PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla., Oct. 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Palmdale Propane, a subsidiary of Palmdale Oil ("Palmdale"), a leading provider of fuels, propane, lubricants and chemicals with delivery solutions across the state of Florida, announced it has acquired Affordable Gas, a locally owned and operated propane provider based in Belle Glade, Florida. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Affordable Gas provides propane delivery, cylinder exchange and related services to residential, commercial, and agricultural customers in Belle Glade and the surrounding Glades area. The acquisition brings together two businesses with local roots and a shared focus on customer service, strengthening Palmdale's presence in the region while providing Affordable Gas with additional resources and operational support to serve its customers.

"For over 40 years, Palmdale has grown without losing sight of what got us here: being a local Florida business that our customers can count on," said Lachlan Cheatham, Chief Executive Officer of Palmdale. "Affordable Gas is a natural next step for us, expanding our commercial and residential propane presence in South Florida alongside a team that shares our values. Rolando and his team have built their business through dependable service and close relationships across the Glades, and we're proud to welcome them to Palmdale."

"From the outset, Palmdale understood the importance of the relationships we have built with our customers and the broader Glades community," said Rolando Calvo, President of Affordable Gas. "We are pleased to join a company that knows this region, understands how much local communities rely on us, and brings the resources and operational expertise to help us meet their propane needs for years to come."

About Palmdale Oil

Palmdale is a leading statewide provider of fuels, propane, lubricants, and chemicals with delivery and management solutions. Headquartered in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, Palmdale is a family-owned business operating in more than 50 counties across Florida. Palmdale Propane, a wholly owned subsidiary, manages Palmdale's propane delivery and services. Learn more at www.palmdaleoil.com.

About Affordable Gas

Affordable Gas is a locally owned and operated propane provider based in Belle Glade, Florida. The company provides propane delivery, cylinder exchange and related services to residential, commercial and agricultural customers throughout the Glades region.

Contacts

Kristen Cassalia

Marketing Specialist

[email protected]

SOURCE Palmdale Oil

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Drawing on verified end-user reviews from SoftwareReviews, Infotech's peer-review platform, the 2026 Data Integration Emotional Footprint Report recognizes six champions for customer experience and vendor relationships. The findings help organizations assess user sentiment alongside technical capabilities when evaluating data integration solutions.

ARLINGTON, Va., Oct. 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Organizations use data integration solutions to connect disparate systems, improve data quality, and make timely, informed decisions. Infotech's 2026 Data Integration Emotional Footprint Report identifies six champions that stand out for delivering strong user satisfaction, trust, and overall customer experience. The recognition is based on verified feedback collected through the global research and advisory firm's SoftwareReviews platform.

Modern data integration solutions connect organizational data by bringing together information from applications, databases, and cloud environments. These platforms provide capabilities such as data extraction, transformation, synchronization, quality management, and monitoring of data flows. With centralized oversight and automated workflows, they help IT and data teams maintain consistent, reliable information, support governance requirements, and deliver timely data for analytics and business operations.

Infotech's Emotional Footprint measures high-level user sentiment by aggregating responses across 25 proactive questions, creating a powerful indicator of overall user feeling toward the vendor and product. The result is the Net Emotional Footprint (NEF), a composite score that reflects the overall emotional tone of user feedback.

The 2026 Data Integration Emotional Footprint Champions are as follows:

- AWS Glue, +94 NEF, rated highly for being altruistic.

- Microsoft SQL Server, +89 NEF, rated highly for its reliability.

- Zapier, +90 NEF, rated highly for enabling productivity.

- Boomi, +86 NEF, rated highly for its trustworthiness.

- Azure Data Factory, +85 NEF, rated highly for friendly negotiations.

- Flowgear, +91 NEF, rated highly for its transparency.

Analyst Insight:

"Choosing a data integration platform means choosing a vendor your team may depend on for years. When an integration fails, the impact can extend to every process relying on that data," says Abbas Jaffery, principal advisory director at Infotech. "Vendors can build trust by helping their clients adapt their integrations as business needs change and by being clear about what their products can support. For buyers, hearing from existing users helps them understand what they can expect from that relationship after implementation."

User assessments of software categories on SoftwareReviews provide an accurate and detailed view of the constantly changing market. Infotech's reports are informed by data from users and IT professionals who have direct experience with the software throughout the procurement, implementation, and maintenance processes.

Read the full report: 2026 Data Integration Emotional Footprint Champions

To learn more about Infotech's Vendor Awards, including how Data Quadrant and Emotional Footprint recognition are determined using verified end-user feedback and the underlying evaluation criteria, visit Infotech's Vendor Awards page, powered by SoftwareReviews.

About Infotech

Infotech (formerly Info-Tech Research Group) provides an API-driven advisory model to over 30,000 IT leaders globally to systematically improve their organizations. With 30 years of trusted expertise and proven impact, Infotech equips technology leaders with industry-leading expert guidance, proven methodologies, practical tools, training, coaching, and consulting to accelerate decisions and deliver measurable outcomes. To learn more about Infotech's HR research and advisory services, visit McLean & Company.

Media professionals can register for unrestricted access to research across IT, HR, and software and hundreds of industry analysts through the firm's Media Insiders program. To gain access, contact [email protected].

For information about Infotech or to access the latest research, visit infotech.com and connect via LinkedIn and X.

