Markus Andrews

Sheldon Cooper | Lightrocket | Getty Images

The stock market has been volatile lately as investors study the latest twists and turns in the the U.S.-China trade war as well as earnings of major American companies. Despite those challenges, investors can also choose to focus on stocks of companies that can navigate short-term pressures to deliver strong, long-term returns.
Tracking top Wall Street analysts can help investors pick some attractive stocks, as the recommendations of these experts are based on in-depth analysis of a company’s business fundamentals, opportunities and challenges.

Here are three stocks favored by the Street’s top pros, according to TipRanks, a platform that ranks analysts based on their past performance.
Pinterest
This first stock pick is social media company Pinterest (PINS), scheduled to announce third-quarter results on November 4. Heading into those numbers, TD Cowen analyst John Blackledge reiterated a buy rating on Pinterest and a $44 price target. TipRanks’ AI Analyst is also bullish on Pinterest, giving it an “outperform” rating and a price target of $40.
Blackledge expects Pinterest Q3 revenue grew by 16.6% versus the year-earlier quarter, in line with the Street’s consensus estimate and toward the high end of the company’s own guidance. “We expect EBITDA growth of 20% y/y, outpacing rev growth, driven by modest [cost of revenue] and R&D leverage,” said Blackledge.  
The 5-star analyst remains confident about his mid-teens, year-over-year revenue growth estimate through the second half of 2025 and 2026, partly supported by continued adoption by advertisers of PINS’ Performance+ campaign tools.
Following a digital ad check call with an agency that runs more than $4 billion annually in managed advertising spending, Blackledge noted that ad spend on Pinterest rose 63% year-over-year in Q3 2025, a slight slowdown compared to 66% in the prior quarter. A TD Cowen expert noted that solid uptake continues in PINS’ Performance+ campaign types.

In fact, some advertisers have shifted all their Pinterest spending to Performance+. Blackledge said Performance+, rolled out in late 2024 with automated creative tools, has expanded to include automated bidding tools and other artificial intelligence (AI)-driven automated features.
Blackledge ranks No. 522 among more than 10,000 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been successful 56% of the time, delivering an average return of 12.5%. See Pinterest Statistics on TipRanks.
Uber Technologies
Next up is ride-sharing and delivery platform Uber Technologies (UBER). Recently, Evercore analyst Mark Mahaney reiterated a buy rating on UBER along with a 12-month price forecast of $150 after hosting a quarterly webinar with Harry Campbell, founder of The Rideshare Guy and The Driverless Digest Dude, where they discussed the latest trends across rideshare, delivery and autonomous vehicle (AV) ecosystems. Like Mahaney, TipRanks’ AI Analyst is also bullish on UBER stock, with an “outperform” rating and a price target of $108.
Campbell was constructive about rideshare supply dynamics, given solid and stable driver economics, Mahaney noted. Campbell continues to see consistent demand and strong driver supply, particularly at Uber, which he described as operating near “all-time highs.” Despite robust supply, pricing continues to be high, reflecting sustained demand elasticity and limited alternatives for consumers, particularly for airport and nightlife rides.
The top-rated analyst also highlighted Campbell’s commentary about early-stage shifts in AV partnerships — particularly Alphabet’s Waymo’s evolving first-party vs third-party strategy and Uber’s expanding AV integration roadmap.
Mahaney further noted stable driver economics and widening platform margins. Notably, Uber’s “decoupling” of rider fares and driver payouts is driving incremental profit margin expansion, even with steady driver income.
Through incremental feature innovation, Uber is focused on enhancing ecosystem “stickiness.” Uber’s recent “Only on Uber” event rolled out small feature updates, including tip guarantees and safety enhancements. While not transformative, Mahaney said Campbell sees these efforts as part of Uber’s “broader push to create alternative income channels for drivers as AVs grow share over time.”
Mahaney ranks No. 473 among more than 10,000 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been profitable 57% of the time, delivering an average return of 13%. See Uber Technologies Financials on TipRanks.
General Motors
General Motors (GM) jumped 15% on Tuesday after the Cadillac and Buick parent beat the Street’s revenue and earnings expectations despite a slight decline in sales. GM also raised its forward guidance, citing a lower-than-expected tariff impact.  
Following the Q3 results, Mizuho analyst Vijay Rakesh reiterated a buy rating on GM and raised his price target to $76 from $67. By comparison, TipRanks’ AI analyst has a price target of $66 and an “outperform” rating on GM.
“We remain positive with reduced tariff burden/risk, improved profitability and [internal combustion engine] SUV/pickup onshoring tailwinds through C26E+,” said Rakesh.
The 5-star analyst noted that GM raised its 2025 guidance for earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT), earnings per share (EPS) and adjusted free cash flow, driven by a smaller-than-expected impact from tariffs, and said GM is rolling back some of its electric vehicle (EV) plans to boost profitability. That involves GM’s sale of its Michigan EV battery plant stake to LG Energy, while keeping two battery plants, and transitioning its Orion plant to gas engine production from an EV focus by 2027.
Rakesh believes that smaller EV losses, tariff challenges and warranty costs, and a higher combustion engine mix, will support GM’s target to return to 8% to 10% EBIT margin in the North America business. Other tailwinds include $5 billion in deferred revenue from OnStar and Super Cruise models, with about 70% gross margins, combined with a stable average selling prices.
Rakesh ranks No. 67 among more than 10,000 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been successful 64% of the time, delivering an average return of 24.8%. See General Motors Insider Trading Activity on TipRanks. More

