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.

Credit

<ul><li>Visa and Mastercard have agreed to a landmark settlement that could end a decades-long legal standoff with U.S. merchants over credit card processing fees.</li><li>Filed in the Eastern District Court of New York, the settlement would cut interchange fees—typically between 2% and 2.5%—by 0.1 percentage points for five years and allow merchants more freedom in rejecting high-fee rewards cards.</li><li>If approved by the court, the settlement would end litigation dating back to 2005, resolving antitrust claims from merchants about the networks' "honor-all-cards" rules and alleged anti-competitive practices.</li></ul>

Visa and Mastercard have agreed to a landmark settlement that could end a decades-long legal standoff with U.S. merchants over credit card processing fees.Filed in the Eastern District Court of New York, the settlement would cut interchange fees—typically between 2% and 2.5%—by 0.1 percentage points for five years and allow merchants more freedom in rejecting high-fee rewards cards.If approved by the court, the settlement would end litigation dating back to 2005, resolving antitrust claims from merchants about the networks' "honor-all-cards" rules and alleged anti-competitive practices.

Visa’s Fee Shake-Up Could Crush Credit Card Points Programs; What's The Impact?

Equity Bottom-Up

<ul><li>Visa Inc. reported strong financial performance for its fiscal fourth quarter and full year 2025, illustrating a robust growth trajectory across its various business segments.</li><li>The company announced a 12% year-over-year increase in net revenue for the fourth quarter, reaching $10.7 billion, and an EPS growth of 10%.</li><li>Full-year net revenue rose by 11% with a parallel EPS increase of 14%, underlining Visa's effective management and operational strategies.</li></ul>

Visa Inc. reported strong financial performance for its fiscal fourth quarter and full year 2025, illustrating a robust growth trajectory across its various business segments.The company announced a 12% year-over-year increase in net revenue for the fourth quarter, reaching $10.7 billion, and an EPS growth of 10%.Full-year net revenue rose by 11% with a parallel EPS increase of 14%, underlining Visa's effective management and operational strategies.

Visa Inc. Takes on Stablecoins: Is This the Future of Cross-Border Payments?

Asset Allocation & Fund Positioning, Copley Fund Research

Steven Holden

Asset Allocation & Fund Positioning

Copley Fund Research

Copley Fund Research provide research and data on asset allocation among Global and Emerging Market equity funds.  The analysis details absolute and relative positioning across countries, sectors and industries together with highly granular data on single stock and single fund allocations.  The data is updated monthly with time series going back to January 2011.

Global Research - Analysis of 165 prominent Global equity funds, combined AUM $335bn
GEM Research - Analysis of 127 prominent global EM equity funds, combined AUM $250bn

Asset Allocation - Global and GEM Equity

Cross Asset Strategy

<ul>
<li>Technology dominates global active portfolios, with 8 of the 11 most widely held stocks coming from the sector.</li>
<li>TSMC hits record ownership at 65.7% of funds, becoming the second most widely held stock globally.</li>
<li>Broadcom, Tencent and Alibaba see rising adoption, while Novo Nordisk and UnitedHealth face sharp ownership declines.</li>
</ul>


Technology dominates global active portfolios, with 8 of the 11 most widely held stocks coming from the sector.
TSMC hits record ownership at 65.7% of funds, becoming the second most widely held stock globally.
Broadcom, Tencent and Alibaba see rising adoption, while Novo Nordisk and UnitedHealth face sharp ownership declines.


Global Stock Positioning: Tech Dominance, China Rotation, and Record TSMC Ownership

Financials & FinTech research, Galliano’s Financials Research

Victor Galliano

Financials & FinTech research

Financials & FinTech, EM & Developed Markets

Galliano’s Financials Research

Galliano's Financials Research provides fundamental research in Emerging Markets financials, including FinTech, as well as financials in select Developed Markets.

The investment style applied is generally value oriented, although Growth At Reasonable Price (GARP) strategies can also be used where appropriate. 

Our investment research approach aim is often contrarian, looking to capitalise on overly sceptical or optimistic consensus views. In terms of valuation techniques, the focus is on PBV ratio to ROE, PE multiples and dividend yield, as well as the application of PEG ratios and, where appropriate, Sum of the Parts (SOTP) valuations.

