April Monthly Roundup: Locking in Big Gains as We Pull Ahead of the S&P 500

As mentioned previously and in the Portfolio’s Forum, we are bringing you the April Monthly Roundup earlier than usual this time as I deal with moving into a new home next week. We will have a regular Weekly Roundup for you on Friday, May 1, and in it we will wrap the Portfolio's and market's full performance in April and get you ready for the first full week of trading in May. - CV

It was another positive week for the markets, albeit a somewhat volatile one, fueled by President Trump extending the U.S. ceasefire with Iran for three weeks and an earnings season that so far has been largely positive. With more than 70% of the S&P 500 yet to report, the final grade on the current earnings season is incomplete, and what we hear from industrial and consumer-facing companies could determine that grade.

Still, it was another positive week, with fresh highs for the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite. It was also a wonderful week for the Pro Portfolio as substantial moves in several of our holdings and continued strength in the EPS Diplomats basket extended our lead over the S&P 500 on a year-to-date basis. More on that below.

It is more than enjoyable to take in the performance of our holdings as the seeds we planted months and quarters ago bloom, supported by positive developments, catching the market’s attention. However, we would not be doing our job if we weren’t looking around the corners for what’s ahead, minding the market’s technical setup and where we are on the risk-to-reward continuum. The market's rally over the last few weeks has been nothing short of outstanding, something we can also say for the Portfolio.

Double-digit gains in the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite in a relatively short period of time from their late-March bottom kept them in the overbought condition we discussed in last week’s Roundup. We recognize that condition can play out but it also means the expectations bar for earnings reports we’re about to get, especially those tied to AI and data center, is now set even higher.

That and the severe overbought condition in some of our holdings led us to lock in gains, some of which were rather significant, over the last few weeks. As we said this week when we made one such trade, not doing so would be irresponsible. If need be, we will make similar moves in the coming days.

The bottom line is that our patience and heeding the signals we collect each week have paid off rather handsomely. But we also know this is just a snapshot in time, and to maintain our position, more work is required. We'll have a lot of that to chew through next week and the week after.

So, enjoy your weekend, and we’ll see you back here, bright and early on Monday as we kick off a big week of earnings and assess where we stand on the U.S.-Iran front.

Catching Up on the Portfolio This Week

It was a busy week for the Portfolio, but also a very positive one as our collective holdings extended their lead over the S&P 500. For that we can thank the short-covering-led surge in United Rentals  (URI) , a double-digit climb in Marvell Technology  (MRVL) , as well as eight other stocks that climbed faster than the market this week. The Portfolio’s EPS Diplomats quarter-to-date gain reached ~35% as we closed out the week, roughly 3.6x the S&P 500’s move.

That collective strength was built on the Portfolio’s outperformance earlier this month, leading to a low double-digit gain with four trading days left to go in April. In turn, that catapulted the Portfolio’s year-to-date return to more than 7% from being down 5.7% at the end of Q1 2026. To be fair, our market-hedging positions we started on April 2 have worked against us so far, but as we move into arguably the biggest week of earnings with the S&P 500, Nasdaq Composite, and the Russell 2000 in overbought conditions, keeping that protection on is a prudent move.

We used the underlying strength as well as the severe overbought condition in Marvell to ring the register multiple times this week on those shares, locking in aggregate gains of more than 130%. We did the same with United Rentals, cementing a massive gain of 215% in the process.

In addition to those moves, earlier in April, we locked in gains in Amazon  (AMZN) , Arista Networks  (ANET) , Broadcom  (AVGO) , SuRo Capital  (SSSS) , and a few other slugs of Marvell shares. We also picked up more shares of Palantir  (PLTR) , Axon  (AXON) , and Netflix  (NFLX) . Those combined moves leave our cash position at just under 11% of the Portfolio’s assets, again, at a time when the major market averages are overbought and the Fear & Greed Index is flashing “Greed.”

We will pick our spots carefully and deploy capital when and where it makes good sense to do so. With the Department of Justice dropping its probe into the Fed and Fed Chair Powell, the path to confirm Fed Chair nominee Kevin Warsh is clear. Recent inflation data and likely the data to come should keep the Fed on the rate-cut sidelines for now, but we acknowledge that Warsh is more inclined to cut rates when he can.

With that in mind, we’ll revisit some more interest rate-sensitive plays for the Portfolio. We’ll also use the rest of the Q1 2026 earnings season to scout out candidates for the Portfolio and Bullpen. In terms of existing positions, we have room to add to Netflix, Applied Materials  (AMAT) , Welltower  (WELL) , TJX  (TJX) , the First Trust Nasdaq Cybersecurity ETF  (CIBR)  and one or two others… but only at the right price and the right risk-to-reward tradeoff.

Now let’s see what others on Wall Street had to say about the Portfolio’s holdings this week:

Monday: Evercore added Arista Networks to its “Tactical Outperform” list, BofA lifted its Amazon target to $298 from $275, while KeyBanc added $40 to its AMZN target, putting it at $325.

Tuesday: RBC jumped its Marvell target to $170 from $115, while UBS upped its Meta  (META)  target to $908 from $872.

Wednesday: BMO upped its Alphabet  (GOOGL)  target by $10 to $410, while Citi trimmed $35 off its Microsoft  (MSFT)  target, resetting it at $600.

Thursday: BMO and UBS nudged their Amazon targets to $315 and $304, respectively.

Friday: Citi took its United Rentals target to $1,130, while Morgan Stanley reset its at $1,030 and JPMorgan took its to $1,050. Oppenheimer raised its Amazon target to $275 from $260. BofA nudged its American Express  (AXP)  target to $387 from $381.

This Month’s Podcasts and Signals

Big discussions and insights are had during TheStreet Stocks & Markets Podcast, and in Signals where we share the latest news for the Pro Portfolio’s strategies. Here are some quick links to those conversations conducted over the last several weeks:

April 1: Stocks & Markets Podcast: Uranium, SMRs, and Eagle Nuclear Energy's Opportunity

April 8: Stocks & Markets Podcast: Iran, Oil, and Volatility. How Our Pros Are Positioning Portfolios for the Rest of 2026

April 11: 30 Portfolio Signals Across 8 of Our Investing Themes

April 18: We're Tracking 25 Signals Across 10 of Our Investment Themes

Some helpful links if you prefer to catch the podcast on the go, in the car, or wherever. Be sure to give it a like or thumbs up and leave a review if you’re so inclined. We’d appreciate it.

YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify

Key Global Economic Readings

(Note: T is the most recent period, T-1 is the prior period's reading, and T-2 is two periods back, the intent being to illustrate any trends.)

Chart of the Week: VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH)

When you consider the semiconductor group represents 83% of the total weighted Nasdaq 100  (QQQ)  index then you soon realize the stock market just cannot go up without this sector. Sixteen of the 30 SOX members are also in the Nasdaq 100, including Nvidia  (NVDA) , Broadcom  (AVGO) , Taiwan Semiconductor  (TSM)  and Intel  (INTC) . This sector is a dominant force in driving stock market performance and responsible for a significant number of gains all together. When the semis are strong, the rest of the market responds in kind.

Recently that has been the view for the markets, with strong leadership from the VanEck Semiconductor ETF  (SMH) . This instrument has had an astonishing move — a breakout in early April and a follow-on move. The best trends are very difficult to get onboard with, and no question the SMH has been hard. The dips have been short and shallow, meaning every one is being bought quickly and they are not deep at all. Even the sharp drop seven sessions ago was bought up quickly and barely shows any damage to the chart.

This is a bull market in semiconductors, and no question this action has pushed markets to new all-time highs (S&P 500 and Nasdaq). The SMH chart is pristine, with higher highs and higher lows, which is our textbook definition of an uptrend. Stochastics (momentum) are embedded, which means dip buyers can step in and pick up shares without the threat of too much risk.

Money flow is robust, while relative strength is extremely high and rising. This is not a signal to short, rather it is simply a condition which could last awhile. New all-time highs are usually bullish if the stock/ETF continues onward. As more names report this earnings season a spotlight will be on the semiconductor names. We’ll see if the SMH can continue its bullish move on the way to $500.

Other charts we shared with you this past week were:

Monday, April 20: S&P 500 - New Highs Cannot Be Anything but Bullish

Monday, April 20: Credo Technology (CRDO) - Credo Gets the Call One More Time

Tuesday, April 21: DR Horton (DHI) - A Bullpen Name Quietly Builds Momentum

Wednesday, April 22: Arista Networks (ANET) - This Holding's Explosive Move May Not Be Finished

Thursday, April 23: Applied Materials (AMAT) - All Indicators on Applied Materials Point Higher

The Week Ahead

With four trading days left in April, the economic calendar will be a full one next week, and alongside it, a barn burner for first-quarter earnings. A total of 181 S&P 500 constituents are expected to report next week, which means by the time we get to the end of it, roughly two-thirds of the index’s basket will have reported. Updated guidance that includes the impact of the U.S.-Iran conflict, higher energy and fuel prices, and supply chain issues will tell us how accurate market expectations are for the S&P 500 to deliver 20% year-over-year EPS growth. The answer to that could also give rise to questions about the S&P 500’s P/E ratio, which closed this week near 22x based on consensus 2026 EPS of $325.11.

Before we get there, however, we will get several key pieces of economic data, including the initial reading for Q1 2026 GDP. The New York Fed’s Nowcast model pegs the quarter at 2.3% with an early forecast of 2.75% for Q2 2026. By comparison, the Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow model sees a Q1 2026 reading more like 1.2%. Friday’s April Manufacturing PMI report from ISM and what it shows for inflation pressures and job creation, will be rather revealing, in our view, as they showcase many of the headwinds we’ve been talking about with you.

The thing is, given the extended three-week ceasefire, the longer we see elevated energy, fuel, petrochemical, and related prices, the greater the likely economic headwind. Reports on Friday about restarting peace talks between the U.S. and Iran helped lift the market, but as we’ve said many times before, the details for any meaningful peace talks will matter, as will the opening up of the Strait of Hormuz.

Here's a closer look at the economic data coming at us next week:

U.S.

