A company that just launched $2,195 AR glasses has Q2 earnings arriving August 3 while trading well below analyst consensus, IBM just had its worst day in recorded history and rotated capital straight into the kind of smaller catalyst names covered here, and a drive-thru coffee brand with a real valuation gap is also printing Q2 in early August. 

Read on and you will have all three setups before the summer earnings season closes the window on any of them.

Healthcare

Intuitive Surgical Inc. (NASDAQ: ISRG) trades around $350 after a brutal reaction to a quarter that was not actually weak. Adjusted EPS came in at $2.80, ahead of the $2.51 estimate, while revenue rose 19% to $2.89 billion and also beat expectations.

The problem was the demand signal. Intuitive kept its 2026 da Vinci procedure growth forecast at 13.5% to 15.5%, while U.S. da Vinci procedure growth slowed to 12% from 14% in Q1. Management also pointed to insurance changes and higher patient costs as reasons some people may delay deferrable surgeries.

That is enough to shake a premium stock. ISRG still trades at more than 40x earnings, but the average target remains above $500 after the selloff. You are not buying cheap medtech here. You are buying a quality robotic-surgery franchise after the market suddenly began to price in procedural risk.

The Beat Was Not the Number Investors Cared About

Revenue and EPS cleared the bar, but expectations were higher than the estimates. Intuitive needed to show procedure growth was accelerating, not merely holding within guidance.

Procedure Risk Is Now the Real Valuation Test

A high multiple can survive soft spots when demand looks untouchable. Once insurance pressure enters the story, ISRG has to prove the slowdown is temporary before the target gap matters.

Satellite Communications

AST SpaceMobile Inc. (NASDAQ: ASTS) trades around $60 after a violent reset tied to its latest $1 billion convertible-debt raise. The stock has fallen hard from its May highs, and the financing sparked the usual fears around dilution, short pressure, and how much cash this satellite buildout still needs.

The fresh catalyst is the upgrade. B. Riley moved ASTS to Buy while maintaining an $85 target, arguing that the lower share price has made the risk-reward profile more attractive. That target leaves meaningful room from current levels, even after today’s bounce.

This is not a safe value stock. ASTS is still loss-making, launch timing matters, and SpaceX remains a serious threat in satellite-to-cell service. The question is whether the bond shock damaged the story or reset the entry point before the next deployment phase.

The Debt Raise Changed the Conversation

The $1 billion raise strengthens liquidity, but it also reminded investors that AST’s network will be expensive to build. That is why the stock can rally on an upgrade and still carry real financing scars.

The $85 Target Only Works if Execution Catches Up

ASTS does not need another dream-stock narrative. It needs satellite deployment, carrier traction, and cash burn to line up closely enough for the market to believe the balance sheet reset was worth it.

Media / Streaming

Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) trades around $68 after falling more than 10% and approaching a two-year low. Second-quarter EPS reached $0.80, slightly ahead of estimates, but revenue of $12.56 billion narrowly missed the $12.58 billion Wall Street target.

The harder hit came from the outlook. Netflix projected third-quarter revenue of $12.86 billion and EPS of $0.82, below expectations for $13 billion and $0.84, while announcing that viewing-hours reports will move from twice yearly to once a year beginning in 2027.

Netflix has now fallen roughly 44% from its June 2025 peak, yet the stock still trades near 20x forward earnings. The median analyst target suggests about 40% upside, but at least 18 firms have cut targets. You are buying a premium streaming franchise after confidence, growth, and transparency were marked down together.

The Guide Miss Was Only Half the Damage

Revenue grew 13%, earnings increased 11%, and viewing hours rose 2% during the first half. If you focus only on the guide miss, the bigger warning gets lost: Netflix is asking the market to accept less engagement data just as its growth rate starts losing momentum.

The Target Gap Depends on Trust Returning

Analysts may still see substantial upside, but target cuts from much higher levels show the ceiling is moving lower. For your valuation case to work, advertising, live programming, games, and content spending must produce enough growth to make reduced disclosure feel less defensive and the current multiple easier to defend.

Snap (NYSE: SNAP)

Snap just launched SPECS, its consumer-grade augmented reality glasses priced at $2,195, with shipping starting fall 2026 across the US, UK, and France. The stock trades well below both its cash flow fair value and analyst consensus targets, and Q2 earnings arrive August 3 as the near-term catalyst alongside whatever pre-order data the company chooses to share.

This is a loss-making platform making a large bet on post-smartphone hardware, which means the risk is real, but a hardware launch and an earnings print arriving within weeks of each other is exactly the kind of double catalyst that tends to wake up a dead stock. The risk is that SPECS pre-orders disappoint or Q2 ad revenue misses, either of which keeps the stock stuck at the lower end of the valuation range.

Alaska Air Group (NYSE: ALK)

Alaska Air has Q2 earnings arriving July 21, which makes it one of the most immediate catalysts on this week's list. The Hawaiian Airlines integration is entering the critical phase where synergy capture either shows up in the numbers or gets pushed out, and management has been absorbing integration costs for over a year in a way that makes this upcoming print a genuine inflection point.

Operational reliability and on-time performance have been best-in-class throughout the integration, and the risk premium the stock still carries is now much larger than the actual remaining execution risk would justify. Any print showing meaningful cost synergies and margin improvement re-rates this stock faster than the current price implies. The risk is that the integration surfaces unexpected costs that push the synergy timeline further out.

Ryan Specialty (NYSE: RYAN)

Ryan Specialty is a specialty insurance business where Ariel Investments co-CEO John Rogers Jr. bought a meaningful amount of stock in June near a 52-week low, which is the kind of insider conviction that tends to mean something given his value investing track record. The specialty insurance cycle is turning and this name has been left behind relative to peers, creating a gap that both fundamental and activist investors appear to be noticing at the same time.

The business runs wholesale brokerage and insurance solutions for complex specialty lines, which is a more defensible category than standard insurance because the expertise barrier is higher and pricing power tends to hold longer. The risk is that specialty insurance pricing softens faster than expected, compressing the revenue tailwind the thesis depends on.

That's our coverage for today; thanks for reading! Reply to this email with feedback or any [blank] stocks you want me to check out.

Best Regards,
—Noah Zelvis
Undervalued Edge