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>Noble Corporation's Q4 2023 earnings revealed a steady operational performance despite certain headwinds.</li><li>Despite delays in contract commencement due to weather and permitting issues, the company achieved a Q4 adjusted EBITDA of $201 million, taking the full-year adjusted EBITDA to the top end of the guidance range.</li><li>Free cash flow for Q4 was $165 million, excluding asset sale proceeds, contributing to a solid full-year figure.</li></ul>

Noble Corporation's Q4 2023 earnings revealed a steady operational performance despite certain headwinds.Despite delays in contract commencement due to weather and permitting issues, the company achieved a Q4 adjusted EBITDA of $201 million, taking the full-year adjusted EBITDA to the top end of the guidance range.Free cash flow for Q4 was $165 million, excluding asset sale proceeds, contributing to a solid full-year figure.

Noble Corporation plc: Initiation Of Coverage - A Tale Of Increased Demand and Better Rates in the North Sea Drilling Market! - Major Drivers

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

The S&amp;P 500’s steady uptrend remains intact. The large-cap (S&amp;P 500) vs. small-cap (S&amp;P 600) ratio is breaking out to multi-month highs; prompting our recommendation to shift to an overweight of large-caps. We are also seeing bullish price and RS inflections for developed int’l markets particularly due to strength in Japan, which helps support our bullish outlook for the U.S.  In addition to a complete strategy recap, we highlight attractive Groups and stocks within the Energy and Transportation Sectors.

The S&amp;P 500’s steady uptrend remains intact. The large-cap (S&amp;P 500) vs. small-cap (S&amp;P 600) ratio is breaking out to multi-month highs; prompting our recommendation to shift to an overweight of large-caps. We are also seeing bullish price and RS inflections for developed int’l markets particularly due to strength in Japan, which helps support our bullish outlook for the U.S.  In addition to a complete strategy recap, we highlight attractive Groups and stocks within the Energy and Transportation Sectors.

U.S. Equity Strategy: Shifting to Large-Cap Overweight, Energy Improving

Outside of weakness in interest-rate sensitive segments, namely REITs and Utilities, the latter which is breaking down to 15-year relative strength lows, U.S. equity market technicals remain constructive. And allowing for occasional back and filling, we expect this bullish trend to continue. In today's report, we outline our investment thesis and highlight actionable names in energy service stocks.

Outside of weakness in interest-rate sensitive segments, namely REITs and Utilities, the latter which is breaking down to 15-year relative strength lows, U.S. equity market technicals remain constructive. And allowing for occasional back and filling, we expect this bullish trend to continue. In today's report, we outline our investment thesis and highlight actionable names in energy service stocks.

Energy Expert

Thierry Bros, PhD

Thierrybros.com

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

Interesting article in the Financial Time (FT) on stock exchanges fighting for Saudi Aramco IPO <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/41af604e-0315-11e7-ace0-1ce02ef0def9" target="_blank">https://www.ft.com/content/41af604e-0315-11e7-ace0-1ce02ef0def9 </a>with the following conclusion "Saudi Aramco will initially list as much as 5% of the company and investors and analysts have questioned the size of Riyadh’s $2tn valuation. But even if it reaches just half that target it would still raise $50bn — twice as much as Alibaba’s record IPO in 2014."Back in <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/saudi-aramco-value-tn-maybe-not" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="insights:8177">Saudi Aramco Value: $tn? Maybe Not!</a> my…

Interesting article in the Financial Time (FT) on stock exchanges fighting for Saudi Aramco IPO https://www.ft.com/content/41af604e-0315-11e7-ace0-1ce02ef0def9 with the following conclusion "Saudi Aramco will initially list as much as 5% of the company and investors and analysts have questioned the size of Riyadh’s $2tn valuation. But even if it reaches just half that target it would still raise $50bn — twice as much as Alibaba’s record IPO in 2014."Back in Saudi Aramco Value: $tn? Maybe Not! my…

New York and London Battle for Saudi Aramco IPO

Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

Assistant Professor at The Wharton School, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

Dr Arthur van Benthem

Assistant Professor at The Wharton School

The environmental agenda of President-elect Trump and his transition team is deeply troubling. Plans include dismantling or defunding the Environmental Protection Agency, scrapping the Paris Climate Accord, repealing the Clean Power Plan, relaxing auto emissions standards, increasing coal production, weakening the Endangered Species Act, and on and on. While Trump claims to have an “open mind” on climate, the transition at the EPA is led by Myron Ebell, a science denier who believes that free…

The environmental agenda of President-elect Trump and his transition team is deeply troubling. Plans include dismantling or defunding the Environmental Protection Agency, scrapping the Paris Climate Accord, repealing the Clean Power Plan, relaxing auto emissions standards, increasing coal production, weakening the Endangered Species Act, and on and on. While Trump claims to have an “open mind” on climate, the transition at the EPA is led by Myron Ebell, a science denier who believes that free…

Time for Corporate America to Stand up for the Environment

United Kingdom

Noble Corporation PLC provides diversified services for the oil and gas industry. The Company provides contract drilling services with its fleet of offshore drilling units located in markets worldwide.  Noble also provides labor contract drilling services, well site and project management services, and engineering services.

Noble Corp Plc (NE US)

Noble Corporation plc: Initiation Of Coverage - A Tale Of Increased Demand and Better Rates in the North Sea Drilling Market! - Major Drivers

Noble Corporation's Q4 2023 earnings revealed a steady operational performance despite certain headwinds. Despite delays in contract commencement...

Baptista Research

U.S. Equity Strategy: Shifting to Large-Cap Overweight, Energy Improving

The S&P 500’s steady uptrend remains intact. The large-cap (S&P 500) vs. small-cap (S&P 600) ratio is breaking out to multi-month...

Vermilion Research

U.S. Equity Strategy Weekly

Outside of weakness in interest-rate sensitive segments, namely REITs and Utilities, the latter which is breaking down to 15-year relative strength...

Vermilion Research

New York and London Battle for Saudi Aramco IPO

Interesting article in the Financial Time (FT) on stock exchanges fighting for Saudi Aramco IPO...

Thierry Bros, PhD

Time for Corporate America to Stand up for the Environment

The environmental agenda of President-elect Trump and his transition team is deeply troubling. Plans include dismantling or defunding the...

Dr Arthur van Benthem