Daily Brief United States: Apple , Tesla , OpenAI, National Cinemedia, Natural Gas, NET Lease Office Properties, elf Beauty Inc, Cna Financial, Cincinnati Financial, Kinsale Capital Group and more

• The Technology Select Sector SPDR (XLK US) ETF tracks the Technology Select Sector Index and has an AUM of over US$70bn.
• NVIDIA Corp (NVDA US) has broken through the US$3tn market cap barrier and is very close to Apple (AAPL US) in terms of free float market cap.
• If NVIDIA ranks higher than Apple on free float market cap at the close on Friday, there could be huge inflows to NVIDIA and outflows from Apple a week later.

• Crucial Vote: Shareholders are voting on Musk’s $56 billion compensation deal and Tesla’s reincorporation in Texas, pivotal decisions for the company’s direction.
• High Stakes: The outcome will determine Musk’s commitment to Tesla, potentially shifting his focus to other ventures and impacting Tesla’s operations.
• Institutional Opposition: Significant resistance from institutional investors and logistical issues for global shareholders create uncertainty. Abstaining from voting counts as a vote against, hindering Elon-supporting retail investors.

• Last night Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported that in exchange for OpenAI’s position in MacOS, IOS, and iPadOS, Apple would pay OpenAI nothing. 
• To level set, earlier this week, Apple unveiled their implementation of artificial intelligence, branded “Apple Intelligence”.
• Apple Intelligence separates itself from Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT by identifying and addressing user queries that contain personal information, but for capabilities it isn’t capable of performing, asking for user permission, and outsourcing the request to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, anonymously. 

• NCMI is a post-reorg equity with a leading market share in cinema advertising niche
• Benefiting from a rebound in US cinema attendance, NCMI has a strong return profile and attractive forward unlevered FCF yield
• Despite facing financial challenges in 2020, NCMI is in a solid financial position with a net cash balance and updated Board of Directors, poised for growth and success with its largest digital cinema advertising network in the US

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.

• The EIA expects US natural gas production to fall by 1% in 2024 and lifted LNG price forecast for Henry Hub benchmark by 13% for the year.
• OPEC’s 2024 global oil demand growth forecast unchanged at 2.25m bpd. But IEA lowered its projection to 960k bpd from 1.1m bpd.
• Russia, Iraq, & Kazakhstan continued to oversupply despite lowering production MoM in May.

• NLOP announced the sale of two more properties bringing the aggregate count of properties sold since fourth quarter 2023 to twelve.   
• NLOP has been highly active in selling properties. We believe the motivation has more to do with the interest expense of its mortgage and mezzanine loans.   
• The latest two properties sold were materially higher than the company-wide price per square foot NLOP is carrying on its balance sheet.

• We are reiterating our Buy rating, $0.25 price target and projections for Starco Brands after meeting with management in their Los Angeles headquarters.
• With 2024 shaping up as a period of setting the stage for material growth in all the company’s brands, we believe management is confident they are making the correct investments to drive multiple periods of top and bottom line upside, with the correct retail partners and product upgrades and expansions.
• As such, we look for the company to continue to put the pieces in place in 2024 to achieve highly significant door expansion and new category growth going forward, positioning Starco for material gains.

• CNA Financial Corporation reported its first quarter 2024 results, showing positive dynamics in profitability, investment income, and top-line growth.
• The company achieved its highest first-quarter core income on record at $355 million, driven by a significant $84 million year-over-year increase in net investment income to $609 million.
• These results were bolstered by contributions from both the alternatives and the fixed income portfolios.

• Cincinnati Financial Corporation reported strong financial results for the first quarter of 2024, highlighting significant progress in underwriting profitability and growth in investment income.
• The net income reported was $755 million, which included a substantial gain of $484 million attributed to the increase in the fair value of equity securities.
• The non-GAAP operating income also showed a positive trend, nearly doubling from the previous year to $272 million, thanks to a reduction in catastrophe losses and robust operating performance.

• Kinsale Capital Group Inc. recently reported strong quarterly results, demonstrating robust growth and operational efficiency.
• The company’s operating earnings per share increased by 43.4%, and gross written premiums grew by 25.5% compared to the same quarter in the previous year.
• Kinsale’s combined ratio, an indicator of the profitability of its insurance operations, stood at an impressive 79.5%, highlighting an effective underwriting performance.