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ALEX: Welcome to Beta Finch, your AI-powered earnings breakdown, where we take the numbers and the noise and turn them into something you can actually use. I'm Alex, joined as always by Jordan. Today we're diving into Visa's fiscal third quarter 2026 results.

JORDAN: And Alex, this was a big one — Visa crossed $4 trillion in quarterly payments volume for the first time ever.

ALEX: Huge milestone. But 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: Right, so let's get into the numbers. Net revenue was $11.6 billion, up 14% year-over-year, ahead of expectations. EPS came in at $3.32, up 11%. Payments volume grew 10% in constant dollars, and processed transactions grew 10% too, to 72 billion transactions.

ALEX: What jumped out to me most was the U.S. business. Payment volume grew 10% year-over-year — CEO Ryan McInerney and CFO Chris Suh both called that the strongest U.S. growth rate since fiscal 2019, excluding the post-COVID bounce.

JORDAN: And there's a real story behind that acceleration. Tax refunds, fuel costs, retail promotions, strong Visa Direct growth, and — this is the fun one — the FIFA World Cup.

ALEX: Yeah, let's talk about that, because the World Cup numbers are wild. In some host cities, card-present transactions were up as much as 20% on match days. Kansas City hit 1,000% year-over-year growth in cross-border card-present transactions during matches.

JORDAN: One thousand percent. And it wasn't just the U.S. — Mexico saw inbound cross-border volume up more than 70%, Canada up over 35%. Tap-to-pay transit in Boston was up more than 50% during the tournament window.

ALEX: Management was careful to note this is a bit of a sugar high, though. Chris Suh flagged that cross-border e-commerce, which was up 16% in the quarter, has already started moderating in July as some of those promotional and event-driven boosts fade.

JORDAN: Right, so investors should expect some of that heat to cool off heading into Q4, even though the underlying business — travel, e-commerce, consumer spend — still looks healthy by their account.

ALEX: Let's shift to what I think is the real long-term story here: value-added services, or VAS. That segment grew 34% in constant dollars to $3.8 billion.

JORDAN: And it's not just marketing services riding the FIFA wave — though that helped a lot. Suh pointed out that issuing solutions, acceptance solutions, and risk and security collectively grew more than 20% every quarter over the trailing twelve months, which is faster than the growth rates Visa laid out at its investor day back in 2025.

ALEX: So this isn't a one-quarter blip — it's a structural shift in the mix of the business.

JORDAN: Commercial and money movement solutions also grew 17%, with Visa Direct transactions up 21% to $4 billion. And commercial payments volume growth actually outpaced Visa's overall volume growth, up 13%.

ALEX: On the strategy side, two big themes stood out to me: AI and stablecoins. Visa said it's now running over 150 AI-powered applications internally and shipped more than 300 major product releases in the past year. They're restructuring product teams into smaller "agentic squads" of two to four people instead of ten-plus, and claiming 80% more code commits and 65% faster feature development.

JORDAN: Which, notably, comes alongside some tougher news — Visa announced it's eliminating a number of roles, mostly in tech and product, tied to that AI-driven efficiency push. There was $563 million in severance costs this quarter.

ALEX: Right, and when analysts asked about it on the call, Ryan McInerney's answer was basically: we take the savings from efficiency and reinvest them into growth areas — cr

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ALEX: Welcome to Beta Finch, your AI-powered earnings breakdown, where we take the market's biggest calls and turn them into something you can actually digest — Oreo pun fully intended today. I'm Alex, joined as always by Jordan. Today we're digging into Mondelez International's second quarter 2026 results.

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 call had a bit of everything — a new CFO on his first earnings call, strong emerging markets momentum, a North America turnaround story, and a genuinely fascinating deep dive into Biscoff, of all things.

ALEX: Let's start with the numbers. Mondelez posted organic net revenue growth of 4.4% in Q2, and importantly, that was volume-led, not just price-driven. Gross profit dollars were up 3%, and management actually raised the full-year top-line guide to "at least 2%" growth, while holding EPS guidance steady.

