At a glance: 4 S&P 500 names report today, and all four are covered here — Broadcom, HPE and NetApp headline after the close, with Brown–Forman ahead of the open.

The tape ahead

Broadcom closes out the day's slate after the close, with consensus at $3.24 in EPS (up 32.7% vs prev.Q.) on $29.43B of revenue (also up 32.7% vs prev.Q.) — a symmetric sequential step-up consistent with the AI-semiconductor ramp management has guided toward all year. The company has pointed to AI semiconductor revenue growing well over 100% year-over-year again this quarter, backed by a multi-year backlog running into the tens of billions across its custom-silicon hyperscaler roster — Google's TPUs, Meta, Anthropic and a newly signed OpenAI accelerator program among them. The debate into the print centers on gross margin: a heavier mix of lower-margin AI ASICs against higher-margin networking and VMware software is expected to pressure consolidated margins even as the top line accelerates. Options are pricing a same-day, 6.1% move into tonight's close, well above the 1.7% average realized move over the last eight prints (an unblemished 100% beat rate, last surprise a modest 1.7%) — a bigger swing than this steady compounder has typically delivered, reflecting how much rides on the AI trajectory rather than the quarter itself. Trailing EPS growth is extraordinary across every horizon (+286.2% 1-year, +20.6% 3-year, +46.6% 5-year, +25.7% 10-year), underscoring how much the AI buildout — and the VMware integration before it — has already reshaped the earnings base.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise also reports after the close, with consensus at $0.93 in EPS (up 18.0% vs prev.Q.) on $11.94B of revenue (up 11.8% vs prev.Q.) — continued sequential growth as the Juniper Networks integration reshapes the revenue mix toward higher-margin networking, alongside ongoing demand for AI-server compute and the GreenLake private-cloud platform. The debate is less about whether AI orders keep coming — they have — and more about whether margins can hold as system-level AI-server pricing stays competitive and Juniper integration costs work through the P&L. HPE's beat rate is a strong 88% over the last eight prints, and the last one was a blowout 48.0% surprise, but options are still pricing an 11.6% move by Friday's expiry against just a 3.1% average realized move — a wide premium suggesting the market sees real two-sided risk this quarter. Trailing EPS growth is deeply negative across every horizon (-97.8% 1-year, -59.7% 3-year, -29.1% 10-year; 5-year unavailable) — more a reflection of GAAP noise from Juniper deal and integration charges than a shrinking business, given the sequential growth above.

NetApp rounds out the after-the-close trio, with consensus at $2.12 in EPS (down 12.7% vs prev.Q.) on $1.84B of revenue (down 5.7% vs prev.Q.) — a sequential step-down that lines up with NetApp's usual seasonal pattern, coming off a fiscal fourth quarter that is typically its strongest on public-sector and enterprise budget flush, rather than any read on demand. The setup is unusually charged: the stock jumped double digits after its last print on a raised full-year AI-storage margin and EPS outlook, and this quarter is the first test of whether the acceleration in all-flash and AI-enabled storage — where the company has been winning large, mission-critical deployments away from incumbents — can continue. Beat rate sits at 88% with a 7.2% last surprise, but options are pricing a 12.3% move by the Sept. 18 expiry against just a 2.3% average realized move — the richest implied-versus-realized gap of today's four names, consistent with a stock still digesting a large re-rating. Trailing EPS growth is steady (+11.9% 1-year, +3.1% 3-year, +14.5% 5-year, +23.5% 10-year), in line with a mature storage franchise now getting an AI-cycle tailwind.

Brown–Forman reports before the bell, with consensus at $0.37 in EPS (up 207.2% vs prev.Q.) on $915.0M of revenue (up 0.3% vs prev.Q.) — the EPS figure is arithmetically correct but the base is unusually low: fiscal fourth-quarter EPS was pulled down to $0.12 by non-cash brand-impairment charges on Gin Mare and Diplomático, not a step-change in underlying earnings power, so the headline growth rate overstates the sequential improvement. The real story is the still-flat top line, in a spirits category facing a post-pandemic demand pullback, consumer trade-down, and continued weakness in tequila and non-branded barrel sales; management's own annual guide already points to roughly flat organic sales and lower organic operating income this year, with Canadian tariff retaliation on American spirits an added overhang. Brown–Forman has missed more than it's beaten lately — a 38% beat rate over the last eight prints and a sharp -62.7% surprise last quarter — and options are pricing an 8.1% move by the Sept. 18 expiry, close to the 7.8% average realized move, a straddle that looks fairly priced rather than rich or cheap given that history. Trailing EPS growth is negative across every horizon (-16.6% 1-year, -2.0% 3-year, -4.0% 5-year, -3.1% 10-year), underscoring a multi-year erosion the quarter's numbers alone won't reverse.

Scorecard — reported since we last wrote

Palo Alto Networks and Medtronic both beat since we last wrote, but the tape treated the two very differently. PANW beat on EPS (+4.4%) and revenue (+1.7%), with reported EPS up 20.0% sequentially, yet the stock still slipped -2.1% after the bell (AH) — a beat that wasn't enough once investors turned to margins and the cost trajectory into fiscal 2027. Medtronic's beat (+4.5% EPS, +2.2% revenue) got the more conventional treatment, rising +1.5% in the regular session; prior-quarter EPS wasn't available to gauge the sequential trend there.

Rest of the week

Thursday closes out the week with Ciena and Lululemon, the only two reporters left on the calendar — implied moves of 11.2% and 9.8% respectively.

Informational only — not investment advice. Figures are consensus/estimates and option-implied values from public sources and may be revised.