According to a note out of the Macquarie equities desk, its analysts have upgraded this building materials company’s shares to an outperform rating with a trimmed price target of $55.00. Although Macquarie concedes that James Hardie’s fourth quarter update and FY 2025 guidance was softer than expected, it believes the selloff of its shares was overdone. Particularly given the broker’s belief that the company’s competitive position is not weakening. In light of this, Macquarie believes that investors should be taking advantage of the weakness by snapping up its shares while they are out of favour. The James Hardie share price was trading at $47.26 on Friday.
A note out of Goldman Sachs reveals that its analysts have retained their buy rating on this telco giant’s shares with a lowered price target of $4.25. According to the note, the broker was a disappointed with Telstra’s guidance for FY 2025. Its analysts note that the mid point of Telstra’s underlying EBITDA guidance of $8.4 billion to $8.7 billion was below its expectations. Goldman was also not a fan of management’s decision to scrap its inflation-linked price increases. In response, it has trimmed its earnings and dividend estimates accordingly. However, despite this, the broker sees plenty of value in the company’s shares at current levels and has reaffirmed its buy rating. The Telstra share price was fetching $3.45 at Friday’s close.
Another note out of Goldman Sachs reveals that its analysts have retained their conviction buy rating on this cloud accounting platform provider’s shares with an improved price target of $164.00. This follows the release of Xero’s full year results for FY 2024. Goldman notes that Xero achieved sales marginally ahead of expectations and earnings comfortably ahead of them. The broker was also pleased to see Xero exceed its Rule of 40 (41%) and record EBIT margins. This is being underpinned by its strong revenue growth, cost controls, and much lower than expected capex. In response to the result, Goldman has upgraded its earnings estimates through to FY 2026 and lifted its valuation. The Xero share price ended the week at $131.19.
Should you invest $1,000 in James Hardie Industries Plc right now?
Before you buy James Hardie Industries Plc 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 James Hardie Industries Plc 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 James Mickleboro has positions in Xero. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has positions in and has recommended Goldman Sachs Group, Macquarie Group, and Xero. The Motley Fool Australia has positions in and has recommended Macquarie Group, Telstra Group, and Xero. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.
If you’re hoping to retire with the support of some handy extra passive income, you may want to consider the benefits of owning S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) dividend shares.
Particularly those companies that pay fully franked dividends. This can make a sizeable difference to the amount of passive income you get to hold onto at tax time. Especially once you’ve retired.
We’ll look at four top ASX 200 dividend shares below that I’d buy for passive income heading into retirement.
Do note, however, that a properly diversified income portfolio should contain a larger number of stocks to reduce the overall investment risk. While there’s no magic number, 10 is a decent yardstick, ideally operating in various sectors and locations.
Also, remember that the yields you generally see quoted are trailing yields. Future yields may be higher or lower, depending on a range of company-specific and macroeconomic factors.
With that said…
Four ASX 200 dividend stocks for passive income in retirement
The first company I’d buy for passive income if I were hoping to retire is ASX 200 bank stockBendigo and Adelaide Bank Ltd (ASX: BEN).
Over the past 12 months, Bendigo Bank paid a fully franked final dividend of 32 cents per share on 29 September and an interim dividend of 30 cents per share on 26 March. This equates to a full year’s payout of 62 cents per share.
At Friday’s closing price of $10.89 a share, this ASX dividend stock trades on a fully franked trailing yield of 5.69%. The Bendigo share price is up 24.74% over 12 months.
The second ASX 200 dividend stock I’d buy for passive income to boost my retirement is mining giantBHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP).
BHP’s dividends have come down from the all-time highs we saw in 2021 and 2022 amid a retrace in iron ore prices. But I think the future income potential from the miner looks strong, regardless of what happens with its ongoing takeover efforts of Anglo American (LSE: AAL).
BHP paid a final fully franked dividend of $1.251 a share on 28 September and an interim dividend of $1.096 on 28 March. That works out to $2.347 per share for the full year.
At Friday’s closing price of $44.64, BHP shares trade on a fully franked trailing yield of 5.26%. The BHP share price is up 4.25% over 12 months.
Which brings us to the third ASX 200 dividend share I’d buy for passive income to boost my retirement, bank stockCommonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA).
Australia’s biggest bank paid a final fully franked dividend of $2.40 per share on 28 September. That was up 14% from the prior final dividend. CBA increased its interim dividend by 2.4% to $2.15 per share. Eligible investors will have seen that hit their bank account on 28 March.
All told then, CBA paid a total of $4.55 in dividends over the full year. At Friday’s closing price of $118.87, CBA shares trade on a fully franked trailing yield of 3.83%. The CBA share price is up 18.95% over 12 months.
Which brings us to the fourth ASX 200 dividend share I’d buy for passive income now in preparation for retirement, coal stockNew Hope Corp Ltd (ASX: NHC).
Although coal prices have come off the boil from their own record highs, I believe strong global demand should support prices at current levels and potentially see them tick higher approaching northern winter this year.
As for the past 12 months, New Hope paid a final fully franked dividend of 30 cents per share on 7 November and an interim dividend of 17 cents per share on 1 May for a full-year passive income payout of 47 cents per share.
At Friday’s closing price of $4.98 a share, New Hope shares trade on a fully franked trailing yield of 7.63%. The New Hope share price is down 5.14% over 12 months.
