United States

• BlackLine completed a year of profitable expansion with strong financial results for the fourth quarter.
• The company had total sales of $140 million in Q4 and managed an all-around beat, including a top-line growth of 21%.
• Moreover, increased utilization was caused by a stronger-than-anticipated demand for professional services due to customers’ willingness to access the solutions’ embedded value.

• International Flavors & Fragrances delivered a mixed set of results in the quarter.
• Sales were up 4% on a comparable, currency-neutral basis for the quarter, with increases seen in almost all divisions.
• Besides that, their scent division performed well, achieving a 6% year-over-year sales increase, driven by double-digit growth in fine fragrance and mid-single-digit growth in consumer fragrance.

• This is our first report on the Royal Bank of Canada, one of the top 2 banks in the country.
• This quarter’s performance included significant capital markets revenue, led by excellent Global Markets results, as well as market share improvements in Investment Banking and origination operations across the sector.
• We initiate coverage on the stock of the Royal Bank of Canada with a ‘Buy’ rating.

• Broadridge delivered a mixed set of results in the quarter.
• Recurring sales increased by 8% on a constant currency basis, and both segments experienced significant growth but overall revenues were below analyst expectations.
• However, the top-line growth combined with strict expense control helped to boost adjusted EPS by 11% which resulted in an earnings beat.

• This is our first report on one of the American banking major, Wells Fargo.
• The company performed well in the quarter despite operating losses and managed an all-around beat.
• Increasing interest rates fueled a rapid rise in net interest income.

• Uber Technologies Inc. has delivered good results during this quarter and managed an all-around beat with a positive bottom-line.
• The overall situation is in favor of the company as the competitive environment is getting better.
• We give Uber Technologies Inc. a ‘Hold’ rating with a revised target price.

• Lyft’s Q4 financial performance was mixed as it reported wider-than-expected losses despite surpassing the revenue expectations of Wall Street.
• The company saw a mix of high demand for ride-sharing services, an improving supply, and promising early results from its cost-cutting initiatives.
• Its overall revenue for 2022 increased by 28% compared to 2021 and the company added $375 million to its insurance reserves.

• Trimble Inc had a disappointing result and failed to meet Wall Street expectations in terms of revenues as well as earnings.
• The challenges in terms of the supply chain remained the same in the business environment, which has also affected the operations of the company.
• Trimble delivered over 20% organic growth in ARR in addition to high levels of ACV software bookings and cross-sell bookings.

• Inflationary headwinds in Latin America might have had a material effect in Q1.
• However, Coca-Cola’s EMEA and North American results will probably blossom once more.
• Most are non-core and unlikely to influence the stock’s valuation, KO stock is fairly valued.

• Etsy Inc delivered a mixed set of results during the quarter and managed to surpass the revenue expectations of analysts but its profitability was below par.
• The company’s management claims that its overall reach and consumer demand have increased and the services offered by the company are differentiated.
• The company’s marketing programs, including the Star Seller program, continued to benefit the company.

• IRDM reported first quarter results continuing its recent trend of adding more billable subscribers to its network. 
• The first quarter is seasonally a period when there are fewer maritime customers, but Internet of Things (“IOT”) data subscribers grew sequentially
• Equipment revenue has grown over the past year. IRDM’s partners do not stock inventory. Therefore, any planned installs should result in higher subscriber revenue as these units are activated

• Binding exclusivity to acquire or license Deverra Therapeutics’ platform asset 
• CAR-T + GEAR COEP platforms could plug into Deverra platform
• Other key assets – 2x FDA approved PI INDs for CD34+ NK Cells.

• Project Dorothy now energized. ERCOT (grid operator) has given final approval to energize the first 50 MW of Soluna’s game-changing Project Dorothy.
• The long-delayed project had been held up by ERCOT while it implemented its new Interim Large Load Interconnection Process to ensure grid reliability.
• Energization sets the stage for signing hosting contracts at Project Dorothy. Soluna can now finalize and begin receiving revenues from hosting contracts at Project Dorothy.

