Japan Specialist

Mark Chadwick

Equity Bottom-Up

Money Forward, Inc. develops mobile application software. The Company produces automatic household account book softwares, household account book application softwares, and other products. Money Forward also provides personal financial management, cloud based accounting solutions, and other services.

<ul>
<li>Money Forward released Q2 results post market close on Friday. Revenue growth of +41% YoY beat our estimates by 7%.</li>
<li>We highlight continued solid financial metrics supported by growth in SaaS ARR and in particular mid-sized corporate growth.</li>
<li>No change to our bullish long-term view on the company. Stock has run up around 11% ahead of earnings but we see further 20%+ upside from here. </li>
</ul>


Money Forward released Q2 results post market close on Friday. Revenue growth of +41% YoY beat our estimates by 7%.
We highlight continued solid financial metrics supported by growth in SaaS ARR and in particular mid-sized corporate growth.
No change to our bullish long-term view on the company. Stock has run up around 11% ahead of earnings but we see further 20%+ upside from here. 


Independent research on the U.S. markets, Baptista Research

Baptista Research

Independent research on the U.S. markets

Baptista Research is an independent financial research house focused on the U.S. markets. We provide equity research as well as credit research reports on the top-listed U.S. companies with most of our focus on technology, consumer goods and services, automobiles, industrials, oil and gas, pharma, and healthcare. Our research has served more than 3000 institutional investors including mutual funds, hedge funds, banks, family offices, and various buy-side firms. We operate a research subscription service where institutions, as well as retail investors, can have priority access to all our research. We also have a wide distribution of our research reports across some of the top global financial platforms. Apart from equity research and credit research, we also provide advisory services with respect to mergers & acquisitions (M&A), private equity/ venture capital fundraising, valuation reports, and investment management services for corporates.
Baptista Research is owned and managed by Ishan Majumdar, an ex-Venture Capitalist/ Investment Banker, a Chartered Accountant, and a Masters’ degree holder in Management from HEC Paris. Ishan has nearly a decade of experience in Mergers and Acquisitions, Leveraged Buyouts (LBOs), Venture Capital Investing, Corporate Strategy, and Valuation in front-office roles at the likes of BNP Paribas CIB, Credit Agricole CIB, Groupe Danone, and TIW Private Equity. He has worked on and closed multiple acquisition deals, leveraged buyouts, and start-up investment transactions.

Varonis Systems, Inc. designs and develops data security software solutions. The Company offers data management systems to organize, manage, and protect unstructured and semi-structured data such as documents, spreadsheets, presentations, media files, and other business data. Varonis Systems operates worldwide.

<ul><li>Varonis Systems, Inc. presented its first-quarter 2024 results, showcasing robust progress and potential in the evolving landscape dominated by software as a service (SaaS) transition and a focused approach to metadata driven security solutions.</li><li>Noteworthy in the reveal was a 17% year-over-year increase in annual recurring revenue (ARR) summing up to $560.3 million.</li><li>This increment reflects sustained momentum in SaaS transition underpinned by the Managed Data Detection and Response (MDDR) service.</li></ul>

Varonis Systems, Inc. presented its first-quarter 2024 results, showcasing robust progress and potential in the evolving landscape dominated by software as a service (SaaS) transition and a focused approach to metadata driven security solutions.Noteworthy in the reveal was a 17% year-over-year increase in annual recurring revenue (ARR) summing up to $560.3 million.This increment reflects sustained momentum in SaaS transition underpinned by the Managed Data Detection and Response (MDDR) service.

Varonis Systems Inc.: What Is The Expected Impact Of Shift to SaaS Model & Revenue Recognition Changes? - Major Drivers

External reports (aggregated public sources), Value Investors Club

Value Investors Club

External reports (aggregated public sources)

SoundThinking, Inc. operates as a public safety technology company. The Company offers acoustic gunshot detection system, law enforcement search engine, investigation management system, and patrolling and community anti-violence software solutions. SoundThinking serves customers worldwide.

<ul><li>Soundthinking (SSTI) is a SaaS company providing technology to law enforcement agencies for enhanced effectiveness</li><li>Market cap of $200 million and trading at 2x sales, considered cheap compared to growth potential</li><li>Company has history of 15% annual growth, 60% gross margins expected to increase with expansion, projected revenue growth of 15% over next three years, EBITDA margins expected to reach 32% by 2026, stock predicted to trade at $74 per share with 360% upside from current prices</li></ul>This content is sourced through publicly available sources and has been machine generated. Information displayed is for general informational purposes only. This article was originally published 3 months ago on Value Investors Club.

