BUSINESS

In the span of a few days, Wall Street has sent Netflix (NFLX) investors two very different signals.

Wells Fargo analyst Steven Cahall downgraded Netflix to Underweight from Equal Weight and lowered his price target to $57 from $80, 24/7 Wall St noted. The call came as the stock dropped 4.7% to $71.79, with Cahall citing weaker audience engagement and worries over Netflix’s original-content schedule.

But Evercore ISI only four days ago lifted its price target on Netflix to $110 from $100, according to Insider Monkey. Its survey data showed solid household penetration in the U.S. and Japan and indicators of ongoing customer retention.

Now the gap to those benchmarks is $53. That’s a broad spectrum of opinions on what matters most to Netflix.

The 1.6-hour number has Wall Street asking questions

Cahall’s primary interest is engagement.

Netflix subscribers watched an average of about 1.6 hours of content per day during the first half of 2026, according to Wells Fargo’s analysis cited by Investing.com. Cahall said it was about 8% lower than 2023 levels, taking into account the effect of Netflix’s password-sharing restriction and regional mix.

The analyst also anticipates hours spent watching Netflix’s top 100 original programs to drop 21% year over year in the second half of 2026.

That is essential because Cahall believes that Netflix’s largest original series remain a key driver of the service’s value to members.

Netflix is expanding into gaming, documentaries, reality programming, and video podcasts, which may detract from its breakout shows.

The $110 target points to a different Netflix story

But Evercore’s research shows a different picture.

After its 58th quarterly U.S. survey and 12th semiannual Japan survey, the firm boosted its target to $110 on Sept. 14, Insider Monkey confirmed. In the polls, Netflix household penetration in the U.S. reached a multi-year high of 63%, and in Japan, a record 22%.

In Japan, 58% of surveyed subscribers said they were slightly or not at all likely to cancel, while satisfaction reached 67%.

The poll also indicated that 35% of U.S. users contemplating leaving would subscribe to Netflix’s ad-supported plan instead.

That provides Netflix another possible retention lever: It doesn’t require every price-sensitive member to stay on the same package.

Netflix investors have a new number to worry about.Chad Salvador / Getty Images

Netflix’s next test is closer than it looks

The Wells Fargo versus Evercore debate boils down to whether engagement and content gaps are near-term issues or part of a broader change in Netflix’s growth narrative.

Wells Fargo sees poor engagement raising the chance of churn through 2027. Cahall also said it was hard to call the result, given Netflix’s content investment, worldwide programming schedule, and habit of generating surprise successes.

Meanwhile, Evercore finds indications that Netflix continues to grow its reach and retain members across significant areas.

Netflix will report its 2026 third-quarter financial results on Oct. 20. The report should give investors another look at the company’s operational performance, before discussion of engagement and content becomes a longer-term issue.

What Netflix investors should watch next

It’s no longer just a matter of whether Netflix is still expanding.

The question is whether the company’s increased reach is turning into enough watching engagement and breakthrough content to justify that expansion.

Netflix was already trading considerably below its 52-week high of $124.86 at $71.79 on Sept. 18, according to Investopedia. Wells Fargo’s $70 target indicates another large drop from that level, while Evercore’s $110 target suggests a far more positive outlook on Netflix’s capacity to expand into its value.

The next earnings report won’t answer all the questions. But developments in subscribers, engagement, advertising, and content performance, along with management’s vision, might furnish key evidence in a suddenly much more bifurcated argument on Wall Street.

Related: Down 42%, is Netflix stock undervalued or a value trap?

Costco’s Kirkland Signature line has built a reputation for quality, and that reputation extends to its alcoholic offerings.

Its offerings include a wide array of wines.

“Selections are uniformly excellent across price points, regions, and categories, but Kirkland brand table wines are some of the best bottles you can get at retail, bar none,” Danielle Callegari, a Wine Enthusiast writer-at-large, said.

Costco’s liquor assortment has been similarly celebrated.