Should you invest $1,000 in Bendigo And Adelaide Bank Limited right now?
Before you buy Bendigo And Adelaide Bank 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 Bendigo And Adelaide Bank 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 positions in and has recommended Bendigo And Adelaide Bank. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.
American Airlines replaced its lawyers after backlash over a bathroom recording case.
The airline is facing lawsuits tied to a former flight attendant accused of filming underage girls.
Previous lawyers argued a 9-year-old "should have known" she was being filmed.
American Airlines has new attorneys after previous lawyers said a 9-year-old should have realized she was being recorded in the bathroom by a flight attendant.
The airline is facing several lawsuits stemming from criminal charges against Estes Carter Thompson, a former flight attendant accused of filming underage girls by taping his phone to the bathroom toilet seat.
Police arrested Thompson after a 14-year-old girl noticed a phone with its camera flashlight turned on in the bathroom on a flight from North Carolina to New York in September 2023, police say. He is facing federal charges of attempted sexual exploitation of children and possession of images of child sexual abuse.
Paul Llewellyn, an attorney representing the 14-year-old girl's family in a civil suit, is also representing the family of a 9-year-old who says Thompson also filmed her on a flight in January 2023.
Attorneys representing American Airlines in that lawsuit claimed in court records this week that the 9-year-old "knew or should have known" that the bathroom "contained a visible and illuminated recording device," absolving the airline of negligence.
Llewellyn called the claims "not credible" and said the airline should have never "taken this position in the first place."
The airlines later walked back the claims in court, amended the complaint, and issued a statement to Business Insider that said the defense was "not representative of our airline."
Now, American Airlines confirmed to Business Insider that the airline is no longer retaining the attorneys who wrote the complaint, offering no further comment on the change.
Llewellyn told BI in a statement that American Airlines switched attorneys "as a result of the intense media and public backlash surrounding the outrageous allegation."
"With the benefit of this new legal representation, we hope that American Airlines will now take a fresh look at the case and finally take some measure of responsibility for what happened to our client," Llewellyn said. "Otherwise, we are very confident that a Texas jury will do the right thing and hold American Airlines responsible."
The first ASX dividend share that could be a buy is supermarket giant Coles.
That’s the view of analysts at Morgans, which have an add rating and $18.70 price target on its shares.
As for dividends, the broker is forecasting fully franked dividends of 66 cents per share in FY 2024 and 69 cents per share in FY 2025. Based on the current Coles share price of $16.11, this implies dividend yields of approximately 4.1% and 4.3%, respectively.
Another ASX dividend share that analysts are positive on is Dexus Convenience Retail REIT. It owns a portfolio of service station and convenience retail assets across Australia.
Morgans is also feeling positive about this company. It has an add rating and $3.23 price target on its shares.
As for income, the broker is expecting its shares to provide income investors with some very big yields in the coming years. It has pencilled in dividends per share of 21 cents in both FY 2024 and FY 2025. Based on its current share price of $2.67, this implies yields of 7.9%.
Another ASX dividend share that has been given the thumbs up by analysts is Rural Funds. It is an agricultural property company that owns a portfolio of assets across several categories. This includes orchards, vineyards, cattle, and poultry.
The team at Bell Potter thinks income investors should be buying its shares. The broker has a buy rating and $2.40 price target on them.
In respect to income, the broker is forecasting dividends per share of 11.7 cents in both FY 2024 and FY 2025. Based on the current Rural Funds share price of $2.02, this will mean yields of 5.8% for income investors across both financial years.
A fourth and final ASX dividend share that could be a buy according to analysts is Super Retail. It is the owner of retail brands BCF, Macpac, Rebel, and Super Cheap Auto.
Goldman Sachs rates the company as a buy and has a $17.80 price target on its shares.
As well as plenty of upside, Goldman is expecting the retailer to offer attractive dividend yields. It is forecasting fully franked dividends per share of 67 cents in FY 2024 and then 73 cents in FY 2025. Based on the latest Super Retail share price of $12.74, this will mean good yields of 5.25% and 5.7%, respectively.
Should you invest $1,000 in Coles Group Limited right now?
Before you buy Coles Group 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 Coles Group 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 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 Coles Group, Rural Funds Group, and Super Retail Group. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.
In 2023, hotel rooms in NYC averaged $301 a night — a record — according to The New York Times.
Airbnb and inflation were culprits. But the migrant crisis also played a big role.
Dozens of hotels have been converted into migrant shelters, reducing the supply of available rooms.
For travelers planning trips to New York City, be prepared to shell out more money than ever for a hotel.
In 2023, the average daily cost of a New York hotel room was $301 a night, a jump from about $278 a night in 2022, according to the commercial and residential real estate provider CoStar. And from January to March 2024, the average nightly hotel rate in the city was roughly $231, up from a $216 nightly rate during the same period last year.
But it's not just an uptick in travel to New York City that is driving up prices. There's the upending of the Airbnb rental market, inflation, and the slowdown in new hotel construction.
This has reduced the supply of available rooms and helped drive up prices for guests looking for accommodations across the city. According to the Times, about 135 of the nearly 700 hotels in New York City are now sheltering asylum seekers. Those hotels earn up to $185 nightly a room, according to the city.
No hotel that switched to housing migrants has yet to revert to a conventional hotel, the Times reported.
