CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. provides cybersecurity solutions in the United States and internationally. Its unified platform offers cloud-delivered protection of endpoints, cloud workloads, identity, and data. The company offers corporate endpoint and cloud workload security, managed security, security and vulnerability management, IT operations management, identity protection, SIEM and log management, threat intelligence, data protection, security orchestration, automation and response and AI powered workflow automation, and securing generative AI workload services. It primarily sells subscriptions to its Falcon platform and cloud modules. The company was incorporated in 2011 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.

CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc.

Varonis Systems (VRNS) came out with quarterly earnings of $0.06 per share, in line with the Zacks Consensus Estimate . This compares to earnings of $0.1 per share a year ago. These figures are adjusted for non-recurring items.
A quarter ago, it was expected that this data-management software company would post earnings of $0.01 per share when it actually produced earnings of $0.03, delivering a surprise of +200%.
Over the last four quarters, the company has surpassed consensus EPS estimates three times.
Varonis, which belongs to the Zacks Security industry, posted revenues of $161.58 million for the quarter ended September 2025, missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 2.71%. This compares to year-ago revenues of $148.07 million. The company has topped consensus revenue estimates two times over the last four quarters.
The sustainability of the stock's immediate price movement based on the recently-released numbers and future earnings expectations will mostly depend on management's commentary on the earnings call.
Varonis shares have added about 41.1% since the beginning of the year versus the S&P 500's gain of 16.9%.
What's Next for Varonis?
While Varonis has outperformed the market so far this year, the question that comes to investors' minds is: what's next for the stock?
There are no easy answers to this key question, but one reliable measure that can help investors address this is the company's earnings outlook. Not only does this include current consensus earnings expectations for the coming quarter(s), but also how these expectations have changed lately.
Empirical research shows a strong correlation between near-term stock movements and trends in earnings estimate revisions. Investors can track such revisions by themselves or rely on a tried-and-tested rating tool like the Zacks Rank, which has an impressive track record of harnessing the power of earnings estimate revisions.
Ahead of this earnings release, the estimate revisions trend for Varonis was unfavorable. While the magnitude and direction of estimate revisions could change following the company's just-released earnings report, the current status translates into a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell) for the stock. So, the shares are expected to underperform the market in the near future. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
It will be interesting to see how estimates for the coming quarters and the current fiscal year change in the days ahead. The current consensus EPS estimate is $0.05 on $170.2 million in revenues for the coming quarter and $0.13 on $624.86 million in revenues for the current fiscal year.
Investors should be mindful of the fact that the outlook for the industry can have a material impact on the performance of the stock as well. In terms of the Zacks Industry Rank, Security is currently in the bottom 20% of the 250 plus Zacks industries. Our research shows that the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries outperform the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1.
CrowdStrike Holdings (CRWD), another stock in the same industry, has yet to report results for the quarter ended October 2025.
This cloud-based security company is expected to post quarterly earnings of $0.94 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of +1.1%. The consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has remained unchanged over the last 30 days.
CrowdStrike Holdings' revenues are expected to be $1.21 billion, up 20.2% from the year-ago quarter.
Should You Invest in Varonis Systems, Inc. (VRNS)?
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Zacks Investment Research has been committed to providing investors with tools and independent research since 1978. For more than a quarter century, the Zacks Rank stock-rating system has more than doubled the S&P 500 with an average gain of +24.08% per year. (These returns cover a period from January 1, 1988 through May 6, 2024.)
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

Varonis Systems (VRNS) Meets Q3 Earnings Estimates

Among the underlying components of the Russell 3000 index, we saw noteworthy options trading volume today in Booking Holdings Inc (Symbol: BKNG), where a total of 6,850 contracts have traded so far, representing approximately 685,000 underlying shares. That amounts to about 265.4% of BKNG's average daily trading volume over the past month of 258,100 shares. Particularly high volume was seen for the $5100 strike call option expiring December 19, 2025, with 1,768 contracts trading so far today, representing approximately 176,800 underlying shares of BKNG. Below is a chart showing BKNG's trailing twelve month trading history, with the $5100 strike highlighted in orange:
Strategy Inc (Symbol: MSTR) saw options trading volume of 236,371 contracts, representing approximately 23.6 million underlying shares or approximately 202.9% of MSTR's average daily trading volume over the past month, of 11.6 million shares. Particularly high volume was seen for the $315 strike call option expiring October 31, 2025, with 42,533 contracts trading so far today, representing approximately 4.3 million underlying shares of MSTR. Below is a chart showing MSTR's trailing twelve month trading history, with the $315 strike highlighted in orange:
And CrowdStrike Holdings Inc (Symbol: CRWD) saw options trading volume of 44,547 contracts, representing approximately 4.5 million underlying shares or approximately 187% of CRWD's average daily trading volume over the past month, of 2.4 million shares. Particularly high volume was seen for the $550 strike call option expiring October 31, 2025, with 1,851 contracts trading so far today, representing approximately 185,100 underlying shares of CRWD. Below is a chart showing CRWD's trailing twelve month trading history, with the $550 strike highlighted in orange:
For the various different available expirations for BKNG options, MSTR options, or CRWD options, visit StockOptionsChannel.com.
Also see:
Top Ten Hedge Funds Holding SUNY
Top Ten Hedge Funds Holding FVR
Institutional Holders of BFIN
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