About SoftwareReviews

SoftwareReviews is a peer-review platform from Infotech, a global research and API-driven advisory firm. The platform provides verified end-user insights that help organizations evaluate software based on features, vendor experience, and overall value. In addition to end-user insights, the firm offers peer-driven resources and advisory services, including buyer reviews, marketing and product guidance, and go-to-market support. These offerings enable technology providers to better understand customer needs, refine product strategies, and clearly communicate differentiated value to the market.

SOURCE Infotech

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Capital Properties, Inc. Declares Regular Quarterly Dividend

PROVIDENCE, R.I., Oct. 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Capital Properties, Inc. (OTCQX: CPTP) announced that at its regular quarterly meeting held on October 28, 2026, the Board of Directors declared a regular quarterly dividend of $0.09 (nine cents) per share on the Company's outstanding Class A Common Shares (6,599,912) payable on November 23, 2026 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on November 13, 2026.

About Capital Properties, Inc.

Capital Properties, Inc. and its subsidiary's principal business consist of the long-term leasing of certain of its real estate interests in downtown Providence, Rhode Island for commercial development and the leasing of locations along interstate and primary highways in Rhode Island and Massachusetts for outdoor advertising purposes.

CONTACT:

Susan R. Johnson, Treasurer

401-435-7171

SOURCE Capital Properties, Inc.

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As a founding member, Kong will help bring enforcement to the APIs, models, and tools that agents rely on

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Kong Inc., the AI Connectivity Company, today announced it is a founding member of the ServiceNow Control Tower Alliance, a new ecosystem of leading companies in AI, cloud infrastructure, security, governance, value measurement and token metering, who will work with ServiceNow to help customers adopt trusted enterprise AI safely at scale.

The alliance is built around the ServiceNow Super Intelligence Control Tower, a centralized control plane to discover, secure, govern, observe, and measure enterprise AI. As part of the alliance, Kong will work alongside ServiceNow and the other founding members to help bring security and governance to the models, tools, and agents that AI applications depend on.

"AI governance depends on enforcing what agents can access and do," said Augusto Marietti, CEO and co-founder of Kong. "Together, ServiceNow and Kong can turn enterprise AI policies into control points across APIs, models, and tools, helping customers put AI agents to work with confidence."

As a founding member of the Control Tower Alliance, Kong will work with ServiceNow in three ways:

- Build together: Kong and ServiceNow will collaborate on solutions that run on the Super Intelligence Control Tower and are easy for customers to deploy, bringing Kong's AI traffic governance to enterprises inside the platform they already use to govern AI.

- Deliver with governance: Kong's solutions will go through ServiceNow's qualification and certification process, ensuring alignment against shared standards for AI governance, so customers adopt with confidence.

- Sell and lead together: Kong and ServiceNow will create joint solution offerings that are deeply integrated, offering additional value to customers and partners.

Kong enables a universal enforcement layer for enterprise AI through Kong Konnect, the AI Connectivity Platform. It gives enterprises consistent enforcement of security and access policies across the APIs, models, and tools their agents use, with the freedom to change models, providers, and environments without rebuilding governance. Within the alliance, Kong brings this enforcement to LLM, MCP, and agent-to-agent traffic through Kong AI Gateway, translating enterprise AI governance into real-time control over how AI connects to the business.

You can learn more about Kong AI Gateway, here.

Learn more about the ServiceNow Control Tower Alliance, here.

About Kong Inc.

Kong Inc., the AI Connectivity Company, is building the connectivity layer of AI. Trusted by the Fortune 500® and AI-native startups alike, Kong's unified API and AI platform enables organizations to secure, manage, accelerate, govern, and monetize the flow of intelligence across APIs and AI traffic â on any model, any cloud. For more information, visit www.Kong.AI

ServiceNow, the ServiceNow logo, and other ServiceNow marks are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of ServiceNow, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries.

SOURCE Kong Inc.

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Covers future adverse reserve development on Markel's Global Reinsurance and other select insurance lines of business for underwriting years 2025 and prior

RICHMOND, Va., Oct. 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Markel Insurance, the insurance operations within Markel Group Inc. (NYSE: MKL) and Enstar today announced that they have entered into an adverse development cover ("ADC") reinsurance agreement covering a portfolio of Markel's run-off global reinsurance business and certain exited lines within its insurance operations. The closing of the transaction is subject to regulatory approval and other customary conditions and is expected to occur by the end of the fourth quarter of 2026.

The ADC reinsurance agreement includes subject reserves of $4.8 billion, of which Markel will retain the first $2.6 billion and retrocede the next $2.3 billion to Enstar. Markel will obtain adverse loss development coverage of $1.2 billion above the $4.8 billion of subject reserves under the transaction terms and pay Enstar a risk premium of $120 million. The adverse loss development coverage provided through the transaction reduces the level of prudency management requires in its best estimate of ultimate losses; therefore, Markel expects the net impacts of the transaction to have an immaterial impact on underwriting results in the fourth quarter.

Subject reserves include 2025 and prior underwriting years of business written within Markel's Global Reinsurance division and its exited risk-managed professional liability, architects and engineers and other run-off lines within its global insurance operations. Markel will maintain claims control.

The ADC reinsurance agreement will be provided by Enstar's wholly owned subsidiary and S&P 'A' financial strength rated reinsurance platform, Cavello Bay Reinsurance Limited.