According to CoStar data, the hotels now sheltering migrants have cordoned off roughly 16,500 rooms from the available hotel supply, resulting in nearly 122,000 available rooms for travelers. There are now about 2,800 fewer rooms available for travelers in the city compared to right before the coronavirus pandemic.
"During peak periods, try getting a hotel on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday night in midtown Manhattan, and, if you can, you could end up paying dearly," LW Hospitality Advisors president and chief executive Daniel H. Lesser told the Times. "It's all supply-and-demand related, and the migrant rooms have reduced the amount of supply."
Immigration has emerged as a defining issue of the 2024 presidential campaign. Voters largely disapprove of President Joe Biden's handling of the issue. Former President Donald Trump, meanwhile, is looking to use immigration to rally Republicans and Independents around his campaign.
Since 2022, more than 180,000 migrants have arrived in New York City — with tens of thousands sent by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in protest of Biden's immigration policies. Mayor Eric Adams has faced enormous financial and logistical challenges to house the migrants.
The New York City hotel market was hit hard in 2020 as business travel plummeted and the city — once the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic — struggled to recover due to the resulting economic fallout.
But the city's hotel market picked up in a major way last year, and the city could see a $380 million bump in hotel revenue this year, according to The Wall Street Journal. If the projections prove to be accurate, it would be a stunning turnaround given the challenges faced by the travel industry throughout the pandemic.
Joe Biden's administration is going after big corporations with antitrust lawsuits.
It's an aggressive approach that makes Biden stand out compared to his predecessors.
High-profile cases include Live Nation, Google, Apple, Amazon, Meta, as well as non-tech companies.
President Joe Biden is really leaning into his pro-labor image.
The Biden administration has launched investigations and antitrust lawsuits against several mega corporations, many in the tech sector, thatit accuses of behaving like monopolies — and it's setting him apart from his predecessors.
"This is definitely a different agenda than previous presidents," Rebecca Allensworth, an antitrust expert at Vanderbilt University, told Business Insider. "I think that Biden is saying … consolidation and the power that large companies have gotten over the last 20, 30 years isn't good for the American consumer or for Americans in general. I think it's very much a deliberate attempt to take away on some of that market power that these big corporations have accumulated."
Here are some of the biggest companies Biden has targeted.
Live Nation
Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
This week, the Justice Department filed an antitrust lawsuit against Ticketmaster's parent company, Live Nation Entertainment,which Attorney General Merrick Garland accused of "anti-competitive and illegal" business practices that have stifled innovation and led to worse experiences for fans, artists, promoters, and vendors.
Arguments in the case concluded earlier this month, leaving the future of Google (and much of the tech industry at large) in the hands of a US district judge who may clear the company or find it liable and demand it make changes.
Apple
The iPhone 15 was launched at an Apple event on September 12.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
The Justice Department filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple in March, accusing the company of taking over the smartphone market by "delaying, degrading, or outright blocking" the competition. The company has created a "smartphone monopoly," the Justice Department argued, using restrictive policies, accessories, and software.
Amazon
Jeff Bezos.
EMMANUEL DUNAND
The Federal Trade Commission took Amazon to court last year, accusing the company of luring customers into signing up for its Prime subscriptions. The FTC claimed that Amazon "knowingly duped millions of customers." A Business Insider investigation previously found that the company was aware of its confusing sign-up infrastructure for years but did not act on it. Meanwhile, an antitrust suit brought against Amazon by the FTC is set to begin in 2026.
Meta
The Meta logo.
Chesnot/Getty Images
The FTC and dozens of states filed suit against Meta, formerly Facebook, accusing the company of buying up Instagram and WhatsApp to quash competition.
"I think there's a reason why they have one big monopolization case, at least, against each of the four major American tech companies," Allensworth told BI. "Tech is too dominant. Tech has a dangerous level of market power, and it's oppressing competition and creating products that are more dangerous and more expensive than they need to be."
The Biden administration is targeting more than just tech, however. It has also intervened in the merger of JetBlue and Spirit Airlines, which a federal judge ultimately blocked, and Kroger's bid to acquire Albertsons Companies, which is still pending following an FTC lawsuit.
Collectively, it sends a clear message to companies that "the problem goes beyond tech,"Allensworth said. "Other sectors, too, suffer from concentration and could do with a bit of antitrust enforcement."
But while the administration can bring investigations and litigation, the outcome is out of its hands.
"It really lies with the courts, and the courts are not immune to political change, but less susceptible to the winds of politics," Allensworth said.
Most readers probably wouldn’t say no to owning a seven-figure investment portfolio. But getting to a $1,000,000 portfolio of ASX shares is no easy feat. It requires years of patience and discipline to be sure. However, the most important factor that will determine if one can get to a million-dollar portfolio is the harnessing of the power of compounding.
Compound interest was not called the eighth wonder of the world by Einstein for nothing. It refers to earning interest on already-earned interest, and is the only real way most of us can effectively and efficiently build wealth on the share market outside of getting lucky on a moonshot investment.
Even the legendary investor Warren Buffett almost entirely credits compounding as the reason why he is worth ~US$130 billion today. Buffett once said “My wealth has come from a combination of living in America, some lucky genes, and compound interest”.
It also explains how his company Berkshire Hathaway Inc(NYSE: BRK.A)(NYSE: BRK.B) is worth US$876 billion right now.