“If you live in one of the states that allows Costco to sell its Kirkland Signature booze, consider yourself lucky, because spirits experts say the store-brand spirits are dead ringers for the top-shelf stuff — and they’re usually 20 to 40% cheaper,” The Ktchn shared.

Costco partners with well-known brands, which are often not named, to make their wine, spirits, and, until recently, beer.

Now, however, its last remaining beer partner has stopped producing the final two Kirkland Signature beers. Production ended in July, and many warehouses have depleted their stock, which was expected to run out by October.

Costco ended its beer partnership

Costco has ended a co-branded partnership with Oregon’s Deschutes Brewery that launched in December 2024. The brewery made Kirkland Signature Helles-Style Lager and Kirkland Signature Vintage Ale for the retailer.

Costco Wine Blog, which is not affiliated with the retailer, reviewed the Kirkland Signature Helles-Style Lager when it was released.

“The beer is a pale gold in the glass; it is slightly sweet, lightly hopped, malty and yeasty, well made with a great body to it, and has a nice crisp finish,” the site reported.

It was also sold for $13.99 per 12-pack, not much more than $1 per can.

Guru of Brew reviewed the Kirkland Signature Vintage Ale.

“Aged for nine months in a mix of bourbon barrels. This robust imperial stout was meticulously crafted by Deschutes Brewery in Bend, Oregon, with notes of dark chocolate and roasted coffee,” the site shared.

Kirkland Signature Vintage Ale sells for $7.99 a bottle, as it was meant to be a higher-end product.

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Now, production has ended on both beers, and searches for both on Costco’s website, using multiple zip codes from states around the country, show the products as not just out of stock but not listed at all.

That does not mean that the beer has fully sold out, since although production ended in July, stock was expected to last into September.

Some Costco warehouses may still have the beers in stock.Shutterstock

Costco has ended Kirkland Signature beer production

Costco did not make a statement on the end of the partnership.

Deschutes Brewery, however, confirmed to Fox Business that its program with Costco is coming to an end.

“We’re so grateful for Costco’s trust in Deschutes to bring our award-winning beer to their members at such a great value,” the company said. “We’ve reached the end of our volume commitment and, therefore, the program is winding down. We’ve been overwhelmed by the outpouring of support for the beer from Costco members since the announcement. The feedback on the beer has been exceptional, and it’s clear that the beer has built a fanbase across the U.S. and internationally.”

These were the only two remaining Kirkland Signature beers, so when the stock sells out, Costco will no longer offer a private-label beer.

The World Beer Cup awarded Kirkland Signature Helles Lager silver and bronze medals in 2025 and 2026, respectively, according to OverProof.com.

Kirkland Signature is big business for Costco

Costco locations do not have liquor stores here in Southern Florida, but when living in other states, I have often purchased Kirkland Signature bourbon and scotch.

The warehouse club did not disclose who made their liquors, but as a fan and a bit of an aficionado who has been lucky enough to cover the liquor industry for around 30 years, these products compared favorably to everyday brands such as Jack Daniel’s or Knob Creek, at much lower prices.

None of the chain’s spirits that I tried would count as top-shelf, but they were highly drinkable and very good values.

That’s essentially how Kirkland Signature operates across all categories, and it’s hard to understate just how important the house brand is to Costco.

Costco reported total sales of $269.9 billion in its 2025 annual report, with $90 billion, roughly a third, coming from Kirkland Signature.

RTM Nexus CEO Dominick Miserandino shared that it’s not unusual for Costco to discontinue a Kirkland Signature item.

“It’s simply an economics of space. The average retailer could have 10,000 to 15,000 SKUs, but Costco could have 3,500 to 4,000,” he told TheStreet. That’s a significant difference (and a Walmart or Target could have two to three times that many products). So, yes, they’re going to be most efficient and only stock the shelves with what they think will sell.”

Costco has not commented on whether it plans to introduce a new Kirkland Signature beer at a later date.

