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Top 100 US-listed companies by market capitalization. AI-powered earnings call analysis for S&P 100 (SP100). Two AI hosts break down quarterly results, key metrics, and market implications in digestible podcast...
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Top 100 US-listed companies by market capitalization. AI-powered earnings call analysis for S&P 100 (SP100). Two AI hosts break down quarterly results, key metrics, and market implications in digestible podcast episodes.
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15 OCT 2026 · More earnings analysis: https://betafinch.com
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ALEX: Welcome to Beta Finch, your AI-powered earnings breakdown, where we take the transcripts so you don't have to. I'm Alex.
JORDAN: And I'm Jordan. Alex, before we get into it—U.S. Bancorp just posted a pretty strong quarter.
ALEX: They did, and we're going to dig into all of it. But first, our standard reminder: this podcast is AI-generated content for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing we discuss should be considered investment advice. Always do your own research and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.
JORDAN: Solid. Okay, so let's talk numbers. U.S. Bancorp—ticker USB—reported Q3 2026 results on October 15th, and the headline is record net revenue of about $8 billion.
ALEX: Right, and diluted EPS came in at $1.34, up roughly 10% year-over-year. CEO Gunjan Kedia and CFO John Stern were both pretty upbeat on the call.
JORDAN: What stood out to me was the operating leverage number—240 basis points positive, and excluding the BTIG acquisition, it's actually 440 basis points. That's a big efficiency win.
ALEX: Yeah, and revenue growth of 8.7% year-over-year outpaced expense growth of 7.1%. So they're growing the top line faster than costs, which is exactly what you want to see from a bank focused on productivity.
JORDAN: Let's talk about BTIG, because that's clearly a big strategic piece here. U.S. Bancorp closed that acquisition back in June, and it already contributed $226 million in fee revenue this quarter.
ALEX: And management's ambition here is pretty bold—they want capital markets to grow from about 8% of total company revenue to 10% or more over the next three to five years.
JORDAN: Legacy capital markets also grew 10% on its own, and combined with BTIG, total capital markets revenue was up 69% year-over-year. That's a really strong combination quarter.
ALEX: Let's shift to the balance sheet side, because this is where things get interesting for income investors. Net interest margin expanded 5 basis points sequentially to 2.84%, and management expects a similar bump in Q4.
JORDAN: And there's a longer-term thesis here too—CFO John Stern talked about a path to a 3% NIM at some point in 2027. The engine behind that is this ongoing shift toward asset sensitivity. Floating-rate loans now make up 30% of earning assets, up from just 22% four years ago.
ALEX: That's a meaningful shift. Basically, they're leaning into commercial and industrial loans, commercial real estate, and credit cards—all more floating-rate in nature—while being more measured on fixed-rate stuff like residential mortgage and auto.
JORDAN: Speaking of credit cards, can we talk about the Amazon small business co-brand partnership? That's a new one.
ALEX: Yeah, this quarter they onboarded it, and it already added about $900 million to average loans and $1.7 billion to period-end loans. That's going to be a nice tailwind heading into Q4 since they'll get the full quarter's impact.
JORDAN: And it fits into this broader small business push—they're serving more than 2 million small businesses now, they brought in Jessica Alba as a brand ambassador for that segment, and they're clearly treating this as a strategic priority heading into 2027.
ALEX: Let's get into guidance, because management actually raised it this quarter. For full-year 2026, they now expect total net revenue growth of 8% to 9%, up from the prior 5% to 7% range.
JORDAN: And operating leverage guidance moved up too—now approximately 300 basis points for the full year, or 400 basis points excluding BTIG. That's up from the previous 200 to 300 basis point guide. So they're not just beating expectations, they're raising the bar for themselves.
ALEX: Now, let's hit some of the more interesting Q&A moments, because there were a few. One thing that jumped out—analysts pressed hard on share buybacks. USB paused repurchases recently, and CFO John Stern explained that was This episode includes AI-generated content.
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15 OCT 2026 · More earnings analysis: https://betafinch.com
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ALEX: Welcome to Beta Finch, your AI-powered earnings breakdown. I'm Alex.
JORDAN: And I'm Jordan. Alex, we've got a meaty one today — Charles Schwab's Q3 2026 results.
ALEX: We do, and before we dive in — quick disclosure. This podcast is AI-generated content for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing we discuss should be considered investment advice. Always do your own research and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.
JORDAN: Good, got that out of the way. Because honestly, Alex, this Schwab print had a lot going on — record numbers, AI partnerships, crypto, even prediction markets.