The Fluor Corporation logo is displayed on a smartphone.
Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Company: Fluor Corp (FLR)
Business: Fluor is a holding company that provides engineering, procurement, construction, fabrication and modularization, and project management services. The company’s segments include energy solutions, urban solutions and mission solutions. The energy solutions segment provides EPC services for traditional oil and gas markets, including the production and fuels, chemicals, LNG and power markets. The segment serves these industries with comprehensive project life-cycle services. The urban solutions segment provides EPC and project management services to the advanced technologies and manufacturing, life sciences, mining and metals, infrastructure industries and professional staffing services. The mission solutions segment provides high-end technical solutions to the United States and other governments. These include, among others, the Department of Energy, the Department of Defense, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and intelligence agencies. The segment also provides services to commercial nuclear clients.
Stock Market Value: $7.89 billion ($48.79 per share)

Stock chart icon

Fluor performance year to date

Activist: Starboard Value

Ownership: Starboard Value
Average Cost: n/a
Activist Commentary: Starboard is a very successful activist investor and has extensive experience helping companies focus on operational efficiency and margin improvement. They are known for their excellent diligence and for running many of the most successful campaigns. Starboard has initiated activist campaigns at 18 prior industrial companies and their average return on these situations is 50.55% versus an average of 11.73% for the Russell 2000 during the same time periods. Starboard has taken a total of 162 prior activist campaigns in their history and has an average return of 21.13% versus 14.24% for the Russell 2000 over the same period.
What’s happening
On Oct. 21, Starboard announced a nearly 5% position in Fluor and stated their intention to unlock value from the company’s ~39% holding in NuScale Power, which represents more than 60% of the company’s market capitalization, including through a potential separation.
Behind the scenes
Fluor delivers integrated engineering, procurement, construction, and project management services, spanning a diversified set of end markets. Historically, the EPCM market was a highly competitive landscape that led to heavy risk taking, where growth was often prioritized over discipline and profitability. For Fluor, as well as much of the industry, this led to management aggressively increasing their backlog of higher-risk lump-sum and guaranteed minimum contracts, leading to execution risks, thin margins and cost overruns. Ultimately, this industry-wide shift caused many companies to scale back their construction efforts or even enter bankruptcy, and Fluor was no exception, with the company’s share price falling below $4 in March 2020.