Monday, April 27

Dallas Fed Manufacturing Index – April (10:30 AM ET)

Tuesday, April 28

ADP Employment Change – Weekly (8:15 AM ET)

FHFA Housing Price Index – February (9:00 AM ET)

S&P Case Shiller Home Price Index – March (9:00 AM ET)

Consumer Confidence – April (10:00 AM ET)

Wednesday, April 29

MBA Mortgage Applications Index – Weekly (7:00 AM ET)

Housing Starts & Building Permits – March (8:30 AM ET)

Durable Goods Orders – March (8:30 AM ET)

New Home Sales – March (10:00 AM ET)

EIA Crude Oil Inventories – Weekly (10:30 AM ET)

Thursday, April 30

Initial & Continuing Jobless Claims – Weekly (8:30 AM ET) 

GDP – Q1 2026 (8:30 AM ET)

Employment Cost Index, PCE Price Index – Q1 2026 (8:30 ET)

Personal Income & Spending – March (8:30 AM ET)

PCE Price Index – March (8:30 AM ET)

EIA Natural Gas Inventories – Weekly (10:30 AM ET)

Friday, May 1

S&P Global Manufacturing PMI (Final) – April (9:45 AM ET)

ISM Manufacturing PMI – April (10:00 AM ET)

Construction Spending – March (10:00 AM ET)

International

Monday, April 27

China: Industrial Profits - March

Tuesday, April 28

Japan: Bank of Japan interest rate decision

Wednesday, April 29

Japan: Housing Starts – March

Eurozone: Economic Sentiment & Consumer Confidence - April

Thursday, April 30

Japan: Retail Sales – March

China: NBS Manufacturing & Non-Manufacturing PMI – April

China: RatingDog Manufacturing PMI – April

Eurozone: GDP – Q1 2026 (Flash)

Eurozone: Inflation Rate – April (Flash)

Eurozone: European Central Bank interest rate decision

UK: Bank of England interest rate decision

Friday, May 1

Japan: S&P Global Manufacturing PMI (Final) – April

UK: Bank of England Consumer Credit – March

UK - S&P Global Manufacturing PMI (Final) – April 

Both the Portfolio and the market have a very big week ahead, not just in the number of companies reporting but their collective weight in the S&P 500. At a time when the S&P 500, the Nasdaq Composite, and the Russell 2000 are at or near all-time highs and in an overbought condition, their aggregate quarterly results and guidance will play a heavy role in the market’s move as we close out April and enter May. 

Portfolio and S&P 500 heavyweights Apple  (AAPL) , Microsoft  (MSFT) , Amazon  (AMZN) , Alphabet  (GOOGL) , and Meta  (META)  are mong those companies reporting next week. Their combined weighting accounts for just under 25% of the S&P 500. AI and digital infrastructure announcements from Amazon, Alphabet, and Meta have been responsible for re-igniting investor interest in AI and data-center stocks, and that will put the growth rates for the cloud-related businesses and their margins, as well as their capital spending plans, in focus. Based on AI adoption and usage statistics, we could very well see them guide capex levels higher, a move that could also renew questions over when capacity digestion will lead to a rebound in margins. 

We’ll get more into what we expect from Portfolio holdings reporting next week in their respective write-ups below. We will share, however, that we are very interested in how Apple utilizes incoming CEO John Ternus on its earnings call.

Here's a closer look at the earnings reports coming at us next week:

Monday, April 27

· Open: Domino’s Pizza (DPZ), Verizon (VZ)

· Close: Alexandria RE (ARE), Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY), Celestica (CLS), Crane (CR), LendingClub (LC), Nucor (NUE), Universal Health (UHS)

Tuesday, April 28

· Open: American Tower (AMT), Armstrong World (AWI), BP (BP), Coca-Cola (KO), General Motors (GM), JetBlue (JBLU), Kimberly Clark (KMB), Paccar (PCAR), Pentair (PNR), Polaris Industries (PII), Sherwin-Williams (SHW), Sysco (SYS), UPS (UPS),

· Close: A10 Networks (ATEN), Bloom Energy (BE), Booking Holdings (BKNG), Caesars Entertainment (CZR), F5 Networks (FFIV), Ingersoll-Rand (IR), Logitech (LOGI), Mondelez (MDLZ), NXP Semi (NXPI), Omega Health (OHI), Robinhood (HOOD), Starbucks (SBUX), T-Mobile (TMUS), Visa (V), Waste Management (WM), Welltower (WELL)

Wednesday, April 29

· Open: AbbVie (ABBV), ADP (ADP), Cognizant (CTSH), Extreme Networks (EXTR), GE Healthcare (GEHC), General Dynamics (GD), IDEX Corp. (IEX), Stanley Black & Decker (SWK), TradeWeb Markets (TW), Vulcan Materials (VMC), Wingstop (WING), Yum China (YUMC), Yum! Brands (YUM)

· Close: Alphabet (GOOGL), Amazon (AMZN), American Water Works (AWK), Cheesecake Factory (CAKE), Chipotle (CMG), Equinix (EQIX), Ethan Allen (ETD), Ford Motor (F), Mattel (MAT), Meta Platforms (META), MGM Resorts (MGM), Microsoft (MSFT), Pilgrim’s Pride (PPC), Qualcomm (QCOM)

Thursday, April 30

· Open: Air Products (APD), Altria (MO), Builders FirstSource (BLDR), Caterpillar (CAT), Check Point Software (CHKP), CNH Industrial (CNHI), Comcast (CMCSA), Eli Lilly (LLY), Granite Construction (GVA), Hershey (HSY), Labcorp (LH), Mastercard (MA), Molson Coors (TAP), Parker-Hannifin (PH), Textron (TXT), Trinity Industries (TRN), XPO (XPO)

· Close: Apple (AAPL), Beazer Homes (BZH), Boston Beer (SAM), First Solar (FSLR), Roblox (RBLX), SanDisk (SNDK), Tanger Factory (SKT), Universal Display (OLED), Western Digital (WDC)

Friday, May 1

· Open: AutoNation (AN), Cboe Global Markets (CBOE), Chevron (CVX), Colgate Palmolive (CL), Dominion Energy (D), Estee Lauder (EL), Exxon Mobil (XOM), Lazard (LAZ)

Portfolio Investor Resource Guide

· Economic Data: Here's a List of Links to the Key Economic Data We Closely Watch

· Investing Terminology: 16 Key Terms Club Members Should Know

· 10-Ks: Want to Know About a Stock? Read the Company's Reports

· 10-Qs: Unlock the Numbers and Key Information Behind Your Stock With the 10-Q

· Income Statement: Our Cheat Sheet to Understanding This Financial Document

· Balance Sheet, Cash Flow Statements, and Dividends: How to Know If a Company Is Off-Kilter? Read Its Balance Sheet

· Valuation Metrics: Everyone Wants a Value. Here's How Investors Can Find

· Thematic Investing 101 Webinar

· Like the Benefits of ETFs? Let’s Talk About Models

The Portfolio Ratings System

1 - Buy Now (BN): Stocks that look compelling to buy right now.

2 - Stockpile (SP): Positions we would add to on pullbacks or a successful test of technical support levels.

3 - Holding Pattern (HP): Stocks we are holding as we wait for a fresh catalyst to make our next move.

4 - Sell (S): Positions we intend to exit.

ONES

Axon Enterprise AXON; $397.12; 500 shares; 3.38%; Sector: Aerospace & Defense

UPDATE: On February 25, we trimmed back exposure to Axon  (AXON)  shares following their explosive post-earnings move, locking in gains at $542.90. Subsequent to that trade, the shares followed software and other tech stocks lower in March and the first half of April, but rebounded sharply as we moved into the second part of the month. With less than a handful of trading days left in April, AXON was a drag on the Portfolio month to date. We used that early April pullback to add to the position, once on April 8 and again on April 14. Our decision to make these buys was fueled by the oversold condition in the stock as well as our view that the pressure on AXON was misplaced given its near 50-50 split between hardware and software and its total future contracted bookings of $14.4 billion exiting 2025. Adding to our conviction, in mid-April, Axon announced three new AI products during the keynote for its annual Axon Week event. As we discussed in that Alert, these solutions move Axon into more value-added services, one that builds on the company’s existing relationships, and should help it capture more addressable market dollars when renegotiating customer contracts. That should help build its multi-year future contracted bookings over time, and that is a key barometer for us and Axon’s visibility. Axon is a hardware and services company, not too different from Apple, even though Axon’s revenue and gross profit exposure to its Software & Services segment is larger than that at Apple. The point is that Axon is not just a software company, and that is hammered home with the fact that 46% of its gross profit dollars come from its hardware/connected device segment. This speaks to the nature of Wall Street analyst coverage and how, from time to time, companies get slotted in industry verticals that aren’t always a perfect match. That misperception, when it happens, can be helpful to those of us who understand a company’s underlying business model. And while we expect Axon’s Software & Services to become a larger part of the overall business mix, labeling it as “just a software company” is a long, long way off. We continue to see Axon benefiting from the police officer shortage as well as public safety, retail and other markets adopting its body camera and hardware offerings, which pull through its higher-margin service offerings.

April MTD Price Change: -6.5%; Yield: 0.00%

INVESTMENT THESIS: Axon Enterprise develops, manufactures, and sells conducted energy devices and cloud-based digital evidence management software designed for use by law enforcement, corrections, military forces, private security personnel, and private individuals for personal defense. The company operates in two segments: Taser (recently renamed Connected Devices) and Software & Sensors (recently renamed Software & Services). Taser develops and sells CEDs used for protecting users and virtual reality training. Software & Sensors manufactures fully integrated hardware and cloud-based software solutions such as body cameras, automated license plate reading, and digital evidence management systems. Axon delivers its products worldwide and gets most of its revenue from the United States. According to Mordor Intelligence, the wearable and body-worn cameras market on its own was valued at $1.62 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach $424.63 billion by 2026. Public safety organizations are increasingly adopting cloud solutions, leading to significant spending in this area. The digital spending in public safety is projected to reach $201 billion by 2027.

Target Price: Reiterate $700; Rating: One

Panic Point: $330

RISKS: Manufacturing and supply chain, competitive factors, government regulation, and technology change.

Bank of America Corp. BAC; $52.05; 4,245 shares; 3.76%; Sector: Financial Services

UPDATE: Shares of Bank of America  (BAC)  have gained nearly 7% so far in April wiping away a good chunk of their Q1 2026 decline. The catalysts for the upward move includes Iran-related market volatility that benefited BofA's trading desk and continued strength in investment banking activity. That laid the groundwork for BofA Q1 2026 earnings beat, and the subsequent market strength pushed the shares into an overbought condition. Part of what fueled that positive post earnings reaction was BofA upping its 2026 net interest income (NII) forecast to be up 6%-8% year over year compared to its prior guidance of 5%-7%. While we saw sufficient upside remaining to our $65 target to maintain our One rating, that overbought condition means members who are underweight the shares should wait for a pullback. The next level of support clocks in near $52, the 100-day moving average, but there is much stronger support between $50-$51, given the intersection of the 50 and 200-day moving averages. Continued market volatility bodes well for BofA’s trading operations, while its investment banking operation is poised to benefit from continued strength in M&A, IPO and secondary offerings. We’ll continue to monitor BofA’s efforts to keep a lid on its expenses, watching how it leverages AI and other technologies to do so. On top of that, the growing likelihood that the Fed doesn’t deliver a rate cut this year should help overall expectations for NII expectations.

April MTD Price Change: 6.8%; Yield: 2.15%

INVESTMENT THESIS: Bank of America is one of the world's leading financial institutions, serving individual consumers, small- and middle-market businesses, and large corporations with a full range of banking, investing, asset management, and other financial and risk management products and services. The company provides unmatched convenience in the United States, serving approximately 69 million consumers and small business clients with approximately 3,700 retail financial centers, approximately 15,000 ATMs, and award-winning digital banking with approximately 59 million verified digital users. Bank of America is a global leader in wealth management, corporate and investment banking, and trading across a broad range of asset classes, serving corporations, governments, institutions, and individuals around the world. Bank of America offers industry-leading support to approximately 3 million small business households through a suite of innovative, easy-to-use online products and services. The company serves clients through operations across the United States, its territories, and approximately 35 countries. From a reporting perspective, the company's business breaks down as follows: Net Interest Income breakdown: Consumer Banking 57%, Global Banking 23%, Global Wealth & Investment Management 14%, and Global Markets 6%; Income Before Tax breakdown: Consumer Banking 42%, Global Banking 27%, Global Wealth & Investment Management 16%, and Global Markets 15%. Bank of America pays a quarterly dividend of $0.28 per share, up from $0.18 a few years ago.