"This transaction provides additional certainty as these liabilities continue to run off and allows us to continue our focus on growing our core specialty insurance business," said Simon Wilson, Chief Executive Officer of Markel Insurance. "Our focus remains on advancing our strategic priorities centered on maintaining an unwavering commitment to our customers, deepening our market-leading expertise, and accelerating decision-making. We are pleased to be partnering with Enstar on this transaction that advances our strategic priorities, enhances financial flexibility, and further strengthens our ability to deliver long-term value for our customers and shareholders."

About Markel Insurance

We are Markel Insurance, a leading global specialty insurer with a truly people-first approach. As the insurance operations within the Markel Group Inc. (NYSE: MKL), we leverage a broad array of capabilities and expertise to create intelligent solutions for the most complex specialty insurance needs. However, it is our people â and the deep, valued relationships they develop with colleagues, brokers, and clients â that differentiates us worldwide.

Disclaimer

Certain of the statements in this release may be considered forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. Forward-looking statements include, among others, statements regarding the expected timing and completion of the transaction contemplated by the ADC reinsurance agreement, receipt of regulatory approval, and expectations or estimates regarding the ultimate losses. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about Markel's beliefs, plans or expectations, are forward-looking statements. These statements are based on Markel's current plans, estimates, and expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in or suggested by such statements. Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially include, among others: (i) the failure to obtain, or delays in obtaining, required regulatory approval, or the imposition of burdensome conditions in connection with such approval; (ii) the failure to satisfy other closing conditions or termination of the ADC agreement; (iii) adverse development of the subject reserves; and (iv) the inherent uncertainty of loss reserve estimates. Additional factors that could cause actual results to differ from those predicted are set forth in the Markel Group Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025, including under "Business Overview," "Risk Factors," "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations," "Safe Harbor and Cautionary Statement," and "Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk," and in the Markel Group Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2026, including under "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations," "Safe Harbor and Cautionary Statement," "Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk," and "Risk Factors." Neither Markel nor Markel Group assumes any obligation to update this release (including any forward-looking statements herein) as a result of new information, developments, or otherwise. This release speaks only as of the date issued.

SOURCE Markel

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Galvan v. CNU of Alabama, et. al. - NATIONWIDE CLASS ACTION ALLEGES CASHNETUSA CHARGED ACTIVE-DUTY MILITARY FAMILIES INTEREST RATES AS HIGH AS 579%

Varnell & Warwick, P.A. Seek Active-Duty Servicemembers and Military Spouses Who Obtained Loans from CashNetUSA

TAMPA, Fla., Oct. 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- A proposed nationwide class action has been filed against CashNetUSA and its affiliated companies alleging that they violated the Military Lending Act ("MLA") by extending high-interest consumer loans to active-duty servicemembers and their dependents. The lawsuit, Galvan v. CNU of Alabama, et. al., Case No. 1:26-cv-05957 (N.D. Illinois), filed by the spouse of an active-duty United States Army Staff Sergeant, seeks relief on behalf of military families who obtained CashNetUSA loans subject to allegedly unlawful interest rates and loan terms.

The MLA provides important financial protections to active-duty members of the Armed Forces and their dependents, including a 36% Military Annual Percentage Rate ("MAPR") cap on covered consumer credit. The lawsuit alleges that CashNetUSA's loans carried MAPRs ranging from approximately 222% to 579%, depending on the loan and state.

The complaint alleges that CashNetUSA violated the MLA in several additional ways. According to the lawsuit, CashNetUSA failed to provide military borrowers with required MLA disclosures, required borrowers to provide access to their bank accounts as security for their loans, included mandatory arbitration provisions, required borrowers to waive jury-trial and class-action rights, and imposed unreasonable pre-suit notice requirements. The lawsuit alleges these violations render the affected loans void from inception and seeks damages and other relief for military borrowers.

The plaintiff alleges that she obtained a CashNetUSA loan in November 2023 while her husband was serving on active duty. CashNetUSA allegedly approved her for a $2,000 credit limit at a 229% MAPR. By June 2025, the plaintiff allegedly had taken at least seven loans and still owed $703.79 despite making thousands of dollars in payments, consisting mostly of interest.

WERE YOU OR YOUR SPOUSE ON ACTIVE DUTY WHEN YOU BORROWED FROM CASHNETUSA OR NETCREDIT?

The lawsuit seeks to represent active-duty servicemembers and their dependents or spouses who entered into covered CashNetUSA loans or NetCredit loans and made at least one payment.

Military members and spouses who obtained a CashNetUSA loan or a NetCredit loan are encouraged to contact Varnell & Warwick, P.A. to learn more about the lawsuit and their potential rights.

There is no cost or obligation to contact the firm.

CONTACT:

Varnell & Warwick, P.A.

https://vandwlaw.com/contact/

+1 352-753-8600

SOURCE Varnell & Warwick, P.A.

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Table of Contents

Oracle Proves AI Transformation with Its Own Results

AI Security Becomes the Defining Challenge of the Agent Era

Google TPUs on OCI Signal the End of Walled-Garden Clouds

Oracle Media Fabric Takes AI Into Live Broadcasting

Oracle Turns Every Employee into a Governed App Builder

AI Moves from Experimentation to Execution Across the Global Technology Sector

Every technological epoch eventually reaches the moment when spectacle gives way to substance. For artificial intelligence, Day 2 of Oracle AI World 2026 in Las Vegas felt like that inflection point. The team sat in the hall on Tuesday, October 27, as CEO Clay Magouyrk and OpenAI’s Sam Altman laid out the operational reality of AI, and as Larry Ellison later sketched a far more audacious vision for what software could become.