JORDAN: That EPS hold is worth sitting with for a second. It's not a red flag — CFO Amit Banati, who's only a few weeks into the job, was pretty clear they're reinvesting any upside back into the business rather than dropping it to the bottom line. He talked about doubling down on emerging markets and innovation, plus absorbing some incremental costs tied to the Middle East conflict.

ALEX: Right, and there's a phasing wrinkle for the back half — they flagged that Q3 earnings will look a little softer below the line because of cocoa cost phasing and some tax and interest items lapping, with Q4 more back-weighted. Management called it "mechanical," nothing structural.

JORDAN: Let's talk regions, because the story is genuinely different in each one. Emerging markets were the standout again — a second straight quarter of real strength. CEO Dirk Van de Put pointed to expanding distribution, like 100,000 new stores added in India and Brazil crossing the 1 million store mark. He was emphatic that this is structural, not cyclical — under-penetrated categories, years of reinvestment, a good mix of global and local brands hitting every price tier.

ALEX: North America was the pleasant surprise. Consumer confidence there is still shaky — Van de Put described a "K-shaped" pattern where shoppers are either chasing value or trading up to premium, with not much happening in the middle. But Mondelez is finding growth in both directions: high-single-digit growth in value channels, mid-single-digit in away-from-home, and share gains across categories, with Ritz innovation and the Perfect Snacks and Tate's ventures brands doing real work.

JORDAN: And then Europe — that's the recovery story still in progress. COO Luca Zaramella said volumes are trending positive and should keep improving in the second half as they lap last year's pricing. There was a heat wave hitting chocolate consumption in Q2 and continuing into Q3, but he sounded genuinely optimistic about a rebound in both top line and profitability heading into 2027.

ALEX: Speaking of Zaramella, one of the most useful moments on this call was his cocoa commentary. Cocoa prices have been jumpy again, and he made the case that this is nothing like the 2024 crisis — industry coverage is now at 10 months versus just seven back then, and he's projecting at least half a million metric tons of surplus this year, roughly 10% of total demand.

JORDAN: That's a meaningful reassurance for anyone worried about a repeat of the margin squeeze we saw a couple years ago. He also mentioned the company is deliberately shifting its portfolio to be less cocoa-reliant over time, which is a smart structural hedge regardless of where prices go next.

ALEX: Now, the Biscoff conversation was honestly one of the m

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Welcome to Beta Finch, your AI-powered earnings breakdown. Here's the KLA Corporation script.

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**ALEX:** Welcome to Beta Finch, your AI-powered earnings breakdown of the numbers that move markets. I'm Alex.

**JORDAN:** And I'm Jordan. Today we're digging into KLA Corporation's June quarter fiscal 2026 results — and Alex, this one's got some pretty eye-popping AI-infrastructure numbers in it.

**ALEX:** It really does. But 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 housekeeping. Okay, let's talk numbers. KLA makes process control and inspection equipment for semiconductor fabs — basically the tools that check whether chips are being made correctly. And this quarter, revenue hit a record $3.66 billion, up 7% sequentially and 15% year-over-year.

**ALEX:** And that beat the midpoint of their own guidance. Non-GAAP EPS came in at $1.50, GAAP EPS at $1.04 — both at the high end of their ranges. Oh, and worth flagging for anyone checking historical charts: KLA did a 10-for-1 stock split effective June 11th, so all these per-share numbers are split-adjusted.

**JORDAN:** Good catch, because that trips people up. Gross margin was 62.4%, also above guidance, and operating margin was a very healthy 43.7%. Free cash flow came in at $817 million, and they returned $876 million to shareholders — split between buybacks and dividends.

**ALEX:** So strong quarter across the board. But honestly, the guidance and the forward commentary is where this call gets interesting. CEO Rick Wallace and CFO Bren Higgins were pretty emphatic that momentum is accelerating, not just holding steady.