Target Price: $65; Rating: One

Panic Point: $45

RISKS: Financial markets, fiscal, monetary, and regulatory policies, economic conditions, and credit ratings.

Costco Wholesale COST; $1,011.15; 215 shares; 3.70%; Sector: Consumer Staples

UPDATE: Coming off a strong Q1 2026 move of more than 15%, shares of Costco (COST) have built further on that so far in April. On April 9, we lifted our COST price target to $1,150 from $1,100 following the company’s stellar March comp sales report. By the numbers, Costco reported an 11.3% year-over-year increase in sales to $28.4 billion for the five weeks ended April 5, which included the Easter holiday. The more examined monthly comp sales figures, the ones that are adjusted to exclude gas prices and foreign exchange, were as follows: U.S. +6.2%, Canada +5.4%, Other International +6.6%, and total company +6.2%. Digital sales on that adjusted basis rose 22.5%. Closing out that monthly update, Costco noted it had 928 active warehouse locations, up from 903 as of April 6, 2025, and 924 at the end of February 2026. That means Costco is expected to open 24 additional locations in the current fiscal year, and we’d remind you of its plans to open “30+ new openings per year in the coming years.” More locations mean more members, which translates into higher membership fee revenue, something we recognize as Costco’s highest margin business and a big generator of pre-tax income. The March Retail Sales report brought supporting context for Costco continuing to win consumer wallet share both on an in-store basis and a digital one. We continue to see Costco benefiting from consumers contending with renewed inflationary pressures as they look to stretch their spending dollars. On April 15, Costco announced a 13.1% increase for its quarterly dividend, which lands it next dividend payment at $1.47 per share. That new dividend is payable on May 15 to shareholders of record on May 1.

April MTD Price Change: 1.5%; Yield: 0.58%

INVESTMENT THESIS: We like Costco's long-term prospects, driven by a club-based operating model that focuses on volumes, not margins, and therefore offers its customers a value proposition of everyday low prices. The strength of this model has created an incredibly loyal customer base with low churn and continued share gains in both brick-and-mortar and e-commerce. This is a global concept, evidenced by the strength of sales both in the U.S. and abroad, which includes an emerging China opportunity. We see the company's membership model as a key differentiator versus other retailers, and its plans to open additional warehouse locations in the coming quarters should drive retail volumes and the higher-margin membership fee income as well. We also appreciate management's approach to capital returns and their willingness to return cash.

Target Price: Reiterate $1,150; Rating: One

Panic Point: $900

RISKS: Inability to pass through higher costs, fuel prices, weaker consumer, and membership churn.

First Trust Nasdaq Cybersecurity ETF CIBR; $67.24; 2,730 shares; 3.12%; Sector: Cybersecurity

UPDATE: Shares of the First Trust Nasdaq Cybersecurity ETF  (CIBR)  have regained quite a bit of ground, along with the larger technology sector, so far in April. That move has helped erase most of the Q1 2026 decline in the ETF. Our position remains that AI in the hands of bad actors would not only accelerate the velocity of cyberattacks but expand their scope as well. We see further attack vectors driving the need for greater cybersecurity spending in the coming quarters, and each week we see confirming real-world signals supporting that view. In late March, reports indicated Anthropic was privately warning top government officials that it’s not-yet-released model — currently branded "Mythos" — makes large-scale cyberattacks much more likely in 2026. What this means is bad actors will be able to scale with more compute and no longer be limited by finite personnel as a single person would be able to run campaigns that once required entire teams. Needless to say, we remain bullish on the long-term prospects for cybersecurity spending as companies, governments and other institutions need to protect their crown jewels. While CIBR shares have recovered, we see further upside ahead. Near-term, the shares have bounced off their 100-day moving average near $68, and that means a smarter entry point is likely to be closer to the next level of support near $65.

April MTD Price Change: 7.3%; Yield: 0.45%

INVESTMENT THESIS: The First Trust Nasdaq Cybersecurity ETF seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield (before the fund's fees and expenses) of an equity index called the Nasdaq CTA Cybersecurity Index. The Nasdaq CTA Cybersecurity Index is designed to track the performance of companies engaged in the cybersecurity segment of the technology and industrial sectors. It includes companies primarily involved in the building, implementation, and management of security protocols applied to private and public networks, computers, and mobile devices to protect the integrity of data and network operations. To be included in the index, a security must be listed on an index-eligible global stock exchange and classified as a cybersecurity company as determined by the Consumer Technology Association. Each security must have a worldwide market capitalization of $250 million, have a minimum three-month average daily dollar trading volume of $1 million, and have a minimum free float of 20%.

Target Price: Reiterate $85; Rating: One

Panic Point: $68

RISKS: Cybersecurity spending, technology and product development, the timing of the product sales cycle, new products, and services in response to rapid technological changes and market developments, as well as evolving security threats.

Meta Platforms META; $675.03; 337 shares; 3.87%; Sector: Communication Services

UPDATE: Similar to many other tech stocks, April to date has seen a sharp rebound in Meta  (META) , and that move has them contributing, albeit modestly, to the Portfolio’s YTD return. During the month, the company made multiple headlines about tying up chip and other capacity needed for its multi-year capital spending plans, with Broadcom, CoreWeave, and Amazon. It also introduced Muse Spark, the first AI model developed by its Superintelligence group, signaling a deeper push into the competitive AI landscape. Muse is expected to incorporate new features that cite recommendations and content people share across Instagram, Facebook, and Threads, and should come to WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, Messenger, and AI glasses in the “near-term." We see that shoring up Meta’s AI competitive position while driving internal productivity and prospects for margin expansion. Mid-month, it was revealed Meta is testing a subscription service on WhatsApp that allows users to pay for cosmetic customizations, including ringtones, themes, and icons. We see this as part of the company’s efforts to monetize that platform, but we will be looking to see if its success leads to similar initiatives across more platforms. This week, Meta confirmed plans to trim its workforce by ~8,000 and close 6,000 open roles as it focuses on productivity initiatives and offset AI spending. We continue to see Meta as extremely well positioned for the continued shift toward digital advertising while its margins benefit from internal AI initiatives and a tight rein on expenses. When Meta reports its Q1 2026 earnings next week, while some will be focused on its family daily active people (DAP) metrics, we’ll be even more focused on family average revenue per person (ARPP) and average price per ad figures. Given the supply chain tie-ups reported so far this year, we could see Meta step up its capital spending plans yet again, and that has the potential to renew margin and EPS-related questions. That could pressure META shares in the near-term, but we view Meta as extremely well positioned for the continued shift toward digital advertising while its margins benefit from internal AI initiatives and a tight rein on expenses. Subject to the reaction to Meta’s earnings report, we may have some room to top off the Portfolio’s exposure.

April MTD Price Change: 18.0%; Yield: 0.31%

INVESTMENT THESIS: Meta segments its business between Family of App Products, which includes Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Threads, and WhatsApp, and Reality Labs Products, which includes its metaverse and investments and future product R&D. Family of Apps accounts for about 99% of the company's revenue and 100% of the company's operating profits. Substantially all of Meta’s revenue is currently generated from advertising on Facebook and Instagram. Family daily active people (DAP) were ~3.6 billion on average for the December 2025 quarter. Meta expects to spend $162 billion-$169 billion on capex in 2026, a significant increase year over year, with most of this spending focused on AI infrastructure and initiatives. Meta is positioned to benefit from the ongoing shift toward digital advertising and the adoption of AI across its entire product offering. We recognize Meta is ramping up capital spending as part of the current AI arms race, but we see that as an investment that should drive productivity in its core advertising business. As the company harvests that investment, we could see a step up in margins, much like we saw in 2023.

Target Price: $850; Rating: One

Panic Point: $560

RISKS: Ability to add and retain users and user engagement; marketing spend; new products or changes to existing ones; competitive risk, geopolitical risk.

Nvidia Corp. NVDA; $208.27; 970 shares; 3.44%; Sector: Technology

UPDATE: While shares of Marvell and Broadcom have been stalwarts April-to-date, Nvidia  (NVDA)  has quietly produced double-digit gains over the same time frame, landing it more than just back in the black on a year-to-date basis. Despite the attention for the custom AI chip market, we continue to see Nvidia as extremely well positioned for the AI and data center buildout. The company is expected to sell at least $1 trillion worth of Blackwell and Rubin chips for the period from 2025 through to the end of 2027, up from its prior forecast of $500 billion by the end of 2026. Across the ecosystem, signals from Nvidia and its peers reinforced that demand is not the issue — capacity is — as hyperscalers move to lock in supply through multiyear agreements. We continue to watch for Nvidia to resume shipments to China, a market that at one point accounted for 13% of the company’s revenue. However, this week, Commerce Department Secretary Howard Lutnick said that the company still has yet to sell one to Chinese companies. We continue to track monthly revenue figures and earnings from Taiwan Semiconductor, Foxconn, HP Enterprise, Dell, Super Micro Computer, and others. When the hyperscalers report next week, we’ll be looking for updated capex comments as well as those from neoclouds and others building out AI and data center capacity. With AI adoption and usage rising, and the need to add more compute over the long-term, we’re inclined to remain NVDA holders. For the time being, we see sufficient upside to keep our One rating intact.

April MTD Price Change: 19.4%; Yield: 0.02%

INVESTMENT THESIS: Nvidia is well-positioned to benefit from ramping AI and data center spending. The company pioneered accelerated computing to help solve the most challenging computational problems. Nvidia is now a full-stack computing infrastructure company with data-center-scale offerings that are reshaping the industry. The company's full stack includes the foundational CUDA programming model that runs on all Nvidia GPUs, as well as hundreds of domain-specific software libraries, software development kits, or SDKs, and Application Programming Interfaces, or APIs. This deep and broad software stack accelerates the performance and eases the deployment of Nvidia accelerated computing for computationally intensive workloads such as artificial intelligence, model training and inference, data analytics, scientific computing, and 3D graphics, with vertical-specific optimizations to address industries ranging from healthcare and telecom to automotive and manufacturing. Nvidia reports in two business segments: Compute & Networking and Graphics. The Compute & Networking segment (78% of revenue, 85% of operating income) is comprised of Data Center accelerated computing platforms and end-to-end networking platforms, including Quantum for InfiniBand and Spectrum for Ethernet; NVIDIA DRIVE automated-driving platform and automotive development agreements; Jetson robotics and other embedded platforms; Nvidia AI Enterprise and other software; and DGX Cloud software and services. The Graphics segment (22% of revenue, 15% of operating income) includes GeForce GPUs for gaming and PCs, the GeForce NOW game streaming service and related infrastructure; Quadro/NVIDIA RTX GPUs for enterprise workstation graphics; virtual GPU, or vGPU, software for cloud-based visual and virtual computing; automotive platforms for infotainment systems; and Omniverse Enterprise software for building and operating metaverse and 3D internet applications.