The lesson for any leader is deceptively simple. AI has stopped being a speculative curiosity and become infrastructure, as fundamental to a business as electricity.

Oracle Proves AI Transformation with Its Own Results

Magouyrk began with Oracle’s own metamorphosis before announcing a single product. The numbers he shared were hard to ignore:

- Support requests that once lingered for 3.5 hours now resolve in 16 minutes.

- Product ideas that have languished for nine months now reach customers in six weeks.

- Vulnerabilities are now found and fixed ten times faster than six months ago.

- More than 70% of Oracle’s code is now written by AI.

That admission carries profound implications. When a company of Oracle’s size lets machines author its code, the conversation shifts from whether AI works to how quickly everyone else can catch up.

AI Security Becomes the Defining Challenge of the Agent Era

The same intelligence that can expose weaknesses in software can also repair them, which means security has become an arms race measured in hours instead of months. Think of AI as both burglar and locksmith.

Oracle Turns Its Own Security Lessons Into a Product

Rob Clark, Oracle’s SVP of security architecture, recalled how AI-written code once smuggled a malicious package toward production before safeguards caught it. Oracle’s response was an autonomous loop that hunts for vulnerabilities around the clock and repairs them, sometimes with zero disruption to customers.

Oracle AI Security Mesh, built with OpenAI, democratizes that capability. Picture a tireless inspector that maps every room in a company’s digital house and tests every lock before mending the weak ones.

Biometrics and Agent Identity Put a Human Signature on Every Decision

Oracle Identity and Access Management gained two safeguards built for AI agents:

- Biometric verification confirms that a real person stands behind every critical approval.

- Dedicated agent identities ensure every digital worker carries its own badge.

Sam Altman Puts Security Ahead of Productivity

Altman’s advice to companies beginning their AI journey was refreshingly direct, urging them to make security the first priority, ahead of productivity. Magouyrk offered an encouraging perspective on why. AI has created none of these weaknesses, he explained, and is instead uncovering decades of human mistakes, which hands defenders a golden opportunity to find and fix them before anyone can exploit them.

Google TPUs on OCI Signal the End of Walled-Garden Clouds

For years, cloud computing resembled a collection of walled gardens, each loyal to its own hardware. That era appears to be dissolving.

Oracle Opens Its Cloud to Every Major AI Chip

- Nvidia Vera Rubin systems are now shipping; the most powerful hardware Oracle has ever deployed.

- Google TPU v8 chips are coming to OCI, placing Google’s proprietary silicon inside a rival’s cloud.

- AMD MI455 brings AMD’s latest rack-scale system to Oracle’s data centers.

- OpenAI Jalapeño, an inference processor co-designed with Broadcom, joins the lineup.

Networking Now Decides Who Wins the AI Race

Pradeep Vincent, EVP of compute, explained that a single one-second stall in a 100,000-GPU cluster squanders roughly 28 GPU-hours, which is why Oracle’s Acceleron network builds redundancy into every pathway. He also described batteries and supercapacitors functioning as an enormous shock absorber, protecting the electrical grid from the sudden surges of AI training.

Oracle Media Fabric Takes AI Into Live Broadcasting

Media Fabric is an intriguing gamble for a company rarely seen in media. The suite brings four capabilities together:

- Oracle AI media models generate images and video from trusted data.

- Creative Studio rebuilds the production process around AI.

- Video Edge keeps live streams uninterrupted, even when bandwidth tightens.

- Adaptive Media Platform tailors one broadcast to millions of individual viewers.

Media Fabric is already in limited availability with key customers, and its broader launch in early 2027 could hand studios and broadcasters a powerful new way to captivate audiences.

Oracle Turns Every Employee into a Governed App Builder

Inside workplaces everywhere, people who never considered themselves programmers are now building software simply by describing what they need.

Liberation without governance invites chaos, and Oracle’s answer is orchestration with guardrails:

- Oracle App Composer deploys employee-built apps under IT-approved security profiles.

- APEX Lang lets AI agents build on a foundation that enforces data rules automatically.

- Oracle AI Workspace, built with OpenAI, unites Oracle applications with everyday tools like Slack and Microsoft 365 behind a single conversational interface.

- AI ontologies in the AI Data Platform give agents the business context they need to act wisely.

Larry Ellison Envisions AI Building Complete Software for Entire Industries

Ellison challenged a fashionable prophecy known as the SaaS apocalypse, the belief that companies will abandon packaged software and build everything themselves. AI, he argued, finally allows vendors to complete applications for entire industries, eliminating the patchwork of customizations businesses have tolerated for decades. Oracle chose healthcare first precisely because it is the most labyrinthine industry of all.

Oracle Health Shows What an AI-Native Application Looks Like

- Plain conversation replaces bewildering screens and menus.

- Plug-in modules activate beside existing hospital systems like Epic with no laborious data migration.

- Insurance approvals collapse into a single exchange.

- Clinical trials open to patients far beyond elite research hospitals.

Ellison Predicts a Future Beyond Cancer and Sets His Sights on Government

Ellison ventured furthest of anyone, predicting that the majority of cancers could vanish within five to ten years. That forecast deserves measured skepticism, though the systems he described for earlier diagnosis are tangible. The government sector, which he called dangerously underserved, is his next frontier.

