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>Merck & Co., Inc.'s third-quarter performance demonstrates its commitment to leveraging scientific advances to deliver value in the healthcare space.</li><li>The company's revenue for the quarter reached $17.3 billion, a growth of 4% despite foreign exchange headwinds.</li><li>This growth was primarily driven by the continued strength of its oncology segment, notably the drug KEYTRUDA, which saw an 8% increase in sales, contributing $8.1 billion.</li></ul>

Merck & Co., Inc.'s third-quarter performance demonstrates its commitment to leveraging scientific advances to deliver value in the healthcare space.The company's revenue for the quarter reached $17.3 billion, a growth of 4% despite foreign exchange headwinds.This growth was primarily driven by the continued strength of its oncology segment, notably the drug KEYTRUDA, which saw an 8% increase in sales, contributing $8.1 billion.

Merck Buys Cidara In $9.2 Billion Deal—Here’s What They’re Really After!

Merck & Co. Enters Retina Race with EyeBio Buy—Is This the Future of Vision Therapy?

Healthcare Analyst

Wilfred Yuen

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

<ul>
<li>
Hutchmed 1H26 showed continued China sales recovery and strong ex-US Fruzaqla growth. CSPC and Antengene announced positive profit alert for 1H26, thanks to their respective deals' upfront payments</li>
<li>
Kelun's TROP2 ADC sac-TMT gained NMPA review for 6th indication 1L TNBC; AstraZeneca's CLDN18.2 ADC (licensed from Keymed/Lepu) hit dual primary endpoint OS in global phase 3 study in GC/GEJ </li>
<li>Other news and updates include Qyuns Therapeutics, Legend Biotech, Innocare
</li>
</ul>



Hutchmed 1H26 showed continued China sales recovery and strong ex-US Fruzaqla growth. CSPC and Antengene announced positive profit alert for 1H26, thanks to their respective deals' upfront payments

Kelun's TROP2 ADC sac-TMT gained NMPA review for 6th indication 1L TNBC; AstraZeneca's CLDN18.2 ADC (licensed from Keymed/Lepu) hit dual primary endpoint OS in global phase 3 study in GC/GEJ 
Other news and updates include Qyuns Therapeutics, Legend Biotech, Innocare



China Healthcare Weekly Wrap (27-31 July)

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>We remain bullish (as of our 4/21/26 Compass) on the S&amp;P 500 (SPX), Nasdaq 100 (QQQ), and Russell 2000 (IWM). </li>
<li>With that said, QQQ violated $695 support, a concerning sign; $681-$686 support must hold on QQQ or we will downgrade it.</li>
<li>We continue to believe a consolidation or a continuation of short-term downtrends is likely through mid-to-late-August amid choppy price action for semiconductors (SOXX), memory (DRAM), and optical equipment/photonics (EUV) names.</li>
</ul>


We remain bullish (as of our 4/21/26 Compass) on the S&amp;P 500 (SPX), Nasdaq 100 (QQQ), and Russell 2000 (IWM). 
With that said, QQQ violated $695 support, a concerning sign; $681-$686 support must hold on QQQ or we will downgrade it.
We continue to believe a consolidation or a continuation of short-term downtrends is likely through mid-to-late-August amid choppy price action for semiconductors (SOXX), memory (DRAM), and optical equipment/photonics (EUV) names.


Upgrading Health Care and Consumer Staples to Market Weight; Monitoring Tech for a Downgrade

Quality-first, Business-perspective, Long-term, Urbem (HK) Limited

Urbem Capital

Quality-first, Business-perspective, Long-term

Quality-first, Business-perspective Strategy

Urbem (HK) Limited

<ul>
<li>Eighteen S&amp;P 500 giants earned 20%-plus ROE through the 1990s; fourteen then trailed the index into 2026, the median by about 2.7 points a year.</li>
<li>Rich starting multiples, maturing runways, eroding moats and costly deals did the damage, while leverage and buybacks had flattered some of the returns on capital.</li>
<li>Microsoft renewed its runway and Altria started cheap; today's high-return screens should ask whether returns are still rising and whether the price still allows low-teens returns.</li>
</ul>


Eighteen S&amp;P 500 giants earned 20%-plus ROE through the 1990s; fourteen then trailed the index into 2026, the median by about 2.7 points a year.
Rich starting multiples, maturing runways, eroding moats and costly deals did the damage, while leverage and buybacks had flattered some of the returns on capital.
Microsoft renewed its runway and Altria started cheap; today's high-return screens should ask whether returns are still rising and whether the price still allows low-teens returns.


After They Were Giants: Why 2000's High-Return Stocks Mostly Lagged for 25 Years

United States

Merck & Co., Inc.  is a global health care company that delivers health solutions through its prescription medicines, vaccines, biologic therapies, animal health, and consumer care products, which it markets directly and through its joint ventures. The Company has operations in pharmaceutical, animal health, and consumer care.

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Merck & Co (MRK US)

Merck Buys Cidara In $9.2 Billion Deal—Here’s What They’re Really After!

Merck & Co., Inc.'s third-quarter performance demonstrates its commitment to leveraging scientific advances to deliver value in the healthcare...

Baptista Research

Merck & Co. Enters Retina Race with EyeBio Buy—Is This the Future of Vision Therapy?

Merck & Co., Inc.'s third-quarter performance demonstrates its commitment to leveraging scientific advances to deliver value in the healthcare...

Baptista Research

China Healthcare Weekly Wrap (27-31 July)

Hutchmed 1H26 results takeaways; CSPC and Antengene released positive profit alert; Kelun's sac-TMT gained NMPA review for 1L TNBC; AZ's CLDN18.2...

Wilfred Yuen

Upgrading Health Care and Consumer Staples to Market Weight; Monitoring Tech for a Downgrade

Upgrading Health Care $XLV and Consumer Staples $XLP to Market Weight; Monitoring Tech $XLK for a Downgrade. $LLY $JNJ $ABBV $MRK $NVS $ABT $NVO...

Vermilion Research

After They Were Giants: Why 2000's High-Return Stocks Mostly Lagged for 25 Years

In 2000, America's highest-return giants looked like the safest quality stocks. Most then lagged the market for 25 years. Several warning signs...

Urbem Capital

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