ALEX: Prediction markets! We'll absolutely get there. But let's start with the headline numbers because they were genuinely strong. Total net revenue hit $7.2 billion, up 17% year-over-year — a record. Adjusted EPS came in at $1.69, up 29% from last year.
JORDAN: Twenty-nine percent EPS growth is not a typo. That's the kind of number that makes you sit up. And the pre-tax margin expanded to 54.8%, up about 350 basis points year-over-year. So they're not just growing revenue — they're getting more efficient while doing it.
ALEX: Right, and that efficiency story is actually a theme we should flag early, because CFO Mike Verdeschi mentioned they're now expecting roughly 800 basis points of positive operating leverage for the full year — which he said is about double what they expected at the start of 2026.
JORDAN: That's a huge beat on their own internal expectations. Let's talk about where the growth is actually coming from, though, because it's not just market appreciation lifting all boats.
ALEX: No, this is organic. Core net new assets — that's money clients are actually moving into Schwab, not just market gains — came in at $190 billion for the quarter. That's up 38% over last year.
JORDAN: And clients opened 1.2 million new brokerage accounts in the quarter alone. CEO Rick Wurster made a point of saying growth is broad-based — retail, RIA advisors, workplace plans — all three channels firing at once.
ALEX: The lending side really stood out to me too. Bank lending reached $72.3 billion, up 35% year-over-year, driven mostly by their Pledged Asset Line product. And here's the interesting wrinkle — loan growth actually outpaced deposit growth this quarter.
JORDAN: Which matters because it means Schwab had to lean more on diversified wholesale funding sources to support all that lending demand. It's not a red flag, but it is a shift in balance sheet composition worth watching. Verdeschi framed it as a good problem to have — clients are more engaged, borrowing more, which is actually more profitable for Schwab than just sitting on low-yield securities.
ALEX: Right, he made that point explicitly — they've got about $190 billion of older securities still yielding under 2%, and as that rolls off, redeploying into lending or even just current-rate securities is going to be a tailwind for net interest margin heading into 2027.
JORDAN: Speaking of NIM, they guided to NIM growing toward the lower end of their previously provided range for the year, and expense growth coming in at the low end too. So revenue slightly softer than best-case, but expenses also well-controlled. Net-net, still a strong setup.
ALEX: Now let's get into the stuff that got analysts buzzing on the call — AI. Schwab is leaning hard into this. They've partnered with Anthropic, becoming the first RIA custodian included in Claude for Financial Advisors. And they launched their own AI assistant called Charlie.
JORDAN: Charlie's interesting because right now it's mostly informational — answering questions, handling simple admin tasks like updating an address. But Wurster was clear: over time, Charlie becomes basically the "front door" to Schwab.
ALEX: And internally, they said AI has already made their developers This episode includes AI-generated content.
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15 OCT 2026 · More earnings analysis: https://betafinch.com
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WELCOME TO BETA FINCH, your AI-powered earnings breakdown. Today we're digging into Wells Fargo's third quarter 2026 results, and there's a lot to unpack.
ALEX: Welcome to Beta Finch, your AI-powered earnings breakdown. I'm Alex, joined as always by Jordan. Before we dive in — this podcast is AI-generated content for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing we discuss should be considered investment advice. Always do your own research and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions. Okay, Jordan, Wells Fargo posted its Q3 2026 numbers, and honestly, the headline is pretty strong.
JORDAN: Yeah, EPS came in at $1.87, up 13% year-over-year. And the number that really jumps out to me is ROTCE — return on tangible common equity — hitting 16.3% for the quarter. That's a bank steadily climbing toward its 17-18% target.
ALEX: Right, and this wasn't one segment carrying the whole load. Revenue grew 2% overall, but Wealth and Investment Management was up 12%, Commercial Banking up 6%, Consumer Banking up 5%, and the Corporate and Investment Bank up 3%.
JORDAN: That broad-based growth is the story here. Average loans and deposits both up 11% year-over-year. And they're doing it while actually cutting headcount — down 8% year-over-year, the sixth straight year of declines. Efficiency ratio improved to 63%.
ALEX: CEO Charlie Scharf made a point of saying expenses declined even as revenue-related costs — think commissions — rose 15%. They offset that with a 4% drop in non-revenue expenses.
JORDAN: That's the efficiency story playing out in real time. Now, let's talk strategy, because there were a couple of genuinely interesting announcements buried in here. Tokenized deposits on their own blockchain platform.