However, this started to change when the company appointed David Constable as CEO at the start of 2021. Under his leadership, Fluor immediately pivoted to lower-risk reimbursable projects, growing from 45% of its backlog to 80%, while exposure to loss-making legacy projects have declined from $1.8 billion to $558 million today, materially reducing its risk profile.
Additionally, while largely associated with legacy energy projects, the company has levered into faster growing markets within its urban solutions segment, now 73% of its backlog compared to 37% in fiscal year 2021. As a result, even with this derisking effort, Fluor was still able to maintain a steady backlog and achieve meaningful EBITDA growth, a 14% compound annual growth rate from fiscal year 2021 to fiscal 2024, with analysts projecting a ~9% CAGR from fiscal 2024 to fiscal 2028.
With many of the large construction and EPCM players having exited the market, Fluor’s operational turnaround has allowed it to come out the other side of this turmoil on top, now operating in a duopoly of global end-to-end EPCM players with Bechtel, while the construction market has grown rapidly, now over $918 billion.
As a result of this successful operational overhaul, the market currently values Fluor at 8.9 time its enterprise value to calendar year 2027 estimates for consensus EBITDA, in between its EPCM (13x) and legacy construction peers (6x). So, Fluor appears to be a great business with a great management team operating in a duopoly in a growing industry that is fairly valued with a $6.7 billion enterprise value. However, Fluor also owns a 39% stake in NuScale, a publicly traded small modular nuclear reactor company.
Fluor invested in NuScale more than a decade ago, and its $30 million early investment played a pivotal in NuScale becoming the first U.S.-listed SMR company, and the only company of its kind with U.S. Nuclear Reactor Commission design approval.
As global power demand continues to rise, particularly alongside the data center boom, nuclear generation will be vital, and SMRs will play an essential role in providing energy to meet this growth. As a result, Fluor’s investment in NuScale has been highly lucrative – valued at approximately $4.3 billion ($3.4 billion post tax). That’s more than half Fluor’s current enterprise value.
If you were to back out the NuScale stake from Fluor’s valuation, then Fluor’s enterprise value would drop to $3.3 billion, implying an extremely depressed discount of just 4.6x, with peers trading from 6 to 13 times.
Starboard has amassed a nearly 5% position in Fluor and is urging management to unlock the value from its NuScale holdings. Starboard believes that Fluor has multiple paths to monetize its remaining NuScale stake. These options include simply selling their position through open-market sales, an exchange offer or a mandatory exchangeable bond, with proceeds potentially funding a large share buyback, which would be highly accretive to Fluor’s EPS, especially at its currently depressed valuation.
Alternatively, Starboard has proposed a tax-free spinoff of Fluor’s NuScale position, which could trigger a similar rerating of the core business while providing Fluor shareholders with the option to retain their exposure to NuScale’s long-term potential.
Thus, assuming Fluor maintains an 8.9x EBITDA multiple, which still could be improved upon given its discount to EPCM peers, the rerating that could come from this separation could yield over 200% of upside.
Starboard is a very experienced activist and also has a history in this industry. In June 2019, Starboard engaged another construction player, AECOM, where over the ensuing multiyear engagement, AECOM refreshed its board, appointed a new CEO, exited self-perform construction, and divested management services. This became one of Starboard’s most lucrative engagements in its history, returning 147% over its 13D filling versus 26% for the Russell 2000.
But more importantly, this is when they met David Constable for the first time. Constable is the executive chairman of Fluor, and until February, was its CEO. So, we expect that the mutual respect between Starboard and Constable will be conducive to an amicable, constructive relationship and beneficial to shareholders.
Ken Squire is the founder and president of 13D Monitor, an institutional research service on shareholder activism, and the founder and portfolio manager of the 13D Activist Fund, a mutual fund that invests in a portfolio of activist investments. More

ETF Strategist

ETF Street
ETF Strategist

More Americans want to include alternative investments in their portfolios, which can include assets like cryptocurrencies, private-market assets and gold.
Two-thirds of Americans surveyed said investing success requires supplementing traditional assets, according to a new survey from Charles Schwab.
“Although there is constant noise in the investment landscape, chasing fads or the latest headlines can negatively impact an investor’s portfolio in the short and long term,” said Andy Reed, head of behavioral economics research at Vanguard.

Sdi Productions | Istock | Getty Images

Amid growing consumer interest in alternative investments, financial advisors say it’s important to find the right way to invest.
Alternative investments are a broad category that covers many assets outside traditional holdings of cash, stock and bonds. Alts include private-market assets, real estate, commodities such as gold and oil, and cryptocurrencies, among others.

Investing in these products can entail added risks and complexities, advisors said. One smart way to get exposure to them is a more traditional vehicle: exchange-traded funds.

More from ETF Strategist:

Here’s a look at other stories offering insight on ETFs for investors.

The strategy represents an intersection of investor interest. Investors have put more than $1 trillion into U.S.-based ETFs so far this year, on pace to set a new annual record, State Street Investment Management said earlier this month. Much of that inflow has gone to gold and crypto ETFs, other analysts recently told CNBC.
Younger people, especially, are expressing disillusionment with conventional holdings, a phenomenon experts have dubbed “financial nihilism.”
Two-thirds of Americans surveyed said investing success requires supplementing traditional assets, according to a new survey from Charles Schwab. Nearly half of respondents, 45%, said they are interested in owning alternatives, such as private equity, real estate partnerships and hedge funds.
Schwab’s survey, conducted this spring, polled 2,400 people: a sample of 2,000 adults, plus an additional 200 Gen Z respondents and 200 cryptocurrency investors.

