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Company: Workiva (WK)
Business: Workiva is a provider of cloud-based reporting solutions that are designed to solve financial and non-financial business challenges at the intersection of data, process and people. The company offers its unified software-as-a-service, or SaaS, platform that brings customers’ financial reporting; environmental, social and governance (ESG); and governance, risk and compliance (GRC) together in a controlled, secure, audit-ready platform. The Workiva platform is multi-tenant cloud software deployed in multiple regions worldwide for assured integrated reporting. The company’s platform is built primarily on Amazon Web Services and is composed of both proprietary and open-source technologies. Its Workiva platform helps customers by connecting and transforming data from hundreds of enterprise resource planning, human capital management, and customer relationship management systems, as well as other third-party cloud and on-premises applications.
Stock Market Value: $4.92 billion ($87.46 per share)

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Workiva shares year to date

Activist: Irenic Capital Management

Ownership: ~2.0%
Average Cost: n/a
Activist Commentary: Irenic Capital was founded in October 2021 by Adam Katz, a former portfolio manager at Elliott Investment Management, and Andy Dodge, a former investment partner at Indaba Capital Management. Irenic invests in public companies and works collaboratively with firm leadership. Their activism has thus far focused on strategic activism, recommending spinoffs and sales of businesses.
What’s happening
On Sept. 29, Irenic announced that they have taken a roughly 2% position in Workiva and are calling on the company to improve its operating efficiency, review strategic alternatives with fresh board oversight, including a potential sale of the company, and improve corporate governance practices, including collapsing its dual-class share structure. Irenic also called on the company to add two new board members, including Irenic executive Krishna Korupolu, to the board, and noted that they have not ruled out nominating directors if the two sides can’t reach an agreement.
Behind the scenes
Workiva is the leading provider of cloud-based reporting solutions, integrating financial reporting, sustainability management, and governance, risk, and compliance, into a sharable, data-integrated, and audit-ready environment. Over 40% of the company’s revenue is derived from its SEC filing service, which simplifies regulatory filings and other disclosures for public companies. This is a great business that serves some of the world’s largest enterprises, with 95% of the Fortune 100, 89% of the Fortune 500 and 85% of the Fortune 1000 using its platform, supported by an approximately 97% customer retention rate that has enabled consistent mid-teens revenue growth.

