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Melania Trump recently claimed that her son, Barron, was denied a bank account due to “cancel culture” after the family left the White House. In her new memoir Melania, released recently, the former first lady expresses frustration over what she describes as politically motivated discrimination.

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“I was shocked and dismayed to learn that my longtime bank decided to terminate my account and deny my son the opportunity to open a new one,” she writes. According to her memoir, Melania suggests that the decision was rooted in political bias and raised concerns about civil rights violations. Some speculators, however, suggest that there may be other reasons, such as hefty fines and overdraft fees owed to specific financial institutions by Trump himself, that caused these account closures.

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The timing of this incident coincided with the period following the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, although Melania doesn’t mention the event directly. She points out that she and Barron felt the sting of “cancel culture” during this time. “It is troubling to see financial services withheld based on political affiliation,” she stated, calling the decision unfair.

Her grievances weren’t limited to banking issues. Melania also shared how a media deal she worked on fell through after the backers pulled out, citing personal hatred toward her husband, Donald Trump. She wrote that the private equity firm backing her media initiative refused to honor their agreement despite her efforts to focus on business, not politics.

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Another incident involved Melania’s charitable initiative, the Fostering the Future scholarship program, which provided educational support to foster care children. According to the memoir, a ‘leading tech-education company’ partnered with the initiative and later cut ties after her involvement became public.

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She claims the company’s board didn’t want to be associated with her. “Despite my willingness to avoid any public association with the program, the school remained firm and terminated the agreement,” Melania explained.

In 2022, her Fostering the Future program was scrutinized when The New York Times reported that it wasn’t registered with Florida’s Consumer Services Division, triggering an investigation. Melania, however, fired back, accusing the media of attempting to “cancel” her and her charitable efforts.

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Though Barron’s financial setback with the bank was highlighted in the memoir, Melania emphasized that it hasn’t affected him negatively. “He is doing great,” she shared during an appearance on Fox News’s The Five. “He loves his classes and professors. He is doing well. He is striving and enjoying being in New York City again.”

At 18, Barron Trump is now a student at New York University’s Stern School of Business, where he began classes in September. Melania’s book also touches on Barron’s past struggles with online bullying, referencing rumors that circulated in 2010 regarding his health. She described the bullying as “irreparable damage,” calling attention to the harsh treatment her son endured.

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This article Melania Trump Says Barron Was Blocked From Opening A Bank Account, Pointing To ‘Cancel Culture’ originally appeared on Benzinga.com

© 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

American Express Co AXP will be reporting its third-quarter earnings on Oct. 18. Wall Street expects $3.80 in earnings per share and $16.67 billion in revenues as the company reports before market hours.

The stock is up 84.29% over the past year, 51.1% year-to-date.

Let’s look at what the charts indicate for the New York-based company and how its stock currently maps against Wall Street estimates.

American Express Stock Chart Is Bullish

American Express stock is exhibiting strong bullish momentum based on several technical indicators.

Chart created using Benzinga Pro

The stock is currently trading at $281.68, which places it above key moving averages—its five-day, 20-day and 50-day exponential moving averages—indicating significant buying pressure.

American Express’ stock price is above its eight-day SMA of $275.54. The 20-day SMA of $272.03 further confirms a bullish outlook. This suggests continued upward movement. The stock’s 50-day SMA at $259.88 and its 200-day SMA at $232.73 are also well below the current price, reinforcing this positive trend.

Chart created using Benzinga Pro

Additionally, the MACD indicator is at 5.32, which signals further bullish potential for American Express stock. However, caution is warranted as the RSI stands at 67.74, and rising to approach the overbought territory. This could suggest a short-term pullback.

However, the Bollinger Bands also indicate that the stock remains in a bullish phase with the stock trading in then upper bullish band.

Investors should monitor these technical signals closely as the stock approaches a potential breakout.

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…But Analysts See 7% Downside

Ratings & Consensus Estimates: The consensus analyst rating on American Express stock stands at a Neutral currently with a price target of $228.60. The latest analyst ratings for American Express stock were issued by Morgan Stanley, Monness, Crespi, Hardt, and Barclays in October. These analysts have set an average price target of $266, indicating an implied downside of 6.54% for the stock.

AXP Price Action: American Express stock was trading at $284.62 at the time of publication.

