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>Altria Group, Inc. reported its 2024 second quarter and first half results, demonstrating a continuation of efforts to navigate a competitive and regulated environment.</li><li>The focus of the discussion centered around the strong performance of NJOY, one of their e-vapor products, and the ongoing challenges and achievements within traditional tobacco and newer, smoke-free product categories.</li><li>In terms of positive advancements, Altria highlighted significant progress with NJOY, particularly with the expansion of its retail footprint and improved sales and volume figures.</li></ul>

Altria Group, Inc. reported its 2024 second quarter and first half results, demonstrating a continuation of efforts to navigate a competitive and regulated environment.The focus of the discussion centered around the strong performance of NJOY, one of their e-vapor products, and the ongoing challenges and achievements within traditional tobacco and newer, smoke-free product categories.In terms of positive advancements, Altria highlighted significant progress with NJOY, particularly with the expansion of its retail footprint and improved sales and volume figures.

Altria Group: Is The Enhanced Focus on Smoke-Free Products Finally Yielding Results? - Major Drivers

<ul><li>Altria Group recent 2024 first quarter earnings highlighted numerous key insights into the company's performance and future prospects.</li><li>Altria's CEO, Billy Gifford, highlighted that the company made significant progress despite the challenging business environment.</li><li>The company is also committed to investment returns, as demonstrated by its sale of a portion of its investment in ABI and the subsequent expansion of its share repurchase program.</li></ul>

Altria Group recent 2024 first quarter earnings highlighted numerous key insights into the company's performance and future prospects.Altria's CEO, Billy Gifford, highlighted that the company made significant progress despite the challenging business environment.The company is also committed to investment returns, as demonstrated by its sale of a portion of its investment in ABI and the subsequent expansion of its share repurchase program.

Altria Group: Can Its Oral Tobacco Category and Smoke-Free Products Reshape The Future? - Major Drivers

<ul><li>Altria Group's recent earnings call has raised important topics worth considering for investors.</li><li>The company, known for its strong position in the tobacco industry, showed a clear intent to diversify into smoke-free product categories, such as heated tobacco, oral tobacco, and e-vapor.</li><li>These steps are seen as a strategic move to cushion the company from declining cigarette volumes and broaden its consumer base, thereby improving its long-term growth prospects.</li></ul>

Altria Group's recent earnings call has raised important topics worth considering for investors.The company, known for its strong position in the tobacco industry, showed a clear intent to diversify into smoke-free product categories, such as heated tobacco, oral tobacco, and e-vapor.These steps are seen as a strategic move to cushion the company from declining cigarette volumes and broaden its consumer base, thereby improving its long-term growth prospects.

Altria Group: Promotion Of Smoke-Free Products & 5 Other Factors Driving Growth! - Financial Forecasts

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>Our long-term outlook remains neutral on the S&amp;P 500 (SPX) as of our 8/6/24 Compass, after being bullish since early-November 2023.</li>
<li>Since late-July discussed expectations for a 1-to 4-month pullback/consolidation on SPX and QQQ; now it's likely to last closer to four months, and potentially 4- to 6-months from 7/17/24.</li>
<li>At that point the market will decide which way this consolidation resolves. Throughout this pullback we have said that this consolidation could end up being a significant topping pattern.</li>
</ul>


Our long-term outlook remains neutral on the S&amp;P 500 (SPX) as of our 8/6/24 Compass, after being bullish since early-November 2023.
Since late-July discussed expectations for a 1-to 4-month pullback/consolidation on SPX and QQQ; now it's likely to last closer to four months, and potentially 4- to 6-months from 7/17/24.
At that point the market will decide which way this consolidation resolves. Throughout this pullback we have said that this consolidation could end up being a significant topping pattern.


Upgrading Staples, Real Estate, and Health Care to Overweight; List of Concerns Continues to Grow

<ul>
<li>We are downgrading our long-term outlook to neutral (had been bullish since early-November 2023) due to rapidly deteriorating market dynamics</li>
<li>We still believe the S&amp;P 500 is going through a 1- to 4-month consolidation phase, but odds have increased that this consolidation phase could be a topping pattern.</li>
<li>SPX is initially holding at 5100-5191 as discussed last week, but we're not interested in knife-catching or picking a bottom, want to see stabilization/price discovery before adjusting our still-defensive posture.</li>
</ul>


We are downgrading our long-term outlook to neutral (had been bullish since early-November 2023) due to rapidly deteriorating market dynamics
We still believe the S&amp;P 500 is going through a 1- to 4-month consolidation phase, but odds have increased that this consolidation phase could be a topping pattern.
SPX is initially holding at 5100-5191 as discussed last week, but we're not interested in knife-catching or picking a bottom, want to see stabilization/price discovery before adjusting our still-defensive posture.


Downgrading Outlook on $SPX; Upgrading Real Estate and Staples. Many Significant Risk-Off Signals

United States

Altria Group, Inc. is a holding company.  The Company, through subsidiaries, manufactures and sells cigarettes and other tobacco products, including cigars and pipe tobacco.  Altria holds an interest in a brewery company.

Price Gauge
52-week Range	0.00 - 0.00
Market Cap (USDm)	0.00
P/E	0.00
Dividend (Yield)	0.00

Altria Group (MO US)

Altria Group: Is The Enhanced Focus on Smoke-Free Products Finally Yielding Results? - Major Drivers

Altria Group, Inc. reported its 2024 second quarter and first half results, demonstrating a continuation of efforts to navigate a competitive and...

Baptista Research

Altria Group: Can Its Oral Tobacco Category and Smoke-Free Products Reshape The Future? - Major Drivers

Altria Group recent 2024 first quarter earnings highlighted numerous key insights into the company's performance and future prospects. Altria's...

Baptista Research

Altria Group: Promotion Of Smoke-Free Products & 5 Other Factors Driving Growth! - Financial Forecasts

Altria Group's recent earnings call has raised important topics worth considering for investors. The company, known for its strong position in the...

Baptista Research

Upgrading Staples, Real Estate, and Health Care to Overweight; List of Concerns Continues to Grow

Upgrading Staples $XLP, Real Estate $XLRE, Health Care $XLV to Overweight; List of Concerns Continues to Grow; Dow $DJI, Equal-Weight S&P 500 $RSP,...

Vermilion Research

Downgrading Outlook on $SPX; Upgrading Real Estate and Staples. Many Significant Risk-Off Signals

Downgrading our long-term $SPX outlook to neutral (bullish since early-November 2023) due to deteriorating market dynamics; Upgrading Real Estate...

Vermilion Research

Price Gauge

52-week Range

Market Cap (USDm)

P/E

Dividend (Yield)