But the problem for Workiva lies not in the quality of its business, but rather its lack of profitability. Despite scaling toward more than $1 billion in revenue by 2026 and over 10 years operating in the public markets, Workiva is yet to generate a profit. As a result, Workiva shares currently trade at a roughly 25% discount to application software rivals like Workday and ServiceNow.
This discount and operational challenges have drawn the attention of Irenic Capital, who has disclosed an approximately 2% position in the company and issued a presentation to the Workiva board calling for governance enhancements, operational changes and a review of strategic alternatives.
Governance is a real issue at Workiva and an obvious reason for the discounted stock price. Workiva is still run like a private company with its three founders controlling the company through the dual share class structure. This has led to a staggered board with little relevant experience and five of seven directors serving since the 2014 IPO.
Irenic would like to see the dual class share structure collapsed and the board de-staggered and reconstituted with qualified directors including Irenic executive Krishna Korupolu. In the world of shareholder activism, this is generally tantamount to asking a country like North Korea to convert to a democracy, but Irenic’s prospects are not hopeless here (more on that later).
Operationally, you get what you would expect from a founder-controlled company — an extremely bloated SG&A. Much of the margin pressure can be attributed to inefficiencies in the company’s operating model, particularly within its sales force, as sales and marketing currently occupy 43% of revenue compared to 31% on average for peers. This has produced an estimated operating margin for calendar year 2025 of 7%, despite having 80% gross profit margins. SaaS companies of this caliber should be able to meet “Rule of 40” targets (operating margins plus revenue growth equal or exceeding 40), a level of efficiency that would be extremely accretive to shareholders, which Irenic believes is achievable by FY 2027.
Workiva currently has an 18% revenue growth rate but spends an inordinate amount of money to get the last couple of percentage points. It should be able to sustain double-digit revenue growth with far less sales force spending, which could in itself meaningfully change the company’s margin profile. Combining this with the company’s extremely strong pricing power suggests room for significant profitability improvements.
Irenic states that if Workiva is unable to execute as a refocused public company with improved corporate governance, the board (preferably revamped) should run a strategic review, pursuing a sale of the company to determine the best risk-adjusted path for shareholders.
Workiva is a market leader in a secularly growing business with a vast blue-chip clientele and no real number two when it comes to its SEC filing service. The quality of Workiva’s business should mean no shortage of private and strategic interest. In fact, in 2022, reports surfaced that PE firms Thoma Bravo and TPG had interest in a potential acquisition. Logical strategic acquirers include similar financial management platforms like Intuit, stock exchange operators (Nasdaq, LSEG, Deutsche Börse), as well as software behemoths such as Salesforce, Oracle and IBM, all of whom could realize meaningful synergies.
Comparable transactions — Smartsheet/Vista Equity (7x revenue), Coupa/Thoma Bravo (8x), AspenTech/Emerson Electric (14x), and AltairEngineering/Siemens (14x) — suggest a 7 to 8 times forward revenue multiple for financial acquirers, which at $1 billion projected revenue for 2026, would imply 40% to 60% upside, with the potential for even higher premiums in a strategic transaction given the potential for significant synergies.
While Irenic’s public presence at Workiva has likely piqued the interest of potential acquirers, the bottom line here is, as an effectively controlled company, nothing can happen without the consent of the controlling parties – the three founders, who through a dual class structure control roughly 44% of the voting power.
While such factors can often stifle an activist campaign, there are a few reasons why this situation may be different. First, this is not a founding family but three different founders that are not necessarily aligned and may have grown apart.
Matthew Rizai resigned as chairman and CEO in June 2018 with a nice severance package. This and the fact that he was replaced by co-founder Martin Vanderploeg as CEO and did not even stay on the board indicates that this might have not been as mutual as the company’s press release stated. Jeffrey Trom reduced his duties at the company in 2022, resigned in 2023 and ended a consulting relationship in 2024. Additionally, all three founders are over 65 years of age and have been slowly selling shares. Of the three founders, only Vanderploeg remains actively involved in the company as the non-executive chairman and he has 10.6% of total voting power versus 24.6% for Rizai and 9.2% for Trom. At the price that Irenic thinks this company could fetch in a sale, it is hard to believe that they would not be able to get the support of Rizai and/or Trom.
Additionally, Irenic has stated that they have not ruled out nominating directors if the two sides can’t reach an agreement and if it does come to that, we would not necessarily assume the three founders are aligned.
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 13D investments. More

Urenco USA operates the only commercial uranium enrichment facility in the U.S.
The enrichment plant in New Mexico will play a crucial role in fueling U.S. efforts to expand nuclear power in the coming decades.
The U.S. faces a looming nuclear fuel supply gap as its bans Russian uranium from the marketplace in response to the war in Ukraine.
Urenco is expanding production to meet the nuclear fleet’s growing fuel needs.

EUNICE, NEW MEXICO — Paul Lorskulsint was a shift manager at a brand new uranium enrichment facility deep in the American Southwest when catastrophe struck Japan in 2011.
A massive tsunami and earthquake had caused a severe accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Thousands of miles away in Eunice, New Mexico, Lorskulsint turned on the television to make sure his team could witness what was happening across the Pacific Ocean.

Lorskulsint knew the disaster in Japan was a watershed moment for the nuclear industry. The plant where he was leading an operations shift had just opened in 2010, after the European uranium enricher Urenco had spent years building the facility in anticipation of growing demand.
Over the ensuing decade, public support for nuclear power diminshed and a dozen reactors closed in the U.S. as the industry struggled to compete against a flood of cheap natural gas and renewable energy. Demand for the low enriched uranium that fuels nuclear plants dwindled.
“The price of what we sold basically went through the floor,” Lorskulsint, who is now the chief nuclear officer at Urenco USA, told CNBC. Urenco’s long-term contracts with utilities insulated the facility during the downturn, he said, but the price drop put further expansion plans on hold.