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Buying your teenager their first car might seem like a proud, memorable milestone. But according to financial expert Dave Ramsey, it’s not the best move if you want to set your kids up for a successful future.

Ramsey believes that buying your kids a car can create “ridiculous expectations” about money that could affect them for the rest of their lives. Rather, he advises letting them purchase a car independently, perhaps with some assistance.

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“When you buy new cars for teenagers, you’re setting them up for a life of ridiculous expectations,” Ramsey tweeted. In other words, handing over a car might give your teen the impression that big-ticket items are easy to come by. Instead of giving them a car, Ramsey advises giving them the opportunity to work, save and learn what it takes to make a major purchase independently.

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“Think about their future,” Ramsey says. Encouraging your teen to purchase a car independently helps them develop lifelong financial skills. It also motivates them to see the benefits of saving money, working hard and making wise financial decisions.

Now, this doesn’t mean you can’t help at all. Ramsey suggests a middle ground: “If you have enough cash, you and your child could agree on a matching plan to help buy the car. Whatever your child saves, you’ll match.”

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This method encourages your adolescent to save money while also lending a helpful hand without making things too simple. It lets parents encourage their children while ensuring they contribute fairly.

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Encouraging your teenager to buy their own car isn’t just about getting the car. You’re teaching them important money skills. Dave Ramsey says, “Personal finance is 80% behavior and only 20% head knowledge.” When your teen saves for a car, they learn the habits they need to manage money well – which can help them a lot later in life.

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Another essential component of this strategy is assisting teenagers in finding independent income sources. Ramsey points out that today, it’s arguably easier than ever for them to start making money through part-time jobs, freelance gigs or even small entrepreneurial ventures.

In the end, Ramsey stresses that allowing your adolescent or even older child to purchase a car on their own is “a tremendous gift” and a chance for them to learn responsibility, budgeting and the satisfaction of reaching a major objective.

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This article Dave Ramsey Says Buying Cars For Your Teenagers Leads To A Lifetime Of ‘Ridiculous Expectations.’ Better To Have Them ‘Buy Their Own Cars’ originally appeared on Benzinga.com

© 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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© 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

Analyst Profile

Stephen is responsible for coverage of large global banks, regional banks and domestic credit card companies. He has covered financial services stocks for more than 20 years. He is also a member of the Argus Investment Policy Committee and Senior Portfolio Group, and frequently appears in print and broadcast media discussing the equity markets. Previously, he was the global director of equity research for S&P Capital IQ. He holds a degree in economics from Rutgers University.

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© 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

On Wall Street, investors are never hurting for data. We’re currently kicking off a six-week period (affably known as “earnings season”) where a majority of S&P 500 companies will lift the hood on their most recent quarterly operating performance. In addition to a barrage of operating results, economic data releases occur almost every day. It can be easy to miss something important.

On Aug. 14, you may have missed what can easily be described as the most pivotal data release of the third quarter. This date marked the filing deadline for institutional investors with at least $100 million in assets under management (AUM) to file Form 13F with the Securities and Exchange Commission. A 13F provides investors with a concise snapshot of what Wall Street’s brightest and historically successful money managers purchased and sold in the latest quarter (in this case, the June-ended quarter).

Although Berkshire Hathaway‘s Warren Buffett is arguably the most-followed of all billionaire asset managers, there are more than a dozen high-profile billionaire money managers that garner a lot of attention, including Coatue Management’s Philippe Laffont.

Laffont’s hedge fund, which is primarily focused on game-changing tech stocks, closed out June with approximately $25.7 billion in AUM spread across 74 holdings.

What might come as a bit of a surprise to investors is that Laffont was a big-time seller of one of Wall Street’s hottest artificial intelligence (AI) stocks, Palantir Technologies (NYSE: PLTR). While Coatue’s brightest minds, including Laffont, we’re showing Palantir to the door, they were piling into a growth stock that stands out in a notoriously slow-growing sector.

Laffont completely exited Coatue’s stake in Palantir

Let me preface the following discussion by pointing out that Coatue Management is an actively managed fund. The average top-10 holding has been held for less than a year. Further, Laffont reduced his fund’s stake in 30 companies and completely sold out of 23 during the second quarter. In other words, Palantir was far from the only stock to be sent to the chopping block.

