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>This is our first report on software player, ACI Worldwide Inc. The company delivered a solid earnings performance for the fourth quarter and full year ended 2023.</li><li>The company witnessed a strong acceleration in growth, with a revenue growth of 9% and an EBITDA growth of 32% in its Biller segment.</li><li>The company also demonstrated growth in its banking segment, with revenue growth of 35% and 24% in its anti-fraud and real-time payment solutions respectively.</li></ul>

This is our first report on software player, ACI Worldwide Inc. The company delivered a solid earnings performance for the fourth quarter and full year ended 2023.The company witnessed a strong acceleration in growth, with a revenue growth of 9% and an EBITDA growth of 32% in its Biller segment.The company also demonstrated growth in its banking segment, with revenue growth of 35% and 24% in its anti-fraud and real-time payment solutions respectively.

ACI Worldwide: Initiation Of Coverage - Expansion of SaaS Businesses & Improved Productivity with Generative AI! - Major Drivers

Silver Point

Thomas J. Monaco

Independent Insight Provider

Silver Point is a boutique research firm that focuses on the broader financial services sector, with a particular focus on troubled institutions globally. 

Asia Ex Japan

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

<ul>
<li>The trend of 2019’s payment services mega-deals is set to continue but in the form of a greater volume of small transactions.</li>
<li>Potential take-out candidates include the likes of: ACI Worldwide (ACIW.US); i3 Verticals (IIIV.US); and Repay Holdings (RPAY.US).</li>
<li> While US will expereince a continuation of deals, Asia will remain the FinTech M&amp;A hotbed. </li>
</ul>


The trend of 2019’s payment services mega-deals is set to continue but in the form of a greater volume of small transactions.
Potential take-out candidates include the likes of: ACI Worldwide (ACIW.US); i3 Verticals (IIIV.US); and Repay Holdings (RPAY.US).
 While US will expereince a continuation of deals, Asia will remain the FinTech M&amp;A hotbed. 


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

Technology Select Sector SPDR / Technical Analysis

The S&amp;P 500 remains just short of formidable resistance at its 200-day MA. Yet, there are signs of continued breadth improvement.  Technology in particular continues to top our Sector RSR rankings, fueled by strengthening price and RS action for semiconductors, semi-suppliers, and numerous Software groups. Last week we upgraded our weighting for Technology and its strength continues to broaden out. In this week's report we highlight a number of actionable Technology stocks across our various Groups.

The S&amp;P 500 remains just short of formidable resistance at its 200-day MA. Yet, there are signs of continued breadth improvement.  Technology in particular continues to top our Sector RSR rankings, fueled by strengthening price and RS action for semiconductors, semi-suppliers, and numerous Software groups. Last week we upgraded our weighting for Technology and its strength continues to broaden out. In this week's report we highlight a number of actionable Technology stocks across our various Groups.

U.S. Tech Stocks Are Leading Market Higher.

The S&amp;P 500 has paused just below logical resistance at the downtrend, and we believe the equity market is in wait-and-see mode for incremental information on a variety of issues including trade talks, Fed action and earnings.  Meanwhile, We are upgrading equal-weighted Technology to overweight. Our equal-weighted Tech Sector has surged to the top of our RSR ranks due to broad-based strength in semiconductors last week. Solar stocks are another Group that is emerging as leadership. In today’s report we highlight attractive small-cap Technology stocks, as well as selection of key stocks (MSFT, AMZN, GOOGL, V, NFLX, and ADBE) and subsectors (semis, biotech, and homebuilders) which are all up against logical price resistance.

The S&amp;P 500 has paused just below logical resistance at the downtrend, and we believe the equity market is in wait-and-see mode for incremental information on a variety of issues including trade talks, Fed action and earnings.  Meanwhile, We are upgrading equal-weighted Technology to overweight. Our equal-weighted Tech Sector has surged to the top of our RSR ranks due to broad-based strength in semiconductors last week. Solar stocks are another Group that is emerging as leadership. In today’s report we highlight attractive small-cap Technology stocks, as well as selection of key stocks (MSFT, AMZN, GOOGL, V, NFLX, and ADBE) and subsectors (semis, biotech, and homebuilders) which are all up against logical price resistance.

U.S. Equity Strategy: Market in Wait-And-See Mode; Upgrading Tech

United States

ACI Worldwide, Inc. develops, markets, and supports software products for the global electronics funds transfer market.  The Company's products are used to process transactions involving credit cards, debit cards, smartcards, home banking services, checks, and automated clearing and settlement.

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ACI Worldwide (ACIW US)

ACI Worldwide: Initiation Of Coverage - Expansion of SaaS Businesses & Improved Productivity with Generative AI! - Major Drivers

This is our first report on software player, ACI Worldwide Inc. The company delivered a solid earnings performance for the fourth quarter and full...

Baptista Research

US FinTech M&A Trend Set to Continue

The trend of 2019’s payment services mega-deals is set to continue but in the form of a greater volume of small transactions. Potential take-out...

Thomas J. Monaco

U.S. Tech Stocks Are Leading Market Higher.

The S&P 500 remains just short of formidable resistance at its 200-day MA. Yet, there are signs of continued breadth improvement. Technology...

Vermilion Research

U.S. Equity Strategy: Market in Wait-And-See Mode; Upgrading Tech

The S&P 500 has paused just below logical resistance at the downtrend, and we believe the equity market is in wait-and-see mode for incremental...

Vermilion Research

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