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

<p>We continue to see a mixed market, and weak market dynamics lead us to be cautious. One of the primary issues is weak breadth; the large-cap indexes (S&amp;P 500 and Nasdaq) remain bullish despite being held up by a relatively small number of mega-cap growth stocks, a condition that can persist for weeks or months. Ultimately, as long as there continues to be an absence of breakdowns at the index and Sector level we remain constructive overall.</p>

We continue to see a mixed market, and weak market dynamics lead us to be cautious. One of the primary issues is weak breadth; the large-cap indexes (S&amp;P 500 and Nasdaq) remain bullish despite being held up by a relatively small number of mega-cap growth stocks, a condition that can persist for weeks or months. Ultimately, as long as there continues to be an absence of breakdowns at the index and Sector level we remain constructive overall.

U.S. Equity Strategy: Cautious Overall; Favor Large-Caps & Growth; Key Supports Holding In The U.S.

TMT & Consumer Independent Equity Research Analyst, Obex Capital Research

Aaron Gabin

TMT & Consumer Independent Equity Research Analyst

TMT & Consumer Independent Equity Research

Obex Capital Research

“Obex” is Latin for Barriers to Entry. Obex Capital Management’s investment philosophy is driven by an intense focus on which business model’s Barriers to Entry are able to withstand the ever increasing competitive disruption in the TMT and Consumer Sectors.

Equity Bottom-Up

Palantir Technologies  / Equity Bottom-Up

<p>Palantir’s earnings call was a master class in obfuscation.</p><p><strong>Since 4Q20 earnings on February 16, 2021, five C-Suite executives from Palantir have sold $250MM (!!) in stock, with CEO Alex Karp selling $137MM in just the past 3 months. Luckily for them, Cathie Wood and ARK has bought 20M shares for $480MM! </strong></p><div class="content-highlight"><p>Obex’s fundamental research process is focused on secular change in the TMT and Consumer sectors. We seek to differentiate between fundamental business analysis and security analysis. Before deciding if a security’s pricing and positioning merit a long or short position, we analyze the four pillars of business fundamentals (Secular Factors, TAM, Competitive Advantage, Business Model) in order to determine if this is a “good” or “not so good” opportunity.</p></div>

Palantir’s earnings call was a master class in obfuscation.Since 4Q20 earnings on February 16, 2021, five C-Suite executives from Palantir have sold $250MM (!!) in stock, with CEO Alex Karp selling $137MM in just the past 3 months. Luckily for them, Cathie Wood and ARK has bought 20M shares for $480MM! Obex’s fundamental research process is focused on secular change in the TMT and Consumer sectors. We seek to differentiate between fundamental business analysis and security analysis. Before deciding if a security’s pricing and positioning merit a long or short position, we analyze the four pillars of business fundamentals (Secular Factors, TAM, Competitive Advantage, Business Model) in order to determine if this is a “good” or “not so good” opportunity.

Palantir 1Q21 Earnings: ARK’s Buying What They’re Selling

<p>Kind of a mediocre underwhelming analyst presentation by one of our favorite software companies, but the larger long term picture remains intact: a huge pool of legacy incumbent endpoint providers that Crowdstrike will feast on for years to come.</p><p></p><div class="content-highlight"><p>Obex’s fundamental research process is focused on secular change in the TMT and Consumer sectors. We seek to differentiate between fundamental business analysis and security analysis. Before deciding if a security’s pricing and positioning merit a long or short position, we analyze the four pillars of business fundamentals (Secular Factors, TAM, Competitive Advantage, Business Model) in order to determine if this is a “good” or “not so good” opportunity. </p></div>

Kind of a mediocre underwhelming analyst presentation by one of our favorite software companies, but the larger long term picture remains intact: a huge pool of legacy incumbent endpoint providers that Crowdstrike will feast on for years to come.Obex’s fundamental research process is focused on secular change in the TMT and Consumer sectors. We seek to differentiate between fundamental business analysis and security analysis. Before deciding if a security’s pricing and positioning merit a long or short position, we analyze the four pillars of business fundamentals (Secular Factors, TAM, Competitive Advantage, Business Model) in order to determine if this is a “good” or “not so good” opportunity. 

Crowdstrike Analyst Day: Really, Just $3B in ARR?