Soundthinking (SSTI) is a SaaS company providing technology to law enforcement agencies for enhanced effectivenessMarket cap of $200 million and trading at 2x sales, considered cheap compared to growth potentialCompany has history of 15% annual growth, 60% gross margins expected to increase with expansion, projected revenue growth of 15% over next three years, EBITDA margins expected to reach 32% by 2026, stock predicted to trade at $74 per share with 360% upside from current pricesThis content is sourced through publicly available sources and has been machine generated. Information displayed is for general informational purposes only. This article was originally published 3 months ago on Value Investors Club.

Soundthinking Inc (SSTI) - Wednesday, Apr 3, 2024

External broker reports(aggregated public sources), CMB International

CMB International

External broker reports(aggregated public sources)

Incorporated in Hong Kong, supported by the mainland and targeting in global market, CMB International Capital Corporation Limited (“CMBI”) is an integrated financial institution providing comprehensive and professional services. As a wholly-owned subsidiary of China Merchants Bank ("CMB"), by leveraging on the Group’s synergy and coordination in domestic and overseas markets, as well as CMB’s strong resources and outstanding social reputation, CMBI and its subsidiaries have been actively implementing diversified business strategies and set up an overall layout of main business segments including Corporate Finance, Asset Management, Wealth Management, Global Markets and Structured Finance, etc. Adhering to the philosophy of “being clients oriented and increasing our own values by the way of creating value for clients”, CMBI endeavors to provide quality and integrated financial services to institutional, corporate and individual customers both domestic and overseas including Hong Kong IPO sponsorship and underwriting, share placement and rights issue for listed companies, financial advisors, bonds issuance services, asset management, direct investment, wealth management, equity sales and trading, etc.

Adobe Systems Incorporated develops, markets, and supports computer software products and technologies.  The Company's products allow users to express and use information across all print and electronic media.  Adobe offers a line of application software products, type products, and content for creating, distributing, and managing information.

<ul><li>Adobe is a leading creativity and document SaaS platform, with &gt;80%/&gt;20% share of the global graphic processing/document processing software market, based on Statista data.</li><li>As of Feb 2024, there were c.3tn Adobe-generated PDFs in the world and over 1.5bn monthly visits to Adobe’s webs and apps.</li><li>The company provides both individuals and enterprises with Creative/Document/Experience Cloud services, which unleash their creativity, accelerate document productivity, and improve digital experience. </li></ul>Content is external broker report sourced from online content aggregator through publicly available sources and is displayed below for general informational purposes only. Refer full disclaimer below.

Adobe is a leading creativity and document SaaS platform, with &gt;80%/&gt;20% share of the global graphic processing/document processing software market, based on Statista data.As of Feb 2024, there were c.3tn Adobe-generated PDFs in the world and over 1.5bn monthly visits to Adobe’s webs and apps.The company provides both individuals and enterprises with Creative/Document/Experience Cloud services, which unleash their creativity, accelerate document productivity, and improve digital experience. Content is external broker report sourced from online content aggregator through publicly available sources and is displayed below for general informational purposes only. Refer full disclaimer below.

Adobe (ADBE US) - Entering Generative AI Era

Research Coverage on Small and Micro-Cap Companies, Zacks Small Cap Research

Zacks Small Cap Research

Research Coverage on Small and Micro-Cap Companies

Zacks Small Cap Research provides research coverage on small- and micro-cap companies that are “under-followed” or “under-valued” by Wall Street. We produce high quality equity research for the institutional and retail investor on microcap firms we believe are well positioned for future growth. The Zacks SCR analyst team has an average of 20 years of experience in investment research. We conduct significant due diligence in an effort to maintain the highest quality small-cap universe.

Perfect Corp provides software as a service. The Company offers virtual try-on technology which allows users to see what makeup would look like on their faces before buying cosmetics. Perfect serves customers worldwide.

<ul><li>Perfect Corp. provides an AI and machine learning based B2B SaaS platform for virtual try on and marketing of beauty and fashion products as well as six mobile apps sold B2C for makeup suggestions, try-on, tutorials, photo and video editing and most recently, Gen AI creation and editing.</li><li>It is expanding its offering to new verticals and has strong IP as well as the largest database for AI training in the industry.</li><li>It has a dominant market share and serves almost all the major beauty brands worldwide.</li></ul>

Perfect Corp. provides an AI and machine learning based B2B SaaS platform for virtual try on and marketing of beauty and fashion products as well as six mobile apps sold B2C for makeup suggestions, try-on, tutorials, photo and video editing and most recently, Gen AI creation and editing.It is expanding its offering to new verticals and has strong IP as well as the largest database for AI training in the industry.It has a dominant market share and serves almost all the major beauty brands worldwide.