**JORDAN:** Right, they raised their wafer fab equipment — WFE — market outlook for all of 2026 to roughly $150 billion, up from a prior $140 billion-plus estimate. That's the fourth time this year they've raised that number.

**ALEX:** Fourth time. And management said they expect KLA's second half of calendar 2026 revenue to grow about 20% over the first half. September quarter guidance alone is for $4 billion in revenue, plus or minus $200 million — that's another double-digit sequential jump.

**JORDAN:** The driver behind all of this is AI infrastructure — hyperscale data center buildout, more complex chip designs, rising high-bandwidth memory adoption, and advanced packaging. Management basically said every one of those trends increases "process control intensity," meaning more of KLA's tools are needed per wafer.

**ALEX:** The advanced packaging story stood out to me. They now expect that business to hit about $1.1 billion in calendar 2026, growth of more than 70% year-over-year — nearly double the growth rate of the packaging market itself. That's a big upward revision from their earlier high-50s percent estimate.

**JORDAN:** And that ties back to the Orbotech acquisition from 2019 — Rick called it out directly, saying the thesis around rising chip-package value is really playing out now. Combined with their specialty semiconductor and PCB businesses, that whole segment is expected to grow over 25% this year.

**ALEX:** Services was another bright spot — $820 million in revenue, up 17% year-over-year. And in the Q&A, Bren mentioned services should accelerate toward the high end of their 13-15% long-term target range next year, since 80% of that revenue is contract-based, which gives nice visibility.

**JORDAN:** Speaking of Q&A, there were some great exchanges. One analyst pushed hard on gross margins, given memory pricing headwinds — Bren estimated that's costing them over 100 basis points right now, and said that pressure likely continues into 2027. But he still expects ma

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**Beta Finch: UPS Q2 2026 Earnings Breakdown**

ALEX: Welcome to Beta Finch, your AI-powered earnings breakdown. Today we're digging into UPS's second quarter 2026 results, and Jordan, this one's got a real "end of an era, start of a new one" feel to it.

JORDAN: It really does. But before we get into the brown trucks and the numbers, quick reminder for everyone listening.

ALEX: Right — 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, now let's get into it. So the headline here is that UPS just wrapped up something they've been talking about for a year and a half — the Amazon "glide down."

ALEX: Yeah, for anyone who hasn't been following, UPS has been deliberately shrinking the amount of lower-margin Amazon volume flowing through its network — about 2 million packages a day — and using that opportunity to rebuild and automate its U.S. network. CEO Carol Tomé said flat out: "We executed that plan exactly as designed."

JORDAN: And the numbers actually back that up. Consolidated revenue came in at $22.8 billion, up 7.6% year-over-year. Operating profit was $2.1 billion, up 12%. Consolidated operating margin hit 9.2%, which is up 40 basis points from last year and — this is the eye-catching part — up 300 basis points from just the first quarter.

ALEX: That's a huge sequential jump.

JORDAN: It is, and it's really being driven by the U.S. Domestic segment. Operating profit there grew over 20% year-over-year, margin hit 8%, up 100 basis points year-over-year and 400 basis points from Q1.

ALEX: So walk me through why that's happening now, because U.S. volume was actually down 3.3%.

JORDAN: Right, that's the counterintuitive part — less volume, more profit. It comes down to mix and automation. They've eliminated roughly $4.5 billion in expense tied to this restructuring, closed 45 buildings in the first half with more coming, and cut nearly 30,000 operational positions, including through their Driver Choice Program. Meanwhile, 68.5% of U.S. volume now flows through automated buildings, up from 64% a year ago — and Tomé said automated buildings run about 28% cheaper per package.

ALEX: So it's a smaller network, but a much more efficient one.

JORDAN: Exactly. And revenue per piece in the U.S. grew 9.3%, outpacing cost per piece growth by 130 basis points. That spread is the whole ballgame for them going forward — CFO Brian Dykes said they're targeting a 50-to-100 basis point spread between revenue-per-piece and cost-per-piece growth as the engine for margin expansion.

