TMT & Consumer Independent Equity Research Analyst, Obex Capital Research

Aaron Gabin

TMT & Consumer Independent Equity Research Analyst

TMT & Consumer Independent Equity Research

Obex Capital Research

“Obex” is Latin for Barriers to Entry. Obex Capital Management’s investment philosophy is driven by an intense focus on which business model’s Barriers to Entry are able to withstand the ever increasing competitive disruption in the TMT and Consumer Sectors.

Equity Bottom-Up

We have been longtime fans of Netflix the product and Netflix’s management team can rightfully be described as visionary. They had the vision to have the public markets fund an experiment in business models that appears now set to breakeven on FCF in 2021. We have said since last year that Netflix is a good relative short given the extreme pull-in of demand from COVID, but have turned bullish for the simple fact that Netflix’s stock performance tracks the pace of sub growth, and we see growth reaccelerating in the back half of 2021. The kicker for us is the potential for gaming to be leveraged as an ARPU lever…and an upward estimate revision cycle. We may be early….but the stock’s flattish AH reaction on a pretty mediocre quarter and weak guide reads bullish to us.  <div class="content-highlight">Obex’s fundamental research process is focused on secular change in the TMT and Consumer sectors. We seek to differentiate between fundamental business analysis and security analysis. Before deciding if a security’s pricing and positioning merit a long or short position, we analyze the four pillars of business fundamentals (Secular Factors, TAM, Competitive Advantage, Business Model) in order to determine if this is a “good” or “not so good” opportunity.  </div>

We have been longtime fans of Netflix the product and Netflix’s management team can rightfully be described as visionary. They had the vision to have the public markets fund an experiment in business models that appears now set to breakeven on FCF in 2021. We have said since last year that Netflix is a good relative short given the extreme pull-in of demand from COVID, but have turned bullish for the simple fact that Netflix’s stock performance tracks the pace of sub growth, and we see growth reaccelerating in the back half of 2021. The kicker for us is the potential for gaming to be leveraged as an ARPU lever…and an upward estimate revision cycle. We may be early….but the stock’s flattish AH reaction on a pretty mediocre quarter and weak guide reads bullish to us.  Obex’s fundamental research process is focused on secular change in the TMT and Consumer sectors. We seek to differentiate between fundamental business analysis and security analysis. Before deciding if a security’s pricing and positioning merit a long or short position, we analyze the four pillars of business fundamentals (Secular Factors, TAM, Competitive Advantage, Business Model) in order to determine if this is a “good” or “not so good” opportunity.  

Negative Intel, Mixed on Comcast, Positive Amazon, Positive Netflix, Positive Roblox.<div class="content-highlight">Obex’s fundamental research process is focused on secular change in the TMT and Consumer sectors. We seek to differentiate between fundamental business analysis and security analysis. Before deciding if a security’s pricing and positioning merit a long or short position, we analyze the four pillars of business fundamentals (Secular Factors, TAM, Competitive Advantage, Business Model) in order to determine if this is a “good” or “not so good” opportunity.  </div>

Negative Intel, Mixed on Comcast, Positive Amazon, Positive Netflix, Positive Roblox.Obex’s fundamental research process is focused on secular change in the TMT and Consumer sectors. We seek to differentiate between fundamental business analysis and security analysis. Before deciding if a security’s pricing and positioning merit a long or short position, we analyze the four pillars of business fundamentals (Secular Factors, TAM, Competitive Advantage, Business Model) in order to determine if this is a “good” or “not so good” opportunity.  

TMT Weekly: 3 Things That Stood Out the Week of 6/25/2021

We’ve been bullish on Disney since early last year when its stock fell below $100 on pandemic concerns, as the market was underestimating the power of the DTC business. That underestimation no longer exists and Disney’s upside to its current valuation is becoming harder to justify as we near $200/share. Disney’s quarter was good enough to keep the bull case intact: booming DTC business and soon to fully re-open Parks business driving a rebound in earnings growth. When we invest on the long side, we want to be able to generate a &gt;30% one year return, so what do we have to believe on Disney from here for 2021?<div class="content-highlight">Obex’s fundamental research process is focused on secular change in the TMT and Consumer sectors. We seek to differentiate between fundamental business analysis and security analysis. Before deciding if a security’s pricing and positioning merit a long or short position, we analyze the four pillars of business fundamentals (Secular Factors, TAM, Competitive Advantage, Business Model) in order to determine if this is a “good” or “not so good” opportunity.</div>

We’ve been bullish on Disney since early last year when its stock fell below $100 on pandemic concerns, as the market was underestimating the power of the DTC business. That underestimation no longer exists and Disney’s upside to its current valuation is becoming harder to justify as we near $200/share. Disney’s quarter was good enough to keep the bull case intact: booming DTC business and soon to fully re-open Parks business driving a rebound in earnings growth. When we invest on the long side, we want to be able to generate a &gt;30% one year return, so what do we have to believe on Disney from here for 2021?Obex’s fundamental research process is focused on secular change in the TMT and Consumer sectors. We seek to differentiate between fundamental business analysis and security analysis. Before deciding if a security’s pricing and positioning merit a long or short position, we analyze the four pillars of business fundamentals (Secular Factors, TAM, Competitive Advantage, Business Model) in order to determine if this is a “good” or “not so good” opportunity.

Disney 1Q21: Is Streaming Enough to Support $200?