• IPAR announced its first quarter sales highlighting the continued momentum in demand the Company has been seeing in recent quarters. 
• IPAR’s major brands each grew by more than 20 percent compared to the year ago period. 
• IPAR raised full year sales and EPS outlook as the business continues to run with brisk demand

• In this insight, we take a look at Quiddity’s estimates for the names leading the race to become ADDs/DELETEs for the DAX, MDAX, and SDAX Indices.
• At present, I do not see any movements between the DAX and MDAX indices.
• However, there could be two changes between the MDAX and SDAX index and there could be one more ADD/DEL for the SDAX index.

• The S&P 500 is approaching the 4165-4200 area; we continue to believe this will cap upside in 2023, but we also acknowledge that a move to 4300-4325 is possible
• Considering limited upside in both scenarios, we continue to recommend shifting to defensives, particularly Health Care (XLV), Utilities (RYU, XLU), Consumer Staples (XLP), and precious metals miners (GDX)
• 10-Year and 30-Year Treasury yields testing short-term resistance while the US dollar (DXY) tests support at $101-101.50.

• The events of the last few months, namely the relentless regulatory enforcement and the banking crisis have upended crypto exchange market structure.
• During a bear market, consolidation among exchanges is expected.
• However, as the SEC targets specific exchanges and leave some cutoff from USD payment rails, many exchanges have been left at a competitive disadvantage.

• As sensitive as this may be, we feel an obligation to correct misinformation on social media and put some context on a related news report about an internal MillerKnoll video town hall that leaked.
• MLKN was down ~2.5% on Tuesday, more than its peers and competitors. Misinformation may have contributed to the stock action.
• First, the misinformation: A tweet Tuesday shows CEO Andrea “Andi” Owen rallying employees.

• Following the company’s fiscal 2Q sales release, our thesis remains intact.
• We are encouraged by the improving sales trends RCI experienced in March and early April.
• Further, we see several catalysts on the horizon to provide for accelerating growth over the next 12-18 months.

• Acadia Pharmaceuticals (ACAD US) markets CNS drug Nuplazid, which is cash flow positive with increasing profitability since 2019. Acadia has guided for Nuplazid revenue of $520M–550M for 2023.
• On April 17, Acadia has launched in-licensed drug Daybue in the U.S. for the treatment of Rett syndrome in adult and pediatric patients two years of age and older.
• Nuplazid is being evaluated for negative symptoms of schizophrenia with top-line results expected in early 2024. In-house drug candidate ACP-204 is in Phase 1 trial for Alzheimer’s disease psychosis.

Context Therapeutics’ April R&D webinar included takeaways from its poster presentation on CTIM-76 preclinical data at the AACR Annual Meeting in April 2023. The presentation highlighted the development of Context’s CLDN6 program and rationale for selecting CTIM-76 (a CLDN6xCD3 targeting bispecific antibody) as its new lead candidate (following the recent discontinuation of the ONA-XR program). We remind readers that while the therapeutic benefits of targeting CLDN6 (expressed on a variety of malignant tumor cells but rarely in healthy tissue) are well recognized, development hitherto has been hampered by a lack of selectivity and off target toxicities. Preclinical data presented by Context suggest that CTIM-76 selectively binds to CLDN6 with a potentially beneficial safety profile. The latest Phase I data in solid tumors from BioNTech’s CLDN6 CAR-T asset BNT211 (33% overall response rate, ORR; n=21) highlight the potential of a CLDN6-targeting therapy and are an encouraging read-across for this asset class, including CTIM-76.

• Darden Restaurants had a strong quarter and exceeded the market expectations with respect to the top and bottom lines.
• Despite an 8% increase in hourly wages, restaurant labor was 120 basis points better than the previous year due to sales leverage.
• Since Darden used higher revenues to leverage higher inflation on utilities and higher repairs and maintenance costs, restaurant expenses were 40 basis points better than the previous year.