AI Moves from Experimentation to Execution Across the Global Technology Sector

The organizations poised to flourish in this new era will be those that embrace governance and security as springboards for growth. As vertical AI suites extend into hospitals and public institutions across the globe, that discipline promises better care for patients and stronger trust in the services people rely on every day.

The momentum behind Oracle is unmistakable. Its deep partnership with OpenAI places the company at the very center of the AI build-out, and every new milestone strengthens confidence that its largest customers will grow right alongside it. The months ahead offer Oracle a remarkable opportunity to turn extraordinary ambition into lasting, world-changing results.

Keep Pace with the AI Era

Keep Pace with the AI Era

Explore our blogs for more insights on Oracle and the forces reshaping enterprise technology. Revisit the key announcements and takeaways from the Oracle AI World Day 1 keynotes in the articles below.

About The Author

Rahul Sudeep, Senior Director of Marketing at AppsTek Corp, is a results-driven, AI-first B2B marketing leader with 15 years of experience scaling global enterprise SaaS companies. His expertise, honed at IIM-K, spans architecting high-impact go-to-market strategies, driving new market identification and positioning, and embedding Generative AI, LLMs, and predictive analytics into the core marketing function. Rahul unifies Technology, Sales, and Support teams around a single strategic hub, while also managing key Partner and Investor Relations. He leverages AI-driven insights to craft powerful brand narratives and hyper-personalized demand generation campaigns that drive measurable revenue growth and deepen customer engagement.

Updates full-year 2026 financial guidance, improving Net Sales range

Provided $23 million of returns to shareholders year-to-date

SUSSEX, Wis., Oct. 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Quad/Graphics, Inc. (NYSE: QUAD) ("Quad" or the "Company"), a marketing experience company that solves complex marketing challenges for its clients, today reported results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2026.

Recent Highlights

- Realized Net Sales of $587 million in the third quarter of 2026, consistent with $588 million in the third quarter of 2025.

- Recognized Net Earnings of $6 million and $0.11 Diluted Earnings Per Share in the third quarter of 2026, compared to Net Earnings of $10 million and $0.21 Diluted Earnings Per Share in 2025.

- Reported Non-GAAP Adjusted EBITDA of $51 million in the third quarter of 2026, compared to $53 million in 2025.

- Achieved $0.35 Adjusted Diluted Earnings Per Share in the third quarter of 2026, an increase of 13% from $0.31 per share in 2025.

- Announced Direct, Quad's newly branded full-service direct marketing agency, which provides integrated audience intelligence, pre-market creative validation, production and measurement solutions.

- Accelerated growth of In-Store Connect by signing the in-store retail network's first national retailer with screens to launch across 30 Florida stores this winter.

- Repurchased 1.0 million shares of Quad Class A common stock in 2026, bringing total repurchases to 8.4 million shares since commencing buybacks in 2022, representing approximately 15% of Quad's March 31, 2022, outstanding shares.

- Declared quarterly dividend of $0.10 per share payable December 4, 2026.

- Updates full-year 2026 financial guidance:

- Improves midpoint of Adjusted Annual Net Sales Change guidance range from -3% to -2%.

- Narrows Adjusted EBITDA and Free Cash Flow guidance within original ranges.

- Maintains year-end 2026 Net Debt Leverage Ratio guidance at approximately 1.5x while providing shareholder returns and investing in growth and automation initiatives.

Joel Quadracci, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Quad, said: "Clients are increasingly engaging multiple Quad solutions, supporting new-business growth and advancing our position as an integrated marketing experience company. By connecting our clients with a broader range of capabilities, we are deepening relationships, increasing our share of client marketing spend and creating more durable revenue opportunities. We have seen this with multiple retailers, including Wakefern and Chedraui USA's Smart & Final banner, which have recently expanded their relationship with Quad beyond print to In-Store Connect and Rise media services.

"We also continue to build differentiated capabilities in areas where clients are seeking more connected and measurable marketing solutions. Through Direct, our recently branded full-service direct marketing agency, we are helping clients improve marketing performance by combining audience intelligence, pre-market creative validation, production and measurement into a single connected solution. In our in-store business, we continue to help clients rapidly scale their brand activations across retailers while introducing them to additional Quad capabilities. During the quarter, In-Store Connect reached an important milestone with the signing of the network's first national retailer. With thousands of stores across the U.S., this relationship creates a significant opportunity to expand the scale and reach of our retail media network, benefiting both participating consumer brands and our retail partners.

"At the same time, we continue to strengthen our platform operating model through automation, AI-enabled tools and disciplined cost management. These initiatives are helping drive increased productivity, strengthen margins and support our commitment to deliver strong full-year financial performance."

