Micron Technology (MU -2.83%) stock fell 2.8% through 3:15 p.m. ET Wednesday despite beating earnings and giving strong guidance last night.

Heading into its fiscal fourth-quarter 2025 report, analysts forecast Micron would earn $2.86 per share on $11.2 billion in revenue. In fact, Micron earned $3.03 per share (adjusted for one-time items) in the period ended Aug. 28, and sales were $11.3 billion. Management forecast strong sequential growth in both sales and profits in fiscal Q1 2026.

Micron Q4 earnings

Despite investors giving Micron stock the cold shoulder today, Micron’s numbers looked red-hot. Quarterly sales grew 45% year over year. Gross profit margin gained nearly 10 full percentage points, rising to 44.7%, and operating margin gained 12 points to 32.3%.

On the bottom line, earnings as calculated according to generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) rose to $2.83 — not quite as good as the adjusted earnings, but still more than triple what Micron earned a year ago.

For the full year fiscal 2025, Micron booked $37.4 billion in revenue (49% sales growth), and earned $7.59 per share.

Is Micron stock a buy?

So why are investors upset with the results? Here’s one possibility: Although not highlighted in the report, buried deep within the cash-flow statement it appears that while Micron delivered powerful operating cash flow in fiscal 2025 — $17.5 billion, or more than twice the cash generated in fiscal 2024 — Micron then had to turn around and spend almost all its cash on capital expenditures.

The company still ended up with positive free cash flow for the year, but only $1.7 billion. Turns out, for every $1 in GAAP profit the company earned, it generated only $0.20 in real cash profit.

With numbers like those, I might be tempted to sell Micron stock myself.

Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Shares of leading online pet goods retailer Chewy (CHWY 2.26%) are down 15% this week as of 1 p.m. ET on Thursday, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence. Chewy reported second-quarter earnings on Wednesday, delivering a 9% increase in sales and a 38% rise in adjusted earnings per share (EPS).

However, management guided for a slower 7.5% sales growth and just $0.30 in adjusted EPS (down from $0.33 in Q2) in its upcoming quarter, prompting this week’s sell-off.

Market reaction aside, Chewy is firing on all cylinders

Drops like these are peculiar. Yes, guidance was a bit conservative, but there’s a solid chance that Chewy ends up beating its estimates anyway in the upcoming quarter.

And as for the company’s actual Q2 results, things look great.

Not only were sales up 9%, but Chewy’s autoship sales (such as recurring dog food purchases) rose 15% — now accounting for 83% of the company’s total sales. These figures indicate that the majority of Chewy’s sales are recurring, predictable, and stable, establishing a substantial sales base that should only grow over time.

On top of this stability, the company is diving into numerous higher-margin verticals, such as:

• Sponsored ads, which were a key driver for Chewy’s gross margin rising 90 basis points
• Chewy+, a new $49 per year membership program, which already equalled 3% of sales in July
• The launch of Get Real, a private-label, fresh dog food brand with premium pricing potential
• The opening of 20 total Chewy Vet Care locations by year’s end, bringing higher margins from the veterinary industry

Trading at 29 times forward earnings and with its profit margins set to continue improving over time, Chewy remains one of my favorite stocks right now — even after rising 29% over the last year.

A well-received quarterly earnings report was the news propelling SentinelOne‘s (S 7.44%) shares higher on Friday. In late-session trading the cybersecurity stock was up nearly 7% in value, a rate that looked particularly good given the S&P 500 index’s 0.7% dip.

A $1 billion quarter

SentinelOne’s second quarter of fiscal 2026 saw the company book just over $242 million in revenue for a rather impressive 22% improvement year over year. Zooming out some, annualized recurring revenue (ARR) rose by 24% to $1 billion, the first time it has reached the 10-figure level.

The company also pointed out that the number of clients with ARR of $100,000 or more increased by 24%, to a total of 1,513.

On the bottom line, non-GAAP (adjusted) net income more than tripled, to $13.2 million ($0.04 per share), from the year-ago result of $3.5 million.