ALEX: Let's talk strategy, because it's not just about cutting costs — they're chasing a specific kind of volume now.

JORDAN: Right, the pivot is toward premium customers — small and medium businesses, healthcare, B2B. SMB average daily volume grew 4.3%, and SMBs now make up 34.5% of total U.S. volume. Healthcare logistics crossed $3 billion in quarterly revenue for the second straight quarter, and they're leaning hard into cold chain — they added 27 temperature-controlled cross-dock facilities.

ALEX: There was a great anecdote about that — the vaccine story.

JORDAN: Yes! Tomé described a vaccine shipment that travels from a manufacturer in Belgium, through a UPS cold chain facility, over to their Cologne air hub, flown to Worldport in Louisville, then trucked to Kentucky warehousing — all in under 24 hours, and all on UPS-owned assets the whole way. That end-to-end ownership is their pitch: no handoffs to other carriers, full temperature and location visibility via RFID.

ALEX: Speaking of RFID, that came up a lot.

JORDAN: It's basically their new differentiation story. They've finished deploying RFID sensing across all U.S.

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ALEX: Welcome to Beta Finch, your AI-powered earnings breakdown of the companies moving the markets. I'm Alex, joined as always by Jordan. Today we're digging into S&P Global's second quarter 2026 results.

JORDAN: Big one — first call since the Mobility spin closed.

ALEX: Exactly, 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.

JORDAN: Good context to keep in mind, especially with a report this dense.

ALEX: So let's start with the headline numbers. Revenue grew 11% year-over-year, adjusted EPS jumped 23%, and margins expanded 200 basis points to 54.3%. CEO Martina Cheung called this her first call since completing the Mobility spin-off on July 1st, and she framed the quarter around four core divisions now: Ratings, Indices, Energy, and Market Intelligence.

JORDAN: And the star of the show was really the "benchmarks" businesses — Ratings, Indices, and the Platts side of Energy. Those grew 15% collectively and now make up more than 80% of operating profit, even though they're "only" two-thirds of revenue. That's a really profitable core.

ALEX: Let's talk Ratings first, because it had a record quarter — revenue up 17%. Bond issuance was up 25%, driven by AI infrastructure and data center buildout, plus M&A activity.

JORDAN: That hyperscaler number really stood out to me. They initially guided for about $200 billion in hyperscaler-related issuance this year. In just the first half, they already saw $169 billion. They've now bumped full-year guidance up to $250-300 billion.

ALEX: That's a massive raise. And CFO Eric Aboaf made a point of saying this outperformance isn't cannibalizing future refinancing — they're still looking at roughly $11 trillion of rated debt coming due for refinancing over the next four and a half years.

JORDAN: Indices was arguably even stronger — 20% revenue growth, 13 straight record quarters. ETF assets tied to S&P Dow Jones hit $6.35 trillion, and one S&P 500-linked ETF became the first ever to cross $1 trillion in AUM.

ALEX: Now, not everything was rosy. Energy only grew 3%, and management was upfront that the Iran conflict has been messing with contract renewals and trading volumes. They're calling it transitory, expecting growth to normalize back to that 6-8% range next year.

JORDAN: And Market Intelligence — the segment everyone's watching for a turnaround story — grew a more modest 6%. They just restructured it into two lines: Kensho Data, which is the high-growth AI and proprietary data piece, and Platforms, the more mature legacy tools like CapIQ. There was also mention of some "subscale" products in consulting and sustainability dragging on growth, and Cheung didn't rule out shedding those down the road.

ALEX: The AI angle was everywhere on this call, honestly. Their Kensho LLM-ready API client base is now over 500 and grew 70% quarter-over-quarter, with API call volume up 5x sequentially.

JORDAN: What I found interesting in the Q&A was how they're thinking about monetizing that. Eric Aboaf described it as a mix of consumption-based pricing and additional dataset fees, basically capturing value as clients pull more data through AI tools rather than just charging flat subscription fees.

