order the doors to his courtroom sealed for its duration, with no one in the well or audience allowed to enter or leave.
He will then tell jurors something like this:
"Under our law, a person is guilty of falsifying business records in the first degree when, with intent to defraud that includes an intent to commit another crime or to aid or conceal the commission thereof, that person makes or causes a false entry in the business records of an enterprise."
NYCourts.gov
These are the opening paragraphs to the New York state court system's jury-charge guidelines for falsifying business records in the first degree.
It's the basic starting template for any New York judge who needs to charge a jury on what's known in legal shorthand as first-degree falsifying.
Trump has been charged with 34 counts of this one felony. That's the entirety of his indictment. There's one count for each of 34 invoices, checks, and Trump Organization ledger entries — all of the records that Trump allegedly "caused" to be falsified throughout 2017, his first year in office.
Prosecutors for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg allege that each falsified invoice, check, and ledger entry counts as a felony because it concealed an underlying crime. (They say the underlying crime is a state election law violation — more about that in a bit.)
How were they allegedly falsified?
Bragg says each of the 34 records disguised the true nature of a year's worth of payments to Trump "fixer"-turned-foe Michael Cohen by making the payments look like monthly legal retainer fees.
In reality, Bragg alleges, Trump wasn't paying Cohen a monthly retainer at all — he was instead concealing an illegal conspiracy to influence the 2016 election.
Rather than compensating Cohen for legal work — Cohen testified he only did a few hours of work for Trump in all of 2017 — the payments secretly reimbursed Cohen in monthly installments for a campaign-law-violating $130,000 hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, prosecutors allege.
Donald Trump, flanked by his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, and Stormy Daniels.
Getty/AP/SNL
How do they decide?
OK it's a little tricky.
Let's say business records were indeed falsified to hide hush money. That's the coverup of a coverup. And let's say that the hush-money payment — which silenced Daniels just 11 days before the 2016 election — was itself illegal. That's a crime within a crime.
Still, it's not terribly tricky, right?
Trump faces 34 counts of only a single charge, first-degree falsifying, for which the standard charging language barely fills two pages.
And for each count, the jury must consider just two things: whether Trump caused the record to be falsified, and whether he did so to hide his intent to commit "another crime."
If prosecutors meet their burden to prove both tiers — falsification and intent to conceal another crime — beyond a reasonable doubt, then Trump is guilty. If they don't, then Trump is not guilty.
Prosecutors don't even have to prove that "another crime" was actually committed. They just have to prove that Trump intended to commit another crime and then falsified records to hide his tracks.
The jury charge for this single felony should be easy, right? Clear-cut and beyond dispute?
Wrong.
Yes, first-degree falsifying is the only law in Trump's indictment.
But it's not the only law jurors must understand and weigh when they begin deliberations as early as Wednesday.
Prosecutors allege that Trump falsified the hush-money reimbursements in order to conceal his intent to commit an obscure New York election-conspiracy law.
This is what they mean by Trump's "intent to commit another crime." Under the prosecution theory, this "another crime" is election law section 17-152, which it makes it a misdemeanor to conspire to influence an election "by unlawful means."
Manhattan prosecutors say violating this state election law makes Donald Trump a felon.
NY State Election Law
A crime within a crime within a crime
So you see, to win a conviction, prosecutors must demonstrate three layers of unlawfulness involving at least three separate laws.
They're alleging Trump committed a crime (under the Federal Elections Campaign Act) within a crime (under the state election-conspiracy law) within a crime (the first-degree falsifying charge he's actually indicted on).
It's a Russian nesting doll of wrongdoing, though only the outermost doll, first-degree falsifying, needs to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
Prosecutors also plan to give jurors two alternatives to the FECA violation, that innermost of the three nesting dolls.
These alternatives are a violation of federal, state, and/or city tax laws (alleging that Cohen's hush-money reimbursements were unlawfully disguised as taxable income) and yet another records-falsification violation (alleging that Trump was responsible for bogus hush-money paperwork at the National Enquirer.)
That means three layers of wrongdoing under a half-dozen potentially applicable laws, all with their own wording and definitions, much of which had to be argued over on Tuesday.
What is a "conspiracy?" What is "intent?" What is "accessorial liability?" Do those definitions differ, law to law?
And then there were broader, more arcane questions, including this one:
Must jurors agree unanimously on the "unlawful means" at the center of the case?
Meaning, must all jurors find that, in causing Cohen to pay the hush money, Trump conspired to violate FECA campaign-contribution limits? Or can some jurors find that Trump conspired to violate tax law, while other jurors see the falsification of National Enquirer business records as the central offense?
In other words, do jurors need to be unanimous in deciding which of the three options, if any, is the central unlawfulness?
That brings us back to Tuesday's charge conference and why the sides fought for three hours as the defendant, and many in the audience struggled to stay awake.
"This is, obviously, an extraordinarily important case," defense lawyer Emil Bove told the judge, in arguing that jurors be instructed that they must unanimously decide on an underlying wrongdoing.
"The most critical point here is that the jury does not need to conclude unanimously what the specific unlawful means are," Matthew Colangelo, a prosecutor, argued back Tuesday, referring to "well-established New York law."
"So I think the key point here for this instruction is to advise the jury that, yes, there has to be some unlawful means, and to alert them as to what those unlawful means are, but also advise them that they don't have to unanimously agree on each of the unlawful means," he added.
"We think your honor has some discretion," countered Bove.
Merchan was not swayed.
"I think I understand what you're saying, what you mean when you're saying it's an important case," Merchan told Trump's lawyer. "What you're asking me to do is change the law, and I'm not going to do that."