Paul Lorskulsint, Chief Nuclear Officer, Urenco USA talks about the uranium enrichment process.
Adam Jeffery | CNBC

Headquartered outside London, Urenco is joinly owned by the British and Dutch goverments and two German utilities. Its New Mexico facility is the only commercial enrichment facility left in the U.S. The last U.S.-owned commercial facility in Paducah, Kentucky, closed in 2013 and its owner the United States Enrichment Corporation went bankrupt during the downturn after Fukushima.
Fourteen years later, the situation has reversed once again. Urenco USA is racing to expand its enrichment capacity. The nuclear industry is gaining momentum as electricity demand in the U.S. is projected to surge from artificial intelligence and the push to expand domestic manufacturing. Doubts persist about whether U.S. power supplies will ramp up quick enough to meet the needs. Increasing uranium enrichment will be a key part of the process, despite the history of past disappointments. 

Also, U.S. enriched uranium supplies are at risk. The U.S. still imported 20% of its enriched uranium from Russia in 2024, a legacy of the now shattered hope for friendship between the two countries after the collapse of the Soviet Union and end of the Cold War.
The U.S. will completely ban the import Russian uranium by 2028 in repsonse to Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, leaving a gapping supply deficit just when Washington, the utilities and the tech sector are developing the most ambitious plans in decades to build new reactors.
Nuclear plants like Palisades in Michigan, Crane Clean Energy Center in Pennsylvania and Duane Arnold in Iowa are planning to restart operations this decade after closing years ago. The tech sector is investing hundreds of millions of dollars to bring advanced reactors online in the 2030s to help power their computer warehouses that train and run AI applications.
“It is a pivotal moment, the next five to 10 years for the nuclear industry,” Lorskulsint said. “We’re going to have to have to deliver on time, on schedule and continue to maintain that momentum, which is a significant challenge.”

Employees at Urenco USA receive a cylinder of feed material for enrichment process.
Adam Jeffery | CNBC

Expansion plans

In deeply divided Washington, support for nuclear power is one of the few issues that can still muster some bipartisan support. President Donald Trump wants to quadruple nuclear power by 2050, a significant increase over President Joe Biden’s previous goal to triple it by that date.
The U.S. has only built one new nuclear plant from scratch in the past 30 years, raising doubts about whether such ambitious plans can be realized. But any effort big or small to expand nuclear power in the U.S. will run through Urenco’s facility in New Mexico.
The plant currently has capacity to supply about a third of U.S. demand with $5 billion invested in the facility to date. Urenco is expanding its capacity in New Mexico by 15% through 2027 as utilties replace Russian fuel. It has installed two new centrifuge cascades for enrichment this year. But Urenco’s expansion alone won’t fill the Russian supply gap, Lorskulsint said.
“Our competitors will have to expand in order to make sure that as a whole the industry is still supplied,” he said. “We’re building quickly as we can to make sure that the the industry is not short handed.”
As Russian fuel is banned from the U.S., the Trump administration is pushing for 10 new large reactors to start construction this decade. Alphabet is investing in about 2 gigawatts of new nuclear, Amazon has committed to more than 5 gigawatts, and Meta wants to bring up to 4 gigawatts online.

Urenco USA Facilities in Eunice, New Mexico.
Adam Jeffery | CNBC

The industry is worried about the supply gap, Lorskulsint said, but filling it “is not an insurmountable task.”
Urenco USA is a candidate to receive a contract from the Department of Energy to produce more low-enriched uranium, part of U.S. efforts to standup a domestic nuclear supply chain. The contract would allow the New Mexico facility to expand further with the construction of a fourth production building.
Urenco’s competitors are also seeking support from the Energy Department to build out U.S. enrichment capacity. France’s Orano is planning to build a facility in Oak Ridge, Tennesse, with operations potentially starting in the 2030s.
Publicly traded Centrus has a facility in Piketon, Ohio, where it plans to produce low-enriched uranium, but it hasn’t yet started commercial operations. Centrus is the successor company to the United States Enrichment Corporation that went bankrupt in 2013.
Centrus stock has gained more than 400% this year as investors bet on a growing demand for enriched uranium due to U.S. plans to expand nuclear power.

