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

<p>If we look back at 2020, we’ll see a year unlike any other. Had we been told at the beginning of the year with the S&amp;P at 3250 that there would be a cataclysmic global pandemic that would shock the world’s economy…and that the market would return 12%, you might be confused. And if we told you that this cataclysmic pandemic would eviscerate the travel and tourism business, eliminate sports for most of the year, and slash advertising budgets…and Disney…whose entire business was these exact things…would be 19%, and up more then 105% from the March lows…well, you probably wish you had 20-20 hindsight back then…back when Disney+ had 27M subscribers, and estimated that in 5 years it might have 60-90M subs. They will end 2020 with 90M.</p>
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<p>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.</p>
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If we look back at 2020, we’ll see a year unlike any other. Had we been told at the beginning of the year with the S&amp;P at 3250 that there would be a cataclysmic global pandemic that would shock the world’s economy…and that the market would return 12%, you might be confused. And if we told you that this cataclysmic pandemic would eviscerate the travel and tourism business, eliminate sports for most of the year, and slash advertising budgets…and Disney…whose entire business was these exact things…would be 19%, and up more then 105% from the March lows…well, you probably wish you had 20-20 hindsight back then…back when Disney+ had 27M subscribers, and estimated that in 5 years it might have 60-90M subs. They will end 2020 with 90M.

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.


<p>The focus, as expected was on the streaming services. Which continue to exceed expectations. At the end of its first fiscal year, Disney+ ended with 74M subs…kind of mind blowing given the initial guidance of getting to 60-90M subs by 2024.</p><div class="content-highlight"><p>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.</p></div>

The focus, as expected was on the streaming services. Which continue to exceed expectations. At the end of its first fiscal year, Disney+ ended with 74M subs…kind of mind blowing given the initial guidance of getting to 60-90M subs by 2024.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.

<p>Spotify continues to generate mid-teens revenue growth, zero operating leverage, declining pricing power, and decent subscriber growth. We are still waiting for an explanation of why paying out $100s of millions of dollars for minimally profitable (assuming it was disclosed) podcasting content translated to a $25B increase in market cap since April.</p><p></p><p></p><div class="content-highlight"><p>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.</p></div>

Spotify continues to generate mid-teens revenue growth, zero operating leverage, declining pricing power, and decent subscriber growth. We are still waiting for an explanation of why paying out $100s of millions of dollars for minimally profitable (assuming it was disclosed) podcasting content translated to a $25B increase in market cap since April.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.

Asset Allocation & Fund Positioning, Copley Fund Research

Steven Holden

Asset Allocation & Fund Positioning

Copley Fund Research

Copley Fund Research provide research and data on asset allocation among Global and Emerging Market equity funds.  The analysis details absolute and relative positioning across countries, sectors and industries together with highly granular data on single stock and single fund allocations.  The data is updated monthly with time series going back to January 2011.

Global Research - Analysis of 165 prominent Global equity funds, combined AUM $335bn
GEM Research - Analysis of 127 prominent global EM equity funds, combined AUM $250bn

Asset Allocation - Global and GEM Equity

Cross Asset Strategy

<ul>
<li>US underweight rises to highest ever level among Global investors</li>
<li>Tech and Consumer Discretionary outperformance drives underweights higher</li>
<li>Increasing underweight driven by passive inflows as large cap stocks dominate indices.</li>
<li>Active funds running larger underweight positions among top index constituents.</li>
<li>Active buying to close underweight holdings fuels the fire of the large-cap rally further still.</li>
</ul><p><em>Analysis taken from our global active manager research, covering 391 global funds with a combined AUM of $750bn</em></p>


US underweight rises to highest ever level among Global investors
Tech and Consumer Discretionary outperformance drives underweights higher
Increasing underweight driven by passive inflows as large cap stocks dominate indices.
Active funds running larger underweight positions among top index constituents.
Active buying to close underweight holdings fuels the fire of the large-cap rally further still.
Analysis taken from our global active manager research, covering 391 global funds with a combined AUM of $750bn

The Anatomy of the US Underweight (And the Effect of Rising Passive ETF Flows in the US).

<p>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 may eventually breakeven on FCF at some point in the future. 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. As we detail below, the stock tends to not work when subscriber growth decelerates. Admittedly, the rising FCF burn hasn’t played out….yet. Once production opens up post virus, we expect Netflix to resume its cash burning ways.</p><div class="content-highlight"><p>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.</p></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 may eventually breakeven on FCF at some point in the future. 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. As we detail below, the stock tends to not work when subscriber growth decelerates. Admittedly, the rising FCF burn hasn’t played out….yet. Once production opens up post virus, we expect Netflix to resume its cash burning ways.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.

United States

Netflix Inc. is an Internet subscription service for watching tv shows and movies. Subscribers can instantly watch unlimited TV shows and movies streamed over the Internet to their TVs, computers and mobile devices and in the United States, subscribers can receive standard definition DVDs and Blu-ray Discs delivered to their homes.

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Netflix Inc (NFLX US)

Disney Analyst Day: Hindsight Is 2020

Disney’s Analyst Day turned out to be the surprise blockbuster event of the holiday season. So many disclosures and so many competitive angles to...

Aaron Gabin

Disney 4Q20: We’ll Get Back to You

Disney produced another solid subscriber add figure this quarter...but do all subs count the same? We'll give the benefit of the doubt for now.

Aaron Gabin

Spotify 3Q20: We Still Can't Hear You

Spotify gave us another quarter of declining pricing power, middle of the road revenue growth and no disclosures about how podcasting benefits the...

Aaron Gabin

The Anatomy of the US Underweight (And the Effect of Rising Passive ETF Flows in the US).

ETF inflows drive underweights in US equities to record levels. Active buying to close underweights in major index stocks fuels the rally further...

Steven Holden

Netflix 3Q20: Still Chill?

We reiterate our view that Netflix will have a hard time making subscriber #s for the next few quarters due to the massive pull-in from 1H20. When...

Aaron Gabin

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