Target Price: $250; Rating One

Panic Point: $160

RISKS: Market and interest rate risk, credit risk, country risk, and operational risk, including cybersecurity.

Palantir Technologies PLTR; $143.09; 1,385 shares; 3.37%; Sector: Financial Services

UPDATE: April has been a bit of a roller-coaster ride for Palantir  (PLTR) , with the shares, month to date, a modest drag on the Portfolio’s performance. That roller-coaster ride has been fueled by a string of program wins that began in early April with its Maven AI platform being named a program of record with the Pentagon and culminating with a $300 million win with the US Department of Agriculture announced this week. Those April wins build on others announced in Q1 2026, with consulting firm Bain, the renewal and expansion of its long‑standing partnership with Stellantis, and the U.K.'s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Mid-March, Palantir announced engagements with GE Aerospace, Nvidia, and Centrus Energy ahead of its AIPCon 9 event. We see these and other recent wins pointing to further gains in Palantir’s customer count and its total remaining deal value that stood at $11.2 billion exiting 2025. The company will update those metrics for us when it reports its Q1 2026 earnings on May 4. On April 13, we added more shares for the Portfolio near $130, and given the remaining upside to our $220 price target we continue to rate the shares a One. As the company continues to announce new and expanded relationships, and grow its TCV, we’ll patiently wait for the market to realize the current opportunity in the stock.

April MTD Price Change: -2.2%; Yield: 0.00%

INVESTMENT THESIS: Palantir Technologies specializes in big data analytics and builds software platforms that help organizations integrate, analyze, and make sense of vast amounts of data for both commercial and government clients. While much has been made about the company’s exposure to the federal government, its software is used across 90 industries, and the larger global government sector accounted for 55% of revenue last year. The balance was from the commercial sector. Exiting 2025, Palantir's U.S. Commercial remaining deal value (RDV) stood at $4.38 billion, up 145% year over year, and its Total Contract Value (TCV) stood at $10.8 billion, up 128% year over year. We will continue to monitor Palantir’s RDV and deferred revenue metrics. Key items to watch include continued diversification of its customer base across industries and increasing revenue per customer. Because we are still in the relatively early innings of AI adoption, we are inclined to be long-term owners of PLTR shares.

Target Price: $220; Rating: One

Panic Point: $114

RISKS: Economic and IT budget spending risk, technology risk, competition and competitive pressures, and customer acquisition risk.

SuRo Capital SSSS; $13.04; 18,060 shares; 4.00%; Sector: Financial Services

UPDATE: SuRo Capital  (SSSS)  was one of the Portfolio’s stronger performers in March, and that's been the case again so far in April with their more-than-20% MTD gain. One driver behind that continued climb was the company’s April 7 preliminary Q1 2026 results that pointed to a net asset value (NAV) per share between $14-$14.50 when SuRo reports its quarterly results in early May. When SuRo delivered its Q4 2025 results, it telegraphed expectations for its NAV per share to climb an additional $5.00-$6.50 per share, subject to capital raises underway for existing holdings in its investment portfolio. Since that report, OpenAI, Vast Data, and, more recently, Whoop, have announced completed financing rounds, and based on our back-of-the-napkin math, we lifted our NAV per share expectations for Q1 2026 to $14.45 from $8.09 exiting 2025. As we did that on March 31, we also boosted our SSSS price target to $16 from $14. Alongside that NAV update, SuRo provided an updated cash figure of $46.1 million, down from $50.1 million at the end of 2025. Our thinking is this reflects its Q1 2026 investment in TensorWave via the Magnetar Opportunity vehicle adjusted for its modest gain as it continued to monetize its GrabAGun (PEW) position. Exiting Q1 2026, it still held roughly 600,000 PEW shares, and odds are it will continue to monetize that position. What we did not see in this preliminary Q1 2026 update was a mention of SuRo's CoreWeave (CRWV) position. Between that lack of mention and the math behind its cash position exiting the quarter, we can deduce that SuRo has around the same position size in its CRWV investment vehicle as it did at the close of 2025. With CoreWeave shares rebounding to more than $120 from below $70 in late March, we suspect SuRo management is continuing to work down its exposure. On April 2, we bowed to our Portfolio discipline given the outsized exposure to SSSS, and locked in a hefty gain of more than 65% on that slug of shares. As SSSS shares chugged higher, we did some more prudent trimming, netting a gain of more than 80% on that April 10 trade. With expectations for the IPO market expected to heat up further in the coming months, we see the potential for multiple monetization events ahead for SuRo’s investment portfolio. As those events unfold, we’ll measure the impact on SuRo’s NAV per share and adjust our target as needed. Bottom line, we continue to see SuRo Capital as a disciplined way to gain exposure to high-quality private companies, including AI digital infrastructure, at an attractive valuation. We’ll also remind you that our play with SSSS in the Pro Portfolio is a total return one, which means a combination of stock price appreciation and dividend payments. Yes, from time to time, the thrust of those two factors can be lopsided, but we believe it’s hard to argue with where SuRo’s portfolio is headed.

April MTD Price Change: 21.8%; Yield: 3.83%

INVESTMENT THESIS: SuRo Capital is a business development company (BDC) that invests in high-growth, venture-backed private companies. As SuRo monetizes those portfolio investments through either IPO or M&A transactions, it must pay out most of its earnings to shareholders in the form of dividends. What’s important to factor into our thinking is that SuRo’s strategy isn’t to hold public company investments but rather to monetize them following the lock-up expiration. Sometimes this can be immediate, and sometimes it can be in stages, but when that monetization occurs, it triggers dividend payments. And because a BDC must pay out at least 90% of its taxable income through dividends to shareholders, there is the possibility of a special dividend to hit that qualifying threshold late in the year. As we think about this, it means that we should focus on total return with SSSS, which is defined as capital gains in the shares plus dividends received while owning them. What this means is even if we see SSSS shares trade sideways or move lower, depending on the size of the dividend payments in the coming quarters, the position’s total return could still be sizable for the Pro Portfolio. SuRo's portfolio holdings at the end of June included CoreWeave, ServiceTitan, OpenAI, Liquid Death, Whoop, and fintech company Plaid, as well as roughly 30 other holdings.

Target Price: $16; Rating: One

Panic Point: $9

RISKS: Industry and economic risk, competition and competitive pressures, and acquisition risk.

TWOS

Alphabet GOOGL; $344.40; 677 shares; 3.96%; Sector: Communication Services

UPDATE: Following back-to-back declines in February and March, shares of Alphabet  (GOOGL)  have rallied back significantly so far in April, putting them up in the high single digits on a year-to-date basis. Compared to the S&P 500’s YTD return, that makes them a nice contributor to the Portfolio. While part of that rebound can be traced to renewed investor enthusiasm for the tech sector, Google has made a number of announcements in April. In early April, Google unveiled its family of Gemma 4 artificial intelligence open-source models, with the latest offerings aimed at advanced reasoning and agentic workflows. Anthropic struck a new deal with Google and Broadcom for multiple gigawatts of next-generation TPU capacity starting in 2027, a move that builds on their October 2025 agreement. Reports point to the deal including Google Cloud’s tensor processing units and 3.5 gigawatts of compute. Shortly after that, Intel and Google entered a multiyear collaboration to advance the next generation of AI and cloud infrastructure with Xeon CPUs and custom infrastructure processing units (IPUS). The same day as that announcement, Google’s YouTube bumped up the price for its U.S. subscription services for new and existing members. Mid-April, Google Cloud partnered with investment firm Thoma Bravo to advance AI adoption in the enterprise and followed that up with a similar announcement on April 22 with consulting firm McKinsey. Luxury products company Kering partnered with Google to launch Gucci-branded smart glasses in 2027, taking on Meta and eventually Apple. The key takeaways from all that activity are Google continues to further its AI position and grow its position with Google Cloud, while further monetizing YouTube. Meanwhile, Google maintains its global search engine market share at 90% across all device classes. We see Google as extremely well positioned with its Gemini models and rising active user base, especially as it further weaves AI into search and related businesses. Exiting December, Google had surpassed 740 monthly active users for its Gemini models, matching our call last year not to rule the company out of the AI race. When Google reports its Q1 2026 results, revenue, backlog levels and margins at Google Cloud will be an area of focus for us as will capital spending and capacity digestion. Based on the company’s position in key aspects of our increasingly digital lifestyle and its growing role in digital infrastructure we are inclined to remain longer-term shareholders as AI adoption and usage expand further. While the Portfolio has a sizable position in GOOGL shares, we will continue to look for attractive levels for members whose position size is less than the Portfolio’s.

April MTD Price Change: 19.8%; Yield: 0.24%

INVESTMENT THESIS: We believe that while search and digital ad dominance are what will carry the shares in the near-to mid-term, longer-term, it is the company's artificial intelligence "moat" that will provide for new avenues of growth. Exiting October 2025, Alphabet surpassed 300 million paid subscriptions across Google One and YouTube. AI is what has made the company's search, video, and targeted ad capabilities best-in-class and is the driving force behind the company's success in voice (Google Home) and autonomous driving (Waymo). Furthermore, we believe it is this AI expertise that will also make the company more prevalent in other industries, including healthcare via its subsidiary Verily, as AI and machine learning continue to disrupt operations across industries. As of late 2025, Google's Gemini app had over 650 million monthly active users. Adding to our positive view of the company's future opportunities, we believe that Alphabet's free cash flow generation and solid balance sheet set it apart and are what will allow the company to continue taking chances on far-out, ground-breaking, and potentially world-changing projects, as well as fund capital returns to shareholders. We will continue to monitor advertising spend as well as the competitive landscape for the company’s core Search and Advertising business. Should we see GOOGL shares pull back near the 50-day moving average, near $295, that incremental upside to our price target would give us sufficient reason to revisit our Two rating.

Target Price: Reiterate $365; Rating: Two

Panic Point: $263

RISKS: Regulatory risk (data privacy), competition, and macroeconomic slowdown impacting consumers and therefore ad buyer activity.