ALEX: Right, this launched last month. CFO Mike Santomassimo explained the real use case — cross-border payments. Instead of taking a day or two, transactions are settling in two minutes or less, in production right now, albeit small volume.
JORDAN: And they're not stopping there — Wells is joining 20 other international banks to launch a stablecoin venture starting in the first half of 2027. Scharf was careful to say the U.S. stablecoin use case is "unclear" still, but they want to be positioned.
ALEX: They're also leaning hard into AI — not just customer-facing tools like an AI assistant for financial advisers, but internally for coding, cybersecurity, risk management. Scharf made an interesting point about scale during the Q&A.
JORDAN: Yeah, that was one of my favorite moments. He basically said everyone talks about AI agents disrupting banking, but he thinks there's an underappreciated advantage for big banks with scale — you build one tool and deploy it across a massive customer base or operations footprint. Cost stays the same, benefit multiplies.
ALEX: He also pushed back hard on the idea that AI agents will cause "deposit flight" — people letting bots shop their deposits around for better rates.
JORDAN: Right, an analyst asked about that directly, and Scharf basically said: that capability already exists, people can move money online today if they want to, and most don't — because checking accounts, payroll, and relationship banking matter more than chasing the last basis point. He called the deposit-flight fear "completely overdone."
ALEX: Let's talk credit quality, because that's always the thing investors worry about in a higher-rate environment.
JORDAN: Credit actually looked clean. Net charge-off ratio was 38 basis points, down year-over-year. Consumer charge-offs declined to 70 basis points. Commercial losses ticked up slightly to 18 basis points but management called it idiosyncratic, not systemic — no broad deterioration.
ALEX: They did flag commercial real estate as a watch item — higher rates mechanically pressure valuations — but Santomassimo said it's This episode includes AI-generated content.
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15 OCT 2026 · More earnings analysis: https://betafinch.com
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WELCOME TO BETA FINCH
ALEX: Welcome to Beta Finch, your AI-powered earnings breakdown, where we take the numbers and the jargon from corporate earnings calls and turn them into something you can actually digest. I'm Alex.
JORDAN: And I'm Jordan. Today we're diving into UnitedHealth Group — ticker UNH — and their third quarter 2026 results, reported this week.
ALEX: Before we get into it, quick disclaimer: this podcast is AI-generated content for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing we discuss should be considered investment advice. Always do your own research and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.
JORDAN: Good to have that out front. So Alex, this was actually a pretty encouraging quarter for UnitedHealth after a rough stretch.
ALEX: It really was. Let's start with the headline numbers. Revenue came in at $113 billion for the quarter. Adjusted earnings per share was $4.69 — compare that to just $2.92 a year ago. That's a massive jump.
JORDAN: And the metric everyone watches in this industry, the medical care ratio — basically what percentage of premium revenue goes out the door paying for medical claims — improved to 88.4%, down from 89.9% last year. Lower is better here, it means they're managing costs more effectively relative to what they're bringing in.
ALEX: Right, and on the back of that they raised full-year guidance to at least $20.50 in adjusted EPS. CFO Wayne DeVeydt called that a "solid run rate to grow from," and interestingly, management said they think Wall Street's 2027 estimates might actually be too conservative.
JORDAN: That's a confident thing to say out loud on an earnings call. They're essentially telling analysts, "you might be underestimating us."
ALEX: Let's talk segments for a second. UnitedHealthcare, the insurance arm, served 48.3 million people. Optum, their services arm, posted $66.9 billion in revenue — though Optum Health specifically saw a 10% revenue decline, which sounds alarming at first.
JORDAN: It does, but context matters. That's really a reflection of them pulling back from certain full-risk arrangements and refocusing on more disciplined, value-based care contracts rather than just chasing volume. Quality over quantity, essentially.
ALEX: Now here's the thing that jumped out at me — commercial medical trend, meaning cost growth in their employer-sponsored insurance business, is running above 11%. That's way above historical norms.
JORDAN: And they were pretty pointed about why. Two big drivers: high-cost specialty drugs, which is an industry-wide story at this point, and something more unique to UnitedHealth's commentary — arbitration awards tied to the No Surprises Act.
ALEX: Explain that one, because it's a little wonky.
JORDAN: Sure. The No Surprises Act was designed to protect patients from surprise out-of-network bills. But there's a dispute resolution process built into it, and UnitedHealth is saying certain provider groups are gaming that process — arbitration awards in some regions are approaching 6% of total medical spend. Management was blunt, calling it "abuse" of the system, and said it's translating to billions in excess costs.