ALSO READ: Costco quietly drops brand-new Pepsi soda from its warehouses

Most runners know a training partner who undersells the pace. They promise an easy jog, then leave you gasping by mile two. Soon you ignore the promise and watch the stopwatch.

MongoDB Inc. (MDB) investors face the same problem with management’s historically cautious guidance. Heading into the company’s investor day in New York on Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026, Wall Street is ready to ignore the promises and just watch the stopwatch.

The company’s official plan calls for revenue growth in the high teens, according to its 2025 investor day presentation. Yet revenue grew 30% last quarter, its fastest pace in several years, MongoDB said in its second-quarter earnings release.

That growth target is the number to watch. Bank of America reiterated its Buy rating. If management lifts the target, analysts led by Koji Ikeda think the stock could earn a richer valuation.

If nothing meaningful changes, the event is unlikely to move the shares, they wrote in a Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026, note shared with TheStreet.

MongoDB has already outgrown its own plan

That plan also targets adjusted operating margins above 20% within three to five years, the presentation shows. It calls for more than 20% growth from Atlas, the cloud database behind about 73% of second quarter revenue, according to the earnings release.

Those goals look dated. MongoDB now guides for fiscal 2027 revenue growth of 21% to 23% and an adjusted operating margin near 21%, CFO Mike Berry said on the earnings call. The company is set to clear its margin goal in the first full year of the plan.

Berry told analysts MongoDB will “always be prudent” when guiding beyond the next quarter.

That caution has cost shareholders before. Shares fell 3.7% after the current framework debuted, Benzinga reported. They dropped more than 20% in March 2026 after a cautious annual outlook.

MongoDB’s official plan targets high teens revenue growth, yet the database company grew revenue 30% last quarter ahead of its Sept. 29 investor day.Bloomberg / Getty Images

What MongoDB stock is pricing in right now

MongoDB sells the database software behind live apps, from bank payments to AI chatbots.

Customers rent it as the Atlas cloud service or run it themselves as Enterprise Advanced, according to StockAnalysis. That makes the stock a direct test of whether AI apps become real database spending.

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Shares traded near $398 on the afternoon of Monday, Sept. 21, 2026, up about 4%, and closed at $407.30. That leaves them roughly 14% below the 52-week high of $473.10, StockAnalysis data shows.

Investors have been tough on good news. The stock fell 13.5% on Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026, even though revenue and profit beat estimates. The culprit was Atlas, which grew near 29% for a fifth straight quarter, Berry noted on the call.

Investors wanted acceleration, not consistency.

Analysts already model about 20% average annual revenue growth over three years, according to consensus estimates compiled by StockAnalysis. That sits above MongoDB’s own target.

A reset to that level would confirm the Street’s math rather than beat it. Reaffirming the old target could read as a step backward.

According to the note, Bank of America’s $540 price target implies about 40% upside. The bank noted MongoDB trades at 8.6 times estimated 2027 revenue, a steep discount to the 15.2 times average for Datadog (DDOG), Snowflake (SNOW), and JFrog (FROG).

The wider Street is more cautious, with an average target of $456.88 across 41 analysts, according to StockAnalysis.

Coding agents are sending MongoDB new customers

New demand has an unexpected source. CEO CJ Desai told analysts most referral traffic for Voyage AI, MongoDB’s tools that help AI apps search by meaning, comes through coding agents.

Anthropic’s Claude sends the most, followed by OpenAI’s Codex, he said. Many Voyage newcomers had never worked with MongoDB, Desai added.

That flips a popular fear. The same kind of AI agent that rattled software stocks this year now feeds MongoDB’s sales funnel.

In its note, Bank of America calls hard AI usage data the clearest upside trigger next week.

Other signals to watch:

Enterprise Advanced’s annual recurring revenue grew about 11% last quarter, a third straight double-digit gain, Berry said. Bank of America calls it a second growth engine.

