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>iQIYI, an innovative market-leading online entertainment service provider in China, delivered robust first-quarter 2024 results, achieving numerous record highs, such as non-GAAP operating income and its corresponding margin.</li><li>CEO, Mr. Yu Gong, shared that the expanding margin could be attributed to the high-quality growth of the company.</li><li>The Membership Services business continued its growth trajectory with monthly ARM observed an all-time high.</li></ul>

iQIYI, an innovative market-leading online entertainment service provider in China, delivered robust first-quarter 2024 results, achieving numerous record highs, such as non-GAAP operating income and its corresponding margin.CEO, Mr. Yu Gong, shared that the expanding margin could be attributed to the high-quality growth of the company.The Membership Services business continued its growth trajectory with monthly ARM observed an all-time high.

iQIYI Inc.: Initiation of Coverage - How Are They Leveraging Generative AI capabilities? - Major Drivers

Global Emerging Market Equities, Propitious Research

Wium Malan, CFA

Global Emerging Market Equities

Independent, Fundamental Quantitative Research

Propitious Research

Fully independent, fundamental and quantitative equity research, focused on companies in the Telecommunication, Media, Technology, Internet and Healthcare sectors in the Global Emerging Markets. Idea generation focused on Quality stocks, trading below their intrinsic Value, with sound Corporate Governance.

<ul>
<li>Since late 2020, Search’s share of digital advertising revenue has stabilised at around 8-10%, seemingly retaining its core advertising customers and industries.</li>
<li>Baidu management expects AI Cloud to maintain strong revenue growth momentum in the upcoming quarters.</li>
<li>Baidu trades on a 3.6x NTM EV/EBITDA multiple, well below one standard deviation lower than its 5-year historical average trading range and the lowest it has ever been.</li>
</ul>


Since late 2020, Search’s share of digital advertising revenue has stabilised at around 8-10%, seemingly retaining its core advertising customers and industries.
Baidu management expects AI Cloud to maintain strong revenue growth momentum in the upcoming quarters.
Baidu trades on a 3.6x NTM EV/EBITDA multiple, well below one standard deviation lower than its 5-year historical average trading range and the lowest it has ever been.


Blue Lotus China New Economy Research, Blue Lotus Research Institute

Eric Wen

Blue Lotus China New Economy Research

China growth and global non-US Internet equities

Blue Lotus Research Institute

Blue Lotus Research is a Hong Kong Type 4 Licensed investment advisory firm focusing on Chinese growth equities and global non-US Internet equities

<ul>
<li>Generative AI (GAI) helps capex, no doubt. But key question is whether capex can yield to revenue and profits;</li>
<li>Content creation industry is sure to realize revenue and profits. iQiyi and NetEase already said so with concreate examples;</li>
<li>Advertising can realize revenue by better matching of ads inventory and perhaps improve inventory utilization.</li>
</ul>


Generative AI (GAI) helps capex, no doubt. But key question is whether capex can yield to revenue and profits;
Content creation industry is sure to realize revenue and profits. iQiyi and NetEase already said so with concreate examples;
Advertising can realize revenue by better matching of ads inventory and perhaps improve inventory utilization.


GAI-Related Numbers and Quotes from C1Q24 Earnings

<ul>
<li>The key takeaway from this earning season on the topic of generative AI (GAI) is that in-house generated content has the greatest potential for cost savings;</li>
<li>Taking a step further, mid-sized video platforms can also use AI to skip the curator layer, similar to Pinduoduo using algorithm to bypass small merchants to connect directly to factories;</li>
<li>We also notice that general media platforms with ample advertising inventories tend to perform better with AI's help, which is why ads of Tencent's advertising performed better than Baidu's.</li>
</ul>


The key takeaway from this earning season on the topic of generative AI (GAI) is that in-house generated content has the greatest potential for cost savings;
Taking a step further, mid-sized video platforms can also use AI to skip the curator layer, similar to Pinduoduo using algorithm to bypass small merchants to connect directly to factories;
We also notice that general media platforms with ample advertising inventories tend to perform better with AI's help, which is why ads of Tencent's advertising performed better than Baidu's.