Shifting regulations may also allow more people to access a wider variety of alternative assets.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order in August designed to make it easier to get alternative products into workplace retirement plans. Meanwhile, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission recently made changes that could speed the launch of spot crypto ETFs.

‘Boring investing still works’

Using ETFs to get exposure to alts can help you sidestep some of the complexities of investing in such assets directly — namely, a lack of liquidity, said Cathy Curtis, the founder and CEO of Curtis Financial Planning in Oakland, California.
“These [private] investments often have multi-year lockup periods, limited redemption windows or depend on the underlying fund liquidating its holdings before investors can get paid out,” said Curtis, a member of CNBC’s Financial Advisor Council.
ETFs that hold these less-liquid assets, however, can typically still be traded freely throughout the day and during extended hours.

Curtis recommends limiting alternative investments to between 10% and 15% if you have a large portfolio, and to less than 5% if you have a smaller nest egg.
Those who are investing to buy a house, send their children to college or retire one day may find traditional stocks and bonds are still a better bet for the bulk of their portfolio, said Andy Reed, head of behavioral economics research at Vanguard.
“Although there is constant noise in the investment landscape, chasing fads or the latest headlines can negatively impact an investor’s portfolio in the short and long term,” Reed said.
History shows that putting money into a broad basket of stocks is highly profitable over the long term. If you invested just $1,000 in the S&P 500 on Feb. 1, 1970, you’d have more than $379,000 as of Oct. 20, according to Morningstar Direct. A $1,000 investment in the index on Jan.1, 2020 would be worth over $2,200 on Oct. 20.
“Boring investing still works,” Curtis said. More

The consumer price index rose 3% on an annual basis in September 2025.
Economists said the Trump administration’s tariff agenda could raise consumer prices more in the months ahead.
Without any other economic data, the report provides a look at the state of the U.S. economy ahead of next week’s Federal Reserve meeting.

Source: Getty Images

Inflation edged higher in September amid a jump in gasoline prices and other essentials such as electricity, while President Donald Trump’s tariffs put pressure on prices for physical goods such as clothing and furniture, economists said.
The consumer price index, a key inflation barometer, rose 3% in September from a year earlier, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. That’s an increase from 2.9% in August but below economists’ expectations.

“Core” commodities — which exclude volatile food and energy prices — also rose 3% in September from a year earlier.
“Inflation is uncomfortably high and is set to accelerate further in the coming months,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s.
The CPI tracks how quickly prices rise or fall for a basket of consumer goods and services, from coffee and bananas to club memberships and concert tickets.
The ongoing government shutdown delayed the release of CPI data to Friday from Oct. 15. Without any other economic data, the report provides a look at the state of the U.S. economy ahead of next week’s Federal Reserve meeting. The CPI release also enabled the Social Security Administration to announce the 2026 cost-of-living adjustment, which affects about 75 million people.

Food prices, shelter costs, clothing and airfares all increased in September.

Gasoline prices notched the biggest gain, jumping 4.1% from the previous month.

‘The 3% mark’

As it stands, inflation is still well above the Fed’s 2% target and remains “sticky around this 3% level,” said Mike Pugliese, senior economist at Wells Fargo Economics.
Inflation rose rapidly in 2021-22, then slowed, Pugliese said, but “in the past 12 months it’s just gotten stuck.”
From a psychological perspective, “the 3% mark is a line in the sand,” said Stephen Kates, a financial analyst at Bankrate. “It continues to be concerning to see inflation rise.”

The tariff effect

“The higher tariffs are adding to inflation, as evidenced by higher prices for beef and coffee, household furnishings, appliances and apparel,” Zandi said. A large share of these goods is imported from overseas.
Still, longer-term inflation expectations are somewhat muted and will likely fall by the second half of next year, Pugliese said, “particularly as the one-time hit to higher prices due to tariffs fades.”
Tariffs are a tax on imports from foreign nations, paid by U.S. entities that import the good or service. Businesses often bear some of the cost and pass it on to consumers through higher prices.
The size and extent of the tariff hit is still uncertain, economists say. But consumers could experience an overall average effective tariff rate of about 15% as trade negotiations play out, according to Zandi. That’s up from where it stands now at around 10%.
An Oct. 17 analysis by the Budget Lab at Yale found that the current tariff policies in effect are expected to cost each household $1,800, on average, in 2025.
“The pass-through has been delayed, in part because of the state of tariffs is all over the place and businesses want to wait and see where tariffs land before they raise prices,” Zandi said. “Companies don’t want to get caught up in the political buzzsaw, but that pass-through will occur.”