It isn’t too difficult to understand how the powers of compounding can exponentially grow your wealth over time.
Compounding: How to get to a $1,000,000 portfolio of ASX shares
Let’s say this index fund returns that same rate over the next 40 years (which one should never bank on, as past returns are no guarantee of future success). If one invested just $500 a month into this fund at that rate of return and reinvested all dividend distributions, they would have $97,815 after ten years. Not bad.
But if they just kept at it for another ten years, that $97,815 would grow to $335,660. After another ten, they would have $916,970, which would hit $2.34 million if yet another ten years go by.
That’s compounding in actionâearning interest on interest on interest. The more time it has, the faster your wealth grows. So, using a simple ASX index fund generating a fairly standard return, you can see how this power of compounding, as well as patience and discipline, can get anyone to a seven-figure ASX share portfolio.
Of course, you can do a few things to juice up your returns as well.
It always helps to invest more. If you can stretch from investing $500 a month to $800, you’d end up with $3.74 million after those four decades instead of $2.34 million.
If you learn about active share market investing and manage to pick out a portfolio of individual shares that return a collective 12% per annum instead of 8.97%, you’d have almost $6 million in shares after those 40 years, rather than $2.34 million.
As such, you can see how this one simple concept of compound interest can work wonders for anyone’s wealth and can even get you a $1,00,000 portfolio.
Should you invest $1,000 in Vanguard Australian Shares Index Etf right now?
Before you buy Vanguard Australian Shares Index Etf 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 Vanguard Australian Shares Index Etf 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 Sebastian Bowen has positions in Berkshire Hathaway and Vanguard Australian Shares Index ETF. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has positions in and has recommended Berkshire Hathaway. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended Berkshire Hathaway. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.
A mother was fined $88,000 after her family collected 72 clams from a California beach.
People cannot collect clams without a fishing license in California.
A San Luis Obispo County judge later reduced the fine to $500.
A California mother received a $88,000 fine after her children collected dozens of clams they believed were seashells.
Charlotte Russ told news station ABC30 that her family vacationed at Pismo Beach, a coastal city known for its beaches and local sea life, in late 2023. The residents dubbed Pismo Beach the "Clam Capital of the World" in 1947, according to the Pismo Beach Conference & Visitors Bureau.
"My kids, they thought they were collecting seashells, but they were actually collecting clams, 72 to be exact," she told the outlet.
Unfortunately, that mistake cost them.
Pismo Beach, California.
Getty Images/Harri Jarvelainen Photography
Pismo Beach has strict regulations regarding clam harvesting. People must have a valid saltwater fishing license and cannot collect clams under 4 1/2 inches. There are also regulations around what time people can harvest clams and how many they can bag a day.
Authorities issued Russ citations for fishing without a license and for collecting undersized clams, according to court records.
Russ told ABC 30 that the fine totaled $88,993.
"It made me really sad and depressed, and it kind of ruined our trip," she said.
However, Russ said she was able to explain the mistake to a San Luis Obispo County judge and got the fine reduced to $500. The fine can also be fulfilled by completing community service work.
"It was definitely one expensive trip to Pismo," Russ told the outlet. "Unforgettable."
California's Department of Fish and Wildlife representatives did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
A Florida woman has filed a lawsuit against Disney theme parks, according to an Orlando news outlet.
The lawsuit says she went unconscious and experienced brain damage on a Typhoon Lagoon waterslide.
She's seeking $50,000 in damages.
A Florida woman has filed a lawsuit against Disney, saying she lost consciousness and sustained a brain injury after riding a waterslide at Typhoon Lagoon Water Park.
The lawsuit, filed on Monday in Orange County, says that Laura Reyes-Merino visited the theme park on May 11 and rode the Humunga Kowabunga, according to the lawsuit, obtained by WKMG, a local Orlando news outlet.
The woman's attorney, Richard Russo, did not immediately return a request for comment from Business Insider.
The Walt Disney World website says the waterslide has a "near-vertical" 214-foot drop with a 60-degree angle.
Reyes-Merino fell unconscious after "banging inside the ride," according to the lawsuit. Her family discovered her limp at the end of the waterslide.
"The attendants told (Reyes-Merino's) fiancé and mother that they were not lifeguards and would have to find lifeguards to help," the lawsuit says. "As they were all waiting for help, blood kept coming out of (Reyes-Merino's) mouth in the water."
Reyes-Merino's fiancé pulled her from the water, but a lifeguard who arrived at the scene told the family not to touch her, prompting them to call an ambulance, the lawsuit says.
"Had (Disney) had lifeguards at the end of the ride to watch and help guests coming off the ride, Plaintiff's brain injury would not have occurred as she wouldn't have been drowning in the water coughing up blood," the lawsuit says.
Reyes-Merino has experienced mental, emotional, and physical ailments following the incident, including brain damage, the lawsuit says. She's seeking $50,000 in damages.
Representatives for Walt Disney World and Reyes-Merino did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Disney has faced lawsuits related to the Humunga Kowabunga waterslide in the past, including in October 2023, when a woman claimed she experienced vaginal bleeding after a hard landing.
That lawsuit said the woman experienced permanent bodily injury following the incident. She also sought $50,000.
Elizabeth Holmes dropped out of Stanford at 19 to start the blood-testing startup Theranos.