Noteworthy Tuesday Option Activity: BKNG, MSTR, CRWD

Below is Validea's guru fundamental report for CROWDSTRIKE HOLDINGS INC (CRWD). Of the 22 guru strategies we follow, CRWD rates highest using our P/B Growth Investor model based on the published strategy of Partha Mohanram. This growth model looks for low book-to-market stocks that exhibit characteristics associated with sustained future growth.
CROWDSTRIKE HOLDINGS INC (CRWD) is a large-cap growth stock in the Software & Programming industry. The rating using this strategy is 100% based on the firm’s underlying fundamentals and the stock’s valuation. A score of 80% or above typically indicates that the strategy has some interest in the stock and a score above 90% typically indicates strong interest.
The following table summarizes whether the stock meets each of this strategy's tests. Not all criteria in the below table receive equal weighting or are independent, but the table provides a brief overview of the strong and weak points of the security in the context of the strategy's criteria.
Detailed Analysis of CROWDSTRIKE HOLDINGS INC
More Information on Partha Mohanram
About Partha Mohanram: Sometimes the best investing strategies don't come from the world of investing. Sometimes research that changes the investing world can come from the halls of academia. Partha Mohanram is a great example of this. While academic research has shown that value investing works over time, it has found the opposite for growth investing. Mohanram turned that research on its head by developing a growth model that produced significant market outperformance. His research paper "Separating Winners from Losers among Low Book-to-Market Stocks using Financial Statement Analysis" looked at the criteria that can be used to separate growth stocks that continue their upward trajectory from those that don't. Mohanram is currently the John H. Watson Chair in Value Investing at the University of Toronto and was previously an Associate Professor at the Columbia Business School.
Additional Research Links
High Insider Ownership Stocks
Excess Returns Investing Podcast
About Validea: Validea is aninvestment researchservice that follows the published strategies of investment legends. Validea offers both stock analysis and model portfolios based on gurus who have outperformed the market over the long-term, including Warren Buffett, Benjamin Graham, Peter Lynch and Martin Zweig. For more information about Validea, click here
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

Validea Detailed Fundamental Analysis - CRWD

Key Points
Investors who lacked exposure to the information technology sector over the last decade probably underperformed the S&P 500 by a wide margin.
The information technology sector is home to artificial intelligence powerhouses like Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Broadcom, Palantir, and more.
The Vanguard Information Technology ETF invests in over 300 stocks across 12 sub-segments of the sector.
The 500 companies represented in the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) index are spread across 11 economic sectors, but information technology is the largest by far with a weighting of 35.1%. That's because the sector is home to the world's three largest companies: Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), which have a combined market capitalization of $12 trillion.
Those three stocks have contributed to a near-700% gain in the S&P 500 information technology sector over the past decade, more than tripling the gain of the S&P 500 overall.
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In fact, investors who invested in the entire S&P 500 over the past 10 years, but excluded the information technology sector, would have earned a return of just 81%. Suffice it to say, it has been essential to own a slice of companies like Nvidia, Microsoft, and Apple in order to keep pace with the broader market.
Here's the good news: Buying a slice of the entire information technology sector has never been simpler thanks to the Vanguard Information Technology ETF (NYSEMKT: VGT). It's an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that invests in 314 stocks under the information technology umbrella, including many outside the S&P 500, and 43.6% of the entire value of its portfolio is parked in Nvidia, Microsoft, and Apple. Read on.
The ultimate technology ETF
The Vanguard Information Technology ETF invests across 12 sub-segments of the information technology sector. The semiconductor segment is the largest with a weighting of 31.3%, which isn't a surprise considering Nvidia's valuation has ballooned from $360 billion to $4.4 trillion since the start of 2023.
The semiconductor segment is also home to Broadcom, Advanced Micro Devices, and Micron Technology, which are some of the other top suppliers of the data center chips and components fueling the artificial intelligence (AI) boom.
AI is a prevalent theme across the entire tech space right now. Each of the top 10 holdings in the Vanguard ETF is contributing to the AI industry in some capacity, whether it be through data center infrastructure, software, or cloud services:
Stock
Vanguard ETF Portfolio Weighting
1. Nvidia
17.16%
2. Apple
13.35%
3. Microsoft
13.09%
4. Broadcom
4.47%
5. Oracle
2.34%
6. Palantir Technologies
2.02%
7. Cisco Systems
1.39%
8. Advanced Micro Devices
1.33%
9. International Business Machines
1.33%
10. Salesforce
1.14%
Data source: Vanguard. Portfolio weightings are accurate as of Sept. 30, 2025, and are subject to change.
Apple launched Apple Intelligence in partnership with OpenAI last year, which is a suite of AI-powered apps and features for its iPhones, iPads, and Mac computers. Apple Intelligence can summarize text messages and emails, create images on command, and prioritize notifications based on the preferences of each user. Apple has over 2.35 billion active devices worldwide, so it could become the most dominant consumer AI company in the world.
Microsoft and Oracle are two of the biggest buyers of data center chips and components which they use to develop their own AI software, but they also make money by renting the computing capacity to businesses. In fact, both companies are experiencing more demand for data center capacity than they can possibly supply, as businesses across all industries race to adopt AI.
Palantir is one of the best-performing stocks in the AI space, with a 300% gain over the past year alone. It developed two platforms called Gotham and Foundry, which use AI to help organizations extract value from their data. It also offers a third platform called AIP (Artificial Intelligence Platform), which allows organizations to connect their internal data to large language models (LLMs) so they can create AI applications.
Outside of its top 10 holdings, the Vanguard ETF holds many other powerhouse AI stocks. They include Adobe, Snowflake, Datadog, and cybersecurity giants Palo Alto Networks and CrowdStrike.
The Vanguard ETF has a great track record against the S&P 500
The Vanguard Information Technology ETF has delivered a compound annual return of 14.2% since it was established in 2004, comfortably outperforming the S&P 500, which climbed by 10.4% per year over the same period. However, given the ETF's high degree of exposure to volatile themes like AI, investors should avoid putting all of their eggs in one basket.
Instead, this Vanguard ETF is ideal for investors who might be overly exposed to more defensive areas of the market, like the financials, consumer staples, and real estate sectors which are known for paying high dividends, but tend to generate slower growth.
As I highlighted earlier, excluding the information technology sector from any portfolio tends to result in sluggish returns. Since AI is likely to remain a significant value creator in the coming years, investors who have minimal or no exposure to stocks like Nvidia, Apple, and Microsoft might want to buy the Vanguard Information Technology ETF right now.
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Anthony Di Pizio has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Adobe, Advanced Micro Devices, Apple, Cisco Systems, CrowdStrike, Datadog, International Business Machines, Microsoft, Nvidia, Oracle, Palantir Technologies, Salesforce, and Snowflake. The Motley Fool recommends Broadcom and Palo Alto Networks and recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

Meet the Spectacular Vanguard ETF With 43.6% of Its Portfolio Invested in Nvidia, Apple, and Microsoft

In this podcast, Motley Fool analysts David Meier, Tom King, and Tim Beyers:
Discuss the failures that led to the AWS outage this week and which companies and services were impacted.
Debate whether companies have become too dependent on AWS and its peers, especially when virtually all the in-demand AI services we're banking on are hosted in these clouds.
Play another game of Faker or Breaker with three companies impacted by the AWS outage.
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Tim Beyers: WTH at AWS. We need to talk about computing in the Cloud fools. You're listening to Motley Fool Money. Welcome Fools. I'm your host, Tim Beyers. With me are longtime fools, David Meier, Tom King. It's great to have you both here. So, guys, just a few hours ago, recording on Monday morning, Amazon Web Services suffered a pretty catastrophic outage in one of the Eastern US regions. And businesses that offer essential digital services have taken a hit here. This isn't the first time we've seen AWS go down, and it's not going to be the last, especially with the scale of the AI buildout of which AWS plays a pretty big part. So quick reactions here first. Tom, I'll start with you. Are you at all surprised by this news? Why or why not?
Tom King: I'm not. This is a complicated system, and in a complicated system, little things can compound. So it's almost inevitable that something like this would happen. It's very similar to what happened with CrowdStrike last year. Remember when CrowdStrike caused that big outage. It recovered from that. It got on. It is the cost of how things are these days.
Tim Beyers: Yeah. I mean, that's a fair point. I mean, these things are made up of, we've seen these commercials before, Dave, where you have the dominoes all lined up. You hit one of those dominoes and they all start falling. What's your reaction to this?
David Meier: To be frank? I'm surprised it's not happening more. Really, really think about this. Something bad happened there was an outage for a few hours. It's slowly everything's getting back online. Everything's back up and running. This is a massive system.
Tim Beyers: Yeah.
David Meier: The fact that it has the reliability that it does is an engineering marvel. So yeah, like, I get it. It's disappointing. Thank goodness it happened at 3:00 A.M. Eastern Time. I mean, I don't know exactly how much traffic is flowing through there. I remember in my backyard in Northern Virginia, 35% of the world's Internet traffic used to flow through my backyard at peak times. So I'm not surprised, but quite frankly, I'm impressed how quickly they recovered it. I'm surprised it doesn't happen more. Maybe it does and we just don't feel it.
Tim Beyers: I don't know if there is a Jeff Bezos shakes head approvingly meme, but I think you'd be getting that right now, Dave. I mean, it is interesting. So let's talk about this. AWS going dark, again, this has happened many times. Here's what we know. AWS, like you said, Dave, went offline around 3:00 A.M. Eastern Time for what appears to have been a couple of hours. The rolling effects could continue, and we are recording this on a platform called Riverside. As soon as I logged in, we got a nice little notice from Riverside saying, Hey, AWS went down and services may be affected. I'm paraphrasing there. So lots of companies have been affected here. At issue were some errors in the company's DynamoDB database. So let me just briefly explain what this is. Amazon's primary database is DynamoDB. It's a transactional database, and it's most famous for being the homegrown Amazon database that they use really to process transactions. So this is meant to be a highly resilient, highly replicated database throughout the Amazon and the Amazon Web Services ecosystem. This is what they've built their business on. What it was subject to, we don't know if it was an attack or just an error. It was subject to an outage in the DNS system, the domain name server system. When that happens, when the DNS goes out, and you probably have heard of this, like a distributed denial of service attack, that's meant to attack the DNS. If you do that, if you take down the DNS, it's like you having your phone and suddenly all your contacts, like, you can't press to call anybody because your contacts are frozen. The phone book in your phone just no longer works. You can't call anybody. When the DNS is down, that's what happens. The DNS determines when you say google.com, there's an underlying IP address that's a series of numbers, and it translates google.com to those numbers. When that's down, you can't do that, which means the Internet just stops functioning. So, this appears to be what happened here. I'm curious because the affected companies include Coinbase, Robinhood, Roblox, punch of others, two questions from me. I'll start with you this time, Dave. You said, effectively, you're surprised this isn't happening more. But I'd like to gauge your concerns. Are you at all concerned with how much influence AWS has over modern compute? And are we creating any kind of single point of failure here?
David Meier: So the answer is yes, there is concern.
Tim Beyers: Okay.