A Few Generative AI Takeaways From C1Q24 Earnings

External broker reports(aggregated public sources), CMB International

CMB International

External broker reports(aggregated public sources)

Incorporated in Hong Kong, supported by the mainland and targeting in global market, CMB International Capital Corporation Limited (“CMBI”) is an integrated financial institution providing comprehensive and professional services. As a wholly-owned subsidiary of China Merchants Bank ("CMB"), by leveraging on the Group’s synergy and coordination in domestic and overseas markets, as well as CMB’s strong resources and outstanding social reputation, CMBI and its subsidiaries have been actively implementing diversified business strategies and set up an overall layout of main business segments including Corporate Finance, Asset Management, Wealth Management, Global Markets and Structured Finance, etc. Adhering to the philosophy of “being clients oriented and increasing our own values by the way of creating value for clients”, CMBI endeavors to provide quality and integrated financial services to institutional, corporate and individual customers both domestic and overseas including Hong Kong IPO sponsorship and underwriting, share placement and rights issue for listed companies, financial advisors, bonds issuance services, asset management, direct investment, wealth management, equity sales and trading, etc.

<ul><li>1Q24 beat on margin again, with adj. NP at RMB844mn (91% above consensus) and top line 1% above consensus.</li><li>For 2Q24E, we expect IQ’s revenue -1% YoY (in which subs revenue -5% YoY while ads +7% YoY), with a rich content pipeline ahead (e.g. Fox Spirit Matchmaker &lt;狐妖小红 娘&gt;).</li><li>We forecast 2Q24E non-GAAP OP resilient at RMB800mn, and we are positive on mgmt’s FY24E OP target of RMB5bn. </li></ul><p><em>Content is external broker report sourced from online content aggregator through publicly available sources and is displayed below for general informational purposes only. Refer full disclaimer below.</em></p>

1Q24 beat on margin again, with adj. NP at RMB844mn (91% above consensus) and top line 1% above consensus.For 2Q24E, we expect IQ’s revenue -1% YoY (in which subs revenue -5% YoY while ads +7% YoY), with a rich content pipeline ahead (e.g. Fox Spirit Matchmaker &lt;狐妖小红 娘&gt;).We forecast 2Q24E non-GAAP OP resilient at RMB800mn, and we are positive on mgmt’s FY24E OP target of RMB5bn. Content is external broker report sourced from online content aggregator through publicly available sources and is displayed below for general informational purposes only. Refer full disclaimer below.

iQIYI (IQ US) - Margin surprise on higher efficiency

China

iQIYI, Inc. offers video entertainment services. The Company provides movies, television dramas, variety shows, and other video contents. iQIYI offers services worldwide.

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iQIYI Inc (IQ US)

iQIYI Inc.: Initiation of Coverage - How Are They Leveraging Generative AI capabilities? - Major Drivers

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Baptista Research

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A Few Generative AI Takeaways From C1Q24 Earnings

C1Q24 generative AI has made explicit impact on listco earnings. We summarized the observed trends and found China has a great deal of potential to...

Blue Lotus Research Institute

iQIYI (IQ US) - Margin surprise on higher efficiency

For 2Q24E, we expect IQ’s revenue -1% YoY (in which subs revenue -5% YoY while ads +7% YoY), with a rich content pipeline ahead (e.g. Fox Spirit...

CMB International

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iQIYI Inc.: Initiation of Coverage - How Are They Leveraging Generative AI capabilities? - Major Drivers

iQIYI, an innovative market-leading online entertainment service provider in China, delivered robust first-quarter 2024 results, achieving...

Baptista Research

Baidu: Priced to Fail

In this insight, we analyse Baidu’s search query and digital advertising revenue market share trends, revenue growth outlook, margin expansion...

Wium Malan, CFA

GAI-Related Numbers and Quotes from C1Q24 Earnings

Generative AI (GAI) is already contributing revenues in content creation (game) and ad load optimization (advertising). But the bigger pay off must...

Blue Lotus Research Institute

A Few Generative AI Takeaways From C1Q24 Earnings

C1Q24 generative AI has made explicit impact on listco earnings. We summarized the observed trends and found China has a great deal of potential to...

Blue Lotus Research Institute

iQIYI (IQ US) - Margin surprise on higher efficiency

For 2Q24E, we expect IQ’s revenue -1% YoY (in which subs revenue -5% YoY while ads +7% YoY), with a rich content pipeline ahead (e.g. Fox Spirit...

CMB International