ALEX: So this isn't just "healthcare costs are high," it's "there's a specific regulatory mechanism being exploited."
JORDAN: Exactly, and they're actively lobbying regulators on it. Worth watching into 2027.
ALEX: Let's shift to the strategic story, because this is where it gets interesting. CEO Steve Hemsley leaned hard into AI throughout the call. They've rolled out AI-enabled chart summarization to over 40% of employed clinicians, cutting chart review time by a third. AI-assisted appeals processing cut cycle times by 26%.
JORDAN: And the big one for anyone who's ever dealt with insurance red tape — they're on track to cut prior authorization volumes by 30% This episode includes AI-generated content.
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15 OCT 2026 · More earnings analysis: https://betafinch.com
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WELCOME TO BETA FINCH
ALEX: Welcome to Beta Finch, your AI-powered earnings breakdown. I'm Alex, joined as always by Jordan, and today we're digging into Morgan Stanley's third quarter 2026 results, reported this week.
JORDAN: Lots to get into here, Alex — record wealth assets, a scorching equities business, and some pretty candid commentary from CEO Ted Pick on the AI buildout.
ALEX: Before we jump in, quick disclaimer: this podcast is AI-generated content for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing we discuss should be considered investment advice. Always do your own research and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.
JORDAN: Noted and agreed. Okay, let's talk numbers.
ALEX: Morgan Stanley posted firm-wide revenue of $20.3 billion for Q3, with earnings per share of $3.03 — and I believe that figure got mangled in the transcript as "$30.03," so just to be clear for listeners, it's $3.03 a share.
JORDAN: Right, and the headline stat that really jumps out is return on tangible equity at 22.6%. That's the fifth straight quarter above 20%, which management leaned on hard as proof this isn't a one-off hot streak — it's a sustained operating model.
ALEX: Let's start with wealth management, because the numbers there are genuinely eye-popping. Total client assets across wealth and investment management hit a record $10.5 trillion, up $400 billion in just one quarter. Wealth management revenue alone was over $9 billion — also a record — with net new assets of $232 billion and fee-based flows of $80 billion.
JORDAN: That $232 billion net-new-assets number is the one analysts kept circling back to in the Q&A. CFO Sharon Yeshaya explained it's not just a one-quarter IPO pop — it's a "tail" effect. Early investors, employees, and funds from prior IPOs keep funneling assets into Morgan Stanley's advisory relationships over time, sometimes months or years after the actual IPO happened.
ALEX: And Ted Pick made a point of zooming out on that — since acquiring E*TRADE six years ago, they've pulled in over $2 trillion in net new assets, with the last two three-year stretches each adding roughly $1 trillion. His argument is basically "scale begets scale" — the self-directed channel, the workplace/corporate stock plan business, and financial advisors all feed each other.
JORDAN: It's a nice flywheel story. Now let's talk about the institutional side, because Equities had an absolute monster quarter — $5.8 billion in revenue, up 41% year-over-year. Institutional Securities overall was $10 billion, up 18%.
ALEX: Investment banking was more modest — up just 2% to $2.2 billion — with advisory revenue of $887 million doing the heavy lifting, while equity underwriting actually declined. Fixed income underwriting stayed strong at $747 million.
JORDAN: What struck me in the prepared remarks was Pick's framing of the quarter as having "two distinct phases." July and August were red-hot, driven by hyperscaler AI spending. Then after Labor Day, things cooled — Middle East tensions flared back up, rates moved higher, and trading volumes slowed into September.
ALEX: That "glass half full, glass half empty" framework he used was probably the most quotable moment of the call. On the bullish side: AI capital deployment driving 5-6% nominal GDP growth, strong corporate earnings, full employment. On the bearish side: ongoing geopolitical conflict, higher benchmark rates, elevated equity valuations four years into a bull market, and election uncertainty.
JORDAN: And he was asked directly — is Morgan Stanley leaning more or less into AI given those risks? His answer was blunt: they were already "overweight," and now they're "double overweight." He framed it as existential — Morgan Stanley wants to be the trusted advisor sitting in the middle of the entire AI financing ecosystem, whether that's h This episode includes AI-generated content.