September’s inflation information, which was scheduled to be released Oct. 15, was delayed due to the government shutdown and comes amid a lack of other economic data.
Bureau of Labor Statistics workers were called back to release the consumer price index report because it is used to index Social Security cost-of-living adjustments, which were announced Friday.
The inflation report is also key for Fed policymakers, with all other data collections and releases suspended during the shutdown.

The central bank is expected to cut interest rates by a quarter point at its upcoming policy meeting next week, even though that could risk keeping inflation elevated, economists said.
“When you are in this data desert that we are in, you are going to argue for continuing on the path you are on, and that would suggest a rate cut,” Zandi said. “With no data, I think they stick to script.”
Trump has been highly critical of Fed policy, repeatedly saying that rates should be sharply lower. Additional BLS data could bolster the argument for further cuts, Bankrate’s Kates said, particularly if the monthly jobs report had shown more softening.
“It is a little bit backwards to tie the Fed’s hands when the data almost assuredly supports the position the administration wants,” Kates said.
Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube. More

Taylor Swift (L) and Travis Kelce are seen in the Meatpacking District on Dec. 28, 2024 in New York City.
TheStewartofNY | GC Images | Getty Images

Company: Six Flags Entertainment (FUN)
Business: Six Flags Entertainment is a regional amusement-resort operator with approximately 27 amusement parks, 15 water parks and nine resort properties across 17 states in the United States, Canada and Mexico. The company provides memorable experiences to millions of guests every year with coasters, themed rides, thrilling water parks, resorts and a portfolio of intellectual property such as Looney Tunes, DC Comics and Peanuts. The company’s parks include Hurricane Harbor Phoenix, California’s Great America, Knott’s Berry Farm, Knott’s Soak City Waterpark, Six Flags Magic Mountain, Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, Six Flags Over Georgia, Six Flags White Water, Cedar Point Shores Waterpark, Six Flags Great America, Six Flags Fiesta Texas, Hurricane Harbor Splashtown, Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom and others.
Stock Market Value: $2.60 billion ($25.63 per share) 

Stock chart icon

Six Flags Entertainment stock year to date

Activist: Jana Partners

Ownership: ~9%
Average Cost: n/a 
Activist Commentary: Jana is a very experienced activist investor founded in 2001 by Barry Rosenstein. They made their name taking deeply researched activist positions with well-conceived plans for long-term value. Rosenstein called his activist strategy “V cubed.” The three “Vs” were: (i) Value: buying at the right price; (ii) Votes: knowing whether you have the votes before commencing a proxy fight; and (iii) Variety of ways to win: having more than one strategy to enhance value and exit an investment. Since 2008, they have gradually shifted that strategy to one which we characterize as the three “Ss” (i) Stock price – buying at the right price; (ii) Strategic activism – sale of company or spinoff of a business; and (iii) Star advisors/nominees – aligning with top industry executives to advise them and take board seats if necessary.
What’s happening
On Oct. 21, Jana announced that it had partnered with Travis Kelce, Glenn Murphy and Dave Habiger in an investment in Six Flags Entertainment and plans to engage with the company’s board and management regarding opportunities to enhance shareholder value and improve the guest experience.
Behind the scenes
Six Flags Entertainment is a regional amusement-resort operator with approximately 27 amusement parks, 15 water parks and nine resort properties across 17 states in the United States, Canada and Mexico. In November 2023, Six Flags announced that it would be merging with Cedar Fair. While this news received backlash from some investors, most notably from activist Land & Buildings, the merger was completed in July 2024. At the time, this merger seemed like an opportunity to combine Six Flags’ regional dominance in amusement parks, strong licensing arrangements (such as its lifetime IP agreement with Warner Brothers) and modern tech and pricing backbone with Cedar Fair’s operational discipline, best-in-class park experience and high customer satisfaction rate to generate synergies and elevate Six Flags’ asset value.