David Meier: I don't know how much I should be concerned, though, because this is the direction that everything is going. Many years ago, I was talking with some folks, and I'm like, When the Internet came up, we are always going to be going more digital, not more analog. AWS Azure Google Computing Platform, GCP, they all sprung up, and they all provide these types of services. So I don't think we're going to a single point of failure. There's not going to be one company that always does everything for everyone. But we don't have nearly as many companies doing this as when the Internet was first being created. There aren't as many IP companies things like that. So I don't know. You know, it's just like I said, it's kind of one of those things where it's sort of the cost of doing business. If you're not going to own your own hardware and manage your own hardware, you're essentially paying for the risk of someone else having an issue and your business being affected.
Tim Beyers: Yeah. I mean, Tom, I'm curious how you think about this because this is this is an issue. Digital businesses need to have that digital infrastructure to do business, and that infrastructure is now largely outsourced. So how do you think about this?
Tom King: It is one of the downsides that we must live with. We gained many advantages from the Cloud providers, and this is one of the downsides that if one of them breaks, they have a large impact on a lot of people. I'm sure you guys remember you've been around long enough to remember the days when you would have cold rooms in your office building that were stacked with computing equipment to deliver your website and the things that you sold over the Internet. We don't have those anymore. We outsource that to Google or Microsoft or Amazon, and we don't have to worry about keeping it working or keeping the equipment cold. Yes, it's one of the disadvantages of our current system, but we've gained many other advantages, I think is the way to think about it.
Tim Beyers: I love that you called server rooms, cold rooms.
Tom King: When I lived in Africa, you would go into the server room to cool down because of one of the only cold rooms in the office building.
Tim Beyers: Nice. I love that you called it that because you go into a server room, and, yes, it's intending to be cold. Get too close to a server, you stop being cold real fast. They run they run really hot. But I love that you called them that. Let's talk about risk here, though, Tom, because I think you're both right. So let's call this the cost of doing business. But how would you assess risk? Because AI is here. The AI buildout is going to continue, and it's going to largely depend on these cloud infrastructure companies quite a lot. Let's call it GPU hoarding. They're going to do the most GPU hoarding. They are going to provide the infrastructure. When the digital assistance you need is housed someplace else that we can't see and it's controlled by somebody else, how should we think about companies like Coinbase, Robinhood, and Roblox? Do they need to be valued with a higher risk premium because of their dependence on something like AWS? Tom, I'll go to you first on this.
Tom King: I don't think so. I think that companies will take the option that costs them the least, both in terms of money and time and headaches and so on. So if you really care about resiliency of always having your services available over the Internet, you would invest the money and the time and everything else to have your own servers. The reason they choose to go with one of the Cloud providers is because they gain many different advantages. It's probably cheaper for them. It's less work for them. It expands to fill the needs. There is no limit to how much demand their service can supply so that you don't, there's no limit on the hardware. Amazon handles that problem or Google or Microsoft. So I think companies are always going to make a decision that is best for them in their own unique circumstances. No, I don't think that any kind of additional risk needs to be considered here.
Tim Beyers: Dave, what do you think?
David Meier: I agree with what Tom was saying. I don't think there's any additional risk premium that's needed. Part of the reason is there's actually a market that's determining where people will spend their money. We don't have a single point of failure. This isn't a monopoly. If this behavior or if these incidences grew in frequency, what would happen? People would switch.
Tim Beyers: Yeah.
David Meier: So there's actually a massive incentive for these companies to make sure that the systems are reliable. Again, it happened early in the morning. There was an immediate response. It actually got back online pretty quickly. If it was that serious, they responded quickly, and I'm sure that they've learned, and we'll see what happens going forward. But I actually think the market is what controls the risk? Yeah, I realize it would be a pain to switch, but there are options available for substitution.
Tim Beyers: There are companies that are switching. Up next, we're going to talk about some fakers and some breakers. It's the faker or breaker game. You're listening to Motley Fool Money.
Fools, we're back. Thank you for listening to Motley Fool Money. We have a wide range of companies that were affected by the AWS outage today. Let's talk about three, guys. We're going to talk about three, and let's get your take on them. Are these AWS dependent businesses fakers or are they breakers? As a reminder, a faker is a company that shows outstanding growth for a brief but unsustainable period of time. They look good enough. They look enough like breakers to small fool some investors. So, Tom, coming to you first here. Faker or breaker, Coinbase.
Tom King: I would probably say faker because it's heavily dependent on the level of speculative activity in the markets, which goes up and goes down. When it goes down, it really, really hurts the people that are involved. So I would say faker.