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15 OCT 2026 · More earnings analysis: https://betafinch.com
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**WELCOME TO BETA FINCH — JPMORGAN CHASE (JPM) Q3 2026**
ALEX: Welcome to Beta Finch, your AI-powered earnings breakdown. I'm Alex, joined as always by Jordan, and today we're digging into JPMorgan Chase's third-quarter 2026 results. Before we get into it, a quick note — this podcast is AI-generated content for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing we discuss should be considered investment advice. Always do your own research and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.
JORDAN: Alright, and there's a lot to dig into here, Alex. JPMorgan is just... firing on all cylinders right now.
ALEX: It really is. Let's start with the headline numbers. Net income came in at $15.3 billion, EPS of $5.57, and return on tangible common equity of 20%. Revenue was $50.9 billion, up 8% year over year — and up 9% if you strip out some one-time investment securities losses in the corporate segment.
JORDAN: And the growth was broad-based. Card volumes were up, investment banking fees jumped 14% year over year — notably in advisory — and asset and wealth management saw $51 billion in long-term net inflows. AUM crossed $5.2 trillion, up 13%. This isn't a one-business story.
ALEX: Right, and CFO Jeremy Barnum actually said something pretty striking on the call — that basically every single business segment is performing above historical norms simultaneously. Jamie Dimon echoed that too, saying "every single business is performing exceptionally well."
JORDAN: Which, historically, is unusual. Normally you'd see some segments outperform while others lag depending on the rate environment. Barnum pointed out that's just not the pattern right now — everything's humming at once. Expenses did rise 12% year over year to $27.3 billion, mostly from volume-related costs and hiring, but that's the cost of doing more business, not a red flag.
ALEX: Let's talk guidance, because this is where it gets interesting. For Q4, they're guiding to NII ex-markets of about $25.5 billion and total NII around $28 billion. But the big one — they gave a preliminary 2027 central case for NII ex-markets of approximately $107 billion.
JORDAN: And Barnum walked through the math on that. If you annualize the Q4 guide, you get to roughly $102 billion, so they're bridging about $5 billion of growth. About a quarter of that comes from rate hikes already priced into the forward curve — they're expecting one more hike in December and two more in the first half of next year. The rest is just continued balance sheet growth — deposits and card loans.
ALEX: But both Dimon and Barnum were careful to flag this is highly uncertain. Dimon specifically said there's "more uncertainty around that number than normal" given everything going on globally.
JORDAN: Now here's a strategic shift worth flagging — capital allocation. Buybacks dropped way down this quarter, from a normal cadence of around $7 billion to just $1 billion. That got a lot of investor questions.
ALEX: Right, and Dimon's answer was pretty clear: they estimate they're sitting on roughly $30 billion of excess capital, but they're choosing to redeploy it into organic growth rather than buybacks — specifically citing the "security resiliency initiative," a $1.5 trillion, 10-year commitment where they've already deployed over $200 billion in year one alone.
JORDAN: Barnum backed that up with context — JPMorgan's CET1 ratio has climbed from the high single digits years ago to 13.9% now, even while doing a lot of buybacks historically. The message is basically: when you can deploy capital internally at strong returns, that beats buying back stock at today's valuation.
ALEX: There was also a great exchange on AI. Analyst Mike Mayo pushed hard on quantifying AI's financial benefit, and Barnum was refreshingly candid — he said he's moving away from putting a specific dollar fi This episode includes AI-generated content.
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15 OCT 2026 · More earnings analysis: https://betafinch.com
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ALEX: Welcome to Beta Finch, your AI-powered earnings breakdown. I'm Alex, joined as always by Jordan, and today we're diving into Johnson & Johnson's third quarter 2026 results, reported Tuesday. Before we get going, a quick note — this podcast is AI-generated content for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing we discuss should be considered investment advice. Always do your own research and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.
JORDAN: And there's a lot to unpack here, Alex, because on the surface this looks like a messy quarter, but underneath it's actually a pretty strong one.
ALEX: Right, let's start with the headline numbers. J&J posted $25.4 billion in revenue for Q3, up 6% operationally, which actually beat analyst expectations. Management raised full-year guidance and now expects full-year operational sales growth of 6.7% to 7.1%, putting them on track to cross $100 billion in annual revenue for the very first time in the company's 140-year history.
JORDAN: That's a huge milestone. But here's where it gets messy — GAAP net earnings were just $210 million, and diluted EPS came in at nine cents, compared to $2.12 a year ago. That's a massive drop.
