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>Manulife Financial Corporation has posted a strong first quarter of 2024, exemplifying solid strategic execution and financial performance across its diversified operations.</li><li>The company reported a 16% growth in core earnings and a significant 20% increase in core EPS, supported by robust contributions from its Asian markets and Global Wealth and Asset Management (WAM) segments.</li><li>Furthermore, core return on equity (ROE) advanced by nearly two percentage points year-over-year to 16.7%, surpassing the medium-term target of 15%.</li></ul>

Manulife Financial Corporation has posted a strong first quarter of 2024, exemplifying solid strategic execution and financial performance across its diversified operations.The company reported a 16% growth in core earnings and a significant 20% increase in core EPS, supported by robust contributions from its Asian markets and Global Wealth and Asset Management (WAM) segments.Furthermore, core return on equity (ROE) advanced by nearly two percentage points year-over-year to 16.7%, surpassing the medium-term target of 15%.

Manulife Financial Corporation: Enhanced Asian Market Engagement and Growth Strategy & Other Major Drivers

<ul><li>Manulife Financial Corporation produced a fair result with decent momentum in its top-line KPIs, with APE sales, new business value, and new business CSM all up by double digits.</li><li>Besides, they achieved APE sales of $1.6 billion, a new business value of $585 million, and a new business CSM of $592 million, an increase of 15% from the preceding year and in line with their medium-term plan.</li><li>They have now added Manulife Vitality to new Manulife Par individual insurance policies in Canada, considerably broadening their behavioral insurance program.</li></ul>

Manulife Financial Corporation produced a fair result with decent momentum in its top-line KPIs, with APE sales, new business value, and new business CSM all up by double digits.Besides, they achieved APE sales of $1.6 billion, a new business value of $585 million, and a new business CSM of $592 million, an increase of 15% from the preceding year and in line with their medium-term plan.They have now added Manulife Vitality to new Manulife Par individual insurance policies in Canada, considerably broadening their behavioral insurance program.

Manulife Financial Corporation: What Is Its Biggest Competitive Advantage? - Major Drivers

IPOs and Catalysts/Events, Global Equity Research Ltd

Arun George

IPOs and Catalysts/Events

Uncompromised, Independent, Conflict-Free Research

Global Equity Research Ltd

Global Equity Research was started in 2017 by a group of experienced research professionals. It was founded on a passionate belief in the importance and the need for uncompromised, independent, conflict-free research. We aim to provide differentiated and actionable primary and bottom up fundamental research.

Event-Driven

<ul>
<li>
<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/great-eastern-holdings-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:13993:1" rel="noopener">Great Eastern Holdings (GE SP)</a> IFA opines that the <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/oversea-chinese-banking-corp" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:114:1" rel="noopener">OCBC (OCBC SP)</a> S$25.60 offer is NOT fair but reasonable as it is below the valuation range of S$28.87-S$36.19 per share.</li>
<li>In response, OCBC declared the price final, and the final closing date is 12 July. Great Eastern will likely breach free float requirements and be suspended when the offer closes.</li>
<li>The offer will likely follow the Boustead Projects/Boustead Singapore blueprint, where SGX RegCo eventually (took seven months) enabled dissenters to receive a fair offer with a 24% uplift. </li>
</ul>



Great Eastern Holdings (GE SP) IFA opines that the OCBC (OCBC SP) S$25.60 offer is NOT fair but reasonable as it is below the valuation range of S$28.87-S$36.19 per share.
In response, OCBC declared the price final, and the final closing date is 12 July. Great Eastern will likely breach free float requirements and be suspended when the offer closes.
The offer will likely follow the Boustead Projects/Boustead Singapore blueprint, where SGX RegCo eventually (took seven months) enabled dissenters to receive a fair offer with a 24% uplift. 


Great Eastern Holdings (GE SP): Playbook as OCBC Offer Declared Final, IFA Opines NOT Fair

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

NASDAQ Composite Index / Technical Analysis

<ul>
<li>Following last week's pullback, a consistent theme we are seeing is that many broad market indexes and Sector ETFs are holding above (and bouncing at) major base supports.</li>
<li>As long as these base supports continue to hold, it tells us this is likely just a normal pullback within the overall bullish trend.</li>
<li>Important supports that we need to see hold in order to remain bullish include 4600 on the S&amp;P 500 and 14,400 on the Nasdaq Composite.</li>
</ul>


Following last week's pullback, a consistent theme we are seeing is that many broad market indexes and Sector ETFs are holding above (and bouncing at) major base supports.
As long as these base supports continue to hold, it tells us this is likely just a normal pullback within the overall bullish trend.
Important supports that we need to see hold in order to remain bullish include 4600 on the S&amp;P 500 and 14,400 on the Nasdaq Composite.


Major Base Supports Holding; DXY Testing the 2-Month Downtrend; 4600 on SPX Remains Key Support

<ul>
<li>Our overall outlook remains largely unchanged; we remain bullish on global equities as long as the MSCI ACWI (ACWI-US) is above major $93 support.</li>
<li>We also discussed that if the 10-year Treasury yield remains below 4.35% and the DXY is below $105.70, we would continue to expect $93 support on ACWI-US to hold.</li>
<li>The 10-year Treasury yield is attempting to break above 4.35% and this could create a problem for ACWI-US; we will continue to monitor closely.</li>
</ul>


Our overall outlook remains largely unchanged; we remain bullish on global equities as long as the MSCI ACWI (ACWI-US) is above major $93 support.
We also discussed that if the 10-year Treasury yield remains below 4.35% and the DXY is below $105.70, we would continue to expect $93 support on ACWI-US to hold.
The 10-year Treasury yield is attempting to break above 4.35% and this could create a problem for ACWI-US; we will continue to monitor closely.


Overweight Value Within Global Ex-U.S. Equities; DXY Below $105.70; Buys in Global Value

Canada

Manulife Financial Corporation provides financial protection products and investment management services to individuals, families, businesses, and groups. The Company conducts operations in Canada, the United States, and Asia, as well as reinsurance operations on a global basis.  Manulife offers products such as annuities, pension products, life insurance, health insurance, and mutual funds.

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Manulife Financial (945 HK)

Manulife Financial Corporation: Enhanced Asian Market Engagement and Growth Strategy & Other Major Drivers

Manulife Financial Corporation has posted a strong first quarter of 2024, exemplifying solid strategic execution and financial performance across...

Baptista Research

Manulife Financial Corporation: What Is Its Biggest Competitive Advantage? - Major Drivers

Manulife Financial Corporation produced a fair result with decent momentum in its top-line KPIs, with APE sales, new business value, and new...

Baptista Research

Great Eastern Holdings (GE SP): Playbook as OCBC Offer Declared Final, IFA Opines NOT Fair

Shares will likely breach float requirements and be suspended at offer close. While trading through terms, recent precedent suggests that investors...

Arun George

Major Base Supports Holding; DXY Testing the 2-Month Downtrend; 4600 on SPX Remains Key Support

A consistent theme we are seeing is that many broad market indexes and Sector ETFs are holding above (and bouncing at) major base supports...

Vermilion Research

Overweight Value Within Global Ex-U.S. Equities; DXY Below $105.70; Buys in Global Value

We're constructive on global equities as long as $ACWI is above $93 support, however, the 10-year Treasury yield $TNX is breaking above 4.35%...

Vermilion Research

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