Daily Brief Financials: Bank Of Baroda, KE Holdings , Yanlord Land, Teton Advisors, Defi Technologies , Ascot Corp, Arbitrum and more

• Our positive focus remains on smaller cap Indian banks, with buys on value plays Bandhan, Baroda and UBI; we are negative on richly valued ICICI Bank and Kotak Mahindra
• UBI shares have been poor performers, but its returns to 1QFYE25 have improved and it is a value stand-out; Baroda remains a favourite and Bandhan has delivered better profitability 
• Kotak Mahindra is the peer group’s highest return bank post credit costs, but returns are declining; ICICI also has attractive returns but we believe its credit costs are unsustainably low

• KE Holdings (BEKE) reported C2Q24 revenue 12%/9% higher than our estimates/consensus, and non-GAAP NI 19%/49% higher than our estimates/consensus, due to market share gain and take rate hike.
• We particularly like its business scalability, as its agent efficiency kept stable despite growing connected agents.
• We maintain the stock as BUY rating and raise TP to US$24 to reflect the better growth outlook from market share gains.

Yanlord Land’s H1/24 results were acceptable in our view. The company reported robust top-line growth, albeit margins weakened amid the difficult operating environment. Positively, Yanlord continued to reduce debt and maintain stable leverage. In addition, the company has successfully refinanced its borrowings using cheaper onshore secured debt, which has helped to improve interest costs.

That said, Yanlord’s headroom to raise future secured debt has been reduced, as the bulk of its investment properties has already been pledged. Still, the company might be able to upsize its existing secured loans with higher LTV, or issue loans backed against new assets. Meanwhile, Yanlord continues to face sales pressure and a shrinking land bank in the absence of new land acquisitions.

• Majority owned by Mario Gabelli, public small cap value asset manager
• Market cap primarily cash, trading at depressed earnings
• Potential “free option” on small/microcap rebound or merger with GAMCO, stable AUM, earned $1.00 in cash earnings in 2023

This content is sourced through publicly available sources and has been machine generated. Information displayed is for general informational purposes only. This article was originally published 3 months ago on Value Investors Club.

• Key 2Q24 takeaways include: 1) DeFi Alpha’s proprietary trading desk is increasingly adding another powerful driver to the company’s differentiated revenue model
• 2) the pending acquisition of Stillman Digital further augments and diversifies DEFTF’s customer base and revenue opportunities
• 3) management recently adopted cryptocurrencies as the company’s primary treasury reserve asset to mitigate the effects of inflation and generate higher yields on excess liquidity

• Revenue increased to JPY15.1bn (+26.8% YoY), operating profit to JPY2.4bn (+95.6% YoY), and recurring profit to JPY1.3bn (+119.0% YoY).
• As of end-Q3 FY09/24, progress versus full-year forecast: revenue 50.4%, operating profit 80.4%, recurring profit 84.4%, net income 63.9%.
• Real estate for sale increased to JPY37.1bn (+JPY11.7bn from end-FY09/23), and total assets increased to JPY85.5bn (+JPY17.7bn).

• In recent years, we have seen a surge in new crypto projects launching with billion-dollar market capitalizations right from the start.
• This trend includes projects like Aptos, Sui, Celestia, and others.
• If you examine the top 100 cryptocurrencies, it is evident that the list increasingly comprises recently launched, highly hyped cryptocurrencies that boast valuations that would make many Nasdaq-listed companies envious.