ALEX: And the reason is a one-time hit, not a business problem. J&J took a $5.5 billion charge tied to resolving the ovarian talc litigation, plus costs from two acquisitions — Firefly Bio in oncology and a collaboration with Cell BioMedicine in cell therapy. Strip those out, and adjusted EPS was $2.59, down about 7.5% year-over-year, but mostly because of those deal-related expenses, not underlying weakness.
JORDAN: Exactly. The core business is actually accelerating. Innovative Medicine — that's their pharma segment — grew 7.9% operationally to $16.8 billion, with eight brands growing double digits. Oncology alone grew 17%.
ALEX: Let's talk about the stars of the show. Tremfya, their immunology drug, grew 68% in the quarter. CARVYKTI, their multiple myeloma cell therapy, up 35%. And RYBREVANT, for lung cancer, up 64%. Tom Cavanaugh, the head of Innovative Medicine, specifically called out Icotrokinra — their new oral psoriasis treatment — saying it's tracking better than almost any launch they've seen in psoriatic disease, with over 20,000 patients started in just months.
JORDAN: What stood out to me is they're calling this a path to double-digit growth by 2030, and when an analyst from Goldman pressed CFO Joe Wolk on whether that assumes big acquisitions, he was pretty direct — no, it's organic. That's a meaningful claim given how reliant a lot of pharma growth stories are on M&A.
ALEX: Now, MedTech is the other side of the story, and it's where things got rockier. That division only grew 2.5%, missing expectations. Management was candid about it — Timothy Schmid, who runs MedTech, basically said "our performance is below the standard we set internally."
JORDAN: Two specific problem areas: international markets, especially due to disruption from the Middle East conflict affecting hospital purchasing and tender timing, and Abiomed, their heart pump business, which actually declined 1.5% because of a disputed study on high-risk PCI procedures. Execs pushed back hard on that study's methodology.
ALEX: But it wasn't all bad news in MedTech. Shockwave, their cardiovascular device business, grew 17%. And they got FDA clearance for Ottava, their new surgical robot — first commercial customer already signed. That's a big long-term bet on competing with Intuitive Surgical in robotics.
JORDAN: One housekeeping item investors should note — J&J confirmed they're still on track to spin off their orthopedics business, DePuy Synthes, by mid-2027, and they're leaning toward a straight spin-off rather than a sale.
ALEX: Let's hit a couple of Q&A highlights. On Icotrokinra, This episode includes AI-generated content.
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15 OCT 2026 · More earnings analysis: https://betafinch.com
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ALEX: Welcome to Beta Finch, your AI-powered earnings breakdown. Today we're digging into Intuit's fiscal fourth quarter and full-year 2026 results, reported after the bell on August 25th. Before we get into it — this podcast is AI-generated content for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing we discuss should be considered investment advice. Always do your own research and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.
JORDAN: And there's a lot to unpack here, Alex, because this isn't your typical "beat and raise" call. Intuit actually came out and said, "we messed up on customer growth, and we're resetting expectations."
ALEX: Right, let's start with the headline numbers. Full fiscal year 2026 revenue grew 14%, GAAP and non-GAAP diluted EPS both grew 20% for the year. Q4 specifically came in at $4.4 billion in revenue, up 14%, with non-GAAP operating income up 43% and non-GAAP EPS of $4.03, up 47% year over year.
JORDAN: Those are strong numbers on their face. But the stock-moving story here is what CEO Sasan Goodarzi called out directly: total online paying customers only grew 3% for the year — that's about two points slower than the prior year. And he was blunt about it, saying price is now the number one reason customers are leaving TurboTax for lower-cost competitors.
ALEX: Which is a pretty striking admission. For years Intuit's playbook was "upgrade customers into higher-value tiers." Now they're saying, actually, we lost quality DIY tax customers chasing that strategy, and we need to rebuild the funnel.
JORDAN: Exactly, and that shows up directly in guidance. For fiscal 2027, Intuit guided total company revenue growth of just 9% to 10% — a real deceleration from 14%. TurboTax revenue growth guided at only 2% to 3%, and they explicitly said they're accepting lower DIY tax ARPC on purpose to win back customers and gain e-file share.
ALEX: And it's not just consumer tax. On the business side, the Global Business Solutions long-term growth target got walked down too — last year they talked about 15% to 20% growth over the long run, now it's 10% to 15%.