Tim Beyers: I mean, this is an interesting one because the cryptomarkets are getting more and more real, more and more interesting. There is more real dollars flowing in particular into Bitcoin. However, this is probably one of the most rampant areas for fraud. With that, I'm going to give you Number 2 here, Dave, because it's a related company, Robinhood, which has made a lot of money on orchestrating crypto. So faker breaker, Robinhood.
David Meier: So Robinhood is not for me as an investor.
Tim Beyers: All right. I like you that you're qualifying already, but keep going.
David Meier: Well, we work for the Motley Fool. We tend to think about things differently. Robinhood is a type of competitor. I will say that this is still a breaker. The reason is is because you do have founders who had their vision. They knew what they wanted to do, and they were executing on it. The other thing is, they're serving a big market and one that's growing. And the other thing that in order to serve those markets, they continue to bring new products and services. So they have some sort of ability that they seem to be turning into an advantage to know, Hey, this is what our consumers want. So more people are coming, more people are staying engaged. Yes, whether it was free trades or now it's crypto or now it's prediction markets. Again, not for me. But that's OK. There's a lot of companies out there that don't serve me. But I see this company as having a lot of the traits of a rule breaker.
Tim Beyers: I'm going to bring up the third one, and I'm going to ask you both for a super quick take on this because I think it's a company some of maybe two of us. I know I'm going to be using this company later this week in order to go to Fool fest in DC, and that is Lyft. So faker or breaker Tom Lyft not Uber, Uber look alike.
Tom King: So Lyft is pretty much concentrated in the United States. Uber took the global expansion option. I think that Uber's size gives it certain advantages over Lyft. I know from being a regular or at least until a few years ago, a regular user of both that Uber was always cheaper and always quicker to get to you. They also probably lose more money than Lyft or were back then at the time. I mean, I think, it's hard to say, but, I mean, there has to be a Lyft because Uber can't have this market entirely to itself. Then we'd really be in trouble.
Tim Beyers: Is what you're saying. It passes the Cola test. It is the Pepsi to Uber.
Tom King: It is, yes.
Tim Beyers: So does that make it a breaker for you or it's still not enough?
Tom King: It's still not enough, but I think it's an important company. It has to exist to compete with Uber.
Tim Beyers: Last word, Dave, faker or breaker.
David Meier: Faker is hard, but I have to push in that direction. It's interesting. If I remember my history correctly, Lyft started before Uber.
Tim Beyers: I don't know.
David Meier: But I think that's correct. I think it was called Zimcar and then it morphed and then Lyft was created out of Zimcar. But it got usurped by Uber. Uber just went on, we're going to gobble up the world. We're going to take this market share strategy, and Uber has done a good job of rebounding. But I don't see it as something that can really take serious market share going forward. It'll still grow. It still provides an excellent service. It's the one I go to. I don't go to Uber. But, no, I don't think I can call it rule breaker. But faker is tough. Faker is harsh, in my opinion.
Tim Beyers: This is the game Dave, you got to make a call.
David Meier: No, I'm going with Faker, but I'm I'm giving you the little caveat.
Tim Beyers: Fair enough. Up next, we preview tomorrow. There's some interesting stuff happening. Speaking of prediction markets, there's your hint. You're listening to Motley Fool Money.
Back with a preview for tomorrow, you will have Emily Flippen and Sanmeet Deo and Jason Hall talking about prediction markets. What are they? How are they approved with regulators? How much money is flowing through them now? How can you invest in them? So, if prediction markets are a legitimate market opportunity, are they based on skill? Is it just another form of gambling? This is everything you're going to hear from Emily, Sanmeet and Jason tomorrow. But for today, I think we've concluded here guys, at AWS massive down today for a little period of time, probably going to be down again in the future. Doesn't mean that this is one that we should get too over hyped about, but a little bit annoying. But that's it for today.
Thanks to David Meier and Tom King for joining me today, guys. As always, people on the program may have interest in the stocks they talk about, and the Motley Fool may have formal recommendations for or against. So don't buy or sell stocks based solely on what you hear. All personal finance content follows Motley Fool. Editorial standards and is not approved by advertisers. Advertisements are sponsored content and provided for informational purposes only. To see our full advertising disclosure, please check out our show notes. That's it for Motley Fool Money Today. Again, please be sure you tune in for Emily, Sanmeet and Jason tomorrow for Dave Meier and Tom King, for our engineer, Dan Boyd and our producer, Anna, Chuck and Lou. I'm Tim Beyers. You've been listening to Motley Fool Money. Thanks and see soon Fools. Move on.
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David Meier has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Thomas King, CFA has positions in Alphabet, Amazon, CrowdStrike, Microsoft, Roblox, and Uber Technologies. Tim Beyers has positions in Alphabet and Amazon. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Bitcoin, CrowdStrike, Microsoft, Roblox, and Uber Technologies. The Motley Fool recommends Coinbase Global and Lyft and recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