However, this arrangement has not really gone as planned. In the second quarter, Six Flags faced severe weather conditions during their typical peak May to June season, which resulted in substantial EBITDA and attendance misses. Moreover, the company entered this period highly levered from the merger, and these misses only amplified the company’s balance sheet problems in the eyes of investors. This sent Six Flags’ share price down over 58% from the completion of the Cedar Fair merger to the day prior to Jana’s announcement.
Stock action like this on otherwise strong businesses that is due to an idiosyncratic event like weather that is not likely to recur generally gets the attention of good value investors. However, Six Flags does have other issues, namely poor operational execution, integrating the Cedar Fair merger and identifying a new CEO, as CEO Richard Zimmerman has announced he is stepping down from his role at the end of 2025.
Jana Partners is now the fifth activist investor in this stock. Other include Sachem Head (4.82%), H Partners (4.59%), Dendur (4.38%) and Land & Buildings (n/a). All of those other activists, except L&B, have received board representation.
Jana, as it often does, is coming in with an All-Star team: Glenn Murphy, executive chairman of Petco and former chairman and CEO of the Gap; Dave Habiger, chairman of Reddit; and NFL Superstar Travis Kelce. The investment group holds a roughly 9% economic interest and plans to engage Six Flags’ board and management team to explore ways to enhance shareholder value and improve the guest experience.
Much of Jana’s campaign echoes the qualms already raised by the other activists in the stock, including the company’s potential to unlock value by reinvigorating the business as a standalone company with a new CEO and/or monetizing the real estate, or even selling the entire company. Regardless of which plan is pursued, the company must immediately start down the road of fixing its operational issues.
Operationally, Six Flags has forfeited a substantial opportunity by failing to integrate its consumer-facing technology. More than a year post-merger, Six Flags still operates over 10 different apps, and even basic transactions like purchasing a season pass on the website have been unreliable, so modernizing and streamlining this technology could go a long way.
The company also needs to reexamine its operating strategy during inclement weather and adopt a more disciplined capex framework. For example, despite this poor weather during the second quarter, Six Flags still kept its parks open on more days during this quarter than the same period last year, resulting in significant and unnecessary losses.
Jana also believes Six Flags has the opportunity to leverage its existing real estate to implement year-round and inclement weatherproof experiences, such as indoor skydiving and trampoline parks.

Kelce cool factor

Next, the company needs to reinvigorate its advertising and marketing. Six Flags is one of the most recognizable entertainment brands, but its advertising has been stale, abandoning regional marketing efforts while also missing the opportunity to leverage its national scale. While the new CEO will likely have good ideas in this area, having access to Travis Kelce, one of the most popular and liked celebrities in the world across all demographics is a valuable potential marketing asset. (For example, look what Sydney Sweeney has already done for American Eagle with just one ad.)
Kelce has not signed on as a brand ambassador or in any capacity other than as a shareholder, but he is a true fan of amusement parks like Six Flags, has already added advertising value to the company just by talking about it on his podcast and there is always a potential to do more with him either informally or through some sort of an agreement. Brand revitalization catalyzed by Kelce’s active involvement provides a meaningful opportunity to lift attendance and engagement at Six Flags.
JANA’s partnership with Mr. Kelce is unprecedented in two respects: 1) it pairs an activist and a world-famous celebrity that has personally invested in the company and is using their star power to boost the company’s brand from the outside in a highly authentic manner, and 2) it brings a perfectly tailored solution to rejuvenate the company’s branding and marketing, reaffirming its cool factor and resolving any concern about Six Flag’s brand relevance that has weighed on the company’s multiple.
Finally, and probably most importantly, the ongoing CEO process presents a golden opportunity to recruit a world class operator capable of executing upon these initiatives. In the world of shareholder activism, there are not many better opportunities for value creation than the activist having a say in identifying a new CEO for a great but struggling business.
With multiple activists participating in this process, we would expect the new CEO to be a first-rate operator with strong views on creating value for shareholders. Moreover, a reconstituted board over the past several years and the addition of Kelce as a potential formal or informal brand ambassador may increase the quality of the candidate pool.
That all being said, a CEO vacancy is also often the perfect time to explore strategic alternatives, and Jana is still urging the company to evaluate a potential sale of underperforming parks and/or the entire company.
Should Six Flags position itself for a sale, there would likely be both private equity and strategic interest. Apollo, for example, attempted to acquire Cedar Fair back in 2010 before their merger fell through due to lack of investor support, and Blackstone already owns Great Wolf Lodge – a complementary asset.
In terms of strategics, the growing media and entertainment trend of integrating physical park assets into cross-platform media ecosystems makes the industry a logical candidate. Media titans like Disney and Comcast have already provided the blueprint on how to leverage amusement parks to promote intellectual property.
Paramount, the third peer to Disney and Comcast, is the only one without an amusement park after interestingly selling five Paramount Parks to Cedar Fair in 2006. This becomes even more intriguing now that Paramount has made a $57 billion bid to acquire Warner Bros Discovery. Six Flags has a licensing agreement with Warner Brothers and at a current $2.6 billion market cap, would be a logical add-on to its acquisition by Paramount, or any strategic investor for that matter. (Netflix has also shown interest).
Jana is a highly experienced activist with a track record for showing up with operators tailor-made for a company’s specific problems, and that’s exactly what they have done here. The perfect brand ambassador and two corporate legends with almost unparalleled consumer and technology-based operational turnaround expertise may be exactly the medicine required here. With that in mind, we would normally argue that this is too crowded of a shareholder base for Jana to gain board representation, as there are already six directors on the board who were appointed pursuant to an activist settlement. However, we believe that the activists with representatives already on the board are like-minded to Jana and would welcome directors of this quality to help pursue a path they all seem to agree on.
Ken Squire is the founder and president of 13D Monitor, an institutional research service on shareholder activism, and the founder and portfolio manager of the 13D Activist Fund, a mutual fund that invests in a portfolio of activist investments.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal, which owns CNBC. Versant would become the new parent company of CNBC upon Comcast’s planned spinoff of Versant. More