Paul Lorskulsint, Chief Nuclear Officer, Urenco USA talks about the uranium enrichment process next to centrifuge cascade.
Adam Jeffery | CNBC

Supply chain bottlenecks

But enrichment is just one stage in a long supply chain that will be stretched by growing demand. Uranium delivered to the U.S is often mined in Canada and it is then converted into intermediate state called uranium hexafluoride that is the feedstock for enrichment.
The feedstock is spun in Urenco’s centrifuges to increase the presence of the isotope Uranium-235 to 5%, the level needed for most nuclear plants. The enriched uranium is then shipped to fuel fabricators that manufacture the pellets that go into reactors in power plants.
U.S. nuclear plants are facing cumulative supply gap of 184 million pounds of uranium through 2034, according to the Energy Information Administration.The biggest bottleneck right now for Urenco is the conversion of uranium into the feedstock for enrichment, Lorskulsint said. There are only three facilities in the Western world located in Canada, France and Illinois that convert uranium into feedstock.
“Every portion of the supply chain is going to have to expand, it’s not just about enrichment,” Lorskulsint said. “We need more of everything but conversion right now is the bottleneck.”
The nuclear supply chain may not be the biggest challenge in the end, the executive said. The ageing U.S. electric grid could prove to be the real constraint on building new nuclear due how long it takes to complete upgrades, he said. While this could slow Urenco down, it won’t stop the expansion, he said.
“We came here when the market demanded it,” Lorskulsint said of Urenco’s investment in the U.S. “We were here when the market didn’t demand it. And we are now expanding to make sure that we can still support as much as the market needs from us.” More

The fourth quarter of the year can be an opportunity to review your finances, as well as prepare yourself for the upcoming year, experts say.
“It’s absolutely a great time to do that,” said Dan Moisand, a certified financial planner and director at Moisand Fitzgerald Tamayo in Orlando, Florida. The firm is ranked No. 69 on CNBC’s Financial Advisor 100 for 2025.

Strauss/curtis | The Image Bank | Getty Images

Early in the fourth quarter is an ideal time to tackle some financial planning tasks that set you up for success for the rest of the year — and into 2026. 
“It’s absolutely a great time to do that,” said Dan Moisand, a certified financial planner and director at Moisand Fitzgerald Tamayo in Orlando, Florida. The firm is ranked No. 69 on CNBC’s Financial Advisor 100 for 2025.

One advantage: You have actual financial data available — such as income from work, interest and dividends, as well as money you’ve spent — rather than working with estimated figures, he said. That can aid with year-end tax planning.

More from CNBC’s Financial Advisor 100:

Here’s a look at more coverage of CNBC’s Financial Advisor 100 list of top financial advisory firms for 2025:

What’s more, now is also a good time to prepare your budget for the upcoming holiday season to make sure you start off the new year without financial stress, said Gloria Garcia Cisneros, a CFP and wealth manager at LourdMurray in Los Angeles.
Last year, about 36% of surveyed Americans took on holiday debt, averaging $1,181, according to a report by LendingTree. The site polled 2,049 adults in December 2024.
Here’s how to gear up your finances for the end of 2025 and prepare for the new year, according to experts. 

‘The most crucial and impactful tax strategies’

While the deadline for individual tax returns falls in April, “the most crucial and impactful tax strategies” often need to happen before December 31, said Chelsea Ransom-Cooper, a CFP, co-founder and the chief planning officer of Zenith Wealth Partners in Philadelphia.

This year, year-end tax planning is even more important, given that President Donald Trump’s “big beautiful bill” made several tax law changes, said Ransom-Cooper, a member of CNBC’s Financial Advisor Council. 

For instance, the law temporarily increased the cap on the deduction for state and local taxes, or SALT, to $40,000 for 2025, up from $10,000. 
That higher cap is a “completely different ball game for a lot of people,” Ransom-Cooper said. Maximizing it may require strategizing — say, by prepaying certain taxes.
On the other hand, there’s a new tax break worth up to $2,000 for cash charitable donations for non-itemizers, said Moisand. However, the law doesn’t take effect until January — which means some taxpayers may benefit from delaying small year-end charitable gifts until the new year.
“The biggest mistake is just thinking of each tax year in isolation without considering the levers that you could pull,” Moisand said.

