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.

Equity Bottom-Up

<ul><li>First Solar entered 2023 with an improved financial, operational, and commercial position with increased R&D, new international and domestic capacity coming online as well as a new Series 7 product.</li><li>The company commenced initial production at its next-generation Series 7 factory in Ohio will continue to ramp this year.</li><li>Furthering its manufacturing program, First Solar recently announced an innovative 3.5-gigawatt Series 7 factory in Alabama and also a 0.9-gigawatt rise to nameplate capacity at its Ohio factories.</li></ul>

First Solar entered 2023 with an improved financial, operational, and commercial position with increased R&D, new international and domestic capacity coming online as well as a new Series 7 product.The company commenced initial production at its next-generation Series 7 factory in Ohio will continue to ramp this year.Furthering its manufacturing program, First Solar recently announced an innovative 3.5-gigawatt Series 7 factory in Alabama and also a 0.9-gigawatt rise to nameplate capacity at its Ohio factories.

First Solar Inc: A Strong Start To 2023 – Key Drivers

<ul><li>First Solar’s bull run was halted by a below par result in the last quarter as the company failed to meet Wall Street expectations with respect to revenues as well as earnings.</li><li>The company’s manufacturing plants produced 2.4 gigawatts of modules in the third quarter and sold 2.8 gigawatts.</li><li>Besides, their current fleet's manufacturing performance metrics remain consistent, and plans for the third manufacturing plant in Ohio are still on track.</li></ul>

First Solar’s bull run was halted by a below par result in the last quarter as the company failed to meet Wall Street expectations with respect to revenues as well as earnings.The company’s manufacturing plants produced 2.4 gigawatts of modules in the third quarter and sold 2.8 gigawatts.Besides, their current fleet's manufacturing performance metrics remain consistent, and plans for the third manufacturing plant in Ohio are still on track.

Technical Analyst, Vermilion Research

Joe Jasper

Technical Analyst

Technical and Quantitative Research

Vermilion Research

Vermilion’s objective is to deliver timely, actionable, and unique technical research to professional investors through the application of our various technical indicators.

Our research strategists seek to highlight securities which we believe are at major inflection points, based on our various technical and quantitative indicators, and offer asymmetric risk/return profiles. Our unique research methodology, centered on relative strength, enables our strategists to deliver superior investment recommendations.

Our process begins by organizing the universe of actively traded stocks into discrete sectors, then into industry groups. We then apply our technical and quantitative tools to identify developing price trends. Once attractive trends are identified within a selected sector or group, we screen for individual stocks which we believe offer the best risk/reward profile. We provide a historical perspective that often reveals, through our long-term charts, how price patterns often repeat themselves over time.

Technical Analysis

<ul>
<li>Key supports that we highlighted in last week's Compass (Sept. 7) held strong, including 3900-3910 on the SPX, $293 on the Nasdaq 100 (QQQ), $177-178 on the Russell 2000 (IWM).</li>
<li>We got the bounce where bulls needed to hold, but these levels could be tested again following this morning's hotter-than-expected CPI report.</li>
<li>As long as the aforementioned supports continue to hold, we continue to believe the lows are likely in for this bear market -- something we noted throughout late-July and August.</li>
</ul>


Key supports that we highlighted in last week's Compass (Sept. 7) held strong, including 3900-3910 on the SPX, $293 on the Nasdaq 100 (QQQ), $177-178 on the Russell 2000 (IWM).
We got the bounce where bulls needed to hold, but these levels could be tested again following this morning's hotter-than-expected CPI report.
As long as the aforementioned supports continue to hold, we continue to believe the lows are likely in for this bear market -- something we noted throughout late-July and August.


Supports to Be Tested Again Following CPI? Stick With Solar Stocks, Buying Manufacturing Names

<ul><li>First Solar’s second quarter results were positive and it delivered an all-around beat.</li><li>During the quarter, the management kept up their booking pace, strengthening their backlog of anticipated future deliveries, which now totals a record 44.3 gigawatts.</li><li>The management is working on setting up the necessary supply chain to support the eventual launch of a bifacial CadTel module.</li></ul>

First Solar’s second quarter results were positive and it delivered an all-around beat.During the quarter, the management kept up their booking pace, strengthening their backlog of anticipated future deliveries, which now totals a record 44.3 gigawatts.The management is working on setting up the necessary supply chain to support the eventual launch of a bifacial CadTel module.

<ul>
<li>In last week's Compass (Aug. 23) we discussed the increasing odds for a deeper pullback in the broad market indexes.</li>
<li>This was due to 5-week uptrend breaks on the SPX, NDX, and Russell 2000, the Fed tightening, and with Treasury yields, the U.S. dollar (DXY), and commodities (DJP) inflecting higher.</li>
<li>The market remains in pullback mode; the SPX, NDX, and Russell 2000 are all approaching 50-day MA support, the first big area of interest on this pullback.</li>
</ul>


In last week's Compass (Aug. 23) we discussed the increasing odds for a deeper pullback in the broad market indexes.
This was due to 5-week uptrend breaks on the SPX, NDX, and Russell 2000, the Fed tightening, and with Treasury yields, the U.S. dollar (DXY), and commodities (DJP) inflecting higher.
The market remains in pullback mode; the SPX, NDX, and Russell 2000 are all approaching 50-day MA support, the first big area of interest on this pullback.


Headwinds Persist, Including Rising DXY, 10-Yr Treasury Yield, & Commodities; Buying Staples, Solar

United States

ON Semiconductor Corporation supplies analog, standard logic, and discrete semiconductors for data and power management. The Company's products include integrated circuits, and analog ICs. ON also offers discrete semiconductors in a variety of surface mount and standard packages.