ALEX: There was also a question about elongated sales cycles with big clients, and Martina actually framed that as a positive — she said the conversations are getting more complex because clients want to do more with their data and AI, and S&P is being deliberate about protecting its IP in those negotiations.

JORDAN: On the capital return side, this is a big deal for shareholders — they raised the 2026 buyback target by nearly $3 billion, to more than $7 billion for the full year. That's over 5% of their current ma

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ALEX: Welcome to Beta Finch, your AI-powered earnings breakdown! Today we're diving into Coca-Cola's second quarter 2026 results, and honestly, Jordan, this is a fun one — FIFA World Cup, Marriott winning back after 34 years, a lot going on.

JORDAN: Yeah, it's a loaded quarter. Before we jump in, quick disclaimer.

ALEX: Right — 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: Perfect, let's get into it. So headline numbers: organic revenue grew 6%, unit case volume grew 5%. That's a strong beat, but there's a catch.

ALEX: Right, they were cycling an easier comp from last year, plus favorable weather and that huge FIFA World Cup activation. On a two-year average basis, volume growth was actually 2%, which management says is more reflective of the underlying trend.

JORDAN: And that 2% is basically in line with where Coke's been running for years — CFO John Murphy pointed out the industry has grown 3-4% historically, and Coke's long-term algorithm target is 4-6%, with the ambition to be at the high end.

ALEX: Let's talk profitability, because this was arguably the bigger story. Comparable gross margin was up about 120 basis points, operating margin up about 90 basis points. EPS came in at $0.97, up 11%, though two points of that was currency tailwind.

JORDAN: One analyst even called it a potential all-time-record operating margin quarter for Coke. And free cash flow was strong too — about $6.9 billion, up year over year. Balance sheet's in great shape, net debt leverage at 1.4 times EBITDA, well below their 2-2.5x target range.

ALEX: And they raised guidance. Organic revenue growth now expected around 5%, at the high end of prior guidance. Comparable currency-neutral EPS growth bumped up to 7-8%, and all-in comparable EPS growth now guided at 9-10% versus the $3 EPS base in 2025.

JORDAN: Worth noting there's some noise in there — divestitures, mainly the pending sale of Coca-Cola Beverages Africa, are expected to be a 2-3% headwind to revenue and about 1% headwind to EPS. Currency is actually helping this year, flipping from a longtime headwind to roughly a one-point tailwind on revenue and three points on EPS.

ALEX: Now let's talk strategy, because the FIFA World Cup campaign was clearly a centerpiece. CEO Henrique Braun said trademark Coca-Cola grew volume 5% for the quarter — the strongest in 17 years excluding COVID recovery.

JORDAN: And the numbers behind the activation are wild — over 1 billion Panini stickers distributed across 40+ markets, 25 million first-party data points collected, more than 9 billion views generated through digital and social activations. Average incidence at World Cup venues topped 80%, a record.

ALEX: The interesting question from an analyst was basically: was this a one-time sugar high, or does it stick? Management's answer was that the real value is the first-party data and consumer insights carrying forward into future campaigns — things like "Coke and Meals" moments in the second half.

JORDAN: Regionally, North America had a strong quarter — gained value and volume share, grew revenue and profit. Relaunched Mr. Pibb grew volume over 20%, which is a nice example of their innovation engine working. Latin America gained share too, though Mexico remains tough while Brazil's improving.

ALEX: EMEA gained share but profit actually declined due to investment phasing. And Asia Pacific — this got some analyst pushback — operating income declined there as Coke invests heavily in affordability and revenue growth management in India and China to expand the consumer base.

JORDAN: Management framed that as deliberate — playing the l

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ALEX: Welcome to Beta Finch, your AI-powered earnings breakdown, where we take a dense earnings call and turn it into a conversation that actually makes sense. I'm Alex.

JORDAN: And I'm Jordan. Today we're digging into Illinois Tool Works — ITW — Q2 2026. And Alex, this was a genuinely strong print.

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.

ALEX: Okay, with that out of the way — Jordan, ITW basically had the best quarter in company history.