Amazon AMZN; $263.99; 801 shares; 3.60%; Sector: Consumer Discretionary

UPDATE: Shares of Amazon  (AMZN)  have surged more than 20% so far in April, more than erasing their Q1 2026 drag on the Portfolio and leaving them up in the low double digits year-to-date. Like holdings in the Portfolio, part of that sharp climb has been renewed investor enthusiasm for tech stocks, but it's also Amazon-specific developments. Technology consulting firm CGI and Amazon Web Services announced a multi-year deal to boost artificial intelligence innovation and streamline the digital transformation in the U.S. public sector. As part of the deal, the two companies will continue to modernize legacy government systems and data via the cloud, and more AI uses to the public sector. After speculated changes to their relationship, Amazon reached a ‌new agreement with the U.S. Postal Service ‌on package deliveries. The e-commerce giant will retain about 80% of its existing deliveries with USPS. We suspect Amazon drove a hard bargain with USPS given it is USPS’s largest customer. In its Annual Shareholder Letter, CEO Andy Jassy shared expectations for AWS to monetize its 2026 capex in 2027-2028 with that comment backed by substantial customer commitments. Jassy also said the annual revenue run rate for the company's chips business (inclusive of Graviton, Trainium, and Nitro) is now over $20 billion and growing triple-digit percentages year over year. He added that three years into this AI wave, AWS's AI revenue run rate is over $15 billion in the first quarter of 2026. Jassy also discussed the pending launch of its Amazon Leo service and named multiple commercial customers. Subsequent to that letter, Amazon agreed to purchase Globalstar (GSTAR) for a reported $11.5 billion to further its Amazon Leo efforts. The deal, subject to regulatory approvals, is expected to close in 2027. We like the incremental subscription revenue streams it could bring to Amazon over time. That service business would help lessen the influence and seasonal swings of the digital shopping business on earnings over time. We’ll be interested to learn more about this effort, including how the margins will stack up against AWS and any incremental capex spending may be needed. When Amazon reports its quarterly results next week, margins will be in focus as will the growth at AWS. Recent signals have pointed to consumers pivoting more to digital shopping, but also increasingly to grocery, an area of focus for Amazon. As consumers feel the direct and indirect pinches of higher fuel prices, we could see that shift accelerate just as Amazon steps up its same-day and next-day delivery. Lending a helping hand is the growing advertising business, which rose 22% year over year in the December quarter to $21 billion. In 2025, that high-margin advertising business generated more than $68 billion in revenue, and we see more ahead as Amazon continues to focus on that effort. Given our position size in AMZN, depending on the market’s reception to its earnings as well as its capital spending and margin comments, we could have an opportunity to score more shares at lower levels.

April MTD Price Change: 26.8%; Yield: 0.00%

INVESTMENT THESIS: We believe that upside will result from Amazon's continued e-commerce dominance, AWS's continued leadership in the public cloud space, and the ongoing growth of the company's advertising revenue stream, which feeds off Amazon's e-commerce business. Additionally, we think profitability will continue to improve as AWS and advertising account for a larger portion of total sales, as both these segments sport higher margins than the eCommerce operation. While we believe the increasing share of the revenue from these higher-margin businesses will be key to driving profitability longer-term, we think margins on eCommerce stand to improve as the company's infrastructure is further built out and economies of scale further kick in. The embedded call option is that management is always looking to enter a new space and generate new revenue streams. Outside of the company’s core businesses, per recent 13F-HR filings, Amazon holds a stake of 158.36 million shares in Rivian, 225,428 shares in Marvell, as well as positions in other companies. It has also committed to a $50 billion investment in OpenAI.

Target Price: Reiterate $275; Rating: Two

Panic Point: $200

RISKS: High valuation exposes the stock to volatile swings, e-commerce has exposure to slower consumer spending and competition, potential headwinds resulting from new e-commerce regulation in India, and management is not scared to invest aggressively for growth, which can at times cause volatile reactions as near-term concerns arise relating to the impact on margins.

American Express AXP; $314.08; 655 shares; 3.50%; Sector: Financial Services

UPDATE: After being a drag on the Portfolio’s Q1 2026 performance, American Express  (AXP)  shares have rallied back in April, climbing ~10% ahead of the company’s Q1 2026 earnings report on April 23. We discussed Amazon’s quarterly beat and in that Alert, the favorable trends for the company’s all-important net card fee revenue stream in the face of the post-earnings selloff. Amex ended Q1 2026 with 153.9 million cards in force, and picked up 3.1 million new proprietary cards during the quarter, a quicker clip than the 2.9 million added in Q4 2025. In thinking about this acceleration, Amex started its Platinum Card refresh on September 18, 2025, so it’s not surprising to see some lag in new card memberships even though the expanded array of benefits, in our view, speaks for itself and significantly offsets the annual Platinum Card cost. The evidence of the Platinum Card refresh effort can be clearly seen in the average fee per card, which reached $127 in Q1 2026, up more than 14% versus the year-ago quarter. We should continue to see that average fee per card trend higher as new Platinum Card members are added and as existing cardholders’ anniversary their annual membership fee. During Thursday morning’s earnings call, Amex management indicated that roughly one-fourth of the overall U.S. consumer Platinum Card portfolio has been billed at the new annual fee. We see that supporting the average fee per card trending higher in the coming quarters compared to the estimated average fee per card near $117 for 2025. That higher fee spread across more cardholders explains why, in our view, Amex is able to comfortably reiterate its guidance for 2026, especially if it continues to repurchase shares. We would argue that reiteration is conservative and that means we will be looking to round out the Portfolio’s exposure to AXP in the coming days. Following the post earnings pullback in the shares, the next layer of support is the 50-day moving average, currently just under $315, and with our growing concern for the larger Q1 2026 earnings season, we’ll track that level but be mindful of the early April gap near $305. For now, we’ll reiterate our $400 price target, but should we see AXP pull back to levels we just touched on, it would give us reason to revisit our Two rating.

April MTD Price Change: 3.8%; Yield: 1.21%

INVESTMENT THESIS: American Express is a globally integrated, membership-driven payments company, providing customers with access to products, insights, and experiences that enrich lives and build business success. The company has four reportable operating segments: U.S. Consumer Services (USCS), Commercial Services (CS), International Card Services (ICS), and Global Merchant and Network Services (GMNS). American Express targets the premium consumer space by continuing to deliver membership benefits that span our customers’ everyday spending, borrowing, travel, and lifestyle needs, expanding its roster of business partners around the globe, and developing a range of experiences that attract high-spending customers. In 2025, the company’s net card fee revenue accounted for 72% of its pre-tax income, which we see providing a differentiated business model that should continue to grow as Amex wins new card members and drives its average fee per card higher.

Target Price: Reiterate $400; Rating: Two

Panic Point: $270

RISKS: Slowdown in consumer spending, competition, membership growth, merchant acceptance, and lack of new product innovation.

Apple AAPL; $271.06; 825 shares; 3.80%; Sector: Technology

UPDATE: After falling more than 6% in Q1 2026, shares of Apple  (AAPL)  have rebounded month-to-date in April. While overall smartphone industry shipments fell 6% year over year in Q1 2026 and are poised to remain under pressure given memory constraints, Apple’s iPhone shipment climbed 5% year over year, per data from Counterpoint Research. We chalk that up to the power of Apple’s supply chain but also its position in the premium smartphone market. Data on the PC market in Q1 2026 also showed Apple taking share as shipments of its Mac products climbed 11% year over year compared to the far smaller 3% gain for the overall industry. How much of that strength was due to demand being pulled forward by consumer and companies ahead of rising memory prices will be determined as we move deeper into the current quarter. With Apple’s AI-enabled Siri refresh looming, we continue to think that if Apple can delight consumers with this enhanced experience, it could unleash a strong iPhone replacement cycle. Remember, Apple Intelligence only works with the iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 16, and iPhone 17 device families. Apple’s WWDC 2026 event will be held June 8-12, with the company’s keynote set for June 8. On April 20, Apple announced CEO Tim Cook would become Executive Chairman on September 1 and the CEO role would go to hardware boss John Ternus. Reviewing Ternus’s tenure at Apple positions him as a “hardware guy,” but we would consider him more of a “product person,” which was something Cook wasn’t. Speculation is that Ternus could be more akin to Steve Jobs than Cook, and that could re-invigorate Apple’s innovation efforts vs. the financial and operations-led ones under Cook. While Cook will remain CEO until September 1, we’ll be very interested to see the role Ternus plays in Apple’s upcoming earnings report on April 30 and the WWDC 2026 keynote on June 8. I will share that as a person deeply steeped in the Apple ecosystem from a work-life perspective, having a product person back in the top seat at Apple has me more optimistic about Apple’s new product roadmap than I’ve been in some time. That said, we’ll check our preferences at the door and see not only what Ternus delivers but how effective a communicator he is with investors and Wall Street. Apple will report its Q1 2026 results on April 30.

April MTD Price Change: 6.8%; Yield: 0.38%

INVESTMENT THESIS: While we acknowledge that near-to-mid-term performance remains heavily influenced by iPhone sales, the dynamic is shifting as investors finally place greater emphasis on Services growth. We are bullish on the 5G upgrade cycle and believe longer-term upside will continue to come as Services revenue grows its share of overall sales. Services provide for a recurring revenue stream at higher margins, a factor that serves to reduce earnings volatility while allowing for a higher percentage of sales to fall to the bottom line; as a result, we believe that Services growth and the installed base are much more important than how many devices the company can sell in each 90-day period. In addition to improved profitability, we also believe the transparent nature of this revenue stream will demand an expanded price-to-earnings multiple as segment sales grow. Furthermore, we believe that Apple's desire to push deeper into the healthcare arena will help make its devices invaluable as more life-changing features are added and the company works to democratize health records.

Target Price: Reiterate $305; Rating: Two

Panic Point: $222

RISKS: Slowdown in consumer spending, competition, lack of new product innovation, elongated replacement cycles, and failure to execute on Services growth initiatives.

Applied Materials AMAT; $417.04; 282 shares; 2.00%; Sector: Semiconductors

UPDATE: Shares of Applied Materials  (AMAT)  have climbed more than 20% April to date fueled by continued chip industry tightness and rising capital spending levels to add capacity. That move has AMAT approaching our existing $425 price target, but our plan is to revisit that target as we collect more capital spending comments from Intel, Samsung and others as we move through the current earnings season. Already, Taiwan Semiconductor indicated its 2026 capital spending plan will be at the high end of its guidance, and Micron is aggressively expanding capacity with a $200 billion investment plan to meet AI-driven demand, including a new $1.8 billion Taiwan facility acquisition and massive new fabs in Idaho and New York. SK Hynix executives told analysts that demand for high-bandwidth memory — a crucial component for artificial-intelligence chips from the likes of Nvidia — outstrips current supply capacity for the next three years. Lam Research increased its wafer fab equipment (WFE) forecast for this year to $140 billion, up from its $135 billion figure in January. These and other data points support our decision to add AMAT back to the Portfolio on March 23 to capitalize on the accelerating wave of AI and data-center investment that is driving a multiyear expansion in semiconductor capital spending. AI-driven demand from hyperscalers and enterprises is accelerating far faster than prior expectations, fueling a multiyear surge in data center and advanced chip spending. At the same time, leading-edge capacity remains tight, with foundries running at high utilization and prioritizing high-value AI workloads, resulting in persistent supply constraints. Together, these dynamics are driving elevated equipment spending and reinforcing a durable upcycle in semiconductor capital investment. Should market forces weigh on AMAT shares and pull them back to technical support levels, we would be inclined to add to our holdings.

April MTD Price Change: 22.0%; Yield: 0.51%

INVESTMENT THESIS: The outlook for semiconductor capital equipment, an industry that delivered ~$133 billion in 2025, remains very bright. SIA sees industry deliveries rising to $145 billion this year and $156 billion in 2027, and others see a continued step function higher through 2030. Underpinning that forecast is continued spending on AI and data centers, and corresponding equipment, as well as other connected devices, including appliances as well as cars and trucks. Applied Materials holds a leading position in the global semiconductor wafer fabrication equipment (WFE) market, with a market share estimated at approximately 19% in 2025. As a broad-portfolio supplier, it dominates in deposition (44% share) and maintains a strong presence in etch, CMP, and ion implantation tools. Major customers include TSMC, Samsung, Intel, SK Hynix, and Micron, along with key partnerships involving Apple and Texas Instruments

Target Price: Reiterate $425; Rating: Two

Panic Point: $290

RISKS: Customer capital spending levels, currency, and economic risk.