Theranos' value grew to $9 billion until flaws in the technology were exposed and Holmes was charged with fraud.
Here's how Holmes went from precocious child, to ambitious Stanford dropout, to an embattled startup founder now in prison.
Elizabeth Holmes was born on February 3, 1984 in Washington, DC. Her mom, Noel, was a Congressional committee staffer, and her dad, Christian Holmes, worked for Enron before moving to government agencies like USAID.
When she was 7, Holmes tried to invent her own time machine, filling up an entire notebook with detailed engineering drawings. At the age of 9, Holmes told relatives she wanted to be a billionaire when she grew up. Her relatives described her as saying it with the "utmost seriousness and determination."
Holmes had an "intense competitive streak" from a young age. She often played Monopoly with her younger brother and cousin, and she would insist on playing until the end, collecting the houses and hotels until she won. If Holmes was losing, she would often storm off. More than once, she ran directly through a screen on the door.
Elizabeth Holmes, CEO of Theranos, attends a panel discussion during the Clinton Global Initiative's annual meeting in New York, September 29, 2015.
It was during high school that Holmes developed her work ethic, often staying up late to study. She quickly became a straight-A student, and even started her own business: she sold C++ compilers, a type of software that translates computer code, to Chinese schools.
Holmes started taking Mandarin lessons and part-way through high school, talked her way into being accepted by Stanford University’s summer program, which culminated in a trip to Beijing.
Inspired by her great-great-grandfather Christian Holmes, a surgeon, Holmes decided she wanted to go into medicine. But she discovered early on that she was terrified of needles. Later, she said this influenced her to start Theranos.
Holmes went to Stanford to study chemical engineering. When she was a freshman, she became a "president's scholar," an honor that came with a $3,000 stipend to go toward a research project.
STANFORD, CA – MAY 22: People ride bikes past Hoover Tower on the Stanford University campus on May 22, 2014 in Stanford, California. According to the Academic Ranking of World Universities by China's Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Stanford University ranked second behind Harvard University as the top universities in the world. UC Berkeley ranked third. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
As a sophomore, Holmes went to one of her professors, Channing Robertson, and said: "Let's start a company." With his blessing, she founded Real-Time Cures, later changing the company's name to Theranos. Thanks to a typo, early employees’ paychecks actually said "Real-Time Curses."
Holmes soon filed a patent application for a "medical device for analyte monitoring and drug delivery," a wearable device that would administer medication, monitor patients' blood, and adjust the dosage as needed.
Theranos's business model was based around the idea that it could run blood tests, using proprietary technology that required only a finger pinprick and a small amount of blood. Holmes said the tests would be able to detect medical conditions like cancer and high cholesterol.
Theranos Chairman, CEO and Founder Elizabeth Holmes (L) and TechCrunch Writer and Moderator Jonathan Shieber speak onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt at Pier 48 on September 8, 2014 in San Francisco, California
Holmes started raising money for Theranos from prominent investors like Oracle founder Larry Ellison and Tim Draper, the father of a childhood friend and the founder of prominent VC firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson. Theranos raised more than $700 million, and Draper has continued to defend Holmes.
Holmes took investors' money on the condition that she wouldn't have to reveal how Theranos' technology worked. Plus, she would have the final say over everything having to do with the company.
That obsession with secrecy extended to every aspect of Theranos. For the first decade Holmes spent building her company, Theranos operated in stealth mode. She even took three former Theranos employees to court, claiming they had misused Theranos trade secrets.
Holmes' attitude toward secrecy and running a company was borrowed from a Silicon Valley hero of hers: former Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Holmes started dressing in black turtlenecks like Jobs, decorated her office with his favorite furniture, and like Jobs, never took vacations.
Even Holmes's uncharacteristically deep voice may have been part of a carefully crafted image intended to help her fit in in the male-dominated business world. In ABC's podcast on Holmes called "The Dropout," former Theranos employees said the CEO sometimes "fell out of character," particularly after drinking, and would speak in a higher voice.
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton and Elizabeth Holmes, CEO of Theranos, during the Clinton Global Initiative's annual meeting in New York.
Holmes was a demanding boss and wanted her employees to work as hard as she did. She had her assistants track when employees arrived and left each day. To encourage people to work longer hours, she started having dinner catered to the office around 8 p.m. each night.
More behind-the-scenes footage of what life was like at Theranos was revealed in leaked videos obtained by the team behind the HBO documentary "The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley." The more than 100 hours of footage showed Holmes walking around the office, scenes from company parties, speeches from Holmes and Balwani, and Holmes dancing to "U Can't Touch This" by MC Hammer.
Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes at the company's headquarters.
Shortly after Holmes dropped out of Stanford at age 19, she began dating Theranos president and COO Sunny Balwani, who was 20 years her senior. The two met during Holmes' third year in Stanford’s summer Mandarin program, the summer before she went to college. She was bullied by some of the other students, and Balwani had come to her aid.
Balwani became Holmes' No. 2 at Theranos despite having little experience. He was said to be a bully and often tracked his employees' whereabouts. Holmes and Balwani eventually broke up in spring 2016 when Holmes pushed him out of the company.
In 2008, the Theranos board decided to remove Holmes as CEO in favor of someone more experienced. But over the course of a two-hour meeting, Holmes convinced them to let her stay in charge of her company.