Skyworks Solutions, Inc., a wireless semiconductor company, designs and manufactures radio frequency and complete semiconductor system solutions for mobile communications applications.  The Company provides front-end modules, radio frequency subsystems, and system solutions to wireless handset and infrastructure customers worldwide.

Onto Innovation Inc. provides process control solutions and inspection systems. The Company offers solutions which primarily used in the fabrication of semiconductors and other solid-state devices, as well as industrial and scientific applications. Onto Innovation serves customers in the United States.

Amkor Technology, Inc. provides semiconductor packaging and test services.  The Company offers deep submicron wafer fabrication, wafer probe testing, integrated circuit packaging assembly and design, final testing, reliability testing, burn-in, and electrical characterization.

Qorvo Inc, designs, develops, manufactures, and markets a variety of high performance analog and mixed signal integrated circuits for the communications markets. The Company's products are used for wireless communications applications such as cellular and PCS, cordless telephony, wireless LANs, industrial radios, wireless security and remote meter reading.

Entegris Inc. provides materials management products and services to the microelectronics industry on a worldwide basis.  The Company provides products such as wafer shippers, wafer transport and process carriers, pods, and work-in-process boxes.  Entegris also provides chemical delivery products such as valves, fittings, tubing, pipe, and containers.

Teradyne, Inc. designs, manufactures, sells, and supports semiconductor test products and services on a world wide basis. The Company's test equipment products and services include: semiconductor test systems, military/aerospace test instrumentation and systems, circuit-board test and inspection systems and automotive diagnostic and test systems.

Axcelis Technologies, Inc. manufactures components for the semiconductor industry. The Company designs, manufactures and services ion implantation, dry strip, thermal processing and curing equipment used in the fabrication of semiconductor chips. Axcelis Technologies sells their products to semiconductor chip manufacturers worldwide.

MA-COM Technology Solutions Holdings Inc. provides high performance analog semiconductor solutions. The Company supplies semiconductors, active and passive components, and sub-assemblies for use in radio frequency, microwave, and millimeter wave applications. MA-COM Technology Solutions serves customers throughout the United States.

Monolithic Power Systems Inc specializes in high-performance, integrated power solutions. The Company provides small, highly energy efficient, easy-to-use power solutions for systems found in industrial applications, telecom infrastructures, cloud computing, automotive, and consumer applications.

ASE Technology Holding Co., Ltd. offers assembly and testing services. The Company provides outsourced assembly, semiconductor testing, semiconductor packaging, and other related services. ASE Technology Holding operates in Taiwan.

Lasertec Corporation develops, designs, manufactures and markets photomask inspection systems to make semiconductor devices, confocal scanning laser microscopes and liquid crystal display (LCD) inspection systems.

United Microelectronics Corporation designs, manufactures, and markets integrated circuits (ICs) and related electronic products.  The Company's main products are consumer electronic ICs, memory ICs, personal computer peripheral ICs, and communication ICs.

Novatek Microelectronics Corporation designs, manufactures, and markets integrated circuits (ICs).  The Company's products are used in telecommunication, computer peripherals, and LCD (liquid crystal display) drivers.

LONGi Green Energy Technology Co., Ltd. develops, manufactures and sells silicon rods and silicon wafers. The Company's main products include 6 inch, 6.5 inch and 8 inch monocrystalline silicon rods and wafers.

LONGi Green Energy Technology (601012 CH)

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation operates a semiconductor foundry. The Company provides integrated circuit foundry and technology services including the testing, development, design, manufacturing, packaging, and sale of integrated circuits. Semiconductor Manufacturing International offers its products and services around the world.

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) (981 HK)

Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC)

Hanmi Semiconductor Co., Ltd. manufactures and develops semiconductor equipment. The Company's products include auto molding system, sawing & placement system, campress trim/form/singulation system, and pick & place system.

DISCO CORPORATION manufactures abrasive and precision industrial machinery for cutting and grinding purposes.  The Company's products are applied in the semiconductor, electronics, and construction industries to produce consumer goods such as personal computers, digital cameras, video game systems, and Digital Video Disc (DVD) players.

Renesas Electronics Corporation researches, develops, designs and manufactures electronic components such as semiconductors and integrated devices.

ADVANTEST CORPORATION produces semiconductor testing devices and electronic measuring instruments.  The Company's products include large-scale integration (LSI) test systems, memory test systems, dynamic test handlers, network analyzers, electronic meters, optical testing devices, and signal sources.

First Solar, Inc. designs and manufactures solar modules.  The Company uses a thin film semiconductor technology to manufacture electricity-producing solar modules.

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First Solar Inc (FSLR US)

First Solar Inc: A Strong Start To 2023 – Key Drivers

First Solar entered 2023 with an improved financial, operational, and commercial position with increased R&D, new international and domestic...

Baptista Research

First Solar Inc: Major Drivers

First Solar’s bull run was halted by a below par result in the last quarter as the company failed to meet Wall Street expectations with respect to...

Baptista Research

Supports to Be Tested Again Following CPI? Stick With Solar Stocks, Buying Manufacturing Names

Supports discussed in recent weeks have held, including 3900 on $SPX, $293 on $QQQ, and $177-178 on $IWM. These levels could be tested again...

Vermilion Research

First Solar Inc: Major Drivers

First Solar’s second quarter results were positive and it delivered an all-around beat. During the quarter, the management kept up their booking...

Baptista Research

Headwinds Persist, Including Rising DXY, 10-Yr Treasury Yield, & Commodities; Buying Staples, Solar

We still see the market as being in pullback mode; the $SPX, $QQQ $NDX, and $IWM $RUT are all testing 50-day MA support, the first big area of...

Vermilion Research

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