Independent research on the U.S. markets, Baptista Research

Baptista Research

Independent research on the U.S. markets

Baptista Research is an independent financial research house focused on the U.S. markets. We provide equity research as well as credit research reports on the top-listed U.S. companies with most of our focus on technology, consumer goods and services, automobiles, industrials, oil and gas, pharma, and healthcare. Our research has served more than 3000 institutional investors including mutual funds, hedge funds, banks, family offices, and various buy-side firms. We operate a research subscription service where institutions, as well as retail investors, can have priority access to all our research. We also have a wide distribution of our research reports across some of the top global financial platforms. Apart from equity research and credit research, we also provide advisory services with respect to mergers & acquisitions (M&A), private equity/ venture capital fundraising, valuation reports, and investment management services for corporates.
Baptista Research is owned and managed by Ishan Majumdar, an ex-Venture Capitalist/ Investment Banker, a Chartered Accountant, and a Masters’ degree holder in Management from HEC Paris. Ishan has nearly a decade of experience in Mergers and Acquisitions, Leveraged Buyouts (LBOs), Venture Capital Investing, Corporate Strategy, and Valuation in front-office roles at the likes of BNP Paribas CIB, Credit Agricole CIB, Groupe Danone, and TIW Private Equity. He has worked on and closed multiple acquisition deals, leveraged buyouts, and start-up investment transactions.

Equity Bottom-Up

<ul><li>Darden Restaurants, Inc. delivered mixed results for the previous quarter, with revenues below the analyst consensus.</li><li>Throughout the quarter, 17 new restaurants were opened, contributing to 27 restaurants across 16 states year-to-date.</li><li>Looking ahead, Darden is intentional about operational changes, ceasing third-party delivery, reducing lunch operations, and closing most restaurants on Christmas Day.</li></ul>

Darden Restaurants, Inc. delivered mixed results for the previous quarter, with revenues below the analyst consensus.Throughout the quarter, 17 new restaurants were opened, contributing to 27 restaurants across 16 states year-to-date.Looking ahead, Darden is intentional about operational changes, ceasing third-party delivery, reducing lunch operations, and closing most restaurants on Christmas Day.

Darden Restaurants Inc.: What's On The Menu For 2024? - Major Drivers

<ul><li>Darden Restaurants, Inc. delivered a mixed set of results in its most recent results, with revenues falling short of Wall Street expectations but above-par earnings.</li><li>This growth highlights the company's ability to drive profitable sales through a solid business model and unwavering strategy.</li><li>To fortify its brands, Darden Restaurants highlights its unique qualities through marketing initiatives that elevate brand equity, prioritize simplicity in execution, and maintain profitability.</li></ul>

Darden Restaurants, Inc. delivered a mixed set of results in its most recent results, with revenues falling short of Wall Street expectations but above-par earnings.This growth highlights the company's ability to drive profitable sales through a solid business model and unwavering strategy.To fortify its brands, Darden Restaurants highlights its unique qualities through marketing initiatives that elevate brand equity, prioritize simplicity in execution, and maintain profitability.

Darden Restaurants Inc.: Exploring Their Innovative Approach to Boosting Brand Equity! - Major Drivers

Technical Analyst, Vermilion Research

Joe Jasper

Technical Analyst

Technical and Quantitative Research

Vermilion Research

Vermilion’s objective is to deliver timely, actionable, and unique technical research to professional investors through the application of our various technical indicators.

Our research strategists seek to highlight securities which we believe are at major inflection points, based on our various technical and quantitative indicators, and offer asymmetric risk/return profiles. Our unique research methodology, centered on relative strength, enables our strategists to deliver superior investment recommendations.

Our process begins by organizing the universe of actively traded stocks into discrete sectors, then into industry groups. We then apply our technical and quantitative tools to identify developing price trends. Once attractive trends are identified within a selected sector or group, we screen for individual stocks which we believe offer the best risk/reward profile. We provide a historical perspective that often reveals, through our long-term charts, how price patterns often repeat themselves over time.

Technical Analysis

<ul>
<li>More restrictive Fed policy than expected is disproportionately hitting small/mid-caps which are more sensitive to higher interest rates. This suggests we could see further consolidation for small- and mid-caps.</li>
<li>Large-Caps (SPX, Nasdaq 100, DJI) remain bullish on continued strength from mega-caps (AMZN, META, NVDA,MSFT). Our bullish outlook remains appropriate, but we discuss what would lead us to get cautious.</li>
<li>1-, 2-, and 10-year Treasury yields testing resistance today and failing. U.S. dollar (DXY) also testing key resistance at $104.60. We also push back on the bad breadth argument (again).</li>
</ul>


More restrictive Fed policy than expected is disproportionately hitting small/mid-caps which are more sensitive to higher interest rates. This suggests we could see further consolidation for small- and mid-caps.
Large-Caps (SPX, Nasdaq 100, DJI) remain bullish on continued strength from mega-caps (AMZN, META, NVDA,MSFT). Our bullish outlook remains appropriate, but we discuss what would lead us to get cautious.
1-, 2-, and 10-year Treasury yields testing resistance today and failing. U.S. dollar (DXY) also testing key resistance at $104.60. We also push back on the bad breadth argument (again).


Monitoring Rising Treasury Yields & U.S. Dollar (DXY); What Would Lead Us to Get Cautious?

High Quality Stock Setups, Weekly Stock Bull Finder

Weekly Stock Bull Finder

High Quality Stock Setups

Finding high potential stock setups on quality companies

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

<ul><li>The exercise of catching bottoms and averaging down versus cutting losers and admitting you were wrong can and often is a painful lessons every investor goes through during points in their investing journey.</li><li>While scanning and examining companies and charts that are participating in strong uptrends is a worthwhile exercise, an equally important exercise is looking for companies which are currently in cycle downtrends but have strong underlying fundamentals which may not be presented reflected in today’s price.</li><li>In effect, they have been “thrown out with the bathwater” and are now potentially mispriced based upon their current and future underlying fundamentals.</li></ul>

The exercise of catching bottoms and averaging down versus cutting losers and admitting you were wrong can and often is a painful lessons every investor goes through during points in their investing journey.While scanning and examining companies and charts that are participating in strong uptrends is a worthwhile exercise, an equally important exercise is looking for companies which are currently in cycle downtrends but have strong underlying fundamentals which may not be presented reflected in today’s price.In effect, they have been “thrown out with the bathwater” and are now potentially mispriced based upon their current and future underlying fundamentals.

<ul><li>Darden Restaurants had a strong quarter and exceeded the market expectations with respect to the top and bottom lines.</li><li>Despite an 8% increase in hourly wages, restaurant labor was 120 basis points better than the previous year due to sales leverage.</li><li>Since Darden used higher revenues to leverage higher inflation on utilities and higher repairs and maintenance costs, restaurant expenses were 40 basis points better than the previous year.</li></ul>

Darden Restaurants had a strong quarter and exceeded the market expectations with respect to the top and bottom lines.Despite an 8% increase in hourly wages, restaurant labor was 120 basis points better than the previous year due to sales leverage.Since Darden used higher revenues to leverage higher inflation on utilities and higher repairs and maintenance costs, restaurant expenses were 40 basis points better than the previous year.

United States

Darden Restaurants, Inc. owns and operates full service restaurants. The Company operates a variety of seafood and Italian restaurants under a multitude of brand names. Darden Restaurants owns restaurants through North America.

Darden Restaurants (DRI US)

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