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

<ul>
<li>We update Klarna’s pre-IPO valuation based on recent private share transactions and that of Stripe; Indian payments company Pine Labs is reputedly looking for an IPO valuation of USD6bn</li>
<li>Our 2H24 recommended shares performance was suboptimal; only two of our four longs delivered gains, and our short’s share price was strong in the “risk on” investor climate</li>
<li>We downgrade Shift4 to neutral, keeping PagSeguro as our core value pick along with European value play Nexi and US megacap Visa; we keep our sell rating on Affirm</li>
</ul>


We update Klarna’s pre-IPO valuation based on recent private share transactions and that of Stripe; Indian payments company Pine Labs is reputedly looking for an IPO valuation of USD6bn
Our 2H24 recommended shares performance was suboptimal; only two of our four longs delivered gains, and our short’s share price was strong in the “risk on” investor climate
We downgrade Shift4 to neutral, keeping PagSeguro as our core value pick along with European value play Nexi and US megacap Visa; we keep our sell rating on Affirm


Payment Companies – Key Picks and Potential IPOs in Focus

<ul>
<li>AI boom reflected in record fund ownership in ASML Holding NV (ASML NA), NVIDIA Corp and Taiwan Semiconductor (TSMC) (2330 TT).</li>
<li>The 'Magnificent 7' group of stocks have hit a record underweight of -6.83% below the MSCI ACWI index.  They collectively account for 11.2% of the average Global fund.</li>
<li>Recovery Stocks: The old guard of At&amp;T Inc (T US), International Business Machines (IBM US) and General Electric (GE US) appear to be gathering some support from active Global funds.</li>
</ul>


AI boom reflected in record fund ownership in ASML Holding NV (ASML NA), NVIDIA Corp and Taiwan Semiconductor (TSMC) (2330 TT).
The 'Magnificent 7' group of stocks have hit a record underweight of -6.83% below the MSCI ACWI index.  They collectively account for 11.2% of the average Global fund.
Recovery Stocks: The old guard of At&amp;T Inc (T US), International Business Machines (IBM US) and General Electric (GE US) appear to be gathering some support from active Global funds.


Global Stock Positioning:  MSFT Dominates, Mag7 Record U/W, Apple Inflows, Tobacco Uninvestable?

United States

Visa Inc. operates a retail electronic payments network and manages global financial services.  The Company also offers global commerce through the transfer of value and information among financial institutions, merchants, consumers, businesses and government entities.

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Visa (V US)

Visa’s Fee Shake-Up Could Crush Credit Card Points Programs; What's The Impact?

Visa and Mastercard have agreed to a landmark settlement that could end a decades-long legal standoff with U.S. merchants over credit card...

Baptista Research

Visa Inc. Takes on Stablecoins: Is This the Future of Cross-Border Payments?

Visa Inc. reported strong financial performance for its fiscal fourth quarter and full year 2025, illustrating a robust growth trajectory across...

Baptista Research

Global Stock Positioning: Tech Dominance, China Rotation, and Record TSMC Ownership

Technology continues to anchor global active portfolios, with TSMC at record ownership. Rotation persists across regions as managers selectively...

Steven Holden

Payment Companies – Key Picks and Potential IPOs in Focus

PagSeguro is our core value pick, Nexi and Visa are also buys, Affirm still rated a sell, Shift4 is now neutral. Updated Klarna and Stripe pre-IPO...

Victor Galliano

Global Stock Positioning: MSFT Dominates, Mag7 Record U/W, Apple Inflows, Tobacco Uninvestable?

The latest in stock-level investor positioning among over 300 active Global funds. We explore the AI boom, key over/underweights, Tobacco's...

Steven Holden

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52-week Range

Market Cap (USDm)

P/E

Dividend (Yield)

Visa’s Fee Shake-Up Could Crush Credit Card Points Programs; What's The Impact?

Visa and Mastercard have agreed to a landmark settlement that could end a decades-long legal standoff with U.S. merchants over credit card...

Baptista Research

Visa Inc. Takes on Stablecoins: Is This the Future of Cross-Border Payments?

Visa Inc. reported strong financial performance for its fiscal fourth quarter and full year 2025, illustrating a robust growth trajectory across...

Baptista Research

Global Stock Positioning: Tech Dominance, China Rotation, and Record TSMC Ownership

Technology continues to anchor global active portfolios, with TSMC at record ownership. Rotation persists across regions as managers selectively...

Steven Holden

Payment Companies – Key Picks and Potential IPOs in Focus

PagSeguro is our core value pick, Nexi and Visa are also buys, Affirm still rated a sell, Shift4 is now neutral. ​Updated Klarna and Stripe pre-IPO...

Victor Galliano

Global Stock Positioning: MSFT Dominates, Mag7 Record U/W, Apple Inflows, Tobacco Uninvestable?

The latest in stock-level investor positioning among over 300 active Global funds. We explore the AI boom, key over/underweights, Tobacco's...

Steven Holden

PagSeguro is our core value pick, Nexi and Visa are also buys, Affirm still rated a sell, Shift4 is now neutral. Updated Klarna and Stripe pre-IPO...