The Social Security cost-of-living adjustment will be 2.8% in 2026, the Social Security Administration said on Friday.
Social Security retirement benefits will increase by about $56 per month on average starting in January.
Over the last 20 years, the Social Security COLA has averaged 2.6%, according to The Senior Citizens League, a nonpartisan senior group.

Jasondoiy | E+ | Getty Images

The Social Security cost-of-living adjustment will be 2.8% in 2026, the Social Security Administration said on Friday.
Social Security retirement benefits will increase by about $56 per month on average starting in January, according to the agency.

The COLA provides an annual adjustment to both Social Security and Supplemental Security Income to help ensure those benefits keep up with inflation. About 75 million people receive benefit checks from those programs. But for beneficiaries who rely on those payments to cover essential expenses, the size of this year’s COLA might not ease their struggle with higher prices.

Read more CNBC personal finance coverage

The Social Security cost-of-living adjustment for 2026 is in line with expert estimates that had projected a 2.7% to 2.8% boost to benefits.
Over the last 20 years, the Social Security COLA has averaged 2.6%, according to The Senior Citizens League, a nonpartisan senior group.
The cost-of-living adjustment was 2.5% in 2025.

“Social Security is a promise kept, and the annual cost-of-living adjustment is one way we are working to make sure benefits reflect today’s economic realities and continue to provide a foundation of security,” Social Security Administration Commissioner Frank J. Bisignano said in a statement.

How can I estimate the size of my 2026 check?

To estimate the increase to their 2026 benefit checks, beneficiaries can multiply their current monthly benefit amount by 2.8%, or 0.028.
Other factors — the size of the Medicare Part B premiums, which are typically deducted directly from benefit checks, and elected tax withholdings — will also affect monthly benefit payments.
The standard monthly Part B premium could go up by 11.6% — or $21.50 per month — to $206.50 per month from $185, according to projections from Medicare trustees. Higher earners may pay additional monthly costs, known as income-related monthly adjustment amounts, or IRMAAs.

Beneficiaries can also opt to have federal income tax withheld from their benefit checks. They may choose from four fixed percentage rates — 7%, 10%, 12% or 22% of the monthly payment. Beneficiaries pay federal income taxes on their benefits if their combined income is more than $25,000 for individual tax filers or more than $32,000 if married and filing jointly. Combined income is the sum of 50% of benefits plus other earned income.

How is the cost-of-living adjustment calculated?

The Social Security cost-of-living adjustment is based a subset of the consumer price index, formally known as the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, or CPI-W.
The COLA is the percentage increase in the CPI-W from the third quarter of the previous year to the third quarter of the current year.

The COLA was the highest in four decades in 2023 when it climbed to 8.7% following the increase in inflation following the Covid pandemic. However, the COLA has come closer to average in subsequent years, with a 3.2% increase in 2024 followed by a 2.5% increase this year.
This is a developing story. Please refresh for updates. More