Earnings season has a way of reminding investors that expectations matter just as much as results. AI spend was the talk of the week, and despite billions in reported profits and top-line beats, some of the biggest AI spenders saw their stocks plummet. The takeaway? Earnings season isn’t about who beats by a penny. It’s about who can sustain returns on capital when growth becomes more expensive.

That dynamic is exactly why fundamental diligence matters. As valuations remain stretched across large parts of the market and annual filings roll in, our Robo-Analyst AI reveals the gap between real profits and accounting noise. Strong accounting earnings mean nothing when they misrepresent the truth.

During Footnotes Season, we process thousands of pages of 10-K and 10-Q filings every day to deliver the truth about profitability and valuation. This hard work is the only way to know if you’re holding a stock that looks good on the surface, but under the hood has glaring red flags. It is also the only way to find true opportunities, such as strong businesses with stocks priced as if profits will never grow again.

This diligence drives everything we published this week. Here’s a quick look at what you may have missed.

New Long Idea:

It’s hard to find companies this good with cheap stock valuations in this market. But, we did.  

New Danger Zone:

Every investor has seen some version of the disclaimer “past performance is not an indicator of future performance”, yet, past performance drives nearly all fund ratings – except ours. Our Robo-Analyst AI analyzed the holdings of this fund and found that they are much worse than its lower-cost benchmark.

Free Stock Picks:

We featured one stock from the Bloomberg New Constructs Core Earnings Leaders Index and one stock from the Very Attractive Stocks Index. See how to pick stocks with superior fundamental data.

#1 Stock Picking – Again!

Our proven-superior research earned us #1 rankings ­– again – on SumZero for February 2026.

New Features:

We added new features to enhance our Pro and Institutional memberships. Check them out here.

Featured Stock:

We featured a stock from our Dividend Growth Stocks Model Portfolio. See how strong cash flows support rising dividends in this report.

Model Portfolio Updates:

We updated our Most Attractive Stocks and Most Dangerous Stocks Model Portfolios for February 2026.

We also published the 2025 performance for all our Model Portfolios.

Cheap Funds Dupe Investors:

Investors are good at picking cheap funds. We want them to be better at picking funds with good stocks. Both are required to maximize success.

Danger Zone Podcast:

David Trainer discusses why falling cash flows and rising debt make a particular sector look increasingly overvalued.

We hope you had a great week!

See a preview of upcoming research below.

Upcoming Research