Earnings live: Block stock surges after Jack Dorsey cuts 40% of workforce, Duolingo shares drop

2026년 2월 27일 · Unknown · financial · 출처 Yahoo Finance

Fourth quarter earnings season is entering its final stretch.

Earnings from Nvidia (NVDA) this week marked the final company among the "Magnificent Seven" tech stocks to report quarterly results.

This report offered a crucial update on how demand for its high-tech AI chips — a big part of the hundreds of billions of dollars its Big Tech peers are spending on AI investments — continues to shape up. But concerns about increased competition and the drivers underpinning Nvidia's strong forecast overshadowed the company's beat and raise, sending shares 5% lower on Thursday.

Other key results this week include reports from Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) and Paramount Skydance (PSKY), with the latter currently locked in a duel with Netflix to acquire the former.

Salesforce (CRM), Home Depot (HD), and Lowe's (LOW) will also be among the notable companies expected to report in the coming week.LIVE232 updates

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Thu, February 26, 2026 at 9:51 PM UTC

Grace O'Donnell

Block stock soars after Jack Dorsey goes all-in on AI, cuts nearly half of workforce

Block (XYZ) shares surged more than 22% in extended trading after Jack Dorsey announced the payments company would lay off nearly half of its staff as part of a major bet in artificial intelligence that came alongside the release of its fourth quarter earnings report.

"Today we're making one of the hardest decisions in the history of our company: we're reducing our organization by nearly half, from over 10,000 people to just under 6,000. That means over 4,000 of you are being asked to leave or entering into consultation," Dorsey wrote in a post on X.

"Something has changed," Dorsey wrote, framing the decision as a risk intended to position the company for long-term growth. He cited new artificial intelligence tools that can automate work as the reason for the shift, noting that AI is "enabling a new way of working which fundamentally changes what it means to build and run a company."

In the fourth quarter, Block reported adjusted earnings per share of $0.65, in line with Wall Street estimates. Revenue of $6.25 billion slightly beat expectations of $6.21 billion, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Block also raised its full-year guidance. The company, which supports the CashApp and Square platforms, said it expects gross profit growth of 18% year over year in 2026 and adjusted operating income of $3.20 billion or 26% margin.

54 mins ago

Iris Winslow

Duolingo prioritizing user growth 'above everything else,' CEO says as stock gets smoked

Duolingo (DUOL) stock plummeted as much as 25% on Friday after the company offered downbeat guidance for 2026 despite beating analysts' expectations on Q4 earnings. The company said it's shifting focus from monetizing its language-learning app to growing the subscriber base.

While daily active users and subscriptions were up 30% and 28% year over year, respectively, that growth slowed throughout 2025 and is expected to decelerate further this year.

CEO Luis Von Ahn told Yahoo Finance on Friday that more than 15 million people have a Duolingo streak longer than 365 days, and growing that dedicated user base is a priority. Von Ahn said artificial intelligence is a major driver of the company's pivot to user growth.

"We think that over the next few years, the way people learn is going to change quite significantly," Von Ahn said, adding that "the most important thing we can do is capture as much of the market as we can, entice as many users to use Duolingo as possible … and we're prioritizing that pretty much above everything else."

Duolingo reported fourth quarter revenue of $282.9 million, up 35% year over year and ahead of the $275.74 million estimated. Adjusted earnings per share came at $0.84, versus the $0.83 estimate. The company's 2026 outlook, however, landed well short of the $1.26 billion estimated, with full-year revenue guidance of $1.20 billion-$1.22 billion. Today at 1:53 PM UTC

Jenny McCall

Flutter stock falls on slow NFL season, prediction-markets threat

Flutter Entertainment's (FLUT) stock fell 12% before the bell on Friday after reporting disappointing revenue. The sports-betting operator reported revenue of $4.74 billion last quarter, below the $4.93 billion projected by analysts.

The Wall Street Journal reports: