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LivestreamMenu(This is The Best Stocks in the Market , brought to you by Josh Brown and Sean Russo of Ritholtz Wealth Management.) Josh — We’re showing you two stocks we’ve written up recently that reported earnings in the last few days. Block (XYZ) and Expedia (EXPE) are recent entrants to our list. We’ll show you what’s happened with their reports and how the news has affected their share prices. Sean will start off with our usual top-down look at the list itself. Then we’ll get into the charts and fundamentals. Enjoy! As of Aug 10, there are 216 names on The Best Stocks in the Market list. Top sector ranking: Top industries: Top 5 best stocks by relative strength: Sector spotlight: Breakout Updates Block, Inc. (XYZ) Sean — We wrote up Block as our Best Stock Spotlight on July 23, calling it the early innings of a turnaround story. The stock is up 3.2% since then and the Q2 report on August 5 gave us another checkpoint on whether the fundamentals are keeping pace with price. Last time, the story was focused on shutting down the side quests, cutting headcount from over 10,000 to under 6,000 and positioning the company back towards the two businesses that actually make money — Square and Cash App. The Q2 print delivered evidence of that efficiency hitting the bottom line, with some less-than-ideal bitcoin headwinds. Adjusted EPS came in at $1.02 against a consensus $0.86, gross profit grew 25% to $3.17 billion and the adjusted operating margin hit 27%, up from 22% a year ago. Cash App gross profit grew 31% to $1.97 billion, Square gross profit grew 13% on $72.8 billion of payment volume and the restructuring is expected to produce $800-$900 million in annualized net cost savings. Management raised full-year guidance again with gross profit of $12.51 billion (up 21%) and adjusted EPS of $4.02, now representing 70% growth over 2025. It wasn’t perfect by any means, hence the muted reaction as the stock ended flat the two days following earnings. XYZ’s Bitcoin ecosystem gross profit fell 31% after Cash App cut fees and a bitcoin loss dragged GAAP net income down to $89 million. One update from our spotlight in July – Block exited the Stripe/Advent buyer consortium before the group’s $53.4 billion PayPal bid was submitted and PayPal’s board has since rejected the offer as too low anyway — so Block is out of that fight. Josh — Block (XYZ) spent the spring and summer grinding its way toward 52-week highs, surprising many who thought of this business as a relic of the pandemic era bubble and unworthy of serious consideration. I noted how little trust I had in the management team and executive leadership during our write-up last month. My skepticism remains but they did report a solid quarter and the stock is still hovering at highs. It’s failed to hold the breakout so if you’re a trader, you’re not stepping in here. Too many better looking charts out there, especially elsewhere within the financial sector (Holy cow, have you seen Schwab?). The level to clear on XYZ is still $81. The recent breakout above it has become a failed breakout and without another attempt very quickly, this becomes a tougher hold. A weekly close above it signals the consolidation is resolving and reopens the path to the prior highs. It’s sort of binary for me, I like it above but not below. RSI is at 48, right at the neutral line. A normal reset after the run from the lows earlier this year. Momentum is flat, not broken. There’s nothing here. A 48 RSI tells you very little unless it’s coming from 28 or 38. That’s not the case here. Not every idea we write up is a home run. Keeping you updated on winners and losers is part of our responsibility. Block isn’t a loser yet, but it’s not cooperating and we want to keep a close eye on it just in case. Expedia Group, Inc. (EXPE) Sean — Expedia has been one of the best calls this column has made. We first spotlighted EXPE on September 18 of last year and the stock is up 40.9% since. We revisited it in our December 29 travel edition and it has added another 8.8% since then, while breaking above $300. When we covered it in September, the numbers were 105 million room nights booked (up 7%), B2B bookings up 17% for another consecutive quarter of double-digit growth, and nearly $1 billion of first-half buybacks. The Q2 report padded those stats. Revenue grew 14% to $4.31 billion on $33.9 billion of gross bookings (up 12%), adjusted EBITDA grew 23% to $1.1 billion with margins expanding to 25.9% and adjusted EPS of $5.76 grew 36%. The B2B segment just posted its 20th consecutive quarter of double-digit growth, with bookings up 21% and revenue up 23%. This was the fifth consecutive quarter Expedia exceeded the high end of its own guidance. Management raised the full-year outlook across the board with gross bookings of $129.5-$130.8 billion (up 8-9%), revenue of $16.05-$16.22 billion (up 9-10%), and adjusted EBITDA margin expansion of 1.5-1.75 points, up from a prior 1.0-1.25. Capital returns keep coming too (thank you margin expansion) – EXPE has executed $900 million of buybacks year to date, a fresh $5 billion authorization with $5.7 billion total remaining and a $0.48 quarterly dividend. The fundamentals are backing up price, exactly what we like to see in this column. Josh — This is a textbook breakout and the low-volume retest of the breakout level is happening now. EXPE rallied hard this summer from a base in the $250 to $270 range, running all the way to $330 before pulling back to $311. The 50-day and 200-day are far below at $260 and $250 — the kind of separation you see when a stock has made a real move. There is no technical resistance overhead from here; the stock is in price discovery. RSI is at 66, strong and still trending higher. No sign of exhaustion in the momentum reading. This is what a healthy breakout looks like . Traders who want to participate can use $290 as their stop, just below the consolidation range that preceded the breakout leg. Investors have the $260 area as their floor, where the 50-day sits and where price spent several weeks building before the July move. A weekly close below that zone would suggest the breakout has failed. Until then, Party on, Garth. DISCLOSURES: (None) All opinions expressed by the CNBC Pro contributors are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of CNBC, or its parent company or affiliates, and may have been previously disseminated by them on television, radio, internet or another medium. THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY AND DOES NOT CONSTITUTE FINANCIAL, INVESTMENT, TAX OR LEGAL ADVICE OR A RECOMMENDATION TO BUY ANY SECURITY OR OTHER FINANCIAL ASSET. THE CONTENT IS GENERAL IN NATURE AND DOES NOT REFLECT ANY INDIVIDUAL’S UNIQUE PERSONAL CIRCUMSTANCES. THE ABOVE CONTENT MIGHT NOT BE SUITABLE FOR YOUR PARTICULAR CIRCUMSTANCES. BEFORE MAKING ANY FINANCIAL DECISIONS, YOU SHOULD STRONGLY CONSIDER SEEKING ADVICE FROM YOUR OWN FINANCIAL OR INVESTMENT ADVISOR. INVESTING INVOLVES RISK. EXAMPLES OF ANALYSIS CONTAINED IN THIS ARTICLE ARE ONLY EXAMPLES. THE VIEWS AND OPINIONS EXPRESSED ARE THOSE OF THE CONTRIBUTORS AND DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE OFFICIAL POLICY OR POSITION OF RITHOLTZ WEALTH MANAGEMENT, LLC. JOSH BROWN IS THE CEO OF RITHOLTZ WEALTH MANAGEMENT AND MAY MAINTAIN A SECURITY POSITION IN THE SECURITIES DISCUSSED. ASSUMPTIONS MADE WITHIN THE ANALYSIS ARE NOT REFLECTIVE OF THE POSITION OF RITHOLTZ WEALTH MANAGEMENT, LLC” TO THE END OF OUR DISCLOSURE. Click here for the full disclaimer.Read More
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