Arista Networks ANET; $176.91; 1,240 shares; 3.73%; Sector: Technology

UPDATE: During the first 24 days of April, shares of Arista Networks  (ANET)  climbed more than 40%, making them a strong performer for the Portfolio. Part of that rapid increase can be attributed to the rebound in larger tech sector but the greater force in lifting the shares can be traced back to hyperscalers announcing multiyear plans to tie up chip, power and other related capacities to shore up supply for their capex plans. As of early 2026, the U.S. is experiencing a major data-center construction boom with hundreds of projects actively underway, led by Texas (135–140 sites) and Virginia (134–136 sites). Nearly 3,000 projects are planned or under construction nationwide, which offers ample opportunity for Arista. We will want to keep tabs on project delays, given potential power constraints. That pain point is a positive for our position in Eaton shares. Ahead of Arista’s Q1 2026 earnings report on May 5, when we digest quarterly results from key customers Microsoft and Meta, we’ll be focused on their capital spending comments and oncoming data center capacity. When it comes to Arista’s quarterly results in addition to top and bottom-line performance and guidance, we’ll be tracking customer purchase commitments closely. On April 17, we used the strong move in ANET and the ensuing overbought condition to trim back the Portfolio’s exposure and downgrade them to a Two rating. With the RSI figure for the shares pushing deeper into an overbought condition following that trade, we reiterate our Two rating.

April MTD Price Change: 44.1%; Yield: 0.00%

INVESTMENT THESIS: Arista Networks engages in the development, marketing, and sale of data-driven, client-to-cloud networking solutions for AI, data center, campus, and routing environments in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific. Its cloud networking solutions consist of Extensible Operating System (EOS), a publish-subscribe state-sharing networking operating system offered in combination with a set of network applications. The company offers data center, cloud, and AI networking, cognitive adjacencies, and cognitive network software and services. It also provides post-contract customer support services, such as technical support, hardware repair, and replacement parts beyond standard warranty, bug fixes, patches, and upgrade services. The company serves a range of industries comprising internet companies, cloud service providers, financial services organizations, government agencies, media and entertainment, healthcare, oil and gas, education, manufacturing, industrial, and others. Two of Arista’s largest customers in the last few years are two Portfolio holdings you’ll quickly recognize — Microsoft and Meta. Per Arista’s 10-K filings, both Meta and Microsoft each account for more than 10% of revenue. Other named customers include Amazon’s AWS, Google Cloud, Anthropic, Canva, SAP, Shopify, Apple, Oracle, Bank of America, and Accenture.

Target Price: $180; Rating: Two

Panic Point: $110

RISKS: Economic, customer, supply chain, and competition risks.

Broadcom Inc. AVGO; $422.76; 432 shares; 3.11%; Sector: Technology

UPDATE: With just four trading days left in April, shares of Broadcom  (AVGO)  have climbed more than 35% month to date. We can trace that back to several developments over the ensuing weeks, beginning with an April 6 SEC filing that it will design upcoming versions of Google's Tensor Processing Units and networking components through 2031. Around that time, Anthropic announced it would access 3.5 gigawatts of Broadcom and Google's TPU-based AI compute capacity. Then in mid-April, Meta announced it was partnering with Broadcom to develop multiple generations of custom silicon chips. Aggregating these developments, we can surmise that demand for AI silicon and memory remains strong, the bullish multi-year comments by Broadcom earlier this year have become far more credible, and hyperscalers continue to line up capacity to meet expected capex demands for not only this year but the next few as well. The confluence of those factors pushed AVGO shares not only higher, but into an overbought condition, one that we used to prudently lock in a nice double-digit gain on a modest number of shares on April 17. We are reviewing our AVGO price target and will have more to say on this as we get quarterly results from the hyperscalers, which could bring additional and insightful capex comments. At the same time, we are closely tracking the RSI level for the shares and should they move into “intense euphoria” or “unsustainable momentum” with a reading over 80, some additional Portfolio prudence could be in the offing.

April MTD Price Change: 36.6%; Yield: 0.62%

INVESTMENT THESIS: We became shareholders in Broadcom to participate as the company benefits from the buildout of digital infrastructure, including AI, data center, and custom AI chips, as well as demand for its software and services segment, which includes private cloud, mainframe software, cybersecurity, and enterprise software. Broadcom reports its business in two segments – Semiconductor Solutions (58% of sales and 51% of operating income) and Infrastructure Software (42%, 49%). The Broadcom management team has developed a track record of delivering organic growth and growth by acquisition, with the latter positioning the company to better position itself to meet developing demands. More recent acquisitions include Brocade Communications, CA, Inc., Symantec Enterprise Security, and VMware.

Target Price: $445; Rating: Two

Panic Point: $290

RISKS: Economic, governmental regulations, geopolitical developments, cyclical, and investment risk.

Eaton Corp. ETN; $423.92; 545 shares; 3.93%; Sector: Industrials

UPDATE: Shares of Eaton Corp.  (ETN)  continue to move higher so far in April, building on their double-digit gain in Q1 2026. With less than a handful of trading days to go in April, ETN is up more than 30% on a year-to-date basis. Powering ETN shares has been the near-continuous stream of data-center construction announcements, but arguably the greater driver is the upsized capital spending from domestic electric utilities. That cohort now sees $1.4 trillion in capital spending through 2030, up from its prior forecast of $1.1 trillion. We see the sharp rate of order growth for GE Vernova’s Q1 2026 adding another layer of support for the data-center demand outlook. As public electric utilities like Duke Energy, Dominion Power, and others report their Q1 results, we’ll be monitoring comments on capital spending and power demands. While most tend to focus on Eaton’s electrical exposure, the outlook for its Aerospace segment looks very nice following the huge move in Boeing’s Q1 2026 backlog, which has the potential to provide production stability for the better part of the next 10 years. When Eaton reports its Q1 2026 results on May 5, we’ll be closely watching its book-to-bill ratios and backlog figures. As we digest that, we’ll revisit our current $430 price target as needed.

April MTD Price Change: 18.5%; Yield: 1.04%

INVESTMENT THESIS: Eaton is an intelligent power management company that makes products for data center, utilities, industrial, commercial, machine building, residential, aerospace, and mobility markets. That business is positioned to capitalize on the mega trends of electrification, energy transition, and digitalization. We see Eaton helping address the power pain point created by data center, EV charging infrastructure, and other drivers of electricity demand. Research estimates that data center power demand will grow 160% by 2030, accounting for 3% to 4% of global power, up from 1% to 2% today. Data centers will use 8% of U.S. power by 2030, compared with 3% in 2022.

Target Price: Reiterate $430; Rating: Two

Panic Point: $325

RISKS: Raw material costs, labor costs, end market volatility, and government legislation.

Labcorp Holdings Inc. LH; $263.80; 790 shares; 3.54%; Sector: Healthcare

UPDATE: Labcorp  (LH)  shares are little changed so far in April, keeping their year-to-date gain in the mid-single digits. On the one hand, the shares are a steady, defensive holding in the Portfolio given their low-beta profile. On the other, the company continues to grow its array of tests and other diagnostics through organic and M&A efforts as well as expand its role in outsourced hospital and medical office testing. When Labcorp delivers its Q1 2026 earnings on April 30, we will be focusing on its trailing 12-month orders, book to bill, and backlog metrics. Exiting Q4 2025, its trailing 12-month orders exiting 2025 stood at $3.37 billion, its book-to-bill closed the quarter at 1.09, and backlog clocked in at $8.58 billion. We suspect the harsh winter weather experienced early in Q1 2026 was a potential headwind, but more pronounced gains in the outsourced testing effort may limit that impact. We will be interested in comments from Labcorp management surrounding its AI initiatives and the fruit they are bearing on productivity and margins. We will also be listening for management’s take on the increasing coverage for diagnostic testing and screening under Medicare. As we drink all of that and other developments, we’ll revisit our current $300 LH price target as needed. The company will pay its next quarterly dividend of $0.72 per share on June 11 to shareholders of record as of May 29.

April MTD Price Change: -1.1%; Yield: 1.09%

INVESTMENT THESIS: Labcorp is a global leader in innovative and comprehensive laboratory services that provide vital information to help doctors, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, researchers, and patients make clear and confident decisions. By leveraging its diagnostics and drug development capabilities, the company provides insights and accelerates innovations to improve health and improve lives. The company is organized under two segments, consisting of Diagnostics Laboratories (Dx), which includes routine testing and specialty/esoteric testing, and Biopharma Laboratory Services (BLS), consisting of Early Development Research Laboratories and Central Laboratory Services. Our attraction to LH shares stems from the combination of the aging population driving diagnostic testing growth and the increasing array of diagnostic testing as well. That combination is expected to drive the healthcare testing services market to $12.6 billion by 2029, from $7.4 billion in 2024, according to Markets and Markets. To augment its position in oncology, women's health, autoimmune diseases, and neurology, the company has been expanding through acquisitions and partnerships with health systems and regional and local labs.

Target Price: Reiterate $300; Rating: Two

Panic Point: $228

RISKS: Macroeconomic factors, changes in healthcare reimbursement models and products, government regulations, product discontinuations, or recalls.

Marvell Technology MRVL; $164.31; 695 shares; 1.94%; Sector: Technology

UPDATE: Shares of Marvell  (MRVL)  have simply exploded higher so far in April fueled by multiple positive developments, ranging from a $2 billion investment by Nvidia to bullish AI chip comments from Amazon CEO Andy Jassy and a potential tie up with Google for AI chips. The ensuring strong move of more than 60% April to date, make them the Portfolio’s top performer so far this year, up nearly 90%. As we enjoyed that climb and its positive impact on the Portfolio, the shares moved into an overbought condition, so we prudently locked in gains multiple times as that condition deepened and the position size became outsized. It also led us to downgrade our MRVL rating to a Two from One on April 10. As the shares continued to chug higher, we continued to bow to our investment discipline on April 17 and again on April 20 and April 22, locking in aggregate triple-digit gains. Following the recent string of positive developments, it’s fair to say MRVL shares were more than just overbought. Entering Friday, April 24, their RSI reached ~90, beyond the 80 level that is considered to be “intense euphoria” and “unsustainable momentum.” That prompted us to ignore FOMO in the chip space and make another disciplined move to lock in significant gains for the Portfolio. With that trade, we have recovered all of the Portfolio’s initial investment in MRVL and then some. Even though continue to see AI adoption rise further and usage doing the same, and the added potential tailwind of autonomous driving down the road, that doesn’t mean we won’t be any less disciplined with the remaining MRVL position. Ahead of next week’s hyperscaler earnings reports, we’ll maintain our $160 target but will revise it as needed based on updated capex spending plans.

April MTD Price Change: 65.9%; Yield: 0.15%

INVESTMENT THESIS: Marvell is a fabless supplier of high-performance standard and semi-custom infrastructure semiconductor solutions. These solutions power the data economy, enabling the data center, carrier infrastructure, enterprise networking, consumer, and automotive/industrial end markets. With roughly 75% to 80% of Marvell's revenue stream tied to digital infrastructure, we see it continuing to benefit from rising content consumption and creation. Pointing to that rising demand that necessitates network densification and the build of digital infrastructure, Ericsson sees global monthly average usage per smartphone reach 46 gigabytes (GB) by the end of 2028, versus 19 GB in 2023 and 15 GB in 2022.