AWS Goes AWOL: Are We Too Dependent on the Cloud?

Looking today at week-over-week shares outstanding changes among the universe of ETFs covered at ETF Channel, one standout is the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (Symbol: IGV) where we have detected an approximate $103.5 million dollar outflow -- that's a 1.0% decrease week over week (from 86,200,000 to 85,300,000). Among the largest underlying components of IGV, in trading today Palo Alto Networks, Inc (Symbol: PANW) is down about 1%, CrowdStrike Holdings Inc (Symbol: CRWD) is off about 1.3%, and Cadence Design Systems Inc (Symbol: CDNS) is higher by about 0.2%. For a complete list of holdings, visit the IGV Holdings page » The chart below shows the one year price performance of IGV, versus its 200 day moving average:
Looking at the chart above, IGV's low point in its 52 week range is $76.68 per share, with $117.99 as the 52 week high point — that compares with a last trade of $114.16. Comparing the most recent share price to the 200 day moving average can also be a useful technical analysis technique -- learn more about the 200 day moving average ».
Exchange traded funds (ETFs) trade just like stocks, but instead of ''shares'' investors are actually buying and selling ''units''. These ''units'' can be traded back and forth just like stocks, but can also be created or destroyed to accommodate investor demand. Each week we monitor the week-over-week change in shares outstanding data, to keep a lookout for those ETFs experiencing notable inflows (many new units created) or outflows (many old units destroyed). Creation of new units will mean the underlying holdings of the ETF need to be purchased, while destruction of units involves selling underlying holdings, so large flows can also impact the individual components held within ETFs.
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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

Notable ETF Outflow Detected - IGV, PANW, CRWD, CDNS

Key Points
Unprecedented demand for AI chips has propelled Nvidia to become the world's most valuable company.
Palantir has proven that it can compete with the largest software developers in the market.
While Nvidia and Palantir should both continue to benefit from AI tailwinds, each faces the risk of a valuation de-rating in coming years.
Over the past three years, Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) and Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ: PLTR) have become two of the most recognizable names in artificial intelligence (AI).
Nvidia powers the infrastructure layer of the AI revolution, while Palantir dominates the software side of data integration and analytics. Yet as investors look toward the future, another company may quietly surpass them both: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE: TSM). As the world's largest chip foundry, TSMC is the true backbone of AI computing -- fabricating nearly every advanced processor that drives today's most demanding workloads.
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While Palantir and Nvidia built remarkable businesses, the next five years could mark a turning point where TSMC's strategic position and scale advantage propel it toward becoming the most valuable technology company in the world.
Why Palantir's valuation could normalize over the next five years
Palantir captivated investors with its vision of AI-powered decision intelligence. Its platforms -- Foundry, Gotham, and Apollo -- enable organizations to analyze vast data sets and automate complex workflows. Yet the AI software landscape is becoming increasingly crowded. Enterprise giants like Salesforce, ServiceNow, Snowflake, and Databricks are embedding generative AI directly into their ecosystems, offering comparable capabilities with broader integrations.
At the same time, the rise of open-source large language models (LLMs) is lowering barriers to entry. Companies no longer need to depend exclusively on proprietary stacks to build and deploy AI applications. Moreover, the economics of software differ markedly from hardware: While software can scale more efficiently, intensifying competition often compresses pricing and contract values over time.
As a result, the AI software market may continue to grow steadily -- but likely not at the blistering pace of semiconductors, where physical capacity and manufacturing expertise remain scarce.
Palantir's current valuation already bakes in lofty expectations, leaving limited margin for error. As AI capabilities become more commoditized and rivals gain traction, a valuation normalization toward traditional software multiples wouldn't be surprising.
Palantir may still grow revenue and profits, but its market capitalization could stagnate -- or even decline -- relative to the broader AI ecosystem.
Nvidia's growth engine is still roaring, but deceleration could be inevitable
Nvidia's dominance in AI chips is unquestioned. Its GPUs remain the industry's gold standard for both training and inference, while its proprietary CUDA software ecosystem provides a formidable competitive moat. These advantages have propelled Nvidia to become the world's most valuable company, surpassing Apple and Microsoft in recent years.
Nvidia's data center revenue and free cash flow have expanded at an unprecedented pace -- but growth of this magnitude is difficult to sustain.
As the AI infrastructure cycle matures, spending is likely to shift from large-scale buildouts toward efficiency and optimization -- favoring incremental upgrades over massive new deployments.
Competition is also heating up. Advanced Micro Devices is securing high-profile wins for its upcoming MI400 series accelerators, while hyperscalers such as Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Meta Platforms are developing custom silicon tailored for their own workloads. Over time, these alternatives should gradually reduce industry dependence on Nvidia's GPUs, introducing more balance -- and perhaps more volatility -- into the AI hardware landscape.
Why Taiwan Semiconductor could become the world's most valuable AI stock
While Nvidia designs the chips that power AI, TSMC builds them -- and that distinction is critical. TSMC controls nearly 90% of the world's advanced processor market, manufacturing the most sophisticated nodes available today. Major AI players -- Nvidia, AMD, Apple, and Tesla -- rely on its unparalleled precision and manufacturing expertise.
What makes TSMC especially compelling is its enduring position at the center of global AI supply chains. The company is expanding its footprint with new fabrication plants in the U.S., Japan, and Germany -- reducing reliance on Taiwan while aligning more closely with Western industrial policy. This geographic diversification not only mitigates geopolitical risk, but also strengthens TSMC's strategic importance to the global economy.
Even as Intel works to reestablish itself as a foundry contender, matching TSMC's scale, efficiency, and customer trust will take years. Large customers are unlikely to migrate quickly, as switching fabrication partners introduces massive design, cost, and performance risks.
As AI demand accelerates, the most constrained resource in the industry is fabrication capacity -- precisely where TSMC sits. With a gross margin above 50%, unmatched technology leadership, and a robust customer pipeline, TSMC is positioned to see its earnings and valuation multiply as global AI adoption continues to compound.
Can TSMC realistically surpass Nvidia and Palantir combined?
Let's be clear: The ideas explored in this article are theoretical -- but far from implausible. Nvidia currently commands a market capitalization of about $4.5 trillion, while Palantir's stands near $420 billion. For TSMC -- which is valued around $1.5 trillion -- to be on par with their combined worth, it would need to compound at roughly 27% annually for the next five years -- ambitious, but not inconceivable.
The caveat, of course, is that the math above assumes both Palantir and Nvidia maintain their current valuations. In reality, that's unlikely. As noted earlier, there's a strong case that Palantir's valuation could contract by 2030. Nvidia, on the other hand, has multiple catalysts -- from next-generation GPU launches to expanding data center demand -- that could continue to propel its market value higher.
This is where nuance enters the picture. Nvidia depends heavily on TSMC for chip manufacturing, and that relationship cuts both ways. If Nvidia's explosive growth does begin to normalize, Taiwan Semiconductor remains positioned to benefit from the broader secular theme of semiconductor growth from other designers -- meaning it's conceivable that TSMC could see its own valuation rerate upward at a faster pace relative to Nvidia.
Predicting that TSMC will be worth more than Nvidia and Palantir combined by the end of the decade is undeniably bold -- some may even say that it's unrealistic. To me, the scenario isn't entirely a fantasy.
The subtlety is that a lot must go right: Global AI infrastructure buildouts must stay on track, supply chains must remain resilient, and China-Taiwan tensions must avoid escalation.
If those conditions hold -- and AI continues to redefine computing at a foundational level -- TSMC's near-monopoly on the world's most advanced chips could give it unmatched strategic leverage over the entire AI ecosystem. Under that scenario, a valuation rivaling -- or even exceeding -- today's market leaders may be entirely within reach.
Should you invest $1,000 in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing right now?
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Adam Spatacco has positions in Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, Palantir Technologies, and Tesla. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Cloudflare, CrowdStrike, Datadog, Intel, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, MongoDB, Nvidia, Palantir Technologies, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Snowflake, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, and Tesla. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft, short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft, and short November 2025 $21 puts on Intel. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