As Theranos started to rake in millions of funding, Holmes became the subject of media attention and acclaim in the tech world. She graced the covers of Fortune and Forbes, gave a TED Talk, and spoke on panels with Bill Clinton and Alibaba's Jack Ma.
Elizabeth Holmes with former President Bill Clinton, left, and Alibaba cofounder Jack Ma.
Theranos quickly began securing outside partnerships. Capital Blue Cross and Cleveland Clinic signed on to offer Theranos tests to their patients, and Walgreens made a deal to open Theranos testing centers in their stores. Theranos also formed a secret partnership with Safeway worth $350 million.
In 2011, Holmes hired her younger brother, Christian, to work at Theranos, although he didn’t have a medical or science background. Christian Holmes spent his early days at Theranos reading about sports online and recruiting his Duke University fraternity brothers to join the company. People dubbed Holmes and his crew the "Frat Pack" and "Therabros."
Holmes was obsessed with security at Theranos. She asked anyone who visited the company’s headquarters to sign non-disclosure agreements before being allowed in the building and had security guards escort visitors everywhere — even to the bathroom.
Michael Dalder/Reuters
Holmes hired bodyguards to drive her around in a black Audi sedan. Her nickname was "Eagle One." The windows in her office had bulletproof glass.
Around the same time, questions were being raised about Theranos' technology. Ian Gibbons — chief scientist at Theranos and one of the company's first hires — warned Holmes that the tests weren't ready for the public to take and that there were inaccuracies in the technology. Outside scientists began voicing their concerns about Theranos, too.
By August 2015, the FDA began investigating Theranos, and regulators from the government body that oversees laboratories found "major inaccuracies" in the testing Theranos was doing on patients.
By October 2015, Wall Street Journal reporter John Carreyrou published his investigation into Theranos's struggles with its technology. Carreyrou's reporting sparked the beginning of the company's downward spiral.
Carreyrou found that Theranos' blood-testing machine, named Edison, couldn't give accurate results, so Theranos was running its samples through the same machines used by traditional blood-testing companies.
Holmes appeared on CNBC's "Mad Money" shortly after the WSJ published its story to defend herself and Theranos. "This is what happens when you work to change things, and first they think you're crazy, then they fight you, and then all of a sudden you change the world," Holmes said.
In July 2016, Holmes was banned from the lab-testing industry for two years. By October, Theranos had shut down its lab operations and wellness centers.
In March 2018, Theranos, Holmes, and Balwani were charged with "massive fraud" by the SEC. Holmes agreed to give up financial and voting control of the company, pay a $500,000 fine, and return 18.9 million shares of Theranos stock. She also isn't allowed to be the director or officer of a publicly traded company for 10 years.
Despite the charges, Holmes was allowed to stay on as CEO of Theranos, since it's a private company. The company had been hanging on by a thread, and Holmes wrote to investors asking for more money to save Theranos. "In light of where we are, this is no easy ask," Holmes wrote.
In Theranos' final days, Holmes reportedly got a Siberian husky puppy named Balto that she brought into the office. However, the dog wasn't potty trained, and would go to the bathroom inside the company's office and during meetings.
In June 2018, Theranos announced that Holmes was stepping down as CEO. On the same day, the Department of Justice announced that a federal grand jury had charged Holmes, along with Balwani, with nine counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Elizabeth Holmes, founder and CEO of Theranos, speaks at the Wall Street Journal Digital Live (WSJDLive) conference at the Montage hotel in Laguna Beach, California, October 21, 2015.
Theranos sent an email to shareholders in September 2018 announcing that the company was shutting down. Theranos reportedly said it planned to spend the next few months repaying creditors with its remaining resources.
Around the time Theranos' time was coming to an end, Holmes made her first public appearance alongside William "Billy" Evans, a 27-year-old heir to a hospitality property management company in California. The two reportedly first met in 2017, and were seen together in 2018 at Burning Man, the art festival in the Nevada desert.
Holmes is said to wear Evans' MIT "signet ring" on a chain around her neck, and the couple reportedly posts photos "professing their love for each other" on a private Instagram account. Evans' parents are reportedly "flabbergasted" at their son's decision to marry Holmes.
It's unclear where Holmes and Evans currently reside, but they were previously living in a $5,000-a-month apartment in San Francisco until April 2019. The apartment was located just a few blocks from one of the city's top tourist attractions, the famously crooked block of Lombard Street.
Lombard Place Apartments, where Holmes used to live.
It was later reported that Holmes and Evans got engaged in early 2019, then married in June in a secretive wedding ceremony. Former Theranos employees were reportedly not invited to the wedding, according to Vanity Fair.
Besides the criminal case, Holmes was also involved in a number of civil lawsuits, including one in Arizona brought by former Theranos patients over inaccurate blood tests. The lawyers representing her in the Arizona case said in late 2019 they hadn't been paid over a year and asked to be removed from Holmes' legal team.
Former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes leaves after a hearing at a federal court.
Holmes' lawyers in the federal case had tried to get the government's entire case thrown out. In February 2020, Holmes caught a break after some of the charges against her were dropped when a judge ruled that some patients didn't suffer financial loss.
Amid the coronavirus outbreak, Holmes' lawyers asked the judge in April 2020 to deem the case "essential" so the defense team could defy lockdown orders and continue to travel and meet face-to-face. The judge said he was "taken aback" by the defense's pleas to violate lockdown.
