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>The Travelers Companies, Inc. delivered a mixed set of results for the latest quarterly report, with revenues above analyst expectations but below-par earnings.</li><li>The underlying profitability in the Business Insurance segment was particularly outstanding, with the underlying combined ratio improving by 3 points to an excellent 89.4%.</li><li>The Personal Insurance segment saw a 2-point improvement in the underlying combined ratio, reflecting the proactive steps to enhance profitability.</li></ul>

The Travelers Companies, Inc. delivered a mixed set of results for the latest quarterly report, with revenues above analyst expectations but below-par earnings.The underlying profitability in the Business Insurance segment was particularly outstanding, with the underlying combined ratio improving by 3 points to an excellent 89.4%.The Personal Insurance segment saw a 2-point improvement in the underlying combined ratio, reflecting the proactive steps to enhance profitability.

The Travelers Companies Inc.: How They’re Changing the Insurance Landscape Amid Challenges! - Major Drivers

<ul><li>This is our first report on The Travelers Companies, a well-known property and casualty insurance provider.</li><li>The Travelers Companies kicked off the year on a high note, boasting impressive bottom-line results for the first quarter despite the surge of severe weather events across the United States.</li><li>The Business Insurance segment particularly stood out with its strong profitability and growth.</li></ul>

This is our first report on The Travelers Companies, a well-known property and casualty insurance provider.The Travelers Companies kicked off the year on a high note, boasting impressive bottom-line results for the first quarter despite the surge of severe weather events across the United States.The Business Insurance segment particularly stood out with its strong profitability and growth.

The Travelers Companies Inc.: Initiation of Coverage – Business Strategy & Other Drivers

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>Since early November 2023 we have laid out our bullish expectations for a year-end rally that we anticipated would continue into the early part of 2024. </li>
<li>Here we are in the early part of 2024, and we see every reason to continue riding this bull market higher. We see small- and mid-caps resuming uptrends $IWM $VXF</li>
<li>Downgrading Staples (XLP) to underweight after brief stint at market weight. Highlighting several buys within Financials: Property &amp; Casualty Insurance BRK.B, PGR, CB, TRV, ALL, CINF, ERIE, and more</li>
</ul>


Since early November 2023 we have laid out our bullish expectations for a year-end rally that we anticipated would continue into the early part of 2024. 
Here we are in the early part of 2024, and we see every reason to continue riding this bull market higher. We see small- and mid-caps resuming uptrends $IWM $VXF
Downgrading Staples (XLP) to underweight after brief stint at market weight. Highlighting several buys within Financials: Property &amp; Casualty Insurance BRK.B, PGR, CB, TRV, ALL, CINF, ERIE, and more


Continue Riding This Bull Market Higher; Small- And Mid-Caps Resuming Uptrends; Downgrading Staples

<ul>
<li>Ongoing developments have been almost exclusively of the risk-on variety ever since we discussed that risk/reward favored buyers in late-October (10/24/23 and 10/31/23 Compass reports).</li>
<li>The latest risk-on developments include the Russell2000 (IWM) and DJI breaking above resistances of $180 and 35,650, to go along with bullish 9-month RS reversals for small-, mid-, and micro-caps.</li>
<li>Breadth improvement and broadening participation was a big reason why we recommended buying the IWM when it was testing $162-$163 support (10/31/23 Compass). We remain bullish</li>
</ul>


Ongoing developments have been almost exclusively of the risk-on variety ever since we discussed that risk/reward favored buyers in late-October (10/24/23 and 10/31/23 Compass reports).
The latest risk-on developments include the Russell2000 (IWM) and DJI breaking above resistances of $180 and 35,650, to go along with bullish 9-month RS reversals for small-, mid-, and micro-caps.
Breadth improvement and broadening participation was a big reason why we recommended buying the IWM when it was testing $162-$163 support (10/31/23 Compass). We remain bullish


Upgrading Real Estate, Transportation to Market Weight; Smid-Caps With Bullish RS Reversals

APAC IPOs & Placements, Aequitas Research

Clarence Chu

APAC IPOs & Placements

IPOs and Placements coverage across Asia Pacific

Aequitas Research

We cover all listing across the Asia Pacific along with follow-up placements. As of Dec 2020, our team had covered 539 IPOs with a hit rate of 73.5% and 685 placements with a hit rate of 66.8%.

We combine fundamental bottom-up views with our proprietary quantitative framework to provide a holistic coverage across new listings and placements. Our coverage includes pre-IPO notes before the deal is launched, follow-up analysis once the deal is live and post-listing trading analysis as well.

Equity Capital Markets

Seoul Guarantee Insurance / Equity Capital Markets

<ul>
<li>
<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/seoul-guarantee-insurance-co" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:40123:1" rel="noopener">Seoul Guarantee Insurance (031210 KS)</a> is looking to raise around US$270m in its Korean IPO.</li>
<li>Seoul Guarantee Insurance (SGI) is a guarantee insurance firm operating predominantly in Korea.</li>
<li>We have looked at the firm’s past performance and undertaken a peer comparison in earlier notes. In this note, we discuss our thoughts on valuation.</li>
</ul>



Seoul Guarantee Insurance (031210 KS) is looking to raise around US$270m in its Korean IPO.
Seoul Guarantee Insurance (SGI) is a guarantee insurance firm operating predominantly in Korea.
We have looked at the firm’s past performance and undertaken a peer comparison in earlier notes. In this note, we discuss our thoughts on valuation.


Seoul Guarantee Insurance Pre-IPO Thoughts on Valuation - Needs a Discount to Its Larger Peers

United States

The Travelers Companies, Inc. provides commercial and personal property and casualty insurance products and services to businesses, government units, associations, and individuals.

Travelers Cos (TRV US)

The Travelers Companies Inc.: How They’re Changing the Insurance Landscape Amid Challenges! - Major Drivers

The Travelers Companies, Inc. delivered a mixed set of results for the latest quarterly report, with revenues above analyst expectations but...

Baptista Research

The Travelers Companies Inc.: Initiation of Coverage – Business Strategy & Other Drivers

This is our first report on The Travelers Companies, a well-known property and casualty insurance provider. The Travelers Companies kicked off the...

Baptista Research

Continue Riding This Bull Market Higher; Small- And Mid-Caps Resuming Uptrends; Downgrading Staples

Continue Riding This Bull Market Higher; Small- and Mid-Caps Resuming Uptrends $IWM $RTY $VXF; Downgrading Consumer Staples $XLP to Underweight...

Vermilion Research

Upgrading Real Estate, Transportation to Market Weight; Smid-Caps With Bullish RS Reversals

Upgrading Real Estate $XLRE $VNQ and Transportation $IYT $XTN to Market Weight; Smid-Caps With Bullish RS Reversals as $SPX, $COMP Take a Pause;...

Vermilion Research

Seoul Guarantee Insurance Pre-IPO Thoughts on Valuation - Needs a Discount to Its Larger Peers

SGI has opened the books for its US$268m IPO. Bookbuild is expected to run till 19th October with pricing slated for 23rd October.

Clarence Chu