‘The last thing you want’ for 2026

Use these last months of the year to think about where you are financially and what your goals are for the future, said Cisneros, a member of CNBC’s Financial Advisor Council. That can help keep your spending on track.
This year, early forecasts show that worries about higher costs from inflation and tariffs may prompt consumers to pull back.

About 41% of consumers are concerned that gifts will be more expensive this year and 30% said they expect to spend less this holiday than they did last year, according to a recent report by Bankrate.
Think about different ways to get ahead and avoid overspending, like taking advantage of sales or finding other ways beyond gifts to express care and appreciation for others, Cisneros said. 
“The last thing you want is to start 2026 with a lot of stress financially,” she said. 
CNBC receives no compensation from placing financial advisory firms on our Financial Advisor 100 list. Additionally, a firm or an advisor’s appearance on our ranking does not constitute an individual endorsement by CNBC of any firm or advisor. More

A central issue of the government shutdown is the enhanced subsidies that make health plans bought over the Affordable Care Act marketplace cheaper for millions of Americans.
The ACA enhanced premium tax credits are set to expire at the end of 2025 without congressional action.
Open enrollment for 2026 ACA coverage starts on Nov. 1.
We want to hear from you. How are your health premiums poised to change next year?

Natalia Gdovskaia | Moment | Getty Images

Health insurance is at the heart of the government shutdown.
Without action from Congress, insurance premiums for people who buy coverage via the Affordable Care Act marketplace are poised to more than double for the average enrollee in 2026, according to research from KFF, a nonpartisan health policy research group.

Democrats are demanding that legislation to end the shutdown include an extension of enhanced subsidies, or enhanced premium tax credits, that have made marketplace insurance plans cheaper in recent years for the vast majority of ACA enrollees. Republicans have said they don’t want to include the subsidies in shutdown negotiations.
The impasse leaves millions of individuals who buy marketplace insurance — including self-employed business owners, gig workers and early retirees who can’t yet access Medicare, among many others — in limbo about their future health costs. Open enrollment for 2026 ACA coverage starts on Nov. 1.
ACA enrollees: How are your health premiums poised to change next year, and what impact will that have on the rest of your personal finances?
We want to hear from you.
If you’re willing to share your experience for an upcoming story on this topic, please write to reporters Greg Iacurci and Kate Dore at [email protected] and [email protected]. More

Student loan borrowers who are trying to get into a new repayment plan face delays amid a Trump-era backlog of applications and the shutdown of the government.
Here’s what they can do in the meantime.

The U.S. Capitol is seen on the second day of the federal government shutdown on October 2, 2025, in Washington D.C.
Mehmet Eser | Anadolu | Getty Images

The shutdown of the federal government is likely to worsen the delays student loan borrowers are already facing in accessing programs required by Congress and mandated in their loan terms.
More than 1 million borrowers are in a backlog to enroll in an income-driven repayment plan, according to court records from mid-September.

During the shutdown, Federal Student Aid staff “will not be able to perform regular operations, including working on the IDR backlog,” a spokesperson for the Education Department told CNBC on Wednesday. That day, the U.S. government shut down after lawmakers failed to reach a funding deal, meaning that most of the federal workers at the Education Department would be temporarily put on unpaid leave.
“Even before the shutdown, borrowers were at a breaking point,” said Michele Zampini, associate vice president of federal policy and advocacy at The Institute for College Access & Success.
“Now, with application processing reportedly at a standstill, borrowers will continue to face unaffordable payments.”
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Congress created the first IDR plans in the 1990s to make student loan borrowers’ bills more affordable. Historically, the plans cap people’s monthly payments at a share of their discretionary income and cancel any remaining debt after a certain period, typically 20 years or 25 years.

Here’s what student loan borrowers need to know about getting into a new repayment plan right now.