<p>Palantir generated $93M more revenues this quarter then a year ago. From that $93M, the company generated $174M more in operating income, which swung its EBIT margins from (31%) to 32% YoY…adjusted EBITDA margins of course (there was $1B in incremental SBC). In any case, that is some sort of remarkable business. Especially for a software company that is building a direct sales force and theoretically needs to be investing heavily in R&amp;D to keep up with the competition. Palantir talks about generating insight through the fog of war, but in our short time analyzing this company, we can’t find our way through the fog.</p><p></p><div class="content-highlight"><p>Obex’s fundamental research process is focused on secular change in the TMT and Consumer sectors. We seek to differentiate between fundamental business analysis and security analysis. Before deciding if a security’s pricing and positioning merit a long or short position, we analyze the four pillars of business fundamentals (Secular Factors, TAM, Competitive Advantage, Business Model) in order to determine if this is a “good” or “not so good” opportunity.</p></div>

Palantir generated $93M more revenues this quarter then a year ago. From that $93M, the company generated $174M more in operating income, which swung its EBIT margins from (31%) to 32% YoY…adjusted EBITDA margins of course (there was $1B in incremental SBC). In any case, that is some sort of remarkable business. Especially for a software company that is building a direct sales force and theoretically needs to be investing heavily in R&amp;D to keep up with the competition. Palantir talks about generating insight through the fog of war, but in our short time analyzing this company, we can’t find our way through the fog.Obex’s fundamental research process is focused on secular change in the TMT and Consumer sectors. We seek to differentiate between fundamental business analysis and security analysis. Before deciding if a security’s pricing and positioning merit a long or short position, we analyze the four pillars of business fundamentals (Secular Factors, TAM, Competitive Advantage, Business Model) in order to determine if this is a “good” or “not so good” opportunity.

Palantir 4Q20 Earnings: The Greatest Operating Leverage Story Ever Told

<p>In 4Q20, Amazon turned in another sensational quarter, but essentially hasn’t moved since September as it has been “growing” into its valuation after a meteoric move in 1H20. In the past year, Amazon has spent an incremental $11.5B on COVID related costs (~10% of 2020 opex), increased the square footage of its logistics network’s square footage by 50%  and also added ~650,000 (!!!) employees, doubling its employee base in what also turns out to be the largest mobilization of workers in the US since World War II. And yet…since September 2, the stock is down 4% from its alltime high. We think Amazon is worth closer to $6,000 then $3,000 and think that it has potentially the same type of setup as last year when we began writing (on Smartkarma) about Amazon. In years after the company has huge capacity expansions, it tends to outperform as the operating leverage of capacity utilization shines through.</p><div class="content-highlight"><p>Obex’s fundamental research process is focused on secular change in the TMT and Consumer sectors. We seek to differentiate between fundamental business analysis and security analysis. Before deciding if a security’s pricing and positioning merit a long or short position, we analyze the four pillars of business fundamentals (Secular Factors, TAM, Competitive Advantage, Business Model) in order to determine if this is a “good” or “not so good” opportunity.</p></div>

In 4Q20, Amazon turned in another sensational quarter, but essentially hasn’t moved since September as it has been “growing” into its valuation after a meteoric move in 1H20. In the past year, Amazon has spent an incremental $11.5B on COVID related costs (~10% of 2020 opex), increased the square footage of its logistics network’s square footage by 50%  and also added ~650,000 (!!!) employees, doubling its employee base in what also turns out to be the largest mobilization of workers in the US since World War II. And yet…since September 2, the stock is down 4% from its alltime high. We think Amazon is worth closer to $6,000 then $3,000 and think that it has potentially the same type of setup as last year when we began writing (on Smartkarma) about Amazon. In years after the company has huge capacity expansions, it tends to outperform as the operating leverage of capacity utilization shines through.Obex’s fundamental research process is focused on secular change in the TMT and Consumer sectors. We seek to differentiate between fundamental business analysis and security analysis. Before deciding if a security’s pricing and positioning merit a long or short position, we analyze the four pillars of business fundamentals (Secular Factors, TAM, Competitive Advantage, Business Model) in order to determine if this is a “good” or “not so good” opportunity.

United States

ServiceNow, Inc. provides enterprise information technology (IT) management software. The Company designs, develops, and produces prepackaged computer software, cloud services, and IT service management platform. ServiceNow serves customers throughout the United States.

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Servicenow Inc (NOW US)

U.S. Equity Strategy: Cautious Overall; Favor Large-Caps & Growth; Key Supports Holding In The U.S.

The S&P 500 remains bullish, recently hitting our 4400-4406 target as large-caps remain attractive. As long as support at the 50-day MA and 4257...

Vermilion Research

Palantir 1Q21 Earnings: ARK’s Buying What They’re Selling

Since 4Q20 C-Suite executives from Palantir have sold $250MM (!!) in stock, with CEO Alex Karp selling $137MM in just the past 3 months. Luckily...

Aaron Gabin

Crowdstrike Analyst Day: Really, Just $3B in ARR?

Crowdstrike Analyst Day was underwhelming with easily reached ARR and Operating Model Targets introduced. We like the stock anyway, especially with...

Aaron Gabin

Palantir 4Q20 Earnings: The Greatest Operating Leverage Story Ever Told

Palantir's quarter, much like the rest of the company was perplexing. We believe the stock is overvalued even in the high 20s, and the coming...

Aaron Gabin

Amazon 4Q20: The GOAT Departs

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is stepping down. We doubt he steps away. 2021 is a unique setup. Its the first time Amazon was up during a big capacity...

Aaron Gabin

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