Daily Brief United States: Bitcoin, Goldman Sachs Group, Netflix Inc, Ford Motor Co, Ipg Photonics, Metlife Inc, Pan American Silver, Transdigm Group, United Parcel Service Cl B, HEICO Corp and more

• In six years, stablecoins have grown from making up just 1.5% of BTC trade volume relative to fiat currencies such as the Dollar or Euro, to more than 87%.
• This has been matched with an explosion in market capitalization for the three largest centralized stablecoins: Tether (USDT), USD Coin (USDC), and Binance USD (BUSD).
• The three had a combined market cap of $10bn in May 2020, the start of DeFi Summer.

• Goldman Sachs’ business model is not aligned to benefit from an elevated interest rate environment.
• The bank’s trading segment could pivot, but Goldman’s investment banking prospects remain gloomy.
• The firm’s stock presents reasonable valuation and dividend metrics, but they might not be enough to convince investors, analysts say.

• Netflix is now up 50% from its lows on hope that advertising and paid sharing drive a revenue reacceleration and multiple rerating. Part B has happened.
• Advertising uptake will be slow. But consensus has 55M incremental ad-subs (20% of the total) and $8B in revenue assumed in 2025! 
• Netflix intends on keeping content spending flat for the next few years, raising the importance of its hit rate – which has not been Netflix’s forte.

• Softening macroeconomic circumstances in the Eurozone and cooling inflation in the U.S. could reignite demand.
• China’s reopening might smooth supply chains.
• Ford Motor Company’s EU market share is expanding, and its product-driven approach has sustained customer loyalty in North America.

• IPG Photonics delivered a mixed result in the last quarter, as it failed to meet Wall Street expectations in terms of revenues but managed an earnings beat.
• Sales in high-power cutting applications suffered from a decline in general industrial demand in China and Europe.
• As this business required extra investment and was noncore to IPG, the management announced they would sell it to Lumentum.

• This is our first report on insurance behemoth, MetLife.
• The company’s business has been negatively impacted by various macroeconomic trends such as the equity market falling, the interest rate rise, and the rising probability of a recession.
• However, MetLife continued to execute its Next Horizon Strategy which helps show some resilience in uncertainty.

Pan American Silver (PAAS) has reported preliminary operational results for FY22. Consolidated silver and gold production of 18.5Moz and 552.5koz were within the earlier guidance ranges (previously revised for silver). PAAS continues to progress its recently announced plan of arrangement to buy all non-Canadian assets of Yamana Gold. Shareholder votes for both companies are scheduled for 31 January, while the leading proxy advisors ISS and Glass Lewis have recommended PAAS shareholders to vote in favor of the proposed share issue to acquire all outstanding Yamana shares. We put our forecasts and valuation of PAAS under review pending upcoming shareholder approvals of the deal, which we believe could be an important catalyst for the stock.

• TransDigm managed to deliver yet another all-around beat in the recent result.
• Their value generation process heavily relies on their capital structure and allocations and has worked well in the post Covid environment.
• Baptista Research looks to evaluate the different factors that could influence the company’s price in the near future and attempts to carry out an independent valuation of the company using a Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) methodology.

• Despite the world economy slowing down in the third quarter, particularly outside the U.S., UPS managed an all-around beat.
• The execution of their customer-first, people-led, innovation-driven strategy has fundamentally improved many parts of their business, resulting in stronger operating margins.
• In addition, they finished the first phase of their smart package, smart facility implementation, enabling RFID label technology in 101 buildings.

• Heico had another successful quarter and managed an all-around beat driven by record performance within the Flight Support Group.
• The Flight Support Group’s operating income and net sales have increased sequentially.
• Heico’s ETG Group finalized the acquisition of TRAD Tests & Radiations, a pioneer in the extremely specialized field of radiation engineering.