Target Price: Reiterate $160; Rating: Two

Panic Point: $100

RISKS: Technology risk, customer risk, competition risk, reliance on manufacturing partners, and supply chain constraints.

Morgan Stanley MS; $188.07; 1,300 shares; 4.16%; Sector: Financial Services

UPDATE: Following the Q1 2026 slide in Morgan Stanley  (MS)  shares, April so far has been a far better month for the stock, with a mid-teens climb. That has pushed the shares well into positive territory on a year-to-date basis, making them a strong outperformer relative to the market. The catalyst for the move upward move included Iran-related market volatility that benefited Morgan’s trading desk and continued strength in investment banking activity. That laid the groundwork for a Q1 2026 earnings beat, and when that came, we used the subsequent strength in the stock to downgrade the shares to a Two rating on April 15 when they registered an overbought condition. Market volatility has remained in the current quarter, and we could very well see that continue as we move deeper into this earnings season. However, to drive meaningful upside to our existing MS price target of $205, investment banking activity remains the key lever we’ll be watching. That means IPOs and secondary offerings, as well as M&A activity and other corporate advisory services. The expectation remains favorable given the slate of high-profile IPOs ahead, while the looser regulatory environment bodes well for further M&A activity. On top of that, the growing likelihood that the Fed doesn’t deliver a rate cut this year should help overall expectations for net interest income (NII). Looking at the MS chart, we see several gaps have been created in April and closing them also lines up with the stock’s 50-day moving average near $169. Subject to what develops in the IPO market in the coming days, MS may not pull back quite that far, but we’ll continue to monitor the shares for a favorable risk-to-reward entry point.

April MTD Price Change: 14.3%; Yield: 2.13%

INVESTMENT THESIS: Morgan Stanley reports in three business segments: Institutional Securities (42% of trailing 12-month revenue, 38% of trailing 12-month Income Before Tax), Wealth Management (48%, 55%), and Investment Management (10%, 6%). While the IPO window has yet to reopen, the potential IPO class for 2025 continues to build with recent additions including Klarna and StubHub. That would be a boon to private equity firms and others that have been nursing IPO candidates during the dark period and a positive for Morgan Stanley's investment banking business. Expected deregulation under the Trump administration is a potential catalyst for Morgan's M&A business. Meanwhile, folks continuing to be behind in retirement savings bodes well for Morgan Stanley's wealth management business in the coming quarters, while continued market volatility bodes well for its equity trading business.

Target Price: $205; Rating: Two

Panic Point: $160

RISKS: Market and interest rate risk, credit risk, country risk, and operational risk, including cybersecurity.

Microsoft Corp. MSFT; $424.62; 430 shares; 3.10%; Sector: Technology

UPDATE: Shares of Microsoft  (MSFT)  have had a turbulent 2026 — down nearly 25% from January, before recovering a good portion of that since then end of March. However, the shares are still a drag on the Portfolio given their year-to-date performance. While the company has been tagged with other software companies as part of “SaaSpocalype,” we’ve discussed how the perception that Microsoft is largely a software-driven company is a dated one. Today’s business mix is more along the lines of 43% Productivity & Business Solutions, 38% Intelligent Cloud and 19% Personal Computing, which means Microsoft is far more cloud centric. In our view, the issue Microsoft faces is monetizing its ramping AI and data-center capacity, improving margins along the way. Near-term, that ramp is expected to weigh on the company’s margins, and that will restrain free cash flow and EPS. With AI adoption rising and use cases expanding, Microsoft’s cloud position leaves it well positioned for the long-term, and we can afford to be patient with the shares trading around 20x expected 2027 EPS. As we explained in our recent Alert, many of these issues are known entities and the cumulative pullback in MSFT is certainly tempting. However, we do have the company’s Q1 2206 earnings report ahead of us next week. Leading up to that event, Microsoft announced it will offer voluntary buyouts, a first for the company, to ~7% of its U.S. employees. This tells us the company is serious about keeping a lid on costs as it continues to invest in AI, data center, and cloud. We will hear more about that on next week’s earnings call, but we expect the market will be far more focused on capital spending levels, and margin prospects as well as where its RPO levels stand.

April MTD Price Change: 14.7%; Yield: 0.86%

INVESTMENT THESIS: We believe the cloud to be a secular growth trend and that the upside to the shares will result from Microsoft's hybrid cloud leadership as the company grabs market share in this expanding industry. While companies may look to build out multi-cloud environments, Microsoft's Azure offering will be a prime choice thanks to its decision to provide the same "stack" used in the public cloud to companies for their on-premises data centers. Additionally, we would note that hybrid environments are currently the preference for most companies because they allow them to maintain critical data in-house while taking advantage of the agility and scalability provided by public clouds. Outside of the cloud opportunity, we maintain a positive view on the company's growing gaming business, which we believe is becoming an increasingly prominent factor in the Microsoft growth story as gaming becomes more mainstream, management works to convert its gaming revenue from a one-time license purchase to a recurring subscription model, and as technologies like augmented/virtual reality evolve. Finally, as it relates to LinkedIn and other subscription-based services such as O365 and various Dynamics products, we continue to value them highly for their recurring revenue streams, which, we remind members, provide for greater transparency of future earnings.

Target Price: $500; Rating: Two

Panic Point: $385

RISKS: Slowdown in IT spending, competition, and cannibalization of on-premises business by the cloud.

Netflix Inc. NFLX $92.44; 1,370 shares; 2.15%; Sector: Communication Services

UPDATE: Shares of Netflix  (NFLX)  moved higher during the first few weeks of April, reaching a high just under $108 before pulling back after the company reported its Q1 2026 results, and becoming a modest drag on the Portfolio’s April-to-date performance. Q1 results topped market expectations even after adjusting for the $2.8 billion breakup fee it received after bowing out of its bid for Warner Bros Discovery. What weighed on the shares was guidance, which called for EPS of $0.78 compared to the $0.84 consensus, with revenue around $12.574 billion, also less than the $12.64 billion consensus. When we look at that guidance compared to the company’s Q1 2026 results, revenue is higher, but the bottom line is lower by a few pennies. Netflix management said it expects to have the highest-level content amortization growth in the quarter, but that it should settle down in H2 2026. However, Netflix also announced a “recent price change” in late March, and the new pricing added roughly $1 to $2 per month to all plans in the U.S. That brings the Standard plan to $19.99 per month and Premium to $26.99 per month for new subscribers, and those prices will be phased in for existing ones across their billing cycles. This suggests that, more likely than not, once again, Netflix has delivered guidance that skews conservative, not only for the current quarter but by reiterating its 2026 guidance that was issued before that domestic March price announcement. As we think about Netflix, the allure of its streaming service is very much in line with the time-tested view that content is king. What we mean by that is Netflix not only has to continue to deliver content that people want to consume, but to grow further, and it has to expand its content offering to win new subscribers and advertising dollars. That’s one reason why we pay close attention to the company’s content slate as well as expansion into games, live events, sporting events, podcasts and others. We also keep our ears open for what is said about Netflix’s internal quality engagement metric hit, which hit an all-time high in Q1 2026. On April 20, we used the retrenchment in NFLX shares to build our position size. On April 23, Netflix announced its board approved an additional $25 billion share repurchase on top of the $6.8 billion remaining under its prior authorization. We continue to see strong support for the shares between $91-$92, which are the 50-day and 100-day moving averages. Should market forces pull the shares to that level, resulting in a successful test of support, we’ll look to step a bit deeper into our position. With $6.8 billion remaining under its current share repurchase program, we would not be surprised to learn Netflix was putting that program to work at or near those levels.

April MTD Price Change: -3.9%; Yield: 0.00%

INVESTMENT THESIS: Netflix is one of the world’s leading entertainment services offering TV series, films, games and live programming across a wide variety of genres and languages. With over 325 million paid memberships, Netflix serves a global audience approaching one billion people. In the second half of 2025, Netflix members watched 96 billion hours on Netflix, up 2% (+1.5 billion hours) year over year vs. a 1% increase in the first half of the year. We attribute that to the company’s growing slate of proprietary content, live events, including sports, and a growing market for games. The company’s revenue is ~45% from the U.S., 31% EMEA, 12% Latin America, and 11% Asia-Pacific. We see Netflix and its growing content slate well positioned to benefit from the ongoing shift to streaming from broadcast and box office content, with margins poised to benefit from a combination of pricing actions and growing exposure to the higher margin advertising revenue.

Target Price: $115, Rating: Two

Panic Point: $78

RISKS: Consumer spending and economic risk, content development and content licensing risks and competitive risks.

TJX Companies TJX; $157.03; 947 shares; 2.53%; Sector: Financial Services

UPDATE: Shares of TJX Companies  (TJX)  are little changed so far in April, but we continue to see the company well positioned as consumers contend with the fallout of higher energy prices and renewed inflation pressures. In our view, TJX and its off-price model remains a resilient retail holding that should benefit as those pressures weigh on disposable spending dollars. We discussed why the March Retail Sales report is supportive of TJX’s product offering and its position with consumers. That suggests to us TJX could surprise to the upside when it reports its current quarter, one that is typically its seasonally weakest. While we wait for the company to report its April-quarter results in May, we’ll continue to monitor consumer spending and related pressures. Should a market pullback lead TJX near their 100-day moving average close to $156, we would be open to collecting a few more shares. With the company expecting to repurchase $2.5 billion to $2.75 billion of stock over the before the end of 2026, any pullback could be short lived. During TJX’s last earnings call, management said it sees the long-term potential to grow to 7,000 stores across its existing retail banners current countries and Spain. That suggests roughly a longer-term opportunity to open up to 1,700 locations or, said another way, grow its total store count by more than 30% compared to the 5,214 locations at the end of January. For the coming year, management anticipates opening another 146 locations, roughly 3% growth, and points to a disciplined plan to grow its number of storefronts. On March 30, TJX announced a 12.9% dividend increase, which puts its new quarterly dividend at $0.48 per share. The first payment of the new quarterly dividend will be on June 4 to shareholders of record on May 14.

April MTD Price Change: -1.7%; Yield: 1.22%

INVESTMENT THESIS: The TJX Companies is the leading off-price apparel and home fashions retailer in the United States and worldwide. It has over 5,200 stores and six branded e-commerce sites that offer a rapidly changing assortment of quality, fashionable, brand-name, and designer merchandise at prices generally 20% to 60% below full-price retailers’ regular prices on comparable merchandise. The company operates in four segments: Marmaxx and HomeGoods, both in the U.S.; TJX Canada, and TJX International. TJX looks to capitalize on opportunities to acquire merchandise at substantial discounts that regularly arise from the production and flow of inventory in the apparel and home fashions marketplace. These opportunities include, among others, closeouts from brands, manufacturers, and other retailers; special production direct from brands and factories; order cancellations; and manufacturer overruns. We see that positioning TJX extremely well, as consumers feel the pinch of ongoing inflation pressures and their efforts to stretch the disposable spending dollars they do have, including tapping discounted shopping locations.

