Daily Brief United States: SIGA Technologies, Wheaton Precious Metals, Dish Network Corp A, Meta Materials, Newmont Mining, Westrock Co and more

SIGA’s FY22 results highlighted underlying revenue diversification and clinical progression during the year. Results were broadly in line with our expectations. Growth was driven by the material uptick in international orders due to the mpox (monkeypox) outbreak ($71m of $77m orders delivered in FY22), supported by orders from the US Department of Defense (DoD) and BARDA for IV TPOXX. Consistent with prior periods, variability in replenishment of government stockpiles is a key consideration in reported revenues and margins. For FY23 and FY24 we estimate replenishment of government stockpiles will continue to remain a pillar, driven by BARDA deliveries for oral ($225m in total over FY23 and FY24 for expiry replenishment) and IV TPOXX. SIGA remains well-capitalized, with net cash of $98.8m at FY22. We adjust our estimates for the Q422 results and near-term operational visibility (introducing a slower international sales ramp-up) resulting in our valuation adjusting to $17.70/share (from $19.64).

Wheaton Precious Metals (WPM) released its Q422/FY22 financial results in the context of known production and sales volumes. As a result, financial results were very close to our prior expectations for both Q422 and FY22. The main (positive) variances were in depletion (US$3.3m) and ‘other’ income (US$1.9m), to result in net earnings that were US$5.0m better than our prior forecasts for both periods (equating to a positive percentage variance of 5.1% for the quarter and 1.0% for the full year).

• This is our first report on DISH Network Corporation, a leading provider of television entertainment and technology.
• DISH’s wireless and broadband networks, as well as DISH and Sling services, are still up and running and functioning regularly.
• DISH Network further launched Samsung-supported sites for the DISH Wireless 5G network, kicking off Samsung’s participation in the operator’s nationwide rollout.

• NPORE shown to be an ideal separator solution for both typical and high-temperature applications. 
• In a recently published white paper, the advantages of NPORE were validated through long-term discharge-rate and cycling testing by Japanese developer iElectrolyte Co., Ltd. using an ionic liquid-based lithium-ion battery (designed for extreme temperature applications).
• NPORE provides outstanding heat resistance compared with conventional polymer separators, which show significant shrinkage at elevated temperatures due to the melting of the polymer (see Figure 1).

Newmont’s Q4/FY22 results, released on 23 February, exhibited stronger production than we had anticipated, albeit accompanied by costs that failed to decline as much as we had hoped. Nevertheless, both production and costs for the full year met the company’s guidance to within its usual tolerance range of ±5%. In addition to its Q4/FY22 results, Newmont also provided updated medium-term guidance for production, costs and capex to FY27 to reflect recent inflationary pressures within the industry, and this note updates both our forecasts and valuation to reflect the company’s updated guidance. In the meantime, Newmont’s potential merger with Newcrest clearly remains alive, with the potential to transform the company if it is successfully brought to fruition.

• This is our first report on WestRock Company, one of the largest providers of fiber-based paper and packaging solutions in the world.
• Pension and foreign exchange rates also had a $57 million negative impact on its year-over-year consolidated adjusted EBITDA growth.
• But Corrugated Packaging improved quarter over quarter, with North American packaging shipments increasing 2% to 373 million square feet per day.