Delays are ‘disruptive to the lives of borrowers’

As of Aug. 31, there were already 1,076,266 income-driven repayment plan applications pending with the agency, court records show.
“It is not surprising that there will be no progress on the IDR backlog during the shutdown, as the staff who work on it aren’t considered ‘essential,'” said higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz.
But, Kantrowitz said, “the failure to clear the backlog is disruptive to the lives of borrowers.”

Many of the borrowers in the backlog are likely trying to switch out of the Biden administration-era SAVE, or Saving on a Valuable Education, plan. A court struck that program down in February and now borrowers who remain in the SAVE forbearance, which borrowers were placed into during the legal challenges, are seeing interest grow on their debt. (The Trump administration started charging interest as of Aug. 1.)
“Interest has been accruing on their loans, but they have been unable to switch to another plan,” Kantrowitz said.
In the meantime, borrowers stuck in the backlog may not be making progress toward loan forgiveness, either under the terms of an IDR plan or through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. PSLF offers debt cancellation to certain public servants or non-profit workers after a decade.

What borrowers in the backlog can do

For now, the best move student loan borrowers stuck in the backlog can do is to salt away the money they would have directed to their payments, Kantrowitz said. That way, you’ll have plenty of cash to draw on when the Education Department switches you into another IDR plan and your first bill comes due.

This remains a waiting game.

Carolina Rodriguez
director of the Education Debt Consumer Assistance Program

While this waiting period likely doesn’t count toward IDR or PSLF forgiveness, when you first applied for an IDR plan, you were supposed to be put into a 60-day administrative forbearance at first, and those two months still do count on your forgiveness timeline, Kantrowitz said.
“Our advice to borrowers is to maintain thorough records and monitor any applications submitted during this period,” said Carolina Rodriguez, director of the Education Debt Consumer Assistance Program, speaking about the backlog.
“Once processing resumes, it’s important to follow up promptly to ensure their application remains on track,” Rodriguez said. “Beyond that, unfortunately, this remains a waiting game.” More

The purchase price of the average used electric vehicle is nearly at parity with traditional gasoline-powered cars.
Analysts expect this will help the market for used EVs to continue growing, even though President Trump and congressional Republicans eliminated a federal EV tax credit as of Oct. 1.
Focusing on the total cost of ownership rather than the upfront purchase price is a better metric for prospective car buyers, analysts said.

Charging an electric vehicle.
Tashdique Mehtaj Ahmed | Moment | Getty Images

The price of used electric vehicles has come down to levels comparable with gasoline cars, a dynamic poised to boost their popularity despite the loss of a federal tax incentive for EVs, according to auto analysts.
In August, the price premium for used EVs relative to used vehicles with a gasoline engine narrowed to just $897, on average, the smallest price gap on record, according to Cox Automotive.

The average list price for used EVs was $34,704 in August, down 1.1% from July and 2.6% from a year earlier, it found.
This price tag excludes a federal tax credit that ended after Sept. 30, after Republicans scrapped it as part of a multitrillion-dollar legislative package in July. That tax break was worth up to $4,000 for used EVs (and $7,500 for new EVs) — meaning the average used EV cost less than its gasoline counterpart after incentives.

Consumers bought nearly 41,000 used EVs in August, up 59% from a year earlier, Cox data shows.
Analysts expect that momentum to continue, driven in large part by affordability even absent the federal tax break.
2026 will be “the year of the used EV,” said Scott Case, the CEO of Recurrent, an EV market research firm.

Why leased EVs help drive down prices for used ones

Automakers leaned heavily on leasing in recent years to move electric vehicles, analysts said.
Since 2023, more than 1.1 million EVs have been leased, Stephanie Valdez Streaty, director of industry insights at Cox, wrote in an analysis last month.
This was partly due to the so-called leasing “loophole.” Consumers could more easily claim a $7,500 tax credit when leasing a new EV than buying one, the latter of which came with more restrictions.
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Now, a large volume of electric vehicles are reaching the end of their lease term. Lease returns and trade-ins are boosting the supply of used EVs, driving down prices, Valdez Streaty wrote.
In fact, 14 used EV models had a lower average price than their gasoline counterparts in August, according to Valdez Streaty.
“For mainstream buyers, EV affordability in the used-vehicle space is finally within reach,” Valdez Streaty wrote.