Nevertheless, the 4,816,195 shares sold by Coatue marked one of the largest shares sales of Palantir stock during the June-ended quarter.

Profit-taking is the most-logical reason Laffont and his team may have chosen to ring the register. Palantir had been a continuous holding for Coatue since the first quarter of 2023. At that time, shares could have been purchased for roughly $8. With Palantir’s stock hovering in the low-$20s during the second quarter, it looks as if Coatue banked a triple-digit gain on its initial stake.

Laffont may have also been skittish about Palantir’s premium valuation. On one hand, there is no substitute for the company’s AI-driven Gotham platform, which helps federal governments plan missions and collect data, or its enterprise-focused Foundry platform. Irreplaceability at scale is a trait that investors will gladly pay a premium for on Wall Street.

On the other hand, Palantir’s stock is currently near an all-time high and valued at almost 100 times forward-year earnings and 29 times forward-year sales. These are eye-popping multiples for a company growing sales by roughly 20% per year. Though Foundry has the potential to reaccelerate growth for Palantir in the future, the company’s valuation premium right now is borderline unjustifiable.

Despite being an artificial intelligence bull, the third reason Laffont may have chosen to dump Coatue’s entire stake in Palantir is the possibility of an AI bubble brewing.

Since the internet began going mainstream roughly three decades ago, there hasn’t been a game-changing technology that’s avoided an early stage bubble. Without fail, investors overestimate how quickly new innovations, trends, or technologies will be utilized by consumers and/or businesses. This recipe eventually leads to disappointment and a bubble-bursting event.

Although direct AI players, such as Nvidia, would be hit the hardest if the AI bubble bursts, Palantir is likely to be hampered by a slowdown in Ai-related spending.

Laffont’s Coatue Management is piling into this electrifying growth stock

But while Laffont and his team were busy sending shares of Palantir to the chopping block, they were avid buyers of America’s leading electric utility, NextEra Energy (NYSE: NEE).

During the June-ended quarter, Laffont’s fund gobbled up 282,544 additional shares of NextEra, which increased Coatue’s stake by 36% in three months to 1,066,083 shares. If this position remained static during the third quarter, it’d be worth more than $88 million, as of the closing bell on Oct. 15.

Traditionally, the utility sector is slow-growing and, for lack of a better word, boring. Investors buy utility stocks for their dividends and the consistency of their cash flow. It’s a sector that tends to outperform during periods of economic uncertainty and low interest rates.

However, seemingly none of this applies to NextEra Energy, which has delivered consistent high-single-digit earnings growth for more than a decade.

The factor that’s differentiated NextEra from the dozens of other publicly traded, slow-growing utilities is its focus on renewable energy. Management laid out a plan to invest a cumulative $85 billion to $95 billion in American infrastructure between 2022 and 2025, a majority of which is tied to clean-energy resources.

As of June 2024, the company had 72 gigawatts (GW) in capacity, 34 GW of which can be traced back to its renewable energy portfolio. No electric utility in the world is generating more capacity from solar or wind power than NextEra.

While investing in the future hasn’t been cheap, it’s notably reduced the company’s electricity generation costs and provided a tangible lift to the company’s bottom line and dividends. If future policy proposals from Capitol Hill necessitate a green shift for America’s electric utilities, NextEra would be miles ahead of the curve.

In addition to low-cost generation and a superior growth rate to its peers, NextEra still enjoys the advantages that come with being an electric utility. This includes being a monopoly or duopoly in the areas it services and generating predictable cash flow year after year.

The final thing worth mentioning about NextEra is that the other half of its 72 GW in capacity — i.e., its traditional electric utility operations, via Florida Power & Light, which aren’t powered by renewables — is regulated by the Florida Public Service Commission (FPSC). The advantage of being a regulated utility and needing approval from the FPSC to raise rates is that it ensures no exposure to wholesale electricity pricing.

NextEra Energy may not be a traditional “growth” stock, but it has a lengthy track record of delivering for its shareholders.

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Sean Williams has positions in NextEra Energy. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Berkshire Hathaway, NextEra Energy, Nvidia, and Palantir Technologies. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Billionaire Philippe Laffont Sold Coatue’s Entire Stake in Palantir and Is Piling Into an Electrifying Growth Stock Instead was originally published by The Motley Fool

Netflix (NFLX) stock rose as much as 5% in after-hours trading Thursday as the streaming giant beat third quarter EPS and revenue estimates and projected sales for the current quarter that came in ahead of Wall Street’s expectations.