JORDAN: They did. Organic growth of 4.5%, operating margin at 26.7%, GAAP EPS up 10% to $2.84, and operating income hit $1.15 billion — a 7.4% jump. That's the most profitable quarter ITW has ever put up.

ALEX: And it wasn't one lucky segment carrying the load. Welding grew organically 14%, Test & Measurement and Electronics grew 10%, Polymers and Fluids grew 7%. These are the CapEx-heavy, cyclical parts of the business, and they just accelerated hard.

JORDAN: Right, and the sequential story is what really jumped out to me. Revenue grew 7% quarter-over-quarter versus a historical average of about 2%. That's not incremental improvement, that's a genuine inflection.

ALEX: So naturally, they raised guidance. Full-year organic growth guidance moved up a point and a half to a new midpoint of 3.5%. GAAP EPS guidance rose 15 cents to a midpoint of $11.45 — that's 9% year-over-year growth, and it's their second guidance raise this year.

JORDAN: What I want to flag for listeners is CBI — Customer-Back Innovation. This is ITW's structured innovation framework, and it contributed 3% to revenue growth in the first half, up from 2.4% for all of 2025. CEO Chris O'Herlihy compared building this discipline to how they rolled out their famous 80/20 operating model over a decade ago.

ALEX: And it's not just a talking point — it's tied to compensation now. Every division from the ground up is incentivized on it, and importantly it's measured as truly incremental revenue, net of cannibalization, over a rolling three-year window. So a new product's contribution eventually rolls off unless something new replaces it.

JORDAN: Which is a nice built-in forcing function to keep innovating rather than resting on one hit product.

ALEX: Let's talk about welding for a second, because a 14% organic growth number in an industrial business is huge. North America — about 85% of that segment — grew 19%, with strength across infrastructure, energy, aerospace, and defense.

JORDAN: And margins there stayed best-in-class at 32.4%, though a couple of analysts on the call pushed back asking if that's a ceiling. Management said no — the near-term drag is really just a price-cost timing lag from raw material inflation, not a structural limit. Once pricing catches up, they expect incrementals back to that 40%-plus range.

ALEX: Speaking of price-cost — that was probably the most repeated phrase on this call.

JORDAN: For sure. CFO Michael Larson said price increases more than offset higher raw material costs in dollar terms, but the timing lag diluted margins by about 40 basis points in Q2. Crude oil derivatives — resin, chemicals — were the main culprits, hitting specialty products and automotive the hardest.

ALEX: But he was pretty clear this is temporary and something they've navigated before, pointing to the first and second rounds of tariffs as precedent. They expect the drag to shrink to around 30 basis points in Q3 and 20 in Q4.

JORDAN: One worry I'd flag for listeners: there's also a real one-time event here — a storm damaged two welding facilities in Appleton, Wisconsin, right before the call. Everyone's safe, and management says no mater

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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, joined as always by Jordan. Today we're digging into Boeing's second quarter 2026 results, and Jordan, there's a lot going on here — good and bad.

JORDAN: Yeah, this one's a real mixed bag. Before we get into it though —

ALEX: Right, our standard 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, glad that's out of the way. So Alex, let's start with the headline numbers, because there's genuinely some good news here.

ALEX: There is. Revenue came in at $24.6 billion, up 8% year over year, and CEO Kelly Ortberg said they delivered 171 airplanes in the quarter — the highest total since 2018. That's a big deal for a company that's spent years trying to prove it can actually build planes reliably.

JORDAN: And it's not just noise — operating margin improved to positive 0.6% for the company overall, and free cash flow was positive $631 million, which actually beat what CFO Jay Malave had guided to last quarter. They're still tracking toward that full-year free cash flow target of $1 to $3 billion.

ALEX: But — and there's always a "but" with Boeing lately — there was a $280 million charge this quarter tied to the VC-25B program. That's the new Air Force One.