JORDAN: Right, and an analyst, Raimo Lenschow from Barclays, asked exactly that on the call — is this pressure from new competitors? And Sasan pushed back pretty firmly, saying, quote, "we are creating the pressure, we are not being pressured to make the change." His argument is that Intuit spent the last few years building out mid-market and their "Big Bets" — assisted tax, money, and mid-market — which now make up 30% of revenue and are growing 34%. Now they want to layer back in aggressive new-customer acquisition at the low end, which they'd deprioritized.
ALEX: That's the strategic thread running through the whole call — this idea of "widening the front door." They launched QuickBooks Free and QuickBooks Lite, and management said they already have over 20,000 customers either active on the free tier or converted to paid in just the first month.
JORDAN: Small number today, but it's clearly meant to be a top-of-funnel signal. And on the consumer side, they're leaning on the fact that customers who use both TurboTax and Credit Karma generate roughly twice the revenue per customer of single-product users — so the bet is: take a lower margin tax customer now, cross-sell them into Credit Karma, loans, insurance, money products, and make it up on lifetime value.
ALEX: There were also some real organizational changes buried in here. Mailchimp is being split out as its own separate reportable segment starting fiscal 2027 instead of being folded into Global Business Solutions. And maybe more importantly for anyone tracking the numbers going forward — Intuit is now including stock-based compensation in its non-GAAP metrics, which it had excluded before.
JORDAN: That's a meaningful accounting shift. It's going to make non-GAAP EPS comparisons look different year over yea This episode includes AI-generated content.
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15 OCT 2026 · More earnings analysis: https://betafinch.com
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ALEX: Welcome to Beta Finch, your AI-powered earnings breakdown! Today we're digging into Goldman Sachs' third quarter 2026 results, and Jordan, this is a juicy one.
JORDAN: It really is. But before we get into it — this podcast is AI-generated content for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing we discuss should be considered investment advice. Always do your own research and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.
ALEX: Right, so let's set the scene. Goldman posted net revenues of $18.7 billion for Q3 — the second highest in company history — with EPS of $17.01. ROE came in at 18.7%, ROTE at 20.5%.
JORDAN: And here's the twist — those numbers actually understate how strong the quarter was. Goldman made an accelerated charitable contribution of about $450 million, pulling forward roughly five years of planned philanthropic giving. Strip that out, and EPS would've been closer to $18, with ROE near 20% and ROTE around 21.5%.
ALEX: Interesting move — basically front-loading generosity during a strong quarter. Let's talk segments. Global Banking & Markets was the engine here, $13.5 billion in revenue, second-highest ever.
JORDAN: Advisory revenue hit a record, $1.7 billion, up 18% year-over-year. Goldman's still the king of M&A — they advised on $1.5 trillion in announced deals year-to-date, with a lead over their closest competitor of about $430 billion. That's the biggest lead they've ever had.
ALEX: Big names in there too — the Hugging Face sale to NVIDIA for $13 billion, Integer Holdings' $6 billion sale to KKR.
JORDAN: Equities was the real standout though — $6.4 billion in revenue, up 72% year-over-year. Financing revenue within equities rose 96% to a record, driven by elevated prime balances and a lot of activity in Asia.
ALEX: That Asia buildout keeps coming up. Management's been investing there deliberately for years, and it's clearly paying off now.
JORDAN: FICC was more muted — basically flat year-over-year — but financing revenue there rose too. And here's the headline stat for anyone tracking Goldman's long-term strategy: financing now makes up over 40% of combined FICC and Equities revenue year-to-date. That's a durability story, not just a trading story.
ALEX: Which ties into something David Solomon kept hammering — durable revenues have more than doubled since the 2020 Investor Day and now represent about 45% of total revenue year-to-date. That's a structural shift in how Goldman makes money.
JORDAN: Let's not skip Asset & Wealth Management, because the growth there was staggering. Management and other fees hit a record $3.6 billion, up 22% year-over-year. Assets under supervision reached $4.1 trillion — a record — with $97 billion in long-term inflows. That's 35 consecutive quarters of net inflows.
ALEX: Thirty-five quarters. That's not luck, that's a flywheel.
JORDAN: Wealth Management alone pulled in $47 billion in long-term inflows, way ahead of their 5% annual growth target — they're annualizing at 12%. And on the alternatives side, they raised their full-year fundraising target to roughly $150 billion, up from the original $75 to $100 billion range.
ALEX: They're also buying their way into new capabilities — the NEOS acquisition for derivative income ETFs, and LCN Capital Partners for triple net lease real estate. Solomon was clear this isn't opportunistic; it's a six-plus year strategy to scale the asset management platform.