It soon become clear that the pandemic — and the health risks associated with assembling a trial in one — would make the July trial date unrealistic. Through hearings held on Zoom, the presiding judge initially pushed the trial back to October 2020 and later postponed it further to March 2021.
Passengers wear masks as they walk through LAX airport.
In March 2021, Holmes requested another delay to the trial because she was pregnant. She asked to push back the trial to August 31, and her request was granted. Holmes reportedly gave birth to the child in July.
Nhat V. Meyer/MediaNews Group/Mercury News via Getty Images
The trial kicked off in September. In opening statements, prosecutors argued that, "Out of time and out of money, Elizabeth Holmes decided to lie." Meanwhile, the defense argued that although Theranos ultimately crumbled, "Failure is not a crime. Trying your hardest and coming up short is not a crime."
Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes arrives at the Robert F. Peckham Federal Building with her defense team on August 31, 2021 in San Jose, California.
The list of possible witnesses for the trial named roughly 200 people, including the likes of Rupert Murdoch, Henry Kissinger, James Mattis, and Holmes herself.
Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes leaves the Robert F. Peckham U.S. Courthouse with her mother, Noel Holmes, during her trial.
Over the course of 11 weeks, prosecutors called 29 witnesses to testify — including former Theranos employees, investors, patients, and doctors — before resting their case in November.
Holmes testified that Balwani controlled what she ate and how her schedule looked, told her she had to "become a new Elizabeth" to succeed in business, and forced her to have sex with him when she didn't want to because "he would say that he wanted me to know he still loved me."
Former Theranos COO Ramesh "Sunny' Balwani leaves the Robert F. Peckham U.S. Federal Court on June 28, 2019 in San Jose, California.
Holmes also admitted that she added some pharmaceutical companies' logos to Theranos' reports without authorization. Investors previously said they took some reassurance in those reports because, based on the logos, they thought major pharmaceutical companies had validated Theranos' technology. Holmes said she added the logos to convey that work was done in partnership with those companies, but in hindsight she wishes she had "done it differently."
Holmes also acknowledged on the stand that she hid Theranos' use of modified commercial devices from investors. She said she did this because company counsel told her that alterations the company made to the machines were trade secrets and needed to be protected as such.
In closing arguments, prosecutors argued that Holmes "chose fraud over business failure" while the defense argued she was "building a business, not a criminal enterprise."
Elizabeth Holmes walks into federal court in San Jose, Calif., Friday, Dec. 17, 2021.
After 15 weeks of trial, Holmes' case headed to a jury of eight men and four women on December 17, 2021.
Elizabeth Holmes, founder and former CEO of blood testing and life sciences company Theranos, leaves the courthouse with her husband Billy Evans after the first day of her fraud trial in San Jose, California on September 8, 2021.
Jurors deliberated for a total of seven days over the next few weeks before telling the court on January 3, 2022, that they were deadlocked on three of the 11 charges against Holmes. The judge read off some jury instructions to the group in court before instructing them to go back and deliberate further.
Hours later, the jury returned a mixed verdict for Holmes, finding her guilty on one count of conspiracy to defraud investors and three counts of wire fraud. They found her not guilty on four other counts and failed to reach a verdict on the remaining three counts.
The counts Holmes was found guilty of were all related to investments; she wasn't convicted on any of the charges involving patients who received inaccurate test results.
Holmes faced the possibility of decades in prison. Each count carries a maximum 20-year prison sentence, a $250,000 fine, and a requirement to pay victims restitution.
Holmes is played by Amanda Seyfried in the dramatized series, which asks the question, "How did the world's youngest self-made female billionaire lose it all in the blink of an eye?"
In a 24-page filing on May 27, Holmes' attorneys argued for her acquittal, saying the evidence was "insufficient to sustain the convictions."
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They wrote, "Because no rational juror could have found the elements of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud beyond a reasonable doubt on this record, the Court should grant Ms. Holmes' motion for judgment of acquittal."
"Even if Ms. Holmes committed wire fraud against an investor (she did not) and even if Mr. Balwani committed wire fraud against an investor, that does not prove a conspiratorial agreement between them, nor does it prove that Ms. Holmes willfully joined any agreement," the attorneys continued in the filing.
But that wasn't the end: Holmes filed three motions requesting a new trial, one of which centered on the testimony of a prosecution witness who allegedly went to Holmes' house in August and expressed regret that he helped convict her.
The witness was former Theranos lab director Adam Rosendorff. According to an account of the incident from Billy Evans, Holmes' partner, Rosendorff showed up at their home looking "disheveled" and said he felt "guilty."
David Odisho/Getty Images
"He said when he was called as a witness he tried to answer the questions honestly but that the prosecutors tried to make everybody look bad (in the company)," Evans recalled in an email to Holmes' attorneys about their interaction. "He said that the government made things sound worse than they were when he was up on the stand during his testimony. He said he felt like he had done something wrong. And that this was weighing on him, He said he was having trouble sleeping."
In another of Holmes' motions for a new trial, she says the prosecution portrayed her relationship with Balwani differently in their respective trials, to her detriment.
In the final motion, Holmes said she was denied emails showing prosecutors failed to take appropriate steps to preserve a Theranos database that she claims would have helped her defense, even though the government furnished these materials when Balwani was on trial.