Voyage AI’s customer count roughly doubled in each of the last two quarters, the company said. That widens the pool of future Atlas buyers.

A new hosted MCP server lets coding agents tap live Atlas data directly, according to the earnings release. Bank of America says it could put MongoDB where new apps begin.

Software’s real fight is over the long run

During February’s AI sell-off, JPMorgan analyst Toby Ogg said investor worries centered on growth beyond standard three-year forecasts, Reuters noted. That is why multiyear targets now matter more than strong quarters.

Not everyone buys the bull case. Artisan Partners trimmed MongoDB in its Mid Cap Fund, warning in a second-quarter letter that AI could lower switching costs and squeeze database pricing, according to Insider Monkey.

Next week’s answer will matter beyond one database company. It will test whether software companies can prove that AI agents are customers, not competitors.

Related: MongoDB missed one number and investors punished the stock

Southwest Airlines has gone through more changes in the last four years than in the four decades since it first began flying out of Dallas in 1971 as one of the country’s earliest low-cost airlines.

After hedge fund Elliott Investment Management acquired enough shares to call board votes at the end of 2024, the airline scrapped its decades-old open seating and two-bags-fly-free policies while continuing to make cost-cutting decisions to get Southwest out of a long string of unprofitable quarters.

With 2026 also bringing a sudden spike in jet fuel costs, the airline trimmed its initial growth targets by half, from between 2% to 3% to between 1% to 1.5%, TheTravel reported, while also trimming its network to cut low-traffic routes.

Southwest Airlines has not flown to Washington Dulles since June 2026

Although it once flew to a peak of 12 cities from Washington Dulles (IAD), Southwest quietly exited this market in June 2026 by permanently axing two daily flights to Denver and one daily flight to Phoenix, according to Simple Flying.

The carrier has served the main airport in the American capital since October 2006, but saw its load factor on flights fall significantly over the years. Southwest canceled its remaining flights out of Chicago’s O’Hare (ORD) at the same time, framing the move as part of “ongoing efforts to refine its network.”

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“These changes do not represent any significant changes in flight availability for these cities, as we will continue our robust service at Chicago Midway (MDW), Baltimore Washington International (BWI), and Washington Reagan National (DCA),” a Southwest spokesperson said when the exits were first confirmed in the spring of 2026.

The service out of smaller secondary airports rather than the main one in a major city is in line with the low-cost airline model that allows the carrier to offer lower fares.

Southwest flights to Chicago and Washington, D.C. have now been consolidated to the central Midway airport for the former and the Washington Reagan and Baltimore Washington airports for the latter.

Both were already major hubs to which Southwest moved the majority of its D.C. flights over the years.

Dulles is the main airport serving D.C., while Washington Reagan National is a smaller one closer to downtown.Image source: Shutterstock

What else is happening with Southwest Airlines in the fall of 2026?

According to the airline’s most recent numbers, it has run an average of 271 daily departures from the two other airports in the wider Washington, D.C., area over the summer since its exit from the main Dulles airport.

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The streamlining of Southwest’s domestic network came with both losses and new priorities. The carrier significantly expanded its network of flights to different Hawaiian islands from mainland U.S. cities, while also expanding its offerings in cities such as Austin, Orlando, Nashville, and San Diego.

Earlier this year, Southwest announced 15 new and returning routes to these four cities that it will begin flying in spring 2027. This is part of a wider strategy to become the dominant player in niche or underserved smaller markets, rather than prioritizing major metropolises with high airport fees and competition.

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On the Friday, Sept. 18, episode of “Mad Money,” a caller asked Jim Cramer what to do with shares of Rocket Companies (RKT). His answer was that he can’t recommend it. Two days after, Rocket’s stock closed the week down 5.82% and 38.18% year to date.

The Federal Reserve had raised interest rates for the first time since 2023 on Sept. 16, 2026, and officials signaled they were not finished. Cramer has been telling viewers all month that the bond market is now setting the tone for stocks.