JORDAN: Now, the Q&A had some great moments. One analyst asked David Solomon directly about succession rumors that had been circulating in the press.
ALEX: And Solomon shut that down pretty firmly, saying there's "no succession transition or timeline underway" and that he and the board are singularly focused on growing the firm.
JORDAN: There was also a really candid exchange about AI infrastructure financing. Sol This episode includes AI-generated content.
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15 OCT 2026 · More earnings analysis: https://betafinch.com
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WELCOME TO BETA FINCH, your AI-powered earnings breakdown. Let's get into Dell's blowout quarter.
ALEX: Welcome to Beta Finch, your AI-powered earnings breakdown. I'm Alex, here with Jordan, and today we're digging into Dell Technologies' fiscal Q2 2027 results. Before we get started — this podcast is AI-generated content for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing we discuss should be considered investment advice. Always do your own research and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.
JORDAN: And Alex, this is one of those quarters where you just have to start with the headline numbers, because they're kind of staggering. Revenue of $47 billion, up 58% year-over-year. EPS of $7.04, up 203%.
ALEX: Up 203%! That's not a typo. And it wasn't a fluke — this caps off a first half where revenue hit $90.8 billion, up 71%, and EPS grew 208% to $11.90 over the two quarters combined.
JORDAN: Right, and the engine behind all of this is the Infrastructure Solutions Group — ISG. Record revenue there, $31.8 billion, up 89%. Operating income of $4.8 billion at a 15% margin, up 620 basis points year-over-year.
ALEX: Let's talk AI servers specifically, because the numbers are honestly hard to wrap your head around. Dell booked $60.9 billion in AI orders in just this one quarter — a record. They recognized $16.4 billion in AI server revenue, and they're exiting the quarter with $95 billion in AI backlog.
JORDAN: And zoom out — over the trailing twelve months, that's $131.7 billion in AI orders booked. CEO Jeff Clarke even floated that the total addressable opportunity here, factoring in agentic AI and inference demand, could be over $1 trillion through 2030.
ALEX: But here's what I thought was the most underrated storyline — it's not just AI. Traditional servers grew 122%. CFO David Kennedy said in just the last two quarters, Dell generated almost as much traditional server and networking revenue as in any full prior year in company history.
JORDAN: That's a huge data point. And when analysts pushed on this during Q&A — asking essentially, "is this just pricing and prebuys, not real demand?" — Clarke was pretty direct. He said demand actually outstripped supply. The driver is a genuine refresh cycle: 1.2 million assets in customers' installed base are still on 14th-generation servers or older. Those need to be consolidated onto newer 17G or 18G hardware, and the consolidation ratios are wild — up to 12 to 14 old servers replaced by a single new 18G box.
ALEX: Plus there's a security angle — things like post-quantum cryptography requirements are forcing infrastructure upgrades regardless of AI.
JORDAN: Storage was another bright spot people might've overlooked. Revenue up 26%, and this is Dell's sixth consecutive quarter of above-market demand growth for its own Dell IP storage products. PowerStore grew for the ninth straight quarter. Clarke made the point that AI agents are generating massive new volumes of log and trace data that all needs to be stored and protected — so storage is picking up an AI tailwind too.
ALEX: And Client Solutions Group — the PC business — grew 20%, its fastest pace in five years. Commercial revenue up 22%, eighth straight quarter of growth.
JORDAN: What really stood out to me on the financial discipline side is the operating expense story. Dell's full-year OpEx guide is now roughly 8% of revenue — the lowest in the company's 42-year history. That's genuine operating leverage from internal modernization efforts, not just riding a demand wave.
ALEX: That shows up directly in margins — operating income grew 160% to $5.9 billion, way outpacing revenue growth. And on capital returns, they bought back $3.9 billion in stock and returned an all-time record $4.3 billion to shareholders this quarter alone.
JORDAN: One nuance from the Q&A worth flagging for listeners: when asked about supply constraints, Clar This episode includes AI-generated content.
Top 100 US-listed companies by market capitalization. AI-powered earnings call analysis for S&P 100 (SP100). Two AI hosts break down quarterly results, key metrics, and market implications in digestible podcast...
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Top 100 US-listed companies by market capitalization. AI-powered earnings call analysis for S&P 100 (SP100). Two AI hosts break down quarterly results, key metrics, and market implications in digestible podcast episodes.
show less
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| Author | Beta Finch |
| Organization | Nathan hirst |
| Categories | Investing |
| Website | betafinch.com |
| contact@betafinch.com |
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