Former President Donald Trump appears in court for opening statements in his Manhattan hush-money trial.
Yuki Iwamura-Pool/Getty Images
Charging the jury is a tedious task
Tuesday's debate was granular stuff.
In general, Bove pushed for longer, more complex definitions of such terms as "contribution" and "unlawful means." This was in the apparent hope that the narrower the definitions, the less likely jurors would find that Trump's actions fell within their bounds.
Prosecutors, meanwhile, fought to keep the charge as simple as possible.
"As we discussed, we think the jury needs less, not more, on FECA instructions," Colangelo, the prosecutor, argued at one point Tuesday.
"And we think the term, 'for the purpose of influencing an election' is a pretty straightforward term that jurors can understand," Colangelo added.
In awarding the most "wins" to prosecutors, Merchan chose brevity over expansiveness.
"Some of the issues are confusing enough, I think," the judge said Tuesday. "We want to make it as easy as possible for the jury."
Merchan told prosecutors and Trump's lawyers that he'll give them the final draft of his instructions on Thursday.
He told jurors to expect his charge to last "at least an hour."
There are few things better than being able to snap up high quality ASX shares when they are cheap.
The good news is that there are two household names that are trading on the ASX boards at a fraction of what investors were paying 12 months ago.
The even better news is that analysts see significant room for their shares to rise from current levels. They also expect some attractive dividend yields to sweeten the deal further.
Let’s take a look at two ASX shares that Goldman Sachs thinks could be undervalued right now:
The first ASX share to look at is the nation’s largest telecommunications company, Telstra. After another selloff this week, the company’s shares are now down 21% over the last 12 months and at multi-year lows.
While Goldman wasn’t overly impressed with Telstra’s update this week, it remains very positive on the investment opportunity here. It said:
Overall we revise TLS FY24-26 EBITDA -1% and EPS by -1% to -3%, reflecting the revised mobile outlook and broader restructure. Our 12m TP is -7% to A$4.25, given earnings and reduction in mobile EBITDA multiple to 6.0X (was 6.5X) on increased mobile uncertainty. Buy.
As you can see above, Goldman has put a buy rating and $4.25 price target on this ASX share. This implies potential upside of 24% for investors over the next 12 months.
In addition, the broker is now forecasting fully franked dividends of 18 cents per share in FY 2024 and then 18.5 cents per share in FY 2025. Based on the current Telstra share price of $3.42, this will mean yields of 5.25% and 5.4%, respectively.
That’s a total potential return of almost 30% according to Goldman.
Another ASX share that has been sold off (down 18% year on year) and could be in the buy zone now is supermarket giant Woolworths. Investors have been selling its shares due to concerns over market share losses and regulatory risks.
Goldman isn’t fazed by either and thinks investors should be snapping up Woolworths’ shares while they are undervalued. It said:
WOW is the largest supermarket chain in Australia with an additional presence in NZ, as well as selling general merchandise retail via Big W. We are Buy rated on the stock as we believe the business has among the highest consumer stickiness and loyalty among peers, and hence has strong ability to drive market share gains via its omni-channel advantage, as well as its ability to pass through any cost inflation to protect its margins, beyond market expectations. The stock is trading below its historical average (since 2018), and we see this as a value entry level for a high-quality and defensive stock.
Goldman has a buy rating and $39.40 price target on its shares. This suggests potential upside of almost 26% for investors.
In addition, the broker is forecasting fully franked dividends per share of $1.08 in FY 2024 and then $1.14 in FY 2025. Based on the current Woolworths share price of $31.33, this equates to dividend yields of 3.45% and 3.6%, respectively. Once again, this brings the total potential return to almost 30%.
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Motley Fool contributor James Mickleboro has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has positions in and has recommended Goldman Sachs Group. The Motley Fool Australia has positions in and has recommended Telstra Group. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.
Nvidia released its fiscal first-quarter results on Wednesday and reported record quarterly revenues of $26 billion — outdoing analyst estimates for $24.65 billion. That's up over 260% from a year ago, showing that raging demand for its chips, which are used to power artificial intelligence technology, is still growing.
Nvidia shared a solid forecast for the future, too, saying second-quarter revenue will be about $28 billion, also ahead of expectations.
The news helped push Nvidia's shares up in late trading to above $1,000 for the first time. The stock has risen more than 200% in the last twelve months.
Even as customers wait for Blackwell, Nvidia's next GPU chip, to be released later this year, sales of its H100 chip are still strong, the company said. CFO Colette Kress also told investors on a call that demand for its H200 and Blackwell chips is well ahead of supply as the company works towards global availability of the latter later this year.
"We expect demand may exceed supply well into next year," Kress said.
Meantime, CEO Jensen Huang said the company would see "a lot of Blackwell revenue this year."
Nvidia also raised its quarterly dividend by 150%, from four to 10 cents per share, and announced a 10-for-1 stock split, effective next month.
Jacob Bourne, a senior analyst at Emarketer, a sister company to Business Insider, said Nvidia defied gravity again as "AI companies globally continue to depend on its chips, networking hardware, and its software ecosystem."
Some tech giants have recently announced plans to create their own chips to help power their AI offerings. Google is making its own Arm-based CPU processor, Axion, and Microsoft is also attempting to develop its own AI chips. However, most companies are still relying on Nvidia.
"Tech companies' public praise of Nvidia is a telltale sign of its dominance — they want to reduce their dependence on the chipmaker but realize they're not quite there yet," Bourne said. "We can expect that more bold innovative moves from Nvidia will help it maintain its industry position for the foreseeable future."