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Corrigenda: There is an error in this Insight. Please note the correction.
Correction: The first line under Results in the Detail section should read "Revenues of $6.64B (+22% YoY), a touch ahead of consensus $6.6B."
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We have been longtime fans of Netflix the product and Netflix’s management team can rightfully be described as visionary. They had the vision to have the public markets fund an experiment in business models that appears now set to breakeven on FCF in 2021. We have said for the past two quarters that Netflix is a good relative short given Deceleration in Subscriber Growth, Rising Churn, and Rising FCF burn. The key blow to our thesis is that FCF was given the all clear by management last night, while the CFO said churn was a record low.
The key question going forward…if Netflix can now generate tangible FCF into the future and this model is sustainable, don’t we then have to value Netflix on FCF? You don’t short stocks over arguments about what multiple to put on terminal values, and we aren’t advocating outright shorting Netflix, which has proven to be the #2 alltime widowmaker of short sellers (after Tesla), but we think Netflix resumes its role as the favored funding short once the dust clears from this quarter’s FCF announcement and investors focus back on the decelerating sub growth.
<div class="content-highlight">
Obex’s fundamental research process is focused on secular change in the TMT and Consumer sectors. We seek to differentiate between fundamental business analysis and security analysis. Before deciding if a security’s pricing and positioning merit a long or short position, we analyze the four pillars of business fundamentals (Secular Factors, TAM, Competitive Advantage, Business Model) in order to determine if this is a “good” or “not so good” opportunity.
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Corrigenda: There is an error in this Insight. Please note the correction.
Correction: The first line under Results in the Detail section should read "Revenues of $6.64B (+22% YoY), a touch ahead of consensus $6.6B."


We have been longtime fans of Netflix the product and Netflix’s management team can rightfully be described as visionary. They had the vision to have the public markets fund an experiment in business models that appears now set to breakeven on FCF in 2021. We have said for the past two quarters that Netflix is a good relative short given Deceleration in Subscriber Growth, Rising Churn, and Rising FCF burn. The key blow to our thesis is that FCF was given the all clear by management last night, while the CFO said churn was a record low.
The key question going forward…if Netflix can now generate tangible FCF into the future and this model is sustainable, don’t we then have to value Netflix on FCF? You don’t short stocks over arguments about what multiple to put on terminal values, and we aren’t advocating outright shorting Netflix, which has proven to be the #2 alltime widowmaker of short sellers (after Tesla), but we think Netflix resumes its role as the favored funding short once the dust clears from this quarter’s FCF announcement and investors focus back on the decelerating sub growth.

Obex’s fundamental research process is focused on secular change in the TMT and Consumer sectors. We seek to differentiate between fundamental business analysis and security analysis. Before deciding if a security’s pricing and positioning merit a long or short position, we analyze the four pillars of business fundamentals (Secular Factors, TAM, Competitive Advantage, Business Model) in order to determine if this is a “good” or “not so good” opportunity.


Netflix 4Q20: It’s a Free Cash Flow Machine!

Alpha-Centric ESG Research

Kyle Rudden

Joe Biden winning the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election is looking more likely by the day, but "more" is the operative word, because as the saying goes, "it ain't over 'till it's over."But Biden is leading "bigly," to use a Trumpism. The kind of bigly that goes beyond polling error, a bigly bigger than anyone has seen since Lincoln, as Trump might say. Or something like that.As another saying goes, "the devil is in the details," and things could change… if a lot goes wrong for Biden, at the same time that a lot goes very right for Trump, and all within the next few days.Nothing is certain, but the writing is on the wall at this point – legibly enough, at least, to go into greater detail regarding what a Biden-Harris administration might mean for investing.This Insight analyses the state of the election, making the case that Trump is too far behind with too little time, but also considering a few "what-if" wildcards in critical swing states.It sets the stage for Insights into more specific implications, the first of which (imminent) is how a Biden win would advance ESG investing and sustainable finance, beyond obvious policy issues.

Joe Biden winning the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election is looking more likely by the day, but "more" is the operative word, because as the saying goes, "it ain't over 'till it's over."But Biden is leading "bigly," to use a Trumpism. The kind of bigly that goes beyond polling error, a bigly bigger than anyone has seen since Lincoln, as Trump might say. Or something like that.As another saying goes, "the devil is in the details," and things could change… if a lot goes wrong for Biden, at the same time that a lot goes very right for Trump, and all within the next few days.Nothing is certain, but the writing is on the wall at this point – legibly enough, at least, to go into greater detail regarding what a Biden-Harris administration might mean for investing.This Insight analyses the state of the election, making the case that Trump is too far behind with too little time, but also considering a few "what-if" wildcards in critical swing states.It sets the stage for Insights into more specific implications, the first of which (imminent) is how a Biden win would advance ESG investing and sustainable finance, beyond obvious policy issues.

U.S. Elections: A Biden Win Is Looking More Likely

United States

Comcast Corporation provides media and television broadcasting services. The Company offers video streaming, television programming, high-speed internet, cable television, and communication services. Comcast serves customers worldwide.

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Comcast Corp Class A (CMCSA US)

Netflix 2Q21: Game On

We have turned bullish on Netflix recently because we see the pace of sub growth reaccelerating in the back half of 2021. The flattish AH reaction...

Aaron Gabin

TMT Weekly: 3 Things That Stood Out the Week of 6/25/2021

We think Intel's restructuring is a means of burying its coming market share loss driven margin declines, while Comcast rumors are nonsensical....

Aaron Gabin

Disney 1Q21: Is Streaming Enough to Support $200?

We move to the sidelines on Disney after being long for the past year. We think the stock has fully valued a streaming business that has a little...

Aaron Gabin

Netflix 4Q20: It’s a Free Cash Flow Machine!

Netflix posted an inline quarter, but the stock is up 14% on commentary about sustainability of FCF going forward. We don't advocate shorting NFLX...

Aaron Gabin

U.S. Elections: A Biden Win Is Looking More Likely

A Biden election win and presidency is looking more likely by the day. This Insight explains why, and what could change in the next week to alter...

Kyle Rudden

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