The top-selling models — Tesla Model 3, Tesla Model Y, the General Motors-owned Chevrolet Bolt EV, Tesla Model S and Ford Mustang Mach-E — all had prices below the market average in August, which shows their appeal to budget-conscious buyers consumers, Valdez Streaty wrote.
For example, two high-volume models — the Renault-owned Nissan Leaf and the Tesla Model 3 — carried an average price tag of $12,890 and $23,278, respectively, according to Valdez Streaty. The Chevrolet Bolt EV was $14,705.

Not the ‘end of affordable EVs’

Valentinrussanov | E+ | Getty Images

By contrast, the market for new electric vehicles is likely to struggle for the rest of 2025 and into next year, analysts said.
Average new EV prices in August were $57,245, representing a nearly $9,100 premium over the average gasoline car, according to Cox Automotive.
That doesn’t include the now-expired $7,500 federal tax credit, which brought new EVs closer to price parity with their gasoline counterparts.
“The tax credit helped get a lot of butts in seats,” Aaron Bragman, Detroit bureau chief for Cars.com, told CNBC. “It helped a lot of people get into EVs.”

However, there are still some relatively affordable new electric vehicles even without the federal tax break, he said.
For example, the 2025 Nissan Leaf has a starting price under $30,000, Bragman said.
A few others — the Fiat 500e, Hyundai Kona Electric and Chevrolet Equinox EV — have a starting price under $35,000, according to Cars.com.
“The end of the [tax] credit doesn’t mean the end of affordable EVs,” Bragman wrote in an e-mail. “Brands like Nissan, Chevrolet, and Hyundai are rolling out lower-priced options, and used EVs are getting more attractive too, with plenty available under $25,000. Battery costs are also coming down, which will help keep prices competitive in the long run.”

For mainstream buyers, EV affordability in the used-vehicle space is finally within reach.

Stephanie Valdez Streaty
director of industry insights at Cox Automotive

In fact, the tax break’s expiration doesn’t seem to negatively influence interest among prospective new-car buyers, according to J.D. Power.
More than half of new-vehicle shoppers are either “very likely” (24%) or “somewhat likely” (35%) to consider buying an EV in the next 12 months, rates that have remained fairly consistent for the past year, according to a September study by J.D. Power.

Total cost of ownership

Consumers should focus on total cost of ownership rather than upfront purchase price when choosing a car, analysts said.
This means a car owner should account not only for upfront purchase price, but for the full suite of financial costs, like repairs, maintenance and fuel.
Such costs are generally cheaper for electric vehicles, and can therefore make the lifetime cost of EV ownership less expensive than that of a gasoline-powered car, according to studies and industry experts.
“I think this is the bigger argument” in favor of EVs, said Case of Recurrent.
Factors like geography and charging accessibility are important here, analysts said. For example, relying heavily on public charging networks may flip the economic calculus, since public charging is often more expensive than charging at home, they said.

State incentives are still available

While the federal electric vehicle tax incentive has disappeared, there are additional incentives available from utilities, automakers, and state and local governments that can, in some instances, shave thousands of dollars off an EV’s upfront cost, experts said.
California, Colorado, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island are among the states that offer relatively generous incentives, analysts said.
“There are a lot of state supports still for these EVs,” said Al Salas, CEO of Eco Auto, an EV dealer with operations in Massachusetts and Washington state. More

A Nvidia HGX H100 server at the Yotta Data Services Pvt. data center in Navi Mumbai, India, on Thursday, Mar. 14, 2024.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Notable technology industry analyst Dan Ives says Big Tech companies and private equity firms are gearing up to make a flurry of acquisitions to stay ahead in the AI arms race. The analyst shared his picks for stocks that are prime acquisition targets as the dealmaking boom gets underway.
“With the regulatory landscape becoming more lenient to acquisitions with the new administrations stepping in and no longer representing steep hurdles, we believe that the tech M&A floodgates are ready to be opened as more opportunities arise to add accretive assets with an easier path forward,” Ives said late Wednesday note to Wedbush Securities clients.