Added Tony Staniak, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer of Quad: "As a reflection of our sales momentum with new and existing clients, we are improving the range of our full-year 2026 Adjusted Annual Net Sales Change guidance, demonstrating continued advancement from the previous 2026 guidance and the 4.8% decline we reported for full-year 2025 when adjusting for the divestiture of our European operations effective February 2025. Our Adjusted Annual Net Sales Change guidance improvement represents another meaningful measure of progress toward our goal of achieving an inflection to Net Sales growth in 2028. We are also narrowing full-year Adjusted EBITDA and Free Cash Flow within our original guidance ranges, and we expect to achieve a low Net Debt Leverage Ratio of 1.5x at year-end 2026. We are closely monitoring uncertainties in the macroeconomic environment and will continue our disciplined approach to how we manage all aspects of our business, including treating all costs as variable, optimizing capacity utilization and maintaining strong labor management to mitigate the impact of rising costs on our business and our clients. These initiatives continue to fuel strong manufacturing operations and drive productivity gains to help offset secular declines in large-scale print. They also support our balanced capital allocation strategy, including $23 million of capital returned to shareholders year-to-date through $15 million of cash dividends and $8 million of share repurchases. Our next quarterly dividend of $0.10 per share is payable December 4, 2026, and we expect to remain opportunistic in terms of future share repurchases."

Third Quarter 2026 Financial Results

- Net Sales were $587 million in the third quarter of 2026, consistent with the same period in 2025. Higher logistics sales were offset by lower large-scale print volumes and lower agency solutions sales.

- Net Earnings were $6 million, or $0.11 Diluted Earnings Per Share, in the third quarter of 2026 compared to $10 million, or $0.21 Diluted Earnings Per Share, in the third quarter of 2025. The decrease was primarily due to increased restructuring, impairment and transaction-related charges, net, partially offset by lower income tax expense, lower selling, general and administrative expenses, lower interest expense and lower depreciation and amortization. Diluted Earnings Per Share were also lower primarily due to the decrease in Net Earnings.

- Adjusted EBITDA was $51 million in the third quarter of 2026, compared to $53 million in the same period in 2025. The decrease was primarily due to the mix of Net Sales.

- Adjusted Diluted Earnings Per Share was $0.35 in the third quarter of 2026, as compared to $0.31 in the third quarter of 2025, an increase of 13%.

Year-to-Date 2026 Financial Results

- Net Sales were $1.7 billion in the nine months ended September 30, 2026, a decrease of 2% compared to the same period in 2025. Excluding the 1% impact of the divestiture of the Company's European operations, Net Sales declined 1%. The decline in Net Sales was primarily due to lower large-scale print volumes and lower agency solutions sales, partially offset by higher logistics sales and higher paper sales.

- Net Earnings were $15 million, or $0.31 Diluted Earnings Per Share, in the nine months ended September 30, 2026, compared to Net Earnings of $16 million, or $0.32 Diluted Earnings Per Share, in the same period in 2025. The decrease was primarily due to increased restructuring, impairment and transaction-related charges, net, partially offset by lower interest expense, lower selling, general and administrative expenses, lower depreciation and amortization and lower income tax expense. Diluted Earnings Per Share were also lower due to the decrease in Net Earnings.

- Adjusted EBITDA was $138 million in the nine months ended September 30, 2026, as compared to $141 million in the same period in 2025. The decrease was primarily due to the impact of lower Net Sales as well as the mix of Net Sales, partially offset by lower selling, general and administrative expenses.

- Adjusted Diluted Earnings Per Share was $0.84 in the nine months ended September 30, 2026, as compared to $0.65 in the same period in 2025, an increase of 29%.

- Net Cash Used in Operating Activities was $62 million in the nine months ended September 30, 2026, compared to $50 million in the same period in 2025. Free Cash Flow was negative $100 million in 2026, compared to negative $87 million in 2025. As a reminder, the Company historically generates most of its Free Cash Flow in the fourth quarter of the year.

- Net Debt was $422 million at September 30, 2026, as compared to $308 million at December 31, 2025, and $465 million at September 30, 2025. Compared to December 31, 2025, Net Debt increased primarily due to negative $100 million in Free Cash Flow and the payment of cash dividends and share repurchases, partially offset by proceeds from the sale of property, plant and equipment in Peru. When removing seasonality, Net Debt decreased $43 million or 9%.

Dividend

Quad's next quarterly dividend of $0.10 per share will be payable on December 4, 2026, to shareholders of record as of November 17, 2026.

Updated Full-Year 2026 Guidance

The Company updates its full-year 2026 financial guidance as follows:

Conference Call and Webcast Information

Quad will hold a live webcast and conference call to discuss the results on Thursday, October 29, 2026, at 8:30 a.m. ET.

Those wishing to participate via the webcast should access the call through the investor relations section of Quad's website at quad.com/investor-relations. Those wishing to participate via telephone may dial in at 877-328-5508 (USA) or 412-317-5424 (International). Participants may pre-register for the conference call at https://dpregister.com/sreg/10211867/104daeb5330.

The webcast replay will be available through the investor relations section of Quad's website.

RICHMOND, Va., Oct. 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Markel Group Inc. (NYSE: MKL) today reported its financial results for the third quarter of 2026. The Company also announced today it filed its Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2026 with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

"We build Markel to relentlessly compound value over the long-term, by serving our customers and policyholders, owning businesses with staying power, underwriting with discipline, and reinvesting patiently through cycles," said Tom Gayner, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "Our third quarter results demonstrate we continue to do exactly that. Markel Insurance increased profitability, our Industrial, Financial, and Consumer and Other businesses delivered strong returns, and we continued to deploy capital where we believe it creates the most long-term value."

Highlights of our 2026 third quarter and nine-months results:

- Operating revenues increased 6% for the quarter and 2% year to date.

- Operating income, which includes market movements in our equity portfolio, was $383 million in the quarter and $1.7 billion year to date.