• Datadog had a successful Q4, with a 44% year-on-year increase in revenue, bringing it to $469 million.
• While user growth with existing customers was slower, Datadog made up for it with new logo acquisition and new product cross-sales, having their strongest new logo quarter to date.
• Datadog released their latest product, universal service monitoring, to general availability during the quarter, which greatly expanded their capabilities, bringing their total number of generally available products to 17.

• Lear had a strong quarterly performance and managed an all-around beat.
• Its sales increased by 10% to $5.4 billion, and core operating profitability rose by 67% to $265 million.
• The Lear Forward initiative also improved the company’s cash flow performance.

• Monster Beverages’ last result was a colossal disappointment as the company faced challenges meeting the increased demand for its products due to the rampant supply chain issues.
• Despite these issues, the company reported a 3.1% increase in operating income, driven by increased input costs and selling expenses.
• The company saw positive results from its Java Monster line, with increased sales and increased share in its coffee plus energy category.

• Roku struggled amidst the controversy associated with its huge exposure to SVB (nearly 26% of its total cash reserves).
• The collapse of the bank resulted in a significant level of panic among the company’s investors.
• While Q4 platform revenue exceeded its estimates and platform revenue was up 5% year over year to $731 million, inflation and macroeconomic uncertainties continue to put pressure on consumers and advertisers.

• Block’s stock has been in the news and faced a strong correction after becoming the latest target of Hindenburg.
• The report alleges that Block has overstated its genuine user counts and has understated its customer acquisition costs.
• It was damaging enough to result in a sharp correction in the company’s share price.

• Verizon is scheduled to report its quarterly results next week.
• Verizon’s share price has become oversold, according to analysts.
• The company is set to report quarterly results for the first time in two years next week, and investors should know what to expect.

• 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.

• Bristol-Myers Squibb reported another strong quarter which happened to be an all-around beat.
• The sales of Global Opdivo reflect robust demand for its newly launched and also a core indication of double-digit growth.
• Moreover, Bristol-Myers launched all nine new medicines, which include three first-in-class products.

• Colgate entered 2023 on a positive note with decent top-line momentum and delivered an all-around beat in the last result.
• The company saw good growth in organic sales in four categories which include double-digit growth in organic sales in Pet Nutrition.
• Colgate, is launching the Optic White Pro Series and its new MPS whitening technology all over the world.

• FactSet Research Systems delivered a mixed set of results for the last quarter.
• The company’s organic ASV plus professional services growth increased by 9.1% year over year, driven by solid client growth and its sales team’s effective implementation of its pricing increase in the Americas.
• We give FactSet Research Systems a ‘Hold’ rating with a revised target price.

• LianBio (LIAN US) is expected to report pivotal data from late-stage trials of its drug candidates as well as file for marketing approval for mavacamten in China in 2023.
• Lead candidate mavacamten has potential blockbuster opportunity in China. LianBio has entered into commercialization agreement with Pfizer for sisunatovir in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Singapore.
• With current cash position sufficient to fund operations through the end of 2024, LianBio is well positioned to become a commercial-stage company.

• Paychex produced strong financial results, with third-quarter total revenue growth of 8% and adjusted diluted earnings per share growth of 12%.
• It managed to deliver an all-around beat Revenue for Management Solutions climbed 7% to $1 billion because of new product attachments and auxiliary HR services.
• The continued high demand for their ERTC service accounted for about 1% of the quarter’s revenue growth.

• BioMarin gave a mixed performance in the quarter and failed to meet the revenue expectations of Wall Street despite delivering a double-digit top-line growth.
• Its total revenues for the quarter showed an increase despite the continued erosion of the KUVAN market in the US.
• Moreover, lower KUVAN product revenues are mostly because of generic competition due to the loss of market individuality in the US.