Over the past few months, several technology firms have entered into deals to sell their businesses to AI and AI-adjacent firms. Core Scientific agreed in July to sell its data center business to CoreWeave in a $9 billion all-stock deal. Around the same time, Palo Alto Networks announced it would acquire CyberArk, an Israeli security firm valued at $25 billion, while NiCE unveiled plans to purchase consumer-focused generative AI company Cognigy for nearly $1 billion.
Ives pointed to C3.ai and Sandisk as being among the prime M&A targets, while Apple and IBM are most likely to be highly acquisitive during this AI merger wave because the two Big Tech companies are looking to play catch up in the AI race.
“While plenty of funding is expected to build AI use cases, we anticipate significant consolidation within the space over the next 5-10 years as more niche use cases for AI will be picked up and added to growing AI product portfolios from large-scale tech players and other financial buyers to capitalize on the exploding demand for AI across both enterprise and federal landscapes,” Ives wrote.
Here are the analyst’s top publicly traded takeover candidates.

Ives stock picks for AI-related M&A

Tickers
Companies
Stock Performance (YTD)

TENB
Tenable Holdings
-25.66%

QLYS
Qualys
-6.33%

AI
C3.AI
-48.85%

LYFT
Lyft
68.33%

TRIP
TripAdvisor
4.47%

SNDK
Sandisk
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Source: Wedbush Securities

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A Jefferies analysis of Morning Consult data showed sentiment and brand awareness for Disney and its streaming platform have fallen to lowest in at least two years in the last two weeks.
The drop follows the company’s decision to temporarily halt Jimmy Kimmel’s show and price increases for Disney+.

Gregg Donovan displays a sign at the El Capitan Entertainment Centre, where “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” is recorded to celebrate the show’s return on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles, California, U.S. on Sept 23, 2025.
Gabriel Cortes | CNBC

The image for Disney and its streaming service plunged to multiyear lows after pulling comedian Jimmy Kimmel temporarily off air, a move that managed to alienate members of both political parties, according to analysis by investment bank Jefferies.
The firm, using Morning Consult data, shows sentiment for the company and its Disney+ platform have fallen to levels not seen in at least two years. Sentiment from Democrats, who had typically had better views of Disney before the past two weeks, soured more strongly than Republicans. Though both groups showed significant declines.

“The last two weeks for Disney have been as eventful to say the least, and have been equally controversial,” analyst James Heaney wrote in a Thursday note to clients. The analyst noted a recent price hike for Disney+ added to the plunging mood around the brand.
Disney became a cultural flashpoint after taking Kimmel’s late-night comedy show briefly off the air in the wake of his comments about slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk last month. ABC made the move after Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr hinted the network’s broadcast license could be yanked. Local ABC-affiliated stations owned by Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair preempted the show in their areas before Disney’s decision.

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Disney shares, 1-month

Heaney noted that the entertainment giant faced backlash for both Kimmel’s original comments and the subsequent move to halt his show’s production. And then bring him back.
Critics of Disney’s decision — including Democratic-leaning Hollywood power players — argued that the company was acquiescing to appease President Donald Trump’s administration rather than stand up for the First Amendment right of free speech. Kimmel’s show returned to much higher viewership than is typical.
A chart Heaney shared with clients of the bank’s research showed the readings of positive Disney sentiment divided by negative sentient among Democrats, Republicans and all consumers plunging to near zero, the lowest readings going back to before 2024.

Disney also announced late last month it was upping prices for many of its subscriptions by $2 to $3. The new cost tiers take effect Oct. 21.
Heaney noted that Disney as a whole saw its highest brand awareness in the past two years. For Disney+ specifically, the jump was much smaller, which the analyst said bodes well from a business perspective for CEO Bob Iger.
“This is clearly a PR hit for Disney,” Heaney said. “But the data implies a smaller impact on Disney+ than the brand as a whole, which may limit the amount of streaming churn.”
Disney shares have dropped 6% over the last month, pulling the stock into the red for 2025. But Heaney reaffirmed his buy rating and $144 price target, which implies nearly 30% upside over Wednesday’s close. More