Holmes notched a small victory when the presiding judge ordered an evidentiary hearing regarding Rosendorff's testimony and appearance at her home. This hearing meant that Holmes' sentencing was postponed from October 17, 2022, to November 18 of that year.
Dai Sugano/MediaNews Group/The Mercury News via Getty Images
The evidentiary hearing proved useless to Holmes, though, as witness Rosendorff said he stood by his initial testimony and only went to her home because he was "distressed" at the idea of Holmes' child growing up without a mother.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
"At all times the government encouraged me to tell the truth and only the truth," Rosendorff clarified at the hearing.
"I don't want to help Ms. Holmes," Rosendorff added. "The only person that can help her is herself. She needs to pay her debt to society."
On November 8, the presiding judge denied all three of Holmes' motions for a new trial, paving the way for sentencing.
Chris Ryan/Getty
Days before her sentencing, Holmes' attorneys asked that she get no more than 18 months, preferably under house arrest. They submitted 130 letters from friends and family — spanning everyone from Senator Cory Booker to even an ex-CDC chief — pleading for leniency.
In the end, Holmes' friends and family didn't get their wish. On November 18, 2022, Holmes was sentenced to 135 months, or 11.25 years, in prison with three years of supervised release beginning on April 27. "I stand before you taking responsibility for Theranos. I loved Theranos, it was my life's work," Holmes said through tears at the hearing.
Meanwhile, Balwani's trial began in March 2022 and also returned a conviction. He was found guilty in July on all 12 counts brought against him, and in early December Balwani was sentenced to nearly 13 years in prison with three years of probation. As with Holmes, restitution will be decided at a later date. The judge ordered Balwani to self-surrender on March 15, 2023.
Former Theranos COO Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani and his legal team leave the Robert F. Peckham Federal Building on July 7, 2022 in San Jose, California.
Holmes appealed her conviction in December 2022, and US prosecutors said in recent court filings that she "continues to show no remorse to her victims" and is currently living on an estate that costs $13,000 a month.
In February 2023, a court filing revealed Holmes recently gave birth to a second child. She also asked the judge to delay the start of her prison sentence to allow her to remain free while she appeals her conviction.
Holmes in a federal court in San Jose, California, on November 18, 2022.
Nic Coury/AP
"Ms. Holmes has deep ties to the community: She is the mother of two very young children; she has close relationships with family and friends, many of who submitted letters at sentencing vouching for her good character; and she volunteers with a rape crisis and counseling organization," the filing said.
But Holmes appealed the judge's decision. In accordance with court rules, since she was on bail when she filed the motion, her prison reporting date was automatically delayed.
Philip Pacheco/Getty Images
Balwani previously used the same tactic and was able to push back his initially scheduled prison reporting date by a month — but still ultimately reported to prison on April 20.
In a May 7 profile in The New York Times, Holmes portrayed herself as a doting mother of two who wears a "bucket hat and sunglasses" and walks about the San Diego Zoo. She also wants to be called "Liz" as this is the "real Elizabeth."
She said that with her partner Evans, she spent six months in 2019 traveling the country in an RV and sleeping in campgrounds and Walmart parking lots.
Holmes admitted in her interviews with The Times that she had built a persona that wasn't "authentic" – wearing black turtlenecks, red lipstick, messy blonde hair, and using an exaggerated masculine voice.
In May, Holmes was again denied her request to remain free while she appeals her conviction, and a judge ordered her to report to prison May 30. She and Balwani were also ordered to pay $452 million in restitution to victims of Theranos' fraud.
On May 30, Holmes reported to Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, Texas, a minimum-security women's prison about 100 miles from Houston, where she grew up, to begin serving her sentence.
Elizabeth Holmes arrives at the Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, Texas, on May 30, 2023.
In the time since she's been incarcerated, her prison term has been shortened. Previously, Holmes had her sentenced shortened to roughly 9.5 years compared to her original 11.25-year sentence.
Disgraced Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes, left, is escorted by prison officials into a federal women’s prison camp on Tuesday, May 30, 2023, in Bryan, Texas.
Michael Wyke/Associated Press
The Bureau of Prisons did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment on how Holmes' release date was calculated.
Release date calculations typically take into account factors like a person's surrender date, jail-time credit, the completion of substance abuse programs, and good behavior.
Maya Kosoff, Paige Leskin, and Áine Cain contributed to earlier versions of this story.
Holmes's sentence is reduced again. In May 2024, Bureau of Prisons records showed that Holmes' release date is now scheduled for August 16, 2032.
Elizabeth Holmes.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Prison officials previously moved Holmes's release date to December 29, 2032. Shortening her sentenced by an additional three months brings Holmes' original sentence down by about two full years.
Holmes is still serving her time in Federal Prison Camp Bryan in Texas. Holmes's appeal is scheduled to go before a federal appeals court on June 11.
Elizabeth Holmes hugging her father, Christian Holmes IV as her mother, Noel Holmes, looks on.
Philip Pacheco/Getty Images
In May 2023, a court denied Holmes' motion to remain free on bail while she appealed her trial, remanding her to Federal Prison Camp Bryan in Texas, a minimum security women's prison. Federal appeals courts in San Francisco will hear opening arguments in her appeal and that of her co-defendant, Sunny Balwani, on June 11.