• XWELL reported 2022 results that were slightly better than preliminary results issued on March 30.
• Revenues for the quarter were $7.5 million, with $4.5 million coming from the spa business (XpresSpa and Treat), $2.6 million from the CDC program and the one remaining XpresCheck location, and $.5 million from HyperPointe.
• While 1Q is usually a slower quarter for the travel industry, we expect the company to continue to focus on improving the profitability of its spa business primarily through the closure of a few stores that don’t contribute to profitability.

• USDA on Tuesday pegged the 2022-2023 U.S. orange crop at 62.25 million boxes (2.57 million tonnes), an 86-year low and down 23% on the year.
• That is less than 20% of U.S. output in the record 1997-1998 season.
• Florida, which has previously accounted for more than 80% of the annual U.S. orange crop, is seen producing an 87-year low of 16.1 million boxes, down 61% on the year.

• Micron Technology’s results in the quarter were disastrous as the company failed to meet the revenue expectations of Wall Street and reported wider-than-expected losses.
• Total fiscal revenue was down, whereas DRAM revenue represented 74% of the total revenue.
• Revenue from the Mobile Business Unit was up and Embedded Business Unit revenue was down.

• Walgreens Boots Alliance produced a strong second quarter which happened to be an all-around beat.
• Also, this quarter served as a turning point in their transition to the healthcare industry.
• Besides that, Boots had a fantastic quarter in the international segment, achieving retail comp growth of 16% over the same period last year.

• Nike delivered another strong quarter with revenue growth across all geographies, channels, and brands.
• It had strong digital growth, fueled by increased traffic on its apps and mobile.
• In APLA, the brand momentum of Nike continues to fuel strong growth.

• Last week, the Shapella upgrade went live without a hitch, enabling millions of staked ETH to be withdrawn.
• While Ethereum’s Merge upgrade last September was more of a “buy the rumor sell the news” type of event, Shapella appears to have had the opposite impact on price.
• ETH spot prices dropped by nearly 18% post-Merge while they are up 11% since Shapella, despite fears of mass selling. 

• Chevron had a decent year in 2022, with improved financial performance, increased production of traditional energy, and progress in developing lower carbon businesses.
• The company had a mixed result in the last quarter as it surpassed the revenue expectations of Wall Street but delivered lower-than-expected earnings.
• The company generated decent free cash flows, surpassing its previous high in 2021 by over $15 billion, resulting in a strong dividend increase and a buyback of almost 4% of its shares.

• Incyte Corporation generated strong financial performance in the last quarter and managed an all-around beat.
• Revenues from the commercialized items in the company’s current portfolio increased by 18% year over year.
• We give Incyte Corporation a ‘Hold’ rating with a revised target price.

• Carnival Corporation had a decent quarter with revenues above expectations and narrower-than-expected losses.
• The company’s onboard and other revenue continued at a high pace consistent with the second half of 2022, reflecting ongoing consumer strength and the quality of its onboard product.
• It is intended to give amazing facts personalized to Carnival Cruise Line guests in order to increase revenue yields and margins.

• CarMax delivered a mixed result in the fourth quarter as it failed to meet revenue expectations of Wall Street but managed an earnings beat.
• CarMax Auto Finance generated $1.9 billion, resulting in a penetration of 44.7% net of 3-day payoffs.
• The weighted average contract rate paid to new clients was 10.9%, an increase of 110 basis points from the third quarter and 270 basis points from the same time the previous year.

• Otis entered the year with good momentum and delivered an all-around beat with improved organic growth in its last result as it continues to execute its four strategic pillars – advancing digitization, accelerating service portfolio growth, and sustaining new equipment growth while focusing on and empowering the organization.
• Strong service performance, particularly on price and volume, was partially offset by commodities in new equipment, mixed headwinds, and higher corporate costs.
• The pricing on new equipment orders in the quarter rose, led by the Americas, with a solid performance in APAC and EMEA.