Rocket, a company whose business rises and falls with mortgage demand, is affected more directly than most.

With Rocket’s next quarterly report expected in late October, Cramer’s comments could determine how retail investors treat the stock in the weeks ahead.

Cramer’s Lightning Round verdict on the Detroit mortgage lender

During Sept. 18’s Lightning Round, Cramer made a decision on Rocket Companies. “A rate hike is the worst thing for these guys,” he told a caller, CNBC reported.

“I cannot recommend it,” he said. His comments focused more on the Fed rate increase and didn’t reference anything wrong with Rocket itself.

In March, Cramer told “Mad Money” viewers that Rocket looked valuable at around $14 and was “a vote on whether there’s going to be a rate cut,” according to Insider Monkey.

By May 15, he had turned negative, arguing that oil prices and inflation would block the rate cuts the stock needed, CNBC noted. Rocket shares now trade at $12.29, well below the level Cramer flagged in the spring.

Cramer has hosted “Mad Money” for two decades and spent years running the hedge fund Cramer Berkowitz before that, so his views on interest rates tend to catch the attention of retail traders.

Jim Cramer told viewers he “cannot recommend” Rocket Companies after the Fed’s Sept. 16 rate hike.Dave Kotinsky / Getty Images

How the Fed’s rate hike changed the setup for Rocket stock

On Sept. 16, the Federal Reserve lifted its benchmark rate by a quarter percentage point to a range of 3.75% to 4%, its first hike since 2023.

The move was unanimous, and Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh said the central bank has “work to do” on inflation. The Fed’s own rate projections pointed to at least one more increase this year.

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Rocket earns money by issuing and administering home loans, so demand rises when mortgage rates fall and reduces when they climb. The 30-year fixed mortgage rate reached 6.76% as of Sept. 10, up from 6.35% a year earlier.

With the 10-year Treasury yield above 5%, its highest level since 2007, mortgage costs are unlikely to fall soon.

“Every hike from here on will be something that will knock down stocks,” Cramer told “Mad Money” viewers. Mortgage-focused companies like Rocket feel those hikes more directly than other companies.

Rocket’s strong quarter still runs into the same problem

Rocket has actually posted strong operational numbers this year. In the second quarter of 2026, the company delivered adjusted revenue of $2.76 billion and adjusted EBITDA of $766 million with a 28% margin, according to Rocket‘s investor relations release.

Purchase market share climbed to a record 6.2%, and refinance share reached 14.3%.

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Chief Executive Varun Krishna said the company delivered its “most profitable quarter in four years” on the Aug. 6 earnings call, adding that more than 70% of Rocket’s revenue now comes from recurring or less rate-sensitive businesses.

Servicing, personal loans, and the Redfin real estate platform give the company income streams that are not fully tied to the number of new home loans it originates.

Even so, the market has largely ignored the improvement. Rocket shares are down 38.18% year to date. Cramer’s warning highlights a hard reality: Even as Rocket wins market share and grows margins, the broader mortgage market keeps shrinking as rates rise.

That is the pressure he was pointing to on Sept. 18.

What Rocket investors should watch heading into the next earnings report

Rocket’s next earnings report is projected for Oct. 29. The company’s management has guided for third-quarter adjusted revenue between $2.5 billion and $2.7 billion, a step down from the second quarter, reflecting what it called a smaller mortgage market.

For shareholders, a few things stand out. The first is the mix of revenue that does not depend on new loans. If servicing income, Redfin traffic, and personal loans continue to grow, that would support Krishna’s argument that Rocket is less exposed to rate shocks than it was a few years ago. 

Another thing to watch is what Rocket’s management says about mortgage rates. If Krishna repeats his August warning about a 6.8% 30-year mortgage rate and declining purchase activity, near-term guidance could get cut again.

For anyone considering Rocket now, the stock’s performance depends on whether rates peak soon or keep climbing into 2027. Keeping your investments small enough to handle that risk is a reasonable strategy.

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