- Adjusted operating income, which excludes market movements in our equity portfolio, increased 14% to $707 million for the quarter compared to $621 million in the third quarter of 2025. Adjusted operating income was $1.6 billion year to date, down 2% compared to $1.7 billion in the first nine months of 2025.

- Share repurchases were $315 million in the quarter and $685 million year to date.

- For Markel Insurance:

- Adjusted underwriting gross premium volume increased by 9% for the quarter and 10% year to date, which excludes the impact of our exited Global Reinsurance division in 2025 and the transition of our Hagerty business to a fronting arrangement in 2026.

- Adjusted operating income increased 19% year to date to $1.2 billion, due to improved underwriting profitability and higher net investment income.

- The combined ratio for the quarter was 92%, which includes a three point unfavorable impact from our exited Global Reinsurance division.

- The Industrial segment delivered 13% revenue growth, including 10% organic growth, and a 29% increase in adjusted operating income for the quarter. Adjusted operating income in our Financial segment increased 30%.

The following table presents summary consolidated financial data.

Markel Insurance Segment

Industrial Segment

Financial Segment

Consumer and Other Segment

* * * * * * * *

A copy of our Form 10-Q is available on our website at mklgroup.com, under Investor Relations-Financials, or on the SEC website at www.sec.gov. Readers are urged to review the Form 10-Q for a more complete discussion of our financial performance. Our quarterly conference call, which will involve discussion of our financial results and business developments and may include forward-looking information, will be held Thursday, October 29, 2026, beginning at 9:30 a.m. (Eastern Time). Investors, analysts, and the general public may listen to the call via live webcast at ir.mklgroup.com. The call may be accessed telephonically by dialing +1 (833) 461-5787 in the U.S., or +44 808 196 8935 internationally, and providing Meeting ID: 576 810 349. A replay of the call will be available on our website approximately one hour after the conclusion of the call. Any person needing additional information can contact Markel Group's Investor Relations Department at [email protected].

Supplemental Financial Information

Markel Group manages the business and assesses performance using a variety of performance metrics, each reflecting a different time horizon and serving a different purpose, rather than relying upon a single metric.

Short-term Performance Metrics

In analyzing our current period performance, we believe adjusted operating income is the best metric to assess the performance of our operating businesses. Adjusted operating income excludes the market value movement in our equity portfolio and amortization of acquired intangible assets.

The following table summarizes adjusted operating income by segment.

Long-term Performance Metrics

We believe our financial performance is most meaningfully measured over longer periods of time, which helps mitigate the effects of short-term volatility and better aligns with the long-term perspective we apply to operating our businesses, making capital allocation decisions, and determining executive compensation.

The following tables present a long-term view of our performance over multiple time periods. These metrics drive the growth in intrinsic value per share.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

Markel Group utilizes certain non-GAAP measures that we believe enhance the understanding of our performance. These measures should not be viewed as a substitute for measures determined in accordance with U.S. GAAP.

Consolidated Adjusted Operating Income

Consolidated adjusted operating income, which excludes net investment gains and losses, amortization of acquired intangible assets, and impairment of goodwill, is a non-GAAP financial measure. We believe adjusted operating income is generally an accurate representation of the operating performance of our businesses in our periodic results. Net investment gains and losses are predominantly derived from our investments in publicly traded equity securities and typically include significant unrealized gains and losses from market value movements. We believe that net investment gains and losses, whether realized from sales or unrealized from market value movements, are distortive in understanding the short-term operating performance of our businesses. We do not view amortization of intangible assets and impairment of goodwill, which arise from purchase accounting for acquisitions, as ongoing costs of operating our businesses, and therefore exclude those amounts from our adjusted operating income metric.

The following table reconciles average operating income to average adjusted operating income for the last two trailing-five-year periods.

Adjusted Underwriting Gross Premium Volume

Adjusted underwriting gross premium volume is a non-GAAP measure that excludes underwriting gross premium volume from the Global Reinsurance division and our business with Hagerty for both periods. In August 2025, Markel Insurance sold the renewal rights for contracts written through its Global Reinsurance division, and the division entered into run-off, which resulted in a significant decline in underwriting gross premium volume. Beginning on January 1, 2026, Markel Insurance's business written on behalf of Hagerty transitioned from being an underwriting product to a fronting arrangement, which resulted in a change in the presentation of the related gross premium volume and therefore, a significant decline in underwriting gross premium volume. We believe adjusted underwriting gross premium volume is a meaningful measure when comparing underwriting gross premium volume from period-to-period as it adjusts for the impact of these significant contractual restructuring changes within the Markel Insurance segment.

The following table reconciles underwriting gross premium volume to adjusted underwriting gross premium volume.

Organic Revenue Growth

Organic revenue growth is a non-GAAP measure. We believe organic revenue growth is a meaningful measure as it provides growth in comparable revenues from period-to-period by adjusting for the impact of acquisitions and dispositions. For acquisitions and dispositions, the calculation of organic revenue growth excludes the revenue of the business from the two periods being compared unless our consolidated results include a full period of revenue from the business for both periods. The following table reconciles revenue growth to organic revenue growth for our Industrial segment.