Prediction: 1 AI Stock Could Be Worth More Than Nvidia and Palantir Technologies Combined by 2030

Among the underlying components of the S&P 500 index, we saw noteworthy options trading volume today in Quest Diagnostics, Inc. (Symbol: DGX), where a total of 5,025 contracts have traded so far, representing approximately 502,500 underlying shares. That amounts to about 54.8% of DGX's average daily trading volume over the past month of 917,655 shares. Particularly high volume was seen for the $190 strike put option expiring November 21, 2025, with 1,331 contracts trading so far today, representing approximately 133,100 underlying shares of DGX. Below is a chart showing DGX's trailing twelve month trading history, with the $190 strike highlighted in orange:
Advanced Micro Devices Inc (Symbol: AMD) saw options trading volume of 413,992 contracts, representing approximately 41.4 million underlying shares or approximately 54.6% of AMD's average daily trading volume over the past month, of 75.8 million shares. Especially high volume was seen for the $225 strike put option expiring October 24, 2025, with 43,149 contracts trading so far today, representing approximately 4.3 million underlying shares of AMD. Below is a chart showing AMD's trailing twelve month trading history, with the $225 strike highlighted in orange:
And CrowdStrike Holdings Inc (Symbol: CRWD) saw options trading volume of 12,770 contracts, representing approximately 1.3 million underlying shares or approximately 52% of CRWD's average daily trading volume over the past month, of 2.5 million shares. Particularly high volume was seen for the $540 strike call option expiring December 19, 2025, with 613 contracts trading so far today, representing approximately 61,300 underlying shares of CRWD. Below is a chart showing CRWD's trailing twelve month trading history, with the $540 strike highlighted in orange:
For the various different available expirations for DGX options, AMD options, or CRWD options, visit StockOptionsChannel.com.
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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