Target Price: $180; Rating: Two

Panic Point: $132

RISKS: Operational, strategic buying, and competitive risks, as well as consumer spending patterns.

United Rentals URI; $974.41; 200 shares; 3.31%; Sector: Industrials

UPDATE: Shares of United Rentals  (URI)  trended higher in the first few weeks of April, rising with the rebound in AI and data-center names, but catapulted following the company's surprise Q1 2026 results that bested Wall Street expectations. That post-earnings pop was partly the result of short-covering, and landed URI shares in a deep overbought condition, but it also made them a top performer for the Portfolio so far this month and for 2026. That prompted us to prudently ring the register, selling a slug of shares at $991.92 on April 23. Following our analysis of URI’s quarterly results and guidance, we lifted our price target to $1,000 from $950 to account for the vibrant non-residential construction market, which is moving into its seasonally strongest time of the year, prospects for some additional margin, and United’s commitment to repurchase another $1.15 billion in stock between April and December. Despite that target increase, the overbought condition and the likely fade in the shares as short-covering subsides led us to reiterate our Two rating. We will continue to monitor oncoming construction data closely with an eye toward potential upside to our new target as well as a favorable risk-to-reward entry point for members and the Portfolio. The first layer of support for URI shares is near $860. As we wait for that data, we’ll get ready to collect our next quarterly divined payment of $1.97 per share from URI on May 27.

April MTD Price Change: 33.7%; Yield: 0.81%

INVESTMENT THESIS: United Rentals, the largest equipment rental company in the world, operates throughout the United States and Canada, and has a limited presence in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. It serves industrial and other non-construction, commercial (or private non-residential) construction, and residential construction. Industrial and other non-construction rentals represented approximately 50% of rental revenue, primarily reflecting rentals to manufacturers, energy companies, chemical companies, paper mills, railroads, shipbuilders, utilities, retailers and infrastructure entities; commercial construction rentals represented approximately 46% of rental revenue, primarily reflecting rentals related to the construction and remodeling of facilities for office space, lodging, healthcare, entertainment and other commercial purposes; and residential rentals around 4% of revenue. We see the company benefiting on three fronts — the seasonal uptick in construction spending, the release of funds and projects associated with the five-year Biden administration infrastructure bill, data center construction and other re-shoring projects, and the company's nip-and-tuck acquisition strategy that should further enhance its geographic footprint.

Target Price: Reiterate $1,000; Rating: Two

Panic Point: $775

RISKS: Industry and economic risk, competition and competitive pressures, and acquisition risk.

Welltower Inc. WELL; $208.75; 640 shares; 2.27%; Sector: Real Estate

UPDATE: Shares of Welltower  (WELL)  have added to their Q1 2026 gains in April, leaving them up low double digits on a year-to-date basis. Ahead of the company’s upcoming Q1 earnings report on April 28, we’ve continued to receive data points and signals that point to the growing senior housing shortage as the Silver Tsunami grows. We view Welltower as well-positioned for the intersection of that demographic shift and the shortage of senior living capacity that is expected to persist for the next several years. What we like even more is the move by Welltower to focus its business on senior housing by exiting its outpatient medical assets. Welltower has made considerable strides on that front and is tracking to have that disposition wrapped up by mid-2026. In looking at the company’s same-store net operating income (SSNOI) growth in Q4 2025 of 15.0%, it was primarily driven by the SSNOI growth of 20% for its senior housing portfolio. By comparison, with SSNOI in the low single digits for its outpatient medical and long-term/post-acute care assets, we can see why Welltower is interested in becoming a more focused senior housing play. This suggests we should see a quicker pace of overall SSNOI growth as senior housing becomes an ever-larger part of the pie in the coming quarters. That is why we remain owners of WELL shares, but we will still look for further progress on that front with next week’s earnings report and updated outlook. During recent pullbacks in the shares, they have found support at the 100-day moving average. We will watch that level closely as the market digest’s Welltower’s upcoming results amid the larger market backdrop.

April MTD Price Change: 5.6%; Yield: 1.45%

INVESTMENT THESIS: Welltower, a real estate investment trust (REIT), owns interests in properties concentrated in major, high-growth markets in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, consisting of seniors housing, post-acute communities, and outpatient medical properties. We see the company benefiting from the intersection of the demographic shift that is the aging population and the looming pain point that is the shortage of inventory for senior housing, which fell below 1% in Q2 2025, according to the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care. Over the next five years, more than 4 million boomers will hit age 80, and that’s in addition to the roughly 4% of the U.S. population that is 80-plus years old in 2024. As this demographic shift unfolds, we should see a relatively steady growth rate in Welltower’s revenue, NOI, and FFO, which, in turn, given its REIT status, should drive its payable dividend stream higher. Because of the favorable demographic tailwind and lower interest rate path telegraphed by the Federal Reserve, which should reduce construction costs over time, as well as bring REIT stocks back into favor, we intend to be long-term holders of WELL shares. Our plan is to build the position size methodically, increasing the Portfolio’s dividend stream along the way.

Target Price: $230; Rating: Two

Panic Point: $175

RISKS: Operational risk, operator and tenant risk, competitive risks, and acquisition risk.

Waste Management WM; $229.53; 795 shares; 3.10%; Sector: Industrials

UPDATE: Shares of Waste Management  (WM)  have been a modest contributor to the Portfolio’s performance so far in April and year-to-date. For us, the core story of inelastic pricing power and leveraging the combination of automation and cost containment at the core WM business remains in place. WM management is also delivering on growing the "Healthcare Solutions" business, which posted a more than 50% increase in net operating revenue in the most recent quarter compared to year-ago levels. When the company reports its Q1 2026 earnings next week on April 29, we’ll be focusing on margin progress at the Healthcare Solutions business as well as the impact of pricing actions in the core waste business. Earlier this year, management targeted an increase between 5.4%-5.8% for that business. And an average price increase of 3% is also targeted for the Healthcare Solutions business. That suggests we should continue to see robust operating cash flow and free cash flow. And let’s not forget WM previously announced it would restart its share-repurchase program to the tune of $2 billion in 2026. Given the uptick in gas and diesel prices, we’ll be looking to see if WM has utilized fuel surcharge pricing to offset margin pressure, and if not, we could see slower margin gains in the near-term and potentially some downward EPS revisions. We’ll look to let that risk get baked into the shares, but we’ll note strong support near $222, a level we’ll keep our eyes on. WM will present at the Oppenheimer 21st Annual Industrial Growth Conference on May 7.

April MTD Price Change: -0.1%; Yield: 1.65%

INVESTMENT THESIS: Waste Management’s core business is the inelastic waste removal business for residential, enterprise, and other customers. The company has built its footprint through a series of acquisitions and excelled at wringing costs out of them, driving free cash flow, dividends, and funding incremental acquisition activity. While the residential business is sticky, the commercial business should continue to benefit from non-residential construction activity. Margins should continue to inch higher due to disciplined pricing and increasing use of automation. We are in the early days of WM Healthcare Solutions, but we see the business growing as management integrates and cross-sells against its core business and flexes the ability to integrate nip-and-tuck acquisitions as it has at the core waste business. Here, too, we see room to consolidate a fragmented industry, which makes this a natural fit for Waste Management.

Target Price: $255; Rating: Two

Panic Point: $190

RISKS: Industry and economic risk, competition and competitive pressures, and acquisition risk.

Not Rated

EPS Diplomats Model; 4.75%; Sector: N/M

UPDATE: The EPS Diplomats have been a strong performer for the Portfolio since our latest reconstitution of the underlying basket. Following the Q1 2026 basket returning more than 5% compared to a 5.1% drop in the S&P 500, on April 1, we reconstituted the basket and increased the Portfolio’s starting exposure to 4% of its assets. The latest EPS Diplomats includes initial 0.5% position sizes in shares of Bloom Energy  (BE) , Ciena  (CIEN) , Credo Technology  (CRDO) , Eldorado Gold  (EGO) , Hudbay Minerals  (HBM) , Lumentum  (LITE) , Micron Technology  (MU) , and Rocket Companies  (RKT) . So far in April, the basket has returned nearly 35% compared to the S&P 500’s gain of almost 10%. Given the nature of the model, the only time we may adjust its composition during the quarter is if a company is acquired. Otherwise, the model is set until the next reconstitution. As such, there are no price targets or ratings for each of the positions that make up the basket. That same selection process will be repeated quarterly, which means housekeeping for the model should be minimal. It also means you can expect minimal activity to occur at quarter-end and the start of the new quarter. The next reconstitution cycle for the EPS Diplomats model will be June 30 and July 1. At that time, we may consider increasing the Portfolio’s further exposure to the basket.

April MTD Price Change: 34.7%

INVESTMENT THESIS: EPS Diplomats is a model of large-cap companies that offer the fastest rate of EPS growth over a multi-year period. That basket is screened regardless of industry sector or sub-sector, which means the down-selected list of companies can span a wide array of sectors. The focus is on earnings growth because earnings growth is often seen as a signal of a company's competitive strength, operational efficiencies, and future growth potential. Shares of companies that provide historically consistent earnings growth faster than the stock market receive premium valuations compared to those awarded to the S&P 500. And as we’ve often discussed with you, multiple expansion paired with earnings growth tends to drive outperformance relative to the market, better known as alpha. The basket of eight stocks is reconstituted on a quarterly basis to reflect updated EPS expectations for the current year and the following one.

Target Price: N/M

Panic Point: N/M

RISKS: Macro and end market risk, individual company risk, and consensus EPS expectations.

Market-Hedging Positions; 1.97%; Sector: N/M

UPDATE: On April 2, we added shares of the ProShares Short S&P 500 ETF  (SH) , ProShares Short QQQ ETF  (PSQ)  and ProShares Short Russell2000 ETF  (RWM)  to the Portfolio given the escalating conflict between the U.S. and Iran, the corresponding impact on energy and petroleum-related prices, and 2026 consensus EPS figures for the S&P 500 that continued to rise in the face of those two items and others. While these market-hedging, inverse ETFs moved against us as hopes for U.S.-Iran peace talks emerged, we maintained them as the S&P 500, Nasdaq Composite, and the Russell 2000 all entered overbought conditions just as the Q1 2026 earnings season kicked into a higher gear. These are tactical positions and should not be viewed as long-term ones. We will continue to evaluate the place in the Portfolio for SH, PSQ, and RWM from a fundamental and technical basis and revisit their roles and percentages based on developments.

April MTD Price Change:

ProShares Short S&P500 ETF: -9.2%

ProShares Short QQQ ETF: -13.4%

ProShares Short Russell2000 ETF: -11.2%

INVESTMENT THESIS: The ProShares Short S&P500 (SH) is an ETF designed to provide investment results that correspond to the inverse performance of the S&P 500 Index. The ProShares QQQ (PSQ) is an ETF designed to provide investment results that correspond to the inverse performance of the Nasdaq 100 (NDX). The ProShares Short Russell2000 (RWM) is an ETF designed to provide investment results that correspond to the inverse performance of the Russell 2000. Each of these ETFs is used to hedge the Pro Portfolio.

Target Price: N/M

Panic Point: N/M

RISKS: Macro and end market risk, individual company risk, and consensus EPS expectations.