Daily Brief Equity Bottom-Up: AMD. It’s A Marathon and more

• Q124 revenues of $5.5 billion, $100 million above the guided midpoint, down 11% QoQ but up 2% YoY.
• Looking ahead, AMD forecasted the current quarter revenues of $5.7 billion, up 3.6% sequentially.
• Share price down 7% in AH and down 35% from its recent 52 week high. We could see it retest the $100 level in the coming months

• Now that Meta, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Amazon all reported their quarters, we now have better context to how their quarters went.
• So, while I will mostly discuss Amazon’s earnings in this update, I will briefly touch on some broader themes as well.
• Overall revenue was slightly below the high end of Amazon’s guidance.

• Peptidream Inc (4587 JP) has obtained first-in-human imaging studies approval for its first in-house peptide radiopharmaceutical therapeutic program, PD-32766 targeting patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma.
• Novartis (NOVN SW) has expanded peptide discovery collaboration with Peptidream. The expanded partnership could bring up to $2.7B in milestone payments plus royalties to Peptidream.
• In 2023, Peptidream reported revenue of ¥29B, up 7% YoY, with radiopharmaceutical revenue growing 40% YoY to ¥16B. For 2024, the company guided for revenue of ¥35B, up 22% YoY.  

• Spectur Limited (ASX:SP3) is a surveillance technology company providing security, safety, environmental monitoring and visual AI solutions to watch and act on assets managed by its platform.
• The company develops, manufactures and sells solar- and battery-powered, remotely-connected hardware, which is driven by SP3’s firmware, software, cloud and web-apps, providing data and solutions to its customers.
• Spectur has reported a 35% increase in Q3 sales revenue to $1.261m on the previous corresponding period (pcp) (ASX release 26 April).

• TRS reported first quarter results confirming a turnaround in the packaging segment could be underway
• Packaging is TRS’s largest business segment and had undergone a restructuring last year. The increase in sales has done little to impress investors
• TRS reported first quarter sales of $227.1 million compared to our estimate of $216.2 million. The biggest driver for the outperformance was the packaging segment

• We are reiterating our Buy rating, projections and price target for a.k.a. Brands with the company announcing 1Q24 (March) results after the close on Wednesday.
• We believe 1Q will be another period of rebuilding momentum and credibility, with the cleanup continuing at Culture Kings, Princess Polly adding new retail stores to the mix and rolling out new categories to become even more of a lifestyle brand and Petal & Pup leveraging new digital marketplace relationships and continued dress-driven expansion.
• Further, we believe management remains laser focused on reducing both inventory exposure and net debt.

• Sai Gon Cargo Service (SCS VN) reported revenues/profits up 31%/30% YoY. Net cash on the balance sheet ended the quarter at 15% of market capitalization (approximately 300 mn USD). 
• Catalysts we cited in our insight Sai Gon Cargo Services (SCS VN) Update: Price Hikes, Strong Q1 2024 Operational Numbers are playing out, resulting in earnings upside in the future.
• Trading at 12.5x FY24 PE and 6.8% dividend yield, this is an excellent micro-cap worth exploring for exposure to the Vietnam market. 

Esker reported FY23 results in line with our expectations. Revenue grew 12% (14% constant currency) while inflationary effects and sales commissions on bookings outperformance in H223 resulted in operating profit declining 16% y-o-y. The high level of contracts signed towards the end of FY23 provide good support for revenue growth in FY24 and FY25 and measures taken by management to improve productivity should drive margin expansion over our forecast period back into the company’s target range of 12–15%.

• • The work-over programme has started with the first two work-overs having added a total of ~40 bbl/d.
• The third work-over was not completed as damaged equipment was encountered downhole.
• • The second tranche of work-overs will start in May.

MotorK’s FY23 revenue growth was robust across most regions, with slow growth regions gaining momentum. Q124 revenue fell slightly year-on-year due to delayed delivery contracts, but these are expected to contribute to Q2 sales. Revenue quality improved, with software-as-a-service (SaaS) recurring revenue rising as a share of group revenue in FY23. M&A continues to play a pivotal role in unlocking opportunities across MotorK’s markets, providing potential average contract value (ACV) expansion from customers migrating to the platform. While personnel investments for growth swung EBITDA to a loss, MotorK’s holistic SparK platform remains well-positioned to capitalise on the automotive industry’s digital shift and technological innovation.