Revenue beat Bloomberg consensus estimates of $9.78 billion to hit $9.83 billion in Q3, an increase of 15% compared to the same period last year, as the streamer continued to lean on revenue initiatives like its crackdown on password sharing and ad-supported tier, in addition to last year’s price hikes on certain subscription plans.

Netflix guided to fourth quarter revenue of $10.13 billion, a beat compared to consensus estimates of $10.01 billion.

For full-year 2025, the company sees revenue hitting between $43 billion and $44 billion compared to consensus estimates of $43.4 billion. This would represent growth of 11% to 13% from the company’s expected 2024 revenue guidance of $38.9 billion.

It expects full-year operating margins to hit 27%, an increase from the previous 26%, after the metric hit nearly 30% in the third quarter.

Diluted earnings per share (EPS) also beat estimates in the quarter, with the company reporting EPS of $5.40, above consensus expectations of $5.16 and well ahead of the $3.73 EPS figure it reported in the year-ago period. Netflix guided to fourth quarter EPS of $4.23, ahead of consensus calls for $3.90.

Subscribers also came in strong with another 5 million-plus subscribers added on the heels of breakout programming like “The Perfect Couple” and “Nobody Wants This.”

Subscriber additions of 5.07 million beat expectations of 4.5 million and follows the 8.05 million net additions the streamer added in the second quarter. The company had added 8.8 million paying users in Q3 2023.

“We expect paid net additions to be higher in Q4 than in Q3’24 due to normal seasonality and a strong content slate,” the company said, citing upcoming releases like “Squid Game” Season 2, the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight, and two NFL games on Christmas Day.

Investors have praised the company’s foray into sports and live events. Meanwhile, its ad tier continues to gain traction, accounting for over 50% of sign-ups in the countries where it’s offered during the third quarter.

“We continue to build our advertising business and improve our offering for advertisers,” the company said in the earnings release. “Ads membership was up 35% quarter on quarter, and our ad tech platform is on track to launch in Canada in Q4 and more broadly in 2025.”

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Last quarter, Netflix revealed it secured “a 150% plus increase in upfront ad sales commitments over 2023.” The company has previously said its goal is to make ads “a more substantial revenue stream that contributes to sustained, healthy revenue growth in 2025 and beyond.”

On the earnings call, Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters said that while ads won’t be a primary driver of revenue next year as “we’re still scaling that audience and that inventory faster than our ability to monetize it,” the company sees an “opportunity to close that gap.”

Leading up to the results, Netflix’s stock had been on a tear, with shares up around 45% since the start of the year and trading near all-time highs.

Analysts expect another price hike by the end of the year, which will likely serve as yet another catalyst for shares. But the stock’s recent run-up has led to some apprehension on Wall Street.

Price hike to come?

The company recently revealed subscribers watched over 94 billion hours on the platform from January to June as part of its latest biannual viewership report, although year-over-year engagement levels came in roughly flat — a potential headwind when it comes to pricing power, which has become especially important for streaming companies as consumers become more picky.

On average, US consumers subscribe to four streaming services and spend about $61 per month, according to the latest Digital Media Trends report from Deloitte. Retaining loyal subscribers over time is a challenge due to consumers churning out of, or canceling, their subscription plans.

Netflix last raised the price of its Standard plan in January 2022, upping the monthly cost to $15.49 from $13.99. It also raised the price of its Premium tier by $2 to $19.99 a month at the same time; the company again raised the cost of that plan last October to $22.99.

The company has yet to raise the price of its ad-supported offering, introduced less than two years ago, which remains one of the cheapest ad plans among all of the major streaming players at $6.99 a month.

“Given Netflix’s low cost per viewed hour, we see scope for the firm to raise US prices by 12% in 2025,” Citi analyst Jason Bazinet said ahead of the report.

The company recently phased out its lowest-priced ad-free streaming plan, making the $15.49 Standard plan its cheapest offering for an ad-free experience.

Alexandra Canal is a Senior Reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on X @allie_canal, LinkedIn, and email her at alexandra.canal@yahoofinance.com.

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