SentinelOne essentially met the consensus analyst estimate for revenue. It did edge past the average pundit forecast for adjusted net profit, which was $0.03 per share.

In its earnings release, SentinelOne attributed the improvements to its integration of technologies that resonate with clients, including artificial intelligence (AI).

It quoted CEO Tomer Weingarten as saying that its “results highlight the momentum of our AI-powered platform, strengthening competitive position, and growing product differentiation.”

In-line revenue guidance

SentinelOne also proffered guidance for both its current (third) quarter and the entirety of fiscal 2026. For the latter period, it’s forecasting revenue of $998 million to slightly over $1 billion, with adjusted operating margin landing at 3%. The consensus analyst estimate for revenue is slightly under $999 million.

The company did not provide any bottom-line guidance.

Eric Volkman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends SentinelOne. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Investors sure liked what they saw when peering through the viewfinder of GoPro (GPRO 35.54%) stock on Monday. Absent of any proprietary, share price-moving news, the company seemed to benefit from what appeared to be the latest meme stock rally.

With this considerable tailwind, GoPro shares closed the day almost 36% higher in price, numerous orders of magnitude better than the S&P 500‘s (^GSPC -0.43%) 0.4% drop.

A modern watercooler stock

GoPro is one of the latest crop of meme stocks, and as ever, that clutch of titles can rocket higher or plunge lower, depending on internet chatter.

This has happened to GoPro before, and it seems as if it fueled Monday’s surge — after all, the company had no news of its own to report, nor did it disclose any developments in its operations (or with its stock) in any regulatory filing.

One key element that puts GoPro in a position where it can be very volatile on the market is its extremely low price (which was barely over $1.20 Monday morning before the rally kicked in). At such a level, it doesn’t take much to move a stock drastically either up or down, so even a little bit of online buzz can move GoPro sharply.

A concerning quarter

Although the company didn’t have any news to report today, it’s hit the headline in recent trading sessions. Earlier this month it published its second-quarter earnings report, revealing a worrying (18%) year-over-year decline in revenue, on the back of a 23% decline in action cameras, its main product category.

It also posted the latest in a string of bottom-line losses, although that latest deficit was narrower than that of the year-ago period.

Eric Volkman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

The S&P 500 closed up 0.14%, and the Nasdaq rose 0.38%, paring gains after touching new all-time intraday highs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average reversed lower, slipping 19 points, or 0.04%.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury dropped 4.7 basis points to 4.384%. The U.S. dollar fell 0.55% against the euro and sank 0.97% against the yen. That’s after upper-house parliamentary elections in Japan were not as disastrous for Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s coalition as feared, though his future remains in doubt.

Gold jumped 1.52% to $3,409.50 per ounce. U.S. oil prices dipped 0.52% to $66.99 per barrel, and Brent crude lost 0.42% to $68.99.

Verizon helped the market after beating quarterly earnings forecasts and raising its profit outlook for the year. Shares of the telecom giant surged 4%.

That follows upbeat results last week from big banks like JPMorgan, which said U.S. consumers remain resilient despite headwinds from tariffs.

After the first week of this earnings season, 73% of companies have beaten per-share profit estimates, above the first-week average of 68%, according to Bank of America.

Other companies reporting this week include Tesla, Alphabet, Intel, Coca-Cola, Lockheed Martin, General Motors, RTX, Northrop Grumman, IBM, AT&T, Honeywell, and Union Pacific.

Meanwhile, Trump’s trade war and his war on the Fed are still hanging over the market.

On Monday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC that trade talks are moving along, adding that getting a good deal is more important than the timing of a deal. That could suggest the Aug. 1 deadline, when higher tariff rates are due to kick in, may be more flexible.

In the same interview, he also ramped up pressure on Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, who has resisted Trump’s calls to lower rates. Bessent said “the entire Federal Reserve institution” should be examined.

That’s after the White House accused Powell of mismanagement over the Fed headquarters renovation, while backing off suggestions he should be fired.