• The true emerging market of our time is the digital economy.
• As technology advances, we witness rapid online business growth and an increasing reliance on digital solutions.
• This burgeoning sector knows no borders, with its educated, innovative citizens distributed worldwide.

• The fact that Tesla Korea is losing its market share significantly in Korea portends increased challenges for Tesla Motors on a global basis. 
• The number of new Tesla vehicles registered in Korea was 1,303 units in 1Q 2023, down 52% YoY. 
• In this insight, we provide three major reasons for Tesla’s market share losses in Korea. We also provide Tesla Korea’s 2022 results analysis.

• After losing nearly a third of its value, Amazon looks more attractive than a year ago.
• Investors should be mindful of recency bias when evaluating Amazon’s share price attractiveness.
• The unique business model also poses some risks that should be considered regardless of one’s investment horizon.

• This is our first report on Prudential, a major provider of life and health insurance.
• Prudential had a very strong quarter with 19% sales growth.
• Despite slower revenue recognition in the life insurance market, the company has been witnessing strong cash flows and returned over $800 million to shareholders in the latest quarter.

• IBM has delivered a positive return of nearly 20% over the past two years, but that has little to do with actual business performance.
• In addition to sluggish growth, IBM’s declining profitability remains a problem.Issues related to the company’s high debt load, low dividend coverage and an addiction to acquisitions have not gone away.

• Being an IBM (NYSE:IBM) shareholder hasn’t been easy over the years as the market continues to make new highs, while IBM still trades at levels from 2010.

• This is our first report on a major LTL shipping company, Old Dominion Freight Line.
• As a result, the company delivered double-digit growth in earnings per diluted share in the fourth quarter.
• Besides that, the productive labor expenses as a percentage of revenue decreased by 170 basis points within their direct operating costs, while their purchase transportation costs decreased by 200 basis points.

• Charles Schwab is due to release its first-quarter 2023 earnings report on Monday.
• The firm’s sell-side trading activities remain in decline.
• The company’s elevated price-to-book multiple is a severe concern as slowing growth, a goodwill build-up, and recent impairment losses provide structural problems.

• This is our first report on West Pharmaceutical Services, a major manufacturer of injectable medication delivery and packaging systems.
• West Pharmaceutical reported an all-around beat in its last result and generated about 8% growth in organic sales overall.
• With COVID-19 excluded, West anticipates that its base organic sales growth was in the low double digits, with proprietary product growth in the mid-teens.

• This is our first report on Dover Corporation, a multifaceted international manufacturer offering cutting-edge machinery and parts, consumables, aftermarket components, software and digital solutions, and support services.
• The company’s last result was an all-around beat resulting from a good execution by the management and better price dynamics.
• Demand for services, consumables, and pricing decisions helped the quarter be profitable.

• While the market has aggressively moved the US rates and the rate expectations lower, the European rates are pricing in higher for longer, with a rate hike possibility still on the cards.
• In the current market environment, the Dollar crosses are driven by rate differential and sentiment rather than growth differential and geopolitical risk of the Ukraine war.
• The Cross rate and the 13-day RSI are overlaid with two standard deviations Bollinger Bands to plot the mean reversion boundaries.

• It’s a truism within the industry that crypto is not an effective tool for crime.
• Yes, it’s possible to send value without an intermediary, but all transactions leave a permanent trace that can become more visible over time as tracking tools improve.
• It’s even possible to track funds that move through Tornado Cash – a protocol built specifically to enhance privacy by obfuscating token flows. 

• Project Dorothy interconnection now complete and ready for energization.
• Soluna announced that it has completed the final interconnection construction, setting up for the energization of the first 25 MW phase of the project, which will soon be followed by the 25 MW phase (Dorothy 1B).
• The final energization requests have been submitted to ERCOT (the grid operator) and we expect the project to be energized in the coming weeks.