Notable Tuesday Option Activity: DGX, AMD, CRWD

In recent trading, shares of CrowdStrike Holdings Inc (Symbol: CRWD) have crossed above the average analyst 12-month target price of $193.79, changing hands for $193.83/share. When a stock reaches the target an analyst has set, the analyst logically has two ways to react: downgrade on valuation, or, re-adjust their target price to a higher level. Analyst reaction may also depend on the fundamental business developments that may be responsible for driving the stock price higher — if things are looking up for the company, perhaps it is time for that target price to be raised.
There are 38 different analyst targets within the Zacks coverage universe contributing to that average for CrowdStrike Holdings Inc, but the average is just that — a mathematical average. There are analysts with lower targets than the average, including one looking for a price of $153.00. And then on the other side of the spectrum one analyst has a target as high as $235.00. The standard deviation is $17.732.
But the whole reason to look at the average CRWD price target in the first place is to tap into a "wisdom of crowds" effort, putting together the contributions of all the individual minds who contributed to the ultimate number, as opposed to what just one particular expert believes. And so with CRWD crossing above that average target price of $193.79/share, investors in CRWD have been given a good signal to spend fresh time assessing the company and deciding for themselves: is $193.79 just one stop on the way to an even higher target, or has the valuation gotten stretched to the point where it is time to think about taking some chips off the table? Below is a table showing the current thinking of the analysts that cover CrowdStrike Holdings Inc:
»
Current
1 Month Ago
2 Month Ago
3 Month Ago
Strong buy ratings:
33
32
33
33
Buy ratings:
2
2
2
2
Hold ratings:
3
4
4
4
Sell ratings:
0
0
0
0
Strong sell ratings:
0
0
0
0
Average rating:
1.21
1.26
1.26
1.26
The average rating presented in the last row of the above table above is from 1 to 5 where 1 is Strong Buy and 5 is Strong Sell. This article used data provided by Zacks Investment Research via Quandl.com. Get the latest Zacks research report on CRWD — FREE.
Also see:
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

CRWD Crosses Above Average Analyst Target

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSM) reported third-quarter 2025 earnings per share (EPS) of $2.92, which increased 39% year over year. TSM’s third-quarter EPS surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimates by 12.74%.
TSM reported net revenues of $33.10 billion, up 40.8% year over year. The figure surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 5.06%.
TSM’s Financials in Detail
TSM’s revenue distribution by platform comprises high-performance computing, smartphone, Internet of Things, automotive, digital consumer electronics and Other segments, which contributed 57%, 30%, 5%, 5%, 1% and 2%, respectively, in the third quarter.
Wafer revenues by technology account for 3nm, 5nm, 7nm, 16/20nm, 28nm, 40/45nm, 65nm, 90nm, 0.11/0.13um, 0.15/0.18um and 0.25um and above products. In the third quarter, the largest contribution to wafer revenues was from 5nm technology, accounting for 37% of the total.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd. Quote
This was followed by 3nm at 23% and 7nm at 14%. The 16/20nm and 28nm nodes each contributed 7%, while 40/45nm and 0.15/0.18um technologies both made up 3% of the revenues. Contributions from 65nm and 0.11/0.13um technologies were 4% and 1%, respectively. The 90nm node accounted for 1% and revenues from 0.25um and above were negligible at 0%.
Geographically, North America was the dominant contributor to net revenues, accounting for a substantial 76% of the total. China and the broader Asia Pacific region contributed 8% and 9%, respectively, while Japan generated 4% of the revenues. The EMEA region had the smallest share, contributing just 3%.
TSM’s gross margin was 59.5%, which expanded 170 basis points (bps) from the year-ago quarter. TSM’s operating margin of 50.6% expanded 310 bps year over year. TSM’s net profit margin was 45.7%, which expanded 290 basis points.
Balance Sheet & Cash Flow of TSM
As of Sept. 30, 2025, cash, cash equivalent balances and investments in Marketable Financial Instruments were $90.107 billion, marginally down from $90.36 billion as of June 30, 2025.
Inventories were $9.456 billion in the third quarter compared with $10.43 billion in second-quarter 2025. Accounts receivable increased to $10.082 billion from $8.08 billion in the previous quarter.
The long-term debt was $34.15 billion at the end of the quarter, which changed marginally from the previous quarter’s $34.73 billion. TSM posted a free cash flow of NT$199.85 billion.
For the fourth quarter of 2025, TSM stated that it expects revenues to range between $32.2 billion and $33.4 billion, based on its current business outlook. The Zacks Consensus Estimate is pegged at $31.97 billion.
The company also noted that, assuming an exchange rate of one U.S. dollar to 30.6 New Taiwan dollars, it anticipates a gross profit margin between 59% and 61% and an operating profit margin in the range of 49-51%.
Zacks Rank and Stocks to Consider
Some better-ranked stocks that investors can consider are Analog Devices (ADI), Dell Technologies (DELL) and CrowdStrike (CRWD), each sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Analog Devices’ shares have gained 13% year to date. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Analog Devices’ full-year fiscal 2025 earnings is pegged at $7.75 per share, up 4.7% over the past 60 days, indicating an increase of 21.5% from the year-ago quarter’s reported figure.
Dell Technologies shares have gained 31.4% year to date. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Dell Technologies’ full-year fiscal 2026 earnings is pegged at $9.54 per share, up 0.7% over the past 60 days, indicating a rise of 17.2% from the year-ago quarter’s reported figure.
CrowdStrike’s shares have rallied 40.6% year to date. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for CrowdStrike’s full-year fiscal 2026 earnings is pegged at $3.67 per share, down by a cent over the past 30 days, indicating a decline of 6.6% from the year-ago quarter’s reported figure.
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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.