JORDAN: Right, and this is one of those fixed-price development contracts that's been a headache for Boeing for years. They're adding resources to keep the build and test schedule on track, and they even shifted from an FAA certification basis to a military one. It's a bet-the-schedule move — spend more now to protect the 2028 delivery commitment.

ALEX: Which, credit to them, is at least transparent. Ortberg didn't try to spin it — he flat out said "the charge is disappointing."

JORDAN: I appreciated that. It fits the broader tone of this call, honestly — a lot of "we're not out of the woods, but we're in much better shape than two years ago."

ALEX: Let's talk about the certification wins, because that's really the story of this quarter. The FAA authorized Boeing to resume issuing airworthiness certificates for all 737 MAX and 787 aircraft — that's a trust milestone after years of extra regulatory scrutiny.

JORDAN: And on top of that, testing wrapped on the 737-7, with certification expected very soon, and the 737-10 just completed its final test flight. Both variants are now on track to start deliveries in 2027.

ALEX: Meanwhile the 777X — the widebody everyone's been waiting on — is over 55% through certification flight testing, still targeting first delivery in 2027. Ortberg made a point of saying that number sounds low but it's actually tracking well since a lot of pre-work was already done.

JORDAN: The production rate story is the other big thread. Boeing's ramping 737 to 47 a month, with a new production line coming online in Everett to eventually hit 52 a month. And on the 787 side, they've stabilized at 8 a month in Charleston, though they did pause production for a few days in April to let the supply chain catch up.

ALEX: That engine issue with GE came up a lot in the Q&A actually. One analyst basically called it out directly — GE says there's no problem, but Boeing's clearly working through an engine delivery shortfall.

JORDAN: Ortberg handled that pretty carefully. He said Boeing's fallen behind on 787 engine deliveries and they've got a recovery plan in place with GE, and that it matters a lot for hitting the Rate 10 target. Diplomatic, but you could read between the lines that it's a real constraint right now.

ALEX: Let's hit defense and services quickly, because they don't get as much

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ALEX: Welcome to Beta Finch, your AI-powered earnings breakdown! Today we're digging into American Tower's second quarter 2026 results — ticker AMT. And Jordan, before we get into towers and data centers, I want to say upfront: 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 context to set. And this was a genuinely eventful quarter — they raised guidance for the second time this year, exited an entire region, and had a literal call disconnection mid-Q&A. So let's dig in.

ALEX: Let's start with the headline numbers. Consolidated property revenue grew over 5% year-over-year excluding FX and straight-line noise. But here's the thing — there's a DISH Network asterisk on almost every metric this quarter.

JORDAN: Right, DISH churn is the big one-time drag. Strip that out, and property revenue actually grew over 7% on a cash, FX-neutral basis. Organic tenant billings growth was nearly 2% as reported, but 4% excluding DISH.

ALEX: And AFFO per share — the metric REIT investors really care about — grew about 1% as reported, but over 5% normalized for DISH and refinancing costs. CFO Rod Smith basically called this a "trough year" for AFFO growth.

JORDAN: Which is an important framing. They're saying 2026 absorbs a bunch of one-time headwinds — DISH churn worth about 400 basis points, higher refinancing costs at 150 basis points, and a step-down in their services business. Normalize all that out and you're looking at roughly 7% AFFO per share growth on an FX-neutral basis.

ALEX: So the story is: messy optics this year, cleaner story in 2027.

JORDAN: Exactly. And they backed that up with action — raising full-year guidance across property revenue, EBITDA, and AFFO. Property revenue outlook up $110 million at the midpoint, EBITDA up $45 million, AFFO up nine cents a share.

ALEX: Now let's talk about the real star of the show — CoreSite, their data center business. This thing keeps stealing the spotlight from the core tower business.

JORDAN: It's wild. CoreSite delivered record leasing this quarter — CEO Steve Vondran said they added more new business this single quarter than in all of 2021. Data center revenue grew about 12%, and management raised the full-year data center growth outlook to approximately 15%, up from 13%.