About Markel Group

Markel Group Inc. is a diverse family of companies that includes everything from insurance to bakery equipment, building supplies, houseplants, and more. The leadership teams of these businesses operate with a high degree of independence, while at the same time living the values that we call the Markel Style. Our specialty insurance business sits at the core of our company. Through decades of sound underwriting, the Markel Insurance team has provided the capital base from which we built a system of businesses and investments that collectively increase Markel Group's durability and adaptability. It's a system that provides diverse income streams, access to a wide range of investment opportunities, and the ability to efficiently move capital to the best ideas across the company. Most importantly though, this system enables each of our businesses to advance our shared goal of helping our customers, associates, and shareholders win over the long term. Visit mklgroup.com to learn more.

Cautionary Statement

Certain of the statements in this release may be considered forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about our beliefs, plans or expectations, are forward-looking statements. These statements are based on our current plans, estimates, and expectations. There are risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in or suggested by such statements. Factors that may cause actual results to differ are often presented with the forward-looking statements themselves.

Baylor vs. UCF

Three games are on the college football card for Friday night, headlined by Baylor vs. UCF. Both teams are in very difficult spots here, as the Knights just upset BYU at home in overtime last week and the Bears fired head coach Dave Aranda after losing at home to Kansas. On a night with the MAC, American, and Big 12, we have Kent State as a rare home favorite, a mediocre Tulane team laying double digits, and then the coin flip in Orlando.

Despite the tricky circumstances with Baylor and UCF, that’s the game of the night and the game that deserves the most attention.

Odds from Circa Sports as of October 28, 1:20 p.m. PT; check out our Circa Betting Splits and DraftKings Betting Splits. See all of our Week 9 College Football Picks and Predictions.

Baylor at UCF (-1, 48) Prediction

Friday, 7:30 p.m. ET (ESPN)

Pick: UCF -1

Baylor invades the Bounce House this week and we’ll see if interim head coach Joe Klanderman can put some more pep in the steps of the Bears. It felt like Aranda was simply holding on for dear life with this gig for a while and it finally came to a head this past week with a blocked field goal that led to a loss against the Jayhawks. I watched Klanderman’s media availability this week and he comes across as a very honest, very poignant guy who isn’t going to BS this team about what’s going on. I appreciate that. In this day and age, I think the players do as well.

Klanderman will continue to call the defense, while longtime up-and-comer Jake Spavital has creative freedom on offense. The 41-year-old Spavital was Texas A&M’s OC by the age of 30 and even was Texas State’s head coach for four rough seasons. But he’s always been pretty highly-regarded in the coaching world and now he has free reign of the offense. By no means has the offense been good, but Aranda was kind of a passive guy and there wasn’t a lot of explosiveness or aggressiveness to Baylor’s offensive profile. With a lot of money invested in DJ Lagway, let’s see if Spavital can unlock something.

Lagway has only completed 52.1% of his passes and only has 26 carries for 19 yards, so it’s been a struggle to get him free. Leading rusher Dawson Pendergrass only has 3.5 yards per carry. The Baylor offensive line needs to be better, but we should see an improvement in effort and focus for this week.

UCF head coach Scott Frost brought in Keyone Jenkins as an insurance policy behind expected starter Alonza Barrett III from James Madison. Instead, it has been Jenkins, the FIU transfer, who has carried this team in Barrett’s absence. He sports an 11/3 TD/INT ratio and a completion rate butting up against 70%, while transfer RB Duke Watson has rushed for 6.8 yards per carry.

While Baylor’s defensive numbers stand up a lot better, as the Bears are 17th in the nation in yards per play allowed, it should be noted that Jeff Sagarin has a strength of schedule gap of 30 spots between the two teams, as UCF has already played three top-30 teams per Sagarin and Baylor has not played any. The Knights rank 27th in SOS and the Bears are 57th, with a big difference in Big 12 opponents. UCF has played TCU, Houston, Oklahoma State, and BYU. Baylor has played Colorado, Arizona State, TCU, and Kansas. Of that group, Arizona State is the only one with a winning record and the only one without a losing conference record.

It’s a tough spot for UCF coming off of the BYU win, but they aren’t traveling, they don’t have the internal tumult, and Jenkins has definitively outplayed Lagway this season and even done so against better competition.

Pick: UCF -1

Other Friday Games

Tulane (-10, 47) at Charlotte: This is a hefty number for Tulane, a team that ranks 99th with -.51 net points per drive per Brian Fremeau of BCFToys. Of course, Charlotte is 134th out of 138 teams, so we’re talking about one of the worst programs in the nation. The Green Wave have not gotten good QB play out of either Kadin Semonza or Trace Johnson, with 18 total sacks and a 5/5 TD/INT ratio. Even though the Green Wave have a great running game and maybe that will be enough, winning by margin requires taking care of the football and avoiding negative plays. Charlotte has poor run defense numbers, but it should be noted that they’ve allowed 4.55 YPC to FBS opponents and allowed 5.36 YPC in the loss to The Citadel.

Kent State (-10, 46.5) at Sacramento State: Historical outliers are scary and Kent State being favored like this on the road hasn’t happened since 2022. That could be part of the reason why we’ve seen money come in on the Hornets and against the Golden Flashes. It’s also just ludicrous to think about Kent State facing these kinds of expectations, but Sac State might be the worst FBS team we’ve ever seen. If Kent wins and covers, that might solidify it, but that’s an enormous ask and the market seems to think it’s too big of one.

Check out picks from VSiN hosts and guests on this game and all of the Week 9 games on our Pro Picks Page.