BofA Securities analyst Jason Kupferberg pulled his buy rating on PayPal (Nasdaq: PYPL) stock and downgraded to neutral with a $68 price target this morning.
“PYPL’s effort to reinvigorate growth in its core branded checkout is taking longer than expected and limits near-term upside,” warned the analyst. “We had expected product innovation and the upgraded checkout experience to drive increased usage of the PayPal button at checkout. Instead, 4Q will see a step down in branded checkout growth and 2026 will be an investment year.”
PayPal investors aren’t thrilled with the news. The stock is down 0.1% today, and the Voo is now down 0.4%.
There is no joy in Mudville — er, Manchester — this morning, after the publicly traded soccer team Manchester United plc (NYSE: MANU) reported a bit GBP1.48 per share loss this morning. Wall Street analysts had forecast Manchester would break even for the quarter, but ManU lost money instead.
Revenue also missed estimates at GBP140.3 million, although the corporate sports team did reiterate guidance for fiscal 2026, saying total revenue will range from £640 million to £660 million, and “adjusted EBITDA” will be from £180 million to £200 million.
Manchester United shareholders remain a loyal bunch, however, and the stock is up nearly 4% regardless.
The Voo is still down 0.3%.
Communications equipment company Ciena (NYSE: CIEN) beat earnings by 14 cents this morning, reporting Q4 earnings of $0.91 per share. Ciena likewise beat on revenue, with $1.35 billion collected in the quarter.
Guidance was strong, with Ciena forecasting fiscal Q1 2026 revenue well above analyst forecasts at $1.35 billion or better, and full-year sales at least $5.7 billion. Ciena stock, too, is up more than 2% today.
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The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: VOO) opened 0.4% lower on Thursday, one day after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by the expected 25 basis points, lowering its target interest rate no lower than 3.5%.
Cuts are ordinarily good news for the stock market, lowering bond returns and making it cheaper for companies (i.e. stocks) to borrow money, thus boosting their profits and helping their share prices to rise. This week’s news was widely anticipated, however, so investors aren’t reacting as positively as you might think. The more so because a “dot plot” showing the likelihood of future rate cuts suggests December 10’s cut might be the last for a while.
Experts are now anticipating just one single rate cut in 2026, and one more in 2027. This would eventually lower interest rates to a dovish 3%, but would take almost two years to do so.
The big earnings news today is from S&P 500 component company Oracle (NYSE: ORCL | ORCL Price Prediction). The software company announced powerful profits in its fiscal Q2 2026 report last night, beating expectations by 62 cents with a profit of $2.26 per share. Revenue, however, fell short of expectations at $16.1 billion, and this morning Oracle stock is down 14%.
On guidance, Oracle said its Q3 earnings will be just about what Wall Street was already expecting, $1.70 to $1.72 per share, with revenue rising about 20% year over year — barely half what Wall Street was hoping for. Viewed in that context, a decline on strong earnings isn’t actually so surprising.
In happier tech news, Adobe (Nasdaq: ADBE) beat earnings by 10 cents last night, reporting $5.50 per share for its fiscal Q4, and revenue of $6.2 billion — also ahead of consensus forecasts.
Adobe guided well above consensus for Q1, expecting to earn between $5.85 and $5.90 per share on sales of $6.25 billion or better, and Adobe stock is up about 2% this morning.
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Joel South covers large-cap stocks, dividend investing, and major market trends, with a focus on earnings analysis, valuation, and turning complex data into actionable insights for investors.
He brings more than 15 years of experience as an investor and financial journalist, including 12 years at The Motley Fool, where he served as an investment analyst, Bureau Chief, and later led the Fool.com investing news desk. He has also co-hosted an investing podcast and appeared across TV and radio discussing market trends.
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