ALEX: And the AI angle is really the hook here. Nine of the top 10 AI companies and three of the top five neoclouds are already housed in CoreSite facilities.

JORDAN: What struck me is the framing around interconnection — it's not just renting rack space anymore. Customers are building private "on-ramps" to move massive datasets directly between cloud and AI environments. That's a stickier, higher-value business than plain colocation.

ALEX: They've grown CoreSite's capacity one and a half times since acquiring it in 2021, and management says there's a clear runway to nearly triple it from here.

JORDAN: On the strategic side, the big move this quarter was completing the sale of their Philippines and Bangladesh operations — that's a full exit from the APAC region. It's part of a multi-year pivot toward developed markets and higher-quality earnings streams.

ALEX: And leverage is now sitting at 4.9 times, right in their target range of three to five times. Balance sheet flexibility was a recurring theme — they're weighing M&A, buybacks, and further deleveraging.

JORDAN: On buybacks specifically, they've spent about $200 million so far this year against a $2 billion authorized program, with roughly $1.4 billion left to deploy.

ALEX: Let's get into the Q&A, because there was some good stuff — including an actual technical outage where the call cut out for several minutes during CFO Rod Smith's capital allocation answer.

JORDAN: That was a l

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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 digging into NextEra Energy's second quarter 2026 results. 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 get into with this one, Alex. NextEra is one of the biggest utility and clean energy players in the country, and this quarter had everything — solid numbers, a huge pending merger, and a whole lot of data center talk.

**ALEX:** Let's start with the headline numbers. Adjusted EPS came in at $1.15 for the quarter, and through the first six months of the year, adjusted EPS is up 9.8% year-over-year. Full-year guidance stayed right where it was — $3.92 to $4.02 a share — and management said they're targeting the high end of that range.

**JORDAN:** What jumped out to me is how this growth is split across their two main engines. Florida Power & Light, the regulated utility, saw EPS grow thanks to about 9.3% growth in regulatory capital employed — basically the rate base they earn a return on. Meanwhile Energy Resources, their competitive, contracted generation business, posted adjusted earnings growth of roughly 18% year-over-year. That's the growth engine really firing.

**ALEX:** And the customer growth story at FPL is wild — over 90,000 net new customers in the quarter versus a year ago. Florida's economy is now the 14th largest in the world, bigger than Australia's or Mexico's, according to them. And despite all that growth, they're touting bills that are about 30% below the national average.

**JORDAN:** That affordability-while-growing pitch is really the core of NextEra's whole narrative right now, and it matters because it's also the exact pitch they're using to sell their proposed combination with Dominion Energy.

**ALEX:** Right, let's talk about that — this is probably the biggest strategic story here. NextEra is moving forward with its merger with Dominion Energy. They filed for approval with Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina regulators on July 15th, plus FERC and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The SEC registration became effective the day before this call, and they're expecting shareholder votes from both companies in early September.

**JORDAN:** And the numbers behind it are big. They're projecting the combined company would more than double in size by 2032, with about 11% annual growth in regulatory capital and 9%+ adjusted EPS growth through 2032, extending to 2035. They're also offering $2.25 billion in shareholder-funded bill credits to Dominion customers in Virginia, North and South Carolina — basically a sweetener to get regulators and communities on board.

**ALEX:** CEO John Ketchum kept calling this "a merger of addition, not subtraction" — one plus one equals three, in his words. The plan is dual headquarters in Richmond and Juno Beach, plus an operational hub in Cayce, South Carolina, with a commitment to retain Dominion's local workforce. They expect the deal to close in the second half of 2027.

**JORDAN:** Now let's get into what's really driving the excitement on this call — the data center and large load story. NextEra bumped up FPL's large load expectations from 6 gigawatts to 8 gigawatts by 2032. Every gigawatt under that tariff is roughly $2 billion of capital spend, earning the same return as their other regulated investments.

**ALEX:** And they've got roughly 21 gigawatts of large load interest at FPL alone, with 12 gigawatts in advanced discussions. They reiterated they expect to announce at least one

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